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.

Whole Lotta Dazed Confusion
Mood:  crushed out
Now Playing: Os Mutandes
Today, we spent the better part of the morning listening to the new 3-disc Led Zeppelin live set that just came out. Holy cow, this band was amazing in concert. Not like you needed me to tell you that. But back in the day, they were like... like the sonic equivalent of ten guys coming after you with samurai swords in 114 degree heat. Yeah!

Of course, the unsung hero of the band is John Paul Jones, the bassist and multi-instrumentalist who stands in back and nods his head. His name is the same as the father of the British navy. There's actually a new book about John Paul Jones (the sea-going one) out in stores. The author is somebody named Evan Thomas. Which, strangely, is almost the same name as our one and only Evany Thomas, Webmonkey's Managing Editor.

Just another manic Monday with wrap-around coincidences that fit better than your RayBans.

Mo' Zilla! Mo' Zilla! Mo' Zilla!
Mood:  spacey
Now Playing: Dublab.com --- the dubstream!
Fortune and Wired News are declaring the once-famous browser wars over. It seems as though IE has absorbed so much of Netscape's audience as of late that AOL/Time Warner has decided to just sort of give up. AOL and Microsoft are bedfellows now after signing some sort of mind-boggling agreement involving many many dollar signs. Actually, a good portion of their partnership revolves around digital rights management technology, something I've always found counter-productive and intrusive. Yeah, and I'd like to see the suits try to get their hands on my dope vinyl crates. Boo-shaka-yah!

As far as browsers go, the only war that's really raging around here is Camino vs. Firebird -- which is more badass? Tough question indeed.

All Hail Instant Messenger
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: Stephan Betke
mike: i have a new word
mike: AIM-jack
evany: what the...oh, when someone takes over your aim and types as you??
mike: no, when you're typing and another window pops up and AIM automatically jumps to that window
mike: so each person gets half a sentence
mike: which sucks if you are talking about your g/f or boss and then your g/f or boss AIMjacks you
evany: ah!!!
evany: hahahaha!!!
evany: the webmonkey blog post is writing itself!
evany: just post this AIM!
mike: so should i start talking about my pectoral muscles?

Book 'Em!
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: yarbrough and peoples
Personal sites sometimes get a big, bad rap for being complete wastes of time. But it turns out that one person (one foxy, ass-grabbing funny person, yeah) actually can make a difference. Nice! (The fact that our libraries need someone to go begging for books? Not so nice!)

The Smoking Banana
Mood:  suave
Now Playing: guided by voices "big boring wedding"
A very interesting site design concept fell into our laps today. Check out the engine behind Strange Banana. A whole new (and randomly selected) CSS layout is generated every time you visit the page. Useful? Well, maybe if you need some new ideas for un-thought-of color combinations. Cool? Sure.

In other news, I'm excited about the San Francisco debut of Matthew Barney's Cremaster cycle. Playing at the gorgeous Castro Theatre, it's a five-part series that has been described as "David Lynch turned up to 11". Check out the spooky clips on the site. Then look up the film's title in the dictionary. I can't wait.

a slice of webmonkey
Mood:  hug me
Now Playing: everclear
Things are pretty good here at Webmonkey Central. The weather's in the 80s (one of four days a year that we San Franciscaners get to leave the house without having to layer), a new and toothsome Thai place just opened on the corner, the lumpy scar tissue under my appendectomy wound is finally shrinking, and we finally figured out the reason behind yesterday's server crunch: Turns out that mighty Webmonkey-kissing-cousin Tripod linked to us from one of its popunders. Thanks, party people!

Mad Hits for the Monkey
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Brand Nubian
After our first, true, all-too-summery San Francisco weekend, we returned to the office this morning to find that Webmonkey was getting crazy traffic. Thousands of requests. We checked slashdot, Google News, flipped through the major geek sites, and found no reason why so many people would be hitting the Webmonkey frontdoor. I guess we'll find out tomorrow when we turn over our referrer logs and pick through them.

Until then, we can only imagine it's because of the stellar articles, helpful how-tos, and smashingly handsome author pics. Heh.

Jason the Peacemaker
Now Playing: RJD2
About a month after our own little monkey knife fight, Dave Winer has buried the proverbial hatchet at least temporarily and linked to a Webmonkey article with nary a hint of disgust or pity. And even front-and-center at the top.

Thanks, Dave. Does this mean you'll start returning our emails?

This Mel Gibson movie will self-destruct in ten seconds
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: shady corner EP
Disney is looking at the market for self-destructing DVDs. The DVDs begin to rust after 48 hours, so you're forced to watch it once or twice and then throw it away. So, it's basically just like Netflix except that it's really bad for the environment! Disney is doing a great job of teaching kids ethics and ecological responsibility, wouldn't you say?

Disney has recently been in the news because of another, more exciting cultural landmark. Frank Gehry's design for the Walt Disney Concert Hall (commissioned by Mrs. Disney and intended to be the new home of the LA Philharmonic) is getting a fair shake of the press stick. Deservedly so if you ask us. I mean, wow, look at that thing!