When you look at yourself

When you look at yourself in a mirror, everything is reversed from left to right and from right to left. Why aren’t you upside down as well?

Derek Powazek gets interviewed by

Derek Powazek gets interviewed by the guys at NetSlaves for a (new?) feature over at Wired News called The Real Web. Best soundbite: most Web designers want to be rock stars.

Watched the Super Bowl this

Watched the Super Bowl this evening. I basically ignored the first three quarters…the fourth quarter was pretty interesting though. The commercials were, for the most part, disappointing. The Pets.com musical was pretty lame….I expected better. Building on success is hard, I guess; it’s easier to get all full of yourself and slip into parody & self-referential dribble. Speaking of self-referential….

New 0sil8! Sort of. I’ve

New 0sil8! Sort of. I’ve brought back last year’s successful Valentine’s Day e-card. So send that special someone a li’l lovin’ today. Do you have a secret crush on someone? Send a card anonymously…or be bold and include your email address.

It seems my ideal celebrity

It seems my ideal celebrity mate is Britney Spears. Too…many….jokes. Brain….overloading…..

The DoubleClick opt-out is not

The DoubleClick opt-out is not currently working. They apologize for the inconvenience, but could they just be waiting for the firestorm to blow over before turning it back on?

Three parts of communication:

1. What is said.
2. What is heard.
3. What is intended to be heard.

In most online communication, intentions are masked by the lack of physical presence. Misunderstandings and flame wars arise when what is said & what is heard are different and intentions are assumed. Next time someone’s email or mailing list post makes you angry, step back and don’t assume you know what they were intending you to hear.

Hey, kids! Metababy, everyone’s favorite

Hey, kids! Metababy, everyone’s favorite collaborative playground, is back. So go play.

Also on Metababy: /an/open/letter/to/dave/winer/.

Anyone can change any page they want on Metababy, but I’ve discovered one way of saving information: put it in the URL. People can edit the page as much as they want, but the info in the URL is forever. Unless, of course, you edit the page and post nothing.

Mailing lists and Web sites

Mailing lists and Web sites are ablaze these days with discussion of the recent disclosure that DoubleClick is now tracking users around the Web by name. Some are crying “Big Brother” while others are saying that they will welcome the improved manner in which businesses can target them and that privacy isn’t all that important to them. Both valid points, but ultimately, what DoubleClick is doing is not good for me:

   - I visit probably 100-500 individual Web pages each day, maybe more. That is an incredible amount of information that they are gathering on me each day, much more than anyone could gather on me as I perform my offline day-to-day tasks. And it’s more diverse information as well, which makes it more interesting to a wider variety of companies. This increased exposure of my information can do nothing but subject me to more junk mail, phone calls, and spam…that I don’t need.

   - Not that the junk mail and spam won’t be more closely targeted at me, but DoubleClick does not have my best interest at heart. They aren’t thinking: “this is great for consumers!” They’re thinking, “we can sell this valuable list of data for big bucks to anyone that wants to sell something!” We’re data points to them, not people. The possible benefits of better junk mail (i.e. getting a coupon for a Palm V in the mail because they noticed that you were researching them online) is just a side effect of their business.

   - As an individual, I have the right to my personal privacy. It is the stance of DoubleClick (and many other businesses) that I do not have that right. It is in fact quite the reverse: they have the right to gather as much information as they can on me and then use that information to their best advantage, even if it means inconveniencing me personally (sometimes to an extreme). This is very similar to being presumed guilty until proven innocent.

If you want my advice, opt out of the DoubleClick cookie, which disallows them to follow you around the Web by name. Maybe even talk to your ISP about blocking their cookies at their level. Complain to the companies who are selling *your* information to DoubleClick…especially if they told you that they would never do any such thing. Protect your rights or you will lose them.

I’m listening to a little

I’m listening to a little happy hardcore today. This style of electronica can best be described as what Richard Simmons after about 10 cups of coffee would sound like as music. I just love the term “happy hardcore”.

How to unshrink a wool sweater

Like an idiot, I threw my brand new wool sweater in the wash and then in the dryer, shrinking it down about three sizes, rendering it unwearable. When I asked my roommate if there was a way to unshrink a wool sweater, he started laughing even before I could finish my question. Well my friends, I have mastered the black art of wool unshrinking and am here to share it with you.

