suddenly easy to contemplate why

I am not the math geek in the room, ever, but if you are, vote on this. It strikes me as reasonably important, and rather less drama-filled than most JIRA propositions.

Again, people, to make an impact, WATCH, don't vote. Voting does nothing now. It does absolutely N O T H I N G. I'd make that a larger font and have it flash if I thought it would do any good. Any JIRA issue you want to be heard and acted upon by the Lindens, WATCH the issue, don't VOTE ON IT. I can't make it plainer than that.

Science fiction film in 1955? Why, yes. And it's buried in the middle of one of the decade's best noir films.

The world's first acknowledged cyberweapon has been announced...and it was buried in Iran's nuclear program. Dear gods, that's terrifying.

Axi Kurmin strikes again with an article on search engine woes and the Facebook connection; also, all the previous parts of her Tinfoil Hat Theory pages are linked handily at the top.

I've always more or less lucked out, I think; while searching these days is more guesswork than surety, if I can track it down in world or on the Marketplace, I'm usually okay finding whatever it is. But I have literally left viewers in the dust that otherwise worked for me, when Search stopped working as a concept. And for many people--even those in my position, of Search working 75% of the time--that's still abysmal numbers for merchants who want to be found, and who pay high premiums to the Linden advertising guild to stay findable.

With Search this broken? They're not. And yet another explanation as to why so many businesses and makers are simply giving up and closing, and possibly even leaving the grid.

This probably won't make sense unless you've seen that episode of Unskippable, but if you have--this is a hysterically funny shirt, and it's available to the public--but only for a limited time. Act now! Sizes Small to 4XL, so pretty much everybody should be able to find a fit.

The War on Breedables carries on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum...but Tateru Nino is here to tell us that not only might the end be in sight, but there might be federal criminal charges filed.

Against Ozimals. Oops.

Iggy O brings up the troubles involved in rebranding, but suggests several new 'world names' the Lindens might want to look into. I find I'm rather partial to Otherworld, but tend to agree--Second Life does seem to be the one name they want to veer away from.

Miso Susanowa brings us her ruminations on Google+, and what they should really be looking for in their latest data mining attempts. I tend to agree, mainly because I have made purchases as Emilly Orr online, I do follow ads as Emilly Orr, and, if I'm interested in something and want more information, I register as Emilly Orr.

I do none of that under my real name. The only thing online I have sent to me under my real name are checks, and frankly, if I could get my bank to rename my account, I'd probably have them sent to Emilly Orr as well.

Speaking of which, New World Notes takes this on here and here on the difference between online identity and "real" names--which generally aren't used online, anyway. I find it highly relevant that when I do the same thing, "Emilly Orr" gets 28,600 hits on a Google search, most of them directly targeted to me. While a search on my 'real' name, on the other hand, does get 104,000 hits--none of them are me.

Let me repeat that, because I think it's vaguely important. At least in the first twenty pages of that search, I'm not there. (I didn't go back farther than that, I think that establishes the point pretty well.)

We've got people with my name in Kentucky, in Georgia, in Tennesee, in New York, in Ohio, and at least one in Washington--and none of them are me. Weird note of trivial interest: most of them are in nursing homes. (So much for my name having any cachet of "cool" whatsoever.)

I have put thought, energy, time, and yes, money, behind establishing Emilly Orr, though. While she doesn't have a credit card, or a bank account, she does have a PayPal (I didn't set it up; it was set up by someone who didn't know that PayPal was a stickler for real names.) account, and has, in fact, used it to buy things online. So she even has a purchasing history through Google.

Why isn't that good enough for Google+?

The Guardian has a short little moment of adoration for tattered books. Bibliophiles and casual readers alike seem to share this love. In fact, my favorite bookstore when we lived in Denver was The Tattered Cover.

From Tor Books comes the review of the next up-and-coming Batman title. Their recommendation: skip it. Ouch, but I understand their reasoning.

In preparation to launch the Freedom server, City of Heroes has released information on the First Ward. I think I'm going to like it there.

SCIENCE! (But very very odd science.)

And off to ponder marketing on the grid. This has been your News of the Day.