A Whole Lotta Nothing

RSS native parsing in the next Firebird

This is new to me. I was checking out the nightly builds of Firebird 0.8 betas (windows and linux, mac) and they've got an rss button and panel that parses RSS, with titles linking to the main window. Slick, but they need to let you track which ones have new/old items.

update: It turns out I'm actually a dumbass. I installed this RSS extension so long ago I forgot about it, and because I never saw it show up in any menu, I figured it never "took" on my Firebird install. Then when I had the new nightly build the toolbars were out of whack on first run so I went to customize them and saw the RSS button for the first time, and assumed it came with Firebird 0.8. My bad.

The Internet works in mysterious ways

Sometimes Craigslist is better than the police and sometimes you can find a fugitive with a single Google search.

Time for a serious roadtrip

States I've visited:

I had a pathetically sheltered youth. While I saw just about everything you could see in California, it was always from the inside of a car so we could only get so far in so many days. I think my first plane flight wasn't until I was 12, and that was to the faraway place of Arizona. At the age of 25 the farthest east I'd ever been was still Arizona. Even with all my web-related travel over the past few years I didn't surpass ten visited states until 2001 and now I stand at a paltry 14 at age 31.

I once worked with someone whose goal was having his kids see all 50 by the time they turned 18. He got pretty close, too. I think it's a worthy goal -- you can't appreciate the vastness, the differences, or the similarities in this nation and its people until you get out there and visit a bunch of places and meet a good deal of them.

(Make your own map at Alpha66)

Ten years in the game

Congrats to O.G. webmaster Justin's ten years of links.net.

Word of the day

Stockphotopia: Where all those people you see in advertising come from.

"The new website looks great, but could use a few more faces from stockphotopia on the index page."

Step 1. Internet music Step 2. ??? Step 3. Profit!

Whoa. People I know are in the Apple Music store. I can pay to download last year's Fray Cafe and the 2001 Fray too (I can buy Lance Arthur and Mena Trott for 99 cents!). The Brad Sucks album is there too (psst: you can download it from his site for free, and it's unencrypted or buy the CD direct from him like I did). I even see a search for "Scott Andrew" is turning a song up from the Fray CD, with hopefully more to come.

Using a megaphone to advertise silence

heh. Google has this ad for their text-based Adsense system that uses rich-media streaming flash with sound and movies (read: like the annoying ads they created text ads to replace). Also, I wonder if there was an internal Google company contest to find the employee that most resembled cuter-than-cute dimpled Janie Porche from the Apple Switch ads. [via david g]]

Like the Oscars of central Texas web awards

I was delighted and surprised to see my ten years site show up in the list of SXSW web awards finalists, in the personal category. The personal category covers personal and portfolio sites, and since the site is so personal (it is, afterall a shot from my vantage point each and every day) I figured it belonged there more than the weblog category.

After looking at the other entries in the personal category, I was struck by two things. One, they're quite beautiful to look at, JennysRealm is like classic High Five top-notch design work. The other thing that stood out is every other site is a portfolio built in Flash. Lots of Flash.

I have no idea what my chances are given that my site is so different from the rest, but I guess if there's ever a peoples' choice know that a vote for me is a vote for cutting-edge web standards and a vote against the tyranny of flash-powered splash pages. If I worked for Miramax, I'd probably send diamond-studded rolex watches that said "This Year, Skip Intro to Ten Years" to all the judges.

It's aliiiiiive

pb and I (mostly pb) brought SXSW blog back from the dead tonight. Pardon my minty bubble-gum design, I really just wanted to play with CSS backgrounds on the page more than anything else. A big thanks to Michael Buffington for donating the image of an Austin building used in the header.

Lazyweb, I throw cash at thee

Now that Typepad supports the new atom api for publishing to photo albums, I want iPhoto to transmit images directly to my typepad account. The docs don't mention new album creation but you can add photos into existing albums. Any applescript ninjas want to take a crack at it? I'll paypal $40 to whoever can whip up a script first.

Colder than a martian witch's teet

Daaaaaamn: Northeast colder than Mars. They're using the best possible conditions on Mars (midday, late summer) vs. the worst on Earth (night, dead of winter cold snap), but at the exact same time in both places it was warmer on Mars than it was in New England.

