keeping an eye on things
Mood:  spacey
Now Playing: [complete silence]
You wouldn't think something as simple as keeping an eye on the cursor would or could be so disturbing.

"That's just not right, I don't like that one bit!" said Mike. "That's going to haunt me until I'm 80!" said Jay, and, "Just what is it FOR?"

The Internet, my friend. That's just where it belongs. The Internet.

Latin Roots
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Nuggets volume 2
Ever wonder where all of that dummy text you see in user guides and publishing documents comes from? You know... "Dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet," and so on.

Well, this site has all of the answers. Turns out it's actually real Latin, it has its roots in an ancient document, and it has survived four centuries in the publishing industry. Who knew?

Avast, ye maties!
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: what do you do with a drunken sailor?
Check it out, today is the official "Talk Like A Pirate Day". Now shove off smartly, ya bilge rat!

See Ya At Seybold
Mood:  sharp
Now Playing: a few G4s humming with happiness
It's Mike here, writing to you from Seybold 2003 in San Francisco. This is my second year covering this publishing technology conference, and I must say that I feel a little more "in tune" with it this year.

At the 2002 show, everything was printer-and-digital-imaging heavy. This year, I think people have gotten the message that most designers are working on the Web in at least some capacity. The evidence: there are far more Web-specific products and services this year. Content management, data storage, XML document conversion, et cetera. I'll be doing a full write-up later this week... I have a few more meetings to endure, then maybe I'll scope the expo floor one last time before calling it a day.

Oh, and they have bocce! Can you believe it? A full-blown bocce court right in the middle of the second floor landing. Seybold is at Moscone West this year, the brand-new facility that housed the Apple WWDC a few months ago. If you inhale through the nose, you can still detect a hint of that "new conference center" smell. And bocce balls.

Also, I want more free t-shirts. Don't these people know how to grease up members of the press? Hrmph.

Woah! Where have you been?
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: free jazz
Hey now, looks like about three weeks have frittered past. And that's a rather obscure word, but one that we learned by listening to a lot of Pink Floyd. I'm talking about the word "frittered" here, folks.

Why have we been neglecting the blog? Because we've been putting in so much work on the Webmonkey site! There are three new articles this month, plus more to come in a few days. We've also seen a rise in the number of Flash experts out there since Scott Gilbertson chimed in with his rundown of scripting in Flash and Mike Kay gave us a peek at Flash MX 2004. Can you blame them for getting excited?

Did you spy those new context-sensitive text-based Google banner ads at the bottoms of our pages? Pretty slick. A fine bit of engineering on display.

This week is the Seybold 2004 conference in sunny San Fran. We've got a contingent descending upon the premises, and we'll have some updates here and a full report over on Webmokey before week's end. So, stay tuned!

Speed spray!
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: Bonnie Prince Billy

First, there was the Pringles can WiFi antenna booster to gain distance and power. Now, an innovative way to increase your bandwidth. Be sure to read the fine print!

Linux World day 2
Mood:  sharp
Now Playing: KUSF 90.3

Linux World again, here in the computer cluster roped off especially for media and (apparently) one woman in a black backless cat-suit.

Man oh MAN is this place geeky! It's great, don't get me wrong, but there's a busload of Sweedish teens from a Stockholm Linux User Group here, all of them smiling and waving their Tux dolls with glee. Not to mention about seventeen dead ringers for the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Windows? Worst Operating System Ever! Now make like my pants and split!

The Red Hat booth was more crowded than ever today. They were showing a demo that I could barely pay attention to because of the size of the crowd. Also, a big line over at XandrOS yesterday. They were handing out copies of their new distro (I got one!) for free.

Met Scott of Laughing Squid, a person I've known over email for about three years but never met in the flesh. Also, had a conversation with a woman from North Carolina about the possibility of the Webmonkey Golden Banana award of excellence. Can't decide what to give the award FOR exactly, but the possibility of one such award existing excites her. Sorry, but we're going to have to think about it.

Oh, and to the person who wrote yesterday about how we should write tutorials on all of those technologies... there already is a Firewall article on WM from 2001, and the best MySQL tool money can buy is your local text editor. Hehe, sorry. Had to say it. Your comments are appreciated!

New article tomorrow, and a Linux World wrap-up soon after. See you then!

hello (linux) world
Mood:  on fire
Now Playing: cell phones and air conditioning

It's Mike here, and I'm at the LinuxWorld Expo at San Francisco's Moscone Center. I've only been here about 25 minutes and I can already tell you that it's super geeky. There are little tux the penguins running around (actually guys in sweaty penguin suits) and plenty of pony tails. I'm going to be wandering around today, asking questions and listening to speeches. I'm trying to sniff out the latest in the Web technology field. Maybe a new server package, a new MySQL tool, a new open source firewall... we shall see. We'll be drawing up a full report on the conference at the end of the week. Which way to the MUD room?

The fifth beatle
Mood:  hug me
Now Playing: please, please, please

Just in case you've always been a skeptic, or just in case you find the need to proclaim yourself the Eggman a little too often, here is definitive proof that Paul McCartney was killed and replaced with a look-alike in 1966.

So, put on Magical Mystery Tour and at the end of "Strawberry Fields" when the trolley part comes on, crank up the stereo real loud and listen, man. You'll see! Doubt no more!

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!