Flutterby™! From 1998-11-01 to 1998-11-01

Feedback from a coworker on The Bears, which my father and I built for a neighborhood spoof:

you sir, need professional help.

I am most honored by this assessment.

While we're leaking Microsoft memos, there's a follow-up to the other memo Eric Raymond leaked at http://www.opensource.org/halloween2.html

[ related topics: Web development Microsoft ]

If you're interested in deploying Open Source software such as Linux, Apache, Sendmail, or any of the other systems which are making huge inroads in enterprise computing, The Halloween Document is an interesting read. Allegedly a leaked internal Microsoft document with Eric Raymond's comments on what it all means.

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Web development Microsoft ]

So I got another Programmer's Paradise catalog in the mail today. Anyone else bothered by the contradiction that they sell Microsoft products, or is that just me? I guess one man's heaven...

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

Designers run amok: The Seven Stages of Type Appreciation advocates:

Use type on your Web site! Even if that means setting some type as a .gif graphic. GIF type can actually be quite compact, fast to load, and add a lot of distinction and personality to your site.

Now I admit that Flutterby does specify type in the titles, but the point of HTML was to provide display independent content (anyone remember content?), and it's easy enough to set up your browser to read Flutterby and other similarly designed sites with the fonts that you're most used to. Recently I've turned off all image loading in my browsers (it's no longer as easy to get to in the latest Netscape as it was with v3) and the web has become a much neater place. So, be warned, use gifs for text and chances are I'll never see your page; I've been so disappointed on most sites where I have to hit "load images" to navigate them that chances are if I have to I won't give yours a second look. But then, alas, I am not a market sample.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality ]

Salon Magazine discovers Mindstorms. I think I'm the only person in the office who doesn't yet have a set simply because I've got too darned much CGI script writing to do for Flutterby!

[ related topics: Web development ]

Bert Archer pans Moore's The Soul of Sex. I didn't pick it up because I've heard second hand reports of Moore personally and as a teacher. Or maybe that was Gillette or whoever his coauthor for King, Warrior, Magician, Lover was, but we know people by the company they keep. As a sometime fiction author I've lamented that most books are "non-fiction" (yeah, right), but this brings new resolve that for every non-fiction book I buy I'm going to buy something literary; we need to bring the debate and exploration of life altering issues back into the novel and away from the cheesey flock of self-help authors who will regurgitate the latest claptrap to reiterate the corrupt morals of our society.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Books Erotic Sexual Culture ]

The smash hit really cool computer animated movie about insects with my name in the credits to be released later this year is called A Bug's Life. The other computer animated film about insects which hit theatres today is called Antz. Make your own decisions, I'll go see both even though I never go to the theatres, but in the office pool I've got lunch riding on this being a $15M opening weekend, and if any of you go see Antz and it exceeds that, I may have to hurt you.

[ related topics: Pixar Interactive Drama Web development Animation ]

Well, after this article in Salon about the Flycast advertising network dropping advertising for offensive content, I'm going to have to start reading Tabloid.net. Salon also has a writeup of the first world pornography conference, but it's written with a horribly judgemental tone that turned me off.

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

If you had any doubts about Naomi Wolf, author of a book called Promiscuities_, you might want to read the roundtable in _Nerve about politicizing puberty.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Books Erotic ]

For the nerdly amongst you, there's been a concerted effort to develop a standard and coat of arms for sysadmins: http://www.sackheads.org/~cerebus/asr-coa.html

[ related topics: Web development ]

In the "well, duh!" department: CNN reports that "Teen-agers are much more likely to use condoms if their mothers talk to them about safe sex while they're still virgins, according to a new federal study." While studies like this are just screaming for questions about kids whose familial relationships were such that they could talk about sex with their parents, the conclusions seem like a no brainer.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture ]

That'll teach me to believe the 'net: So http://www.flutterby.org/ (that other Flutterby domain) claims that "The oldest English word for butterfly is flutterby" and I've been blithely repeating this. Alas, the OED reports:

"cf. Dutch botervlieg, earlier botervlieghe, mod.G. butterfliege. The reason of the name is unknown: Wedgwood points out a Dutch synonym boterschijte in Kilian, which suggests that the insect was so called from the appearance of its excrement."

