With all the recent dot-com layoffs, the available talent pool is much better today than it was even six months ago. At my job, where we are currently hiring at a steady pace, I've noticed the quality of job candidate go up. However, reading all the horror stories about inexcusable overstaffing, clueless management, and legions of cube-farm dwellers makes me wonder if it isn't all for the best. Perhaps the bulk of these recent jobless people are better off not working in the dot-com industry. The hard part now, is to separate the exceptional talent from the rest.
I'm told that CamWorld is referenced on page 81 of Jeff Veen's new book, "The Art and Science of Web Design." This book is on my reading list, so perhaps I need to visit a bookstore today and get a copy. Thanks Jeff!
Last night I met Doc Searls at the openadaptor.org launch party. Smart guy! He was kicking around with none other than Eric S. Raymond, both in town for LinuxWorld.
To prevent the same DNS problems Microsoft had last week, they've outsourced some of the management of these DNS services to Akamai, who uses Linux, the Register reports. I see it simply as choosing the best tool/technology for the job.
You see, the problem with George W. Bush being out President is that far too many people probably don't recognize the legality that he actually is our President. Sure, he's in office. Sure, he can pass laws. But really, how many people would rather just see the guy get impeached or assassinated? I'm guessing a higher percentage than you might think.
Ha ha! I saw this "street sign" last week when I was in San Francisco, but didn't have a camera. Actually, if I recall correctly, I saw a different (but identical) sign on the corner of Bush and Market (not Montgomery) streets, but the impact was the same.
Last week in San Francisco, I saw this guy walking down Market Street. This link and the above are the courtesy of kottke.org.
Microsoft FUD. For some reason I'm strangely reminded of the popular Far Side cartoon with the dog luring the cat into the clothes dryer with signs saying "CAT FUD" and arrows. Oh yeah, for those who don't know, FUD is an acronym for "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt."
Slashdot: Mac OS X on x86?
I love the title of this paper.
From the make-Cam-happy department:
To Our Valued Apple Customer: Thank you for ordering Apple's new PowerBook G4 from the Apple Store. We are very excited that we have started shipping PowerBook orders this week in the sequence they were received. We anticipate shipping your new PowerBook within the next few days and we will email you the moment it is shipped. You should receive a shipping confirmation email by Saturday of this week.
To Our Valued Apple Customer:
Thank you for ordering Apple's new PowerBook G4 from the Apple Store.
We are very excited that we have started shipping PowerBook orders this week in the sequence they were received. We anticipate shipping your new PowerBook within the next few days and we will email you the moment it is shipped. You should receive a shipping confirmation email by Saturday of this week.
I've been pretty busy these past few days. The latest site I helped build for CollabNet (my employer) is now live: http://www.openadaptor.org. I'm also proud to say that I came up with the openadaptor name for this client's software during a brainstorming session. Cool.
Microsoft: Linux Destined to Fall by the Wayside. That's one giant pile of typical Microsoft FUD if I ever saw one. Who are they trying to kid?
Giant diagram showing the history and branching of Unix.
Screenshots of an early build of IE 6 (for Windows 2000).
A large collection of links about Microsoft's .NET initiative.
Good article about Marc Andreessen in Fast Company. I noticed, too, that Fast Company has redesigned their site. Looks a bit too much like Salon.com?
Standard CNet article on the direction software development is going.
Joel on Software: Daily Builds Are Your Friend
Last week, I was pissed that some of Microsoft's web services were down for nearly a day. I incorrectly blamed a lack of scalability as the problem, when the real problem was a router misconfiguration. I still stand by my statement that large-scale web application absolutely must scale if you're going to build paid services around them -- regardless of whether you are Microsoft or not.
Zeldman on CSS. Finally, a quick cheat sheet to follow!
Sigh, more spam about Flash. Flash advocates need to counter-act this bad reputation these morons are building...
Apparently, there is an old Native American legend that says every U.S. President elected in a year ending in zero will die in office from natural causes or otherwise. Since 1840, this has come true with one exception -- Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980 -- survived an assassination attempt. How does this fare for George W. Bush?
OK, I've changed the CSS defaults back to the way they previously were due to some unexpected problems. If you've set the CSS cookie to "ON" (click the little "f" box in the Choose Color controls) and are getting rendering weirdness, send me a screenshot and let me know what browser on what OS you're using.
Hey, Hotmail works today. Perhaps I'll switch to Yahoo Mail...
A fun chat transcript
You can stop submitting the Google "dumb motherfucker" link. I've seen it several hundred times...
