Thursday May 05, 2005

Regards to Ila Fern

Ila sounds like she was a great woman.

Not to detract from Ila, but it seems to me lately that our "elder women" deserve a lot more respect than we generally attribute to them. On various blogs over the last couple years I've had the pleasure of reading about exception women, the displeasure of reading on their passing away.

One of my own grandmothers died last year (my father's mother), and I don't know that she ever did fit any of those "deny the stereotype" descriptions, but she did wear pants (she was a farmer, and back in the day I guess a woman wearing pants was extraordinary(?)). She was a wonderful woman none the less. My mother's mother died over 20 years ago, but I remember her well. In fact, the summers I spent on her farm remain cherished memories and were the best times of my childhood.

Fortunately for me, my favorite woman (besides my wife) is still alive, and I'm looking forward to visiting her this summer. Hi Mom! I've always respected your strength of character, and you were my best friend until I met the woman I married. I know my children love you too.

To Grandmothers, and Happy Mother's Day on Sunday!
( May 05 2005, 10:52:48 AM ) Personal Permalink Comments [1] [Trackback]

Tuesday May 03, 2005

Singleringen

This is just what I need to cover that pale band of skin while I'm out trolling for dates.

Just kidding honey
( May 03 2005, 02:56:23 PM ) Personal Permalink [Trackback]

Wednesday April 27, 2005

Re: Credit Card Activation

I asked if my card had been activated, she said she thought so. Thought so? Don't you work at the credit card company? No. [Dave Winer]

Next thing you know it won't be an 800-number you call to activate your card, you'll have to pay for the priviledge, 1-900-xxx-xxxx, only $4.95 per minute to activate your card!.
( Apr 27 2005, 01:43:42 PM ) Personal Permalink [Trackback]

Friday April 22, 2005

Meet Flat Stanley

I met Flat Stanley in Iraq, please introduce him to your friends too.

Flat Stanley stopped by my office here in Iraq for a quick visit. I am a soldier in the United States Army. When he stopped by my office I asked him if he wanted to be on my website. He said yes and wanted me to let you know where you can find him. [Assumption of Command]

Hello from Minnesota, welcome Stanley. ( Apr 22 2005, 09:36:02 AM ) Personal Permalink [Trackback]

Friday April 15, 2005

NewsFlash! Winer Invents MT-Blacklist

At least that is what it looks like to me. Also very much like the ReferrerSpam filter that we have on Roller (and just about everybody else has). I don't see how Dave views this as innovative, unless I'm missing something.
( Apr 15 2005, 10:29:02 AM ) Technology Permalink [Trackback]

Thursday April 14, 2005

Disabling GreaseMonkey Considered Harmful

Now that the GreaseMonkey bug has bitten I checked out Mark Pilgrim's How to Disable Greasemonkey:

To prevent Greasemonkey user scripts from executing on your web site, put this line within the HEAD of every page (IE users view source to see it):
<script type="text/javascript"> window.addEventListener = null; </script>

I can see how this is quite effective. However, most of the fancy Javascript articles I've been reading about lately depend on window.addEventListener, so if you take Mark's suggestion you preclude the more advanced Javascript techniques. Not necessarily a danger for publishers, but I thought I should point out the obvious.
( Apr 14 2005, 12:07:55 PM ) Technology Permalink [Trackback]

Wednesday April 13, 2005

My toy Greasemonkey script

I get really annoyed with sites that publish good articles in printer-UNfriendly formats. Many of the EarthWeb sites fall into this category. Recently i wanted to print an article from JavaBoutique (I like to read articles on the bus), but I find all the ads and extra crap distracting. So I took a stab at writing a GreaseMonkey script to make it more printer-friendly. I was only partially successful, as the HTML there is completely non-semantic and there is little use of CSS classes or identifiers for which I could script against. This ended up being a nasty bit of hacking to try and un-render nested tables and other assorted ugliness.

I've already spent too much time on this, but if you'd like to use it (or improve it, please please please) you're welcome to try my script. Note: My script is a modification of the Boing Boing Butler created by Julien Couvreur (which is based on Mark Pilgrim's Butler).

Update: I've posted improvements.
( Apr 13 2005, 03:02:53 PM ) Technology Permalink [Trackback]

Friday April 08, 2005

Cookie Monster is a poor role model

Perhaps by now you've heard that Cookie Monster is changing his ways. Really, what kid takes C!M seriously; "hey, Cookie Monster stuffs his face with cookies, I will too". I grew up without Sesame Street (meaning I didn't watch it, though it was available) and I still stuffed my face with cookies whenever the opportunity presented itself!

Next they'll have Big Bird get a personal trainer, because he is rather wide at the hips you know.
( Apr 08 2005, 09:47:50 AM ) News Permalink [Trackback]