posts brought to you by the category
“americaland”
Das eez kaput! Sometime around 2002 I spaced the entire
database table that mapped individual entries to
categories. Such is life. What follows is a random sampling of
entries that were associated with the category. Over time, the
entries will be updated and then it will be even more
confusing. Wander around, though, it's still a fun way to
find stuff.
It's a world gone mad when:
Ira Glass : Howard and Me
I'm the host of a show on public radio, and when my listeners
tell me they don't care for [Howard] Stern, I always think it reveals a
regrettable narrowness of vision. Mostly, they're put off by the
naked girls. But Stern has invented a way of being on the air that
uses the medium better than nearly anyone. He's more honest, more
emotionally present, more interesting, more wide-ranging in his
opinions than any host on public radio. Also, he's a fantastic
interviewer. He's truly funny. And his staff on the air is
cheerfully inclusive of every kind of person: black, white, dwarf,
stutterer, drunk and supposed gay. What public radio show has that
kind of diversity?
Michael Ignatieff : Lesser Evils
Even those — like me — who supported the Iraq war because
it might bring freedom and democracy to people who had been
gassed, tortured and killed for 30 years had better admit that
if our grounds for war had been squarely put to the American
people, they probably would have voted to stay home. Worse
still, Congress failed to put the president's case for war to
adversarial scrutiny and debate. The news media allowed itself
to be managed and browbeaten. The war may or may not bring
democracy to Iraq eventually, but it hasn't done democracy any
good at home.
KCRW runs a fucking station.
It's touching us.
Bob DuCharme : Linking Architecture and the U.S. House of Representatives
The comments in the DTD that the document references describe an interesting evolution of its linking architecture: there was an attempt, later abandoned, to keep it in line with XLink; I was tickled to see the phrase "architectural form" come up in one comment. Ultimately, they modeled the links around the relationships between their particular document types instead of trying to shoehorn these relationships into some wider linking standard, and then the XSLT stylesheet that prepares it for web delivery turns the links into a/@href links.
Enlisting butter in the war against terrorism.
no interior area or function above street level.
Santa is a Raelian?
brian d. foy : iMortar
iMortar will allow soldiers to connect, via Wi-Fi, to other mortars
in their area.
We use to have a problem shooting at the same target, but once we
network the mortars, once you select a target, other mortars in your
network will not shoot at the same target
, said an FSS spokesman wearing a black mask.
Can I have your shoes? I have none.
The Current talks to Maher Arar
The Connection : Dean.com
Wow, hike them skirts indeed
Northbound, I-87, November 2003
Those goofy puritans.
Beacon Street, Boston, October 2003
There sure are a lot of people on the Long Island Expressway at
05H15 in the morning.
Long Island, November 2003
The groom made me do it.
Dean Allen : Oliver, Daily: 13 July 2003
Simon Woodside: XML data round-tripping with Relax NG and HTML forms
These are XSLT stylesheets to be used with a Relax NG schema. Alexandra uses the RNG schema to create a roundtripping forms interface in HTML to edit an instance document that conforms to the schema.
Me : ASCOPE::Term.pm 0.02
Matt Sergeant : XML::LibXML.pm 1.52
"This is a feature release, introducing Perl extension functions to XSLT."
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : superextable
It's a compression of super extra double. It's used when you really mean it.
ex. That was a superextable job on that test! 100%.
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : word-hole
Mouth area where words come out.
ex. Shut your word-hole.
Perlmonks : Some Pure-Perl SVG applications
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : cheerleading
One word: Athletes. Girls (and guys!) who lead cheers for popular American sports such as football and basketball.
Tumbling, jumping, stunting, yelling--all are all involved.
ex. It's gonna suck if I don't make cheerleading this football season.
Adobe : Photoshop 7.0 Scripting plug-in
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : apposite
Apposite \Ap"po*site\, a. [L. appositus, p. p. of apponere to
set or put to; ad + ponere to put, place.]
