{bp} formerly known as WebBP :: Blog

Congratulations to OSU Beavers -- National Champions!

Two weeks ago, the OSU Beavers baseball team beat Stanford 15-0 in a decisive NCAA Super Regional 15-0 victory at home and earned its second trip to Omaha in as many years. The Beavers lost their first game in Omaha and -- given the College World Series' double-elimination format -- another loss would send them packing. Many in the national media expected them to lose early.

Instead, the team went on to win six elimination games in the College Word Series and tonight they made history. It's been an exciting road to watch. Congratulations!

More coverage after the jump.

Hello, world

That was the output of my first computer program when I (and millions others) was a kid and seems a fitting title to this post. Why? Let me explain.

I started writing for the web in February 1995, having self-taught myself HTML and working in Notepad. As my familiarity with the medium grew, so did the content I contributed. I launched my college's student newspaper online in March 1996 and was hired to begin developing a web presence for the university's athletic programs (which was later outsourced). Studying abroad in the UK, I created a site covering the euro common currency, which featured dynamic headlines provided by Moreover and grew to become a leading resource in the year leading up to the currency's launch. When I went to graduate school, my focus shifted to architecting an alumni networking service and I started dabbling with blogs. That was fall 2000. By 2001, I was posting several times a day and falling in love with blogging. That summer, I authored some of my best travel writing online as I toured Europe. Two years ago, I switched from Manila to Typepad and started a new chapter. Unfortunately, the combination of privacy concerns, an increase in the number of employers who have fired bloggers, and an incresaingly lack of time to spend either writing or reading on the web have conspired to make this blog far less than it once was, in my opinion. The most obvious result of this has been the near-complete lack of fresh content of late. For that I apologize.

The simple truth, however, is that I would still like to blog again. And so I am. These first steps will be baby steps and there may be a step back for every two steps forward, but as I've said privately from time to time, "Bryce is Back."

Gmail Labels Email From Google "Spam"

The spam filter in Google's Gmail email service is better than most. In my experience, it rarely lets spam through. Unfortunately, I've noticed it occasionally tags benign messages as "spam". Today, Gmail has decided that its parent Google sends spam. Am I the only one surprised that Google isn't using some form of a white list with Gmail?

Renewal...

I am going to do something new today: post.

Why? Because I can. Because I want to. Because I need to. Because I believe in the power of the written word.

I haven't posted with any regularity (or for that matter, much frequency) in quite a while. Every so often I feel badly about this, and then I remind myself why I started blogging in the first place: to share ideas, to converse and to learn. Not to work under the pressure of deadlines. I have enough of those in the rest of my life. Truthfully, I've just been really busy with moving, remodeling, work, you know, that thing called "life".

So what's changed? Perspective.

I learned this weekend that someone very dear to me has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Suddenly, my world changed.

Beginning today, I am going to post things I am thankful for. At this very moment, I am thankful for Ali Edward's post today which was strangely inspiring and empowering and her post yesterday which was somehow calming and motivating. More on that tomorrow.

Life (and death) after Katrina

By all accounts, the situation in New Orleans continues to deterioriate. As I've watched the media coverage unfold day by day, I think the enormity of the situation is starting to sink in. Every media outlet has its own perspective on the story, but the emerging thread is one of a humanitarian disaster. Here is a link to a weblog where people are posting cries for help. Reading through these makes this disaster real. Very real. I hope the authorities know about this blog.

Donate or volunteer at the RedCross. Or visit the official government Hurricane Katrina site.

Photo Credit: Richard Alan Hannon (AP) View more images from New Orleans or visit Wikipedia's coverage.

When "Oregon" really means "Portland"

This month, Hilton HHonors is touting Oregon as a destination. Hilton's take on the state?

Oregon is a place that satisfies both wilderness seekers and sophisticated travelers. Having won numerous awards for environmental excellence, Oregon is a study in expertly balancing a growing city with surrounding wildlife. In Oregon, you can snowboard in the morning, visit a winery in the afternoon and watch the symphony at night....

I love how "Oregon" becomes a synonym for "Portland" in the eyes of the their copywriter.

