January 2000 Archives

January 31

Microsoft's font embedding demos

Microsoft's font embedding demos are really smurfin' cool. I think my favorite is the Hotzone Journal. IE4+ needed. Has anybody seen embedded fonts used elsewhere, or does anybody know if Mozilla does/will support font embedding?
posted by gleemax at 11:27 PM PST - 5 comments

No!!! It's finally true, Maude Flanders is going to die

No!!! It's finally true, Maude Flanders is going to die in an upcoming simpsons episode. Now I wonder, will they make a big deal out of it and have her martyred?
posted by mathowie at 9:42 PM PST - 2 comments

I like dragging poop to the trash can

I like dragging poop to the trash can as must as the next guy, but sadly, there's something lost in the translation here.
posted by grant at 9:11 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Flyswat

Flyswat is a crazy new app that adds metadata to any page you're viewing on the web. When you click on the newly hyperlinked words, it shows a popup with extra info about the word. Here's this site, Slashdot, and prolific.org screenshots (notice it actually recognized "0sil8" as a word). I also thought it was kind of funny it uses the same link colors as this site for it's hyperlinks. If you thought weblogs were a huge time sink, just imagine when every page you see has all sorts of offsite related links...
posted by mathowie at 7:58 PM PST - 3 comments

Bad news: Kurt Vonnegut is in critical condition

Bad news: Kurt Vonnegut is in critical condition after a fire in his home.
posted by mathowie at 4:52 PM PST - 1 comment

Monitor Me!

Monitor me! ResearchBuzz points readers towards another insidious tracking mechanism -- the Web Bug. Check Dan Gillmor's ejournal for info on how Lycos -- in tandem with DoubleClick -- has been using this to capture user data.
posted by jessamyn at 10:38 AM PST - 2 comments

Mobiltrak

Mobiltrak is a company that can monitor what radio stations people are listening to in their cars. Privacy advocates say they're against this because the monitoring takes place without anyone's consent or knowledge, but I think they just don't want people knowing they really love Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.
posted by mathowie at 9:53 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

iCrave TV gets busted.

iCrave TV gets busted. And what a shame it is. People want to watch TV over their DSL and cable lines, too bad broadcasters aren't hip enough to realize that. So this small company sees the demand, builds something to fill it, and they're stopped, too bad they couldn't reach a compromise (if you've never heard of iCrave, it was mentioned here before).
posted by mathowie at 8:55 AM PST - 2 comments

WebbieWorld - The Best of Everthing

WebbieWorld - The Best of Everthing If you haven't seen Mark Connell's portal you're in for a treat. Is this the future direction of the Search Engine?
posted by fbeach at 8:12 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 30

Ouch! The sad reality of the web

Ouch! The sad reality of the web is that most servers are built to handle thousands of people (not millions, or 100s of thousands, and sometimes not even tens of thousands), as long as they are spread out over a day. It's sad to see a company pay millions for a superbowl ad, but their server is down when you go to visit them. I guess it's not all bad, I hear this epidemic.com company was going to pay people to spam others anyway...
posted by mathowie at 10:11 PM PST - 4 comments

This is probably the coolest dhtml thing

This is probably the coolest dhtml thing I've ever seen. An analog clock that follows your mouse. Simple, but addictive. [thanks medley]
posted by mathowie at 8:10 PM PST - 1 comment

Well, I tried....

Well, I tried.... Although upgrading the hard drive on this server was unsuccessful, hopefully it was amusing to some of you. Especially those that don't use NT.
posted by mathowie at 6:11 PM PST - 3 comments

Michael Moore

Michael Moore will be directing the new RATM video. I don't care for Rage, but Mr. Moore amuses the hell out of me even since Roger and Me, so it should be interesting.
posted by corpse at 3:40 AM PST - 3 comments

If you plan to see Douglas Coupland

If you plan to see Douglas Coupland on his current book tour you might want to bone up on how to draw the Canadian flag. Since he was in Seattle tonight he also asked the audience for stock tips.
posted by jessamyn at 1:43 AM PST - 5 comments

Ad Critic

Ad Critic is going to be featuring all the superbowl ads right after the game. So I guess there's no need to tape it anymore, just check out the site afterwards...
posted by mathowie at 12:48 AM PST - 5 comments

The Spearmint Rhino

The Spearmint Rhino is far and away my favorite name for a strip club, but it does beg the question "why is there no Fudge Pachyderm?
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 12:30 AM PST - 5 comments

Eric's Emotions

Eric's Emotions is what you get when you combine a bored college kid and a webcam. He's got a list of emotions on the left pane, hyperlinked to hilarious photos of him illustrating the emotions. My favorites include: "Soylent Green is made out of people," "Fantasizing about Ricky Martin," "New Shoes!," "Han, hold on," and "Mr. Burns' Excellent Face." You can submit new emotion requests, and see his pending requests. [thanks Dan]
posted by mathowie at 12:29 AM PST - 3 comments

January 29

A Windows 2000 patch was released today.

A Windows 2000 patch was released today. This must be some kind of record, because, well Windows 2000 isn't even officially out until February, and yes, it's January. Impressive.
posted by Mark at 11:34 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The San Francisco Examiner is up for sale?

The San Francisco Examiner is up for sale? I didn't even know this. I'm surprised no dotcoms have swooped in to buy the dead trees media. Apparently, they need a buyer very soon, or the paper will merge with the SF Chronicle. Will SF become yet another one-newspaper city? Sad...
posted by mathowie at 8:00 PM PST - 1 comment

Whoever made the Celebrity female matchup test

Whoever made the Celebrity female matchup test deserves a slap upside the head. I filled out the questions, submitted it and my perfect celebrity mate was Martha Stewart. Ewww...something is seriously wrong with me if she's my perfect mate. I'm going try to forget this ever happened (note: there's also a test to find the perfect celebrity man too).
posted by mathowie at 1:07 PM PST - 17 comments

The article in this week's ALA about the allure of blue and green on the web

The article in this week's ALA about the allure of blue and green on the web should not concern nor cause alarm among the citizens of MetaFilter. MetaFilter is not in league with any corporate entity in a conspiracy to make a profit off your opinions. There are no attempts of gaining your trust with the hidden motive of making you more susceptible to efforts to sell you product here at MetaFilter. Please continue reading. That is all. [heads up from Fairvue]
posted by jason at 3:00 AM PST - 5 comments

January 28

Metababy is back!

