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Doug 2:59 pm on August 29, 2000 | 0 | # |
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It appears that Sony is now rapidly backtracking away from the inflammatory comments made last week by Sony executive Steve Heckler. Their claim is that he was quoted “out of context.”

Frankly, this is like claiming the famous Churchill quote about fighting the Nazis “on the beaches…”, etc., was quoting Churchill out of context, and conclusions that he meant to resist a German invasion were “inaccurate.” It’s offensive enough that these megacorps think they have the right to control what we read and do with our own PC’s and other electronic devices, but it’s down-right maddening that they consider us all so stupid as to not be able to see through their transparent evasions.

As for me, Sony can go to hell if they think I’m buying anymore of their products until they come stright out and retract what he said. I’m getting pretty damn tired of the arrogance of the media conglomerates, personally.
Doug 1:35 pm on August 23, 2000 | 0 | # |
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Here’s a translation of this article from MacWeek for those who don’t speak Applese: “Since the Mac Faithful will struggle with the idea that Apples next generation OS is built using a Unix rather than Mac foundation, and this is scary to those of us who have only ever used Macs, we’ll say that Unix isn’t really an operating system. Rather, only through the wizardry of Apple replicating much of the work already done by Be, Linux, BSD, Sun and others does Unix become an operating system, mostly because we’re going to put a pretty shell on it, and maybe include a web browser.” Puhleeeze!

Don’t get me wrong, I think OS X is cool and I think it’s great that Apple is moving in this direction. It’s good to see Apple finally running an OS that has the features of a modern OS “under the hood”, rather than just a pretty face. However, just like I criticize Linux zealots for running down technologies that conflict with their myopic vision of what an operating system is, so will I criticize Mac zealots for trying to claim that only their new baby is a real OS because of the window dressing.
Doug 3:58 am on August 22, 2000 | 0 | # |
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If you’re interested in what goes on in the mind of someone building an Internet startup, you might want to take a look at Startup!, Lane Becker’s weblog documenting the the creation of DeepLeap. There’s some really good stuff in there, particularly about striving to keep the meaning in what you do while the industry around you tries to tear that down. You really have to admire someone like Lane who tried not only to follow his dream, but have it mean something.

Having been through the start-up routine more than once myself, and having been part of more than one crash-and-burn of same said start-ups, I can empathize with what he’s talking about. Hell, I can empathize now; it isn’t like I’m not in constant contact everyday with people who are more concerned with money and competition than with doing something meaningful, or trying to create something exciting. It’s a tough battle, and more than occasionally I yearn to just chuck it all and head out on my own again. Excitment, creativity, and meaning can be damn hard to come by, some days.
Doug 3:45 am on August 22, 2000 | 0 | # |
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I just received the sad news that DeepLeap, a cool web utility and browsing assistant, will be shutting down on September 1. It’s really unfortunate that the Great Shakeout is kill nifty technologies like these while e-commerce site with considerably less merit and no business plan are dying, too. DeepLeap was a good idea.

I have to admit, though, that I was never entirely certain how DeepLeap planned to make money. I’m sure they had a plan, and it seemed to be advertising based; I just never investigated it that closely. Truth to be told, five years ago DeepLeap would probably never have been it’s own company, or at least never had the idea of going after venture capital and perhaps eventually going public. As a small company, they might have been better off to scrape along on angel funding until they had the technology proven out, and then sold themselves (or the idea) to a bigger fish. Not that I’m critical of what they did; on the contrary I think it’s admirable. I just don’t think the business climate and realities of small companies changed as much due to the web boom as a lot of people seem to.

In any case, kudos to Lane and his crew, best of luck trying to sell the technology, and I’ll be watching eagerly for your next venture.
Doug 1:00 pm on August 21, 2000 | 0 | # |
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Sites that have nothing but a Flash animation on their front page can just go to hell. Seriously, how stupid and arrogant a designer do you have to be to use a technology that nearly half the browsers out there don’t have installed or don’t support? You may think you’re cool and trendy, but really, you just suck.
Doug 12:53 am on August 18, 2000 | 0 | # |
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Eazel today released Preview 1 of their new file manager cum everything portal Nautilus. If you take a gander at the screenshot there to your left, you can get some idea of how it works.

As you might recall, Eazel is made up primarily of former Mac and NeXT designers. That certainly shows in Nautilus, which is certainly one of the prettiest applications I’ve ever seen running under X.

Nautilius is more than just a pretty face, however, and Preview 1 demonstrates some promising features. Nautilus incorporates a lot of what we’ve learned about UI design over the past few years into what’s shaping to be an very nivce environment, particularly when combined with Helix GNOME. Nautilus also embeds Mozilla to provide HTML rendering and web browsing capabilkites, as well as the capability to play MP3 files and display many different formats of graphics and text files.

Nautilus is definitely worth playing around with unless you’re one of those total CLI bigots who would as soon be impaled as use a GUI to manage files. Be forewarned, however; Nautilis is still very much in development, so not everything works, and it isn’t exactly lightening fast yet. Further, because it makes use of some libraries not yet in general use, it’s a whopping 20Mb download. That doesn’t include Mozilla M17-2, or Helix GNOME, which are also both required. Not for the faint of heart, but a good preview of what Linux on the desktop will be in a few months.
Doug 3:32 am on August 15, 2000 | 0 | # |
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I’m not a big fan of most Windows UI elements, but I’m even less of a fan of the horrible “Modern” skin that’s the default skin for Mozilla. Nor is the default UI for Netscape all that great, and the Mozilla skins that emulate it leave even more to be desired.

The truth is that the IE UI is pretty decent and useful, as well as being widely recognized. So, unless you’re a complete Windows-hating fanatic, check out Windows.Native, a new Mozilla chrome that emulates the best elements of IE. Combined with a nice window manager theme, it makes Mozilla a lot more useful under Linux.
Doug 12:18 am on August 13, 2000 | 0 | # |
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We’re out at Conner Prairie tonight for Symphony on the Prairie, an outdoor concert series by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Tonight’s concert includes Dvorak’s Symphony from the New World, which I’m stoked about. I didn’t know they were performing it, and it’s been one of my favorites since performing it in high school.

Gotta love that the Palm VII works great from out here.
Doug 1:35 pm on August 11, 2000 | 0 | # |
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Newsflash! When a vehicle is stopped beside the road on the freeway, state law does not require all vehicles in all three lanes to reduce speed to 3 m.p.h. a mile before passing the vehicle. Nor are you required to study said vehicle minutely enough to record the VIN number while you are passing it. We would all be better served if you would maintain a decent speed, keep your eyes on the road, and drive.
Doug 1:10 am on August 11, 2000 | 0 | # |
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Alright, already, we get the picture - Democratic Party VP candidate Joe Lieberman is Jewish. While I’m sure it’s wonderful that he’s the first Jewish person to ever be nominated for such a high office, and I think it’s great for the Jewish community to be celebrating the fact, I think the media can give it a rest. I, and I suspect most everyone else, just am not that concerned about whether or not he can eat pork or take a plane trip on a Friday night. Can we maybe focus on the issues, for a change?