Wolfram Archive web log 2003

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Thoughts on Hope, Fear and War -- 12/09/03
The future, at one time, looked better. I'll agree with that. I guess it's all in how we look at things.

Maybe we were blind then, and now we see. Maybe we're still blind. Maybe it's all just Plato's shadows. Who knows?

As fatherhood impends upon me, I have to stay hopeful for the children. That's the only way for me to stay sane -- hope. Hope is an easy word to say and it's much harder to find sometimes. I don't know how to tell people where to find hope.

Although war always existed, an equilibrium for peace exists too -- no one can deny that force. Although we have always had war, all wars end. Lacking pacifists, there would be in a constant state of war everywhere.

But as Hermin Goering said shortly before taking his life (of course, he was scheduled to be hung the next day, so he only finally took his life to preserve some imagined dignity, but I digress):

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Oh yes, back in the days before 9/11, the future didn't look this bad -- or did it? I guess it depends on what you were looking at.

Elingsh: is spelilng corerctly opitonal? -- 09/16/03
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae.The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Road Trip down Highway 50 -- 08/28/03
We drove down Highway 50 in Nevada and took these pictures. The currents have turned again and in a strange twist of fate I'm returning to SF for the month of October -- just in time to vote -- but actually for a web development gig. (So I won't be driving the rest of the way across the country yet and instead we'll fly directly to NYC from Utah on September 5th and I'll fly back to happy San Francisco sooner then I thought.)

Bow and Arrow Art by the San Francisco Bay -- 08/16/2003
I've been taking pictures of the SF changes. I put up a series of the bow and arrow art by the san francisco bay.

Kate's Black and White Photos -- 08/15/03
Kate's Black and White Photos of us at Manka's Lodge, at the war protest, and at the farmer's market.

Why and When We're Moving to NYC -- 08/12/03
Oh happy city of San Francisco, perpetual Spring, my pillow of fog, would I decide to continue to sleep and live here if it were up to me? Yes yes yes. Yet fortune's whisper has been heard, and if I listen I can still hear it now -- go go go -- to the sound of Gershwin rhythm and Cole Porter irony, to an impending Autumn that longs to occur. Eleven years have I lived here by the Bay and Autumn's breath not yet once caressed my neck. In a fortnight, my bride and I will together drive on the lonely highway -- highway 50 -- a trail of dust like a comet behind us will fire across the hot and salty desert sky. Beyond the a sea of alien sightings, yon Wasach range and Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma and beyond unknown; across the country we will meander -- off the Interstate -- on roads forgotten and rarely seen; until the great glow of lights, that draw us across, surround us. Many forces compel this exciting journey, and although I love great San Francisco, California; to pull up roots, to purge possessions and to collect what's dear again -- this is all good. And still something calls me there, the unexpected, the change, the unknown, the infinite, the unlimited possibility -- a somewhat perpetual sense of hope seems to shine on us from NYC. We're leaving August 28th and I'll arrive in NYC sometime after September 15th. Yet in the words of California's most infamous candidate for Governor, "I'll be bock..."

Bridge to Marin -- 07/16/03
Barbara Boxer wrote me a letter about how they got 9 million in federal funding to retrofit the Golden Gate Bridge. This was not going to make me happy. To consider mass transit to Marin, I personally think that if they close the bridge to all but bike, foot and motorcycle traffic and dug a tunnel from embarcadero to the far side of Tiberon -- that would solve the issue. Bart would go in the tunnel too, of course, because train FAR more economical then bus services -- next stop mill valley, next stop sausalito. Another M-BART line would go San Rafael -- Petaluma -- Santa Rosa (shuttle to Farfax) and yet another Bart line to Napa St. Helena (ya right!). Anyone ever play SimmCity? Anyway, the bridge is seriously old fashioned -- and although it is a great physiphor or symbol of human conquest over nature, I would love to ride my bike down the freeway in quick decent from the end of the rainbow tunnel to Mill Valley -- tour de France style. Seriously, they tunnel under the English channel, they certainly can channel under the bay. But it's ironic how the bridge gets tons of revenue and yet they can neither pay for buses nor the bridge's repairs. Where IS that 100 million dollars going? I looked at their web site for a budget, and what did I find? The form for signing up for Fast Track is a PDF that you must print and send via snail mail -- that's not a very good use of the web and, in fact, is one of the worst uses of the web that I've seen in a long time. The only way the process could be more lame is if they sent the reply via carrier pidgin. And they have a newspaper called the Golden Gate Gazette, which totally sounds like a waste of money. I guess what really got me going is the notion of taking more money from the general federal tax fund to pave the way for more cars. Also, the political use of this news when I don't even agree that it's necessarily a good solution to the challenge. I wish I had all the answers but it seams to me that:

