Vacuum - Edward Vielmetti in Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

Yahoo leadership - nature abhors a vacuum

As GigaOM notes in Yahoo Please Put Up A Fight

Yahoo has a staggering 500 million users. However, it does a rather poor job of monetization. The vision that Yang shared at CES last week (“At Yahoo we want to be the most essential starting point for your life”) can come true if the key activities that we perform online are channeled through its My Yahoo service. And on the financial side, each of those activities needs to be backed up by a monetization model that takes full advantage of the traffic that Yahoo consistently manages to generate and preserve.

If you have an interesting network with a huge number of users and an awful way to monetize the traffic, people divert their attentions to other interesting networks with perhaps less users and much better ways to monetize traffic.  This is particularly true if the gating point for your interest and attention is your ability to fund day-in, day-out, constant attention to a project, and account or a campaign.

Jerry and Sue, you need to show some leadership.  Make it possible for me to make money on your network.  If you can't, I'll systematically divert my attention (and my clients spend) to other networks that perform better than Yahoo.  I'll happily take good ideas from Brad and Caterina and Stuart and Les and Susan and Joshua and put them to work somewhere that will generate good cash flow.  And I'll invite anyone who was laid off or who left Yahoo to join me on the Yahoo alumni network where we can figure out what's next.

links for 2008-01-22

• Fresh bread at (almost) a moment's notice -- chicagotribune.com
  a chicago tribune story w/video tells you how to always have a loaf of bread a few minutes away from being hot and ready. the secret is making a wet dough and keeping it in the fridge. must try. brotchen here we come!
  (tags: baking bread recipe awesome ***** via:webuse)

Ann Arbor sign ordinances

If your neighbor erects a giant sign on their lawn, or on the side of their house, what is your recourse?

UPDATE: In Ann Arbor the simple and direct way to deal with this is to call the city's Community Standards department at 734-994-1613. A neighbor who has been through this before says that they deal with sign problems promptly.

The appropriate part of the city code reads as follows. NOTE: This is not the official city code site! Find it and read it before complaining.

- PDF from the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors:

5:504. Residence signs.

(1) Single and 2-family houses. Townhouses and detached single-family and duplex
houses are permitted signs having a total area of 3 square feet indicating the address and
names of the occupants.
(2) Multiple family residences. Apartment houses, fraternity houses, sorority houses,
cooperative houses, retirement homes, tourist homes and religious institutions are
permitted signs having a total area of 12 square feet indicating only the address, the
names of the occupants and the name of the building or organization.
(3) Subdivisions. Subdivisions of single and 2-family homes and housing complexes of
more than 1 apartment or town house building are permitted signs identifying the
subdivisions or housing complex. Such signs shall have an area of not more than 50
square feet and a height of not more than 8 feet. A subdivision or housing complex shall
not have a total of more than 2 such signs nor more than 1 per entrance.
(Ord. No. 55-74, 6-9-75; Ord. No. 33-82, 8-2-82)

5:505 Temporary signs.

Unilluminated on-premises temporary exterior signs may be erected in accordance with
the regulations of this section.
(1) Single and Two-Family Real Estate--For Sale Signs.
(a) A single sign with a maximum height of 48 inches and a maximum width of 36
inches, including the support structure and all riders, and with the bottom of the sign a
minimum of 6 inches from the ground, advertising the sale of a single or two-family
house or variant property adjacent to such a house is permitted.
(b) Such a sign shall be set back at least 15 feet from the street and at least 5 feet from
the inside edge of the sidewalk, or in accordance with Table 5:505 when conditions do
not permit such placement. Provided, that if a legally existing obstruction on the property
prevents the sign from being seen from the street when the sign is placed in accordance
with the foregoing placement requirements, then the sign may be affixed to or placed
immediately in front of such obstruction, so long as the display face of the sign is parallel
to the right-of-way line, and so long as the sign is not placed within the public right-of-
way.
(c) A sign advertising the sale of a property must be removed within 48 hours after the
closing on the sale.
(2) Single and Two-Family Real Estate--Rental Signs.
(a) A single sign with a maximum height of 48 inches and a maximum width of 36
inches, including the support structure and all riders, and with the bottom of the sign a
minimum of 6 inches from the ground, advertising the rental of a single or two-family
house or variant property adjacent to such a house is permitted.
(b) Such sign shall be set back at least 15 feet from the street and at least 5 feet from
the inside edge of the sidewalk, or in accordance with Table 5:505 when conditions do
not permit such placement. Provided, that if a legally existing obstruction on the property
prevents the sign from being seen from the street when the sign is placed in accordance
with the foregoing placement requirements, then the sign may be affixed to or placed
immediately in front of such obstruction, so long as the display face of the sign is parallel
to the right-of-way line, and so long as the sign is not placed within the public right-of-
way.
(c) A sign advertising the rental of a property must be removed within 48 hours after
the property is no longer available for rent.
(3) Real Estate. A sign with a total area not in excess of 12 square feet advertising the
sale or rental of real estate other than single or two-family houses is permitted pursuant to
a permit having a maximum duration of 120 days. It shall have a maximum height of 10
feet and shall be set back 25 feet unless attached to a permanent building.