The timing of this promotion is also amusing, given that Hilton just announced its intention to sell its 782 room downtown Portland property (though it is expected to retain management).

Finding myself (after all these years)

When I was a kid, every time I found myself in one of those stores that sell tacky tourst stuff, I would look for something with my name on it. You know the sort of stuff I'm talking about: keychains, mugs, license plate holders, silly looking figurines with "Samuel" or "Alice" plastered across their bellies. It's not so much that I ever really wanted any of that stuff. Rather, it was that they never included my name in their inventory. As a little kid, it didn't seem fair. Why if they had "Bryan" and "Bruce" did they not have "Bryce"?

As I got older, I grew to like the fact that my name was both common-enough-sounding and yet relatively-rare. It suited me perfectly.

I was in college before I knew another "Bryce". But soon there will be many more "Bryces" out there. If you look at this this site which charts the popularity of names over time, the exploding popularity of my name among the younger generation closely resembles those hockey-stick growth charts that Gartner always put out during the tech boom.

So I guess it isn't too surprising to discover that I am now a "collection" at none other than that shrine to faux urban surburban shabby chic itself, Pottery Barn. I am a table, a cart, and a stool. Read about the Bryce project table:

With its sturdy wood construction and multifunctional design, this project table provides a comfortable venue for everything from sorting photos and reading mail to framing artwork. Its counter-height top provides a spacious work surface, while two dovetailed drawers and an open shelf below keep supplies in easy reach. Its roomy drawers are fitted with two oversized pulls. Use the wide open shelf to display larger items, or fill our Rustic Baskets (sold separately) with supplies and slide them into place. The table is built from pine and finished on all sides with a wheat stain that brings out the wood’s rich grain and pleasing knots. Antique-bronze-finished hardware.

"Multifunctional design", "wood construction", "sorting photos", "a comfortable venue", "artwork", "rich grain" ... it's as if someone knew the essence of "Bryce".

I always told myself as a kid that I would buy the first thing that I found with my name on it. Given all the tourist trinkets I've seen over the years, it could be a lot worse.

On using craigslist

I still remember the first time I used craigslist.org: I was looking for a place to live in San Francisco. It was the end of 2001 and a friend who used to live in SF had recommended that I check it out. Craigslist helped me find a wonderful roommate (I miss you, Anne Marie!) and a great place to live. From then on, I was hooked. I've used it dozens of times since then, sometimes posting, sometimes responding, and always amazed at how useful craigslist is.

Have something you no longer need? Take a moment, make a post and you'll undoubtedly receive several emails within hours from people who have been searching for precisely what you no longer need. Looking for a tennis partner, a temp job, a toaster oven or transsexual erotic services? You'll surely find it on craigslist.

A little anniversary of sorts

Two years ago today, I started beta testing SixApart's TypePad blogging solution. The landscape has changed quite a bit since then. Dave Winer left Userland and my free Manila hosting evaporated. Bill Gates called blogs "legit" and Microsoft launched MSN Spaces soon after. Yahoo! finally joined the party, after much speculation it might buy SA and instead introduced Y! 360 (which I've wrote about here). More recently AOL has indicated it will open up its AOL Journals to non-AOL subscribers, and Google continues to refine Blogger (the result the WSJ effect?).

I've explored nearly all of these options (and many others) and, while TypePad isn't perfect, it continues to get better and I've happily renewed my support of SA's mission again this year.

To Ben, Mena, and everyone you've brought on board over the past two years: Thank you and keep up the great work.

Remembering Hong Kong

It is hard to believe that it has been eight years already since Britain handed Hong Kong over to China on July 1, 1997.

For whatever reason, I came to be really interested in this development about a dozen years ago. For a time, I read every book I could find on the subject and even wrote a research paper on the subject. Many believe that Britain turned her back on the people of Hong Kong and could have done more. Others contend that she had a weak negotiating position at the time. As the handover got closer, there were both encouraging promises made and concerning warning signs. Unfortunately, reality hasn't played out quite as many had hoped. The possibility of direct elections of Hong Kong's leader by 2007 now appears dead.