These are two amazing photos that I have found in my travels:

Yakushima Forest From Antipixel

Monument Valley along Route 163 from Theorem on Flickr

Just thought I would share.

Big weekend up on Yawkey Way in Boston with the Red Sox and Yanks holding a 5 game series.

Great article in the Friday 8/18/2006 NY Times, where writer John Branch tried to define the physical border across Connecticut, NY State, and Massacusetts between Red Sox Nation and Yankee Country (I won’t go into how “Red Sox Nation” sounds so much cooler than “Yankee Country”…). And be sure to watch the accompanying video as that is also very entertaining.

I’m feeling the need to redesign the site. I don’t know why, because I like the way the site is organized, the way it looks and I really like the image of the buildings in the masthead. I’m pondering a couple of ideas and changes, but nothing is close to being presentable.

I recently made a minor edit to the site by making the background a dark grey instead of the light grey “pixel dots” I had in the background previously. I did this to provide more contrast between the main content area and the background of the pages, to make the content “pop” a bit more.

Its been a long while since I’ve updated this area of the site about the progress we’ve made on the house.

In the early summer, we had some trees cut down from the property outside. It really cleaned up the outside and let more sun hit the house and yard, but as the summer has moved on, sometimes I look around and it does not feel like we did a thing. I am already eyeing several other trees that I want to remove. We are really going to try to focus on the outside of the house to get that straightened out. It’s a mess.

As for the inside, we’ve been doing little things here and there, but no big projects to speak of. I’ve been trying to clear out the basement to get that renovated from its 1970′s dark wood paneling, and I made some great progress during the July 4th week. My big project downstairs is to clean the masonry walls in the unfinished part of the basement, paint them with a sealent, and then install lots of shelves so that all our stuff can be stored there. Not an easy task.

We really want to update the hallway and install hardwood floors, and update the 1/2 bathroom in the hallway, but that’s a bigger project than we think. But apart from the basement, its the last fairly big project inside the house (the kitchen does not count, because that’s a project that is off the charts).

AOL for free? You can’t be serious. I never thought I would see the day. It took them long enough! Its funny when you look at the twists and turns of the Internet portal space and how all the “big boys” have essentially taken different paths but are ending up in the same place. Yahoo, Google and MSN (plus other not so big sites like Lycos, Ask, etc.) have a big lead in the ad market, however the volume of users at AOL can’t be denied.

From my perspective, AOL IM (disclosure: I used to work at AOL on the IM product) is now not the 800 lb. gorilla within AOL, but the 8 ton gorilla. With 35+Million users, this is an engaged audience that AOL needs to actively cross sell in order to get them to expand their usage of other AOL products and services.

I think the most pressing question is: what is everyone going to do with their AOL CD-ROMs?

Marketplace, which airs on NPR, is probably my favorite audio show out there. Its a half hour audio show that talks about the day’s business news, but in a way that is immensely interesting and engaging. But to my great frustration, its not available as a free podcast like practically every other show on NPR? Why, you ask? Well, and I am speculating here as I have no facts, but its probably because they are tied down to a poorly negotiated contract with Audible, a company who’s business model is completely shot to hell with the advent of the podcast and is desperate to keep “partners” providing them with content. I mean, you can get Marketplace @ Audible for $2.00 an episode or $70 a year, but who is realistically going to pay for that in the world of podcasting? The number of subscribers has to be a miserable number. On the area of Audible that promotes Marketplace, there are zero, zip, nada, customer comments. I can hear the tumbleweeds. Its heresy to pay for a show that’s aired on National Public Radio.

So I ask you, fair reader and Marketplace listener, stand up and be heard. Send Marketplace an email and implore them to relase Marketplace as a free podcast.