Walkie Talkie Man.
Steriogram’s new music video for their current single Walkie Talkie Man was made out of yarn and knited together. It is also rather fun to watch. Steriogram was recently featured on apple.com/pro.
Tuesday - 03.30.04
Wednesday - 03.24.04
Thinking too hard about smilies.
In an email I recieved an equal-eyed smiley:
=)
To which I replied:
I like your equal-eyed smiley. I’ve always used colon-eyed smilies myself eg. :). but I think I may switch to your style. It just looks happier. That and I think I would prefer the miniature visualization of my emotional self to have eyes that are equal instead of a colon.
Maybe I’m just being anal though. =)
Tuesday - 03.23.04
Getting to mars for only one fillion billion dollars!
Whispers in the echo chamber: ^Why the media says the space plan costs a trillion dollars.* By The Space Review is a lengthy, but very interesting look at erroneous figures and how they got there in the first place.
A gold-plated and unrealistic cost estimate from 1989 was accepted at face value nearly 15 years later, adjusted for inflation, then rounded up by nearly 60% by a reporter. Others then inflated it even more. And for weeks nobody in the media bothered to question it.
Via: Eric Meyer
Sunday - 03.21.04
Weekend linkage.
A pile of loosely connected links. As an added bonus this time, most of them are actually quite useful.
- How come none of my Toys’R’Us stores have Ferris Wheels inside them?
- Every so often, something happens that really makes me wish I knew Japanese. The trailer for Casshern is the lastest of those things.
- Trapped by undead, need help: “This is not a joke. We are alone and constantly battling for our lives.” There are blogs for everything these days.
- Epson’s new R800 printer looks to be quite nice. Digital Outback Photo has a usage diary and Alain Briot has a pdf review.
- Tomorrow I get my Vonage telephone over broadband device. Unlimited calling and an impressive set of features for $35 a month. More on that once I start using it.
- TypeKey is a new system from SixApart for insuring/validating identity for web-log commenters. There will me much debate over the advantages/disadvantages of a centralized vs. a distributed system for this. But this is definitely sometime to keep an eye on. And SixApart, the makers of MovableType, have done a pretty good job of not being evil so far.
MacDevCenter: Panther, Python, and CoreGraphics. This has been on my list of things to learn about for quite a while. And it looks like I have a project coming up that will pay me to get it working. Bonus.
John Gruber has created a new HTML shorthand format called Markdown. Here’s what he has to say about it:
The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it as readable as possible. The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While Markdown’s syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML filters, the single biggest source of inspiration for Markdown’s syntax is the format of plain text email.
While not as all-inclusive as my previous HTML-shorthand formatter of choice Textile it has quite a few advantages. Like allowing multiple elements inside list items or blockquotes, smarter handling of inline HTML and nice handling of code elements. But for me the best part is how it lets you separate link references from the text and include them as footnotes. Which makes it much easier for me to just focus on the righting and match up the links later. Very slick. Go play with the Dingus to see how it works.
This post was written in Markdown. Which means all of you who have blogs here on Mintchaos can now select it as a text-formatter. I have also updated the installed version of SmartyPants to 1.5.1.
Out of the box it functions as a straight Perl script, MovableType and Blosxom plugin.
The masses seem to approve:
- Aaron Swartz has built a HTML to text script that will turn any HTML document into Markdowned plain text.
- Dave Walker shows us how to use Markdown as an OS X system service to have instant text-to-Markdown action available in all OS X apps that support the services menu.
Thursday - 03.18.04
OSX: Opening folders from inside documents.
In the Finder it you can open any of the the parent folders of any open folder by holding down the command key and clicking on the folder’s name in the title-bar. Which is decently useful.
Much more useful is that the same trick works in any open file in any application. Specifically it will work anytime a minature version of the file’s/folder’s icon appears next to it’s name in the title-bar. Great for getting at the other files in a project and much faster than pulling up the folder manuall.
Monday - 03.15.04
Spam of the day
Hi, my name is Michelle and I am an Account Manager at 180solutions. I noticed that you advertise your site http://www.mintchaos.com on the Overture search engine under the search term ‘wakiki’.
I would like to introduce you to 180solutions online advertising solution. We deliver your website to customers who are searching or shopping online for what you sell. Our unique online search marketing service is enabled by advanced keyword targeting technology for delivering the most cost effective results for advertisers. Its the perfect compliment to your search marketing efforts.
Yes. That exactly what I need. Tools to drive the wakiki seeking public to my virtual door. MintChaos will be the formost supplier of wikiki!
Mueahhahah!
Thursday - 03.04.04
Incredibly useful Emacs trick that I should have learned a while ago #1.
It’s hard to discribe how useful connecting to a remote host using multiple hops with Emacs is to me. So I’ll just say very very. It means that I can edit any files or directories that are on my site or any of my clients’ sites inside Emacs exactly as if they were local files. All thanks to the wonders of TRAMP mode.
Unrelated.
- Subway systems of the world, presented on the same scale.
- The super-ghetto external iPod battery back. Now I have to get an iPod just so I can try this.
Wednesday - 03.03.04
Familing.
My father has an article today in the Wall Street Journal’s CollegeJournal.
My brother has aquired studio lighting. He used it to take a picture of a plant
Congrats to both of them.
Tuesday - 03.02.04
Lists.
Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency’s Lists present:
- Quotes from the Movie “Jaws” in Which “shark” Is Replaced by “Jimmy Page”.
- Hexadecimal Color Codes in HTML That Look or Sound Dirty, But Are in Fact Merely Colorful.
- And Duck, Duck, Goose.
Also, a bonus infographic link comparing the credits of older notable films to the Lord of The Ring: Return of the King.
Monday - 03.01.04
On the bottom of the sea.
Real live dead fish. They are creepy. And the bottom one looks suspiciously like a Sliver from MTG.