October 2002 Archives

As mentioned previously, I have a new job. Step up from Macy's, still a step below optimal and a few below where I want to be. Putting it in perspective, though, a job's a job, and this one isn't too bad.

I'll be working in Boston for a publishing company. I am technically a contracted consultant working for a technical consulting/placement firm. The contract lasts three months starting Monday. My job will consist of creating some Power Point presentations (some with 1800 slides which I can't even fathom) and working with a little bit of html. The majority of my work, though, will be in a project management capacity. I'll be overseeing some projects, making sure they're on schedule and under budget, sending things to the freelancer as required, and dealing with people who we've got contracts with.

Drawbacks? The company is currently for sale (bet you know how that feels, eh Dawn?) so there's the potential that I might be asked to take up a permanent position in the future, but at the same time there's a good chance I'll be out of work again come February. The pay is horrendous, especially when you take into account the commute which will cost me between $100 and $170 a month depending on what combination of driving and public transportation I decide to take. Less expensive = stress. More expensive = quicker and more stress-free.

In other news, my car is a 1993 Nissan Sentra. Front wheel drive, 5 speed manual transmission, meaning I should be able to get myself out everything except the most nasty New England weather. Extremely clean interior, ne leaky windshield. Almost a step up in the world, minus those damn loan payments...

The camera is nothing fancy or exciting, just a camera for me to take some pictures. At 2 x 2 inches and sporting a maximum resolution of 640x480, I won't be taking pictures suitable for Playboy's glossy pages, but I will be able to take pictures to put on my website. It's enough to get me by for a little while. And who knows, maybe I'll be able to get something better for Christmas. Probably not though, as I've asked Santa for a Game Cube in preparation for the new Zelda soon to be released in the first quarter of 2003.

So that's where I'm at right now. Pretty much where I've been, just a different color paint on the walls.

designmethod:bling bling
Version 3 rules, if I do say so myself.

'The Web's Missing Links'
I really dig the whole community aspect of the web, so this kind of stuff gets me all fired up. I'm constantly checking my referrer logs to see where people are coming from when they visit as well as checking through my raw Apache logs for other fun information such as where in the world my visitors live.

As the web has grown and matured, information has become easier to get and collect, but we still don't know what we're looking for when we have it. So you're on a bunch of people's blogrolls. So what? I think there's a lot of interesting things in the answer to that question, I just don't know how to find them yet.

As well as:
i is not for indian
i is i
i is for 'idiot

Check out googlism. It's neat.

Well, I've landed a new job. I am now officially a contracted consultant for a technical consulting and placement agency in Boston. I'll be posting more details as I get them, as I work through the start-up paperwork, etc, and as I get to be not quite so tired.

I've also bought a new car and a new digital camera. Again, more details soon. I love you all, more than life itself, but you're all fucking mad. I still love you though. I'll write more as possible, and please, do the same.

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report
Zeldman is on the process of re-designing, and damn is it sweet. Clean, crisp, elegant, but fancy (check those rotating images). A work in progress, but stay tuned over the next few days as Zeldman has been doing things and then explaining them, giving even advanced designers food for thought.

Yes, it's true. I love Zeldman.

dive into mark:Club vs. Lojack solutions
This is a great read. Mark has a way of using (or at least pointing out) some wonderful analogies.

I haven't been hit by the spammed comments, however, I have been gotten by the spam referrers (I think). I get a good number of referrers, but very few comments, which may be the reason.

Mark is a big fan of conversation on the web, and comments are a good way to drive that, however, the people he "converses" with mostly do so by posting on their own blogs, creating things he can see. However, what if you don't have your own blog, but still want to be part of his conversation? You could try email, but that might not be very permanent, which is something Mark likes. Comments on a blog, for me, are just like posts, and if done correctly (ie, look elsewhere because I haven't gotten that far yet) can even be permalinked, just like a post, with anchor tags and all.

