April 2000

"Many people have been trained to think a database is the only way to manage large amounts of information" Well, I suppose we could stick more than a terabyte of text in a file and do a 'free form' full text search... sure, why not?

There's this term I keep hearing "really cool site" ugh, how about "really usable site?" I mean, if you're an artist or build sites for recreational/entertainment purposes, by all means "make it cool" But if you're a business of some type and are making some attempt at creating an information or task driven site, wouldn't you put the ability of the site to function properly to a wide variety of people above "making it cool?" I guess it's rare (if ever?) to have someone all jazzed up saying "Man, that site is so usable!" Hey, we can always just wait for them to say "Man, that site sucks!" ;)

What do I know? I write code... ("I write the code that makes the whole world cringe...")

I had to add a new feature ('feature' being debatable) There's a new box down and to the left. 'new stuff' It lists the new pages added to the site. enjoy!

Today's a wiki kinda day...

Am I a geek? While driving home yesterday I came up with a new concept for serving pages using PHP, so I jotted it down on the Palm. Did I mention I was driving home on the freeway, going about 60? Do I qualify? (If not, I'll keep trying...)

Too many projects! In the meantime, since everyone loves girls, shouldn't everyone love boys too?

I think being good at designing and building web sites isn't about using the latest whiz-bang technology, it's about showing restraint in using the latest whiz-bang technology...

Forgot this one yesterday... Epinions's on digital cameras...

It seems weird to me, maybe because I'm so engulfed in it. My mom mentioned that she wanted some photos of the kids to send to distant relatives, and I said, "why don't they just look at the site" and she said "I think they have a computer" - wham! I then remembered, not everyoone has a computer or access to one. I know, I'm probably stupid in forgetting this, but when that's what your job[s] revolve around, and pretty much everyone you know and associate with does have a computer and net access, it's easy to forget. (st00pid kumputer geek-nerds)

For reasons not entirely clear, I will now present a link to: faery chronicle.

Schadenfreude! *That's* the word I was thinking of... I had no clue how to spell it though, not even close enough to look it up. Now, if I had a voice recognition system, maybe that would have helped... [Schadenfreude: Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. Malicious satisfaction.]

Speaking of worlds colliding, I think I'm about 2 clicks away from that happening... I think it used to be 3 or 4 clicks, but...

I'm in 'review mode' again on digital cameras... Slashdot on digital cameras... The Digital Camera Resource Page...

What do you get when you cross Eatonweb with RasterWeb - EasterWeb? Or I suppose you could just do s/^R/E/ on RasterWeb to get EasterWeb... hmmm...

A small treat for all you Blogger kids... following up on the linkwatcher page, and the wozwatcher page, Rasterboy Enterprises is proud to present: The bloggerlister page, and the bozlister page! enjoy...

Sure scriptingnews.com is taken, but no one has scriptingnudes.com yet ;) and what about the mispelling: scriptingnewds.com?

Joel again... "The other trouble is that it's so easy to get knocked out of the zone."...

blah, blah, blah, I'm a dumbass... blah, blah, blah, I don't get it... [from iBoy]

I added the Search This! page... (shamelessly stolen from Apathy) and the visual representation of data from linkwatcher is now available on a page of it's own...

Cam claims the following "CamWorld is 100% Elián Gonzales free." - but by mentioning it, he nullifies his claim... right?

eNormicom - I *really* needed this today... [thanks dack!]

This mention from iBoy was great... it meant a lot to me. I've been meaning to write more on this subject, maybe I should do that...

When you pay a consultant, and they lie to you... is there a term for that?

"We put the con in consultant..."

Here's a great new slogan - "If I can't reproduce a bug, it doesn't exist..." I think I'll start telling people that...

I really don't watch Mtv, but whilst flippin' thru the channels this morning, I saw a band perfroming on Pamela Anderson's ass... weird...

I always disliked, USWeb/CKS, It should have been USWeb/SUCKS, but uswebsucks.com seems to be taken...

Now they have an equally name lame: marchFIRST - it fits their lame site...

Looking for new features? Come back tomorrow... for now, did you read Microsoft Bugs? did you see the wozwatcher?

