Entries from March 2003

As an avowed (and sometimes guilty) geek, I've got my share of computer equipment that I just don't use anymore, for a seemingly endless list of reasons.

Well, my loss is your gain: buy my stuff for cheap! (All prices are negotiable - make me an offer I can't refuse.)

What do I have to sell? A computer! A monitor! A printer! A scanner! A laptop! Read on for the savoury details...

» Stuff for Sale continues...

I came across a bunch of really cool colour links today, and I don't want to forget them, so here there are:

1. EasyRGB Color Harmonizer
2. Eric Meyer's Color Blender
3. Colorblind Web filter

(I already know about Visibone, but are there any others that I should know about?)

(Updated September 25, 2005 with rules to hide Tribe.net ads, seeing how there seems to be a lot of people being referred from there. Folks, the instructions below have been amended and are now current.

One thing I've really missed in Apple's Safari was the ability to block ads. This is something I've taken for granted after using Mozilla and Camino [nee Chimera]; once you've gotten used to surfing without the visual noise of ad banners, it's pretty damn hard to go back.

Mike Solomon's Pith Helmet came to the rescue early on by tapping into private APIs built into Safari to block ads. And it was good.

Well, you have to wonder how seriously some people are taking their NDAs seeing how often leaked builds are getting posted online. The good news is that the leaked builds have something that everyone has been talking about: Tabs.

The bad news is that the latest leaked builds broke Pith Helmet's filtering completely. Mike has been good about releasing a fix within a day of the leaked builds hitting the Web, but the fix isn't working quite right. Plus, I don't believe Pith Helmet can filter out iframe or JavaScript ads, which are omnipresent online. (Edit: Mike informs me that Pith Helmet can filter iframe and Javascript ads.)

Cascading Style Sheets to the rescue! I was pretty chuffed to discover that the CSS3 selectors trick that works in the Gecko browsers (Mozilla, Firefox) seems to work just fine in Safari. Want to learn how to use this technique?

» Ad Blocking in Safari (Firefox, OmniWeb, etc.) Using CSS continues...

I have somehow managed to spend the entire goddamn day in front of the computer, marking assignments and staring slack-jawed at various bits of nothing. I can't wait until summer holidays...

Complete this sentence: "If I were you I'd..."

Today has undoubtedly been a black day for book publishing, web designers, and developers. Three major imprints that specialized in web design and development book publishing have closed up shop, leaving a huge, gaping hole in the knowledge network.

First, I heard about Glasshaus :

"It's with huge sadness, that I tell you that the bank pulled the plug on glasshaus today."

Then, it was Friends of Ed :

"Friends of Ed is dead."

And according to folks on the Webdesign-l mailing list, programming imprint giant Wrox has also ceased operations.

(Edit : someone on WD-L just posted copies of emails sent from all three companies - it looks like the parent company that owned all three, Peer Information, was declared insolvent today.)

I guess it's safe to say now that I had just started the initial process of working on a book for Glasshaus; obviously it's questionable if the project will continue at all with all of this doom and gloom.

<heaves heavy sigh>

With all of the rather unsettling stuff going on in the world, now seems like as good a time as any for part two in the series of Cats Who Fall Alsleep On Things.

Of course, the fact that I'm resorting to posting pictures of my cats again instead of writing something interesting is just proof again that my brain is a big, giant bowl of oatmeal.

Oh, and here's part one.

Another end of term flops its way past the finish line, and I am once again up to my eyebrows in marking. The strange thing this time around is that the overall student stress level seems much lower than last term.

I can't figure out if this is because everyone (including myself) has prepared themselves for this, or if the grinding workload has pushed everyone past the point of caring; are we now creative automatons, spitting out work to the relentless beat of deadlines?

I would love to write more about my experiences as a teacher, but I can't. Being a spectator and a part of this mass of emotions and personality and intelligence that is my students has been constantly inspiring. Keeping a daily journal has been almost effortless.

And yet my students and the administration know about this site. I have better things to do with my time than deal with any potential fallout from my observations. Web site be damned; it's just easier.

An old acquaintance was in town visiting last week from The East, and it's always refreshing to reconnect with someone I haven't seen in a long, long time. I'm convinced that there's something magical about certain friendships -- how there can be years between visits, and yet the thread is picked up so effortlessly that it is like they never left.

It's spring here. The sidewalks have become one giant, swampy mess, and pedestrians tread carefully, avoiding the deep, slippery puddles strewn everywhere.

"I purchased two photo albums from a man at the Gui Shi flea market in Beijing. The albums contain the images you see here."

Seeing this stuff reminds me of being a young boy looking through photo albums and the assorted nostalgia of my parents. (link courtesy of coudal.)

I don't know what it is, but it seems like everyone I know is smack dab in the middle of a period of transition.

Friends and family are contemplating new jobs, new homes, new loves, and new lives. People that have worked in The Industry since the web was a place where anything could happen (and did) have decided that they can no longer wring a life from it. Longtime couples have gone their separate ways, leaving behind acrimonious feelings and disappointment. And new lives and new families have been sowed, providing hope, life, and long, sleepless nights.

With all of this, and that is going on in the world, I have found myself feeling more and more introspective. I think about the fact that I will be turning 33 this year; no major milestone, but somehow still a number that brings with it a perceptible weight.

I think about mortality a lot these days.

» Stages continues...