Quote of the day: We seem to have lost sight of the fact that reading a book should be a personal, enjoyable and relaxing experience, not one dictated by social pressure. #
I went trick-or-treating in heels
And I looked something like this. Don’t be scared. So my friend Joy, admittedly with all the appropriate disclaimers, threw out this zinger, So: I find (straight) men dressing in drag an instant turn off, which I felt was just…
Employees must wash hands…
At O’Reilly Media, Inc., we take Inter Net hygiene very seriously! This post first appeared on From the Belly of the Beasts, a weblog from some of the people who build O’Reilly websites.
One enclosure per item
Though it’s not explicitly specified in the spec (as not much really is) I thought I’d mention here for future reference that RSS 2.0 really only expects there to be one enclosure per item. This question comes up from time…
Sunday, in the city, with Abe and Kathleen
I met up with Abe and Kathleen on Sunday, both of them friends from grad school in Chapel Hill, and had a nice time touring around the city. We rode on a cable car, which is something I hadn’t done…
Multiblogging
Timely: an overview of multiblog software options This whole content management thing is surprisingly a nontrivial problem. This post first appeared on From the Belly of the Beasts, a weblog from some of the people who build O’Reilly websites.
Jack London State Historic Park
A few glimpses from the hike I took yesterday with Stephanie to Jack London SHP in nearby Glen Ellen. Painterly view of grape vine leaves turning yellow and red on a mountainside in the distance Lake reflection in the early…
The problem with syndication: tracking
Tim Bray on Google Analytics: I don’t think they claim to do anything to track the people who read this via RSS/Atom, which means that it will become less useful with time until they address that, which I’m not sure…
Are equal height columns for real?
So I really enjoyed reading through Alex Robinson’s CSS treatise, In search of the One True Layout, in particular I’ve been playing with the equal height columns technique, or as Eric Meyer called it, the Extremely Tall But Clipped Columns…
The IE Doubled Float-Margin Bug
It’s both gratifying and annoying when I get bit by an IE bug (that I’ve previously heard about) for the first time. A coder innocently places a left float into a container box, and uses a left margin on the…
Why don’t your feeds display in my browser?
From the mailbags this morning, I got the following bug report: You have two broken links to subscribe to RSS feeds. In both cases, my browser tries to open/save to my desktop rather than open the rss feed in a…
What happened to you O’Reilly?
Keith Casey: I for one am stunned by O’Reilly’s disregard – either through malice or negligence – for their readership. This post first appeared on From the Belly of the Beasts, a weblog from some of the people who build…
These should be standard issue around here
Powerbook laser-etched with the famous O’Reilly tarsier. [Via Make] So cool. Can y’all do my Thinkpad next? This post first appeared on From the Belly of the Beasts, a weblog from some of the people who build O’Reilly websites.
The Church of Wine
Marcia and Matt showed up at 1pm to go wine tasting and I answered the door in a towel with a toothbrush in my mouth. I dressed, gathered my bearings, and we got in the car and drove up to…
Effin’ Hives!
A little more than a week ago I went skating with Kyle, and though I wear all manner of protective gear (helmet, knee pads, wrist guards), I still managed to grind about 6-8 square inches of skin off my right…
IE does not break lines between image and text
Gotta love IE’s little surprises. I’m not sure if this is a known bug, in fact I’m not even sure if this is a bug at all, but I thought I’d write it up for future reference. One of the…
Poison-oak self-exam
1.5 inch wide swath on left leg from top of foot to knee, ✓ Left ankle, front to back, ✓ Right ankle front to back, ✓ Top of right foot, ✓ Two quarter-size spots and one half-dollar-size spot on right…
The grossest thing about poison oak…
…are the weeping blisters. I went out last night wearing a pair of loose-fitting pants. This is how they looked this morning. Hell yeah, my body did that! And if I’d been wearing white pants, you’d see that the weeping…
Uncool URLs
I don’t understand why the iTunes RSS extension spec (you know, the one you get when you google for itunes rss) hasn’t been updated since July 2005: http://phobos.apple.com/static/iTunesRSS.html But if you want the latest version (as of October 2005) it’s…
Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve
About a half of an hour north of Santa Rosa is the Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve in Guerneville. It was one of the first places I visited (thanks to Terrie) when I came up to see the area and ponder…
This is goofy, I know, but one of my favorite blogs (The Sneeze) is going to webcast growing magic rocks at 11am.
