Flutterby™! From 1999-06-01 to 1999-06-01

Via Cameron, the EVILFISH^tm are here. I think I want the "Freud" one, but that may just be a reflection of my current emotional state...

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett Web development ]

Discover the Mind Mouse: Hands-free access to your computer. Looks like a 3 pickup EKG system, probably takes a little practice to get right, but looks like a really cool nerd toy. Wonder what the RSI issues in forehead muscles are?

A correspondent recently asked why Objectivism is a recurrent theme with me given that I don't consider myself an Objectivist. Although there's a much longer discussion on this boiling somewhere, part of it is that most humans aren't even remotely rational, they're still dominantly driven by herding instincts and react based on them. In the SF Bay Guardian, Brook Shelby Biggs touches on this in an article about consumerism and waste in e-commerce.

[ related topics: Politics Objectivism Web development ]

SGI goes Open Source

[ related topics: Free Software Web development ]

I've seen this story and had it forwarded to me by enough people that I feeled compelled to pass it on with the caveat that I think it's a hoax. Hackers Reportedly Seize British Military Satellite

[ related topics: Web development ]

Finally, the truth about the leaders of the most powerful company in the world! http://www.jps.net/abarrow/thetruth.htm

Todd passes along this: In New York Times Thomas Friedman writes about the http://www.positively-you.com/ bookstore, which is underselling Amazon (from pretty much the same distributors) for about $150 overhead per month. Branding is going to be very interesting in Internet commerce: What if every mom & pop store could be WalMart?

[ related topics: Language Interactive Drama Web development Books ]

Uh oh: It looks like the alt.syntax.tactical folks have discovered Amazon, from the look of the reviews of Bill Keane's Daddy's Cap Is on Backwards collection of Family Circus cartoons.

The several dollars spent on this handy little book is a lot cheaper than the $1,654.79 needed to collect all the cartoons contained inside from their original newspaper runs. All your favorites are here: from "Mom, I stepped on a nail!" to "Mom, I stepped on a nail again!" to "Mom, I stepped on a nail '78!" to "Mom, my lockjaw continues to worsen!" to "Mom, surely Soviet Man is superior to Joe Six-Pack."

[ related topics: Humor Books ]

Mark points out that yesterday's Bill Keane satire on Amazon was probably promulgated by the Dysfunctional Family Circus crew. I think he's right.

[ related topics: Humor Books ]

Todd points out that Red Herring tries to put positive spins on things, and it's not managing to do that with the net grocers. To me it's obvious: around the turn of the century the rich ate processed food, but now it's the rich who can afford to eat fresh food. The net filters fairly effectively for income, and the net customers are those who want the fresh stuff. Catherine and I had fresh produce delivered for a while, but in the end we want to make our own decisions at the market on what's fresh, what fits in with what we like to make, and so on. Anyway, some interesting links on the future of net groceries:

http://www.redherring.com/insider/1999/0303/news-groceries.html

http://www.redherring.com/insider/1998/1201/highpoint.html

http://www.redherring.com/insider/1998/0805/filings.html

[ related topics: Business Web development Dan's Life ]

Via News.com, Microsoft has announced that if you can keep your Windows 95 or 98 box running for 49.7 days it may crash. I suppose I shouldn't have to point out that it took 4 years for anyone to notice.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Business Web development Microsoft ]

First the bumblebee, now the Wright Brothers? CNN reports on the difficulties people are having reverse-engineering the original Wright flyer in an attempt to recreate the 120 foot first powered flight for the 100^th anniversary in 2003.

Susie Bright on the new JAMA sex survey, in Salon.

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

On Dave Winer's http://discuss.userland.com/ discussion area there's been talk about standardized GUIs for Linux. I don't get it. There are a couple of widget sets and key bindings out there, and I pick the one that works for me and use the application set that uses that interface. It's not like there's any shortage of word processors or spreadsheets or what-have-you for Linux. Related to that, I asked Dave Winer what's so great about a dedicated outliner and Dave missed the question. I responded, frustrated over my inability to understand that large gulf between the Mac/Windows users and the Un*x folk.

[ related topics: Free Software Dave Winer Microsoft ]

A different Dan talks about his inability to visualize. More and more I believe that thought is a function of languages and the constructs we develop to manipulate symbols, and that languages can be taught. There's a lot about Waldorf education that I disagree with, but I do appreciate that they gave me an internal language for visualization.

