Yes, I'm linking to a Jakob Neilsen Alertbox...so what?

Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002 (Alertbox Dec. 2002). Love him or hate him he's got some good points.

A brief departure from Web-related topics

I smoke an occasional cigar (though nothing else, gave up cigarettes years ago) so it interested me to see Cigars 101 linked from The Weekly Remainder on kottke.org. There is some good basic info but one thing especially caught my eye:

"Brands to consider: Arturo Fuente. Padron. Montesino. Ashton. Despite what your tobacconist will say about it being a great beginner cigar, well made, etc., under all circumstances, reject Macanudo."

It never explains WHY you should avoid Macanudo. I started out on Macanudo and still enjoy them from time to time. What's wrong with Macanudo? They are just as good as Montesino to my novice pallete so I wonder what the big deal is besides the fact that they are outrageously popular in America.

Mark Twain, a notorious cigar smoker, was known to be in favor of smoking the cheapest and least popular cigars. To paraphrase an essay he wrote (I can't find the book that it's compiled in) Twain decides that most cigar smokers are pretentious and smoke only the brand, not the cigar. He does a little test where he swaps the band of a pricey cigar with that of a cheap one and his cigar-snob friends pontificate on the delicious flavor of the cheap stogey, completely ignorant of it's true origins. I find that many cigar smokers are equally pretentious today and that is partly why I refuse to become overly educated on the brands, styles, origins of any cigar. I just want someone to recommend a good smoke and then let me sit back and enjoy it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Why am I always the last to know?

Chris Pirillo is the guy from Call for Help. How did I not know this until now. His site is one of the most popular blogs online (as opposed to those offline blogs) and I just now, after about 6 good months of blogging, found out about this. Not only that but Megan has a blog too at jumpingmonkeys.com.

Needless to say I like TechTV. Don't watch it as much as I used to but it's still a great channel though I'm not thrilled with all the Bot War/Race crap they've been doing lately. Oh and Thunderbirds are fun...for about 5 minutes. I guess you need to be really high, a total geek or some marionette freak to love this show for much more than 5 minutes. Ok, enough Thunderbirds bashing.

So I'm basically the last blogger in the blogoshpere (do people really use that term? it's awful) to know about the incredible online popularity of the TechTV gang.

Web site snobbery

Within any industry it is common for the veterans of that industry to develop an attitude of superiority and ambivalence towards those affected by the industry. Those affected are not part of the industry peer group but interact with some aspect of that industry as a consumer, patient, employee, etc.

Some examples of this ambivalence is doctors who often lose their compassion for patients and view them as a pain instead of a patient. Or journalists who sometimes view the general public as ignorant fools incapable of thinking independently. Maybe auto mechanics who see dollar signs each time a car pulls into the garage and scheme up ways to fleece the next customer. The list goes on.

And within each professional group there is a tendency to view the industry only from the perspective of the professionals and their peers and not through the eyes of those impacted by the industry.

This is classic clique syndrome and it happens everywhere. Everywhere. Including the Web. How many Web designers, webmasters, application developers, etc. think of the Web only in terms of how THEY use it and how their peers interact with it? Too often. Yet, they not only think in this narrow fashion but when the facts of other user experiences are presented they sometimes scoff at their needs.

"If they don't have Flash then screw them," is a common refrain. Or "They can just upgrade their browser" followed by "most people have broadband anyway."

This attitude is (unfortunately) not uncommon. There are ways to combat this attitude. Broaden the horizons of a Web developer by doing product (Web site) testing, paying attention to Web site complaints and generally interacting with real people who use real Web sites that are not in the industry.

I admit that I've not always given as much thought about this as I should (witness the extra wideness of webraw.com) but I'm trying to be empathetic and find that balance in every project I begin. The balance between what the user needs and what functions the Web site needs to accomplish. It's a tricky task to find this balance but it should always be a goal and sadly, it's not a goal far too often.

Bloggers of the World, Unite

A story at Boing Boing is making the blogging rounds and it's one of those post-Sept. 11 stories that just gets the blood boiling. Apparently the Portland airport goons (all Federal lackeys now) harrassed some guy and his pregnant wife. If it's all true then this scenario is not something beyond my personal imagination for I've been known to get a little obstinate with "authorities" from time to time. Anyway, after the guy got removed from his wife he returned to find out that...