Q: Who should pay for the bridge repairs?
A: A tax directly from gas, rubber and new vehicles -- in fact -- there should be a 200% idiot tax for whoever buys those new box shaped hummers (300% if you pick "Yellow" as your color.) And to be fair (or fare), any hummer-wanna-be SUV should be taxed extra too.

Still, I wonder if they'll ever take the bridge down entirely and put up a super bridge or something...Maybe they could move the bridge so people can get from Mounain View to Hayward quicker.

Le tour de france -- 07/08/03
I've watched each stage of the tour de france this year on the OLH channel and it's already been pretty exciting. Saturday is the alp d'heuz -- The signature mountain climb. The mountain stages come up VERY early this year. Today is stage 4 (on right now 6am -- 8:30am) and this is team time trial, so that will change the rankings for the yellow jersey. Friday is a small climbing stage (small hills to enter the mountains). Saturday is a big day then there will be a couple more mountains and then it will be another week before the mountains in the Pyrenees. The mountains are the most exciting and that's where Lance will grab the yellow jersey. My brother will see two stages in the Pyrenees. He's watching the St. Girons stage and the Tourmalet/Luz Ardiden stage. Luz Ardiden will be the last mountain stage and will really determine if Lance nails the Yellow. This is the best site I found about le tour de france...

San Francisco SOMA living -- baseball and fireworks -- 07/03/03
It's strange how fireworks can make the moment. In San Francisco I occasionally get fireworks because my apartment faces a big glass building, and the Baseball stadium is about four blocks behind me. So when the Giants win, the building reflects the firework show right into my living room everything gets all purple blue and orange while I'm sitting on the couch. Not that I have an optimal view of the show -- it's quite urban -- but it can sure offer the moment just the thing it needs to feel special. It's also been sublime to see part of a baseball game on TV, and if its the 6th inning and it's tied, I walk to the park and watch the exciting tie break from the free area. Then, if I leave early I can sometimes make it back home to watch the end on TV again -- that's a trip -- TV, Reality, TV, Reality...which is which? Anyway, there is a chance that I could be moving. If so, this pretty cool shared artist warehouse living situation is going to open up -- 2 high skylights, three big windows, lots of space directly SOMA, cool roomies. I'll miss this pad when I move.

Atomic Tutorial -- 07/01/03
A weird thing about hadrons is that only a very very very small part of the mass of a hadron is due to the quarks in it. For example, a proton (uud) has more mass than the sum of the masses of its quarks: I love this stuff -- it's true geek speak. I can only take partical physics when it's accompanied with animated cartoon characters. I love the text. "Most of the mass we observe in a hadron comes from its kinetic and potential energy. These energies are converted into the mass of the hadron as described by Einstein's equation that relates energy and mass, E = mc2. " and "For each lepton there is a corresponding antimatter antilepton. Note that the anti-electron has a special name, the "positron."" They actually mention "positron" and anti-electron in the same sentence [1]. It could be a line in Star Trek or the Simpsons...gotta love this stuff...

[1] example page of atomic theory

Computer Case -- 06/23/03
Some people love their computers a bit too much. Here's a photo essey of someone going pretty far to build a computer shaped like a woman. Excellent model making, no pun intended. And she's no data model.

Amazon's Magic 800 number -- 06/21/03
Someone told me that this was a special customer care number from Amazon -- so if their online help isn't getting you anywhere, this number does the trick quickly. I'm putting it here, not just so you know about it, but so I can find it later. 1-800-201-7575 (ahhh, the beauty of keeping a web log...) Let me know if it works. Publish it widely and freely

Me With Iraq Money (and teaching jj html) -- 06/16/03
I took a picture of me with Central Bank of Iraq 250 Dinar note. I made this page to to teach jimmy html. We took the photos with a digital camera and then modified another HTML page so that it showed our pictures.

