posts brought to you by the category “home”
Das eez kaput! Sometime around 2002 I spaced the entire database table that mapped individual entries to categories. Such is life. What follows is a random sampling of entries that were associated with the category. Over time, the entries will be updated and then it will be even more confusing. Wander around, though, it's still a fun way to find stuff.
I don't know Cameron personally though he seems like a perfectly nice fellow.
And maybe I'm just being old fashioned but what, precisely, does it mean when the chief is going to work to make sure the Candidate posts to his weblog?
Am I the only one who thinks that the Idea of Weblog is antithetical to the idea of the Campaign Trail? Do you honestly expect me to believe that anything posted to an officially sanctioned campaign website hasn't been vetted by a team of PR people, lawyers and sycophants? Do you honestly expect me to believe that any campaign manager worth their salt is going to let the Candidate speak off the cuff and have it archived for perpetuity, or at least until the election which is the functional equivalent, in a Google cache?
I've got it up my ass with those so-called media professionals!indeed. Meanwhile, what's all this about the Candidate not having the time to post? My god, we've spent the last five years developing the tools that allow you to post, with meme-sized precision, the fact that you've farted. While walking up the stairs to your apartment. Using your cell phone. I think it's cool that Cameron's got himself a gig where he can explore some of the edges of the format. But seriously folks, get a grip. These are not the droids you're looking for. Since we're busy talking about politics, the Internet, honest dialogue and getting the message out you may also enjoy the Idea of Weblog in full effect as it fact-checks the ass off of
evil reptilian kitten-eaters.
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What precisely drives this ever-faster flow of tripe about weblogs?
Subject: Re: Sam Ruby: Anatomy of a Well Formed Log EntryS From: Aaron Straup Cope To: Kellan Date: 17 Jun 2003 08:41:53 -0400 <snip> > Just in care you were, you know, wondering what a weblog was :) </snip> It frankly baffles me (actually what really baffles me is why they removed the Emacs key-bindings from Evolution 1.4 but that's another story.) What precisely drives this ever-faster flow of tripe about weblogs being "revolutionary"? I'm sorry but I just can't talk about weblogs the same way I might about, say, the wheel or, more recently, electricity. About the only comparison you can make between wheels and weblogs is that there isn't much you can say about them, when you get down to the brass tacks, and that is precisely what's so special about them. Wheels are round and that's their killer-app, so to speak. We've gussied them up with things inside them, we've gussied them up with things around them; but nothing has changed their fundamental nature: they're round and they travel well. End of story.
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The Post-It Gallery
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Dick Gordon : "If it works out, we'll be hosting The Connection from Baghdad next week."
Me : ASCOPE::Class::Text.pm 1.0
Beware giant terrorists roaming the streets.
This would be funny if it weren't reminiscent of the 1982 documentary called The Winds of War (I can't find a link; the September 11th attacks seem to have taken ownership of the phrase whole-hog) in which a Reagan administration advisor claimed that 1) he could outrun the initial blast from a nuclear explosion and 2) the shade of a lilac tree would shield him from the radiation. Meanwhile, Bruce Sterling is upset that he is living in a 1980s William Gibson novel. Personally -- and maybe I'm feeling weak today -- I might settle for just living in a world without quite so many idiots.
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The APXL (Apple Keynote) Schema
mod_pubsub
is an attempt to write an Open Source Apache module which implements asynchronous publish and subscribe messaging.
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The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : handmelon
Proper word for American football, as it is played more with hands than feet and the "ball" is melon-shaped, instead of being of proper spherical shape balls should be.
ex. Handmelon is a sport popular only in the United States.
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The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : zeitgeist
Zeitgeist \Zeit"geist`\, n. [G.; zeit time + geist spirit. See {Tide}, n.; {Ghost}, n.] The spirit of the time; the general intellectual and moral state or temper characteristic of any period of time. web1913
Zeitgeist n : the spirit of the time; the spirit characteristic of an age or generation [syn: {Zeitgeist}] wn
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The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : ramping like a hose
Going crazy; over-processing; suffering from too much work and poor support. At least, that's what we think it means....
ex. "The (130-nanometer) process is ramping like a hose," said Frank Spindler, Vice President of Intel's Mobile Products Group.