WiFi Hotels

The news that every Best Western hotels in the US will have free wireless is great to hear. I don't know if they're doing this based on market research, but personally I will be staying at their hotels as much as possible when I travel now. I searched and searched for Southern California hotels that had free wireless and after giving up on a few places that claimed to but didn't, I accidentally found a Holiday Inn in Orange County with multiple default Linksys base stations in the hotel. I've ended up staying there the last four times I went down to see my family, even though it's a pretty shabby hotel and probably overpriced (it's around $70-80 a night).

It's good to see Best Western recognize this, it's not like I want to just camp out online when I travel, but it's nice to catch up with work and personal email when you get to the hotel at night without having to hassle with dialups and outbound call charges. Knowing that every single Best Western will be equipped will make searching for a simple cheap place to sleep much easier in the future.

I get more hits in a week than you get all year

I've joked with friends about someday doing hip-hop style boasting songs related to blogging, for shits and giggles but this joke dis song is hilarious. "Calling out" another blogger with all the pomp and shit-talking of classic hip-hop battles. "Watch your trackback" is the best line ever.

Highs and Lows

The past week has been pretty hectic. It all started when my My grandmother passed away at the age of 88. It wasn't totally unexpected, but sad nonetheless. Going down to Southern California and dealing with funeral and family matters helped me cope and catching up with family reminded me of all the good times we've had together with grandma. I also got to see cousins and aunts and uncles (and ex-aunts and ex-uncles) I hadn't seen in ages, which was great.

Another bright spot in the week came during a lull between family functions. There was nothing to do one day so I went to Disneyland for the first time since about 1995. I grew up a few miles from Disneyland, but I never tire of observing the design of experiences there. They've continued to innovate with just about the most sophisticated parking garage ever built and the fastpass system that lets you cut to the front of the line after a couple hours, instead of waiting in lines. I surprised myself by actually staying in the park from noon until almost closing 11 hours later, and I think it was the fastpass that let that happen. Normally I'd be standing for hours in lines, getting a sore back and feet, but I felt fine up until the end and I got to ride just about everything in the park with very little waiting.

I'll be metering out the photos on my other site for the next week, but I set aside two of my favorite images as desktops: Storybook land whale and the tomorrowland rockets.

Mozilla virus?

I've talked before about my dad's problems using the internet and how he's inundated with IE and Outlook Express exploits, but he surprised me today by showing me his copy of Firebird has been hijacked by something (I insisted he move to Firebird to avoid IE exploits last summer).

Here's a screenshot showing what you get if you try to go to google or yahoo in his copy of Firebird 0.61 (I'm currently downloading 0.7 for him). I've never seen anything like this before, hopefully it's not a sign of things to come.

update: I've done a bit more investigation and it's really weird but google works fine in IE (IE may be running through an ISP proxy -- I forgot to check the settings). I ran ad-aware and removed a couple processes a couple dozen registry keys and a few apps that were clearly spyware, and yet the problem persists in even the newly downloaded firebird after Ad-Aware gives a clean bill of health.

I suspect it's got something to do with the PeoplePC dialup package he has to use to connect to the web. They do offer cheap dialup, I wouldn't be surprised if they made money in other ways such as these (he's had problems in the past with PeoplePC).

another update: looks like it's this coolweb search trojan (thanks brad), which rewrote the hosts file. They exploited a java bug in IE (I told him not to use IE, but does he listen?) that allows them to install their spyware. I wonder why the search page is still up, if it's easy to trace it back to who did it and where they host. I would expect most hosting contracts to boot trojan horse spyware spammers.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

I recently went under the iron which is a comprehensive interview with me about all the projects I'm working on, mostly about blogging. Feel free to pop in and ask additional questions, and I'll do my best to answer them in a timely fashion.

Celebrites on the web

This is an interesting use of the web by Margaret Cho. She's been getting a slew of awful email since her statements at a fundraiser were taken out of context (her opinion of the selected transcript), so her webmaster posted them all, with their original email addresses. The ones that notice they've been publicly shamed have recanted, many invoking their Christian teachings (but why did they send such hateful messages in the first place?).

Of course the difference between this page on Cho's site and the NRA's blacklist of people to avoid and harass aren't that different, but this is the first time I've seen a celebrity use their notoriety to bolster aid online.

Vegans for Veal

You know we're living in strange times when there's a group calling themselves Republicans For Dean.

Until you're dizzy

As much as I've wanted Paul O'Neill's recent revelations to be true and finally make Bush supporters think twice about their leader, I'm kind of skeptical about the whole thing. Let me explain why.

