Archive.
Friday, November 30, 2001 Link
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Anybody out there remember one of these?
Just in time for the aforementioned anniversary, I pulled on my hipwaders, grabbed the crowbar, traversed deep into the software catacombs, and managed to pinch out this pristine copy of the QuickTime Version 1.0 for Developers disc. Another shining example of modern day garbological skills put into practice. And proving once again, that you should never throw anything away. Am I right Mike?
I'm ok. Really. Thanks for asking.
On a happier note, QuickTime turns ten years old this Sunday. Why not invite the Sorenson's over, crack open a fresh Codec or two, and celebrate by reencoding some classic video clips from your library of testimonials by former Apple executives.
Not that it's likely to happen any time soon, but I felt the need to write something just to make sure that I remember the past couple of weeks. A short explanation, if you'll indulge me. The first occurrence was the passing of a friend whose wife I worked with for many years. Last week, my wife's maternal grandmother - Granny Gooch, as her family playfully called her - quietly passed away at the ripe old age of 92. My wife flew to Michigan for the services and was away for three days this week. Parenting a cappella is rewarding in its own way, but it has the ability to make my brain hurt more than usual. As my wife walked back in the door, ready to be welcomed with a voluminous assortment of warm hugs, I had just hung up the phone. My paternal grandmother, who had been in a nursing home for many months, was having immense trouble breathing. Unfortunately, we knew exactly what was going to happen next. This afternoon, my Nana Hutch left us as well. She was 93. I'm sure someone could tell me why I needed to put my fingers on the keyboard and peck out a few unassuming words about the events from the last fortnight. I'm sure that if I looked close enough, I could probably come up with a logical or emotional reason on my own. It doesn't really matter why. I'm just glad I did it while the images I have and experiences I remember from being around each of these fine people, are still clear in my head. And yes, the ache in my head from being a single parent is gone too, and that helps as well.
Thursday, November 29, 2001 Link
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Guess what? I'm listening to a streaming internet radio station on my Newton right now. I'm using this. Preposterous you say? It doesn't matter and I don't care. I'm just kicking back and basking in the pale green electroluminescent glow of cool.
Wednesday, November 28, 2001 Link
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I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jon in an unceasingly appreciative manner for pointing out the wonderfulness that is the Global Pop Conspiracy. Chewin' gum, kickin' ass, and the Dream Warriors slappin' through Wash Your Face in My Sink. Splendid.
Let's see what's flopping around in the old mail bag this morning.
"Just to say that your available domain name of the week page is the highlight in the otherwise miserable existence of Demys - domain name consultants to the rich and famous, here in sunny Edinburgh. Keep it up!"
Cheers,
Tim Brown
Technical Advisor
Demys Limited
Thanks Tim, I needed that. I was just sitting here smiling, typing, and managing not to spill coffee all over my keyboard again, when I realized something. Somehow I managed to improve the lives of several countless souls and electronic brand strategists residing far away across the mountains and seas. Go figure.
Tuesday, November 27, 2001 Link
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A Nest of Dogcattle
Judging by the first score of entries in the myfonts.com visual best sellers list, a hefty dollop of their clientele must be of European persuasion - either by choice or by nature. I can't recall the last time I witnessed so many bleedin' fonts, sans their serifs, under one roof. What's the matter, don't you people like serifs? When we did a similar poll of EyeWire customers last year, the results were still heavily skewed towards text faces, except that the majority of the kerned populous still had their pointy bits intact. Via Microsoft Typography News
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! The available domain name of the week page and it's associated archives have been beaten into submission with the cascading style sheet stick. Take that, you heinously convoluted table-based layout, you. Only six more sections to go.
Hey Ev, looks like it might be time to clean out those log files again.
It's field trip day. Later on this morning, I'm meeting up with Howie and Jon to take in an exhibition at the University of Calgary entitled Of Mice and Men: The History of Personal Computing (unfortunately, there's no direct link to the information, so you'll have to scroll down the page). Although neither of my companions have the same compunabular chutzpah as yours truly, they can be said to share a small portion of my enthusiasm for vintage technology. At least they had better share my enthusiasm, because they will certainly be subjected to it for the duration of our visit to the gallery. I'm hoping that they won't mind me pointing out any inaccuracies in the technical descriptions of the artifacts or the context in which they're exhibited. And it's absolutely guaranteed that I'll ramble on mercilessly about this and that and the next thing stored in my basement and oh, how much better shape the device I managed to acquire is, compared to the one on display. Sounds like fun, right guys? Guys?
