theme song (400K mp3)
Braves Pitcher John Rocker Suspended to May. I'm glad, what a backwards dude. I don't agree he should be forced to seek psychological counseling by the baseball league. Basically, the league and the team are his employers, and they should take the same steps of progressive discipline a thoughtful, concerned employer would take. But they're not a court, and shouldn't be able to force someone into therapy just to keep their job. Penalize him, offer him help, and if he still doesn't learn, fire him. I think that would send a better message to everyone than all this paternalism.
posted 8:05:38 PM
The Lomo Camera. Neat stuff - alternative imaging, fast and cheap cameras, photography with an attitude. Someone at work pointed it out, hope to check out some prints.
posted 7:53:03 PM
ugh, More Priests Die of AIDS. What's wrong with the Catholic Church is not so much that this is happening, but that it's not talked about. The failure to be open and responsive, much less proactive, is a tragedy. via rebecca.
posted 6:55:35 PM
Sunday, January 30, 2000
Forecast for 2/5/2000: Friday...fair. Low in the mid to upper 20s. High in the lower to mid 40s.
5 days ago the forecast for today: "Sunday...fair. Low 25 to 30. High in the mid to upper 30s." But's it's colder and snowing hard, so that would be incorrect. 3 right, 5 wrong. Maybe I'll go up to ten to make figuring out the percentage easier :-)
posted 8:21:31 PM
Appreciation for the American Way of Life:
...they might have bombed cities for this,
or sold apples in the rain.
but whoever did it,
today I wish to thank them
all the way.
posted 8:17:13 PM
Forecast for 2/3/2000 and 2/4/2000: Wednesday and Thursday...partly cloudy. Low in the mid 20s. High in the upper 30s.
Looking back 5 days ago, they thought today would be "fair, low in the mid 20s. High 30 to 35." It was sunny between 15 and 36. Close enough for me. 3 right, 4 wrong.
posted 12:18:40 AM
Looking for a reason for Futurama not being on the air (after looking for the time slot everywhere, not finding it, and thinking every TV listing on the web was broken), I found Futurama Chronicles. Now, I know of course that this TV show would inspire fan sites, but I was still wow'd that someone has compiled a fairly intriguing portal concerned with such a young show. Do they have too much time on their hands? I think the tagline explains it well: You gotta know what you gotta know.
posted 12:07:04 AM
Friday, January 28, 2000
idea for children's book for the current generation of future info-savvy adults...
Irene and Her Info
Irene watches her father read the newspaper
He reads the newspaper everyday
He pulls the newspaper apart into sections
Then he flips the pages
Sometimes he tells Irene what he's reading about
One day, Irene made her own newspaper
Irene's newspaper has sections
There is a section about what she ate today
And a section about what she learned in school
And a section about the weather outside.
Irene sells the newspaper to her father for 25 cents.
posted 11:39:27 PM
Being Jakob Nielson: The Story of the Blue and the Green is funny and honest and insightful. The aspect that most gets me is the zen perspective: he takes Jakob's rantings and accepts them as zen koans. What a great attitude. Makes me feel like a whiny fuck.
Humans destroy each other, we let horrible things manifest in our society. We pay money to hurt ourselves. A bead of sweat or two may collect in Jakob's fine wisps of hair, but he is confident that it will all sort itself out. You stare the bad things in the eye, buy another large fries and Coke, strap on the Nikes, and in your own small way try to make the world a better placeOf course I disagree about the Nikes, but I get the point.
Funny aside: One of the info architects at Razorfish has a small, framed picture of Jakob Nielson on her desk. We usually rant on and on to each other about how much of an interface gestapo he is, so it's a funny inside joke.
Another funny aside: Razorfish is responsible for designing a prominant site with a swirl and a blue and green palette. But like brig, we had to work with a branding agency to come up with that thing of a logo.
posted 11:02:36 PM
Forecasted 5 days ago for today: "Friday...partly cloudy. Low around 20. High 25 to 30." Let's see, it's been sunny between 16 and 28 with a wind chill that makes it feel like -10. So they kinda missed the low, were right on the high, but without mention of the wind they would have mis-managed my poor little expectations. But I guess I'd dress the same for partly cloudy/20 as I would for sunny/16 with a wind chill, so I'll give this one to them. 2 right, 4 wrong.
posted 6:59:33 PM
Thursday, January 27, 2000
Forecast for 1/31/2000: Monday...cloudy with a chance of rain or snow. Low in the upper 20s to lower 30s. High in the mid 30s.
Forecast for 2/1/2000: Tuesday...cloudy. Low in the mid to upper 20s. High in the upper 30s.
