Chris Wetherell Since October 5, 2000
Massless

Archive

2001

158 posts

January

  1. I read it the first

    I read it the first time, but I also really like the improved/revised version of Mark Levine's article on the US judicial/presidential coup -- Red Rock Eater Digest - Supreme Court…

  2. www.stor.co.ukThere was, within the

    www. stor.co .uk There was, within the first few minutes, a quaint charm about his criticisms. "I mean Airline X really only has one thing going for it...it's West Coast…

  3. Bright and creative...and if you

    Bright and creative...and if you squint and stare long enough they look dessicated. They're working on MTS components, planning data models, creating DTDs, integrating XML…

  4. bitter pill wrote this

    bitter pill wrote this on Jan.10th: "So here I am at techies.com. One of the few survivors of the last round of layoffs. We had an all company meeting this Monday, and I have to…

  5. Listing ephemera: A list of

    Listing ephemera: A list of things that I saw, heard a story about, or interacted with during my recent trip to Oregon that I have not seen, heard about, or touched in the last 8…

  6. Today's post is dedicated to

    Today's post is dedicated to SatireWire , a site whose latest internet downturn articles have made me laugh the hardest. Bold "New Economy" Deserves Bold "New Recession" Network…

  7. Look at the first result

    Look at the first result of a search for " dumb motherfucker " on Google. Google, perhaps, feels strongly about the new U.S. "president"? I would prefer that our president evince a…

  8. It's the Year of the

    It's the Year of the Snake. So I've redesigned. Aside: I was born in the Year of the Dog, I think. Powerpoint is probably helpful for those who need to make a presentation but…

  9. Hey, developers. Listen to this

    Hey, developers. Listen to this quote. "Developers tell me that Microsoft couldn't pay them enough to work in the build lab," [Microsoft Software Test Engineer, Michael ] Lekas…

  10. Using Microsoft Word to

    Using Microsoft Word to create Internet Drafts and RFC's is an 11-page document to explain how to use Word to create a plain text file. (Those of you who have tried to copy and…

  11. Loving the internet: Today, I

    Loving the internet: Today, I was delighted to run across a recent post from Stewart " Sylloge " Butterfield which contains some thoughtful musings about the the process of…

February

  1. New New Internet Questions: Will

    New New Internet Questions: Will people subscribe to ASPToday now that it's charging an annual subscription for access to articles? How long can Blogger last when Pyra now has only…

  2. This link leads to the

    This link leads to the coolest Atari-based, internet-ready song/video you will find in Brazil. (Thanks to Dan for the link.) Did you know that the U.S. Army has switched from using…

  3. "Sometimes our differences run so

    "Sometimes our differences run so deep," he said, "it seems we share a continent, but not a country." - G.W. Bush's inauguration speechwriter. Lately, I wonder if I'm listening at…

  4. This is one hatt, steaming

    This is one hatt, steaming pile of meme. (It requires a Flash plug-in.)

  5. My co-workers and I (recently

    My co-workers and I (recently absorbed into another company) have cultivated a keen and very funny sense of gallows humor. A ""no non-business files"" edict was transformed into a…

  6. First day at new

    First day at new job. This was overheard: (a co-worker across from me talking about my small blow-up anime figure) "What is this doll?! Jesus. Is this new guy a freak? Goddamn. All…

  7. I had no idea that

    I had no idea that John Ritter was the son of Tex Ritter. My NPR donation just paid off. More stuff I've built: About ten months ahead of schedule I've created a Hobbit Name…

  8. Post-Valentine's Day - from mushy

    Post-Valentine's Day - from mushy to manhunt: A rollercoaster ride. Clink. Clink. Clink. Clink. [Silence.] Whoosh. "aaaaaAAAAAhhhhh!" [Silence.] Jerk! Crack! If you're enjoying the…

  9. Today's monologue - in

    Today's monologue - in which a small diversion hosted on a personal web site from a developer's home computer and provided as a link from his weblog becomes a web lesson…

  10. Today: my mini-portal and what

    Today: my mini-portal and what I should do with it. If you haven't seen it, it's just a page where I've gathered a) news feeds, b) weblog feeds, c) and the cover story and picture…

  11. Zeldman advocates tough love for

    Zeldman advocates tough love for 4.0 browser users . I respect his decision and actually have slowly begun to weed out 4.0 compatible markup in my sites, though I feel I can't…