Lack of bandwidth (LOB) is painful... Hello T-1, how ya doin'? I missed you old friend...

I got an email today from Eric Lundquist, Editor-In-Chief of PC Week. Seems they're changing the name to 'eWEEK' Hmmm, anyone remember when MacWEEK (the print edition) changed their name to 'eMediaWeekly'?

"...the e has moved from a marketing expression to an icon that when attached to a familiar word denotes a new way of doing business..."

wow... emazing...

I worked at home today. Working at home is not a dream. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare when you have connection speeds between 28.8 and 48 k instead of a T-1. It's a nightmare when you have to deal with an I.S. department. It's a nightmare when you have to deal with *anything* Microsoft... Needless to say, I got very little done.... and I think I killed my Zip drive, although it's lasted longer than most Zip drives... damn... (oh, and this page was probably unavailable when I accepted a phone call and it disconnected me!)

On the bright side, good stuff here: anthonyjhicks.com...

And I need to read The Meanings of XML: DTDs, DCDs and Schemas. "Schemas" is one of those words that just sounds cool...

I made some changes to the wozwatcher so hopefully now it's even less usable! ;) Remember, here at Rasterboy Enterprises we put the "us" in "usability!"

"Gotta stick together like glue!"

Backdoor In Microsoft Web Software... Hope your favorite 'blogger' won't be affected by it! ;) [insert evil laugh here]

Microsoft acknowledged its engineers included a secret password. Oh yeah, you can trust us, sure ya can... Hmmm, that 'closed source' stuff works just great doesn't it... [insert another evil laugh here]

My 'crazy idea machine' had this idea. Since the open source gang always complains about Microsoft, someone, some stealthy agent of the open source league of justice could learn all there is to know about Windows, get hired by Microsoft as a top programmer, somehow get in charge of some important project, and then sabotage it to the end result of the ultimate downfall of Microsoft! Yee-Haa! Any takers?

There's this Pet Supply Store on the way to work that has a big sign that says 'WILD BIRD SEED', but only some of the letters light up, so it seems to read like:
WILD BIRD SEED
(make up your own joke here)

Morons. I'm surrounded by frickin morons. I hear ya... I hear ya...

Wow! This 37signals site is neat. Very neat. It really draws you in. When's the last time you read every page of a site, or even could if you tried... inspiring...

I added a whole bunch more Palm Art to the Kids section...

Yeah, I joined that silly old bandwagon... call 877-651-9977 ext.902 and leave a message... it's toll free.. and if it's actually interesting, I'll put it on this site... ;) (ok, disregard the "interesting" part...)

Microsoft Bugs?

PaxDigita is a company that's being started by the Joel behind Joel on Software... looks very interesting...

I got a good Zeldman icon!

Weblogs.com's visual representation of sites that have changed...

Never one to miss a trend, RasterWeb presents a visual representation of data from linkwatcher. It's a work in progress to be sure... And I actually did this *before* I saw the Weblogs.com page... parallel thinking, I guess...

I've started working on my 'update file' a small file that will be updated when the *real content* of the page changes, there was some discussion going on recently about how to determine if a page has really changed content wise, or just been corrected, or updated by some script... I don't know if standards for this were ever worked out, and I'm not ready to do RSS/RDF (since I'll only do it if I can do it right!) I'll changed the Spyonit and Weblogs things soon too... (Maybe this page explains it better...)

As a kid, I was just like Fry from Futurama, I wanted a robot for a friend. How many people do you know that can say "I worked on a robotic controller for the Apple ][+" well, I did... anyway, I do have lots of robots for friends now... as it seems that (according to the log files) more robots than people read this page nowadays ;)

Bender: "You really want a robot for a friend?"
Fry: "Yeah, Ever since I was six."

Add me to the list, Joel on Software is a definite must-read...

Still the only site listed under Alien Technology?

Well, I finally saw "The Phantom Menace" I waited (almost) a year so that I could see it in an environment free of hype. I thought it was quite good! They say "don't believe the hype" but all you poor suckers who saw it in the theater when it was released could not avoid the hype. It was everywhere. I on the other hand, was able to see it for what it was... A movie about a menace, who is also a phantom. It was touching, I loved it...

