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Wednesday, March 31, 2004
What's a blog? Why do you blog?
A friend asked me this afternoon what a blog is. Well I found some good definitions here. DominoPower had an article a couple months ago about why people blog in the Domino community. It's worth a read as it genaralizes across other communities as well.
So answer me this:
1. Why do you blog?
2. Do you read other people's blogs? If so, why and how often? Do you use a feed reader?
I blog for several reasons. For one, it gives me a chance to test out some new web technologies that I am learning. Also, there is lots of stuff happening technologically and blogging about it gives me a place to keep track of links to the sites and weigh in on it with my opinions as I see fit. It is also fun as there is a kind of virtual community among those people whose blogs I read and write about. The virtual cross linking via content and comments interests me and is a great way to network.
Blogging adds a new dimension to events like Lotusphere. It was great being able to let the people back home know what I was doing and it was great to be able to read my colleagues comments soon after sessions ended. I also learned of new sessions and adjusted my schedule accordingly.
I read lots of blogs. Many are listed to the left. I need to update that list as my list continues to grow. I learn of new ones through other blogs. And yes, I use a feed reader. A good blog, in my opinion, has to provide a feed. Feeds let me quickly find out what's new and on the minds of those blogs that I find valuable. I do know a few non techies that have blogs without feeds and, while I still read them, it is more of an effort because I have to go to the site and manually look to see if there is anything new.
The other nice thing about feeds is that you can keep up on industry and world news. I use Wired, Slashdot, and Topix.net feeds among others to keep track of the news.
Let me know you thoughts.
Blog template modifications
I've made some more modifications to my blog template. I wanted to link more of the blogs I find interesting but I don't like the long scrolling lists. This hidden menu function is a nice compromise. I didn't write it, just modified the heck out of some code I found on the net. Lazy would be simply cutting and pasting. This is only semi-lazy :)
Oh, almost forgot... bottled my beer last night. So far, so good. Looks much better at this point than the last batch did. Tasting day is in a week or so :)
Friday, March 26, 2004
Images of our world
A friend of my how is into photography has put some of his images on the web and up for sale. They are excellent. I urge you to check the out here: Images of our world from Brett Barden
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Firefox
So far I am liking Firefox 0.8. One thing I didn't like is the Domino Web Access doesn't work quite right. It loads the basic frame of your mail file but when it comes to loading the contents it crashes. I was perplexed because a collegue running 0.7 says it works for him. Others have reported this problem wiht 0.8. Well, today I decided to be daring and download the nightly build from mozilla.org and give it a try. I am happy to say it works with DWA! Very cool. Not sure when the next scheduled release is but it sounds like they've worked out some issues.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Is the chicken cooked?
The other day, Eric Mack blogged about something he's learned over the years. The idea is to thoroughly test a system at each step to be sure everything is working as it should. The reference to chicken is because a client of his was a reseller of food prep equipment and the owners idea that when he sends people to install the equipent he has them throughly cook a chicken on site to be sure everything is working right. I think this makes a great image and one that I'll think about often. Today though I'd like to add a corollary to that idea: Is the chicken cooked? Have you tried more than one oven?
I say that because today, I installed the Firefox browser and I discovered this blog looked horrible. Apparently there is a slight difference in cascading style sheets between IE and Firefox. I knew this but was being lazy. I'm glad I checked because that navigation at the left was all scrunched down at the bottom of the screen. I'm still learning CSS so it took a bit to figure out what I had done but trusty Google lead me to some code that helped out.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Google Web Search Features
Frome the "I didn't know you could do that with Google!" department, check out: Google Web Search Features. You learn about Google features such as:
• Cached Links View a snapshot of each page as it looked when we indexed it.
• Calculator Use Google to evaluate mathematical expressions.
• Definitions Use Google to get glossary definitions gathered from various online sources.
• File Types Search for non-HTML file formats including PDF documents and others.
• Froogle To find a product for sale online, use Froogle - Google's product search service.
• I'm Feeling Lucky Bypass our results and go to the first web page returned for your query.
• Local Search - New! Search for local businesses and services.
• News Headlines Enhances your search results with the latest related news stories.
• PhoneBook Look up U.S. street address and phone number information.
• Search By Number Use Google to access package tracking information, US patents, and a variety of online databases.
