Category: Uncategorized

Hope to find time to review this report on China at some point in the future. Only problem is that the link is in the graphic at top right, which my eye skipped over at first. Say it with me… text links work. Don’t depend on graphics only.

So I’m watching the kids, and the boy decides to pull out the truck basket and dump it on the floor. He then proceeds to retrieve the footrest from under the desk, and begins to assemble the following (click thumbnail for full size image) without any prodding.

I think San Francisco has made its mark… he’s already thinking about parking, thirteen years before he’s legal behind the wheel. Yesterday, he picked out a parking spot, or what looked like one, near the bagel shop we were hoping to stop at. I suppose from his car seat he couldn’t see the pavement markings that denoted the spot as illegal for parking… I’ll cut him some slack until he’s 5!

Welcome Natalie (yesterday), hello blackout (yesterday and this morning), miserable AV equipment (all day today), reasonable 5K time (Golden Gate Park this morning), and an ever-growing excitement in the boy about the coming of Christmas. Got to head to bed, since he’ll be up before 6am as always tomorrow.

Clearing out a few from the Safari bookmarks bar…

• Bray on time
• Interview with Feedster’s Scott Johnson
• David Galbraith on ontology (and why they help)
• WiFi usage at Carnegie Mellon [via WiFiNetNews]
• Contradictory comments on Simson Garfinkel’s article The Myth of Doomed Data from the MIT Tech Review.
• Managing time from HBS Working Knowledge [via Emergic]

Very few Macs at work, and little need to try the collaborative writing/editing process at home, but I’m curious about SubEthaEdit (formerly known as Hydra). I’ve installed it, but haven’t used it with someone. Someone documented what happened with an open shared blank document. Sounds like the usual stages of a mailing list: quiet discussion, growth to the point of interest, and then the tipping point of enough bad apples to ruin it for everyone. I’m interested in SubEthaEdit and wikis as tools for capturing requirements and writing documentation, two tasks that can work well collaboratively, but few like to do on their own. Or, even if you like to frame the problem yourself, it’s hard to get useful feedback in an integrated form. Version tracking, etc., are some of the answers, but I want to lower the barrier of entry.

Just adding a link as a more permanent bookmark.

I’ll have to try and “attend” the RSS WinterFest on January 21, 2004. I know a few folks on the agenda, and have read many of the rest.

I have a very nice Waterman fountain pen that I received from my godfather as a wedding present. I use it frequently at work (analog, meet digital… digital, meet analog). However, I’ve ruined at least three shirts by putting the pen in my pocket without the cap on. Since I’m not likely to wear a pocket protector (!), I’m always curious about alternatives for an elegant writing experience with less fuss. Here’s one possibility: a Namiki Pilot Vanishing Point, which is a retractable fountain pen. No links to online dealers, no San Francisco dealers (Palo Alto is the closest), and no pricing information = bad signs. But Google comes through with enough information to let me know that these are not insanely overpriced, etc. The irony, for me, is that my handwriting keeps getting worse, as I use it less and less, yet I want a more and more elegant tool for many of those times I do write something. And every time I think about being excited about a pen, I think of the John Cusack link from the movie Say Anything: “I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen.” The mind makes odd linkages, doesn’t it?

Those tiny graphics that appear in most modern browsers next to your URLs are called favicons. Here’s one starting point among dozens of possibilities for learning how to create one. I am so graphically challenged that I’ll have to get some help, but how hard can it be to do a clock? (Answer: for me, anything beyond words or digital picture = hard)

I often wait a couple of weeks when Software Update pops up with something new from Apple, to see if any bad news filters out over the first few days. But with MacOS 10.3.2, I didn’t wait on my 12″ PowerBook G4. Reports are coming in that this was a bad idea, in a minor way. Apparently, the fan will run continuously when the laptop is plugged in. Well, mine isn’t doing it (yet?). Here’s another report, from the Apple forums, which also has a link to a fix, which is too risky for my blood — especially since I’m not having the problem. There was also a separate update which is supposed to recalibrate the battery and give you additional time. That would be nice.