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New user? Monday, July 24, 2000
Weight Loss at 3 months
Evidence of long-term success in a weight-loss program. There are links at the bottom of this article to the program.
My weight loss is going well. Unofficially I've lost about 34 pounds since I started. My goal is to lose at least 70 pounds by April 25, 2001. I started on April 25 of this year.
The last month has been a little rocky. While I'm still eating healthy meals and exercising quite a bit, I've been snacking, which isn't good. Nothing really horrible, but I shouldn't be doing it. I need to get myself back on track, so that I'm losing weight at my full potential.
My Microsoft optical USB mouse is acting up :(
The Register: Numeric domain name system launched. A very interesting idea indeed. (via Swaine's World)
Nothing surprises me anymore
Wow, look at all these domains UserLand owns. (Those are just the first 50, it doesn't show the rest)
UserLand has domains using trademarks including Ford, Pokemon, Pikachu, Intel, Delta, American Air[lines], Third Voice, and Napster.
UserLand theatened legal action against a group of dedicated Frontier users in 1998 for putting up a pro-Frontier community website called FrontierUsers.Net, citing trademark abuse. That of course, was total bullshit, because UserLand doesn't even have a trademark on the word Frontier -- Frontier Corporation, a century-old telecommuncations company does. They knew this, but for unknown reasons they decided to exert their ability to pay legal fees and get their way, setting back the efforts of a group of very enthusiastic volunteers.
For the record, I am still an advocate of Frontier, despite everything that's happened.
Thanks for the link Dori!
What timing! :)
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, July 23, 2000: End of Web Design
"Websites must tone down their individual appearance and distinct design in all ways"
Well, okay then!
Link via Faisal.com, a site that proves that less is more. On of my favourite web sites.
Deutsche
There are so many great and interesting looking German weblogs on editthispage.com. (An example). I really wish I knew German. My father is German, but I never picked up the language. I can pick up certain words, almost picking up meaning on occasion, but not enough to really comprehend.
It's a small world after all
My favourite feature of the weblog favourites browser is that I get to connect with the people who read my site (though, only other webloggers, which is a very unfortunate side-effect of the data feed I'm using).
Just a while ago I was looking at the list of webloggers who have added my site to their list of favourite sites, and I found some very excellent sites I hadn't read before. This German site which I can't read, Der Schockwellenreiter, is one of them.
Another is Greg Restall's weblog. From Greg's beautifully designed site I found a link to a very recent Newton FAQ, which mentions that a project to create an MP3 player for the Newton is underway. I've been using my MessagePad 2100 more lately, and with 2 PC Card slots, it could be a great MP3 player.
I find I have a little something in common with many of the people on that list, not the least of which is the willingness to share daily discoveries and experiences with everyone.
If you haven't registered your favourite weblogs yet, please do. If you need help, check out this documentation I wrote about how that works. You'll help other people who share interests connect with you -- who knows where that could lead.
Thanks. :-)
Jobs on Cube
Wes found a Newsweek interview with Steve Jobs about the new PowerMac Cube.
Enough has been said here about the Cube so I'll just leave it at that.
There's a big blue snake slithering through the dining room!
Last year I bought a Lombard PowerBook, the last laptop Apple made without AirPort support . Since the iBook came out I've yearned to be able to surf the net from my living room or bedroom -- after all, what's the point of a portable computer if it's tied to your desk? Everything I do on computers is tied to the 'net in one way or another, so using a disconnected computer is pretty impractical.
Well, tonight I solved my problem, sort of. I bought a 100' ethernet cable that can reach my living room, bedroom, and the patio in the back yard from my office.
It's not pretty, but it works. :-) Finally I'm getting my money's worth for this laptop!
Napsterkids
Found on Scripting News:
News.com: "We have a generation of computer jockeys that we've raised on Napster and MP3 who have gotten the idea, the mistaken idea, that everything in the store is free," King said. "And I'd like to see if we can't reeducate these people to the idea that the fruits of talent cost you money." (King == Stephen King)
I made a similar point a couple of weeks ago during the Napster discussion here. I also daydreamed about the kind of Napster service I want to use -- one that compensates users for making songs available online, a commission funded by a nominal per-song fee.
I don't know that Stephen King charging for his new book a chapter at a time on the honour system has much to do with the Napster-syndrome, but I find it interesting that he makes the point.
Addendum: Jeff Kandt wrote an amazing proposal for secure MP3 distribution on Hack the Planet. As Wes said, very well-thought out.
It's late right now, after midnight, so I'm not thinking clearly enough any more to figure out whether or not Jeff is describing a "p2p" distribution network or a "b2c" distribution network. (My guess is the latter)
I like the idea of a p2p network that compensates end-users for their hard-drive space and bandwidth, but hey that's just me. :-) I bet Jeff's proposal could accomodate that.
