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August 31, 2002
Rafe sees beyond the black
Rafe sees beyond the black and white world like no other.
Posted by 12:34 PM | TrackBack
August 30, 2002
Neale wrote an interesting post
Neale wrote an interesting post about LGF. One can't help but wonder if the site being defined as a weblog ultimately hurts weblogging as a whole, and what responsibilities site owners have for their contributed content.
Posted by 05:28 AM | TrackBack
August 29, 2002
What I love about andy's
What I love about andy's site is that he's finally showing off his amazing expertise at research. Over the past year or two, if I ever had an obscure question that I sent him, within minutes I'd have a dozen links to resources, sometimes going back to ten-year old usenet posts.
Today he uncovered crazy while looking at Steve Martin's official site. I once worked with a guy that arc'd before everyones eyes like this. It started with a little fan site about a tv show, then focused on one cast member. His shrine to her grew, and the pinnacle was a story he wrote about finding her home and sitting outside of it. He left for another job, but that one entry always gave me the creeps.
Running MetaFilter has meant I've had a few chances to see crazy develop before my eyes, and it's rarely a fun experience for anyone involved.
Posted by 03:11 AM | TrackBack
August 28, 2002
Cory's short sci-fi piece at
Cory's short sci-fi piece at Salon is a great read. Cory has a knack for writing geek-centric fantasy fiction. I can tell he's keenly aware that somewhere in the deepest reaches of every geek's mind, the thought is there's no problem that can't be solved, given the right code. Cancer? AIDS? Starvation? Heart Disease? No problem, if you would just get out of my way and let start hacking up a shell. Geeks seem to be heroes in Cory's work as well. They solve death, disease, and destruction with just the right combination of assembly code and pocket-sized gadgetry. Liberation of the world's ills through hacked palms running linux and wireless. Tales from Nerdvana.
It reminds me a lot of my own personal body hacking as of late and struck close to home.
In the past 4-6 weeks I've been watching my calorie intake like a tech lead scans every line of underling-contributed code. I've been building up a tolerance for the dull pain of hunger, as I keep my daily intake low, and to balance things out and make sure I'm healthier, I started running again. In a way, I've been treating my body as a computer system, toying with the APIs available to me, and as a result, I've lost about ten pounds (still have 20 more to go, which I'm hoping to do by year's end).
Of course, once you start hacking your body a bit, you are keenly aware of going overboard. I've always figured most hollywood actors, many star athletes, and people with long-term eating disorders had simply raised the act of controlling, extending, and suppressing body function to an art form. At some point, with enough control, your body becomes a machine that can be told what to do, when to do it, and what not to do. It doesn't seem healthy in the medical or psychological sense, but it seems like a fact of life for those willing to push themselves to that point.
Posted by 10:31 AM | TrackBack
August 27, 2002
I usually go out of
I usually go out of my way to support artists I like, and in that definition of "artists" I include chefs. We've got a copy of Ming Tsai's book, I tried to buy a copy of Alton Brown's book (store was out), and when I saw "Chef Morimoto Meals" at Trader Joes the other day, I grabbed one off the shelf. While I can't find any info on them online, Mishima is the company behind these vacuum packed, ready to heat/eat products that grace the Iron Chef's name. I got the asian spicy sauce meal and ate it over steamed rice.
It's got the Iron Chef's picture on it, so I was expecting to taste a wonderfully light and airy flavor, a delightful fusion of east and west, a healthy dish that makes one feel like they could eat it all day... <hand over mouth>tee hee, tee hee...
But it just tasted like below-average Ma Pao Tofu takeout with some ketchup added. Oh well.
Posted by 12:08 PM | TrackBack
Fox is making the first
Fox is making the first show that honestly comes close to the holy grail of entertainment: the craptacular
Bottom of the barrel stars trying to claw their way out of the gutter.
Posted by 05:47 AM | TrackBack
August 26, 2002
Ever since someone pointed it
Ever since someone pointed it out to me, I've been a steady user of iTunes' streaming radio stations. My favorites are found under the Public and Jazz categories. Under Public, there's KCRW, my favorite Southern California NPR station, but I must admit, unless NPR is playing music or I am doing nothing at my computer, I can't work and listen to talk, so I only listen to KCRW sporadically. My favorite station in the entire iTunes listings is the KAOS stream from Evergreen State College. Any time of day I check in, they're playing something I've never heard but it's almost always good, and tends towards what you'd expect, college rock. I'm really impressed with the playlists at JazzRadio out of Berlin. Always top notch; classics mixed with new stuff and with few interruptions. An added plus is hearing station identification and what was just played in German, which to me sounds a lot like "blah, ind dah, zie Charles Mingus, blah, der blah und, blah Herbie Hancock, und, blah der, blah."
