Therein Lies A Tale

One has to wonder about all the details alluded to in this correction that ran in today's New York Times. 

An article on Dec. 7, 2005, about the wine shop Sherry-Lehmann and its training of part-time workers for the Christmas season, referred incorrectly to the family of the owner, Michael Aaron, who commented on handing off the company to the next generation. Mr. Aaron has a son, Alexander; he is not childless. The error was pointed out to the reporter a few months after the article ran, but because of a misunderstanding, no correction was published. Lawyers for Alexander Aaron requested a correction in April, but their letter went astray at The Times. Editors received another request last week.

Wired's Editor-In-Chief Sends PR Flaks Packing

Wired's Editor-in-Chief, Chris Anderson, has decided to block any PR folks who send him irrelevant press releases. And to help the world out, he's published his blacklist for everyone to import into their email programs.

It's a bold move, but I can't quite bring myself to follow his lead: I derive so much pleasure from mocking press releases, I'm not sure where I'd find new entertainment.

Finding A Private Blog

Here's something odd. Melissa and I have a private blog that we only mention to friends and family. In Blogger's settings, I've said to not list it on blogger.com or ping services such as Technorati. It's not a restricted blog, since we didn't want to force people to create Blogger accounts, but as far as I know, there's no published mention of the site.

I maintain a feed of sites that link to my public blogs. This morning, I was surprised to find a link from our private blog pointing to one of mine. The link is there, but I can't figure out how the service managed to find it. We deliberately don't link out of the private blog to blogs that might see the traffic. (I don't see any links into it, either.)

Is Blogger's view of privacy different than mine?

Zack and Wiki: First Impressions

The IGN Wii crew have been talking up Zack and Wiki for a while in their podcasts, on the site, and in the final review. Their enthusiasm swayed me, and I picked up a copy yesterday after trading in a boatload of old games. (I also pre-ordered Super Mario Galaxy.) I've only played the first few levels, but I already agree with their view.

The game is basically a modern take on the old-school puzzle adventure games of the industry's youth. In each level, you have to make your way to the treasure at the end. But an increasing number of obstacles stand in your way, and you have to use the tools given to you in the environment to clear those obstacles. You just have to do it in the right order, or you'll meet an untimely end. It's like the famous Honda commercial in which a chain reaction of falling parts leads you through the ad. To interact with the objects in the environment, you have to use the Wiimote in a way that corresponds to the way you'd hold the object in the real world. Pull a lever by holding the Wiimote upright and pulling it toward you. Turn a crank by moving the Wiimote in a circle perpendicular to your body. Many critics have argued that it's one of the few games so far that requires the Wii's motion-sensing ability.

There's little reflex work so far, though in one level I played I had to scurry up a vine quickly. There are boss battles, though I haven't hit one yet. The storyline is cute but not groundbreaking, and the characters are drawn with an anime-esque cartoon quality and given a wide range of animations. And it's only $40, a rarity for new Wii titles.

New Largest Corn Maze

Today's Chronicle has an article about the latest World's Largest Corn Maze, located in nearby Dixon, California.

Sadly, it doesn't look like the world's largest corn maze is also its most interesting. From the aerial photo, it looks as if it's a basic right-hand-rule maze: Put your hand on a wall, keep it there, and you'll find your way out.

Adrian Fisher's Maize Mazes site shows pictures of cornfield mazes with bridges connecting paths, which can defeat the right-hand rule and introduce loops.

Joel Spolsky On Evidence Based Scheduling

Joel Spolsky's recent post about Evidence Based Scheduling is worth a read for anyone in software — or any field where you have to manage schedules over time, I suppose — but I'm mostly posting this so I can find it later.

Paging An Editor: Picture An 80s Band

Can you spot the mistake in Wednesday's Herb and Jamaal?

Sudden Spike In Wii Production?

In the last week, I've heard of at least two people who have snagged ever-elusive Wiis for themselves. (Of course one of them, Dave Winer, can't get his to work, but I'm sure that will resolve itself soon.)

Has there been a spike in Wii production? As someone who follows several gaming and technology blogs and a few gaming podcasts, I'm surprised this isn't bigger news. I know Nintendo was pushing for a bit more production as the holiday season approaches, but last I heard the new supply was still far below demand. 

Exclusive Reviews For Videogames

I'm listening to the Wii-k in Review podcast, and Matt Cassamassina mentioned that companies will often give IGN an exclusive review, but only if the game is going to get above a particular score.

He defends the practice, but he admits that it sounds sleazy. I think it sounds sleazy, and I think it's bad practice. IGN isn't changing their score to appeal to a publisher, but they are guaranteeing good coverage if they get the exclusive review.

I don't know; seems borderline ethical to me. 

Odd Phone Message

“The 800 number you are trying to dial is currently being checked for trouble.”

Odd. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that message before.

NYTimes In Outline

Dave Winer got inspired by the revelation that the New York Times maintains a hierarchy of keywords that show up in the HTML source of their web pages. Dave, who's done outlining programs for a long time, came up with a great new way to look at the Times: in outline form, clustered by keywords.

