4.30.2000

The book I'm reading right now is Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams. Great book!

I've actually read it before, but Tad Williams hadn't published the second volume, yet. By the time the second one was out, I felt compelled to read it again. Luckily, the third one is out, too. I just hate waiting around for the next volume! I hope #4 comes out pretty soon. Gosh, I'm an ungrateful bastard, pushing a hard working author this way!
posted 4/30/2000 (link me, baby)
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The fabulous Kai from Lexx.
posted 4/30/2000 (link me, baby)
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Even though we don't get any tv, I've still discovered LEXX!
posted 4/30/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.25.2000

I hope you're not "doing the dew".
posted 4/25/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.24.2000

Jakob Nielsen recently talked about the "paradox of the active user". I've quoted it below, because it was such fun to read!

The "paradox of the active user" is a concept introduced by John M. Carroll and Mary Beth Rosson (then at IBM, now at Virginia Tech) to explain a common observation in several user studies done at the IBM User Interface Institute in the early 1980s (later confirmed by many other studies, including my own): Users never read manuals but start using the software immediately. They are motivated to get started and to get their immediate task done: they don't care about the system as such and don't want to spend time up front on getting established, set up, or going through learning packages. The "paradox of the active user" is a paradox because users would save time in the long term by taking some initial time to optimize the system and learn more about it. But that's not how people behave in the real world, so we cannot allow engineers to build products for an idealized rational user when real humans are irrational: we must design for the way users actually behave.

Reference:

Carroll, J.M. and Rosson, M.B. (1987). The paradox of the active user. In J.M. Carroll (Ed.), Interfacing Thought: Cognitive Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/activeuserparadox.html http://www.cs.vt.edu/~rosson/papers/paradox.pdf
posted 4/24/2000 (link me, baby)
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Live video surgeries? I guess so... at AmazingSurgeries.com.
posted 4/24/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.19.2000

An interview with Jakob Nielsen, you know, the web usability guy.

A simple vision of the Web: In quest for creativity, sites shouldn't forget their users

He refers to splash pages as "nothing but an irritation". Right on, soul brother!
posted 4/19/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.18.2000

Instant, real time type online communication? Maybe... with electro-optic modulators. These li'l pups "convert electric signals into optical transmissions at a rate of 100 gigabytes of information per second". Yikes! Plus, they're low voltage!
posted 4/18/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.17.2000

Wow, this snow crystal is beautiful! More.
posted 4/17/2000 (link me, baby)
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This used to be a joke, but I guess someone is intent on making it a reality. What is it? digital smell technology. Yes... that's right... online smell... thing...
posted 4/17/2000 (link me, baby)
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It's A Citizen's Guide to the World Trade Organization. This is a pdf document. Check out these other nifty publications.
posted 4/17/2000 (link me, baby)
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Boy, this is pissing me off! Ebay, my favorite auction site has filed a lawsuit against bidders edge, my favorite auction comparison engine. And a federal judge is going to issue an injunction against bidders edge! Apparently, ebay thinks that bidders edge is violating the law by using information from ebay's website. HELLO?! That's what these comparison services do! They compare prices from many sources! What about all the other comparison engines out there, like mySimon? This is a really bad trend. I'm so disappointed in ebay! And gee, think how ripped off ebay must feel... I mean that darn bidders edge is giving them all that free advertising and making their products available to a wider audience! The rats!
posted 4/17/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.16.2000

Oh, gee, I love this quote!

"The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy."
--Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson
posted 4/16/2000 (link me, baby)
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So many people believe that crime is on the rise. The publications that I normally read indicate that crime has decreased. But, I guess the "average American" (whatever that is) tends to rely on major media outlets. So, it's nice when something like this pops up in the LA Times.

"Crime plummeted nationwide last year, for the fifth straight year, to its lowest levels since the government began keeping records a quarter-century ago, the Justice Department said," from which the executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police naturally concluded that "Unless anti-crime efforts are intensified, we're going to be in for a horribly rude awakening."
--Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1999
posted 4/16/2000 (link me, baby)
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Guess this needs no comment.

"America spends 50% more incarcerating 1.2 million non-violent offenders than the entire $16.6 billion the federal government is currently spending on welfare programs that serve 8.5 million people."
--Justice Policy Institute "The Punishing Decade," December 1999
posted 4/16/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.15.2000

Just what have I got against the World Bank and IMF, anyway?!
posted 4/15/2000 (link me, baby)
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The IMF and World Bank meetings being held this weekend won't be attended by any independent journalists. Why? Because the IMF and World Bank are denying press credentials to independent journalists. That's right, only corporate owned media will be present.
posted 4/15/2000 (link me, baby)
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I can't believe those pandas are still wrassling in the tree... it's past midnight!
posted 4/15/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.14.2000