I was happy to see none of the stations I follow have gone away due to preliminary CARP findings. I guess as long they stay away from RIAA/ASCAP/BMI artists, the stations will survive, though I'm surprised to see colleges still supporting online streams.
Posted by 11:01 AM | TrackBack
The weblog book I helped
The weblog book I helped write is finally on the shelves. I haven't even gotten my own copy yet, though I've thumbed through one. It's weird to finally hold something physical that's been a word document for so long, and it looked a lot better in actual print, all layed out instead of marked up with Word's special classes.
Posted by 04:32 AM | TrackBack
August 25, 2002
If you see the little
If you see the little "ArcadeCon!" link on the lower right hand side of this page, here's what it's all about. It's about $25 a day for unlimited gameplay of hundreds of old arcade machines. All you can play. Once a year. Nerds galore. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Posted by 03:55 AM | TrackBack
August 22, 2002
I really miss the concept
I really miss the concept of guns loaded with "Shut the Fuck Up Bullets." Why didn't that ever catch on?
Posted by 12:51 PM | TrackBack
Have you seen Sun's homepage
Have you seen Sun's homepage lately? It's as if they took a chapter from the book of simple, it's extremely easy to see what is offered and get to where you want to go. The front page is amazingly clean and simple for such a large computer company's home page. I would be interested to know if Sun could produce any metrics to measure the new design's effectiveness against previous iterations. My guess is that the new site is measurably easier to use for visitors across the board.
Posted by 10:31 AM | TrackBack
It's a shame that Microsoft's
It's a shame that Microsoft's web server, IIS, can't do "cool URIs" but apache does them right, out of the box. I hate file extensions as much as the next guy, they're prone to change/loss/movement. I'm not sure MS can devise some sort of hack to fix that, but maybe there's a ISAPI plugin that can.
Posted by 09:58 AM | TrackBack
MetaFilter! Teacher, mother, [lusty] secret
MetaFilter! Teacher, mother, [lusty] secret lover
Posted by 06:07 AM | TrackBack
Hey, a NYT article came
Hey, a NYT article came out today with a couple quotes from me in it.
I'm still hopefull and optimistic that something is going to be developed that will help people find, categorize, and scan many weblogs at once. It's the impossible problem of blogging as it stands now.
Posted by 01:46 AM | TrackBack
August 21, 2002
I guess there really is
I guess there really is a magazine for everything.
I was at a book store tonight (to see James Gleick talk about his book, which at one point he uttered the word "blog" so casually he didn't even bother to define it), and while waiting around perused the magazine rack. On it, was something called "dub." A quick thumbing through revealed ads, stories, and photo spreads aimed at a very narrow demographic. It appeared to solely cover the topics of huge chrome rims, bling bling jewelery, skanky women, and customized SUVs with huge stereos. Nothing more, nothing less.
Posted by 10:48 AM | TrackBack
I am absolutely astounded at
I am absolutely astounded at the comments made by the head of NewsCorp (FOX broadcasting).
There's one obvious joke, that the head of Fox of all places is trying to tell us about morals. The guy that brought the world shows such as "Worlds Worst Temptation Island Car Crashes When Animals Attack Celebrity Boxing 8" is trying to tell us the internet is sending the world to hell in a handbasket? And just what has his company been peddling for the last ten years?
But what I find most reprehensible is the statement that broadband connectivity is largely used for pornography and pirating software. His "den of thieves" ideas sound more at home being projected from the pulpit of a luddite preacher. I've heard that Hollywood is waging a war of words against technology, but I have a hard time believing anyone would pay mind to this rhetoric that's been turned up to 11, so to speak.
How could he possibly discount the 99.99% (based merely on my assumptions that most people are law-abiding citizens) of people with broadband access that simply use it for the sake of convenience? There are millions of people that wanted their email faster, that didn't want to tie up a phone line, that wanted to telecommute and required their fast connection. An analogous statement would be claiming that all cell phones are used by drug dealers and terrorists, and that there should be laws to limit cell phone use from everyone.
Scarier than the content of these ridiculous statements, I wonder just how many people actually agree with the guy, or think he's speaking the truth (aside from other heads of broadcasting).