OK, I'm going to go into serious rant mode right now. I am becoming increasingly pissed off at the number of web applications that simply don't work. At work we use a site called expensable.com to report our expenses. Up until now, I've been able to live with the silly technology decisions they made when building the site. Things like using a javascript pop-up window to contain the web application (doesn't work if you have javascript disabled). Things like using VBscript to allow printing of an expense report (note that this only works in IE on Windows. Mac and Linux users using Netscape must print screenshots if they want a hard copy. Ugh!). Understand that this isn't some free service. My employer pays a fee to use this service. Recently, I haven't even been able to get into the damn site because they horked their database or something. Yeah, that's customer service for you. I worry about the state of fee-based web applications. I really do.
Oh yeah. Good luck geting to Hotmail today. Apparently Microsoft also hasn't a damn clue about how to run a large-scale web application service, either. Right, like I'm going to pay for a service like Hotmail when it works only half the time. Oh, and Microsoft wants to make all their software web-based with their .NET service? Good god, people. Your technologies must scale if you're going to make them successful.
I changed the default for index.html on this site to use CSS, which is why some of you are seeing a slightly-changed layout that takes advantage of some CSS functionality, namely font-size and line-height. Also note that I changed the default color to white/red instead of grey. Let me know if you think this is a bad idea. Also note that all other pages other than index.html have a reversed cookie value regarding CSS. Hmmm, maybe that wasn't such a good idea...
To Vignette or Not to Vignette.
Either this is one incredibly lame recruiter or someone is messing around with some strange kind of new spam. Read the recruiter spam I received and then read the requirements for this job. Bizarre...
I find it disgusting that the majority of The Blank Stare's cabinet are millionaires. It's not going to stop me from taking advantage of the new tax laws, though. I just find it disturbing that the rich have such influence over the make-up of this country's government.
100 Links to Info About Bush.
The New York Times on Donald A. Norman.
Apple Internet Developer: Changing Styles On-The-Fly. Note that iht.com uses some of this functionality for its individual story pages. I'm a huge advocate of user-controllable UI design, but am not a fan of doing it using client-side technologies (javascript, CSS, etc.). I would much rather use server-side scripting to re-render the page once a user performs the action to modify a change in the UI or page layout.
I knew this was coming. A little birdie whispered it in my ear back in December.
O'Reilly launched their new P2P site: openp2p.com
Taylor on Flash vs. CSS
Joel on Software: Big Macs vs. The Naked Chef. Joel warns us that any kind of methodology is a bad thing. I disagree slightly, since I believe that some kind of methodology or development process during software engineeering (web-based or otherwise) needs to be followed or your end product will end up being a giant mess due to a lack of formalization. A better idea is to have a chief software architect create an abstract or outline for the developers to follow, which will prevent them from straying too far from the intended end result, while still allowing for the freedom and innovation that software engineers have when not following a strict methodology.
Crossgain fires 25% of its staff because of a Microsoft non-compete clause. Smells fishy. Read the FoRK thread on this.
Slashdot: Help Develop an Open Projects Community Site
This is too funny:
"Due to a small but significant clause in the U.S. Constitution, I will be out of the office from January 21, 2001 until January 20, 2005" -- Al Gore's White House voicemail.
The other night I was talking with some old friends about the state of things in this country. A friend who will remain unnamed mentioned that a psyhic friend of hers (who has been eerily correct in the past) has predicted that Vice President Dick Cheney will die of a heart attack this April and that George W. Bush will be assassinated sometime in the year 2002. Now, I don't normally pay attention to psychic predictions, but like most, this one seems to have a kernel of truth to it. We'll see...
Woke up this morning with a killer hangover only to witness The Blank Stare get sworn in. Oh my, I should have stayed in bed.
Am stuck in San Francisco until Monday due an impromptu client meeting being scheduled for that day. I suppose there are worse places I could be killing a weekend at...
Remote Collaborative Authoring Resources. Wow! Excellent collection of links. Bookmark this one.
Good tech commentary at TranquilEye.com. Why does this site seem familiar to me? I may be confusing it with Steven Champeon's A Jaundiced Eye.
For the past few days I've been using Windows 98 on a loaner IBM Thinkpad instead of the typical Mac or Linux terminal I usually sit in front of. I love the keyboard on the Thinkpads, but am hating-hating-hating the stupid little red-dot mouse thing stuck in the middle of the keyboard. And, of course, I have to deal with the typical annoyances of Windows, sigh...I wish Apple would ship my G4 Powerbook already...
Vignette cuts 15% of workforce. Interesting...
Open Source Comes to Wireless: This is Big
The project I've been working on for the past three months or so has finally been announced. It's a contract with Motorola that uses our collaborative development software platform to bring developers together to work on applications and games for a new phone that uses the J2ME technology.
Speaking of collaborative environments, our office in New York is closed today due to mandatory evacuation because of construction. So, because it's not an official holiday for us, everyone is required to work from home, something only a small percentage of our work force has done regularly. It's a testament to how good your company's internal network is that it allows SSH-enabled access to all the machines you would normally have access to while in your physical work location.
