November 2003 Archives

I installed the session saver plugin for Firebird based on a recommendation by Asa. I tried it out a little tonight, and I think its great. It basically stores all open tabs so you can reload them next time you open your browser. I've wanted this feature for a while, as I constantly have a number of tabs open that I haven't finished reading, and bookmarking the pages are collecting the link for the next time I'm on is a pain. If you have similar problems, you should check it out.

A company has invented a new gear box for bikes that allows the chain to run inside the frame, allowing for more durable frames with fewer delicate parts being exposed. I think this is pretty sweet, making great additions to everday products, so here are some links: A picture of a bike with the integrated shifting unit, the gear box's website, a picture of the unit, another close up of the integrated unit.

As always, for othre bike related things, check out Bigha.

I had seen Rob's Fishing Alien once before, but I hadn't seen his other projects until today when I got the link to his site from James. Check it out. This guy sure is good with his hands and some paper mache.

Once again, Mark Pilgrim says that we're acting like we're the first with problems, paying no attention to what's happened before us. This time, his essay is on weblog spam.

The low barrier is exactly the problem here. We got away with it (please, come post random links on my site which is well indexed, poorly managed, and open to unlimited anonymous contributions!) because we were collectively very young and naive and thought no one could hurt us. Now it’s like we’re turning 30 and being told we need to go on a diet and asking, "Well when can I go back to my old eating habits?" Um, you can’t. Your old eating habits don’t work anymore.

Pilgrim is a smart guy, and his essay has a number of good points in it. You should check it out.

As a side note on the topic of comment spam, one of the theories is that it's easy to target MovableType blogs because their comment forms tent to be so similar. What if instead of naming the comment fields, the MT application used generated keys? The labels would allow them to be useful to people and technologies for the disabled, but the underlying id changes might be enough to make the process more difficult for abusers. Just a thought.

I'd like to congratulate Jon on how well he did in the ReUSEIT contest. He even got a front page mention over at Zeldman's site. Jon's a good friend and a great person to work with. After recently celebrating a new son, this is just icing on the cake for him. Stop by and drive his traffic up a little, I'm sure he'll appreciate it!

Over at sylloge, Stuart talks about a message he received on IM. The circumstances are weird, involving a google search and some luck. It brings up an interesting point: with the technical intelligence of some internet users being so low it's very easy for them to be mislead. It's surprising that social engineering hackery is not more wide spread, as stories like Stuart's seem to point to it being very successful.

Anatomy of Cross Site Scripting. I haven't read this yet (it got slashdotted and I couldn't get to it), but it looks to be interesting.

The first Jedi was reported in Star Wars Galaxies. I've never really gotten into the MMORPG games, however the new Final Fantasy and the Star Wars Galaxies are definitely piquing my curiousity. I may just have to try it out.

I had a chance to read an article at the Harvard Business Review entitled "Contextual Marketing: The Real Business of the Internet". It's pretty good. From the search result page:

The painful truth is that the Internet has been a letdown for most companies--largely because the dominant model for Internet commerce, the destination Web site, doesn't suit the needs of those companies or their customers. Most consumer product companies don't provide enough value or dynamic information to induce customers to make the repeat visits--and disclose the detailed information--that make such sites profitable. Instead of trying to create destinations that people will come to, companies need to use the power and reach of the Internet to deliver tailored messages and information to customers. Companies have to become what the authors call "contextual marketers." Delivering the most relevant information possible to consumers in the most timely manner possible will become feasible, the authors say, as access moves beyond the PC to shopping malls, retail stores, airports, bus stations, and even cars. The authors describe how the ubiquitous Internet will hasten the demise of the destination Web site--and open up scads of opportunities to reach customers through marketing "mobilemediaries," such as smart cards, e-wallets, and bar code scanners.

If you have a chance to read the whole article (for instance if you can request it from the library), check it out. It's interesting and thought provoking. I hope to have more to say on this shortly.

Meg has an interesting post about hearing that someone she knew a while back passed away. When I was in high school I played a lot of pool. There was this one guy who was really good, always taking my money. He taught me a lot. Shortly before I left for college we played and I won, he owed me twenty bucks. While at school, I happened to get an IM from a mutual aquaintance and I said jokingly that he should remind Mike about the money he owed me. That was when he told me Mike had died in a car accident. He couldn't have been more than 18 years old.