IT is not a growth Industry? -- 05/25/03
This article about the end of growth in the tech industry resonates with what a Venture Capitalist from the Sequoia Group told me in a meeting last month -- that IT is no longer a growth industry. Editor at Large Nicholas Carr argues that since everyone uses information technology to run his business these days, maybe no one gains strategic advantage from it anymore. I see the point here and I think it's overstated and worded wrong when they say that a business doesn't have a strategic advantage from IT and that you should get rid of IT to gain an advantage -- you still need the IT, but the strategic advantage comes from lowering your costs and not spending as much as everyone else. When IT revolutionized business, having it was like standing on your toes -- you could see farther and reach higher then those that didn't have it. But now that everyone is standing on their toes and wasting money on IT -- no one has the advantage over the next guy and everyone is wasting energy on IT. To continue the metaphor, business's now need low cost platform shoes or a step stool so that we can stop wasting energy (money) standing on our toes -- therein is the strategic advantage. I think Opensource is papa's brand new platform shoes. Also, I think it's overstated and it's a bit too early to say that IT is no longer a growth industry...I think articles like this and the VC guys are overstating things to try to shock people out of their paradigm. I'll keep insisting that it's yet more proof that more companies would be wise to adopt opensource solutions or outsource IT, and to stop reinventing the wheel by developing in house or by licensing expensive solutions.

browser testing made easy -- 05/25/03
browsercam is a subscription service where you enter a URL and their army of servers take screen shots of your site on every platform, browser and version you should ever need.

Artifical Kudos Work for Me -- 05/09/03
I just had a wonderful conversation with a delightful Kudobot named Kaytra. Kaytra is a low-level artificial intelligence personality. I met her after clicking Caleb's on-line Kudo generator about 100 times that I actually missed the button and clicked on the link to Kaytra by mistake. Anyway, the kudos really made me feel good -- it works. Thank you Caleb and Kaytra.

Zurb.com -- nice designs -- 05/06/03
Kyle Hurlbut recently showed me Zurb.com -- After writing to the site owner Bryan Zmijewski, he showed me that my articles about google made his list of excellent web development resources. Thanks Bryan! Speaking of google, I recently noticed x rated sites in my refer log, which would normally indicate when a web site is linking to my site. In this case, in one day, I received about 15 page views from about 15 different porn sites. It does not appear that these pages link to mine. I looked at a couple of them, although I certainly didn't click on all of them, and I didn't see any links -- WARNING: It's xxx popup porn star hell if you do click on any of those sites. I suspect someone figured out how to spam public refer reports to get backlinks to their site, ultimately, to increase their score in search engines. That's just a theory. Can you think of anything else that would enplane what's happening? If so, it's a pretty interesting strategy. I searched google and looked at other people's refer logs and noticed some -- and some of those refer reports have very high google scores. I also noticed some of them have porn sites in their refer reports: I reported it too Google, I'm sure they know already, but I'm waiting for the reply.

Ghettopoly -- 05/03/03
What has this world become of? Satire of the "hood". Check out the new game called: Ghettopoly? I'm wondering about trademarks -- I don't think it will last. Also, check out this wonderful slice of city life, a fantastic photo essey of 10 minutes in the San Francisco Tenderloin. As if that's not enough to make you want to pack up and leave this city, a bunch of wankers are gathering here for the second annual public "Masturbate-a-Thon". Sheesh -- does anyone have a place in the country for rent? I don't know if it's better out there -- maybe they'll make redneckopoply next...inbredopoly...trailerparkopoly...who knows....

Nice Styles For Web Pages -- 04/28/03
Here is a very helpful resource for making headlines cascading style sheets (CSS) in HTML or web pages.

Google News Screwed? -- 04/22/03
Google News is not perfect. Here is an error in Google News where they're reporting a pre-war Iraq story at least 2 weeks after the war ended -- the story is circled in red along with other current news.

