Circadian Shift

Addendum (30 September 2002): Well, thanks to my mentioning the Roaring Boys in a post that appears further down this page, a few people have wound up here looking for the song. I've now gone and put the MP3 online.

Download The Roaring Boys -- "House of Stone".

---

Downloaded another boatload of tracks featuring Underworld playing live; this time I downloaded their set from the Eurokeenes Festival in 1998. Can't say I liked it as much as the set from the Fuji Rock Festival. If I had to pick a favourite track, I'd go with "Rez", since I think it's better than the studio version.

Also checked out the Wired piece on lowercase sound that every other blog on the planet seems to be linking to. Quote:

"Lowercase sound" is the name given to a loose movement in electronic music that emphasizes very quiet sounds and the long, empty silences between them.

At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, isn't this just a re-branding of musique concrete for the post-ambient set?

The Wired piece has links to a bunch of MP3 excerpts, which I naturally had to download. Even with the volume setting cranked on WinAmp plus my external speakers being turned up, it's pretty quiet. Quelle surprise. A couple of the tracks make for good ambient background noise. I wonder if listening through headphones would enhance the auditory experience. I'm not that bothered to find out at the moment.

Been adding more work-related links to the sidebar. Have decided that InfoDesign belongs under "Essential Links" since it seems to be a jump-point to the bazillion other things that interest me (info architecture, user centred design, taxonomy). You might not agree, but this is my blog.

Aced my mid-term, so I'm feeling pretty good at the moment. (The super-tanker of coffee that I consumed not too long ago might also being contributing to my sense of well being.) Didn't get all my reading done for my class, which starts in 20 minutes, but what else is new.

Had another softball game scheduled for 9pm tonight. Fortunately, some sort of calamity knocked out the power grid supplying the park, so there were no lights on at the ball diamonds. Hence I was able to partake of beer and artery-clogging foods without being subjected to team sports interaction beforehand. Yeehaw.

Been a while, since I posted a link to anything tech related. Haven't been much in the mood for it. However, did get an e-mail notice of one article today -- "Ten Critical Factors for Successful Enterprise-Wide Data Quality". Likely too fluffy for hard-core data architect types, but I liked it fine.

I'd visited Cate's Garage Sale Finds before and thought it was hilarious. Now there's some new stuff on the site (thanks to Jeff for the tip). Go have a look . Laugh.

A while back, someone decided to compile the 100 best works of fiction of all time. I'm feeling decidedly less than well-read.

Of the 100 books, here's the one I've read because I had to for high school English classes:

• William Shakespeare, England, (1564-1616), Hamlet; Othello


• Sophocles, Greece, (496-406 BC), Oedipus the King

Books I chose to read, but also for school-related purposes:

• Emily Bronte, England, (1818-1848), Wuthering Heights (her sister Charlotte's book, Jane Eyre, did not make the list; I did read Jane Eyre in my spare time because I liked Wuthering Heights


• Albert Camus, France, (1913-1960), The Stranger (had to read it in French; gave up and read it in English)

Books I've read entirely of my own volition:

• George Orwell, England, (1903-1950), 1984 (that was the only Orwell on the list; his non-fiction essays kick ass)


• Anton P Chekhov, Russia, (1860-1904), Selected Stories (I'm going to assume that there's only one anthology with this title)

Books that I've read parts of (not fully), but of my own will:

• Leo Tolstoy, Russia, (1828-1910), The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories (I've only read the title story, which I really liked)


• Henrik Ibsen, Norway (1828-1906), A Doll's House (started it, wandered off, never got back to it)

Not surprisingly, the list is fairly Eurocentric; the only Asian titles I recognized were the Ramayana and the Tale of Genji (I think there were one or two others). And, for non-English-language works, it begs the question of whether they meant the stories as rendered in the original language, or a translation (and if so, which translation).

Anyway, I really should get dressed (it is after 3pm after all) and go read my project management text for school.

Wow. Am listening to CIUT and totally grooving (slang check? not cool? who cares.) to the DJ set that's on. Seeing as it's 3.30 in the morning, CIUT is broadcasting the feed from DJShows.com.

Currently playing is something called "The Weekly Movement Show". There was a nice minimal thing going earlier, which reminded me of Richie Hawtin's decks/efx/909 release from a few years back. Very cool. Will have to revisit it in the RealAudio archive sometime later this week.

