Binary by Accident Archives

I've Made It!

Ah...I've finally made the "big time". Mr. Johnson Mowete, formerly of Zimbabwe, requires my urgent assistance to move his vast sums of inherited money into the United States. Being the nasty SOB that I am, I'm not going to help - but if you would like to, feel free to email Mr. Mowete directly.

I don't have much of a spam problem, as I guard my "real" email addresses jealously. I use a Hotmail address when I have to give one out. I'm glad to say that Hotmail correctly identified this as junk.

The Joneses

Phil Ackley: "Memo to my neighbors: Whlie we are all very impressed with your recent purchase of a lawn tractor, you'll find that mowing your lawn at 9:30 PM, in the rain, and in reverse, is really just grandstanding."

The $64,000...um, $9 question

Google Answers: "Of people who bathe daily, what percentage bathe in the morning after waking up, at night before going to bed, or during the day sometime?" (Via Dane Carlson)

As funny as that is, the answer was quite thorough and well-researched.

Douglas Adams

"Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast." [Quotes of the Day]

For Jenny

Jeff Raskin: "Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining." [Quotes of the Day]

Up, up, and away

Just got home from the Flag City Baloonfest. So cool! We watched about 30 balloons take off and chase a "rabbit" balloon for a few miles. The rabbit dropped a target for all the others to hit with beanbags. Evidently they had to get out a 12-inch ruler to determine who was the closest. Incredible.

Then, they hauled all the deflated balloons back to the launch site just in time for dusk. They proceeded to refill each ballon while tethered to the ground. Then, at times randomly, other times in concert, all the balloons hit the juice. The effect of the whole balloon lighting up was quite breathtaking.

Of course, I'm kicking myself for not having a camera with me. I need to remember that bad pictures are better than no pictures.

Robert Orben

"To err is human--and to blame it on a computer is even more so." [Quotes of the Day]

Good writing

Krzysztof Kowalczyk: Tips for good writing.

My favorites:

• Prepositions dangle awkwardly if you use them to end sentences with.
• Avoid clichés and colloquialisms like the plague, or you will seem old hat.
• To ever, however artfully, split an infinitive, marks you as grammatically challenged.
• One word sentences? Eliminate.
• Who needs rhetorical questions?
• Its distrakting too punctuat, an spel rong. [Of course! ;) ]

In my Head

Proving I'm never afraid of tackling the tough topics, I'll share all that went through my head as I read various postings (Shelley, Jonathan, and Dorothea) about the complexity of love:

• "I want you, I need you, but I'm never ever gonna love you - don't be sad - two out of three ain't bad" - Meatloaf
• "Love, life's sweetest reward" - Theme from Love Boat
• "What's love got to do with it?" - Tina Turner

Any suggestions on what song to put into my head to get these out?

By Request

Today  I will empower my interdependent wisdom. (Generate your own affirmation bullshit.)

Affirmation Bullshit Generator

(Via Joe Jenett and Doc Searls)

Scientific method at work

In theory, according to the University of Rochester:

1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena.
2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation.
3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations.
4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.

In practice, regarding a tuna sandwich. Observation/hypothesis. Test. Proof that applications are much more interesting than theory.

Tale of a cat door

Textism: "There was a cat door."

Great picture!

Congratulations!

David Salo has earned his Master's Degree in Linguistics. He also has an entry in the Internet Movie Database, for his work on Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Albert Einstein

"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." [Quotes of the Day]

Hmm...didn't know Albert was a politician.

Vanity TLDs

Eugene Volokh: "Mantra sites headquartered in Oman. Certain kinds of dating services in Burundi. Men's magazines in Equatorial Guinea. Knights' organizations in Nicaragua. The possibilities are staggering -- literally dozens of dollars to be made."

Quiz Time!

Is it GODZILLA?
brought to you by Quizilla

Change of mind

I stand corrected. Fight 'em hard. They couldn't win against the big companies, so they pick on individuals. (Via: Burningbird)

Who's Next - Mozilla?

The Register picked up the story about davezilla.com being the target of the owners of the Godzilla trademark. While there has been a lot of outrage about this so far (glad to see it), I've not seen anybody mention something important.

Is it not the case that if a company or individual fails to pursue unauthorized use of a trademark they lose their trademark protection? Hopefully that's all that is going on here and a quick, painless resolution can be had that keeps davezilla as is. Nobody would confuse davezilla with Godzilla - but, no matter how awful the Godzilla movies have been recently, I'm sure a lot of money is still made off of the big guy and they need to protect their trademark.

It would make sense to come to some sort of licensing agreement for a nominal sum of something like $1/year. That way davezilla is not unduly burdened or forced to change and the trademark owners can be happy. Is it feasible? Don't know.

Great CSS Resource

The single best CSS resource I've ever used, the css-discuss mailing list, now has a searchable archive open to the general public. Created by Simon Willison.

Spice up your surfing

I just joined up with the radio.randomizer over at jenett.radio. In short, by clicking the "Random Weblog" icon, you will be whisked away to a participating Radio weblog. Cool stuff! 

The wisdom of Dudley Moore

"The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it." [Quotes of the Day]

Dave Winer - Matchmaker?

Phil tests Dave's influence: "I'd be willing to pay at least 4 cents a click for every Single, Jewish, Alaskan woman in her late twenties to early thirties. 5 cents if she can put up with me. 6 cents if she knows how to make Matzo ball soup & latkes. Single Jewish Alaskan women are a rare commidity, ...but I think its worth a bit of pocket change to see if Dave can deliver."

End of the world as I know it

A first! Repubilcan House member, Dick Armey, says something I can agree with - "We Americans don't make unprovoked attacks against other nations." and "As long as he behaves himself within his own borders, we should not be addressing any attack or resources against him."

Deprecate another browser!

Mark Pilgrim: "IE 5: the Netscape 4 of the new generation."

Standards can be attractive, too

One of the common arguments against using/following standards for (X)HTML and CSS is that, if you do, the design is bland, boring, and sterile. Davidson Handbuilt Bicycles should help dispel that myth. (Via: Zeldman)

Big Brother Credit Cards

"Under pressure from a moralizing minority, some card issuers take away your freedoms." [The Motley Fool]

Blogger Insults

Top 20 Blogger Insults [via Jenny Levine]