onfocus

Reuters Photo: "The World Trade Organization meeting was delayed on Tuesday because protesters had stopped the U.S. and other delegations from attending the opening ceremony at a downtown theater, officials said."

this quote came up in conversation today. I wonder how it relates to the web.

whoa, mthology has a new look. me gusta!

A weblog is not a contest to be won, in my opinion. While it may be a game, I think a major objective of the game is to get more people playing so the game continues. (it's not about beating others out.) There is no way that all players would be able to agree on a winner, so any title a weblogger "wins" would be meaningless. (Can you tell I've been reading Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse?)

Ceci n'est pas une blog.

I used to work in Petaluma, CA. It looked just like this.

e-irony: I ordered a book called Nanotime from Amazon. They said it would ship in 3-5 weeks.

Just to allay your fears... I will not be participating in the weblog banner free-for-all. We all see enough banners already. However, I would like to plug my friends' weblogs. Their links are to the left. Thank you.

And, of course, I'd like to see people having auctions on their own site (with their own design) at the same time that it's on ebay.

I bought two old computers through ebay this weekend. It was great fun. Each seller had a 3rd party pseudo-automated back-end for processing orders. One of them was called Andale. I think there's a real business opportunity there...especially if someone could allow any individual to accept credit card payments.

Jorn Barger came up with a simple way to explain regular expressions with exuberance. beautiful.

I'd like to send a C₈H₁₀N₄O₂ thanks to the woman at Grateful Bagel who made the best soy mocha ever this morning. Thanks! zing!

wshew!

go big red! (1 play. 1 touchdown.)

don't buy anything tomorrow.

happy thanksgiving!

This is a test post. (to verify that FTP is working.)

word of the day: sarcasm - a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual

sometimes I'm too sarcastic. (now is not one of those times.)

CO: "Luke, you've turned off your computer!"
Luke: "I know. I'm all right."

telepathy is a tricky business.

I think my "NEW, FAVORITE HOLIDAY TRADITION" will be boycotting companies that send unsolicited email. Like evite. They should know better. (spam #9632) Hey everyone, check out seeUthere for all of your event related needs.

This is jackie's favorite spot.

If you run a weblog, consider participating in a day without weblogs. or a day without art.

a sobering AIDS reminder.

yet another milestone at pyra today. I think this calls for some good music: Milestones by Miles Davis.

I definately do not want to get into a nerdy coder fight with mthology. He'll open up a can of core dump on me.

If you like megnut, you can read onfocus (this weblog) megnut style.

Hello megnut readers. Isn't megnut the bomb? I used to be more popular than her. I used to send more traffic to her than she ever did to me. Then she started smoking and drinking. And the cool kids said, oh, she smokes and drinks, she must be cool. And then I looked like a nerdy coder compared with her. And now my referer logs are filled with people coming from megnut. It's just megnut this and megnut that around here. I might have to transfer to another Internet if this trend continues. fer sure.

Y2K: "While simple computer error is at the heart of the potentially catastrophic problems, Nick must use old-fashioned ingenuity if he is to save the day in this race-against-time action adventure."

Is y2k a real computer problem, or the most fiendishly clever marketing scheme ever devised by network television?

It seems that Ebay has conquered the need for welfare.

pic: chairs

pic: noe flowers

"I don't know. I don't care. And it doesn't make any difference." - Jack Kerouac

Ralph Nader/In the Public Interest: "What if Alan Greenspan was actually worried about working people?" [via eatonweb]

visit the motherpage.

once upon a time called now. make my funk the p.funk.

I bet egroups will force "onelist" to change their name to "on e-list". e-rrrrific!

best wishes to Bob Green, his family, and everyone facing Lenny today.

24 x 7 Books offers online tech books. (like ematter, they need reviews! or a partnership with epinions.)

Backinprint should pair up with Project Gutenberg or Fatbrain's Ematter (if they want to make money) to provide online versions of the books they print.

Live updates from the heart of Lenny. Anguilla News Daily Update: "Power is on again, but for how long? It is raining again."

From Bob Green: "Blogger updates will continue until I shut down or the Internet to the island goes down. So there may not be any warning on the site..."

We're listening to Handsome Boy Modeling School in the office today. It has samples from this episode of Chris Elliot's classic series Get A Life!

Engaged in high-level strategic planning last night on the cosmic patio, it was decided (after cocktails) that certain steps to capitalize on the pokemon and .com-double-"o" phenomena were needed. Henceforth, blogger shall be known as blooger. Cutesy cartoon avatar coming soon.

