Blog

Site updates and anything else related to the technology of blogging and my site(s).

On This Day: Feb 4

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 21 posts previously published on February 4th

  • 2024
  • 2023
    • 📚 Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell No review, as this book is a Philip K. Dick Award nominee, and I am the coordinator for the award ceremony at Norwescon. While I have no input into the selection of nominees or judging, I want to be sure to avoid any appearance of influence. ➡
  • 2020
    • What is a Blade Runner? How Ridley Scott’s Movie Has Origins in William S. Burroughs’ Novella, Blade Runner: A Movie: This is fascinating; I had no idea. And now I want to see if I can track down copies of both Nourse’s and Burroughs’ books. ➡
    • Twitter Helps Spread Disinformation During Iowa Caucuses: “A Twitter spokesperson told Gizmodo that the company does not believe viral tweets falsely claiming people’s votes are worthless in the hours preceding an election will discourage them from voting.” ➡
    • On This Day: Feb 4 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from February 4 ➡
  • 2019
    • The Seattle area got a good dump of snow last night! Here’s what we woke up to in Renton. Of course, I work from home, so no snow day for me…. ➡
  • 2017
    • Book twelve (and second #PKDickAward nominee) of 2017: Graft, by Matt Hill. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
    • Will you get ALL THE RIBBONS! at #nwc39? (35/366) ➡
    • Today’s office view. Mostly just testing posting to Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook natively rather than piping through IFTTT. ➡
  • 2014
    • It’s cold out here, and the next few days are just going to get colder. Brrrrr! ➡
  • 2009
    • Links for February 4th from 14:21 to 18:52 Sometime between 14:21 and 18:52, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Why Your Avatar Matters • The 20 Worst Foods in America of 2009 • Exclusive: Stephen King on J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer • Ancient Fossil Find: This Snake Could Eat a Cow! • Masked Man Robs Stores With Klingon Sword ➡
    • Links for February 2nd through February 4th Sometime between February 2nd and February 4th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Cash 4 Gold Would Like to Melt Down and Recast Their Reputation • Princesses Preen in a Pauper Economy • Passport RFIDs Cloned Wholesale by $250 eBay Auction Spree • How Twitter Was Born • Untouched East Germany Flat Found ➡
  • 2006
  • 2004
    • Suit measurements? Anyone in Seattle know of a place in the downtown/First Hill/Capitol Hill area that I could go get measured for a suit without having to buy one? Or, failing that, what measurements are generally needed so I could do it myself? I'm quite clueless in these matters. ➡
  • 2003
    • WTC finalists chosen The two finalists for the project to rebuild on the site of the World Trade Center have been announced. Which do you prefer? ➡
    • The speed of what? A CNN caption that really needed some editing before going live. ➡
    • The pervert motto That's like the pervert motto…they make you put your right hand in the air, your left hand down your pants, and recite that. ➡
    • Nothing to see here. Really. Pablo Picasso's anti-war painting 'Guernica' has hung in the lobby of the U.N. since 1985. It serves as a sobering reminder of the horrors of war to those in the U.N. who may be faced with making decisions as to whether or not to sanction attacks against one country or another. Unless, of course, it's politically expedient not to remind them what war can do, in which case we'll just cover it up. ➡
    • Photographic glitches? Lightning? Alien death rays? I think the thing that bugs me the most about this is that even though NASA has set up a page for people to upload images and video that they may have taken during the shuttle disaster, rather than do that (or, to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe in addition to that), this guy decided to run to the media and stir up a little controversy. ➡
    • MT: SimpleComments Thanks to a clever little hack by Adam Kalsey, all comments and TrackBack pings that I receive are displayed as a single list on each entry's page, sorted by the time they were received. Much nicer visually than having two seperate listings of responses to one of my posts. ➡
  • 2002

On This Day: Feb 3

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 26 posts previously published on February 3rd

