Exactly one year ago, I posted the first entry to this weblog. It read “Is randomness a useful survival trait?” It is a question that raises many philosophical angles and scientific realities. And it has a humorous side. Those traits reflect, I hope, the best of what I try to present here. Thank you fellow webloggers for your support, thanks everyone who has written me with encouraging words and interesting items, and thanks to my friends for the hosting and bandwidth. Writing is incomplete without a reader, so I thank you for participating in this venture.

I keep wondering how much of a domino affect the dot com closures will have. There are fewer sites to design and maintain, fewer colocation facilities and bandwidth to be used, fewer deliveries to be made, less advertising to do. But I figure these are probably not significant drops in the new Internet commerce bucket. Or are they? And I’m still trying to figure out why some of these companies had hundreds of employees. What were they all doing (besides bleeding the VCs dry?). I suppose I come from the frugal startup days of the early ’90s. I just can’t relate.

Saturday is major college football rivalry day. “The Game” is Harvard vs Yale for the 117th time. “The Big Game” is Cal Berkeley vs Stanford for the 103rd time. That’s The Crimson vs The Bulldogs and The Bears vs The Cardinal. Gore (Harvard ’69) vs Bush (Yale ’68). Gorden Moore (Intel) and Steve Wozniak (Apple) vs Sandra Lerner & Leonard Bosack (Cisco) and Jerry Yang & David Filo (Yahoo) (and let’s not forget Chelsea). Caltech hacks vs MIT hacks. Yes, that is relevant. (By the way, Army vs Navy isn’t until Dec 2)

As I mentioned in September, Pete Townshend has been posting diary entries from The Who tour. His very recent writings from their UK tour are particularly thoughtful and personal. He talks about him and Roger being uncomfortable with stage banter, being on both sides of meeting famous people, and why sometimes on stage he feels like he is being followed around by a herd of manic elephants. And there are plenty of live MP3s, free for the taking. “I HOPE I DIE BEFORE I GET OLD was obviously ironic even though written by someone who was young enough to afford to be literal. And yet I was ironic. Why? Because it is vital to the pop process.”

I’ve seen a few mentions of droplift.org in various weblogs recently. It reminded me of the “oldie but goodie” cement-filled teddy bear caper put on by the Los Angeles Cacophony Society. So, here (in a more readable format than the version on the L.A. site) is the story of the Cement Cuddlers, just in time to kick off the holiday shopping season. (“…beneath my plush surface lies a hardness as impervious and unforgiving as this World’s own indifference to your mortal struggle.”)

Now I know where all that dying dot com inventory has been going, thanks to a ZDNet article. Miadora and Adornis, two unsuccessful jewelry sites, had their inventories snapped up by Overstock.com. Beautiful platinum and gold baubles are now being hawked for less than Miadora paid for them wholesale (if you believe their claims; the prices are still pretty hefty). E-luxury retailer Ashford.com, still in business, was given a chance to buy Miadora’s inventory, but they passed, claiming it was last season’s news and wouldn’t sell. I just gotta wonder if they didn’t have the budget for it. Overstock.com also purchases the pretty digital photos and lyrical descriptions to go along with the items, so they save time and overhead.

Dogs donate blood too. It makes sense, but I’ve never thought about it. The Animal Blood Bank in Dixon, CA is the largest of four in the U.S. and has four kennels of dogs to supply 50 pints a day. Of course the dogs can’t give consent to have their blood taken, but I’d like to think they don’t really mind being good doggy heroes. (article via The Obscure Store)

The iRobot wants to be the first popular home robot (or business robot). Its cog-wheels can climb stairs and it can see (camera), hear (microphone) and “speak” (speakers). You control it through an Internet connection and it acts as your avatar, representing you at meetings, grandma’s house, or your own home when you’re away. This boston.com article describes some other reasons for having your own personal robot and introduces the term “r-business” (robot-enabled business). At first, this robot seems like little more than a web camera on wheels. But it has an open-source OS and the company is hoping other developers will create applications that they haven’t even dreamed of yet. The iRobot concept seems limited for use when you can’t be somewhere. Perhaps if it can be somehow combined with a Lego Mindstorms-like kit (ie the hardware extensible and open, not just the software) then the applications can be truly limitless and the personal robot age will actually take off.

Green ketchup? Yes, Heinz is launching “Blastin’ Green” ketchup in new EZ Squirt bottles. It’s aimed for kids and enriched with Vitamin C. Heinz has done some market research, I hope, because green ketchup does not appeal to the kid in me. Now perhaps if it was a gourmet ketchup handmade from tasty green heirloom tomatoes, then I’d perk up.

The Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee has been formed with the mission to have the San Francisco Bay Area selected as the U.S. candidate city for the 2012 Olympics (warning, it’s an all-Flash site). I can’t imagine what things will look like for Bay Area residents in 2012 with the current crushing growth we’re experiencing. I’m not sure having to deal with the preparations for the Olympics would necessarily help with the infrastructure that’s already needed to support our population. Still, it would be a source of pride and community building. Perhaps it can galvanize the San Jose and San Francisco communities into one, though my cynical side is thinking that hostilities could arise from that front.