September 2000
Pierre Trudeau 1921-2000.
Posted by on Saturday, September 30, 2000
Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada, has died at age 80. Somehow, the Americans think his story is all about them.
I did not know beef stew could be this good.
Posted by on Thursday, September 28, 2000
I just ate what may have been the finest meal of my life (which may not say a lot, but it's the greatest compliment I have at my disposal). • If you are ever in Portland, Maine be sure and check out Katahdin Restaurant on High Street. I alse recommend the mountain by the same name (I don't climb …
a lesson in propaganda from beautiful Portland, Maine
Posted by on Thursday, September 28, 2000
While spending a few days in Portland, Maine I had the unfortunate opportunity of watching some classic in-room american television. ESPN showed a military showcase and airshow that was the year 2000 equivalent to the now hilarious and frightening US and Soviet propaganda videos of the 50s …
respect to our absent aov poobah
Posted by on Tuesday, September 26, 2000
Let him know he is missed. If you are going to send him foolish bluemountain “e-cards” please use his spamorama email address: rob51@usa.net • Get well soon Rob.
olympic review - part 2.
Posted by on Monday, September 25, 2000
A continuation of the reasoning behind my lack of sleep. • Waterborne Women Defeated • The women's waterpolo team was elminated from medal contention, finishing a disappointing fifth, after losing to the impressive Australian team. • Joanne Malar (pictured at right) and Marianne Limpert …
nothing says “kick my ass” better than pantaloons.
Posted by on Monday, September 25, 2000
I suppose I could write up a description of this how-to guide, but a description has already been written, and I am a busy, busy man after all, so here's a quote: • “ • I don't mean to brag, but I've never really had a hard time getting beaten up. However, for the longest time, after someone …
re: apple legitimizes amazon patent tomfoolery
Posted by on Thursday, September 21, 2000
re: apple legitimizes amazon patent tomfoolery • Mastah programmah John Carmack (his company, Id Software created Doom and the Quake series of PC Games) on software patents: • “ • “The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind …
sign of the coming apocalypse #47
Posted by on Tuesday, September 19, 2000
A French artist creates a mutant rabbit.
paul hogan is one of my heroes
Posted by on Tuesday, September 19, 2000
... and it hurts me that I can't type his name into Yahoo! and get all kinds of pictures of him saving the world in his own creative ways. There must be a cult following for him out there, but I can I shall not tell you what happens if you try to search for yourself. But I was not prepared. Steve …
apple legitimizes amazon patent tomfoolery
Posted by on Tuesday, September 19, 2000 - 1 comment
A few months ago, Amazon.com went after BarnesandNoble.com with their absurd ‘1-Click Shopping’ patent. • Now Apple has legitimized the foolish patent by licensing 1-Click Shopping for the Apple Store. • If you locked a few reasonably intelligent web developers in a room for six weeks to …
olympic review - part 1.
Posted by on Monday, September 18, 2000
A brief overview of why I no longer sleep. • Chinese Weightlifter Sets Five Records in a Day • 116 pound Yang Xia, of China, lifts 220 pounds in the snatch event, and 275 pounds in the clean and jerk. Incidentally, I have difficulty not only with lifting my own body weight, but with actually …
big ups, blogs, and STDs
Posted by on Monday, September 18, 2000 - 2 comments
Thanks to Don at IslandEdition.com for the kind words in the Island Web section of the latest issue (and it is a fine issue, as usual). • <sarcasm> • It's good to see that we still control the media even with Kirby gone.</sarcasm> • The smart folk at IslandEdition.com put it nicely …
how to be a rock star and not suck
Posted by on Sunday, September 17, 2000 in - 1 comment
Pearl Jam, always the peoples band, is releasing 25 double-CDs of 25 full concerts mastered and recorded straight from the soundboard. • Retailing at around $10 each, for about $250 you can own a big chunk of the 2000 Binaural Tour. That may seem like a lot to spend in one go on music but people …
the olympic opening ceremony nearly made me cry - pass me a coke
Posted by on Sunday, September 17, 2000
I'm as skeptical of the Olympics as the next steroid-scandal-weary member of my generation but while watching the CBC's typically brilliant coverage of the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, I was weak. • It was a ceremony so fine, it was easy to forget that the Olympics …
DNS Woes
Posted by on Saturday, September 16, 2000
actsofvolition.com access may have been somewhat intermittent for some of you over the last week or two. We apologize for the annoyance. Things should get back to normal this weekend. • At least we are not the only ones; Both zeldman.com (alistapart.com has been down for weeks) and k10k.net are …
“Discreetly distinguished - not attention-grabbing”. Just like me.