Digital Camera Recommendations -- 04/17/03
I recently asked my friends to recommend a good digital camera that is moderately priced. Here is some of the feedback. [1] Canon -- "love it", [2] "For snapshots I can recommend the Panasonic Lumix - tiny, cheap (~$250), 2 meg pixel, has Leica glass lens, nice zoom - uses compact flash and 2 AA batteries - very easy to use", [3] "I love the Canon Powershot line. I think the 3MP one is reasonable now. I have the 2MP powershot 330, I can make prints up to 8x10 with almost no difference, esp if I send them out to ofoto.", [4] "As far as digital cameras go, I've found that a lot of people (myself included) are very happy with Canons. I have several friends who have the Elph, and they haven't stopped taking pictures since they got it. This is a common annoyance I've found with the new digital camera owner...photo overload! There is also the powershoot 400s. As for myself, I just got the Canon G3, and have to say, I am extrememly pleased with the quality, and range of manual features. Not only have I had success with it, but a professional photographer friend of mine recommended it. It really depends on what features you want. In terms of easy of usuability, from what I've seen, all of the Canon products are top notch. (No, Canon is not paying me to say this either)", [5] I recommend you check out Digital Camera Resource. It's the industry standard pretty much for unbiased and fair reports. Also, their Active Buyers Guide is a good place to find where your best products lie given any decision criteria such as you're describing." [6] I have a Minolta F-100 that I bought at Costco. It's really great for the price: 4 megapixels and easy to use. It uses rechargeable batteries (batteries are no small expense with these cameras). [7] I don't have a report so much on cameras, but on the type of media. I use digital cameras for my job, and my Fujifilm camera died on me recently while covering a convention. I had heard that smart media is considered to be pretty weak in general, and my Fujifilm camera killed off a couple of devices, so I would stay away from that media. My new Canon G3 uses compact flash and I hope it's more durable.

The Consumption Questions -- 04/16/03
Everyone is talking about looting in Iraq and the mob rule that follows the fall of a dictator. Is our consumption is a type of "mob rule" where we lynch and pillage the third world (in particular, the entire middle east since prior to the 1930's until the present?) Are SUV drivers, 200 mile commuters, frequent business flights, suburban sprawl -- our entire lifestyle (and/or the lifestyle of our loved ones) a big part of the global "political" problems? Before we blame Bush, republicans, Bin Ladin, Clinton, the media, or anything external -- maybe we should take some of the blame for ourselves.

The problem is that consumption is specifically designed to satisfy our desires, to numb our sexual and aggressive tendencies, to make us docile. I have seen the NME and it is us. Point a finger, you got three pointing back at you. We are both the criminal and victims. Freud lost hope in humanity and in a way, so have I. We are definitely one wildly aggressive and selfish gene pool.

Stuffed Animals -- 04/11/03
We just bought three stuffed animals from the San Diego zoo store -- they arrived and they're cute, big and inexpensive. Here is another site that sells many stuffed animals. I didn't try that store yet -- maybe next time.

San Francisco Locations from Alfred Hitchock's 1958 film -- Verdigo -- 04/08/03
Check out these before and after images of various San Francisco Locations from Alfred Hitchock's 1958 masterpiece film -- Verdigo. I love living in San Francisco. Also check out the link to Virtual Vertigo Tour, which is slightly less interesting.

More Faces -- 04/08/03
More web sites with faces.

Map of Middle East -- 04/08/03
This is a pretty cool interactive map of the middle east. It reminds me of the Geography Coloring Book, however, so many counties have changed names since I colored that book in 1987. Also, I've been shown some gruesome pictures of civilian casualties in Iraq -- WARNING -- the Shock and Awe gallery is not for the faint of heart. Only visit that link if you want to see blood. I feel for the Iraqi people and for the US soldiers who had to inflict those acts of violence -- both are victims. On the home front, here are some pictures of the results of police violence to anti-war protesters in Oakland yesterday. Sheesh -- Peace please -- how are we going to heal?

Quote of the Day -- 03/25/03
"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn't want to go to war." (Not to mention, Russia and China are bosom buddies! ;-) (someone wrote me and mentioned that this was a quote from Chris Rock.)

War Protests in San Francisco -- 03/23/03
The planes and helicopters have been flying overhead since the war started. That's four days ago. I know the location of the protesters judging by where the planes are banking and where the helicopters are. When the protesters are at the civic center I can see the helicopters out the window next to my TV and when everyone marches down Market street the helicopters get closer and closer until they're right overhead and the protesters are marching down Harrison or Folsom or at the freeway ramps. Nina told me that the protesters were meeting at Rainbow coop Groceries store, and sure enough, when I looked down Harrison, that's where the helicopters were. The copper sounds adds a surreal underscore to the CNN rant and news of the war. I can't believe the news because even our own government has admitted that they plant stories to effect public opinion if it helps with their objectives. Strange days indeed. John Lennon would be proud of these protesters even though they are just another example of mob rule, which is what they're protesting about in the first place. The "suggestion-imitation phenomena" -- it's why fashion exists. Everyone knows the guilty comforts of being one of many. At the extremes -- political debates, religious debates, lynchings, Nazis, riots, war and zealous nationalism. I imagine that peace will be given a chance one day. I hope for peace soon.

