Confessions of a Couch Potato Blogger
Yes, I admit it. I'm a couch potato blogger. Now stop pointing at me. I'm not some exhibit of hi-tech laziness. I just like to be comfortable. Really comfortable. And, I find that watching football or MSNBC or TechTV provides a sense of calm and focus that seeps into my troubled mind like the television radiation that seeps into my eyes (ok, tv may impair my metaphor abilities). Anyway, I was thinking about whether being a couch potato blogger is:

a.) Making me more sedentary and less productive
b.) Making me more sedentary but more productive (huh?)
c.) Great physical and mental exercise
d.) Really annoying my wife
e.) Causing me to draft rambling blogs (Air Force is losing to CSU. Thank the lord for Thurs. night football)

Whatever the case I really like this whole laptop on the couch in front of the tv thing. However, my powerbook gets REALLY warm. No, make that hot. I knew about this "feature" before I bought it but figured I could tough it out. Yipes. (faint of heart do not read past this point) My thighs (lap) starts getting sweaty after a while. Yes, I am wearing pants. It just gets that hot. I sometimes use a blanket to protect my lil thighs but apparently that is bad for the powerbook and it just gets the blanket hot anyway. The point is that I suffer through the heat and sweaty pants to do my blogging duty. And speaking of doing that duty I just saw this wicked (is that word still being used?) couch potato chair with a laptop table. What!?! I Want This Baby. NOW!
posted by Eric J | 9:22 PM

I need a blog title (or welcome to RSS news readers)
I just downloaded and installed my first xml news reader. It is awesome. When will a major browser integrate this capability? I haven't subscribed to all of the rss feeds that I want to yet but I did subscribe to webraw/blog (yes, there is an rss feed here folks. It's at http://www.webraw.com/blog/blogger_rss.xml). After subscribing it really hit home that my blog needs a proper title. I mean when you stack up webraw/blog next to catchy titles like Dan Gillmor's eJournal or MacMegasite or Random Hacks you can clearly see that my blog title is suffering from title envy. Of course maybe I'm wrong. Who knows.

By the way, the news reader I am using is for MacOSX and is called NetNewsWire Lite. I downloaded it from Apple.com. Here is a screenshot. If you aren't using an rss reader yet then I have only three words to say to you. Pickle, pickle bun (don't ask).
posted by Eric J | 11:54 PM

Public vs. Private
The public vs. private Internet issue has been weighing on my mind lately. It all started when I found this link "http://webct.ic.ucsc.edu:8000/FILM20C/webanalysis.html" in my referrer logs. It goes to some university site and is restricted or password protected. The URL seems to indicate it's some sort of film class but the reason it piqued my curiosity is that I'm getting a decent amount of traffic from a link on that site. I know there are many reasons to have private (restricted access) spots on the WWW but this incident had me thinking (look out!) about a couple of scenarios.

1. What if the majority of a site's traffic came from links on restricted sites? Would this cause any problems?
2. Should restricted sites be linking to non-restricted (public) content?

I really don't care or mind that this site is linking to webraw.com. In fact I think it's kinda fun. I have visions of some professor listing my site as required reading (yeah right) for some sort of film/web class. The main thing is it caught my curiosity and got me thinking.

Additionally, this story about linking to a non-restricted site popped up and got me thinking even more. Apparently Reuters guessed the URL to some report and the stupid company with the report did not secure this content and got burned. Now they are suing Reuters (good luck on winning that one)! I heard about this incident from Don't Link to Us (one of my favorite sites) and on that site is just a bunch of info about sites that discourage linking of one form or another.

More thinking. Isn't linking what the WWW is all about? I know I've ranted about this before but shouldn't a company that is so concerned about people linking to their content simply restrict access to that content? Whether they care or not the people linking to my site from a restricted space don't have to worry about anyone deep linking their site because it's private. Why don't these anti-linking organizations do the same thing?

Finally, when I saw that Blogger was creating a password protected BlogSpot feature I groaned. I know it's a good thing that meets some real needs and I don't begrudge anyone who wants to keep their confessions secret but I just cringe every time anything on the Web is made less accessible. It goes against the nature of the Web.

What does the future hold? Is the Web headed toward a more restricted dynamic in which passwords or cookies determine who gets to view what? Is this even a trend? Some people think so.
posted by Eric J | 11:23 AM

Thank you John Moltz
Got this link (Crazy Apple Rumors Site) from a comment yesterday. I can't stop laughing...ok...I just did. But this site is seriously a great read. Oh, and if biting, satirical wit covered with gobs of sarcasm just isn't your thing then you may want to avoid the great urge to click that link.
posted by Eric J | 12:39 PM

Thinking Outside the Box II
Apparently referrer log spam is becoming a big business. I had no idea. I can see some of the reasons why this is not a good thing. It could render many referrer logs pretty much useless. Here's a bit about starting a RLS blacklist that I found on Scripting News.
posted by Eric J | 12:22 PM

Vow of chastity
In the tradition of “Dogme 95” here is my list of ten things I vow will NEVER be posted on my blog.

1. Top ten lists
2. Oobscenely controversial posts that merely seek to produce comments or email reactions
3. Snapshots of cute girls without any real relation to actual content
4. Whining about how crappy my Blogging service has become
5. Use of cryptic “inside joke” references to items only a couple of people would know about (you listening Slap Dawg? Woot!)
6. Personal poetry (no matter how good I think it is)
7. Substituting actual content with lengthy quotations of stuff I could simply paraphrase and link to
8. Post transcripts of Instant Messenger conversations
9. Throwing up a post that says, “which shirt should I wear?” or “what color should I paint my house?” or basically anything that is simply asking for reader response and is crafted in such a way as to be solely dependent upon reader response for the post to be complete
10. Linking to my Amazon wish list

(insert ;o) wink emoticon here)
posted by Eric J | 12:00 PM

On Blogger and Weblog Service (or a Sappy Love Letter to Pyra)
Most Bloggers are aware of the recent Blogger.com outage cause by an attack. I must confess that I was truly concerned about this security breech and began to wonder why I shelled out $35 for Blogger Pro. However, I purposely refrained from complaining, whining or otherwise "bitching" about the service outage for a couple of reasons.

1. I knew everyone else was probably doing it so why add to the din of disgruntled (or gloating) voices.
2. I sat back and thought about why I chose Blogger.com (which I did choose after evaluating other services) and realized that this service is still pretty new, has a great sense of community, is going through some growing pains, is tremendously simple to use, has helped launch online journals to the level they are at today and is overall a pretty darn cool tool.
3. I simply LOVE the Blogger "B"

There are some legitimate criticisms of Blogger (as many people have pointed out and linked up) but isn't this true of any new technology or any technology period? Is RadioUserland, GreyMatter, Moveable Type or any of the other services without problems? Sure, if Blogger becomes notoriously sloppy with outtages and security hacks then I may consider a new service but right now I'm pretty darn happy with Blogger.
posted by Eric J | 10:40 AM

Working with books
Currently trudging through Ben Forta's Web Application Construction Kit for ColdFusion 5. It's a great book.