Very applicable; well adapted; suitable or fit; relevant;
pat; -- followed by to; as, this argument is very apposite to
the case. -- {Ap"po*site*ly}, adv. -- {Ap"po*site*ness}, n.
web1913
apposite
adj : being of striking appropriateness and pertinence; "the
successful copywriter is a master of apposite and
evocative verbal images"; "an apt reply" [syn: {appropriate},
{apt}, {pertinent}]
wn
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : baggapple
Used when you stub your toe or hurt yourself. Scream this in place of a curse word.
ex. Baggapple, I just hurt my finger hammering.
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : varicolored
varicolored
adj 1: having a variety of colors [syn: {varicoloured}, {variegated}]
2: having sections or patches colored differently and usually
brightly; "a jester dressed in motley"; "the painted
desert,"; "a particolored dress"; "a piebald horse"; "pied
daisies" [syn: {motley}, {multicolor}, {culticolour}, {multicolored},
{multicoloured}, {painted}, {particolored}, {particoloured},
{piebald}, {pied}, {varicoloured}]
wn
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : squirrels
Gas, stomach pains, heartburn.
ex. Oooooooh man, had a bad burrito and now I got squirrels.
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : fop
Me : Image::Import.pm
"[slurps] an image as a hashref. In the process, you may optionally resize the image, converting the image to another image type, create a thumbnail or any combination thereof."
Ameni Rozsa : "Radio was made for the lonely,
the displaced and the out of touch. Its sound is our guardian angel, ubiquitous but unassuming. We move about our business while radio patiently follows. Its persistence soothes even our most sudden and sharp-edged isolations, softens the spaces between our souls and the ever-distant walls. In these ways, radio is forgiving, and the lonely are in need of forgiveness."
DevShed : Understanding XML Schema
Java xsl-FO to Rtf
"converts XML documents conforming to the XSL-FO specification to RTF format, the goal being to use the same XSL-FO documents (as often generated using XSLT transforms) to generate PDF (using FOP or similar) and RTF (using jfor) documents. Through an intermediate transformation to XSL-FO, jfor can be used to convert any raw or XML data to RTF format."
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is supplant
| source : web1913 |
Supplant \Sup*plant"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Supplanted}; p. pr.
& vb. n. {Supplanting}.] [F. supplanter, L. supplantare to
trip up one's heels, to throw down; sub under + planta the
sole of the foot, also, a sucker, slip, sprout. Cf. {Plant},
n.]
1. To trip up. [Obs.] ``Supplanted, down he fell.'' --Milton.
2. To remove or displace by stratagem; to displace and take
the place of; to supersede; as, a rival supplants another
in the favor of a mistress or a prince.
Suspecting that the courtier had supplanted the
friend. --Bp. Fell.
3. To overthrow, undermine, or force away, in order to get a
substitute in place of.
You never will supplant the received ideas of God.
--Landor.
Syn: To remove; displace; overpower; undermine; overthrow;
supersede.
| source : wn |
supplant
v : take the place of [syn: {replace}, {supersede}, {supervene
upon}]
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is presentiment
| source : web1913 |
Presentiment \Pre*sen"ti*ment\, n. [Pref. pre- + sentiment: cf.
F. pressentiment. See {Presentient}.]
Previous sentiment, conception, or opinion; previous
apprehension; especially, an antecedent impression or
conviction of something unpleasant, distressing, or
calamitous, about to happen; anticipation of evil;
foreboding.