Things I've been told I look like:

• Cartoon
• Serial Killer
• Nicholas Cage
• Mark Mallman

I know, that last one is rather disturbing, Mark Mallman, sheesh!

Minor Threat's Salad Days EP may be the most influential 7" ever released. It is perfection in vinyl. I once spoke of the merits of this recording at great length to Ricky Germanson, and when done, he too seemed convinced of it's power... I can't remember if it came out during Revolution Summer or not, but it sure seems like it did...

Is it still true that If the kids are united, they will never be divided?

linkwatcher is "Down for Repairs" so for now check the metalog...

Today I sleepily opened the (postal) mail, and in one envelope was a check for $2500! For a split second I was very happy... I then realized the letter was not addressed to me, and the check was not in my name... poo...

business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art. business poisons art.

I added a Spyonit button last week, does anyone have an opinion on Spyonit versus the other 'watcher' services out there? I can think of a bunch of features they could add, and even suggested some (got feedback from them too) I'll probably suggest more. From the looks of their site, I have hopes for their service...

Oh, the Spyonit service doesn't *exactly* work right with this page, I'm working on that...

Occasionally I have to listen to music whilst in the cube-farm, even when I don't really want to, just to drown out the horrid sounds of the CD being played in the next cube... I need sound proof cube walls and a sound proof cube ceiling...

PerlMonth is one of those sites I really should visit more often than I do.

This project I worked on last fall is finally live... Do you ever feel dirty for contributing to the commercialization of the internet? At least it payed well, but does the money help wash away the feelings of guilt, or just make it worse? I suppose since the money was used to help support my family, I can be ok with it... ugh, still hurts...

I got to work with Netscape 6pr1 a bit (is it now called "Netscape" again rather than "Navigator" or "Communicator"?) I'm really happy about it, though it's got a long way to go, (fingers crossed!) I think it's a good showing of the technology. I've also used the latest Mozilla a bit, also cool, also needs a lot more work in some areas... I think it's easy to get down on Mozilla and Netscape, but I'm trying to stay as positive as I can. I read a comment somewhere that said "I don't care who wins the 'browser war' I just want one browser that works." Now that seems short-sighted! What does "work" mean anyway? Standards compliant? If all browsers were compliant, we wouldn't be in this mess, and they would *all* work! Much as I do like the features of MSIE 5 for the Mac, I'm not going to forget Navigator, Mozilla, or the others... It's that lazy thinking that made Microsoft into a monopoly in the first place! (I can say that now...It's official, right?) And when do you think Microsoft will release Internet Explorer for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc. etc. etc... I know these 'developers' (I shudder to use the phrase 'web developers') who think that if it works under Windows NT 4.0 using MSIE 4.0 then -bango!- it's ready to go! Sheesh... The MS Web™ all over again!

I guess I got off subject, anyway, grand kudos to Cam and Alphanumerica for the Sullivan skin...

Oh, one more jab at Microsoft, please? Have you seen those MSN commercials where these people live in a house together and are forced to use MSN and MSNBC and Microsoft Bob to do everything then need to do? Poor bastards...

Yesterday I saw some hippie (I generally don't have a problem with most hippies, well, I should say I have just as many problems with hippies as I do with everyone else, I discriminate equally!) anyway, this hippie had a bumper sticker on her Geo that said "We took the Indian's land..." and then had a paragraph I couldn't read without driving the RasterMobile into her trunk. My first thought was, whoever designed that bumper sticker with that much type is an idiot. Second thought, I know I didn't take any land from any Indians, I bought my land (well, the bank owns it, and I own the bank lots of money...) Then I thought, "Hey, aren't they supposed to be referred to as 'Native Americans' or something like that?" and finally I thought that if someone was so touched and disturbed by the whole matter, maybe they should find some "Indians" and give them their land, and then go to another country... "This land is your land (ha!) this land is my land (ha!) blah, blah, blah... etc...