[ related topics: Web development ]

The New York Times reports that Microsoft has been embedding tracking information into user's documents which lets them link individual documents to a user database.

"We're definitely sensitive to any privacy concerns," Robert Bennett, Microsoft's group product manager for Windows, said.

ie: The users shouldn't expect any?

[ related topics: Language Web development Books Privacy Microsoft ]

Stanley Kubrick: dead

[ related topics: Web development ]

In Linux Weekly News Elizabeth Coolbaugh paraphrases the ideals section of Linus's keynote:

It doesn't hurt to have some morals. Basically, I'm a very selfish person and I really don't care about all of you. I care about doing what I enjoy.

This is why Linux is so cool. Can you imagine Bill Gates honestly describing his motivations as anything other than "I will crush you all because I'm insecure and was picked on in grade school"?

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

I've fallen in with a bad crowd, but it's interesting: The concept is Wiki Wiki. The specific web site is the Whump discussion area. Wiki Wiki is a simple CGI script that seems like an overly complex way to build HTML that really doesn't do what you want at first, but after playing with it for a little while I'm starting to see some ways to automate large-scale collaborative web sites. The way you create new pages is by writing an InterCap word, which then has a "[?]" link after it which leads to a way to create the page for that word. After you create that word (or if you reuse a word that already exists) it links the page automatically. As I look for cleaner ways to put glossaries, collaboration and on-line editing into Newwwsboy it's giving me some directions to play with. There are some glitches to work out, simultaneous editing loses someone's changes, for instance, but the concepts are interesting for ways to automate building better hyptertext.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Content Management ]

Specialized rituals for every-day use: Technopagan Blessing for a new HeNe Laser and Technopagan Blessing for a Leatherman Tool (or any other Multi-plier).

[ related topics: Web development ]

Thomas Karsten has some environmental portraits in Nerve. Figure photographers should recognize that there is a person behind those curves.

[ related topics: Erotic ]

With deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre using ignoramii to fuel the current media hype about the script kiddies pinging the AFIWC servers, it's time to revisit The Crypt Newsletter. But News.com cuts to the chase, hang on to your wallets and your privacy, 'cause they're both being targeted:

Earlier this year President Clinton sounded an alarm about the serious of computer security threats and outlined plans to prepare for such attacks and to ask Congress for an additional $1.46 billion to fund the effort.

[ related topics: Business Politics Web development Privacy ]

On Dave Winer's discussion board, Scott Rosenberg announces that Salon is dropping their thin frames, which will make referencing articles there much easier. Now if they'd just bring back content, I'd be happy; there's been nothing there recently.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Dave Winer ]

Jorn Barger writes about the Erasmatron

[ related topics: Jorn Barger Web development ]

So has anyone else noticed the non-sex related meanings for "porn" that have been creeping into the language? Wildlife photographers talk about "eco-porn", around my office "porn" was used to describe the overabundance of pretty architecture shots unrelated to the articles in an issue of Electronic House magazine.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

And http://www.98lite.net/ explores what you can do when you decouple Windows 98 and Internet Explorer:

These possibilities are realised by implanting the leaner and faster Explorer shell from Windows95 onto the improved core of Windows98. You keep all the great Windows98 improvements to the hardware support, drivers, memory management, Fat32 and improved networking, but the Explorer95 interface is considerably faster and consumes fewer computer resources.

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

Have penis size issues you need to resolve? http://poseur.4x4.org/futuresuv.html

[ related topics: Web development ]

According to Reuters, France has outlawed hunting or sale of the ortolan songbird, a type of bunting. For those of you into bizarre custom, this bird is usually eaten whole with a napkin over one's head to keep in the aroma.

[ related topics: Web development Content Management ]

I was disappointed in Best American Erotica 1999. Some interesting stories, but some of the control and death issues just totally squick me, and I don't like those issues in conjunction with sex. In Clean Sheets this week there's a review of Lonnie Barbach's latest editing endeavour, Seductions: Tales of Erotic Persuasion, which looks worth a read.

