ISSN 1496-3221
November 24, 2000
As part of his pre-move purge, Mike gave me a wonderfully dog-eared hardcover book called Programming Business Computers. It was first published in 1959, and its pages are littered with poetic references to things like Nonrandom Access Main Memories, Upper & Lower Accumulators, Six-Channel Punched Paper Tape Storage, and something strange and foreign-sounding called Cathode-Ray … More
November 23, 2000
A four day weekend? What’s all that about? I’m sorry, but this Canadian boy thinks that the special day of Thanksgiving belongs in October, not November. And by the way, shouldn’t you finish picking a lane in the presidential race before deciding whether or not you have anything to be thankful for? No, I’m not … More
November 23, 2000
It almost like having one on your coffee table. Earlier this year, the British Library digitized two versions of the Gutenberg Bible, one printed on paper from the library of King George III and another version that was printed on vellum. The detailed illumination that can be seen in some of the larger images is … More
November 22, 2000
How To Run Java In HyperCardWhy? Because you can do it, dammit. That’s why.
November 21, 2000
Oprah Gives A-OK To E-BooksFirst of all, this shouldn’t even be a valid news item. Second of all, nothing disturbs me on a more regular schedule than the apparently unstoppable, culture-permeating fact that Oprah Winfrey has indeed become the Alan Greenspan of the book publishing industry. This very minute, I’m hovering somewhere between being frightened … More
November 21, 2000
Netscape Goes BonkersAnd you thought it was just a new version of a browser. No, it’s much, much more than that. In fact, it’s a meticulously prepared set of instructions on how not to release your software to the clamouring public. Thanks to Joel for putting into words what we’ve all been thinking, specifically this … More
November 21, 2000
Huzzah! I do believe that the nasty little null character insertion bug has finally been eradicated from Blogger. Jack said they’d look into the problem, and apparently they did. Since those pesky, unparsable nulls won’t be vivisecting my page code anymore, I think I can finally dive in and start using the SSI on my … More
November 20, 2000
Let’s start the week off with what is probably a familiar story. Basically, I thought yesterday was Monday. The alarm goes off later on Sunday mornings, but since my brain follows its own chronological path, for a moment or two I was totally convinced that I was late for something. I’m not sure what, but … More
November 17, 2000
I’ve always suspected that Jakob Nielsen was a bit of a twit. A vociferous, well-intentioned twit, but a twit nonetheless. I’ve had a distinctly unflattering view of his snooty, pseudo-guru attitude, but I’ve let my predeterminations slide because every once in a while he manifests a truly wonderful piece of obvious common sense. However, after … More
November 16, 2000
Praise the lord and pass the browser. Opera for Mac goes alpha.