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February 28, 2006
Jumping Through Hoops
I can relate. :-)
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (3)
Apple Order History?
One of the nifty features of Amazon.Com is the ability to access your lifetime order history. This reminded me of the time I was in the Apple Store in Soho (NYC) and the genius behind the Genius Bar was able to call up my lifetime order history. If the Apple genius can do that, surely I should be able to access my own order history too. After all, it is MY order history.
However, when I checked the Apple site to see if that option was available, the only thing I found was the ability to change my Apple I.D. and password. It doesn't make much sense that Apple employees can access my order history but there's no way for me to do it. Having spent a good chunk of change at Apple, if anyone should be able to access my order history, it should be me.
If there's a way to do this, someone please point me in the right direction.
Posted by me, of course!
February 24, 2006
Die, Cliches, Die!
The Blog Herald adds to the Top 5 Blogging Clichés That Need To Die:
Saying there isn't an A-List or that it's not important when you are an A-Lister and you only ever link to other A-Listers excluding everyone else
Writing about the blogosphere as though it only exists in the United States
I wholeheartedly agree. Die, cliches. DIE!
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (6)
My Map
When you've got a minute, please go add your cute self to my Frappr map.
Update: The link I provided earlier may not have worked..so I've changed the link above. Please try again and let me know if it worked.
Update #654: Try this latest link... I think it'll work now. :-)
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (8)
Internet Hippie?
This is a first. I feel so old now. ;-)
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (3)
February 23, 2006
Yet Another Nickname
I've been exchanging emails with a systems administrator about some tech issues, and this morning's missive from him brought forth yet another nickname for me:
You are welcome to ask any question that vexes you, grasshopper. :)
*grin*
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (4)
February 22, 2006
Dusting Off the Beaten Path Archives
Recently I unearthed a number of files saved to floppy from my early days as an HTML-slinging Web goddess -- back in the time before the Web became filled to the brim with commercial entities. While sifting through the files I'd come across, I found a page from my Web site, which was then titled "Off the Beaten Path." This particular section of the site was called Lip Exchange where topics would be posted and discussed with the readers/visitors of my site. For this round, the topics were "Welcome to Headhunter Hell", "What Makes a Techie?" and "Romancing the Wires." Responses were limited to email as what we take for granted today -- the comments function -- didn't exist back then and I didn't have CGI capability for form submission.
As I read through the responses I received, I found some from Dwight Silverman, who writes for The Houston Chronicle and maintains the Chronicle's Tech Blog (Dwight also had his own Web site in those days.) In addition to Dwight's commentary, other respondents included Stephen D. from Iona Technologies and Mike Macgirvin, who worked for Netscape at the time. When I read Mike's name I wondered what he was up to. It had been a long time since our last Web interaction, so I did what anyone else of curious mind would -- I Googled him. (For us Web dinosaurs, back in the day we would have Yahoo'd since Google wasn't even a glimmer in anyone's eyes yet.)
There he was! His own domain name and a site chock full of, well, Mike. It was terrific finding him. Way back in caveman times, Mike was a frequent visitor to my Web site. I remember how surprised I was when I received a parcel he sent to my office. The package contained a Netscape baseball cap and a sweatshirt (I think I still have it.) During that time I was collecting baseball caps. Yes I wore them they didn't just hang on a wall somewhere. Dwight had also sent me a cap -- it had a propeller on the top and I remember how the geeks in my office went nuts over it and wanted it.. but I digress.
Back to Mike. He's been pretty busy since the early caveman days and it was fun that he remembered me. (Who can forget a Web goddess, from dinosaur days or otherwise.) According to his site, Mike has been writing social communication software and unapologetic online commentary since about 1981. He recently closed the bricks and mortar music store he owned in Mountain View, California, and is considering going back to software -- development, right Mike?
Since I found Mike, he's become a regular commenter around here and has already displayed his supreme geek abilities in his remarks, not that I can comprehend any of them. ;-)
Anyway, it was a fun stroll off the beaten path. Ahhh, those were the days...
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (9)
February 20, 2006
Congrats to Zoe!
Congrats to Zoe at My Boyfriend is a Twat on her latest achievement, Best Humor Weblog, bestowed upon her by The AFOE European Weblog Awards 2006 [note: scroll to the bottom of that page to see this particular award, but she came in second and third in other categories also, so you might want to read them all.]
In other Zoe awards news, she's been crowned the winner of the "Write the Copy" contest. Since Zoe already has some jewels from moi, she can select a photograph from my Photo Gallery and will receive a print of it (if I'm inspired, I may even mat and frame it, but don't count on inspiration anytime soon.)