Metababy is back! Greg Knuass' Metababy, everybody's favorite experiment in nobody-owns-it content, is back. In the original incarnation, the homepage displayed whatever anyone sent in via email. Now there's a web form where you can edit a page someone else made, or create your own page by typing in a bogus filename. It's great fun, and an even better experiment in web-based respect systems. Who's page will remain unchanged?
posted by fraying at 8:33 PM PST - 3 comments

Apple is going to have to rename it's AirPort

Apple is going to have to rename it's AirPort for the Japanese market because of a previous trademark already issued for the name. They're going to call it AirMac instead. Hmmm... Seems to me they could have put a bit more oomph into it, like AirThang or AirConnector. Must have been pressed for time to get the thing launched.
posted by grant at 7:55 PM PST - 1 comment

Word.com is back to their former selves.

Word.com is back to their former selves. There's also a new letter from the art director that sounds pretty sincere, and states all the reasons for the former yahoo-esque word.
posted by mathowie at 6:41 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The Mondo Mini Shows at Altavista

The Mondo Mini Shows at Altavista are brilliantly funny flash movies. I especially enjoyed the Steve Jobs Macworld Keynote and the Pamela Anderson interview. There's parodies of political candidates and other celebrities too, hilarious stuff. [thanks backupbrain]
posted by mathowie at 3:25 PM PST - 1 comment

Here's a list of all the superbowl ads with their length, company, and ad agency that created them.

Here's a list of all the superbowl ads with their length, company, and ad agency that created them. I couldn't find this info anywhere on the web, so I'm pointing to a text file of the email that was sent. Here's a fun game: Count all the dot com's! Make bets on which dot com's will still be around next year!
posted by mathowie at 2:36 PM PST - 4 comments

fast(er) food in so-cal.

fast(er) food in so-cal. looks like we'll all be able to get our big macs a whopping 15 seconds faster at orange county drive throughs. why haven't they done this *inside* their stores, where it usually takes the cashier at least a minute to do the math, after the people in front of me spend 3 minutes digging through their pockets/wallets/purses to find their money and change.(disclosure: i was once a mcdonald's cashier)
posted by mmanning at 1:30 PM PST - 10 comments

The game of legal tug-of-war over the Go Network logo once again seems to be shifting away from Disney.
posted by jjg at 12:39 PM PST - 1 comment

The delay in adding new top level domains drags on,

The delay in adding new top level domains drags on, and there seems to be no solution in sight. ICANN can't agree on whether or not to add new TLDs like .biz, .cars, or .corp., but they are discussing it at an upcoming meeting in March. I would hope they add enough domains to make domain squatting difficult, but I bet large corporations will just buy everything with their name it anyway, and fight over others' use of their name with a different TLD. What a mess.
posted by mathowie at 12:26 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Cookies = Stalking?

Cookies = Stalking? Some wacko attorney is suing Yahoo on behalf of a company that wanted to buy Yahoo users' data. Yahoo stopped giving them data, so they're suing for 4 billion dollars, and part of that is a goofy notion that a website delivering cookies to your computer is "trespassing" on your hard drive and "like a big electronic eyeball in your house." They're trying to use an anti-stalking law in their favor against Yahoo's cookie setting of visitors. Great, as if the recent double-click thing hasn't scared people enough about cookies...
posted by mathowie at 7:24 AM PST - 1 comment

Bloat!,

Bloat!, which has historically been a site with scathing reviews of popular weblogs, has in recent weeks become a source of excellent opinion and well thought out suggestions. For the first time, MetaFilter gets into the top ten, and I have to say some of the comments are right on the money. I hate posting information about this site on the main page, and T. Radhuis picks up on that. I'll be adding a couple links to the navigation, one being "news' with MetaFilter-centric posts and comments (and yeah, I understand that I just turned this post into another one about MF, I swear this is the last). I don't know about splitting the comments into good and bad, especially since posters would choose which thread to add their comment (which could be abused).
posted by mathowie at 1:36 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Geri Halliwell's Site Design

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell's site takes an interesting design approach to displaying content. Twelve small windows popup and different content is shown in the center as outside window links are clicked. Programmatically, it's interesting to other web designers and that's about it. The biggest problem with the site? The carpal tunnel you'll get when you have to close 13 windows when it's time to leave.
posted by mathowie at 1:16 AM PST - 12 comments

January 27

Note to MF users: posting a link is down for the rest of the day until I rework some of the scripts. Too many "hey look at me" posts for one day, thankyouverymuch. Read an earlier set of comments to see what's coming soon.
posted by mathowie at 12:48 PM PST - 9 comments

Turntable Coffee Kitchy Brooklyn Thingy

Turntable Coffee Kitchy Brooklyn Thingy Last night, I was there. Groovy vinyl, sofas, chairs, coffees and huge brownies. DJs most nights. I like it. 227 Smith Street, Brooklyn, New York City. F Train, Bergen Street Stop.
posted by Mo Nickels at 12:40 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

These aerial photos

These aerial photos must have the security services worried. The Millenium Map company has taken high-quality, detailed photographs of the entire UK, and from Jan 31st anyone can visit www.getmapping.com and view photos of their house at a scale of 1:1000, or more interestingly, zoom in on GCHQ and US National Security bases, such as the one at Menwith Hill, Yorkshire, which supposedly is a key part of the worldwide surveillance network codenamed Echelon.
posted by echelon at 12:23 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

a digital virus of the mind

a digital virus of the mind is a creepy, although artistic, view into the mind of a man that was raised by Mother TV and Father Microwave. This site is better than eating cold olives at 3 am with half the town on fire.
posted by placebo at 11:56 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The clubbing section

The clubbing section in the personal site of emptyFlower kept me alive for days. My beheaded head gave me a cursory glance and wondered why I stayed there for so long. "Was it the beautiful women," it asked. "No," said I..."it's just that - the things you own end up owning you, and I like it this way"
posted by DeVere at 11:29 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

PunxsutawneyPhil.com.

PunxsutawneyPhil.com. As the US gears up for groundhog day, the groundhog day hype machine gets into full swing. Be sure to pick up your t-shirts before the official day. According to their history pages, creating a holiday around celebrating the whims of vermin wasn't an original idea, it's apparently rooted in European lore.
posted by mathowie at 9:53 AM PST - 1 comment

Fun With JavaScript!