  12. I'm only two pages into

    I'm only two pages into Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon but so far I've been far more intrigued by the author's website , an elegant exercise in keeping interested parties at arm's…

  13. Browsers and hyphens. IE5

    Browsers and hyphens. IE5 on Windows and Mac interprets the-hyphenated-word-thing as four separate words and wraps accordingly. The Gecko engine (Mozilla, Netscape 6) and KDE's…

  14. Straining XML. A triple entendre

    Straining XML. A triple entendre for me today. The Flutterby RSS doc that I'm using to generate a small section of headlines in the mini-portal is straining its DTD spec by putting…

  15. The song you were

    The song you were born with. The day that I was born the #1 song in the U.S. was "Everything Is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens. You, savvy web-goer, have probably heard about this…

  16. The Anatomy of a Large-Scale

    The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine "In this paper, we present Google, a prototype of a large-scale search engine which makes heavy use of the structure…

  17. Try the beta of an

    Try the beta of an online XML XSL editor . Do you think it could be useful? [ Post a comment here. ] Every once in a while, back at work, when an executive tells me something about…

March

  1. Fixing the XML XSL Editor,

    Fixing the XML XSL Editor, specifically the Netscape 6 / Mozilla form bug, has given me superpowers. Ok, no it didn't. But how else to summarize this post? Which superpower would…

  2. Do the math. [Real

    Do the math. [Real Audio format] " Century Man " and " Geekout " from are songs off of the album "Telstar Parthenon" from a band who used to be called Mathlete and who are now…

  3. Orders of geek magnitude. Geek1

    Orders of geek magnitude. Geek 1 What is asdf ? Geek 3 NASDAQ has a quotes feed as XML... Geek 10 It was recently announced that OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of…

  4. A Day in the Life:

    A Day in the Life: Heard. Relaxed, funny "What's the version mumber? How about, uh, two-point-eight-seven...two? And, please, don't tell Product that I said that 'cuz they're…

  5. I love the 5k contest.

    I love the 5k contest . It's the little things in life... (ha!--i've been waiting a year to use that line...) More explaining, please? People enter a contest to design a functional…

  6. A Day in the Life:

    A Day in the Life: Correspondence. I live in an apartment in a four-plex. Friday, I put the following letter into the mailslots of my downstairs and adjacent neighbors. My first…

  7. My one good idea and

    My one good idea and I'm giving it away for free...here it is: ESPN++. 24 hour coverage of programming contests, feats, challenges! I won't bore you with further details since…

  8. I mention The Lone Gunmen

    I mention The Lone Gunmen at the end. A skeptic's look at C# [via have browser, will travel ] A good question brought up by the article: Why have strong typing if the language…

  9. For...Next! Net surfing as

    For...Next! Net surfing as mobius loop: Me, late night clicking on links. I check my band's site, follow to my weblog, cruise to metascene , then over to misterpants and, to my…

  10. Summer breeze. My memory

    Summer breeze. My memory is terrible. I can, however, remember terrible things. Mainly things I've done that I feel are terrible. These things have a sort of mass - and their…

  11. The laugh of a programmer...which

    The laugh of a programmer...which is, obviously, a mucus-y snort. Very funny...to a programmer. "Then in good time the Project Leader returned, and with him was another developer…

  12. A comic link? Ok. Blank

    A comic link? Ok. Blank Slate is a comic that is as nice a surprise as San Francisco's flash forward summer. K10K: 6 KilLER tipZ for 3l33t web designerZ! *Chuckle* .Net…

  13. I had to put this

    I had to put this up right away: Best Picture Nominees Turned TV Series: 2004-05. The content of that page can't be far from the actual minutes of a TV network pitch meeting…

  14. A Day in the Life:

    A Day in the Life: Disease. Today, I look at myself in the mirror and kind of chuckle. I have ridiculous bushy hair and it never fails to make me laugh. But staring in the mirror…

  15. Fighting bigotry is like eating

    Fighting bigotry is like eating an Abba-Zaba: It just never ends. Some California legislators remain very confused about marriage, sexuality, and existing spousal rights and are…

  16. Jane's friend was trying to

    Jane's friend was trying to describe the musical instrument known as the concertina to someone by saying the following: "...the concertina! You know it, it uses accordion…

