Click Here: April 2007
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- Wired: You Grew Up Playing Shoot'em-Up Games. Why Can't Your Kids? #
- "The Lego Company, it seems, has a policy of not producing toys that replicate 20th century weapons. 'You can have swords, and you can have laser guns in space, but no actual 20th century guns.'" Despite my impressive portfolio career in Lego, I never noticed this. Sounds very smart, though. We need more of that.
- The New Yorker: Commuting Erodes the Soul #
- "'I was shocked to find how robust a predictor of social isolation commuting is,' Robert Putnam, a Harvard political scientist, told me. (Putnam wrote the best-seller Bowling Alone, about the disintegration of American civic life.) 'There's a simple rule of thumb: Every ten minutes of commuting results in ten per cent fewer social connections. Commuting is connected to social isolation, which causes unhappiness.'" I commute 25 minutes each way, which I intend to reduce. I guess there's an argument for the shorter the better, but a bit of separation between work and life sounds good to me, so I think a 15-minute commute could be healthy. I used to take 40 minutes to get to uni, but I minded less, because it was mostly walking - good for me and the planet - and I had more free time, I guess. The numbers in this story, though, are crazy - over an hour is practically normal. Not good, society!
- Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger #
- Holy crap this is awesome. Also: I want to work there.
- Uncensor the Internet with Greasemonkey #
- Script/extension that converts f*ck to fuck, etc. I've always wondered what the point of that was. This reminds me of the Nocents forum, where debate raged over swearing filters, eventually resulting in an expletive-to-vegetable solution. You see, we couldn't have swear words, because there might be kids reading the forum! Honestly, if there were kids reading our forum, I'd be more concerned that it was making them dumb.
- Anil Dash: Is Pidgin the Firefox of IM? #
- You know GAIM? Well, funny story, but now it's called Pidgin. Anil Dash says nice things and compares it to Firefox, but man, I used GAIM, and it was the antithesis of Firefox. Poorly chosen fonts, rough UI, and that cardinal sin of usability, focus-stealing. Has it improved that much?
- xkcd: Comic Fragment #
- It's funny, after many years of reading PA, their comics often make me laugh but never really inspire me. This site, though, I just love the art that goes into it. This site makes we want to write comics.
- YouTube: Zero 7 - In The Waiting Line #
- How to stop a war: play this song.
- YouTube: Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy #
- Classic!
- Video: Exploding Storm Drain #
- Hot damn, that's big. I love how the motorists fully take it on though. Yes, my car can drive underwater!
- ALA: The Web Design Survey, 2007 #
- "People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Who are we?"
- Woman Arrested with State Record Blood Alcohol Level #
- "... was getting off state Route 520 at Redmond Way when Jarrett's car hit her from behind. ... when Jarrett tried to drive off, Jarrett's car hit a sport utility vehicle driven by Darlene Green. 'I saw her reach over into her purse and pick out a small, airline-sized bottle of Smirnoff vodka and drink it,' Green said." When you're hardcore, you take drink-driving literally.
- IE7 Already at 30% Market Share #
- If those stats are accurate - and they sound feasible, since IE7 is being pushed out via automatic update - it looks like we need to be seriously testing our sites in IE7 already. What worries me, though, is how the line is plateauing. Die, IE6! Firefox, on the other hand... there are no plateaus in sight.
- Announcing Coda 1.0 #
- A web development app combining text editor, FTP, preview etc in ways that are neither crippled nor bloated. Seems a bit obvious, really, but Panic might be the first to pull it off. A lot of highlights as I read through that page, although I tend to favour an open skies, general-purpose text editor model myself.
- My other interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt #
- The one where he gets all these intimate insights into Google management and culture. Wow.
- Ten Predictions #
- Interesting (and entertaining) stuff.
- Jamba Juice's "Non-Dairy Blend" Secret Ingredient? Milk. #
- Much like Ribena, you wonder what made them think no one would ever find out.
- DI: Project Alpha and the Spoon Benders #
- I'm not as dumb as the average person, but this certainly gives me pause. Either he's for real, or he's one Hell of a magician. Either way, kudos! Kudos!
- Apple: A Romance #
- Some fulla talking about the life-changing aspects - both good and bad - of working at Apple. Gave me pause for thought, as I have been through some serious hours at my own job recently. He cites Steve Jobs Stanford commencement speech, which is worth a look.
