Why Ask Hypothetical Questions?

Why do they do things like this?

Wed, 16 Oct 2002 19:51:00 GMT

Man, for all the smart people Microsoft has working for it, it sure can act stupid sometimes. Here's a funny Register article on the second retracted public testimonial in a week.

A Day In The Life

Wed, 16 Oct 2002 06:41:45 GMT

I walk into my bedroom.

"Hi, Dante."

"Hi." He's busily pulling out his shoelaces, sitting on my bed.

"How's cartoons?" He's watching cartoons on the TV next to my bed.

"Maybe really fun."

Dante Watches Tom and Jerry

Fri, 11 Oct 2002 06:55:02 GMT

Dante was just watching an episode of Tom and Jerry. In this episode, Tom has a dream where he's denied admittance to Heaven because he harassed Jerry all his life. But, Saint Peter says that he can still get a pass if he can get Jerry to sign a Certificate of Forgiveness within the next hour. He gets the signature, but a little too late. He falls into a boiling cauldron in Hell, and wakes up. Upon waking, he's so overjoyed with relief, he rushes over to Jerry's mouse hole, snatches Jerry up, and kisses him all over his face.

At this point, Dante says, "Aaaaah," in that drawn out syllable people use when people think something is really cute.

"He loves him, huh?" This he says with the pause between the words 'him' and 'huh' which makes the phrase mean, "He loves him, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, I guess," I say.

"He's really cute, huh?"

And so it begins...

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 03:20:48 GMT

Shhhhh. Unofficially, I've released an AppleScript into the wild. It takes selected text from Entourage or Internet Explorer, and puts it into OmniOutliner. A couple of its 'features' mean it is only useful for taking short clips for purposes of vocabulary tracking. Now that I write this, it seems silly that I didn't release a general purpose clipping grabber, too, which would interest a wider audience. Call me lazy. Or maybe you can just massage the code I provided to do what you want. What's that? Don't want to, huh? Now who's lazy!

King of the Hill

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 02:59:02 GMT

Cool, according to Google, I'm the top dog when it comes to Michael Terrys.

Instant Outliners: An idea whose time has come...and gone!

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 02:55:27 GMT

Another thing: How come no one seems to be using their Instant Outliners? Has this all been a big scam? Do the folks at UserLand keep internal IOs that are updated frequently, or has this idea fallen by the wayside? I'd like to know which side is the wayside, by the way, if you happen to know.

The Wheel-of-Interest lands back on 'Website'. What'll it be Mike from Ventura?

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 02:46:34 GMT

It's too bad I haven't felt like posting to this site recently, but I've been spending some of this me-time considering approaches to a few problems which, as a lone, amateur web enthusiast, plague me. First of all, I'm using the fanciest template that came with Radio, but I prefer uniqueness. I want to come up with something which expresses my taste and style. It's been pretty tough to figure out what causes my weblog to look the way it does. Not really knowing HTML makes it all the tougher. I need a way to analyze the different elements of the template versus content I insert via the browser application interface (which I plan to cease using sooner than later), and determine where the macros fit in. In this vein, I'd like to know see exactly what is uploaded versus what's in my websites folder. Soon I shall figure out how to publish my site to a local directory so I can gain more headway here.

Next, who am I talking to here? No one's reading this.

I'm also looking into using AppleScript to automate my website rather than Radio. Why, may you ask? Glad you did: Well, I know AppleScript very well, or at least weller than I know UserTalk. This isn't a hugh selling point, though, 'cause I like UserTalk's syntax a lot better, and it'd be a breeze to pick up. In this way, I think it's like VBA, which I don't know, but can write stuff in any time the mood strikes me. What to do about mood assaulting me is another issue. Anyway, I also wouldn't have artificial limitations imposed by Radio's database or content management tools. Actually, anything AppleScript can do, Radio can do too, but, using Radio, I would have to handle PNGs differently from JPEGs for instance, which is a messy type of inconsistency.

Another problem with Radio is that its automatically generated calendar is not CSS friendly, I understand. I would require this, so I'd have to rewrite portions of the content management tools to create a calendar that is CSS appropriate. Could be a chore, but, on the other hand, I'd be the first kid on the block with such a gizmo. That's always cool.

Another thing I don't like about Radio is that it's too good. I'm afraid that if I start down the path of the Dark S-- err, the path of doing Apple Event scripting using Radio, I may fall under the spell of its tantalizing power, and eschew AppleScripting forever after. Why is this such a bad thing? I can hear you thinking over the soft drum of my keyboard. If you could stop doing that, that'd be great. But to answer your question, the market for Userland Apple Events scripting is small. I want to publish my scripts and receive the generous accolades due me, and frankly, here I'd be a small fish in a smaller pond. I mean, who's here beside me? JarrettHouseNorth? Brent Simmons? I mean look, search for application glue for OS X applications on Google. Go ahead, I'll wait. Back? Great. Didn't find anything, did you? I rest my case for now, but reserve the right to call rebuttal witnesses as the need arises.

Dante and Jigsaw Puzzles

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 19:19:08 GMT

Finally, irrefutable proof that Dante's a genius. Well, at least not retarded. Although he seem really bright, and has a charming, energetic personality, there's still that niggling little detail about how he can't talk at 3 1/2.

We got him a few 25-piece puzzles rated 3-6 years old and he puts them together all by himself. He's really good at them, and loves playing with them, too. I've never seen him engaged by a single quiet activity for 3 hours at a time, like he was last night. And here he is again this morning, ignoring cartoons, putting a puzzle together by himself on the couch.

Programmable Remote Control

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 19:10:13 GMT

I need to get a better remote.

Conference Satire

Wed, 24 Jul 2002 00:57:44 GMT

Microsoft to Apple: We've got that. Hahahahaha!

Mariners Faltering

Mon, 22 Jul 2002 08:43:16 GMT

Not only do the Mariners not have the best record in baseball anymore, but Oakland and Anaheim are pressing to actually take the lead in the division--how irritating!

Good Subscription MP3 Service?

Mon, 22 Jul 2002 08:31:47 GMT

According to Joel Spolsky, there's now a pay service with a reasonably attractive menu and an interface better than Naptster's used to be.

Mon, 22 Jul 2002 07:57:56 GMT

In cataloguing Dante's cute antics I'm embarrassed by my riches. Here are two from today regarding Dante's "shushing" me alone:

Incident #1:

In the car driving, I begin to recite some eminem lyrics for perhaps the 17th time today, "Some vodka that'll jumpstart my heart quicker than a shock/when I get shocked at the hospital by the doctor...", only to be overriden by an insistent "shhhhhh" from the backseat. I glance in the rearview mirror to see Dante's finger to his lips.

Incident #2:

It's after midnight (don't fret, he gets all the sleep he needs), and Dante and I are cleaning up the disaster of puzzle pieces he created in his bedroom. Since Lani and Steve have just gone to bed, I warn Dante that we need to use our whisper voices. A few minutes later, we're leaving his room and something sparks me to speak out loud--this is a mistake. Dante jumps on me with a fierce "shhhh", finger imperiously to lips.