When wool gets wet and warm, the fibers in the wool lock themselves together and don’t want to let go, resulting in shrinkage (you can get wool warm or wet, but not both). To unshrink the wool, soak the garment in warm water with a mild soap for about 10 minutes. This unlocks the fibers in the wool. Then lay the garment out on some towels in a cool place. Stretch the garment out to its original dimensions. The stretching pulls the unlocked wool fibers away from each other. Allow it to dry. The absence of heat from the drying process allows the wool fibers to set in place without locking together and shrinking the garment again.

Long story short: I have a brand new, fully functional sweater again. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Brian.

Hmmmm….another site shuttered. The Web

Hmmmm….another site shuttered. The Web is full of remember-whens and if-onlys.

Oh, neat! The author of

Oh, neat! The author of The Man Who Loved Only Numbers maintains a Paul Erdös Web site. Especially interesting are the alternative names that Erdös gave to people, things, and phrases. The book on which the Web site is based is excellent, and I would highly recommend it. What’s not to love about a book with chapters numbered e, pi, and infinity?

That Foop guy is at

That Foop guy is at it again. While I’m not sure ScamWorld is a parody, Wendell serves up some of the most random stuff out there. Random is good.

Can someone please tell me

Can someone please tell me why the cow skull leads to the discussion area on a Manila site like Scripting News? I mean, come on…could you possibly make it any harder for your visitors to use one of the more important features of the site…besides, of course, making it and invisible GIF? That’s just dumb, dumb, dumb.

Also from Matt: what if

Also from Matt: what if Jakob Nielsen designed a skin for WinAmp? Beautiful.

Metafilter, a collaborative weblog, has

Metafilter, a collaborative weblog, has become one of my favorite sites lately. And from what I hear, it’s been getting more popular with other folks as well….more people have been posting there and leaving comments and such. This is both good and bad, I suppose. Diversity of opinion and discussion is good, but as with most collaborative communities like this, it’s only as good as the worst participant.

A possible solution for Matt as he moves the site forward is allowing only approved posters to post stories on the front page, but anyone can post comments…..just like Slashdot. I mean, could you imagine Slashdot if *anyone* could post a story? Chaos. There’d be 400 stories a day and they’d all be crap.

Did anyone use this headline

Did anyone use this headline in conjunction with Patrick Naughton’s conviction: “Infoseek.con”? If Bill G. and company ever catch it from the Justice Dept., it would work for them too: “Microsoft.con”. OK, so my brain is a little fried today….Photoshop for 6 straight hours will do that to you.

• headlines
• Patrick Naughton

Amazon has themselves a new

Amazon has themselves a new logo. Although it’s a little cheesy (smile!), I don’t mind it too much. The “A-to-Z” bit harkens back to a simpler era when they just sold books. Someday, people will date themselves based on if they remember Amazon selling only books:

   ”Oh yeah? Well I remember when Amazon only sold books.”

   ”Amazon Petrochemical Conglomerated, Inc. sold books?”

According to Wired News, nudity

According to Wired News, nudity in Mississippi might have a new definition. If Republican state Senator Tom King has his way, nudity would henceforth include “the showing of covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state.” And you thought nudity meant “being without clothing.” Apparently, this type of thing is not without precedence. All I can say is that there are going to be a lot of teenaged boys in the slammer.

I noodled around with JavaScript

I noodled around with JavaScript last night and came up with some bookmarklets (what are bookmarklets?) for my webcam and other stuff as well. You can test a particular bookmarklet on this page by clicking it, or take it with you by bookmarking it (that way, you won’t even have to come to the site to popup my cam window…neat, huh?). So here they are:

I think I’ve mentioned the

I think I’ve mentioned the SXSW 2000 Interactive Festival here before, but I’m mentioning it again because they actually have information on what’s going on up on the site now. I’ll be speaking there on a couple of different panels, Cease and Desist and Weblogs (scroll down to March 14th). It should be fun…I’m looking forward to meeting some new folks, seeing old friends again, and listening to people talk about the Web for about three days straight. If you plan on attending, stop by and say “hey”.