Fun With JavaScript! I am the only person in the world with a web site like this, javascript is more powerful than any other tool. so...take a look, i promise you will tell others.:P
posted by DigiTaLDemiGoD at 9:50 AM PST - 12 comments

In case you haven't heard elsewhere, the newest Mozilla milestone (M13) was released today. Here's the download page, lets hope they finally get a beta launched soon.
posted by mathowie at 9:39 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

stuckwiththeduck.com

stuckwiththeduck.com check it out. lots of fun.
posted by mbs at 6:34 AM PST - 2 comments

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence at HOME

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence at HOME This isn't a new site, but there is a new version of the software. It's nice to be able to use your CPU to find ETs while your away from your machine. It is simple and doesn't crash. Check it out! I'm running in on both my NT box and my MAC G4
posted by brdesign at 6:33 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Now that Sun's Solaris 8 OS is going to be free,

Now that Sun's Solaris 8 OS is going to be free, and the BeOS too, I wonder if it's too little, too late. Will we see jumps in their respective shares of the OS market? Or is this a last ditch attempt to compete with Linux?
posted by mathowie at 2:24 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I give and I give and I give... I cleaned up the preferences tonight. First off, the floating menu is defaulted to off, but can be turned back on (this makes the site more compatible with buggy browsers). You can pick how many days of posts to show on the main page, change your full name, URL, email, and email visibility preferences. If you joined this site early, I lost your URL, full name, and visibility preference, please take a moment to change it. Next up, karma.
posted by mathowie at 1:01 AM PST - 4 comments

January 26

Moonfruit

Moonfruit is a flash site that builds flash sites for you. I'm not sure I really understand its complexity, as it took me about twenty minutes just to figure out how to start building a site, and even then I couldn't tell you how to do it. If anyone builds anything neat with it, do let me know.
posted by endquote at 11:51 PM PST - 2 comments

ding-dong, html is dead.

ding-dong, html is dead. the w3c finally approved the xhtml spec. it'll be interesting to see the chaos that html4, xml w/ css, & xhtml create in the coming months.
posted by mmanning at 8:54 PM PST - 1 comment

state51:

state51: new music, crappy TV, and sex with minors in Biggleswade.
posted by lbergstr at 5:51 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Bud Bowl 2000

Bud Bowl 2000 comes once a year like a Sears catalog, Super Bowl Sunday. Get pumped for the game by playing some high quality flash games, oh and don't forget your I.D....or something.
posted by Mark at 4:52 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Paying for McDonalds drive-thru food without cash

Paying for McDonalds drive-thru food without cash is the latest shameless marketing attempt to make things as "convenient " as possible. The sad thing is, what they're really trying to do is separate the notion of real money from "digital money" so you'll buy more stuff, thinking it's all monopoly money (credit card companies have built an industry on doing exactly this).
posted by mathowie at 2:16 PM PST - 1 comment

Log spam, a new trend?

Log spam, a new trend? Within the last hour I received two requests from loggers to visit their web site. The first one sent a regular and kind e-mail message, actually addressed to me. No problem with that. But the second one seemed to be a mass mailing, correct me if I'm wrong. I hope this doesn't become a habit among loggers who claim they have 'trouble breaking into the 'blogger community'.
posted by prolific at 1:22 PM PST - 11 comments

Writing from the heart

Writing from the heart This is not a popular webpage. I made it a week ago, its a personal page i dont know if anyone is interest in reading stuff about me. But if you do go, i would love to hear your feedback and if theres any potential public viewers that will visit this pages or just be a page no one bother to visit. Thanks. by the way, i think this website is really nice !
posted by Happysurfer at 10:07 AM PST - 7 comments

Contrary to what the record industry thinks, mp3s sell CDs. Today I bought "Irish Drinking Songs" after hearing "Water is Alright in Tay" and "Beer, Beer, Beer" mp3s I downloaded from Napster. Hearing the beer song brought back a distinct memory. I recall hearing it blaring from a jukebox and singing along with 50 strangers at an Irish pub in San Francisco on New Year's Eve, 1998.
posted by mathowie at 9:58 AM PST - 4 comments

Several News outlets noticed

Several News outlets noticed the strong presence of internet companies this year's Sundance Film Festival. I figured sometime after it was over, they'd have previews from the best short films. Well, it didn't take long for them to start posting films from this year's Sundance, along with some daily news from the road. It looks like AtomFilms is now signing distribution deals too. If you have access to a fast connection, AtomFilms is a great diversion, them getting exclusive rights to films like these is just going to make them better.
posted by mathowie at 6:54 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Dave Winer

Dave Winer has been talking about the Davos economic conference for weeks now. Now that it's finally here, the davosnewbies site should be updated every few hours for the rest of the week, and should be worth checking out. Moveover.com is also a great central place to find news feeds about Davos.
posted by mathowie at 1:06 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I was checking this site's statistics tonight, and there's 30 people simultaneously visiting at 1AM PST. This is very odd. And then I noticed, MetaFilter is the ProjectCool sighting today. Cool!
posted by mathowie at 1:01 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Jason posted some thoughts

Jason posted some thoughts on the growing popularity of MetaFilter, and how we might be able to handle it. I'd like everyone's opinions on several key points. Read my first comment to see the questions posed to the group.
posted by mathowie at 12:33 AM PST - 13 comments

January 25

Valentines day is coming

Valentines day is coming and what better gift to get for the one you love than gourmet body paint...in passion fruit flavor no less (mmmm....passion fruit)
posted by dangerman at 6:57 PM PST - 2 comments

Finally!

Finally! eToys.com drops the suit against ETOY.com and agrees to pay up to $40,000 of their legal fees. Finally! Now, I wonder what the group of people I built etoys-sucks.com with are going to do with the domain?
posted by mathowie at 6:45 PM PST - 1 comment

Plunge of (near) Death!

Plunge of (near) Death! I took a physics class in college where the professor went off on a 20 minute tirade about fear of elevators, which he said were completely unfounded because elevator cables just don't break.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 2:23 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Net advertising behemoth DoubleClick has been quietly buying up marketing databases to allow it to match up your DoubleClick cookie with your name and address. Time to opt out.
posted by jjg at 1:35 PM PST - 5 comments

Early testing indicates that not only is Windows 2000 slower than NT 4, but the more RAM you have, the greater NT's advantage. That's not how Microsoft is spinning it, of course.
posted by jjg at 11:24 AM PST - 1 comment

Asking a question cost money.

Asking a question cost money. Can you see the guy trying to sell this idea to investers....puhleeze....
posted by dangerman at 9:27 AM PST - 2 comments

Rave culture is a strange thing,

Rave culture is a strange thing, but the Lingua Ravia will tell you the difference between a hoochie and a twinkie. Unless, of course, all you want to know about is drugs. The site is filled with sarcastic definitions of commonly used terms in the scene. It's funny if you know what he's talking about, and educational if you don't.
posted by endquote at 7:48 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Bush and Gore won their respective Iowa primaries.