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Paul Bruno has the right response to the Dave Winer comments I referenced earlier. Jorn talks about dealing with regularly published web data and how that might be pulled together... Dave Winer misses the point again in his latest DaveNet. He asks why Unix doesn't have a single desktop environment. It's because most of us Un*x users don't want one. Give me genericism, give me configurability, put me in an environment built for evolution, not for dictated stasis. I don't want someone else's ideal environment, I want an environment customized by me that's evolved to meet my working style.

[ related topics: Jorn Barger Dave Winer ]

Employees of Despair, Inc are devastated that they've won 1^st place at the National Calendar Awards Competition. They're best known for the demotivators products.

[ related topics: Humor Web development ]

I like to think that the bears that my Dad and I built had a modicum of restraint. This whirligig of Bill and Monica has no such qualms: http://www.pe.net/~reimbold/blowin.htm

Via /., Jesus poseable figure with background play scenery. Wasn't there something about idolatry in the precursor to that religion, or am I hallucinating again?

[ related topics: Religion Humor Web development ]

Via Cameron comes Killer of Smurfs

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett ]

On March 15^th, the United States Marine Corps will invade Oakland California.

The Marine Corps' plans for the invasion reveal that Urban Warrior is designed to give marines practice in seizing control of urban areas -- including taking over food and water supplies, utilities, and communications systems. And statements and articles by military leaders suggest that the armed forces are preparing themselves to contain popular uprisings -- including uprisings in U.S. cities.

The light at the end of the tunnel is muzzle flash.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Everyone and their brother is going to be linking to this quote by Al Gore in Wired News

Then came the kicker: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

Isn't there anybody who isn't a blithering idiot who'd like to run for office?

[ related topics: Politics Web development ]

Carl passes on "time porn": All those TV shows with pretty people who hang around doing essentially nothing that let you live their hours of vicarious free time in 22 minutes + commercials.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Technology and Culture Carl Coryell-Martin ]

In Salon magazine's letters section some interesting notes from the trenches on keeping flamewars out of mailing lists.

[ related topics: Web development ]

http://www.evation.com/irman/

I've become incredibly scornful of the Postmodernists. After some time trying to figure out what they're trying to say I've come to the conclusion that they really are as shallow and self-absorbed as their writing and criticism implies. But the futurists are kind of whacked too, so we really need a pre-futurist movement. Going a slightly different direction is Bruce Sterling's Viridian movement, for all you who've come out of your youth with the angst intact and guilt and self-reproach to boot. But at least we'll get some mighty impractical tea pots out of it.

The Illustrated Guide to Breaking Your Computer

Figure 4.4 shows partitioning of the drive using an ordinary hacksaw. Partitioning in this manner is advantageous over fdisk because it allows partitioning of individual platters and is independent of operating system. You also get to make cute designs.

[ related topics: Web development ]

I recently had an exchange with the author of it over his linking to the story about the alleged cracker takeover of a British military satellite. Since it dropped from sight almost immediately and had all the other hallmarks of a hoax I opined that it was probably a false report in an attempt to raise general hysteria and help push a funding issue. I pointed to John Harme's recent money-oriented scare-mongering as an example. In the latest issue he uses these and similar quotes in predicting that there'll be a group similar to Tom Clancy's fictional "Net Force" formed soon. I think he's right, and it saddens me to think that people are truly that stupid and gullible.

[ related topics: Quotes ]

I read a lot more than I post to Flutterby. If it were otherwise this would be one huge mess of awful prose. I don't know if I've linked to the Rapidly Changing Face of Computing before, but I browse it because occasionally something turns up there.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Quote of the Day: "Sure, we Americans know what weapons of mass destruction the Iraqis have. I mean, we still have the invoices."

[ related topics: Quotes ]

A credit card sized Linux platform with some real computi9ng power. Well, it's a research project right now, but it looks cool.

[ related topics: Free Software Web development ]

Via /., NAiAM introduces the CD-MP, plays CDs and MP3s off of CD-R disks.

[ related topics: Web development Music ]

And just because I haven't found anything worthwhile in Salon in a long time, James Poniewozik writes about how the web is further blurring the line between advertising and content. Nothing we haven't already seen in much less blatant forms (watching the Linux versus Microsoft thing play out in Ziff-Davis publications is a hoot!), but just a reminder that if you aren't explicitly paying to get your information someone else is paying for you to get it.