This is consuming more of my time than I'd like but maybe at the end of the day I'll be able to construct a ColdFusion application.
posted by Eric J | 12:56 PM

Thinking outside the box
This site showed up in my referrer logs. I thought it was a pretty inventive way to advertise a service. Maybe this is not new but it's the first I'd seen or heard of it. Course they won't be getting any of my business but it's still kinda neat. Speaking of which, I love getting those emails from the companies that find broken links on your site and then email you with the broken links and say, "for $x we can find all the broken links on your site every week" or something and I just figure that I got a free heads-up about a broken link and fix it and I'm good.

Course if I was running a big commercial venture I'd probably need something like this, but not right now.
posted by Eric J | 1:36 AM

Mouse in the House
Further proof that I'm a domesticated computer nerd...I just spent 20 minutes trying to catch a mouse in our house. I didn't want to hurt him so I used strategy and finally succeeded. He's now roaming the neighbors' yard a good 50 yards away. I wore gloves. Never know about rabid mice. Goodness I'm paranoid.
posted by Eric J | 11:15 PM

Fight the Home Page Creep
New webraw article. Check it out and watch out for the Creep.
posted by Eric J | 6:19 PM

Immitation = Flattery (?)
There is a saying that "imitation is the highest form of flattery" and I suppose that is true. I just stumbled across this site (maudlin.co.uk/blog) and thought is was mighty similar to some site I'd recently seen. Hmmm...what could that site be? It's on the tip of my tongue. Anyway, I have no idea who this person is and frankly don't really care that he's imitating. Just found it quite interesting. Still not sure about flattering but definitely interesting.

NOTE: I have no idea if this site still looks the same. If not then here's a screen shot of what I found.
posted by Eric J | 3:16 PM

Music Business Model
DISCLAIMER: I don't pretend to have the answers. I am not saying that I know or even believe that any suggestions or ideas I have will actually work. All I'm doing is thinking out loud (in blog format) about the issues of copyright.

Tom Cruise (or any actor) signs a contract to do a movie. He gets paid X dollars to act in that film. Generally, (I know there are exceptions) once Tom gets his X dollars he goes on his merry way. If the movie flops then he may "care" in the sense that it "hurts" his marketability but he's still got the money. He's not all that worried. This may explain why many top-notch actors (don't argue this) such as Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken take on some really lousy roles. They need to pay the summer home mortgage and so they star in some dreadful films. They may be getting X*25% instead of X but they are still getting bread. The point is they get paid for the job, not the film's success. And, they merely entertain.

A musician, on the other hand, signs a contract that usually gives him a much smaller ammount of money (I guess, maybe it is X dollars) and then gets money based upon each CD sold. Royalties. If the record bombs, the salary goes down. If it's a success, then it's rocket trips to the space station. The musician has much more at stake on the success of a CD than the actor has on the success of the film.

Which method is better? I'm not sure. There are disadvantages and benefits to both. The only thing that really interests me is that with one (film) no argument can be made by the "industry" that pirating movies directly affects your favorite actor. It does affect his financial well being but very indirectly. However, with music the argument is being made (however wrongly it still is more true than film) that pirating songs directly (or more directly) affects the financial well being of your favorite musician.

One final difference. An actor ONLY makes the flat fee on films. The film is viewed in the theater and then is sold on DVD. No difference. The musician however, gets a flat fee for the recording, THEN gets money for the concerts, THEN gets money for each CD sold. Interesting.
posted by Eric J | 2:25 PM

Blind URL Hopping
I have a little pastime. I call it Blind URL Hopping. Maybe it has a name already. Who knows? What I do is think of an interesting (interesting to me is probably a bit to the left of normal) word or phrase and then type that into my browser window to see what happens. Most times, like with http://www.tastymuffins.com and http://www.ediblemonkeys.com I get nothing. Sometimes I come upon some really bizarre sites such as http://www.hairymole. com and http://www.gotohell.com/. Sometimes I just get sites that disappoint such as http://www.coffee.com/. I mean it's COFFEE for goodness sake. This is one of THE most consumed beverages in the WORLD and yet the site for coffee looks like something created in FrontPage in 1997.

But Wait. The real reason I'm mentioning all this is to set up the latest incident. I have a cat. She is...let's see...unable to control her bladder. Ha. That's not true. She can control it very well. She controls it in such a way that she urinates on every square inch of my TV room carpet. YUCK. It's nasty. I hate that cat now. It's funny how cat urine can totally ruin a feline-human relationship. I want her dead. DEAD. Or maybe just gone. But I'm not happy. We go to Home Depot tomorrow to find something, anything to get rid of this demonic stench.

Not Done Yet. Nope. I was sitting in my TV room (stench and all) and do a bit of BUH and I stumbled across http://www.caturine.com. That's CAT URINE. And the site actually sells cat urine...or maybe it's something to get rid of cat urine? I don't know exactly. But the fact that someone thought, "hey, caturine.com is a great name for our site" and then bought it to sell products strikes me as extremely funny.

I'm not a marketing genius (surprise) so maybe this is a wonderful domain. I just think something like stinkyvomit.com or explosivediarrhea.com would only work well as a spoof-type site with a humorous angle. I can't imagine having explosive diarrhea and thinking, "I need to check out explosivediarrhea.com to see how to cure this."

Maybe caturine.com isn't such a bad domain. I have cat urine smell in my house and thought of that URL and now I'm viewing a product that claims to get rid of the smell. Hey, not such a bad idea after all. Now I better hurry to register stinkyvomit.com
posted by Eric J | 12:03 AM

FAQ
The promised FAQ section is now here. Let the celebration begin. If you have a question that is not answered there then give me a holler and I'll correct the omission.
posted by Eric J | 11:06 PM

Validation
What if life were as simple as popping your name into a validator and seeing if you had any errors or not. If you did then the errors would be listed with comments about how to correct each one. If you validated then a little sticker would pop up that you could wear the whole week and people would know that you are in fact error free. Ah, if life were only as simple as the Web.

(editors note: this site does not validate. however, I don't care)
posted by Eric J | 11:26 PM

Guns and Copyright
I was in a chat room the other day and some guy was talking about the Second Ammendment. He kept asking me about my position on guns and if I understood that it was important that we maintain the right to keep and bear arms. He was very passionate. Kept quoting statistics, citing legal cases and mentioning specific congressmen and their position on guns. He believes that if we aren't diligent then some day in the not-to-distant future our guns will be confiscated. Big yawn.