Bush and Gore won their respective Iowa primaries. Excuse while I let out an enormous yawn. I was talking about Bill Bradley to a friend the other day, and he thought I was a crackpot. So I dug up the old Select Smart URL, and made him fill out the form. Given his stance on issues, Bill Bradley came up as his first choice too. He went nuts, and said instead of punch cards with names in the voting booth, we should answer questions like the Select Smart site, and submit a vote for the candidate that most matches our stances on issues. Instead of pointless political advertising, candidates' positions on real issues would determine who would vote for them. Wouldn't that be great?
posted by mathowie at 7:46 AM PST - 1 comment

January 24

Odigo 2.0

Odigo 2.0 is now out, and it fully integrates with ICQ. I just installed it, and it imported a bit too much. All the ICQ users on my ignore list showed up in Odigo, and my renamed friends showed up as their original ICQ names. The status indicators seem to be broken too, but it's beta so I guess that's alright. Of course, nobody uses it, so I don't see any other people when I'm surfing even the most popular sites, but if everyone starts using this new release, perhaps that will change.
posted by mathowie at 10:56 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

This is too good to keep to myself.

This is too good to keep to myself. It's MetaFilter, after you've gone through the portal into Malkovich's mind, as Malkovich. (thanks Lake Effect)
posted by mathowie at 8:45 PM PST - 3 comments

Fauxhemian Rhapsody:

Fauxhemian Rhapsody: Rob Walker writes in the New York Times Magazine "boho trappings that vaguely suggest counterculture taste are everywhere, because the fauxhemian idea is that you don't have to choose anymore. You can be mainstream and alternative, a grown-up and a hipster, all at the same time." [via canceled] A scene from Washington, DC illustrates: She, wrap skirt artfully tossed; he, purchased punk rock look, price tags still attached. Both on their way back from an afternoon at the Pentagon City mall Borders. They climb into their carefully battered Golf, with the prominent "Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Starbucks" bumper sticker leering from the rear, and she is carrying a huge paper Starbucks coffee cup, fresh latte steam rising in the chill air.
posted by gac at 12:43 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Last night Kevin Mitnick was on 60 minutes (the gist of the interview is quoted here), and I have to say he came off as an utterly harmless geek. He was an information junkie that enjoyed the challenge of cracking firewalls. He never profited from his activities and the affected companies made up their monetary losses. It's a shame he was forced to waste away in prison instead of offer his security expertise to the affected companies.
posted by mathowie at 11:47 AM PST - 1 comment

Jason's bookmarklets rock.

Jason's bookmarklets rock. By modifying one of them, I now have links to my workcam and my homecam. Seeing all the bookmarklets gives me an idea for a bookmarklet I haven't seen before: an instant spellchecker. Highlight a word on a page, go to this new bookmarklet, and it would load the word into dictionary.com (which has predictable URLs). Looks like I'm going to have to dig into the bookmarklets site to figure out how it's done.
posted by mathowie at 8:26 AM PST - 4 comments

GiveMeTalk.com

GiveMeTalk.com is a portal of online talkradio. They also feature free-hosting of submitted shows. Will they spawn millions of new Rush Limbaughs? Let's hope not.
posted by mathowie at 8:12 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 23

MONO*crafts

MONO*crafts Flash site of note. Love it.
posted by timmee at 11:38 PM PST - 2 comments

Wired: creating virtual communities with collaborative web spaces
Tired: accusing other webloggers of publicity stunts
posted by mathowie at 10:49 PM PST - 6 comments

Websoup

Websoup is like a weblog monitor for all the "site of the day" sites. This is a real time saver, there must be 50 sites all summed up in one place.
posted by mathowie at 10:18 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I want one of these. Now.

I want one of these. Now. It has barely snowed in the Southern California mountains (Mt. High shows 1" total of snow this season), and these pseudo-snowboard skateboards (freebord is another) are looking better every day.
posted by mathowie at 7:38 PM PST - 9 comments

As Jim Carrey would say.....yummmaaayyy! :-) Needs Flash.
posted by tomcosgrave at 6:28 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

My Favorites in Office2000

Having a monopoly on browsers and operating systems isn't always a bad thing. While using Windows2000 today, I noticed that my favorites list acts as the menu items do in Office2000. Frequently used bookmarks bubble up to the top, seldom used ones hide below. I have 20 or so bookmark folders and 50-60 links outside of those folders (which are hidden), so this is a very useful feature. I hope the mozilla team can develop something similar.
posted by mathowie at 5:00 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Today, MetaFilter is the CoolSTOP Best of Cool

Today, MetaFilter is the CoolSTOP Best of Cool award winner. Joe Jenett says "At first, the large fonts seemed awkward to me - then it dawned on me that when you have a lot to read, the big type is kinda nice!" I just wanted to add that if you register, you can change the body text font size and family, turn off link underlining, and launch hyperlinks in new windows if you want, it's all in the preferences.
posted by mathowie at 10:59 AM PST - 3 comments

January 22

Radiskull and Devil Doll

Radiskull and Devil Doll a hilarious shockwave cartoon that features a song so enchanting you won't realize that you're threatening other people's lives. Now there are two different cartoons, MP3 files of the songs, and .wav files of the characters.
posted by thelotis at 9:51 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

A List Apart announced the winners

A List Apart announced the winners of their design contest. There were no surprises here, when I first heard about the contest, there was one site that came to mind, and they won the grand prize. I was kind of surprised that I had seen all the award winning sites before in my own travels, but hadn't explored much of them. Especially Eneri.net, I had found it a couple months ago, but couldn't handle the long intros and preloads, it seemed grossly overdesigned and I left after seeing two pages and haven't been back since.
posted by mathowie at 9:24 PM PST - 4 comments

Domain Registrar Dash Snafu

A couple weeks back, there was a snafu by one of the new registrars that allowed people to register domains that ended in dashes. Apparently, they haven't completely eradicated them, since http://microsoft-.com seems to be working (and it's funny too!).
posted by mathowie at 5:48 PM PST - 3 comments

Apple mergers with amazon.com

Apple mergers with amazon.com Well not really but why is everyone copying the tab based interface... it is ugly, not expandable and assumes the end user is a complete moron.
posted by efader at 4:16 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

First off, let me say that I love the Simpsons

First off, let me say that I love the Simpsons more than any other TV show I've ever seen. I've been enjoying their new site since they relaunched it last week, taking the quizzes (best score so far an 8 out of 10), checking out the anniversary stuff, and even coveting some stuff in the store. I notice they're giving away @simpsons.com email, but it requires you to setup a free dialup account with 1stup. I'm on a cable line and don't have a modem, so I guess I don't get a free email account, but what disturbs me about the free simpsons ISP account is the ad interface. It features a "health meter" to make sure you're clicking enough ads to please the ISP, sort of turning annoying web ads into tamagotchis. Isn't looking at ads enough? Since when should you force users to click on ads just to continue their use of the product? Let's hope this isn't a trend that will spread.
posted by mathowie at 1:32 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 21

MP3Lit.com

I was looking through my old posts, and found a mention of mp3lit.com from several months back (yeah, yeah, I know, I'm going to the well for new material...). It's still just spoken word mp3s for download, but the quantity and quality seems to have gone up considerably. There's a great fiction piece by Parker Posey (mmmm...Parrrkerrr Pooooseeeey), one of my favorite musicians Nick Cave talking about religion, Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo doing some self-help stuff, Bill Bradley talking about affirmative action, and hey look! Douglas Coupland is doing a live event next Friday!
posted by mathowie at 11:37 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

An insect a day keeps the doctor away.