The sign board of appeals home page:

Brenda Acquaviva, Appeal Board Administrative Support Specialist
(734) 994-2696 - Bacquaviva@a2gov.org

there's lots of broken links on that page.

Technorati Tags: annarbor, good-signs-make-good-neighbors, semiotics, sign

links for 2008-01-21

• Digg - 10 Tips to dealing with never leaving your job
  Stop the Alerts! - turn off your daily monster reminder that there is something else you could be doing. I did this a long time ago and I am better for it. Basically there is no need to find out about that analyst job at a cool web 2.0 company.
  (tags: digg jobs reminders monster-reminders feed-the-monster)

links for 2008-01-18

• Amazon Web Services Developer Connection : Firefox Extension for Amazon EC2
  This is a Mozilla Firefox extension for interacting with Amazon EC2 (API version 2007-08-29). The source code also functions as an example of how to use the Amazon EC2 Query API from JavaScript.
  (tags: api aws database ec2 ui management firefox elasticfox via:lancecarlson)
• Looking south from the Maccabees Building with the Detroit skyline in the distance, Detroit, Mich. (LOC) on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  from the Library of Commerce collection; would love to see a rephotograph of this scene
  (tags: detroit michigan photo library-of-congress maccabees-building party-like-its-194x motown)
• The Vac FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions About Vacuum Presses
  Frequently asked questions about vacuum presses, with answers; for your woodworking needs.
  (tags: vacuum woodworking faq nature-abhors)
• Police say robbery led to shooting - Latest from the Ann Arbor News - MLive.com
  Myrick frequents the Melvindale, Kalamazoo and Mears areas on the west side of the state, and police are seeking a warrant for his arrest.
  (tags: annarbor murder michigan melvindale kalamazoo mears)
• Crime Alert - Murder - The University of Michigan Department of Public Safety - Ann Arbor
  Ann Arbor Police Dept is looking for a person of interest - Andrew Robert Myrick, white male, 28 years old, 6", 200 pounds, heavy build, black shoulder-length hair and brown eyes. He should be considered armed and dangerous.
  (tags: annarbor michigan murder photo)
• YouTube - Wanted for Questioning in Fatal Shooting, Case Number 08-457
  Wanted for Questioning in Fatal Shooting, Case Number 08-457
  (tags: annarbor michigan murder)
• Police want to question man in slaying - Latest from the Ann Arbor News - MLive.com
  (tags: annarbor murder)

Ann Arbor (Jones Drive) murder - suspect information

UPDATE 1/18: Two arrested in Ann Arbor shooting (Freep)

from the Ann Arbor Police Department account on Youtube.

Wanted for Questioning in a Fatal Shooting in the City of Ann Arbor, Michigan. If you know the whereabouts of Myrick, please call our Anonymous Tipline 734-996-3199. Refer to Case Number 08-457.

Local news reporting pull quotes -

Your best narrow search results show up for the Google searches for Ann Arbor Jones Drive murder . The outside.in searches for Ann Arbor murder are not good, but probably can be improved by tagging.

My inbox did not have anything about this murder in Ann Arbor today, which means I'm doing something personally wrong in my clipping strategy.

Michigan Daily

About 12-15 shots were fired at the scene and an AK-47 type weapon was found inside the house, police said. Bullet holes were also found on the exterior of the red brick house. Police found signs of forced entry at the residence. AAPD Lt. Michael Logghe said police are unsure why the victim entered Myrick's residence or of any other motives.

Technorati Tags: annarbor, murder

links for 2008-01-17

• A London Provisioner's Chronicle, 1550-1563, by Henry Machyn
  The Chronicle was one of the treasures of the library of the antiquarian Robert Cotton, and it was stored in the same bookcase with the Beowulf manuscript. Its location was in the book press surmounted by a bust of the Roman emperor Vitellius, and it take
  (tags: archives commerce digital history london shopkeeping party-like-its-155x party-like-its-156x)

LA2M - Lunch Ann Arbor Marketing - Wednesday at Eastern Flame

Derek Mehraban organized the first weekly Wednesday downtown Ann Arbor lunch for people in the marketing world at Eastern Flame on Ashley next to the Fleetwood Diner. He's calling it LA2M.