The forecast 5 days ago for today said, "Thursday...cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the upper 20s. They got the high right, but the rest wrong. Since "cloudy with chance of snow" generates significantly different reactions than "sunny", which is was today, I'm counting this one against the National Weather Service. 1 right, 4 wrong.
posted 5:27:08 PM
Wednesday, January 26, 2000
Today's weather in NYC: partly cloudy between 24 and 35 degrees. 5 days ago they predicted a chance of snow (nope, that was yesterday) and a high in the upper 20s. Not exactly wrong but not really right either, I won't count this one either way.
posted 3:26:11 PM
Tuesday, January 25, 2000
peterme points to Task-Centered User Interface Design which has gone shareware (shareread?). The user testing stuff could be valuable, but the "Creating the Initial Design" section is notable for its defeatest and possibly Neilsonian approach:
The foundation of good interface design is INTELLIGENT BORROWING. That is, you should be building your design on other people's good work rather than coming up with your own design ideas. Borrowing is important for three distinct reasons. First, given the level of quality of the best user interfaces today, it's unlikely that ideas you come up with will be as good as the best ideas you could borrow.OK, so we're all borrowing, then where the hell do the original ideas come from? In the beginning, someone invented, and that gave us the good stuff that you're borrowing. Ugh!
posted 8:16:03 PM
Forecast for 1/30/2000: Sunday...fair. Low 25 to 30. High in the mid to upper 30s.
Hmmmmm, the forecast 5 days ago for today said, "partly cloudy. Low 20 to 25. High around 30" when actually we experienced nor'easter weather: several inches of snow changing to freezing rain and (currently) back to snow. They weren't far off on the temp though, it's been between 29 and 33. Still, if I had dressed for partly cloudy today I'd be screwed, so I'm counting this as wrong. 1 right and 3 wrong.
posted 8:09:54 PM
Monday, January 24, 2000
Forecast for 1/28/2000: Friday...partly cloudy. Low around 20. High 25 to 30.
Forecast for 1/29/2000: Saturday...fair. Low in the mid 20s. High 30 to 35.
The forecast 5 days ago for today said, "Monday...windy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High 25 to 30" and the weather is cloudy (no snow) between 28 and 36 with the wind is blowing at only 6 mph. I think it's safe to say they were wrong. That makes 'em 1 right and 2 wrong.
posted 5:41:17 PM
meg pointed out the story about the absurd diffference between Mattel's Hot Wheels PC and the Barbie PC, Barbie PC: Fashion Over Logic. You would think after the "Math Class is Hard" bad press they would have learned, but they didn't. Time to boycott Mattel.
And they further infuriate me by slighting all the research and products done by Brenda Laurel and Purple Moon, assholes...
"Until Barbie software hit the market, there wasn't really any software for girls," Ms. Henry said. "We dispelled the myth that girls didn't like using the computer or playing games."
posted 5:06:04 PM
Sunday, January 23, 2000
On Regret:
Counting Crows:
"I have dreamed of a black car that shimmers and drives
down the length of the evening, to the carnaval side.
In a house where regret is a carnaval ride
we are spinning and spinning and..."
Sugar Ray:
"We can go out on the weekend, cause the weekend is free.
We can go off on the deep end, if you're thinking of me...
We make it through the week when you're believin' in me.
You're the one that said to me
that we don't regret anymore...
Love what we be about.
Love what we be about"
posted 9:04:36 AM
Forecast for 1/26/2000: Wednesday...cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the upper 20s
Forecast for 1/27/2000: Thursday...cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the upper 20s.
The five day forecast for yesterday had the temp right but predicted partly cloudy when it was sunny. I won't count that one either way.
posted 9:04:18 AM
Friday, January 21, 2000
Forecast for 1/25/2000: Tuesday...partly cloudy. Low 20 to 25. High around 30.
On 1/16 they predicted today would be cloudy and in the 30s, but it's sunny and between 16 and 24. Wrong. So far the count of the National Weather Service is 1 right and 1 wrong.
posted 1:06:26 PM
I thought I was using the word "table" wrong, in the idiomatic sense. But according to Merriam-Webster you can use it in roughly opposite meanings and still follow common usage:
Idioms:
on the table
So it can either mean, "We're considering this now," or it can mean, "We'll consider this later." Gotta love the English language.
posted 1:02:02 PM
Thursday, January 20, 2000
Trust and the perception of security - one of those articles that shouldn't surprise us so much, but does because Internet professionals are so far removed from the typical user experience. Reinforces the reasoning behind user testing.
