Bad stuff from the China House in Marietta

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We had a fun time getting dinner tonight.  We ordered a couple of meals from “China House” (about 2 miles away from our house) at around 6:00.  We were told “under 45 minutes”.  45 minutes would have been kind of late for us, but we figured it’d be alright.  At 6:50, we gave them a call to see where the food was.

“The driver is on the way to your house, but rush hour traffic is bad.”  What?  Less than one mile up East Piedmont Road is “rush hour”.  C’mon!

Still, we waited.  At about 7:05 we called again, this time to cancel.  He assured us that the driver was almost there, but we canceled anyhow.  No apologies, nothing.  Quite a bit of silence on their end, which was quite odd.

Even more interesting was at about 7:20 (after Kel had already made some pancakes for dinner – score!), the driver called to make sure he had the right address.  Ha!  He seemed quite put off that we had canceled the order a while ago.

Needless to say, we won’t be calling them again anytime soon.

3D version of Disney World coming to Google Earth

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According to the Google Earth Blog (via USA Today), there is a great new 3D version of Disney World coming to Google Earth.  It’s due to come out as soon as next Tuesday (May 20).

It will include 3D models of items in Epcot Center, Animal Kingdom, Disney Hollywood Studios and 22 hotels and resorts.  There will also be interactive features on the map, such as videos and the ability to make reservations.

We’ll post more info about it once it is released.

Firefox 3 RC1 now available

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We’re getting pretty close to the official Firefox 3 release, with the new release of Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1

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.  The beta versions had surprisingly few problems, so I would expect that this RC would be pretty solid.

You’ll probably want to install this program, if for no other reason than to make sure your sites render properly in it.  You can download it here.

WorldWide Telescope now available for download

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Two days ago we told you it’d be here this month, and it’s out already!  As reported by Ogle Earth and the Virtual Earth Developer Blog, you can go download it

right now.

Some initial thoughts:

  • It really is a stunning tool.
  • It has SpaceNavigator support (sort of), but it tends to freak out as soon as you touch it.  Not sure if it’s a driver issue with the SpaceNavigator or a bug in WWTS.
  • You can via the earth (or any other planet) inside of the application.  However, you don’t get 3D buildings or anything like that — just imagery.  Still, it’s a neat feature to have.

Enough talking — this is one of those things you really need to experience for yourself.  Go get it!

My updated WordPress ping list

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Like most blog software, WordPress will ping a list of services each time you write a post.  I’ve spent the last hour or two refining my list and I think it’s pretty solid. Feel free to use this on your own blog if you’d like.  in WordPress, just go to [settings] and then [writing], and there is a box near the bottom that says “Update Services”.  Just copy and paste this list into there and you’re done!

If you have any other additions that you feel deserve to be on the list (or if you think some should be removed), please leave a comment and let me know.

The list:

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.feedsky.com/ping
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

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The daily pace of AdSense

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The last few days aside, AdSense tends to keep a pretty consistent pace for me each day. Over the last month, I’ve tried to keep track of my earnings every 30 minutes throughout the day so I could chart them. On 10 different days I was able to get at least 10 different numbers to plot.  Most days started at 6am and ended around midnight.  The missing data was simply interpolated from the surrounding data and the zero hour of 3AM EST (midnight PST).


I figured having this chart would help to me to get a better idea of how the current day is doing, rather than just saying “it feels high” or “it seems low”. The few gems I’ve been able to pull out of it:

  • When I get up at 6am, AdSense is between 5-10% of my daily total.
  • The halfway point of my day is between 1:15pm and 3:00pm, with the average being right around 2:00.
  • When I go to bed (usually around midnight), we’re just over 90% of the daily total.

I’m making a big effort to check the stats less often now, but I thought it’d be fun to generate a chart like that. I hope you find it useful!

You’re not alone – AdSense is WAY behind today

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My stats looked decent at 6am (EST), and haven’t moved much since.  I just saw a tiny bump a few minutes ago, but that’s about it.  You’re probably seeing the same thing.

There’s still no official word from the AdSense folks, but the AdWords engineers have spoken.  As posted on JenSense and the WMW forums

:

Yes – some advertisers are seeing a delay in their stats today. The engineering teams are aware of this and, as you might imagine, are working to resolve it as a priority.

Please know that ads have continued to run as normal. This issue revolves around the reporting of statistics only, and does not impact ad delivery.

I’ll post again when I have anything of substance to add – and, in the meantime, my apology for the inconvenience this is causing you.

AWA

I find it interesting that they said “some” advertisers are seeing a delay, because it appears that all AdSense publishers are.  The thread at WMW has over 75 replies, and all of them are publishers that aren’t seeing any updates.

For more info, you can also check out this long thread at the DP forums

.  I’ll post an update in the comments here and on my twitter feed when I hear anything else.

Small Facelift to Google Maps

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As reported by the Google OS blog, Google Maps is getting a minor facelift.  They are replacing the tabbed search boxes at the top with a single search box that knows what you’re looking for.

I’m still seeing the old version (as are many other people), but the new one is apparently being rolled out.  Here is a comparison of the old and new search boxes.

Various Google Earth data about Cyclone Nargis

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Google has just released

a layer for Google Earth which shows some data about the path of the cyclone in Myanmar, along with some maps to display the extent of the flooding. They were built by UNOSAT, an organization working to help the people of Myanmar.

Also, NASA has created a simple KML that shows a powerful satellite image of the storm as it was charging toward the coast.

Update, May 7: NASA has added an image showing the current aerial view of the country.  Extensive flooding is quite visible.  Get the file here.

Here are a few screenshots from the files:

AdSense and Feedburner getting closer to launch?

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As reported by Darren Rowse

, it appears that AdSense ads will be finding their way into Feedburner feeds pretty soon.

There is a feed (Inhabitat) that is showing some ads. They’re being served as image maps, as opposed to JavaScript, which hopefully will help them work with a wider variety of feed readers. I’ve not had much luck with Feedburner FAN (feed advertising network), and not many people had much luck with the older “AdSense for RSS” system either. Hopefully this new format will perform well.