AT THE TECHNO LOUNGE
9:05A

So, here I am at home, sitting in my half of the Techno Lounge waiting for the company meeting to begin. One of the advantages to working for an online chat company is that the monthly company meeting is held online.

It's an interesting Web experience. They use Real Audio and have a slide show with the Power Point presentation. The only temptation, since most of us are major chatters, is to, of course, chat to each other during the meeting.

Hmmm...they've changed the settings on the chat room to where it doesn't list the chatters or allow any chatting amongst ourselves. We can only ask questions to the speaker. And it's only 1-way on the audio. Awww, now that's sad.

Time to go camping. Hopefully up by the 'gold claim' in a week or two. We're checking right now to see if the logging road is usable and if there are any fallen trees blocking the path (takes forever to chainsaw your way through).

I desperately need to get my gun-shooting ya-ya's out. It's part of that redneck streak, but how redneck can it be if all you slaughter is fruits and vegetables. I don't own a gun personally as it might make me a little too dangerous, but my friends have them and they bring up the whole arsenal when we go camping. There's nothing quite as satisfying as annihilating a watermelon with an AK47. Well, okay, there are a few other things.

BOOTLEGGIN GRANNIES
2:25P

Sewing enthusiasts have found they can swap doily-and-swan patterns on the Web instead of paying pattern publishers. Sound familiar? "The online swapping made sense for Carlene Davis, a 52-year-old grandmother in Idaho, who said quality patterns are hard to find in her rural community."

Apparently sales have dropped $200,000 a year (40 percent) since 1997, partly due to such swapping, said Pegasus (pattern design shop) founder Jim Hedgepath. (Pattern books typically cost about $6 each.) "They're housewives and they're hackers," Hedgepath said. "I don't care if they have kids. I don't care that they are grandmothers. They're bootlegging us out of business." And this illicit practice is reportedly spreading into the knitting and crocheting arenas also. Sooooo insidious.

I can only be thankful that Roger Dean isn't that kind of guy.

E-tailors violate own privacy policies. Is your personal info being sold? Looks like you can't even trust the TRUSTe seal.

'Secret' urls:
Web Design World 2000 in Seattle.
Web Design World 2000 in Atlanta.

WEB EXPERIMENT 299 Continues. Get your Palm OS Emulator here. A little trickier for the Mac, but I'm getting there.

HUG A SYS ADMIN
10:09A

Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. See the Sys Admin Humor: Advice to employess on the proper use of the System Administrator's valuable time, why you can't find your sys admin, 101 things you do not want your sys admin to say, and more.

From Salon: Why the music industry has nothing to celebrate. Also separates Napster the Company from Napster the Phenomenom.

"For all sorts of reasons, some good ones and some rationalizations, people don't feel that they're doing anything wrong when they trade music files with Napster. Maybe they're already spending hundreds of dollars a year on overpriced CDs. Maybe they're sick of the music industry's habit of packaging one hit with a bunch of dud tracks. Maybe they just want to check out music before buying it in ways that the current dismal radio-and-MTV universe simply don't allow."

Where's my G4 plus chip? Can Motorola deliver?

The Merc has a newsblog written by Dan Gillmore. Read his reply to Dave Winer's question, "Has the newspaper industry suffered because they're giving away their copyrighted content on the Internet?"

AOL to Accommodate Blind Web Surfers. And it only took a lawsuit.

Flash 5 coming out in September. I've been working my butt off on weekends on a little Flash story for Heartless's Holey Haven (yes, I'm having my way with Flash), and it is soooooo time-consuming. I find myself wanting to draw purty pictures more than animating objects. There was a point where I had to decide: web developer . . . web designer. Now, it seems there's web animated designer and web purty picture designer. Hmmm . . .

