Will Parker over at Channeling Cupertino gives a lesson and a hearty salute to

Joshua Abraham Norton, first and only Emperor of the United States of America!

I think we could all use a dose of that! You can find out which historical lunatic you’re channeling here.

It warms my heart, and I mean that in the most introspective, web-crazed sort of way, that The Society for the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake turns up as item #4 on: Google, Yahoo and AOL search for “fruitcake”.

You may not know about me that I used to work for a quasi-major web hosting company a few years ago. I spent my days encouraging and instructing people on how to build more interesting web sites and how to get their web sites “noticed” both by individuals and more importantly by search engines. Research shows that the majority of traffic to most websites is driven by search engines.

My own web site building goes back to the days when you could easily submit your pages to Yahoo for free. So the success of a small web site, very simply built and with nothing more than html, on a pretty arcane topic really floats my boat. Each year I get emails and calls from people who are writing articles or putting together radio shows, wanting more info about the Society and fruitcake.

On the other hand, with that much interest in fruitcake, who’s to say it’s that arcane afterall?

Saturday

You know the old saying? ‘Want different weather in New England? Wait a half hour!’ The photo above, this and this made me turn around, pull over, wait for the sun to reappear while shivering in a blustery wind. Then I got back in my car and continued on my way. An hour later, as I returned, this was the view.

Great article by Rob Walker in the NYTimes about the development and impact of Apple’s iPod. As mentioned below, it’s sometimes hard to remember what life was like before a terrific invention like this – and it’s true. I think back to the day it was announced – early one early November morning and BLAM – people have asked about it, adopted it, lusted after one, made it a part of their every day life. And isn’t that what innovation is really all about?

Bruce Claxton, who is the current president of the Industrial Designers Society of America and a senior designer at Motorola, calls the device emblematic of a shift toward products that are ”an antidote to the hyper lifestyle,” which might be symbolized by hand-held devices that bristle with buttons and controls that seem to promise a million functions if you only had time to figure them all out. ”People are seeking out products that are not just simple to use but a joy to use.” Moby, the recording artist, has been a high-profile iPod booster since the product’s debut. ”The kind of insidious revolutionary quality of the iPod,” he says, ”is that it’s so elegant and logical, it becomes part of your life so quickly that you can’t remember what it was like beforehand.”