Creative temper tantrums?
Posted on October 31, 2004
Filed Under Entertainment | Leave a Comment
Just caught [this on CNN.com](http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/31/elton.john.reut/index.html)
>LONDON, England (Reuters) — Pop star Elton John says he doesn’t mean to throw tantrums — it just comes with the territory of being creative.
>John told Britain’s Sunday Times magazine that his behavior had changed since beating drug and alcohol addictions 14 years ago, yet “the rage and the temper are still there … but it’s part of being creative.”
No, Elton, it’s part of being a rich ex-addict who has a temper problem. Creative at making excuses, maybe. There are plenty of folks who are artistically inclined and know how to handle themselves in public.
Markdown
Posted on October 31, 2004
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
I’m setting up a new site for a client, and the site includes a blog. He doesn’t know a lick of HTML so I want to make it easy for him to format his entries. For other clients I’ve installed and given them a tutorial on Brad Choate’s [Textile][txt main]. Works okay, lets someone make basic links, bold, italic, blockquotes, etc.
[txt main]:http://bradchoate.com/mt-plugins/textile
But now I’m trying John Gruber’s [Markdown][mk main]. I think I [finally][old post] get the big difference between Textile and Markdown. Both convert every day text to XHTML, but Markdown does it in a far more natural way. When my client formats an entry with Markdown it will be easier for him to pull it up later and edit it since he won’t have to read between the lines of syntax. The text _looks_ like it should. Instead of a code that says in effect, “indent the paragraph here” the paragraph is literally indented. That has to be easier both to do and explain.
[mk main]:http://www.daringfireball.net/projects/markdown
[old post]:http://www.momathome.com/viewfromhome/movable_type/why_weblog_software.php
Author comment highlighting
Posted on October 30, 2004
Filed Under Uncategorized | 5 Comments
I first noticed this when Dave Shea did it on “MezzoBlue.”:http://www.mezzoblue.com He coded his template so his comments appeared different than comments from other people. He took it a step further where he also color-coded comments from CSS/Web Design “pundits” and folks who tried to post anonymously. It caused a bit of stir on his site. But hey… his house, his rules.
Since then, quite a few sites have started doing this and I tell you, it makes reading comments much easier if you can quickly scan and pick out the site owner’s replies and updates to his/her entry.
I’ve been meaning to modify my templates to do this. Not that I get all that many comments but I thought it would help if my comments popped out. I see that Erik Barzeski just “redesigned his site”:http://nslog.com/archives/2004/10/30/design_done.php (I like it a lot, Erik) and now he’s doing it, too. Seemed pretty easy to implement. Dan Cederholm of “SimpleBits”:http://www.simplebits.com “explains”:http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2004/10/25/highlighting.html how he did it using the “Switch plugin for MovableType.”:http://mt-plugins.org/archives/entry/switch.php I used a plugin that I already had installed called “Compare.”:http://www.staggernation.com/mtplugins/#Compare
bq. <MTIfEqual a="[MTCommentAuthor]" b="Judi Sohn">
<div class="comments-judi">
…
Simple. In the comments on the SimpleBits site there’s a lot of talk about spoofing comments. I tried comparing on the email field as suggested, but I have my MT configured to require a valid email address so entering a password instead wasn’t going to do it. If someone tries to pretend to me, I’ll get an email asking me to approve a comment from me that I don’t recognize. I’d be happy if the volume of traffic causes this to be a problem. For now, I think I can handle deleting stray comments manually.
By the way, MovableType 3.12 *is* much, much faster at rebuilds as promised. That’s part of the reason why I dreaded making any changes to my individual templates before. It would take *forever* for the site to rebuild. I still make changes in stages…test on one entry, then find another typical entry and save just that, and only after I’m sure the basic functionality is working do I rebuild the whole thing. Took less than 2 minutes to rebuild all 800 or so entries. The same rebuild would have taken at least 10 minutes, if not longer, under MT 2.x.
Google Desktop for Mac?
Posted on October 30, 2004
Filed Under Macintosh | Leave a Comment
So now Google is “talking”:http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=6664912§ion=news about bringing “Google Desktop”:http://desktop.google.com/ to the Mac. While the promise is there, I’m not all that in love with the beta that’s out for Windows. I’ve already uninstalled it in favor of Microsoft’s “Lookout”:http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/ which gets far more use on my PC.
Google Desktop is very limited in what files it will search and from which locations. The majority of files that I search on my PC are email messages or attachments to email. While GDS can find a file easily if I’m doing a simple “contains” search, it doesn’t help me find a specific file that was sent to me from John Doe sometime the week of 20th that mentioned the word “Gala.”
So given the limitations of the Windows version, I can’t imagine how GDS will provide any advantage over the promised “Searchlight”:http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/spotlight.html that’s coming in Mac OS X “Tiger.” At least with Lookout or Spotlight I don’t have to worry as much about the security implications. However, if GDS will allow me to search *all* computers on my network, Mac or PC, from a single computer that may be worth looking into.
