Thanks to Neil for pointing this out (and I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner, as I’ve been checking their site daily for about a month). Trillian is a project I’ve supported since v0.5. It’s great chunk of software that allows me to get on all the IM networks in one program (see my handles here). And they’ve finally released a 2.0 Beta (for Pro members only). I’ll be installing it later, and I just hope my favorite skin decides to update to take advantage of some new features of the beta (but I can’t really talk about them too much because of an NDA imposed on beta folks). Now if I can just remember my Jabber username and password…
Month: August 2003
The history of Internet awards, and specifics for newspapers
Mark Glaser writes great online media commentary, and this column is no different. If you’ve ever worked for a newspaper or other major media outlet, you’ll understand what he’s talking about: Newspapers, like many other industries, have tons of industry awards. If you enter all the contests, you’re bound to win something. The same holds true for Web sites. Like Glaser, I too remember when everybody was a Lycos Top 5% site.
Basically, what’s happening is that the value of awards is going down. The other problem, writes Glaser, is that newspaper awards more about “bells & whistles” on online-news sites rather than excellent writing for the medium.
I agree and disagree. While writing for the online medium is generally shovel-ware from the print addition, I agree with Steve Outing on this one: online writing is important, but I think I’d give the awards to the folks who take advantage of the medium to its fullest — from the writing, but also the multimedia aspects that are possible. Extra writing for the Web is not what’s going to attract and keep readers on your site, but a good video or interactive presentation will.
If you’re going to pirate and e-mail a book, don’t use MS Word
Because it tracks its users pretty well. From the story:
As you may know, Jamie Oliver bills himself as the “Naked Chef”. Quite the thing among those to like TV cooking shows.
There’s a Word document floating around the Internet that claims to be a copy of Jamie’s next book. The Times reports that it’s a hoax, and the Word doc contains previously-published recipes from Jamie’s earlier books. Jamie’s publishers aren’t amused. They stand to lose a considerable amount of money if people think that they already have a copy of Jamie’s latest cookbook. Who assembled this rip-off?
He goes on to examine the document, looking at the hidden fields in Word documents, and provides some interesting insight as to what a MS Word document really holds, other than your document.
Another Unfortunate URL
TheRapistFinder.com (emphasis mine so you get the joke).
I didn’t know that Jimmy Stewart and John Travolta did a movie together
I guess I was wrong. From NTK.
TypePad’s Features and Prices Have Been Set
For those who don’t know, TypePad is the new service by Six Apart, the creators of Movable Type, the software that powers this site. What is TypePad? To quote their site:
TypePad is an upcoming hosted service providing powerful tools for creating full-featured weblogs. Built in response to the needs of webloggers, online diarists and writers, TypePad harnesses the power of Six Apart’s popular Movable Type personal publishing system into a simple service, suitable for beginners and experts alike.
The features and prices have been set for the service.
What are my thoughts? I won’t comment on the business aspects of this (though I think the prices are a bit steep, but I guess you are paying for the software and support), I kind of wonder where this leaves Movable Type supporters? There are some compelling features that have yet to be smoothly integrated into the main Movable Type distribution, and I can understand their reasoning for not including them in the free product, but why not for supporters?
I have no intention on moving my blog to a server that is not under my complete control. I would pay (and have) for a “Pro” version of a product, and there have been mumbles in the MT Support Forums for some time that a Pro version of MT is coming. But when are we going to see it? I’m a Movable Type supporter, as it’s a great product, but I worry that with TypePad, Six Apart is going to be moving towards providing the best and newest features to users of their services, and rely on plug-in developers to add all the other features to the main distro. I hope that isn’t the case, but only time will tell.
Update on 8/5: MT guru Richard has a good review of TypePad, as well as links to other reviews.
This is what would happen if my wife was a stripper
Another gem from The Smoking Gun:
Early Saturday morning, David Buhler, 23, and a buddy visited The School House, a southern Michigan topless club, where the guys repaired to a couch to enjoy some adult entertainment. There they were approached by Kasey Ann Colvin, a 20-year-old stripper who hovered over Buhler and asked, “Do you want some of this?” According to the below Jackson Police Department report, Colvin, who had recently given birth, then shot something “out of her breast in a white milky form striking Buhler in the face going into his eyes and by his nose.” Believing he’d been slimed with mother’s milk, Buhler became angry and contacted the club manager, who apologized and offered him free soft drinks and lap dances.
Why aren’t there any baby planes?
Thanks to Shasta-Bob for this joke:
A mother and her son were flying Southwest Airlines from Kansas City to Chicago. The son turned to his mother and asked, “If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don’t big planes have baby planes?”
The mother (who couldn’t think of an answer) told her son to ask the stewardess. So the boy asked the stewardess, “If big dogs have
baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don’t big planes have baby planes?”
The stewardess responded, “Did your mother tell you to ask me?” The boy admitted that this was the case.”Well, then, tell your mother that
there are no baby planes because Southwest always pulls out on time — now let your mother explain that to you.”
Need to know the history of the F-Word?
Leave it to a lawyer with too much time on his hands and the Smoking Gun to come up with this gem of a court filing.