"in addition to touching her swollen breasts – to protect the American citizenry – the employee had asked that she lift up her shirt. Not behind a screen, not off to the side – no, right there, directly in front of the hundred or so passengers standing in line. And for you women who’ve been pregnant and worn maternity pants, you know how ridiculous those things look. 'I felt like a clown,' my wife told me later. 'On display for all these people, with the cotton panel on my pants and my stomach sticking out. When I sat down I just lost my composure and began to cry.'"

I know how sensitive pregnant wives can be and this incident is just beyond ridiculous. For some reason I can just really see this incident actually occurring to me and the really scary thing is they didn't have to let Monahan go. From what I understand they could lock him up indefinitely as a suspected terrorist and that would be the end of the story. Maybe I am wrong about the new Terrorism laws but the fact that most people are a bit fuzzy about it indicates that the law is ripe for abuse. Anyway, I hope somehow bloggers can make a difference here.

Tim Berners-Lee loves Blogs (the resurrected missing post)

One of the great characteristics of blogs is that ubiquitous list of "recommended" links. This practice is partly a continuation of a Web tradition started by Tim Berners-Lee when he created the world's first Web page. It (the first Web page) basically contained a list of all the other Web sites in the world and as each new site went online the person maintaining the site would email Tim and he'd link it up.

Linking is also one of the natural advantages that the Web has over static text and this advantage is why ridiculous linking policies will never become the norm.

Quality Linking: One thing about linking though is the quality of the links. There is a gentle balance between having too many links and having too few. A site that has a multitude of links serves a purpose but in the process some of those links become lost and diminished in relevance. The best links are ones that you can trust as being of the highest quality or containing the most relevance. I don't want to name any names here because I'm not slamming the giant link lists but I'm just saying that with any giant list usually some quality is sacrificed for quantity. If you must have a giant list I'd recommend making it searchable and breaking it into categories.

And speaking of linking I often forget that not everyone who frequently reads blogs visits the same sites that I visit on an almost daily basis. Just because I've read some blogging gem on BoingBoing, memepool, presurfer, slashdot and obscure store does not mean that everyone else knows about it.

So, it's in this spirit that I share what I consider to be one of the best linking resources out there basically because it's based upon links that already exist on your blog (or any other blog you like):

Recommended Reading is a service developed by Mark Pilgrim using data from Phil Pearson's Blogging Ecosystem. Type a blog URL into the Recommended Reading tool and presto! A list of links that are both relevant and new. But wait there's more. If you already visit the sites listed then click on "Already Reading" and the tool filters out that blog and adds a new set of diverse reads. It's wonderful really.

My reluctance of even writing about this is that I assume that everyone knows about it already and maybe everyone does. To me it's kind of like saying, "Hey, try this search engine called Google. It's great." So if you already use Recommended Reading just nod your head and say, "yup, great stuff" and if you don't then check it out now you fool.

The Imitation has ended

While the imitation has ended the mystery continues. Back in October I discovered a site that had completely copied every aspect of webraw.com. This site never seemed to really be a functioning, updated site but it was featured on Pirated-Sites because of its blatant rip-off. Alas, now that site is gone completely and I must confess I kind of miss it. Just goes to show you that when someone rips off a site then that site will soon be doomed to slip into Web-oblivion.

And while on the subject of Pirated-Sites there is something about that site that I've never been entirely comfortable about. When there are obvious rip-offs of complete sites, home pages or major design elements then yes, that site deserves to be on Pirated-Sites. However, sometimes there is just a single "pirated" design element burried within an otherwise non-pirated design and sometimes that qualifies an entire site for display on Pirated-Sites.

I love the concept and practice of Pirated-Sites. It's a great service to the Web. Yet, I fear that on the Web there are sometimes a limited number of design choices for site elements and some things are honestly just coincidence. Maybe my recent experience with Mellon.com has given me a more personal perspective on this issue. I have always thought that there is a finite number of ways that things like the ">" character can be used on a Web site.