I don't know what I'm trying to say here besides the fact that I personally feel like comment systems are a big part some web communities, and are a necessary and important part. I'd hate to see the spammers get them. Maybe the lo-jack solution for this is some legal action: place some really blatant warnings about what can and can't be posted in your comments, wait for a spammer, and then nail them in court as loudly and publicly as you can. This isn't a good solution for those of us who can't afford it, but might set a lo-jack like precedent. Some people have already won on the spam front (such as the guy who got nailed for faxing people junk). Might work here as well.

Ars Technica: Inside the IBM PowerPC 970
Very in-depth and filled with complicated technical details. Worth the effort you put into it, giving a good description of the technical differences between the 970, existing G4 and P4.

I'm really looking forward to the new processor, because I think it will put Apple much further ahead in the technology race than they are now. Another year to polish OS X more and then a new architecture to dump it on so it'll scream? I'll definitely be saving for a mac...

Military & Aerospace Electronics Current Articles
This is all well and good, but what happens if it gos crazy? what if it's ability to repair cracks turns into an ability to disolve anything it touches, turning into sludge? Not very far fetched when you consider that it would need some ability to create something usable for filling the cracks it would repair. I'm still quite a bit scared about nano-technology to be too supportive of it...

Slashdot | Cathy Rogers Responds Without Crashing
Interesting read, if you liked Junkyard Wars. I enjoyed that show a lot. Even though no one asked about whether or not the junk was seeded with certain items relative to the given episode's challenge (they'd almost have to be) some of her comments (such as this one "it is easier to do the american shows because american people are more 'tv-articulate' - they understand what is required for tv" in regard to which show was easier to do) are interesting. Especially since most of the episodes make her seem like eye candy as opposed to the intelligent woman this interview makes her out to be.

Patriots lose. : (
Bills win. : )
World Series game 7, the only game out of the seven million in the season that matters.

Link with Mozilla's window.getSelection() Method
Maybe I'll find the answer to my javascript question from the other day within this article (requires free registration) detailing the use of the window.getSelection method of Mozilla based browsers. Stay tuned.

XML-Journal - Co-Inventor of XML Says Office 11 is "A Huge Step Forward for Microsoft"

'Duck in Noose' Reference Explained
I was curious about that myself...

ESPN.com: NFL - Power Rankings week 8
When the Patriots first traded Bledsoe to the Bills, people said "Damn they're assholes." Why? Because you only trade a quarterback to a team in your own division when you think he'll never be able to hurt you from there. You're basically saying "We know you're good, but you're not that good, and neither are they, so have fun, we'll take your cap money, have a nice life." I said from the beginning Drew got screwed, that he was still a great QB, and that he just didn't fit here anymore, but that didn't mean he was a has-been.

The quote from the Power Rankings for this week near the Bills: "We're not saying the Patriots shouldn't have traded Drew Bledsoe, but they might be questioning where they traded him."

My words exactly.

O'Reilly Network: Building Online Communities
This is a great article. It points out many thngs that we assume or understand implicitly about web communities (such as people's sense of owenership of the community) but never say outloud ans sometimes forget.

Helping with a community just about to get off the ground, thinking about restarting an older one, and being part of the one that exists in the blogosphere, I'd have to say I'm a pretty active community participant, at least as far as building them. My contributions after that leave a little to be desired, but as long as others get something from the experience, it all works out.

[H]ard|Forum - P4 direct die water cooling.
This rules. I wish I had that much time on my hands...

The Weblog MetaData Initiative
This is an interesting project. I came across it a while back, meant to participate, and forgot about it with work and everything else going on. Then I found it again (via algorhythm) and they had actually started to do some things, so I checked it out, and started to skim the forums.

It looks interesting, with as far as I can tell three main goals: create a spec for data about a blog, create a spec for sharing that data, and creating a reference server to store, retrieve, collect, and hand out the data.

Couple of things I noticed: this seems to overlap some things that Mark has been discussing, such as the changing forms of syndication, the costs involved (read bandwidth usage and user understanding), FOAF, etc. I almost ownder if the WMDI crowd isn't overlooking some important parallel projects and recreating the wheel.

