April 2001
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."
Posted by on Monday, April 30, 2001 in - 3 comments
George Orwell is cool. 1984 and Animal Farm are staples of the high-school English class. If you read them in high-school, reread them. If not, read them. I was directed to an article Orwell wrote which feels like a hopeful obituary for the English language. • If you do any writing …
selective news sympathy
Posted by on Sunday, April 29, 2001 - 11 comments
I've commented before on how the news is mostly distant and without context. One Dead, Three Hurt in California Shooting. Shooting in N.S. town leads police on high-speed chase of suspect. Blah, blah, blah. When something hits closer to home, it will knock me on my ass, but I am unable to mourn …
planes, terrorists, and sad, sad songs.
Posted by on Sunday, April 29, 2001 - 4 comments
A random collection of interesting things: • Nasa scientists are going to attempt to fly an 11-pound model airplane across the Atlantic using the Global Positioning System (via Slashdot). • If you are like me, you know very little about Canada's 1970 'October Crisis' and you'll benefit from …
because I didn't ask you either . . .
Posted by on Saturday, April 28, 2001 - 2 comments
I have taken Dristan© for the runny nose, acetaminophen for the headache, non-descript no-name syrup for the cough, but it is not enough to stop my nose from running, fix my headache, put me to sleep, do the dishes, point out the way, clean my room, darn my socks, help me forget, sew the button …
talking to robots
Posted by on Friday, April 27, 2001 in - 18 comments
ActiveBuddy, as far as I can tell, is a new service that will retrieve info from participating companies via queries from AOL's Instant Messenger. It's got a little buzz going, and lots of IT media hype. • Is it just me, or is this a stupid idea? The example on the activebuddy website goes like …
for any of you still writing papers.
Posted by on Wednesday, April 25, 2001 - 2 comments
A few years ago my sister helped me with a paper I was having difficulty starting. I thought her words might be useful for all those sad and panicked English majors out there: • “ • Trampolines are quite a bit like Canadian literature • in the sense that both can be used, or abused. • One …
sign of the coming apocalypse #89
Posted by on Wednesday, April 25, 2001 - 19 comments
I was shown this this link by a fine young man (older than myself), and I have interpreted it as a sign of the coming apocalypse. Steve was also able to spot #47. • In Thailand, the first Oxygen bar opened. Where humans, frustrated from lack of or poor oxygen, can kick back with a cool drink, 20 …
R.I.P Joey Ramone from the friendly folks at Amazon.com
Posted by on Tuesday, April 24, 2001 - 5 comments
This odd blurb greeted me on the home page of Amazon.com today. See it in context »
Does a gameboy count as "tv"?
Posted by on Monday, April 23, 2001 - 13 comments
I can't promise that your life will be any better if you don't watch TV, but I think I can absolutely guarantee that it won't be any worse than it is now. Its TV Turnoff Week kids. • An earlier debate here on aov (which happened mostly via email since it was pre-replies) was inconclusive about …
actors are /so/ 20th century
Posted by on Sunday, April 22, 2001 in - 23 comments
Final Fantasy, the classic video game series (one I never had the patience for myself) is coming to the big screen. Completely computer animated, it makes Toy Story look like a flip-book animation, and Dinosaur like, uh, never mind. • These "photos" of the characters are some of the most amazing …
Tim Berners-Lee's Semantic Web
Posted by on Sunday, April 22, 2001 in - 4 comments
If you are interested in the future of the web and computing in general, read The Semantic Web in the May issue of Scientific American. Co-authored by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web, the article explores the possibilities of having a machine-readable web, rather than a web intended only for …
I have an irrational and interminable need to upgrade.
Posted by on Saturday, April 21, 2001 - 15 comments
No matter how many times I upgrade a piece of software only to find that the latest version is no better, or is worse than the previous versions, I still feel the need to upgrade. Even if I'm perfectly happy with a piece of software I've been using successfully for a long time, as soon as a newer …
aov lets down its collective guard
Posted by on Saturday, April 21, 2001 in - 3 comments
It has recently come to our attention that there are other people in the world, some with opinions. After much thought and a little debate about community on the web (and more specifically, on actsofvolition.com), you can now reply to our posts on aov. • See the reply link under the title of …
amazing flash combat
Posted by on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 16 comments
I was pleasently amazed when I saw this for the first time. It has the cuteness of normal stick figure death theatre, which has improved greatly since they graduated from animated Gifs to Flash, but the hardcore action and soothing soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. • They even added …
humans start adapting to the new season
Posted by on Thursday, April 19, 2001
Jeez. Everybody's feeling fantastic. Despite outrageous, heinous, otherwise ordinary reports of bad weather, we all know that summer is coming. • But the humans have yet to adapt. But they're getting there. I was driving around for the good part of today with a good pal, enjoying the …
a day in the life.