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The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : kabash
Killed, brought to and end, finished.
ex. The project was finally kabash, and all were relieved.
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The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : joust
Playful fighting or sparring.
ex. They are not really angry. They are just jousting with each other.see also : joust dict-ified
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The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : descry
Descry \De*scry"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Descried}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Descrying}.] [OE. descrien, discrien, to espy, prob. from the proclaiming of what was espied, fr. OF. descrier to proclaim, cry down, decry, F. d['e]crier. The word was confused somewhat with OF. descriven, E. describe, OF. descrivre, from L. describere. See {Decry}.] 1. To spy out or discover by the eye, as objects distant or obscure; to espy; to recognize; to discern; to discover. And the house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. --Judg. i. 23. Edmund, I think, is gone . . . to descry The strength o' the enemy. --Shak. And now their way to earth they had descried. --Milton. 2. To discover; to disclose; to reveal. [R.] His purple robe he had thrown aside, lest it should descry him. --Milton. Syn: To see; behold; espy; discover; discern. web1913
descry v : catch sight of [syn: {spot}, {espy}, {spy}] wn
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The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : defenestrate
To throw someone or something out of a window.
ex. If this computer crashes one more time, I'm defenestrating the piece of junk!
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The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : ambimoustrous
Equally adept at using a computer's mouse with either hand - often in reaction to early-onset RSI.
ex. Oh, Paul's mouse is always on the wrong side of the PC - he's not a leftie though, he's ambimoustrous.
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The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : surreptitious
Surreptitious \Sur`rep*ti"tious\, a. [L. surreptitius, or subreptitius, fr. surripere, subripere, to snatch away, to withdraw privily; sub- under + rapere to snatch. See {Sub-}, and {Ravish}.] Done or made by stealth, or without proper authority; made or introduced fraudulently; clandestine; stealthy; as, a surreptitious passage in an old manuscript; a surreptitious removal of goods. -- {Sur`rep*ti"tious*ly}, adv. web1913
surreptitious adj 1: marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed; "a furtive manner"; "a lurking prowler"; "a sneak attack"; "stealthy footsteps"; "a surreptitious glance at his watch"; "someone skulking in the shadows" [syn: {furtive}, {lurking}, {skulking}, {sneak(a)}, {sneaky}, {stealthy}] 2: conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods; "clandestine intelligence operations"; "cloak-and-dagger activities behind enemy lines"; "hole-and-corner intrigue"; "secret missions"; "a secret agent"; "secret sales of arms"; "surreptitious mobilization of troops"; "an undercover investigation"; "underground resistance" [syn: {clandestine}, {cloak-and-dagger}, {hole-and-corner(a)}, {hugger-mugger}, {hush-hush}, {on the quiet(p)}, {secret}, {undercover}, {underground}] wn
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The Connection : Language and the Internet
Me : Weblogs, Theory and Practice 1.1
There isn't a whole lot of news here except to say that I have munged the theory and practice data and tools into something a little more manageable and foofy-ized the design on the front end. This means that I will make more of an effort to update it; my apologies to those who've sent in suggestions and, well, been ignored. There is of course an RSS (1.0) feed. In time, I will add redirects from the old site and a "recently added" section and ping the weblogs.com server when it is updated.
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The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is nascent
| source : web1913 |
Nascent \Nas"cent\, a. [L. nascens, -entis, p. pr. nasci to be
born. See {Nation}, and cf. {Naissant}.]
1. Commencing, or in process of development; beginning to
exist or to grow; coming into being; as, a nascent germ.
Nascent passions and anxieties. --Berkley.
2. (Chem.) Evolving; being evolved or produced.
