2002 April

I wish I could get my Peet's earlier in the day. It'd make waking up so much easier. I also wish I could spend more time posting thoughts, so I could let you know that I don't mind lurkers and I love you all equally. Except Robyn. I like her just a little more than the rest of you. Well, kinda. I went to post something last night – thirteen paragraphs of random dribble – and this Movable Type window clicks over to a new page. I lost everything. They really should incorporate some kind of JavaScript stopper to prevent this from happening in future revisions. Until then, everyone will be stuck wondering what I thought about the Borg Queen in last night's rerun of Voyager.

Read more on Ugly Alice…

Digital cameras are not only fun, they're convenient. I can't imagine owning an “analog” one ever again. Now, that's not to say that the romance in developing one's own roll will disappear or be any less engaging, just that for me (an average person who wants to take average pictures and get instant satisfaction), digital is the only way to go. Within a decade, corner processing centers will surely be antiquated. Katie ran out of film this afternoon, missing a few nice ocean / beach shots. I had a 64 MB CF waiting for me, had the 128 MB card filled up. I debated getting a 512, but prices are still a little too high. I looked at a Mr. Flash (which sells for much less than $200). Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the company or their products – beyond being leery about purchasing from retailers with “Mr.” somewhere in their title. I'd love to get my hands on that new 1 gigabyte CompactFlash, but I'm not going to pay more for it than I did for my camera. I'll wait for a killer deal to come along before I score a second 256 MB (or higher capacity) card. Anything less is kinda inconvenient. Consider the math: 4×64, 2×128, or a single 256 (or higher). Ah, too bad these devices don't have the ability to upload pictures immediately to a computer via a wireless Internet connection. Wouldn't that be a kick?

Read more on Kicking Flash…

I love David Lawrence.

Who the hell is Chris Pirillo?!

Holy cow. Neil has a blog!

They say an anagram of your name can have significant reference to your actual life… in your case, “Christopher” works out to “PC Shirt Hero” (which I am sure you wear). However, it's a different case with Gretchen since (being from Iowa) “Gretchen Pirillo” works out to be “The Corn Pile Girl.” These anagrams brought to you by the very best anagram site on the Web. [Max Raven]

Read more on Stranger Than Friction…

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Read more on Shy Anne…

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Read more on Pristine Christine…

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Read more on Robyn The Cradle…

“Many banner ad designers recommend the use of animation. In 1998, Webreview published tips for designing effective banner ads; animation was considered the best way to increase the impact of an advertisement (Hamlin, 1998). Despite the recommended usage of animation, this study did not find animation to enhance awareness of online banner advertisements. It appeared that participants recalled and recognized movement on the Web page but did not necessarily associate it to the advertisements.” [via Brian Hayes]

Read more on The Blinking Blink…

I love it. Spam advertising products to cut down on spam. The guy even says
my address was harvested by a robot and says where it came from (sadly, from a
post I made to an open development list before I learned to obscure my email
address). On the one hand, it'd be great if all spammers told you exactly
where they got your address, but then, it'd also be great if a guy advertising
anti-spam services didn't advertise them by spam. The hypocricy of it is
amazing to me. The worst thing that this Mr. Mark Scott probably doesn't even
realize that his product would probably be appealing to some non-technical
people if it wasn't spammed out everywhere. He's basically ruining his
business by promoting it stupidly. To all the spammers out there, believe it
or not, while good advertisements might convince a few people to buy something
they might not have bought otherwise, obnoxious advertisements, especially
spam, will cause people who might have made a purchase to decline doing so on
principle and to prevent spam. [Jonathon Merz]

Read more on Kill All Spammers…

Thanks for the tip on Swap Cop. I must admit that my eye caught the other
app available and I think it
deserves a mention as well. Monolinguistic is EXACTLY what I've been
looking for to dump all the Chinese and whatever other language packs were
stuffed into my hard drive during the OS X install. Having only taken two years
of Spanish in high school (of which I remember nada), I tried desperately to
find a way to not have all that installed, but it was hopeless. [Greg Littlefield]

Read more on Free Space…

I agree with the advice to wash off soda from printed wiring boards
(corrosive and sticky), but don't think much of mineral oil for
drying. Practice in the electronics industry, where I have spent some
years, is to wash off corrosive soldering flux residue with warm
de-ionized water (distilled will be fine) and air dry (or rinse with
isopropyl alcohol first to de-water). Besides the possibility of corrosion, the sugar is sticky and may
affect the keyboard mechanically. I used a glass of sherry to develop
a sticky “h” on a keyboard some years ago. Since I
was still with the firm, I simply took out the board from under the
keys and ran it through the circuit board cleaner with the rest of
production. However, the keyboard probably uses membrane switches, so you may find
that the electronics are nicely protected with a layer of plastic and
soda never got near the electronics. Then stickiness is the only real
worry. [Paul Collier]

Read more on Truly Sticky Keys…