Binary by Accident Archives

Textual Feeling

Robert Scoble: "Can anyone say 'I love plain text?' I've optimized my templates so they are small, small, small. What's the advantage? Pure speed. Even on a slow modem link." [The Scobleizer Weblog]

I love plain text.

Destructive Frame of Mind

I'm testing to see what settings I can use within Radio to break enhance my RSS feed. If that last sentence confused you, skip it and move on.

Update: That was easy enough - according to the RSS Validator, I can't subsitute the link to an email form in the <managingEditor> or <webMaster> tags. It's also invalid to leave these elements empty. Since Radio automatically adds these elements for me, I have to provide a properly formed email address, assuming I want a validating RSS feed, which I do. Since I use a Hotmail address for this site anyhow, I guess it shouldn't bother me. Besides, as Mark Pilgrim points out, it's probably not worth trying to obfuscate it.

Scrubbing devices

Jonathon's at it again.

Ambrose Bierce. "Politeness, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy." [Quotes of the Day]

Web Services

Scott Andrew Lapera: "The new beta W3 validator - the more I play with it, the more I wish it provided a SOAP or XML-RPC interface...See, that's the problem with web service APIs: eventually, you'll want one for everything."

Logos

"I never noticed that 'hiding' in the FedEx logo." [jenett.radio and Acts of Volition]

Huh, neither did I. I also like the Big 10 logo, with the 11 forming around the 'T'.

Lucky

Putin sorrow over hostage toll. "The Russian president asks forgiveness from families of scores of people killed in the storming of a theatre held by Chechen rebels." [BBC News | Front Page]

It's lucky that anyone survived, let alone 90% of the hostages. I had immediate concerns that this would be a repeat of the Munich '72 botched rescue attempt of the Israeli athletes.

However, it appears that the means used during the rescue killed the hostages, not the rebels. It's easy to second guess...

Grx

This is my least favorite college football Saturday of the year. Penn State and Ohio State, my two alma maters, are playing each other. I never know who to root for. I suppose it doesn't matter - I'm guaranteed a winner today.

Oh yeah, I'm guaranteed a loser as well.

Begone Calendar

Like Jonathan Delacour, I always thought of the calendar being a necessary part of a weblog. However, its usability is suspect - who knows what day to search on to find what they want? If you're just browsing, a weekly or monthly archive is more functional than a daily archive.

Now that I have search functionality on the site, the calendar can go. I've also added a mechanism for viewing the archives. Because of the relative brevity of my posts, I've opted for monthly archives.

What I really want however, is a Radio implementation of a full-screen calendar ala Mark Pilgrim.

Your DMCA at work

Band Can't Sell Own Music on EBay. People auction everything from stereo equipment to World Series tickets to used software on eBay. Why, then, did an indie musician who tried to hawk his own band's CD get fingered by the site as a copyright violator? By Brad King. [Wired News]

This is what happens when you replace human thought and reasoning with the convenience of a computerized search algorithm. It also reveals something about customer service over at Ebay.

My latest scam spam

Below is the latest variation of the Nigerian email scam to hit my inbox. Don't fall for this (or anything like it). If it's too good to be true, it's a scam.

INVESTMENT REQUEST

Compliment of the season! It is indeed my pleasure to write to you this letter, which i believe, will be a big surprise as we are both complete strangers. I work for the Ministry of Minerals and Energy in South Africa, and by this letter I am representing and also acting on behalf of two of my senior colleague (The Director General and The Group General Manager) whose mandate I have got to contact a trusted and reliable foreign based businessman, concerning the business matter of mutual benefit to all.

By this mandate given to me, we are in dire need of a foreign partner to assist us in the transfer/investment of USD 15,00,000,00. (fifteen Million, United States Dollars). The key issues are the transfer and the subsequent investment of the said sum. We are ready to go into an agreement with you and also offer you a negotiable fee for putting together an investment portfolio. It does not matter whether or not you own a company or you have invested funds before. We shall guide you on what to do. The basis will be that a major company won a contract and subcontracted it to you. More often, big trading companies and firms of unrelated field win contracts and subcontracts to more specialized firms for execution.

We shall follow strictly all the legal procedures entailed in our laws and international laws in transferring the funds to you. The source of the funds is legitimate and authoritative.

Please, be informed that under the South Africa Government monetary policy, strategic positioned government officials are not allowed to operate or own bank account overseas, hence our need for a foreign partner to front for us.

We pray that you take the essence of this letter in strict confidence, as the two officials involved would not like to be exposed on this. Kindly notify me via my e-mail, upon you acceptance to assist us. Further details will be made available to you as soon as you reply.

We shall provide you with our confidential phone and fax number, once there is positive response from you. Thank you and God bless, as we wait for your urgent response

Best Regards.

PAKI PHOMELLO

Site Search

I finally have a site search function available. I shamelessly copied the work done over on Radio Free Blogistan to get this functional. The hard part is not searching all of radio.weblogs.com but only my small portion of it. I never would have thought of the solution on my own.

One of these days I'll move to my own domain, but that's another mound of ignorance, complacenecy, priorities, and Newtownian theory ("objects at rest...") to conquer.