I agree that this is a project that would be reall interesting, and one that I'd like to help with, but I haven't gotten involved yet, so I can't complain. I think it's great that people are doing things and trying things. That's the only way they get done. I think it would be cool, though, if some of you would peruse the stuff they've done so far and leave me some comments about what you think. You guys are smart and you all have different backgrounds, and therefore different vantage points. Don't be scared of the technology, some of it is a little foggy to me, too. Concentrate on the theory: sharing data about a blog and its author, and let me know what you think.

honduh
With the cars I've owned, I've never had one that didn't leak profusely through the winshield. Screw the seats, just keep me dry!

via Jasmeet

Yeah he's going to!

Mark has some comments about the bandwidth being taken up on his site by people using aggregators to collect his RSS feeds. He also has some insightful commentary about "everything old [being] new".

When you look at that, and then add in this article about a microcontent client the web seems to be a different place, and I don't know if I like it. I mean, I appreciate the niceties of being able to have everyone else's content the way I want it in my own little aggregator and all, but I check out magazines for their smelly, glossy pages, and I appreciate the way a site's design influences the way you feel about the author and the site. I mean, by rights, writing should stand for itself, but that's traditional writing. On the web, links, images, and graphics as well as audio and eventually video all play a part, and I don't see that being included with RSS feeds, or with the microcontent client.

Maybe I missed something, I'm not paying close enough attention or whatever. That happens. I like the web for each individual site, though. I tried ampheta desk and didn't really see the point. I guess I'm just weird.

Wired 10.11: Power Houses
I can't wait until I'm a millionairre (and I will be someday). Greta article by Wired, finishing up with a how to wire your own home for $20,000 parts list. Anyone got a Xanboo XAS135 acoustic sensor I could have cheap?

MSDN Magazine Article on XML-Based GUIs
What complete bullshit. I can't believe they get away with this shit. You're right Dave. Now I'm pissed too.

American Idol was over and I was looking for a new show to watch. Flipping channels, I stumbled across Push, Nevada. "That show is so stupid," my mother said.

Now as anyone knows, when your mother says something is stupid it means 1) you have to see/do it and 2) you'll probably like it. I watched Push, and I dug it.

So now I'm hooked, but according to the ABC website, the series finale is this Thursday. Bastards. I mean, I know it's up against CSI, and I admit, I tape Push and watch CSI, but cancelled? Already? That sucks. It never even had a chance to get off the ground.

In any case, Push, Nevada is the story of an IRS agent who recieves a fax from an unknown indivudal containing information hinting at some illegal financial activity. Our agent, Jim Prufrock, investigates only to fall into the middle of something that seems like it exists in the same universe as Pulp Fiction. The camera work is wild and edgy, the story line twisted and perverse, the action strange and captivating. For some background, you can check out enochonline.com (which doesn't work in mozilla).

As an aside, there's a contest involved, where if you can guess the amount of the money stolen in the show based on hints given in each episode, you can win it. Enochonline has a lot of extras that are supposed to help you figure out the right amount. I never really paid attention to all of that, but I did think the show itself was worth watching.

Today's lesson: just when you think you know, you find out you just don't know.

I started trying to write some javascript that adds bold and italic tags to a selection in a textarea. If you check out the comments section at a place like kottke's site, you'll see what I'm looking for. Problem is that there, and in Movable Type, it only works in versions of IE. Now from what I've read, it should be possible to do using a combination of window.getSelection and the selection attributes, but I'm a little confused as to how to access the attributes of a selection. Documentation seems to be sketchy, consisting of some documented interface code with no examples and some pages claiming that the getRange functions are broken in Mozilla. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

Doonesbury Town Hall and Web Presence- Daily Dose
Via Mark

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report
This will probably be the biggest blogdex link in about five more hours, if it's not already: Zeldman is re-designing his site. Having existed since 1996, he's got a lot to re-work, if he chooses to go that route (which I'm pretty sure he won't). It should be interesting to see how it all works out, him getting paid tons of money to teach other people to re-design and all.

Testing some changes to the referrer listing code.

Help
Anyone know why the Radio Community Server puts two entries in my referrer page when I make a new post? I'd be curious to know.

