I’m all packed and will be heading to the airport in a few hours. We’re not finished with the configuration but I should be able to finish the rest of my tasks remotely, as long as the connection is fast enough. I’m going to miss the one here, where I regularly get 400KB/s downloads and […]

One of the comments on my blog had a misspelled URL, but it still worked. Thankfully, Merriam Webster has learned to accept that people misspell words. By adding a few extra domains they get additional traffic. More traffic often means more money. The same approach can be used in the keywords meta tag, but they […]

For my daily blog reading I often use Opera‘s nifty Ctrl+Shift+Click feature to open each link in the background. I go to my blogroll and click on a bunch of links and they each get their own window. Of course, the first blog in the list has a decided advantage, but dive into mark is […]

High court hang-ups. Arnold Chrysler in court.

I have been thinking about an ontological discussion we are having in the dmoz editor forum regarding the difference between journals and blogs. This is a heavily modified post that I made to the forum. I’m sharing it here with the hope that others might have ideas on the subject. A journal is defined by […]

The rental car is a red 2002 Convertible Mustang I was expecting speedy acceleration and lots of power, but it doesn’t feel any faster than my Maxima. It has a 3.8 liter V-6 with 190HP but I’m not too impressed. Having the top down is still fun and provides a great way to see the […]

I’ve used the all-knowing Google PageRank technology to compile a list of the top blogs for each letter of the alphabet. I was curious to see if there was a common trend that made a blog popular, but came up empty. Ain’t Too Proud to Blog Bump Chris Pirillo: Getting Screwed While Everyone Else is […]

I’m off to Chicago for work and will return on Halloween (assuming we can get everything done by then) so updates will be spotty at best. I will have internet access but I don’t envision having much time for blog entries. Travelling for work is often something I look forward to but this trip is […]

Spirited Away accurately describes the experience of the viewer as well as that of the little girl who learns courage and love. I was engrossed from start to finish by the story, masterful animation and music. The artists showed an unbelievable attention to detail and created majestic scenery as a backdrop for the story. It’s […]

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a bird the size of a plane.

I had been meaning to see this movie after hearing nothing but positive reviews and after watching it, I am in full agreement. Instead of the glamour often found in movies this one has characters that are down to earth and easy to relate with. The acting was genuine, as was the laughter it caused. […]

I just read John Hiler’s account of being attacked. It’s disturbing. What was running through the minds of the guys who did it? Now he has to go through the hassle of hospital bills and therapy. What makes them think they can do that? How dare they bash him over the head, causing brain trauma […]

I used to think that the wind chill factor was the windshield factor. I surmised that there there was an official speed (like 50mph) at which they measured the temperature of the windshield. I feel less crazy after reading other peoples’ childhood beliefs and amusing memories. On a slightly related note, misheard lyrics can be […]

Phil Windley recently discussed the difficulty of moving to open source software in government offices. The biggest factor, he stated, was training users. While there may be issues I’m not aware of, my experience has shown that someone who uses Word can use Open Office without any additional training. The same goes for Windows users […]

I’ve found a real world example of how Flash can be misused from a usability perspective. I received a flash presentation of a document I have on a web site with the suggestion that I replace the document with the presentation. The presentation only showed one paragraph at a time and even a single paragraph […]

If only these demands were met by the airlines, we’d all be rich. Barring that, at least they might see how unfair and one-sided many of their policies are and make adjustments. After all, they are supposed to be providing a service.

Now you can own the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on along with a stuffed knight or the Black Beast Of Aaaarrrrgggghh. No, no, aaargh at the back of the thoat.

I went to gnome.org today to check the status of some applications and discovered FootNotes. It’s a blog-like site which contains information about gnome projects that are being released. It’s also a good place to find out about new projects or those that have returned to active development.

Happy birthday to Movable Type. Version 2.5 has been released too, with some nifty new features.

An Xmas Story describes what the early days of the internet were like and why mailing lists can appear hostile. Eric Raymond also does an excellent job of explaining how to ask smart questions. If you follow his guidelines and add a dash of netiquette, it will help you get the most out of the […]

Have you ever noticed that people will often start a sentence with the word “obviously” or “clearly” when what they’re saying isn’t? I heard someone give the incorrect answer to a question, beginning his response with, “obviously.” I’m aware that no one is perfect, but that just confirms the validity of my suggestion. Make sure […]

Take a look at the SliMP3, a device that allows you to play mp3s residing on your PC from any room in the house. The Perl code for the server is open source (GPL) and even has an optional web interface so you can manage playlists from your web browser. A very slick application of […]

You can get feedback regarding your website’s usability. I ran the tests on my page and some of the errors were worthless. The main one I didn’t like was a complaint (of the highest priority) that I didn’t have a link to the home page, when I do. The problem is that they were searching […]

Brides are spending a lot of money for weddings. The average wedding costs $22,360, a 47% increase since 1990. My guess is that it will continue in its upward trajectory. People are also waiting longer to get married. I would venture a guess that it’s due to the trend of living together before marriage. “Since […]

Keyword meta tags are no longer being used by search engines. It was too easy to add unrelated keywords to a page, so they use the text of the page to determine relevance. It’s actually nice, because that’s one less thing webmasters have to do for search engine optimization.

Anyone willing to give up liberty to avoid future terrorist attacks should read this quote over and over again. “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” — Benjamin Franklin, 1759

Elections in Utah are fast approaching and since I moved a few months after registering, I needed to find out where to reregister. I found a National Mail Voter Registration Form (PDF) and the FEC site may be of use to those outside of Utah, but if you happen to live in Utah, there is […]

Verbal abuse could be as harmful as beating, according to new Danish research.

I went to the Utah DMV today to renew my registration and the experience was a pleasant surprise. 1:30pm – The Arrival I received a number (006) when I entered the waiting area and then took a seat. There were a few numbers in the 300’s, a few in the 500’s and one screen with […]

A good way to increase your vocabulary is to learn one new word a day. Bill Buckley’s Word of the Day is a quick test of your vocabulary. It’s also a good refresher course in case you’re familiar with the word but don’t know exactly what it means. (Thanks Jacob)