  • 2024
  • 2021
  • 2020
    • Old CSS, new CSS: “I’m here to tell all of you to get off my lawn. Here’s a history of CSS and web design, as I remember it.” This is a wonderful rundown of how HTML and CSS web design has changed over the years. I still have a few mid-’90s pages on my site ... Read more ➡
    • NSW and Victoria just jumped 1.8 metres north: Added to the list of “things I didn’t know about Australia”: It sits on a particularly fast-moving (~7cm/yr) tectonic plate, and due to a lack of updates since 1994, the GPS system is currently off by about six feet (but is soon to be fixed). ➡
    • Story Time From Space: Astronauts reading STEM-focused children’s books from the International Space Station to kids on earth! ➡
    • On This Day: Feb 3 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from February 3 ➡
  • 2019
    • As seen on Capitol Hill in Seattle on Friday Night, not far from the Mercury: the world gets hard to live in with an open spirit. But risk is the spice of life. Be legendary. ➡
    • Book twelve of 2019: Theory of Bastards, by Audrey Schulman. #PKDickAward nominee. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📚 Neat near-future exploration of interpersonal connections and intimacy, through the lens of research into the sexual habits of bonobo apes. ➡
  • 2016
    • Had a “all these photos look doofy” evening. This is as good as it gets today. (34/366) ➡
    • Got a nice handwritten thank-you note from a prospective LAJ student that I chatted with. #CWUpride :) ➡
  • 2014
    • Survived another Monday! Time to get Prairie and head home. ➡
  • 2013
    • Difficult Listening Hour 06 (110BPM) After taking last weekend off (but hey, I gave you almost four hours in two mixes last time I updated), here's another new practice mix. Every song in this mix is somewhere between 105 and 115 BPM. ➡
  • 2010
    • Comparisons Countries that forbid gays in their military: Cuba, China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Jamaica, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela, Yemen, the USA. ➡
  • 2009
  • 2006
    • The 24.6 Second College Degree Every day, we're spending enough money in Iraq and Afghanistan to pay for _3,503_ four-year public school college degrees. ➡
    • Trademark this, Aggies! Someone needs to make t-shirts with the following: √144th Man ➡
    • Gored for Women! Another example of organizations that should check their web site addresses a little more carefully. Today's case in point: The American Heart Association's Go Red for Women site, promoting heart disease awareness. ➡
  • 2005
    • Me and a Gun and a Man on my Back This is without a doubt one of the most powerful things I've come across lately — an eight-shot series of photographs and poems by selkie decrying abuse. ➡
    • Three hours on one post I just spent three hours on a single post -- and I wasn't even writing a new post, but just reading and responding to comments prompted by my rambling grumbles about the State of the Union. I'm going to be so behind in NetNewsWire tomorrow… ➡
    • Dan Rather’s replacement Every so often over the past day or so, I've seen headlines like this 'Schieffer is interim replacement for Rather', only my brain would conveniently drop the 'e', turning the name into 'Schiffer'. So for the past day, I've had the vague notion that Dan Rather's replacement would be Claudia Schiffer. ➡
  • 2004
    • Bush’s Budget The president's budget reveals his priorities, what he truly cares about. It is not a reassuring picture. ➡
    • The MS Mac BU Last Friday, the Seattle P-I ran a nice story on the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft, which included a photo of some of the Mac BU staffers seated in front of racks of Mac computers. ➡
  • 2003
    • geek*muffin Ladies and gentlemen — please stop by and welcome my good friend Kirsten to the weblogging world. ➡
    • Desktop images from Columbia There are some gorgeous images taken by the crew of the Columbia before it broke up on reentry, courtesy of NASA. I've taken two of my favorites and turned them into 1024x768 desktop images, which you can grab here if you like. ➡
    • Creative Commons I took a look at the Creative Commons licences when they first appeared, and considered adopting one of them for my weblog, but in the end, also decided not to. At the bottom of every page on this site, you'll see the standard copyright line, and that's how I intend to keep it. ➡
    • Tired of the 'renovations' Grrrrrr.... I woke up this morning to find a note slipped under my door telling me that the power to the building was going to be cut off again today, due to the construction/renovation work currently going on. Fat lot of good that note did me, though, considering the power was already off when I woke up. ➡

On This Day: Feb 2

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 25 posts previously published on February 2nd