I tend to look at motive when something shocking comes out and there's the matter of him being a bad enough official to get fired and the way he used a new book to reveal his story. Those things point to him perhaps trying to seek revenge on a former employer and an obvious financial interest in generating publicity. Let me state again that I want it to be true, and this is just my way of doing due dilligence before making a decision about an issue or news item. I could excuse most of the criticism I heard of O'Neill and I was ready to buy his whole story until I heard him and Ron Suskind, the author of the new book, on NPR yesterday.

Listen for yourself and know that while I listened with a bit of a skeptic's ear, I couldn't help but notice what a slimeball Ron Suskind comes off as. It's not just me, right?

The show basically follows a pattern: Terry asks O'Neill a question to which he'll slowly give a semi-answer to, then Ron butts in to explain in exhaustive detail what "Paul meant by what he just said." O'Neill wasn't nearly as harsh about the Bush presidency on the air, which surprised me from everything I read. I hate to use this term, but it feels like the story is just spin, and I got furious listening to Suskind tweak everything O'Neill said into the worst possible indictment of the Bush admin.

Whenever a story comes out, always go to the first sources if you can. Hearing the statements right from the horse's mouth in this case, I can't help but feel O'Neill had some genuine beefs with his former boss and had a few good points about how poorly they run some processes (like stacking economics and energy meetings with like-minded industry instead of getting input from a range of interested parties), but on the whole those points are lost as Suskind brewed mountains out of molehills.

From zero to hero

This is like a commercial for the atkins diet and golds gym. (quicktime mov)

Pre-Fabulous

I love the idea of prefab homes using the most modern materials and layouts with a nod to energy savings. It's probably just my inner geek talking, but since computers and electronics keep getting faster and cheaper, why can't the advances in technology carry over to similar savings in things like homes? In the past 50 years, we've learned a lot about the psychology of spaces, how best to insulate a space, and how to take advantage of wind and solar energy. Yet most American homes are using the same designs post-war housing was built to, just with larger rooms, better windows, and better insulation in the walls.

Some enterprising architects have attempted to tackle this problem of how to design and build custom modern housing at an affordable cost. These homes look incredible and although a bit small, pretty close to what I'd want in a dream house. Lots of open floor space, seamless living, cooking, and dining areas, and simple bedrooms. I wonder what the costs would run to build a place like this, hopefully just a couple hundred grand or so, though I'm sure building the whole thing from scratch in most markets would run you almost half a mil. [via Doug]

iGypped

When I saw a company come out with custom painted iPods and an iPod painting service I thought they looked pretty cool, though were costly and kinda worthless if you eventually chipped it all off. Then I saw a friend pointing out iSkin's new exo2 skin and it was like a new color plus protection.

Looking at all the photos on their site, it appeared to be a hard plastic case that also looked thick enough to keep my fingers from always accidentally hitting the touch sensitive buttons. The belt clip looked like a bonus since lately I've tried taking my iPod to the gym and never know how to keep it near me safely. I figured at the rate I was getting more scratches and the number of times I accidentally rewind or jump to the next song, it was worth it. It looked like real protection so I plunked down the thirty bucks and waited.

After a couple weeks, it showed up today and here's what it looks like with the charcoal iSkin installed.

I know it's not cool to use the term, but I felt exactly like a kid that ordered something from the back of Boys Life and 4 to 8 weeks later I got some rubber piece of crap that is nothing like the ad: totally gypped. I know it doesn't say anywhere on the site that it's made of hard plastic (it actually does say it is silicone), but I can't help but feel misled by all the photos showing a blazing blue, substantial case around an iPod.

Oh well. Buyer beware.

Evolve! Mutate! Specialize!

The internet is relatively young and the web is even younger, barely getting to ten years of popular usage.

It's fun to watch it age though. I remember when Match.com was the only dating service and no one thought they'd ever last or figure out a way to make money. Apparently they did as it seems a formerly foreign concept like "I met her on the internet" is increasingly normal among my friends. Also worth noting is the extreme specialization taking place in the space, here's a random sample of specific dating communities: Liberal Hearts. Indian Dating. Equestrian Singles.

Equestrian Singles?! You mean to tell me there are enough single people both male and female all around the country that own horses and are looking for that special someone to support a venture like this? That there are enough to support at least two more of these?!

