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      <title>silentblue | Quantified</title>
      <link>http://www.silentblue.net/</link>
      <description>Intelligent enterprise and knowledge management. Critical thinking and innovative technology. Fat-free and dolphin safe</description>
      <language>en</language>
      <copyright>Copyright 2008</copyright>
      <lastBuildDate>Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:04:54 -0500</lastBuildDate>
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      <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs> 

            <item>
         <title>Childhood memories</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>To all the videogame aficionados out there; The Onion reports that <a title="Half Of 26-Year-Old's Memories Nintendo-Related | The Onion - America's Finest News Source" href="http://www.theonion.com/content/news/half_of_26_year_olds_memories">half of 26-Year-Old's memories are Nintendo-related</a>:</p>

<blockquote>Researchers...note that although Jenkins cannot remember his father's cell phone number (415-547-6823) off the top of his head, he can recite without hesitation the password that allows you to view the credits in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!</blockquote>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2008/0112-childhood-memories.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2008/0112-childhood-memories.php</guid>
         <category>tech</category>
         <pubDate>Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:04:54 -0500</pubDate>
      </item>
            <item>
         <title>The Cheapest Car on Earth</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p><a title="India offers cheapest car on earth - International Herald Tribune" href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/07/business/car.php?page=1"><a href="http://www.silentblue.net/WindowsLiveWriter/TheCheapestCaronEarth_11660/tata_2.jpg"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="142" alt="tata" src="http://www.silentblue.net/WindowsLiveWriter/TheCheapestCaronEarth_11660/tata_thumb.jpg" width="203" align="right" border="0" /></a>The citizens of India will soon be able to purchase the cheapest car on earth</a>. It is only <span class="caps">USD </span>$2,500. It has no radio, no tachometer, no power steering, no power windows, no air conditioning, and one windshield wiper. </p> <p>Indian engineers at Tata Motors have pared the car down in an effort that would make <span class="caps">IKEA </span>proud. The analog speedometer is only precise within +/-10 kph - but that's okay, since it is fitted with a 30 horsepower engine. </p> <p>Some corners were also cut with respect to safety, durability and emissions. Nevertheless, like discount airlines, or Ford's Model T in turn-of-the-century America or <span class="caps">MIT'</span>s <span class="caps">OLPC </span>(aka the "$100 laptop"), this car will revolutionize travel in the <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM">moped and bicycle clogged streets of India</a>. </p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2008/0108-the-cheapest-car-on-earth.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2008/0108-the-cheapest-car-on-earth.php</guid>
         <category>tech</category>
         <pubDate>Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:05:52 -0500</pubDate>
      </item>
            <item>
         <title>Bubble 2.0? Time will tell.</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>With Google reaching $700 per share and other zany happenings in Silicon Valley, some are predicting a second dot-com crash. Here's an amusing song sung to "We Didn't Start the Fire" stating just that. (And it's made by an online marketing firm too, natch.)</p> <p> <center><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dr3qPRAAnOg&amp;rel=1" width="425" height="355" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"></embed></center> <p>Personally, I think we need a lot more Web 2.0 companies paying employees with stock and giving things out for free before things get more dire. </p> <p>Oh, and for us Gen-X and Gen-Yers, here is the <a href="http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html">definitive pictorial animation of the Billy Joel original</a>.</p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1229-bubble-20-time-will-tell.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1229-bubble-20-time-will-tell.php</guid>
         <category>tech</category>
         <pubDate>Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:31:40 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Share the marketing message</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>Two of Canada's primary wireless carriers seem to have arrived at the exact same slogan this holiday season.</p> <p><a href="http://www.bell.ca">Bell Canada</a>:</p> <p align="center"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="259" alt="Share The Joy" src="http://www.silentblue.net/WindowsLiveWriter/Sharethemarketingmessage_C503/bottomLeft_en_BesideTab_3.gif" width="191" border="0" /> </p> <p><a href="http://www.shoprogers.com">Rogers</a>:</p> <p align="center"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="104" alt="Share The Joy" src="http://www.silentblue.net/WindowsLiveWriter/Sharethemarketingmessage_C503/wireless_share-the-joy-525-100_3.gif" width="530" border="0" /></p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1223-share-the-marketing-message.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1223-share-the-marketing-message.php</guid>
         <category>universe</category>
         <pubDate>Sun, 23 Dec 2007 14:00:18 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>How the TTC fought customer decency, and fortunately lost</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>The story begins with a public transit system and a lawyer. The story is interesting because the lawyer is the David to the transit's Goliath. He's David Lepofsky, a blind lawyer who in 1995 had a simple request for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC): can you ask the drivers to call out the subway stops over the train's PA system? </p>