Thanks to all of you who participated and voted, in particular to Mike Macgirvin, who (finally!) voted and broke the tie. YAY Mike!
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (8)
February 19, 2006
MySpace.Com Users and Hotlinking
I've had to remove photographs from both my blog and Photo Gallery thanks to some users of myspace.com. The little varmints seem to have no idea how to save an image to their desktop and instead hotlink to my photos. Though it's nice they like the photographs, it's not nice that they hotlink. For those who don't know what hotlinking is, it's when someone links directly to an image (for example, linking to http://dustingmybrain.com/images/blah.jpg,) instead of saving that image to their own desktop and putting it on their hosting company's server (http://profile.myspace.com/user0000/etc. ) and linking to it in that manner.
The process for using an image is pretty straightforward: if it's available for public use, download/save to your desktop and put it on the server that hosts your web site and if required, include attribution and copyright information when using it. A no brainer, right?
Places like Google images don't help, since the only notice they give is Image may be scaled down and subject to copyright. In doing a search on Google for one of my images -- this one -- if you click on the link to see full-size image (though I recently removed this one from the server), there is no visible copyright information or anything else. I shouldn't have to begin adding copyright or other information right on the photograph in order to get people to stop hotlinking. I think Google could help those of us who post photos that have Creative Commons licenses, copyright, etc. by discouraging folks from hotlinking.
From a technical standpoint, I know there is a way to deny the users of myspace.com from hotlinking to the images via htaccess... though I'm not exactly sure where to add that and what to put in the file. I recently had to use htaccess in an attempt to stop a certain IP address from continually accessing a file that doesn't exist anymore since the accesses were almost every second. In addition to that, I also need to insert a redirect into the htaccess file for another issue. For those who are thinking I should do modrewrite, I would but it is way over my head unless one of you technical geniuses wants to walk me through doing it. I'm digressing here, so let me get back to the main issue of hotlinking to images.
I don't want to stop putting images on my blog or have to take the Photo Gallery down, but it would be great to not have to check the raw logs every day and remove images because the myspace.com users continue to hotlink to my photos. All recommendations on how best to deal with this would be greatly apprecicated.
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (9)
February 18, 2006
Belated and Otherwise
Happy belated birthday to Daisy at Chasing Daisy -- her birthday was February 14 and to Tom at Tabula Rasa -- his birthday was February 15.
Last but not least, Happy Birthday to Zoe at My Boyfriend is a Twat who celebrates her birthday today!
Posted by me, of course!
February 14, 2006
Happy Valentines Day
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (12)
Blogs to Riches
Don't miss Clive Thompson's New York Magazine (February 20, 2006) cover story, Blogs to Riches: The Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom featuring coverboy Peter Rojas, editor of Engadget.
Posted by me, of course!
February 13, 2006
The Standings...
For the Write the Copy contest...
Zoe (aka Zed) and Ozg have 3 votes each
Ted has 2...
Jason has 1...
There are 3 people who haven't voted yet (your name is listed below) -- please add your vote in the comments. grassy ass! :-)
Mike M.
Jason
Claire
Once again, all the contest submissions can be found in the extended entry.
- It's so typical of dogs... going about fetch the hard way. - Claire
- Miss Whiskers realized it was unlikely she'd be getting a turn on the teeter-totter...
Where's a food processor when you need one? - Kat - mouse-tini, dry, shaken not stirred .. - sdy
- When Iron Chef meets Animal Planet - Ted
- "Like Doubleday and Naismith before him, Tiger must have known somewhere inside
that he was inventing one of the premier sports of his species..." - Jason - "Spoon you!"
Hey diddle doony
the cat and the spoony
the mouse flew over the moon
"Hey Fido! Fetch!"
Mouse-apult
"Relax Purrrcy, there's cheese in them there hills."
- BLUE - Well mice fly, lets try pigs next time. - Ozg
- The Republic of Tajikiwikistan has succeeded in their first sub-orbital space launch. The first cosmonaut is 'Peppy',
a field mouse. Immediately following the launch, it was reported that ambulances had been dispatched to the launch site.
Tajikiwikistani sources report that Peppy is in stable condition. According to US government sources, the future of the
Tajikiwikistan space program is in jeapordy following recurring allegations of launch tampering.