Ah, the Patriots. I haven't posted about them in a while because there hasn't been much to post about, besides them losing. They started out strong, or so we thought: they destroyed the Steelers, the Jets, and then scraped by against the Chiefs. The problem? The Steelers, Jets, and Chiefs have losing records. We thought we were proving ourselves and it turned out we the teams everyone thought would rule the NFL this season are in the basement with the Lions. All we proved was that we were mediocre and not terrible.

The Patriots kept most of the players who were hear last year. We're basically the same team. The question is: was last year luck? Or are we just not playing up to our potential? I think its the latter, but that doesn't make it any better. Just look at the Rams.

The season is far from over and there are a lot of games left, however we need to turn it around now. The bye week this year came at a good spot, at the corssroads, giving us the opportunity to make or break our season. I'm looking forward to next week to find out.

In other news, there's the Bills. I've watched almost every Bills game so far, feeling that we didn't do right by Bledsoe by tossing him out like we did. He's the only player I've ever followed when they left Boston, and he's proven that it's worth my time to keep my eye on him. The Bills games have proven to be exciting and fast paced, and they've been winning. It's good to see Bledsoe back in the game, doing his thing, and looking like a champ. He didn't get too much of that here in New England.

In any case, here's to football and to the rest of the season. I hope it gets a little better.

CD collector craves other's trash
I think this falls into the "Don't encourage them" category. I don't want AOL sending me anymore CD's and this girl needs to get a life. Now if she was shooting those CD's through cars, that would be different...

Phoenix Help
I've been using Phoenix for about two weeks now and I'm enjoying it so far. I'm a big fan of the personal toolbar, using it to store folders containg categories of links. I did this in Netscape, then Mozilla, and now in Phoenix. In Phoenix, though, I can launch all links in a given folder into tabs in one window: all news links at once, all blogs at once, etc. I can minimize the window, let it load in the background, and then skim through everything at once. This has to be one of the greatest features added in recent browser history, behind tabbed browsing itself. I can't wait for Thunderbird, Phoenix's sibling mail reader to come out.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the real benefit of the way that Mozilla was developed: the initial gruntwork is done now, allowing people to expand and innovate on those ideas to create new and better applications. Congrats to the Phoenix developers, and good luck with future releases.

Hardware Analysis - Building a High-Performance Web Server -
This article goes into depth about the concerns involved in building a server for a database driven site. Very in-depth, but doesn't really cover alternative configurations for other tasks.

Ind. man builds pumpkin-shooting cannon
This rules. I only wish they had some video showing it in action.

Google Search: stoned chicks
This rules. In other stupid Apple comercial news, there's another commercial that's been on TV sporting what seems to be Ellen's high male friend (he too is a student). What is Apple trying to say? You have to be high to dig an iMac?

I got to see a little World Series baseball tonight, specifically the top of the 4th inning. Washburn, pitching for the Angels, walked two after allowing a hit, loading the bases. The second walk was quite a struggle, with Washburn having thrown maybe 15 pitches (that's what it seemed like, although I could be wrong; I didn't keep count). Finally, he forced the next batter to pop-up to end the inning.

The last couple of time I've tried to watch baseball, I've noticed that the game has seemed slow and a little un-interesting. Doesn't even matter who's playing, I just can't get into it. This was different. Washburn's pitching was great fun to watch. It made me wish I was back at school drinking some beer and watching the game with my friends. Let's hope this season ends with some exciting World Series baseball.

The Spectator.co.uk: They Want to Kill Us All

glassdog.HOME: Totally Made-up Words

I managed to binarytoybox.com today using my kyocera 2235 cell phone with mobile web access by Verizon. I tried to post, but the Movable Type interface was a little too advanced for my phone to figure out. If I can find a decent way of obtaing one, I'll try to post a screenshot/picture soon.

Once again, I have a cold. My eyes hurt, my throat is sore, and I can't think straight because of my sinus related headache. Damn it: when the hell will we have a cure for the common cold?

Related: gregstorey.com: This Big.

