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Friday, August 09, 2002 Blogging - [4:09 PM] Well it looks like I'm not alone when I start thinking about all the confusion in the blogging world. I mean confusion about which blogging tool to use. Mr. Seve Pilgrim is doing some blog soul searching and asking lots and lots of questions, that's a good thing. Personally I've bumped up against some of the same issues Steve is having. I'm NOT an HTML or CSS freak, I just want my site to be pleasing to my eye and function in a way that's not frustrating to the viewer. I've messed with Radio and it's big brother Manila (I LOVE Manila B.T.W.) I get frustrated with Radio because I can't figure out how to script it, Blogger is nice and compact but I'd like to be able to manage a site with it, I don't have the time to mess with Movable Type, or Grey Matter, or CityDesk, or [insert your favorite blogging tool here]. I've given a lot of thought to what I'd like to have and what I end up with is a combination of Front Page, Radio, and Blogger/Manila. Yep, I said Front Page. I'd like a design tool for layout (great CSS and accessibility support is a requirement), a scripting tool for power, and a writing tool for posts (bother client AND server with synchronization support). In the end I'd like to be able to layout a site with user switchable views of the site, see Dive Into Mark for an example. Once the design, or designs, are in place I'd to be able to customize it with macros to suite my blogging needs, and finally I'd like to add posts in full GUI mode. What does that mean? Well I'd like the page presented as I'll see it when I've finished posting, while I'm writing the post. Inline posting if you will. Why can't that be done? The answer is of course it can and probably will be done at some point in the near future. Who knows Trellix may already have the solution, but I haven't seen their product in action yet. Until then I'll maintain this site with Blogger and keep playing with my Radio site. Who knows maybe I'll write my own solution in my copious free time. Movie line of the week answer - [8:12 AM] Good morning everybody! Yesterday's line was a pretty darned easy one. It's from a fairly new animated film that everybody and their mother saw, you get what I mean. Our winner was Mr. Ralph Hempel. Congratulations Ralph! (Did you notice that Ralph is the author of Extreme Mindstorms: an Advanced Guide to Lego Mindstorms, sweet!) The correct answer is... Thanks to all that played! Happy birthday! Hey did you know that Smokey the bear is 58 today? Here's his story, if you're interested. Thursday, August 08, 2002 Potter News - [3:40 PM] The Daily Prophet: "Alfonso Cuarón has been signed to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third movie in the Harry Potter series for Warner Bros. Pictures." - There had been talk of either Alfonso Cuarón or Kenneth Branagh directing the third installment. The only thing that's disappointing is the release date, summer 2004. I like the fall release cycle myself. It's hard to find great movies at that time of the year. That's ok, I'll still be in line for my ticket when it's finally here. Movie line of the week - [8:33 AM] Happy Thursday! It's movie line time, are you all ready? Good, here goes... Ogres are like onions Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here. Trellix and weblogging This is great news for the blogging world, we have another client application. Trellix corporation has announced support for weblogging, as told by Dan Bricklin. This is excellent! Can someone help? I've been informed by Mr. Ralph Hempel that this site looks horrible with IE 6 on Win2k. Apparently the posts 'column' is all squashed up. Anyone have a clue what could cause that to happen? I checked it out with 6.0.2600.0000 on Win2k and it looks ok, I've asked Ralph to send me the version number he's viewing with. Thanks Ralph, I appreciate it. Wednesday, August 07, 2002 Around the web - [4:36 PM] Steve Pilgrim: "If you were on life support and all of your life support equipment could be run on only a single operating system, which operating system would you want that to be?" - I'd want a machine, and os, that controlled a life support system to be as simple as possible. Now that second question on the other hand is WAY more interesting to me. What would someone selling a different OS have to do to get the entrenched OS out of a shop? The answer is probably wild and varied depending on the person you ask. In most cases it's probably next to impossible because the IT department has so much invested in hardware and software that it wouldn't be cost effective, IMHO. Welcome