Ugh. Spent yesterday in my pyjamas, but managed to get myself showered, dressed, and out of the apartment by 4pm(ish) today. For me, that's not bad.

Have my mid-term in my project management course tomorrow, so I have PM theory on the brain. One of the first things they teach about in project management is the triple constraint:

• scope (what you hope to accomplish with the project)


• time (how quickly you want to get it done)


• cost (how much you're willing to spend)

Basically, projects involve trade-offs between these three factors -- you usually end up sacrificing one in favour of the other two. For instance, you could do a lot in a short amount of time, but it'll cost you (since you'll have to dedicate more resources to it); or, you can do a lot on the cheap, but it'll take a while; or, you can bash out something quickly and cheaply, but you sacrifice results (quantity and/or quality).

Anyway, it occurred to me while half-heartedly shovelling chicken katsu in my face (ordinarily, I love chicken katsu, but when my mood drops, so does my appetite) that there is a triple constraint of fast food:

• taste


• cost


• nutrition (OK, this last point is relative -- we are talking about fast food after all...)

You can get something that's tasty and cheap (eg. Taco Bell), but has marginal nutritional value; or, you can get something cheap and quasi-nutritious (eg. veggie dog), but taste goes out the window; or, you can get something tasty and somewhat nourishing (eg. chicken katsu, which comes with rice and salad), but it'll cost you.

While I doubt this insight will help me on the mid-term tomorrow, I thought the idea was entertaining. Whatever.

Just to further add to my state of lethargy, my sinuses are throwing a shitfit. If nothing else, it's given me an(other) excuse to lie in bed for several hours.

Am listening to a bunch of tracks I downloaded earlier in the week by Underworld playing live at the Fuji Rock Festival. Underworld has a reputation for doing some wicked improvisation during their live performances. I daresay I'm quite enjoying it. Favourite track: "Pearl's Girl".

Damn. I missed Towel Day. And I've been spending my time burning music CDs instead of reading PMBOK like I'm supposed to.

Just wandered past BlogHop and discussed that my site icon is one of the featured random image clicks for the day. Just when I'm hitting a slump. So, if you happened to click through from BlogHop, you might want to scroll down a bit, to where the content is slightly less crappy. Or try the archives. Then again, maybe not.

I just added my site to Blogdex, which basically tracks what links everyone is propagating on their blogs. Right now, the number 2 link on Blogdex is to a page featuring caffeinated soap. Supposedly, the deal is that you absorb the caffeine through your skin while you use it.

Now, I'm as much a caffeine enthusiast as the next person, but I don't know about this. My showers tend to be pretty long as it is -- I'll think about stuff while showering, or just let my mind wander. I could just see myself spending even more time in the shower trying to get a buzz off my soap.

I'll admit that I wasn't aware of this story before, but looks like a number of small Canadian publishers could be in trouble. Here's a link to a press release detailing the effects of a court ruling in favour of General Publishing, which owes a whack of cash to smaller publishing houses whose books GP is supposed to distribute on their behalf.

Canadian Book Industry News has a page of links to court documents, financial statements and other articles about this.

It figures that I bailed out of my class early today because I couldn't keep my eyes open, and now I'm wide awake.

I had popsicles for dinner.

Merde.

Websurfing usually amuses me, but right now I'm cranky....

Don't tell me what fucking browser to use. Don't tell me what my screen resolution has to be. Some sites even have the temerity to tell me what goddam fonts I should have installed on my machine. Sorry, kids -- Verdana may optimized for onscreen reading, but it is ugly. Ugly.

Right now I'm running WinMe (crap, crap, crap) on a 800mHz PIII notebook, but I only have a 12" screen. Hate bloody web pages that assume that everyone has a 17" monitor. I also run Linux (the Mandrake 8.1 distro -- I'm not that much of a geek) on an old 200mHz Pentium MMX. It only has a 15" monitor and you ain't gonna find Internet Explorer on that box.

Bloody twits probably authored their sites using FrontPage as well....

Heaven holds a sense of wonder And I wanted to believe that I'd get caught up When the rage in me subsides

2:44am and here I am again. Shouldn't surprise me, given that I slept 'til about 1pm today.