You might remember the can above from his hi-larious post on Cuitlacoche (aka Corn Smut). #
Republicans who control the Senate with 55 of 100 votes say that the U.S. Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leaders in calling for an “investigation into the Bush administration’s use of intelligence about Iraq.” Hmm, yeah, right. #
I find this kind of horrific: funny urinals #
Brilliance: In search of the One True Layout #
Star Wars, taken together, is “the greatest postmodern art film ever” As literary critics have long pointed out, the arbitrary yoking together of events in the service of storytelling is one of the fundamental characteristics of all narrative. #
Infographic of the day: Golden Gate suicides by location #
Oh my god, who has let this happen? CIA Operates Secret Prison Network #
What the hell is going on in France? There have been six straight nights of rioting in the low-income suburbs around Paris. #
Crazy stuff in the news tonight: Abundant oestrogen is a good predictor of a woman’s ability to conceive, and a predilection for female faces that suggest fecundity could have evolved as a way for men to choose a more fertile mate. This seems to suggest that everyone is heterosexual–but I’m curious what this means if you’re attracted to the same sex? #
I keep losing this, which means I should have neatlinked it: Derek Powazek’s Embrace your bottom on rethinking webpage footers. #
Ad that showed up in Gmail: Baked Spelt Macaroni with Cashew Cheddar Cheese #
Ironically I’m linking to this so I can remember it in the future: continuous partial attention #
Hmm, I might be busy: WordPress Bug Hunt on Saturday, Nov 5th #
Fun at work: Employees must wash hands… #
Infographic of the day: CommonCensus’ urban spheres of influence (via Ruby) #
Another news article, USELESS without a photo! Designer creates wall of breasts #
I can relate: My natural time zone is somewhere in the middle of the atlantic. Greenland, say. #
It’s got to be tough being in the public eye when people make FLASH videos parodying you: Schwarzenegger Street #
How did Israel become so EVIL? Israel using sonic booms of jets as “nonlethal weapon” in Gaza #
Just when you thought the year was 2005: Pirates attack luxury liner off Somali coast #
Ad seen on Boingboing:
Speak Out California’s special election voter guide includes our recommendations on the eight ballot measures #
Such good news! The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which will codify Pastafarianism, is set to come out on Valentine’s Day. #
A correctly spelled word: advantageous that looks misspelled to my eyes. #
quote of the day: nothing truly exciting has happened and I have had no stunning revelations that filled me with a creative juice to ejaculate onto the internet #
“Mommy, what’s the difference between sharing and stealing?” Grokster Ltd., which lost a Supreme Court fight over file-sharing software popular for stealing songs and movies online, agreed Monday to shut down and pay $50 million to settle piracy complaints by Hollywood and the music industry. #
I can’t decide whether I hate or love Ken Stringfellow’s song, For your sake which I first heard on SomaFM. #
the best kind of movie review: go see it (re: the squid and the whale) #
I’m speechless, must listen: So Much Drama in the PhD #
New word that I thought I could claim to have coined: paragraphify alas. #
Useful: ASCII to decimal entity encoder #
It makes me happy when ae’s happy: My Mood’s Just Getting Better and Better #
Derrick Story, one of the editors I work with at O’Reilly has a blog: The Digital Story (on digital photography, image editing, etc) #
Produced an article today on the Symposium on Intellectual Property, Creativity, and the Innovation Process held at UNC Chapel Hill #
Sort of work-related thing to read later: Can we fix the software development process with innovative management? #
Ah haha! Google Maps Risk #
Take this blowhard off the air: “And if al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.” Bill O’Reilly #
Song I like on Indie Pop Rocks: The Lucksmiths – Great Lengths (sadly no samples!) #
So cool! Google maps mashup of the day: What time is it around the World #
Quote of the day! How much work can you get done during the day without a visit to the GYM? #
What browser war? Google will pay up to $1 per referral the first time a user installs Firefox #
Neat: anti-gravity-machine (something I think my dad would like [to build]) #
News of the weird: British man ‘beats’ HIV #
Quote of the day: Yo, man, I drive a garbage truck. How am I going to get the ladies to look at me? #
If you have the chance, you should try Cricket Cola, made from real cane sugar, real kola nut, and green tea.