  • 2024
  • 2023
    • 📚 The Legacy of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson No review, as this book is a Philip K. Dick Award nominee, and I am the coordinator for the award ceremony at Norwescon. While I have no input into the selection of nominees or judging, I want to be sure to avoid any appearance of influence. ➡
  • 2021
    • All of this year’s Philip K. Dick Award nominees have arrived! Two months to get through them all (plus two more that are predecessors of books in this stack). Will I make it? 📚 ➡
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • Well, what else would we be watching tonight? ➡
  • 2017
    • Saw this while walking on the Ganges. Either this bridge (which carries one of the campus steam heating pipes) has a pretty severe leak, or the winter river gods were very happy to see me! 😉😂 ➡
    • Last week I got brave/foolish enough to climb down to walk along the frozen Ganges (the irrigation canal that runs through campus). Figured I might as well do it once while I could! ➡
  • 2016
    • Some nights you just need to build a cute little #Lego #mixels guy. (33/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Did a photo a day all January, then missed yesterday. Meh. Ah well, there were some days I did more than one, so my average will still be on point. Meanwhile, this is what happens when I get lazy about shaving for a week. Scruffy! Time to take care of that. ➡
  • 2009
  • 2007
    • Throwing down the gauntlet… Bill Gates: Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine. ➡
  • 2006
  • 2005
    • Amazon Prime I am very excited to announce Amazon Prime, our first ever membership program, which provides 'all-you-can-eat' express shipping. It's simple: for a flat annual membership fee, you get unlimited two-day shipping for free on over a million in-stock items. Members also get overnight shipping for only $3.99 per item -- order as late as 6:30PM ET. ➡
    • No more combined feeds While I'd been considering this for a little while, Dave's 'Information Aversion' post prompted me to un-splice my Flickr photos from my RSS feeds. Having done that, I've updated my feeds page to list my current available syndication feeds, all broken out to allow readers to subscribe to as much or as little of my drivel as they please. ➡
    • State of the Union 2005 'Liveblogging' (though I won't actually post this until afterwards) the State of the Union. I'm not sure why, all it's going to do is annoy me. But still... [Speakeasy had sudden network issues midway through the SotU, so I didn't get to see all of it. Lots of grumbles about what I did see, though.] ➡
    • Jumping the gun? All this, and it's just barely into February. That just doesn't seem right. Okay, so I'm not in Alaska anymore, where February tends to be the coldest and most bitter weeks of winter, but isn't it just a bit early for weather like this, even here in Seattle? ➡
  • 2004
    • Happy Blogaversary! Congrats to Kirsten on her one-year 'blogaversary', complete with spiffy new site design! ➡
    • Teaching? Technical writing? Every so often, a topic pops up in the TypePad User Group forums that I feel I can add my own particular little brand of insight into, and I'll spend some time doing my best to explain (often in excruciating detail) what's going on. I recently got a very nice comment from Doc in response to one such post. ➡
    • Only Just Beginning There once was a boy who remembered that his heart did not ever really belong to him. So he tried to give it back to the sky. ➡
    • RSS feeds updated I've updated, rearranged, and cleaned up the RSS feeds for Eclecticism. Hopefully I haven't just screwed things up too horribly for those of you who subscribe to one feed or another. ➡
    • New category, design tweaks Following up on my thought process, I've added a 15Minutes archive category that collects all posts related to my experiences with blogging my way out of a job. I've also made some other slight design tweaks. ➡
    • One more mention I need to set up a 'fifteen minutes' category… ➡
    • That’s no pastie! Ah, well -- my views aren't about to change anyone's mind. Still, I'm constantly frustrated by a culture that glorifies violence and vilifies sexuality (unless it's being used to sell something). Seems pretty backwards. But that's just me. ➡
    • Welcome, Katya! Many congratulations to Casey and Jennifer, who became the proud parents of Katarina Anne Scott on the 19th! ➡
  • 2001
    • Balls and beats I also may have an opportunity to start spinning again...albeit in sort of a cheezy fashion. The bowling alley in Muldoon is one of the ones in town that does Neon Bowling on weekend nights, and they're looking for a DJ for their Saturday nights. ➡

On This Day: Feb 1

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 16 posts previously published on February 1st

  • 2024
  • 2022
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • Book eleven of 2019: Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories, by Vandana Singh. #PKDickAward nominee. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📚 One of the best collections I’ve read in a long time. Fascinating, sometimes haunting stories, not a dud in the bunch, and a definite pleasure throughout. ➡
  • 2016
    • I know exercise has benefits. It’s just hard to remember that some evenings. (32/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Always a little amused at how much difference a few minutes trimming and shaving can make. ➡
    • This bin at Fred Meyer was like some kind of plush horror film. As Teddy sunk ever deeper into the writhing mass of giant pink caterpillars, he cursed the cruel gods that had fixed a permanent grin on his horrified, screaming face. ➡
  • 2010
  • 2007
    • Nobody Likes a Quitter As we enter this first day of February, I've now officially been one month entirely without cigarettes. ➡
    • Harry Potter, Year Seven: The Deathly Hallows The publication date for the next -- er, that is, _last_ -- Harry Potter book has been announced. Don't expect Prairie or I to answer calls or be available in _any_ way this July 21st. Our day is planned. ➡
  • 2005
    • Stating the obvious I brought up the Flickr page for photos tagged with 'alaska' tonight to show it to Prairie — lots of gorgeous shots of my home state — and had to laugh at the “related” tags that Flickr automatically generates. ➡
  • 2004
  • 2003
    • Space Shuttle Colombia lost My heartfelt condlences to the families of the seven astronauts of the Space Shuttle Columbia, which was lost today during reentry. ➡
  • 2001
    • DJ Wudi strikes again! For the third year in a row, I'll be DJ'ing at UAA's Dance Marathon benefit fundraiser for the Providence Children's ICU. ➡

On This Day: Jan 31

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past. Here are my past posts for January 31…

