May 2008 Archives

If you think life seems too hard think about someone like Roz Savage who is attempting a three stage row across the Pacific Ocean. No matter how big your TODO list is it can't be that big. I had to laugh when I read her entry entitled "If it was easy, everyone would be doing it".

I don't get much time lately to play with web toys, but I've been really intrigued by the possibilities offered by the new CSS grid frameworks. I think it's a bit too soon to call these CSS files frameworks, but they offer some great possibilities.

I took apart a MovableType template and have applied on at my test blog. Check out the coolness that happens when you go to that page and click control, then use your scroll wheel. I didn't make the whole template set yet -- I haven't had much spare time lately.

Grid templates:

• Typogridphy -- I like this one since it does a really nice job of both the grid and typography.
• Blueprint -- Pretty good documentation.
• Yui Grids -- Really easy to use with some super cool automation.
• Blueprint Generator -- fill in a form and the custom CSS gets emitted. Awesome if you know what you want.

I know I'm a little comic obsessed at the moment. This was made with Comic Life. I love the program, but it's a little slow on Windows. I'll bet the Mac port is better.

Just in case you aren't in on the joke, bitstrips, which is the web site that allows you to create these little cartoons allows people who view the comics to either "laugh" or "groan". I haven't gotten many laughs yet.

I saw Iron Man recently at the theater. It was a fun summer movie. In fact I think it's my favorite comic to big screen movie so far with the possible exception of Road to Perdition. I can't wait to see the other more movies from Marvel if they are all this good. They can't possibly be as bad as that Hulk movie from a few years ago.

When I was out sick I read a favorable review of the book, "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need". I dropped it into an Amazon order. If you feel some angst about your career and you don't have a good mentor or have only been in the workplace for a couple of years this is a great read. It might make a good gift for someone who is headed out to their first real job after college. I found the advice pretty basic. On the other hand it was still a fun read thanks to the format and the illustrations by Rob Ten Pas.

There wasn't anything special I learned but I loved the reminder that "it's not about you" and "leave an imprint". You can check out some illustrations on the Johnny Bunko web site.

I really enjoy reading about computer history. There are a few reasons.

1. Computer History is navel gazing something I enjoy already. The books and essays make what I do for a living seem important.
2. I have a core belief that today's computer industry is re-inventing the breakthroughs from 20-30 years ago. Reading the history helps me get the "next big thing".
3. The characters in my industry fascinate me. Ultimately, the history of my industry is the very personal story of some very smart and sometimes very odd people.

So if you like computer history you might want to check out this essay entitled,"Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine", by W. Daniel Hillis that appears on the Long Now web site. I have worked some some smart people iin my life, but what a treat to work with someone like Richard Feynman. The Thinking Machine alumni list is pretty amazing.

Both kids hopped on their new bikes last week and instantly knew how to ride. The last few summers haven't been as successful. I would push and push and the kids would go a few feet before wiping out. I tried new methods to teach kids and nothing worked.

This year they just got on the bike and away they went.

I asked Matthew how he learned so quick. He said, "I saw Elise get on her bike and I knew I could do better than her."

Note to self: Start chore competition.

I was pretty happy with the new Sharpie retractable markers, but I have a new favorite -- the Decocolor marker. Technically it's a paint marker. Find one at your local art supply store and start writing on things.

Did you get the album yet?

Joe recently tweeted this gem.

"after 2 weeks I found my lost bluetooth headset...under the windshield wiper of my car"
Joseph Pfeiffer

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I thought his car look silly wearing that bluetooth headset.

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I know this is derivative, but there is a movement and I'm part of it.

I took the plunge and upgraded a system at home to XP SP3. No problems so far. Nothing seems amiss.

So google docs has added support for "forms" to their spreadsheets. Not only that but I can embed the form in a web page. This is pretty neat.

I'm not joking, fill out the form about and go to my spreadsheet and you can see the results for yourself.

Need help setting one up yourself? Check out the page "Creating Forms".