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

While I'm hitting the bookstores and name-dropping, George Smith, editor of The Crypt Newsletter has finally shamed me into ordering his book, The Virus Creation Labs by forwarding me an excerpt from the newsletter (the full newsletter is available to those who send him a specific quote from the book) which points out that a year ago the same John Hamre who's hollering about the current "attacks" on the Pentagon's Internet connected computers said almost exactly a year ago that the Pentagon was under a direct attack from cyberspace, which turned out to be two teens from northern California and one from Israel. If that was all your average small-town ISP had to deal with they'd thank their lucky stars.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Books Privacy ]

Update on the use of "porn" in non-sexual contexts: Mark Hughes writes:

One of the primary sources for it is Pat Cadigan's novel Synners (1991) - her characters use the phrase constantly for any kind of self-indulgent, overobsessed media or social construct.

This also has the mantras "change for the machines" (where change is a verb) and "if it don't dance and you can't fuck it, eat it or throw it away", which have spread in various forms.

Time to hit the bookstore, I've missed Cadigan completely.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture ]

In Salon, Keith Knight on the ABCs of touring with a band.

[ related topics: Humor Web development ]

Okay, Pixar fans, here's an unofficial Toy Story site. I can neither confirm nor deny...

[ related topics: Pixar Animation ]

Oh yeah, Happy Drink Cheap Beer With Food Coloring And Wear Something Green Day. Although I've got to admit that the corned-beef, cabbage, potatoes with this wonderful horseradish gravy that I had for lunch was quite good. I'm sure the sauce wasn't authenticly Irish, but nothing else of this day is. So I've got a question, how come the parades don't involve big hulking dudes with monster two-handed bronze headlopper swords? I mean, if you're gonna celebrate ancestry, let's look at the good stuff!

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Or is it just disinformation? Via Robot Wisdom comes a report in New Scientist debunking low frequency incapacitation weapons. Bummer, I had my heart set on that 7Hz chicken killer, and the riot control weapons that made people soil themselves.

[ related topics: Jorn Barger Web development ]

Quote of the day from Thorfy's .sig file:

The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard. -- Anon

Nah, the problem is that it doesn't have enough chlorine. -- Lionel in ASR

It also lacks an undertow for the weak ones. -- Joe Creighton in ASR

[ related topics: Quotes Web development ]

Via /., a link to InfoWorld where Microsoft is claiming that they can make SQL7 run within 100x of Oracle8i, for 16th the price.

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

Via Rafe Colburn comes Tim O'Reilly's rant on why their technical books sell big and competitors don't. Very good read.

[ related topics: Books ]

Okay, the script isn't working yet, but in anticipation of my getting the bugs out you can now add Flutterby to your MyNetscape services.

[ related topics: Content Management ]

Susie Bright's piece in Salon is a fluff piece on genital shaving. Maybe my discontent with Salon isn't with Salon, rather my own tastes are changing.

[ related topics: Web development Sexual Culture ]

Via Scripting News, CNNfn reports that Mattel has bought Purple Moon. As I mentioned before when I passed on the report that Purple Moon had ceased operations I liked the concept of a girl's game, but the executions seemed to perpetuate a lot of bad stereotypes. However, less bad stereotypes than Mattel, so maybe this is good news.

[ related topics: Games Dave Winer ]

The new Need To Know has arrived, meshing nicely with my Salon criticism:

"Everyone was in the same place professionally. We got in a circle and sang 'Kum-ba-yah.'."

- SALON politics writer explains rigorous selection process

(http://www.villagevoice.com/columns/9911/cotts.shtml)

...Someone's haemorrhaging cash, my Lord - Kum-ba-yah!

[ related topics: Politics ]

I may already have a quote of the day, but here's another one. Columbine, in Alewife Bayou, on Tarot:

That, to me, is the use of Tarot cards. They trick you into seeing what you already knew but didn't want to admit to yourself. They are for prying information out of your subconscious. And "prying" is the word I want - they are a remarkably trite and blunt tool. But then, so's psychoanalysis, so why cast stones?

[ related topics: Quotes ]

Today's Daily Tish is on the similarities between the 'net and the highways, it's the usual fluff piece, but there are good parallels to be drawn, few of them pretty.