There are 17 posts previously published on January 31st

  • 2024
    • Year 50 Day 274 A pseudo-sequel to last week’s shot from the optometrist’s office, I guess? ➡
  • 2021
  • 2020
    • 📚 eight of 2020: The Rosewater Redemption by Tade Thompson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #PKDickAward nominee An excellent conclusion to a fascinating trilogy. Wrapped everything up nicely, satisfactory ends for all the characters, and a very interesting take on alien invasion. ➡
    • On This Day: Jan 31 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from January 31 ➡
  • 2019
    • 🖖 #StarTrekDiscovery S02E03: Meh. I’m all good with Tilly’s snarky space fungus, but all the Klingon stuff dragged. It was like this episode was half season two, half season one, and that wasn’t a good thing. My least favorite S2 episode so far. Fingers crossed for next week. ➡
  • 2016
    • Book six of 2016: Crux, by Ramez Naam. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #PKDickAward pre-nominee. #rameznaam (31/366) ➡
    • Four new #Lego figures today, including #leftshark! ➡
  • 2014
    • Almost forgot to do a picture today. So you get a creepy eyeball shot because I’m tired and lack creativity. ➡
  • 2008
  • 2005
    • Toy Story 3 having problems o one wants to direct 'Toy Story 3.' That's the word in Hollywood's animation world, where the third installment of the incredibly successful Pixar series has no director, writer or, possibly, stars. My sources in the animation biz tell me that Disney, which will make 'Toy Story 3' without Pixar, cannot find a director to guide the project. ➡
  • 2004
    • CBS needs to work on their definition of ‘issue’ ads CBS can't decide whether they'll run controversial advertising or not. ➡
    • Go Judy! An absolutely beautiful article at The Nation looking at the media's inability to cope with the fact that Judy Dean is exactly what she appears to be — a normal, well-adjusted independent woman in a healthy, loving relationship with her husband who doesn't want to abandon her medical practice to be trotted out at every political opportunity during the campaign season. ➡
    • 411 Length Required Recently, ThinkGeek started selling HTTPanties — a set of panties with either '200 OK' or '403 Forbidden' emblazoned across the front. Cute idea. ➡
    • The Howard Dean Aerobics Program Need some exercise? Just go to a Howard Dean appearance should he come through your town. I swear, with the number of standing ovations after every major point Dean makes, his supporters are up and down more often than your average Episcopal congregation! ➡
    • Miracles never cease As it turns out, last week our building was apparently purchased by a new leasing agency, so we weren't sure what sort of deals or possibilities might exist with the new management. We finally got confirmation on the new setup, and I'm not going to be able to get a free months rent for renewing my lease. ➡
  • 2002
    • Concrete Blonde review posted I just got e-mail from Dean, the webmaster of a Concrete Blonde fansite. Earlier this morning I'd e-mailed him about my little writeup of last night's show, and he went ahead and posted it on his site! ➡
    • Still in Hollywood I've been to shows where the band is too busy performing to really make a connection with the audience. Johnette is anything but that -- the kind of artist that you can, and do, actually believe when they talk about how much they're enjoying being there, how much fun they're having performing, and how much they love the audience that night. ➡

On This Day: Jan 30

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past. Here are my past posts for January 30…

There are 21 posts previously published on January 30th

  • 2024
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • Book six of 2018: Nigerians in Space, by Deji Bryce Olukotun. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
    • Another in the “oh, right, I need to post a photo, better play with filters” series. (30/366) ➡
  • 2015
  • 2014
    • Back at work. Mostly dug out of my email backlog. Hungry, and still half an hour to go before lunch! ➡
  • 2009
    • Social Networking Name Fail When deciding on a name for the new Harry Potter themed social networking site, was MyLeaky _really_ the best they could come up with? It sounds like a a support site for incontinence sufferers. ➡
    • Links for January 29th through January 30th Sometime between January 29th and January 30th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Do Humanlike Machines Deserve Human Rights? • On the Flickr support in iPhoto ‘09 • Google School: Find Images by Exact Dimensions, Make Wallpaper Search a Breeze • White House Unbuttons Formal Dress Code • Create Your Own Original Star Trek Story ➡
  • 2006
    • ENG101: Analysis: A Blogger is Just a Writer With a Cooler Name I got my first paper back in my ENG101 class today. The only comment given by my teacher was, "superb," and I got a 3.9/4.0, or 95/100 -- it would have been perfect, except that I forgot to include a 'memo of self-reflection.' Oops. Still, I think I can cope with the final grade. ➡
  • 2005
    • New camera! The day finally came when I had enough funds available to replace the camera I lost nearly a year ago. My new toy: a Canon Powershot A95. ➡
    • You just can’t sing in the supermarket… What a blast. This world needs more random silliness in it from time to time, and we had a lot of fun being part of this particular bit of randomness. Much giggling and many smiles from everyone in the group and from whatever customers happened to be around in each store -- just the thing for a grey winter day in Seattle. ➡
  • 2004
    • Howard Dean in Seattle tomorrow Town Hall, Seattle: Saturday, January 31 , 3:00 PM: Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and Democtratic candidate for president, will discuss his health-care plan and take questions from the audience. ➡
    • I love the British Less than you seem to imagine is spent on 'junkets for Bunterish lickspittles' and 'dancing whores', whilst far more than you have accounted for is allocated to, for example, 'that box-ticking facade of a university system'. ➡
    • iSight issues Mike recently posted about some of the pros and cons to being the owner of an iSight — pros including the simple fact that the iSight is simply a damn good camera; cons including the Mac-only nature of iChat and the somewhat less-than-satisfactory mounting options that come stock out of the box. ➡
    • Lord of the Rings dating tips Some people will go to any lengths to get a ring; others, having had one for awhile, will go to any lengths to chuck it into a volcano. ➡
    • Where I’ve been… United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany (twice), Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece ➡
  • 2003
    • The Hanscom Family Today brings the debut of a project I've been working on for the past week or so — The Hanscom Family Weblog! This is (will be) a collaborative weblog, by and for the various members of the Hanscom family. ➡
    • Time to get nekkid! Here I've been doing my best to keep this weblog of mine fairly solidly PG-rated, with the occasional slip into PG-13, and now I find that if only I'd shown some skin, I might have been eligible for the First Annual Nude Weblog Awards! ➡
    • Vonnegut weighs in on Iraq I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup detat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka Christians, and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or 'PPs.' ➡
  • 2001
    • Bleah The worst part about the whole thing, though, was on top of battling the flu and feeling like crap, plus I spent all of today battling really strong hiccups too. Not a combination I'd recommend. ➡