<p>The <span class="caps">TTC </span>flatly refused, <a href="http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/240400">claiming calling stops would be "a hardship" and a "potential safety risk"</a> to their drivers. </p>

<p>Lepofsky brought his case to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. So began two legal battles took twelve years.</p>

<p>The court discovered that the <span class="caps">TTC </span>rules and regulations already dictate drivers must call stops. And a few decent <span class="caps">TTC </span>employees always have. It's even written in the <span class="caps">TTC</span> Ride Guide, a free pamphlet and transit map given to transit riders. Every transit vehicle is already equipped with mike and public announcement system. Some buses are even equipped with fancy flexible boom mikes for hands-free use.</p>

<p>In 2005, the tribunal ruled in favour of Lepofsky regarding subway stops. This Wednesday, the adjudicator ruled in favour of <a title="TheStar.com | News | Next stop for TTC: Sensitivity" href="http://www.thestar.com/News/article/279201">extending announcements to <span class="caps">TTC </span>streetcars and buses as well</a>. Justice Alvin Rosenberg did not have happy thoughts about the <span class="caps">TTC</span>:</p>

<blockquote>Rosenberg also ordered the <span class="caps">TTC </span>to pay Lepofsky $35,000, even though the lawyer did not request financial compensation. He says he will donate the money to charity.<br/><br/>

"The <span class="caps">TTC </span>should have asked themselves many years ago, `What can we do to help? How can we accommodate these visually impaired patrons?' Instead they resisted with all the means at their disposal..."</blockquote>

<p>All total, the chronically cash-strapped <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071123.BLIND23/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/"><span class="caps">TTC </span>spent 12 years and $500,000 fighting the rulings</a>. Let me rephrase this: <i>the <span class="caps">TTC </span>spent half a million of Toronto taxpayers' dollars fighting blind people.</i> </p>

<p>But it appears the <span class="caps">TTC </span>will be able to stay mum. Instead of ordering drivers to do what they are already supposed to do (and that many already do), the <a href="http://torontoist.com/2006/12/im_sorry_davisv.php"><span class="caps">TTC </span>has spent an additional $2 million</a> installing a computer voice into every subway train.</p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1123-how-the-ttc-fought-customer-decency.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1123-how-the-ttc-fought-customer-decency.php</guid>
         <category>everything</category>
         <pubDate>Fri, 23 Nov 2007 12:47:10 -0500</pubDate>
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            <item>
         <title>The ring that was heard around the world</title>
         <description><![CDATA[Canada is still waiting (patiently, as Canadians are wont to do) for Apple&#8217;s iPhone, but analysts suggest it&#8217;s the iPhone&#8217;s spectre that has made <a href="http://www.itworldcanada.com/Pages/Docbase/ViewArticle.aspx?id=idgml-2284c501-983d-487a&amp;Portal=35a9256c-ab94-47e6-8f20-9717c5403f85&amp;sub=332810">Bell and Telus quietly drop their prices for data</a> in the past six months:</p>

<blockquote>Apple is squeezing carriers to chop their data rates to boost demand for its handset (or in Grant&#8217;s words, to set &#8220;plans that aren&#8217;t ridiculous,&#8221;) which has led to speculation that the reason iPhones aren&#8217;t sold here is Rogers&#8217; reluctance to fall in line.</blockquote>