Emptybottle.org: Day 5
I've been reading Chris' posts about his friend Rick over the last few days, and like Cory, his experience with the latest terrorist attack (and there's no doubt in my mind that this was terrorists) has made all of this so much more personal.

Now don't get me wrong, I was deeply affected by the 9-11 attacks. The plane that went down in PA hit only about 50 miles away from where I sat, completely oblivous until 10:30 AM, in a classroom at college. My friends went and visited the site that very night. An alum from Juniata had been taking a test in another building that day, or he would have been in the WTC. A woman from my hometown died on one of the planes. Some of the planes flew out of Logan, the very airport that I occasionaly used to fly to and from school, located in my home state. Babson, where my sister goes to school, had many alumni die. Yes, the 9-11 attack hit home for me.

The attack in Bali, having happened on the opposite side of the world, has also hit me hard. Partly because the pain of 9-11 and the fear and anxiety associated with terrorism is still so raw. Yet, the biggest reason, is Chris' friend Rick.

I don't know Rick, except in the way Cory knows him: through Chris. Yet, last Friday and again yesterday, as I awaited confirmation of the safe landing of Northwestern Airline's flight 303 (the flight my mother and two aunts took to and from the west coast), I felt a tiny piece of what Chris has been feeling as he waited for news about his friend. Even though myy family landed safely, I was nervous while they were in the air, worrying about all the possible outcomes, hoping for a happy one.

As the sniper operates in the US and terrorists continue to work throughout the world, every day has the potential for danger, fear, and loss. However, every day also holds the potential for meeting new people, learning about others, and living out our lives however we'd like. As long as we're not afraid.

Like Cory, I read and enjoy Chris' blog, and I miss his usual topics and outlook. My thoughts go out to all those who have been affected by terrorism, and I wish Chris' friend Rick a thorough and speedy recovery.

dive into mark: Guess what this means

lgf: They Want to Kill Us All
I would have linked to Steyn's article, if it had loaded.

This summary of why the terrorists do what they do is the one that I'd say most closely matches my beliefs. They don't want to accomplish any politcal or social agenda, they just want to kill us. And when you look at it like that, as far as I'm concerned it's kill or be killed. Personally, as much as I'd like to change some aspects of my life, I'd definitely like to keep living. That leaves only one option: hunt those damn terrorists until they're all dead.

kottke.org :: home of fine hypertext products
If I'd only known Kottke was going to be in Nantucket, I would have invited him to dinner!

a day late and a :: dollarshort.org
I'm really digging the new design at dollarshort.org, especially the elsewhere calendar at the top of the page. If it weren't for the fact that I have a conscience, I'd steal it and replicate it here.

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: Pixelism
Zeldman on pixel perfect design.

Creating Applications with Mozilla
This book, which can be purchased in print or read online for free, is about building a Mozilla based application. The original browser wars began because Microsoft was afraid that the Netscape browser would become a platform which would turn Windows into a commaodity and strip MS of its biggest cash cow. Mozilla could make that platform theory a reality, with this book being big step in that direction.

IBM unveils 64-bit PowerPC microprocessor
I'v mentioned the different reports about Apple moving to Intel based processors a few times in the past. This week, thought, IBM announced they'll be releasing a new PowerPC processor, which is what Mac's use currently. In the past Motorola has been designing Apple's processors, a process which has caused Apple to fall far behind in the megahertz race.

I think this is a good idea merely because it encourages competition. OS X vs Windows, Intel vs IBM, etc. More competition means better products (in theory) and that means bigger and better ways to use technology. Sweet.

I haven't finished reading this, but I'm posting it so I'll remember to: The Secret Life of Markup.

mozdev.org - composite

When upgrading to the latest version of Movable Type, I filled out a survey about what things I'd like to see in future versions. I mentioned having bold, italic, and link buttons in the post entry forms for quicker editing and insertion of url's. Today I came across this extension for Mozilla which allows you to click in a textarea, hit control-e on your keyboard, and then have a small composer window that you can edit in. For those of you out of the loop, it's like being able to write your posts in Dreamweaver. Then, today at the library I brought up Movable Type in IE only to find those little buttons I had asked for already there. Made me jealous, but not enough to use IE.

algorhythm
In a blogosphere filled with blogrolls and frilly design, this site caught my eye. Designed by Mark, it's clean and easy to read, placing the emphasis on the writing and not how many links can be crammed onto a page. I wish I could go this route, but alas: I have some link-whoreish tendencies. Ah well. I don't write as nicely as Shawn at algorhythm, so maybe it all works out in the end.

