I bought the new Beastie Boys disc as an English import when I was in Manhattan for MacWorld. Now that I've had a week to think about it, I think it is great. As with previous Beastie releases, I have a different favorite song every day. Today it's Remote Control, but The Grasshopper Unit is great too.BIZ!!
The Beastie Boys have really managed to span a wide variety of musical trends while remaining innovators. Their music means more to me personally than any other band that are my contemporaries. Tickets go on sale for their Atlanta show today.
Well, I disappeared for a couple of weeks. I was building up to leaving for MacWorld, and then at MacWorld.
It was a very different show than any I had been to before. Fewer companies came out. Despite this fact, people are really optimistic about Apple's future. I think that they are doing what needs to be done for them to succeed, but that is no guarantee of success. Yesterday's announced profit of $101 million doesn't hurt matters much.
I learned some useful things, and discovered Wootech Voyager, an interesting Filemaker Pro based Web integration environment. I also put a lot of names with faces.
I think the personal highlight for me was the time I got to spend with my brother. Also, my parents took the train in and we had dinner. Since I haven't been very close with them, this was a huge step in the right direction.
There are tons of things I need to get up here, but this week is crazy.
Netscape posted the 4.5 version of their browser. It contains a smart browsing set of features. This I will elaborate on, but I need to find out how I get their Bump keyword for my site.
A friend of mine managed somehow to get a Mach 3 razor for me.(Really cool site too) Shaving with this thing is great. I think that I would buy a ton of Gilette if I had any free cash. It has to be the best engineered shaving product ever.(I also heard that someone went to jail for trying to steal its secrets.)
Work on Darwin, my new 9600 monster, continues. I can't believe that Apple shipped them with 7.6 on the drive and Mac OS 8 in the box. What a hassle. I'm hoping to get it fully functional tonight. I also am setting up Bump my 7600/233 as an in-house server. I haven't decided what to do with it software-wise yet.
I continue to struggle to find news worthy items to write about for MacCentral .
It looks like I have cut a deal with Dave from Userland to make Frontier T-Shirts. I'm not sure how long it will take for me to get the design together, but i will update this page first. In preparation for a possible online selling spot, I registered the scriptstuff.com domain. It currently is mapped here.
I, as always, apologize for my 6 day absence from this space. I am overcome with ambition and have been spending an inordinate amount of time with Frontier 5.1. I think I am starting to get there. I still have four other pieces of unlearned software waiting in the wings.
I also went to see Truman over the weekend. A well-done movie that was totally made by the script and story. Certainly not to take anything away from Jim Carrey, but that everyman role was not the most challenging one on the planet.
I also got three inches of my hair cut off. Always a lightening experience.
I bought a painting by a local artist. I will post a picture of it and my thoughts at some later date.
This week is all about getting things done, my new computer (I'm naming it Darwin) just arrived, and I will be getting ready for next weeks show, and training.
Other people name their hard drives and machines after cartoon characters and all manner of other things. I personally like to name mine after legendary scientists, philosophers, and authors. What do you do?
I have an article on the recent Frontier developments up on MacCentral, "UserLand's Frontier Goes Commercial. Dave Winer put a link up on Scritping News. Cool.
I'm waiting for them to process my check so I can get Frontier 5.1, and I plan on playing with it and writing about it after that. I also bought a Photoshop 5.0 upgrade yesterday and I will let you know how I make out with it. My new 9600 is still in limbo.
I have a few meetings today, so I won't be too active.
I buy a lot of computer books. I read a couple of books a week, and I maintain a pretty solid mix between the high octane computer stuff and really good and interesting fiction and non-fiction. I am, however, very picky about my computer books. The advent of the the Internet has sped up our industry immensely. The effect on books is that they end up being out of date fast or rushed to press and not done properly. Without exception, I have found the O'Reilly books to be exempt of this rule. Always well written, they really write for people like me, professionals. There is a really in-depth article on them in today's San Jose Mercury News.
I will be adding a page to the site that will act as a master index of my writing that appears on other sites on the Web this week. I also will be adding my resume to the site so that people looking for freelance Web programming and design can check me out.
I just posted a revised link page as promised(but a few days late). I'm sure there are sites that I forgot to add, and that will get fixed as I remember. There are links to a whole bunch of sites that weren't there before. I gave up on trying to describe each site individually. You'll just have to trust me that they are worth a visit. If you think your site should be there and isn't, mail me.
This week should be interesting. New version of Frontier . New computer I hope(turns out they might not have enough for me to get one.) I imagine that it will be a wild ride as always.
I am reminded by my body that it has been spending a lot of time geeking in front of the computer and very little time in the sun. It hurts.
Lots of stuff going on.
I purchased a new computer today. Taking advantage of the deal that CDW had for Version Tracker readers. It's a 9600/350. It's all about slots, baby.
Lastly, Frontier went commercial in a very private and appropriate way yesterday. I can only wish Userland Software the best of luck with things. I bought a license for the personal version. I expect that we will have answers to some of the unanswered questions this week.
The final article in my series about the TechWorks rebate situation is on MacCentral .
On the fourth anniversary of that ill-fated White Bronco chase, I have yet another story up on MacCentral today. This one is TechWorks Power 3D Rebate: The Bottom Line . It deals with some inconsistency between a deal advertised by TechWorks and what is actually available in the retail channel.
Looks like there is a lot going on behind the scenes at Userland Software.
I am sorely aware of all the work that wants to be done on this site. I still haven't gotten to the links section and I owe a lot of content on the music, book, software, and movie pages. In time it must happen.