<p>Prices are still absurd compared to those down south in the States, but both Bell and Telus now have 1GB for $100/mo. plans. Bell also now has a $75/mo. &#8220;unlimited&#8221;plan for their 3G wireless modem, and is selling an <a href="http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1267996&amp;highlight=touch+wap">unlimited $7 data plan for the upcoming HTC Touch</a> smartphone which is probably the closest Canada will get to an iPhone &#8211; for now.</p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1116-the-ring-that-was-heard-around-the.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1116-the-ring-that-was-heard-around-the.php</guid>
         <category>universe</category>
         <pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:34:28 -0500</pubDate>
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            <item>
         <title>Desperately seeking Sabia</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>The Globe and Mail has a well-written article showing a <a title="reportonbusiness.com: globeinvestor.com - That was intense" href="http://globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071023.rmsabia1023/GIStory/">behind-the-scenes look at <span class="caps">BCE </span>and <span class="caps">CEO</span> Michael Sabia</a>, and a blow-by-blow account of how the <span class="caps">BCE </span>privatization went down. Other topics include his stint in Ottawa in his younger years crafting the <span class="caps">GST,</span> Project Galileo, the 2005 bid to take over Fido, and why Telus bowed out of the bidding war:</p>

<blockquote>According to Sabia and the <span class="caps">BCE </span>camp, no such agreement was ever struck. "Telus's position, for instance, on antitrust remedies?" asked Sabia. "Snowball's chance in hell." Currie, who added to the bad blood following the auction when he described Entwistle and his team as "amateurs," has since toned it down, but only by a notch. "The requests that Telus made of us were absurd," he says.</blockquote>

<p>Having correlated the presence of Sabia with the flatlining <span class="caps">BCE </span>stock price, many Bell employees do not have particularly positive feelings about his tenure at the helm of Canada's largest telecommunications company. However, he as a person was always personable, he could respond effortlessly in English and French, and he was a straight talker - he didn't beat around the bush.  He always seemed to be trying his best, whether the stock markets thought it was good enough or not.</p>

<p>I had the chance to shake Sabia's hand once, on the tarmac of a private airfield in Mississauga. And yes, he was wearing his conservatively-cut, signature red wool sweater.</p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1026-desperately-seeking-sabia.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1026-desperately-seeking-sabia.php</guid>
         <category>universe</category>
         <pubDate>Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:41:15 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>The Myanmar regime is pants</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>Protests against the recent crackdown on Buddhist monks in Burma by the military dictatorship have gone below the belt. <a title="Lanna Action for Burma" href="http://lannaactionforburma.blogspot.com/">Lanna Action for Burma</a> has called for the <a title="CANOE -- CNEWS - Weird News: Panties protest in Myanmar" href="http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2007/10/19/4589237-ap.html">women of the world to send their underwear to Myanmar embassies</a>:</p>

<blockquote>The group, Lanna Action for Burma, says the country's superstitious generals, especially junta leader Gen. Than Shwe, also believe that contact with women's underwear saps them of power...<br/><br/>
Hilton said women in Thailand, Australia, Singapore, England and other European countries have started sending or delivering their underwear to Myanmar missions following informal coordination among activist organizations and individuals.<br />
</blockquote>

<p>I can get behind that kind of action. :)</p>

<p><span class="caps">P.S.</span> For the record, the country is called Burma. I don't know why North American mainstream media keep calling it Myanmar. That's the name the military junta simply made up. If North Korea suddenly and unilaterally changed its name to Super Awesome Land, would <span class="caps">CNN </span>follow their lead? Doubt it.</p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1019-the-myanmar-regime-is-pants.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/1019-the-myanmar-regime-is-pants.php</guid>
         <category>everything</category>
         <pubDate>Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:45:45 -0500</pubDate>
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            <item>
         <title>Poetry in sweet, sweet motion - quantified by math</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>Cambridge University has calculated <a title="Boobs - Gizmodo" href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/boobs?view=full">the optimal waist-to-hips ratio of the sexy woman is 0.7</a>. Notable real world examples include Marilyn Monroe, Jessica Alba and Venus de Milo.</p>