April

  1. Dealership has a new member.

    Dealership has a new member . (now points to mirror)

  2. From HotWired: Does your site

    From HotWired: Does your site have an Avantgo channel? Do you need the web page which supplies that feed to dynamically select the appropriate graphics for each PDA? Well, then…

  3. Our summer burst. It's cold

    Our summer burst. It's cold in my little apartment - my blue fingers keep my typing speed safely constrained. I spent a good 15 minutes at Filmwise : a fun diversion. Just quizzes…

  4. Interpersonal relationships don't scale.

    Interpersonal relationships don't scale . This author is comparing human networks to Gnutella. The common thread? The fact that in human relationships there is a limit to the…

  5. Everybody wants a Beautiful Dreamer,

    Everybody wants a Beautiful Dreamer, Benicio. Talk Magazine : You would do the honorable thing. You look like the kind of guy who would do the honorable thing. Benicio Del Toro…

  6. I need a DHTML guru,

    I need a DHTML guru, because I can't quite believe I made Netscape 6 crash with (what I considered to be) valid DOM code. I'm not a DHTML guru...it's quite possible that I've…

  7. I was recently engrossed by

    I was recently engrossed by an interview with Wayne Thiebaud on NPR. Wayne, an octogenarian, is an accomplished American painter from California who is having his first…

  8. Today's silly summary title: The

    Today's silly summary title: The spy who grep'd me. Edward Jay Epstein writes about his meeting with The Orchid Man and other spies from the CIA working around the time of the…

  9. Cambodia has beautiful money. From

    Cambodia has beautiful money . From the always entertaing Lileks site, specifically Curious Lucre: Money of the World . The Libera Manifesto. If you provide a free service or share…

  10. Check out "A Series of Unfortunate Events." They're a series of children's tales filled with dark, dark humor.

    Check out " A Series of Unfortunate Events. " They're a series of children's tales filled with dark, dark humor. The style seems to be A.A. Milne meets Edward Gorey. This excerpt…

  11. Lazing about watching Julia & Jacques making something with meat.

    Lazing about watching Julia & Jacques making something with meat. And wine. Always wine. In the photo Jacques is on the left. Julia is on the right. Jacques is just a little bit…

  12. Created a step-by-step tutorial aimed at Windows web developers who want to begin building sites with Java.

    Configuring Windows 2000 to make a Hello World! Java Servlet A step-by-step tutorial aimed at Windows web developers who want to begin building sites with Java. by Chris Wetherell

  13. Hey, are you an Organization Kid? Do you carry the "whir" home with you? Like a headache?

    Hey, are you an Organization Kid ? !-- -- Do you carry the "whir" home with you? Like a headache? "They could never catch up. There was always more work to do. There was always…

  14. The movie (A.I.) may wind up a too-sentimental neo-Bicentennial-Man but play anyway...

    The movie (A.I.) may wind up a too-sentimental neo-Bicentennial-Man but play anyway... Play the game...while it plays you. It's perfectly internet . If you're not playing the…

May

  1. Sites with RSS news feeds discover that the W3C and major browser manufacturers are seeing eye-to-eye. *snicker*

    The W3C and major browser manufacturers are seeing eye-to-eye. If you were using my portal in the last week and saw a nearly-blank page, it was because Netscape removed the RSS…

  2. Missy is quite the poo, bro-bro.

    Cherished quotes from recent entertainment: 1."You're blowing my mind, bro-bro." -Lorne Michaels in a bathtub with Tom Green on Saturday Night Live 2. "Missy's the poo." -Bring It…

  3. It's torture; watching this incremental creation of an enemy.

    There's no enemy as cherished, as much kin, as the enemy you create yourself. Duck! There are...arrows...in the air. We can't see them, but, like a sickly coalmine canary, the…

  4. In Tsarist Russia, Sergei the Photographer achieved it by discovering that R+G+B>B/W.

    Everywhere I look there are links to the online exhibition of the early 20th century color photographic collection of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii , photographer to the…

  5. The Money House.

    This figure's identity has been concealed to protect our source. What if I were rich ? What philanthropy would I support? What project would I fund? Would I be inspired by the…

  6. My sister shares her birthday day and month with an auspicious Northwest event. The massive explosion of Mt. St. Helens in Washington, USA.