Posted by on Thursday, September 14, 2000
Speaking of defining oneself with material goods (as I was a few posts ago), I have found my dream vehicle, the Audi A2. The Audi site calls it “Discreetly distinguished - not attention-grabbing”. Just like me. • The A2 combines the smart and sleek lines of the 2000 VW Jetta with the practical …
moo!
Posted by on Thursday, September 14, 2000
I recently was shown a site which has an AMAZING ability. It's not in english, but cows don't speak english anyway. It's not hard to stumble through. This jewel of a site amazed me for two reasons. First of all, it's amazingly cool to watch the quality claymation cows rock/hiphop/disco around as …
check out my "Astro Boy" Pez dispenser!
Posted by on Thursday, September 14, 2000
Background information: If you have not been already, visit FuckedCompany.com. Next, if you are not already aware of the auction of FuckedCompany.com, read about it here. • All of that information is required for simply to set up one of the better descriptions of Ebay that have read. The …
rule of business #47: use what you are selling (unless it sucks)
Posted by on Thursday, September 14, 2000
Why is it that every time Apple releases a new product their site goes down? I realize that they must have an enormous spike in traffic, but it should be completely predictable and can't be near the kind of traffic Yahoo get's on an average day. • While I'm picking on Apple, at last Apple expo …
it's not so much macs, but the people who use them
Posted by on Wednesday, September 13, 2000
After stomping all over Apple in a previous post for what I maintain are completely stupid problems with their website and receiving a flood of angry emails* from Apple fanatics drunk from the broth of marketing genious, I will grant Apple these points: • They do have beautiful and large product …
i wish more people would read salon
Posted by on Wednesday, September 13, 2000
Thank you Salon for this. • It's an article about how OPEC's website was defaced with a message that would be shown for several seconds. Salon did a great job of choosing words, as the title of the story was Vandal defaces OPEC Web site. None of this ‘hacker’ nonsense which drives a small …
rats.
Posted by on Wednesday, September 13, 2000
Village idiot and presidential hopeful George W. Bush is accused of using a subliminal message in an TV advertisement. After being advised on the meaning of the word "subliminal," Bush denies the allegations. • Full story here.
“Jeremy arrives thirty minutes later and leans against the wall with a slouch so extreme that he appears to have left his skeleton at home.”
Posted by on Wednesday, September 13, 2000
Steve Martin's third book will be hitting stores soon (yes, that Steve Martin). The novella, titled Shopgirl, follows Mirabelle through her lonely job, budding relationships - you know the sort of thing people write about. I'm not sure what I expected from a work written by Steve Martin, but from …
raginggoogle.com
Posted by on Tuesday, September 12, 2000
I have mixed feelings about the unfortunately named Raging Search (raging.com) by AltaVista. • I like that I can choose my font and color scheme (I recommend verdana with the default colors). Other nice options include being able to turn off basically every feature (spelling suggestions, etc …
re: Napster Thrives!
Posted by on Tuesday, September 12, 2000
re: Napster Thrives! • rob said: • “ • I question CNN's line: • “ • “That made Napster the fastest-growing software application ever recorded by the Internet research company.” • ” • ” • CNN may have their ‘fact’ straight, but the hell is the “Internet research company.”
Napster Thrives!
Posted by on Tuesday, September 12, 2000
I know we're all probably tired off all the Napster stuff we're fed, but this one is a little bit rementionable. With all the court-nonsense and other free advertising Napster's use has bloated four fold. • I question CNN's line: • “ • “That made Napster the fastest-growing software …
aov jumps on handheld computing mega-trend bandwagon
Posted by on Monday, September 11, 2000 in
It's true: You can now get Acts of Volition on your handheld (or PDA, or Palm, or whatever the hell you want to call it). • The handheld version of aov includes the 10 most recent posts to the site for your ‘waiting-in-line-at-the-bank’ reading pleasure. • The Acts of Volition AvantGo Channel …
The Open Directory Project: yahoo.communists
Posted by on Monday, September 11, 2000
The Open Directory Project at dmoz.org is another wacky love child of the AOL-TimeWarner merger. Other bizarre offspring of the corporate mega marriage include Mozilla and Gnutella. • Basically an open-source version of the Yahoo editorial system, dmoz has the advantage of having actual human …
popularity continues to eludes me even into adulthood
Posted by on Sunday, September 10, 2000 in
I'm not sure what this means but I'm sure you can deduce something from it. Here is a top-down view of the 50 most visited websites on the web.