<p>This echoes preliminary findings made in the 1990s by Seattle scholar Sir Mix-a-Lot, who in his uniquely audio dissertation also pointed out optimal environment and lifestyle factors to obtaining your own "motor in the back of your behind":</p>


<ol>
<li>Expand your fitness regime beyond sidesteps and sit-ups</li>
<li>Refrain dining on red beans and rice</li>
<li>Ignore beauty advice from Cosmopolitan Magazine</li>
</ol>

]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0902-even-sexiness-can-be-quantified-by.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0902-even-sexiness-can-be-quantified-by.php</guid>
         <category>everything</category>
         <pubDate>Sun, 02 Sep 2007 00:03:03 -0500</pubDate>
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            <item>
         <title>Two thumbs up for copyrights</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>Crackberry users can breathe a sigh of relief (before going back to their Blackberries whilst zoning out their colleagues and loved ones): <a title="Michael Geist - Ontario Court Sides With RIM Over Atari in Copyright Dispute" href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2203/125/">an Ontario Court has sided with <span class="caps">RIM </span>over Atari</a> in a copyright infringement battle regarding <span class="caps">RIM'</span>s seminal time-wasting games, <i>BrickBreaker</i> and <i>Meteor Crusher</i>. Atari had alleged that those two games were plagarisms of Atari's '80's arcade games, <i>Breakout</i> and <i>Asteroids</i>.</p>

<p>Historians and anthropologists agree that "<i>BrickBreaker</i>" has been one of the largest timewasters in the history of mankind, next to "the Great Wall of China", "the Canadian goverment gun registry", "the Dark Ages", and "<a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Australias-89-Million-Useless-Porn-Filter-86997">Australia's $89 million Internet porn filter</a>". Incidentally, <i>BrickBreaker</i> is followed by "Blackberry Mail" on the list.</p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0828-two-thumbs-up-for-copyrights.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0828-two-thumbs-up-for-copyrights.php</guid>
         <category>tech</category>
         <pubDate>Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:32:51 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Mouser-ity report</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>A Rhode Island senior's home is amazed that their <a title="Oscar the nursing home cat can sense death : Top Stories : News : Sympatico / MSN" href="http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20070725%2fcat_deaths_070725&amp;feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V2&amp;showbyline=True">resident cat, Oscar, appears to be able to sense death</a>:</p>

<blockquote>Every day, Oscar makes his rounds among the patients, entering each room and giving each patient a sniff. When he senses that someone is near the end of his or life, he will hop onto their bed and curl up beside them. Within hours, without fail, the patient will die.</blockquote>

<p>I'm surprised no one was proposed the following explanation: Oscar is karate chopping these poor folks in the neck when nobody's looking.</p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0726-mouserity-report.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0726-mouserity-report.php</guid>
         <category>life</category>
         <pubDate>Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:48:07 -0500</pubDate>
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            <item>
         <title>You know you&apos;re getting old</title>
         <description><![CDATA[
<ol>
<li>The <a title="CTV.ca | The loonie, a Canadian touchstone, is turning 20" href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070627/canadian_loonie_070627/20070627/">loonie turns 20</a> tomorrow.</li>
<li>That baby on that Nirvana album is now this <a title="Tech.Chick.Blog - ...nevermind" href="http://techchickblog.com/2007/06/27/nevermind/">pimply dude who's old enough to drive</a>.</li>
<li>I'm shopping at The Bay and they're playing Salt 'n Pepa through the PA system.</li>
</ol>

]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0629-you-know-youre-getting-old.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0629-you-know-youre-getting-old.php</guid>
         <category>life</category>
         <pubDate>Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:37:19 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Disruptive innovation: 10 years later</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>It's been ten years since Clayton Christensen published his seminal business book "The Innovator's Dilemma". I had the good fortune to <a title="silentblue | Quantified: Perhaps video didn't kill the radio star" href="http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2004/0816-perhaps-video-d.php">read it three years ago</a>. </p>