{Nascent state} (Chem.), the supposed instantaneous or
momentary state of an uncombined atom or radical just
separated from one compound acid, and not yet united with
another, -- a hypothetical condition implying peculiarly
active chemical properties; as, hydrogen in the nascent
state is a strong reducer.
| source : wn |
nascent
adj : coming into existence; "a nascent republic" [syn: {emergent},
{emerging}]
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Cory Doctorow : Yours is a Very Bad Hotel
BBC : "The US Government has bought all rights to all the pictures of Afghanistan
and surrounding areas taken by the privately operated Ikonos high-resolution imaging satellite. ...Under the terms of the contract, Space Imaging, the company that operates Ikonos, will not "sell, distribute, share or provide the imagery to any other entity"."
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The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is imprecation
| source : web1913 |
Imprecation \Im`pre*ca"tion\, n. [L. imprecatio: cf. F.
impr['e]cation.]
The act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon any one; a
prayer that a curse or calamity may fall on any one; a curse.
Men cowered like slaves before such horrid
imprecations. --Motley.
Syn: Malediction; curse; execration; anathema. See
{Malediction}.
| source : wn |
imprecation
n : a curse that invokes evil (and usually serves as an insult);
"he suffered the imprecations of the mob" [syn: {malediction}]
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I am surprised at how much I dislike
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is patrician
| source : web1913 |
Patrician \Pa*tri"cian\, n. [L. patricius: cf. F. patricien.]
1. (Rom. Antiq.) Originally, a member of any of the families
constituting the populus Romanus, or body of Roman
citizens, before the development of the plebeian order;
later, one who, by right of birth or by special privilege
conferred, belonged to the nobility.
2. A person of high birth; a nobleman.
3. One familiar with the works of the Christian Fathers; one
versed in patristic lore. [R.] --Colridge.
| source : web1913 |
Patrician \Pa*tri"cian\, a. [L. patricius, fr. patres fathers or
senators, pl. of pater: cf. F. patricien. See {Paternal}.]
1. (Rom. Antiq.) Of or pertaining to the Roman patres
(fathers) or senators, or patricians.
2. Of, pertaining to, or appropriate to, a person of high
birth; noble; not plebeian.
Born in the patrician file of society. --Sir W.
Scott.
His horse's hoofs wet with patrician blood.
--Addison.
| source : wn |
patrician
adj 1: of the hereditary aristocracy or ruling class of ancient
Rome or medieval Europe; of honorary nobility in the
Byzantine empire [ant: {plebeian}, {proletarian}]
2: belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or
aristocracy; "an aristocratic family"; "aristocratic
Bostonians"; "aristocratic government"; "a blue family";
"blue blood"; "the blue-blooded aristocracy"; "of gentle
blood"; "patrician landholders of the American South";
"aristocratic bearing"; "aristocratic features";
"patrician tastes" [syn: {aristocratic}, {aristocratical},
{blue}, {blue-blooded}, {gentle}]
n 1: a person of refined upbringing and manners
2: a member of the aristocracy [syn: {aristocrat}, {blue blood}]
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Mike Richter : Primer on CD-R
"The following is intended to be parts of a primer on recordable Compact Disc formats. I have favored simple expression over technical detail. For that, I urge you to check other resources, as found in the URLs. In particular, the information from vendors is authoritative, where the following is not. The focus is on PC's and Windows; those with Unix or Mac systems are welcome to translate to the extent possible. (I try not to write about things I don't know.)" also available as a 159-page PDF file.
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The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is apologia
| source : wn |
apologia
n : a formal written defense of something you believe in
strongly [syn: {apology}]
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Dave Cross : Creating Data Output Files Using the Template Toolkit
I spent some time reading the docs to the Template Toolkit. It's very cool despite the fact that you can embed code in the templates or maybe because it allows you pass whole objects around the templates as substitution variables. This actually makes the creepiness of the code in templates dilemma that much worse, but it's just so cool.
