Make the bad man stop!

Haven't posted in ages, I know. Why? I'm not sure. It may have something to do with the fact that I seem to be doing a lot of, you know, stuff, and having lots of, um, fun, recently. I doubt there's a causal relationship here but it's just something I've noticed.
Also, my connection is so bad, in a way that is probably inconceivable to anyone out there with even a 56K modem. Our wireless provider went out of business a while back leaving us with only a 64K connection out between 30-odd people. Average throughput plateaus at 1.2K/sec. Do you have any idea how slow that is? I'm sorry, Jared, but download speed matters a hell of a whole lot to me.
But what jolted me out of my silence was the fact that I walked in the doors of one of our clients today, a very smart company called Cognotec, and went over to the desk of the project manager who had worked with me on their intranet, only to find that, 20 minutes earlier, he, along with 29 others, had been let go due to the impact of the current economic downturn.
Ok, you can stop now, the joke's not funny anymore.
This particular guy was the sharpest client I've ever worked with - too damn sharp at times - and the guy no longer has a job. And he's about to get married next month.
I mean, you know... fuck!
If anyone is looking for a really smart and organised guy to work for them, get in contact.
Just hope I'm not making the same plea for myself soon. Actually, nah, I won't be doing that - not with those adjectives, at any rate.
posted by Mersault 10:04:11 PM | #

Monday, July 23, 2001

Sweet Research Tool

ResearchIndex
Before I blog anything half-interesting, I just wanted to note this rather nifty search interface to a whole... bunch of stuff. More specifically, a search engine for academic Computer Science information.
The interface is a bit odd - resist your natural inclination to hit the first button you see and click "Search documents" on the right, and you get a bunch of refs with a pointer to the paper hidden up in the right hand side of the page.
They've also gone to the trouble of putting together a Computer Science directory, and I'm currently looking through the HCI/Interface design category to help my house mate Paul put together a course on Interface Design - 'cos I'm good like that.
posted by Mersault 11:04:35 PM | #

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

IA Software

Software for Information Architects - Argus ACIA - February 19, 2001 Via Nadav
Hmm... like Nadav, I'd never spotted this very useful overview of software for Information architects including pointers in the categories of automated classification, thesaurus management, collaborative filtering (cool), search engines, and, the old chestnut, the software IAs themselves use to create wireframes etc. File under 'Useful'.
posted by Mersault 7:53:23 PM | #

CMS Best Practices

Content Management Best Practices - Processes and Technologies
"Balls!"
This is the normal and reasonable reaction to being handed a 52 page report on Content Management best practices written by PWC. However, you can put your "Balls!" away, because your apprehension is misplaced.
It was written for the Irish Government as a guide to best practices for content management across the many Government web sites, their associated agencies and special interest sites. But the findings are equally valuable for any large organisation which has to balance the need for centralised standards with local publishing.
It outlines 4 dimensions of content management: content, people, process and technology, which impact on the following 7 elements of the framework they set out:
Standards and Guidelines - covering issues such as structure, style, technology, meta data and templates

Content Classification - structure, persistence, multiple views, searching

Authoring and Ownership

Editorial and Approval

Content Sharing - portal, content aggregation, syndication and brokerage models are all explored.

Expiry and Archiving

Implementation of the Framework

I was knocked sideways to find that something so useful was written by PWC - not because they're any worse than any of the rest of the Big 5 but because they are one of the Big 5, whose web cluelessness I've had the misfortune of encountering first hand. But this is concise, well-researched, nicely presented and well thought-through. Impressed, I am.
posted by Mersault 7:35:23 PM | #

Tuesday, June 26, 2001

Lance! Lance! Lance!