| source : wn |
presentiment
n : a feeling of evil to come: "a steadily escalating sense of
foreboding"; "the lawyer had a presentiment that the
judge would dismiss the case" [syn: {foreboding}, {premonition},
{boding}]
Maneesh Agrawala and Chris Stolte : Rendering Effective Route Maps
Improving Usability Through Generalization. via
xblog
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is nettlesome
| source : wn |
nettlesome
adj 1: causing irritation or annoyance; "tapping an annoying rhythm
on his glass with his fork"; "aircraft noise is
particularly bothersome near the airport"; "found it
galling to have to ask permission"; "an irritating
delay"; "nettlesome paperwork"; "a pesky mosquito";
"swarms of pestering gnats"; "a plaguey newfangled
safety catch"; "a teasing and persistent thought
annoyed him"; "a vexatious child"; "it is vexing to
have to admit you are wrong" [syn: {annoying}, {bothersome},
{galling}, {irritating}, {pesky}, {pestering}, {pestiferous},
{plaguy}, {plaguey}, {teasing}, {vexatious}, {vexing}]
2: easily irritated or annoyed; "an incorrigibly fractious
young man"; "not the least nettlesome of his countrymen"
[syn: {cranky}, {fractious}, {irritable}, {peevish}, {peckish},
{pettish}, {petulant}, {testy}, {tetchy}, {techy}]
A guy named Blars : mod_access_rbl
"allows you to restrict access to web pages based on MAPS RBL style DNS servers."
Just for kicks, I rendered the SOD (sic) feed as DHTML outline.
Rich Robinson : DigitaScript, A Scripting Language for Digital Cameras
"Although DigitaScript can set simple camera parameters such as shutter speed and flash settings, it can also manage databases of information, tell photographers which picture to take next, build web pages, extend the user interface, and communicate with external devices such as barcode readers. It does this with simple text files that are no more difficult to understand than HTML. And it does everything right inside the camera."
DJ Adams : Fun with [ Net:: ] Jabber - Headline Delivery with RSS
Jon Ippolito : "I would say that the graffiti artists of today are working online,
where some home-spun HTML and easily obtained plug-ins can reach a broad audience with minimal investment. Graffiti artists sprayed onto the subway infrastructure to get their work into the public eye, while online artists spray their work onto the infrastructure of the Internet." Why is it that supposedly hot-shit, cutting edge symposia on digital art and Internet can't find it in themselves to hire someone with enough sense to put anything besides directions to the conference hall on their websites? If they have such mind-blowing ideas, maybe they'd like to share them with the rest of us...
Bryan Boyer : "Nomadicism is thus no longer lamenting the lack of Home,
but redefining it altogether. Home as series. (This makes a rather large assumption that one's aesthetic is influenced by their Home. I'd like to extend the idea of Home as more than physical dwelling, but now cultural, spiritual, and geographic locus.)" I'm not sure I agree with this but I will say that, more and more, not just having a home but knowing what and where it is is a luxury not to be overlooked. see also :
Chez moi is not a homeI promise I will fix the heinous IE (Win) display bug in the morning...
Teleweb.org
"LE SELF-MEDIA, c'est l'idée que chacun est en mesure d'inventer son propre média avec les nouvelles technologies d'aujourd'hui sans se soucier réellement du coût du matériel ou des logiciels ... c'est aussi la défense des idées qui ont fait d'internet un outil privilégiant la communauté, l'échange des savoirs et les réflexions quant à la mise en place de nouvelles formes d'économies et de comportements sociaux. Teleweb est une initiative de transformation des circuits classiques de médiations (producteur, distribution, diffusion), un proposition artistique d'espace public en réseau."
Steven Johnson : "In the case of OS X,
I think what has happened is the convergence of three things: a product designed with such attention to detail that the drop-shadows do grow and shrink as you move the windows around; an audience that has so fetishized the product that the shadows actually seem like a big deal to them; and a web of communication that enables people to share their excitement with thousands of other people before that excitement wears off. In some ways, that mix echoes the components that went into other epochal cultural events, and in some ways, it represents an entirely new breed." via
slashdot
Michael G. Schwern : Bone::Easy.pm
"generates pickup-lines GUARANTEED to get something thrown in your face." mmmmm... guestbooks.
Debugging is hard enough as it is.
