Finally. My apartment search is over. I have found a great little one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan (west Midtown) that I will be moving into in about three weeks. This means that my two-bedroom duplex in Park Slope, Brooklyn is available June 1. If you or anyone you know is looking for a large 2BR apartment (two floors!) for a reasonable price with a cool landlord, let me know and I will refer you to my landlord. He prefers personal referrals rather than playing tenant roulette with the Village Voice and Craigslist.
The report from the CIA that the Chinese are planning massive attacks on U.S. computers and networks is interesting. And a major part of the Internet was down yesterday. And Yahoo's mail servers have been bouncing mail like crazy. I wonder if any of these things are related.
Here come the Mozilla strikes back articles. Regardless of how you view it, Mozilla is becoming a very good browser. Probably not a complete replacement for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, but a very good alternative. I am completely in love with the tabbed-windows feature in Mozilla. Wow.
Fray Day 6 is September 14, 2002. Time to start looking at cheap airline tickets.
Mark Morford: Frat Boys Rule The Earth: It's an angry, violent, warmongering world out there right now. You just live in it.
Good article from IBM about the lock-in of Microsoft Exchange server in the corporate world:
"Every time we got corporations enthusiastic about the TCO savings in converting from Windows to Linux systems, ExchangeȘ emerged as a deal-killer," says Adelstein, co-founder of Bynari, a high-level consultancy for Open Source systems.
Man, the Internet is messed up today. I hope they fix the routing issues soon.
For those who are going, I'll see you tonight at the Metafilter NYC Get-Together.
Some years ago I picked up Jerry Alfred and the Medicine Beat's Nendaä CD from a Bargain Bin at local music store for about $3 and since then every time I play it, I remember how much a find this CD was. It's not my favorite music, but it certainly is different enough for me that I enjoy listening to it occasionally. I actually forgot I had this CD until I opened my Master Playlist from my MP3 player and hit shuffle. For the record in my Master Playlist, I have 3051 tracks, which equals 8 days, 5 hours, 42 minutes and 10 seconds of non-stop music. It's approximatly 10 GB of MP3 data.
I attended the Meet-the-Makers conference today in New York, which featured a whole lot of people smarter than me. The whole event was pretty well put together and renewed my flagging interest in all things Web. The most interesting new technology I saw was something from Netomat, which has built an XML-based markup language for writing rich-media applications (e.g. interactive email advertising, etc.) that use a standard Java runtime engine. It's a lot like what Macromedia is doing with FlashMX, but without the plug-in technology requirement. I also met some long-time CamWorld fans (Hi!) who had good things to say. Zeldman made an appearance, as did David Wertheimer and too many others to name individually. The organizers have said they are planning more of these invitation-only peer-group conferences, with one happening every six months or so, with the next one to be held in San Francisco.
As much as I don't like the closed-source nature of the Flash Player, I am starting to come around regarding my opinion on it. I'm starting to see how useful it can be for certain online experiences. I will be downloading some Flash stuff pretty soon to play with it some more as I haven't closely looked at the development tools in quite some time.
I guess I'm glad that I didn't drop $5000 on that high-end digital TV I've wanted for about two years now. If the MPAA and Disney have their way, these sets will be worthless soon as they try to lock down on piracy and control the technology behind digital TV. Actually, I think these sets may end up being very valuable if such laws are passed, since there will suddenly be a limited number of sets that have the technology that allows piracy measures to be bypassed.
APIs and Front-End Technologies: Lately, I've been thinking a lot about Web Services and the interfaces that sit on top of them. I've talked with companies who provide Web Services and one of the first questions I ask is whether they offer any kind of API or open connectivity that encourages other companes (even their competitors) to develop applications, services and tools based on the data/services they provide. Think about it this way: If a data feed/service is open or has some way to connect to it via an open API, then you are free to connect to that feed/service with whatever application, technology, or user interface you want. Google would like people to access their data in as many ways as possible, hence their Google API. Amazon also would like this, and has released their Amazon XML API. Even Microsoft has tried to get into this market by pushing their idea of .NET and the Common Language Runtime (CLR) layer. But the thing that really gets me excited is the idea of building multiple front-ends or interfaces for the same application/service. Not because I like all the extra work, but because I want to see what it's like (and how hard it is) to build a Flash front-end, a Mozilla front-end, an [X]HTML front-end, a Windows app front-end, etc. -- all for the same service. If we listened to Macromedia's song-and-dance, the world of Web Services would be couched in FlashMX. If we listened to Microsoft, it'd be deployed in the various apps you can build with Visual Studio .NET. The Mozilla folks have been pushing the Mozilla Application Framework as a solution for Web Services for a long time. Old-skool net-heads are still insisting that Web Services have an HTML front-end. The Japanese and the Europeans want everything to be accessible with mobile devices. My point is that there are so many options now for what technologies you can build your front-end in that it's becoming a virtual war between the competing companies. The company that controls the technology for Web Services implementation will ultimately win. Who will it be? Microsoft? Macromedia? Open source (Mozilla)? I think it's too early to tell.
