February 2003 Archives
33 entries
Two bunny ears. One tied shoe.
Posted at 10:10 AM
For years I’ve thought that the way I tie my shoes is the inferior way — the method that all the dumb kids ended up using because they couldn’t do it “right”. Well, I was pleased to read this:“The two most popular methods of tying shoes are the bunny ears and the one-loop wrap. The bunny ears method is easier to understand although it requires more coordination.”
Yes, I tie my shoes using the bunny ears method. I have done this since I was 5. People often make fun of me, and on those rare occasions when I have to tie my shoes in public (prior to and following bowling, for instance), I am self conscious. Well, not any more. Apparently the bunny ears way “requires more coordination”, to quote again. I don’t think there’s much more to say on the matter.
New theme switcher
Posted at 10:10 AM
I’ve added a new theme switcher in the right column. Instead of a boring text re-sizer, you now have the power to change the weather at will. Stay tuned for snowy, sleety and other weather themes. Maybe. Force refresh if anything looks wacky.Welcome to simplebits.com
Posted at 10:10 AM
So I’ve done some consolidation, and because I’m a neat freak and wanted everything in one place (freelance stuff, weblog, etc.) I’ve moved everything here, under one brand. I love my last name and all, but SimpleBits is easier to spell and remember and would work better as a company name. cederholm.org will forward here indefinitely. Viva la simplebits.com.Safari will have tabbed browsing
Posted at 10:10 AM
Think Secret:“In beta 62 of Safari, which has yet to be posted for download, tabbed browsing can be activated via the hidden debug menu. Once turned on, pressing Command-T opens a new tab.”
Cool. Apparently enough people requested this feature, and just like that, it’ll (most likely) be in the next beta version. I especially dig the like “x” icon on each tab for one-click closing.
Photoshop Lomo effect
Posted at 10:10 AM
After reading Kottke’s Lomo effect post, I had to try this out myself. Click the image on the right for a larger version. I didn’t bother with a “before and after”, but I will tell you, this short tutorial on how you can spice up your potos in Photoshop is quick, easy and well worth it.This particular photo is of a creepy cemetary in downtown Salem from a few weeks back. A few historical figures are buried here, as well as a memorial for the victims of the Salem witch trials of 1692.
In other news, I’ve started painting our house — or rather the entire downstairs of our condo. I estimate that I will be finished with the trim in approximately 46 months.
Inagurual Bucket Ball tournament
Posted at 10:10 AM
Well the first Bucket Ball tournament is in the… well, bucket. Sorry. I lost two games and was eliminated from the competition without a single victory. Damn. Heath has posted some great photos of the event. Yes, I am wearing a headband. It’s a sign of loyalty.I was unable to partake in the downing of Bud Light (in cans) due to the antibiotics that are fighting my annoying ear infection. But that’s another story.
Tortelloni vs. Tortellini
Posted at 10:10 AM
Which is it? I’ve been buying the Barilla spinach and ricotta tortelloni for quite some time now, not even noticing it was spelled this way on the packaging. I’ve always called it tortellini. To further confuse the matter, I’ve just watched a commercial for this very same product and they verbally called it tortellini, yet the product shot at the end of the commercial said tortelloni. This is an incredibly important matter.Update: Shannon writes:
“At least as I understand it, tortelloni are basically oversized tortellini (the former are about 1.5 - 2” across; the latter 1” or less).”
Mystery solved — this makes perfect sense.
Blizzard of '03
Posted at 10:10 AM
27.5 inches of snow have fallen in eastern Massachusetts. More than the total amount from the Blizzard of ‘78. I grew up in Vermont, so we had the Blizzard of ‘78, ‘79, ‘80 and so on and so forth. So anyhow, we have a snowblower. After maybe 20 pulls of the startup string (much like a lawnmower) I was getting nowhere. The 21st pull managed to start it and at the same time yank the string completely out of the engine. Great. Now if it stalled again, it’d be nothing but shoveling. Luckily it lasted quite a while and I was able to attack the 4 foot tall snow bank that separated my car from the freedom of (semi) drivable roads.What amazes me is that in this very same spot in the world, it will reach 100 degrees this summer. Ah, New England winters.