I'm all for owning guns, don't get me wrong. It's fine. I support the Second Ammendment. It's just I can't get worked up over the gun issue. It just doesn't interest me. This is fine to me. Yet to this guy it was his mission to "show me" how this IS the most important issue and that I should become very active in protecting our gun rights.

This whole exchange got me thinking about a couple of things:
1. Is there any single issue that is absolutely more important than all other issues? I mean is freedom of speech more important than the right to not be unlawfully searched? I dunno. Just interesting to think about stuff like that.
2. Am I like this guy? Do I sound like him with my rantings about copyright and similar items? I'd hate to think that I do but maybe I am just like him? To me, the fact that in 5 years we may all be forced to use AOL and "fair use" may be extinct gets me more upset than any gun rant. Maybe, just maybe, I should mellow a bit about the whole copyright thing? Maybe not. I dunno. Maybe there is a big difference between gun nuts and copyright nuts.

Still looking for answers.
posted by Eric J | 9:12 AM

Save the one pixel spacer gif!

Transparent one pixel gif magnified 1600%

The beloved one pixel spacer gif is in danger. Sites complying with the latest Web standards don't need this little transparent friend. Wired is the latest addition in the growing list of compliant sites using CSS for layout instead of relying on tables and the spacer. This treasured resource of Web designers everywhere is in danger of vanishing. Action must be taken quickly if the spacer is to be saved from neglect. My proposal is not to abandon efforts to construct compliant sites but to incorporate a transparent one pixel spacer gif somewhere within the site. This is easy, painless and hey, nobody will notice. Best of all the spacer gif will have a home if not a use. Additionally, studies have shown that servers LOVE serving up spacer gifs. It gives them something "solid" to serve up instead of simply markup. Designers of the world unite.
posted by Eric J | 10:26 AM

Pro4.blogger.com
Blogger is screwed up. It won't publish on the default Pro2.blogger.com URL. Had to publish to pro4.blogger.com. Just getting the word out and venting my frustration. Thank goodness for the Yahoo Blogger Pro groups.
posted by Eric J | 8:08 AM

I ain't no hater
I generally do not hate people. There is an extremely short list of people I hate and I will only say that the head of the RIAA is at the top of that list. Besides that I generally don't hate anyone. I also don't get into the habit of hating total strangers just because they look funny, act weird or whatever. Even the rude SOBs that cut me off in traffic...they aren't worthy of my hate. I don't love them either...but I don't hate.

So why then do I despise those stupid people (especially businessmen in suits) who wear those wired-up, hands-free cell phones? When I see them standing outside of a store or mall yapping away to "nobody" I just want to slap them. I purposely stare at them for a long time. A couple have become "uncomfortable" and either lowered their voices or moved away.

I normally do not exhibit this type of...well....crazy behavior. I just see red when it comes to these bozos. I wonder if there is a support group for people like me? I think that it's the hands-free freaks that need the help but maybe not. Maybe they've adjusted to this latest bit of technology and it just makes me squirm. Or maybe it's not the latest technology, maybe it's a fad. God, please let it be a fad. Something like the Rubik's Cube or parachute pants.

Until the "fad" (fingers crossed) passes I will try to refrain from actually attacking any of these cellphone junkies. At least till my meds wear off.
posted by Eric J | 7:44 AM

Do it for the children
I have nothing against the Amber Alert. I'm sure it's a fine tool for finding missing kids. I am sure that if my kid turned up missing I'd want Amber Alert to help find them. However, I can't help but think that this Amber Alert (and similar campaigns such as gun restrictions and the drug war) is taking things a bit too far. There is a move to make this thing a Federal program.

The whole thrust of the Amber Alert campaign is that "if it saves one life, it's worth the cost" and who can argue with this reasoning? Well, I guess I can. This logic is HORRIBLY flawed. Requiring all children to wear padded helmets will surely save one life. Keeping all children indoors after dark with a national curfew will save one life. Preventing children from riding in cars will save one life. Implanting GPS chips in a child's neck will save one life. Requiring cameras in every room of your house will save one life. Shall I continue?

Whenever I hear some politician or activist give the "it's for the children" excuse for such and such a cause I want to scream and do the exact opposite. However, I think I will find a more constructive way to channel those feelings. I'm going to start my own campaign.

Download copyrighted music "for the children." It will surely save at least one life. No longer will the abductor be able to use free music as a method of luring children into his windowless van. The kids will say, "Nope, already got that Jimmy Eat World song, and the Japanese import version too."

Take that you evil abductors.
posted by Eric J | 8:02 AM

Black People Love Us!
Ok, sometimes a memepool link is just too good to pass up. This site is one of the funniest sites I've stumbled across in a long, long time. Black People Love Us!
posted by Eric J | 7:30 AM

Books are Nile Crocodiles
In this world of digital copyrights, file “sharing” and pirated content it has continually amazed me that books seem pretty much immune to the technical evolutions.

Music: Music has been digital since the late 80s (Compact Discs) and is now the most widely “stolen” form of content on the Web. The mp3 files being “shared” are usually inferior in quality to the actual disc, contain no CD art or linear notes and often won’t play in older CD players without converting them to bulky (uncompressed) CD format.

Movies: The “sharing” of films has not risen to the same level of public awareness as music partly because of the file sizes but also probably because it’s a bit more difficult to get everything set up. There is also the quality which decreases more noticeably when compressed than the mp3 format. Apparently it’s a growing “problem” for the movie industry but I haven’t seen it as more than just a dorm room hobby yet...but I could be in the dark.

Games and Software: This aspect of Peer-to-Peer networks gets the least press but is the most pervasive in my opinion. Where a music download doesn’t necessarily mean a kid won’t buy the song on CD a software download guarantees the kid won’t ever purchase the product. Why pay for the new SIMS game when you can get if for free on the Web?

Books: Well, books aren’t “shared.” Ok, I know there are the eBooks and the pdf books and the copied books and the txt books that are all traded over the Web. I also know that some ammount of books on tape are shared mp3 style on the Web. However, this is a fraction of the type of “sharing” that occurs on the Web. Where you may see your mother listening to a ripped copy of the Beatles’ White Album you will probably never see her reading a pdf version of Moby Dick on her laptop.

Why is this? Books are pretty much unchanged over the last 400-500 years. Why does curling up with a good eBook reader late at night before slumber not sound as appealing as listening to an mp3 copy of Eye of the Tiger on ear-bud headphones while jogging? Are books immune to the digital revolution? Will humanity always yearn for the feel, portability, visual clarity and durability of a hardback novel?

