After years complaining to Google about a blogspot account that purported to be my Blog, I have had it removed. It’s ironical that my method was to invoke the DMCA and refer to the content as being my own, since I have been against the general DMCA abuse on the Internet for years. In any sense, the site is down.

Spammers do some pretty clever things. I used to have a blogspot site hosted by Google, and I wrote all sorts of posts about traveling around NZ and such. After deciding to host my site on a private server with WordPress, I downloaded all my posts and then deleted the account. A spammer then picked up the (sub)domain and re-uploaded archives of my old site, however they also inserted some Javascript that loaded links/ads/etc as a sublayer ontop of my content.

With Google, I had tried to call, send complaints via a web interface for years, send DMCA take-down letters, photocopies of ID, and then finally I just tried a simple web form a few weeks ago. Finally Google listened. And good thing too. It appears, although I have no concrete evidence that this is the case, that Blogspot/Blogger content is ranked pretty high. In some cases the site would show up with a higher page rank that my own truman.net domain when searching for something found on my site(s).

Finally I get this:

Hello,

Thanks for reaching out to us.

In accordance with the DMCA, we have completed processing your

infringement complaint and the content in question no longer appears on

the following URL(s):

http://trumanboyes.blogspot.com

Please let us know if we can assist you further.

Regards,

The Google Team

Job done.

I have been running a bit more since I arrived back into the USA. Pretty soon after getting back I ran a quick Cupid’s Run 5k in New Brunswick, which although it was snowing (lightly), was a lot of fun.

I trained a bit more just to get my mental state into handling a good long run. This was all in preparation for the NYC 13.1 Half Marathon in Queens. I ran this in 2:03 on a beautiful, but brisk morning and then aggressively consumed food to replenish all consumed energy on the run. My thoughts on running distances at the Half Marathon level and under are as follows:

• Train enough that you know what it feels like to run 5 and 10k distances. You should have a good idea the level of effort required to complete the run and the time it will take to rest and recover.
• I thought about bringing music (iPhone) to the 13.1 mile run, but I decided against it for a few reasons; namely nice to just hear people running all around you, hear your footsteps, hear people cheering you on, and hear the live music and such all around you. My advice would be to just absorb yourself in the experience.
• Think about “now”. It’s easy to get spooked by thinking about the remaining 10.1 miles after you finish the first 3. The best bet (for me) is to just get into a nice rhythm and enjoy the experience of now, not the thought of completion later. That feeling of completion will become ever more on your mind when you are coming up to to the finish line. Then you can (if you still have the energy), just go for it and get a nice sprint to the finish in.

I usually run with my Vibram Five Fingers Bikila running shoes as I really feel comfortable with the whole idea of barefoot (or close to it) running. Now I know I did something a bit stressful to my right foot and I am thinking of sometimes running in some regular running shoes just to balance things out. I have been running with Vibram Five Fingers for about 3 years and have been really happy with the results and feel of running with a connection to the ground and the freedom of my toes.

Of course my slight injury to my foot may be due to the fact that I ran 22km’s a few weeks ago, then pushed out a good 8km run a week later without much stretching. I am going to take it easy on my feet and start a better stretching routine. My dad has been itching to get into running, so I think a nice 5km starter race would be fun to do with him before I start on longer distances again.

I worked in New York City when the twin towers fell. I have lived in NYC, I have commuted from New Jersey into NYC, and I used to work in a building on the Jersey City water front (Pavonia Station), and have direct sight of the towers. When working on late night projects in the office, I would look out the window and watch the lights go on and off on various floors of the towers.

In 2001 I built a network for a financial company on the 25th floor of the South Tower. I still have the building pass for WTC today. There is a deep excitement in me about the new construction in Battery Park and WTC, however there is a realization that these amazing towers that once stood on the skyline of New York City will never be there again. But wait?! Maybe occasionally they will be; this iPhone application – to create a augmented reality and super impose the towers on the skyline is a ray of sunshine to my spirit.

I have been watching Kickstarter.com for a while now, and finally found a project that is calling out to me to help fund and push towards a future. There are eight days left to get $25k to launch the application, and “we” are at 23k. I have selected the $75 pledge, and I hope to sport the cool T-shirt as well as use the application next time I am in NY or NJ, and I look at the souther tip of Manhattan and look up to see 110 stories in their glory.

More details: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/110stories/110-stories-augmented-reality-twin-towers-iphone-a