Posted by on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 5 comments
Recently, I have had many people ask me: "What is it like, being a Milton Acorn Award winning poet?" Who can blame them for wishing for a little insight into the life of so large a figure? In the interest of bridging the gap between award winning poet (me) and common folk (you), I present the …
John Candy, we never knew thee.
Posted by on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 1 comment
There is a scene in The Great Outdoors where John Candy is waterskiing. Desperate to stop, he screams at the driver of the boat (Dan Aykroyd). “You bastard, You bastard!” Aykroyd thinks he's saying “Go Faster, Go Faster!” and fun and folly ensue. • I had an eerily similar and equally frightening …
a savagely dull piece of fiction.
Posted by on Sunday, April 15, 2001 - 3 comments
Has anyone out there read DH Lawrence's "The Fox"? Can someone tell me why this interminable and violently boring piece of pseudo-psychology is supposed to be a great work of fiction? • I am currently writing a paper in which I must apply four different types of literary criticism to a work. I …
french ham-eating song
Posted by on Saturday, April 14, 2001 - 1 comment
My relatives (all from Québec) are visiting this week and I always enjoy being with them because I get a kick out of thier culture. It seems they have a fine little song for everything, something I find missing in English, we only have Christmas songs. This being Easter, I was introduced to to the …
legal weed for rob?
Posted by on Friday, April 13, 2001 - 5 comments
Before I dive into this topic, I'd like to point out that I am a hypocrite. I choose not to do recreational drugs which may have relatively minor side effects because I think they're bad for me. But I have no trouble taking drugs that are "good" for me and my illness which have horrible side …
"ugly people say ugly things."
Posted by on Thursday, April 12, 2001 - 5 comments
For Jennifer, avid aov reader, and beautiful human being.
40 years in space
Posted by on Thursday, April 12, 2001
Whether you think the space race was the logical next step in exploration or a complete waste of resources, you have do give this guy some serious credit.
the5k competition puts me to shame
Posted by on Thursday, April 12, 2001
The 5k competition 2001 entries are up at the5k.org. Some of the entries are completely amazing (including a working chess game that will play against you and a beautiful dolphin). • My entry is put to shame by the general excellence of the other entries (at least the comments about my entry are …
more dimensions, more better
Posted by on Tuesday, April 10, 2001 - 3 comments
I've admonished the unquestioned march towards 3D on the web before and the debate has bubbled up elsewhere as well. Yes, there can be good uses of 3D on the web, just like there can be good uses of flash. And yes, there will be very few effective uses of 3D on the web, just like there are very …
design for community
Posted by on Monday, April 9, 2001
He designed Blogger.com (which I recently praised) and he puts vanilla ice cream in his coffee (every day). Derek Powazek is working on a book about designing websites for community called (brilliantly) Design for Community: The art of connecting real people in virtual places. • There are …
nice things are said about aov
Posted by on Monday, April 9, 2001
A tip of the hat to islandedition.com for the aov pleasantries.
the 5k audi tt vr gallery
Posted by on Sunday, April 8, 2001 in - 3 comments
The5k is a web competition in which the entries must be less than 5 kilobytes (5,120 bytes) in total file size. To put that in perspective, the front page of actsofvolition.com today is 28 kilobytes of text/HTML and over 41 kilobytes of images. From the5k.org: • “ • PURPOSE • The idea behind …
put a post it note on the empire state building
Posted by on Sunday, April 8, 2001
In anticipation of ubiquitous wireless palm devices and GPS, GeoNotes is a system with which you can annotate physical locations and read the annotations of others with your palm device. • For example, if you visit a restaurant and find the pasta to be particularly good, you can sumbit your …
i bought a Korg!
Posted by on Saturday, April 7, 2001 in - 1 comment
Ever since I first heard Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene, a seven year old sitting crosslegged in front of the record player, I had an appreciation for the sound of synths. Recently, that was rekindled by the synthpop (for lack of a better genre name) group Joy Electric. There's something about the …
waking up is hard to do
Posted by on Saturday, April 7, 2001
The summer I graduated from high school, I quit my job at a grocery store (something I had promised myself a year earlier I would do after a year at the job) and took a job with the government. Come to think of it, I don't even know who I was working for, HRDC or Industry Canada maybe. Regardless …
good teachers remembered
Posted by on Saturday, April 7, 2001
This is a slightly “the more you know”-esque post. Teaching must be a difficult profession. Here a few of my better teachers: • Mr. Grant - Grade 4 English • Mr. Grant gave me and a few of my classmates a special assignment to read a book that was slightly above the grade 4 level (or so I …
this wouldn't be a problem if the Japanese ate toast.