Update: Or not. It “appears from this post”:http://www.seanbonner.com/blog/archives/001048.php that Google isn’t considering a Mac OS X version of GDS after all. Not that I’m crying about it, as I noted above.
bq. The remark in quesestion was in response to someone asking about privacy issues of Google Desktop and a foot note to their question was if Google was planning an OS X version. The answer was “yes, and no” He went on to explain that because the way Operating Systems work so differently and how built in the Google Desktop is there’s no way to just port it over to a different OS so it has to be redone from scratch so while they do intended to do it, it’s not something that they are working on, or something anyone should expect soon. He also noted that they do not preannounce products.
“Intend” doesn’t mean “will definitely do.”
What’s on TV?
Posted on October 29, 2004
Filed Under Entertainment | Leave a Comment
I love my Tivo. I am watching TV for less time in my day, but watching more of the shows I like. I tend to watch at really strange hours…like I’ll watch a show just after the girls get off to school before hoping in the shower.
So, as Justin did here’s a rundown of what’s “Now Playing…” on my set this season:
*Sunday:*
* *Dead Like Me:* Season finale this weekend. I’m not sure I like the multi-episode arc with the guy from Wil & Grace. Seems a little too soapy for this show. But each episode holds my attention and I hope to see it back again for a 3rd season. Strange that Showtime has had some sort of technical problem where the first 5 minutes of each episode has choppy video and the sound is out of sync. At first I thought it was a problem with the recording until I watched a show “live” and it happened then, too. Then Eric and I realized it was the beginning of every episode, and it’s only this show. Strange.
* *Desperate Housewives:* It’s okay. I enjoy it when it’s on, but I don’t find myself consistently making time for it. Not sure why not.
* *Boston Public:* Only mentioning it here to say that I didn’t like this at all. Caught the first episode or two and that was enough for me. Didn’t like Ally McBeal either, probably for the same reason since it appears to be a similar show.
*Monday:*
* *Las Vegas:* I still enjoy it, but it’s pure eye and brain candy. They keep trying to make the characters appear to be deeper than they really are.
*Wednesday:*
* *Lost:* The critics seem to think that this is one of the best new shows on television, and I agree. It’s not just about the island, or plot. It’s about these characters, each of which are complex and fully realized even if we don’t know it yet. It’s like peeling the way the layers of an onion, and I want to know more about these people and what got them on the plane. You get your first impression of whether a character is “heroic” or “evil” and then see the backstory and what they were doing and thinking before and it throws the initial impression out the window without changing who the character is. I love that. What I don’t love is the way ABC added one minute to Lost just so it makes it harder for me to Tivo…
* *West Wing:* It will be interesting to see how and if what happens on Tuesday changes what happens in the fictional White House. The characters aren’t as fully realized as those on Lost, even after all this time. Doesn’t Toby have new babies? Does CJ have a life? Why is the Vice President’s aide always hanging around with the President’s staff? And Mary McDonnell’s character is quickly turning into West Wing’s version of Wesley Crusher, always the one with *the* answer that saves the day.
*Thursday:*
* *Survivor:* Old habit. Still can’t name all the survivors, which I was definitely able to do at this point in previous years. It’s on because I have no interest in Joey, and like I said…old habit. But I really don’t care yet who wins or who goes.
* *The Apprentice:* The Donald’s ridiculous running ads for himself aside, it’s good this year. I like the tasks (except for the dog one) because they are more “real” than last year. Last night’s episode was really good, coming from a marketing/advertising background myself. I *loved* the winning NYPD recruitment ad, and now Andy is the guy I’m cheering for because the “When was the last time you saved a life?” campaign was his idea. I’m rooting for him because he had an idea, he knew he didn’t have the complete respect of his team, and somehow he managed to keep his cool and convince the team to go along. I’ve learned the hard way in my own life that leadership isn’t about being in charge or being right, it’s being able to guide those around you towards a common goal that will hopefully benefit everyone. The chick who lost last night was absolutely right about the task, but she couldn’t convince anyone around her and that’s why she was a really bad leader. That commercial they made was *scary* to the point of being hilariously funny in a SNL-parody sort of way. Oh, and I guess I’m not the only one to pick up on the “bad dubbing in the board room.”:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6357379/ I mentioned it multiple times to Eric last night. Survivor does it too and I get that since the challenges are fast-pasted and being on the island they can’t always control the elements to make sure things are flowing properly. But at least have Donald do his voice-over on the board room set so they can do a better job of matching the sound.
* *ER:* Why do I have a season pass to this one? I have no idea. Talk about a show that has jumped the shark. Starting going down hill when George Clooney left and very little sign of improvement since.
*Friday:*
* *Joan of Arcadia:* Even better this year. When I was a pre-teen, I could count on “Little House on the Prairie” to give me a weekly cry and touch my heart (hey, I was 12 or so!) and Joan does the same thing for me. I’m going through a bit of a religious crisis right now, where I’m not sure what I believe and this show manages to touch me spiritually without being religious. The characters are well-written and fully realized and I’m looking forward to each new episode. But what’s up with the funky blue filter on the cop-shop scenes…it’s starting to annoy me.
And just in case I want a boob tube fix and there’s nothing to watch, I’ve been Tivo’ing the ABC soaps, The View and Oprah. I look at the descriptions and if it’s a guest or theme I like. Like many Tivo owners I find that I rarely watch a TV show when it’s actually on, and when I do I get frustrated if I can’t click past the commercials.