WEB EXPERIMENT 301 Update: I've read the first installment of The Plant and want more. From Steve's Comments:

"What I propose doing is this: Episode 2, 6-7,000 words; Episode 3, 10-12,000 words. Download price in both cases would remain $1. Installments 4 through 7 or 8 would be much longer-perhaps as long as 25,000 words-and the download price would go up to $2.50. What do you think about this? Will it work?"

JAKOB'S SUBVERSION
7:34A

The latest tussle over usability. Here's the article that added fuel to the usability fire, End of Web Design by Jakob Nielsen.

"Websites must tone down their individual appearance and distinct design in all ways: visual design, terminology and labeling, interactions design and workflow, information architecture."

I had to look twice to see if I was on the parody site.

Here's Clay Shirky's Open Letter to Jakob Nielsen in response to the article. And here's the discussion board discussion.

And speaking of subversion, I went to the standing room only Silicon Valley Webgrrls meeting last night and heard Patti Wilson speak about The Fine Art of Salary Negotiation. Unlike some speakers who are skimpy on info or are out to sell a product, Patti really delivered. Here are my notes.

I bought my first Dummies book: Fitness for Dummies. It was embarrassing (almost as embarrassing as when I bought my Backstreet Boys 'Millenium' cd). Not because of the fitness part, but the dummies part. Honey's giving it a once-over and then giving me the Cliff Notes version. I wouldn't mind at all being more fit, more healthy, I just hate to sweat. Really.

Mac Repair in the Bay Area: MacResQ - Mac Reseller and Service Center in Concorde. We Love Macs - San Jose. Low End Mac - good set of Web links.

Here are legal articles for Web Site Designers and Site Owners by Web lawyer Ivan Hoffman. Here's another legal link, Self-Help Law Center. And another, Copyright Ownership: The Work Made for Hire Doctrine.

GREEDY BASTARDS
9:50A

Anyone else tired of certain industries trying to own the Web? Hollywood looks to kill hyperlinks in copyright fights. Fortunately, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is helping to defend 2600 Enterprises. The EFF attorney says, "Where do we draw the line? We're all two or three clicks away from something illegal or from something someone doesn't like." Here's 2600's (The Hackers Quarterly) News Archives which has the blow-by-blow transcripts.

Here's Saundra Kae Rubel's list of places to go for background information on companies, and here's her list of places to go for salary information. She also recommended here to look for basic info on a particular start-up and here to see company profiles. Thanks for sharing, Saundra Kae Rubel, you Webgrrrl you!

Accessory makers stranded by iMac color change. And then there's people like me who have the turquoi...blue and white G3s. My lamps match the computers, but that's about the extent of my computer color coordination. Now, if they'd make a ruby G4 then it would match my poster of the red Countach on the wall over my monitor. ;)

A brand new e-zine, Failure Magazine. Read the interview with Steve Wozniak.

WEB EXPERIMENT 301 Continues: Stephen King pissing off publishers

SCARY BOOK
7:58A

WEB EXPERIMENT 301: Buying a book in installments online. I've always been a Stephen King fan. His stories, with a few exceptions, don't translate into movies very well, but I devour his books. Well, I used to devour his books. His newer ones don't seem to have the punch. But at his site he's selling installments of his story, "The Plant", for $1 an installment. You can pay through Amazon, or use the honor system and send a check or money order. If 75% of the people who download are honest, Stephen is going to finish the book (about 20 installments). Will I feel cheated if I pay $10 and don't get to read the end? Hmmmm...

In the name of experimentation (which is a great name to use when legitimizing curiosity), I paid through Amazon and later received this email (the addy has been changed to keep the spam bots at bay):

Dear lmichelleatgrownmencrydotcom,

Thanks for reading my story, thanks for your honesty, and thanks for helping us change the face of publishing!

Stephen King

Oooo, I'm helping to change the face of publishing. I take a peek at the pdf and it seems to be written in the style of "Dangerous Liasons" (great movie, fantastic book). Can't wait to continue the experiment.

Get it while you can: the yanked iMac Sage ad with Kermit the Frog singing "It's Not Easy Being Green" (6M).