Posted by on Saturday, April 7, 2001 in
Quoted from A Whole Lotta Nothing: • “ • Did you realize it's the year 2001 now? We live in the goddammed future! Robotic dogs, computerized cars, intelligent global information networks, and yet... we're still stuck with toast. With all the recent improvements in the fields of microprocessors …
the future of (non)interface design: it's in the game
Posted by on Friday, April 6, 2001 in
The fundamentals of the computer interface have remained basically unchanged since 1973 when Xeroc PARC came up with the mouse-based window interface concept. A quick look back at Apple in 1980 will show you how similar your current OS interface is to these supposed antiques. • This isn't …
all apologies.
Posted by on Thursday, April 5, 2001
I would like to offer apologies to our more aged readers. Please be aware that Rob's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the remainder of aov. "Grandmother sex" (see post below) is, of course, a beautiful and natural thing and we here at aov (myself, at least) would like to stress that we …
another keyword post
Posted by on Thursday, April 5, 2001
It's always refreshing to look at where our hits come from, who the referers are. • So, I looked and was saddened to find folowing Google search criteria which returned our site, and was then clicked on because the searchers thought we had what they wanted: • (not for those easily offended …
the zyphoid process.
Posted by on Thursday, April 5, 2001 - 8 comments
Because I write a great many things which do not go anywhere. This is as good a place as any: • The Zyphoid Process • She punched him as hard as she could. He felt her fist land just below his ribs. It hurt like hell. He couldn’t breathe. • He felt her fist land, centred just below his ribs …
newts.
Posted by on Thursday, April 5, 2001
The Cadre's Poetry Spectacular is out on the newsstand, busy living up to its title. • Featuring a cover designed by silverorange's Geoff Gibson, this issue of UPEI's student newspaper is actually better than sliced bread. It features poets who run the gamut from first time bards to weathered …
McCain's advertising campaign
Posted by on Wednesday, April 4, 2001 - 16 comments
I can't poke amusment out of that campaign, no matter how cheesy they appear to be, because the person creating those ads is unmistakably a genius. I say this because those commercials stick in your head for years. • I was also impressed by thier effort to make that anti-commercial with the …
insults welcome. name required.
Posted by on Tuesday, April 3, 2001
IslandEdition.com's latest editorial lashes out at the false courage of anonymous cowards in online communities. He sounds pissed off, but don't let that cloud your reading of the article. I still think he's right.
the burgers and the geese.
Posted by on Tuesday, April 3, 2001
Frying up burgers like they was motherfuckers. • Yes. He do. • Check out "Canada Geese" from Gordon Downie's solo album, "Coke Machine Glow." The Tragically Hip meet Frank Black. Very nice. Yes.
this site is best viewed at 800 by 600 in the designer's basement
Posted by on Tuesday, April 3, 2001
“Liquid Layout”. I picked up the term a few years ago from a tutorial by Lance Arthur of Glassdog.com. Liquid layout describes a website with a variable width, depending on how big your browser window (and screen) is. For example, open CNN.com, close the annoying popup window that asks you what …
is pop music like fine wine?
Posted by on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 in
I was considering this the other evening. It's easy and fun to jab at pop music and go on about how people only like it because the world seems to like it right now. I'm pretty sure I don't enjoy what's on the radio, but am I giving it a fair enough chance. I did like that (once) new Sky song …
Woody Harrelson's internet fans hate him
Posted by on Sunday, April 1, 2001
I was idly looking up information on my old pal Woody Harrelson the other day, and I was saddened to see the lack of love on the site which bears his name. • You see, I met Woody on an Air Canada flight from Winnipeg to Montreal. I bumped into him so I said, "Excuse me". To which he responded …
daylight savings time rustles out the crazies
Posted by on Sunday, April 1, 2001
I was on Microsoft's netmeeting last night during the vanishing hour. I started to chat with somebody claiming to be a 22/f cheerleader/nursing student. I saved a capture of this so-called nursing student. Crazy nuts.
escaping the never-ending present.
Posted by on Sunday, April 1, 2001 - 1 comment
I like the sleepy mornings; the sleepy afternoons. When your eyelids are difficult sandbags to lift. When the only things your senses understand is a familiar tired warmth, and that somewhere nearby there is coffee.
daylight savings time
Posted by on Sunday, April 1, 2001
Daylight savings time is a nice reminder of how our clock and calendar are somewhat arbitrary artificial contructions. • Remember that next time you're late for work.