Don 't Get Fresh

Ernie the Attorney posted about the need for fresh content and the lameness of many law firm web sites. Since I am in a position to have a fairly strong opinion on the subject, I posted the following lengthy comment (except here I won't repro the broken italics tag I managed to slip in there):

Heh. I have a client, about 25 attorneys in a single owner firm, whose web site is nothing more than okay. I basically tossed it together so they'd have something. It looks reasonable and not completely stupid, but has nothing fresh or interesting or appealing on it. Nobody cares.

Except once in a while they will say "our web site sucks!" So I'll get all excited and tell them things they can do, and show them a proposed, far nicer design someone did, which would cost them a few hundred bucks to adopt with minimal content improvements otherwise. I seek feedback. I get a couple of "that's nice" responses from people who aren't responsible for spending or marketing-related matters, otherwise it's deafening silence wafting to the ground with a wretched, thud of apathy.

I consider it bizarre. They also have yet to put the URL on their letterhead as I have suggested. They got goodies like coffee mugs and magnets made up for a regional chamber of commerce business fair... and didn't think to have the URL printed on the stuff. Most of the new batches of business cards haven't gotten the URL on them. Some haven't even gotten the attorney's e-mail address, and I got them on the internet three years ago. Nobody thinks to have people go to the site for driving directions, instead still reciting them over the phone or faxing them. Most of the attorney bio/experience blurbs are from a 5+ year old firm resume they did last time they thought about marketing. Requests for edits or more info mostly landed with the aforementioned thuds.

Posting articles or legal commentaries? Updating routinely? Never gonna happen.

Not that I keep my own business site exactly free of virtual cobwebbery... houses, stones, emergency glazier calls... well, tough.

I Always Liked Robin Williams

One of the many good items on Betsy's Page currently points to this column with a snippet on misguided remarks by Williams. Perhaps I should start keeping a list and a ranking system for this sort of thing, so I can remember whose movies to avoid, and how vehemently to stick to doing so. Is anyone already maintaining such a list?

Bend It

I watched the online trailer for Bend It Like Beckham today and now I'd definitely like to see it. Which I will, if it migrates out of a single theater in downtown Boston and starts appearing in some of the suburban theaters. Kind of like My Big Fat Greek Wedding did.

Linkage

Very cool. Someone I hadn't linked to first has added me, at least in a probationary sort of way, to his links. That would be JimSpot, and this is as much as anything a reminder to self to reciprocate. "Self, don't forget!"

Japan's Nuclear Weapons Program

Fascinating TCS article by Patrick Cox today, on what's come to light about Japan's quest for the atomic bomb, and how close they came to having one first.

Northbound Big Dig Tunnel Opened

My brother missed being able to go through it, since he went that way Saturday. Unfortunately, that was the day they had the northbound side down to one lane preparing for the opening of the tunnel Sunday. That added an hour to the drive to Vermont.

I think I'll pass, the first couple days, until people are less confused. I can't wait to drive on the bridge though. I gawk at it every time I go that way, it looks so cool.

The Future and Its URL

Virginia Postrel, one of the first "bloggers" I read, has a new URL and spiffy site design. I will change it in the blogroll next time I update things there.

I can still remember vividly, when I subscribed to the paper edition of Reason, before there was a web, Virginia taking over as editor from Bob Poole. They printed her picture, and her eyes struck me as having an intense yet far away look; like someone with great intelligence and focus. Or religious-like fervor. Strange thing to remember, huh? Especially so many years later. Hers was one of the first blogs I read. I don't remember if I read her or Jerry "not a blog" Pournelle first, but I think it was the latter. Then I found Virginia either through mention by Jerry, or through a post she made to a mailing list we both were on. I can remember vividly when I first heard of her, eons ago, but not when and how I first saw her "blog" a few years ago. Go figure. For the record, the next ones I discovered were Joanne Jacobs and Andrew Sullivan. I believe both of those were through Virginia, but Joanne may also have been mentioned on the RFF list.

