June 30, 2003
bit-o-linkage
I noticed last evening that videos of the presentations at the recent Reboot conference in Denmark have been posted. Some interesting speakers including weblog luminaries like Ben Hammersley and Meg Hourihan are available for download in Quicktime format. Good stuff!
John Gruber's excellent Smartypants plugin has reach version 1.4 and can be found here.
This is old news but I just fired up iComic last night to grab and read the last couple weeks of The Boondocks. Such a nice little piece of software. By all means give it a look.
June 28, 2003
WWDC = PGE (Pure Geek Excitement)
Having returned to the mother's milk of broadband, I watched the WWDC keynote via Quicktime last night and this morning (it was long). The stream quality is excellent, and with all the cool stuff and excitement I felt like I had stepped into the “Geeks Gone Wild” DVD edition. The demo of Expose in Panther and the iSight giveaway seemed to drive the assembled developers into a particular frenzy of geek giddiness.
Seriously though, it was pretty exciting. Safari is maturing rapidly and well. Panther looks very cool, it seems like Mac users will see some speed improvements along with more refining of OS X. Exposé looks really sweet, and a usable PDF viewer is certainly welcome. Some of the other features like Filevault and Font Book are things I have been wanting for awhile… and it's hard to argue with a new Finder, though the whole “Brushed Metal” thing that Apple can't seem to get over is somewhat unfortunate.
and the new Power Mac G5? well, just let me say I may have to get a second job to pay for it but I feel a certain desire for a new G5 box + cinema display. I'm still trying to figure out how a machine with nine fans can be “quiet”… I know they are low rpm and variable but still… in any case, I want.
More viewpoints on WWDC happenings can be found at Hivelogic and Ars Technica. Michael Tsai links up some people's notes and adds his own.
June 27, 2003
returning
I am on my way back to San Francisco as I write this… we woke up this morning to cooler air after a big rain storm last night in Ohio. Air travel is as unpleasant as ever with the typical summer tour groups, packed air planes with no clean air to breathe, and all the usual hitches… All in all though, the trip has gone well… now I just need to get back and figure out how to make some money (we're in a recession, you know). Also, I am eager to read in greater depth all the news from Apple's WWDC and the resultant commentary… and I am eager to work on this site…
June 26, 2003
on the road
first off, it is hot as hell in Ohio right now… well, not really, it's just that I am totally unaccustomed to any temperature above 70 degrees (F)… the thing I realize when travelling is how it is both very hard and very easy to be untethered to the internet. I crave the constant information and collaboration of minds, but I enjoy a break from it at the same time.
I have jumped online a few times… to grab some email and vote in the moveon.org primary… also to check in on the doings of Apple at the recent WWDC… but dial-up is so slow it makes baby Jesus cry…
June 20, 2003
shoe and sock
June 19, 2003
Mob Project
Via Wired News :: E-Mail Mob Takes Manhattan
That is a great idea. The whole business of the spontaneous (or I guess in this case somewhat planned spontaneity) organization of a “Mob Action” makes my heart leap with joy. Seriously. Connectivity and networking truly are the killer apps. Add in some wireless email… which activist/political organizers have already used to great effect… and you have got yourself some serious spontaneous action. Of course what is wonderful about this project is that it isn't political at all, it's art for art's sake.
June 17, 2003
Newly Digital
My first computer was a TI-99. I was probably around 13 years old. I don't remember using it for much aside from messing around with writing BASIC programs. I don't remember how, and I am pretty sure it was used… but somehow I got a Commodore 64 and a disk drive around the time I was 14 or so… it was hooked up to a small color TV in my bedroom and I remember spending a lot of time trading and playing games like Archon and Zork. I remember spending hours typing in programs from magazines. I remember going to computer club meetings with mainly older guys that looked like hippies and geeks at the same time. When I got my first modem (300 baud), I was really hooked. I got into the whole BBS thing pretty heavily for a bit. The problem was that all the cool BBS action involved making long distance calls from my fairly rural outpost… and it sure wasn't five cents a minute back in the day. I had to get a job at the local pizza place just to cover a couple particularly large telephone bills.
I kept that computer until I was 16 and discovered girls (or they discovered me). My first girlfriend (Lisa) lived 90 miles away and wanted me to take her to her Junior Prom. I sold my computer to do it. I suppose it was worth it as I'm pretty sure that was my first real kiss, etcetera… though I don't recall the “relationship” lasting too long, I think she had a boyfriend in the Army. My interests drifted away from computers at that point… to girls, cars, music, writing and other things you did in high school in the 80s. I didn't get another computer of my own until a couple years after college… and the rest, as they say, is history.