- Mike Macgirvin - "I know your not an owl and this isn't a runcible spoon, just get down here" - Piggy and Tazzy
- "It is a very little known fact that the Swedish Chef had very humble beginnings. Before he became a household name,
his first techniques and recipes were passed on by his cat, Bork. In this picture, you are able to see a stunning display
of the masterful skills that would influence his career, especially when assembling his signature dish; Ze Snacken de
Aerobourne Moose". - Greg - ".... and the first ingredient for mice pudding is, naturally, a mouse. throw it into your bowl, add eggs,
vanilla essence and milk. stir well for consistency, add the sugar and cook at 180°C for 45 minutes." - zed - peta (people for the ethical treatment of animals) are working on a circus that will be animal freindly as well as entertaining.
sproket that cat watches, pedro the human rocket mouse rehearse on friday. afterwords - all animals got together for a vegan feast. - mr. tan
Posted by me, of course!
February 12, 2006
Thunder and Lightning and Snow, Oh My!
Update: 26.9 inches of snow in NYC.
A powerful snowstorm belted the northeastern United States on Sunday with flashes of lightning and whiteout conditions. As much as 22.8 inches of snow fell in New York's Central Park, the second heaviest snowfall on record, topped only by a blizzard in 1947, said the National Weather Service.
Central Park is just a few blocks away from where I reside. I heard the thunder this morning. Talk about eerie and strange! Snow AND thunder AND lightning. *shudder* Snow in February in NYC is nothing unusual. What IS strange is that only a few weeks ago we had Springtime temperatures.
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (6)
February 10, 2006
When you treat employees poorly...
... this can happen:
Four employees of Blenz Coffee in Vancouver went the extra mile, walking out mid-shift and taping a note on the door...
Details at The Consumerist.
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (2)
Be My Anti-Valentine
I love you
blah blah blah
hearts & flowers
yadda yadda yadda
kisses, cupid, etc.
This and other witty V-Day cards can be found at meish dot org: be my anti-valentine
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (2)
February 9, 2006
Meanwhile back at the funny farm...
I think I'll use that as a blog post title each time I return from my travels (which, btw, is only for a few days, and then I'm off like a dirty shirt again.)
So while you were missing me terribly, a few things have bubbled up to the surface of my darling brain and need to be set free. Let me first rewind the mental tape so I can begin where I want to and hopefully not forget any of it. ← ← :|: → → Okay, done.
First, a commercial break.
I've actually looked like that a couple of times. The first was after an evening of debauchery some years ago. I went from slinky sex kitten siren to, well, that's what I looked like when I woke up the next day. I am quite sure my Good morning my darling prince and come hither greeting lost a bit of its allure with that bulge protruding from the side of my cheek. (I realize that sounds obscene but you'll recover.) Needless to say, I paid dearly for my sins and spent that next afternoon in the dentist's chair having a tooth yanked out of me. The next time I looked like that was my last birthday, when the evening before was subdued and low-key and there wasn't a come hither party in sight. And as in the previous scenario, I had little choice but to ring up the dentist yet again, leading up to the eventual bonding with my dentist (no pun intended) for the remainder of the year.
Now that the commercial break is over, I want to gossip about some folks who pop in 'round these parts.
NOTE:
This part edited out due to late-breaking Piggy and Tazzy news. See here.
Love ya. Mean it.
Next on my list is the very handsome BLUE (Partial to Grey) -- also referred to as a swoon boy. He is. Don't get me wrong; BLUE and I go WAY BACK (giggle) and he knows (as well as his S/O) that I say those things in a purely innocent, sweet and kind way, not in the HUBBAHUBBA, I wanna jump you way. Anyhoo, when I returned to my homestead I found a package from his BLUEness containing the CD of his musical score. He's not only an amazing musician but also a superb writer. I love his typed notes too (inside joke: I'm naked also, in my mind, that is.) ;-)
The divine Ms. Zoe of My Boyfriend is a Twat is on a boob alert -- her readers are on boob alert also. Zoe found a lump in her breast and she's being a trooper about it all yet the rest of us -- well some of us -- aren't, and we're awaiting the results, hoping that no news is good news...
Joost! Where are you?
Kat, over at Kat's Stuff has been posting again... YAY! I guess that means she's finished with house painting -- for now.
Ted at Rocket Jones has posted chapters 8 and 9 (or was it 9 and 10?) of his novel. Can't wait to read them!
I really, really, really miss Al at Fulton Chain. He's only just gotten things straightened out with his online access since moving up to Albany. Write soon Al! Miss ya!