I always knew one of the powerful aspects of the internet was that it could allow people with very specific and unique tastes to join up and eventually form larger groups spread throughout the world. But I didn't think it'd work so well or so fast that in less than ten years a dating scene would blossom online to the point at which it took three full sites to connect all the people that owned a horse and were looking to date. Like I said, it's fun to watch it age.

Shame on you, Dick Cheney

I can't believe Cheney changed his stance on gay marriage, and so completely at that.

What kind of father goes out on a national stage and says he doesn't believe his own daughter deserves the same rights in her life that he enjoys with his own marriage?

It's not like Dick and Mary have a bad relationship, all his quotes from 2000 supported her and kept her out of the limelight, while she put off grad school to work on his campaign and consulted on gay issues for the 2000 election. They reportedly accept Mary's longtime partner, Heather Poe, into their home and call her part of the family.

The vice president and his wife have fought for family values without completely alienating their daughter until now. I know sometimes career takes precidence over family and that Bush and Cheney have shown on more than one occasion that they can be hypocritical, but Cheney just proved he's worse than all that. He's a shitty father for not defending his own daughter.

heh, Bush goes to Bloomies

Isn't that the one thing this administration loves? Shopping. You'd think we had a bunch of drag queens in the presidency. Tax cuts, shopping. Terror alerts, shopping. Christmas, for the love of god, shop! Literally, if you love god, you'll be shopping.

-- Shift Control Alt

I've seen hundreds in SF

Pretty cool typepad photo gallery find: abandoned bicycles of new york

Definition of the word blog

heh. I'm amazed that in all my years of blogging, I've never heard this joke.

Look at all those gigs, who are their agents?!

Stalin, Saddam, Hitler, and Osama are all listed at IMDB. Odd.

MacWorld

Thoughts from the Macworld Keynote:

- Does anyone care about xserve? Who would serve up sites or services when you can get so much more power at a lower cost with linux or FreeBSD boxes?

- Why did they spend so much time on Office? Most people haven't used a new feature in word or excel since 1996.

- Good lord did the iLife part drag on. Steve repeated everything a dozen times, then had a video recap at the end for what we just saw. The garageband section totally dragged at a snail's pace as Steve built up a song step by step, then played it in iTunes, then added it to iDVD. It was clear they were filling time. Also, isn't Garageband.com going to be pissed they stole their trademarks? (update: whoa, apparently they reached an agreement long ago -- thanks john)

- The biggest announcement everyone was waiting for is perhaps the biggest failure. They want to go after the low end flash-based music players that outsell the iPod, so what do they do? They go after their target market by pricing themselves out of it. Steve said "for just $50 more than a regular flash player you get so much more" and the obvious thought is "for $50 more than that you get 4x as much storage in a real iPod". Apple should have made a $99 or $149 price point their only goal, and sold as much iPod they could for that price. A $250 crippled iPod is not a revolution, it's a market failure.

The positives:

- iPhoto no longer drags like a dog when you have more than 100 photos in it. They should have fixed that from the get go, but whatever, it looks fixed now.

- iTunes, iMovie, and iDVD got updates, but they look minor.

Mythbusters and M5i

Blame it on a steady diet of Mr. Wizard when I was young, but I like nerdy shows with a mean science streak in them. When I heard about Mythbusters, I thought it was just another urban legend show until I caught an episode and saw how they conducted their tests. It ranks right up there with Rough Science and Junkyard Wars in terms of good basic science plus ingenuity. The recent new years marathon let me catch up with the whole season, and I'm looking forward to seeing them try to reproduce the classic JATO story in an upcoming episode.

Their warehouse looks like a fun place and it didn't take much digging to find the site of Jaime's special effects company where they film the experiments. They've got a pretty impressive portfolio of past work that explains all the movie posters posted around their shop.

Photo site worth watching

Michael's new digital SLR site looks pretty cool. The site definitely fills a niche — there aren't a lot of sites devoted to digital SLR photography and the classic photography sites often look down on emerging digital products. Mike's taught me a lot about photography already and I expect he'll carry those same lessons over to the site with product reviews and explanations about how things work.

Nice shoes

Medium Footwear's collection of new shoe designs look pretty cool. They seem right about midway between skate shoe and hipster shoe to me (tending towards hip for the sake of being hip), which is what I'm currently liking in my shoes.

I'd point to my favorite shoe designs, but their assy flash interface doesn't let me link directly to them.