What did you get for Christmas?

Everyone generally gets at least one gift for Christmas that just basically sucks. However, in the spirit of the season we can at least be grateful that we didn't get this, this or that.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, these are real products that are sold to real people over the real Web.

webraw/blog is in NetNewsWire Lite

The new version (1.0.2) of NetNewsWire Lite includes webraw/blog in its sites drawer list. It's pretty cool to be included as a default link in a piece of software. Not only that but the software is very cool. I use it all the time.

If you aren't using some sort of news reader to keep up with your daily blog reads then you are really missing out. If you do happen to download it then be sure and subscribe to webraw/blog to keep up with the (almost) daily uncooked web goodness. After all, every time someone subscribes to webraw/blog an angel earns his wings. Or maybe it's a devil gets his pitchfork. Never could keep that straight.

You might be a blogger if...

A continuation of the popular You might be a blogger if... series. You might be a blogger if...

...you blog on Christmas Day

Hey Blogger Boy

No matter what you may be thinking and no matter what anyone tells you please always write every post offline BEFORE putting it into Blogger. Got that? Write offline then copy/paste the stuff into Blogger. That way if you write the most brilliant post ever you won't be pulling your hair out and pounding the table when it mysteriously vanishes into the Blogger atmosphere. I'm no hater. It's not Blogger's fault. It's a Web app. These things happen. I should know better. However, I'm almost positive that my lost post was the one to earn me a Pulitzer.

Nikon 4300 Noises

webraw is currently the number 2 search result for Nikon 4300 noises on Google. This site has received a couple of hits based upon that search query. Since I have a Nikon 4300 I know exactly what this is all about. My Nikon digital camera makes a lot of noises. When it's in the non-manual/auto-focus mode it seems to have trouble figuring out exactly what to focus on so it enters this state of perpetual focusing. Since all the focusing is done electronically the little gears inside the camera make some noise and this is sort of annoying. The camera works fine, so I'm not complaining. If I set it to manual then the noises stop. Also if I depress the focus button (shutter button half pressed) then the noises/focus stops.

Anyway, if you have a Nikon Coolpix 4300 and hear noises then now you know you aren't crazy. This has been a public service announcement.

I thought it was funny

Had a little fun with PhotoShop yesterday. Turns out Sen. Lott does care about African-Americans.

Thoughts on digital file sharing from one of the greats

By now most people have read or know about Tim O'Reilly's wonderful article discussing online distribution and how obscurity is a greater threat to artists than piracy. It's brilliant and if you haven't read it take the time and do so.

If there is a unifying theme or characteristic of the Web as it relates to ideas and creative content it's VARIETY. We've seen increased variety in our non-Web lives with the proliferation of niche magazines, multiple HBOs (and a myriad of other channels), XM radio, etc. People want variety. The Web offers variety beyond our ability to imagine.

It's this growing addiction to variety that is partially fueling the current "piracy" craze (O'Reilly would rightly call it copyright infringement). With increased variety also comes a need to find ways to distribute that content and to educate and inform the masses of its existence. The Web has wonderfully facillitated that need while ruffling the feathers of the big guys (RIAA, MPAA, Metallica, etc.).

A perspective that I've developed after reading the O'Reilly bit is something along the lines of a cost-benefit analysis. O'Reilly discusses this aspect but it really struck me that the Trade-Off for having variety is that some of the Big Boys may "lose" some potential revenue. And this is the KEY. The Big Boys MUST figure out how to offer that variety in an affordable manner or the little guys (you and me) will continue to offer that variety. I'm not saying anything new or profound here, just emphasizing the need for variety.

Now, there is a second thought that I've had about this whole issue. Of all the creative content that is being "pirated" music is uniquely disadvantaged to all the others. Of all the arts (movies, books, art, etc.) music requires the least attention. To be more specific there is no visual requirement to enjoy music. This is why music has always been "shared" much more than any other art form. This is also why the quality of the music copy is less important than the quality of the copy of a movie, book or piece of art.

I've pondered why books, movies and art just aren't copied as much as music (I know they get copied, but nothing like the Napster episode when grandma's and pre-teens were copying music every day) and besides the file size (movies) and portability (e-book readers) issues the main aspect that keeps surfacing is sensory and specifically visual.

Music can be played in just about any situation and be effective but a good movie needs to be viewed on a television with the viewer parked on the couch. A good book needs to be read in relative quiet with minimal interruptions. Good art just isn't the same on a computer screen. Yet music sounds acceptable in the car, on an mp3 player, on the stereo, etc. and it can be experienced while cleaning, working, playing and even reading.

This is why the lower quality mp3s being downloaded aren't a big deal to anyone because access to the variety is much more important than the highest quality sound. Yet, watching a grainy movie on the computer will NEVER replace a nice DVD on the television and e-book readers have a LONG way to go before they rival books.

This post has been for regular webraw readers who have been jonesing for my infamous copyright rants. The length of this rant indicates how long it's been since I've done a decent copyright blog.

Fun with Flash

I've been working on a lil Flash project at work and think it turned out pretty well. The story was written by one of our reporters and narrated by Shani Alexander who also played Peter Pan in the local production which helped to inspire the current Peter Pan obsession at the webraw household.

Momma always said...

If you can't think of anything good to blog about then don't blog at all. Quantity never substitutes for clarity. An ultra-verbose blog does not equal a good blog nor does a sparse, minimalistic blog achieve blogging nirvana. It's the balance between the yin and the yang which creates true blogging success. Now where is my bumper sticker making machine?

Lords of the Rhymes

Keepin' it real in Hobbiton Yo! It's sites like these that help me realize that yes, in fact, I do have a better grasp on reality than some people. [from memepool]

A novel idea for a blog

Hmmm. Just thinking about what to blog about. Hey, I got it. Something original. Something unique to this particular blog on December 18th. How about a review of The Lord of The Ring: The Two Towers.

Well, since I just saw the new movie and I'm sitting here watching Fellowship of the Ring (geek alert) with my new puppy gnawing my elbow (ouch!) I figure a movie review is in order.

Review: It's awesome. :End of Review

No really, it's pretty damn good. Highlights = The entire Helms Deep battle scenes. Gollum, every scene with him/it. The Ents. Did I mention Helms Deep? Gandalf kicking ass. Lowlights = The whole plot modification where Farimir takes Frodo to Osgilith (however you spell that lesser Gondor city name) instead of just letting him go at his secret hide out. Why was that necessary? Also, there is the whole deal with Aragorn falling off a cliff and floating around for a while. Maybe it's in the book. Don't remember but it was pretty boring in the movie. Yawn.

All in all the movie rocked. If I did the thumbs thing I'd give it two thumbs up. Since I don't I'll just say it's a great movie. Go see it. Now aren't you glad you read THIS blog? I mean there couldn't possibly be any other blogs currently reviewing LOTR:TT right?

* Five minutes after writing the above "review." - Hmmmm.... just did a brief Daypop search and didn't see any blog reviews. Hell, maybe I am the first. If so it just proves that I have no life. LOTR then BLOG.

Chimera is HOT (cocoa)

Just read on Mac OS X Blog about Chimera. I'd read about Chimera before and figured Mozilla (one of my favorites) was just as good. While Chimera is a Mozilla product it is not Mozilla. It is built in Cocoa and seems much faster, lighter and more responsive than Mozilla. It looks and feels a bit like OmniWeb but has a tabbed interface and pop-up suppression so it's much better than OmniWeb for those two points alone.

If you use OS X give Chimera a try. Did I just write a browser review? Huh. I guess so. See what happens when you let your fingers do the blogging.

webraw Lunch Menu

See the good things to eat from the webraw vending machine. Don't worry, the vending maching takes $5 bills as well as quarters, dimes, nickels and your soul. Lip smacking goodness. Delicious and nutricious.

The photos are of actual food stored in a "refrigerated" vending machine for hungry journalists working the late shift.

A very complimentary review of webraw.com

The Weblog Review has just reviewed webraw/blog and I almost can't believe the positive nature of the review. I swear I provided no funds or incentives to get such a gushing review. That said, it's comments like the one below that make it seem like this site is worth all the hard work and sleepless nights:

I'm sure it has happened to you at one time or another. You stumble upon a page, you get hooked instantly, and you want to tell everybody about it, Mom & Dad, and Uncle Percy, your dog trainer, your non-blogging, non-Webbing wife (girlfriend, boyfriend, whoever...), even Mrs. Gunnatharty down at Human Resources (who hasn't seen a Web page in her little, form-and-pencil bound bureaucratic life, ever). The site is that good, it's attractive, it's alive, it has got "flesh" to it, it may be even called a "magnum" site....

Not quite sure what a magnum site is but I like the sound of it. Anyway, check out the review and while you're at it submit your site to The Weblog Review.

The coolest thing since GPL

Creative Commons just released v 1.0. It's so cool. I'm practically giddy with excitement (note: annual usage of the word giddy has been exceeded). I just got through reading the Licenses Explanation and it's great.
Here's one License type:

Attribution. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give you credit. Example: Jane publishes her photograph with an Attribution license, because she wants the world to use her pictures provided they give her credit. Bob finds her photograph online and wants to display it on the front page of his website. Bob puts Jane's picture on his site, and clearly indicates Jane's authorship.

Soon you'll be seeing these symbols everywhere. Thank you Lessig and friends.

Disposable Identities

Disposable Identities is the title of a book I've thought about writing. Usually when I get the idea to write a book I think of the title first because, after all, that's the most important part of any successful book. Would Moby Dick be quite as popular if it was called Sea Guy Obsesses Over White Whale? Or what if On The Road were titled Drug Induced Stream of Consciousness Travelogue? Well, actually that might not be a bad title for On The Road. But I think my point is made.

Disposable Identities would detail the way the Internet has fostered a culture of people who exist anonymously as someone other than themselves. I have had some limited (ok, maybe not so limited) experience with this, especially when I first got online, and these identities can become very real and very much an extension of one's self. It may partly stem from a healthy imagination but psychologists may be quick to point out that it really is the expression of some deep, dark personal troubles. Whatever. The aspect that fascinates me the most right now is the reluctance to discard these manufactured, anonymous identities.

For some reason people have grown "attached" to these identities and they become inexoribly intertwined (big word combo = 35 points) with the person's real-world identity. It's really bizarre to me when I think about it because usually the purpose of creating the identity in the first place is to have a memorable email address, funny screen name or to fill out some bogus registration information to access some feature of a site. It rarely begins as an effort to create some alter-ego extension of someone's subconscious but it can often lead to that very action.

Disposable Identities should never be confused with nicknames because nicknames are almost always related to an actual event or given by someone else while Disposable Identities are almost always self-created. More about this topic later. My question for now is, do you have a Disposable Identity that you are finding is becoming pretty difficult to dispose?

Arrrggghh! My eyepatch is in the mail

Apparently I'm a pirate. Didn't realize it till an alert reader (apologies Mr. Barry) sent in this link and pointed out that the humble webraw logo is eerily similar to the Mellon Financial logo. OMG. It's green.

Anyway, unbeknownst to me, webraw has pirated the Melon logo and now I guess I deserve the plank. In my own defense the logo is pretty lame and it's something I honestly came up with entirely on my own. It being a fairly simple design must have doomed it from the beginning.

A redesign is forever on the to-do list and I just hope the future logo doesn't end up as a pre-existing design on some other obscure, financial site. Arrrggghhh. If only I'd paid attention in Logo Class.

Google regulated like utilities or phone service?

The latest issue of Wired (online version available Dec. 18) has an article about Google. It basically speaks to the massive dominance Google has on the Web and the fact that really only one guy makes decisions like whether to link to a site that trashes John Malkovich, gives demolition instructions or bashes Scientology. It discusses some other issues as well but one thing it mentions is that some people want Google regulated like utilities or phone services.

I've not formed any real opinion on Google and its practices but discovering what Google is developing has me thinking that maybe they will control the Web soon.

labs.google.com - Google Demos
Froogle
Timeline
Google Viewer

iQuestion: The new Apple interviewing technique on display

The INTERVIEW: John Moltz is the editor of the wildly popular Crazy Apple Rumors Site (CARS). This award-winning site has been featured in Macworld magazine, selected as Net Culture Site of the Week and featured on Shawn King's radio show "Your Mac Life." Among the cadre of Apple Rumor sites CARS stands out from the rest mainly because CARS "is dedicated to the fabrication of Apple rumors that defy verifiability, grammatical convention or any basis in reality." That and the fact that the site is just so damn fun to read.

The all new webraw interview is up. Check it out.

Real call

This is the text of a real phone call I just received:

Really bad recorded voice says, "Hi, this is NOT a solicitation. This is the Metro Ambulance Service. Please hold for an agent." Holding, holding, holding and click. They hung up. Serves me right for obeying a recorded message.

However, the strangest call I ever got was a recorded message that said, "Hi, this is NOT a solicitation. Please call THIS number (888-some number) immediately." Say wha? Yep. I got a recorded message telling me to call someone. Don't worry, I didn't call but I kinda wish I had. It would have made an even better story if, when I called, I got a recorded message asking me to hold and then got transferred to automatic phone button menu hell.

Rocking with The Cure

Is it just me or is The Cure one of the greatest bands of the last 20 years? I've been listening to "Disintegration", "Mixed Up", "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" and "Wish" over the past couple of weeks and I'm just struck by how listenable this band is. The burn rate* of The Cure is very, very high. It's fun to rediscover bands I've always liked but just neglected for some reason or another. By the way, The Cure have Web site and it is pretty dern cool (or should it be The Cure has a Web site? Or maybe The Cure has got a Web site?). They've been doing the site since 1995 which is about 20 years in Web-time.

* Definition for the clueless: The burn rate of a song or band is how many times it can be listened to before it becomes OLD and LAME. Britney Spears generally has a very low burn rate while The Beatles have one of the highest burn rates of any band. Some songs have a negative burn rate such as Mambo Number 5 and the Macarena but that is thankfully a rarity and generally those songs are only released in the summer.

Drowning in a sea of Web

I feel like I'm drowning. There is something about the Web that is crushing my non-Web self. I feel compelled to spend every moment of my free-time learning, studying, reading, teaching or constructing something related to the Web. Feelings similar to guilt descend upon me when I'm doing something that is not Web-related. While I'd like to be able to just integrate the Web with the rest of my existence, like television or newspapers, the very evolutionary nature of it demands that I always be improving or else I will fall hopelessly behind. When I think about this it seems kind of sad but what else am I to do? I actually enjoy this, most of the time. I guess I just need to get used to drowning because the Web is an ocean and one can only swim for so long in the ocean.

Her name is Moon and she's NOT Frank Zappa's daughter

No matter how odd this is I don't think I really needed to see it. What do you expect from a woman named Moon Zijp?

Imitation continues...

Just reading the excellent [stop]design and saw Doug's blog about someone who "ripped" his site. This is eerily similar to my experience with Maudlin that I've blogged about in the past here and here.

Doug has pretty much expressed my sentiments about the whole situation. I don't particularly feel angry at the guy because a.) It looks like the site is "unfinished" as in non-functioning and b.) because I'm not really all that worried about it because anyone should know that webraw.com is the original.

The pirate of [stop]design said, "he was in the middle of making changes, and hadn't quite figured out all the CSS yet, so content was the first and easiest thing he could change." and I guess to this I ask: Why not do all of this in PhotoShop or locally? I dunno. I can't say I haven't reverse engineered something myself (ericjanssen.com is basically a reverse engineer of a glish.com template) but I just don't know about this total ripping.

I guess I just really wonder why this can't be done locally? More to come on this topic...

one word. so little time.

This site has what can become an addictive hook...you have sixty seconds to write whatever you can about a random word. Interesting what you will come up with when the pressure is on. Link gleaned from ph8.

Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

This site isn't sexy but it's got tons of really interesting information about the legal climate for Internet activity.

20 Questions with Curt Cloninger

A MUST READ
Author, popular speaker, award-winning Web designer and Net artist, regular contributor to design zines like A List Apart, musician and much more -- Curt Cloninger is a modern day renaissance man living and creating in the fast-paced realm of the Web. Cloninger answers questions about copyright, Web design, blogging and much more.

