August 1999
08.27.1999	I wrote about old browsers a while back... download some now... BOFH - ya gotta read the classics! Ahhh, as someone who deals in tech support... I know how it is... To me, the Mac platform has become more open, which is a good thing, prices have dropped, and components are more standard. I think in some ways ease of use has suffered, but hey, Apple's gotta play by some of the PC world's rules I guess. Is the Mac still the computer 'for the rest of us'? I think so... I look forward to getting a G3 or G4 in the next year or so, my current home system is 2 1/2 years old and going strong, and I bought the low end model for around $1400 - not bad in my opinion... More NT sux stuff... I think it's interesting that the Linux distributors need to try harder when it comes to ease of installation - they have to, since almost any Intel based system comes with some Windows OS on it (oops, forgot you can't really put 'OS' after the word 'Windows'!) I've done an mkLinux install on a PowerPC system, and it was fairly easy, and this was about 2 years ago, I've tried LinuxPPC 4's installation and had many problems in the past... I saw this one on Bump - 'Don't drink and click!'
08.20.1999	I really think someone has too much time on their hands, when they get upset about some semi-amusing commercials... aren't there some *real* problems that need addressing? I read some great stories on how tough those PowerBooks are... (it's just a shame O'grady's Mac related site uses .asp!) Oh, I've gotta remember to make my Windows PC y2k ready - hey, wait a minute! I use a Mac! Microsoft, please don't send me any email about this, or any snail mail... feel free to send me more T-shirts, but no y2k mail... Maybe their plan is to send out 20 million emails, explaining why the net seems so slow, and then suggest you download the new version of Internet Explorer (which should be around 30+ mb) or maybe their in a race, trying ot get their software bigger and bigger, so that downloading it is a joke, and you'll *have* to ordr it on CD... (ok, I'll stop now!)
08.18.1999	Always a good read, Jakob's Alertbox, talks about Metcalfe's Law in Reverse... Jakob always has good points about usability, which so many people and sites seem to ignore, sometimes I get depressed over what the web has become. Marketing, sales, promotions, ugh... sometimes it seems you have to actually look really hard for a free exchange of information, to find art, creativity, expression! Individuals, not corporations! hurm... Old junk? No, old computers! Hey, I'll take that old 486 off your hands... Linux will work just fine on it. I just got 2 Mac Pluses, they're great machines, they boot up in under a minute, and can still run lots of useful old software. I do wish I had one more PowerMac in the house so I could commandeer the old 68k IIvx for a NetBSD machine... oh, I'll also take your old pre-PowerMacs too, Quadra's and IIci's are nice... just email me! I thought these cartoons were clever, especially the ones about Perl...
08.16.1999	I found a Palm app called Snapshot, that lets you do screen captures. This is good. From there the screen shot files get transferred to your desktop machine at HotSync. Supposedly Graphic Converter should be able to open them, as it also can write out files in ImageViewer format, but it didn't work for me, so I just loaded them into the Palm OS Emulator, then saved them out from there... a bit of a pain, but not too bad... Oh, *anyway!* Here's some of Emma's Palm Art! With more to come... lots more! and maybe even some of my art! ;) Her drawing ability at 3 years old is really beginning to impress me, of course, I may be biased... People are always concerned about the 'Big Brother' syndrome, the scary part is, it's big business, not the government who seems to be taking the lead in this area, or at least that's what the government *wants* you to think. Perhaps they just plan to let private industry do all the dirty work, and then walk in and take the resulting data. No muss, no fuss... I love these things, here's info on the (new?) world's smallest webserver! Which is cool for two main reasons, first, that people actually do this, and there's sort of an 'unofficial competition' for the smallest, and for the possibilities and ideas it can spark... a net-geek's dream
08.13.1999	Also, updated the Kids section... See, I wrote my bit about area codes before C|Net did... but do I get credit, noooooo.....
08.12.1999	A big plus would be "The potential for talking to people who actually know what is going on here is pretty high"... Nice domain... idiotsavant.com Hmmm, it's hard to resist, but resist I may... Outlook and Palm? Sure, the only semi-good division of MS you can't *sort of* trust is the Macintosh Development Group, and MS supporting the Palm? I still doubt Outlook though, an associate used it for a while a few months back and thought it was great, but like a good Jedi, I was wary. Soon after he reported that it started having problems and messing up everything... darn you Microsoft!
08.11.1999	Oh, I'm lamenting the loss of 414... see, I used to live in the 414 area code, but no more, as they've decided to change my area code! My company Rasterboy Enterprises® will stand to lose millions! We have to recode all of our corporate web pages to reflect the change and... oh, nevermind... now my home phone, cell phone and fax number all have different area codes... fun fun fun... it's a wired world after all, eh? At least I can still translate the last 4 digits of my phone number into 'NET1' (No letters for 0's and 1's? Damn those binaries!) From the 'Golden Age of Hacking' - remember the 414's? Writing style... The *style* of your writing is _very_ important! You /think/ you write well (I mean good) but perhaps you DON'T! # yeah, that's it! This is what I really need! Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile... A way to translate my speech into text, on the go! Then I could create content in the car, cuz lemme tell ya, graffiti on the Palm on the freeway, is *not* easy! (I need a Mac version though!)
