It's news to me...
This page lists what's new and interesting...at least to me <grin>. Expect some "real" news, some personal "discoveries," and a smidgen of ramblings and rants. Hopefully, you'll find something of interest in here.
| Friday, July 28, 2000 | |
"Hurt feelings are an acceptable casualty in a high-stakes arena." - Jeffrey Zeldman Zeldman -- well known for his excellent work with "A List Apart" and the Web Standards Project -- has been taking a lot of heat lately. First "A List Apart" was taken to task by many in the weblog community for a recent article that stated the obvious -- most web logs are self-referential drivel with no literary value (see this. Then the Web Standards Project was pounded by pro-Mozilla forces angered that WaSP was pointing out that delays in producing a new version were killing the browser's chances in the market. Overall, I think Zeldman's efforts to push web standards have been instrumental in making web development less of a nightmare and the knowledge I've gleaned from his personal log, from ALA and WaSP (all gratis projects) has really helped me in my work. At the same time, I'm sure it must get depressing to get regularly blasted for your volunteer efforts and I dropped him a note to keep his chin up and not forget that there are a lot of people who appreciate all his work and think advocating for web standards is important. Not only did he send quick thank you, but later he posted his public thanks to the many supporters like myself that sent him encouraging notes. Clearly he's a class act, and --- despite the quote in the title of this piece -- he's clearly uncomfortable with hurting other's feelings even when he feels a point is necessary to make.
By the way, my opinions about the general low literary value of most web logs: 1) True, but also accurate for almost all other types of communications too -- writing, tv, movies, radio, art, music, etc. 2) Value is what you get out of it. For many people, self-expression is enough; for others it's a sense of community. Literary value is not necessarily the goal. 3) Even literary tastes differ dramatically. I'm a big fan of Steinbeck, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, but Ezra Pound and HD leave me cold. Your mileage may vary.
posted 7/28/2000 11:44:32 AM | link
| Thursday, July 27, 2000 | |
The day the music died . . .The injunction ruling came down today: Napster must shut down its file-sharing features tomorrow at midnight PST. Without the ability to trade MP3 music files, I'm betting Napster users disappear like snow in July, but only to reappear using newer, less controllable technology like Gnutella. My personal take is that what's going on is clearly not legal but is a lot of fun, not particularly harmful, and is going to become increasingly difficult to control.
posted 7/27/2000 3:58:01 PM | link
| Tuesday, June 20, 2000 | |
The world's smallest soveriegn nation is planning to become a world leader
in questionable Internet ventures.
http://www.internetwk.com/lead/lead061900.htmHere's the country's web site (http://www.sealandgov.com/). If true -- and apparently it's getting even more play than recent spud-powered computers -- Sealand has to be the goofiest thing I've ever heard of. Of course, I could just be jealous that I didn't take over an abandoned North Sea island fortress and crown myself Prince Roy! Bow down before me. - Jim, The Man Who Would be King
posted 6/20/2000 10:43:13 AM | link
| Tuesday, May 23, 2000 | |
What's this whole "web log"-- or "blog" -- thing about anyways?Well, this inteview helps explain it...I think...
posted 5/23/2000 10:26:38 PM | link
| Tuesday, May 16, 2000 | |
Hard time picking good color schemes when designing web pages?Well, check out this online color scheme selector from Digital Studios. Thanks to Designs by Mark for pointing this out.
posted 5/16/2000 3:29:29 PM | link
| Sunday, May 14, 2000 | |
PCs no longer PC?Are PCs (personal computers) not PC (politically correct). Apparently so. Just look at the number of long established computer publications dropping "PC" from their names. Example: Ziff Davis recently renamed PC Week to eWeek and PC Computing to Smart Business. Now these kinds of changes don't happen on whims, there's simply too much equity in established brand names. So what does Ziff Davis know that I don't? For the record: I don't think PCs are going away any time soon. There are just too big of an installed base and alternatives like information appliances and ASPs are just not compelling enough for whosale switching.