- I'd rather be Microsoft than Yahoo #
- "Microsoft is still a leader. They rule the OS space, they rule the corporate desktop. ... Where is Yahoo’s leadership? What are they leading in?" Good question. In my entire internet career, I'm not sure if I've ever used a single Yahoo product (not more than once, anyway). Also, look how Google is kicking their arse.
- Black Caps Return to Form #
- I knew seven wins from eight was too good to be true, but why is it we always have to follow it up with record-breaking losses? Given that we've failed dismally against the only two in-form teams of the tournament, it's hard to see us lifting the cup.
- The Death of the CD Store #
- Not exactly news to anyone who's heard of the internet, but I thought it raised an interesting point - nearly everything is moving onto the net. Why? Instant gratification! Cost structure advantages! These are the things that are shaping our society. Yay for the free market.
- DI: Submersible Aircraft Carriers #
- Surprise!
- OMGCAT !!! #
- Without sites like this, how empty the internet would be.
- NYT: Virginia Gunman Identified as a Student #
- Article about the recent shooting resulting in at least 32 deaths, many more wounded. I remember seeing Elephant a few years ago, and it was a particularly good film. The attitude of the killers conveyed a very quiet horror. It was the way in which it was so normalised, so casual, so endemic. There's a leak in the boiler room.
- Jakob Nielsen: Why Mobile Phones are Annoying #
- Bystanders considered phone conversations to be twice as irritating as face-to-face conversations - it seems hearing half a conversation is far more intrusive than the whole.
- Canadian Interview Gone Horribly Wrong #
- WARNING: Do not ever click this link. Oh yeah, and - don't do drugs.
- Freelancing #
- Mike Zornek is a man who no longer works for The Man.
- Wired's Interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt #
- Interesting stuff. It's unusual to have a company like Google that is an industry heavyweight and household name while still being young and pioneering. Thought exercise: imagine a world without Google.
- YouTube: We Will Rock You - Queen #
- Wicked.
- HTML5, XHTML2, and the Future of the Web #
- Great summary. I still don't really understand why we can't have XML syntax with loose error-checking, though. Isn't that what we have now with XHTML Transitional?
- Multi-dimensional Mindfuck #
- Great little puzzle game where you build a 3D construct from orthogonal views. Surprisingly challenging, especially the first one (!). (The interface blows, so: click on the main image to add blocks, use "Break down" below to take them away. Drag to pan. A little indicator will appear on the left list; you would expect yellow to mean almost done (perhaps too many blocks) and green to mean done. You would be exactly wrong.)
- Playboy Interview with Joseph Heller & Kurt Vonnegut #
- Fucking Awesome.
- The Logo for Antisolipsism Is a Giant Dragon with RPGs for Arms Parachuting In from Space #
- (See comic's title attribute or blog.) So some people made logos.
- YouTube: You'll be Free, Hackers! #
- Don't you know he's loco? I was disappointed, though, that the others didn't all join him for the final chorus. Do we have a Rambleschmack song yet?
- Never stick your hand in my face again bitch #
- If grins could kill. Make sure you read the last sentence, "This one dude is fucking crazy."
- BBC: The Future of Firefox #
- Mike Schroepfer and Brendan Eich talk about Firefox 3 and Firefox 4.
- Dear W3C, Please Adopt HTML5 #
- Signed Apple, Mozilla and Opera.
- PA: The universe will not be altered by forum threads #
- "People seem to think that by posting in threads and agreeing with other people they are changing the world. They are not. They are posting in threads online. The universe will not be altered by forum threads, even those which are very wry. Being outraged online is a form of entertainment, and refreshing a thread to receive a hit of consensus packs the thrill of genuine activism without requiring any sweat. I'm afraid this test may require more from the community than a sardonic jpeg."
- Desktop Tower Defense #
- Whatever you're doing right now, stop! This is at least 6 times more important. Update: Challenge me now in group rambleschmack.
- Airbag Department of Security Blog Advisory System #
- (In the comments.) Man, every time I visit this website, it makes me want to become a better graphic designer. Update: Get your own!
- DF: AAC, MP3 and Ogg #
- Even my Samsung phone, which kind of sucks as a music player, plays AAC. Update: DivX joins the party.
- Stop Making the Arseholes Look Good #
- Good blog post about the recent "Blogging Code of Ethics" movement. One of the filters I use to harshly and condescendingly judge people I meet is to decide whether they side more with arseholes or wankers, where arseholes are dicks, and wankers denounce the arseholes and split their time between holding doors open and savouring the thought of how awesome they are. Dense people think the wankers are wonderful, and a good filter is born. YMMV. (We were going to have a Nocents blogging policy once. No R18 material, no excessive swearing, no HTML that broke the page layout. You really need to clear up these grey areas.)
