"We Blog" in the Wild
Spotted at the Barnes & Noble at Astor Place, NYC it's "We Blog" in the wild! Thanks Anil.
Battle Tomato
I am pleased to announce that "Battle Tomato" has concluded after a ten year struggle. You see, I never liked tomatoes. In fact, I found them gross -- mealy and slimy and infused with that slightly tart/tangy irritating (and did I mention slimy?) taste. To my constant irritation, everyone else in the entire world seemed to love tomatoes, and I would find this noxious vegetable (fruit, whatever,) in sandwiches, salads, sauces. You name it, it was there, often hidden, waiting to spring its slimy trap on my tongue. "Hold the tomatoes" I'd say, in vain. It continued like this, for years.
Realizing the futility of my situation, in the early 1990's I undertook Battle Tomato -- I decided I would learn to like tomatoes. I would retrain my palate until the idea of eating a raw tomato would trigger the mouth-watering juices beneath my tongue. I will spare you the details of the various skirmishes, of the flanking counter-attacks waged by nefarious cherry tomatoes and over-sized heirlooms, of the gagging and horror of this most difficult of battles. There is only one story to tell now:
Last Saturday I spent the afternoon cooking and drinking wine with friends. To prepare our bruschetta, we picked fresh tomatoes from the garden in the hostess' backyard. As I carried the little yellow cherry tomatoes back into the house, without a thought, I popped one in my mouth. I smiled as I tasted its sweet juice. Victory was mine.
Doing What the Web Does Best
These past few days, I've become re-enamoured with the Web through the simple act of doing research. I'd forgotten how amazing it is to have so much information at one's fingertips, and how powerful that can be. And it's got me all jazzed again about why the Web is so great. From custom orthotics to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy to VIPERs, the Web has thoroughly provided the knowledge I've needed these past few days, and for that I'm thankful.
Dogtown and Z-Boys
I watched Dogtown and Z-Boys on DVD last night and really enjoyed it. It's the story of the early days of skateboarding and the style and attitude that came out of the "Dogtown" area of coastal LA in the 70's. Great moves, great music, and great stories. One thing I did wonder about though was the "truth" of the tale -- written and directed by Stacy Peralta, it was the history of the revolution as told by one of its own members. Still, it was rad and reminded me of all the Bones Brigade videos I used to watch in high school.
Danger Facts
My source at Danger responds to Monday's post about the sound quality in the T-Mobile Sidekick:
A headset is NOT required, and the phone quality is fine. I use it as my everyday phone, forward calls from my Nokia 8290 to the hiptop, call my mom with it, and haven't had any problems (nor have the people I'm calling commented on it). It may be that I'm not very particular.
I may be required to test out this device in the name of investigative journalism so that I can get you folks the straight story on this one. The things I do for my readers...
Goodbye Happy Mac
NOOOOOO!!!! Ever since I got my iBook last spring, I've been meaning to write a post about my fondness for Happy Mac, an icon of a smiling Macintosh that appears when your computer is booting up. The first time I turned on my iBook, I saw that smiling face and I felt like I'd come home. Happy Mac used to greet me back in the early 90s on my Mac Classic (except for the time the "?" and a disk icon appeared, indicating the hard drive had gone missing, which is another story entirely). Seeing it on my new machine instantly brought a smile to my face and created a kinship between me and my machine. But it appears that Happy Mac is gone with the Jaguar upgrade (which I haven't done yet). Wired News is reporting that Happy Mac is dead and Apple has no comment. I hold out hope that the outrage of Mac users everywhere will bring about its return, just as it did the last time they tried to remove Happy Mac, with the original launch of OS X.
T-Mobile Sidekick
The Danger Hiptop device, star of PC Forum last March is "coming soon" as the T-Mobile Sidekick. PDA, Web browsing, cell phone, AIM client all wrapped up in one slick little device -- I can't wait. In the past I haven't been crazy about the integrated devices but this one actually looks usable and cool. If I left the house more often, it could be practical as well.
T-Mobile Sidekick Warning
A lucky megnut reader writes in to share his experience, and warning, about the T-Mobile Sidekick,
Beyond the novelty of the "flip top" mechanism, it's a device with some useful (and fun) functionality...That said, I wanted to give you a heads up about the device's downside: the clarity of the voice option. The phone quality is bad, actually it's really bad. You are required to use a headset, which makes it sound like the other party is speaking to you from a tin can lined with thickly-applied insulation.
Apparently improvements are underway but whether they will make it into the first release remains to be seen. Drat!