An insect a day keeps the doctor away. Yuck.
posted by mathowie at 5:57 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I've jumped on the Epinions bandwagon! Although I've had an account for months, I finally posted a few reviews, here and here.
posted by tdecius at 5:19 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The Mostly Ruthless Destruction of the 1981 Dodge Omni

The Mostly Ruthless Destruction of the 1981 Dodge Omni is a hilarious site mentioned on the glassdog boards. A few guys systematically set out to destroy a worthless old car. I especially enjoyed the side-impact test. After tons of punishment, they eventually just beat the crap out of it and haul it off to a junkyard.
posted by mathowie at 4:30 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Glassdog:

Glassdog: "A Weblog is a links page masquerading as a home page. They rarely involve much creativity on the part of the Weblogger. (see: Memo) A Weblog owner simply hunts around for cool stuff other people took the time to do and then they link to it. ...And then there's MetaFilter..."
posted by evhead at 3:51 PM PST - 5 comments

I admit it, I want to be a millionaire.

I admit it, I want to be a millionaire. Not enough to spend an hour with Regis Philbin, but if I could earn the million while living out all of my childhood castaway fantasies, I'd be there in a heartbeat.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 3:28 PM PST - 2 comments

I smell a lawsuit.

I smell a lawsuit.
posted by tomcosgrave at 3:00 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Now that low wattage radio might be available to all,

Now that low wattage radio might be available to all, I had an idea for a station (this could be radio, or it could be shoutcast on the web). How about feeding a voice synthesizer reams of text from the Gutenburg Project? You'd have all the great works of literature broadcast in a "books on tape" sort of format. It'd be free (less the time to program) and educational for all. Does anyone know of any good speech synthesis programs? From the ones I've tried out, I get the feeling that no one wants to hear Stephen Hawking read Mark Twain's classics all day long.
posted by mathowie at 2:18 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Honda's releasing the first electric-gas hybrid car

Honda's releasing the first electric-gas hybrid car this year. It claims to get up to 70mpg too. I love innovative vehicles and cutting edge design, but I have to admit I think it's butt ugly (although, this does remind me of my old CRX). I bet they'll want $30k-$50k for it too. So close, yet so far... (update: they want about 20 grand for it - not that bad for an electric/gas car, but it is still just a two-seater)
posted by mathowie at 1:23 PM PST - 3 comments

Kevin Mittnick is finally being released from prison today,

Kevin Mittnick is finally being released from prison today, but I wouldn't call what he's getting as being "free". Prohibiting Kevin from touching a computer for 3 years? This isn't like giving a toddler to a ex-con child molester, it's a computer. A person can do a lot of things besides hack into company servers. How does anyone expect Kevin to make the $125 restitution he owes each month, if he can't use a computer or get a job that requires a computer? Now that I think about it, what percentage of decent jobs are completely free of computers?
posted by mathowie at 10:22 AM PST - 5 comments

On Jul 9th 1999, Sarah Guinn had a brush with insanity and death.
posted by tomcosgrave at 9:04 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I'm interested in folks opinions on what they find to be the most thought provokoing album from a lyrical perspective.

For me, it has to be The Holy Bible by the Welsh band, the Manic Street Preachers. Written from a socialist / communist angle, the lyrics are quite explicit (see the first track "Yes"), and used intentionally to shock people, but the way the album is written is brilliant. The use of samples is very good, again with "Yes" and used with particularly disturbing effect (IMHO) on the 12th track "The Intense Humming Evil", where the sample is a piece about the Nuremburg War Trials where the commentator talks of Holocaust victims taking revenge on their murderers.

Topics are wide ranging, and all focusing on negative aspects on humanity. I'd be interesting in seeing what Americans here think of the second track "ifamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart"

All in all, very bleak, quite disturbing, and quite brilliant. An interesting glimpse into the mind of Richey Edwards, the former lead guitarist and lyricist ( and manic depressive among other things) who disappeared in 1995.

Take a look at their last two albums also - nowhere near as bleak as this one, they are still excellent.

If you want a listen and can't get the album, I'll do an MP3 of a couple of tracks for you - as long as you get rid of it soon after :-)
posted by tomcosgrave at 7:14 AM PST - 2 comments

Mark Hurst of Creatvie Good and GoodExperience noticed a video billboard near Times Square that was showing Windows errors around new years day. Here's a picture and a closeup. He brings up a good point: If an airline can't troubleshoot a billboard, how well can they keep their planes running?
posted by mathowie at 1:44 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Me + 2 hours of boredom = possible MetaFilter redesign. I was thumbing through this book on my shelf and got inspired. I don't know if it will work with the text-heavy posts though. Maybe with some tweaking, I could get it working. After I get the archives working, I'm going to allow for different page designs in the preferences.
posted by mathowie at 12:12 AM PST - 7 comments

January 20

I'm always on the lookout for good uses of the web, things that aren't about money, or convenience, but about the ways the web can help people and change society for the better. Dan Bricklin mentioned Don Rose, who built a diary that chronicles how he and his 5-year old son deal with leukemia. Amazing, amazing stuff.
posted by mathowie at 3:21 PM PST - 1 comment

Today, I wandered down the center of campus and noticed there was a big clothing sale. My favorite find? My new Mars Polar Lander commemorative t-shirt. There's a voice in the back of my head telling me to buy 50 of them to auction off on eBay. Who wouldn't want a souvenir like that? I know it's kind of morbid to laugh at the $165 million loss, but I bet others would want one.
posted by mathowie at 1:10 PM PST - 1 comment

January 19

Holy crap! Unamerican Activities' James Squeaky has quit, stemming from an incident where Srini (guy behind unamerican.com) killed James' cat. Srini just lost what little credibility he had in my mind. Now, I'm going to feel shitty whenever I wear their t-shirts, actually I don't know if I'll ever wear them again. The more I think about it, the more it sickens me. I'm never buying anything from unamerican again.
posted by mathowie at 11:51 PM PST - 11 comments

If you haven't tried out Napster yet,

If you haven't tried out Napster yet, you really should. There's also a Mac port of the program (Macster) and a Linux version. On today's journey into the Napster underworld, I was rewarded with several bizarre gems. Among other things, I found a Japanese version of "Song for the Dumped" by Ben Folds Five, Tom Hanks singing "The Cowboy Song" from the epic film "Joe Versus the Volcano", and finally, a kickass acoustic version of "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters, which sounds like it was recorded from a Howard Stern radio show. You can't buy music this quirky, I'm glad there's a venue for it with Napster.
posted by mathowie at 7:31 PM PST - 3 comments

For those of you in Southern California, Jesse Berst is speaking this Friday.

