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Hey, it's the Web equivalent of pledge drives!
Useful for hard numbers though I'm not sure what this is using for sources. The lack of Allied/Coalition/US casualties seems a blatant omission to me as well, but YMMV...Requires Flash.
Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974
These are pretty amazing. This is when dieting was dieting, folks. WW meant suffering. Don't miss the Fluffy Mackerel Pudding, the Snappy Mackerel Casserole (heh), Jellied Tomato Refresher (I had no idea they needed refreshment), Fish "Tacos" (wink, wink) and, of course, the hopelessly optimistic "Rosy Perfection Salad."
Though I can also think of a number of scenarios deserving of the moniker "Frankfurter Spectacular."
What lately is bothering me about the tech industry, weblogs, etc etc is not so much that it's about smart people. Smart people I like being around. The problem is how much of it is about smart people being arrogant self-absorbed assholes, all constantly trawling for the least opportunity to declare you stupid and them smart. It's such a fucking pain, it's so destructive to productivity, and I'm sick of it. It may just be where I've been working lately, but enough with the namedropping, the snarkiness, the bullshit. And before I forget, ":)".
I decided to remind myself of this here: check out event-based filters in Trillian Monday. Seen via LazyWeb.
Doesn't this sound like a great job situation? (craigslist nyc, all spelling sic)
In other non-hating-America-so-much-your-eyeballs-begin-to-bleed-from-the-pressure-of-it-all (try searching for that on Google and see what you get) news, I have managed to injure myself again. Stepping from a cab to the curb the night before last, my body decided to achieve a yoga posture commonly known as "folding the ankle backwards underneath." Said ankle, the right, responded by doing a passable imitation of a bonsai softball (which I guess would be a baseball, come to think of it). I am working from home with a blueice on my ankle and pledging to never again anger the transportation tiki gods - I either take the subway or ride my bike from now on. Probably riding the bike, given the current war status.
Rebecca Blood on the Heritage Foundation blog spam effort:
u r 0\/\/|\|3d.
Need Web Savvy Online Chat & Board Markteers
Uck. At least they didn't mention blogs or blog comments ("Why do you hate America so much? Because we have Executed by America, this Sunday on FOX! You'll see them FRY.") . Yet.
From the quotes section of the latest Library Juice newsletter (recommended):
The world is now utterly changed.
SLACKERBIT.CH: Welcome to Java hell
This one I know. There are times when all of Java seems determined to keep you from doing a thing simply. Very difficult to get in and hack around. I will be interested to see this supposed VB-killer (an app which is supposed to simplify Java dev, no link handy, you know how to Google) from Java One this spring.
OK, this should about do it. I grabbed a mail to MT script from slackerbit.ch,
and with a bit of work (some of which I still need to clean up) I am
now able to post to the Clam via email.I'm actually working on this
with an eye to using MT to blog CVS log messages. Anyway, it mostly works.
OK, almost there.
you know the drill
--
#!/usr/bin/env python
(lt, gt, at, dot) = ('<', '>', '@', '.')
print 'John Mignault', lt+'jbm'+at+'panix'+dot+'com'+gt
print lt+'http://www.panix.com/~jbm/snappy'+gt
quote = """Are there seeing eye humans for blind dogs?"""
And another thing: if the rest of the country is now back on Orange Alert, and NYC is almost undoubtedly a target, does that mean NY escalates to Code Red? I had wondered what exactly Red Alert entails, and according to this MeFi thread, it sounds like martial law - stay in your homes, all non-essential businesses (read: hospitals stay open) close down, though I know, I know, every businessman thinks his business is essential.
Well, there's definitely more security out there: this am as I got off the train in Grand Central, there were cops and National Guard on the platform watching everyone coming off the train. As we walked up the ramp to the GCT lower level, there were a couple of NYPD K-9 guys with dogs as well, standing in front of a line of people waiting to go down and board the empty train. Oddly enough, there was much less police presence in the subway station, leading me to think that maybe something was up on that platform. I felt both frightened and comforted by their presence.
I am considering turning off anonymous comments. The "debate," if you can call it such, continues to rage over at 'why do you hate America so much?,' and I'm torn. On the one hand, I think that people should be able to express themselves anonymously with no fear of reprisal, and on the other, I sometimes wonder about the people leaving various comments. I mean, some people don't even leave a fake handle. Anybody care one way or the other?
In my eternal quest to stay semi-current, I have upgraded to MT 2.63. Looks like interesting new features.
An update to the last post: McDonald's to offer wireless Internet:
This could eventually become a loss-leader, but for now major corporations are going to see this as a premium and find some way to charge for it. Free access with a meal is the simplest and most obvious model that they could come up with and still cover their costs. Though it would have been smarter to offer additional time for a little less money instead of having to purchase another meal. Not to mention healthier.
So when are they going to put a few computers in the restaurants for their non-laptop toting customers? That'll be the day.
From this and some of their other recent announcements, McDonald's is obviously trying to go at least somewhat upscale. Given their recent slump, they're desperate for new markets. Not desperate enough to take the McVeggie national, but that's another story.
The Doc Searls Weblog : Wednesday, March 5, 2003
So here's your take-away quote: Think of pay-fi as the Net's equivalent of the pay toilet.
Yeah, but I have the feeling that if Starbucks starts giving away Wi-Fi, all they're going to do is just add a quarter onto coffee prices. That money's going to come from somewhere. And in NYC at least, you don't use the restroom without making a purchase. Though Starbucks in this case might actually be the exception; I think you can duck into theirs for free.
Register: MS aims at Linux with $399 Server.
When I saw this, I thought, "Interesting, they're going to try to compete with a cheap server appliance."
That's for the software, kids. They apparently left out the and misses from that headline.
Dr Pepper in blog astroturf campaign | Metafilter
Exactly what I've been saying all along, probably better put. Most if not all of the BigTechBlogs need to get the (b)logs out of their eyes.
Look, blogs are becoming commercial. There's no getting around it. Advertising will subvert and adapt anything it can find for the purposes of capitalism. I'm not sure that anyone should be surprised at this as blogs increased in popularity. Wasn't one of the purposes of Pyra to find a commercial niche of weblogs by repurposing them as a corporate communications tool? (Probably even more so now given the Google deal.)
No one remembers history - there have been many such "imminent death of [insert your fave here, has been Usenet, the web, internet] predicted" since the Net began. The end of the no commercial use policy, the AOL arrival, banner ads, you name it. All provoked a "there goes the neighborhood, they're ruining it" hue and cry. And yet the Web still appears to be here. Is the Raging Cow site the death of weblogs? No, not at all. Is it the mainstreaming of them? Definitely. Big media is a Borg. It doesn't annihilate, it assimilates.