dsandler.org

How to deodorize your glove-leather jacket.

Train charts proving to be useful computer-UI models: Using the Tube design elements to document complex business processes; Microsoft’s “Grand Central Conversation” interface, unifying email and forums.

NON PRECIPITATION STATEMENT
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE KANSAS CITY-PLEASANT HILL MO
1055 AM CST WED DEC 17 2003

.UNUSUALLY HOT WEATHER HAS ENTERED THE REGION FOR DECEMBER…AS THE EARTH HAS LEFT ITS ORBIT AND IS HURLING TOWARD THE SUN.

It was only on the NOAA page for a short period of time, but dolecki caught it.

Comfy pens, from my new guilty Web pleasure, ask.metafilter.com. Very high traffic, but very low noise; you really need to slurp the RSS feed to keep up with it. (This particular thread links back to some recent MetaFilter front-page threads, including “Moleskine-ing” and “Fountain Pen Mania”.)

“Should shut down the restaurant and just serve the view.” Outtakes from the Zagat guide.

Seriously, I thought E was nuts, telling me to try writing tricky prose in longhand before hitting the computer.

Damn if she wasn’t right (as usual). On the computer, ideas fly out of my brain as fast as I can come up with them — which is very much faster than I can sort through and focus them. On the page, however, writing takes time. I can actually think ahead a little, and plan my next argument. Also, the page is not “blessed” with the power of destructive deletion; as I make edits, the old versions are all there for me to see, informing each new attempt, giving context to the evolution of the text. The computer, on the other hand, makes it all too easy to write yourself around in circles when you can delete words as fast as you can type them.

Also, scribbling things down on dead trees gives me an excuse to use my nice pens, which in turn makes the process of writing more fun and helps me stay focused on the words.

News: Rice announces David Leebron as its 7th president.

I hate the Hummer H2. I’m not the only one: FUH2!.com.

Hey, did I ever tell you I entered the Netscape Throbber contest? I got a t-shirt, which I wore my freshman year at Rice. (I wore it earnestly once or twice, and after that, only on laundry days. I did eventually learn a sense of shame!)

Penny-Arcade reviews Return of the King.

While Brenna enjoys the Rings films as much (and probably more) than I do, the midnight ritual so critical to my people is wholly alien to her way of thinking. On the other hand, the way that each of her friends has chosen a different member of the Fellowship to be their favorite so as not to overlap affections is somewhat mysterious to me, as well. It is as though we’re dealing with a sort of Medieval Beatles, where each girl’s romantic dreams can only exist in a world unsullied by the cruel mitigations exemplified by the Venn Diagram. There can be no sharing. Brenna’s a Sam girl, Sarah’s down with Frodo as I understand it, and of course Kate pines for Aragorn, son of Arathorn. He’s into elves, I’m not sure how that’s going to work out. At any rate, it would appear that Legolas is available. There may need to be some kind of Internet registry for fantasy hunks.

I’m right there with ya, Tycho. Also note that Bill Amend has been supplying a fair amount of Orlando-Bloom-themed funny over the past week as well.

By day, he’s a PROGRAMMER …
but by night … he’s a PROGRAMMER!

Sane people do not understand why, after a full-time job writing software, I go home and … write some more. I try to explain that it’s a totally different activity, and to equate the two would be like saying, “why would you paint portraits and murals in your spare time, when you get paid to mix paint at Home Depot?”

The thrust of this ongoing misunderstanding inspired me to do a little work on the amazing dsandler.org software page. (Contrast the old version.) I’ll try to start cleaning up and releasing my various hacks and gizmos, now that I can collect them all in one place. Amazing!

“I heard somewhere that this, combined with the Dow over 10K is going to be like a multiplier for the Christmas shopping season.”
“I don’t see how. ‘Saddam is captured! Hooray! I feel like buying stuff!’ On the other hand, it could be a reason for people to go ahead and splurge on that trip to Baghdad.”
“I hear it’s nice this time of year.”
“Anyone would love a gift like that.”

“soldiers confiscated…a taxi and $750,000…” Now we know what he was doing to pay the bills! —Erin

I have to say, that sometimes videogames are all in good fun, and sometimes they are disturbing and Just Not Right, and Penny-Arcade knows exactly where that fine line is.