Hit or Miss Classic Rock
I'm listening to Internet radio today instead of my personal music collection because I thought it would offer a nice change of pace as I crank out some code for a project due next week. Alas, the "classic rock" station I've chosen has been hit or miss, as in "Wow! I totally love this song and had forgotten about it. It's really great!" or, "Oh God, this is just awful. What the hell is this?" and five or ten seconds later groaning, "Is this song still going? WTF?" Examples of the former include: Tom Petty's "American Girl" and The Rolling Stones, "19th Nervous Breakdown." Examples of the latter include Starship's, "We Built This City" and ZZ Top's, "Can't Stop Rockin'." (To which I say, "Yes, yes you can. Please stop now.")
Correction: Newsweek article
Correction from the other day: When I said the Newsweek article had mistakes, I should have said "mistake." The only one I'm aware of is the statement that there were three Pyra founders, rather than two. My apologies to Steven Levy for misrepresenting the facts here myself.I'm mad as hell
What ever happend to the talk about health care for every citizen? I'm in one of those moods today because my health insurance premium has increased 85.3% in the last five months. Of course, I called and talked to three different people for thirty minutes, and I never had the right person on the phone who could give me the information I needed.
Why can't businesses organize themselves around the customer? I don't care how they divvy up the work behind the scenes, but can't I talk to one person who can tell me a) my premium, b) what my plan covers, c) how much I've paid this year towards my deductable, and d) the difference between my current plan and a cheaper one? I couldn't at HealthNet. Argh! Can't we get some kind of universal health care system in the US? For those of us that are self-employed, and for those that are unemployed, health insurance continues to be a big expense, and an even bigger pain in the neck.
Blogger turns 3
It's Blogger's 3rd birthday today. I didn't even realize until I saw Dave's birthday greeting. Not noticing the date makes me feel like some dead-beat dad that never remembers to send birthday cards to his children.
A strange grip?
I'd like to imagine the reason this photo is currently number one on Yahoo! most popular photos is because everyone is trying to figure out what kind of forehand grip this female tennis player is using. Alas, I think there's a "bigger" issue behind this picture's popularity. (Ugh, did I just write that? And this was going to be a rant about the objectification of female athletes...)
AWA - Another Weblog Article
Living in the Blog-osphere is another article about weblogging, this one from Newsweek. I've been hesitant to link to it because it annoyed me (again) for getting simple facts wrong (again) and I didn't want to bore you with my complaints (again) about it. But then I decided I'd post it because there are folks who read this site who might enjoy the article (Hi Gram and Gramp H and Gram and Gramp Pete!) and not see it elsewhere.
For what it's worth, I think the article does provide a nice introduction to blogging and I'm still thrilled with the continued press coverage and the further "mainstreamization" of blogging. Also, there were two founders at Pyra, not three. And I'm bummed they didn't mention our new book, We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs. (Which contrary to what Amazon is saying, is published. I guess they haven't gotten it yet. Grrr!)
Fall is coming
I got up a bit earlier today than usual and noticed the sun wasn't yet shining into the living room -- it was still hanging low, behind the houses across the street. Quite suddenly, I experienced that pang of "summer's over," as I realized how the days have already grown shorter and images of dark cold winter flooded my mind. Of course, winter in California is neither that dark nor that cold. Growing up in New England must (weather) scar one for life.
Design snafu
Update: I'm an idiot. I guess when I added the XML link, I forgot to close the <span>. Apparently I know CSS but not HTML. So the footer of this site has decided to move off to the far right when viewed in IE/Windows, for some reason unbeknownst to me. I haven't changed a thing, and it looks fine on my Mac. I've looked at all my files and can't see anything that would cause this (like a giant invisible .gif hidden between lines of text?) and I'm at a loss as to how to fix it. Any CSS gurus have any ideas? I thought I knew CSS but now I'm beginning to wonder.
pb's Alaska Pics
pb returned from Alaska with some wonderful photos. Reminds me that a) I'd love to go back to Alaska and explore further -- it's so amazing and b) I never posted the photos from my trip. Alas, I'm so lazy.
Gizmodo launches
Gizmodo has just launched. According to creator Nick Denton, "it's a vertical blog devoted to superskinny laptops, spy cameras, wireless wizardry, and all manner of other toys for overgrown boys. All gadgets, all the time." (I suspect it will appeal to overgrown girls as well...)
What makes Gizmodo really interesting in my mind is that it's a commercial venture: the blogger updating the site, Pete Rojas, is being paid to do so. The business model? According to Nick, "All I know is that weblogs are a compelling form, gadget addicts are all online, and it's easy to plug into Amazon's electronics store." Sounds like a great start to me. Who would have thought people would respond to my Megnut column so quickly? ;)
Freak Pea Accident
Man dies in freak pea accident. There's really nothing more to say about this one.
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