Biologists, zoologists and anthropologists are all fascinated by the organism or specimen that remains unchanged by time, climate and environment. Most organisms either evolve to adapt or become extinct. The Nile Crocodile is virtually unchanged over the past 130 million years and yet is still surviving very well thank you while most every other existing organism has undergone some sort of evolution to survive. Maybe we should study books in this digital age in the way scientists study Nile Crocodiles. Maybe books are Nile Crocodiles.
posted by Eric J | 9:41 PM

Macromedia's Struggle
I'm thrilled with the MX product line. I think it's great. The ability to have tag completion in Dreamweaver is wonderful (I'm on a Mac so the Homesite environment is not possible). If Macromedia is truly struggling I can see why if their focus is truly on Flash. This is still a very difficult program to master. One of the reasons LiveMotion has done so well is it's much easier to use. Flash needs to become easier to use for those weekend Web types who don't have the time to learn every little detail of a program like Flash but like to spend a few hours a week playing with some good Web software. Check out this article at eVolt.

Macromedia's Struggle : evolt.org, Commentary & Society
posted by Eric J | 8:38 AM

Six Degrees of Blogging
I've grown tired of the whole Six Degrees of Separation thing a long time ago. It's a fun concept and the movie was actually pretty good. It's when I first fell in love with Stockard Channing and also realized that Will Smith was not just the Fresh Prince. And of course there is the whole Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon thing which has grown into a game, a Visa Check Card commercial and a general cult phenomenon.

While this may not be a new concept it occurred to me that Blogs much in common with the general principles behind the "Small World Phenomenon" that inspired the whole Six Degrees thing in the first place. My thinking is that if you have a blog then someone else is linking to your blog (not a bot linker like Organica). This could be a friend or someone who simply posted a comment on your blog. Then that person is linking to several of their friends. Their friends post a comment on another blog and it's obvious where this is headed.

My unproven hypothesis goes something like this: Every blog is only Six Blogs Away from itself. Or to put it even more simply, you are only six blogs away from linking back to your own site. Anyway, what I'm wondering is if there is some sort of simple method to test this hypothesis? I know that it's quite possible for some large Web caching company like Google or the Wayback Machine to figure this out but how would I be able to access this information? Maybe it's quite simple and I'm not thinking clearly. Maybe it's impossible. I don't know. I just think it would be fun. Of course I'm bound to abandon this entire idea as soon as I finish eating my Oreo cookies. There is something about a handful of Oreos that sends my brain into a state of lethargic bliss. Maybe it's the sugar but I'd like to think there is something magical in each little round delight. Now where is my milk!
posted by Eric J | 10:27 PM

FAQ
I can't put it off any longer. I must create an FAQ section. I think this is a certain milestone in the realm of independently published sites (aka vanity sites). Whatever it is there is now a definite need for this popular section.

I purposely left off an FAQ section when I originally built this site because I didn't want to try to "guess" what people were going to ask, I didn't want to put up witty, self revealing "questions" & "answers" and I basically just didn't see the need. However, I've now received enough questions about this site that I can actually craft an FAQ section out of actual, real life questions that have been asked by actual real life people (at least I assume they are real...I have no real way of corroborating this assumption but I doubt there is some Google-type question computer out there sending me queries under a variety of assumed identities).

Now, I'm not saying that an FAQ is the sign of a good site or that it is the bar upon which success is to be measured. It basically means one of the following:

a.) The site has enough content, and discerning visitors that some legitimate questions might be answered quickly in an FAQ type section.
b.) The site is confusing as hell and this makes the more irritable visitor apt to send off a lengthy e-mail full of questions.
c.) It's a little bit of both "A" and "B."

My guess is it's probably "C".

I will have an FAQ soon. Until that time read Frank Herbert's Dune series which is sure to generate far more questions than is humanly possible to answer in one lifetime.
posted by Eric J | 10:06 PM

Learning through teaching
Wake up. Switch on the PowerBook.

That dully glowing titanium circuit board of hot digits. He sits it on his lap like a warm cat, petting it gently with each keystroke. Sometimes it purrs, whirs and clicks. He pounds out code, prose, vectors, pixels, motion, noise and crazy java-fueled rants (the caffeinated beverage, not the programming language). Sometimes he smiles at the results. Other times he is sent into hair-yanking fits of sweaty anxiety. He loves it. He hates it. It's his life.

When he gets into that rhythm (you know the one) all the world disappears and it's him and the warmly glowing LCD in the morning silence working diligently to "share" what little knowledge exists inside that deranged mind. And it's this act of sharing that somehow elevates his soul and allows him to grasp those abstact concepts that were previously so elusive.

He's no saint. He's no benevolent heart seeking to share with those less fortuntate. He's learning through teaching.

(More adjective laden tripe for the masses coming soon...hold your breath)
posted by Eric J | 10:24 AM

Copyright is back...that didn't take long
The promised abstention from copyright discussion is now over. The issue is too enormous to ignore for long. However, this is more an excercise in frivolity because what it amounts to is a play by play PREDICTION of how the court will rule in the Eldred v. Ashcroft case.

The Volokh Conspiracy

Apparently Lessig and Eugene Volokh have a wager on the outcome. Lessig isn't specifying his prediction but he hints that it's not as rosy.

(credit - link borrowed from Lessig.org)
posted by Eric J | 11:24 AM

MCMLI
I always look for the created date at the beginning of Looney Toons cartoons. Not sure when I started doing this but I've gotten rather good at deciphering very tiny Roman Numerals. My favorite Looney Toons are the pre-War ones. Actually any before the 1950s are generally pretty good. Not saying I dislike any after that period but the pre-1950s stuff is my favorite.

Also, when I was growing up my least favorite of the bunch was the Road Runner episodes. Just never really enjoyed them visually and hated that the Coyote never caught the Road Runner. Of these the ones where the Coyote talks are the worst. However, I just recently viewed an older Road Runner toon and ended up laughing myself silly. It was a non-talking one so that was good. Yet, I am now wondering why it struck my funnny bone so well. I think maybe the humor of these toons is lost on kids and it's only adults who can appreciate the comedy contained within. Or maybe it's just that I am extremely tired and needing large quantities of sleep.

Whatever the case I have also noticed that old WB toons seem to hold my 2-year-old son's attention more than just about anything else on television. Interesting.
posted by Eric J | 9:23 AM

The Official Ninja Webpage:  REAL Ultimate Power!!!!
The Official Ninja Webpage:  REAL Ultimate Power!!!!

I have nothing to add to this link. Enjoy.
posted by Eric J | 8:22 PM

I'm beginning to get creeped out...
I'm one of the early adopters. I made the "switch" before the new campaign came out. I've actually been working on Macs consistently since early 2000 but I finally got two of my own back in January of this year. Mainly, Mac OSX (it's Oh Es Ex no matter what Steve Jobs and the Apple gang want you to believe) got me feeling affectionate for the Mac. Recently Apple has this new television campaign featuring "ordinary" people talking about how PCs suck and Apples rule. It's nice and all but they are starting to really creep me out. Maybe it's the lighting. Maybe it's the hokey "I saved Christmas" line.

