In a nutshell, nobody should be surprised that big blockbusters and perennial favorites do exceptionally well. They're blockbusters and perennial favorites for a reason. They cater to a demand, otherwise they wouldn't be blockbusters and… ok, you get the point. By the very definition of the word, people like things that are popular, and you can do quite well continually catering only to that.

The point of the Long Tail thing is that you can also do fairly well by providing a good bit of less popular stuff to smaller audiences. Dollars are, in fact, dollars, and while i probably won't give you $20 for the latest Metallica crap, i'll happily turn over that amount for a digital version of Looking for Jack. Are there going to be more folks looking for out of print Australian jazz-pop albums than Mega-Metal fans? No, i can safely say there aren't. Still, if you collect up me, and probably a few hundred other folks interested in other types of music, you'll do just fine thankyouverymuch.

What the long tail specifies is not "Toss out that golden goose for thirty for regular geese, two chicken and a handful of army ants", but more "Your audience also wants a diverse product".

Heh, i even like the comment at the end of the article about how the vast majority of bloggers aren't read. Of course not. Anyone expecting fame, fortune and riches from blogging about their cat is delusional.

Doesn't mean they don't get indexed and added to search results, though, and sometimes those obscure folks actually do have something interesting to say.

Ok, no, not really, but it might happen one day.

• Piwik - This is a nifty little site analytics tool. Do you know what analytics means? No Stevie. It doesn't mean pulling numbers out of there. Yes, even though "anal" is right in the word. You see Site Analytics are how grown up site people like to nurture their faltering egos and secret passions to be an accountant. Yes Jimmy, just like keeping stats for baseball! The nifty thing here is that i get to own my data and not share it with an advertising company! Isn't that cool? Yeah, it uses flash for things instead of Canvas tags, but that's not always such a terrible thing. Mr. Conlin says: Thumbs Up! Go get it.
• jQuery - Hey kids, what do sump pumps, vacuum cleaners and black holes have in common? That's right, they all suck in their own special way. Well, the same thing can be said about javascript frameworks. Each solves a great many really hard problems while leaving others as exercises to the student, particularly a student that's got other things he wants to do. That said, there are some rather clever things that jQuery does. That's right, It lets you pick elements by specifying the CSS rules… And it makes AJAX calls trivial to do… and what else? That's right, it naturalizes XML constructs into walkable DOM elements. Those are all really useful things, aren't they? So, do they offset the fact that you need to re-initialize as jQuery objects things like "this" inside of callbacks? No, not always, but it's still very nice, isn't it? Mr. Conlin says "Go check it out."
• Then there's Weave from Mozilla, which Mr. Conlin liked a lot really, but was a bit upset when the latest version had issues working between platforms and they blanked the old archives of data on the servers. That meant that Mr. Conlin needed to torch his local repository as well, which meant figuring out why Vista no longer did WebDAV automounting without installing a patch, as well as a few extra libraries for Ubuntu, and things STILL don't work as well as they used to… Mr. Conlin needs to just sit in a quiet room with his head between his knees for a while and remember that "beta" means "beta" for a reason. Mr. Conlin suggests you pass on this rev for a bit.

See, experimentation can be fun! Next week we discover the hallucinogenic properties of watching CSPAN-2 for 72 hours.

In the tech industry, oddly, it's quite the opposite.

In both industries, it's a damn good idea to pay attention to the canaries.

Every Friday afternoon, people drive or walk by, occasionally glance our way, and continue on. Nobody is ever curious enough to want to stop by.

Granted, we started out doing this because we wanted to meet more of the folks who we happen to share this part of San Jose with, and we've all been fairly surprised by the lack of response. Some claim different cultures, others snobbery, still others have their reason. Personally, i think it's just that folks have forgotten how to be friendly.

When was the last time you struck up a conversation with someone in an elevator, or in line at the store? It could be something simple like, "Ooh, i don't think i ever tried that brand of cereal. Is it any good?" or even about the weather. You're only going to be in contact with that person for a few seconds, why not try and make them smile?

Thing is, we don't. We're all generally on cellphones or plugged into iPods or otherwise diligently trying to avoid contact with our fellow humans. We strive to be utterly oblivious to what exists outside of the small bubble we feel safe in, and that's leading to a lot of crap that folks aren't going to know how to deal with. If there was a major incident in your area (earthquake, volcano, tornado, airplane crash in your backyard, etc), who could you count on helping you? Who would know to look for all the members of your family? Who might have food and water and be willing to share for a few days? Reverse the situation and can you honestly say that if said bad thing happened to the house half a block away, would you be able to do the same?

i'm friendly with the folks in my neighborhood for pretty much selfish reasons. i want to be able to use them as a backup should anything horrible happen here. To pay for that selfish goal, i try to take measures to answer as many of those questions as i can about them. Heck, it even helps me figure out how to ration accordingly by figuring out who on the block are assholes who i shouldn't deal with. "Wow, your Hummer is out of gas? That's too bad. Well, you can probably use the battery from it to charge your iPhone at least. Maybe you can call out for a pizza then."

i guess this all fits in with how folks just don't want to be responsible anymore, but that's another rant entirely.

i'm old.