On second thought, maybe I like the wrong version better...

[ related topics: Butterflies ]

A Reuters report on CNN (but don't expect that URL to work tomorrow, alas) says that Reinhold Messner (the guy famous for climbing Everest without oxygen) is publicising a book which claims that the Yeti is a species of bear. Complete with photos, apparently.

[ related topics: Books ]

Interesting article in Salon today cries the death of Myst like games. I don't agree with it, but the author does hit some salient points, especially about the rise of networked/multiplayer chat features.

[ related topics: Web development Games ]

From Nerve:

"Man is in the wrong in being ashamed to exhibit it . . . when he ought to adorn and display it."

-- Leonardo da Vinci on the penis

[ related topics: Erotic ]

Only response to my question about colors a few days ago was along the lines of "I run Opera and it has a button to change everything to white on black, so it really doesn't matter."

If you're a sysadmin or other person charged with medium to high reliability computer systems (all of them should be), read http://www.microsoft.com/backstage/column_T2_1.htm and then tell me again why people are buying operating systems software from people who think that 95% availability is even an option? Hello? If my Linux boxes were down 1 day in 20 I'd be bloody irate, but I've come to expect that from NT machines. Apparently so has Microsoft, enough that they think it's an accomplishment to work around it. "Hey, my leg's broken, I can't walk." "Here, have a wheelchair." "Cool solution. I'm satisfied now." Jeepers.

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Microsoft ]

Reuters reports <link url="http://customnews.cnn.com/cnews/pna_srch.show_story?p_art_id=3017822&p_section_name=SEARCH+RESULTS&p_art_type=620199&p_search_string=%22German+restaurant%22+and+%22sushi+on+naked+models%22&p_query_string={+German+restaurant+}%26{+sushi+on+naked+models+}&p_search_method=Word&p_search_period=3&p_display_options=&p_hit_number_start=1&p_total_hits=1&p_place_holder=&p_prev_vector=">Germans Asplutter at Naked Sushi Platter</link>, a restaurant in Hanover is serving "sushi ala Jungfrau".

"They aren't entirely naked," wrote Bild. "Caviare is stuffed into their belly buttons, sword fish sushi is stuck near their armpits and between their legs is raw tuna fish sushi awaiting the hungry guests."

For you nerds out there, segfault presents the Linux drinking game

[ related topics: Free Software Humor Games ]

In Salon this morning, The joy of Perl

[ related topics: Web development ]

A review of Vincent Bugliosi's No Island of Sanity about why the Supreme Court shouldn't have allowed the Paula Jones case to proceed while Clinton was in office opens some interesting questions, I may have to read the original book. http://www.rain.org/~openmind/bugliosi.htm

[ related topics: Politics Books ]

Hey, conspiracy buffs: "a threatening, terrible event occurred to my family, which I could not tell you about. Because of that event, and a succession of other events, what you're listening to right now, is my final broadcast." Art Bell has quit his radio show.

If you don't understand "nslookup - hastur.rlyeh.net" stop here... Otherwise, here's an abuse of technology worth trying:

nslookup - hastur.rlyeh.net
set querytype=txt
set domain=adventure
1

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

You heard it here first: Orgazmo coming to theatres October 23rd. What happens when a bright eyed mormon in LA stumbles into the porn business? Plugging "Orgazmo" into your favorite search engine also yields interesting results.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

A ROBOT'S GUIDE TO SURVIVAL is a look at the social aspects of what robots will have to endure. Written by a guy who builds radio controlled robots for parties and trade shows, it's a look at how humans treat machines. Worth reading, even if you don't care about robotics, just for the human factors aspects.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development ]

In Salon this morning, a great essay by a Vietnam protestor meeting the cops who beat him.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Finally, a practical use for Java: How to keep an idiot busy at http://junior.apk.net/~jbarta/idiot/idiot.html

[ related topics: Web development ]

Yet another example of American laws run by large corporate interests: CNN reports that a judge has placed an injunction on a pocket device to play MP-3 files based on a lawsuit brought by the Recording Industry Association of America.

[ related topics: Music ]

RIP: Jon Postel, among other things editor of the RFCs and head of the IANA, which hands out IP addresses.