You can see what a QSL card for LA2M looks like from the 1920s. Derek, if you want to print a sticker, you have a design ready-made.

There were 12 for lunch for the first event, and the restaurant obliged with a soup and sandwich for $5 special. I ate the soup there, took the sandwich to go, and had a good time talking with a Michigan State University undergraduate advertising major, a digital public relations manager for a unit of Publicis, several of the residents of the brickyard, and folks who had come to Ann Arbor from Oakland County for the event.

Derek has been a big proponent of my weekly A2B3 Thursday lunch at Eastern Accents, and I'm happy to return the favor.

Technorati Tags: la2m, marketing, advertising, annarbor, a2b3, lunch, never-eat-lunch-alone

links for 2008-01-16

• Christopher Olston
  web-scale data management (the Pig project)
  (tags: yahoo pig pig-latin hadoop database large-scale-fabric-computing)
• Geeking with Greg: Yahoo Pig and Google Sawzall
  It is hard to tell from the limited documentation available, but the Pig project at Yahoo Research seems to have a lot in common with Sawzall at Google. Both are high level programming languages targeting massively parallel processing across huge clusters
  (tags: sawzall pig hadoop mapreduce yahoo parallel grid optimization)

Michigan primary results - 2008 presidential primary

2008 Unofficial Michigan Primary Election Results from http://miboecfr.nicusa.com - who are these people, are they really part of michigan.gov ? Something is being outsourced, very badly.

The short story:
Dem: Clinton 55, Uncommitted 40, Kucinich 4
Rep: Romney 39, McCain 30, Huckabee 16, Paul 6, Thompson 4, Guiliani 3

Best counties (overnight approx, data from NY Times, where is my spreadsheet full of numbers?)

Democrats:
Kucinich: 9% in Washtenaw
Clinton: 88% in Houghton, 64% in Macomb, 66% in Chippewa
Uncommitted: 49% in Emmet, 46% in Washtenaw

Republicans:
Romney: 47% Oakland, 44% Leelenau
McCain: 40-42% Van Buren, Crawford, Marquette, Keewenaw, Kalamazoo

SOS - Elections in Michigan SOS stands for "Secretary of State", and the crummy TITLE tag is one reason why this page is hard to find. You'd think, with Google in Ann Arbor, that the state of Michigan would have better search engine friendliness for the state government site.

The best overall politics tracker is memorandum's political web; here's a snapshot of the overnight results at 1am.

Best Michigan 2008 primary map is from the New York Times, showing leaders by county. They picked a weird color choice for the Democrats, leaving Clinton and Uncommitted almost the same color.

The Democratic party pull quotes:

Hillary Clinton won a largely uncontested Michigan Democratic primary - Boston Globe

The Obama Campaign is not participating in the Primary and has not instructed supporters in Michigan whether or how to vote - National Journal, Hotline Blog

Because of the hopelessly messed-up nature of this year's Democratic primary, this is a perfect opportunity for progressives in Michigan to make a statement without taking any risk. And the way to do that is to vote for Dennis Kucinich. Detroit Metro Times editorial

The Republican party pull quotes:

Romney is the son of former Michigan Governor and 1968 presidential candidate George W. Romney (Wikipedia)

Ambassador Weiser, an Ann Arbor resident and chairman of McCain's Michigan campaign, said Lieberman will join McCain at a joint town hall meeting on Election Day (Ann Arbor News)

My personal election story was not as good as it could be. I tried at the last moment to figure out what the status was of the ACLU Michigan Primary Election law lawsuit, where the Green Party and a political consulting firm among others are suing for the right to have access to primary voter lists. If they win, I'm going to buy me a list; even if they don't, you can get voter lists (city of Ann Arbor through the Ann Arbor City Clerk, $5). Hm, time to put that online too.

The technological snafu was voting as though I was a vision-impaired voter and trying to use the AutoMARK machines provided for that purpose. (press release from SOS) The machine marks ballots with audio prompting; it has awful industrial design, a very clumsy ballot shield, the poll workers had not run a real ballot through it all day (just a sample ballot), and when it spat back my ballot a half dozen times they directed me to the hand marked ballot booth rather than spoiling the ballot and starting with a new piece of paper.

The other technological snafu (again from the perspective of the vision impaired) was that the ballot eating machine has no audio or tactile feedback that a ballot was successfully accepted, and even its visual feedback is really bad (a tiny lcd display hard to read in dim light). I had really no way of knowing that the ballot eating machine really took my ballot, not even a reassurance that some bell dinged. Had I had no sight at all, some poll worker could have taken my ballot and disposed of it or remarked it and I'd be no wiser.

Technorati Tags: vote, michigan, election08, bibimbop, primary