For those of you in Southern California, Jesse Berst is speaking this Friday. Great, I hope I don't forget to bring my gun filled with "shut-the-f*ck-up" bullets. Hmm, on second thought, I better bring an extra box.
posted by mathowie at 5:47 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Carl

Carl wrote a great Industry Standard article lampooning online marketing, and I couldn't help but laugh at seeing a "B to B Convention" banner ad running at the end of it (screenshot).
posted by mathowie at 4:13 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

If you've ever read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, you must read this mock review of it here, called Understanding Understanding Comics. I heard that Scott's such a great sport, he even helped out with some of the writing.
posted by mathowie at 11:41 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

If you had problems reaching MetaFilter over the weekend, this is why. Some script kiddies launched some gnarly smurf attacks against the regional ISP that provides bandwidth for this site. Oh well, it gave me time to code. I've added lots of little enhancements (like user pages, a working search engine), but still have to get the archives working and expand the preferences page.
posted by mathowie at 11:06 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 18

Ever since MTV stopped playing videos, I find that I rarely even glance at it while channel surfing. But I do miss seeing amusing and creative videos. Luckily, Launch.com runs musicvideos.com, which offers a couple thousand streaming videos to choose from. The 300k versions are pretty good. The Foo Fighters' "Learn to Fly" is just great.
posted by mathowie at 9:30 PM PST - 2 comments

If you're in Arizona, you'll be able to vote online for your Democratic Primary candidate

If you're in Arizona, you'll be able to vote online for your Democratic Primary candidate this year. Nuts! I can't wait to see how this works out. All I can think is that it will be a security nightmare and hell on server resources to do that many writes to a database in a short period of time. I hope it's a success, and spreads to my state, so I won't have to go through the trouble of finding my polling place, waiting in line, and getting to work on time. You want voter participation to go above 20%? Make it easier.
posted by mathowie at 2:29 PM PST - 4 comments

So I was checking out the Windows 2000 compatibility site,

So I was checking out the Windows 2000 compatibility site, and the first step in determining if your system will be ok with the new OS is identifying your computer. When you go to the first upgrade page, you have to identify your computer by manufacturer, but the site only lists 10 different PC makers. Ten PC makers!?! I don't know if Microsoft knows this, but there are things called "clones" out there, and there are "millions" of different manufacturers of them. My computer's not in the list, even though it's from a prominent manufacturer, I guess the compatibility website isn't compatible with my computer.
posted by mathowie at 9:53 AM PST - 3 comments

January 17

This page

This page seems to be over a year old, but it's news to me. Did you know that cookies set on international domains (those ending in generic things like co.uk or co.nz) can be read by other servers within those top level country domains? Scary stuff if you're using even the latest versions of Netscape on international sites.
posted by mathowie at 11:13 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

GirlRadio

GirlRadio is a music news weblog with tons of good info, but I found the reviews of musicians' sites to be the most useful part of the site. Not only is there a critique of each artist's official site, but an alternate fan site as well. I wish there was a list like this for every subject on earth.
posted by mathowie at 4:49 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King day, I went out looking for interesting stuff about him on the web. I found a nice summary site at the Seattle Times, a page of quotes, a page of photos from Life Magazine, some wav files of his speech at the march on Washington (a bit of video too), and a look at the controversies surrounding his assasination.
posted by mathowie at 10:55 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Apple historically been at the forefront of UI and HCI research and technology, documenting it in their Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines. In the past couple of years however, they've been slipping. They designed the useless round mouse (that requires a 3rd-party product to become useful), the nightmare quicktime 4 interface, and now aqua for OS X. When I saw it at Macworld, there were lots of little things I didn't think were right about it, and Bruce Tognazzini (or Tog for short) has written a great summary of the UI including problems. So what I'm wondering is, why is Apple abandoning their own guidelines?
posted by mathowie at 10:33 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 16

Webcams are pretty boring in general, and have been around forever, but leave it to Jason Kottke to inject new life into them. Here's what I came up with while playing with it.
posted by mathowie at 10:59 PM PST - 15 comments

MovieFone

MovieFone (or 777film.com, or AOL/Moviefone if you want to be official) has long been my favorite place to look up movie showtimes, but lately I've been running into problems. The biggest one is this: if you search for movies by theater, then hit "more" a couple times, it reaches a limit of about 12 theaters. Here in LA, that limit corresponds to a 4-5 mile radius. The theater I want to look up movie times at is maybe 7-8 miles away, but no where in the interface is a real "search." It's all just lists and lists. Eventually, I found a list of local theaters (covering about a 20 mile radius) in the theater codes section, but it's not a real search engine, so looking up times at out of town theaters requires you to know the zip code of the place you're going to. I know they're trying to simplify their site by taking out a search engine, but what about the people that know exactly what they want? I use moviefone on the web because using it on a telephone requires you to navigate convoluted menu systems, but they've transferred the phone experience to the web quite well.
posted by mathowie at 1:50 PM PST - 2 comments

January 15

If you're using a non-windows computer right now, and you really miss that starfield simulation screensaver, don't fret, because someone has written one in DHTML and put it on the web. I like to imagine I'm a bored cubicle worker and stare at it for hours.
posted by mathowie at 8:02 PM PST - 3 comments

January 14

Well, it looks like MattD's situation is getting worse.

Well, it looks like MattD's situation is getting worse. I'll admit he's not a saint, but damn, how is kicking him out going to help anything? If this eliminates his chances at getting into a college, his parents have effectively limited how far he'll go in life. The saddest thing to me is that he seems like a very smart person, and that somehow conflicts with the confining nature of his school and home. Good luck Matt, with whatever happens.
posted by mathowie at 6:10 PM PST - 9 comments

Jon Katz' new book to be made into a movie?