Salon has an article on the world of online porn sites that is, alas, muddled. The first half reads like it was taken from someone's press-release, the second half seems a little closer to what I hear from other people, but the article as a whole seems to go nowhere.

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

The publisher of The Spectator magazine confronts her past in this exchange with a childhood Sunday school classmate

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development Sexual Culture ]

In Salon this morning, Greg Costikyan rebuts the Myst is dead article. He's always worth reading. Also, an article on the shakeup in psychotherapy, how psychologists are threatened by movements which don't think wallowing in self-pity is a good thing, and how they're protecting their turf... Well, it doesn't say it quite that way.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Went to a workshop last night at Good Vibrations hosted by Carol Queen and Robert Morgan. As usual, lead to some good discussion afterwards, although the topic was "hot talk" and I don't find myself responding to the same sorts of maps they've developed. But the presentation style was great, they work well together and managed a just right response level from the audience. If they're doing a presentation on the national budget in your home town go see 'em just for that, but their topics are likely to be far more interesting.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Good Vibrations Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Gulp: BBC News <link url="http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_191000/191692.stm">reports on the installation of a system which recognizes faces in crowds</link>, 140 street cameras and 11 mobile units take images to "be compared with a database of target faces supplied by police."

[ related topics: Photography ]

A new mouthorgan this morning, summarizing the results of their earlier sex survey. One of the quotes to come from that is this:

I think the last group that will out themselves are vanilla, monogamous heterosexuals; unfortunately, they are the group that needs it most.

Which ties back in to an e-mail conversation I'm having, where my correspondent mentioned that I have a lot of energy around sex. I'm working on a longer response, but I think we all do, it's just that so many of us are ashamed of it. I mentioned yesterday the "hot talk" workshop at Good Vibrations; people aren't comfortable with the "7" (or quite a bit more than that), we use sexual terms for violence ("fuck you"), in some cases words that were once loving have been perverted ("cunt"). As a child hearing mythology I was told that if you know something's secret name you have power over it. That's true, which means that it's also true that if you don't have a secret name then you don't put the "shame" handle out there for others to manipulate. Something to consider next time some authority starts preaching the "sex is sinful" line. Which is why I (Dan) often tag myself with "vanilla het monogamous pervert."

[ related topics: Quotes Interactive Drama Good Vibrations Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Just to build the anticipation, even though release is over a month away, I offer some A Bug's Life reviews:

http://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/hbs.cgi?movie=177 "This get's my highest recommendation. Don't be fooled by rushed immiations. A Bug's Life is a damn masterpiece. Pixar has done it again."

http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=2352 "This is THE best ends credit sequence every devised."

I'm hoping to finally get out and see that other insect movie this weekend.

[ related topics: Pixar Business Animation ]

Another gushing ABL review at http://www.darkhorizons.com/reviews/bugsn.htm, this one with pictures.

Oh, and lest you think I'm deliberately ignoring the Microsoft vs DOJ thing... well... I am. I'm no fan of Microsoft, but the issue in this battle seems to be figuring out if lying to protect one's-self from unjust laws brought is right.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Microsoft ]

What kind of people are concerned about the Y2K problem? Take Dr. Billy McCormack's speech archived on the Christian Coalition website in which he lays out a worst case scenario:

The state gov't may have to yield to the federal gov't. The federal gov't may be in shambles. Many offices and agencies will no longer exist. President Clinton will declare a state of emergency. He will invoke executive power beyond our wildest imagination. He will become our very first dictator. He will seize control over utilities and industry. He will federalize the National Guard. It will ration food, gasoline, etc. Your money will be declared illegal except for transportation no more than $25.

If you need further proof, have you noticed that few Democrats are concerned? Obviously there's a deep conspiracy happening here, but if you happen to be a right wing Republican it's not too late to switch your affiliation... [okay, normally I wouldn't be so flippant about turning Democrat, I generally like to vote for a second party, but here in the People's Republic of California it seems that voting for a Democrat is the lesser of the evils, and the greater evil is really evil.]

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Politics Web development ]

Been there, done that: A physically addictive drug with significant withdrawal symptoms; proven links to heart disease, kidney stones and other health problems; dummy research institutions set up "prove" no downsides; packaged and marketed specifically to children? No, not Joe Camel, or even the Budweiser frogs, we're talking about soft drinks.