08.10.1999	I wrote a play based off of the first Fugazi album... someone had to do it! Anyone care to fund the production? Ahhh, remember zines? The 80's equivalent of the 'personal web site'? Remember how I hated the term 'fanzine', or 'perzine' (ugh, the worst!) well, just to reiterate... this is not a weblog! Super Fishy Allity? Click the link aboe and you'll (probably) get a page with links to how you can *SAVE SAVE SAVE* when buying books on 'Super Fishy Allity', never mind that as of today, no books on this subject exist! Maybe I should write one... hmmmm... The Promise Ring on K-Tel? Somehow, that's fitting... somehow, I'm not completely surprised... ok, well, maybe a tiny little bit shocked, just a little, ahhh... Davey won't return my emails anyway, I think he still has my Atari... Open Source is a good thing... Open Source for the Palm is a *very* good thing... I like this Speaking of the Palm, DiddleBug is one of the coolest little apps. How can you not like an app that uses IntelliBooger™ extentsions!? I always though REBOL was a dud, but I noticed on Bump today that REBOL might be headed for the Palm OS... that's (somewhat) neat in my book! I've heard murmurs about Perl on the Palm OS too... of course I'd like to hear more than murmurs... Ooooh... the 'weblog' backlash has begun! Don't forget that 'this is not a weblog!' Oh, I got another Mac Plus recently, and this one came with an ImageWriter! Now, I just need to see if I can get the ImageWriter connected to my PowerMac running Mac OS 8.x
08.04.1999	On the whole FreeMac.com thing... I discussed it with a number of people, almost all of whom thought it was a good deal... I ran some numbers (what am I, an accountant!?) and this is what I figured... If I pay my current ISP for 3 years, it should come out to about $324, if I signed up with FreeMac, it would be $718, a difference of $394 dollars. First, how much will net access cost in 1 year, or 2, or 3? Could go up, or down, who knows... Second, do you get to keep the iMac they give you? Let's assume 'yes', ok, so after 3 years, is it a machine worth more than $394? Hmmm, this I doubt... (based of my previous Mac buying experiences) Also, after 3 years it would probably get relegated to our youngest family member anyway, who would be about 4 years old, probably a good starting machine... All this is without seeing the contract, that's the sticker... no one seems to know the 'details' yet, there's a good guess here. (and I didn't even get into the 2 gig of ads!) Maybe there's no such thing as a free Mac...? Oh, wait, there it! I got a Mac Plus a while back, and it cost me $0.00! Ya know, I'll know it;s a Truly Wired World™ when I see a Cometbus website... the funny thing is, I decided to check the domain name, and, of course COMETBUS.COM is registered to someone, but it ain't Skrub from what I can tell... Skikky.com wasn't what I expected... I'm feeling a little lost in my history and culture today! Neurosis.com on the other hand... ugh, whatever... I think the word stopped being law back in 92 or 93 anyway...
08.03.1999	Interesting article about cell phones and teens... Interesting that $40 a month is considered a 'good rate!' Hmmm, must be that 'out east' thing... We have one cell phone in our family that we share, usually the person who takes the crappy car takes the cell phone. Our average bill is around $15 a month (I don't think it's ever gone over $20) yet we can still only afford one phone... Here's my idea, since everyone is moving towards free (to the consumer) products and services sponsored by ads. I'd gladly use a phone that required me to listen to an ad before placing a call. It might work like this, dial the number, and if it's a local call, you hear a 30 second ad before the phone dials, if it's out of the immediate area, it's a 60 second ad, if you dial 911, it goes right through, with no ads... next year this'll be in effect and someone will be rich because of it... not me of course, I'm just here to help humanity (I'm just passing through!) The new issue of Palm Power for August is online! The Gadgeteer is a pretty cool site, lotsa good PDA/Palm info... We got a new channel, the FX Network and Sunday night they had a Ben Stiller Show marathon (Fox version, not the Mtv version.)This show rates up there with Night After Night in my book. Years ahead of it's time, featuring Ben, Andy Dick, Janeane Garofalo, and Bob Odenkirk... great stuff! I think a lot of people just didn't get it, just like a lot of people didn't get "The Cable Guy"... Here's a quote from the FX site -> "One of the funniest men alive. One of the best series ever cancelled." (how true) The FX Network also has a show called The X Show which appears to be just like Comedy Central's The Man Show... neither one really appeal to me too much, I do kind of like Happy Hour though, cuz of those wacky Zappas... Here's a cool name for a weblog: NAW for Not A Weblog, or maybe TINAW for This Is Not A Weblog... you can use those if you like, just send me 1 million dollars... and a monster truck!
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