Time Keeps on Slipping

I checked my time and looked up when Daylight Savings starts in most of the U.S., which turned out to be this upcoming weekend. All I remembered is I could expect it near my birthday. From there I found this site, basically a history of timekeeping, which is kind of cool.

Great T-Shirt

Excellent T-Shirt concept at flyingchair.net.

Who's Next

Over on Command Post the question is posed, inviting answers in the comments, who's next after Saddam? Choice are Iran, Syria, N. Korea, or fill in the blank none of the above.

SARS

Gweilo reports that it may be airborne after all, with a couple relevant links.

NY Times Front Pages You'd Like to See

Courtesy of Dawn, we are directed to Carthaginian Peace for a couple of great NY Times covers.

Business Blogging

Justene, of Calblog, questions why there aren't more business blogs. In part:

Blogs are a vast network. Go to the blogs in your blogroll and link to the blogs in their blogroll and then so on and so on. You end up traversing on the same ground over and over again. In the old days (now defined as anything before last week), we called this networking.

She welcomes other views on the topic.

Results Are In

Acidman has the poll results up! Go see, even if this is the first you've heard of it.

Brandy

Brandy, my father's beautiful, sweet dog, his baby, has died. I mentioned a while back that they'd found a growth pushing on her heart. Subsequently, on antibiotics, she seemed to be back to her old self. My father thinks she'd been exerting herself to stay with them.

What I wrote in that post was:

My father and stepmother have had Brandy since she was a puppy. Later they adopted Kashmir, who was retired from the big time, so to speak. She was the mother of a national champion golden retriever. It was Brandy who spurred my stepsister on the road to getting goldens of her own.

Anyway, Kashmir died a couple years ago. Very sad. In the past week it looked like it would be Brandy's time to go. She wasn't acting herself; breathing hard and looking lost. And X-ray showed a growth next to her heart. I've been expecting the bad news any day now. Now she seems better! She's on antibiotics and something else, and it may have been just an infection. Or it could be a temporary recovery.

Apparently whatever it was burst overnight and started killing her in earnest. I'd largely relaxed about it, and now here it is. It'll never be the same, visiting there and not seeing Brandy, aka "Bran Muffin."

So here are some pictures, in addition to the picture of Jake as a puppy, with "Mrs. Lamb," I posted a while back:

This is Brandy, in the yard at the old Vermont house, holding "Mr. Lion."

This is Brandy, in the kitchen of the old Vermont hose, at Christmas in 1999.

This is Brandy helping my father in the garden at the new Vermont house.

Bonus, non-doggie pictures:

This is part of the view from my father's house.

This is the sky at sunset from my campsite at Blomidon, in Nova Scotia, almost 5 years ago when I was last up in the ancestral part of Canada. My grandfather was born near here. I always loved this picture, and couldn't believe how nice it came out with my modest camera. It somehow seems appropriate today.

The Primary Main Objective

Check it out if you haven't. He has some cool pictures and commentary. Today as an intro for new readers he says, in part:

I have minions here, but they're not evil. Or are they?
I don't have minions in my regular job.

Apparently he also has a lot of non-American fans. For instance, an Italian fan comments in part:

...my grandfather was hiding in the muontains and fightint the nazi during world war second. so if he was alive now, he wuold have thanked you for the support your country gave to them that time and I'm lot thankful for the job you are doing now...

Go, enjoy.

Our Baltic Friends

Baltic nations, which already support us, will be sending peacekeeping troops.

That, and a great story of past Latvian support, via Baltic Blog.

Betsy

As usual, tons of good stuff over at Betsy's Page today! Check it out if you haven't already.

WHO Ingored SARS in Taiwan?
Via the Bloglord.

Wash Your Hands Of SARS

Well, yeah. Makes sense. MSNBC says frequent hand washing is key in helping prevent infection with SARS, just as with cold and flu viruses. Current belief is that most transmission has been through close contact, though they haven't ruled out other ways too.