Monday, November 26, 2001 Link
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Still tweaking things. Notice anything odd? Please inform the management.
Sunday, November 25, 2001 Link
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Why is it that every time I spend an afternoon with friends watching Canadian football on television, I end up feeling bloated? The dainty portions of food and minimal amount of alcoholic beverages consumed couldn't possibly be at fault, could they? It must be the effect of all the kids running through the house while the game was on. That's just so disorienting.
Saturday, November 24, 2001 Link
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Now that's what I call a bar tab. I regret not being able to lend my presence to the event which contributed to this impact-printed testimonial to exuberance and imbibitionary curricula. Perhaps I could have helped bump the grand total over the ten kilo mark. Cheers to my friends.
Friday, November 23, 2001 Link
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Oh yeah, the redesign. I guess it's launched. Partially, anyway. Enjoy.
An article over at webmasterbase.com entitled Cleaner, Sharper GIF & JPEG Images caught my attention today, and not because I need cleaner, sharper images. I really don't. I was curious as to how they were going to approach the subject given that the creation of reasonable quality web imagery really depends on the type of visual content you are working with. Judging image quality can be an extremely subjective process. As it turns out, they didn't have to worry about being overly subjective. The first sentence of the article is as follows:
"While they're not absolutely necessary for Website functionality, images help improve the appearance of a site."
A good point, but apparently, they're not absolutely necessary in an article dedicated to creating cleaner, sharper images either. I am confounded as to how you can write an article with such a blatantly obvious requirement for visual examples, and not use any. And it's not as if the article was written to appear strictly in a print publication where the subtler differences between low resolution graphics files may have been difficult to present. It's a freaking online article about GIFs and JPEGs, without any GIFs and JPEGs. Instead of coming away with even a tiny bit of enlightenment, I came away absolutely boggled.
Nearly as fascinating as a casual conversation over a pint with James Burke. My brother in law found a clue linking my old stomping grounds and the kankeigaisha behind Metal Gear Solid. Other than the fact that EyeWire used to market a disc of stock photography called ObjectGear, and that particular disc did contain an image of a metal gear, I can't really begin to explain the connection. Your own hand-woven conspiratorial theories are certainly welcome. Paging Mr. Burke!
Mike does a nice job touring us around his house I used to live in.
Purely by coincidence, I ended up not buying anything yesterday either.
Thursday, November 22, 2001 Link
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Oh yeah, and here's another tip to remember. Be sure to update all of the pertinent domain records to reflect the change in name servers before they shut down your freeloading, T1-piggybacking DNS machine stuffed away in the corner of the server room at the place you used to work. That's a good one to keep in mind.
Note to self. Do not publish your weblog without making sure that the raw XHTML template you have been testing has been replaced with the regaular one. I enjoy the simplicity of plain text as much as the next person, but then again, there's something to be said for at least a tad of design and formatting.
Where were you... is compiling and archiving personal thoughts, messages, and other written works dealing with the events of September 11th. They will collect submissions for one year, at which time the contents of the project become read only. My hope is that this site doesn't become merely a dumping ground for nationalistic sentimentality and jingoism. I'd would be a shame to lose all of the genuine feelings and personality amongst layers of noise. Also in progress is the visual project Document New York. Via Zeldman
Tuesday, November 20, 2001 Link
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You can probably count on one hand the number of people who actually give half a crap whether AOL UK abandons Mac OS X as an actively supported platform or not. I suppose if you're someone who enjoys using buggy software to access filtered, mass-market content viewed through a confusing and offensively harsh Las Vegas-style æsthetic, then you'll probably be concerned by this news. Then again, you're likely using Windows anyway, so the point be moot. Via MacNN
I've been wading hip deep in style sheets and wrestling endless Photoshop layers all blasted day. That's not a complaint mind you, just an observation.
Monday, November 19, 2001 Link
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Holy Bull Shit
Did you like the Fiddler on the Roof tie in? Pretty clever, eh?
Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match. Find me a find, catch me a catch. Is it just me, or do Mozilla Custom Keywords sound like a perfect companion for Bookmarklets? Alright, it's just me. Via rc3.org
This morning I found out that a friend, not a real close friend, but a friend all the same, passed away yesterday. Cancer. People who knew Micheal realized that this day would come, eventually. Knowing that something inevitable is going to happen never makes it any easier to understand or put into perspective when it finally does happen. Shortly after hearing the news, I was reading a touching email written by his wife and the house became very quiet. Quiet, but yet full of thoughts and images and prayers and things that you keep in your head to make sure the rest of your mind stays busy. I fetched the mail and realized that the envelope on the top of the pile was a request for donations from the Canadian Cancer Society. I don't know if that made the earlier news any more poignant or not.
Sunday, November 18, 2001 Link
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Doesn't it seem to be a fine time of the year to stop and think about re-tolexing your Rhodes? Can't you just can smell the magic in the air? Or is it the contact cement? One can never tell.
Hey Duane. I'm glad your ass is happy. Really I am.
Friday, November 16, 2001 Link
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Ever on the prowl for ways to funnel unqualified traffic to my lame personal web site, I've been test driving the latest brainchild of the technologically lubricious Evan Williams. A deliciously simple little escapade called Pyrads. These text-based adlets, if you will, are currently appearing on the Blogger home page, but will hopefully be syndicated across a veritable parking lot for the digerati sooner than you can say "unobtrusive micro advertising". According to the response statistics, I'm on a roll with just over a one per cent click through rate. Woot! Now, if I only had some decent content to advertise.
You just spent hundreds of dollars on one of the most advanced and æsthetically pleasurable digital entertainment devices available. And now you want to take it apart? Sounds like the perfect time to visit iPodHacks.com
Thursday, November 15, 2001 Link
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All you Windows users who've been ranting and/or whining about the lack of Windows connectivity for the Apple iPod, can now politely back away and go find another tree to bark up. Mediafour, who make a slick little piece of software that let's you read Mac-formatted media on your peecee, has announced that they are working on a new chunk of compiled code called XPod. So there. Via Mr Barrett
I just pulled a muscle in my shoulder while blowing my nose. How positively lame is that? I'm a self-admitted fitness milquetoast, but this is simply embarrassing. Come to think of it, I pulled that same muscle while shaking a orange juice container last year. Oh dear me. Maybe I should just sit down and not touch anything today. Where's the ibuprofen, darling?
Wednesday, November 14, 2001 Link
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The splorp.com mail server was being transitioned to its new home today, so there is a slight chance that some messages intended for me did not reach their final destination. If you were sending something important, please send it again. Then again, your message could be simply rattling around in some state of email suspended animation, in which case we can just wait it out.
Tuesday, November 13, 2001 Link
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Oh yes, and a prolonged wave of transoceanic thanks to friend Toby for calling me a closet penguinhead. This, in obvious reference to my walk on the wild side of command line today. Odd compliments of this nature are gratefully accepted at par.
Justice to Break Up Apple for Making Microsoft a Monopoly
I needed a laugh so much today. Hee.
What's that burning smell? Guess what I learned how to do today?
Monday, November 12, 2001 Link
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Speaking of stuff that is still chugging long after many had given up hope, my cute little Newton web server cracked the 10,000 page view mark this weekend. How about them apples, Apple?
Chuck Shotton has really been cranking out the code lately. And for those of you who like your web servers free and easy, that means another beta of MacHTTP is available. That's two, count 'em two, new versions in the span of a week. New versions that aren't just a dungball of bug fixes either. There's some substantial new features in those binaries, baby. How about support for user defined request processing actions and multiple domain configuration, for starters. Doesn't that guy have a real job?
What could be worse than a geek with a blog? How about a geek with a blog that can be syndicated? Automatically create an RSS-based newsfeed of your own weblog using RSSBlog. In order for this dream to come true, RSSBlog requires Perl be installed on your server. Via Scripting News
Friday, November 09, 2001 Link
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While it looks like it's been around since the summer, the workingmac.com site is new to me. At first glance, it appears to be simply another fine source of articles aimed at folks craving something Aqua-centric and geek-savvy. However, after sticking my head under the hood I discovered that this thing is powered by a motley collection of MacWeek escapees, including familiar names such as David K. Every of MacKiDo fame. Just what I need, another link to peruse every couple of days.
Thanks John. Ever heard of FTP?
Who the hell do I know that would send me 200 MB worth of video files via email this morning? Arrggh. I guess this means it's time to adjust the old attachment size filter on the mail server. How many r's are there in arrggh, anyway?
