November 1999

You are where you live! Wisdom from Claritas, who accurately told me my hometown consists of Surburban Sprawl and the town where I live now has a Bohemian Mix. I knew this could be done, but it’s still both impressive and disturbing when I see it with my own eyes. Link courtesy of lemonyellow.

Hey, my old boss is updating his weblog. He gets the award for most cleverly integrating his last name with the name of the site: Web-Seitz (yuck yuck). Check it out for uncommon links with biting sarcasm from the perspective of an intelligent IT manager.

Bill responded to my “what’s the most beautiful thing you’ve experienced today?” question to your right–> See the CHiPs arrive at an accident scene were I was doing my feable best to help. I’ve been in that unfortunately position. Trying your best is damn good.

A research manuscript about measuring flow of online environments. Unfortunately it’s so complicated I don’t feel flow when I read it. Flow is this great concept I read about years ago in the New York Times. It describes how you feel when engaged in an activity that is stimulating enough to keep you interested and…

Help with designing sites for mobile devices: AvantGo’s Authoring Hypertext Content for Mobile Devices Webmonkey’s Designing Web Sites for PDAs and Intro to HDML. The last link courtesy of metagrrrl.

The Web Log Scoop Index. At first I thought, “Great, another popularity contest. But the Scoop Index is interesting in that it illustrates which blogs try to create memes (sites at the top of the list) and which blogs try to generate new ideas (sites at the bottom). Needless to say I’m toward the bottom…

Modern Ruins, a photography exhibit by Phillip Buehler. He looks at some 20th century structures and places that have been deserted. A particularly nice touch is the juxaposition of old and new photos, such as the three photos of Ellis Island’s main hall: one from the height of immigration, another taken after 20 years of…

More gender ranting – this time it’s Camille Paglia ranting about Susan Faludi’s ranting. Somehow I don’t mind when Paglia does it, her enormous intelligence combined with piercing common sense always sounds right to me.

Heuristic is one of those words that can sound impressive and yet, funny enough, turns out to be a synonym for “fuckin’ around.” Heuristic Pronunciation: hyu-‘ris-tik Function: adjective Involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods…

Possibly the best name for a tea ever: grandma’s tummy mint

I just found the Patterns Home Page, a compilation of resources for and about pattern languages. It’s amazing that these patterns have exploded in the object-oriented programming community and have barely affected architecture, their domain of origin. What’s also amazing is the degree of agreement regarding pattern use, there doesn’t seem to be any rifts…

It’s rare when I find myself opposed to something the religious right is opposed to, but that’s the case with Pocket Canons. They’re basically pocket-sized books, each containing one of the more popular books of the bible. Each has a trendy design with an introduction by someone famous. I guess the religous right is pissed…

I’m kinda sick of hearing about what’s wrong with men. From the complaints about alpha males to Susan Faludi’s defense of American men, I think the overgeneralization is harmful. Wouldn’t a more productive discussion focus on things people do that are good or bad instead of labeling people? What’s the difference between generalizing on a…

I hopped on my bike today for the first time in weeks and had a fantastic ride through the perfect Autumn day. I maxed over 35 mph and averaged over 13 mph including the toughest hills in town. At one point I stopped to watch a neighborhood football game while munching a yummy Clif bar…

I’ve rolled my professional eyes at Jakob Nielson before, regarding his hallucinogenic predictions (5.27.1999), his over-reliance on empirical knowledge as evidence (3.25.1999), and worst of all his conformist philosophy (10.18.1999). Now the CHI-WEB list chimes in regarding this “reactionist Nazi column” (in the words of my boss).