Via yesterday's Robot Wisdom, a Sunday Times report that the latest Roman Catholic Catechism has reconsidered on masturbation. I think it's time for a celebration. What is the sound of one hand clapping?

[ related topics: Jorn Barger Religion Web development Sexual Culture ]

Another overzealous prosecutor attacks freedom, this time in Polk County, Florida. http://www.dreamnet.com/defense/ I'm looking for third party confirmation on this, if anybody has some I'd appreciate it.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Privacy ]

Rev. Kirby J. Hensley, Founder and President of the Universal Life Church, passed away at 2 AM Friday morning.

[ related topics: Religion ]

Catch up on Sluggy Freelance and User Friendly.

[ related topics: Humor ]

Via Scripting News comes this article on why XML is a good common format, but it reeks of unnecessary complexity, recalling my Complex != Better rant in February

[ related topics: Web development Content Management Dave Winer ]

Via JJG, a report that Slate is selling more subscriptions since they went free. There may be more people out there than the pessimists think who understand that we're going to have to tighten our ethics concerning content if the 'net is going to change things.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development ]

Via RobotWisdom a link that I'm almost afraid to pass on. It's an article in the Washington times about a study on the long-term effects of child sexual abuse. Things always get touchy when talking about these issues, but as usual the loons like "Dr. Laura" have used it as knee-jerk fodder. The Rind-Tromovitch-Bauserman study is controversial because it suggests that the negative effects may have been overstated:

The study based such remarks on findings that indicated up to 37 percent of the boys who were abused and 11 percent of the girls reported "positive" childhood sexual experiences with an adult.

I await, hunkered in a corner, on the incoming barrage, for just bringing up the topic.

[ related topics: Jorn Barger Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Salon's report on iCanBuy, a website which bills parents and then lets kids shop, makes me cringe in abject terror. Be a good little consumer... Shudder. If this takes off I'll lose still more of my rapidly dwindling faith in humanity.

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

A long time ago I decided that I wouldn't become an Eagle Scout. I had various reasons at the time, about what sort of statement I'd be making if I joined the company of my contemporaries who were, things like that. But it's incidents like this firing of a longtime Boy Scout employee that reinforce that decision regularly. It's a shame, because I think that Scouting has a lot to offer, but the ethics of bigotry and exclusion don't need reinforcement.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Keith Knight continues the ABCs of touring with a band in Salon.

[ related topics: Humor Web development ]

I'm a big fan of John Fowles' The Magus, and like some of his other books. Recently I picked up Wormholes, a collection of his non-fiction essays. They don't read as smoothly as his fiction, and I disagree with much of his philosophy, but a few quotes stand out:

"I'm sick to death of the inarticulate hero. To hell with the inarticulate hero. Pity the slobs, but don't glorify them."

-- John Fowles

"Being an atheist is a matter not of moral choice, but of human obligation."

-- John Fowles, in I Write Therefore I Am, collected in Wormholes.

[ related topics: Language Religion Quotes Books ]

Students file suit because Southern Methodist University computer class was too hard, all twelve students failed a course which was supposed to certify them to use Microsoft products. Now I've had at least one operating systems class which was difficult because the instructor had no clue about the subject at hand ("the right answer, or the expected one?"), I wonder whether the problem in this case was the instructor or the students?

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

Yesterday at about 2:30 building I work in shook. Usually when that happens it's either a train derailing on the tracks that run just outside the building or an earthquake. We were betting earthquake, although it was kind of weird that the building shook and not the ground. Then someone suggested we look out the window... The oil refinery across the freeway went "boom" in a big way. Some questions about the article: it claims that the flames were out by 4:30, live shots on the news after 5 still showed lots of boiling orange; and news sources seem to differ on the number of emergency workers hospitalized, although everyone seems to agree that no one was really seriously injured.

[ related topics: Pixar ]

Literary masturbation as a field of study in Salon. And speaking of the possibility of guilty pleasures, another article on Groening's Futurama, but I've stopped watching the Simpsons, and it's not likely that I'll be willing to give more time to TV.

[ related topics: Web development Sexual Culture Technology and Culture ]

Bill Humphries on Associate Spam, using misleading economics to fool search engines. How Amazon and similar "associate programs" are filling web search engines with more trash to be waded through while we look for real content.