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

A CNN report claims that monkeys can count.

"Though monkeys do not recognize the word 'two' or the symbol '2,' they share with humans the ability to master simple arithmetic on at least the level of a 2-year-old child," Brannon said.

This apparently distinguishes them from certain lower level primates, like the politicians who just passed the budget bill, for instance.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Marylaine not only has My Word's Worth, but other column is available on Fox News (alas, due to some truly horrible frame design I can't link to it any closer, which is why I'm always forgetting it) aaaaaand, Making It Up As I Went Along: A Webmaster's Saga of Trial and Error chronicles her struggles in creating Where the Wild Things Are (which has had to be renamed to The Best Information on the Net for trademark reasons).

[ related topics: Marylaine Block ]

The Haikuomatic

Part two of that Salon article on circumcision, it's time we helped stop the mutilation. Salon this morning on circumcision (hint: a large portion of the reason circumcision is so widespread in the U.S. was the anti-masturbation hysteria of late last century).

[ related topics: Web development Sexual Culture ]

Unix gaining in NT rivalry screams the headline in the San Jose Mercury News. I don't know if this is a Microsoft PR ploy to take the heat off the anti-trust lawsuits, but... Certainly after my experience yesterday with the Winsock API I can't believe that anyone with any technical know-how whatsoever would believe that Windows NT is anything other than 1960s operating system theory applied to microprocessors.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Microsoft ]

In the "and in 20 years their high school graduates will be kicking the collective asses of our high school graduates, technology wise" department, Linux is being installed in every elementary and mid-level school in Mexico

[ related topics: Free Software Children and growing up Web development ]

In Salon this morning, the changing face of the fight against spam. I got fed up for a while, but now I'm sending messages to every postmaster mentioned in a received line from every spam I get. I'm not sure I like the idea of anti-spam legislation, but it's all of our responsibilities to make sure that it costs more than it pays off to send spam.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Okay, I'm no longer going to take any crap about my cynical politics. The California Republican Party just mailed us a flyer in support of Dan Lungren, our fascist attorney general turned candidate for governor. One of the bullet points they offer in support of Lungren:

He offers a good counterbalance to Democrat-controlled state Legislature. We like the notion of checks and balances on state government. The thought of either party getting control of both the legislative and executive branches of state government scares us and, we suspect, most people...

Youch. And I thought I was cynical. That lends to one of two translations. Either "We can't offer any real candidates or ideas, so we can at least introduce gridlock", or "we think voters are stupid enough to think that we really don't want control." Whichever way, my cynicism in American, and especially Californian, politics, has just been completely trumped. Way to go, guys, I didn't think that was possible.

[ related topics: Politics ]

The Society for Human Sexuality has a new Comes Naturally column available.

[ related topics: Web development ]

GPL is everwhere. Now there's development of a system to be an alternative to Ultima Online, called Altima.

It's Deppity Bob's Illicit Penguin Lust page, shocking displays of that most sexual of seabirds.

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

I've been mentioning DAV in various places. At first perusal, it's a spec for allowing directory access from HTTP servers. There's an Apache module to support it, and the DAV resources page points to the DAV IETF draft

[ related topics: Free Software Web development ]

The Top 10 reasons eternal damnation is better than Microsoft software development.

[ related topics: Web development Microsoft ]

Scott McCloud, author of the awesome Understanding Comics, now has a web site at http://www.scottmccloud.com/

From the SHS come a few URLs: Cleis Press, publishers of The New Good Vibrations Guide to Sex, The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, etc. now has a web site: http://www.cleispress.com/ Down There Press also has a web site, which is part of the Good Vibrations site: http://www.goodvibes.com/dtp/dtp.html And two other smut publishers:

• http://www.masqueradebooks.com/
• http://www.bluemoonbooks.com/bluemoon.html

[ related topics: Good Vibrations Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

A site on sex work that I haven't had time to check out yet but comes well recommended: http://www.sexwork.com

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Cameron Barrett has an oft updated site much like flutterby at http://www.camworld.org/

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett ]

"Positively Pixar aims to be the most comprehensive site on the web for fans of Pixar Animation Studios."