Wow.
Posted at 10:10 AM
Here is the largest, and best, collection of Swedish pop groups (warning: lots of large images) from the ’70s. My favorite might be “Garvis”. (link via sharkattack)Life of Pi
Posted at 10:10 AM
Just finished reading Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. Going into it, I didn’t know a whole lot about the book — just that it was about a boy and a tiger in a boat. It turned out to be a pretty amazing story of survival under bizarre circumstances. Apparently it is based on a true story, but fiction written mostly in the first person. I’ll have to do a little more research to find if it really is a true story. Highly recommended, and can’t say much more about it without ruining the story for you.
Update: After no more than 5 minutes doing a little Google searching, I’m more convinced that the book is entirely fictitious, rather than loosely based on a true story. Let me know if you know otherwise.
Update Update: It is indeed entirely fictitious, and the author Yann Martel explains the methods he used to write the story.
It is still a great book.
Google buys Pyra Labs (Blogger)
Posted at 10:10 AM
Dan Gillmor:“Google, which runs the Web’s premier search site, has purchased Pyra Labs, a San Francisco company that created some of the earliest technology for writing weblogs, the increasingly popular personal and opinion journals.”Wow, that’s pretty huge. It brings up all sorts of questions. I’m starting to be afraid of Google — that maybe we start relying on them too much, but it’ll sure be interesting to see what they do to improve Blogger. This is certainly good news for them, and well deserved.
Nick Denton comments on the Google/Pyra deal, as well as Dave Winer.
Bucket Ball
Posted at 10:10 AM
We’ve invented a game at work called Bucket Ball. It involves a trash can with a diameter of 8 and 3/4 inches and an 8 and 1/2 inch 4-square ball. The difference of 1/4 inch is incedibly important, as over or under this amount would result in gameplay that is either impossible or too easy. The gameplay of Bucket Ball involves elements of basketball, tennis, bowling, quarters, and chess. Anything can happen in the BBL.Two players sit in a chair at either end of a 14 foot long by 3 foot 2 inch wide “court”. The bucket sits at dead center. Each player tosses the ball toward the bucket. One bounce and in results in 1 point. Two bounces and in the bucket results in 2 points. Three bounces. 3 points (this have never been done before in competition or otherwise).
The first player to achieve 3 points wins the match. Knocking over the bucket with the ball results in a foul. the opposing player receives two shots — one foul shot and his or her regular turn.
Strategy plays a large role. The bucket can move around the court as a result of the ball hitting it. It is only reset to center after a point is scored or a foul. A person can only win by scoring exactly 3 points. In other words, he or she cannot score two consecutive 2 point shots in a row. The player must score a 2 point shot and a 1 point shot to win, or three 1 point shots
Scoring of the game is much like bowling (illustrated below). Three boxes for the 3 necessary points for victory. Each box marked with an “X” for each point scored. If a 2 point shot is made, one “X” is marked across two boxes. Similarly if the ever elusive 3 point shot is achieved.
Our first championship tournament is next Thursday, and I of course will be covering the events on this site.
Konfabulator: whatever you want it to be
Posted at 10:10 AM
Konfabulator is an interesting new OS X application that lets you make it do whatever you’d like it to. Developers can create “widgets” using XML and JavaScript that do various tasks — reading RSS feeds, to-do lists, weather updates, stocks, calendars, etc. A full tutorial walks you through the basics. The beauty is that the possibilities are truly endless while more widgets are created and made available to plug right in.Netscape's DevEdge redesigns
Posted at 10:10 AM
To practice what they preach, DevEdge has redesigned using a table-less CSS layout. Eric Meyer has added CSS drop-down menus and text sizing among other features. It’s always great to see site after site redesigning using CSS for layout — leaving those 5 year-old browsers behind (but still being accessible to all).New Christopher Guest movie
Posted at 10:10 AM
A Mighty Wind:“Christopher Guest follows up his acclaimed ensemble comedies Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman with a docu-comedy about three folk groups from the 60s who reunite for a memorial concert in New York City following the death of a legendary folk manager.”Wow. The trailer for this looks incredibly funny. All the same cast memebers from Best in Show are back. Can’t wait.
