As you may have noticed, I have removed the Netscape Now! banner and replaced it with one for the Web Standards Project This is a topic close to my heart. We need the browser/parser vendors to get together and standardize. I am tired of writing Web stuff that only works on some browsers or some platforms. Both of the major vendors are responsible for the mess, and this is not really about market share. I have joined the Web Standards Project, and plan on being an active member.
Mark McGuire broke the NL Home Run record last night. So exciting. I haven't been so excited about baseball since my youth. He only needs to hit 4 more Home Runs in 24 games to pass Roger Maris' record.
I am cutting back my involvement at MacCentral . While I will remain a staff member on this excellent news site, and I will also continue to write articles, I need more time to spend on learning new technology and reading. Plus this site needs a redesign badly.
I'm still putting together a plan for the sales of the Frontier Shirts.
I've had some kind of stomach illness for the last two days(thus the lack of updates here). In the interim, I wrote a commentary on the CNN report on "Apple: Stock of the Week."
I have recently purchased Soap Shoes. Due to a nagging foot injury, I haven't been able to test them out properly. They are also the subject of an article in the most recent Spin Magazine(Another Web site I can't find???). Pretty crazy stuff.
I am pounding away at various tasks this week, and I have begun a new workout program in an attempt to get myself into some semblance of shape. After quitting smoking last spring, I gained a ton of weight. It's time for it to come off. Also, when I exercise, I have a ton of energy to focus on other tasks.
I wrote a small snippet for MacCentral about a report on Apple that is airing on CNN this Wednesday.
I am very busy today finishing a story, and posting a bunch of stuff at work. I went to this great murder mystery dinner theater called Agatha's(404-875-4321) on Friday night. Everyone in the audience plays some sort of role in the play that is going on. One of my friends had a speaking part. Really good time. I can't seem to find a Web site for them.
Hello Nasty Lyric of the day: "Came out rapping when I was born Mom said rock it 'til the break of dawn"(from Body Movin')
I also watched the Zero Effect with Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller on Saturday night. Great concept and good performances from both actors. Bill Pullman's performance especially stood out. Unfortunately, the movie started to drag about 2/3 of the way in and never recovered. I think that it had the potential to be a great movie. Too bad.
I'm working on an AppleScript/VB script that will automatically translate my Word 98 files to HTML files with a creator type of my choosing. I wish that I didn't have to use two languages. When it is done, I will post it here.
The design of the Frontier shirts I am doing with Userland will be finally complete tonight. I will be getting them printed locally. I will post their availability/price/order information when I have an arrival date.
I realized yesterday that my design skills need an update. I have to spend some time away from text working on making beautiful things. I have been living in a text only world the last couple of months and it shows in my attempts at graphics recently.
Hello Nasty Lyric of the day: "His name plate medallion Says never trust a hal 9000"(from The Grasshopper Unit)
There is a Wired article today about the similarities in the design of all of the Internet directories. I couldn't agree more. What happened? People used to use the Web to innovate and try new things, and now its just like everything else. It's obvious that these folks are working and designing by committee. I like simplicity as much as anyone, but I also like beautiful things. It's one of the reasons I still use a Macintosh 60% of the time at work and for all of my home computing needs. I think that beautifully designed things inspire me. There isn't a substitute for that. I'm getting off topic though.
I think all of these folks who have all their money invested in Yahoo should take a long look at some of the emerging technologies(Like Everything and NewHoo) that represent the spirit of the Internet as a community. These are the future in my mind, not a small group of people working to try and catalog the entire growing and morphing Internet.
I would much rather know that someone like me with an interest in finding valuable information was cataloging pages I might look for. It makes a lot more sense to trust someone like that rather than someone who has a vested financial interest in seeing me go to certain sites regardless of their information value. I want to do what I can to support these efforts going forward.
The next meeting of the Atlanta Frontier Users group is tonight at the Red Light Cafe at 7pm. I really enjoyed the last meeting a lot. Hopefully some of the strong Frontier skills of the others will trickle down to me:-)
The Grand Royal Web site redesign is really good. I really like the work I've seen by the Big Gun Project.
Everything is one of the next step Internet directories.(Although it currently is self-contained A Mininet?) It is better than Newhoo. I think these are a great solution to the technical challenge of trying to catalog and rate the constantly changing Internet scenery. I have added a section to the links page for these sites. I also began to take part in Everything as an editor. It's really addictive, and I can see why this site is growing so rapidly. I am registered as Bump(of course).
I ordered a book from Amazon.com last week. Am I the only person who is not fond of their shipping policy? I assume when I pay for next day shipping that they will make the effort to get my merchandise out on time. I have a gripe here. I'm waiting to hear back from them, but I may not shop there any longer.
Powered by our not so tasty company coffee, I am a typing fool.
Hello Nasty Lyric of the day: "When I'm in Holland I eat the pannenkoeken"(from Super Disco Breakin')
My Internet based research has found that pannenkoeken seem to be large Dutch pancakes.
I have purchased a bunch of new CD's that I will be writing snippets about for this site.
Rasterboy has his Wozzle 2.0 posted. This is really cool. It's written in PERL.
The May content has been moved to its own page in the archives section.
I really want to limit my consumerism going forward. But I'm weak.
Something strange has happened in the last two weeks to me. I find myself refreshed, renewed, and ready to do some serious work. It really is a pleasant change over the semi-burned out standard of the last couple of months. I'm not sure what brought it on, but I'm very happy about it.
I spent the weekend celebrating birthdays. My friend Jean-Claude had his on Friday.
I've been diggin in the lyrics of the new Beastie Boys' record. As usual, there are amusing and obscure cultural references.
C-Net has a great Gadget section. One of the article explains why DIVX is crap. Seeing as how I own a DVD player, I am biased against this technology. I really like the DVD technology, but I hate the fact that I can't capture video or stills from it because of its copy protection.
I'm doing a lot of writing. I'm working on a piece for a print publication that is about pirate radio moving to the Web. If you know anything I should cover or know, please mail me.
I also bought a new PlayStation over the weekend. My old one burned itself out on carpet fibers. Word to the wise: don't use yours sitting directly on the carpet.
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.