July 2002 Archives

Now that the 1.0 milestone release of the Mozilla project's open-source web browser has been released into the wild for a while, it's time to take a closer look at its chance for survival. The crew over at Ars Technica has given this reptile an appropriately cold-blooded review, and points out the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Unfortunately for the sponsors of overtly anti-consumer copy-control legislation, their initial proposals got more attention from said consumers than said sponsors really wanted. Naturally, they began to change tactics, trying to slip DRM enforcement into other bills. Why wait until 2004 to pass the DTPA if you can pass it piecemeal even earlier? It's enough to convince some people that the media distribution industry and its customers are at war with one another.

I know a lot of people don't care for Aaron McGruder's comic strip The Boondocks, and especially the politics the creator and his characters express. Just the same, if you're a serious comic page fan, you've got to appreciate today's strip.

Some Battletech players had a bit too much time (and lumber) on their hands. Their kids wanted a playhouse, so their folks built them a battlemech.

If any Cascading Style Sheet gurus are reading this, I could use some help. This site is in serious need of a redesign, and I'd like to use the kind of stylesheet-based layout that all the q00l designers are creating these days. I particularly like the "logical ordering" techniques (possibly pioneered by BlueRobot) that make the page more accessible. In this example, the body text appears first in the code, and therefore first in a text-based browser; however, the sidebar appears to the left of the body text. Fantastic hack, but I've run into one problem that might crop up in a template-based site like this weblog; if the left sidebar is longer than the body text, it can overlap other page elements. I've created a simple mock-up to demonstrate this issue; in Internet Explorer 6 (I haven't tested in others) the left sidebar overlaps the footer of the page. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep it from doing so?

The Giant Ants are still out there. They don't seem to be spreading, or actively causing any trouble; instead, they seem to be patrolling a particular area. If the authorities won't take me seriously, I'll have to investigate on my own.

What the heck is going on in New Orleans? According to the stories Chuck has been linking, the new mayor of the Crescent City has been rooting out corruption in city administration. This can't be true — I thought honest politicians were banned by law from running for office in Louisiana. Sheesh, next thing you know, Bourbon Street daquiri shops will start carding customers above the age of twelve, and T-shirt shops will have to start making their money by actually selling souvenirs. Madness!

Not only does the media distribution industry want to control how you use your own computer, they want the freedom to break into your computer with impunity.

The legislation would immunize groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America from all state and federal laws if they disable, block or otherwise impair a "publicly accessible peer-to-peer network."

Anyone whose computer was damaged in the process must receive the permission of the U.S. attorney general before filing a lawsuit, and a suit could be filed only if the actual monetary loss was more than $250.

So, one particular industry would have the privilege to perform actions for which other legislation would impose draconian punishment on private citizens. (Of course, if we all become content publishers, this legislation opens up some interesting possibilities...)

My father mentioned something the other day about a gadget for storing digital camera photos on the go. It might have been the Terapin Mine, a handheld data storage unit that can connect to pretty near anything, which I've blogged before. On the other hand, he might have seen something new, like the PicturePad mentioned in the local paper today. It's about the size of a PDA, but holds a 20- or 30-gig hard drive, and has a built-in color LCD screen and a slot for CompactFlash cards. It looks to have been designed for the digital photographer who doesn't want to lug a computer around to transfer pictures, but seems fairly versatile beyond that.

I only hope that this warning doesn't come too late. Driving home, I saw a giant ant prowling alongside the road. And I do mean giant — this thing must have been at least ten feet long! If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself:

 

I can only hope the driver in the second picture got away, because I used his distraction as an opportunity to escape. Unfortunately, the local authorities ignored my warnings; they seem to have me mixed up with some fool who's been blathering about giant South American llama-eating marsupials. I have to convince someone of the truth before it's too late!

Nitinol is a nickel-titanium alloy notable for its ability to change shape in response to temperature. It's been used for years in specialized applications, but is finally making its way into toys and other consumer goods.

I haven't been griping about mandatory DRM software enough lately, so I'll let somebody else take care of that for now. I wish I could say that this site is overly hysterical, but the proposed legislation really looks this bad. [via BBSpot]

Xkot wants to be a sandwich. A deli sandwich named after him, that is. Somebody ran with the idea and asked people what kind of sandwich they would like to be.

Hmm. I'm thinking lots of roast beef, piled with caramelized onions and perhaps some sauteed mushrooms. Gruyere melted on top. Served hot on good French bread, dressed with tomato, shredded lettuce, and mayo.