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On the potential advantages of the MySQL filesystem hack :
"Why not to share /mnt/mysql with SAMBA and let marketdroids modify directly SQL database? They will be happy if they can directly write text into database (which meanwhile can server web in realtime) or use cut & paste do drop image into car sale ad. This much easier way making content management then having hundreds lines of code in Perl or PHP just to put image in database."
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YULblog : New research centre puts Montreal on leading edge of art and technology
It's not as though no one else produces crap.
There's no shortage of it in Canada -- domestic, imported,
exported or otherwise. 
It's just that the
super-abundance of it in the States is truly staggering and
seemingly unmatched anywhere else in the world. The weekend
provided an opportunity to
visit one of big name monster supermarkets and I was amazed at
the ability to make so many seemingly different products from the
same basic components : plastic, corn syrup and food
colouring. Well, not really surprised, but the shock never seems
to abate. It's like this crap has evolved into a self-preserving
life-form and spawns new progeny -- or atleast new packaging --
right there on the shelf, in front of your eyes. see also : fresh
watermelon
It's just that the
super-abundance of it in the States is truly staggering and
seemingly unmatched anywhere else in the world. The weekend
provided an opportunity to
visit one of big name monster supermarkets and I was amazed at
the ability to make so many seemingly different products from the
same basic components : plastic, corn syrup and food
colouring. Well, not really surprised, but the shock never seems
to abate. It's like this crap has evolved into a self-preserving
life-form and spawns new progeny -- or atleast new packaging --
right there on the shelf, in front of your eyes. see also : fresh
watermelon
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Andrew Wooldridge : Infinite Extensibilty with XBL
"The point here though is not so much this new tag we created, but the fact that I could create whole new functionality in the browser without a stitch of C++ code! XUL gives you a lot of power in creating user interfaces for your web applications but only contains a limited set of UI widgets for you to build on. XBL gives you a whole new toolset to build up your own widgets -- with their own specialized behavior -- that can allow you to create interfaces of whatever complexity you desire!"
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My mom posted pictures from Laos the other day
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Joust
"lets you create really, really spiffy JavaScript index menus that function just like Windows Explorer (or Mac Finder) folder hierarchies." via more like this
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Salon : To heck with hacktivism
"The truth is that while the hacktivist slogan, "The revolution will be digitized!" is certainly catchy, most techno-protestors have yet to prove themselves anything more than pests. Disorganized and occasionally reckless, many are content to deface Web pages with "Break the Bank!" graffiti; they are not engaging in powerful acts that might set the mandarins of globalization aquake in their boots." I was talking to someone, this evening, about being part of the hardcode scene when I was in high-school. I'm not sure how much any of us really thought about the complexities of some of things we raged against. For alot of people talk of smashing the state was just another way to be hardcorer-than-thou; a practice best evidenced in massive and prolonged drug taking. But there was an awareness of events in the world and an expectation, even if you were too stoned to talk straight, to question the forces and motivations behind them. We may have talked the talk more than anything but I think it was a valuable exercise intellectually and it was a good step more than some of the other people I knew were doing. see also : Talk Minus Action = 0! The strange history of Joey Shithead and D.O.A.
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XML for <SCRIPT>
"is a simple non-validating XML parser written in JavaScript. This was written partly as an exploration of the issues involved in coding parsers for XML, and partly to see how useful such a parser would be for version three and four browsers."
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NY Times : The Pressure To Take It Off
"Rosie Perez, whose first film role, in "Do the Right Thing," had such a memorable nude scene that a decade later she's still living it down (or up), convened a round table of some of her friends and colleagues, inviting a reporter to participate, to talk about the pressures, rewards and plain facts about getting naked in public."
