Saturday, October 11, 2003

"The paramilitary wing of the usability movement"  (via boingboing) They scrape (write programs that grab information from) badly designed web sites and repackage them as more usable web sites, updated automatically whenever the original site changes.  The Canadian show As It Happens did a piece on Bear Scat, a web app made by a student at the University of Alberta that scrapes and improves the less than usable "Bear Tracks" official online registration site. And now someone has done the same thing for or to the British Government.  Their Parliamentary Record has been hijacked and redesigned.  This trend should keep web programmers looking over their shoulders. 1:37:20 PM    comment []

Love and Chicken Susie, Grampa John and "Gramma D." stopped by with a big bucket of Kentucky Fried last night.  Always great to see them.  They just heard about Kate being pregnant yesterday and I informed them that they would have found out two weeks ago if they were reading this web log like they were supposed to.  But thanks for the chicken!  I feel well lubed. And then Lis stopped by with some flowers and maternity clothes.  Not to subtract from the value of the bucket of chicken, but her visit and support was a big help...value beyond calculation.  You have a heart of gold.  Thank you.  10:56:26 AM    comment []

A reason to feel safe:  Fire retardant chemicals are building up in humans, especially in women's breasts.  There was a great article about this in the Wall Street Journal this week.  This article went on to explain how many chemicals, including the above mentioned retardants, were developed before a 1970's chemical safety rule went into effect and aren't subject to the same scrutiny as chemicals developed since then.  Now the EU is trying to pass laws saying, "Lets apply the same scrutiny to thousands more chemicals."  and the Bush administration is trying hard to prevent this from passing out of fear that it could become a global standard and disrupt global trade. 3:11:33 AM    comment []