back! Hey I see that Larry Staton is back in the blogging world! Just noticed that familiar staton.blog entry in weblogs.com! Good to see ya Larry! Howdy net neighbor! - [10:22 AM] Well it's going to be another beautiful day here in the San Joaquin Valley. Our expected high is about 88, which feels really great after weeks of punishing 100+ degree temperatures. Good day for a long walk, and a good day to mow my lawn! A softer Microsoft?? It's true. Right now we're going through the annual review process. It's a pain in the butt to have to fill out the paper work, but it's nice to be able to reset yourself to get in alignment with what's going on around the company. Microsoft has always been known as a combative workplace. It's one of the things that bothered me about the buyout of Visio almost three years ago. I liked the Visio way of doing things. People were nice and that in turn made me want to work even harder. Someone could get me to do things just by asking. I was my own worst cirtic, which is still true today. I've heard through the grapevine over the last couple of years that Visio folks were too soft. Well it looks like that softer, caring attitude is something we'd like to foster as a company! That's great news! During my review with my manager he went over some things the company as a whole should start doing. The great thing about it is they're things I'm already doing. In the end it'll make Microsoft a better place to work and, most importantly, the customer is going to VERY happy! Wooo-Hooo! Tuesday, August 06, 2002 Mornin' Y'All - [8:55 AM] I've discovered a few new web sites I'd like to share with all two of you that keep coming back for more abuse. So many islands, so little time: "My final reason may sound crazy to you, but it is the ultimate reason. My wife and I firmly believe that it was what God wanted us to do. That sounds weird to a lot of people, but it is the way that we run our life. Our deep and abiding faith in God and the personal relationship that we have with God requires us to seek him in all our decisions. I wish I could say that we always do this, but we don't. But when we do, some pretty amazing things happen. " - This is Joe Friend's weblog, yes that's really his name. He was last week's movie line winner and I've been watching him ever since. And by the way, God is indeed awesome! Pumpkin Project: "There's a new contender for the crown!" - As autumn approaches this site should be interesting to watch. Who knows it may feature a world record pumpkin before years end. Relevant Magazine: "God. Life. Progressive Culture." - 'Nuff said. Sonic returns! We're Nintendo fans. We have an N64 and a GameCube. It's been a little depressing owning a GameCube up to this point because the games just aren't coming like we'd hoped. Yesterday News.com featured a story that made me feel a bit better about owning a GameCube. Sonic is coming to GameCube, and he's not playing games. My girls will be very pleased. XBox Last week we purchased an XBox and it's been getting a TON of use ever since. Unlike the GameCube there isn't a lack of games on the market. Halo is absolutely incredible and I've finally figured out how to control Project Gotham. Our youngest loves Spider Man and our oldest is having a wonderful time with Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee. Check out the XBox site for new titles. There are a gob of 'em on the way for the holidays. Monday, August 05, 2002 Congratulations Richard! - [8:38 AM] Very nice RC! Richard's glass3d experiment was selected as Planet Source Code winner. Ye Olde Blogtree - [8:36 AM] This is a pretty sweet idea, give it a try, takes less than five minutes. Spammers - [7:48 AM] I'm a reasonable person, not violent, I love my wife and kids, I pay my taxes willingly. But there's something that is really bothering me these days. SPAM! I wish folks would just stop sending me junk. My Hotmail account is 99% poo-poo these days. Here's a little tip for you morons sending me all the crap. If it has the word Viagra, or Add 3-4 inches overnight, or mortgage in the title it's getting thrown in the trash can via an in-box rule! Please, oh please, put me in a room with just one person behind these stupid campaigns. If broken legs don't deter them maybe I can come up with something better. I wish you could track these things down. I'd love to unleash some nasty, destructive, worm loose on their systems. Yes that's how much I hate this crap. Spammers please do me a favor, go away, far, far away. Update: I guess I'm not the only one talking about this today. I'm getting caught up and noticed Steve is also talking about it A LOT!