Today at the office we're listening to Villa Elaine by Remy Zero.

Word of the day: malaise - an indefinite feeling of debility or lack of health often indicative of or accompanying the onset of an illness.

ps. I'd like to build an XML based system that would allow people to compile lists of books like these to share with others without going through a company like Amazon.

For those of you who know me, you know the last thing I need in this world is more books. I'm trying hard not to buy them. And whenever I move to a new place to live I curse them and dream of the day when they're all online. (bits before atoms!) However, there are quite a few I would like. And when Dan linked to the nifty wish list feature at Amazon, I couldn't resist putting a list together for Santa. So, having said all that, if you'd like to browse the books I'm interested in, go here.

I have been excommunicated from the music underground!

Go Big Red!: "Surrounded by a see [sic] of red, Kansas State never had a chance."

Latest word: It will be back. hardware troubles. Thanks, folks!

Is bifurcated rivets gone for good? I liked that weblog.

It's fun when things can connect.

to experiment with soon: Canonical XML

Equilibrium: "The state of a system in which its macroscopic properties do not change with time is known as the equilibrium state."

Yesterday was all about off-balance. Today will be about equilibrium.

evhead said re: George W.: "Maybe he's willfully clueless about foreign affairs because so are the majority of Americans."

I say: "But he wants to be the President. Definately *not* the majority of Americans. He better know that stuff way better than me or you."

oops. Now I made a political post.

groovy MP3 mix at the office today: bjork, dj shadow, deee-lite, and the chemical brothers -- randomized. (that's what I'm talkin' about.)

I made banana bread the other night. It went a little like this:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening or margarine
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 1 cup nuts, chopped

Cream together sugar and shorening. Add eggs and beat. Mix together flour, soda and salt, and add to previous mixture alternately with banana. Stir in nuts. Bake in greased loaf pan at 350 degrees for 55 - 60 minutes.

It was good, but if you have a better recipe for banana bread, let me know. I'm a big fan.

onblur.com: "This page is a place holder for the home page of your own web site." I can't wait to see what shows up here. I think it should be the anti-onfocus.com. or the onfocus evil edition.

meg: "My mouse arm is tired today."
pb: "I get shooting pains in all of my joints."

As of this posting, the top news story at the San Jose Mercury is "Knight Ridder to reorganize Net operations". Is this really the top news story of the day? I didn't see this on any other news sites...quite a scoop!

fwiw, I saw Being John Malkovich last night too. As did everyone. Yeah, us! (btw, go see it if you haven't!)

tired - writing for wired magazine.
wired - advertising in wired magazine.

Be careful what you wish for. It might come true.

tired - animated vector graphics.
wired - text!

it's depressing when you find out that you're not as popular as people thought you were.

my view of the web: one ampersand fiasco after another.

People of the world, join hands, it's the cluetrain. cluetrain. [via vacuum]

more good music to code by: Kosmos by Paul Weller

new team blog barbelith calls itself "the only subcultural collective currently broadcasting over the net . . ."

see reports run. run, reports, run!

from Weaving the Web: "What that first bit of Enquire code led me to was something much larger, a vision encompassing the decentralized, organic growth of ideas, technology, and society. The vision I have for the Web is about anything being potentially connected with anything." - Tim Berners-Lee

Luke sent a link to this online bookstores price comparison tool. "Enter a book's ISBN or UPC for a price comparison on several online bookstores." I hadn't seen this before, thanks!

word of the day: cachet - an indication of approval carrying great prestige.

I've also recently added the mentioned heading over there. It's just a list of every link on this page.

I'm still working on the XML Reading List format. Last night I added the reading heading to the left. It grabs the short title of the books listed in this xml file based on the category. Soon, I'll generate links to amazon or others based on the isbn number. (for those books that I don't have proper links for.)

ev posted some halloween pictures. I wasn't there, but I helped with the sushi costumes. This picture of matt and this one of jake are my favorites. Matt is dressed up as ikura sushi. Unfortunately, I didn't get to wear the dragon roll costume. :(

latin phrase of the day: ad fontes - to the source!

and read the quote of the day here.

word of the day: bricolage - construction or something constructed by using whatever comes to hand.

On his site, Derek comments on weblogs: "Okay, mostly I just hate the hype. But it also saddens me that all these creative people are linking to things instead of making things." (click on 11-1-99)

Lots of us are linking to things and making things. A weblog is just the linking part. I'd also argue that having a voice through linking is better than no voice at all.