    My sister and grandmother. My sister rules. She also can kick my ass. Which is what would happen if she found out I put a picture of her up on my site. So I didn't... I mean that…

  7. A person calling themselves "Debbie" said they made up "Kaycee" from an amalgam of dying friends.

    Someone posted a Kaycee Nicole FAQ . Earlier comments by Massless? Who needs the clutter? *** *** *** The initial "Kaycee" tale led to me to muse the following: Question: What…

  8. An aristocratic Italian family suffers from a rare and hideous genetic legacy: Half of its members die from insomnia.

    In To Sleep No More , the N.Y. Times reports on the Gothic tale of an aristocratic Italian family which suffers from a rare and hideous genetic legacy: Half of its members die from…

  9. The Failure of the New Economy as Success.

    Working titles somewhere, I'm sure... The Failure of the New Economy Is Total. The Dotcrash Is A "Net" Negative. Challeging Ideas In The Workplace: Let This Travesty Never Be…

  10. For the holiday: a Dubya poem. (yep, the frequently-linked-to one)

    Dubya poetry. MAKE THE PIE HIGHER By George W. Bush I think we all agree, the past is over. This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential…

  11. A Day in The Life: Conversations of Memorial Day

    A Day in The Life: Conversations of Memorial Day Chris G : I finally defeated that dumb fish thing in Majora's Mask. Jane : I'm on disc 2 of Final Fantasy 8. Me : I successfully…

  12. My birthday was pay-per-view.

    Massless (est. 05/30/70) I love today's left column of Metascene , also known as Conversations on Cinema. My since of humor is a bit twisted today. I understand that you may not…

  13. Links include "when to use SOAP" and a challenge to the hallowed Placebo Effect.

    A Closer Look at SOAP I was hooked from this paragraph on: "This discussion on RPC will clarify the aspects of SOAP that are intrinsic to SOAP specifically. Here you may discover…

June

  1. The music industry, Matrix 2, which leads to our new feature: Bug Kyle.

    Tim O'Reilly on internet publishers : "If [publishers] try to enforce an artificial scarcity, charge prices that are too high or otherwise violate the norms of their target…

  2. Linux on the desktop, The Effect of Nuclear Explosions on Commercially Packed Beverages, and our new record label: Keiki Records.

    Speaking of work: Comparing two XML documents Seems easy enough, right? *** *** *** From Penguinista: Linux on the Desktop: The Possibility Still Exists . Yesterday morning, I…

  3. I quote Bjarne and watch Eric Raymond and Ballmer two-step. Plus, a picture of where I work.

    "Computer and programming languages can be appreciated as works of art, but aesthetic factors should complement and enhance utility, not substitute for or compromise utility." -…

  4. An image hacker I know well and some links about java.nio, the new I/O package in v.1.4 of the J2SE

    The culprit and the clue. To my surprise, this morning I discovered someone had placed a new image in the massless /images folder on my server on Friday. The culprit was clever…

  5. Rollerball remake, .NET worries, and SmartJ tries to make your life easier.

    RollerBill (2001). (It wasn't easy to summarize today's post in a picture...forgive me.) The 1970s film Rollerball attempted to provide commentary on violence in sports by…

  6. A bit about some tiny indie music shows in San Francisco.

    Massless Officially Designates This Summer "Musically-Scrumtrulescent!"* Manic-depressives everywhere delay their emotional apogee in anticipation of A Great Musical Summer. Adobe…

  7. Boy meets World of Warring DOMs and Head meets Brick Wall.

    Not good enough : So I thought I created some neat Javascript code that would change pull-down menus to text fields on-the-fly (ugh...hate that phrase) using innerHTML. Apparently…

  8. The audience was frozen and I retreat to the DOM...again. I spy your frame by the pool of objects. An inline thought.

    Chris adjusts his pedals. Click for larger picture. I stared into an audience that didn't move. Didn't smile. Just stood. Boy, was my mood dark afterward. I hope they enjoyed us. I…

  9. Giveh, GUIs, and an illegal prime number.

    Click for larger picture. A co-worker sent me a pic of the campus at Infosys in Bangalore, India. So, onto different things: Houman walked into my cube wearing the coolest and most…

  10. Microsoft drops Smart Tags from Windows XP

    Microsoft drops Smart Tags from Windows XP

July

  1. The Secret to Software Success...I'll just need your credit card...hmm..

    The Secret to Software Success. "Think of it as climbing Mount Everest. Do you set a plan and say, 'On day seven we'll be here and the weather will be this and I'll need my ice…

  2. I spent all day creating software: A UBB-like bulletin board using Active Server Pages, an RSS aggregator in Java, and an Excel-like interface for tabular data using DHTML.