Oh, man, Lance is back. Hoohoo!
Lance, to me, is like Northern Exposure or Twin Peaks - great shows that I just seemed to keep missing for some stupid reason. Every time I read him it's "Why the hell don't I read him all the time?" But, actually, the reason I'm noting it here is cos it reminds me of a story from my youth.
When I was in college, I lived in the college apartments along with a bunch of other lazy, cartoon-watchin', dinner-from-the-saucepan-eatin', tequila-drinkin', Pixies-listenin' bastards who've since become my best friends. [Cue: Awww!!!]
Anyway, we shared the apartment with some Merkins who were over on college exchange programs. I think it was actually called the Beaver program - ghhh. And, I admit it, we loved our pet Merkins. They were all friendly, nice and, get this, really smart people - ??? :) And, fair play to us, we were really nice to them. But, some others weren't quite so lucky.
I heard tell of one group of lads staying in another apartment complex who were awaiting the arrival of their second semester American. Everyone living there was sitting on the couch when he walked in.
"Hi, my name's Lance!" he said chirpily holding out his hand to the group.
"Lance. Lance. Lance" replied one of the guys slowly as the new arrival looked at him confused. "Lance! Lance! Lance!" he chanted as he got up off the couch and started walking in time around the room. Soon his flatmates were joining him in the chorus.
"Lance! Lance! Lance!", they yelled as they marched all around the apartment like some kind of demented doozer work detail, walking in and out of doors, up and down corridors, over couches and chairs. "LANCE! LANCE! LANCE!"
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Poor Lance left the next day.
[Wipes tears from his eyes] Oh, man, we do love a good joke over here, no doubt about it.
posted by Mersault 7:32:05 PM | #

Monday, June 25, 2001

Random Noise

Taking heart from Helena's good work, I've decided that the only way to keep this web page updated is to keep the damn thing updated. And, for now, that means filling it with crap of the any-old-kind variety.
Let's see. Today started off very oddly with my alarm going off. I associate this with getting out of bed and having a shower. So, I figured, why break with tradition? Then I figured I'd take a stroll into this place called work. I hung out there for a bit. Then the guy called 'the boss' asked me to go in his car with him to a meeting. "Ok", I said. I shook hands with some people. There were chocolate biscuits. I seem to remember some guys and the boss were talking. Then some other stuff happened.
While they were talking, I decided to utilize my time effectively and amused myself thinking up song titles for a new rap band called N.W.I. - Niggaz With Issues
Straight Outta Therapy:
I'm, like, soooo not comfortable with Tha Police, ya know?

Faintin' at the scene of the crime.

I'm sensing some hostility here (Since you shot at me from your car)

Ooh! Ooh! There's a big horrible creepy crawlie on my AK!

Ain't nuthin' wrong with the size of my Glock!

Forgive me, homies, but I'm not really in a 'gangsta' place right now.

Hot sex wit' fly hos leaves me cold.

Woulda been a Crip, but blue is just all wrong for me.

Show Respect to my Personal Space (By not firing clips at my face)

Does my ass look phat in this?

I'm a-kill you, Motherf... humper!

Sometimes, I wonder if my chunky gold jewellery isn't just a tad vulgar.

Hello-o? You're shooting at me? What's up with that?

Momma's gonna kill me if she finds out I got shot.

How come it always Darnell who get to ride shotgun?

Gawd. I'm such a shit rapper!

Dang! Gotta stop lookin' at Malik's ass.

I can't drink out' my 40 after Stanky's done hit it.

Then, after that, I went home and ate some pasta and fresh parmesan. It was good.
Current Soundtrack: The rather excellent 'Dangerous Driving' track from Laurent Garnier's 'Unreasonable Behaviour' album.
posted by Mersault 10:34:04 PM | #

Friday, June 22, 2001

Honesty in Marketing

Just spotted this gem in the philosophy section of Oxcyon's site that I wanted to share.
"At Oxcyon, we believe that people are the problem..."

Oxcyon make taxonomy platform software called Centralpoint, which is probably useful to me in real life if the site wasn't so... off-putting. I mean, the front page looks great, but the content is poorly structured and really badly presented - bullet points and callouts can go a long way, folks.
Thus, I go and prove their point exactly that people are, in fact, the problem. Pesky bastards, people.
The site feels all over the place but the most surreal moment is reserved for, once again, the philosophy page.
In a paragraph worthy of Catch 22 or, indeed, George W. Bush, the founder of the company, and proponent of some Fordism stuff that I don't understand but which sounds quite scary, outlines the company's armor against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that might beset it in the future...
"The future is moving so quickly that you can't anticipate it...Oxcyon has put a tremendous emphasis on planning for surprise instead of responding to it. We will continue to be surprised, but we won't be surprised that we are surprised. We will anticipate the surprise."

Y-essss. [Steps gingerly backwards]
posted by Mersault 4:22:22 PM | #

Wednesday, June 06, 2001

posted by Mersault 7:35:12 PM | #

Where's the old stuff?

Archives right here.