Nigerian Scamer -- 03/12/03
This is a series of letters to the Nigerians Scam artists who are looking for westerners to help them withdraw money. This guy, Brad Christensen, writes back and tells them funny things like "I want to meet naked before we do business...". Read about the Nigerian 4-1-9 scam here

MyTLC -- a new site for performing artists -- 03/03/03
I haven't posted here lately because I've been really busy launching a new web site. Although it's not finished yet, I'm asking people if they want to become beta users. Not everything works perfectly, so if you find something weird, just back up and go somewhere else. Let me know feedback. The site is called MyTLC and it's at MyTLC -- My community of film lovers and performing artists.

Mac Screenshot tutorial
Mac Screenshot Tutorial and explanation

cypherpunks -- New York Times Web Site passwords
Username: phulephule
Password: phulephule
-- Word from the mothership. Direct from SETI -- peace.

Happy V.T. Day -- 02/14/03

Happy St. Valentine's Day. Which is better: To hug or to be hugged? That is the question! Make sure you get hugged today and may cupid channel the timeless fountain love above you.

Other cars that are technically forward -- 02/22/03
I thought this was a cool list of technically excellent cars. I haven't had much time to web log here because I've started a new project (soon to be released). More soon...

CityCarShare Ford Think Electric Car -- 02/08/03
My City car share pod on 5th and mission has two Ford EV e-think vehicles and I rented one this morning. Since my pod is only 4 blocks away, it was an easy bike ride to get there at 8 am. There is a bike rack right near the cars. I unplugged the car, which is an important thing to do before you drive an electric car. There was a tiny hood to cover the socket, just like you would expect on a regular car to cover a regular gas cap. So the car "felt" normal.

It is basically a ticketed out golf cart -- with mini spoilers and everything. I put the key in, turned it on and different elecrical systems jumped online. Only the radio made a sound. I found the National Public Radio Channel and put the Think in reverse by adjusting a large plastic switch on the dashboard (I learned the foot break must be on to get the car in "gear".) Before I knew it, I was zooming down 4th street.

The car had a nice hum like you might expect from a small space ship. It had good acceleration from 2mph -- 30mph and I could beat cars off red light if I had pole position and could get a jump on them.

Kate and I drove to the farmers market near Silver Avenue -- the one with real farmers. One grower that I know from Modesto who sells large delicious organic fugi apples asked me if he could look at the car. I indulged him by letting him drive it around the parking lot. He gave me a huge free organic pumpkin squash. We then went to finish the shopping at Rainbow Co-op and Traderjoes.

After dropping Kate off at ballet class, I had a few minutes left before the Think needed to return to the pod, so I washed the car at the coin wash on 10th and Harrison. It took five minutes exactly and I know this because the coin wash is $2 for 5 minutes and I needed every last second to finish rinsing the soap off the mirror. CityCarShare reimburses people for washing a vehicle and they credits an extra $10 to the account. The whole rental was 2.5 hours and my charge was $8.90 for that time (there is no extra mileage charge for electric vehicles). So after the $10 credit, all in all, CityCarShare owes ME money for the trip.

After plugging the car back into the power source to recharge, and after rubbing my pog along the windshield so the doors would lock; I turned back to see my electric Think clean and drip drying in the pod. I was sad to leave my little friend.

I guess it does make a difference. Thanks to Citicarshare, I don't need a car. There is one fewer car on San Francisco streets, and one more parking space. Riding the bike home, I felt like I was in Europe, partially because I was riding a girl bike, and the last time I rode a girl bike was in Amsterdam, were almost everyone rides girl bikes in Europe; but also because it just felt like I was there.

Comment: Real Farmers Do Go to Embarcadero

Latest Auction -- Pomeranian Necklace
My sister sold a piece of hand crafted jewelary on ebay for $226. Read the words she writes because this is an excellent example of highly descriptive marketing copy that certainly works.

State of the Union
I watched the State of the Union projected onto a wall outside of a Shell station parking lot in San Francisco. The artist put a lens in front of the projection to distort the image. The crowd made funny comments and finished some of George the III's sentences. All in all, it was worth it.

