Friday 28 November 2003

now comes the time of leftovers

When I woke up this morning the house looked like a roman orgy gone contemporary.

I’ve made progress against the mess, however. There’s a load of dishes washing away, another all lined up and ready to go, and the main rooms are back in order. I think it’s time to go back to bed!

I had a great Thanksgiving. Family and friends gathered to eat, drink, and be very merry. We had a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving is my favorite U.S. holiday. If you celebrated, how was yours?

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Monday 24 November 2003

dee jay

I’m stirring up my Thanksgiving party music. I’m looking for ambient, contemporary funk, outrageous rock, acid jazz, alternative hardcore rock, hardcore rock, stunning classical music I’ve never heard before.

I’m taking recommendations! Click on the comments link below.

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Sunday 23 November 2003

color change, housekeeping items

I like my new colors. They feel cool and crisp, just like autumn. I also reworked the poll templates and got rid of all the tables in there. Do ya like the new look?

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Thursday 20 November 2003

comdex or bust

That would better read “Comdex was a bust.” I’ve never in my some 6 or so years of working the show seen it so small and with such dismal attendance. Even November, 2001 had better attendance than this.

I had a great time, though, enjoyed seeing friends of old and meeting new both at Comdex and ApacheCon. My sessions went well, too, so the trip was not for naught.

However, I don’t think Comdex will survive another year, unless someone buys it, reworks it, or merges it with something else.

I’m not optimistic.

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Sunday 16 November 2003

postcard from las vegas

Well, I’m here in Las Vegas to do some things at Comdex. It’s pouring rain out there, with is very unusual for LV. Turns out by happenstance that the hotel I’m staying in is hosting ApacheCon. So I lucked out, I get to hang out with all the Open Source folks.

I saw my parents yesterday as they live near Las Vegas. We went and had a nice, leisurely lunch and it was very good to see them.

A few items of interest:

• ReUseit contest results are in!
• Here’s an interesting article about a company trolling file sharing sites for marketing data.
• The WaSP web site just got chunky.

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Monday 10 November 2003

bring salad and wife

Ever have one of those Freudian slip moments? Apparently, while jotting down plans for dinner with a friend on my wall calendar, I did. Instead of “bring salad and wine” I wrote “bring salad and wife.”

I don’t have a wife, never thought about having a wife, not sure if I could have one that I would have one (unless it was in the form of a big, burly, otherwise very masculine guy taking care of life while I kept my career . . . ). But there you have it. Or maybe I just see wine as my true companion? That’d sure be a lot closer to the truth.

The best Freudian moment lines in the comment section below (email not fair, you have to share) will get a book! We’ll take a poll to see which one is funniest.

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Friday 7 November 2003

exploiting microsoft patent woes

Ha! What a wonderful world. Designer Joe Maddalone has found a hole in the new Microsoft Developer Network update for Microsoft Internet Explorer. This special developer update is built to help web professionals examine and address issues that have come about as a result of the Eolas patent issue.

The hole found by Maddalone allows us to exploit the browser and install multiple versions of IE on Windows 2000 and XP versions. This was something web designers were quite frustrated over in the past, because it meant we had to either have multiple machines for testing browser versions, or use pay services such as BrowserCam to see how our designs were working in other browsers. Thanks Joe!

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Wednesday 5 November 2003

i’ve been accelerated

Well, I’ve been next to the Stanford Linear Accelerator for over 24 hours now and there is no doubt that I’ve been accelerated. It might not have anything to do with the accelerator itself. In fact, it probably has far more to do with the fact that the folks I’ve gotten to hang out with here are illuminated and accelerated souls themselves.

With attendees from Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and of course, SLAC, I couldn’t be in more awesome company. Anyone whoever said computational physicists and other such scientists aren’t fun, well phooey on you! Not to mention a group so incredibly savvy about web standards that they knock my socks off.

There are some fascinating things going on in this world. What’s accelerating yours? Comment away (I’m going back to bed, these guys partied me serious).

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Monday 3 November 2003

SLACing off

Well, I’m off to Palo Alto today for a couple of days of lecturing at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, SLAC. But no slacking off for me, I’ll be on my toes teaching and when not teaching, catching up with all the deadlines that seem to be causing a traffic jam both on my desk and in my life.

The CSS tutorial I’m teaching is closed as it surpassed its size limit (right on!), but there’s still registration for the rest of InterLab. If you’re in the Bay Area, you might want to check the content for the conference out. It’s affordable and will have many really good presentations and presenters.

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