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Wired
"[I]f every wired household will need to hire a network security consultant to keep their smart TV and intelligent toasters safe from viruses, implementing the "always connected" future will present some practical problems." Let's just hope that, as a society, we can be a bit more mature about this than children in a candy store. Personally, I loathe the idea of ever using a modem again, but I would manage. This is all cool stuff but if "network security" means giving up some of the fundementals that we rely on ( read: take for granted ) then I think we need to take a long hard look before we do anything. see also : People for Internet Responsibility and John Jannotti : Network Services in an Uncooperative Internet.
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PalmVNC
"is an implementation of the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) protocol ... [it] allows users to access a remote computer desktop via Internet or Intranet, i.e. to view and control all applications, to collaborate with a person currently working at this desktop." via slashdot
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Jeffrey Simpson on The Rant
"The ad, trying to be distinctly Canadian, is more American than the Americans. Can you imagine how high Canadians would ride on their horses of moral indignation if an American ad ever did a similar riff on the United States versus Canada? But then it would never, ever occur to an American ad agency to bother, since Americans are already convinced theirs is the best country in the world, and the fastest way of losing an American audience is to mention the word 'Canada.' " Meanwhile, The World wonders what are those wacky Canadians getting so excited aboot? (real audio)
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Kudos to the Deepleap gang
for saying things like "Unix is the platform that Deepleap runs the best on. Bet you've never heard anyone say that before!"
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I would feel bad about this
if they hadn't already started making such shitty ice cream years ago.
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Tangentially related, my friend Alexander
is convinced that there is something in the cups or the beer --or both-- at the Molson Center that causes the former to begin dissolving when it comes into contact with the latter. Just in case you needed another reason another reason not to drink big corporate beer. Meanwhile, congratulations to the Canadian Women's Hockey Team for winning a sixth consecutive World Championship and demonstrating that, despite Buffalo having won this afternoon, there is still some small justice in the universe.
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Web PDF Viewer
Spits out HTML or PalmOS Doc files. Sweet!
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LeoCAD
"is a CAD program that uses bricks similar to those found in many toys (but they don't represent any particular brand). Currently it has a library of more than 1000 different pieces..." mmmm....bricks.
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Julia Hill gives new meaning
to the phrase talk minus action = zero. Amazing.
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Tod Maffin : 15 megabytes of fame
Every six months or so, the Internet bestows fame with the spontaneous randomness of a tornado. It's as if a secretive awards ceremony is held underground somewhere –Moose Jaw, I figure– and word is sent throughout the land: '[bleep] is The Chosen One. Tell all.' "
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Andy Oram on the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act.
"If the [CIAA] is passed ... litigators will probably have to claim that linking is a form of copying, a slippery slope we don't want to start down."
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Saturday Night : Call Him Nardwuar
"One guy wrote 'Nardwuar, you are the litmus test for humanity. Anyone who gets upset by you is a jerk. Those who find you wonderful, magical, and hysterical are all those things inside.' " I'd like to think that Nardwuar maybe goes a small way towards exonerating Canada for having unleashed Bryan Adams, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette on the world.
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Also in Montreal
city officials outlaw the Spoon Man. Only in Montreal would the Red Tape Brigade decide to ban buskers from performing one of the province's musical traditions. (real audio)
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Cerebus.org
version 4.0
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We are one people, one resolve, one orgasm.
quicktime
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Maybe Mr. Nice Guy would be happier
People like to be entertained
and whatever else you want to say about Steve Jobs, he gets that better than most. via macintouch
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Are you a film-maker?
Have you taken your Vow of Chastity yet?
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O'Reilly's MySQL & mSQL
<a href = "http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/msql/chapter/ch10-beta.html">beta sample chapter</a>
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Philip Gourevitch & James Young
on "The Holocaust in American Life".
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Cowboys Junkies : Live From the Archive
Courtesy of the nice people at the <a href = "http://www.virtuallycanadian.com">Virtually Canadian Broadcasting Network</a>. Archived and upcoming shows are listed <a href = "http://www.virtuallycanadian.com/Shows/LiveArchive/">here</a>. real audio.