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I didn't buy anything today, woohooo!

New favorite way to cut off people in conversation: "... yeah, I saw your Twitter."

-- alexisgirl

Hey wait, I think people have been doing that to me.

You can also see the cartoon on bitstrips, "Cartoon Goalie".

She probably sucks at free throws, but she could play on my team any day.

I want to go to England just to see this cow. It boggles the imagination. Read all about it in The Daily Mail.

For reasons I don't entirely understand I am fascinated by graffiti art. This movie where the medium is combined with animation blows me away.
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo

Anyone know where I can get a ventilator?

The weather is so nice, I can't wait to hit the road. It's probably why JWZ's bike advice cracked me up today.

" ... always assume the cars can see you perfectly, and are trying to kill you."
-- Jamie Zawinski, "the collected jwz bicycle wisdom"

I liked a lot of his other thoughts on biking, especially that hybrids make a great city bike essentially for the same reasons the elitists eschew them.

New favorite, other than my own of course ;)

For random web surfing there is nothing to beat alltop.com. It is neatly categorized, cleanly implemented and leads you to the blogs rather than driving the traffic and conversation to itself. I love the design. As soon as I find my ambition I want my blog to emulate that clean look.

This little part of the About page cracked me up.

Q. Couldn't I build my own custom aggregation using a feed reader, customizable home pages, Netvibes, etc?

A. Yes, you could--knock yourself out. While you're at it, you could backup your hard disk, bake your own bread, iron your own shirts, floss daily, tune your own car, and bike to work.

I have done all that at one time or another (hopefully my dentist isn't reading this one) but I have the good sense to not try and recreate alltop.com

Full disclosure, I'm trying to get Guy Kawasaki (who is involved in this venture) to start an enterprise.alltop.com feature which would aggregate blogs related to enterprise software and hardware.

When I saw this weird story about a decomposing 90 year old woman I was really hoping it wasn't set in Wisconsin. Wrong again!

The Submarines are releasing a new album, Honeysuckle Weeks. If you like pop-folk-electronic you'll like this. I think you can d/l it already from iTunes if you like your music with the burning smell of DRM. Brooke introduced me to the group and since she was under 25 at the time you can trust her recommendation.

I love a good fixed width font. Microsoft released one with Office 2007 that I love. It is called Consolas & it's available for download.

I don't know how it looks on a traditional monitor, but it looks great on an LCD. Try it!

You can now download your own copy of "Little Brother" under a Creative Commons License. All your favorite formats are there. I you seen one missing be sure and add it yourself.

My fall sailing trip in the Apostle Islands is now officially under way. I've got the boat reserved and now I just need to find the crew.

Someone is working on a novel written 140 words at a time. Neat stuff! [Link from Jeremy]

This is a book that is about right now. It plays out the tension and intersection of privacy versus safety in the after math of a terrorist incident in the SF Bay Area. The book will probably seem dated pretty quick since the technology and lingo are so current, but the story is still great. This book marks a turning point in Cory Doctorows writing. This book is a real turning point for the author, Cory Doctorow. Previous works like "Eastern Standard Tribe" or "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", or even a novella I truly loved "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" were good reads but it wasn't something I would try and get friends who weren't sci-fi/cyberpunk fans to check out and read. This book changes all that - I know I'll probably mail my copy off to my nephew to read. If you are too cheap to get the book, the txt download will be posted soon I'm sure.

The week's "Ralph Nader Overcoat Award" is hereby awarded to Reverend Wright. I believe we haven't heard the last of you yet. Will you be the Billy Beer of the new millenium? It's too soon to know.

I would really like to find and purchase a set of major religion dashboard deities. If you know where I can find them, please leave a comments. If you knew where I could find the bobblehead version that might work as well. I would really like at least Jesus, Mary, Ram, Buddha, Zeus, Pele, Freud or Darwin and Thor or Loki. You'll notice at least one missing religion, but their anticonistic stance plus their sensitivity to cartoons means I'll skip that one.