Eric Meyer on CSS: Tricking Browsers and Hiding Styles
Are you working on a site that needs to degrade gracefully in older browsers while still making use of advanced CSS in modern ones? This article is for you then. Meyer goes into detail about how to keep browsers alive by only giving them what they understand. Good quick read with good examples and explanations.

dive into mark/October 16, 2002: The myths of web accessibility

Having a family member who has numerous disabilities (not yet to the point where these issues are important) makes me even more aware. I've tried to incorporate the different suggestions Mark mentions. However, not everyone is directly touched by someone who benefits from this type of good design, so it's important for people like Mark to continue to support it. I do my part by causing hell for people who illegally park in handicapped spaces, and Mark advocates good design principles. I mean hey, we all do what we can, right?

Looks like Dawn got her wish, as Defense Secretary Rumsfeld gave the green light for use of military surveillance equipment in the sniper investigations. I agree with Dawn: our tax dollars are paying for a lot of equipment that could help.

I'd also like to say that I've heard numerous reports (the latest on MSNBC) stating that this guy is not necessarily a trained sniper. The guns that he could be using are all extremely accurate weapons and could be the criminal in this case isn't shooting from that far away.

Based on the fact that this guy is still loose, I don't think its going to be the police who crack the case. I think either the bastard will make a mistake, or someone will point the cops to him. Until this happens, I think we'll see more killings. I'm just not convinced that the authorities involved have shown very much skill. Maybe things haven't changed as much as they'd like us to believe post 9-11.

If this guy had been using his other hand to shine his laser, he'd have been all set.

I'd like to draw your attention to the right hand sidebar where you'll now find links to the five latest comments. Specifically, today, take a look at Dave's comment.

First of all, Dave, I have a small community here, so I can't be too picky. However, if you could tone down the caps a little I'd appreciate it.

Secondly, I'm not sure, but I'm bet the sniper isn't just taking aim from the nearest sidewalk. I'm sure having a quarter of the population of DC filming everything might get something on tape, but the cops would have to watch tons of video with no idea what they were looking for, nevermind the fact that someone would have to have the camera pointed in the right direction at the right time to get anything worth even looking at. Can you say "needle in a haystack"?

Finally, I'm pretty sure you could have come up with something better than "jerks" to describe these fucking losers. If not, maybe you should swing by pottymouth.

I hope if you come back, Dave, you're not pissed at me for the things I've said. It's just that I have really strong opinions about these rejects of society and the stupid bastards trying to catch them. I'm also not to happy with the media's sloppy intervention, and I'm convinced there are already one too many cameras involved making things more difficult than they should be. Sorry I took out my frustrations on you.

A while ago, I mentioned that I had started reading Six Days of War, by Oren. Last night I finally finished it.

It was definitely hard to get into. The first section of the book sets up the background for the war. It was hard to keep all of the names straight because to my unexperienced American ears, the Arab names all sound the same. However, the more I read, the more familiar I became with the different players, and the more it made sense.

It's said that history repeats itself, and this book is a perfect example. After many guerilla raids and terrorist strikes against Israel, many threats from the Arab world and many attempts by the Israelis to reach peace through political methods instead of war, there was no other choice. Israel struck first, destroying the entire Egyptian army and humiliating the Soviets, the Syrians, the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Iraqis, and more. I found the details of the battle to be extremely interesting, however the political struggles that went on behind the scenes were also enthralling.

I'm glad that I invested the time and effort to finish this one. It was well worth it, giving me at least a little bit more knowledge about why we are where we are today.

In closing, I think I'm hooked. Anyone know of any books that look at the time from 1967 to the present in the Middle East? I'd appreciate it.

