Amazon Con?

I ordered some stuff from Amazon on January 13. The total was more than $25, so of course I chose the "Super Saver Shipping" option, which I've used many times in the past. I realized yesterday that I hadn't received the shipment, or seen an email about a delay, so I checked my account and discovered that the expected shipping date is February 18-March 4, 2007, the estimated delivery date February 23-March 12.

Two months for delivery? What the hell is going on with that? Every other time I've used this shipping option, I've received my stuff within a couple weeks - not PDQ, but not s-l-o-w, either. When did Amazon.com demote Super Saver Shipping orders to steerage?

Winter Geese

Dumpr.net lets you set your Flickr photos in a faux-museum setting and in other formats. I like this one; it appeals to my pathetic pretensions toward art.

Winter Geese
Originally uploaded by Tassava.

The Visualize Thing

My job entails doing a lot of writing, an activity which often now shifts to figuring out how to condense a page of prose to a short paragraph and some sort of graphic. I regularly pray to Tufte, of course. But yesterday I was excited to see (on Boing Boing) the "Periodic Table of Visualization Methods," an excellent and useful summary of the wide variety of means to graphically depict information. The table categorizes the methods in three ways (whether they represent process or structure, whether they provide details or overviews, and whether they permit convergent or divergent thinking), but also includes an example of each method in use. If you use or want to use graphics more effectively, check out the table and the hosting site, Visual-Literacy.org.

Tiny Icons

No, not Orthodox religious statuary for midgets - the Tiny Icon Factory lets you make itsy-bitsy icons for use on your blog or website - like the funky "B" (or is it an "E"?) at the left end of the Blogger URL. Use the little drawing area on the left side to draw something; you'll see the finished product off to the left side. When you're happy with it, hit "save" to add it to the archive on the right (immediately after saving, it'll be the icon in the upper-right corner of the grid. Then click-and-drag the icon down to your own computer as a png file and put it to good use.

Freakin' sweet! I can't wait to put one on my own blog.

(Browsing the already-created tiny icons, I'm im- or de-pressed by the number which are curses or nekkid ladiez.)

The Areas of My Expertise

There's a great free audio book download on iTunes. It's The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman (the PC in the Apple adverts, a correspondent on The Daily Show, etc.)

If you need to relax and have a an absurd book read to you by the author, well, then my friend, get it. Beware the eels, the presidents with hooks for hands, and the hobo wars.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=182994253&s=143441