The Viacom Music Video Awards
Posted by on Saturday, September 9, 2000 in
I know criticism is easy but that doesn't mean you can't be particularly good at it. Jeff Stark, the associate editor of Salon Arts and Entertainment, is very good at it. • Read his article Rock is dead and well at the MTV;; Video Awards at Salon. Sure, criticizing the MTV;; VMAs for being low …
sites that do what we do, only better
Posted by on Saturday, September 9, 2000
Signal vs. Noise - take a few minutes to read the many pages at their company site, 37signals, and wonder why you aren't as smart as they are. • dack.com - the sarcastic bastard and creator of such brilliant works as • Amazon 2001: A Navigation Odyssey • Jeffrey Zeldman Presents - for web …
you have been warned.
Posted by on Thursday, September 7, 2000
Do you enjoy chinese food (the simulated, americanized variety), or the song “Cats in the Cradle” (by Ugly Kid Joe or others)? If you answered “yes” to either question, do not go here.
someone pass me a tissue.
Posted by on Wednesday, September 6, 2000
The Onion is a site which hardly needs an introduction. A site actually driven by content worth digesting, it is one of the few websites worth visiting on a regular basis. The paticular genius of the site is the disguising of social comentary as low-brow humour. • This week they have outdone …
The Internet fried my brain
Posted by on Wednesday, September 6, 2000
I remember reading an article about how the web and hyperlinks were going to change the way children thought. At the time I dismissed it as mumbo-jumbo about non-linear thought patterns and other such nonsense. I fear the hypothesis have been proven true in myself. • Sitting in an evening …
file under: I can't believe this even exists
Posted by on Tuesday, September 5, 2000
Humankind Systems, maker of a fine webmail template I bought recently, seems to be diversifying. • Their product, The Flasher, occasionally flashes on your computer screen while you work with affirmative messages like: • cigarettes taste bad • smokers are ugly • lung cancer is painful …
interactive media for the four senses
Posted by on Tuesday, September 5, 2000
A fine demonstration of how to make a point with interactive media by the Laramara Foundation. Be patient and do what it says. Try It >> • Requires Flash and a set of speakers.
No Introspection Here, Folks
Posted by on Tuesday, September 5, 2000
I would like to state, that from the beginning I was against the title of this site. Although the meanings are different, ‘Volition’ triggers similar word-sound-associations to ‘Volitile’ and ‘Violation’. Both words that I associate to negative things. I'd complain more, but I don't have a better …
get well soon.
Posted by on Tuesday, September 5, 2000
Nothing is more upsetting than a good domain name gone to waste. Well no, actually there are many far more upsetting events, and Sick.com could have proudly displayed any of them. At the very least it could have been a medical webiste or a porn site. However, Sick.com peddles e-cards. These aren’t …
a moment of introspection.
Posted by on Tuesday, September 5, 2000
I was just like to take a moment to call my own judgement into question. Specifically, why did I assist in the creation of a website whose address I consistently misspell? In retrospect, as nifty a title as acts of volition may be, dogs and cats would probably have been a wiser choice.
is 'The Man' designing your operating system?
Posted by on Monday, September 4, 2000 in - 1 comment
From Jakob Neilsen's Alertbox column on Regulatory Usability at useit.com: • “ • “I don't like the Government telling Microsoft to make their software even worse by preventing them from integrating features into the operating system. I also don't like the notion of user interfaces designed by …
I can't buy it if I don't know what it is
Posted by on Friday, September 1, 2000
Despite being an unfortunate Amazon.com rip-off (and we all know how much I hate rip-offs) Startech, a computer accessory manufacturer, has an exemplary website in terms simplicity, product information, and something which is often overlooked, high quality, hi-res, kick-ass product photography …