Safari updated
Posted at 10:10 AM
Safari has updated today. Looks like they’ve fixed a number of CSS bugs already. For some odd reason, the navigation on this site did not work in previous versions, but the update has fixed.Dave's live weblogging session at Harvard
Posted at 10:10 AM
Went to Dave Winer’s live weblogging session at Harvard last night. About 30 or so people showed up for what turned out to be some pretty interesting discussion. I wasn’t exactly sure what “live weblogging” would be. Do all of us just sit in a room and write on our weblogs? Actually, it was much more sensical than that. Dave would “post” a topic, and a (live) discussion “thread” would emerge. If a topic seemed to be dragging along, or taking up too much time, an entirely new one would be offered.Some of the highlights included:
- Dan Bricklin (one of the creators of the lengendary VisiCalc program) talking about something his company is developing called SMBmeta. Basically an RSS feed for small businesses that includes relevant information like directions, contact info and descriptions of what they do. Interesting application ideas were thrown around — if a mobile device could tap into these feeds based on location, for instance. What’s nice is that it puts the updating of this information in the hands of the business, and not a third-party directory or search engine.
- Dave talking about the two forks that have evolved for RSS, and how the importance is not on the format — but on the tools and applications that support it. It was good to hear this.
- How Harvard is much like Mircrosoft, in that it likes to get its name out there wherever it can. Surprisingly, this means good things for weblogs at Harvard — essentially giving every student the opportunity to self-publish under the Harvard name.
- A guy named Peter who runs reinvented.net said that no one has ever linked to him. Dave immediately asked for his URL. “Donna, you got that? OK, You’ve just been linked to.” Peter went on to say that he doesn’t care who reads his weblog (he’s been writing it since 1998). The purpose of his blog is soley for his 2 year old son — so that he will be able to read it when he’s older to see what his Dad was thinking during the time he was growing up. What a motive for blogging. A great reason.
- The guy who wrote RSD was there talking about how adoption for his format for linking services and weblogging software was adopted by systems like Blogger, MoveableType, Radio, etc. took just two days.
Donna Wentworth (Copyfight) has blogged the entire discussion on her site. Which is just strange, yet useful at the same time.
View images favelet
Posted at 10:10 AM
Tantek has posted a new view all images favelet. It will open all the images on the current page, in their own relatively sized window. Really helpful when pulling a page apart, or when needing to get image dimensions quickly (when using IE/Mac).Cuban Council
Posted at 10:10 AM
Cuban Council (the biz site of some of the people behind Kaliber 10000) is one of the more original portfolio sites I’ve seen in a while. What I like most about it, is that it’s one long scrolling page. Really exceptional design stuff going on here.Find Low Gas Prices
Posted at 10:10 AM
GasPriceWatch.com:“We monitor gas prices across the country so you can get the best deal in your area. Search our database to find the lowest gas prices in your area. Prices are updated frequently by users like you.”Cool idea. My zipcode came up with nothing, but then maybe I should become a spotter.
Dude, you're gettin' a cell
Posted at 10:10 AM
The Smoking Gun:“Benjamin Curtis, the 22-year old actor who portrays “Steven,” the Dell Guy, in those bothersome computer commercials, was arrested late last night (2/9) on a marijuana possession charge…”The Dell Dude annoys me almost as much as Jared from Subway. Wait - nothing could annoy me more than Jared.