[ related topics: Pixar Animation ]

The Alternatives to Marriage Project mailing list is starting to generate some traffic.

There is no cabal, the illuminati don't exist, and I am not a member of any secret conspiratorial organizations. Move along, nothing to see here.

[ related topics: Religion ]

Sluggy Freelance_ is a comic strip about a web designer, his alien secretary, a killer rabbit, a weasel (or is that ferret?) with a short attention span, an intern to a radio shrink, and a tinkerer who summons demons and builds large destructive robots, who have far too many experiences with interdimensional travel to be healthy. Starting at the _Sluggy Viewer's Guide will just chew up way more of your time than is good for you.

[ related topics: Humor Web development ]

At lunch to day I saw Paul Ekman, a researcher in non-verbal communication, speak. So, some non-verbal communication links:

• Non Verbal Communication Research Page, lots and lots and lots of links.
• A Scientific American review of the edition of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin edited by Paul Ekman
• The Institute of Personality & Social Research at Berkeley

[ related topics: Web development Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality ]

Stuff the Warning Label Said Not to Do^tm: getting pinatas near open flame; incinerating aerosol bottles; and the BFP(otato)G-9000, a mach1 capable pneumatic potato gun with interchangeable barrels. Includes MPEG and stills of potatoes meeting several watermelons at 550 MPH.

This is to make it clear that the BFPG-9000 is a pneumatic/compressed air based potato gun with a main volume of 4 gallons typically pressurized to 125psi. Conventional hairspray based potato guns typically only develop 10 to 20psi when firing are no match in comparison to the muzzle velocity and sheer destructive Kinetic Energy of compressed air based designs as will shortly become evident to you :)

http://www.beltsander-races.com/

AstroJax "The future of the YoYo." Mine has certainly been fun, and I pull it out again regularly. Everybody can do some stuff with a YoYo, but staying good requires practice. Just doing anything with this device gets people's attention.

URLOTD: Bizarre stuff you can moake in your kitchen

It's not too late to vote, even if you just drop an empty ballot in the box as a protest against a system gone haywire. If you're lucky enough to be reading this before election day, ABC News has already posted the results of tomorrow's voting. Isn't it nice to know we're making ia difference? Save this and compare it to the results reported on Wednesday. http://www.abcnews.com/section...8/elections98_returns_state.html

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development ]

Willing to bet your company on Microsoft "standards"? Might want to think again.

[ related topics: Web development Microsoft ]

If you're into game development,here's an interesting article about the demise of crack.com: http://loonygames.com/content/1.10/guest/

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Games ]

Dave Winer claims to know how a Windows developer thinks. I'm not sure I understand how he views the open source world, which, I suppose, is part of it.

[ related topics: Free Software Web development Dave Winer Microsoft ]

The current trend of the Demoplicans and Republocrats to push through censorship legislation, and the recent Gauntlet magazine, have got me thinking about thought crimes. In today's Salon Magazine, Sallie Tisdale reports on the case of James LaVine, expelled from high school in Blaine Washington because of a poem he wrote.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development ]

Plutonium 240, $5.45 per milligram. Quantity discounts may be available. Call for current discounted price.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry: Mindsong has a patent for devices which try to read the effect user's intent on processes with normally random outcomes.

Mindsong intends to develop, produce, sell and license proprietary microelectronics and chips which are responsive to the inner states and intentions of users. Mindsong's patented microelectronics and E-chip detect and amplify outputs exceeding random expectations, with the resulting analog and/or digital signals correlating to the intention and/or state of the user being used to control devices.

I guess I'm mainly surprised that it happened in Minnesota, not Marin.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property ]

In Salon this morning, another article on academia insulated from the real world, this one from one with a PhD in English who's just now realizing that studying English for the sake of studying English is kind of fruitless, that applying knowledge is not only what pays the bills but keeps our lives rewarding.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Microsoft is attempting a FUD response to the Halloween documents. And I'm afraid Robert Cringely doesn't get it either. What scares the world about these documents is that while we've long laughingly suggested that Microsoft deliberately breaks standards in order to coopt them, we've wanted to believe that this was just incompetence on Microsoft's part (See the broken CHAP stuff in Microsoft's attempts at PPP authentification, for instance). This is Microsoft saying "No, we're truly evil, and we will deliberately try to foil all of your efforts."