[ related topics: Web development Books ]

Tax protesters right?

"The Internal Revenue Service is everything the so-called tax protesters said it was; non-responsive, unable to withstand scrutiny, tyrannical, and oblivious to the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution."

[ related topics: Politics ]

For a while Pixar's voice-mail message has started "Thank you for calling Pixar Animation Studios. Just turn left at the refinery." A T-shirt was made with that sentiment. This morning's suggestion include T-shirts with charred PT flea, Buzz and Woody running from a mushroom cloud, or just adding "...at the burning refinery".

[ related topics: Pixar Animation ]

Lessee, in the Teletubbies you've got a "good cause" (ie: PBS) telling parents it's okay to leave their kid's early childhood development to a virtual, non-interactive world which distorts how they'll interact with reality. In Microsoft you've got a big company pushing mediocre products on ignorant consumers. It's only natural that the Teletubbies and Microsofties team up. Shudder:

Once the radio transmitter is hooked up to a video recorder, the toys can interact with the TV or videos that appear up to a range of 15 feet away from the transmitter.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Microsoft ]

##### 1999-03-01 00:00:00 quickies Back from an enjoyable weekend in Sequoia National Park, there'll be a rant about that forthcoming, although it may wait 'til I get my slides scanned.

Quote of the day:

You know the big SUV craze ? Best damn commie stealth plot I've ever seen. Them can blend in nuke attack subs and aircraft carriers in plain view on public roads and still no-one's the wiser....

--- Bram 'mouser' Smits

[ related topics: Quotes Humor ]

Pet Peeve of the Day: People whose writing I enjoy but who insist on using HTML which forces their text to be in fixed-pixel-width columns (despite the fact that I've got two glorious 21" displays on my deskt at work, and a 17" at home), and 'cause I occasionally correspond with these people I don't want to make a bit issue of it. Maybe they'll read it here and mend their wandering ways [HINT, HINT!].

[ related topics: Web development ]

Okay, a quote of the afternoon:

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

--- Stephen Roberts

[ related topics: Religion Quotes ]

Since everyone else has linked to this, I feel like I should be seeing something in cluetrain.com that I'm not. As I read it, the manifesto calls for openness between vendors and customers, but we've already pretty much established that modern consumers don't want honesty and integrity from their vendors, and the whole thing feels verbose and buzz-wordy.

Everyone's been passing about Eric S. Raymond's self-pitying call for someone else to pick up his work, but we're all responsible for building our own brand, and that's what Eric's been doing. I didn't discover Linux because of Eric, good software will continue to be written whether or not "the evil empire" is successfully fought. Now I admit that I could use a little cheerleading at times, and my own free software is sadly underused, but... Dude, evangelism isn't a cross anyone has to bear if the cause will stand on its own merits; just drop it. Eric W. Sink of AbiSource has one take on Eric's cry for help, Bruce Perens has another, calling for speakers, not leaders, and there's a rather funny parody of the ESR essay as well.

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Web development ]

I've fallen in with a rough crowd recently. All us web-loggers (hey, does that mean we clearcut the old growth pages?) are starting to get mightly self-referential. I don't know how many of my readers read other web logs, how much of this inbreeding gets noticed, but several of us do have quite a bit of original content. On The Bradlands a particularly good essay called "Respect Your Elders", perhaps a bit out of date, on Jocelyn Elder's dismissal, but well written.

[ related topics: Web development Weblogs Microsoft ]

Via Cameron, this New York Times column titled Internet Companies Reinvent Math. What grabbed my eye was the tale of the guy who's been trying to buy advertised computers from vendors with low prices one one of the price comparison sites, who take personal information then won't ship the computers claiming that they're no longer available (despite continued listings on their web site). A reiteration of my claim that most vendors don't want to make their information easily accessible.

[ related topics: Language Cameron Barrett Web development Books ]

Yay! According to the AP Alabama's ban on sex toys has been thrown out!

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

QOTD:

New game, a la "Jenga": take turns deleting a file from the Windows directory, until a) you get three files in a row that are not deletable, or b) Windows crashes, at which point(s) you lose.

