{ Monthly Archives }
April 2008
Goodbye, Google
Break out the champagne, I just cashed my first $48 in Google Adsense income. Normally, Google doesn’t issue a check until the outstanding balance reaches $100, but it turns out that the quickest way to get the money is to quit – the Terms of Service state that when an account is terminated, they will send you the balance within 90 days as long as it’s over $10. (I got my check in 3-4 weeks)
The hardest part was sending them a cancellation notice – the Terms of Service state that the notice should be sent to the Adsense support email address, which responds with a “Did you check the Help Center web page?”, which directs you to an Adsense support web page, which doesn’t list account cancellation as a category, so you pick “Other”, which gets you an email from the Adsense support email address asking you if you really want to cancel.
Why did I give up on Adsense? Continue Reading »
In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream…if You’re Chinese
I recently read Serenity Found, an enjoyable set of essays on on Joss Whedon’s Western sci-fi depicted in the TV series Firefly and the movie Serenity. Firefly is probably my second favorite TV series, next to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for the same reasons as as everyone else – the characters, the humor, the writing, the visual effects and colorful vision of the future. Continue Reading »
The Vision Thing
Last week I read James Wagner Au’s The Making of Second Life. I found it entertaining in a Wired magazine style, but as an “embedded reporter”, the author spent more time describing the odd goings-on in Second Life (vividly depicting how virtual sex is consummated, yet claiming that the media has overhyped it) and the cuteness of the Second Life staffers (their descriptions typically include “brunette” or “redhead”) than on the competitive aspects of the business. In particular, There is mentioned as the primary, and second-place, competitor, but is only mentioned in a handful of lines scattered among three separate pages.
Now, I think an interesting questions is, how did Second Life come out on top, and why not There? Continue Reading »
Chinois on Main
This weekend, I returned to Santa Monica for the first time in five years for dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois on Main. Continue Reading »
