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January 22, 2007
Another Cringely post
This guy may just be good at taking fantastic ideas and supporting them with just enough facts to seem plausible, a.k.a. a conspiracy theorist, but he is convincing.
When Being a Verb is Not Enough: Google wants to be YOUR Internet
by Robert X. Cringely
A previous article about Google by Cringely that I posted back in November, 2005.
Posted by mark at 2:17 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2007
Google Blog Search
In another shameless act of Googley fervor, I want to highlight yet another Google resource: Blog Search. To be honest, I have no idea how long this has been around, but yesterday I discovered one feature that makes it really useful. The search results are RSS feeds! What this means is that I can copy the URL of a blog search, sorted by date and not relevance, paste it into Google Reader as a new subscription. I'm now tailing the blogosphere for any mention of my search.
Since I'm involved in the new Amazon UnSpun website, I've got a blog search query for any mention of Amazon and UnSpun. Very cool.
Hat tip the Google Reader blog for alerting me to this idea.
Posted by mark at 9:29 AM | Comments (0)
Google Reader
If you have friends with blogs, then this post is for you. I use what's called a feed aggregator to collect all of the blogs that I read into a single website for easy consumption. This tool will tell me when a friend or industry maven has posted new content to their blog. I don't have to remember to visit the site. In the past I've happily used Bloglines for feed consumption, and it's still one of the best tools out there.
Based on a recent post from Jeffery Veen about viewing blog reading trends in Google Reader, I decided to check it out. Within one minute, I had imported all of my Blogline's feeds into Google Reader using the handy OPML export.
The verdict is still out on the reading trend feature that Veen mentioned, but I'm already hooked on the feed aggregation. One of the best features is that it works like email. The unread items are bold, and after I've read a blog post, it stays in the folder in an un-bolded "read" state. In Bloglines, after you've read a blog post it disappears, the only way to re-read it is to visit the website where it came from. I can't tell you how many times I've had to do that. With Google Reader, the previously read post is still there. In fact, I don't see a search feature yet, but I would bet that searching within your feeds is coming soon; it is Google we're talking about.
Anyway, if you read blogs and don't use a feed aggregator, you should. If you use something else, I think you should try Google Reader. The only Bloglines feature that's not present in it's current incarnation is the ability to display your public feeds in a javascript injected blogroll. I currently display a list of my public feeds in the sidebar of my blog. I can't replicate that feature in Google Reader, yet. They do allow for syndication of a public folder, but they syndicate the content of the blogs rather than just a list of blogs. I'm sure this will be available soon.
I feel the same sort of love for Google Mail (aka gmail), so you should use that as well. If I had to pick one feature of gmail to tout, it would be that it groups emails by subject, so an email conversation that's 20 emails deep will appear to be 1 email in your inbox. You have to use it to understand. You might have to be invited to use gmail, so if you're interested, let me know and I'll invite you.
I admit that I sound like a half-crazed, drooling, kool-aid drinking, Google disciple, and for the most part, I am. Google is just good at taking ordinary mundane things we take for granted and re-delivering them with a new spin.
Posted by mark at 8:46 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2007
Firebug 1.0
It's not every day that I get as excited as I just did about a browser utility upgrade. However, Firebug 1.0 is truly amazing. If you build websites, especially ones with AJAX, Javascript, advanced CSS, etc. then you need to upgrade to Firebug 1.0. NOW.
I've been using Firebug for a long time now, but the latest release is chock full of new features. You can read about the tool in a recent article in Dr. Dobb's.
If you try to upgrade from the Extensions menu, it won't work, you have to go to the source:
http://www.getfirebug.com/.
The most obvious pre-existing feature of Firebug, is the ability to view AJAX requests and subsequent responses. For that alone, the tool is useful. Now they've included javascript and page profiling, improved javascript debugger, inline CSS editing and inheritance browsing, and much more. It's really really cool.