Dan Gillmor's recent column on privacy and big business is a must-read. He nails it on several points.
And now, for some funny links:
Still on Hiatus. I'm still taking more time off while I search for a new apartment in Manhattan (a very time-consuming and frustrating process) and try to catch up on some long overdue projects. I will be back, I just don't know when. Soon, I hope.
Since I was out of town last weekend for my birthday, I am meeting up with friends tonight for drinks in Manhattan. If you want to come, meet our group at Forbidden City at 10:30 PM.
Note: I need to take some time off. I should be back sometime next week. In the meantime, you can wish me a Happy Birthday (Saturday the 13th). I will be 29.
I get tremendously weird spam sometimes.
George Soros: "Although the terrorist threat is real, and we must defend against it, we are going about it the wrong way. What makes the situation so dangerous is that nobody dares to say so. The nation is endangered, therefore it is unpatriotic to criticize our leader." This is a must-read for anyone who feels the American government and society are unfairly pressuring dissenters and outspoken critics. Soros is a very smart (and rich) guy. My level of respect for him was already high due to his carefully-researched grants and philanthropy initiatives, but after reading this article, it has gone through the roof. Bravo.
Cats in libraries! I love it! Used bookstores often have resident kitties, too. The first one I ever encountered was a fat tabby in the The Book Trader store on South Street in Philadelphia. I love the cat names: Dewey, Decimal, Bookings, Booker, Poe, Libby, etc.
That Pud, he's such a prankster. I was surfing FuckedCompany.com, which I only check out once a month or so (really!) and I spotted the F'dCompany t-shirt-wearing sexy models thumbnails. I thought, "Those are cool pictures, how can I see all of them without hitting reload a bunch of times." So I viewed a single image and then hacked the URL string to find the directory the images were stored in. Instead of giving an "Access Denied" error as most people do, Pud has made the index.html file of this directory redirect to a page of pictures of farm-sex (warning: beastiality and nudity pics). Ha, what a funny prank.
I wonder, now that Pud's famous and all with his book, does he remember wandering around San Francisco (two guys from New York) with me looking for parties. This was about two years ago, two months after he started F'dCompany.
Salon's Damien Cave skewers Pud's book. Rightly so? I haven't read the book yet, so I have no opinion and am not entitled to give one yet.
Tim O'Reilly: Inventing the Future
Rick Bradley really hates SBC. You have to wonder why the phone companies are earning themselves such bad reputations. They stick it to the consumer time and time again, provide crappy service, engage in anti-competirive business practices and then lobby the crap out of Congress to maintain their monopolies. If the standard market forces were allowed to play out, competition would increase, service would get better (and cheaper), and fewer people would be jumping the DSL ship for cable modem access (like I did).
Apparently, the Smurfs were communists.
I got tired of receiving AOL IM chat requests form horny boys looking for webcams of teenage girls who (for some unknown reason) keep mistaking this site as a Web site for webcams. So I added an About page. That still hasn't worked:
ASD1170: hi ASD1170: wer bist du camworld2: yes. how may i help you? ASD1170: i visite camworld2,and i kant see you camworld2: huh? ASD1170: http://www.camworld.com/ ASD1170: i am heron this side camworld2: yes, that is my site ASD1170: aha,,i am looking for a videochat ASD1170: sorry for my bad english camworld2: hmmm, did you bother to read the "about" page? ASD1170: no camworld2: please do so ASD1170: ok ASD1170: see you
The concept of "just-in-time journalism" has caught the eye of both Doc Searls and now Esther Dyson. I wrote about this back in July and still think it's a great idea that I hope is adopted by more conference organizers, presenters and audiences. And I still think it's an awesome idea for a startup company.
Cringely explains ILECS, CLECS, and the anti-DSL attitude of the phone companies. You might have to read this twice to grasp it all.
This Japanese jingle for Panasonic is very addictive. I wish it were my theme song. Hi ho!
Al Gore likes Krispy Kreme donuts. They are good. Bush would probably choke on one.