Jon Katz' new book to be made into a movie? Now this just boggles the mind. I've read Geeks, and it was an interesting story (to fellow geeks), but I just can't imagine this as a movie. It's non-fiction, so there's little, if any drama happening in any single scene. The screenwriters are going to have a field day with this. I predict that the movie may contain the general points as frames of reference, but everything else will be made up.
posted by mathowie at 9:26 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 13

ID Magazine

ID Magazine released a new issue that highlights 40 designers that are under 30 years of age. Most are doing cutting-edge, cool things, but one person stands out: Krysta Morlan. She won a nationwide invention award for a air cooling system for body casts. She's also invented a killer water-bike that lets the physically disabled exercise in a pool. You know what's even more amazing than her innovative designs? She's only 16 years old, still in high school, and builds these things to help her overcome her cerebral palsy.
posted by mathowie at 3:35 PM PST - 1 comment

The high school English paper that rocked Naugatuck, Connecticut has now resurfaced on the Web.
posted by jjg at 1:34 PM PST - 7 comments

The bandwidth speed test over at MSN

The bandwidth speed test over at MSN seems to be the most accurate one I've used so far. It gave out statistics that are very close to what I expected, and didn't choke just because I'm on a T3. (thanks blogblog)
posted by mathowie at 11:42 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Devoted.nu

Devoted.nu just goes to remind me how the web itself spawns its own sub-cultures within sub-cultures, the depth of content that is coming out, the amount of it, the work that goes into it, the skill, still undeveloped, yet showing promise of eclipsing the 'top' talent pool of today. Sure, it may be cheesy high school girl antics, but I haven't seen this much content since zannah.
posted by rich at 8:32 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I don't know how many MetaFilter readers are epinions members (my guess is that a lot are), but if you've surfed around anyone's circle of trust before, I'm sure you've found conglomerate_mosthated, a popular reviewer with an equally sharp tongue and wit. Some of my favorites of his include the Xterra review, the Britney Spears review, and the Jetta review. He's sometimes offending, oftentimes catty, and always amusing.
posted by mathowie at 1:39 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

This past summer, I bought a Microsoft Cordless Phone, which I fell in love with after seeing all its cool features. My friends snickered when I bought it and they made little jokes about my 'proprietary' phone that would 'crash' during calls, but I defended my MS phone. So now the time has come to upgrade my home win98 box to Win2k, but apparently MS has no intentions of making the phone compatible with Win2k, nor will they ever support it. This phone is less than a year old, and it's going to be useless soon (all the answering and caller ID is software based). Anyone want to buy this $150 paperweight I have sitting here on my desk?
posted by mathowie at 1:08 AM PST - 1 comment

January 12

Nike this weekend

Nike this weekend will unveil a new 50-second commercial. The first 30 seconds will appear in a TV commercial before Saturday's Dolphins-Jaguars game. The second 20 seconds will be available at the Web site. The ad was created by Wieden & Kennedy of Portland.
posted by luke at 6:51 PM PST - 4 comments

This site,

This site, for an Australian concert series akin to Lollapalooza over here in the states, has one of the coolest flash intros I've seen. I love those clouds.
posted by mathowie at 6:21 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

From the utterly useless news file: Win an authentic Intel Bunny jumpsuit, just like the ones in the old pentium commercials. I could just imagine what a Mac or Linux user would do with this suit if they won it...
posted by mathowie at 4:14 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Yes!!! Delphi has answered my wishes, and released a CD player for the car that can decode MP3s burned onto CDRs. Over 10 hours of CD quality music on a single disk, without the need for a pesky changer. I'm buying the first one that comes off the line. Here's their press release about it.
posted by mathowie at 2:35 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The Fluid Dynamics of a Guinness Stout.

The Fluid Dynamics of a Guinness Stout. Do the bubbles in a freshly poured Guinness go up or down? Answer: both.
posted by mathowie at 10:27 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

It's a sign of the times.

It's a sign of the times. Wired News now has the Lycos Network navigation at the top of each of the news pages. Can HotLycos be far behind?
posted by jkottke at 7:19 AM PST - 3 comments

Take a look at a recent Macworld debut that didn't get much fanfare: iMegnut
posted by mathowie at 1:18 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Ha! Neale over at wetlog posted some 'improved' shots of the recent CamVention. I especially enjoy the shot of me blowing Ev up to smithereens. Here's my originals in case you're interested.
posted by mathowie at 1:15 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 11

ControlFreak

ControlFreak is a kickass DHTML site that features reader-contributed artwork, essays, and programming. You gotta love that DHTML interface too.
posted by mathowie at 11:43 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

FontAid is a charity project

FontAid is a charity project where 27 designers came up with a font, and proceeds from the sale of the font are funneled to UNICEF to help war refugees. Cool idea.
posted by mathowie at 10:20 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 10

A lot of you visited my Web site -- Mattdabrowski.com -- over the past few days to see what they think about me in school. Well, the administration is fighting back. Stop by my site regularly to see if I get expelled for exercising my constitutional rights.
posted by tdecius at 6:57 PM PST - 1 comment

Did you know about FightDIVX.com's coupons?

Did you know about FightDIVX.com's coupons? DIVX finally met its death, but the protest site has continued to be updated. One part of it is a great list of coupon deals at various commerce sites. With a $10 off coupon, I just bought a new $15 CD from Barnes&Noble for $8, including Next Day Air shipping. Woo hoo!
posted by mathowie at 5:41 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Salon is running a great article about the AOL/TimeWarner merger

Salon is running a great article about the AOL/TimeWarner merger that brings up plenty of issues we should all be concerned about. I can't remember the last time a company merger affected so many. This deal touches everyone, from what my grandparents watch on TV at night to what I'll be allowed to see on my RoadRunner cable modem. Just thinking of how they're going to control TV, movies, music, news, and the internet sends chills up and down my spine.
posted by mathowie at 2:08 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

(probably my last post about Magnolia) There were a few 'easter eggs' in Magnolia worth mentioning. What may be the first non-555 phone number in a movie was mentioned, but I can't remember it, if anyone tracks it down, please post. There was the 1-877-TAME-HER number that was mentioned on every ad done by Tom Cruise's character. You can call it and hear a special message. If you don't feel like leaving your computer, you can use dialpad.com to make the call. Also, at the end credits of the gameshow, they flash a URL, wdkk.com, which maps to the Magnolia website. At one point, a audience member of the quiz show has a sign that says 'Exodus 8:2' which I looked up, and it reads 'And if thou shalt REFUSE to let [them] go, behold I will smite all thy borders with frogs'. Usually when I see a movie, I don't pick up on these things, I guess Magnolia really was that good.
posted by mathowie at 1:56 AM PST - 3 comments