Sounds good

Now, this brat recipe just sounds scrumptious. Via John Robb.

Spoofed Referer

Maybe I'm slow, but why would someone want to hide in my referer log? I have a referer from http://ref.spoof.org/refspoof.cgi. Any ideas as to what that really is (and why, of course)?

Mass production

'Jesus' Inscription on Stone May Be Earliest Ever Found. A stone box bearing the engraved words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" could be the earliest known artifact relating to the historical Jesus. By John Noble Wilford. [New York Times: Science]

Complete with an inscribed date: 20 A.D. ;-)

Things one does not say in a bowling alley

During my bowling league tonight, in the midst of all the excitement, when a teammate threw a strike, I uttered, quite loudly "Woot!" I blame Dorothea, yes I do.

Stop the Patent Process Madness

The entire institution of patents has evolved into a system that is contrary to the reasons it originated and has given intellectual property a bad name. A commentary by Lauren Weinstein. [Wired News]

We have a friend who works in the Patent Office - he tells us they sit around and make fun of patents that are granted...

Fidgeting

Zeldman is in the process of a redesign. This should be good, instructive, and a boost to the economy. We are pleased.

PowerPoint - the new Swiss Army Knife

We read stories to Christopher before bedtime - a ritual that will hopefully reap dividends for years to come. We hope the routine makes bedtime easier to handle and hope he learns to enjoy reading. "Goodnight Moon" is one of the books he is read every night - here's the PowerPoint summary. [Shifted Librarian via Metafilter]

Information

I am a consumer of information moreso than a provider. As you can see, I've not posted much to the weblog lately. But, I've been accessing my weblog software, Radio, several times a day. Why, if I'm not posting?

Simple - Radio includes a news aggregator, a wonderful idea - in essence it goes out to a list of websites each hour and puts newly posted items on one page for me to see. Some of the sites are weblogs such as Burningbird, others are news sites, such as the BBC or Wired. I control the list of sites. The only requirement is that the desired website provide an RSS feed. I provide one - you can find it by following the link on the orange XML button.

There's a tough part - finding good sites that have an RSS feed. Well, there's now a tool for Radio in beta that acts as an RSS Explorer. Currently in beta, I can see what RSS feeds other Radio users subscribe to and see if any are of interest to me.

What sites do I subscribe to - I thought you'd never ask - here they are. Follow the links therein at your own risk.

Ambrose Bierce

"The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling." [Quotes of the Day]

There's Always Something

Mark Pilgrim has come up with the latest cool toy for weblogs (he's had several), excerpts from referring pages. I love it.

Of course, that means I can't be lazy and just throw a link out to his page like I did the other day. See the result at the bottom of this page. Well, there's nothing stopping me...but on the other hand, there's a reason I link to something - if I want to share the link, I should feel comfortable sharing the 'why', right?

Just Run

Mark Pilgrim: "Otherwise you're just another fat schmuck lying on the couch reading Runner's World."

Drop the Puck, eh!

It seems too early, but professional hockey starts tonight. I love it, but not until football season is over.

Note to self

When I have time to sit down and read:
Hypertext Links: Whither Thou Goest, and Why [First Monday]

Material

Note 19 to Microsoft's financial statements in their FY 2002 10-K filing, which outlines contingencies for lawsuits pending against the company, ends with, "Management currently believes that resolving all of these matters will not have a material adverse impact on the Company's financial position or its results of operations."

Now, I fully understand that management likely takes an optimistic view. However, if they truly believe that the end penalty from the antitrust suit will be immaterial, it strikes me that the Justice Department, consenting states, and the states still litigating are asking for way too little.

That's an opinion independent of my feelings for or against the litigation in the first place.

Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

"If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

More Bookworm

"If you like Bejeweled and Boggle and have anything at all you need to get done this week, then you probably shouldn't play PopCap's Bookworm." [TheFlangyNews]

I'm not the only one who saw it as a combination of Bejeweled and Boggle. As for length of game - Maureen and I played a single game for over 2 hours Wednesday night.

Ambrose Bierce

"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)" [Quotes of the Day]

Thinking Fun

Bookworm is a highly addicitive, challenging, and fun game. You need to spell words from a jumble(ala Boggle), but whenever you use a letter it falls away (ala Bejweled). Games can be lengthy, so sit tight! (Thanks, Jenny!)

Toy-Buying Guide

The Onion explains the best ways to buy toys for kids.

Coincidence

A year ago I stumbled onto Mark Pilgrim's weblog following links about a flap he had with his former employer who essentially fired him for posting on his personal weblog his battles with addiction.

Several months later I rediscovered his weblog because of the excellent tech material of the weblog. It was a few months more before I connected the two.

It's well worth taking the time to read what Mark has to say.

Anybody In Here?

Between being sick, swamped at work, traveling for work, having a cousin's baby being born, and helping organize the first week of our bowling league at work, I've been too busy to post. Hopefully things will ease up and I can continue to post inanities.

Of course, I did have time to screw up the comments over at Jonathan's place.