It's a compelling shift in how to view a newspaper, and I hope it catches on. Even when I go to the front page of the Times online, I scan all the headlines to pluck the ones that might interest me. Sometimes, that's because the headline is compelling or catchy, but usually it's because the subject is clearly one I'll be interested in. Food policy, wine, whatever. The outline view gives me a) a chance to jump right to the topics I want, perhaps finding articles that I wouldn't have spotted from a scan of the web page, and b) a gestalt view of the news of the day. Check it out.

Paging An Editor: Needless to say?

I'm trawling Paula Wolfer's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen for recipe ideas, and I just noticed the headnote to her "French Croutes with Onion Jam and Scrambled Eggs."

She writes:

In southwest France, slices of dense baguette, thinly cut on the diagonal, are called croutes. Such slices are the perfect size to hold this incredibly savory topping. Needless to say, eating it requires a knife and a fork.

I've used "needless to say" in my own writing, but it always irks me when I do: If you don't need to say it, then why are you doing so? However, in this headnote it makes less sense than normal. When I cut diagonally across a baguette, I end up with something a bit longer than the diameter of the baguette: A perfect bit to hold in your fingers. So why would I naturally assume, and have it be "needless to say," that I need a knife and a fork for this dish? (As a side note, I've noticed a fair number of exclamation marks in the text, which is never a good sign, quality of recipes notwithstanding.)

How Editing Mistakes Happen

I'm pretty hard on editing mistakes in the wild, but I'm not immune to them in my own published work. 

Consider this one from my article about American brewers making Belgian-style beer:

What does it mean to emulate a Belgian beer? Perhaps the only trait the country's products share is a devil-may-care attitude about experimentation.

Tomme Arthur, brewer at San Marcos' Lost Abbey Brewery, says, "I think it's the artistic temperament of Belgian brewers that I'm into. There's an expressionary note that I appreciate. It allows for a tremendous amount of brewing freedom. I abhor the Germanic tradition of four ingredients and four ingredients only."

Germany's Reinheitsgebot, the beer purity law that dates back almost 500 years, prevents brewers from using anything but malted barley or wheat, hops, water and cultured yeast. Nonetheless, American Belgian-style brewers explore common ground. 

By the time you've finished digressing about the Reinheitsgebot, the statement about common ground has lost relevance.

That last sentence was supposed to cap off the digression about the devil-may-care attitude among Belgium's brewers. But my editor asked me to explain the German law. I then forgot to re-read the whole thing for clarity. 

The result: The drifting sentence at the end.

Amazing Paper Art

My mother-in-law sent me a bunch of amazing pictures of artwork made from a single sheet of paper. With a bit of Googling, I found the source site. Click through the links on the side to get through them all.

Uncov Uncovered

I’ve been a fan of straight-shooting, foul-mouthed blog uncov for a while. (I probably learned about it from Dave Winer.)

So I enjoyed learning a bit more about the folks behind it in this Wired interview with main uncov guy Ted Dziuba. Amusingly, Dziuba, figuring he’d get a lot of traffic from the piece, made sure to post a mildly NSFW picture on his front page.

Paging An Editor: How many?

From a press release I got today: “What is for dinner? Those five words often make parents want to retire the oven mitts forever and drive the minivan to the famous golden arches.  True statement.”

I know my eyes are going, but I’m pretty sure that “What is for dinner” only  has four words.

Paging An Editor: Ruhlman On Bloggers

Michael Ruhlman linked to his Restaurant Hospitality article about bloggers, and a couple items caught my editorial eye. I mentioned them in the comments on his blog as well.

Writing of anonymity, he says, “This anonymity business has to stop. No anonymous slams. Bloggers and commenters on food forums ought to be immediately recognized as cowards and ignored.” Uh, think maybe he’s missing a word in that third sentence? As written, on its own, it suggests that all bloggers and food forum commenters are cowards. Any intelligent reader can figure out what he means, but a reader shouldn’t have to pause to do so.

Then he writes, “Andrea Strong, 38, who has been writing thestrongbuzz since 2003, has been regularly accused of praising the restaurants that comp her (typically by anonymous commenters). In a telephone interview she noted she does accept comps but said, ‘I would never write something negative because I wasn’t comped. I don’t expect to get comped. My goal is not to tell people where not to eat, it’s to tell people where to eat.’” The first sentence asks one question, but the second sentence answers another. Does she praise restaurants that comp her? Does she ever criticize them? We never learn. And the parenthetical’s placement makes it sound as if anonymous commenters comp her at the restaurants, not accuse her of taking comps.

Hollow Rubik's Cube

This year’s Jury Grand Prize in the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition was a hollow Rubik’s cube. Imagine a standard cube, but take out the center — you know, the structure that makes a Rubik’s cube work in the first place? I played with this at the International Puzzle Party, and it’s pretty trippy. I have no idea how it works.

Forensic Genealogy

The latest GAMES Magazine came today, and my eye snagged on an article about forensic genealogy. I don't quite get the origin of the name, because the site (http://www.forensicgenealogy.info) describes the art of puzzling out the details of an old photo from the visual clues it contains.

This seems interesting in its own right, but the site also features a weekly quiz in which readers try to identify the details of a given photo. Answers appear the next week, usually with a small lecture about the contents. 

I wish the guesses were done as a forum or comments. Right now, you enter your guess in the darkness, independently of your co-solvers. Still, the idea is pretty neat.