- And the Bloggers Turn Nasty #
- Good article describing the recent death threats against Kathy Sierra. Is she overreacting? I think if I were in her position, I would be pretty freaked out myself. Either way, it's a very nasty business.
- Paul Graham: Microsoft is Dead #
- "Microsoft? He didn't say anything, but I could tell he didn't quite believe anyone would be frightened of them." I'm a sucker for these regicide articles, but this one is interesting and a quick read.
- Virtuoso Goes Busking; People Are Not Entertained #
- Very long, but it may well be worth closing your 5 other tabs of DOG ON SKATEBOARD, LOL!! et al and reading this instead. Some things remind me that far too much of the prose I read is disposable.
- Filipinos crucify themselves on Good Friday #
- Because there's no point being religious if you're not going to take it crazy extremes.
- Wolf T Shirt #
- Painful, yet hilarious.
- No Hire #
- His site blows anyway. It's beyond me why he couldn't get it working in Firefox.
- New Vista PCs Still Covered in Ads, Trial Crapware #
- I thought Microsoft had finally got a clue about this stuff.
- When Reporters Set Agendas #
- "Thanks for calling but we only want to talk to someone who thinks this is a bad thing."
- Floor Tiles #
- Man, do I love this webcomic. Extracts the funny directly out of human nature. Also, those are incredibly expressive blank faces.
- Internet Access Captchas #
- Sorely needed.
- Netscape 4: Back in the Game #
- "The quality of the NS browser version 4 is displayed by the number of users who continue to use that browser as their browser of choice." They show Netscape at 11.85% of the market. Uh huh, uh huh. Some more likely-looking stats for comparison.
- Apple: Confidence vs. Protectionism #
- "So what of Buffet's moats and competitive advantage analysis? I think it still holds, it's just that Apple's sustainable competitive advantage is their deep trust in the inherent value of their products and the experiences they provide. Almost no one has that these days."
- The Purgegate Primer #
- Interesting article backgrounding the recent US Attorney scandal. A great read. You just don't get this sort of thing in NZ politics - we're more like someone being smuggled into the country to paint an MPs house.
- EMI to Offer DRM-Free Online Music #
- One of the big labels shows worrying signs of sanity. This could be a pivotal moment in The Great Music Piracy Saga. I like how you have to pay more for the non-DRM music though. The price of freedom! (cf. Steve Jobs' recent essay.)
- Twitter: Is Brevity The Next Big Thing? #
- I really enjoyed this, and you get the impression he (Steven Levy) really enjoyed writing it, which is cool to see in a professional publication (instead of the usual cookie-cutter crap).
- The Flying Crowbar #
- "Pluto's namesake was Roman mythology's ruler of the underworld -- seemingly an apt inspiration for a locomotive-size missile that would travel at near-treetop level at three times the speed of sound, tossing out hydrogen bombs as it roared overhead. Pluto's designers calculated that its shock wave alone might kill people on the ground. Then there was the problem of fallout. In addition to gamma and neutron radiation from the unshielded reactor, Pluto's nuclear ramjet would spew fission fragments out in its exhaust as it flew by." So, like, totally bodacious, man, but then again, kind of a disgusting way to spend all that money really.
- Mark Pilgrim: document.wacko #
- Well, I checked, and I'm pretty sure it's not an April Fool's joke.
- YouTube: MC Rove #
- At times like this, I'm not sure what to say. Thank you Stew, I guess.
- YouTube: Last 45 Seconds of Divison II Basketball Championship #
- 7 points down, they needed everything to go their way if they were going to pull off a win.
- Have You Secured Your Animated Cursors? #
- That's right - there's now a Windows vulnerability in animated cursor handling. The good news for Vista is that its new locked-down user accounts largely prevent any damage.
- DI: Hadji Ali and the Regurgitators #
- Just in case you started thinking people weren't crazy.
- And They Still Make a Profit #
- Here's an internal Powerpoint presentation of the incredible amount of work AOL went to in order to come up with a crap product name. One of the things that always irritates me is how people - and managers excel at this - can manage to do so much work without being productive. (And I mean this in the larger sense, like what people do with all the time in their lives.) You'd think at some point they would say hey, so this is pointless.
