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.
Recently in Other Sites Category
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.
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.
I faithfully kept Bob's link in my bookmarks, checking it frequently for updates. Sure enough, he'll be writing again. I'm pretty excited. If you've never read his stuff before, you should check him out. Give his archives a shot too. His writing is excellent, well worth your time.
Root Envy :: Out of Town "The other day a Delta jet sucked a goose into one of its engines and lost the engine and splattered goose guts all over the side of the jet. Now, that would have been the plane to be on! Not only landing on one wing but goose guts. I mean, how much cooler does air travel get?"
I recently went and checked out the ninjai site again, and to my surprise I found new episodes had been posted. I was pretty excited, and made sure to watch all of them from the beginning.
I first found ninjai over a year ago. It's an animated series about a young and very skilled warrior. He's not sure who or what he is, and over the seven completed episodes he journeys through the land looking for clues.
What I find most interesting about the series is the evolution in technique. The first episode is obviously inferior to the most recent episodes, but they're all fun to watch. Personally, I'm extremely looking forward to the next episode.
One thing to note is that ninjai has gained in popularity, and therefore has repeatedly run into bandwidth cost issues. Although all of the episodes are currently available with minimal advertising, if history repeats itself the ninjai gang may pull the episodes at some point in the future until they find another way to host them at an affordable price. I hope this doesn't happen, but you should check them out now while you can. What are you waiting for? Get to it!
A quick update to this post: I got a message from Andy saying that he had received my mail, appreciated my suggestions, and would keep me posted on the results. He could have been mean and nasty and told me to leave him alone, or he could have ignored me completely. He did neither. Instead he wrote me a pleasant email. Thanks Andy.
One of the things that's interesting about this whole blogosphere is that the networks comprising it are small and tight and those who comprise them are interested in their position. You can post on your site and with just a few click throughs you create a trail that allows the person you're writing about to find your comments. It allows for interesting conversations to take place and have a history.
Twice I've used that damn contact form, and twice I've not even received an automated response. I admit, my first message was useless, but the second? I sent you the fix for your paying client's site! What's the deal?!?
Over at Modulo26, Andy posted about a recently finished site that he designed for a client. He mentioned that there was one IE display bug left to squash and said he couldn't nail it. I checked it out, and sure enough it seems like a job for the clear:both style.
Now not only does clear:both leap small buildings in a single bound, but it also fixes a large number of CSS layout problems. According to the W3C clear specifies if an element allows floating elements on its sides. What this means is that if you use clear:right, nothing floating will be allowed to the right of the object, forcing floating objects to the bottom of the styled object. In many cases this is needed to cause a background or container class to fully wrap a taller class.
I first learned of this style at A List Apart in the article Practical CSS Layout Techniques by Mark Newhouse. The article is excellent, and the style is an exceptionally important one to be aware of. It has helped Scott, Dave, me, and that baby from the car. When Andy finally gets his message from that seemingly useless contact form it will help him too.
These are the kinds of problems that crop up when working with CSS. They can be solved through a network of developers and designers willing to help each other out. The web provides that network. The web is a wondeful, wonderful thing.
Over at Raster Web Pete talks about how he doesn't get viruses very often and says it might be because his friends use good software. I'd have to add that if he gives suggestions, education, and training to family and friends, that also probably helps. I have friends and family who use crappy software, but by teaching them common sense things (i.e. don't open attachments with extensions such as .vb or .exe) you can make them better netizens.
samorost
You *HAVE* to check this out. Very much like Myst, only done in flash, this is an excellently done Flash movie. A short story about a little person trying to save their ship from destruction, the interactivity and graphics are captivating. A must click!
In Apple, DRM and me, Sean Yeager talks about some problems he had with music he purchased from the Apple Music Store after he moved to Canada. In short, due to some confusion and some miscommunication a large commotion ensued. In checking the two trackbacks on the article so far it seems like I caught the tip of the iceberg by reading Sean's post. In any case, the post is worth a read, and Sean's site worth a bookmark. His content is top-notch and engaging. Check it out.
Lance Arthur is working on a new site, at which he publishes more frequently. I've always found his writing entertaining. Check him out, maybe you'll like him too.
"Even expensive hookers are a thing of the past with Movable Type (although it doesn't go down as often as Blogger does)." says Kottke. I had to post it. It made me laugh out loud...
o2bee.com: woke up, it was a chelsea morning
Trials and tribulations of a woman who's mother has died of cancer. The posts are touching and sad, but easy to relate to if you've ever lost someone.
BTB is hosted by MongoHosting, where we get great hosting for a great price. However, Ron is running an amazing deal right now: Sign up for an account and pay only $25 a year for the lifetme of the account! You can't beat that. We're talking no setup fee, a free domain name, 1Gb of space, 5Gb of bandwidth a month, unlimited email accounts, and more! Ron's a great guy as well: always there to answer a question or fix your problems.
