December 1999

Jesus returned from the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the desert, where he was tempted by the Devil for forty days. In all that time he did not gamble, watch professional wrestling, or lust after go-go dancers. The Devil said to him, “If you are God’s Son,…

…7 fears of change,

…six chocolate-covered macadamia nuts,

…five friends from RU,

In the communion fire for 1999: shame, self-doubt, selfishness. In the fire for 2000: self-knowledge, truth.

…four jackhammers hammering, three pieces of fudge,

…two paths through the woods,

…and a parkway bathed in sunlight.

A beautiful part of The Sleepers from Leaves of Grass. I too pass from the night, I stay a while away, O night, but I return to you again, and love you. Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you? I am not afraid—I have been well brought forward by you; I love…

Funny how so many Flash and Shockwave animations rehash the same moving-cutout techniques used by Monty Python way back when, it’s just done digitally now.

Someone else differentiating between intuitable and intuitive. I was pandering to the common usage before so as to be understood, but I think I’ll start using it properly – the rich meaning is worth the raised eyebrows it’ll generate.

Extreme Programming Explained. Jeez, sounds like what we do all the time (in Internet shops). What I’d like to see is more software engineering.

Don’t put important information at the top of the screen if there’s header junk up there. I call this “the SMTP effect” since I think we’re trained to skip over the SMTP header garbage and look for where the real content begins (also relevant to banner ads, but they’re less subtle). This Email unsubscribe form…

Just a reminder to stay in touch with Mark and Phil and the crew at Creative Good. Their Learning Lab was an incredibly generous event to invite others to, and they’re emphasizing partnerships and communities of companies rather than isolated competition.

I’m glad somebody critisized the new Altavista ads, because I don’t have time to do it properly. Since the dawn of search engines we’ve overpromised their abilities when we offer a single text box and imply we’ll find whatever the person has in mind (which may have nothing to do with what they type in).…