#
Oh dear. Advice of the day: Do not give your heart to a prostitute. #
Customer self-service: Six Apart does their customers right #
Making trouble on the Beasts blog: Are equal height columns for real? #
Holy crap, my mind has been blown, The New Monogamy is the best article on relationships ever (or at least the best I’ve read in the longest time).
Bonus: it contains the best freaking phrase EVAR: body-fluid monogamy.
Wow. #
Best album title? CTRL-Alt-Del-U #
I’m thinking you might want to check out the Mates of State (a local SF band) after watching this incredible video #
Kickass! It Does not matter if you have a vagina, penis, or other, ALL bathrooms should be accessible to ALL people #
Cuteness on the intarweb: Sam Ruby’s daughter discovers Ruby on Rael (rubyonrael.com) #
Wikipedia article of the day (for future reference): Map-territory relation (via Corey) #
Joy on Capote (Oscar Buzz: Philip Seymour Hoffman to win best actor) #
Clearly I need a new business card: i’m ceo … bitch (I can’t believe that came out of a Fortune Magazine article) #
Talking about tattoo’s last night, for some reason the idea of this sounded really appealing.
Update: apparently that would mean I’m terribly simple and enjoy cliches :( #
Engrish of the day: Religion Free DVD Player #
Wow, yeah, that’s cool: sex toy plug-in for iPods #
There seems to be a lot of this flying around lately: Till Derrida do us part (via Sally) #
Ah the synchronicity! I was searching for information regarding an ad I saw recently on the back of a bus for an organization called Help Oppose Pornography’s Exploitation (HOPE) and what do I find but an article written in December 2002 by Joy! #
Geekblogging over at Belly of the Beasts: Why don’t your feeds display in my browser? #
Ha! Quote of the day, hot off the virtual press: And while their fear of Big Brother and his Patriot Act is understandable, I’m not yet ready to join the neo-luddites in their fight against IPv666 (Peter Morville) #
Yeah, maybe if I link to the articles we publish, I’ll read them: Ruby the Rival #
hehe: I’d have it all paid off, but then they’d release a new 50-watt blue anodized tweeter, and…it was like I didn’t have any choice, man! That shit just clawed at my brain! #
I’ve spawned a “fan” club: More tips for JUSTIN
and, umm, an anti-fan club: I disagree with everything Justin says #
I was just wondering why movie prices are the same across the board, and Joel has a compelling answer: The answer is that pricing sends a signal. People have come to believe that “you get what you pay for.” If you lowered the price of a movie, people would immediately infer from the low price that it’s a crappy movie and they wouldn’t go see it. Wow. Yes! #
What’s the origin of this phrase? machines of loving grace
(Reminds me of another fav: I for one welcome our new ___ overlords.) #
Sweet: Digital Pinhole Lens #
Dude, I wish I was closer to Monterery, these are cool: eric joyner’s robot paintings #
Quote of the day: the two quickly find themselves trapped in a sinister situation that’s wide and as deep as the darkest, sickest recess of human nature itself #
Photo of the day: Fortune cookie #
Funny: Yahoo News censors the “Dick” in Wonkette’s “Dick Cheney” #
One of the neat things about working on content for a company as opposed to just working on my blog is that our company has a graphic designer on staff, who, among other things, creates these neat illustrative graphic tiles for every article we publish. I particularly liked the one for an article we published today. #
Neat gadget: Laser Guided Pool Cue #
To read later: The Effects of Diseases, Drugs, and Chemicals on the Creativity and Productivity of Famous Sculptors, Classic Painters, Classic Music Composers, and Authors #
What is going on in CONGRESS? I expect MORE: Ford and Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., then clashed loudly in a small scrum of lawmakers. #
This quote from Fight Club comes back to me occasionally: I’m sorry… you met me at a very strange time in my life. #
Interesting news: The life of a single convict scheduled to die by lethal injection has reignited a passionate debate among people of faith over accountability and punishment, forgiveness and redemption. The convict: Stanley “Tookie” Williams, co-founder of the Crips. #