If you have any questions, feel free to drop him an email. If you'd like to sign up, stop by MongoHosting and fill out the form. If you do sign up, please mention that you were referred by me here at BinaryToybox. It never hurts to get into your hosts good graces!
Blogmedic : day to day in ems
You guys know I'm a fan of the Blogmedic, Andy Gienapp. Even the mundane day to day things interest me. The story of his career is a constant reminder that we take a lot of things for granted everyday, such as the fact that in an emergency there are people like Andy who will look after us.
Check out his blog if you haven't already. His stuff is an excellent read.
Cats are a strange breed of animal. Like dolphins, it seems as though the only thing they lack some days in comparison to humans is the ability to talk. They're mean, spiteful, lazy; I could go on and on. Cats are basically a combination of many people's worst traits.
I haven't read anything this funny involving a cat since Mark's post about turning thirty. Definitely worth a read, as are many of the other things "Bob" writes.
There's only one master of this house, you punkass little bitch, and he's the man who buys the groceries and pays the rent. We've got less than two weeks left together, and if you can't get this through that noxious fume-emanating head of yours during that time, I may have to make my own statement.
I've been reading Erik Benson's site for a few weeks now, and I'm hooked. The guy is a geek's geek. His latest post about queue theory as well as the post before it about FOAF and the hypothetical perfect architecture of software are both quite interesting. I'm fascinated by algorithm theory, so learning more about algorithms I'm already familiar with is always interesting. As for his post about FOAF, every geek dreams of perfect software. In this case, Erik goes a step further and maps out a specific application, and one that would be very intersting to see in motion. It fits in with the idea of a personal proxy, in that it automates some tasks and aids you with others while remaining unobtrusive and easy to use. If you ask me, there's not enough of those kind of applications in the world...
Blogmedic : day to day in ems
Andy's got a new post over at Blogmedic. Kind of gross, but I'm just glad he posted!
We need to support our troops, but at the same time, we need to remember our emergency staffers at home. People like Andy and the responders who cleared out the Park Street station earlier today are important too.
Things Bob Actually Does Know About Women:
He didn't do it, so someone had to. Above is a list of "Things Bob Actually Does Know About Women". I found Bob's site tonight by digging through the bottom half of Technorati. Note to the Technorati people: flip those newcomer and up and coming lists upside down and they become even more useful in my opinion. In any case, Bob knows a lot about women, and he's more insightful than I am. Check them out; not only will you be amused, but you'll be getting an education at the same time. Thanks Bob!
I recently found caterina.net and added it to my list of daily visited blogs. If you like words and literature, she's worth a read. You'll also find some links there that will interest you.
While I'm on the subject, check out this post for the "eew, gross... but interesting all the same" factor.
Stewart, over at Sylloge has some links about MMOGs for your perusal, but even better is a quote from Raph Koster, creator of Ultima online. A piece:
The consumers that are the future of [gaming] are everyday, ordinary people. Most of us in this technology-mad industry frankly have no contact with them. The technology we need to develop isn't the technology of more polygons or better 3d sound or more accurate simulations. It's the technology of people. Of giving them what they don't know they need.
As an aside, Stewart is an employee of Ludicorp, the company currently working on Game Neverending. His is full of insight not only into specific games, but the concept of gaming. Another blog worth checking out.
Brian Jepson's Radio Weblog
Brian Jepson lives near me. He also has neat things to say. Like this:
The Sony Ericsson Clicker adds a menu to your your Sony Ericsson phone that lets you control your Mac remotely. It's customizable through AppleScript, and the weirdest part is the proximity sensor. If you wanted to, you could have your Mac shriek out "Elvis has left the building!" every time you went out of range.
A new story at Blogmedic It's a shame this site doesn't get updated very often, as I enjoy it. It's a great look into what can be a thankless and harrowing job. Check it out.
Lance Arthur gives Kottke some advice and at the same time gives him a little teasing. I'm not gay, but I still love Lance.
glassdog.HOME
Sometimes I try out new HTML tags just to see if there are cool undocumented HTML tags like <poo> or <homer>, but so far... not so much.
Random Fixation
For the most part, Cory's blog has been moved into it's new home. It looks the same and tastes the same, it's just got a new address. Update your bookmarks as necessary, I'll get around to mine at some point. Yup Cory, you're now officially in the other sites category...
I think I'm gonna cry...
- Mac Addicts to the Rescue: A story about a stolen Mac and the hunt for the thief. I seem to remember something similar where the guy was able to log in remotely to his Mac while the thief was using it and prompted the person for some info ("You're a winner, give us your address!") in order to track them down. In any case, it's always to see someone get what they deserve.
