May 2010
2 posts
Cavity Searches Not Really Friendly
Facebook is becoming such an invasive cavity search that I am determined to explore alternatives, find a good strategy, and figure out how to lure my friends there. Possibilities? This (Tumblr), LiveJournal, Google Buzz, extended uses of Twitter, Google Wave, Orkut, some of the open source, distributed social network apps under development, or trying to build some damn thing myself? I think...
Hey, I can has blawg!
I just remembered: I have a blog or three! Some awesome folks I met in World of Warcraft recently discovered brainflak.com, and I remembered that I haven’t posted there since the War of 1812. The reason is simple: my mushy brain hasn’t had anything to say since then that was longer than a tweet. But no more. Massive discourse must now pour forth. Or something.
November 2009
1 post
Masklessness
It used to be that each fall I would make a mask. These would be fairly elaborate masks, of latex or wood or papier mâché. They were usually scary, although some were scary only in odd ways, like the one that was a huge 48-pixel icon of my own face.
But for the last several years it just has not happened. Two years ago I made a plaster mold for a multi-eyed, polymouthed, Lovecraftian horror, but...
October 2009
1 post
Because it's too long for Twitter but too blue for...
RT @TedHope via @james_gunn: just punched Lampton in the face b/c he had a “World’s # 1 Dad” drawing on the wall! Hope: “Fuck you, I’M the number one dad!”
September 2009
8 posts
Boo Rhymes
Yesterday I was singing a silly song with Boo, involving making up verses about each family member. I was pleased with my effort at a rhyme for Kathryn: bathroom. But Boo required that we do that one over, and insisted that I had to rhyme with Kathryn. I protested that I couldn’t think of any words that rhyme exactly with Kathryn, so Boo patiently listed some for me: “tathryn, sathryn,...
Nostalgic for server log analysis
Basing your Web analytics exclusively on data collected via client-side mechanisms built from ambitious Javascript and faerie duste is rather like basing your weather reports on information collected from everyone’s toaster ovens.
Why is this one purple?
Notice: the photos from the company picnic do not need to have sepia-tone, infrared, vignette shadows, rough film gate edges, pretend Polaroid frames, or other “effects” randomly applied to them.Thank you for your cooperation. P.S. Scrapbooking should not be your entire way of life.
Attention creators of stock photography and...
There is no need to create any new versions of the following images:
Handshake closeup, even with different skin colors
Dynamic young businessman on a cellphone, even if she’s a businesswoman
Someone looking over the shoulder of a laptop user and pointing out something on the screen
Stacks of bills or piles of loose change
Plus: 822,587,214 other types.
Just. Stop.
Blasphemous Punks?
So I’m trying to save a file to my hard drive. An alternate version of an application entry page, so I call it index2.shtml. It tells me that already exists. I don’t remember creating such, but I try index3.shtml. Already exists. Then index4.shtml - same thing. I try index29.shtml and it claims that it exists. So just for my own amusement I try calling it...
Helpful Message
I love useful, informative error messages that guide one through the use of an application. This is not one of them:
NOTIFYWN_OTEX_LLDS_082803: cidaemon.exe - Application Error
The Instruction at "0x7c34240d' referenced memory at '0x00000000". The memory could not be "written".
This came up with no indication of what application or component it had to do with, and had to be clicked twice before...
August 2009
15 posts
Bolt
There is a man in my office whose cubicle I must pass on the way to the lavatory. Every time I pass he is staring at his computer screen, wide-eyed, slack-jawed shock on his face. One hand is typically held palm up in a gesture that seems to convey both disbelief and supplication, and the other planted on the arm of his chair, giving the impression that he is ready to shoot out of his chair at any...
Breathe
I’m not too alarmed by the announcement of restructuring plans by my corporate masters yesterday. It’s not clear whether my group is intended to be phased out by our new CEO, but I’m 93% sure it would not prove to be possible, and 98.7% sure that even if deemed feasible it would take from six to nine months to accomplish. And soon I’ll banish the li’l knot of stress...
1 tag
“I flatly declare that a man fed on whisky and dead bodies cannot do the finest...”
– George Bernard Shaw
July 2009
7 posts
Émigré
My neglected old blog is in peril. My other sites with that hosting company were hacked, turned into “attack sites” with the insertion of evil Javascript by some other customer with a shell account. I’m not sure if I’ll abandon the whole place and move house to here, but in any case I’ll start blathering, I mean blogging here, in lieu of my WordPress blog and...