Up Yours - More Tolkien Goodies
I can't wait for the new LOTR movie to come out either. The first one was really good, capturing much of Tolkien's world the way I had imagined it, minus the depiction of some of the elves. I've read the series many times, enjoying it more and more each time. Tolkien's son has published a series of books about the books, which I'll pick up in the near future. They describe how Tolkien came up with his ideas and what happened in his life as he wrote. There are also a number of books that elaborate on side shoots from the main tale, such as The Tolkien Reader. I'm also eagerly awaiting the re-release of the Fellowship DVD due out in November, as it will have a lot of new footage.

The only thing I didn't agree with in Dawn's post was the comment about coming back as Diane Lane in the picture she linked. Personally, I'd like to come back as that guy (notice how I didn't make any puns with the word come; I'm so well behaved sometimes).

Oh, and by the way, this post is my first attempt at using the trackback functionality of Movable Type.

Selling newspapers in a Jimmy Eat World
I've always enjoyed Dave Barry. His dry, sarcastic, educated humor is funny, to me at least (even when he doesn't explain who Stalin is in his column).

I found this piece entertaining as well as disturbing. Dealing with my sister each day, who happens to be in eleventh grade and not eigth has taught me that even if he is making this stuff up, its not far from the truth. In Massachusetts, students now have to pass a standardized test representing the body of knowledge they should have learned and mastered throughout their education before they are awarded their high school diploma. In my town they celebrate going from 35 percent failure to 33 percent failure. And that's good, compared to the rest of the state.

What can you do? I think the answer lies in technology. Today's kids have brains that operate much differently than their parents' because of MTV, the internet, video games, and the general explosion of technology throughout the world. Education should take advnatage of that, creating multimedia based curricula that allow students to progress at their own pace, to learn about concrete exmples and applications, and to follow educational paths that interest them.

I'm not saying we should do away with the basics such as English, Math, and Reading. I'm saying these should be taught in the framework of an education that is built for each individual student, which is now possible through appropriate use of technology. Teachers then become more like reference librarians, guiding students to information sources that interest them and encouraging them as they pursue their own educational goals. Maybe that would help get their attention, helping them to enthusiastically explore and experience the huge body of human knowledge in new and exciting ways.

eBay: FOR SALE: TWO MEN!!!

Yeah. Add this one to the "messed up shit on ebay" file.

For the second time in my life, someone said that to me. The first time was after I played an elaborate joke on one of my roommates. I switched his right and left mouse buttons and then sent him an email telling him there was a new virus out that switched your mouse buttons and then destroyed your hard drive. Being slightly promiscuous, it was even funnier when he yelled through the suite "J, I have the virus!"

In any case, the other day I had to install a CD burner for someone, then my grandmother's computer got a virus, and then I tried to install a hard drvie for somone else. I've spent so much time working on other people's computers, I've barely had time to work on my stuff. I did get the search engine for MT working, but the result sets are a little flaky. I'll fix that in time. I have a few other things to post about, but I haven't had a chance to get to it. Basically, I'm tired and beat and can't focus. It sucks to be me.

In any case, I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I drive my mom to the airport so she can go to Vegas, and driving into Logan is never fun. I'll need my rest. Hope you all are doing well out there in blogger land.

And by the way, in honor of me driving to Bean Town tomorrow, here's a wicked good link for you.

A summary of great links:
The earth spins in the wrong direction
Squeeze one of Barney's hands to make sure he's awake.
Spewing shit
More to come about my zipzap
My mom told me this would happen
WTF?
Geek fun

I've completed the upgrade to Movable Type 2.5. It seems to have gone pretty smoothly. I'm not taking advantage of much more than the ability to ping blo.gs (which I had to go in to my preferences and set for those of you who'd like to do that as well). I didn't try the new default stylesheet, so I don't know if it includes a search box by default, but I know this version has it. So, what I'm saying is: Look for the ability to search this site in the near future.

This concludes this test of the emergency broadcasting system... or something like that...