<p><a title="Clayton Christensen's Innovation Brain" href="http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2007/id20070615_198176.htm?campaign_id=yhoo">Newsweek sat down with Christensen</a> this week to answer some lingering questions, discuss how the word "disruptive" has been used and abused over the years, and probe his predictions on whether Apple iPhone would disrupt the wireless market. </p>

<blockquote>Apple is leaping ahead on the sustaining curve [by building a better phone]. But the prediction of the theory would be that Apple won't succeed with the iPhone. They've launched an innovation that the existing players in the industry are heavily motivated to beat: It's not [truly] disruptive.</blockquote>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0621-disruptive-innovation-10-years-late.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0621-disruptive-innovation-10-years-late.php</guid>
         <category>universe</category>
         <pubDate>Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:28:09 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>Download Dezza&apos;s Mac screensaver</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.silentblue.net/WindowsLiveWriter/DownloadDezzasMacscreensaver_DF87/835125e7-9315-44bc-aefe-5f67a2c50d6a_2.jpg"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="112" alt="835125e7-9315-44bc-aefe-5f67a2c50d6a" hspace="8" src="http://www.silentblue.net/WindowsLiveWriter/DownloadDezzasMacscreensaver_DF87/835125e7-9315-44bc-aefe-5f67a2c50d6a_thumb.jpg" width="150" align="right" vspace="5" border="0" /></a>A couple years ago while living in China and Hong Kong, my friend Dezza got bitten by the photo bug and began documenting his travels.</p> <p>He's gotten pretty good at it - his photos have been featured in <a href="http://jpgmag.com/photos/48808"><span class="caps">JPG</span> Magazine</a>, among other publications&nbsp;- and now a collage of his photos is now available as an official Mac <span class="caps">OSX </span>screensaver on Apple.com. </p> <p>Called <a href="http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/peopleofthemiddlekingdom.html"><em>People of the Middle Kingdom 1.0</em></a>, it features, and I quote: "beautiful, positive, and thought provoking photography shot in China."&nbsp; Nice going, Dezza!</p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0610-download-dezzas-mac-screensaver-2.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0610-download-dezzas-mac-screensaver-2.php</guid>
         <category>life</category>
         <pubDate>Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:06:23 -0500</pubDate>
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         <title>I spy with my little eye on Google Maps</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<p>I know, you were just minding your own business. You were probably pensive and didn't notice that&nbsp;tinted van driving past you that day. Even if you did, you definitely wouldn't have guessed all those funny black boxes on its roof where rapid-fire panoramic cameras.&nbsp; And I bet you didn't realize that, several months later, the population of the Internet - that's some 6.5 billion people - can now look at you, and we're blogging and caching and&nbsp;archiving and indexing you for all of eternity:</p> <p><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="334" alt="streetview_oops" src="http://www.silentblue.net/WindowsLiveWriter/ceb2355016c7_2A6/streetview_oops_2.jpg" width="500" border="0" /> </p> <p>Maybe you got lost and you wanted to ask for directions. Or your car broke down and you want to use a phone. Or it's for a friend...yeah that's it, a friend. Or maybe hey, sometimes a Daniel Steele novel just doesn't cut the mustard.</p> <p><em>Google Street View</em> currently covers a handful of American cities. So for the watched, it's <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/01/nyt_on_bb_on_google_.html">become a bit of a privacy concern</a>. For those of us who live outside these cities, it's simply been <a href="http://www.streetviewr.com/">good fun watching you guys</a>. </p> <p>Don't worry, we won't tell.</p>]]></description>
         <link>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0602-i-spy-with-my-little-eye-on-google.php</link>
         <guid>http://www.silentblue.net/mtarchives/2007/0602-i-spy-with-my-little-eye-on-google.php</guid>
         <category>tech</category>
         <pubDate>Sat, 02 Jun 2007 10:45:43 -0500</pubDate>
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