Thursday, November 08, 2001 Link
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The mystery of the sudden voluminous spike in my popularity has been solved. A kind chap (who apparently frequents Microsoft-run web sites more often than yours truly) sent me this telling screen shot which proves without a doubt that compunabula.com was featured today as msn.com's "daily diversion" link. And if my referrer logs are any indication, the domain name of the week page was a daily diversion yesterday as well. Apparently one of the msn.com content editors is enamored with my stable of web properties. Either that, or the web is simply running out of other reasonable quality sites to link to. As wonderful as it is to be called "this guy" and to have thousands of complete strangers diverted to one of my sites, I'm not entirely sure whether I should be feeling embarrassed or positively mortified by all the attention. Now move along people, the show's over...
I can't locate the actual page it's on, but apparently there's a link to my compunabula.com site somewhere on MSN. I've had thousands of referrals over the past couple of days from http://my.msn.com/my.ashx and the like, resulting in a five-fold increase in daily visitors. If anyone has seen the link and can send me a screen shot, I'd appreciate it.
Tuesday, November 06, 2001 Link
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Was that too harsh? Shut up and read about the buttons instead.
Today's nominees in the category of displaying the most incongruent design-related behavior resulting in a questionable benefit to mankind are:
- Kinetic Creations
For unleashing their eClick software upon a world so devoid of creativity, that it obviously needs oxymoronically-named visual devices called "professional web buttons". As their smartly targeted marketing copy states: "It's a no-brainer." Apparently.
- Nick Shinn
For creating a remarkably bland family of typefaces in memory of another Canadian, the curmudgeonly author Mordecai Richler. I'm sure there's an billowingly obvious connection here somewhere, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. I guess Mr. Richler wrote books, and books have words, and words are generally set in typefaces... um... oh, never mind.
- Apple Computer
For their recently announced series of Icon Design Kitchens. Events which are specifically "targeted at visual designers looking to maximize their ability to design Mac OS X icons and graphics." How this is different than designing for non-Mac OS X projects is not indicated. In any case, lunch will be served.
Send in your vote today. All ballots will be tallied to the best of our ability.
Monday, November 05, 2001 Link
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Thinking of diving into the low-overhead, high-margin world of domain squatting? Here's a tip on how to save thousands of otherwise legitimate advertising dollars. Use your name server listing in the whois database as a sales and marketing tool.
A simple, yet stupendously dumb-ass idea.
Sunday, November 04, 2001 Link
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Funniest sight I ever seen. Fourteen security patches and a tamborine.
Dot com challenged individuals of the world, rejoice! Believe it or don't, my Available Domain Name of the Week resource has been pumping a genuinely useless bit of fluff into the Google-rarified ether on a regular basis for two full years. There's nothing quite as intensely satisfying as celebrating 104 straight weeks of providing a service that nobody will miss until it's gone. And, that's reason enough for me to continue. I'm sure that I can muster the custard and squeeze out several dozen more infantile online noms de plume for the panting masses. Beats the hell out of ranting about Canadian foreign policy, at any rate.
Looking for a relational database to run under Mac OS X? Apple has just published an article on the very topic of open source databases as part of its increasingly serviceable internet developer site. Timely, what? And speaking of operating systems ending with the letter X, the Aqua Human Interface Guidelines have just been buffed up at the detailers, ready to wax eloquent about the wonderful new widgets and whereabouts regarding the latest dot revision.
Saturday, November 03, 2001 Link
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Well, color me published. I've just had my very first word added to the spiffy pseudodictionary. And as those who know me can well attest, it's a word that is quite dear to my heart. Piles of old crap you say? Pish, posh... it's compunabula, darling.
Friday, November 02, 2001 Link
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Ok, that outage was my fault. Sorry.
Thursday, November 01, 2001 Link
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Presumptuously flawed vision statements deconstructed while u wait. With your congenial host, Dean Allen.
Put your post graduate skills to work and help America's favorite acronym-addled space agency name their newest orbiting infrared observatory due for launch next summer. You could probably sneeze onto a piece of looseleaf and do better than Space Infrared Telescope Facility, so this should be a no brainer. While you at it, why not donate some time and help in redesigning their web site. It's good to see that NASA's funding doesn't get wasted on frivolous expenses like graphic design, information presentation, and online usability.
Furthermore.
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