This observation puzzled us. Discussions about security on internet seem preoccupied with technical issues such as 128-bit encryption, secure sessions, authentication, digital certificates, secure sockets layer, etc. And we observe that people feel secure because... "it's easy"?!
posted 10:10:41 PM
It's time to compare forecast with reality. Reality (in NYC): High of 31, low of 23, and it snowed today (woohoo, first good snow of the season).
So the forecast from 1/15 is darn close: "a chance of snow showers. Low around 20. High in the upper 20s."
But the forecast from 1/16 didn't mention the snow, and said the temp will be in the 30's range. You'd think it would be more accurate, but it wasn't. Thursday's forecast from 1/18 was similarly too high (mid 30s).
posted 6:57:42 PM
The Slate, a pretty cool Internet (web browsing) appliance. Ya know, for me, the Internet is not only about interacting with remote servers, it's about interacting with the people on the other side of those servers. Mostly this means I want to send email and view attachments (like Word, Excel) on the computer I'm surfing on. Not everyone will, but I will. I'm curious to see how popular these become, I predict not much more popular than WebTV.
posted 6:42:25 PM
Among the Inept, Researchers Discover, Ignorance Is Bliss. Found via brig, it's one of those things you have to keep in mind throughout life:
One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence.
posted 9:13:04 AM
Forecast for 1/24/2000: Monday...windy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High 25 to 30.
posted 9:07:59 AM
Wednesday, January 19, 2000
Stop reading this. Go do something nice for someone else.
Still reading? I'll assume you've plum run out of nice things to do for others and are ready to do something nice for yourself, like get a job at Razorfish. You can work with smart, talented people on broadcast, mobile, physical, and Internet stuff, travel to our Sweden office and eat weird food, and watch your stock options pay for a new home. Interested? Send me your resume.
posted 9:30:40 PM
Thoughts on my deliverable format:
"First tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, then tell 'em, then tell 'em what you told 'em" - Teddy Roosevelt, I think.
posted 2:59:25 PM
Forecast for 1/23/2000: Sunday...cloudy with a chance of snow. Low 20 to 25. High in the mid 30s.
posted 7:31:09 AM
Tuesday, January 18, 2000
Forecast for 1/22/2000: Saturday...partly cloudy. Low 15 to 20. High 25 to 30.
Thursday's high is now forecasted to be in the "mid 30s." Basically an average of the estimates of 1/15 and 1/16. Three different forecasts for one particular day yielding 3 different estimates varying by about +/- 5 degrees.
posted 1:23:16 PM
Sunday, January 16, 2000
Forecast for 1/21/2000: Friday...variable cloudiness. Low in the mid 30s. High in the mid 30s
Whoa, it didn't take long to see some major shifts. Yesterday they thought Thursday's high would be in the upper 20s, now they're saying "High around 40."
posted 6:40:15 PM
Some of the recent evolution theory (via peterme) I find fascinating. A funny irony to it all is that we didn't start studying evolution until we stopped evolving. Since the industrial revolution we've had the ability to change the world and our bodies faster than the world can change us.
posted 3:45:20 PM
Saturday, January 15, 2000
I sit in front of my computer with my shiny new cable modem, the Counting Crows are cranking away, and I wanna check out something interesting, something stimulating on the web. Where do I go? I check out some commentary (Salon), some music (the Top 100 at CDNOW), but nothing is really doing it for me. I'm am drawn back to linkwatcher to see if my favorite blogs have new posts. (At this point I'm about to make the gazillionth observation about weblogs, since it's such a self-reflective medium, so I'm self-conscious about it already.)
I think I'm drawn to the people, people I'm interested in. I might be interested in what they're interested in, and find some great new stuff on the 'Net. OK, that's no new grand revelation. But it's interesting that this is the only place I go for that fix - Jerry Springer doesn't do it for me. Could we create one site that brought that kind of personal profile point of view stuff together? It could use collaborative filtering to help spot people you might be interested in (blind date db technology? :) Mr. So-and-so just pointed to the same link you did, so you have something rare in common, maybe you'd be interested in checking out their stuff. Must mention this idea to Heather Anne.
posted 10:23:50 PM
The collaboration of Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony sounds, well, interesting. As if your neighbors have their Mussorsky turned up loud next door while you're listening to Metallica and they happened to blend a bit. As an "event," it was done live to hieghten the excitement, but Metallica has never been great live, and it especially shows in the vocals here. I remember seeing them live at the zenith of their powers (Master of Puppets tour) and as much as I loved that album, they sucked live. They've always been about great arrangements, infectious melodies and rhythm, gorgeous timbres, and - the element that brought it all together and can only be truly captured in the studio - tight, tight performance.
posted 8:41:04 PM
Just discovered Rebecca's Pocket, a weblog I like so far. Today I noticed a Viktor Frankl quote there; more reason to like that blog.
posted 4:37:58 PM
Is the 5-Day Forecast Bullshit? It seems they overpromise what's possible. I don't think we can currently predict the weather with reasonable accuracy more than one or two days into the future. I have to wonder if it was cutoff at 5 days because of some threshold of accuracy, if 5 sounded good to marketers, or whether that's how many days of weather reports people can "chunk" at one time. By the time the 4th or 5th days role around, we've probably forgotten what was reported 5 days ago and only remember what was reported yesterday or the day before. But having a 5-day forecast is expected of our weather forecast providers.