One of the things that i kind of find important in this era of open and cloud computing is "Do you trust the could?" This kind of explains why i only use things like Del.icio.us and Flickr for things that i want to push out into the public domain. There can be all sorts of reasons not to trust the cloud. For one, you have no idea how really secure said cloud is. Also, you have no idea when said cloud might go away.

Of course, battling with this endless paranoia of mine is the fact that there are some things i REALLY want to do, like be able to sync info between my desktop and my "portable brain" (my laptop). Naturally, i don't want that info just out "there" somewhere, i want to be able to control it. Thus, the joy that i've discovered, Mozilla Weave.

This is a plugin for FireFox 3 that's still in the early stages, but damn is it useful. The stock version allows you to create a free account on mozilla servers (use an email account and password) along with an "encryption key" that i presume is used in combination with a public key in the code. That makes me happy for some reasons, but the idea of loading my passwords and form data to a random spot on the web isn't really such a compelling idea. Poking at the options, however, i see that i can specify what server i want to use as my backend. Oh-HO! That means that i could run it off of one of my domains!

Digging around a bit more i find out that the only backend server you need is WebDAV. cha-CHING! We have a winner! Being properly paranoid, i quickly construct a WebDAV instance point my copy of Weave at it, log in and Vi-ola! things get written as JSON objects with encrypted data blocks. What's more, installing it on the laptop gets me syncing my bookmarks and other bits! Yay!

Again, weave isn't perfect, and does exactly what you tell it to, so don't be surprised if you wind up with a bunch of duplicate bookmarks littering things up. You can clean them out and resync to solve that. Also, while you control your WebDav directory, you're obviously still subject to the sort of snooping that can occur if you're on a shared host, so be smart about things. The fact that things are encrypted does make me more comfortable about storing things on the default Mozilla servers.

Still, if you're looking for a sync tool, it's DAMN attractive.

(Oh, and PS to Mozilla Developers: Putting "Options" Under Tools in Windows, but "Preferences" under Edit in Linux is nearly as horrible an idea as putting the "Clear Private Data" link directly above "Options…" Standards are Good. Flip a coin and make the decision. )

The Digital Tipping Point is a project with the stated goal that they're studying and documenting how Free Open Source Software is changing culture. They're using Open Software for everything from running the site, to editing the content to eventually delivering the final product. Everything is being put under Creative Commons and will be available via the Internet Archive. They've interviewed myraids of luminaries like Richard Stalman (sans ninjas), Dan Gilmore, Caitlin Hill who speak both with great knowledge and insight about the wonders of Open Source.

And then there's me.

For about four hours i was taped at the KIPP San Francisco Academy (a damn spiffy program that seriously needs your old servers) where i think i will serve as comedy relief or possibly that guy. (You know That Guy. The one that got cornered into the Daily Show interview who is way out of his league and completely and unerringly wrong.)

Don't get me wrong, it's not like i hate Open Source. i loves me some FOSS. It's just that i'm a pragmatist and realize that while it's going to get there, it's not going to happen soon. It's a bit like how i wonder about the entire concept of a "Tipping Point" where OSS overcomes commercial. i'm not sure there ever will be. OSS is a different option than commercial. There may be real, valid reasons to continue to choose a commercial, non-open option for something where OSS may simply never make sense because you can't get enough folks interested in supporting some obscure option or function you may need. You may have to literally pay someone to build it. Likewise, there are going to be times when a commercial app will out-perform an OSS solution because there's a different incentive model. People have iPods. How many run RockBox on them? It's not so much a tipping point as a period of slow evolution.

Still, i'm thankful that someone felt my opinions were worth preserving in some form. i'm also going to try to help out the KIPP folks and see if i can wrangle up some gear they can use (Considering the kind of gear that gets hauled off to the recyclers, i can think of a far better use for it.)

i fully expect that even though it will all be transcribed and digitally stored, my remarks will not make the final edit. If i'm lucky, someone will turn my penchant for rambling use of pronouns into a dance remix and i'll become the next NumaNuma guy.