Orwellian headline of the day: Database ‘will bring stability’ #
Hello McBloglines! Anybody home? Phil Ringnalda is not happy with the response to his XSS reports #
Neat, spent some time playing with this tonight: Yahoo! Geocoding API (unfortunately much of the time spent banging my head on the wall due to a sloppy code edit on my part) #
Useful: PHP/CURL Examples (geeky) #
Dude, how cool would it be to get a Trosley Car Portrait of my shiny Honda Civic? #
brain backup: If current rates of growth are maintained then within two decades, a consumer will be able to store all of the works produced by every member of the human species in a 100$ storage device, including realtime video capture of their entire lifetime. #
News of the day: With gender-based spellings in German, the chancellor’s Web site could no longer be bundeskanzler.de. Angela Merkel’s official title is “Bundeskanzlerin,” with the feminine ending “-in” – but bundeskanzlerin.de was already taken. Now it appears the owner of the feminine version is willing to cede it. #
Six words I would have never imagined seeing together: Crocheted Flying Spaghetti Monster dildo cozy #
To watch later: Geek Entertainment TV #
Neat: In 1995, the German government introduced a new typeface for German car registration plates with the goal to make it “virtually impossible” to manually change letterforms or numerals #
Geeking out on the Beasts blog: IE does not break lines between image and text #
Beautiful: wtf as ligature #
What is a photo? Drawings banned from Flickr #
OMG OMG OMG!!1 watch this: The Proper Words Song An excerpt: “Our anus is a useful thing indeed, the anus gives relief in time of need, we all have an anus, so no matter what you’ve heard, remember that anus is the proper word.” #
This is one of the realities of “adulthood” that I deplore the most. That your ideas are not judged on their own merit, but based on who you are and what you’ve done. Republicans privately acknowledge that Murtha is a worrisome opponent because he can hardly be portrayed as a liberal of the Michael Moore stripe. #
New word: soupcon (what do you know, it’s French: soupçon) #
Neat! Panama Canal Miraflores locks time-lapse, 1 week compressed into 11 minutes #
Dude, I am loving Clif’s Mojo Bars
Loving the song Love’s Lost Guarantee by Rogue Wave #
Wikipedia article of the day: Machinima “a filmmaking technique that uses video-games as animation engines” #
Sign of the times: X is 12 days old, but it’s well worth a read #
Unlike Kottke, I liked Rize a lot, even more than Mad Hot Ballroom (which I admit was quite good).
Anyway, his post included a link to Madonna’s new video, Hung Up, in which she dances kind of strangely (how old is she again?) but some of the other folks rock out. #
How cool is this?
Ha! Cock o’lada (I especially like the warnings at the bottom of where not to put your “cock o’lada”) #
The web is 15 years old and James Boyle asks, What would a web designed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation or the Disney Corporation have looked like? #
I’m starting to feel very anti-technology of late. This actually frightens me: One Laptop per Child (OLPC) #
Song I would have loved to hear at a Hell Dance Party: The Lovemakers – Prepare for the Fight #
Must read this: Questionable Content (via Robin) #
Oh no! Trixie tried to shave. No harm done, it’s already healed. #
Random thought of the day (as I pop my ‘roids): would pharmacies exist in a libertarian utopia? #
Reading Phil Ringnalda is perhaps the most geeky/enlightening moment of my day: Appendix C, why hast thou forsaken me? (I mean, how often do I sit down and read a blog post twice) #
New hot startup thing: clear:left (company name using CSS syntax) #
Acronym of the day: VPL (learned this one last night from Leona, the panty expert) #
I’ve been seeing links from WorldChanging popping up on boingboing again and again. #
Agh! Worst news of the day (that everyone already intuitively knows): Molecule gives passionate lovers just one year
Your heartbeat accelerates, you have butterflies in the stomach, you feel euphoric and a bit silly. It’s all part of falling passionately in love — and scientists now tell us the feeling won’t last more than a year.