Maybe it's just that I don't really believe that these people are really telling the whole truth. I don't know. I just think Apple is making a mistake. The thing that got me to switch was not because other people hated their PCs and loved their Macs. It was because the OS was cool, they have great features, easy to use AND I wasn't going to have to buy all new software for the Mac.

This is the issue that needs to be really addressed. None of the commercials mention that. If I have $2000 worth of PC software there is NO WAY I'm switching to a Mac. Until the software vendors begin making some sort of rebate arrangement for the conversion or PC stuff starts working on a Mac (without Virtual PC) then most people are not going to make the switch. I think the thing that made the original iMac so successful was focussing on the actual product, how cool it looked and easy it was to use.

For some reason these overproduced testimonials just fall flat with me.
posted by Eric J | 4:34 PM

Real life search string
This is the text of an actual search string that was used in a search engine and resulted in a link to my site.

visible funniest blog wife tolkien or VFBWT for short.

What I want to know is what exactly this person was trying to find?
posted by Eric J | 1:21 AM

Waking Life Reaction
I just experienced the movie Waking Life. I say "experienced" rather than watched, viewed or saw because this movie is less about viewing in the traditional sense and more about interacting on a metaphysical level. I'm frankly still digesting all that occurred but I will try to relate my immediate impressions.

Let me begin by saying that I just did a Google Search on Waking Life and the first result is a link to www.wakinglifemovie.com. However, this link does not work nor does the cached link on Google (it may just be down temporarily but let's assume it's down for good). The fact that what is called the "official site" on IMDB is a dead link has me imagining all sorts of dream/wake scenarios. The fact that something as trivial as a dead link has me contemplating the state of human consciousness and our place in time speaks to how profoundly this film has impacted me (or says that I'm a complete nut, you decide).

I must admit that when I first began viewing the film all I could concentrate on was the animation. I'm an animation junkie so I just kept thinking, "this is just a bunch of Final Cut Pro (or whatever editing software they used) paint slapped on what they filmed to try and look all artsy." This is in fact partially true. The whole thing is a film of real live people that has been skillfully (or annoyingly) painted over to present a "shimmering, pulsating life on the screen" (to quote Roger Ebert).

As I mentioned, this was my first impression. However, I kept an open mind. The dialogue started and was pretty heady and meaty and overly thought provoking and at first impression just a bunch of philosopher-types getting their rocks off in a movie. Well, this dialogue (or diatribe) went on and on and on and I began to see and understand how what was being said and what was being seen was inter-related.

The movie progressed and I began to experience it instead of just view it. I was drawn in. I was, in a way, dreaming. All the self-important crap they were babbling about started to take on new meaning and I started to view my own life through a different prism.

As I said earlier, I'm still digesting this movie but I think (for now) my perspectives on life have shifted just a little from being extremely cynical and pessimistic about humanity to being ever so slightly less cynical and pessimistic. One side effect that I didn't anticipate is that I now have an obscene desire to re-read Frank Herbert's Dune series. There was a bit in the movie about reincarnation and the statistical improbability of it all and someone mentions that we are possibly born with some imprinted memory of the biological existence that came before and this got me thinking about the Bene Gesserits and how they received all the memories of every previous Bene Gesserit when they passed some Bene Gesserit test or something.

Ok, I've gotten off on a Dune rant so you KNOW that this movie has messed with my mind. I'm coming back to earth now. If you have no idea what this movie is about go check out the Apple trailer and see a bit for yourself. Now Wake UP and dream!
posted by Eric J | 12:11 AM

The Homeless Guy
My ride as the top listed (by date added) blog on Blogger's famous "Blogs of Note" has ended. I'm now at the number two spot and it looks like Number One is now The Homeless Guy. Check out his site. It's pretty interesting. I haven't checked it out too thoroughly but it seems to be for real and it also seems that he's from my neck of the woods, Tennessee. Go Tennessee homeless guy! Who knows, unbeknownst to either of us he may be a character in my upcoming book The Memphis Panhandler Chronicles.

On the whole "Blogs of Note" thing, I must say that I feel honored that Blogger decided to post my link up. I also must say I have no idea how the whole decision process works. I never received a notification and I've never sent them a single e-mail about anything. Anyway, the recent departure from the BON was Jamie @ the Red Sweater or something like that. That's all the BON news for the day.
posted by Eric J | 11:20 PM

Quoting Curt Cloninger
- We were all from the South, so what was the big deal? Championing the South seemed about as pointless as sporting a "Don't Mess With Texas" bumper sticker. Nobody's messing with Texas anymore. Forget the Alamo. Who cares?

- The real South is unaware of itself. It just "is." Like quantum physics, you can either know where the electrons are, or how fast they're moving, but never both at the same time. So too the South. You can either be Southern yourself or write about your idea of what "Southern" is, but never both at the same time.

- ... REM finally go whole hog and make an overtly Southern album! Or do they? The band seems to be saying, "You want the sappy South? OK we'll perform your sappy South. We'll trot it out and make it stand on its hind legs. But the entire performance will be so disorienting that when it's over you won't know your sappy South from an Andalusian dog."

I've never enjoyed reading music reviews so much. Check it out and see what you think.

It's a Southern Thing - by Curt Cloninger : Music : Pif No. 36 - May 2000
posted by Eric J | 12:45 AM

Adam Curry's (yes HIM) Weblog
Many already know that former MTV VJ Adam Curry is a "mover and shaker" in the tech world. I am sure to be derided as a late adopter but I just finally got onto his Weblog and it's pretty impressive. Has me thinking about how many non-traditional bloggers could really benefit from a thoughtful and personal blog (I'll go into what a non-traditional blogger is later).

Here's my wish list of famous, non-traditional bloggers I'd like to see get into the blogging culture:

Mr. T

The drummer from Def Leppard (just imagining him typing with one hand gets me chuckling)

Bill Clinton

O.J. Simpson

Ronald Reagan (I know, I have a sick sense of humor)

Eddie Murphy

(If these blogs already exist forgive me...I searched and could not find any. a link to them would be nice)
posted by Eric J | 9:04 PM

Final word about copyrights (for a while anyway)
The case has been argued. The proverbial ball is in the Supreme's court (ha). Now we must wait till July (gasp) to find out how they rule. July?!? These guys (the Justices) are either very thorough, very busy or very slow.

I haven't been able to find a transcript of the arguments freely available but this first person account lifted from lessig.org gives a pretty good description of what happened. It's also a bit of a downer because it takes a general view that the Mighty Lessig did poorly or at least that things didn't go quite as well as was hoped. There is also a link on Lessig's site to some photos taken before and after but what the hell do I care about photos of Lessig?

However, I'm not totally depressed because earlier I found this summary from the Washington Post that a bit more optimistic view of how the case went.