January 9

More Magnolia-esque links. There were several well-known urban legends mentioned in the movie; the stories about the 3 men hanged, the scuba diver found dead in a wildfire, and the old suicide jumper shot while falling. There was also some stuff about raining frogs, and the only things I could find about it were: this newsgroup message, this other ng message, and an entry at the urbanlegends.com site.
posted by mathowie at 10:05 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I've been doing the weblog and the editorial thing online for nearly four months now, and in that time I've gotten my share of hate mail. I love it. It shows me how much everyday out there in Net land loves me. I had the same warm and fuzzy feeling when I got my hands on a copy of 'The Annoying Jerk', written by a girl in my AP English class. They just love me up at Naugatuck High School. They really do.
posted by tdecius at 4:17 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I just saw Magnolia, and went looking for interviews with P.T. Anderson, the writer-director. I found one on a fan site, with a bunch of great insider stuff, but I wouldn't suggest reading it unless you've seen Magnolia. Too many spoilers.
posted by mathowie at 4:14 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Adverbs make you hot and bothered? Try Tham's Sexed-Up Grammar Guide.
posted by tdecius at 3:53 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 8

(as seen on /.)

(as seen on /.) A new wristwatch from Casio that doubles as a MP3 player. Seems goofy at first, but I'd love to have something that small to listen to music while running. It beats a walkman or Rio any day in terms of size, why carry one of those when you can have tunes on your wrist? (now if I just hook up some speakers in a baseball cap :)
posted by mathowie at 5:40 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Now this is something you don't see everyday. There's this small Canadian airline that has an interesting legal disclaimer you see right before you start ordering a ticket. Scroll down to the paragraph that starts 'PERSONS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS' which includes some compassionate nuggets like 'The WestJet® Web Site is not designed for use by persons with special needs.' What a warm, caring bunch of folks, eh?
posted by mathowie at 10:12 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Remember the Wired Magazine cover with the giant hand, that was all about push?

Remember the Wired Magazine cover with the giant hand, that was all about push? Re-read the old article, it sounded far-fetched then, but with daily headline emails from numerous internet news sites and information tracking services that can icq or page you with information, push isn't dead. We're actually using push content, we're just not calling it that. (thanks Michael for reminding me)
posted by mathowie at 2:01 AM PST - 1 comment

January 7

Greetings from Macworld. Or should I say iMacworld. Apple is really going overboard with this iWord thing. They unveiled a bunch of new things like the iTools, iDisk, iCards, iReview, and iMovie. Can they stop before iPuke?
posted by mathowie at 12:45 AM PST - 1 comment

January 4

Can someone please tell me why X10.com has such warm and fuzzy 'family' style pages to describe their wireless camera, but their ads look like they are promoting cameras for the sole purpose of catching beautiful women on screen? Are they promoting hidden cameras in bathrooms, changing stalls, and other privacy-robbing public places? Why the descrepency between their advertising and their site?
posted by mathowie at 2:41 PM PST - 3 comments

Ha! The Y2K nuts still aren't giving up their cause.

Ha! The Y2K nuts still aren't giving up their cause. These guys need to face defeat. They were wrong. We lucked out. The programmers saved the day. Let's move on now, shall we?
posted by mathowie at 2:03 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Yet another reason why HTML email sucks.

Yet another reason why HTML email sucks. WebTV should limit incoming messages to plain text only, or at least let users turn off HTML rendering in their mail clients.
posted by mathowie at 12:50 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Here's a list of all the cool, short URLs still left

Here's a list of all the cool, short URLs still left to be registered. Get 'em while you can!
posted by mathowie at 12:04 PM PST - 3 comments

Through some supposed database mixup, Wal-Mart sells various books on porn, and later pulls them from their website.

Through some supposed database mixup, Wal-Mart sells various books on porn, and later pulls them from their website. Ha! I love seeing stuff like this happen to a company that is hell-bent on having a clean image. There's some indescribable joy I get when I hear a Mouseketeer gets arrested for drug use, or a tele-evangelist is caught with a prostitute. I can't put my finger on why, it's just incredibly comical to me. They haven't fixed their search engine yet, here's a juicy screenshot.
posted by mathowie at 10:45 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I'm impressed with Scott Kurtz' latest rant.

I'm impressed with Scott Kurtz' latest rant. I've never really found User Friendly all that funny, and I think Scott's point is part of the reason why. Something that I find much funnier is Silicon Alley, because it pokes fun at the industry itself, from the inside. Although I wish they'd give the user control of the panel flipping on Silicon Alley...
posted by mathowie at 1:21 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 3

Here's a site that has screencaps of all the Y2K errors found on popular websites.

Here's a site that has screencaps of all the Y2K errors found on popular websites. It all goes back to a client side dating done with javascript, using the getYear() functions. Turns out that after 2k, the date is reported as four digits instead of two. I try to stick with server side solutions instead.
posted by mathowie at 3:13 PM PST - 1 comment

Evan, the guy that brought star-wars-action-figure-theater to the web, has a new piece, entitled 'The Buena Vista Fight Club.'
posted by mathowie at 2:56 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Maybe now Amiga fans will have something to rejoice about

Maybe now Amiga fans will have something to rejoice about now that Gateway has sold off the remaining rights to the name and hardware. I honestly didn't think that Gateway was ever going to do anything with Amiga in the first place. It was all probably a favor to someone to begin with.
posted by grant at 2:04 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

What's more refreshing than the blue screen of death?

What's more refreshing than the blue screen of death? The Professor Solonin Vodka Company recently launched a new beer using a variation of the infamous Microsoft trademark - Windows 99. Russian trademark law allows registration of similar, if not identical trademarks as long as they are in different product categories. If Microsoft decides to litigate, it's basically a whack of free advertizing for these jokers.
posted by grant at 1:50 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Did you hear about the UFO sightings in China?

Did you hear about the UFO sightings in China? Apparently, there's been several sightings and many people have seen them. I'd like to see a photograph, but with today's digital techniques, I wouldn't believe a photo if I saw it.
posted by mathowie at 12:03 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

January 1

Nice!

Nice! The BrainLog is apparently having some Y2K difficulties. :)
posted by mathowie at 10:56 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

In San Francisco, the Ad Hoc Committee Against the New Millennium staged a solemn march against Y2K.

In San Francisco, the Ad Hoc Committee Against the New Millennium staged a solemn march against Y2K. "Growing up in the '60s and '70s we were promised things like rocket cars, space travel, alien encounters...android sex slaves," said Horace Higginbottom, who thinks the world has been cheated out of the future. "What do we get instead? They gives us the lousy Internet, crummy e-commerce."
posted by mathowie at 7:23 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment