Sony’s new Powerbook killer. I wish they would give a more meaningful refresh of the Z1 line, which I use. Aside aside: do they have the worst URIs and store or what? Also see their upcoming 1.7 pound notebook that looks gorgeous.
Flames
You would expect much more from otherwise intelligent and rational people. I agree with Nick, “I’m not sure what the point of all of this is.” I’m glad none of the people actually writing software get caught up in this because then they wouldn’t have any time to do anything useful.
The Dredge
New WordPress Blog. “Having never used an out-of-the-box CMS before, I have been more than pleasantly surprised by the ease with which I have got a version of WP up and running. It really is a 5 minute install, and the code it produces slips into my CSS like a wide-boy into a Volkswagon Golf.”
WRT54G
What I got out of this article is I really need to pick up a WRT54G. Hat tip: Mark Pilgrim via Slashdot.
Sam Altman of YCombinator wrote a great post on the occasion of his thirtieth birthday, The days are long but the decades are short. There’s a lot of subtlety and nuance in each point, so even if you’ve read it already it’s worth another pass.
The Verge: Slot machines perfected addictive gaming. Now, tech wants their tricks. Includes information from one of my favorite authors Nir Eyal, who also spoke at WordCamp San Francisco a few years ago.
Captchas for the blind
Kitten’s Captchas for the blind? May be more accessible, but just as annoying. I wonder what Joe will think of this.
Open Keys Update
If you remember the plan was to distribute keys to my car to as many people as possible. Today I got started, giving keys to my parents, Sarah, Sarah, Josh, and Iram. Tomorrow (I guess today, dang it’s early/late) I’m going to mail out ones to Yale (Rachel), Berklee (Rene), NYU (Julie), and my favorite artist-whose-show-I-haven’t-seen-yet-but-will-ASAP (Elissa).
I personally test all the keys before sending them out, and I squeeze some writing onto them. If you want one I’m still taking requests.
Civicspace Labs
The new Civicspace Labs site is up, it’s a lot easier now to tell what in the world they actually do. Nice redesign!
Battlestar Galactica Podcasts
Battlestar Galactica is doing commentary podcasts, from the SciFi channel.
NewsForge Review
A great review of WordPress at Newsforge is up, very thorough and covers a lot of the resources at the Codex.
Smarty
As SxSWi rapidly approaches, and my spring break zooms by faster than I could have imagined, I find myself knee-deep in Smarty, which I feel is the most pleasant engine/enviroment/platform/whatever I’ve used in a very long time. Everything is so elegant, extensible, and well thought out. It is simple at its core, but brims with power. Plus it absolutely flies with PHP Accelerator. It looks like I’m going to use this for everything from now on.
Prepare
Just getting things ready to head up to Austin. Laundry and money. What else do you need? (Besides this cool bag of course.)
Getting Started
Well I slept a little late but now that I’m awake I’m going to get the last few things ready before I head up to Austin. I’m planning to blog everything this weekend so this should be a good opportunity to start. Most of the major stuff is done, I’m just waiting on an important letter (read: check) in the mail before I leave. I can’t dawdle for too long though, as tonight at 6 I “Break Bread with Brad“. But for now I’m running late, and need to get my rear in gear.
JS Quicktags
Fellow WP developer Alex has released his cursor-aware quicktag code under the LGPL. This is one of my very favorite features of WordPress, and its ease of use is one of the main reasons I haven’t adapted a meta-language like Markdown personally.
Heading out!
And so it begins. I’m showered, the car is washed, everything I need (I hope) is in the car, and I’m ready to roll. It’s not a short drive though, so it’s a good thing I love driving! See everyone in Austin.
Productive Day
I feel like I’ve had a very productive day, espescially compared to yesterday when it felt like I did nothing. Here’s a summary of the day thus far, with the boring parts (and classes) taken out:
- Good breakfast
- Human Situation Discussion class
- Re-printed some business cards for a client, had to tweak design
- Took David his graphics card
- Checked if David’s processor was just underclocked or if they actually sent him the wrong one (wrong one)
- Filled tank
- Deposited some checks
- Made some important phone calls, did email
- Installed my $7 copy of Windows XP Professional bought using UH’s new site liscene (more on this later)
- Had long lunch with Kel at a nice deli whose name escapes me, oogled at his iPod
- Picked up Kel’s grandmother’s ten-year-old computer, which she’d like me to fix. We’ll see; I’m not a miracle worker 🙂
- Took client her new business cards, decided on another change, talked about website
- Spent too long in traffic, but it’s okay because I made a new mix disc
- Finally arrived home at around 4:15 PM
Whew! I think now I could crash for the next week or so, but I’m waiting for a call from someone . . .
Work-safe
Work-safe art, John Ashcroft would approve.
Scott Berkun asks Why Isn’t Remote Work More Popular?
WP Blacklist
I’m not sure why they’re still working on a WordPress Blacklist when that functionality is built in to 1.2 in a very robust fashion. At this point patches to improve the included blacklist/moderation would be more useful to the average user, I think.