March 29, 2001
How to irritate a potential

How to irritate a potential customer, object lesson. "Hey, I have a great idea - instead of letting people scroll through this text information, let's make em click on a little triangle!"

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 28, 2001
Why settle for cheezy pseudo

Why settle for cheezy pseudo magic eight balls on the web when you can use the real thing? That it's powered by lego mindstorms just makes it that much cooler, of course.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
Awesome history of alphabets -

Awesome history of alphabets - and it's animated. (via librarian.net)

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 27, 2001
It's geek day here at

It's geek day here at marginalia - I've recently switched shells to zsh. Any command line user knows that switching shells is usually more trouble than it's worth, but I'm glad for the switch for one simple reason: intelligent completion. I've often wished that when I type a command and check for completions it only give me the appropriate files. For example, if I'm using tar, when I type tar and then TAB on the command line, most shells will prompt you with all the files in the directory. zsh will only complete with tar files. It is, of course eminently configurable, because this is unix.

My only remaining wishlist item is for a xterm/shell combination that would let me use a scrollwheel to navigate history.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
Can someone explain why paying

Can someone explain why paying for access to a live internet feed of a sporting event is so frickin' evil? If you want free, turn on your radio.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
ActiveState's mozilla-based Komodo is starting

ActiveState's mozilla-based Komodo is starting to take shape, although it likely won't stop me from using xemacs. I do wish that the regular expression builder tool was available as a separate product, as it does its job very well.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 26, 2001

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 23, 2001
What are you doing in

What are you doing in front of your computer when the April edition of Harper's has a new essay by David Foster Wallace? It's about descriptive vs. prescriptive grammar, and it's fascinating stuff. Not surprisingly, DFW comes down on the side of prescriptive grammar. The best idea I'll take from the essay and its 52 footnotes [1] is that we all speak multiple dialects of english, each appropriate to a particular "Discourse Community". Standard Written English, which is generally what most English usage guides are concerned with, is but one of these dialects, but DFW argues (persuasively, I think) that it's an important and valid one for professional life.

The point is, go read the damn thing.

[1]Fifty-freakin'-two

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 22, 2001
Detailed article about why anamorphic

Detailed article about why anamorphic DVD transfers are Good Things.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 20, 2001
Premium Salon - $30/year. Considering

Premium Salon - $30/year. Considering that I read Salon pretty much every day, I can't say I think this is a bad idea; I'll certainly consider subscribing.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 19, 2001
Genius. A prime number that

Genius. A prime number that can be transformed into a DeCSS implementation.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 18, 2001
See, promised you.


See, promised you.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 16, 2001
Intro to Martin Amis' upcoming

Intro to Martin Amis' upcoming essay and review collection.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 14, 2001
I'll be back soon to

I'll be back soon to posting digital pictures of fruit, I promise. No, really.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
Testing revisions to back end

Testing revisions to back end code - the front page is now a static generated file, as opposed to a fully-dynamic page generated from the back-end db. This should be much nicer to my provider's db. Addendum to make sure updates work.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 13, 2001
How can you not buy
How can you not buy such an odd looking fruit, especially when it's called Kiwano Spiked Melon?
Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 11, 2001
I got myself a new
I got myself a new toy - the Aiptek PenCam Trio. It's cheap and fun and takes decent pictures.
Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 07, 2001
Further fabulosity from ftrain. (So

Further fabulosity from ftrain. (So alliteration isn't funny. Just read the article.)

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 03, 2001
This is so awful: Afghanistan's

This is so awful:


Afghanistan's ruling Taleban said Saturday it has blown up most of the massive, ancient Buddhas at Bamiyan despite worldwide pleas to spare them.


Taleban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal said Saturday that the fundamentalist Muslim movement's troops used rockets and mortars to destroy the head and legs of the sandstone statues, which are carved into the side of a cliff in central Afghanistan.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM
March 01, 2001
Cool. The West Wing had

Cool. The West Wing had a subplot about The Peters Projection map last night.

Posted by Bill Stilwell at 12:00 AM