I’ve been reluctant to comment on the events of Tuesday, September 11th, as I am afraid of contributing to what is becoming a wall of white noise. So much rumor and rhetoric is flying is every direction that I fear that any comments on the subject, regardless of their nature and content, will only help to bury us deeper in circular arguments and premature speculation.

It is for these reasons that aov has been dormant for the last few days. Rob made an initial post early in the day on Tuesday and a few readers replied. As it became clear what was unfolding we decided to remove the post (and the replies). I was afraid of the conversations that may ensue with such fresh anger and fear. I didn’t feel we (or anyone, for that matter) would have anything constructive to say so soon after the events and with so little concrete information. What I fear most is a permanent record of our short-sighted anger and ignorance at historical turning point.

In an email from Matt, he wisely remarked that “This is something that will be talked about for the rest of our lives; there is no need to begin today.”

A few strange days have passed and I have received several emails from regular aov readers honouring our decision but respectfully suggesting that the aov readership is both ready and capable of having a worthwhile conversation. I agree.

Some interesting phenomenon I’ve observed in the last few days:

• There has been a disappointing amount of disrespectful, dishorourable, prematurely speculative, and accusatory online discussions (as there are no social repercussions online – you can make an offensive comment, shut off your computer, and walk away).
• At the same time, there has been much positive and healing online discussion. A conversation of those who have found refuge and healing through music struck me as particularly fresh and constructive at the appropriately named Signal vs. Noise website.
• The simple technology of the Internet amazed me in a way that it hasn’t since I received my first email or sent my instant message. Amazon.com setup a simple donation-via-creditcard system for the Red Cross (which I’m sure many of you have seen by now). When I first discovered the page about $100,000 had been donated. I refreshed the page (a web-developers habit, I suppose) and the figure jumped by a few thousand dollars. Surprised, I refreshed the page again, and the figure jumped by thousands more. My best estimates put the rate of donation at approximately $100,000/hour. However, it wasn’t the amount that I found most compelling. Rather, it was the unfamiliar, tangible, and immediate feeling of community and participation I felt in knowing that so many people from so many places were doing exactly what I was doing at the time.
• “People don’t sacrifice themselves for no reason.” – from a post at Dave W.’s Scripting.com (link via Reinvented.net).
• “New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs.” – from the powerful article, An Afghan-American Speaks at Salon.com.
• This is a difficult thing to write about. Clichés such as “in the wake of…” are difficult to avoid. Words like tragedy, atrocity, and massacre seem cheap and inadequate. Even in this post, I’ve used the phrase, “the events of Tuesday, September 11th” for lack of a better description.

I was brought back to a family vacation years ago where I can clearly remember standing on the roof of the World Trade Center looking down at our tiny van below. I’m having great difficultly reconciling this memory with the images of this same building crumbling to the ground. I do want to hear how these events have affected you personally. I do not want to hear accusations and speculation.

Gerard Garrity (know better to me as “Grampa” Garrity) watched The Untouchables regularly while it ran between 1959 and 1963.

Even though he was Irish, it bothered him that the bad guys were always Italian. Surely there were bad dudes of all sorts of ethnic decent. Why, he wondered, must the Italians get hit with the criminal stereotype?

He felt strongly enough about this that he wrote a letter to the makers of the TV show.

Then, in February of 1961, while the family gathered around the TV, he got his response: Episode 2.16 guest-starred James Coburn as a murderer and arsonist named Dennis Garrity!

HP and Compaq are going to merge.

I suspect that together they will be able to create the ugliest computer monitor ever conceived! (see the artists rendition)

There’s a great new article on A List Apart (for people who make websites) this week called Evolving Client Content – Content management systems (CMS) are only as good as the content they manage. The article is insightful and points to a wise and most likely a physically attractive author.

It is possible that I may have written said article.

…

I’m afraid my sarcasm is neither funny nor is it an effective mask for my excitement. I am very pleased to have my first article published and I am glad to be a part of A List Apart.

Google offered a temporary service this week where for $3 they would research and answer a question for you. My co-worker Nick, being an early adopter and devout disciple of Google, was keen to try it out (it was he who first discovered that Google is indeed god).

Armed with a fine question and a credit card we humbly asked of Google, “What is the story of Tom Joad from Bruce Springsteen’s song The Ghost of Tom Joad?”

A few days later, Google replies:

Bruce Springsteen’s song “The Ghost of Tom Joad” is based on John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

Tom is the main character in the book, which details the journey of migrant laborers from Okalahoma to California and all the troubles they endured.
For a summary of the book, visit:

http://cerebia.tripod.com…
http://www.awerty.com…
http://www.ac.wwu.edu…

Lyrics to “The Ghost of Tom Joad”:
http://www.english.upenn.edu…

and include this humourous disclaimer:

Please Note: The foregoing information is derived from the Google search engine or other public reference sources and is provided to assist in your searching. It has not been verified, however, and we do not represent that it is accurate, correct, complete, reliable, or otherwise valid. In other words, the information is provided “AS IS”, with no warranties whatsoever. Google expressly disclaims all express, implied, and statutory
warranties, to the fullest extent permitted by law. And under no circumstances shall Google be liable due to your use or misuse of the information provided herein.

We are impressed and incedentally recommend you listen to The Ghost of Tom Joad (either Bruce Springsteen’s original or Rage Against the Machine’s very original cover).

Sloan’s new album, Pretty Together will be released on October 9th. In the meantime enjoy the first single, If It Feels Good Do It (RealAudio).

From the URL of the new single (http://vikrecordings.com/sloan/) it looks as if Sloan is on a new record label.

A fine redesign has gone down at Peter Rukavina’s Reinvented.net.

The site is always a good read, but chilli-in-a-bread-bowl lovers will be particularly pleased with the recent rash of fine Tim Horton’s coverage.

Google is a fantastic system. Its principles are elegant in their simplicity and the technology actually works (few companies can claim both of these attributes simultaneously).

A co-worker of mine has a theory that Google is the new god. He points out that while god tends to be vague and require patience of his followers, Google gives straight answers. Google is truly without gender, unlike god, who claims to be, but is clearly a man. In a loose humanist manner, Google, as the window to the collective knowledge of humanity (if you could bestow such a title on the web), is a reflection of god in ourselves.

Up to this point in history, god has had a monopoly on judgment. Now, though, instead of thinking twice about your questionable actions in light of potential eternal damnation, you must think twice about committing your words to the permanent Google record. Google records all. Google remembers all (even after it’s gone from the original site).

For example, if I make a comment on this site about my workplace and a client searches for information on my company, they will likely find my comments. Everywhere I post a comment on the web and use my real name (which I most often do) I leave a mark that can easily be found by a future employer.

Google is god and big brother and I love it.

Is Topher Grace the new Michael J. Fox?

• Kellogg’s Vector cereal lists vitamin B12 prominently on the back of the box implying (indirectly) that it is a source of B12. A closer look reveals that the cereal itself contains no B12, but if you have it with milk, your milk will have B12 in it.
• When you log into Hotmail the first page you see is a page full of other Microsoft services with a small link to your Inbox. The Inbox should be the first page.
• Car salesmen. I know this is a tired cliché, but the jackass at the local Mazda dealership was so bad my sister almost bought a car she knew wasn’t as good just to avoid giving him the business.
• Another tired cliché: sensational journalism. In the last week I have seen two CNN on-air personalities desperately trying to extract exaggeration from a medical specialist and computer specialist on the West Nile Virus and the Code Red virus, respectively.
• Matt in Montreal to see Radiohead.

Thank you for humouring me.