Glossary:
p2p: person to person
b2c: business to client (or customer)
Sunday, July 23, 2000
Just in the nick of time
Ironically, the web server that hosts just the images for this site went down overnight due to another storm. The new home page template doesn't have images. But if you go to the other pages in the site, you'll notice a lot of broken images.
Update: I've updated the rest of the site to match the home page's template.
The first web browser was written in Objective-C
Yesterday, while playing an online game (WarBirds), a person wouldn't believe me when I said the first web browser and web server were developed on a NeXT computer. (we were debating the merits of closed vs. open protocols, I'm not sure why I brought up TBL's NeXT box). We were promptly flamed for "talking shop" in the game, and rightly so! :-)
W3C: The History of the World Wide Web. from 1945 to 1995.
Opera and MDI - again
cnews: Look out Microsoft, the fat lady's singing
Opera is offered in 10 languages, including Afrikaans.
"We feel the software should be adapted to the user and not the other way around," Tetzchner said.
Okay... then: Opera Software, please adapt Opera so that I don't have to use the awful MDI ("several windows within one browser frame") user interface. I promise to purchase a copy as soon as that is a released feature. In the mean time, my 30 day trial license of Opera 4.0 hasn't expired yet.
Saturday, July 22, 2000
Lance Morrow explained -- He's a secret weenie!
What a completely stupid article.
CNN: Al Gore explained -- He's a secret Canadian!
Lance Morrow refuses to explain HOW Gore is like a Canadian, just giving his readers a lot of "nudge-nudge wink-wink say-no-more say-no-more" bullshit.
The article ends with:
"How so? I'm not sure it would do much for American-Canadian friendship to go into more detail. Students wishing to pursue the subject, however, might explore fatal comparisons in the area of humor."
Lance, put up or shut up. We are not amused.
E-mail down until Sunday or Monday
I've just learned that a storm knocked out the mail server for my domain. The hard drive(s) and backup UPS are trashed. Apparently however, no mail is lost as it's cached on an external mail server. (I hope that's true!)
The server will be down until Sunday, or more likely Monday. Bugger. ;(
If you need to contact me, please use the address jim@oaai.com for now. Thanks.
Underwhelmed and Uninformed
Apple's Jobs fails to inspire - I must admit I was underwhelmed by Wednesday's announcements. There was nothing earthshaking, no big advances like we've seen in the past - iMac / Netbooting / AirPort.
Maybe Apple's done such a good job surprising and impressing us in the last 2 years that it's pretty much impossible to live up to that level of excitement.
Regardless, I'm bothered by how tight-lipped Apple has been about new products. I believe it's doing them more harm than good.
If they had told developers that MP macs were coming out so soon, more software could have been made MP-enabled by now. Then, these MP macs would have appealing to more markets in the short-term.
If they had told accessory makers about the new colours, they could have prepared for the transition.
If they had told WebObjects developers and sysadmins that the new G4s wouldn't be able to run OS X Server for a few months, they could have snagged the remaining supply for development and deployment needs while they waited for the update. People are complaining louder now than they would have had they had some warning.
Do you think it's important for Apple to be secretive about product rollouts? I'd love to hear a rebuttal.
Petreley on Enhydra
Arcane or not, Enhydra is a dream come true for the Java-loving servlet developer
Enhydra is pretty darn cool. If I wasn't already doing WebObjects development (which IMHO is still much better), I'd really like to be using Enhydra.
If you've deployed apps with Enhydra, I've love to hear your experiences...
Don't golf in a thunderstorm
1PM: I wanted to go golfing but there's a severe weather warning (thunderstorm watch) for the Greater Victoria area. :-(
8PM: This afternoon I traded in my first (starter) set of golf clubs for a full 11 piece set and new putter. The store I bought my first set from has a '1/2 back' program where you get 1/2 the cost of your clubs back if you upgrade in the first year.
After that I went to the driving range. I definitely shouldn't hit more than one bucket of balls -- by the time I'm at the end of the 1st bucket my swing is all over the place. The 2nd bucket was a total waste, and now my back is a wreck. :-(
When I bought my first clubs last year, I wrote about it on this site. It's kind of neat (for me anyway) to be able to go back and read that stuff... I wish I had kept a diary through my whole life.
.NET: "psychic hotlines and newspaper horoscopes"
Joel Spolsky totally understands .NET. Which is to say, he doesn't know what the hell it is either!
And that's his point. It's exactly what you imagine it to be, which is why you think you love it. Sneaky huh?
New Look
I know what you're saying. What the hell happened?
Well I'm trying out this new template I just finished. It's similar to the one I had been playing with for a few days, but I like this one better.
I don't know if the colours are good or not, but I tried it in 5 different browsers (IE/NN on Mac/Win and Opera/Win) and it looks nice to me. :-)
I'd really really appreciate your feedback on this new design.
Thanks in advance,
Jim
PS: The rest of the site still uses the 'normal' template. If I decide to keep this template I'll have the rest of the site use this template too. One of the many advantages to using Conversant is being able to have many templates stored and available all the time. I can revert this page to the old look in a few clicks.