Some people assume a chemical imbalance... they may be right...

eGroups redesigns... ugh, hmm, ah, ugh?

I actually had this idea a couple years back, never followed up on it though...

Like beverages? BevNET! Woo-hoo!

Argh! that damn Kent Shook again! What was it we used to say about Kent Shook? Ahhh, now I remember...

I'm afraid to validate, but I'm even more afraid to look at the results of the sites I've seen lately.... sheesh! Being a web developing type of guy, it sometimes hurts to see the html people or bad code can spit out... (maybe that should be 'bad people' or 'bad code')

Sorry for being absent from INTERNET yesterday, but we had a death in the family...

Rest in Peace Mr. Crab... Rest in Peace...

Matt Hahauguhuly (oops, might be to many U's in there...) said he'd work on the RDF for MetaFilter... Thanks Matt!

I've been looking at the log reports and like many others, find the search terms people use to get here fascinating. I start to feel sorry for people when they're looking for some real information on something, and all they find is some stupid comment I made that's completely unrelated to everything. I fee like I'm cloggin up the net. (Clogger? Naw... too easy;) Anyway, if I want to feel better about this site I can just pretend that someone remembers something they read here, and *really* want to track it down again... yeah, that's it...

David Turley has a page explaining How To Set Up A Web Server To Test Perl CGI Scripts Locally, a question that comes up on certain mailing lists all the time...

Like everything else I have an interest it, if I had the time I'd like to dig into Darwin, a bit more, I still don't have a spare Mac better than a 7100 around here to do an install on, which means MkLinux is the only option :(

Crud, I really should have had a link to skramkoob for my April First thingy...

I love those wacky anagrams! Wondering what you can spell with the letters in "rasterweb?" My faves are, ARREST WEB, SWEAR BERT, WEAR BREST, and BAR REST WE...

Other sites? Poor kottke can't spell anything, EvHead could spell "HE DAVE" (what does that mean!?) metajohn should be MAN HE JOT, JAM NET HO, or maybe AM THE JON... MetaFilter has a zillion, (TEAM FILTER, MEAT FILTER, FELT IT REAM, RAE FELT TIM, and of course, MAT FERTILE;)

Star Wars Episode One comes out on video today... yay!

Just like Google the Google T-Shirt, really works!

What a dork! I've now done my part in finding a replacement, I can now retire to the farm and take up that hobby I've always wanted. Soap carving... What? It's not April 1st anymore? Nevermind... I'll keep keepin' on and keep on truckin'...

Two weeks ago at a meeting someone gave me a paper with a list of "to do" items on it. Well, it's on my desk and I've realized that it was printed with disappearing toner! Yup, the person who gave it to me mentioned the copier was having problems. So each time I touch it, more of the text moves from the paper to my fingers. Now *that's* security! Self-destructing paper documents!

I remember when we got our Phaser, I thought to myself, "wow, a printer that sends me email when it's jammed or needs toner... cool!" But, when the thing jams 20 times a day, and sends me 20 messages telling me that it can't print because the door is open (because someone dejammed it) the novelty wears off... Still, if you like getting email, just get yourself some piece of equipment that sends you annoying messages everyday... and abuse it.

Wow, MetaFilter had mention of this site... Hopefully it won't subvert my plans to remain "under the radar..."

I got MetaBabied...

Analog played a joke on me, and said I had (sniff, sniff) ZERO visitors on the 1st of April... oops, it was my own bad code that did it... fix it!

I got stuck coding one project and image processing for another project all weekend. I also inhaled lots of paint fumes, so don't expect much from me today...

Ah, the beginning of the month, or as we call it around these parts, "when the left side is longer than the right side...."

My mission is to make the right side longer than the left side in a very short amount of time... noble, eh?

I've noticed that I'm using "eh?" more that "hmmm?" nowadays, I wonder what that means, hmmm? eh?

(no, I haven't been to Canaduh recently! Not since we beat them back behind the border in '72!)

We put the "u" in "usability"... (Remember, there's no "me" in "usability")

I'm not sure what happened yesterday, I was just mirroring my files to the server, the same way I always do...

April First Madness can be found over here and here...

March Updates