The only downside to the whole deal is that I’m going to have a hard time deciding which panels to attend….they all look so interesting. Of course, that’s what all the after-parties and such are for: people getting together and sharing notes about the different panels they went to.

Speaking of Cam, I’m in

Speaking of Cam, I’m in the process of adding some new features to the “Play with Jason” cam.

A couple days ago, I

A couple days ago, I mentioned the story of a window, a kitten, and two business partners. For reference, here is the other side of that story from Srini of Unamerican Activities. Thanks to Cam for posting it…I was too lazy to do it.

I kiss Christine! She found

I kiss Christine! She found me a Pets.com sock puppet. I don’t think I want to pay upwards of $3500 for it, though. (see yesterday’s entry for context)

I just spent 2 solid

I just spent 2 solid hours writing email. Ugh. Anyone out there want to be my secretary?

Screw the t-shirts and watches,

Screw the t-shirts and watches, I want an actual Pets.com sock puppet. If you could find me one….well, “I kiss you.”

For those folks familiar with

For those folks familiar with one of the better indie bookstores in the US, Hungry Minds - having sold their name to one of them Internet companies - is now named Ruminator Books. They said on the local news here that one of the rejected names was “Dave’s Books, Bait, and Tackle.” I would have named it that for sure.

I guess this is the

I guess this is the Internet equivalent to leaving a note on the door of someone’s high school locker. I am, of course, dying to know who is writing all these nice things about me. It would probably crush (pardon the pun) her to learn that I’m actually not in any of the photos on my site (stunt double), a software program writes and designs the site, and that I think Ewan MacGregor is the spawn of Satan. I am surprised that John hasn’t made it on there yet. I mean, there’s naked pictures of the guy all over the Web.

Today on the webcam: my

Today on the webcam: my new t-shirt, featuring the Kodama character from Princess Mononoke.

Priceless:    ”The thing is, the

Priceless:

   ”The thing is, the kitsch wears off shortly after the second hole. And then you’re really playing minigolf, and there’s not a whole hell of a lot you can do about it.”

A few of you might

A few of you might know of Unamerican Activities. They sell t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and whatnot. They also claim to be bringing about a new world order….a revolution of sorts. I’ve always found that to be a little silly…there’s nothing revolutionary about “fuck work” or “bomb the mall”. Amusing sure, but revolutionary? I mean, it’s the mall…who doesn’t want to blow up the mall every once and a while. Anyway, it seems that Srini, the founder of Unamerican, threw his business partner’s kitten out of a window, almost killing it. The kitten has since died, James left Unamerican, and the company is left with no one to really fulfill orders or anything because Srini is too busy being a rockstar. Weird stuff.

Phrase of the day: the

Phrase of the day: the vowels should smell like peppermint. You’d love to have the context on that, wouldn’t you?

Johnny alerted me to the

Johnny alerted me to the latest Word redesign. The art director’s comments on why the site now looks like Yahoo! sound genuine, but I have a feeling it’s a tongue-in-cheek thing…with a point. Yahoo is pretty boring, which is great for Yahoo. On the flipside, some sites go overboard on Photoshop and the attitude, design becomes art (although people misleadingly call it design), and people are overwhelmed. Small fonts, huge 3D type, dashed lines, and faux dialog boxes do not always equal good information, Web or graphic design. God damn, am I in a pissy mood today or what?

Also at Word, Closeted Hetero tells the story of a self-made lesbian that ends up coming out of the closet when she figures out she’s actually hetero. A good read. It’s interesting to note that GBL people can be as bigoted and close-minded as anyone when it comes to sexuality choices.

Ignorance Is Bliss:    ”People who

Ignorance Is Bliss:

   ”People who do things badly…are usually supremely confident of their abilities — more confident, in fact, than people who do things well.”

   ”…the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence.”

I know, I know. I

I know, I know. I owe all of you email. I’m getting to it. Hundreds of emails a day is a real hindrance sometimes.

