Monkinetic Weblog

Well, I've mostly got (at least the front page) design done here, now I'm just waiting for my previous host to export my content from the old CMS so I can import it here.

My position with Content Connections is basically tech support / IT with some development thrown in. One thing I love about it is that I'm completely empowered to improve the things that we get complaints over.

This site is now run on Wordpress, a very cool, feature-rich blogging system. I've got a new host at a price that's hard to beat, and I'll have total control over the software and physical access to the server. Yay!

Jim Roepcke's weblog: Finishing what I started

Jim Roepcke's weblog: Finishing what I started

Jim has been a great friend to me over the years, from mailing-list-co-member to development mentor to friendly acquaintance, to real friend. I've watched him go through some really hard times and tried to stand with him as best I could.

I am so stoked that Jim is headed back to school, and has gotten himself out from under all the debt he found himself in as a result of the aforementioned hard times. Jodi and I are trying to do the same, tightening our budget so that we can retire some long-standing debt. It's incredibly freeing.

Proverbs 22:7: The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

It's the truth, folks.

Congratulations, Jim and Cheryl! Good luck with your studies Jim, and Cheryl - we want pics of Cyan and Wavie! :-)

I published a 2 song playlist (iMix) on the new iTunes Music Store...

HTTP error 448: Gone until you stop paying attention to people I dislike.

Design by fire: Gurus vs. Bloggers, in which the sites of the web usability gurus and the sites of popular bloggers are judged head-to-head.

John Gruber, a Mac-user and sometime developer, comments on Eric Raymond's recent Linux-usability rant. He makes some really good points. Desktop Linux is not going to grow in market share with any real speed until it's enjoyable to use. That means it looks good, gets out of your way when you want it to, and is right there with the right options when you need it. You know, kind of like a Mac.

Woohoo!! The first Beta of the new LaunchBar is out, and it's a doozy! It has a ton of features the author of this articlee found lacking, in that clean, unobtrusive interface I'm come to love and depend on.

Jim posts a great bit about growing up. As geeks, we get really attached to our tools, the stuff we spend years in up to our virtual elbows, practicing our craft. These tools can, unfortunately, even crowd out "real" relationships - geeks are notoriously bad at prioritizing. smile

I've recently added a second Python install on my OS X box, in /opt/Python. I've got a script with a shebang at the top:

I'm in beautiful Victoria, BC this weekend, visiting Jim, on of my best friends. I've been hanging with Jim virtually since 1996, and had the pleasure of meeting him several times. This time I got to meet his lovely wife Cheryl, and two astonishingly adorable kids, Cyan and Xavier. Yay!

Schubert IT has the coolest plugin - an inline PDF viewer for OS X browsers. I've tested it with Safari and OmniWeb 5. Super nice.

I had an idea tonight, inspired by a post on Bill Bumgarner's site. Actually, it was in reading Bill's RSS feed in NetNewsWire.

Using Open Firmware, Terminal, and the "bless" command to make sure your Mac boots from the disk you want it to:

Jodi and I went with my new boss David and his wife Kristy to see the live taping of NPR's Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel and Spa. We had a lot of fun, even if it was (relatively) cold out. Adam Felber, comedian and blogger, won the quiz, bad jokes were made, and good times were had by all.

I've got nothing on my brother Bob, who (I think) has visited something like 17 countries, but here are my 13:

Well, we got another cat this weekend! "Jake" was adopted from animal control, was already fixed and so could come home with us on Saturday.

Don't cut off a cop in an unmarked SUV who's driving his daughter to school in the morning. Bad idea.