Back in New York, exhausted. Last night I had some wonderful homebrewed beer at Todd Fahrner's apartment in San Francisco. I told Todd that I might show up with a couple of coworkers after dinner, and ended up with a full contingent of six people. Luckily, Todd had a fresh-brewed keg -- plenty to go around. Such a gracious host, and an expert on CSS as well. The taxi ride back to Brisbane (where my hotel/office is located) was completely fascinating. Our driver was an old Welsh guy who called himself "Mountain Man Vick" and he looked the part too. An amazing storyteller with a Master's degree in anthropology, Mountain Man Vick talked our ears off, telling us stories about getting stabbed and shot during the years he's been a cab driver. He also handed us business cards and proclaimed he was a licensed tour guide. I can believe it. The guy was simply unreal. One of those experiences in a taxi that you never forget.
Breakfast this morning at Max's Cafe in Burlingame with Elan. He's doing well at Cooper Interaction Design and is very happy in California. We talked about SXSW -- I'm not sure if I'm going this year. My career is so different now from what it was a year ago. I'm more interested these days in speaking at conferences rather than attending them.
Oh yeah. I ordered myself a Titanium Powerbook G4. It will replace my creaky-but-reliable Powerbook 1400c that has survived many trips stuffed into a standard shoulder bag. I was very close to buying a Sony Vaio, but Apple came through at the last minute, giving me the option to buy one really kick-ass, light-weight, fast and sexy laptop. Geek lust. It's all about geek lust.
Fun facts about McDonalds restaurants.
Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good
Notice that I modified mine just a bit...
Jeff Veen's new book on web design (The Art and Science of Web Design) is finally out. Now all I have to do is wait for the package to arrive.
Microsoft's xBox vs. Sex
O'Reilly Mac DevCenter: Mac OS X Opens Apple to a New Audience
The future of IE 6.0? This only serves Microsoft's best interests in making IE the underlying foundation for their .NET inititative, and by forcing people to use a tightly-integrated IE 6.0 with the next version of Windows, they would then have a whole new distributed application platform that allows them to do controlled micropayments, among other things.
Last night after a client dinner, I was talking with some co-workers about the scary possibility of Microsoft acquiring a company like UPS or FedEx. It'd be no different, really, than the recent mergers of some of the large telecommunications companies. In this case, though, Microsoft would acquire a huge physical distribution network that would allow them to tightly integrate their micropayment plans (see above post) with the actual physical distribution of goods bought through an e-commerce transaction. Scary, huh?
This is pretty interesting. In 1960, United Flight 826 crashed in Park Slope, Brooklyn - the neighborhood I now live in. Being the Internet geek I am, I naturally started looking for information about this and came up with some interesting sites with lots of pictures. And, for the truly dedicated, you can even buy original photos of the plane crash from eBay.
A Linux-based PDA. Cool.
Another example of why some tech journalists get such a bad wrap. Hey buddy, did you even do your research on OS X? Jeez.
How to Piss Off Your Customers 101, presented by eBay.
Dreamcast on NetBSD? That would be be pretty cool...
WebTechniques: Invasion of the Usability Experts
Microsoft Technical Support vs. The Psychic Friends Network: Which Provides Better Support for Microsoft Products?
Um....um, ummmm...um...hmmmm...
I've been watching my old college pal Aaron Draplin (Art Director of Snowboarder Magazine) discover the wonders of Blogger. I set him up with a web site a while back and enabled it for him to use Blogger to update it. He took to it like a duck takes to water. This is a guy who knows almost nothing about web design and technologies, but has managed to learn just enough HTML to use Blogger to keep his site updated with fresh content on a daily basis. It really is one-click publishing for the masses.
Need some recent browser stats? Here you go.
Aha! And an excellent IA reading list, too.
Why Primary Navigation Must Die. Hmmm, interesting... [via Mersault*Thinking]
Apple's new Titanium Powerbook is exactly what I've needed for a long time. I'm definitely buying one.
Demoroniser - Correct Moronic Microsoft HTML. Anil Dash sent me a link to this MS Office 2000 filter which also seems to help (if you have a Windows PC with Office 2000...)
Off to San Francisco for a week. Updated may or may not be sporadic.
Red Herring: Apple's core is still sweet
Plug-in technologies are often the most vulnerable when it comes to security risks. I am not surprised.
Risks of Executable Web Content
Cool! The house from Goonies is up for sale. A mere $130,000 on eBay.
I can hear the sound of many readers bookmarking links today. Enjoy.
Tweney: The Misery of Web Applications
Navigation in Web Applications
Building Large-Scale Dynamic Web Applications
Cameron Laird's personal notes on scripting for Web applications
The Center for Open Source Collaboration Technologies: Specification Writing for Web-based Project Planning Software
Xen is a Zope-based task tracking and project management system.