Yay! Intergalactic space travel! Guess them wormholes will come in handy after all!
posted 4/14/2000 (link me, baby)
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This is just really far away from earth.
posted 4/14/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.13.2000

So, I'm sick, for christ sake, and I can't get the pandacam to load! I had to settle for oinkernet. Now, the oinkers are really swell and I love the little guys... it's just that sometimes you need to see the baby panda before you hoist your sick, tired ass into bed and prepare for a night of hacking, sniffling and not breathing very well. sigh
posted 4/13/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.12.2000

More great images of Lord of the Rings from The Tolkien Sewer. And a bunch more info on LOTR from Coming Attractions. And of course, the official site, which includes a preview.
posted 4/12/2000 (link me, baby)
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Scroll down for some nifty pictures of the set of Lord of the Rings from Ain't It Cool News.
posted 4/12/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.11.2000

It's an iMacAquarium.
posted 4/11/2000 (link me, baby)
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It's Asia Carrera! You know, the famous porn star. Oh, I should mention that you have to be over 18 to visit her site. So, if you're not over 18, don't be following any of these links! You kids. There was an interview with her in Giant Robot. She seems really neat. She created and maintains her own website. She's a geek! Darn her, she beautiful even without make-up! And here she is all dolled up.
posted 4/11/2000 (link me, baby)
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More information on the defense budget from the Center for Defense Information.
posted 4/11/2000 (link me, baby)
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Where the heck do my taxes go? To the military, of course! Last year the military budget was $293 billion, this year it's $305 billion. The next person who tells you we need the money for our diminishing military readiness (operations and maintenance), you can smile sweetly and say, "Then why the heck are they using the money for weapons procurement?" Could it be... pressure from the powerful weapons industry? Hey, they're armed after all! heh.
posted 4/11/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.7.2000

Uh-oh, it's a plethora of cute Jet Li pictures! AGH!
posted 4/7/2000 (link me, baby)
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Cute photo of Jet Li alert!!
posted 4/7/2000 (link me, baby)
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I know I've already mentioned the DNRC mailing list and the fabulous "True Tales of Induhviduals". If you don't already belong to the DNRC (Dogbert's New Ruling Class), I suggest you join immediately. Well, this particular tale is just too precious and I have to reprint it here (hope I don't get busted). This is True Tale 7 from Dilbert Newsletter #29:

"We tested our Y2K power contingency plans a few weeks before New Year's. The Induhviduals in IT didn't expect any downtime, so the test was performed during the normal work day. The idea was that when power was cut, the six generators would kick on and we wouldn't notice a thing.

"Three generators failed to start. Two threw their breakers due to the high load on them. The last was overwhelmed when the previous two cut out and threw a tremendous surge through the lines, blowing up hundreds of light bulbs, frying fax machines, radios and pencil sharpeners along the way. The surge jumped circuits in our industrial level surge protector and traveled through our "surge protected" lines to every desktop in the company plus the server room. After taking out over a hundred monitors and almost forty PCs, the surge proceeded to destroy our server room air conditioner, four huge UPS systems, thirteen servers and both AS/400s. Several small fires started throughout the building, including our now half-melted Christmas tree and our molten-menorah.

"The surge then jumped the lines into the main power grid, blowing up two transformers, one of which fell on the IT manager's car (poetic justice) and cutting power on the entire block. The remaining generator then proceeded to burst into flames, eventually blowing up all six generators and burning up seven cars.

"This all occurred within about thirty seconds and sent 38 people to the hospital, cost the company over $650,000 in equipment (not to mention the impending lawsuits), destroyed eight cars and caused weeks of downtime. Three people quit the company. One woman is still in the hospital with electrical burns. The resulting publicity got us on television in five states."
posted 4/7/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.5.2000

I think these guys are neat. They're called Honesty.com and they provide various free online auction tools. I just added their web counter to my homepage. You may find it difficult to read, because it's in Chinese characters.
posted 4/5/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.4.2000

Amazing dragon done in cross-stitch by this talented gal.
posted 4/4/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.3.2000

Bizarre item of the day (week? month?): Mike, the Headless Chicken. Courtesy of my pal, Chris.
posted 4/3/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.2.2000

These are the cutest little oinkers! And there are lots more here at PiggiePiggieCage, which is part of PiggiePiggiePage.
posted 4/2/2000 (link me, baby)
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4.1.2000

If you aren't already a member of the DNRC, I suggest you join. There's an archive of the newsletters. The "True Tales of Induhviduals" are always high-larious! Here's a good one from newsletter #29:

"We received a letter from the Environmental Protection Agency stating that unless we provided answers to their outstanding questions within two weeks they would recommend that our power plant construction project not proceed.

Apparently they failed to notice that, a) we already answered the questions, b) their approval had already been issued and, c) the $600 million power plant had been built nearly two years ago."
posted 4/1/2000 (link me, baby)
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