December 2000

The script is corny, the acting is bad, and the surfboard shouldn’t have a stabilizer fin, but this short picked a cool subject, Silver Surfer.

Culturally, the guitar tab community is similar to, but somewhat more interesting than, the mp3 community. (Guitar tab, short for tabulature, is a way of notating songs specifying where to put your fingers on the guitar. The OLGA database is the closest equivilent to Napster’s servers). It takes a lot of work to learn the…

This denunciation of awards is currently making the rounds. I applaud this attitude, since there are precious few award panels using “made the world a better place” as a success criteria. Though I have to laugh when he says, “We’re no longer maintaining that listing of awards…awards are meaningless; web awards, even more so” and…

Back in February I debated with Peter the pros and cons of developing a web site in-house vs. contracting a design firm. One advantage of doing it in-house that just occured to me is more easily running a design cycle simultaneously with a programming cycle (building v.3 while designing v.4, building v.4 while designing v.5,…

Easily the most amazing story I’ve read in a long time. First because a woman’s life was saved by removing her heart, operating on it while it sat in a bowl of ice, and then replaced in her chest. Second because the whole operation was made possible because she found the procedure and a surgeon…

One of the most telling comments on the recent Presidential election, just heard on the News Hour: Interviewer: Who do you hope will win the election? Palestinian man: To be honest, I don’t think there’s that much difference between them. Interviewer: So it doesn’t matter to you who wins? Palestinian man: Actually I want Bush…

Beatnik – Principles of Sonification Design. Some very rational and complete guidelines for using audio in the user interface.

I thought my family was unique in having mimosas at Christmas, guess not.

I didn’t realize Amazon’s Purchase Circles extended to the local level. The picks for my home town are spot on – Philip Roth, Harry Pottter, The Beatles, and Sade in this diverse, somewhat sophisticated, yuppie town.

Art, Design and Visual Thinking – exactly what I’ve been looking for, a discussion of the principles behind visual design. If you know of any others let me know.

Salon’s Free Software [book] Project: What we’re doing is taking a book about the history, ideas and personalities behind the free-software/open-source movement — a book that Andrew Leonard is in the process of writing — and posting it, in pieces, here, as it’s written. We’re publishing the book as a work in progress and inviting…

If you ever think of visiting New York City during your December holiday break, don’t. I’m sitting at work watching all these tourists walk by in 10 degree weather (that’s -12 C) just freezing, and probably going from coffee shop to coffee shop to keep from dying.

Stewart is giving away a Beck/Emmylou Harris mp3 for Christmas, definitely worth checking out. If that combination seems surprising but pleasing, also see Beck’s “Bogusflow” on the DGC compilation.

Never one to shy away from stealing other blogger’s good ideas, I’ll follow in Stewart’s footsteps (see below) and offer you an audio present for Christmas. Charlie, the minister at my (Unitarian Universalist) church, is an amazing preacher. His writing and presentation are both intelligent and thoughtful. And now I can share his work with…