[ related topics: Web development Microsoft ]

http://no.no.youdontunderstand.itsallreallybad.com/

Redeeming itself enough to make me at least post the URL, Rumor Mill has Bill Gates singing "I am the very model of a Microsoft Executive".

[ related topics: Business Web development Microsoft ]

Shipping anything which might be interpreted erotically? David Steinberg reports on the problems with shipping via UPS and DHL and the successes of shipping with FedEx in Comes Naturally #77. Some things to think about next time you're choosing a shipper and want to support the good guys, or at least the guys who won't open up your packages and make judgements on them.

[ related topics: Web development Sexual Culture ]

Microsoft's official response to the Halloween documents. They forgot to add "war is peace, freedom is slavery..."

Q: The first document talked about extending standard protocols as a way to "deny OSS projects entry into the market." What does this mean?

A: To better serve customers, Microsoft needs to innovate above standard protocols. By innovating above the base protocol, we are able to deliver advanced functionality to users. An example of this is adding transactional support for DTC over HTTP. This would be a value-add and would in no way break the standard or undermine the concept of standards, of which Microsoft is a significant supporter. Yet it would allow us to solve a class of problems in value chain integration for our Web-based customers that are not solved by any public standard today. Microsoft recognizes that customers are not served by implementations that are different without adding value; we therefore support standards as the foundation on which further innovation can be based.

[ related topics: Privacy Microsoft ]

CNN pans the iMac. All of my readers know better, so I don't know why I'm pointing this out, but...

To see whether Apple would make believers out of us, we pitted the iMac against two Intel-based PCs: a pricier Pentium II-400 system and a Celeron-based machine that costs about $300 less than the iMac. The results: In its base $1299 configuration, the iMac finished last in each of our application tests. The system was nearly as easy to use as the company claims, but its poor performance means Apple failed in its core mission.

[ related topics: Apple Computer ]

And on the Scripting News discussion group I ask some questions to help me understand What Dave Winer wants from the open source world and how I can turn Newwwsboy (/software/newwwsboy/) into part of those tools.

[ related topics: Free Software Content Management Dave Winer ]

Eric Raymond vents about the Halloween documents.

[ related topics: Web development ]

The New York Times reports that Amazon is being very careful about e-mail.

[ related topics: Language Web development Books ]

The Internet Engineering Task Force, the group that comes up with most of the protocols used on the 'net, has a mailing list. And on that mailing list the topic of the Halloween memos came up. It's good to read some non-Linux fanatics who are suddenly waking up. The thread starts here

[ related topics: Free Software Web development ]

Salon this morning has a neat editorial pointing out that if you are or plan to be a college student and are convicted for smoking marijuana you could lose all access to financial aid for the rest of your life. Knock over a liquor store, however, and you're still fine.

[ related topics: Drugs Interactive Drama Web development ]

A clued client responds to FUD from a consultant when asking for Linux.

[ related topics: Free Software Web development ]

Shocking debaucherie at http://telephonesex.net/

Use PowerPoint or Word to create your web pages, but want to conform to HTML standards or just hide the embarassing fact that you're using Microsoft products? Enter the demoronizer, a perl script to undo the horribleness that those products do to web pages.

[ related topics: Web development Microsoft ]

Columbine throws an opening chapter out there in Alewife Bayou.

And stereotyping fails again as a long-time tire slasher caught near Haight/Ashbury turns out to be not "gutterpunks from Haight Street, with rings from every part of their bodies" but a well dressed old man.

Next time some Eurotrash wannabe gives you the spiel about how culture is better on the other side of the pond, you might wanna point out that this is the second time in a row that MTV Europe viewers have picked the Spice Girls as "best group of the year".

Bud Uglly web design service. Implied (sic) around all misspellings...

In todays higly competative market, only a Bud Uglly webpage design can keep your company afloat like a bloating dead corpse in a sea of webpages.

[ related topics: Web development ]

The quote from that Greenspun note below that caught my attention:

If you still feel that physical communities must always be superior to electronically linked communities, let me ask you to ponder three words: junior high school.

