January 2004
8-year-olds review rock classics - they like Nirvana, and like that Bob Dylan said “bums”
Posted by on Saturday, January 31, 2004
Posted by on Saturday, January 31, 2004
The Zen of Palm: old but great documentation about what made (makes?) Palm a good and usable platform
Posted by on Friday, January 30, 2004
Microsoft acknowledges a virus on their home page
Posted by on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 5 comments
The latest email virus that has been filling up our inboxes is brining all kinds of bad press down on Microsoft (and rightly so). However, I have seen one, however tiny and insignificant, gesture that Microsoft should be lauded for. • The Microsoft.com home page, as of this writing, features as …
Posted by on Thursday, January 29, 2004
Posted by on Thursday, January 29, 2004
If you have a weakness for Dave Barry, as I do, you’ll enjoy his coverage of the New Hampshire primaries
Posted by on Sunday, January 25, 2004
Hawksley Workman performs in the CBC studios - four songs in real audio
Posted by on Sunday, January 25, 2004
Mozilla Firebird browser tip: Ctrl+K will focus the cursor in the in-toolbar Google search box (Ctrl+L does the same for the location bar)
Posted by on Saturday, January 24, 2004
If you are interested in the Gnome Desktop for Linux, there’s a good presentation about Gnome by Michael Meeks of Ximian/Novell from the Linux World Expo
Posted by on Saturday, January 24, 2004
I don’t need more flashing lights in my life right now
Posted by on Saturday, January 24, 2004 in - 21 comments
I just came back from a grand tour of all establishments (that I know of) here in Charlottetown that sell car CD players. My sigfinicant other recently bought a used Toyota with a dud CD player. We like the factory default — it’s simple, it has a volume knob, it doesn’t light up live a …
Mammoth: noun, adjective, and beast
Posted by on Thursday, January 22, 2004 - 2 comments
I’ve posted here before about how the randomness and lack of context of the headlines on CNN.com often have disturbing/hilarious result. On any given day, the list of “Top Stories” headlines can almost always make me laugh out loud. • Today was no exception. Early today, one of the headlines …
Rolling Stone interviews Justin Frankel of Nullsoft (winamp, gnutella, etc.)
Posted by on Thursday, January 22, 2004
Acts of Volition Radio: Session Four
Posted by on Thursday, January 22, 2004 in - 8 comments
The fourth session of Acts of Volition Radio is here. This session is based on songs and albums that are particularly well recorded, produced, or engineered. • Acts of Volition Radio: Session Four (45MB MP3) • A collection of particularly well recorded, produced, or engineered tracks. Recorded …
Free the Boring Keynote!
Posted by on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 5 comments
Last year, a rag-tag group of cardigan-wearing psuedo-intellectuals put on a conference and posted video of the sessions (however low quality) on the web for free. • This week, at the LinuxWorld Expo in New York, the Chairman of Novell gave the keynote address, and I can’t find video of it … read more »
Applications Versus Documents on the Web
Posted by on Monday, January 19, 2004 in - 8 comments
It has always bothered me that while the web has well defined standards for defining documents, much of what we do on the web isn't about documents at all. Rather, it is much more like traditional application development. • Ian Hixie, Mozilla hacker and Opera Software employee in Norway, is also …
Posted by on Sunday, January 18, 2004
I'm helping lead the Mozilla Visual Identity Team (scroll down to “Active marketing projects” for the info)
Posted by on Saturday, January 17, 2004
Shame on MSNBC for their broken web features
Posted by on Thursday, January 15, 2004 in - 7 comments
I’ve long enjoyed the photos in the MSNBC feature, The Week in Pictures and The Week in Sports Pictures. However, during a recent redesign, the format and display of these features has gotten much worse. • Update: A reader has pointed out that though it is still Flash-based, the MSNBC Week in …
It was so cold tonight that the liquid crystal in the LCD on my car stereo was moving visibly slow
Posted by on Thursday, January 15, 2004
Prince Edward Island to use more wind power - I hope they follow through
Posted by on Wednesday, January 14, 2004
An older post discussed at a recent weblog meeting: Brester Kahle of the Internet Archive on Access to Digital Materials
Posted by on Wednesday, January 14, 2004
What happens when you put a bunch of webloggers in a barn with beer and pizza? We'll know tomorrow night.
Posted by on Monday, January 12, 2004
Posted by on Monday, January 12, 2004
Posted by on Sunday, January 11, 2004
The latest update to open-source instant messaging client, Gaim 0.75 is released - it’s the first time I’ve had my name in a ChangeLog - cool!
Posted by on Saturday, January 10, 2004
Posted by on Friday, January 9, 2004
Audio interview with Tim Berners-Lee (8.2MB MP3)
Posted by on Friday, January 9, 2004
Linky: A great extension for Mozilla Firebird
Posted by on Thursday, January 8, 2004 in - 14 comments
One of the many great things about the Mozilla Firebird web browser (go get it now if you aren’t using it), is a decision the developers made early in the project. In order to keep the application simple, fast, and elegant — any features that aren’t essential or may be limited in appeal to a … read more »
Posted by on Thursday, January 8, 2004
Posted by on Wednesday, January 7, 2004
Posted by on Wednesday, January 7, 2004
Why we need the web
Posted by on Wednesday, January 7, 2004 in - 6 comments
The web browser and the technologies that live inside it (primarily HTML/CSS but also JavaScript and the server side scripts that power web applications) have many limitations when compared to “real” applications. When I say “real applications”, I mean an application that runs outside of a web …
Apple’s Woodgrain Interface
Posted by on Tuesday, January 6, 2004 in - 14 comments
Much has been said of Apple’s use of the brushed-metal application/window theme (and their inconsistent use of it). However, they’ve really outdone themselves now. The new application, oddly named GarageBand (putting two words together to make a new word - it has so been done), has a faux … read more »
Acts of Volition Radio: Session Three
Posted by on Sunday, January 4, 2004 in - 15 comments
A little overdue (if that’s possible when you have no deadlines or schedule), here is the third session of Acts of Volition Radio. This session is based around artists that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at some point. • Acts of Volition Radio: Session Three (37MB MP3) • An hour of name …
In Bed with the Red Planet
Posted by on Sunday, January 4, 2004 in - 9 comments
Tonight I watched live streaming video of mission control at Nasa of the Mars rover landing. I was watching while in bed with my wireless laptop, also chatting with friends in multiple times zones. • From Mars, to Nasa, to the internet, to my house, to my wifi AP, to my laptop in bed. We live in …
The Mysterious Zoom Button of Mac OS X
Posted by on Friday, January 2, 2004 in - 25 comments
I generally enjoy the simplicity of the window controls in Mac OS X — especially with the subtle visual simplifications in version 10.3. • While Windows (and the common linux GUIs, Gnome and KDE) have the common three window controls (minimize, maximize/restore, and close), they also have … read more »
Communication Epiphanies
Posted by on Thursday, January 1, 2004
John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has written about a compelling experience with voice-chat. • I can clearly remember the sense of wonder at being witness to a significant shift in communications when I first used instant messaging with my friends (it was ICQ … read more »
OmniWeb is doing website thumbnails instead of tabs - interesting
Posted by on Thursday, January 1, 2004