Finally sort of settling back in after Thanksgiving weekend, my one-day trip to Chicago, and my big Five-O birthday.  Today was somewhat normal :)  Even managed a bike ride, in fact, I more than managed one; I set a personal best for my Rockstore loop, 1:42:47.  This wasn't a white swan, either, just a steady grind with good power.  Bodes well for this Saturday when I am doing a 200K, my first long ride in quite a while. 

Anyway enough of my cycling, let's see what else is going on, as the Ole filter makes a pass...

Jason Kottke wonders does the broken windows theory hold online?  I think it would; the same psychological factors are at work.  (If you don't know, the broken windows theory is that leaving broken windows in a building will encourage people to break more windows, while fixing them promptly discourages it.  This seems to be true for graffiti, for example.  And I'm guess it is true for the online equivalent of graffiti, the crass thoughtless comment.) 

I noted this too; on Monday CNN issued a "breaking news alert" that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007.  So be it, nice to know.  It would have been nicer to know a year ago, but you can see where these things take time :) 

Whoa, check this out: Mathematica image processing.  In which images can be input and output from an equation.  I don't know if "whoa" adequately covers it, frankly, my mind is a little blown. 

BusinessWeek reports Windows on a Mac: Virtually Perfect.  I have to agree, and this capability has been incredibly helpful to me and my Mac customers.  Not only do they get a good experience running my "Windows" software on their computers, but they get the latest version, and I don't have to worry about the extra overhead of developing and maintaining two versions of the software, so I can get more done for them.  Excellent. 

P.S. I even have a developer at Aperio who uses a Mac laptop as his everyday development computer - for Windows software :)  Runs Visual Studio and everything under Parallels...

CNET reports Google reveals Chrome extensions plan.  Excellent, perhaps this means someone will create an AdBlock equivalent, and then they'll be able to compete with Firefox as my everyday browser.  They even quote me (!): "Of all the Firefox plug-ins, this is the one essential one.  Chrome is faster until you factor in all the cruft that gets downloaded as ads, then it isn't faster anymore. When Chrome supports AdBlock, it will be the winner, but until it does, Firefox is the only choice."  Well put :) 

John Gruber linked this User Interface of the week.  Wow!  This is a real applications for renaming files.  Incredible.  Impressive.  ... and borderline unusable :) 

The world's most dangerous road: the Yungas.  40 miles at 12,000' from the Amazon jungle to La Paz.  Seems like a nice bike ride :) 

This is pretty cool: Florida teen discovers possible colon cancer cure.  "Kyle Jones of The Villages Charter High School might have found a cure for colon cancer.  For his science project last fall, Jones tested the effects of conjugated linoleic acid, known as CLA, an amino acid found mostly in meat and dairy products, on human colon cancer at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Orlando.  His results showed that up to 90 percent of the colon cancer cells were killed within three days, indicating that the chemical properties of CLA could possibly be used as an effective treatment for colon cancer."  How excellent. 

Via Ottmar Liebert comes news of this $300,000 watch which does not tell time.  What's next, a phone which doesn't make calls? 

From John Battelle: the transition, in two headlines.  I still don't "get" the online advertising thing, but then again I use Firefox with AdBlock (not Chrome :); it is undeniable that there is money to be made online (see GOOG).  I do get the newspaper decline.  They are definitely going the way of the great woolies...