Read 20 Questions with Curt Cloninger! Online version contains an extra Bonus Question!

You might be a blogger if...

I was just thinking about blogging stereotypes the other day (they do exist) and the image of Jeff Foxworthy and his famous "You might be a redneck if..." jokes just popped into my mind and I knew I had to compile a blogging equivalent. Here's what I've got so far:

You Might Be A Blogger If...

... you stay up all night reading random blogs and following links to read even more random blogs until you finally end up reading your own blog but don't even realize it's your blog until after you've read a few of your posts.

... you begin to see every experience in your life as a potential blog and can't wait to get online to share it.

... you check your referrer logs, comments or site traffic more than once a day (ok, just once a day probably qualifies too).

... you start muttering obscenities every time you realize Daypop is down (which is quite a lot of obscenities when you think about it).

... you have to explain blogging to family, friends and associates so many times that you start telling them a blog is a furry rodent from Venezuela.

... you just can't bring yourself to refer to blogging as an Online Journal.

... you have blogged from work more than once.

... you do a little dance each time someone subscribes to your Bloglet.

You just may need to smile today

Strong Bad is here to make you smile and answer your e-mail questions. If you haven't yet become familiar with Strong Bad then you must check out his site.

I have a dream...but not that kind of dream

I have an idea. There is no patent pending yet but this blog establishes the date of original thought so maybe that will help should someone steal this idea and I am forced to go to court. End of legal crap. Here's the idea.

What if you died suddenly in the next 5 minutes? What would happen to your blog?

That's right. Your blog.

Over time you've crafted an extremely popular blog with dozens, scores, hundreds even thousands of daily readers who all expect to enjoy your own brand of blogging on a fairly regular basis. However, you've just died and since you are not yet quite a public figure like Dave Winer or Evan Williams there is not going to be any massive online notification of your demise.

Your blog will obviously be neglected and e-mails ignored as your readers wonder what happened. Rumors will start and some will guess correctly but nobody will really know for sure and eventually your blog will become another pothole on the great WWW.

So what is a death-conscious blogger to do? Well, I'm glad you asked. My idea is to create an online service that is activated at the time of your death. You register, pay a small fee and then when you die the service is notified and posted on the Web. For additional fees a posting could be automatically generated on your blog alerting everyone that you won't be blogging much anymore.

"Hi loyal bloggers. If you are reading this then I'm dead. No, really, I'm dead. I obviously wrote this before I died. This is not a joke. This is my last post. See you in the afterlife."

I'm still working out the details but I see HUGE $$$ in my future. It's great ideas like this one that keep America strong and our economy thriving. This idea is only slightly less compelling than the brilliant Cue Cat which will catch on very, very soon.

Do you use Mac OS X (pronounced Oh Es Ex Mr. Jobs)

Daring Fireball: Thanksfindering is an article/blog about the Mac OS X finder. Points out some of the issues and problems that make the OS X finder a real pain. If you use OS X and have come over from OS 9 then you should really read this in its entirety. (credit: link lovingly donated by Zeldman)

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Sometimes my capacity to interact with humans on a social level is less than adequate. My ability to smile at the right times, laugh at the right jokes and interject the proper witty comments is often quite deficient. It's not because I'm incapable or haven't learned the way to maneuver through social situations, it's that I'm often simply uninterested in what anyone is saying or doing. My brain can only absorb so much small talk and I'm only able to describe my job, family and recreational passions a few times each day.

So, eventually there comes that point of critical mass when my brain simply shuts down and I begin staring out across the room full of smiling, laughing, drinking, talking, witty people and just sort of freeze. Amazingly this usually works for the rest of the event with only the occasional interruption by some well-meaning individual who asks if I'm doing ok or tries to strike up a conversation out of a sense of misplaced pity. Generally, people don't want to notice someone who is standing alone, quietly staring in the corner of a room. I know I don't.

What would be nice is for my behavior in these situations to explicity convey some message along the lines of [an error occurred while processing this directive] and people would notice this and simply think, "Oh, it's one of those server things" or something along those lines.

If a tree falls...

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

If a song is downloaded onto a computer but no one ever listens to it, does that qualify as piracy?