Government Technology: The Ascendancy of the Project Manager
The WISE (Web Integrated Software Environment) Project Management System
Architectural Record: Web-Based Project Management Software
Infoworld Comparison: Web-Based Project Management
Unix Web Application Architectures
ERP News: Bridging Business Apps with the Web
White Paper on Web Testing: Meeting the Unique Challenges of Testing Web Applications
Testing Web Applications, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
A bit dated, but still good/relevant info: Web Interface Design: Learning from our Past
A Formal Model of Competence Knowledge for User Interface Design
UIUC: User Interface Design
ZDNet: A Good User Interface is Hard to Find
Comparing PHP with Perl for Dynamic Web Pages
Please no. Please, please, please, no. Please God, no... [via SVN]
Pathetic: "Rainbow stickers placed on police cars and other city vehicles earlier this month are being removed because of hundreds of complaints from citizens who fear the emblem promotes homosexuality." I am not surprised one bit. This is the same close-minded town I lived in some years back when I was fired from my job.
Upside: The Year For Open Source
NSA: Security-Enhanced Linux
I disagree with so many things this guy is saying, I don't know where to start.
OneChannel.net: Content Management
Who Wants to Marry a SysAdmin? Eek! Bachelor No. 8 was our old sysadmin in San Francisco...
ModLayout: The Apache Layout system
NouveauGeek: The Return of Content
OK, every once in a while, I share with my readers the mailing lists that I subscribe to. I do this as a knowledge-sharing initiative, not to boost the membership counts of such lists. If you do subscribe to any of these, based on my recommendation, please follow standard list etiquette and behave:
Please note that there are a couple of private lists I am a member of as well. These lists are invitation-only due to the self-destructive nature of some high-volume industry-centric lists. To become member of such lists, keep your eyes and ears open and perhaps you will be invited eventually. Typically, only people with a proven background in the list's topic will get invited by the list owner and be asked to participate.
Jon Katz: Rethinking Virtual Communities, Part Three
CHI-WEB: Flash Usability Tips and Testing -- Summary
UT-Austin: Role of librarians in information architecture
Why Flash is stupid (so are all animations)
13 rules for Accessible Web Pages
Brief interview with my old pal Jason Fried of 37Signals. If I weren't working for CollabNet, I'd probably be working for these guys. Smart.
What the hell is this: gogole.com (a typo of google.com)
European reader Colin O'Brien writes:
You were wondering what gogole.com is. Well, based on what I can see, it's probably some French guy who registered that domain through a redirection service (a whois leads to namezero who's banner you see at the bottom of the screen), and redirected to Microsoft's pages about Bill Gates (probably until he can do something with the domain). I deduced this from the following facts; gogole or gogol are slang terms used in French for Mongol. That term is often used to talk about stupid people, idiots, etc, not mongols in the medical or geographical senses of the term. Also, if you look at the page title, it's "Bilou" which is a nickname given to Bill Gates by French-speaking people, it's not always derogatory but usually is. Of course, I may be completely wrong.
Of course, I may be completely wrong.
Characterizing People as Non-Linear, First-Order Components in Software Development
The Mozilla Project has released a new roadmap. Excellent.
The New York Mozilla Developer Meeting is being held January 29th, the day before LinuxWorld Expo.
So, Linkshare just sent me this piece of spam recommending that I don't use Netscape 6 to access my Linkshare account. What disturbs me most about this ridiculous email is that they outright recommend that their users not use Netscape 6 because it doesn't meet their standards. Um, Linkshare, get a clue. Your technology has always sucked (I had to use/implement it when I worked at Borders.com), and just because your lame engineers can't get it to work with a standards-compliant browser doesn't mean that you can dictate what web browser people should or shouldn't use. The point I'm making is that something in Linkshare's engineering obviously sucks pretty hard if it doesn't work in Netscape 6, especially given the fact that Netscape 6 is based on publicly-available industry standards. It's not Netscape 6 that needs to change, it's Linkshare.
Well, we made it through another year. Congratulations.
Here are my New Years Resolutions:
Jon Katz: Rethinking Virtual Community: Part Two
Mikhail Gorbachev: Mr. Bush, the World Doesn't Want to Be American
Quotations on Simplicity in Software Design [via SVN]
Reviews of Web Conferencing Software
Some people just don't get it. If you're going to submit a site to CamWorld, you should make sure I can at least view it first. Requiring Internet Explorer 5.5 to view a site is a slap in the face not only to me, but also to the millions of people still using Netscape 4.x and other browsers on platforms that aren't so damn Microsoft-centric. No brownie points for you, pal.
It's disturbing to me to come across sites that have obviously never been through any kind of cross-browser testing. When building your site, keep these rules in mind:
The Care and Feeding of Your Hacker
Phil Agre: Wrapping Up the Election
