...more recent posts
The wheel is turning and he can't slow down. Austria trip is on. November 23 - December 1. Let's knoll!
Earthlink has a new service to block pop up (or under) ads. That's cool, but you can already do this with mozilla (on any platform, through any ISP.)
In mozilla open preferences (in the 'edit' menu except on OS X where it's in the mozilla menu) and click on 'scripts & windows' under the 'advanced' category. Then uncheck 'open unrequested windows'. While you're at it, you probably want to uncheck 'open a link in a new window', 'move or resize windows', 'raise or lower windows', and 'change status bar text'.
Done and done.
Went to see MB's friend Sonia in The Vagina Monologues last night (is that going to get me some weird hits from google?) Three women sitting on stage reading several short monologues culled from years of interviews with women about their bodies. Interesting. I imagine it varies a lot depending on the performers. Probably a good show for young women to see if for no other reason than to hear all of those words in a fun positive context. And I mean every euphemism you can think of - and plenty you never heard before: coochie snorcher?
After one particularly loud cathartic round of screaming (and moaning, and singing, and spelling...) the 'c' word (I'll pass on those google hits, thanks) Sonia (a.k.a. Maria from Sesame Street) made the joke: "Cookie Monster always told me 'C is for cookie.' Maybe he was eating the wrong thing all those years." The crowd had a great time being a little bit embarrassed.
Afterwards we went way up town to a jazz club called Smoke (B'way and 107) to hear the Steve Turre Quintet. I am now convinced that the trombone is the coolest jazz instrument. Fun stuff.
I ditched limewire in favor of aquisition as my gnutella client. Big improvement, although I still suspect this is an area where the wintel world has better choices.
If you're running OS X, give it a shot. Download and it should unstuff automatically into a folder called Aquisition 0.6.2. Just open that up and double click on the application ('aquisition') to start the program.
Interesting technical analysis of word frequencies in spam (linked everywhere.)
We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs is a book, available next week, written by veteran bloggers Meg(nut) Hourihan, Matt Haughey, and Paul Bausch. Blogroots.com is the web site companion to the book. A couple of chapters are on line, including Chapter 8, Using Blogs in Business.
It makes me very happy to see people making this argument (or is just an explanation?) about using blogs in the business world. That this is a good idea for businesses is obvious to me, yet I've had almost no luck in convincing anyone. I just want to build the software, I don't want to convince people they should use it. Hopefully this will help. Of course, the seminal Cluetrain Manifesto would be another book I'd recommend to help make the case for business blogs. I hope more follow.
September Wired magazine has an article about Alexander Shulgin (pg. 114.) Interesting guy. Not on line (yet.)
First Danger Hiptop review I've seen - from ZDNet:
I've been playing with the Sidekick, the first Danger-powered hiptop device (yes, that's a play on laptop), which will be available from T-Mobile Wireless (formerly VoiceStream) in late September. Believe it or not, it's actually going to cost $199 with new activation. Monthly service will run $39.95 for unlimited data--yes, you read that right, unlimited data--plus 200 minutes of peak and 1,000 minutes of night and weekend nationwide talk time.That pricing seems very good to me. MB's been asking me to get a new cell phone so she can have mine (she already used to how it works, which is a big plus for her.) I can't wait to get this thing. More from the review:
As a former BlackBerry user, there's simply no way I would choose a BlackBerry over a Sidekick...
I've been letting a lot of stuff slide. Partly it's the heat. But also it's a cycle. I'm trying to think of the next thing. Either that or I'm just making excuses.
I'm trying to move into the fall with enough to keep me at my machine coding through the winter. I've been sucessful the past two years. The trick is, it has to be a good idea. It can't be just what I've done before. That's why I need this time of letting go and forgetting and wandering. But it also can't be too different or there won't be enough focus, enough momentum, to drive the heads down repetition required to actually do it. Delicate situation. Stray, but not too far.
Talking about it here is one trick to make myself come through. It's easy to decide a secret isn't worth the effort when you get to the hard part. Much harder to abandon even semi public plans.
So I'll try to say something. Part of what has been taking shape is a game. Or, some aspects of it are game like. I don't have much experience in this area. I never played computer games. I never played D & D either. Or magic. But I think I understand something.
Everquest has been in the news a lot lately, and although it has little to do with what I am vaguely starting to imagine, the articles have been really resonating for me. Hard to say more than that. I'll keep trying though. For my own sake at least.
Amazing 8 megabyte flash (mostly audio) presentation of Lawrence Lessig's speech at OS Con. He's the man. It takes about 30 minutes to listen to, but you learn everything about what's important at the intersection of law and technology. Make the time. Can we run him for president?