All of a sudden I'm 13 years old again and it's 1980 with phrases like: Go East, Climb Tree, Get Egg.  I'm playing the 1st computer game I've played in years -- a text based adventure game.  Years.  But let me explain, while cleaning out my basement over the weekend I found an old Perl Journal which documented a Perl project to build an Infocom ZMachine interpreter.  Infocom was one of the early computer game companies which produced a line of text based adventure games starting with Zork.  These games were executed with a virtual machine or a "Z Machine" (think a Java VM and you're on target) and completely cross platform.  So the article led to some googling which led to the fact that you can still play these games for free!  Very cool.  There are Z Machines for pretty much all platforms and a big collection of games.  All you need to do is download a Zmachine like Winfrotz and then a game like Zork or Leather Goddesses of Phobos. [ ZMachines ] [ Games ] 

And what happened to Infocom?  If memory serves me correctly, they died out after a big attempt to become a business software company with an ambitious database effort that failed. [ Slashdot Discussion ]

10:18:01 PM        comment []    IM Me About This   

From my buddy Apokalyptik, a new take on coffee.  Yes coffee in the Linux tradition.  Too cool.  [ Go ]
7:45:28 PM        comment []    IM Me About This   

I think I need to really keep my mouth shut.  The Kalsey Group has heard my "2 Spaces" challenge and responded with a Movable Type plugin for inserting 2 spaces between sentences.  Wow.  That's about 10 hours after my blog post.  Talk about fast!  That's really, really cool.  Since I'm not a Movable Type guy I can't change it but I'm always impressed by their work so I'm sure it will be great.  Recommended.  [ Go ]
7:39:03 PM        comment []    IM Me About This   

2 Spaces or 1?  There's apparently a big discussion of this now [ Scoble ] [ Ziv ].  So I'll cast my .02 into the ring not that many people care what I say in terms of design.  I'm just plain not cool enough.  Still I have been creating tools for reading and writing on screens since 1987 (Black Magic / HyperWriter) which gives me a long history here.  Perhaps not as long as Mark Bernstein of Tinderbox fame but still pretty damn long.  Here's my recommendation on 2 spaces between sentences:

JUST DO IT!

Here's why:

1. Reading on screen is approximately 25% slower than on paper.  (1st Google result) [ Go ] 
2. Two spaces between sentences makes it easier for the eye to track the content.
3. Anything you can do to increasing reading speed onscreen, and this will (although I have no proof of it) is good.

Personally I think someone should create a MovableType plugin to allow MT to convert [space][space] to [space][HTML for Nonbreaking Space].  Maybe the Kalsey Group?

8:36:19 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Kuro5hin talks about spamming referrer logs which may have very negative effects for Mark's very cool recommended reading lists. That's an absolute pity.  [ Go ]
8:25:20 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Good article in the Sydney Morning Herald (Thanks Dave for the link) about Microsoft's failed individual licensing model for Office.  Awesome. [ Go ]
8:22:53 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Interesting.  My BlogStreet ranking is up to 82 (from 100). Scripting is #1, Doc is #6, John Robb is #12.  The rankings are tied to when a blogger adds you to their blogroll.  Apparently 135 blogs now have me in their blogroll.  Sweet!  [ Go See Blogstreet]

8:18:55 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Good Slashdot discussion on programming frameworks for native GUI applications under OSX.  [ Go ]
8:14:17 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Matt Mower has an interesting approach to getting new business as a consultant.  Worth Reading. [ Go ]
8:12:55 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Don't Be a Font Bitch !  When Adam told me he was coming back to blogging I slammed him with the Font Bitch issue and he almost immediately fixed his Movable Type blog.  I've ranted and I've railed against blogs that suffer from thsi and I'll keep doing it.  Don't be a FontBitch, one of those design weenies that prevents users from changing the text size of your blog, just don't be.  Why do you want to make it harder to read your blog?  All you have to do is avoid using PX font values for the main P tag for your blog.  It's really simple you know.  Here's one of the resources we found that addresses it.  [ Go ]

8:11:35 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Too Funny.  Just plain too funny [ Go ]
8:07:50 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

