Geek me
This is Mike speaking. I'm only going to show you this shirt because I think it's so damn cool. As a career technical writer, I cannot think of a more appropriate display of snarkiness. Now you have to promise me that you won't buy one and wear it because that would significantly decrease the coolness factor of me owning one. Got that? Good.

the old switcheroo
At first it looked as though a politically motivated hack was responsible for the chop-Photoshopped Hussein/Bush rasslin' pics that suddenly appeared on the Dear Raed blog, but it turns out it was just an angry maintenance man at an over-taxed image-hosting site. Punitive image-swapping isn't a new phenomenon, though: Some people have raised it to the level of an art form.

Harvard Blogs?
Have you heard about the Berkman Center for Internet and Society? Part of Harvard's law program, the Berkman Center boasts such fellows as John Perry Barlow and Dave Winer. And, of course, when scripting.com's Dave Winer is involved, you can bet your bricks and ivy that blogging will be discussed.

It's good to know that even bloggers embedded in the aged halls of high academia can post peace march photos and stories about their trip home for the holidays. Am I the only one with visions of "ENG251: Blogging as Literature" showing up on the Harvard class schedule in the near future?

using a hammer to push in a tack
If Martha Stewart can do macaroni and cheese then what's stopping you from using the mighty powers of a US$609 program like Photoshop to recreate the low-tech chic of a flea-market LOMO camera?

when the lights go down in The City
It's been an awfully strange, tough day today, what with all the crazy stuff going on both in the world and right here in San Francisco. The trip to work was a complete Odyssey, what with war protests snarling traffic to a complete standstill just four blocks-ish away from Webmonkey HQ (the protesters that were vomiting for peace were a bit further away). And once we finally managed to get in to work, we found it pretty difficult to concentrate -- I'm sure it didn't help that we stopped every five minutes to check the various news sites and blogs. Anyway. Here's hoping this all ends as soon as humanly possible, and that in the meantime, you and yours are safe.

-The Webmonkeys

meme wars
So six different people have forwarded us the Weight Watchers Recipe Cards, and we've received the wacky interpretations of the Ready.gov's emergency "Visual Guides" only four times. Which means the recipe cards have it! (For now, at least -- a few straggler forwards could make all the difference.)

how about "bloggy-back riding"?
A direct quote from the genius that is Cardhouse: "03mar15. I was thinking about people who want to create their own weblog, but don't want to be involved with the set-up, etc, and I figured if you're really lazy you could just start your own weblog in the comments section of someone else's weblog. I call this concept a 'virusblog,' because everything needs a name." Hahaha!

Now what's the name for the practice of lifting an entry from someone else's blog, slapping some quotes around it, and pasting it into your own? "Blog Burning"?

Light 'em up, ladies!

Jobs for the Mobs
Hey all you underemployed tech workers out there! Sorry, we couldn't resist. Anyway, if you're looking for a job and having no luck, the problem might be your approach. In this week's article, our newest Webmonkey, Greg, looks at the current market and then offers some tips to help you find the job that's out there waiting for you. Yes, you.

When they're not trolling the sidewalks — iBook aloft — searching for free WiFi, we all know that the unemployed tech messes spend time hanging out in coffee shops updating their blogs. Well, if you live in Boston, you can do both. Wicked pissah! I'll have a twelve pack of crullers and a dark roast, triple cream, triple sugar. Hey, I was born in Boston and my dad works for Dunkin Donuts, so I'm allowed. Get off my back.

Chat for Earthlings
If just plain old instant messenging bores you, this news should cheer you up: Microsoft has released a new version of its instant messenger client with streaming video capability. If you've got a webcam, and a fast enough connection, now you can exchange video with any buddy running the MSN messenger 5.0 client. Yahoo added video capability to its Yahoo Messenger software a few months ago, but AOL still hasn't announced any plans to add video goodies to its AIM client.

If you're a faithful Webmonkey reader, then you've probably heard of Trillian. For the uninitiated, Trillian is a multi-protocol chat client that lets you connect to multiple services (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, and IRC) using only one piece of software. You can even see all your buddy lists in the same window. The Trillian client is also skinable, but other than that, it's pretty much no-frills. So you shouldn't expect video capabilities anytime soon, but you can expect rock-solid stability and the standard assortment of useful features. A free version and a "Pro" version are available.

It's just a guess, but I like to think that Trillian is named after the character from Douglas Adams' Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You know, the woman that Arthur struck out with at the party on Earth only to bump into her aboard the Heart of Gold when he and Ford are saved by the ship's infinite improbability drive? Now, maybe I was too young to get the inferences, but were Trillian and Zaphod Beeblebrox an item? Well, Adams' official site says that they were boyfriend/girlfriend, which gives me pause. I always thought that she could have done better. The dude's got two heads and a whole heap of attitude! Whatever.

robjet d'art
Not only did Webmonkey not-so-secret crush Rob Cockerham get interviewed on All Things Considered (that's right, some scrolling required!) a few weeks ago, but his guerilla anti-target-marketing Safeway card project just got picked up by the New York Times (that's right, registration required!). And yet, in the midst of all this ever-expanding fame, Rob still managed to find the time to conduct exhaustive viscosity tests. How does he do it? No, seriously, how?