On This Day: Jan 29

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past. Here are my past posts for January 29…

There are 27 posts previously published on January 29th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2022
    • Happy Birthday A really unexpected and sweet little thing to have happen to us today. ➡
  • 2021
    • 📚 5/2021: Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, Vol. 3 edited by Elizabeth LaPensée and Michael Sheyahshe ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The latest in this series of comic anthologies written and illustrated by indigenous creators drawing upon their cultures to create SF/F short pieces. ➡
  • 2020
    • Bouncing back and forth between watching The Expanse (I’m halfway through season one) and season three of Enterprise, where they’re traveling through the Expanse (no relation) is at times a bit jarring. 🖖 ➡
    • On This Day: Jan 29 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from January 29 ➡
    • Schoolhouse Rock 2020 …every time you sit out an election, every time you don’t show up because you think it doesn’t matter, someone else is happy that you didn’t show up, so they can make that decision for you. Vote! ➡
  • 2019
    • While I’m very glad the Klingons look more like Klingons and less like vampires from Buffy the Vampire Slayer this season, I have to admit to being amused that when they gave L’Rell hair, they entirely reshaped the back of her head. Looks like she lost about 1/4 of her skull. 🖖 ➡
  • 2016
    • Book five of 2016: Windswept, by Adam Rakunas. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #PKDickAward nominee. #adamrakunas ➡
    • Either “Yay Friday!” or there are orange and blue portals just out of frame at the top and bottom of the photo. Your choice! #aperturescience (29/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Home! And boy, the weather here sure is a far cry from what we’ve enjoyed during our week in San Diego! ➡
    • On the ground in Seattle. I’d totally forgotten our airport had a train system between terminals! ➡
    • On our way home, about two hours until departure. Glad we could come, but it will be good to get back to our house. ➡
  • 2011
  • 2004
    • Blogger Code B9 d+ t+ k+ s u f+ i o x+ e+ l c-- ➡
    • Weblog Review From a suggestion by Doc on the TypePad User Group, I'm submitting my site to The Weblog Review. I have no idea how long it will take them to get around to me, but in the meantime, I'll just hope that they have nice things to say. ➡
    • Microsoft vs. the web After you install this software update, Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer do not open HTTP or HTTPS sites by using a URL that includes user information. By default, if user information is included in an HTTP or an HTTPS URL, a Web page with the following title appears: Invalid syntax error ➡
    • Pickled Dragon found Everyone else is convinced it's a hoax, but just for fun, I think I'll enjoy playing with the idea that this pickled dragon could be real. ➡
    • The ‘Dean Scream’ – in context In an unusual media 'mea culpa,' however, Diane Sawyer followed up on her interview with Howard and Judy Dean by taking a look at not just the footage that was broadcast all over the world with a direct-from-the-microphone audio feed, but at footage taken from within the crowd itself. ➡
    • Blasphemy I'm probably the last Mac blogger to mention this, but I just couldn't let it pass by. There are special circles of Hell reserved for people who do this… ➡
    • Fire! Going to my window, I looked down the four stories to the street and saw fire trucks all over the place -- one heading down the street to the west of our building, another diagonally across the intersection of 8th and Seneca, a Fire Department blazer parked on the lawn of Town Hall, and I could see reflections from another set of emergency lights in the window of the building across the street. ➡
  • 2003
    • Which OS am I? I stay away from a lot of the 'Which [random entity] are you?' tests floating around these days, but this one made me laugh: Which OS are you? ➡
    • Does the name Janus ring a bell? The US intends to shatter Iraq 'physically, emotionally and psychologically' by raining down on its people as many as 800 cruise missiles in two days, and yet, facing its most chronic shortage in oil stocks for 27 years, the US has this month turned to an unlikely source of help - Iraq. ➡
    • Commentary on the SotU Some good stuff is starting to pop up around the 'net regarding Bush's State of the Union address last night. Quoted: Scott Rosenberg via Dan Scoble, William Saletan via BackupBrain, Salon news, Demented Kitty, The Raven via Scott Rosenberg, Shelley Powers. ➡
  • 2002
    • More tidbits Another collection of links that I stumble across during the day. This is an easy way for me to temporarily 'bookmark' places I can't dive into while at work, but don't want to completely forget about by the time I get home. As before, feel free to peruse. ➡