This is a point that kind of struck home with me sometime this morning. i was going over the Open Auth specification, and the older Open Auth Specification where i discovered that you simply pass the Consumer Key in a crypted, signed manner back to the authenticating site before you can access the data. Where do you get the Consumer Key? Well, first you need to get an access token, which is preceeded by a authorization request, which begins with an unauthorized request. Granted, the initial request is made to a given server which will contain a redirect to the XRDS server information which is a documented and reflective set of instructions in XML which describe where to get the additional elements you'll need to construct where to ask for that unauthorized request. Of course, once one goes through that multiple hand off process, involving several redirects, a presumed level of caching and one can only hope several sacrificial chicken offerings performed by hastily constructed LEGO kits, you discover something rather key.

Even though you've now gotten the individual to log in, you still don't know anything about them.

That part, as noted in the specification, is left as an exercise for the implementor.

Now, while i appreciate the level of effort that has gone into this design and construct, and i certainly do want to know that there's near universal agreement that having something that's both open and secure isn't easy, i just want a way to have folks log in and not have to retype a dozen points of data.

This is one of the big reasons that things like YUI, Gears and Python generally wins as far as geeks are concerned. They work like cars. i don't have to know the proper combustion ratio and timing required to drive a piston nor do i have to understand the effective torque levels required in order to rotate a series of gears about a common axle if i want to go get a gallon of milk. i just get in the car, perform a few simple initialization functions and i'm off. i don't have to think about what all is going on.

It's one of the reasons i always chuckle whenever i hear the old saw about how Linux is like a chair, they give you the raw materials to make the most comfortable chair you've ever sat in, provided you do the work of assembly. i don't want to learn carpentry, metallurgy and upholstery, i just want to sit and get some work done.

Yes, i've looked at using the various libraries for the various languages. They each suck in their own special ways, and it's not really the fault of the author, since they just spent a good portion of their lives trying to weed their way through arcane theoretical constructs and LEGO filled chicken entrails.

As it is, i've kinda blown a day messing on something that should have been a quick bit of work. Ah well, i guess i'll just use another time honored computer science technique and just abstract out that part. Perhaps, when i need to actually implement it, someone else will have created a simpler wrapper.

Otherwise, i get the stinking suspicion that person will be me.

Tonight, i came about as close to making proper Huli Huli as a hauli can get. Real Huli Huli, is pretty much a family secret and consists of a surprisingly small set of ingredients as well as a pretty diligent cooking method. Still, it's summer, and dammit you owe it to yourself to at least try this.

You Will Need:
1 Fryer sized Chicken (fresh) cut into parts.
1/3 c. Ketchup
1/3 c. Shoyu *
1/3 c. Rice Wine Vinegar
1/4 c. Crushed Pineapple (in juice, not syrup)
1 tbsp fresh ground ginger (or about 1/4 tsp ground)
few shots of fish sauce. **
1 grill (charcoal or gas with a smoke box preferred)

Ok, first off, a few things to note. *Shoyu is, technically "soy sauce". i wish Steve still had his diatribe against Kikoman's but yeah, there's a difference to the stuff. i went with a lite salt Japanese Shoyu. As for the second ** fish sauce is much like shoyu and likewise runs the gamete from moderately light (Worcestershire) to some of the thicker "make the neighbors move to another state" varieties sold in the hazmat section of the local asian market. You only want a bit of this, so use whatever you like.

One last thing of note: Huli Huli chicken is not what one would call "5 star cuisine" made from only the finest ingredients. i've seen recipes that call for things like white wine and chicken stock. Ignore those. This is beach food. You should be able to get everything in one go for $20, total, and it gets cheaper for the next batch because you've got most of the stuff left over.

Right, on to the prep. Dump all that is not chicken or grill together. Stir. Dump about half of the sauce into a plastic bag with the chicken bits. Let it chill in the fridge (preferably overnight, but half an hour will do).

As for cooking, get the grill to about 450° (or coals to white and grill about 6 inches above) and add the chicken. Flip and baste every five minutes, starting with the sauce that's left in the bag, then follow up with the other half of the sauce you kept. For you gas folks, after about 10 minutes, back your gas grill down to 300° remember to baste every time you turn. i'm going to also say the obvious here and tell you:
1) don't use a fork to turn food on a grill, use a pair of tongs. Forks tear up the food and let the juices run out before they can work inside the meat.
2) yes, the sauce will caramelize. With the sugar in there, you bet it will. Neat freaks should obviously avoid cooking this. Folks with gas grills know how to clean stuff like this off. Charcoal grills may require some additional assistance.
3) You're backing off the temperature to mimic what happens with the coals. There should be black bits of sauce, but the whole thing shouldn't look like a chunk of chicken flavored coal. If you notice things getting too black, back off the heat. If you don't see anything getting black at all, add some more heat.

The chicken will be done in 40 minutes. (Wings will be done far sooner, obviously, so pull them off after 25 minutes or so.)

Serve with sticky rice (short grain CalRose or jasmine would be best), some sort of green (locals would probably pick macaroni salad), and beverage of choice.

As always, you know if you're doing a good job when your neighbors start to drool.