New Word Alert
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: laughter
We have coined a new word here at Webmonkey. We were in the park playing hipster bingo at lunch, and Evany inquired as to whether or not Mike's MUNI hat was an ironic trucker-cap. Well, it certainly isn't a trucker cap, because trucker cap implies mesh and foam construction. But it is sort of ironic. Let's just say it's quasironic. New Word!

new article over at Webmonkey
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: cody chesnutt
Hey! Ex-Webmonkey producer and really fine human being Jason Cook has written a piece all about the nuttastic things going down in the meta space. It's called "Metadata, Mark II," and it just may change your life.

Dave Eggers would be proud!
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: son house
Courtesy of Burris T. Ewell, here it is, the keyboard for pirates.

Avast.

Tux takes a bath
Mood:  sharp
Now Playing: KUSF, 90.3 FM
Some interesting developments over the weekend. First on our minds is that the 2003 Tour de France is really kicking. Lance is in yellow and the climbers put on an amazing show in the Alps. I can tell you that Jay and I are pretty weary from waking at 6:00AM every morning to watch the live race coverage. Not to worry, the bike race is exciting enough to get us nice and pumped before work. Then we spend our first fifteen minutes in the office talking about it. Follow along on OLN or on the Web at VeloNews.com

Oh yeah, technology and Web development, right. Have you seen this?? Quite funny.

Reach out and touch some one
Mood:  party time!
Now Playing: The sound of leaf blowers

Happy 4th of July to one and all. We're spending the day at a big fancy house in Marin, grilling up soy-based bratwurst and drinking hearty ales with names we can't pronounce.

But seriously folks, did you see the Wired News story about the recording and transmission of touch over the Internet? The applications are endless, for sure. The technology is known as haptics, and it involves some gloves, some software modelling, and a little bit of imagination.

Does anyone remember the stink that a couple of companies made a few years ago when they announced the ability to transmit smell over the Internet? The devices never took off, so hopefully the haptic technology will. Finally, we can rent movies and watch them in Feel-A-Round. Imagine the Matrix.. ugh!

El Camino
Mood:  smelly
Now Playing: random britpop stream
Good day, intrepid Web geeks. How are you??

Last week was pretty huge in the Apple universe. All those new announcements, Panther (aka MacOS X 10.3), a new browser out of beta, and developers soaking up the flavor. Heck, we even posted an article about all the hype. This morning, I was perusing my favorite RSS feeds when i came across an odd factoid on Pinkerton's blog.

Seems as though Apple never fully tested Camino (??) under Panther. Maybe they were too caught up high-fiving themselves over Safari? Pinkerton updated his post this morning by noting that it's just the trunk builds of Camino that won't run on Panther. Version 0.7, the most recent build, works fine. However, run an older build and the browser doesn't load any pages. Nothing, just a blank screen. Try to open a tab and the browser crashes horribly. Very interesting. So, Panther kids, download the latest Camino now!

Gibson versus Orwell
Mood:  lyrical
Now Playing: Jen Jelinek
Published in the New York Times today is an interesting take on the Orwellian look and feel of today's political climate written by the one and only William Gibosn. His opinion piece is a nice read, even if it's a little on the disturbing and scary side.

In other news, you may have seen the monkey bite on Monday that mentioned the Echo Project roadmap for a new and fresh RSS format. The only problem is that the authors of some of the best blogging tools out there aren't willing to ditch their current RSS formats for the proposed new one. It's a shame, too, because the new format is a total re-thinking of the process and it stands to eclipse RSS 1.0, .9x, and 2.0 a few revs down the line. But, it will only work if everyone agrees to use it. Otherwise, we kind of stay where we are... in quagmire-muck-mess-ville.

To follow the drama, read the Echo wiki and Dave Winer's blog. If you don't know Jack about RSS, learn more at Webmonkey.

local girl does good
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: atomic dog
Posting a link to Webmonkey foremother June Cohen's new book, The Unusually Useful Web Book, on the front door of Webmonkey seems to have given it a big boost in the Amazon sales rankings. In fact, watching the book jockey for position has become a game of its own. "Oh!" says June, "The book's now at 572! It broke into the Top 20 for Computers & Internet books. Hooray! Amazon is so weird ... it's like watching the world's slowest, strangest, most abstract sports event."

Why not see what you can do to influence the rankings and buy a copy? Not only has it been described as an "instant classic" by the first user reviewer, but it features quotes from actual Webmonkeys, past and present.

Data of our Times
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Takako Minekawa

Today's entry comes from the NYTimes, so free registration is required to view the content. It's a weekly feature on what we watch, read, and download. Some pretty fascinating stats, and the charts are updated every Monday morning. Who's got my Sean Paul ringtones?

One Love at JavaOne
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: two guys with pony tails talking about semantics
This is Mike here, and I'm smack in the middle of the JavaOne conference at San Francisco's Moscone Center. The flash and grandeur are overwhelming to say the least — Sun Microsystems, the event sponsor, has used the opening speaker session to launch a new consumer push in the wireless industry, a new Java logo, and two new websites. One is Java.com, a consumer-based site to promote the latest games and applications, and the other is Java.net, a developer community with blogs, wikis, code databases, and discussion forums where Java developers can share ideas.

It's going to be a long week, and we are planning a wrap-up for the Webmonkey site in the next couple of days. Right now, I'm going to go get a taste of the latest developer's tools and some of the cooler mobile devices on display in the pavillion. If anyone wants any free swag from the conference floor, let me know... but please keep in mind that there's only so much I can carry.