I have another story up on MacCentral today. It's titled "Macintosh Gaming Championship to be held at MacWorld NY" I will be attending the Expo wearing several hats and will be writing about the game competition as it occurs. I am really looking forward to another chance to chat with other Webmasters at the show and hope to meet some people I've only talked to via the net.
I read Dog Days by Daniel Lyons over the weekend. A very interesting book. It's got computer programming, dog racing, broken hearts, and the Mob in it. I will write a detailed review later this week when I have time and have digested the book.
Working away here at the Bump Interactive Laboratories. I moved the March and April Front Page News to the archives section. I am working on the links now.
Bill Gates has written an essay that is supposed to prove that Microsoft is not a guilty party in this whole Anti-Trust suit. He and the others at Microsoft are probably the only people that really believe this. It's on The Economist Web site.
I won two tickets to a Stabbing Westward/God Lives Underwater show here in Atlanta from one of our local radio stations, 99x Which is great. I never win stuff.
I'm working on a story about Flash 3.0 as an evolving and robust technology so if you have thoughts share them.
I will be doing some extensive work on my links section tonight. I also will be weeding out the old news and putting it in archives. I am trying to brew a deal with a graphic artist to work together on this site.
It really was only a matter of time before I returned to the Macintosh news community as a writer. I am now an Associate Editor with MacCentral . You can expect to see several news stories by me each week and I will also be editing stories from a grammatical perspective. If you have a story that you believe will affect the Macintosh community or a product that you would like to see evaluated, please e-mail me.
It's my brother Chris' birthday today.(Happy Birthday Bro)
Netscape is including Flash with their new browser(Wired Story). I am very happy that I bought Flash 3 last week. Now if I just had free time to play with it.
Well I read Barbarians Led by Bill Gates , and you can read my thoughts on the books page which is finally getting updated. To summarize, if you are going to buy one book on the subject, don't buy this one.
I've been listening to the new Smashing Pumpkins record and I think it is a really ambitious effort. I will write more later.
You now can search the Web using Hotbot right from the bottom of this page! Hotbot has been my search engine of choice for a while now(mainly because I like saying Inktomi) so I've decided to add it to my page.
The very useful Robert Hess MacWorld Party List has been updated for the MacWorld Expo this summer in New York. This list is invaluable for planning an effective after-Expo. Thanks to Ilene Hoffman for maintaining this resource for us all.
Starting this weekend, you can now reach this site at the kungfumaster.com domain as well as the existing bump.net, dalai-lama.com, and yoda.org domains. Just one more way we here at Bump are trying to server your needs.
There is a Salon article in their excellent 21st section about the browser wars and the related books that are being released. It's called Instant histories of the browser wars . Strangely, I already have purchased one of the books (Barbarians Led by Bill Gates ), and I plan on reading it this weekend. I will share my thoughts on it here.
I went back to E3 for my own personal pleasure today. Spent a lot of time playing Tekken 3, at the Nintendo booth catching Pokemon stuffed animals, and finding out more about Myth II Soulblighter. I have put together some of my feelings with some pictures on my Myth page(soon to become the general video game page.)
They redesigned the Frontier 5 Web site (I shouldn't be too far behind with Bump 2.0)
Here's a FEED article on our cinematic differences with Japan and the conflict over the Godzilla character. I was a little put out when I saw Godzilla last weekend. Crap.
There is something big about to happen at the Iconfactory .(I ran into these guys at E3)
My favorite Macintosh interface hack is taking it to the next level today. You can download it direct for Kaleidoscope.net .
I went to E3 today. I left feeling that a lot of game developers don't get the Internet at all.
Some points of interest:
I got to see Soulblighter (Myth II) from Bungie and it looks great. I got the impression that we will see it sooner than we think.
I went to an Apple Computer session after the show ended for the day. They are really putting some effort into wooing game developers. I was really surprised at the amount of people who attended and their reactions.
Nintendo has some really cute merchandising products coming down the pike. At the show they were shooting these tiny stuffed animals out of a cannon device. I wasted some valuable time playing their Kobe Bryant basketball game.
SegaSoft has a really interesting Internet gaming solution going. I will try to attend their party tommorrow night to get a better look. More details will follow.
I got to talk to two famous Douglas' whose writing has changed my life. (Copeland and Adams)
MacSoft is releasing both Unreal and Total Annihilation for the Macintosh
I wasn't impressed with the level of net integration I saw. It looks like the console developers have given up for the time being. I will be attending the show again on Saturday, and I will report in more detail tommorrow and then.
QBullets are used to indicate the function of hypertext links. QBullets appear courtesy of Matterform Media. QBullets are freeware, copyright 1996 by Matterform Media. See the QBullet legend for the meanings of all the QBullets.
I learned some valuable lessons about both myself and about work in the last month. First, it is very easy for me to overcommit to one thing and thus lose balance in my life. Something that I have always had a problem with. People who have known me in the past and for a while will attest to it.
I burned myself out.
For the last month, I have had a really hard time getting both personal and business work done. In the last three days, I have somehow started to turn it around. In terms of the work goals, I turned over a big project to my superior, and he gave me props. That helped.
Personally, I am resolving some issues. I think this was a good step in personal development. Now I have to get back to work.
You are saying to yourself. "This guy's a slacker." This is only partially true.
You see I have been ramping up our corporate sites at work for GlobalShop . At last count, I was apporaching the amount of hours I did all last month with a week to go in March.
I've also been working with Dreamweaver. It's cool.