To test this theory, I am running a little experiment here. Each day I'll note what the forecast is for the New York, NY area 5 days from the current day, and after I've been doing this for 5 days I'll also include the current day's report for comparison. The reports are from Yahoo, which gets them from Weathernews, Inc., and which advertises they're from the National Weather Service (which shouldn't have anything to gain from marketing over-extended forecasts, right?).
Forecast for 1/20/2000: Thursday...variable cloudiness with a chance of snow showers. Low around 20. High in the upper 20s.
It occurs to me that the "extended forecast" - days 3 through 5 - have about half as much detail as the more immediate forecast. There's "a chance of snow" but they won't state that chance as a percentage. Still, if it gets significantly colder than 20 or warmer than 30 I'll note that.
posted 4:21:52 PM
I want to link to this Paglia article for many reasons - her opinion on the symbolism of football, her take on the current presidential candidates and on Hillary Clinton. I also like her reference to the Internet as the "liberation network."
posted 12:33:22 PM
Friday, January 14, 2000
Just when I had become accostomed to Benetton's style of alternative advertising, they go and hit me over the head with a profile of death row inmates. At first I laughed a bit, when the interview sounds like a Saturday Night Live skit:
Q: What does that feel like, to lose your freedom?Nope, didn't think you would be too happy about that loss of freedom thing. But other inmates are more thoughtful, and make you wonder if that could've been you in prison:
A: Don't feel too good. I don't know how to really break it down for you. I'm not happy about it.
And when I was fifteen years old I started going out in the world. But I got discouraged. I got to thinking that everybody in the world was crooked, there ain't no honest people in this world. What's the point of me being honest. So I kind of gave in and started doing drugs and getting into crime.I remember being so much more idealistic in high school and college. Recently I was in Walter's basement and saw the philisophical quotations we had scrawed with chalk on the walls. I still strive to do well, but my transition from idealist to positive pragmatist has been gradual and littered with good fortune. Then again, the above quoted inmates turned down college scholarships, which he looks back on as good fortune he didn't take advantage of.Q: Do you still believe that?
A: To a certain degree, yes. I believe everyone has their faults. I was looking for a perfect world back then. Now I realize there is no perfect world. I can adjust. But as a teenager, I just couldn't comprehend that.
posted 5:45:07 PM
Thursday, January 13, 2000
I think all the publicity about Elian is an outlet for us to express our pent-up feelings about Cuba. The island is too close to us and too un-American to simply feel ambiguous about, but without a catalyst such as Elian we try to ignore Cuba and silently wait for Castro to die.
posted 6:03:14 PM
Note to self: must be more constructive and inventive when hitting obstacles. Shouldn't simply bitch like my last post, just find a better way within the constraints, it might be better than I think.
posted 3:11:21 PM
Wednesday, January 12, 2000
Been thinking lately about how much of an impression advertising can make, in a purely positive emotional way, when done well. The examples below make my point. And I've been comparing this to the way we design and present web sites - showing strategy, then a month later schematics, then a month later designs, then finally after another month you see a working prototype.
I think in advertising, as much as I despise the overall superficiality of it all after working there, they GET IT more than we do. They know how to make an impression. We should be showing a working home page at the first big presentation to wow the client and to get the concept straight in our heads. Too much of the passion is lost as we draw the concept through the wringer of the project months.
posted 11:46:37 PM
And the Pets.com - Christmas Time spot is equally hilarious.
posted 9:58:22 PM
Whereas the Wazzzup! commercial is just side-splittingly funny, much better than the frogs.
posted 9:44:35 PM
After his cycling comeback, the very thought of Lance Amstrong would bring tears to my eyes. Sorry to say I've lost some respect for him after seeing his Nike commercial. The alternative press has been exposing Nike for over 10 years now, and lately the criticism has been widespread. It's a shame Lance chose to cash in.
posted 9:38:24 PM
Tuesday, January 11, 2000
My first post on my new cable modem. Not as fast as I would have thought, faster than my modem but not as fast as the T-3 at work. My computer, a PowerMac 8500, may be part of the bottleneck. The "always-on" factor is something that'll take getting used to, I always have this sense of urgency and efficiency about checking mail, downloading stuff to read offline and multitasking, trying not to go over the allotted 20 hours per month I skimped on before or tying up my one phone line. Now I can surf at my own pace.