Oh, and yeah: MT 2.5 is out (It figures that I've been waiting for it nonstop for the last few weeks and it finally comes out and I didn't even notice until Mark mentioned it. Anyway, I'll be upgrading tomorrow, so pay attention for some changes (This means you!).

I have a bunch of things to say, but I'm too tired. Look for stuff tomorrow, since I have the day off.

I've had a low bio-rhythm lately. On top of that, messed up things have been happening. That leads to a good deal of morbid thinking.

There's a woman at work who's 80 years old. On Friday she got dizzy and collapsed. Having heart problems, she immediately asked us to give her one of her nitro pills. We did, she got better, we sat her in a chair, and she passed the fuck out.

I'm not talking a little faint here, I'm talking swallow her tongue, roll her eyeballs, and then go completely still like she had died. Face was green and everything. We're talking to her, saying "Stay with us! Come back! It'll be ok!" and she's acting all dead. I was pretty freaked out. I mean, I'm no EMT, I'm a friggen dock worker for Christ sakes! If I thought for even one second I could save lives, I'd go flunk a CPR class or something. I have no business giving old women nitro pills and calling them back from the Great White Light.

Anyway, she proceeds to lurch forward spewing vomit in all directions and then to sit up and stare at us like nothing had happened. Being rational individuals (if five people running in circles and screaming around a woman in a wheelchair who looks dead is rational) we called 911. The cops show up with the paddles, she's ok by now and talking to them, and they take her to the ER for observation. Pablo the janitor (I don't think that's his name, but he is Mexican) cleans the puke and the manager tells us all to go back to work. Yeah right.

This whole episode made me realize a few things. First, people are like my car. They run ok most of the time, but you don't always no when they're going to break, and don't open them when they're hot cause then they spew liquid everywhere and you have to wash it away with the hose. Second, you never know what's going to happen next. You could die at any second of any day. That's right, Fuck You optimism. Three, EMT's, medics, and other emergency personnel are way under appreciated and taken for granted. We assumed that as soon as we dialed 911, heroes would come flying through the door seconds later, dropping everything they were doing and coming to our rescue. On Friday they did, but what if they'd been busy? Thank you EMT's. I love you.

Spoon?

This is messed up. One of the guys I work with thinks they're practicing to take out the President. Makes you wonder what's next, eh?

I came close. Fear the death ray.

Capital Influx: Stop or We'll Use the Death Ray!

Capital Influx
For Cory.

announcing weeklyDV.com

This looks like it could be a bunch of fun. I wish I had a DV camera so I could try it. That has to be the biggest drawback to not being a student: lack of access to free equipment. Oh well. If you enjoy working with digital video, you should check this out. If not, you should at least view the final projects on Thursday.

StarCraft: Ghost

So I read somewhere, maybe on slashdot that computers would soon become obsolete as gaming platforms due to the fact that gaming consoles are getting better and better. After viewing the demo for Madden 2003 on the X Box and Playstation 2, I would have to agree. I mean seriously: any game that needs a whole fucking keyboard as well as a mouse and a joystick in order to play has been designed by Satan himself in order to spread carple tunnel like the bubonic plague.

A few weeka ago at a different email address I got a message from Blizzard. Stupid me, I didn't read it right away. Blizzard has begun designing a new console game. Stunning? Not merely because it's by Blizzard for a console, since they re-released other titles on various gaming systems. However, all of their games have been released for computer first. Blizzard is an incredible company, releasing games infrequently, but when they do, look out. I may be wrong, but I think every game they've released has been given some award during its first year (usually best game, duh) and sells a buh-zillion copies. Blizzard, in short, rules. If they think the PC is dead as a gaming platform, and they must have some doubts based on their development strategy for Ghost, it very well may be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now if the next version of Quake is PS2 only, it's definitely all done.

lgf: Virgins Asked to Contribute

As if Kelly Clarkson would find my site someday and then have the patience to read through it looking for references to herself. I mean, I'm sitting here waiting in eager anticipation, but please.

PS: I'm posting in relation to the comments. I don't have anchors in my comments yet, so I can't link to any one in particular. There aren't many though, so feel free to scroll down and check them out. You'll find the one I mean.