Maybe that doesn't describe me in any useful way, but damn if I don't want one now.

I'm not really sure I can call it a game, but it's fun to play around with. The Shockwave-based web version of Fluid does have rules, and even an objective of sorts. But try just opening it a window and see how the elements interact; if you must, the About page explains all. [via 21c]

Futurist Jaron Lanier writes about the world he helped create for the movie Minority Report, and the future Hollywood doesn't want you to see.

...movie people as a whole have trouble understanding the joys of interactive media. It's just a different culture. A distopian movie about virtual worlds, like The Matrix, can make its way through Hollywood and be distributed, but a utopian movie about an interactive future seemingly cannot. Movie people are subliminally terrified by interactivity. It spells not only a loss of creative control, which movie people would miss more than you can imagine, but also a loss of business model. Napster lurks implicitly inside every shared virtual world that's under the control of its users. The world that seems utopian to me is distopian to Hollywood.

[via boingboing]

Ars Technica may be one of my favorite computer tech sites, but every now and then they look up from their motherboards to examine a more substantial piece of hardware. I'm fascinated by their review of the new hybrid-powered Honda Civic. Where previous hybrid vehicles (such as Honda's own Insight) seem to have been primarily proof-of-concept, the new Civic may be the first practical transport to use this technology. This looks like a good sign that by the next time I need a new car, I'll have some decent low-fuel-consumption alternatives to consider.

Too bad I can't schedule a vacation day nearly a year in advance.

A few pieces of open advice for the young lady who asks if she can link me from her new (and, in her fears, potentially sucky) weblog:

After doing my laundry this morning, and running a couple of other errands, I felt the need for some liquid (or perhaps semi-frozen) refreshment. Nothing could have prepared me for the latest innovation from the world leaders in beverage consumption technology: The Slurp & Gulp™.

I was digging through some old e-mail, and happened upon a link that got lost in the shuffle months ago. There's a fellow here in St. Louis who's been working to finance the construction of a Celtic Cross monument to honor the area's Irish-Americans. The organizer, who was looking for publicity at the time, sent messages to area webloggers in hope of spreading the word. As a weblogger of Irish descent, and a lover of Celtic geometric design, this link was a natural, and I don't know how I let this slip by without posting it. Anyway, funding for the project seems to be coming along quite nicely, but I'm sure these folks would appreciate any support.

There are, apparently, people who think that it's a good idea for webloggers who live in the same area to meet one another in the real world. These people have a site. Ghod help us all. [via toast]

Despite the seriousness of the subject, there's something kinda cool about a big-wig Washington think tank discussing anti-terrorism strategy in terms of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. [via More Like This]

Anyone who still doesn't believe that spam is a serious problem for e-mail users needs to get away for a week or two. Normal spam volumes can easily overwhelm many users' storage limits if they don't check (and clear) e-mail on vacation. and cause important message to be rejected.

Ah, the joys of a content management system that lets you write part of a half-baked post and then leave it in draft mode for days. But since I'm writing about my activities around July 4th, I'll just leave the timestamp as it was when I started this mess. Not that anybody's going to read this anyway.

I'm going to tell a story on my mother. Before she retired, Mom worked for a state agency that (among other things) provided free advice on cooking to homemakers. She got some strange calls sometimes, especially around Thanksgiving. One of my all-time favorites was a caller who wanted to cook her Thanksgiving turkey in the dishwasher. I've always wondered what chain of logic could possibly lead a person to that idea. Today, somebody in a Plastic thread mentioned that they'd heard of cooking lobster in the dishwasher. Strange, but that made a bit more sense, as lobster is usually boiled or steamed. Poking around the net for dishwasher cookery turned up a recipe for Salmon in the Dishwasher; again, it sounds bizarre but not completely unworkable. I'd still have to question the sanity of anyone who'd try to apply this same methodology to turkey, though.

Yesterday's rumour about a new series of Doctor Who has now been officially denied. [va /.] Shit, piss, and corruption.

Could the BBC be considering a Doctor Who revival? This inital rumour (I dare not hope for any more at this stage) has the Beeb poaching some talent from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, possibly including Anthony Stewart Head as the ninth Doctor. On the downside, this would probably mean giving up on Ripper, the proposed British Buffy spinoff featuring Head as Rupert Giles. Still, this is one of very few causes that could justify that sacrifice. [via Swirlee] P.S. I nearly forgot that Head has already done a series of Doctor Who audio adventures with three of the former Doctors.