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Archives: [+]
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Picked up a wireless router today. Now my wife and I can share our connection and she can roam around the house w/o cables. Nice.
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Picked up a wireless router today. Now my wife and I can share our connection and she can roam around the house w/o cables. Nice.
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Monday, December 29, 2003
hyperdictionary isn't unusual, except for the dream dictionary feature, which lets you get all Freudian about those aardvarks and zombies that lurk in your subcounscious. I usually use dictionary.com or Google's define feature, but this seems worth a look, at least for the clean design and lack of popups.
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hyperdictionary isn't unusual, except for the dream dictionary feature, which lets you get all Freudian about those aardvarks and zombies that lurk in your subcounscious. I usually use dictionary.com or Google's define feature, but this seems worth a look, at least for the clean design and lack of popups.
[0 comments]
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Whenever I find myself unpacking my books after a move, I'm reminded how arbitrary distinctions between fiction and non-fiction can be. Right now, I have two antique book cases. My basic sorting strategy is to put the fiction in one and the nonfiction/criticism/philosophy in the other. This works, for the most part. But in some cases, its a bit forced. For authors who primarily write fiction, it seems a shame to put their letters or journals or a single volume of essays in a seperate place. In the nonfiction section, its tempting to go with alphabetical order throughout, but why file a book of essays about a particular critic under the title of some editor whose name you'll never recall? So, there, I guess it's "books by and about X" that should be grouped together. That works for most things.
These are the things that must keep librarians up at night.
Then, there's the guilt: all those books you read part of, or never read, or said you'd read are still sitting there. And you wonder, "how much longer should I keep this one around?" and "why don't I read like I used to?" I find myself making vows that I'll read everything I already own before buying anything new. But I know life doesn't work like that. And I'm not in the mood for big resolutions. So I'll pick a volume or two that I overlooked before and try to find that spark that keeps the pages turning.
Nice redesign a Zeldman.com and a great My Glamorous Life entry which I should take to heart.
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Whenever I find myself unpacking my books after a move, I'm reminded how arbitrary distinctions between fiction and non-fiction can be. Right now, I have two antique book cases. My basic sorting strategy is to put the fiction in one and the nonfiction/criticism/philosophy in the other. This works, for the most part. But in some cases, its a bit forced. For authors who primarily write fiction, it seems a shame to put their letters or journals or a single volume of essays in a seperate place. In the nonfiction section, its tempting to go with alphabetical order throughout, but why file a book of essays about a particular critic under the title of some editor whose name you'll never recall? So, there, I guess it's "books by and about X" that should be grouped together. That works for most things.
These are the things that must keep librarians up at night.
Then, there's the guilt: all those books you read part of, or never read, or said you'd read are still sitting there. And you wonder, "how much longer should I keep this one around?" and "why don't I read like I used to?" I find myself making vows that I'll read everything I already own before buying anything new. But I know life doesn't work like that. And I'm not in the mood for big resolutions. So I'll pick a volume or two that I overlooked before and try to find that spark that keeps the pages turning.
Nice redesign a Zeldman.com and a great My Glamorous Life entry which I should take to heart.
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Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Have a happy holiday, but be careful.
For some people, do and don't lists about web design never get old.
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Have a happy holiday, but be careful.
For some people, do and don't lists about web design never get old.
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Friday, December 19, 2003
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
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Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Dr. Wilkie, one of my favorite literature professors at the U of A, died this past Sunday. I took several of his courses as an undergrad and he served on my thesis committee. He'll be missed by many.
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Dr. Wilkie, one of my favorite literature professors at the U of A, died this past Sunday. I took several of his courses as an undergrad and he served on my thesis committee. He'll be missed by many.
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Monday, December 15, 2003
One of the biggest architectural events going down in my (new) neck of the woods is the construction of the new Cooper River Bridge to replace the existing (beautiful but ancient) Grace Memorial Bridge (built 1929) and the newer Pearman Bridge (built 1968).
The often enlightening Joel urps up this bit of oversimplified dreck about the differences in Unix and Windows programming culture. Your fearless narrator takes issue with many passages, to wit:
One of the biggest architectural events going down in my (new) neck of the woods is the construction of the new Cooper River Bridge to replace the existing (beautiful but ancient) Grace Memorial Bridge (built 1929) and the newer Pearman Bridge (built 1968).
The often enlightening Joel urps up this bit of oversimplified dreck about the differences in Unix and Windows programming culture. Your fearless narrator takes issue with many passages, to wit:
Unix culture values code which is useful to other programmers, while Windows culture values code which is useful to non-programmers.
This is the central thesis of Joel's piece (whether or not it is the opinion of Eric S. Raymond--whose book Joel is reviewing in this post--isn't entierly clear. It is a statement meant to be provocative, of course. And I'm sure there is a kernel of truth in it. But only a kernel. And even if it were true in the early days of Unix (during which time, Joel (Raymond?) rightly observes, there were no end users to speak of besides other programmers), it certainly isn't true today, when every Linux distro is fighting every other to capture some of that lucrative desktop market share (and when the availible Linux desktop environments are keeping step with Windows).
Oy vey, I thought, he's actually teaching young programmers to write more impossible man pages.
I remember my early days of using Solaris and being mystified by man pages. I do a lot of software training for end users. So I'm very big on good documentation with lots of screen shots and step-by-step examples. But media-rich documentation does not eclipse the value of man pages, which aren't designed for end users anyway. Man pages are crib notes for power users--a quick way of refreshing your memory about what that -F option does on ls.
