Blow out the candles, Blammo, as today is the first anniversary of the use of the Blammo news database here, meaning there is now one full year's worth of databased news in the archive to go along with the nearly three years of HTML news. There have been a couple of attempts to convert the old HTML to the new database to make it more searchable, but it's tough to say whether that will ever be practical. Being able to search the entire archive from the handy "Search!" box would help in cases like yesterday, though, when Slashdot posted an article on Textmode Quake, since this inspired a bunch of folks to send this in as news, while if the HTML archive was as searchable as the database, it would show that a story about the Text Mode Quake page appeared in August '98 (here), and probably serve as an aid to those who use the archive for research as well. On the subject of Slashdot, this also brings up something I've been meaning to mention, which is that we get occasional Link of the Day submissions of stories that have appeared in their pages (I believe the reverse happens on occasion as well), so I thought I'd mention that we'd rather not knowingly dupe up on these kinds of links (or "Oddly Enough headlines," etc.). The net certainly has enough wacky stuff out there that we should be able to manage something screwy enough on a daily basis nonetheless. Speaking of Blammo, I'm working with furn to see if we can add the JavaScript focus() dealie to a Blammo preference option so it won't impact those who find it troublesome (I've killed it in the meantime).

My fondest possible farewell to Charles M. Schulz, who died last night (CNN.com story-thanks Vad3R [DI]), creator of the most beloved comic strip of my youth.

Link of the Day: Furious George (and his cross-country crime spree). Thanks Josh Fletcher. It's a web-based game that includes a scoring system. It is a bit simple, but can be amusing (or disturbing) based on the number of different "atrocities" you can commit from their randomized database without duplicating yourself.
Story of the Day: Brain Activity is Visibly Altered Following Sleep Deprivation, and surprisingly, not always for the worse! Thanks armypants. We've had the coffee is good for you story, now the (sort of) sleep depravation is good for you story, now we need something covering junk food.
Image of the Day: Q Lopez. So why does Jennifer Lopez have the Quake logo wrapped around her face?