--- Joe Thompson

[ related topics: Quotes Games Microsoft ]

So something hit me about this "Melissa" virus: They're going whole hog after the author because of some really stupid design decisions in Microsoft Word. Now for my home network I occasionally play with apps that can do some scarily autonomous things. I'm fairly careful about resource useage, but what happens if I release the source code to one of these things and some incompetent sysadmin abuses it, or runs it in an environment that isn't configured right. I don't quite know how to phrase it, but there are some scary side issues to this whole thing that disturb me more than a little... and the NIPC scares me.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Microsoft ]

Peter Merholz turned me on to Lloyd Wood and I'm not sure I'll forgive him that... Peter links to Lloyd's awesome screed about Jon Katz.

[ related topics: Web development ]

I don't know what I'd do with it, but I think I want one. In lengths from 24" to 42":

The Hooligan Tool is one of the world's most popular forcible entry tools. These heavy duty tools were designed to pound, puncture, pry, twist, and cut all types of barriers encountered by emergency service personnel.

Via Hack The Planet, a cool piece by Neal Stephenson called In the beginning was the command line.

[ related topics: Web development ]

In Salon this morning, a review of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Because the local library has a huge waiting list for this book, and because we've heard so much about it, Catherine and I bought it to read and then donate to the library. I think it says something about children's literature today that this is so immensely popular, I mean, it's a fun escapist book, but unlike some of the books of my childhood I don't think I'm going to get anything out of it by rereading it.

[ related topics: Language Children and growing up Web development Books Dan's Life ]

Fabio meets bird on Busch Gardens ride, there's a gory picture of the incident here.

It wasn't entirely clear whether the blood was Fabio's, the bird's or both, said Deborah DeMarco, the park spokeswoman.

Of course in passing this on I'm giving them more free publicity...

Via Marylaine comes Butterflies of North America

[ related topics: Butterflies Marylaine Block ]

Quote of the day, re the Melissa virus:

"It's not a virus, it's a frigging media event."

--- Paul Mc Auley

[ related topics: Quotes Microsoft ]

Susie Bright in Salon: Lesbians on Y2K. "You mean the day when all our vibrators fail?"

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Inconstant Moon has neat pictures, including the state of the moon each day, and lots of links explaining terms. Could be a fun place to waste some time.

Moller is the manufacturer of that flying car that I linked to on CNN last week.

Aftercare for assorted different types of piercings. Ouch.

[ related topics: Web development ]

A neat personal page including an account of becoming a Catholic nun.

[ related topics: Religion ]

Every school kid should know the song that the melody to "The Star Spangled Banner" was taken from: To Anacreon in Heaven:

"...And long may the Sons of Anacreon intwine, The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine."

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development ]

Via Robot Wisdom, here comes the Poop Moose candy dispenser.

[ related topics: Jorn Barger ]

Don't know how I missed this the first time around, an article about women dressed as men in Istanbul, and how that changed not only others reactions to them, but their own reactions to themselves.

[ related topics: Erotic ]

I hope I didn't pass this one along, but here's a list of actual error messages from Apple's MPW C compiler that are worth a giggle:

"...And the lord said, 'lo, there shall only be case or default labels inside a switch statement'"

[ related topics: Apple Computer Web development ]

Ever wanted to live like the Inuit? The Primitive Skills Group Frequently Asked Questions might be an interesting place to start. Just remember that these are the conditions under which evolution happens.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Graphics weenies, if you ever wondered what could be done with procedural textures, look no further than Katsuaki HIRAMITSU, who's got a couple of shader tricks to do awesome things with RenderMan renderers including some cool fog and clouds. He also keeps a pet rabbit.

[ related topics: Pixar Interactive Drama ]

Tracy Adams on common CGI coding errors.

[ related topics: Web development ]

The First Church of Cyberspace.

[ related topics: Religion ]

Net Comic Strip Reviews (Yeah, it's a GeoCities site, but I found it on the Scary Devil Monastery so I hope it'll be stable) reviews various comics found only on the web.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Via PeterMe, a great study on how metaphors improve interface useability.

On the thyme theme, lyrics with a different bent, Let No Man Steal Your Thyme.

