“The Genesis Experiment is a failure.”

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Wham. Ouch. The Genesis space probe, designed to hover in space at a La Grange Point to collect solar wind samples and return them to Earth via stunt-helicopter-grab, failed to open its parachute on descent, and slammed into Earth at over 100 MPH. One wonders whether JPL/NASA could have opted for some less risky, somewhat less spectacular mode of retrieval, say, via shuttle in orbit. Unfortunately, between the loss of Columbia and VAB hurricane damage, it doesn’t look like the shuttles will be in orbit anytime soon. Hopefully the probe’s capture plates survived mostly intact and enclosed.

More links:

(Title quote from Star Trek III.)

Blogshares

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I’ve been having some problems with Blogshares lately. (Link goes to a brief history of Blogshares’ troubles last year, as described by StupidEvilBastard.com) Apparently they saw fit to add Mobrownpau to trading, without so much as a by-your-leave or even a note by email. I only found out about the unauthorized listing when Blogshares profile URLs started showing up in my referrer logs.

Somewhat annoyed, I registered an account with the game, thinking I could easily “claim” my weblog, then remove it, and cancel my account — but they don’t make it quite that easy. Once I had claimed the weblog for my own, there was no way to remove it, the URL changer didn’t work, there was no option to delete my account, and my messages to their support email address went unanswered. In a fit of pique, I put a popular shock site into the “Alternative URLs” field for my claimed weblog, changed my account name to “Blogshares Sucks,” switched the login email address to a spamtrap, sold all my shares, and forgot about it, thinking they would just delete the account for abuse, and that would be that.

Last night, I got a message from Subwolf, a Blogshares Admin:

“You ping weblogs.com, we don’t need your permission, so kiss – my – ass.”

Not very pleasant or mature, and though I probably deserved that response, it doesn’t say much for the kind of people running the game. Even less tasteful, however, is the mentality on their end that if a blog pings or has ever pinged weblogs.com (an option I turned off, by the way), or indeed, if any blog is simply out in the open, then it is regarded as tacit approval of being added to the game.

It’s okay being added to link indexers and feed readers without notice (though I did have to block the Popdex bot for being a bit too persistent), but a fantasy trading market is quite different: with it comes an entire culture, economy, and sense of commodification which makes me uncomfortable, and while I’m not anti-capitalist, there are problems when participation and exposure in that context are non-voluntary, unrequested, and uncontrollable. That, plus the responses and feedback I’ve seen to and from Blogshares, certainly calls into question just how safe the average user’s private information is with them.

I can’t find myself in Blogshares searches, so I suppose that means I’ve been delisted, though people have been added again after delisting. It would appear that Blogshares takes its cues from the Berlin-Bremen Stock Exchange.

A Very Russian Rail Ride

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Up in NJ to visit Amy for the long weekend. Last night’s train ride out of DC was packed, but I managed to get a seat in the cafe car, where my seat neighbor, a fellow commuter, kindly introduced me to the delectable joys of a White Russian (kahlau, vodka, and milk). Excellent stuff: like a latte with kick! Later on, I spoke in the vestibule with a Russian engineer working for NASA, talking about orbital imagery and Soviet rockets of the Space Age. Quite a Russian trip.

GMail: Demand, Meet Supply

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Six new GMail invites. Considering that everyone and their mother has GMail, nowadays it’s becoming more of a status symbol not to have any invites in your account, on the basis that you’ve found enough people to give them away to.

Summer’s End Approaches

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What’s up with this week? There’s been a flurry of output: a new iMac comes out, Mozilla.org redesigns, MovableType 3.1 launches. I guess everyone wanted the new stuff out and ready before the college kids go back to school next week.

(You know you’re getting old when you start calling them college kids.)

The “-Ber” months are here! Me, I’m just about ready for some snow.

Sort of anticliMactic?

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The iMac G5 is revealed. Design-wise, it lacks a lot of the visual “oomph” that came with the older G3 iCandies and G4 iLamps; but I suppose that’s because this new iMac is so simple: a screen with everything in it, and no separate CPU. It’s revolutionary, even though it may not look it.

(What really dismays me is that a brand new iMac G5 1.6GHz costs less than what I paid for a refurbished iBook G3 700MHz, oh so long ago. On the plus side, the iBook is still performing well, two years later.)

More on Slashdot and MacSlash.

Baptistism?

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Hmmm, if Presbyterians are part of Presbyterianism, and Catholics part of Catholicism, and so on, what are Baptists a part of?

Update: Baptistdom!