• Similar Pages Display pages that are related to a particular result.
• Site Search Restrict your search to a specific site.
• Spell Checker Offers alternative spelling for queries.
• Stock Quotes Use Google to get stock and mutual fund information.
• Street Maps Use Google to find U.S. street maps.
• Travel Information Check the status of an airline flight in the U.S. or view airport delays and weather conditions.
• Web Page Translation Provides English speakers access to a variety of non-English web pages.
• Who Links To You? Find all the pages that point to a specific URL.
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Let the fermentation begin!
Just got done brewing my second batch of home brew. I brewed the first batch a couple months back. It was ok but I wasn't all that happy with the carbination and the beer itself was kind of boring. That one was a pale ale. The new one is a brown ale so we'll see how it goes. Eat those sugars my yeasty friends!
Friday, March 19, 2004
Microsoft in Talks to Acquire AOL?
According to this eWeek article AOL/Timewarner and Microsoft have been talking. Seems a little spooky for Redmond to have all that user data.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
TinyURL.com - where tiny is better!
TinyURL.com is a handy site if you have a really long URL for your web site (like the address to this blog). You go to the site, enter your URL and viola, it generates a tinyurl for you to use. From then on, you don't have to remember such a long string. For example the address to this blog is tinyurl.com/3fdsf instead of users.tns.net/~skingery/weblog/blogger.html.
Monday, March 15, 2004
Teen Girl Squad! Woot!
Someone sent this link so I thought I'd post it. The whole thing is so silly that its funny. Teen Gril Squad is the adventures of 4 teenage girls: Cheerleader, So and So, What's Her Face, and The Ugly One. Check them out and maybe you too will look So Good! Woot! Hint: After each episode use your browser's back button rather than the one provided. That way you will go back to the Teen Girl Squad episode menu.
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Body art that isn't...
You have to see it to understand it. Personally I don't get the whole tatoo craze but this is an interesting approach if you don't like pain. I wandered to SleevesClothing.Com via Vowe's blog.
The New Swiss Army Knife
This is pretty cool. A Swiss army knife with a USB memory stick included! You can get it in 64MB and 128MB flavors. By way of Engadget.
Movie Review: The Passion of the Christ
Last Saturday night I saw The Passion of the Christ. I usually keep this blog to technical thoughts and discussions but the movie has generated enough interest and controversy that I thought I'd way in with my 2 centavos.
I should preface this with the fact that I am Roman Catholic so I was viewing the movie through that lens if you will. You experience rather than watch a dramatic film like this one. Other people will bring their own backgrounds into the theater and will experience it differently.
Cinematically I thought the movie was excellent. All the scenes were well done and the old familiar story was told in a fresh new way. Unless you live in a cave you've heard that the movie was brutal or violent. To that I will have to second the motion. There are breaks in the brutality but they aren't frequent. That being said I don't think that I detracted from the movie one bit. Don't bring little kids; there is a lot of blood. The movie is done in Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles. I didn't have any trouble with that. If anything it made the story more realistic and added to the experience.
The movie truly brings to life the last hours of Christ. It weaves together the 4 gospel accounts into a unified story. I'll never read them the same way again. Satan is very scary, the epitome of evil and depicted as one who walks among the people and not some goofy Halloween character. I really liked the depiction of the turbulence and emotions of the time. For example, we see Peter in that tiny courtyard where he denies Christ 3 times. He lost his courage not his faith. You'll know why when you see the scene. For greater enjoyment of the movie, give yourself a quick refresher before going to the theater by reading John 18 & 19.
The movie is worth seeing. If you didn't know the story or perhaps haven't thought about it for a long time, you may leave the theater wondering what it was all about. A man is violently scourged and nailed to a cross in front of his Mother and followers. Why? The movie does not explain that. Hopefully, both believers and non-believers will ask that question themselves.
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
News aggregator for Local News
I love Google News. But sometimes I'd like to read more stories about what is happening locally. Today there was this article in eWeek that talks about a new local news aggregator called Topix.net. You can entry your zip code and get local news for many locations in your area. The news is aggregated from online news papers, magazines, tv and radio. It's also available via RSS for those of you who like that kind of thing :)
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Developer muses on the Domino of tomorrow
In this Search Domino article jonvon echoes what I said earlier about Notes/Domino.