Surfing at a moment's notice too, rather than booting up and dialing in, is something I'll have to consciously remember.
Interesting to think about the other things in our lives that have occasional connections and how they would be if always on. Nextel is doing this with mobile phones, integrating 2-way radios (which work very well). As more media becomes digital we can have all music, books, etc at a moment's notice.
posted 2:10:02 PM
Monday, January 10, 2000
One of those days spent entirely in my apt, not seeing another soul and only speaking to two people on the phone. I like it once in a while. Being on the 'Net keeps it from feeling too alone: still emailed my co-workers, still did some stock trading, still surfed around a bit. Then of course there's Batman Beyond, music, NPR, my guitar, etc. Oh, and I did some work too. Don't think I'd have the discipline to work from here.
posted 10:54:26 PM
I am Flu-Boy.Though I have an initial set of specs for my project due Friday I am surprisingly stress-free and enjoying the sick day (dayS if you include tomorrow). Maybe it's the vitamin-aspirin-ibuprofin-Sudafed-Nyquil combination.
posted 10:44:09 PM
Thursday, January 06, 2000
Just posted the pics from Christmas Eve. Steve and Joan, the two oldest people present, are so beautifully photogenic.
posted 10:55:32 PM
Wednesday, January 05, 2000
Christine sends her day's most beautiful thing:
...i walked down the stairs, i saw a certain glow coming from outside the windows facing the street. i quickened my pace only to be brought to a halt at what i found. laying before me, on the other side of the glass, was a blanket of snow. not just any kind of snow. fresh, pure, clean snow. still untouched by the various cars, pedestrians and canines. perfect snow. reflecting the heavens above. its simple beauty just ... glowing.
posted 6:17:03 PM
On the twelveth day of Christmas my true love brought to me 12 good web site ideas...
posted 6:12:57 PM
The future Mac OS X - a kindler, gentler NeXTSTEP.
posted 5:06:41 PM
Yippee! brig just linked to the The Long Now Foundation, where Danny Hillis is building the coolest clock with a fantastic philosophy of time and social responsibility fueling it all. Must go back and read more later.
posted 1:13:19 PM
Tuesday, January 04, 2000
...11 constructive comments on relationships,
posted 6:16:00 PM
Hingis Talks of Possible Boycott. Comparing her greed to human rights protests doesn't exactly generate sympathy from me. Neither does pointing out that taxes can subtract almost half of her more than $3 million earned last year. We all know that $1.5 mil doesn't go far these days.
I do sympathize with women athletes in general, but for their salaries to match male athlete's salaries the ticket prices, media coverage, advertising prices, and, most of all, audience viewing habits will all have to change. I hope they do, but until then I think young Hingis is in for some education in big business and economics.
posted 11:24:07 AM
Monday, January 03, 2000
Note to self: Stay in closer contact with the "House 30" crowd in 2000.
posted 9:41:25 AM
...10 hours of lost sleep,
posted 9:27:30 AM
Sunday, January 02, 2000
...9 miles in gorgeous weather,
posted 8:06:32 PM
Saturday, January 01, 2000
thinking about a cycling milage goal for this calendar year 2000. Perhaps 15 miles 3 times per week is reasonable, which would total 2340 miles, which would probably be more than I've ever ridden. it would also account for weeks off and long tours. done.
walking to work doesn't count. other forms of "extra" aerobic excercise, like ellipticising, do count.
cleared the odometer today.
prolly should also lead some tours this year, maybe 5 is a good goal, forcing me to commit to certain weekends and rides and milage, not to mention pitching in with the volunteer duties.
posted 6:46:33 PM
all this wisdom swirling around my head,
i should pay attention, but I just watch TV instead,
the radio sings to me, how he lost a wonderful woman,
i sing along without listening
posted 6:40:22 PM
noticed someone else's blog on my list of editable blogs. pb of Pyra says this is a matter of mis-set priviledges. so i posted a graffito to it. curious to see the reaction.
posted 6:33:27 PM
I heard my own voice a few minutes ago, my real voice. I was singing along with the newest Counting Crows CD and leaned all the way back in my chair and bent my neck backwards. A bass resonance from below my Adam's Apple flowed out, powered by my diaphram, and felt so right.
posted 6:27:07 PM
...8 thoughts of resolution,
posted 6:24:10 PM