::tuesday, april 30::

I won! I won!

In October 2000 I was the TOP poster on the SIGIA_L mailing list. Woohooooo! ... um ... What did I win?

Hotmail at Risk to Cookie Thieves

Now we need a cookie-jar lock, or something. Microsoft once again proves not to have completely thought things through. Why on earth would a cookie override your password??? For more scary stories, check this site on Unpatched IE Security Holes.

::monday, april 29::

The New Yorker: Add Hard News, Hold the Glitter

Friendly rave about David Remnick's stellar helmsmanship. Strangely lacking in key punctuation, however... makes it kind of hard to read.

Hell's Bells

I've had this ringing in my ears for quite a while... glad I'm not the only one.

Apple - eMac

They really should offer this for more than just education.

::friday, april 26::

The Atlantic | Mar 2001 | The Iron Bridge | Collins

You have to read it all the way to the end.

Leonard Michaels' Short Story: "Of Mystery There Is No End"

Nachman imagined reaching into her car, snatching away her cell phone and cigarette, turning off her radio, and ordering her to sit still. She would soon be reduced to quivering lunacy. Drivers in Los Angeles shoot one another for no reason, let alone for rude staring...

One of my favorite authors... he rarely publishes, so this is quite a treat.

::thursday, april 25::

«KVETCH!» COMPLAINING IN HI-FI

Kvetch! is an experiment in randomized, pseudo-interactive, confessional, oracle-ish, bitching and moaning.

Design for Community: Essay: Killing the biggest myth of web design

People do read on the web. Really. Just not boring crap. (This essay isn't, though.)

Blogger Posts on Sept 11

Blogger has this page with an archive of all the posts done using their engine on September 11, 2001 that mention certain keywords. Amazing to see the morning and day unfolding in retro-real-time, in regular people's voices.

::wednesday, april 24::

Ad agency exec Jay Chiat dead at 70

I still have a hard time remembering how to pronounce his name. But just think, he started out as a lowly copywriter.

Google Search: "beetles advance in a slow sparse phalanx"

Dude. I totally own the search results for "beetles advance in a slow sparse phalanx"!!! And I didn't even have to pay off any search engines...

Experience Design Case Study Archive at AIGA

Some powerful stuff at AIGA, proving they're not just about pretty pictures...not that they ever were, but it's a perception issue. Anyway, especially cool is the metrics associated with some of these ... for example, one site redesign resulted in a %180 increased conversion rate.

::monday, april 22::

Onion Lampoons Blogger User As Teenager, Geek

It's scary how much this sounds like me at 16.

Teen Worried About Friend Who Tried Pot
ARVADA, CO— Steve Vandervelt, 16, an Arvada High School honors student, expressed grave concern Tuesday for friend Todd Wolk, who experimented with marijuana at a party the previous weekend. "They say pot's a 'gateway drug,'" Vandervelt told Wolk. "And even if it doesn't lead to cocaine and more serious stuff, doing pot can still really mess up your brain." Vandervelt offered to speak to Mrs. Logan, the school's health-ed teacher, on Wolk's behalf to get more information about the dangers of marijuana use.

::friday, april 19::

Small Pieces Loosely Joined

Dave Weinberger's book has been out for a while, and I still haven't gotten around to picking it up for a read. I think I'm waiting until I have less other crap on my mind, but that day will likely never come. So I may just go hunt it down this weekend.

Gender Studies: Jeffrey Skinner

My mentor and distant-but-fondly-remembered friend Jeff Skinner finally has a new book out. (My God, it's been like 8 or 9 years!) It's a great price at Amazon. Oh, it's poetry, by the way. But don't let that stop you.

::wednesday, april 17::

Your Tax Dollars At Work

A youth-outreach program in Missouri expected to spend $273,000 to combat "Goth culture" was among the $20.1 billion that Congress doled out for pet projects in fiscal year 2002, according to the "Pig Book" released today.

Hippies Who Kick Ass

A coworker surprised me with a ticket to CSNY last night (his wife suddenly couldn't go) and good lord, these guys rock... i had no idea... it wasn't a has-been show at all, but one of the loudest, chest-pounding performances I've ever seen. Neil Y oung is still the proto-headbanger. And gorgeous vocals, harmonies, and jazz-inflected changes & riffs all mixed in... smart, wise rock'n'roll, with CSNY's strange electric heartland vibe. Like somebody plugged Roy Rogers into a nuclear power plant.

::tuesday, april 16::

Adium

My AIM clone of choice has just been updated. I can't believe, still, how terrific this software is and that it's freeware. There's another IM client on the horizon that looks pretty good too, called Proteus. It handles multiple IM services. But I don't keep up with people on ICQ anymore, so Adium suits me just fine.

Wired 10.04: The Fully Immersive Mind of Oliver Sacks

Great article on Sacks' new writing that turns his amazing perception on himself and his own life.

::sunday, april 14::

SearchGoogle.service (Mac OSX.1)

If you have Mac OS X (and why wouldn't you?) you can install this guy's little proggie as a service available to all applications. It allows you to select any text in an app and hit a key combo to search for that text in Google.

::thursday, april 11::

New Yorker -- random cartoons.

Refresh my page a couple of times and see the cartoon change. Flips between a number of the current week's 'toons from The New Yorker. Will I get sued for this?

::tuesday, april 9::

Bloug Entry (Apr 09, 2002)

I had fun posting a longish comment on Bloug, and thought I might as well repeat it here.

Google is like history. It only credits those who have the most sticky "links" over time in the most-published contexts.
Right now, Google is better than everything else, but it will eventually become just another layer in the strata of information retrieval methods. Like cities built on the ruins of cities. (A small shovel will easily uncover other strata below... Inktomi/Hotbot ... Northern Light ... Yahoo ... Alta Vista ...) Unless of course Google changes itself, in which case it'll be a whole new creature, just still *named* Google.
I'm curious to see if we'll evolve a social class of information taggers, a global tribe or sect, that is committed to tagging and passing along truly great information, regardless of what rock it might be found under? These people would all have their own predilections and eccentric interests, they would often link to one another's links, creating a redundant web of manually nurtured, living info-tissue.
Oh....wait.... those are bloggers!

::sunday, april 7::

Google News

Was nobody going to tell me about Google's headlines search??

::saturday, april 6::

Small Pieces Loosely Joined for Kids

Weinberger wrote a kids' version of his new book. It doesn't rhyme, but it may be a better version for a lot of executives than the real grown-up version.

Anthony Lane reviews Panic Room

As for the criminals, the film that can find room for Forest Whitaker as best supporting thief is assured of my vote. Just after he breaks and enters, there is a wonderful, full-figure shot of him, turning to the camera: semi-tender, slow as a bear (though bears can be riled), with a lazy eye and that ineffable shroud of sadness. He looks as fraught by the prospect of his own offense as Meg will be by his invasion; they are made for one another.

Daylight Saving Time - When do we change our clocks?

Say goodbye to that extra hour of sleep tonight.

::thursday, april 4::

AOL buddies up to increase IM wingspan

As if web design wasn't challenging enough...now we'll have to start keeping the "random serendipitous chat" layer in mind.

Few Risks Seen to the Children of 1st Cousins

People in my region breathe a huge sigh of relief.

::tuesday, april 2::

Social Life of Paper

Malcolm Gladwell turns out a terrific article on this topic. Big subject of discussion among us information-architect types.

::monday, april 1::

Osama Bin Laden arrested at Delhi railway station - The Times of India

I'm sure everyone else has blogged this, but here's my obligatory addition. Nice, healthy April Fool's story from a source that I wouldn't have thought to have this kind of humor.