The main point is that from now till July we will have experts, pundits, talking heads and bloggers (like me) speculating on what the Justices will decide. I have decided to try and ignore all this speculation because basically, nobody knows anything except the Justices and they ain't talking till July. So, like a 4-year-old waiting for Christmas I'll just sit on my hands and think of other stuff until that wonderful month of heat and hot-dogs comes rolling into Memphis.
posted by Eric J | 6:39 PM

The road to beauty
I travel from Memphis to Nashville a lot. When I say a lot I mean several times a month. This 200 miles of I-40 has become extremely familiar to me and I've often thought about writing a very short book detailing the best restrooms, gas stations, country stores, restaurants, etc. on this beloved stretch of asphalt. While the book idea sounds neat to me I know it would be for an extremely niche audience. Maybe the state congressmen living in Memphis would be interested?

One thing I've observed during my many years of monthly travels to and from these very different music cities is the type of people that I see driving on the road with me. Often I'm passing these people (I drive a solid 77 mph which is only fast enough for this one idiotic state trooper to pull me over for but that's another story for another day) and I will glance over and look to see who is driving. While I have'nt kept any record I can safely estimate that roughly 95% of the people I see are really UGLY.

Ok, some are maybe just plain. Not attractive but not really ugly either. But a large majority are just plain UGLY. It's amazing. I've traveled on many Interstates all over this great land but never have I witnessed such an outrageously lopsided ratio of hot-to-ugly people driving on the road. Is it because Tennessee is inhabited by the UGLIEST people on earth? Probably not. This ratio does not hold up once I park and move around. It's just that while driving it seems as if I'm surrounded by a sea of fast moving UGLY people.

To contrast this, I took a trip to California once and noticed incredibly hot people (of both sexes) all over the place. This ratio wasn't quite the reverse but it was pretty much all good looking folks.

What does any of this have to do with the Web? I'm not entirely sure. However, I have a theory that ugly people also produce ugly Websites. Even this site about ugly people is rather ugly.
posted by Eric J | 11:57 PM

PROTEST IS ON (in a manner of speaking)
The protest has begun. Want to get involved? Go here. What is it about? Read the blogs or go here. Is the fact that I'm the only confirmed participant getting me down? Not in the least.
posted by Eric J | 10:30 PM

Still time left
It's not too late to participate in the Oct. 9 Web-protest. Get involved now. Or don't.
posted by Eric J | 10:35 AM

Blogging = mental masturbation
Sometimes Slashdot discussions are more interesting than the article that they are attached to. Here's a straight up slam of Blogging and I must confess, this guy has a point.

My only remark on this is that pretty much all not-for-profit sites on the Web are in some manner just a person stroking his/her ego. Free software, tutorials, free photos, articles, reviews, etc. are all some form of some guy "stroking his ego and wasting money on hosting."

Of course that guy/girl would argue that they are "contributing" to the spirit of the Web and the free exchange of ideas, content, tools, etc. that has made the Web what it is today. I like this explanation very much. I think it's a bit of both. Helping out with the added bonus of getting ones' ego stroked.
posted by Eric J | 10:13 AM

Let the protest begin. I've set up a page to link to and with all sorts of info about this "protest" that nobody seems interested in. What if you held a protest and nobody came to protest, would the police in riot gear make a sound? I will be the first to admit that this whole idea came to me much too late to be fully effective. The case is happening Wednesday and today is Monday. Two days is not much time to organize my thoughts, much less a group of unconnected Web-activists. Oh, by the way, I think my cats eat poop. It's the only way I can explain the truly abominable odors that they excrete into their boxes on a daily basis. I mean this is WAY beyond normal stench. It's horrid. The only thing keeping them in my home is the incredible power of their two minutes of cuteness per day. Goodness a cute cat is like Kryptonite to my Super-man will to get rid of them...or something...I know a stretched metaphor when I hear one. Cut your losses and run boy, run.
posted by Eric J | 3:28 PM

Blogging routine
When I wake up most mornings I have a little routine that I slip into while I drink my extra-strong brewed cup of imitation Starbucks java (I'm getting the real thing again soon). It occurred to me that this routine might somehow, someway be of interest to fellow bloggers. While I generally don't like reading someone's daily routine (or writing about mine) I have boiled mine down to what I hope are the essentials of interest. Enjoy.

Wake up and fire up the laptop
Turning on the computer is always the most important step to this routine. After that has been accomplished I begin to surf the Web and visit what I have dubbed the BLOGGING WAY. Here's the a list of the Blogging Way.

• Updated once a week (kinda) - http://www.alistapart.com
  
• The industry standard. - http://slashdot.org/
  
• Eric doesn't blog as much as he used to but it's always a good site - http://www.glish.com/
  
• Always interesting and he pretty much started it all - http://www.scripting.com/
  
• I love what Curt is doing. He always (almost) has cool stuff happening at the lab - http://www.lab404.com/
  
• To search and read the top news - http://www.daypop.com/
  
• For generally fun links - http://www.memepool.com/
  
• For my copyright and Web law fix - http://www.lessig.org/
  
• For local goings on - http://www.gamutmag.com/
  
• Web-Type articles - http://www.evolt.org/
  
• A good solid blog - http://www.zeldman.com/
  
• Coming back soon - http://www.spark-online.com/
  

After visiting all of these sites I often follow links for a bit to see what I can find. I also have some back-up links that I hit once every couple of weeks just to see what's going on. Ok, now I must get back to my other daily routine, cleaning stinky cat litter boxes. Yuck.
posted by Eric J | 2:57 PM

What will the next Google be?
Google Degraded? Geeks Aghast

I just recently discovered GoogleBombing and now I find out that Google is losing it's beloved status in the Web community.

Should all Google-lovers be worried? I actually think so based on this quote in the WIRED article: "Just checked with customer service, they sit about two cubes from me, and we haven't seen more user (complaints) than normal" said Google spokesman Nate Tyler. WHAT?!?

They are basing the seriousness of a problem on customer complaints. I work at a large Website and if we only took seriously the issues that we got many complaints about our site would suck as bad as this one.
posted by Eric J | 7:29 AM

Web-activism...is...ummm...like cool
Whenever I find myself feeling quiet and at a loss for something to blog about it seems that somehow the copyright issue always comes to the rescue and gets me in rant-mode. (Yes, it's another copyright blog but wait...don't tune out yet...this one is different).

As many of you are aware (or should be anyway) this coming Wednesday, October 9, the Eldred v. Ashcroft case is being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court by everyone's favorite Web-lawyer, Lawrence Lessig. This case is enormous and could shed light on how other Web-type laws may end up like the horribly acronymed CBDTPA and the DMCA.

