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 The pumpkin patch that captivated thousands and drew crowds from all over New England last year is back, and it's bigger and brighter than ever.
 
 Roger Williams Park Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular
 
 RWP Photo Gallery
 
 
   
 AP article on CNN Never in his wildest dreams did Charlie Brown's pal, Linus, imagine a pumpkin patch quite like this one.
 CNN.com
 
 Thursday, October 31, 2002
 
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 One of the funniest movie trailers I've seen.
 
 See it here.
 
 Wednesday, October 30, 2002
 
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 Buy it at Caroon Bank.
 
 Wednesday, October 30, 2002
 
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   Self-Portrait with Palette, 1906
 Oil on canvas
 Unframed 92.6 x 73 cm;
 framed 117.8 x 98 x 10.8 cm
 Philadelphia Museum of Art. A.E. Gallatin Collection
 ©2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
 
 25 October ... Pablo Picasso's birthday.
 
 Pablo Picasso prints
 Pablo Picasso prints - Dove of Peace
 
 Friday, October 25, 2002
 
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 Thursday, October 17, 2002
 
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 Microsoft Skins a Knee on the Astroturf
 Keith Dawson, Media Unspun
 
 A grass-roots campaign orchestrated by a PR department is commonly called "astroturf." What shall we call Microsoft's embarrassing sally at Apple's successful "Switchers" campaign? Let's consider "paid testimonial."
 
 Apple's campaign features real people, who give their names, who have switched from Windows to Macintosh. They don't look like models, they look like geeks, nerds, and ordinary folks, and they speak in their own voices. Some of them, such as Ellen Feiss, have become minor celebrities. Microsoft's campaign by contrast had all the polish of, well, a Microsoft ad campaign, as the Register pointed out.
 
 No one expects Apple's ads to swing much market share, but perhaps Microsoft was feeling their sting. On Monday the company posted a Web page, "Confessions of a Mac to PC convert," supposedly written by a young woman who had switched from Apple to Windows XP. Her name was not given. Her picture, as Slashdot posters quickly discovered, was a stock image available for purchase from Getty's Photodisc. (Why the agency did not use an image from the competing Corbis service, owned by Bill Gates, is another mystery.)
 
 Microsoft quickly pulled the ad page from its site (though it is still available in Google's cache), expressing "regret," according to CNET News.com, followed an investigation by that organ. Microsoft's climbdown may also have had something to do with investigative reporting by the AP's Ted Bridis, who identified the author of the Microsoft story and interviewed her. She works for the ad agency that created the campaign. Bridis found her name hidden in a Microsoft Word document associated with the ad campaign; not even Unspun needs to point out that irony. A Slashdot poster noticed that you can still download this document from its original location on the Microsoft site. At Unspun's press time this was still true.
 
 In this season when Microsoft and AOL are touting shiny new versions of their online services to entice holiday shoppers, we leave the final word to yet another sharp-eyed Slashdot commentator. "In 1994 AOL published a slick 30-page promotional brochure profiling four new members. They also made them up."
 
 Ellen Feiss fan site
 http://www.ellenfeiss.net/
 
 MS pulls fake Mac-to-Windows testimonial
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/27595.html
 
 Microsoft PR Rep is the Switcher
 http://slashdot.org/articles/02/10/15/0044255.shtml?tid=109
 
 Photodisc/Getty stock photo from the ad
 http://tinyurl.com/1z9q
 
 Cached copy of Microsoft ad
 http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:JmwQcVoG-ucJ:www.microsoft.com/
 
 Microsoft "regrets" Mac-to-PC ad
 http://news.com.com/2100-1001-961994.html
 
 Microsoft zaps Mac attack ad; Shoreline woman is mystery convert (Seattle Times, AP)
 http://tinyurl.com/1zpi
 
 Download the ad's feedback form in Word format
 http://microsoft.com/insider/downloads/ShowOffYourSkills.doc
 
 AOL and MSN at It Again With Dueling Launches (Reuters)
 http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-tech-aol-msn.html
 
 AOL Lies: New Member Guide (1994)
 http://www.aolwatch.org/newmem.htm
 
 Tuesday, October 15, 2002
 
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 A look under the hood at Google Answers ... Worth a quick read.
 
 How I Tried to Resign from Google Answers but Found I Was Already Fired
 by Jessamyn West ... librarian and ex-Google Answers member
 
 Tuesday, October 15, 2002
 
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 Walter Annenberg, Philanthropist and Publisher, Dies at 94
 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/02/obituaries/02ANNE.html
 
 Philanthropist, Publisher Walter Annenberg Dies
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30335-2002Oct1.html
 
 Billionaire publisher, philanthropist Walter Annenberg dies at 94
 http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--obit-annenberg1001oct01,0,6246776.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
 
 Walter Annenberg Dies At 94
 http://www.forbes.com/2002/10/01/1001annenberg.html
 
 Wednesday, October 02, 2002
 
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