- In the Future, We'll All Be Harry Potter: I'm not a big Nielsen fan, but this is a good article reminding us that we still have a long way to go to make out technology serve us, and not the other way around.
- A great new use of the Google API and SOAP: Another great use of the Google API for people using MT. It just goes to show that web services rock.
- Orisinal: Morning Sunshine: These are some great examples of Flash. Check out the games, but also make sure to scroll down to the bottom to check out the special effects. I'd like to see the code behind some of this.
Six Log
Ben and Mena's company site... In case you didn't know, Ben and Mena designed Movable Type. They're both really smart people, and this site is a great place to keep up on all things blogish.
v-2 Organisation | beauty. utility. balance.
Ok. I admit, I've been reading Adam's site more and more frequently over the last few days. This post in particular caught my eye, and has me thinking about a new project.
On the topic of projects, I'm finding the New Door list to the left quite interesting. Here's the deal. When Mark's New Door script comes along to make its recommendations, it grabs all the links on my page. It finds all the links it recommended yesterday sitting right there, grabs them up, and makes new recommendations. Slowly and cautiously, my circle of reading is being expanded. I wish there was a good way to depict this graphically, or to at least watch what's happening. Due to problems with my host, I can't create files on my server right now, otherwise I'd be storing the links for eah day. Ah well... I guess for now I'll just have to wait a few days...
Emptybottle
Chris has been doing some redesigning. I enjoyed reading his blog, and I miss it. Hopefully the fact that he's been messing with his layout means that even though he's been hurt, he's starting to mend a little bit. That's a good sign from a guy who lost a friend and who's been through a lot. Chris, if you read this, keep your head up man. We're thinking about ya.
dooce: qualifying for pacific northwestern citizenship
So last night I was in the bathroom at a movie theater in Monroe, Washington, and I'm finishing going #1 in one of the 10 stalls when somone probably four stalls down from mine lets out a fart that almost sends her flying up through the concrete in the ceiling, out the roof of the building. It was a five-syllable fart, a cockadoodledo fart, a fart that shook me and every other person in that bathroom out of our mortal coils.
[: VaxCave :]: Holy Sheetz!
This rules. What a great story!
dive into mark: How I turned 30
Man, as if the big 3 - 0 isn't enough of a milestone. I wonder if anyone makes cat diapers?
Other People's Stories
Found via Zeldman, this site looks pretty neat. Stories that have been overheard, illustrated. Worthy of more exploration.
www.gapingvoid.com : Hugh MacLeod
Personal publishing at its finest.
Registered Trademark thinks: But what if I really, really, really wanted to touch your boobs? And what if I was extra nice while asking? Would you let me then?
dooce thinks:
Chances are, if you are extra nice while asking, you're gay.
tonypierce.com busblog
So Tony Pierce is a Raider's fan, and like all the other Raiders fans, he wanted the Pats to lose on Sunday. And they did. I can't say I'm suprised, but I can say I wish it had turned out differently. The Pats played horribly for the first half, and then started to look a little better towards the end, bringing themselves within a touchdown. If there were only a few more minutes in that game.
I can make excuses all day: third road game, more injuries this year, putting the gloves on too late. The bottom line is we lost. Even lower than that bottom line, though, is that we won the Super Bowl last year. Pierce seems to think that the Patriots got to the Super Bowl but didn't deserve it. I think that's completely wrong. If the Raiders were so good last year, the snow bowl wouldn't have been close enough for a call (and I don't think a call made by using the rule book is bad) to change the game either way. I also think that the Patriots defeated the Steelers pretty solidly, and then the Rams pretty solidly. They may have got a break against the Raiders, but they beat the Steelers and the "greatest show on turf" solidly and fairly, just like the Raiders beat them on Sunday night.
In any case, even though I think Pierce is a little off on his opinion about the snow bowl last year (and as an obssesed fan, I can understand his devotion to his team and his belief that they were robbed, I mean why haven't the Sox won a World Series? Someone's been rigging our seasons...) I think he's got good taste in music. I too am enjoying Jay-Z's new CD's.
I picked them up last Wednesday, having to go to three stores before I found one that wasn't sold out. I brought it home and listened to a few of the tracks. Lots of different sounds, lots of things to explore. That's one of the things I love most about a new CD. You never know what that next track will sound like. Is the radio edit the same as the CD edit? Is that guest artist on track nine going to sound better than they do on their own shitty CD? You never know, and every new song is new territory for you to explore.
When I get a new CD, I usually listen to it once as background music, then again with headphones so I can actually listen to it. The more I've listened to these two discs, in my car, in my cube, on my stereo in my room, the more I've come to enjoy them. I'm not sure if this album is better than the Blueprint 1, or the unplugged CD (so far I like that one the best), but I recommend it if you're a Jay-z fan. It won't disappoint.
