Month: September 2004 blog archive
freecycle - 30 Sep 2004

I already mentioned freecycle in passing when I wrote about Time’s 50 best web sites, but I ran into another article about freecycle.org and took a closer look. It’s basically a site where you can give things away and get them for free. It’s presented as an alternative to selling them on eBay. They’ve created […]

Categories: Commerce
attributing sources - 29 Sep 2004

A few sites discussed the attribution of your sources when blogging and I wanted to share my two cents on the subject. The short answer: I concur. It’s like the bibliography teachers require on essays, where you reveal the source of your information. Matt refers to it as a hat tip or link thanks, but […]

Categories: Blogging
from atomz to google for site search - 28 Sep 2004

I’ve been using Atomz search for over two and a half years and I had no complaints. Then I got an e-mail from them where they explained that were going to start displaying Google Ads with my search results. To keep me happy they said I could now index 750 pages instead of the 500 […]

Categories: The site
blogging quiz - 27 Sep 2004

Here’s a short quiz to see what kind of blogger you are. I scored 60/100, which states: You are a dedicated weblogger. You post frequently because you enjoy weblogging a lot, yet you still manage to have a social life. You’re the best kind of weblogger. Way to go! Oh, and extra kudos to TJ […]

Categories: Blogging
tracking links to your site - 27 Sep 2004

I know of several sites that can be used to track who is linking to your web site. Here’s a list of the ones I typically use. Bloglines Daypop Blogrolling Truth laid bear ecosystem Blogdex Bloogz Technorati Missing from this list is a site who used backlinks to determine a site’s popularity and became extremely […]

Categories: Blogging
long-necked sea monster - 24 Sep 2004

While perusing Google news I found this delightfully entertaining news article. Instead of politics, oil prices and Britney Spears’ marriage, we need to talk more about long-necked sea monsters. A long-necked sea reptile that lived millions of years ago in what is now China may have used its stiff neck to sneak up on unsuspecting […]

Categories: News
no http:// in fields - 23 Sep 2004

There are lots of text fields out there that want you to enter a URL, but many of them think they’re doing you a favor by putting http:// in the field for you. I don’t find this helpful because I’m usually pasting the URL into the field, meaning I have to get rid of the […]

Categories: Usability
hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy - 22 Sep 2004

Two months ago I finished reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” for the first time. I had been meaning to do it for several years, but now that I have, I feel like I’ve been out of the loop. I had no idea there were so many references to things from the book. Here’s […]

Categories: My Thoughts
shave and a haircut, two bits - 21 Sep 2004

In Utah (and maybe in other places, but I’ve only seen it here) it’s a tradition of sorts to honk your car horn when driving through a tunnel. My father-in-law did it once, with the old, “Beep, be be beep beep” and then to our surprise, another car in the tunnel finished it off with […]

Categories: Music
site loading slowly? - 20 Sep 2004

If your site has been loading slowly recently (like mine was towards the end of last week) you may want to try removing your Blogrolling.com blogroll to see if it helps. My site was taking 10-15 seconds to load when it usually takes less than a second, and when I removed the blogrolling code it […]

Categories: Usability
gold stripes on inside of tie - 20 Sep 2004

When I was wee lad, friends told me that the number of gold stripes on the inside liner of your tie was an indication of its quality. I don’t know why, but I recently thought of those claims and became suspicious. If that were the only indication of quality, why couldn’t other manufacturers add stripes? […]

Categories: Trivia and tidbits
talk like a pirate day - 19 Sep 2004

It’s the time of the year again when ye sets to the open sea, hoist yer jolly roger on the mast, shout avast ta the watery depths o’ the sea and be land lubbers no more. It be National Talk Like A Pirate Day! So forget yer land lubber gibberish and gets ta talkin’ like […]

Categories: Entertaining
blackburn burnin’ - 17 Sep 2004

I had heard that the Dvorak keyboard being better than Qwerty was an urban myth, but Barbara Blackburn types dang fast, but only on Dvorak keyboards. I wonder how you explain that. Maybe she is Dvorak’s secret marketing weapon? Whatever the reason and however she does it, her top speed is 212wpm and it’s in […]

Categories: Technology
from phone to phone - 16 Sep 2004

In the past I’ve switched cell phone providers from Sprint to Verizon, then with Verizon from one phone (LGV3100) to another (LGV4400B), then to AT&T and have noticed a disturbing lack of functionality. I can’t believe that with all the games, ring tones and screen savers on phones nowadays there isn’t an easy way to […]

Categories: My Thoughts
eclipse mints - 15 Sep 2004

I spent several months searching for a breath freshener that was sugar free, not so strong that it would burn a hole through my cheek and not too expensive. I tried Lifesavers, Smints, Listerine strips, Eclipse flash strips, Altoids and finally, Wrigley’s Eclipse Mints (I prefer the Winterfrost flavor). The lowest price I’ve found is […]

Categories: My Thoughts
a few Linux tips - 14 Sep 2004

I often figure out how to do something and promptly forget how I did it a few months later, forcing me to go through the same process again to figure out how to do it. In order to avoid that, I began maintaining a repository of useful tips regarding different areas (mostly related to Linux, […]

Categories: Linux
introverts versus extroverts - 10 Sep 2004

Today’s Ask Yahoo question asked what the ratio was between introverts and extroverts, and they answer was 60% to 75% of the world population are extroverts. They did point out that 60% of gifted children are on the introvert team. I wouldn’t have guessed there were that many extroverts. What are you? (You can take […]

Categories: Trivia and tidbits
diane rehm - 09 Sep 2004

I listen to NPR almost every morning on the way to work, and occasionally if I’m running late I hear the The Diane Rehm Show. It’s also common to hear her telling about the upcoming show during Morning Edition. If you’ve heard her voice, you’ll understand my thinking here, but I thought she was at […]

Categories: News
avoiding comment spam - 08 Sep 2004

In an effort to curb the onslaught of comment spam, I renamed mt-comments.cgi, the file that is used for all comments. It’s not too hard to figure out the new name, but anything that makes it harder for someone to spam my blog that is easy for me to do is worth a try. Elise […]

Categories: Blogging
smittens - 06 Sep 2004

Have you ever been frustrated by bulky mittens when you’re trying to hold hands? No? Me neither. Someone out there did, however, and now they’re trying to make a buck on an idea they had to solve the colossal problem. I give you…Smittens.

Categories: Entertaining
gmail invites - 03 Sep 2004

If there is anyone on my notification list who wants a Gmail invitation, please reply to the e-mail you got for this post. I would like to especially invite those whose e-mail accounts keep running out of space because it would benefit both of us. I would stop getting bounces whenever I send out notifications, […]

Categories: Useful
spelling test - 02 Sep 2004

Here’s a spelling test of commonly misspelled words for you to test your spelling prowess. I got 14/15 right, missing #11. (via fanteja)

Categories: Language
gzip compression - 01 Sep 2004

Amit wrote about how to enable gzip compression on sites using PHP, and since almost all of my sites use PHP it was a perfect match. A few months ago I turned on mod_gzip in Apache but I ran into some snags and eventually turned it off. All I had to do for this solution […]

Categories: Web design