OS X is the proof: Apple finally created Unix for Aunt Marge, but only because the engineers and managers at Apple were firmly of the end-user culture (which I've been imperialistically calling "the Windows Culture" even though historically it originated at Apple).
Actually, it originated with Xerox. The idea that Apple invented GUIs out of whole cloth is just marketing spin.
It's rather rare to find such [Unix-style] bigotry among Windows programmers, who are, on the whole, solution-oriented and non-ideological.
I don't have any extensive commentary on the above line except to say that my jaw dropped when I read it. I've certainly met my share of Linux snobs, but I've also met my share of Windows shills. How one can make such blanket statements and expect to be taken seriously is beyond me.
I use Windows and Linux and I like both. Prior to Windows 2000, the Windows OS (which Joel tells us is crafted with end users lovingly in mind) was an unstable, amaturish kluge. It held sway only due to the strong-arm, anti-competitive business practices of its parent company. But, with the release of 2000 and XP, the boys in Redmond finally got something right.
But the fact that, after years of user neglect, Microsoft saw fit to ship a good OS doesn't mean that Linux is a non-issue. Over the years, it has become an increasingly viable choice on servers and on the desktop. And I think that's a trend that will continue. Is desktop linux still a bit hobbyist? Sure it is. But it has come a long way and doesn't show any signs of stopping. Whether Linux desktop environments can ever tump the Windows GUI is still an open question. But we'll all have to wait and see. And, at least in the open source world, we have the option of participating as well.
Some good discussion of the piece.
I use Windows and Linux and I like both. Prior to Windows 2000, the Windows OS (which Joel tells us is crafted with end users lovingly in mind) was an unstable, amaturish kluge. It held sway only due to the strong-arm, anti-competitive business practices of its parent company. But, with the release of 2000 and XP, the boys in Redmond finally got something right.
But the fact that, after years of user neglect, Microsoft saw fit to ship a good OS doesn't mean that Linux is a non-issue. Over the years, it has become an increasingly viable choice on servers and on the desktop. And I think that's a trend that will continue. Is desktop linux still a bit hobbyist? Sure it is. But it has come a long way and doesn't show any signs of stopping. Whether Linux desktop environments can ever tump the Windows GUI is still an open question. But we'll all have to wait and see. And, at least in the open source world, we have the option of participating as well.
Some good discussion of the piece.
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, a picture of which has long graced my design page, may be saved. I put together a brief tribute to his work.
Saddam captured. There's no need for me to even mention it, as it's the only discourse in town at the moment.
My laptop currently runs Windows 2000. My wife's runs XP. Since I moved to South Carolina, I've been using her laptop quite a bit (it's nicer than mine) and finding things I like and don't like about the OS she's running. One thing that's just odd about it, coming from a Linux perspective, is the way in which it handles multiple user accounts. In general, multiple users have autonomy. But certain things (like the arrangement of the desktop) affect other users when you change them on your own account. Strange. I'd like to be able to completely customize my account w/o affecting hers. So far, that hasn't been possible. Perhaps there's a setting somewhere that I'm missing (some checkbox that says "No, really. Go ahead and act like a true multi-user OS."
As you might have noticed, the comments system is still a bit odd. You can leve comments, but the comments counter doesn't increment. I'd fix it, but I'm going to switch over to my home-brew system over the holiday break. So why bother? If you've left a comment, I'll do my best to preserve it when I migrate to the new system.
[0 comments]
Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, a picture of which has long graced my design page, may be saved. I put together a brief tribute to his work.
Saddam captured. There's no need for me to even mention it, as it's the only discourse in town at the moment.
My laptop currently runs Windows 2000. My wife's runs XP. Since I moved to South Carolina, I've been using her laptop quite a bit (it's nicer than mine) and finding things I like and don't like about the OS she's running. One thing that's just odd about it, coming from a Linux perspective, is the way in which it handles multiple user accounts. In general, multiple users have autonomy. But certain things (like the arrangement of the desktop) affect other users when you change them on your own account. Strange. I'd like to be able to completely customize my account w/o affecting hers. So far, that hasn't been possible. Perhaps there's a setting somewhere that I'm missing (some checkbox that says "No, really. Go ahead and act like a true multi-user OS."
As you might have noticed, the comments system is still a bit odd. You can leve comments, but the comments counter doesn't increment. I'd fix it, but I'm going to switch over to my home-brew system over the holiday break. So why bother? If you've left a comment, I'll do my best to preserve it when I migrate to the new system.
[0 comments]
Monday, December 08, 2003
Here's my wife's.
Best wishes to tim, whose father-in-law is very ill right now.
[0 comments]
Here's my wife's.
Best wishes to tim, whose father-in-law is very ill right now.
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Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Very fun bit of flash inventiveness: mr picasso head.
Here's mine.
[0 comments]
Very fun bit of flash inventiveness: mr picasso head.
Here's mine.
[0 comments]
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Fascinating: The Electric Thoreau.
A great post from Joel on Software.
[0 comments]
Fascinating: The Electric Thoreau.
A great post from Joel on Software.
[0 comments]
Monday, December 01, 2003
We've arrived in SC and I'll be spending all my spare time for the next few weeks putting my house together. But the hard part is over. I haven't had any time for recreational surfing, so there's nothing to blog about, but I'll have more info later.
[0 comments]
We've arrived in SC and I'll be spending all my spare time for the next few weeks putting my house together. But the hard part is over. I haven't had any time for recreational surfing, so there's nothing to blog about, but I'll have more info later.
[0 comments]
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