Heh, Linuxfreak.org has registered WeHavetheWayIn.com to counter the Microsoft/Unisys WeHavetheWayOut.com FUD campaign. Classic counter-marketing move. [via Artlung]
I should go to petswarehouse.com and try to order myself "a lawsuit" and then email their customers service and ask "What do you mean you don't carry this item, a bunch of your other customers got one just fine. P.S. My cat would like some catnip so please include some of that."
What the...? http://www.urinalpoop.org/
Clay Shirky: Communities, Audiences, and Scale
Security Focus: Death to Old Software. Nice article about the risks/problems of software expiration. More comments on Slashdot.
I find it interesting that in Japan they are developing cell phones that can lip-read, which will help enable correct voice-to-data translation and tranmission. But what's more interesting is the common knowledge the reason most people shout into their cell phones is not because the technology sucks (in fact, most cell phones today pick up sound very well, so it's not necessary to shout) but because people think they need to. It's a psychological behavior that people shout into their cell phones when they don't need to. Very similar to why a lot of people (without realizing it) talk loudly and slowly to deaf people who can read lips and to blind people who can hear normally.
From the Kentucky Legislature: (Is this some kind of joke?)
Encourage the purchase of a submarine to patrol the waters of the Commonwealth and search and destroy all casino riverboats. WHEREAS, in the past few years the scourge of the casino riverboat has been an increasingly significant presence on the Ohio River;
WHEREAS, in the past few years the scourge of the casino riverboat has been an increasingly significant presence on the Ohio River;
Section 1. The House of Representatives does hereby encourage the formation of the Kentucky Navy and subsequently immediately encourages the purchase and armament of one particularly effective submarine...
Interesting real-time Internet-usage plotted map. (Note: does not work in Netscape 4.x or Mozilla, only IE) [via James Archer]
"His consumer strategy of shifting people to fee-based services and making money off MSN hasn't worked so far..." Duh, I don't think it will ever work for software. Web services, yes. Software, no.
From Linux and Main:
The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act proposed two weeks ago by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC) appears to require technology patented by Microsoft Corporation last December. Additionally, the Microsoft patent provides for processors that would run only Microsoft software, and then only under the control of Microsoft.
Are the CBDTPA and Microsoft made for each other? Sure looks that way. If this bill passes, Microsoft gets what it wants (a near government-granted monopoly on digital media and television) and the entertainiment industry gets what it wants (a controllable technology for digital rights management that is distributed by Microsoft). It's too bad that neither entity has bothered to ask the consumers what they want.
Bright orange Kozmo messenger bags. Only $60.00. Virtually indestructable, so I'm told.
Mitch is having trouble with his WinXP Compaq laptop. I agree with him that the IBM Thinkpads are a better choice, as are most of the Apple latops.
This is great. Someone finally wrote about the apartments we see in New York- based sitcoms and TV shows and is asking how the characters can afford such nice places. Struggling actor Joey from "Friends" should not be able to afford his 2BR (estimated $4,000/mo.) apartment. When you think about it, the apartments in "Seinfeld" were actually realistic, even the episodes that featured apartment-hunting and brokering.
Excellent. Cory's influence is already showing at the EFF. They've started a weblog to cover the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group, which is "an obscure group of Hollywood studios and technology companies that are negotiating a "consensus" for any gadget or code that can touch the studios' product." I can't wait to see what else the EFF comes up with. Perhaps it's finally time I become a member. They even accept Paypal!
W3C: Auxiliary Benefits of Accessible Web Design
Lots of good reading in this month's First Monday:
A story: Geek Boy Meets Geek Girl
Another story: Geek the Girl
Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World War II
My April Fool's gag this year is that I have no April Fool's gag. Sorry to disappoint. Some side projects are kicking my ass. You can always go giggle at last year's April Fool's gag.
Aha, so that's the secret. Pigeons.
OpenBSD: Microsoft to base next generation OS on OpenBSD
The NY Times on the terrorist-bombing strategy adopted by the Palestinians:
This [form of terrorism] threatens all civilization because if suicide bombing is allowed to work in Israel, then, like hijacking and airplane bombing, it will be copied and will eventually lead to a bomber strapped with a nuclear device threatening entire nations.
NYC-CHI, the New York City chapter of ACM's SIG-CHI, is sponsoring a happy hour on April 17. See you there:
NYC-CHI Happy Hour Wed., April 17 JA Lounge, 84 7th Avenue South Subway: 1/2 Christopher or ACE/FV/S West 4th Street Between Bleecker & Grove in the West Village 6:00 - 8:00 PM FREE to ALL; name tags encouraged (we will supply) NO RSVP NECESSARY
Oh joy, this is what I get to do tomorrow. I'd better take a book.
Macromedia to push the concept for a Flash-only Web. We can only wish that this were an April Fool's joke. It is not.