    Hi, everyone. To U.S. readers, I hope your 7/4 was enjoyable. I spent all day creating software. Don't look at me like that, it was fun. Really. Let me lay it out for you: A…

  3. Been playing around while doing interface development. Thought I'd slap one of my application skins onto Massless.

    Been playing around while doing interface development. Thought I'd slap one of my application skins onto Massless. Uses DHTML and because of that fact and the state of DOM…

  4. I've been thinking again about my current dependency on Microsoft technologies and the roadblocks I would encounter in avoiding the next MS upgrade cycle for development technology

    Gotta stay awake. Too many bugs; software, my life. The Mozilla browser, particularly release 0.9.2, is becoming my favorite web application development environment. With regards…

  5. I've added forums to Massless using BoardLess, the codebase I created as a solution to reverse-engineering the UBB.

    I've added forums to Massless using BoardLess , the codebase I created as a solution to reverse-engineering the UBB. I don't have many visitors so I don't expect there will be many…

  6. Some explore Design, while others peruse the cutest lil weblog, and still others chain refrigerators to fences to make a point.

    I'm just going to point all six of you to little bits of the always-running pixel pageant, at least so much as I've seen and tried to understand peering over the balustrade of my…

  7. Copyright is not an air-borne disease. It is unknownigly passed from host to host as copy-protected CDs slip quietly into stores.

    Whose music is this? ( Not a copy-protected CD.) Copy-protected CDs quietly slip into stores . I'm tired of this ongoing war with interests more powerful and many times richer than…

  8. Entertainment Weekly calls and others ponder what "100%" really means.

    Two days ago, I was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly about the Hobbit Name Generator. They emailed, then called and asked some questions. I told them I knew where Chandra Levy…

  9. I read somewhere once that as you get older, you wake up every day a little sadder.

    Today I turned 50! Wish me luck! Well, no. I'm just skipping past the graveyard whistling. It's not my birthday and I'm not 50, I'm 31. 31, that is, going on fifty. [not my actual…

  10. massless is taking a little trip...

    Martin's last act as my direct engineering supervisor was to tell me to take a vacation. so, massless is taking a little trip... see you next wednesday. I know I'm behind on email…

  11. Before I fly back, Phil Agre tells me how to help a computer newbie. I try my best.

    Flying back today. My itinerary included: wills, deeds, arcades, dignity, loss, rivalry, blood money, and golf. Sobering stuff. A typical family vacation. :) Curse of the Starving…

August

  1. Two quick links and, hey, did you know that Mozilla 0.93 was released?

    Joel on Software: Hard-assed Bug Fixin' Mozilla 0.93 is out! Now you too can create org charts using advanced CSS techniques . [via Aaronland ] More from me when I crawl out from…

  2. Charmed is just way sub-Buffy shagwankery and a Java char just isn't a Unicode character, now is it?

    L. Michelle Johnson has a interesting way of outlining her personal history in close-up photos . Must add to my growing list of web sites I like and therefore intend to steal. :)…

  3. Placing any part of oneself in a harmful environment, willingly or knowingly is weird and ...kind of... fascinating.

    Cut myself on a knife doing dishes. Hot water doesn't help a cut to clot. In fact, just as it would stop bleeding, I would put my hand back into the hot water and it would start…

  4. Netscape 6.1 released.

    Netscape 6.1 released. Poor thing. What an uphill battle.

  5. So just for fun, I've released BoardLess, the Freeware ASP Messageboard.

    Hello, BoardLess . Earlier this summer , Jane asked if I could look into message boards, their cost and adaptability. After reviewing them, I decided to try my hand at writing one…

  6. Also in the spirit of broken things...Linux, Windows, and very nearly the back of the proverbial Camel.

    Evidence of a bad day. I was writing a Java app for Linux a few days ago. I don't usually have that opportunity in my Windows-centric place of employment so it was a nice change of…

  7. The proficiency of OS sharks...

    Microsoft, while being an intellectually dishonest company, are very good marketers. I've been trying to explain the value (and technology) of XML web services to various parties…