So, taking inspiration from such popular social activist movements as the Equal Rights Ammendment, the Civil Rights Movement, anti-war demonstrations, PETA, the anti-WTO rioters, UAW strikes and other methods of civil disobedience I propose that we unite to perform our own method of social activisim (yes, it's a call to action, now stop groaning).

Here's all you have to do to take part. Just follow these simple steps to become a genuine Web-activist.

1. Get a Website. If you have one move to step 2. If you don't then get one. A free one with ads is fine.
2. Rip any Disney owned music such as The Circle of Life, something from Aida or maybe even some Sonny Bono tune (the case is about him as well as Disney).
3. Post this mp3 file on your Website.
4. At midnight on October 9 link this file on your Website and ask all your friends to do the same.
5. Post your link to the mp3 file (or the site linking the file) as a COMMENT on this site (or on another site doing the same thing).
6. Take everything down at midnight on October 10 (or leave it up, what do I care).

This is something even the laziest among us can do and it may, just may prove something. I haven't quite worked out what it will prove but isn't that the way most social activism is anyway? The point is just to do something that Disney, the RIAA, the MPAA and Sonny Bono (if he was alive) would NOT want you to do. Whether it has an affect on anything or not is beside the point. Remember people, we're talking about principles here.
posted by Eric J | 8:49 PM

WEBSITE: Formula for Overnight Success
Thank goodness for Flash. This little program has amazing capabilities. From Web-toons to e-commerce solutions. It's great. Yet the most impressive thing about Flash (and it's older cousin Shockwave) is it's ability to launch an otherwise obscure Website into world-wide notoriety.

From memory there is the Elf Bowl game from a few years back (who's site seems to be down). There is the Hampster Dance (which wasn't originally Flash but it might as well have been). All the Joe Cartoon series of Frogs in Blenders. The dancing banana thing. My favorite is the Spider-man will make you gay site.

There is of course all the Jib-Jab stuff which I think was an actual company putting out funny Flash stuff. Yet it did reach pretty much nationwide awareness back during the 2000 election campaign with the Bush/Gore raps. Also, there are all the silly games such as Osama in a 7-11 and the like. Most recently there is the Kitties which may not have reached nationwide awareness but they will soon I'm sure.

Basically if there is anything to be learned from this "trend" it's that people like noise, motion and a bit of humor. The formula is as follows:
1. Get a Website
2. Learn some basic Flash skills
3. Make a funny, noisy or slightly disturbing Flash movie
4. Post it to all the blogs and newsgroups possible
5. E-mail the link to many, many friends with the encouragement to forward it to their friends
6. Sit back and watch your bandwidth disappear

Ok, now with all of that said I must confess, I'm working on my own Flash file. It has something to do with bowling, monkeys, blenders, political satire and loud music but that's about as far as I've gotten. I know it's gonna be awesome though.
posted by Eric J | 9:46 AM

GoogleBombs
Google Time Bomb - Will Weblogs blow up the world's favorite search engine? - Microcontent News, a Corante.com Microblog

An alert reader notified me of GoogleBombing and after reading about it I have a new favorite past-time. Move over war-driving, hello GoogleBombing.

(GoogleWhacking is still fun but as WIRED would say, It's Tired)
posted by Eric J | 3:20 PM

Thinking about blogs
If you are more than an occasional blog reader then you probably have noticed what I call "blog-forwarding." Ok, maybe blog-forwarding isn't the best term and I'm open to suggestions but what I'm speaking of is the excessive linking on multiple blogs of the topic du jour. In a way it's very similar to e-mail forwarding. Bob gets a funny, interesting, bizarre, etc. e-mail and he can't resist forwarding it to 10 of his "best" friends (and the forward is all done CC instead of BCC which is extremely annoying and RUDE) and they forward it to 10 of their friends and it grows exponentially.

I could spend a few blogs just writing about e-mail forwarding (and I may soon) but what I've noticed on many blogs is basically the exact same thing as email forwarding. For instance, there is the world's funniest joke (which is not that funny) making the blog rounds. It's bad enough that it's on every major media outlet but it is also being linked to, commented about and repeated on many, many blogs. And this is only one example. There are many, many examples.

Ok, I'm the first to admit that I'm guilty of this. It's easy to find a cool link on Slashdot or memepool that I want people (my audience) to know about. There's nothing essentially wrong with this. What I'm saying is that it may be getting out of hand.

The point of a blog is not to repeat what's on every other blog but to post something interesting and unique to your blog. Read the Writing the living Web article by Mark Bernstein at A List Apart. He lays out the basics for a good blog. While it's not a check list on how to create a successful blog it does provide some direction.

So, how to remedy blog-forwarding? Well, posting good links to interesting topics is the sign of a good blog but I think people (myself included) should at least evaluate whether a potential link is something that is probably on every other blog today or is something that some people may appreciate having a link to. However, the main thing is to be sure we aren't just being lazy bloggers and posting whatever is quick and easy. We must be honest and decide to maybe search a little more, follow a few more link trails or do a few extra daypop searches for that golden link.

Blog on!
posted by Eric J | 9:40 AM

Driving with the Web on my mind
I just drove to Nashville and back today (fun). It's a trip I make frequently so I don't really mind it so much. When I time the tip just right I can listen to some good programs on NPR or PRI the whole journey. As one station begins near the Tennessee River another begins to come in stronger and I can just hop over and continue listening. I've thought about getting that XM radio thing but can't see paying each month for radio when I know I'd just end up listening to ESPN anyway and I get that free here in Memphis already. Now if the XM service included some form of Satellite Web surfing I'd be all over that like a monkey on a banana.
posted by Eric J | 11:41 PM

XHTML 2.0 is coming...in 2009
This IBM article about XHTML describes the fact that it's not backward compatable. I think that's super. However, if you think xhtml 1 is taking a long time to take hold I've got news for you...it's nothing to how long xhtml 2 is gonna take. The reason? Business still believe that backward compatability is essential (which it is to some extent). At the least we will be churning out 2 versions of pages, one for old browsers and one for new ones.

This link came from Glish.com who is back to his regular blogging by the way. Go check it out.
posted by Eric J | 6:39 AM

Think Geek
My geek badge is in the mail. I spent almost an hour this evening discussing LOTR at On the Border. The truly geeky thing about this is that I went to On the Border with the expressed purpose of discussing LOTR. I've never, ever played a single game of D&D. Role playing video games aren't really my style. Fantasy books are not at the top of my must read list. Yet, I ended up making plans to discuss LOTR. How did this happen? Well, I'm not really sure. However, I am sure that LOTR is one of the best books of its type ever written. Oh yeah, I'm also not a Tolkien freak. It just happened and you know what? I'm proud of it. That's right. LOTR discussions are cool now. Yeah, in fact with the movies being so popular LOTR discussions over beer will soon be happening with all the cool kids. It's a trend. I'm at the beginning of a cool new fad.