You’d think that martinlutherking.org would

You’d think that martinlutherking.org would take you to a site with info about and resources pertaining to MLK to inform and educate people about the man and the holiday. Instead, visitors are treated to some weird Communist/white power bullshit propaganda. Sometimes, I have very little faith in humanity.

For those that wrote in

For those that wrote in regarding my comments on the OS X interface, Bruce Tognazzini, noted GUI designer, has a nicely written essay (mirror) that echoes a lot of what I was thinking about the UI. Good stuff. And said much better than my rambling rant. Link courtesy of Cam.

Saw Magnolia again yesterday. It

Saw Magnolia again yesterday. It was just as good the second time…if not better.

I know it’s bad

I know it’s bad to toot your own horn, but my new cam feature is pretty damn cool. Just click on “Play with Jason” and you can place draggable elements on my cam picture (selecting a menu item again toggles it off). Fun for those that have always wanted to kiss me with sunglasses on. If you come up with something good, be sure to screencap it and send me a copy. NOTE: this feature only works on IE4+ on the PC.

I threw this together over the course of a few hours, so it’s not the most polished thing in the world. Hopefully I’ll make the time (yeah, right) to tweak it, add some new features, and generally make it look better. (orange? yucky.)

Slashdot has an interview with

Slashdot has an interview with Dr. Leon Lederman, Nobel Prize winning physicist. Interesting stuff if you’re into science or physics at all.

People have been asking about

People have been asking about my new headphones that I’m so taken with, so I figured I’d point you to some information about them.

Today was weird webcam-related pictures

Today was weird webcam-related pictures day. A friend sent me a link to the “pork the one you love” billboard, which I’m sure you’ve all seen. I sent the link around to my office mates, who took the opportunity to fire up Photoshop and supply the world with this bit of art. Then Matt sent me this crazy webcam pic of me exorcising some of my demons.

An interview with David Carson,

An interview with David Carson, the people’s designer. Thanks to our friends at velvitaflo for passing this along.

Homesite 4.5 (arguably the best

Homesite 4.5 (arguably the best HTML editor for the PC) is out and has at least one notable new feature: the code collapse tool. You highlight the tag you want to collapse, and it condenses all the text between that tag and its closing tag into a little bit of text which you can expand again at your discretion. Very nice for visually keeping track of structure while editing long documents.

I went rock climbing (indoor)

I went rock climbing (indoor) for the first time yesterday. It was fun….and hard at first. I got the hang of it though and did a couple routes to the top. For your amusement, here is a typical exchange between the climber and the person spotting them:

   ”On belay?”

   ”Belay on.”

   ”Climbing.”

   ”Climb on.”

Party on, Wayne. Party on, Garth. Excellent!

I saw a lot of

I saw a lot of movies last year…and I’d be wasting my money if I didn’t bore you folks with Jason’s Favorite Films of 1999. Among my favorites were Run Lola Run (my #1), Magnolia, Iron Giant, and Princess Mononoke.

Also included are links to Best of 1999 lists by other people and organizations. If you have a list of your favorite movies from last year, send me the URL and I’ll post it. And as always, feedback is welcome.

The best domain name I’ve

The best domain name I’ve seen in a while: Trouser Arousal.

I don’t care if this

I don’t care if this guy is a mathematician; he’s still wrong. The first decade A.D. did not include the year 1 B.C. What a knob.

Matt has gotten himself into

Matt has gotten himself into an interesting predicament. He posted to his Web site a fellow student’s English paper that pretty much rips him apart. His school is fixin’ to suspend him for taking the paper (he returned it promptly) and posting it in a public place. I imagine that the school is well within its rights to do so, but hopefully they will exercise a little restraint and not suspend him for too long.

Careful viewers of the Simpsons

Careful viewers of the Simpsons will notice that Maude Flanders (Ned’s wife) sounds a little goofy. It seems the actress that voiced Maude and most of the other female characters on the show left a while ago and the producers replaced her with someone else. Rumor has it that Maude will be killed off later this season (!) and the rest of the female characters won’t be written into any more episodes. To me, this seems a little farfetched….I really don’t think the show can do much without any regular female characters (excepting Marge, Lisa, and Maggie). Update: more evidence of Maude Flanders’ untimely departure (scroll down). Thanks JJG.