  8. I'm using Netscape 6.1. I'm as surprised as you are.

    Downloaded Netscape 6.1 for Windows and MacOS. Have had several days use of it. I really like it. I'm not the only one . The "Enable Quick Launch" option makes it very usable. It…

  9. How to kill a client's interest in 10 seconds or less.

    Making a demo of a site? Try putting the following as dummy text for your front page: "I don't know much, but I do know one thing... Every day, hell, every hour a tradeshow is…

  10. Questions and answers.

    Questions and answers. O: Do you ever go back and reread your old strips? BB: Never. Painful. Neither do I look at myself in the mirror, nude, at 5 a.m., under harsh fluorescent…

  11. Abuse.

    Axiom? One can become accustomed to daily repeated blows to the head. The corollary? (Which scares me.) Through repeated exposure and no opposing context, one can fall in love with…

  12. Whoops. Sorry Mom, Dad.

    FYI: About the previous post: I worried my parents needlessly. The man with the black eye isn't me.

  13. A new wrinkle: using offshore development.

    Casually, Cheryl (my boss) asked me to draw up a spec for the entire UI architecture for a particular application I'm working on. To send to overseas development in India, she…

  14. Listening to Bjork's new album online.

    You can listen to Bjork's new album online here . (Flash required, some full songs, some samples)

  15. Radio killed the internet star.

    Dude, where's my band? Jane and Chris and I, collectively known as the band Dealership , will be interviewees / Guest DJs on KALX today. From 4:30 - 5:30 this afternoon. You. On…

  16. Radio: The cutest call-in.

    The miracle of communication via encoded formats across decentralized nodes :: Jane told me who the girl in this story was and sooo...Hi, Alex !. Be careful of the Banilla…

September

  1. Grape jelly.

    Hey, where'd all my grape jelly go?

  2. The Moose envisions a future where content management systems replace HTML and CSS knowledge workers.

    Many are responding to a somewhat recent report from the mud bog from our favorite Moose. In this post, the Moose envisions a future where content management systems replace HTML…

  3. Building mini news-portals are fun. Releasing libraries to help other people build them is even more fun. What? Does that make me a dork?

    More stuff from my code bins: JavaCollect is the beta release of an RSS headline aggregator written in Java that takes any combination of URLs that point to RSS feeds and…

  4. My dumb memory. What is is that we access when we remember things?

    Ten-e-brae fac-tae sunt... dum cru-CI-fi-XIS-sent Jesum, Judaei et circa horam nonam If I concentrate I can remember all of the lyrics to certain songs. That particular choral…

  5. Nationally, the American Red Cross is preparing to ship over 50,000 units of blood to affected areas.

    You can easily donate to the Red Cross using Amazon.

  6. The unthinkable.

    Update: Most of the popular news or community servers have been restored. CNN's chronology seems like it might prove helpful as events progress to political action. Garrett will…

  7. Touching base with the world. Still feel uneasy writing about this. But my future tense is nagging me.

    Still feel uneasy writing about this. But my future tense is nagging me. He is me: 60 years old, reflecting on his/my life while sitting in a hospital bed with a laptop and would…

  8. Mozilla 0.9.4 released.

    I just have to let some people I work with know the following: Mozilla 0.9.4 has been released. But Windows users be warned: "The Windows-only Quick Launch feature (-turbo) is…

  9. I have to sacrifice you?

    Who's ready to rumble? Not I. Because, Dear Reader, I've grown quite fond of you. And I think you're something special. And war means that you might become collateral damage. And I…

  10. More internet attacks. NIMDA? NIMBY. And why do I have to think like a terrorist?

    Some interesting thoughts on The Situation We Are All In Doc : Rift Zones. "Across the hall were Hans and Illy Schmidt..." Plurp : Yet another Day After. (scroll down a little)…

  11. Here's the names of our dev team. Would you change your flight if they're assigned a seat next to you?

    I heard a rumor this morning about Arab-American citizens being asked to change flights because their presence on at least one particular flight made too many other passengers…

  12. Reason Online presents "Six options beyond war and peace." Modeled after the philosophies of Kojak, Charles Bronson, Bugs Bunny, Caesar, Gandhi, and Dr. Strangelove.