Ah heck. I'll shut up and check the mail for my badge.
posted by Eric J | 12:20 AM

Perpetual chaos
I seem to exist in a state of perpetual chaos. I think this is possibly why I love computers and the Web so much. In this realm I can organize and direct all aspects while in my real-world realm I have everything in disarray.

Here's what I mean. My house, car and yard are never "picture perfect." Sometimes (with great effort) I can spend all day working on these things and get them all pretty organized but it never stays that way for long. Part of this is just living with a family but part is also due to not really setting it as a high priority. When I think about time I say, "Hmmm....should I try to figure out how to create a horizontal nav in CSS or pick up the clothes on the floor of my bedroom?" The clothes are still there.

It's odd though. My computer is extremely organized. I've seen some people who just throw every file into the same folder. I'm not that way. In fact, sometimes I WILL spend an entire day organizing my computer. Moving, deleting and renaming files and folders. The more I think about this the more I realize that I'm really living on the Web...at least partially.

While some people exist on the Web merely as consumers, and many more as annonymous consumers, I've made the leap and become an actual entity here. I think this is partly why I care so much about it. It IS the same as my house or yard or car. It's just a different format.

I also am a "clutter-bug" and not one of those museum types. What I mean is I like a house full of books, knick-knacks, movies, pictures, sentimentals, etc. Some people have nothing in their house. No books visible. Not many pictures. It's like a museum...very empty except the essentials.

Anyway, just rambling before I head off to work.
posted by Eric J | 9:25 AM

An end to Meta tags
Here's an article about the end of meta tags. What I find interesting is the fact that this guy is proposing a complete end to both keyword and description meta tags. Why is this interesting? Well, I've never really given either of these fields much thought. I mean when I create a site I spend 5 minutes or so thinking of some keywords and I usually already have a basic description in mind and I plug this into my page and then I'm done. In fact I rarely even remember I have these meta tags and sometimes when my site is re-purposed it's one of those things that doesn't get updated (unfortunately). So it's interesting that this guy is so concerned about removing them. I guess he's gotta have a cause or something.

Let's look at why they aren't a big deal and are still useful. He mentions Google as killing meta tag usefulness and porn sites making meta tags basically junk but there are still some search engines out there that (gulp) get info from meta tags. Also, say you've just designed a wicked Flash site and I mean the whole site is in Flash and guess what...there is no text on your site. Since Google normally pulls info from the text in the page it now has nothing but a fat .swf file to pull and goodness, what is a search engine to do? Well, Google pulls the info from... (drum roll) ... the description meta tag.

I have a feeling that this guy, Andrew Goodman (just looked up his name..."this guy" sounds better though) has just had a very bad experience with a client and meta tags. Or he's just searching for some obscure html feature to rail against. Or maybe I've just had an atypical experience with meta tags and everyone else has gone through hell with them.

What I want to see removed are font tags, eventually table tags and the ever annoying empty tags. Now those are things to get passionate about.
posted by Eric J | 7:19 AM

Quixtar.com
It's time I mentioned something about Quixtar.com. My wife (and I guess I am too sort of) are in this new version of Amway called Quixtar. Why am I discussing this here? Well it's about the Web since it's a Web-driven business of sorts. Basically Amway has re-invented itself and is selling and distributing it's products (and other non-Amway products) through a Web Site. This business is one of the largest companies in the world according to some.

I have mixed emotions about Quixtar but what I really want to discuss is the design of their site. It's horrible. First of all, I know it's a Multi-Level Marketing driven business so they aren't getting casual business by random Web surfers. However, the page you click on if you do happen to be a random Web surfer takes you to a Shockwave plug-in page which does not recognize that I have the Shockwave plug-in (which you damn well bet I got installed). Then there is almost no explanation of what exactly you happen to be visiting.

Once you get going in the site it's still pretty overwhelming. Their info is just not intuitive. Click on Shop and you keep clicking and clicking and clicking until you finally get some details about a product. Even then you can't actually buy the product (as far as I can tell). You still gotta register.

The drop-down menues are horrible too. These are just too loaded with links and sub-menues and whatnot. I'm not a big fan of giving every bit of information on the main page. I mean there is such a thing as too much info.

My point is that this should be a great Web Site. They should take some design notes from Amazon.com. Or really any large, semi-successful site. Eddie Bauer, E-bay, Ford, etc. all can provide some design tips.

Finally, if you are at all like me you live and die by the design of a Web Site. If a company seems nice but has a crappy Web Site your opinion of them is greatly diminished and sometimes so much so that you won't even shop with them any more. I mean would people be so crazy about Apples if their Web Site looked like Quixtar's?
posted by Eric J | 9:29 PM

BW Online | A Case to Define the Digital Age

Ok, it's a couple of days old but it's still funny. Actually the whole article discusses the upcoming (Oct. 9) Supreme Court case Eldred v Ashcroft and the state of copyright in the "digital age" (god that is almost as bad as "information super-highway"). Anyway, the funny part is about Adobe's eBook Reader. Here is a quote:

For example, if you try to print or copy sections of Middlemarch on an Adobe eBook Reader, you'll be informed that Adobe allows users to copy only 10 sections every 10 days. Readers of Aristotle's Politics, which as far as anyone knows was never copyrighted, aren't permitted to copy or print any text.

Link originally found on Scripting News.
posted by Eric J | 9:03 AM

Make your own Bush Speech

This link is making the blogging rounds. I can't remember what site I originally found this on so forgive my lack of crediting.
posted by Eric J | 8:48 AM

6:36 a.m.
:: Woke up this morning to my son screaming. Without going into too much detail let's just say he still hasn't gotten the whole potty training thing down (he's 2). After taking care of business he began watching Sesame Street while I cranked up the laptop.

8:00 a.m.
:: Back to sleep

10:00 a.m.
:: Awake again and back on the laptop. Using PhotoShop to lay out a site.

1:30 p.m.
:: Got to work and started coding, answering e-mail and coding some more.

10:30 p.m.
:: Got home and immediately got back on the laptop. Answered e-mails and finished designing a site (at least for now).

12:45 a.m.
:: Still on the laptop but I just remembered I got a dentist appointment in the morning. Crap.

What does this mean?
:: I just realized after reviewing my day that this is a pretty typical day for my. I generally spend maybe 14 hours working at something on the computer. A good bit of that time is spent on the Web but not all of it. I have a friend that works for a Dot-Com and he once told me that after a day of staring at computers he was glad to get home and not have to think about them at all. I just have never understood that mentality. Computers, the Web, technology, etc. is in my blood. I thrill at the rush of learning something new each day. Days that I don't discover something or learn a new skill or hone a pre-existing one I consider pretty much wasted. I must spend each day doing something with computers. And it's because I love it. What did I learn today? Hmmmm...well I learned that I hate the dentist.
posted by Eric J | 12:56 AM