I had another friend who graduated high school a year or so ahead of me. He was in the Pentagon on 9-11, but got out safe. That weekend he died in a car accident. When it's your time, it's your time.

It's strange how in both cases I wasn't extremely close to either person, but it reminds you of your own mortality. Life works in strange ways sometimes.

And on that depressing note, I'm out. Leave your stories if you'd like.

Chicago-based artist Jason Salavon typically generates or reconfigures large collections of communal data to present new perspectives on familiar objects. Using software processes of his own design he produces compositions that are most often exhibited as art objects, such as photographic prints and video installations.

Check it out. This stuff is amazing.

Did I tell you I got a fish tank? I don't think I did. Let me tell you about it.

When you start a freshwater aquarium with tropical fish, you need some equipment. In my case the tank, hood, filter, and heater were given to me by a family member who recently upgraded to a ten gallon tank. That meant I needed enough tank decorations to fill my new little five gallon apartment addition.

I bought white stones and some fake plants as well as some black granite rocks about the size of my fist with white and gold veins. I read that they might cause a problem because the gold was some type of metal and it would rust in the tank, but I didn't pay too much attention. I also bought a small air-pump and an aerator which I placed under the gravel.

After running the tank for three days to make sure everything was working properly I made my first attempt at purchasing fish. I bought three tiger barbs and a swordtail. After having the swordtail for a few days I decided it needed a friend, so I bought another. Now there are two things to know about new aquariums: one, you should have one inch of fish length per gallon of water and two, a tank "cycles" when you first set it up. During the cycling period, bacteria build up in the water forming what's known as a biological filter. This bio-filter is what breaks down fish waste as well as the bi-products of that process. Without it, your tank will need constant cleaning and your fish will have short life spans. With it you'll need less chemicals, fewer water changes, and your fish will live happier lives.

Shortly after being added to the tank, the second swordtail started growing fungus on its mouth. This is called cotton-mouth and requires treatment. The medicine I added to the tank turned the water neon green (think anti-freeze). To this day, the air-pump hose is stained green. In any case, the fish slowly started to get better, I eventually added more activated carbon to the tank to remove the green color, and after having the water checked at the local fish store thought everything was good. I was wrong.

The second swordtail died shortly after I finished its treatment. I purchased another one that ended up dying the same night. At this point I figured the first swordtail wasn't meant to have a friend. Within a week though the remaining swordtail began developing suicidal tendencies. I'd hear splashing noises and look in the tank to see the fish shoot out of the filter stream. He was jumping up it like a salmon spawning. Bad news.

After a few "upstream" trips the fish had managed to mangle his fins to the point where swimming was tough. He passed away a short while after.

Lets return to the tiger barbs. They seemed to be doing well, swimming around and enjoying life. More water checks at the fish store showed that the tank was mid-cycle and doing well. Good signs. I had read online that tiger barbs can be aggressive and mean. I hadn't noticed that. Yet.

Within a week of being the only fish in the tank, two of the tiger barbs began attacking the third. The tore his dorsal fin almost completely off, ate most of his tail fin, and chewed up his other fins. I added some stress coat to the tank to help strengthen him, but the other fish kept up their attacks. I tried removing one from the tank, but upon introducing it back the first thing it would do is take a bite out of the injured fish. I started to get more and more upset. Finally after a long time of watching the poor fish get picked on I got fed up and gave one of the aggressive tiger barbs a ride down the neverending porcelain whirlpool. Within hours the second tiger barb began attacking the injured fish all by itself. It went for a trip of its own. I was down to one fish.

To start the rebuilding effort, I bought a little cat fish. He was and still is my favorite. He pokes around munching things that fall to the bottom, minding his own business and sleeping a lot. My kind of guy. The remaining tiger brab started to grow back his fins. To fill the place up I bought three leopard spotted danios. They're very fast and animated. Fun to watch.

Things had been going well for a while and then two weeks ago I noticed a brown slime start to take over. It got worse and worse until I finally had to take the tank apart and clean everything. I replaced the metal veined rocks with a fake plastic log and added some more fake vegitation. Very traumatizing for the fish, but the tank is much cleaner and the inhabitants look happier.

That's my fish story. Right now I everything seems to be going well. The fish come to the top of the tank to see me when I feed them and they swim back and forth for me to watch. The tank building process has been complicated, but quite rewarding. I'd recommend it. Hell, maybe I'll even upgrade soon, and you can have my five!

Hey James: Sorry I haven't posted in a while. ; )