The Simpsons unmasked
Posted at 10:10 AM
Last night I took in Bravo’s Inside the Actor’s Studio featuring the cast of the Simpsons. Well, the voices of the Simpsons I should say. It was surreal hearing the voices of Bart, Homer, Principal Skinner, Moe, etc. being spoken by a real life person. Surrealism aside though, it was hilarious and I hope they will replay this again in the future.Still cold
Posted at 10:10 AM
I’m feeling about as cold as this closeup of an ice sculpture. There was some sort of festival going on in Salem today. Luckily the weather was quite nice, then the sun goes down and everything freezes. I’m ready for spring. February is always the worst. Which reminds me — who pronounces the first “r” in February? I sure don’t, but I certainly should start trying.Proposed multipage view in Safari
Posted at 10:10 AM
I’m really liking this proposal for viewing multiple pages in one window in Safari. Instead of tabs (which are undeniably addictive in Mozilla and Chimera), this guy is proposing a slide-out drawer to keep screen shot thumbnails of different pages. A great idea, and it seems like Dave Hyatt (the lead developer of Apple’s Safari) is listening. In fact he received so many comments, he had remove most of them. (links via dive into mark)I am 30 years and 11 months younger than Geraldo Rivera
Posted at 10:10 AM
And…
27 years 11 months younger than George W. Bush, age 56
22 years 11 months younger than Jesse Ventura, age 51
18 years 7 months younger than Bill Gates, age 47
13 years 9 months younger than Cal Ripken Jr., age 42
7 years 11 months younger than Mike Tyson, age 36
3 years 10 months younger than Jennifer Lopez, age 32
1 year 7 months older than Tiger Woods, age 27
8 years 1 month older than Prince William, age 20
Amazing slideshow from the Milky Way to the nucleus of an oak leaf
Posted at 10:10 AM
Powers of Ten:View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida.Incredible how cyclical the universe is. From galaxies to electrons and protons.
A closer look at Cooler Ranch
Posted at 10:10 AM
Cool(er) Ranch Doritos (when did they start calling them cooler?) are addictive. Like heroin. Have you ever looked at a single chip up close though? I mean, really look at it? You’ll find some pretty weird, colored specks all over it. Some chips have more specks than others, but they all have a decent dusting. There’s red and green and black specks (so far so good) and then there’s blue specks! Blue. Yep. What spice or dehydrated vegetable would be blue? I can’t think of any, yet whatever it is I am convinced is what forces me to eat large quantities of this stuff.The Daily Photo Project
Posted at 10:10 AM
A guy. A camera. 365 days a year. These are the ingredients of the Daily Photo Project. He takes a self portrait of himself, with the same expression, every single day. For years. (thanks to zipfly for the link)GUI Galaxy
Posted at 10:10 AM
GUI Galaxy: Superbly designed site covering icon, pixel art, and OS X news. Looks a bit like K10k and hey, that’s where I found the link.Alton Brown's Sodium Chloride Containment Unit
Posted at 10:10 AM
Another one of those Christmas gifts that keeps on giving: Alton Brown’s salt cellar. A flip-top jar to hold… well, salt. Kosher salt of course. This thing really is great. One hand can simultaneously lift it off of the counter and (with a thumb) flip up the lid so that the other hand can pinch some salt. It will revolutionize the way you cook.Dave Winer weblogging live at Harvard
Posted at 10:10 AM
Looks like Dave of Userland and Scripting News will be hosting a live weblogging session in a Harvard classroom. The date is February 11th if you’re in the Boston area. Curiosity will no doubt lead me there if I have the date free.Protect those PowerBook screens
Posted at 10:10 AM
The boss-man has hooked me up with a new 15” PowerBook. Sweet, but also with something to protect the screen from the keyboard. Apparently it doesn’t take more than a few back-and-forth’s from the office to scratch the screen up (caused by the keyboard rubbing against). So get yourself a little neoprene strip from Marware that just covers the PowerBook’s keyboard so that when closed, the screen won’t get scratched from friction. Highly recommended — especially since it’s only $7.Another Shuttle Lost
Posted at 10:10 AM
I don’t really need to link to it, it’s of course on every televsion channel and web site this morning. It really brings me back 17 years to when the Challenger was lost. It was January then as well. What’s amazing to me is that we actually travel to space. That we’ve walked on the moon. Maybe someday somewhere even farther away. Even travelling in a commercial airplane amazes me. Still, it’s as sad as it was 17 years ago.
Bulletproof Web Design Second Edition New Riders
Web Standards Solutions The Markup and Style Handbook Friends of EdA tiny design studio founded by Dan Cederholm. We create simple interfaces balanced with a standards-based methodology, and we’re based in Massachusetts, USA.