I've been reading Mena's site for a while now, almost as long as I've been running Movable Type. I think her site is pretty interesting, in that she's a pretty normal person aside from the fact that she and her husband, Mena and Ben, have created an application that is facilitiating communication across the web, has (behind blogger, as a step up from blogger, and as inspiration to others who write similar [and by that I mean content management systems] programs) stirred up a pretty big movement on the web. Aside from the fact that in my world she borders on a genius, she's a pretty normal woman, and funny too.
Anyway, this week she writes about a friend of hers who is trying to have a baby, and in doing so touches on some of her concerns about having children. At the same time that I was sad for her friend, I was quite amused by her stories, one of which involves covering kids in poop. You should check it out, it's pretty funny.
stevenberlinjohnson.com
With credentials like he's got, his blog will probably be interesting to keep an eye on. I'd comment on his piece about the Sims online, if I had time.
Things my girlfriend and I have argued about
This guy has practically written a novel about how awful his relationship with his girlfriend is. I thought it was mildly amusing/messed up. Then I accidentally moused over the pic of her. I'm still laughing.
Interacti.net
Yup. I managed to get someone else to install, setup, and start using MT. Share the love, I say.
As well as:
i is not for indian
i is i
i is for 'idiot
Check out googlism. It's neat.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I came close. Fear the death ray.
A fellow named Buster posted a link to this very site at danimation.com. I'd like to say hello to everyone visiting from there as well as thanks to Buster. Y'all feel free to leave comments and to let me know if there's things I could do to improve your experience here.
When I set up Cory's blog here, I did it because Cory had mentioned that he wanted to write again and I wanted to read what he wrote. What better way to get access to this kind of stuff other than to make it easy for him?
The Wonderchicken is posting again. Sweet.
Lance has a new essay up. I find myself laughing outloud when reading his work. Like Eminem says (Eminem? Lance? can you smell that irony?), he's only saying shit me and my friends joke about in our living rooms but don't say.
More from Blogmedic. With every post I read, I'm convinced that this is what the web is: people using personal publishing to make their voice heard whil at the same time educating us; Gienapp shows us what we take for granted with the assumption that we can call 911 any time for any emergency.
After not being able to troll the web for quite a few days now, I've stumbled upon quite a few reminders of what I was missing.
You have to feel for this poor guy. It's easy to associate with him. Think of your ex, divorced, or broken up, not many of us want to picture them with someone else, nevermind posted all over the internet. It makes you think. Geesh.
Blogmedic has been posting more frequently of late. This is what the web is all about.
Andy, the author of blogmedic is an EMT. He writes about his every day experiences from his job. He hasn't written much yet, but what is there gives a small insight into things that most of us take for granted. For many of us, emergencies don't happen all the time. For Andy, they're a way of life. His site is a perfect example of how personal publishing can help us have a better understanding of the world in which we live and the people who affect us each and every day.
For the writers who visit, whygodwhy : 46.
"However, I want to assure you that our relationship is based on a very different model. You are hungry and I feed you. Or rather, I try to feed you. And in the process am fed.
Actually, the hungry person is me. I feed myself."
Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report
Zeldman mentions Rustboy, a movie being worked on by Brian Taylor. The animation is spectacular.
Ironic, though, that I was just looking at Rustboy last night and then today he mentions it... I wonder if he's monitoring my thoughts...
So Dawn and I corresponded by email today about the picture I sent her (currently being displayed on her page) Within 45 minutes, I have about ten visitors from her page (and only one of them was me, I swear it). So, I'd like to say hi to everyone from there.
And, yes, I admit it: I'm a link whore. I can't help it...
In other news, Cory got his shit together today and started posting. Not much there yet, but knowing him it will get interesting real quick. Stay tuned.
Up Yours - And More Helpful Tips
What more could you ask for? How 'bout a whopping 9.9 rating on the "Is my Blog Hot or Not" rating scale? I think I have a crush.
I wrote her an email offering a solution (hopefully) to a question she asked (namely how to make posting in blogger easier, to which I replied "try a bookmarklet!"). Now I await a response.
It's nice to feel useful.
Read the refined print. Its funny. It really is.
The guy who runs this is somehow related to Eric Costello. The posts are not as frequent as the rest of us crackheads would like, but they're an interesting view into a profession that many of us (me included) take for granted. Good luck with your blog Andy.
I think the idea behind this is excellent. On par with Photoshop tennis at Coudal, I love these types of contests.
My vote for round three winner: Sippey.
According to google, about 3600 pages link to www.zeldman.com. That doesn't take into account links directly to the coming page (which number about 3300, or to any other internal page for that matter. I wonder how many people started their web page because of or based on something they read/learned at zeldman.com. I certainly did. Geesh... I've been reading it since 1996, or so. Oh well. Happy belated anniversary, Zeldman.
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