Holding hands

alternateorg on May 3, 2001

The very first commercial mouse came with the Xerox Star 8010, introduced on April 27, 1981, at the National Computer Conference in Chicago. For $16,000, buyers received a system with a point-and-click interface along with a gizmo called a mouse.

God, I can’t even imagine using a computer without a mouse. But I wouldn’t be willing to pay that much.

More MS ranting

alternateorg on May 3, 2001

Gah. So Kevin’s freelancing right now. He has a few projects going on, you know… juggling meetings and trying to find time to get all the work done. The pay is good, so you won’t hear me complaining (like yesterday.. it’s amazing.. it’s my first day out of fulltime employment, and I’m busier than I’ve been in 6 months.. but anyway). So I have a client whose site I am designing and building. Pretty much brochure-ware, 8 or 9 pages, etc. I’m thinking to myself ‘Gee.. I can get this site completely finished in like 6 hours using PHP.’ I’m happy happy. THEN, when the client asks me how I plan on coding the side, and I respond ‘An open-source scripting language that rocks called PHP.’ What’s their response? ‘Oh… er.. uh. ah.. We happen to have a Microsoft partnership, so.. can you do it in ASP?’ My response of course being…No. I don’t know ASP. Then what THEY said was ‘Well, we can’t use any other language other than HTML or ASP because MS wouldn’t be happy if we used PHP.’ Wonderful. So now I’m looking at coding flat HTML all weekend. Great. I guess it means more money, but less time to focus on a client with a cooler project and a higher hourly rate.

This is EXACTLY the same thing that happened with a client of the company I used to work for. They had us shoot and put together a QTVR of their data center/mission control room. Once it was all working and cool, they came back out of the blue with ‘We can’t use Apple technology… We have a Microsoft partnership…’ Complete bullshit. THAT’s how MS screws their competition into using ONLY their products, and no one else’s, lest they be struck down from above.

Dropping like flies

alternateorg on May 3, 2001

From the Weblog department:

It seems two of the most well-read weblogs (Camworld and Kottke) are on hiatus, with Kottke being the one to actually say he might not be back. Cam merely suggests a two-week or longer hiatus. My world is crumbling, but not really.

Damn Slow Line?

alternateorg on May 3, 2001

Does anyone have Qwest DSL in Colorado? Have you noticed slow / flaky / fucked-up DNS? I’d call them and ask, you know, but it seems I might get a quicker answer as to what’s wrong here.

Can I super-size this?

alternateorg on May 2, 2001


The officials in Venlo say they want to make it easier on Germans who flock to the southern Dutch border town for drugs by opening two coffee shops with drive-thrus selling drugs such as marijuana and hashish.

Thats really nice of them. I wish they would do that here.

Anyone looking for designers?

alternateorg on May 2, 2001

I hate to utilize a forum like this for my own ends, but here goes. I am finding myself in need of a design position. If you need me or know someone that does, please contact me. Being laid off with a wife, a three-year old and another on the way in less than 4 weeks is not the best feeling in the world, let me tell you.

SwingLog

alternateorg on May 2, 2001

So I made my first attempt at using GrayMatter to set up a weblog the other week, and I must say it’s a pretty rad peice of software. Totally easy to set up and configure. The hardest part is editing re-flowed HTML inside a little textarea. Can’t win ’em all. Check out the fruits of my labor, the 23skidooland SwingLog.

[URL updated]