Posted by 04:05 AM | TrackBack
I've seen Larry Lessig speak
I've seen Larry Lessig speak a few times this year, and I've always thought he did a great job being a preacher man. The guy could convert me to anything, due to his passionate delivery and tight arguments. His last speech was a good one, it summed up everything he's been working for, but it was a bit stand-offish. I was ok with him taking that tact, because what he's arguing for is so vital and we (as geeks) have historically done little about it.
I never thought someone could upstage Larry's delivery or speaking style, and I have the utmost respect for his work, but this critique absolutely nails it. I have to say the rewrite is fantastic, and could have made something great even better.
Posted by 03:55 AM | TrackBack
August 19, 2002
My favorite part of Austin
My favorite part of Austin Powers 3, tweaked slightly for our times:
Posted by 10:48 AM | TrackBack
Subject: CNN Breaking News
Subject: CNN Breaking News
To: TEXTBREAKINGNEWS@CNNIMAIL12.CNN.COM
White House considering attack on suspected al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons test facility in Iraq, U.S. officials tell CNN. Details soon.
Going to CNN, there's an onslaught of al Qaeda-related stores all relating to old tapes, which includes a tape of a supposed chemical weapon test on dogs.
Now, I haven't watched any of these tapes, but one has to wonder if Bush can't convince his peers it's a good idea to invade Iraq, are a few videos that tug at the heart strings going to do it? I mean, c'mon, the dog video seems as big of a ploy for support of invasion as anything I've seen. I mean who doesn't love dogs, and how could anyone that kills them be anything less than pure evil? Right? Does that seem contrived or what?
Posted by 03:49 AM | TrackBack
August 18, 2002
I don't know about you,
I don't know about you, but I'd pay to see the pilot for "Heat Vision and Jack" (scroll down to "trivia")
Posted by 05:59 AM | TrackBack
August 17, 2002
Cory makes a good case
Cory makes a good case for ditching WEP security on wireless access points, but when searching around for secure protocol alternatives, I was surprised at what I found.
First off, you have a giant (and growing faster by the day) existing market of wireless users. Most of them are tech savvy, and understand the potential security problems of using public wireless connections. When looking for help on securing my connection, I can only find one company offering ssh tunnels, and their documentation is pretty sparse on the use (they give you a command line to dump into the os x shell). O'Reilly has published article after article after article about tunneling your email connections via SSH, but the most user-friendly option of them all requires installing a scripting app and writing scripts that talk to a few local and remote files you'll also need to create and mount properly (translation: a giant pain in the ass I couldn't get working on my machine).
I, like millions of others, have spent a few hundred bucks getting wireless setup at home and in my laptop, and would be happy to spend more money making it secure (you might say most wireless users are addicted and would never go back -- the perfect locked-in market). So the question is, why isn't there a single company doing something to provide this badly needed service? Throw a linux box on a backbone, create some installers and local apps for os x and windows that will automate tunnel connections, and slap a $50-100 annual fee onto it. Make it brain-dead simple so even my grandmother can enter her user/pass into a small taskbar app and surf and email securely. Create a menu bar or dock app for os x that lets me know visually when I am tunneling all my ports, and let me quickly add new ones via a simple interface.
If anyone knows of such a service, by all means let me know about it, because I can't believe I'm not able to find one.
Posted by 10:21 AM | TrackBack
August 15, 2002
Someone has been awarded
Someone has been awarded a patent for a pet toy shaped like a stick. So remember, if you have a dog, and you throw a stick, you're infringing on this guy's hard work, research, and innovation.
Posted by 11:40 AM | TrackBack
August 13, 2002
Two interesting Bush-related links for
Two interesting Bush-related links for the day:
The handy dandy Bush scorecard of evil
Posted by 01:00 AM | TrackBack
August 12, 2002
From the ongoing slashdot collection
From the ongoing slashdot collection of questions for Alton Brown, comes this interesting site: how to cook food with lava.
Posted by 04:58 AM | TrackBack
August 11, 2002
Thanks to the tremendous work
Thanks to the tremendous work of Leonard Lin, Lawrence Lessig's presentation from OSCON is now online here (8Mb flash, give it a while).
If you want to know why the Eldred v. Ashcroft case is vitally important to artists, innovation, and our culture, watch it. If you want to know how the DMCA has been bent beyond its will to do far more damage than we ever thought possible, watch it. If you want to know why one congressman after another is proposing ridiculous laws to protect hollywood, and what you can do to stop them, watch it.
It's the summation of all that is wrong when the worlds of technology, politics, and law collide, and if you're involved in any of those three fields, please give it a listen.
