November 2004
Memo to Mac users: Please stop sending .SIT archives
Posted by on Monday, November 29, 2004 in - 29 comments
Occasionally I will get an email attachment from someone compressed in a .SIT archive. This StuffIt format is (I think) primarily a Mac format. Utilities to handle .SIT archives are available for Windows and Linux, but are not include by default on either platform. • Since the ZIP format is …
Behind the (Quick) Times
Posted by on Monday, November 29, 2004 in - 9 comments
The free version of Apple’s QuickTime Player software has, as far as I can remember, always presented a window when started up asking if you’d like to buy the full QuickTime Pro software. Putting aside, for now, the worth of this window, I have always been bothered by the implementation of this …
Very cool video of interaction between live-action video and computer-generated snow
Posted by on Saturday, November 27, 2004
I stumbled across an old cover design for the local student newspaper I did in 2001
Posted by on Friday, November 26, 2004
Lazy Journalism on Buy Nothing Day
Posted by on Friday, November 26, 2004 in - 16 comments
When “news” becomes a product delivered on a regular schedule, press releases and made-for-news events must become pretty attractive to journalists. • Today, most major American news websites are running something along the lines of “Lots of People Go Shopping” as their leading story …
Garment Interlocking Standards
Posted by on Wednesday, November 24, 2004 in - 7 comments
I wrote last year about a simple marvel of real-world standards when a paint-roller handle broke and we were able to screw in a broom handle into the same socket (fantastic!). • I was amused and amazed at lunch the other day by my colleague Peter Rukavina with another simple display of standards …
Is it just me, or was the San Francisco Airport transit system designed by the Star Trek set designer?
Posted by on Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Posted by on Monday, November 22, 2004
The next version Mac OS X (10.4) will have Jabber support in iChat
Posted by on Monday, November 22, 2004
New Sounds for Gaim, thanks to Brad Sucks
Posted by on Saturday, November 20, 2004 in - 17 comments
When looking for help in creating an improved set of sounds for the open-source instant messaging application, Gaim, I turned to a virtual rock star. The ironically named Brad Sucks was a great help and came back with a great set of sounds. • Here, for contrast, are the previous set of Gaim …
Weblogs on The West Wing
Posted by on Saturday, November 20, 2004 in - 2 comments
The latest episode of The West Wing features weblogs breaking a news story before the mainstream press. It’s a cute episode in which weblogs pick up a story of a White House staffer test driving a huge SUV right into a brand new Toyota Prius hybrid.
Mystery Door Repair
Posted by on Saturday, November 20, 2004 - 5 comments
A few weeks ago in a large windstorm, the outside screen/glass door on my house blew open and caught the wind, bending some of the spring mechanism, pulling some of the hinges out of the wall, and most noticeably, smashing the large glass pane. I wasn’t home at the time, so when I got home, I was …
Today in (My) History
Posted by on Friday, November 19, 2004 in - 1 comment
Inspired by Peter Rukavina’s post in which he looks through the history of his weblog on November 19th, I would like to do the same: • November 19, 2003 • Like Peter, I was celebrating the launch my friend and co-work, Daniel Burka’s weblog Delta Tango Bravo. My witty post title …
Work is being done to measure and improve the boot time for Linux, resulting in some cool Tufte-esque graphs
Posted by on Wednesday, November 17, 2004
The Photoshopping of Firefox
Posted by on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 in - 21 comments
Yesterday’s Firefox launch garnered a lot of press. I noticed a peculiar pattern emerging on some of the news sites. There seems to be a whole weird underworld of hastily-photoshopped graphics for news sites. • Here is a collection of some images from some Firefox 1.0 launch news articles I …
Firefox 1.0 is here!
Posted by on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 in - 16 comments
It is 4:51AM Atlantic time and I am sitting in bed with my laptop on my lap. One minute ago, Ben Goodger gave me the final word and I made this CVS commit to the mozilla.org website: • “ • steven%silverorange.com 2004-11-09 00:50 • People of Earth, I give you Firefox 1.0 • ” • It’s been …
Wiretap on CBC Radio
Posted by on Saturday, November 6, 2004 in - 15 comments
I’m not exactly sure what the CBC Radio program, Wiretap, is. Comedy, I guess. Regardless, it is fantastic. Jonathan Goldstein has a perfect dry radio voice. Here is a 9.6MB MP3 of Wiretap from Nov 6, 2004. Worth a listen - highly recommended.
Firefox 1.0: Coming Tuesday November 9, 2004
Posted by on Saturday, November 6, 2004 in - 8 comments
Firefox 1.0: Coming Tuesday November 9, 2004 • (full-size mozilla.org screenshot, for the ages)
Posted by on Friday, November 5, 2004
This song about a plate of nachos sent in by a reader is surprisingly amusing (reminds me of Adam Sandler)
Posted by on Thursday, November 4, 2004
Icon Illustration In Practice
Posted by on Wednesday, November 3, 2004 in - 2 comments
Download a time-lapse version of Jakub Steiner’s illustrating • Jakub Steiner is an artist that works on Linux icons and interfaces at Novell. He is responsible for much of the look and feel of the Gnome icon set. • This week, he posted a fascinating movie of his illustration process. He was …
More rumblings about Adobe making open-source moves and some apt speculation from Novell's Garrett LeSage
Posted by on Wednesday, November 3, 2004
CBC is experimenting with Ogg Vorbis free/open audio streaming - excellent! (hat tip to nathan for calling them on their proprietary formats)
Posted by on Wednesday, November 3, 2004
CNN: Election Tied!?!
Posted by on Tuesday, November 2, 2004 in - 6 comments
According to CNN, as of this morning, the election is exactly tied!