If you'd like to see the coolest *nix Window Manager I've seen in a long time, then check out Screen or PWM or ION.  The common theme here is being a "keyboard friendly" window manager.  That's right keyboard friendly.  They actually look a lot like they are in character mode and they aren't the traditional overlapping window approach.  Note -- Screen is actually more than a Window manager, you really need to read the article to understand it.  And it's worth it.  Once i resurrect my desktop *nix box I need to look at this seriously (I use a laptop for *nix but I'll be moving to a desktop *nix box shortly thanks to Jeremy giving me the Redhat 8 ISOs'.  Oh and thanks to Adam for pointing this out to me and thanks to Freshmeat for writing this article.

[ Article ] [ Screen ] [ PWM ] [ ION ]

8:03:12 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Interesting!  News.com is covering "A Mortal Microsoft" about the "cracks" in the empire.  I'll have to read this. And the first topic?  Open Source! [ Go ]

7:56:43 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Siebel is being sued over its stock option allocation plan.  Given Tom Siebel's personal gains on Siebel options from 96 to 2001 (over $1 billion), this isn't surprising. He's also being sued by the Louisiana Teachers Retirement System which isn't exactly a leading organization and could well find his compensation excessive.  Heck I find it excessive but that doesn't mean it's illegal.  It'll be interesting to see what happens here.  [ Go ]
7:54:56 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

If you are an Outlook Express user then you should read this.  It's another security breach tied to HTML mail.  Even myself, someone who has actually practically applied HTML mail, is really starting to wonder about turning off HTML mail at the server permanently. [ Go ]
7:50:47 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Microsoft MSN: Hey AOL Watch Out !  MSN is planning a $300 million rollout for MSN 8.  Ouch!  That's Windows 95 like money.  Interestingly they are claiming virus protection as a feature.  That's a smart, smart feature and one that AOL would need to match.  If I was a virus software maker then I'd be making a sales call on AOL this week.  [ Go ]
7:46:51 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Buy this month's PC Magazine!  I've been reading PC Magazine for a long, long time.  Like 198x where x is less than 4.  Anyway this months's issue, November 5, has 104 Windows Tips and they are really, really good. [ Online Version of Article ]
7:44:27 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

This is very specific but if you need it, you need it bad.  My buddy Brian, also the lead developer of Inbox Buddy, redesigned his mother's websites, Diabetic Lifestyle and Diabetic Recipes (over 800 recipes online).  Brian's mom has been writing cookbooks for years and knows her stuff in this area.  Recommended if you need it. 

[Bias Disclaimer: Brian's been a friend for over 20 years now and I've known his mother just as long.]  Oh and interestingly if you Google for just diabetic recipes, this site comes up 1st!  So you know it must be good!  So maybe my bias isn't that important.  Is this a new test for when a blogger shouldn't disclose bias?  (I don't think so myself but ...)

7:41:58 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Oh and Adam Wendt's father is running for President in 2004.  And he has both a blog and a campaign website.  I don't know much about his politics but I do know that a candidate that quotes Ursula K. Le Guin can't be all bad.   [ Site ] [ Blog ]
7:36:07 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Adam Wendt is back.  Very cool.  Adam is a local guy (New Hampshire) and is just one of the nicest, most helpful bloggers i've encountered.  He even gives me credit for pushing him back into the blogging world after I IM badgered him recently.  Recommended.  [ Go ]
7:33:00 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

A very cool product: Linksys 80 Gigabyte Network Drive.  80 Gigabytes, E0thernet attached to your network.  Even though this is intended as a business product, it's easy to envision plugging it into a cable modem firewall that is connected to a WiFi access point.  This is a much better way for homes to share that MP3 collection than a fileserver which they can't maintain well.  Very nice.  And I suspect it runs Linksys. [ Go ] [ Amazon ]
7:29:39 AM        comment []    IM Me About This   

Monday!  Manic Monday!  Well now that the initial burst of enthusiasm has trickled away I guess it's "uh.... monday ....  when's Friday?".  Just teasing, I hope this will be a week of blogging goodness and since today will be a day of many interruptions and distractions it will be just a series of short tidbits.

7:22:43 AM        comment []    IM Me About This