posted 5/14/2000 2:37:54 AM | link
| Tuesday, May 2, 2000 | |
MyTalk.com - No free lunch (or pay phone calls)MyTalk is another free Internet service that acts as your personal message center. You get a toll-free phone number and pin number and then can dial in to have your email read to you (the system can even page you when urgent messages arrive). The system also will make outgoing calls for you to any number for two minutes (you have to listen to ads first and after two minutes the connection is simply dropped, but it's adequate for a quick call when you're on the run and don't have change). The text-to-speech technology for reading email is pretty good, but the voice response controls are pretty awful in any kind of noisy enviroment -- nothing like standing at a pay phone in New York City shouting "dial a number" over and over. If you're going to use MyTalk.com while travelling, you owe it to yourself to get their chart of telephone key equivalents to common voice commands.
Now the bad news: one of MyTalk's handiest features was that you could call in from any pay phone to use its services. No more. They said it's costing MyTalk way too much in pay phone surcharges:
Effective April 1, 2000 myTalk members will no longer be able to call myTalk from a payphone. The good news is that members will still be able to reach their toll-free myTalk number from any business, residential, or mobile phone in the United States. The reason for this change is that myTalk has to pay a large telephone surcharge for every call that comes to us from a pay phone. In order for us to continue to provide our members this innovative service free of charge, we regret that we are no longer able to absorb this tremendous cost. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you continue to enjoy staying in touch with myTalk.
posted 5/2/2000 12:55:08 PM | link
EditPlus is a great shareware editor for HTML, Perl, JavaScript
and other coding projects.
It's amazing what $30 will buy these days: EditPlus is a first
rate editor with syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, Perl,
PHP, C/C++, Java, JavaScript and more. It also provides built-in
web browser preview and FTP tools; powerful search and replace
options, timesaving autocompletion and cliptext features;
and customizable keyboard commands. Try it for free for 30
days at www.editplus.com.
posted 5/2/2000 4:00:19 AM | link
Rant: What's wrong with Winfax for Windows???
It's an old refrain, but the rant remains the same: Symantec's
Winfax is ok for casual use, but not for serious work. Previous
versions couldn't send faxes for 24 hours straight, instead
they would slowly consume all of Windows' system resources
and crash. Version 8 has a Y2K bug that causes all resends
after February 29, 2000 to be delayed one day. And now I find
that the latest versions (9 and 10) won't support most scanners'
automatic document feeders, making Winfax's Scan and Send
option less than optimal. Too bad Winfax has a virtual lock
on the personal PC fax market and no incentive to stamp out
these ongoing bugs.
posted 5/2/2000 3:58:59 AM | link
Tech
news you can really use: Fred Langa's LangaList.
Fred Langa, former Editor-in-Chief at Byte Magazine
and VP/Editorial Director for Windows Magazine, knows
his technology. He's got a great web site (www.langa.com)
and a twice-weekly tech newsletter. Always a good read! Sound
interesting? Click on the banner below to sign up for the
free LangaList newsletter.
posted 5/2/2000 3:57:35 AM | link
All work and no play makes Jim a dull boy.
What could be more relaxing than a little gameplay? Here are two of my favorite game sites on the web for reviews,
previews, features and new game demos: Gamespot
and Gamecenter
posted 5/2/2000 3:54:19 AM | link
Webmutant site
Speaking of weblogs, I really like webmutant's log (and overall site). It offers a lot of thoughts and tips on web design and usability.
posted 5/2/2000 3:47:20 AM | link
Blog this!
Well, this is my first post using Pyra's Blogger free web log management system. So far Blogger looks really good. Setting up an account was a trivial process, web access works well for creating and editing entries. Best of all, Blogger really lets you customize the web log templates you create. I've heard Blogger's archiving of old logs isn't perfect. I guess we'll see in a week or so.
posted 5/2/2000 2:22:31 AM | link
