Binary by Accident Archives

Man loses wallet in Oregon. A farmer in Japan finds it. (Courtesy: Dane Carlson)

"I have seen one thing since Radio launched.  People that use Radio can immediately see a HUGE improvement in visitors to their site from the moment they start using it.  There is a P2P element working here that translates into a big improvement in site traffic.  Nothing worse than writing a blog that nobody reads." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

It certainly helps to have content that people will come back to see daily, such as the blogs run by Dane, Garth, and Simon.  Heck, I even go to Scoble's Radio blog daily, even though he posts infrequently - and I'm obviously not the only one.

Install software at work at your own risk. (Courtesy: Lockergnome)

Why does anybody assume your work computer is available for personal use, even for something "useful" like Seti (which, by the way, I have running on my home computer)?  Just because it is possible to do so, and you don't see the harm, doesn't make it right or advisable.  Do it if you care to take the risks, but don't be surprised if there are repercussions.

Absolutely Hilarious!

Join all Steeler fans in hoisting a glass this Saturday!

I'm hosting a Super Bowl party and I already know I'm going to be a bad host - if the Steelers make it, I'll be a nervous wreck during the game - if they don't make it, I'll just be pissed off.

Why Blog? That's something I've been thinking about lately.  I'm certainly not doing it for the ego stroke - a hot day is when 1 person hits my referer log.  I don't feel the need to critique news or other blogs.  Why bother then?  It's pedestrian - it is acting as a reminder of what I found interesting.  I don't bookmark like I probably should and am constantly wondering, "What site was that where I read X?"  Well, now I have a way of tracking it.  That's a good enough reason for me.

Accessibility for All?. We track the spread of the Olympic Web site accessibility story, and offer some pointers. [WebReference News]

Being as I'm a fan of Zeldman, I'd normally be up in arms about this, but since the page you're reading right now hasn't yet been made standards-compliant, I'll take it easy.  But, for crying out loud, the only way to make a page this unaccessable is to do it deliberately.

After having brain contractions over the past couple of days, I've finally got the macro working that puts the date for each day of the weblog in the DayOfWeek, the Xth of MonthName, Year format.  Yes, a totally useless way to display the date.  It's the process I was interested in.

I started out trying to modify the code and ideas of Simon Fell, but couldn't make the leap to get it to work.  Then I stumbled over this technique from Jake Savin.  If you want to learn something about manipulating Radio, check out what these guys have published.

If I can figure out the proper syntax for the Case statement, I'll modify the code (posted here, if you're interested).

Simon Fell has put together a great tutorial on how to customize Radio. The concepts in here are awesome and are giving me the courage to dig in without being afraid to break something!

The mailto macro doesn't seem to work - it just puts the text of the macro on the screen.

I've got the look just about right - just some minor tweaking to go.

I'm also adding the new mailto macro to test it out.  I've been wanting something just like this, without having to have a spam-filled inbox.

Now we're cooking with gas...the site should look like a classic glish.com 3-column layout.

Of course, that means extremely boring.  I'll deal with that later.

Okay, something simple - moved the styles to an external CSS file.  Do I want to do that?  Or am I moving backwards...I'll have to think about it.

Wow - I'm finally starting to understand how to customize - geez - if I had only read Dave Winer's Going Crazy With Macros earlier.  I'm sure I'll be reading and rereading them, but I should be ready to get dangerous.  I'll make some time this weekend to see what I can do.

With a VB background, I'm sure to struggle with learning this particular scripting syntax, but that should only slow me down a little - the hard part is the creative side - what do I want to do? Once that's in place, the rest should be fairly easy.

Then of course, gotta have interesting content.  Not sure if my idle and unfocused ramblings are of interest to anybody but me.  Who is my audience?  Currently, it's just me - I'm having fun playing with Radio and am excited - I'll worry about the other stuff later.

Here's something I can sympathize with and root for: 12 Weeks of Weight.  This is definitely on my list to keep up with...and maybe this will get me off my butt to do something with my 325-pound self.  I used to think it wasn't such a big deal, since I'm 6'4", but I've definitely come around.  According to Dr. Koop, my ideal weight is 181 to 207 pounds. Yikes!  Maybe I'll take up smoking ;-)

The iBot (thanks to Scott Connelly for the link) - here's a product that should be getting hype - not Segway.  I really can't see the usefulness of Kamen's scooter.  Where will you use it?  Any place that it may be useful (think large metropolitan area) will be too crowded with pedestrians to use on the sidewalks, and the roads are already too clogged.  On the other hand, the iBot will be a wonderful tool to help enrich the lives of those who are disabled. 8:55:04 PM

Larry Christiansen finally emerged as the U.S. Men's Chess Champion.  After a 4-game tiebreak, Christiansen and de Firmian were still tied.  After an Armegeddon game (6 minutes for White, 5 for Black, Black wins if the game is drawn), Christiansen, as White, took the title.

All in all, the Seattle Chess Foundation did a wonderful job of webcasting the event...until the tiebreak.  Then, chaos erupted.  The webcam showed when the games were being played, but no reliable relaying of moves or results was forthcoming.  In a 9-round Swiss, it's almost a given that there will be a tie at the top.  This should definitely have been planned for and managed.  And, unfortunately, this is going to leave a sour taste in the mouth's of many - it's the last thing on our minds and what we will remember... 10:55:01 PM

Congratulations to Jennifer Shahade on winning the U.S. Women's Chess Championship today.  Not only did she earn a norm towards the WGM title, she also got an IM norm as well, just falling short of a GM norm.

Larry Christiansen and Nick de Firmian have gone to a playoff to determine the men's title.

A List Apart: "CONTENT MANAGEMENT IS THE NEXT STEP in separating structure from design."  "CM allows designers to focus on design by building templates. Subject experts build content in a separate environment."

Alright!  I just stumbled across a link to my blog from Scoble.  I am already learning how this can be ridiculously addictive.  I've read my share of blogs over the past couple of years, but never considered starting one of my own...until I tried visiting Scripting News last night and was gently guided to the Radio 8.0 info and download pages.  Downloaded it on a lark and am completely enjoying this!

$40 is a steal!

Went to go see Ocean's Eleven today...thought it was going to have no chance to be as good as the Sinatra original.  Boy, was I wrong!!!  The only plot similarities are the main characters name (Danny Ocean) and the plan to rob Las Vegas casinos.  But, it is as worthy as the original.

Amazing

This was up and running in mere minutes.  The ease of use and customizability are simply amazing (not that you see any yet).

Absolutely amazing!