    From Reason Online: Six options beyond war and peace. Modeled after the philosophies of Kojak, Charles Bronson, Bugs Bunny, Caesar, Gandhi, and Dr. Strangelove. [via a jaundiced…

  13. As American as ABBA and potstickers.

    Spent entire weekend resisting the urge to change tagline from " the faster I go, the lighter I get " to " as American as ABBA and potstickers ." Gets easier every hour, though…

  14. I laughed in my sleep. So, the story goes. Must've just been dreaming of the latest Onion.

    On TV tonight: Yo! MTV Extends Its Condolences , Dan Rather's 83rd Straight Hour On The Air , and A Nation Looks Around For Someone To Hit . I've never said " god bless " anything…

  15. When a CSS border is applied to a table cell, should Netscape/Mozilla add the value of that border to its width?

    On CSS and frustration: I wanted to have a number of HTML elements/containers lined up along a horizontal axis whose width I could dynamically assign. Like so: But then I found out…

  16. A quick jot.

    Can I tell you how weird it is to get into work, turn on your favorite radio station and then, over the airwaves, suddenly hear yourself singing? That's when the violence tinged…

  17. Browsers versus network applications.

    Here's an excellent paper that outlines some of the design and usability issues developers should consider when building a client for the internet. Richard Gaskin on browsers…

  18. I need fun in my life. And then on cue: YaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAy. A new show.

    "Yaaaaay-aaa-aa-AAAA-AAAAy." Confirmed. We're playing an all ages show in October at the Great American with them . They're watching you.

  19. A vegetarian and the cow fatwa.

    Co-workers, overheard : HOUMAN: So, you can't eat meat, right? LAKSHMINARAYANA : Actually, I got around that. You see I've declared a fatwa against all cows...

  20. A reminder to myself: Quick links to the Windows, MacOS, and Java UI Guidelines.

    A quick reminder to myself to add the following links to my dev resources: UI Guidelines Microsoft Guidelines for User Interface Developers MacOS Human Interface Guidelines Java…

October

  1. Developers be careful: Web services clients might be vulnerable to desirable changes in firewall rules. Especially after NIMDA.

    In the wake of NIMDA and due to a generally heightened sensibility to security These Days, a co-worker and I uncovered a potential problem with network clients using web services…

  2. Blair's "Whatever": The Word and its Meaning(s) in his recent address.

    That the test of any decent society is not the contentment of the wealthy and strong, but the commitment to the poor and weak. -blair. Economic competence is the pre-condition of…

  3. Doesn't the argument that Delivering Important International Information Means We Can't Pay Our Bills ring a little hollow?

    It feels like I'm not hearing the truth from humans anymore, I'm hearing carefully crafted and sanitized PR from government/company/agency/media spokespeople. - J.Kottke What does…

  4. Massless is one year old today.

    Massless is one year old today.

  5. Go read "The Effects of September 11 on the Leading Search Engine."

    More web dev links. And they're excellent: The Effects of September 11 on the Leading Search Engine [via Dan Bricklin's log ] Sitemaps, Storyboards, and Specifications: A Sketch of…

  6. A nightmare deferred.

    % end if end if % A nightmare deferred . I look up. Half-Moon shows a brave face, bright as a muzzleflash, while drifting lazily in and out of my view. Half-Moon is an inconstant…

  7. American Baseball.

    Signs with yellowed worn edges. This cowardly new world a popular matte background. What screams the Americans' Way of Life more than a packed baseball stadium? The roar of the…

  8. Strong and silent? Or strong and thoughtful, open, and emotionally in touch? Men, as Peggy Noonan seems 'em...

    Questions for myself [but then where?] We should be careful when seeking and generating solidarity in small groups whose belief systems mirror our own and provide comfort but whose…

  9. Recording new songs and playing in San Francisco. Oh, and here's a snippet from a Sharon Olds poem.

    I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges, I see my father strolling out under the ochre sandstone arch, the red tiles glinting like bent plates of blood behind his…

  10. Try this HTML color picker. It's nifty.

    OH the show Wednesday night was so fun. More about that later. And I'll talk about Bollywood later after some sleep. For now, why not tell me if you like this little HTML Color…

November

  1. DeCSS is legal. And I muse on villainy.

    (Updated...now with Correct Spelling and Improved Syntax!) First, the news: The Register: 'DeCSS' DVD descrambler ruled legal ! You can find the published opinion for the above…

  2. Cute moogle pic. For those who don't know, a "moogle" is already very, very cute.

    This cute moogle pic is for Jane . Moogle! Moogle! For those who don't know, a "moogle" is already very, very cute and is somehow made cuter in this photo. The picture is from…

  3. I'm not the funny. Perry's wife is.

    In the world of Funny, I am Salieri to everyone else's Mozart. Nixon to everyone else's Kennedy. Raymond Burr in a world of Julie Hagertys. (Long pause.) blink Helllllooooo? It's…

  4. The Secret Life of Drummers

    The Secret Life of Drummers Wake up, check email. Update site with show times. Pick up the guitarist and the bassist. Check bank account. Realize last recording session wiped out…

  5. I either need to be sleek, svelte, and perfect...or get out of this music business.

    I'm thinking of a sandwich, I mean number , between one and one hundred eighty... I suppose I either need to be sleek, svelte, and perfect...or get out of this pop/indie/indiepop…

  6. Jane gets to be featured on Mindjack and writes about the marketing of the XBox and Windows XP.

    See Jane write... If you go to Mindjack , you can read their feature story about the marketing behind Microsoft's XBox and Windows XP. It was written by Dealership's very own…

  7. Millions have never flushed a toilet.

    Remarkable statistic heard on NPR today: 40% of the world's populace have allegedly never flushed a toilet . No source or study was provided. :) Aside: Met BoyKani at the latest…

  8. William Safire provides more proof that our world has been firmly turned on its ass.

    More proof that our world Will Never Be The Same TM : William Safire, Seizing Dictatorial Power : "It's time for conservative iconoclasts and card-carrying hard-liners to stand up…

  9. Happy Thanksgiving. I'll be offline for two days... Nooo! Withdrawal will kill me. Revise that. Twenty minutes, instead or however long it takes me to down my "Thanksgiving wine."

    Let's get it out of the way: Mozilla 0.9.6 released . On my Win2K box, it is screaming fast. Wow. Among other things, "Print Preview" has been implemented. And also : I've started…

  10. Stuffed.

    Always tip the chef . And her sister.

  11. Depression studies complement a new ASP referrers script for you.

    Impression of Depression. Chris Wetherell. November, 2001. A few months back, for a variety of reasons, I began studying about depression and dysthymia. As part of this study, I…

  12. IE for Unix. Who'da thunk?

    Shows you what I know. I didn't realize that there was a version of IE 5 for Unix . (Not Linux yet, though)

December

  1. I hear the Pixies' "Alec Eiffel" and think of Kamen.

    Today's song quote is dedicated to Kamen's Segway , an apparent technological marvel: Little Eiffel stands in the archway. Keeping low doesn't make sense. Keeping low doesn't make…

  2. I visited an instance of Netscape 3.0. Still. In. Use...

    One of my clients uses Netscape 3.0 for mail. And sometimes to browse, though it crashes often. That's not the funny part.* This is: they're running it on a Mac G4... (!) *It's…

  3. Israel v. Palestine v. My Sanity

    On the issue of Israel v. Palestine, I think that "The Chauffeur" is Duran Duran's best song. Note to self: Given present misery, there doesn't seem to be many situations more…

  4. Did you wake up one day to find that you had become a computer programmer almost entirely by accident?

    "Did you wake up one day to find that you had become a computer programmer almost entirely by accident?" Curt Brune, with all due respect to Don Knuth, begins to examine his…

  5. Death, Oscar Levant channeling Apu, and layoffs.

    Who's poopy, today? Why it's Massless! You big poop. Why? Because, collectively, it seems humankind decided that today was the day to solve problems by killing strangers. Which…

  6. A very short post. Just one link since I can't stop listening to this song from Adult.

    I can't stop listening to Adult's Hand To Phone (Cordless Mix). (Real Player) Also...I am dreading heading into San Francisco to pick up our musical instruments ("our" meaning…

  7. Pondering...do coders make ethical decisions?

    A recent post from Joel: "Don't let anyone tell you that as a programmer you don't have to make moral or ethical decisions. Every time you decide that making users feel stupid is…

  8. Art and faith, Dame Judi Dench, Interview magazine, everybody in the world grabs their Hobbit name, and the sport in grabbing the headless carcass.

    Art, an expression of faith? W.S Merwin once remarked to Bill Moyers that "poetry, like all arts, is an expression of faith in the integrity of the senses and of the imagination."…