So Philip Greenspun is putting the final touches on Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing before it goes off to the printer. The complete text of the book has been on the web while he's been writing it, but just recently I ran across his chapter on Scalable Systems for Online Communities, his comments on "why we want online communities" are the best reasons we shouldn't lose faith in the 'net that I've read in quite a while.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Web development Books ]

In the "Damn, sorry I missed this one" department: Pippi Longstocking was one of my heroes when I was young. CNN reports that Interview magazine will pay the Astrid Lindgren, author of the Pippi Longstocking stories, "a sum inline with "American Levels"" for a depiction of Pippi naked with erotic undertones in a bed. Oh yeah, like none of us young boys who read the books ever considered that...

[ related topics: Books Erotic ]

Fans of photorealistic rendering techniques will thrill to the hair on Bunny, the new short from Blue Sky Studios.

What happens when you fill teddy bears with cement and place them in an unsuspecting big chain store? Cement Cuddlers

[ related topics: Humor Web development ]

Salon this morning questions the treatment by the press of historians who were clearly wrong about the Jefferson "affair" (sorry), how the same scholarly "experts" being called upon now to interpret the results of the recent DNA testing are the ones who insisted for years that the affair couldn't happen, where the historians relegated to the fringe for their views that Sally Hemings did have children by Thomas Jefferson are still being ignored. Once again it has proven better to have a good agent than be right, especially in academia.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development ]

Unless you've been living in a cave, you know that yesterday a judge ordered Microsoft to stop misusing the Java trademark and claiming Java compatibility until its Java implementation complied with the standard. PC Week reports:

Surprisingly, some independent software developers whose products were not directly affected said the ruling could have a long-term positive affect in establishing Java standards.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Web development Microsoft ]

Cameron Barrett's Camworld points us to an article in the San Jose Mercury News about a blind man suing the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission on the basis that their web site, by being overly graphical and having a paucity of text, violates the ADA by making it inaccessible to him and other handicapped users. Now, as a Libertarian I'm no great fan of the ADA, but as a user of the web I'd like to offer Randy Tamez up for sainthood. You go, dude! And if you need a donation to your legal fund, I'm there! There are, of course, dissenting opinions, apparently from people with the attention span of a gnat who don't understand information imparted without pretty colors. Funny that these people should be journalists, huh? (Yes, Dan is in a pissy insulting mood this morning.)

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett Interactive Drama Politics Web development Libertarian ]

So I was walking by the office of some finance guys, heard laughter, and wandered in to investigate. Apparently AOL's stock had just split, to 72 or some such, and PointCast was reporting it "Down 68". Bet there's been some soiled undergarments this morning...

RIP: Helen Herrick Malsed, inventor of the Slinky Dog and many other popular toys, died Firday at 88 years old.

Kiddie porn on the 'net? It's taken this long to see the first person convicted and sentenced for selling child pornography on the 'net.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Okay, the cartoon isn't that funny, but A Bug's Life has made it into the popular culture. It's really weird to see how this stuff propagates.

[ related topics: Pixar Web development Animation ]

Frank passes on a note that the United States Postal Service has announced that in April of 1999 it will issue a 33 cent stamp commemorating Ayn Rand.

[ related topics: Ziffle Objectivism ]

A Bug's Life as seen by CNN A Bug's Life as seen by the LA Times A Bug's Life_ as seen _by USA Today

[ related topics: Pixar Animation ]

Live near the San Francisco Bay? You're always welcome at Scotch Night, 5:30 for an hour or two depending on how interesting the conversation is going. Buuuuuut... Attendance was low last night, and the wackiest ideas always come out of that, so if you'd be interested in a real party, we'd try to get a wide variety of industry folks there without the usual hangers-on, sometime in January or February, drop me an e-mail. Let's scheme.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

If you're a regular user of Flutterby, you may have noticed that all of the pages are uglier than usual. Please ready why Flutterby's pages are ugly, and give me your feedback. I'd like a compromise, but I've had enough trouble trying to reduce eyestrain on other pages all over the web that I think it's time I took a stand.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development ]

More gratuitous A Bug's Life promotion, a People Magazine review. "Bottom Line: Make a beeline for it"

[ related topics: Pixar Web development Animation ]

Salon Magazine reports on a working brain implant that lets a victim of a cerebral hemmorrhage "manipulate icons on a computer screen."

