You are currently browsing the May
30
2003Seen in France
30
2003
Thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Conte.
May
29
2003Poppycock Button
29
2003
Hey, somehow or another my Poppycock button made it onto the “Steal This Button” page. Neat! But who submitted it? Fess up!
May
29
2003Favorite Links Page is Up
29
2003
I just realized I never got around to putting up my “Favorite Links” page, so I slapped a preliminary version together. Expect it to grow as time goes on. The “Jeff’s Picks” page will require a bit more thought and effort, but I’m sure I’ll get around to that too, eventually…
May
28
2003One for the Geeks
28
2003
This is so geeky, I’m (almost) embarassed to post it, but my pal and co-worker Andy had spent about three days trying to debug a really quirky JavaScript problem with Internet Explorer and, as part of one of those classic Javascript “this-shouldn’t-be-necessary-but” hacks, wrote what is perhaps my favorite line of code ever:
wtf++;
May
27
2003My Dog is Getting Spam
27
2003
This whole spam thing has gone too far. Now even my dog is getting it. As a little joke, my mother sent me a birthday “e-Card” from some cheesy free site, as if it was from the dog. She used her email address, but my dog’s name. Now, poor little Brownie is getting spam…
May
27
2003Bloggy Buttons
27
2003
88 x 31 buttons are so passé. There’s something quite elegant about these 80 x 15 format buttons. If there isn’t a button on that page to suit your needs, make your own! Expect the buttons in my “Geek Cred” area to change over some time real soon.
Update:
I just had to make one!
Feel free to copy this button and share the love for my favorite snack!
May
26
2003HeatherHatesYou.com Goes Live!
26
2003
The punk rock band website I’ve mentioned a few times has gone live! Check out HeatherHatesYou.com. I’ve now learned that designing even a small site like this, from the ground up, is a pretty challenging project. Regardless, I think I did a good job, if I do say so myself (well, the band says so, too). Anyway, check the site out, and definitely download the song “Why Are We Decembering?” from the Audio page. It’s a fantastic tune. And buy their album when it comes out next month!
On an utterly unrelated note, “Most Extreme Elimination Challenge” is probably the funniest TV show ever… Check it out on TNN (formerly “The Nashville Network”, currently “The National Network”, soon to be called “Spike TV”) Sunday nights at 8PM EST. Definitely TiVo it if you’ve got it.
May
22
2003It’s My Birthday
22
2003
I’m now 33 years old! Thanks go out to all my friends for their kind gestures regarding this momentous event.
In non-birthday related news, the site I’ve developed for my friend’s band will be going live this weekend. It looks great and the guys in the band are quite excited. I will put a link over in the “Projects” area when it’s up.
Once that’s up and running, I swear I’ll get back to the Webslice Labs project. I’m taking a nice long weekend this, uh, weekend, so I should have plenty of time to get things pretty much wrapped up.
Note: That’s three cubed years old, as in 27… My attempt at geeky humor seems to have confused some people who’ve dug up this post 
May
15
2003iPod Launch
15
2003
Took me forever to get around to posting this, but I attended one of the iPod Launch parties at the Northshore Mall. I took a few pictures. I think the old iPod looks a lot more elegant, and I miss the tactile feel of the actual buttons, but the new iPod seems virtually indestructible. What I found amusing was the number of people who just went straight to the registers, without even bothering to look at the demo model, of which they only had one “station” showing them… which was kind of silly.
May
09
2003Smoke-Free Boston
09
2003
For those who don’t know, as of Monday, smoking is now banned in ALL restaurants, bars, and clubs in Boston. Last night was my first “night out” under these circumstances, and it was a very odd feeling. My usual hangout is usually quite smoky and last night, obviously, it was not.
I’ve never smoked, I never intend to smoke, but I’ve grown accustomed to bars and clubs as being smoke-filled places (For a while, I thought I had become addicted to second-hand smoke), and the clean air just felt wrong. I’ll get used to that, though. I certainly won’t miss the stench on my clothes, which is always much worse when you get home. After a crazy weekend, my closet tends to reek of a nauseating blend of smoke and Febreze.
Anyway, what really struck me most about the prohibition was the vibe coming from the smoking crowd. Where one would expect bitterness and hostility, there was more of an air of quiet resignation. The weird thing was that the situation felt like it was about something much bigger than just smoking. Perhaps it was the fact that it was an 80’s music night, with the spirit of John Hughes lingering in the air, but it felt like the grand cosmic battle — between the cool kids and the nerds — had ended… and the nerds won.
May
05
2003Making Progress…
05
2003
For those anxiously waiting, I finally managed to sit down and make some significant progress on Webslice Labs. Yes, it’s taking a lot longer than I thought, but it’s certainly been a good learning experience, building a complete “ASP” service from ground up. User accounts, registration, session management, client side validation, database architecture… Not to mention design and layout… Whew! The coolest part (to me) is that I’ve designed the site architecture in such a way that new services operate like “plug-ins”. If, for example, I come up with some kind of forum tool, all I have to do is add an entry to the “Services” database, put the options page in the right directory, and bingo! All the icky stuff like user account management is already taken care of.
Give me a few more weeks, and hopefully we’ll get this show on the road. Meanwhile, I have to brush up on my SQL “inner joins”. Hm… maybe I’ll launch the site on my birthday (May 22)… just for the heck of it.
May
04
2003Incredible Ad
04
2003
If you have 2 minutes (and Flash 6), this Honda ad is one of the most amazing advertisements I’ve ever seen. If it were done with computer graphics, it would merely be “clever”, but it was not. Rather, it was done after 6 months of planning, using 606 six takes over 4 grueling days, with two dismantled cars (out of a total of six pre-production cars in existence). Unfortunately, most people who see the ad will just assume it was all done digitally. Thanks to Dave for finding this.