On This Day: Jan 28

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past. Here are my past posts for January 28…

There are 34 posts previously published on January 28th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2021
    • 📚 4/2021: The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven ⭐️⭐️⭐️ More of Niven’s big-concept world building (literally), as Louis Wu returns to the Ringworld and learns much more about its history and creation as he tries to save it. ➡
  • 2020
    • How to Change Your Off-Facebook Activity Settings: “This tutorial will guide you through the steps to not only ‘clear’ the off-Facebook activity already linked with your account, but also to prevent future activity from being associated with your account going forward.” ➡
    • Minor ST:TMP Director’s Cut Update 🖖 Fingers crossed! (Which is awkward to combine with the Vulcan salute, but not impossible….) ➡
    • On This Day: Jan 28 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from January 28 ➡
  • 2017
    • Book eleven (and first #PKDickAward nominee) of 2017: The Mercy Journals, by Claudia Casper. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
    • Fun find at Goodwill today: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, with the original creepy illustrations! ➡
    • Had a #womensmarch postcard writing session this morning with Prairie; they’ll be in the mailbox today! ➡
  • 2016
    • Just beaming in to point out that we’re just eight weeks away from #nwc39! (28/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Aircraft carriers are huge! ➡
    • Hazy morning, and a really high tide that makes for rocky walking, but this is our last morning for a beach walk, and by golly, we’re going to do it! ➡
  • 2010
    • Thoughts on the iPad If I didn't already have a perfectly-functional-even-if-I-don't-like-it-all-that-much Windows based laptop, I'd be preordering an iPad the first day they're in the Apple Store. As it is, I'll likely be grabbing whatever the current version is the day our laptop dies. ➡
  • 2009
    • Links for January 27th through January 28th Sometime between January 27th and January 28th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Babies Know - a Little Dirt Is Good for You • Feb. 17 Digital TV Conversion Is Still on After House Vote • Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance—Now With Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! • The CSS3 `:not()` Selector • Graffiti Removal - City of Kent, Washington ➡
    • Everything But Marriage I happen to be of the opinion that we should remove marriage from the secular system entirely -- that is, courts would merely deal with civil unions, which would be identical and impart identical rights to any couple, straight or gay -- and let the churches handle marriage ceremonies for people who want them. ➡
    • Print Stylesheets Return I've resurrected the print stylesheet for my site. Admittedly, I have no idea how often people print something they find here (and I would guess that it's not very often at all), but at least now I know that if they do, they'll get something useful. ➡
  • 2008
    • Star Trek Optimism When I first heard that work was beginning on a new Star Trek film, I suppose you could have described my first response as more cautious than optimistic. However, as more and more details appear, I'm moving more and more towards the 'optimism' side of things. ➡
  • 2006
    • Portfolio 2: KidsQuest Childrens Museum Exhibit design firm PPI Design and Fabrication used this photo as part of an exhibit at the newly-opened KidsQuest Childrens Museum in Bellevue. ➡
    • Family Values I never met _anyone_ sillier than your dad...until _you_ came along. ➡
    • Jason Webley Bootlegs Prompted by a discussion on Jason's forum, I've finally re-posted all of the Jason Webley bootlegs I've managed to get my hands on. ➡
  • 2005
    • Goodbye, Grandma Earlier this week, I god word from dad that mom's mother had suffered a massive heart attack and was in her nursing home's hospital, likely with only a few days left to live. A second, more mild heart attack followed soon afterwards, and today at just a little after 4pm Seattle time, Grandma died. ➡
    • Gallimaufry 6 Just a quick run-through tonight — I've got dinner and movies waiting for me — I'll come back and babble more about these later on (maybe). Same deal as always, ten songs at random… ➡
    • Lightbulb Joke 2005 How many Bush Administration officials does it take to change a light bulb? ➡
  • 2004
    • Here we go again… Think they'll buy the April Fool's joke thing again? Nah, better go with the bit about the top-secret location. ➡
    • Look out, Bush That's 4632 registered Republicans who wrote in a Democrat in their ballot. ➡
  • 2003
    • R.I.P. Opera While there had been rumors of an Apple-branded web browser for a while, Safari's introduction at this most recent MacWorld took a lot of people by surprise, and watching the reaction has been quite interesting. Yesterday, Opera Software (makers of the Opera webbrowser) announced that they may stop development on the Mac version of their browser. ➡
    • State of the Union I didn't get to listen in to the Bush's State of the Union address tonight, as I was at work, but I just pulled down the CNN transcript to look over. Let's see what we've got… ➡
    • I need a drool cup Oh my lord. Apple just revamped their desktop line and dropped prices — severely — on their monitors. ➡
    • An honest job application Rick sent me this a long time ago, and having job stuff on my brain, I remembered it and dug it out to post here. What follows is (at least in theory) an actual job application submitted to McDonald's by a 17 year old applicant. He got the job. ➡
  • 2002
    • Interesting tidbits Just some interesting stuff I've stumbled across in the last few days. I might start doing this occasionally -- the things I grab may or may not be of interest to anyone else, but they catch my eye for one reason or another. Make of that what you will. ➡
    • It does snow here! Candice and I walked down to Westlake Center (one of two main shopping malls in downtown Seattle), and were both amazed at how dead it was for a Sunday afternoon. Apparently nobody thought they could actually make it out of the house. ➡
  • 1994
    • [From Usenet 1.28.94 1044] Found one here...only got two albums (Crushed Velvet Apocalypse and Shadow Weaver), but am anxious to get more. Do you know TearGarden? More similar stuff...also fun. ➡