Posted by 11:23 AM | TrackBack
August 08, 2002
While snooping around the nether
While snooping around the nether regions of the internet the other day, I came across the full Leonard Nimoy album, Highly Illogical. The first track is easily the campiest thing I've ever heard. Copyright schmopyright, here it is (2.2Mb, mp3). And here are some scans of the cover:
Also, in honor of the Lord of the Rings relase to DVD this week, I give you "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" (2.5Mb, mp3) as well. The bravest little hobbit of them all, indeed.
The best song on the disc is probably "If I Had a Hammer," with its upbeat, jazzy beat that ends in a Nimoy spoken word freakout piece that mixes both over-the-top patriotic and hippie tones. Top notch stuff.
Posted by 01:32 AM | TrackBack
August 07, 2002
Tonight I was re-reading the
Tonight I was re-reading the Kaycee thread from last year at MetaFilter, and noticed one of the pieces of evidence at the time was Kaycee's collegeclub account. It turns out that someone still to this day (or at least up until a couple months ago) was logging into that account. Sick.
Whoa, this is still online as well.
Posted by 09:51 AM | TrackBack
Dick Cheney visited San Francisco
Dick Cheney visited San Francisco today, and there was a small protest. Here are some lovely photos from said protest, hilarious stuff.
"For war profiteering and corporate crime,
Cheney should be doing time"
Posted by 01:18 AM | TrackBack
August 06, 2002
I spent the greater part
I spent the greater part of last weekend cranking out the revised and redesigned Blogroots.com site with pb and meg.
I'm really happy at the trackback-powered weblog channel that pb setup. Anyone posting about the subject of weblogs on their site is welcome to send a ping to our site, which will point back. If you're using movabletype, you simply need to use our trackback URL, or better yet, setup a weblogs category for your posts and associate our ping URL with that subject. Whenever you post to that category, it'll show up on Blogroots (full how-to here). If you don't use movabletype, there's a way to do the same thing by hand here.
We also added a new chapter from the book, and beefed up our resources area significantly. You can now post reviews of tools and suggest new listings. We created a robust essay system so we can publish essays as well. We wanted to build a powerful, useful resource site for the weblog world, and I think we've come close to finally achieving that.
Posted by 05:53 AM | TrackBack
Crap, I just learned that
Crap, I just learned that LA Laker announcer Chick Hearn died last night. His voice was a fixture of my childhood in LA, spent watching games on channel 9 or listening to him on the radio when NBC covered the same games (with the radio on with Chick, sound on the TV turned off, of course).
Posted by 02:04 AM | TrackBack
August 05, 2002
I asked Derek if he
I asked Derek if he had settled on bands for this year's frayday in SF, and when he asked for suggestions I gave a few of my favorites. It looks like not one, but two of my absolute favorite groups are playing.
It's gonna be a great night.
Posted by 01:19 AM | TrackBack
August 04, 2002
The Tivo hacking community has
The Tivo hacking community has been steadily innovating, and the web front end to tivo (like this) is looking pretty good. It seems like it's only a matter of time before hackers will be able to program and manipulate their tivos remotely over networks. I didn't think I could take part, but thanks to support for wireless LAN connections, simple instructions, and available products, it just might be do-able by mere mortals as well.
It'll be interesting to see how Tivo the corporation acts upon these innovations. Will the community's work be rolled into the future feature set? Is Tivo hacking viewed by the company as exploratory work, with success predicting the path the company's developers take? Or is it all a lot of sideline antics the company entertains but doesn't take seriously?
Posted by 11:21 AM | TrackBack
August 02, 2002
Ben Brown's randomized poetry generator
Ben Brown's randomized poetry generator that is based on his inbox of spam is a thing of beauty. It grabs random words from random spam messages and assembles them into neat stanzas.
Load this page, then reload for a new work of genius.
Posted by 05:37 AM | TrackBack
August 01, 2002
I've noticed from patterns in
I've noticed from patterns in my own life that putting on weight and gaining personal debt is relatively easy while dropping weight or paying off debt is difficult. It's no surprise to see America has both personal debt problems and weight problems.
What makes it a struggle is that gains are made only after prolonged, cautious control of either diet or spending. It's a thankless uphill that takes seemingly forever to climb with no real benefits in the short term. It's insanely easy to splurge, either having a big meal or going on a spending spree, and lose weeks or months of progress in an instant.
After spending my way through college, I'm finally climbing almost completely out of debt, and weight is next on the agenda. It feels great to send those final bills, and even better to cancel credit cards I no longer need, but damn was it a long, hard, wasteful road getting there.