The Headless HorseMP3
"is a PHP script designed to be an interface for playing MP3s (or any other type of file with slight modification) on the web server. My intended use is to be able to play MP3s from a headless (no keyboard, mouse, or monitor) old computer which I can stick out of the way, under a bed or something. However many other uses do come to mind. One could use it to scare his/her college roommate by making their computer start playing MP3s from a public lab, or even start a web-cam like server where the public internet controls what music (out of your collection, entirely legal of course) he/she listens to."
Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day
"Let's be honest, sometimes we don't know our System Administrators as well as they know us. Remember this is one day to recognize your System Administrator for their workplace contributions and to promote professional excellence. Thank them for all the things they do for you and your business." Buy them one of
these. Speaking of sysadmins, I got a big kick out of
quoting Essential SysAdmin in an art project, but I digress... via
camworld
Doc Searls : Talking Jabber
"The architecture we're building includes instant messaging. But it's just one piece. What
we're doing is pushing structured data--pieces of XML--between clients, between servers, between different software agents. We're pushing XML data around the network."
XPLANE : Bloggercam Portal
Heather Champ : Random Rothko
Personally, I can't stand Rothko's work (the postcards are alright, but the paintings are just too chalky and dusty of colour) but I really am
a sucker for this kind of thing.
NY Times : For Museums, Internet Art Is a Tricky Fit
"Alas, she discovered that the art in the room was silent for the moment. The noise she had heard was just the gallery's computer being restarted -- again." The strangest part though is the following : "But an RTMark member said the address was changed on the Whitney site, from rtmark.com to www.rtmark.com, so that the reprogramming was defeated and the group's standard site was displayed instead.", which suggests someone needs to read the
apache docs.
Please do not adjust your sets
... foofy design decisions are presently underway. If you don't like the current look and feel, you're not alone. It is a temporary measure while I finish debugging the backend. I look forward to making the design a little more subtle.
Dave Winer
"I'd have a hard time looking Gore or Bush in the eye and not feel dirty, but yes, if they got the Internet religion, I could support them too. I'm basically a one-issue man." Fair enough, though I hasten to point out that single-issue voters are as much of a detriment to the idea of political governance as anything else these days. Politics, by nature, can not be a single-issue affair.
Maps of the Debates about the Turing Test
The actual charts are 3' x 4', so the images don't quite do them justice but it's still neat. On a tangential note, now that the
SVG buzz-machine is starting up, please note that there is an open source vector program, written in Python, called
Sketch which can create SVG files. It may not be Illustrator, but then I've never forgotten
my computer animation professor joking with another student that : If you didn't already know how to use Illustrator ... it was too late.
Doom as a tool for system administration
"The application is very touchy and development is hindered by guys with shotguns killing my shell windows." And here we were, all believing that the <a href = "http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/atlas.html">visual representation of cyberspace</a> was going to be nothing but Neuromancer-esque squares and triangles. via <a href = "http://www.scripting.com">scripting news</a>
Rafe Colburn
I hate JavaScript. It's the bane of my existence. Mainly, I
hate it because it's implemented differently in every browser, and
debugging the scripts is absolute torture. What makes it worse is
that many people don't follow the most basic best practices that
have been established over time. To help eliminate this problem,
I will link to the article Object
detection, not browser detection. If you program in
JavaScript, read it.
NY Times : E-mail, E-commerce and Now E-buildings
"It's starting with the technologies -- who can offer better reception or faster, cheaper speeds," he said. "Later, the competition may focus on content" -- who can provide better-quality, lower-cost information; who has the smarter, more thoroughly wired "information concierge." For a complete discussion, see William Mitchell's
City of Bits : Space, place & the Infobahn.
Children's Books You'll Never See
It's Canada Day :
which means it's Garbage-picking Day in Montreal. Most of the city rents, and about an overwhelming majority of the leases start on July 1st. To celebrate moving day, the Montreal Mirror has a special feature on
houses you won't be moving in to.