On This Day: Jan 27

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past. Here are my past posts for January 27…

There are 24 posts previously published on January 27th

  • 2024
  • 2023
    • Norwescon 39 Thursday Night Dance Now that I’m prepping to DJ the Thursday night dance at Norwescon 45 in a couple months, I realized that I’d never posted my Norwescon 39 Thursday night dance recording here. Whoops! So here it is, a few years late — four and a half hours of music from the opening night of a science-fiction ... Read more ➡
  • 2022
  • 2020
    • Ring doorbell app packed with third-party trackers: “Ring isn’t just a product that allows users to surveil their neighbors. The company also uses it to surveil its customers.” ➡
    • On This Day: Jan 27 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from January 27 ➡
    • SF Disco Preservation Society: Huge archive of DJ mixtapes from the 2000s back to the days of disco. ➡
  • 2019
    • Book ten of 2019: Alien Virus Love Disaster: Stories by Abbey Mei Otis. #PKDickAward nominee. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📚 Some of these are funny, many of them are disquieting and leave the reader a little uneasy. I didn’t dislike it, though I’m not sure I can really say that I liked it. ➡
    • Book nine of 2019: Time Was, by Ian McDonald. #PKDickAward nominee. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📚 A short, sweet tale of soldiers in love, time travel, the unraveling of their story, and the love of books. I very much enjoyed this one. ➡
  • 2018
    • Before and after. ➡
  • 2016
    • Happy Wednesday! The lightbulb-over-the-head thing isn’t as impressive when one bank of fluorescent lights is burnt out. (27/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Another find in old boxes. Nobody’s sure what this is; the only thing everyone agreed on was “creepy.” So, of course, I asked if I could have it. :D ➡
    • Found while going through Prairie’s grandpa’s old boxes: an Alaska travel brochure published in 1976. So much good stuff in here! ➡
    • Trying something new: a swordfish sandwich! ➡
    • Footies in the surf! ➡
    • Another pretty morning, another pretty beach walk. I can understand why SoCal is such a draw for so many people. ➡
    • We didn’t think to bring sandals when we packed, so we both got new sandals for beach walking. Prairie’s are really cute, mine look good in a very guy-ish way. ➡
  • 2009
    • Links for January 26th through January 27th Sometime between January 26th and January 27th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • _Gods and Monsters_ Is 99 Cents Jan. 27th, 2009 Thru Feb. 03rd, 2009 at iTunes US • Obama Tells Arabic Network US Is 'Not Your Enemy' • 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read: Science Fiction & Fantasy • Layers | Screen Forensics • Pope Outrages Jews Over Holocaust Denier ➡
  • 2007
    • Faux Klingons Don't let faux Klingons send real Americans to war. It's wrong. ➡
  • 2005
    • Michael Hanscom for Governor of Washington If these idiots actually force us into a re-vote, I'll mount a write-in candidacy drive. Michael Hanscom for Governor of Washington. Sounds good to me. Hell, just running on a platform of 'no re-votes if I lose' should get me a sizeable chunk of the vote. ➡
    • A pronounced deficiency in IQ | Metafilter My theory - it's Bush's comprehensive knowledge of and fluency in Latin that leads to his pronunciation. ➡
  • 2004
    • One cookie = $10 billion TrueMajority.org has a nicely effective flash animation posted using Oreo cookies to demonstrate how easy it really could be to fund social needs and keep our military budget at a resonable level. ➡
  • 2003
    • Crossing my fingers So, a while back, I'd gone poking around Apple's job site, as it was rumored that they were going to be opening an Apple Store just outside of Seattle, in Bellingham, and I signed up for their job search. Tonight I got e-mailed details on four job openings for the upcoming Bellevue store, and decided what the heck — it's worth a shot! So, I've applied for two of the positions: Mac Specialist and Mac Genius. ➡
  • 1996