Posted by mark at 1:43 PM | Comments (1)
January 8, 2007
Bubble boy
A couple months ago, I and a couple dad friends took our children to a really cool log cabin for a two night adventure. Or at least what was intended to be a two-night adventure. I had what can only be described as an allergic meltdown. I was sneezing like crazy, wheezing badly, my eyes were watering, and I was getting mild hives. I take a prescription antihistamine (Allegra) that was "in my system," but it wasn't doing much. In an attempt to curb the symptoms, I was taking liberal (read too many) doses of my Albuterol inhaler and popping the OTC pink Benedryl like candy just to maintain mediocre breathing, and try to stop the sneezing and watery eyes. It was about as uncomfortable as you can get before you decide that it's life threatening. I had been talking up this trip to James and Emma for months, so I was reluctant to leave. Also, It was about 15 degrees outside, so sleeping in the car or in a tent wasn't an option, I was basically stuck, in a cabin, that was slowly killing me for one night. With the aid of too much Benedryl and Albuterol I managed to get through the night and intelligently opted out of a second night. Ever since that night, my normally under-control allergies have been haywire.
This morning, I got allergy tested and the results were pretty startling. Of the 54 things that they tested via skin prick, I was allergic to 33 of them. Nurses are pretty hard to read sometimes, but I'm pretty sure that I was not the common case patient. ;-)
Here are the results. I included all of the items they tested because I thought it was interesting. I've put an x next to what I was allergic. Most reactions are similar to a mosquito bite. My dust mite reaction was about the size of dime, and I still have redness and itching the size of a quarter 6 hours later. I'm starting allergy shots on Wednesday.
| Trees | |
| x | Alder |
| x | Ash, white |
| x | Beech, American |
| x | Birch |
| Box elder | |
| x | Cedar, red |
| x | Cottonwood, eastern |
| x | Elm |
| x | Hackberry |
| x | Hazelnut |
| x | Hickory |
| x | Locust |
| x | Maple, mix |
| x | Mulberry |
| x | Oak, mix |
| Pine, Virginia | |
| Pine, white | |
| x | Sweet Gum |
| Sycamore, American/Eastern | |
| x | Walnut, black |
| x | Willow |
| Grasses | |
| x | Bermuda |
| x | Bluegrass |
| Fescue | |
| Johnson | |
| Orchard | |
| Redtop | |
| Ryegrass | |
| Timothy | |
| Weeds | |
| Cocklebur | |
| x | Dock |
| x | Kochia |
| Lamb's Quarter | |
| x | Mugwort |
| Pigweed | |
| Plantain | |
| x | Ragweed, giant |
| x | Ragweed, short |
| x | Sheep, sorrel |
| Molds | |
| x | Alternaria |
| x | Aspergilus, fumigatus |
| x | Cladosporium |
| Curvularia | |
| Epicoccum | |
| Helminthosporium | |
| Mucor | |
| Penicillium | |
| Environmentals | |
| x | Cockroach, mix |
| x | Dust mite, mix (CRAZY allergic) |
| x | Cat |
| x | Dog |
| x | Feathers |
| Controls | |
| x | Histamine |
| Saline | |
Posted by mark at 3:44 PM | Comments (3)
January 5, 2007
Tasting Beer
I've always wanted to be able to truly appreciate wine and beer on the level of those who craft them. For most of my life, I've always assumed that my nose and palate weren't capable of detecting the smells, flavors, and tastes on the level of a somelier or tasting expert. While this has obvious merit, I think there's a lot more to it than that. This may seem rather obvious, but we can only appreciate what we pay attention to.
A while ago, I was reading a book about tracking animals in the woods, I can't remember the name, but one of the things that struck me was how the art of tracking and awareness came down to almost two things: silence and focus. You can't track animals by just memorizing their tracks, scat and behavior patterns from a book, you literally have to observe them. He said that to observe nature in it's own element, requires a level of patience, silence, and attention that almost nobody experiences, even people who love the outdoors. It can take an hour or more of absolute stillness before the woodsy inhabitants return to their normal behavior and before the opportunity to learn presents itself. There was a zen-like focus to his art, and I'm guessing that while I may not be gifted with a super nose or palate, a similar level of focus on drinking beer and wine can teach me more about the art of tasting than I've ever thought possible.
Also, I've had some really good beers in the past, but I've forgotten what they were. With a tasting log, this wouldn't happen.
With this in mind, I've decided to be a bit more deliberate in my beer consumption. I'm going to take note of different characteristics of the beer. I don't really have any idea what I'm doing, but there's a surprising amount of information about beer tasting online: here, here, here, and here. I'm going to track my notes on ratebeer.com. You can see my profile here.
Posted by mark at 1:10 PM | Comments (2)