Better than Uber.nu. Sometimes. -
"...so unless you want to go to Montana to have sex with someone with a bag over their head, being friends with an internet rockstar is about the most worthless endeavor. Ever."All too true.
8/28/2000 02:10:07 PM | +
An excerpt from The Adam Mathes Guide To Web Application Development (forthcoming)
Next, locate, download, build, and install the latest version of every Apache related perl module, being careful to properly deal with any dependencies by installing the required modules.You can do this manually, or by installing cpan.pm, typing 'cpan' into a shell, followed by 'install Bundle::Apache'
Please note that former option is not recommended.
8/27/2000 02:52:43 AM | +
I love mod perl. Oh how do I love mod perl.
8/24/2000 03:05:28 AM | +
If you use web-based email, or blogger, or anything that requires you to type in large chunks of text into a web browser, the limitations of standard html form elements becomes painfully clear.
What doesn't make any sense to me though, is why things have to be this way.
Microsoft is always talking about the "innovations" and importance of tying the browser to the OS, but what they're talking about usually is adding Internet Explorer functionality to Explorer, or making them one, whatever. I don't care about that. I don't want to surf web pages when I'm trying to manage my local file system.
What I do want is my browser to be smart enough to have a decent text editor transparently embedded in large textareas. I'm not looking for Microsoft Word here, but spell checking, search and replace, the ability to load and save text files from my hard drive, a reasonable feature set that would allow me to edit text files in my browser more effectively.
And I don't think the solution is things like speller. This is the sort of thing that should just be done by the browser transparently. If you're running Internet Explorer or Netscape then you're clearly on a client that has enough capabilities to provide a rich text editor, and it's silly to just ignore that.
8/22/2000 04:10:57 PM | +
Bad news - deepleap is dead.
I'm sad to see it go. It hurts to see your friends' dreams fall apart.
Being employee number one at deepleap was a unique learning experience. Which sounds cliche, but it was. More importantly, I made some new friends. At some point I'll write more about my experiences this summer and my thoughts on deepleap. Soon, I think.
8/22/2000 12:09:12 AM | +
New 0sil8. No, seriously, there's a new 0sil8.
8/20/2000 11:58:43 PM | +
When did it become acceptable for programs to spew ads at me while I use them?
Amongst other things, the ever-present ads in AOL's Instant Messenger really bother me.
More importantly, AOL IM is a rude application. It completely lacks tact. It has ads, by default it plays obnoxious sounds constantly, and most importantly it pops open in front of whatever you're doing, not unlike the self-absorded asshole who budges to the front of the line.
Bryan once likened AIM to having a speakerphone in your living room set to automatically pick up and answer at all times allowing people to speak into your house at their convenience.
This is in stark contrast to ICQ, an application specifically engineered to be polite and well-behaved. It quietly sits in the taskbar, and provides a clear but unobtrusive visual notice of new messages.
I've always preferred ICQ, but there a few people who I actually want to talk to who insist on either using AOL proper, or even worse, AOL IM.
Now, the classic asshole adam response that I used for years was that if the person was too incompetent to use ICQ, they weren't really worth talking to, and so I refused to use AIM. In the past few months I've taken a less hardline stance, and I've run both.
In addition to my problems with AIM as a "rude" application, the ads have really gotten to me. I simply do not want to run a program that forces me to look at Pizza Hut ads just because I want to talk to a friend.
So. I don't just refuse to talk to someone on the phone because they have a crappy phone or an inferior long distance provider, do I? No, of course not. The same should be true with chat, so I examined a few of the "gateway" clients that allow you to chat with AIM users, ICQ user, Yahoo Messenger users, or whoever.
Odigo looks kind of slick. But it has ads. So fuck 'em.
Imici has some weird non-native, but kind of looks native interface. I hate that. Also, it wouldn't allow me to add people to my "friends list" that didn't use Imici, which kind of seemed to defeat the whole purpose of using it, and I decided it sucked.
Also, their web site uses ASP, and as a rule I tend to be very, very skeptical of anybody that uses Active Server Pages. The application reeked of a company whose web site was powered by IIS. (That's a bad thing.)
Jabber has some interesting technology behind it, blah blah open source, xml based blah blah. It's not nearly as interesting as its proponents make it out to be. More importantly, the current "official" client is rather lame and limited. I can't send files, I can't properly read people's info or away messages... although supposedly there's a lot more supported in the transport mechanisms, just not the current client, blah blah I don't really care about the details, neither do you. It did, however, work properly for both AIM and ICQ when I tried it.
The other thing to keep in mind is that AOL tends to do their best to keep programs like this from interoperating. Meanwhile, all the rest of the major players declare an intent to standardize and interoperate. But, since AOL essentially owns the instant messaging market with their huge AOL customer base, and solidified that when they acquired ICQ from Mirabilis, nobody really cares since the only things people really demand interoperability with are AOL and ICQ.
Hmmm, sounds like a monopoly abusing its power to actually harm consumers, imagine that.
While it would be nice if the government would attempt to do something about the giant evil that is AOL/Time Warner (now there's a merger that's really in the best interests of the America public) I would be perfectly happy if ICQ would just automagically allow me to communicate with AIM users. Why is there no ICQ to AIM plugin? I don't get it. Since AOL owns ICQ, they have no excuse for shutting it out of their network like the other competing IM clients.
8/19/2000 01:27:53 AM | +
It's nice to see Wren is back and updating again.
8/16/2000 12:53:48 AM | +
Beginnings Codenames. New projects always need good secret codenames.
Also, I finally killed webloglog.
8/13/2000 09:31:02 PM | +
I didn't write this week's Filler Friday. Honestly.
8/11/2000 10:02:06 PM | +
Packing never ceases to depress me. Tomorrow I leave Austin for Chicago. Then a month later it's back to school.
A bright spot in an otherwise bleak week - dinner with jim and chicken.
8/9/2000 05:58:16 PM | +
If you ever played Duck Hunt, you will recognize this as something I've been waiting my whole life for.
There's a whole bunch of sick and twisted NES humor like that at Classic Nintendo.
8/7/2000 01:23:14 AM | +
(Thanks Andy)
8/6/2000 05:42:11 PM | +
Win an uber.nu shirt.
8/4/2000 10:34:07 AM | +
"You can't hurt me with the things that you do. I'll pick up dandelions and I'll give them to you." - The Powerpuff Girls - Love Makes the World Go Round.
8/2/2000 01:03:14 PM | +
I am Charlie Brown.
8/1/2000 05:21:22 PM | +
CNET.com on Deepleap - "This browser companion is a true jack-of-all-trades and a must-have addition to your Net toolset. Deepleap's 40-plus tools, from search engines to language translators, are completely Web-based, so you can access them from any computer with a Net connection. There's nothing to download. A few minor flaws aside--Deepleap takes 20 to 30 seconds to appear, for instance--this is one of the most useful browser buddies we've seen. Don't go one more day without it"
8/1/2000 08:57:10 AM | +
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