Photos from Winter 2002/2003 -- 01/27/03
Kate and I went to New York for Christmas, then we went skiing in Utah and we went to the Sundance Film Festival. I'll post reviews of the films I saw when I get a chance. Here are photos from winter 2002/2003.

Anti-War Protest in San Francisco -- 01/19/03
An Anti-war protest occured in San Francisco. Here are some pictures by Seth Augustus Quittner. Here's another good photo essey of the war protest. How many people showed up? Judge for yourself from these aerial shots of the San Francisco anti war march

Carol's auctions -- hand sculpted jewelery -- 01/15/03 -- 10:44pm
My sister makes hand sculpted dog gift items and she sells them on ebay. Click on that link to see what is up for auction right now.

Redirects -- a tool for URLs that are too long -- 01/13/03 -- 9:03 am
This site is designed to redirect URLs. Have you ever wanted to show someone a web site but the URL (web address) was so long that it wrapped three lines in your email program? Well, the answer is redirex.com. Give them a long URL and they give you one that is shorter, but one that will always redirect viewers to the right web page.

Frodo Failed? 01/12/03 -- 6:13 pm
For people with a sense of humor -- Frodo Failed!. Also, IllMitch is for real -- shutter -- or so I'm told (see below.)

Illmitch -- truth or fiction -- 01/10/03 -- 6:06 pm
Here's on that's not in the UrbanLegends site:

illmitch

Is that guy for real? I'm so out of it, he's probably the biggest star on MTV. Or is this some parody hoax? I searched google and couldn't tell. Has anyone heard of him or his music. If not, then that is one FUNNY joke...wouldn't be the first time that truth is stranger then fiction.

Fun with GPS -- 01/10/03 -- 4:51 am
GPS Geocaching is a new hobby that I may try. It sounds interesting. You go to the web site to find hints and geographic coordinations about where people left a cache. You then go there and get the cache (and leave something for the next person.) It sounds like a fun way to get to know a city or country. And I'm always looking for reasons to buy a GPS device!

CopyCat Crimes -- 01/06/03 -- 10:12 am
This sad news story about a crazy guy who hijacked a small plane and threatened to fly it into a building in Frankfurt demonstrates how insane people like to copycat crimes to get attention. This is the second time that I know of someone wanting to fly a plane into a building after 9/11. A series of copycat school murders also happened after Columbine -- it just shows you how uncreative insanity really is. It's sad, really.

After reading that article, I wanted to find the web page that Franz Strambach, the pilot talked about, Resnik, the brother of the astronot who died in 1986. So searched google for German web pages with the search phrase:

Judith Resnik Strambach

And I found Franz Strambach's web pageweb page: I copied his page to my server because his account will probably expire when he's in jail. He seams to be highly concerned with light contamination -- it's really sad.

Here's the translation of Franz Strambach's web page:

Design Trends Today -- 01/05/03 -- 1:50 pm
What's up with all the faces in today's design -- preferably an Asian or (otherwise non-white woman) smiling. It's highly popular right now because an otherwise faceless white collar company with a 100% male C-level management can use smiling minority faces to look progressive, hip and friendly. It took me only 5 minutes to find these examples.

Trendy Organic Design -- the leader in design? lost their path?
http://www.buildinglink.com/public/default.asp
http://208.184.2.188/resources.cfm
banks get in the act
Even Amazon Does it
Many faces here
Everyone Does it

Leanne suggested that I change the image of Gnosio, so I borrowed a gif image (she actually recommended that I take the camera and create my own art, but I decided to test the theory with a ripped image because I'm such a talentless design hack.)

Hosted Application Company

The results (in spite of my general bad implementation of design): An average person tends to surf our site longer and deeper -- previously the average was 3 page views, now it's 9 page views -- all from that one smiling image and from changing the colors to blues. Hmmmmm. Live and learn.

Got a stomach virus -- 01/03/03 -- 5:06 am
Kate woke up with a stomach virus and I wasn't feeling well either. We spent the past two days convalescing and not eating much, and Kate couldn't even move all day on January 1st but she's all better now and eating again. I feel much better too.

Got a computer virus -- 12/31/02 -- 5:06 pm
Computer seams to have some virus. Here's a screenshot that I took while installing Norton's 2003 antivirus trial version onto my Win 98 system. I was finding many instances of a "Fun.Love" virus and then suddenly Norton freaked and claimed that someone was trying to disable Notron. As of this point, I feel this machine is "Owned" or someone's zombie...comprehensive helpful information about the funlove virus.