Come all you fair and tender girls

that flourish in your prime, prime

Beware, beware, keep your garden fair

Let no man steal your thyme, thyme (2x)

Obviously I prefer the sentiments expressed in the one further down. Last time we went paddling Todd had a CD of a bunch of Australian bagpipers singing Wild Mountain Thyme (perhaps Todd will refresh me on the group's name). For some reason it's stuck with me. As pick-up lines go it's not terribly subtle, but age has given it a certain sort of raunchy charm. To whit, the chorus:

Will ye go, lassie, go

And we'll all go together

To the wild mountain thyme

All around the bloomin' heather

Will ye go, lassie, go

[ related topics: Music ]

Who says all the good computer game concepts are taken? Airfix Digfighter, "is strongly focused on recreating the "toyish" feel of model airplanes in "hand-held dogfights", rather than being an advanced, super-realistic flight simulator - complete with glue fingerprints on the windshield, skewed unit designations and fixed landing gears." And, of course, the missions are flown inside the house. Coooool.

[ related topics: Games ]

A new 'blog has sprung up, have browser, will travel looks at hockey, general geeky stuff, QuickTime VR and such. We'll see how it evolves.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

BladeEnc is a freeware MP3 encoder, the author thinks he's worked around the patent issues.

"However, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's fully legal for you to download and use BladeEnc since the patents in your country might be different. Also, although BladeEnc in itself is a fully legal product here in Sweden, you might still make yourself guilty of patent infringements if you use it for some very specific tasks."

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Music ]

I hadn't linked to Eric Raymond's new essay, The Magic Cauldron, because I hadn't had a chance to read it. Now I have. I think it's well worth reading if you're managing a product. Unlike Richard Stallman and certain other advocates, Eric makes a reasoned discussion for when it's not economically reasonable to give away code. However, even in the cases where the core technologies need to remain proprietary there's often lots of ancillary code that could be shared and would probably be result in a much improved product if it were.

"There will be circumstances under which the use value of an undisclosed algorithm or technology will be high enough (and the costs associated with unreliability will be low enough, and the risks associated with a supplier monopoly sufficiently tolerable) that consumers will continue to pay for closed software. This is likeliest to remain true in standalone vertical-market applications where network effects are weak. Our lumber-mill example earlier is one such; biometric identification software seems likeliest, of 1999's hot prospects, to be another."

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama ]

Columbine passes along this sad tale of life sized Jar Jar Binks dolls being used as masturbation toys. Then check out the site which hosts this document, Landover Baptist, "Where The Worthwhile Worship". This could be one to put on my regular rotation...

[ related topics: Web development Sexual Culture ]

Another 'blog: Medley is Lynette Millett's take on the world, we agree on Elizabeth Dole, and she hits assorted less techie stuff, which is a breath of fresh air in the 'blogging world.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

Frank passed along this note on Judaism's Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christanity) Rejected Homosexuality. The viewpoint that it's written with is frightening, not surprising given that the article is hosted at the Catholic Educator's Resource Center, but it does give some pointers to places to do more research, I'd actually been under the impression that many of the things they believe still existed to the middle of this century went out of style a few centuries ago, and the article sins by omission, husbands and priestesses as well...:

"In India until this century, certain Hindu cults have required intercourse between monks and nuns, and wives would have intercourse with priests who represent the god. Until it was made illegal in 1948, when India gained independence, Hindu temples in many parts of India had both women and boy prostitutes."

[ related topics: Ziffle Religion Erotic Sexual Culture ]

In the new Netfuture Craig Holdrege's article talks about the school I went to through 7^th grade. A new NETFUTURE is up:

The occurrence was trivial: a sign outside a bank displayed the time as I drove by. Well, it didn't just display the time; a pattern of lights paraded across the sign and then congealed into the correct numbers -- again and again and again. What hit me with a tiny shock of revulsion was that those responsible for this sign were content to add their little bit of meaningless distraction to the landscape.

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

via RobotWisdom, a report that Fallingwater is falling down. Fawning over Frank Lloyd Wright has always seemed to me to be a typical case of personality over performance; his designs are still sometimes stunning, but the few buildings of his I've been in haven't seemed very practical or useable. On the other hand that seems to be the case with architects in general, and, for that matter, software designers. Stuck in concepts of elegance that have nothing to do with useability they curse the technology that can't keep up with them, while ignoring the beauty inherent in good practical engineering.

[ related topics: Jorn Barger Architecture - Frank Lloyd Wright ]