On a non-technical internet related note: my wife and I are going to have another baby. :> We’re pretty stoked, and I’m sure you are too. Don’t worry. This isn’t turning into some sort of online journal or anything. I just thought I’d share.
Also, the rest of the site is up and running. There will probably be some minor tweaks here and there, so bear with us. The admin tool also has been tweaked, but you don’t get to see that.
The next time someone has me go to my desk and make design changes to a LOGO during a MEETING with David Siegel on speakerphone telling me what to do.. -breath- I’m going to fucking kill someone. Probably David Siegel. I swear this.
I even missed lunch. Motherfucker. The CEO or president or whatever can’t even remember my name. I’ve only been in meeting after meeting with her.
Okay, so I’m sure you’ve realized there’s something going on here. I’ve got a clue for you: we’ve redesigned the site. I got a little bored this Sunday while my son was taking a nap, so voila. New Alternate. Let us know what you think.
The links at the top won’t work, because well, I wasn’t THAT motivated. Give us a little time, and you’ll have full-on rockin’ site back together in no time (let’s be honest: you really didn’t use those sections, anyway, did you? I didn’t think so).
Ok, get this. I move from Colorado to Silicon Valley. I expect DSL to be like water out here (everywhere). I ordered DSL on August 10th and I still have not even heard back from either the local ISP or the major bell (PacBell). So, I decide lets call and see whats taking them. PacBell informs me that “most people wait 3-7 months for service, so you are doing quite well sir.” — uh, what the fuck is that supposed to mean? My answer to the operator was this “Are you especially proud of that? Is there a reason you’re telling me this?”
Damn, Fuck the phone companies.
Iomega introduced an mp3 player called the HipZip yesterday, and it’s not as cool as it could be. Basically, it acts as a drive on your machine, and when you unplug it, it can play the mp3s. The disks can hold up to 40MB, and can actually be used to store anything at all. My question is this: Why didn’t they just make it read the Zip 250 disks? You’d then have 250MB of space, more than just about any mp3 player on the market, it would boost sales of the struggling Zip 250 drives and disks… I would actually buy it. But they just make you buy all new technology, and it probably won’t last too long.
In case you’ve tried to send me email via the ‘kev’ link above, and got an error, that’s been fixed. So again, I welcome any sort of email. Just let me know what’s on your mind.
I don’t know how many of you have picked up the latest ‘Wired’ (the magazine, not the website), but there’s an article in particular that makes me a little frustrated. It’s called ‘GUIs Just Want To Have Fun,’ the photo accompanying which is a screenshot of a horrifically put together Litestep skin for Windows. The article proceeds to mention the following: NeoPlanet, Litestep, Darkstep, Winamp, Sonique, RealJukebox, Halflife, Skinz.org, the WinAqua skin that copied MacOS X before it was even beta, etc. What they failed to mention were the following: Kaleidoscope, Macast, Audion, etc. Despite the fact that Audion is the most advanced MP3 player on the market (at least, as far as skinning goes), for any OS, allowing use of alpha channels for shadows, transparencies, etc. There were some interesting quotes, however, regarding the problems with skinning from Mac guru Jef Raskin.
Needless to say, I was pissed. So here is the e-mail I promptly wrote them, in its entirety:
Being a Macintosh user, I’ve grown accustomed to having an elegant interface at my fingertips. When I came acros ‘GUIs Just Want To Have Fun,’ I anticipated an interesting read. Before diving into the article, however, I studied the photo (a screenshot of a Litestep-‘enhanced’ Windows desktop) long and hard. What I saw was a beautifully rendered but unusable interface that would drive me crazy if I had to use it for any length of time. What I found in the article was more of the same: a complete lack of interest in usability. What I also found was an almost incomprehensible lack of attention to the MacOS.
Kaleidoscope has been a staple control panel of Mac users for years, with thousands of schemes (skins, to you Windows users) available. Despite this fact, I find that shortly after I install a Kaleidoscope scheme, I often abandon it for the traditional Platinum MacOS look. Why? The people at Apple have spent years and millions of dollars researching usability and user experience. I’m not about to abdandon their results just because some jerk in his dorm room thinks the windows should look like they’re made of rusted metal. I highly doubt it’s a fluke that one of the most popular Windows skins is a knockoff of MacOS X. You know what? We’re the ones that actually get to use the OS, not just a skin of it.
I guess if I had to use Windows, I’d want to pile as much crap on top of it as I could, too. So nevermind. I get your point.
I can’t believe I’ve never seen this site before: As The Apple Turns. If you’d like to see a little less agressive version of what we tend to write about, with more of a slick writing style, check it out. It’s like a soap-opera for fruit.
This article just confirms what I already know:
‘Many of the best sites out there are under-read, under-rated or undiscovered. Use your “poor standing” as motivation to KICK SOME ASS. Show those fuckers what they are missing out on. Post unique, original stuff and people will notice you. Until then, let spite be your best friend, your muse, your raison d’etre. Walk around with a big ol’ chip on your shoulder cause you’re doing a bang-up job, even if nobody has noticed. Be proud to be a hip, underground weblog, read only by a few in the know. I would not trade a handful of readers I respect and like for 10,000 hits a day from people just following the herd. ‘
Those of you that read this fairly regularly: you guys rock. I wouldn’t even believe that anyone reads this, except I checked the logs once.
Yahoo! thinks you need the internet in taxicabs. Or at least people in New York do. They’ve started outfitting cabs (purple, not yellow) in NYC with Palm VIIs. Apparently, people like ’em.
You can’t do any real surfing with them. You can just get things like the weather, sports scores, movie times, stock prices, etc. Stuff you should really know in a cab. They’re tethered to the back of the driver’s seat and -this is the best part- if a thief tries to take the Palm by way of force, the tether is wrapped around the motherboard, and it shatters into a million peices. Awesome. I’m going to try to do that in a couple of weeks when I’m out there. Wish me luck.