And last but not least, other than mentioning even MORE of you in this single blog post, I'd like to close with a piece from my personal ponder files. I recently sent 3 or 4 emails that have gone unresponded to... I'm a fairly patient person who will give you a week (at least) or more to respond. We're all busy. We all have multiple things to do in a given day. It's easy to fire back a Gee, I'd love to respond in greater detail but I'm a. on the toilet b. flossing c. having sex d. travelling e. being fired f. reading g. masturbating h. praying i. busybusybusy... I mean really. How difficult is it to respond to an email? You can easily copy/paste the above into an email and fire it off. For those who are truly tongue-tied, you can even respond by writing I don't want to exchange emails with you -- that'll get the message across quickly. Ya think? Sheesh.
And THAT concludes today's brain dust. winkywink.
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (6)
Votes So Far...
For the Write the Copy contest...
Ozg has 2 votes...
Ted has 1...
Jason has 1...
For those who haven't voted yet (your name is listed below) -- please add your vote in the comments. grassy ass! :-)
Mr. Tan
Zed (aka Zoe)
Greg
Mike M.
Ozg
Jason
sdy (Steve)
Claire
To make things easier(?) for you, all the submissions can be found in the extended entry, regurgitated in one place for your convenience. :-)
- It's so typical of dogs... going about fetch the hard way. - Claire
- Miss Whiskers realized it was unlikely she'd be getting a turn on the teeter-totter...
Where's a food processor when you need one? - Kat - mouse-tini, dry, shaken not stirred .. - sdy
- When Iron Chef meets Animal Planet - Ted
- "Like Doubleday and Naismith before him, Tiger must have known somewhere inside
that he was inventing one of the premier sports of his species..." - Jason - "Spoon you!"
Hey diddle doony
the cat and the spoony
the mouse flew over the moon
"Hey Fido! Fetch!"
Mouse-apult
"Relax Purrrcy, there's cheese in them there hills."
- BLUE - Well mice fly, lets try pigs next time. - Ozg
- The Republic of Tajikiwikistan has succeeded in their first sub-orbital space launch. The first cosmonaut is 'Peppy',
a field mouse. Immediately following the launch, it was reported that ambulances had been dispatched to the launch site.
Tajikiwikistani sources report that Peppy is in stable condition. According to US government sources, the future of the
Tajikiwikistan space program is in jeapordy following recurring allegations of launch tampering.
- Mike Macgirvin - "I know your not an owl and this isn't a runcible spoon, just get down here" - Piggy and Tazzy
- "It is a very little known fact that the Swedish Chef had very humble beginnings. Before he became a household name,
his first techniques and recipes were passed on by his cat, Bork. In this picture, you are able to see a stunning display
of the masterful skills that would influence his career, especially when assembling his signature dish; Ze Snacken de
Aerobourne Moose". - Greg - ".... and the first ingredient for mice pudding is, naturally, a mouse. throw it into your bowl, add eggs,
vanilla essence and milk. stir well for consistency, add the sugar and cook at 180°C for 45 minutes." - zed - peta (people for the ethical treatment of animals) are working on a circus that will be animal freindly as well as entertaining.
sproket that cat watches, pedro the human rocket mouse rehearse on friday. afterwords - all animals got together for a vegan feast. - mr. tan
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (7)
February 7, 2006
Mish Mash
I'm currently off the beaten path (aka, travelling) hence the lack of posting, but here's a quickie. I watched the Super Bowl and damn if that 62-year-old Mick Jagger can shake his AARP booty. The man's a live wire. Next up - am thinking that the Write the Copy contest should be judged by those who entered, so place your vote for the best copy in the comments. Thanks to all who participated and I'll thank you even more when a winner is selected. Finally, the prize will either be an 8x10 photograph the winner can select from my photoblog or perhaps a piece of jewelry ... I'm undecided about the prize... so that's it for now, maybe more later.
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (3)
February 2, 2006
Write the Copy
C'mon, surely there are more of you who can contribute some witty little something here... can't ya?
--------------
... and the person with the best copy for this photograph wins, er, something.
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (17)
February 1, 2006
Bonjour!
... to my friends at Agence France Presse in Paris. :-)
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (2)
Meanwhile over at Rocket Jones...
Ted @ Rocket Jones has been taking part in the National Novel Writing Month and has been doing a terrific job keeping me on the edge of my seat with his tale. I can't blow enough sunshine his way about it! Ted is a superb writer yet very low key about it. Do check it out for yourself here.
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (5)
Partial to Blue
All around swoon boy, musician and terrific guy Blue (blog @ Partial to Grey) has finished his original Motion Picture Score and lengthy labor of love for the movie South Mountain Magic. Congrats Blue! Can't wait to get the CD!
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (2)