On This Day: Jan 26

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past. Here are my past posts for January 26…

There are 22 posts previously published on January 26th

  • 2024
  • 2023
    • Updating My Computing History TL;DR: Apple II, Commodore 64, BASIC, Osborne 1, a Mac Classic, Hermes and BBSs, a VAX and the Internet, pine, ftp, Usenet, IRC, and gopher, the WWW, blogging, and many more Mac computers. ➡
  • 2021
    • Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction: “This work-in-progress is a comprehensive quotation-based dictionary of the language of science fiction. The HD/SF is an offshoot of a project begun by the Oxford English Dictionary (though it is no longer formally affiliated with it).” ➡
  • 2020
    • 📚 seven of 2020: The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ As fascinating as the first book, this tale of invasion broadens the scope, giving more detail on the alien invaders and moving to a multiple viewpoint narrative. Really enjoying this series. ➡
    • On This Day: Jan 26 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from January 26 ➡
  • 2019
    • Book eight of 2019: The Body Library, by Jeff Noon. #PKDickAward nominee. ⭐️⭐️ 📚 Much like the first in this series, there are a lot of interesting ideas, in this case about stories, narratives, and our relationships with them…yet it simply didn’t resonate with me at all. ➡
  • 2016
    • Watching Anthony Bourdain drink frightening amounts of Guinness in Dublin. I can’t stand the stuff, though both my mom and brother enjoy beers so dark they’re served with a knife and fork. (26/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • We had some crazy, proverbial pea soup, Exorcist poster levels of fog in the ‘Burg tonight. Creepy, but pretty! ➡
  • 2014
    • Couldn’t quite tell if the hole in this rock was natural or artificial. ➡
    • Found someone’s project. ➡
    • Off for another morning beach walk. ➡
  • 2010
    • Microsoft Excel .xls and .xlsx weirdness I've been attempting to troubleshoot some issues with sending Excel files back and forth between my Mac at home and a professor who uses a Mac at home and a Windows PC at school. Even though we're both using current versions of Excel, and though the files opened fine on her Mac, she was having consistent problems on the Windows machine. ➡
    • Links for January 20th through January 26th Sometime between January 20th and January 26th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Here comes the new cell phone etiquette • Menifee school officials remove dictionary over term 'oral sex' • The Cost of Care • The Science & the Fiction • Christopher Hitchens on "Like" ➡
  • 2009
    • Links for January 21st through January 26th Sometime between January 21st and January 26th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Improved Del.Icio.Us Posting Bookmarklet (With Gruber’s Title Case Goodness) • Time Machine backups on network shares in Leopard • Obama signs order to close Guantanamo in a year • The Obameter: Tracking Barack Obama's Campaign Promises • US Democracy Server: Patch Day ➡
  • 2007
    • No More West Wing For a guy who doesn't much like TV, I'm sure enjoying some of the shows. Quite a bit after the fact, but it's _so_ much nicer this way! ➡
  • 2006
    • Ultraviolet Or, to put it another way: Milla Jovovich + tight outfits + promising effects + promising action = my ass is in the theatre. ;) ➡
    • iTunes Ratings Following in the footsteps of jwz, Tim Bray, AKMA, and Paul, here's the rating system I use in iTunes. ➡
    • Lost s02e11: Fire + Water Scribbled notes while watching last night's episode of Lost. Spoilers, obviously, so only read further if you want to... ➡
  • 2005
    • I hate it when I’m stupid So now I've got a TypePad account that I'm not using that's all paid up and useable until next December. What in the world do I do with that? ➡
  • 2004
    • Pedometer pedometer measures how many children you touch inappropriately...? ➡
  • 2003
    • I want Trinity for my birthday Anyway, one of the big deals about the Superbowl is always the various commercials and trailers that are shown during the game, since it's always got such a huge audience. The majority of these generally wouldn't concern me any more than the Superbowl itself would, but I did find out that the latest trailer for the next two Matrix films was released, and is already available on the net. ➡
    • This is a test Just testing to see if I've sucessfully enabled MT's built-in image processing capabilities. ➡