By Ethan Bronner in today’s NYTimes.

From far away, this is how it looks: There is a country out there where tens of millions of white Christians, voting freely, select as their leader a black man of modest origin, the son of a Muslim. There is a place on Earth — call it America — where such a thing happens.

He arrived about 2-1/2 weeks early so it was a small surprise, but we’re happy he’s here. Everyone is doing great and should be coming home from the hospital soon. Then the real fun begins! Thanks everyone, for being so supportive. More photos at Flickr and .Mac.

I’m spending a few minutes a day — actually, probably a few too many minutes — playing a Web game called Travian. It reminds me of Warcraft 2, only really, really slow. The whole point is that one can only take a few actions per sitting, then one must wait many hours for those actions to complete.

Want a new building? Click and wait several hours. Need more troops? Click and wait. Need more resources? Wait, wait, wait.

Like Warcraft, it’s a war game complete with requisite town-/army-/resource-building strategy. There are thousands of people playing on each server, apparently from around the world. There’s a neat business model there too. For a few bucks a month one can buy a “plus” account. There’s nothing necessary about the plus account, one can play the game quite well without it. But as with any solid business, they’ve found a way to profit from their most loyal customers. About the time you realize you’re hooked on Travian, you start to wonder what that plus account is all about. And, one can try it for free, of course. I mean, that’s just drug dealing 101, right? The slight conveniences the plus account offers a player are worth those pennies a day.

Since I think and read a lot about Web businesses and social media I can’t help but think there are some important lessons in Travian for Facebook, Twitter, and their ilk. To pick on the aforementioned two for one more sentence: Both have people hooked on their game, and both need to find a way to wring some money out of their most devoted users. Hmm.

Maybe I’ll see you around on US server 6.

But seriously… I signed up for a pilot program with Dominion Electric and today I got my new Internet-controlled thermostat. There’s a green-light on it, which when lit, will indicate that it is being controlled by the power company.

The guy who installed it told me that as part of the pilot program there are only five scheduled days this summer, on which the A/C will shut down for periods of about 7 minutes. That’s not enough that it ought to be a bother to anyone.

It’s hard to say what the next step might be. I suspect the reasoning goes like this: In case of a power-grid emergency they’d send out a signal to shut things down. I wonder if they’d have enough fine-tuned control to do shut-downs in a geographically rolling manner so that no one (and no one area) was without AC for very long. I also wonder if they’d be able to simply increase the temperature of people’s houses for certain heavy-use days, along the lines of, “Hey, we know you like to keep your pad at 68°, but how about you try 75° for a a few hours today foo’!”

If’n that’s how black outs are avoided, it sounds pretty good. Still, it’s more fun thinking about it happening to someone else. Me, I like wearing a parka inside the house while sipping hot chocolate in DC’s July. 

I’m kidding. I like to kid my new thermostat overlords. They think it’s funny.

Right?

Congratulations to Chad and Nicci on the birth of their son, Tristan. Here’s a few pictures.

I’d almost forgotten how much fun it is to put together a mix tape. It used to be a lot of work too; what, with the queuing of the tape deck to just the right point, and clicking record with a soft touch (to avoid a pop) at the same time as pressing play on the CD player (or other tape deck). And, of course, if there was a great new song getting radio play, some folks would put the tape recorder right up the speaker <raises hand>. The best time was really during the weekly top 40 countdown… And the Doctor Demento show. 

Good times.

Now it’s a lot less physical work, certainly. There’s still thinking about what to share, and in what order. It’s cool that you still need to worry about how much you can fit on one “tape”. The only thing they didn’t capture is figuring out which song to end with on side A, and which to begin with on side B. Surprising they didn’t do that. Because, really… Who didn’t fret over that? 

Anyway, the most fun was the sharing of the tape. Here is what I’m listening to. Enjoy… or not. It’s my tape, and I’ve only lent it to you. 

I received a letter from the DMV informing me the VIN number on the title for my MG Midget didn’t appear to be valid. I took a closer look and found out a number “1″ had been recorded on the title as an “L”. So, with any luck that will soon be straightened out. I think it’s pretty cool that they noticed, but I suppose they need to watch out for mischief.

It took me a few minutes to actually find the VIN plate on my MG. It was well hidden inside the engine bay on my car. I found this page quite helpful, but it made me wonder what purpose the body number played.

On my 1961 Mk1 Midget the “body number” plate exists on a plate inside both the right-, and left-hand doors. Why doesn’t this number (which is very close to the VIN number) match exactly? What was this number used for? What does “GBE” stand for? Any idea why the first few thousand cars made, of which mine is one, apparently had the body number attached to both door pillars?

Well, this is the new site. All the old links are off the left. I’ll aim to keep it all updated.