This entry was written for Adam Kalsey's “Newly Digital” project.
June 14, 2003
learn C in a week?
I've tried to make myself learn a programming language before. When Mac OS X was released, I wanted to learn Cocoa/ObjC. Everything I read at the time suggested that one should start by first learning C… I tried a few books, but it was hard to get into it… now this article, “The Whole of C,” at NSLog and the resultant comments make me think I should really try to do it again… though I am skeptical of claims that the whole of C can be learned in a week, at least by me. And I must admit that I get a bit confused by OO (Object oriented) programming. I think I may need a teacher along with the book…
June 12, 2003
speech
June 11, 2003
permalink missive
Tom Coates @ plasticbag.org has a thoughtful new entry on the history and importance of permalinks. Having set up a blog just a few months ago I remember being confused by the concept for a bit, then having an “aha” moment. His point regarding cluttering up the screen hit home. I have been a bit unsatisfied with all the stuff in my “Posted” line… the trick being to communicate the infomation and functionality of Category, Permalinks, Comments & Trackbacks in a clear way…. but also in a simple and elegant way… which I don't think I am even close to achieving here, yet.
While we're on the subject of design… any feedback on my current site design (or lack thereof) would be greatly appreciated…
June 10, 2003
new official Howard Dean Blog is live
Presidential candidate Howard Dean's official weblog, Blog for America is up as of today. What I know of Dean I like, and I will definately be checking out his campaign in more depth in the coming months. As I told one of my leftier friends that have been splattering “Impeach Bush” bumper stickers all over Portland, Oregon, “Your time would be better spent working for a candidate to replace Bush.” Dean may be the man to work for.
shortwave!
There is an excellent new article at Ars Technica on Shortwave Radio and the PC. This is exactly the kind of stuff that I need to avoid… yet another extremely cool thing to experiment with and learn about (good) and spend too much time and money on (bad). Oh well, don't push the river.
June 09, 2003
Japanese Monster Trucks
Having grown up in West Virginia, I'm no stranger to the American “Monster Truck” phenomenon, but this gentleman's efforts are truly something new to me… unlike the WV trucks, these seem to be neither muddy nor do they have a gun rack that I can see. [via my pals on #macintosh]
June 07, 2003
RSS feeds and their care
This bit from plasticbag.org inspired me to update my RSS 1.0 feed and add a RSS 2.0 feed, both with full entries… I had been meaning to change them for some time, but I kept putting it off because my site is so new, and basically no one is reading it… I guess I was worried that people wouldn't click through and see the whole site if they could just read everything in an aggregator… but then I realized that my own behavior when using NetNewsWire doesn't mirror that worry… I usually open the whole site when I see a couple interesting new entries… especially when it's an attractively designed site like plasticbag.org.
Credit goes out to Unix Gal for the code I am now using for my new full entry feeds.
June 06, 2003
Three very good movies
I have recently started going out to the movies again… it can be such a nice experience if the film is good and the theatre isn't insanely crowded, which in San Francisco means going to a matinee, or an evening show during the week… Weekends are strictly for the hoards… in any case, here are my three most recent winners:
Spellbound: you may have read about this movie in the NYTimes or heard about it from a friend already… suffice it to say, it's riveting, wonderful and sweet…. better than 95% of Hollywood's movies and made for .001% of the price. See it NOW!
The Italian Job: My wife was skeptical, but this is a GOOD action/caper film… lots of nice homage to the 60's and tongue in cheeky stuff… beware the massive Dell and Mini-Cooper product placement though (as if I need more temptation from those Mini-Cooper people).
Bend It Like Beckham: Sweet, funny, multicultural… with a soundtrack that pays homage to Bollywood. Take your daughter, wife, girlfriend, mother…
June 02, 2003
iTunes 4 != Napster
Recommended reading: John Gruber at Daring Fireball rebuts some of the loud voices (e.g. Cory Doctorow) heard screaming bloody murder like someone took away their candy and socked them in the mouth because Apple decided that it wasn't great to have third party apps hooking into iTunes 4 and creating P2P file sharing (copying).
When I read Doctorow's entry last week I remember thinking he was off-base and I should write a response… thankfully a more disciplined mind like Gruber's took on the task.