[ related topics: Web development ]

The supreme court has (finally) overtuned Georgia's anti-sodomy law, but CNN reports that this may not last. Where do they dig up these people?

"I think there needs to be a law of some sort on the books," said Lt. Gov.-elect Mark Taylor, who will preside over the Senate when the Legislature convenes in January. "I think, Republican or Democrat, it's an issue the Legislature would rather not deal with. But we don't have that option."

[ related topics: Politics Books ]

Tom passes on this startling news:

HUBBLE TURNS AROUND, SEES INTO FUTURE

BALTIMORE (CNN): Inspired by recent images of super-distant galaxies, which according to astronomers provide a glimpse deep into the universe's past, scientists on the Hubble Deep Field Project rotated the oribiting telescope 180 degrees, allowing them to peer far into the future.

     Early results are promising. "I got them to aim it at my house, and was relieved to discover that I will find my car keys by the end of the week," explains NASA Chief Astronomer William Trell. "But then I apparently lose my wallet. I'm not looking forward to that."

     Hubble scientists also report seeing themselves receiving increased funding in the near future.

-- Tom Lokovic

On /., Skud (a regular denizen of the Scary Devil Monastery) talks about her experiences as a woman in computing.

A few days ago Larry Ellison of Oracle said he'd give a million dollars to anyone showing that Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 came within a factor of 100 of Oracle. Details here: http://www.oracle.com/challenge/

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

Oh yeah, there's this movie opening tonight. "A Bug's Life" or something like that. See it or I'll break your kneecaps. And look for my name just after the out-takes.

[ related topics: Pixar Animation ]

CNN has a report previewing Literary Review's upcoming "Bad Sex Prize", "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it."

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Just in case you didn't know what's worn under a kilt: http://www.io.com/~furrball/kilt.gif

[ related topics: Web development ]

Scripting News this morning points to this article on UNIX as Literature, an exploration into the verbal versus the visual and correlations between command lines and writing ability.

[ related topics: Dave Winer ]

Concerned about the liberal media? Don't be. Variety reports that CBS and ABC are quite disappointed that Republicans didn't make their 15-20 member predicted gain in the house, and this could stop the efforts to rescind current limits on station ownership. Words like "the network's future is in jeopardy".

[ related topics: Journalism and Media ]

Alan Sokal is the physicist who, two years ago, wrote a parody of postmodernism and got it published in the journal Social Text. The publishers of Social Text weren't smart enough to recognize it as a parody, but that makes sense because postmodernism tends to do that to itself anyway. The english version of his book, Fashionable Nonsense, is coming to the U.S. soon, and Salon magazine has a review of it. I wait with bated breath and high hopes.

[ related topics: Books moron Art & Culture ]

Tim O'Reilly sends an open letter to Microsoft responding to the halloween memo:

At bottom, the Open Source movement is an expression of the Western academic tradition, innovation and discovery through the free exchange of ideas. You rig that system at your peril. You have only to look at the stagnation of Soviet science and industry under a centralized autocratic system, versus the innovation that happened in our free markets, to see what fate you have in store for yourselves if you succeed.

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Web development Microsoft ]

A new NETFUTURE has hit the web, and as usually it's an insightful, although not always comfortable, look at the advances of technology.

[ related topics: Web development Technology and Culture ]

A new NETFUTURE which starts out with this great quote from a past issue:

"I've [asked] people to imagine themselves in 1957 or so, trying to discuss the social consequences and significance of the nascent U.S. Interstate Highway System. If they got all enamored and enthusiastic about life on the highway itself, they'd completely, *utterly* miss the real story. Which was not about what it was like to *drive* on an Interstate Highway, but about the myriad ways in which Interstate Highways dramatically (and often detrimentally) altered American society off-road." (Richard Sclove)

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Technology and Culture ]

Nerdly stuff: What if you could write file systems in Perl? DAV mount points? http and ftp just another directory structure? Was: http://dd.sh/perlfs/ Now: http://perlfs.sourceforge.net/

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]