Other than school, which is progressing at warp-speed (only three weeks in, and the mid-term is next week already), seems like the rest of my life has ground to a screeching halt. Kinda like a lifestyle version of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Then again, I've been on this trip for a while. Am feeling rather lost at the moment.

Whee! Blackmask just added four plays by Chekov to their collection....

Of course, I don't know why I'm getting so excited. I already have the treeware (paperback) versions.

After yesterday's bout of silliness, here's something a little more substantial....

Does the mere mention of marketing cause your lip to curl up in a snarl? Yeah, me too. But, somebody's gotta push product, and there are a few new articles out that cover the marketing of software, and how developers and marketers can play nice:

• Fuzzyblog has an article on "Marketing Software When You Are a Small Company" which provides a nice overview of software marketing (link obtained from Makovision, who credits Xblog, who credits...)


• Builder.com has an article for developers on working with the sales team that can help each side understand what the other does and how they can work together

Also on a quasi-marketing-related tack is an article I found via Slashdot on the economics underlying the game console price war.

BTW, should you have found the article I linked to recently called "Designing e-Business Web Sites" a bit fluffy, I apologize. I only glanced at Part 1, which turns out to be very rudimentary (do we still need to talk about colours and fonts?). At least Part 2, which discusses the three types of audiences who visit a website, is a bit more informative. Such are the perils of indiscriminate link propagation....

Going back to another link I found via Makovision, Boxes and Arrows has an article on designing on both sides of your brain, which is all about using analytical skills and creative skills equally. It reminds me a lot of an older piece from A List Apart titled "Usability Experts are from Mars, Graphic Designers are from Venus". Bottom line: it's all about balance, people. Bottle of Ex not included.

And if that's not enough for you to read in your copious spare time, the latest issue of Business 2.0 in online. Can't say that there's anything that jumps out and screams at me -- another article on young hotshots in the tech world, another article on where the jobs are, another article on up-and-coming technologies to watch.... It's your call if you want to got for it or not.

I don't wanna do laundry. I don't wanna read my textbook. I'm not even sure if I want to open the blinds. I know -- I'll post silly crap on my blog....

Quiz Result

Where is my Mind?

You're smart, shy, and often nonsensical. You have dreams of being famous, and you're quirky enough that you just might pull them off. Some would call you a genius, others would call you insane, but in reality you're pretty well-adjusted. Take a vacation once in a while- it'll help take your mind off of your troubles.

Which Pixies song are you?
Links to Cute Pictures

• baby panda


• 'nuther baby panda


• mommy and baby panda


• more freakin' baby panda pictures than you can shake a stick at ('tho I don't know how the pic of the lab rat got in there)

There goes my listing on 1%....

Caught the series finale of The X-Files. Although I'd slacked off watching the show towards the end, couldn't help but feel a bit wistful that it's now all over. There was very of much a feeling of a bunch of stuff being rushed through to tie up all the loose ends. Plus I really have to wonder how many scenes were shot with all actors present at the same time -- there were an awful lot of shots of Mulder talking with only the back of Scully's head in view, Scully talking with only the back of Mulder's head in view, and so on with everyone else. Still, it was better than the Seinfeld finale was.

More stuff of interest (if you happen to be interested in information architecture, process design, and the like) available on InformIT.com, including:

• Part 2 of "Designing e-Business Web Sites"


• an interview with web designer Kelly Goto which talks about workflow in the web design process


• an article on writing meaningful headings and menu items


• another articles in a series on "Dos and Don'ts of Process Improvement"


• "Agility in Software Development"

Got a tip from David Lewis over at Paranoise a few days back (thanks, Dave!) in response to my ramblings about late night radio. Evidently it's been a while since I tuned in to CIUT in the middle of the night, but they now broadcast the feed from DJShows.com between midnight and 4am. Just checked out the site today. Thankfully, they've gone back to streaming RealAudio instead of that Windows media format, which means that everyone running Linux boxes can tune in once again. Yay!

Visited the website for the Journal of Memetics to see if they had any new stuff, and this article jumped out at me:

"Cultural Transmission and the Capacity to Approve or Disapprove of Offspring?s Behaviour"
Abstract:
"We suggest that human cultural learning was made possible by the simultaneous appearance, in one of our hominid ancestors, of two capacities: the capacity to imitate others? behaviour and the capacity to approve or disapprove of others? behaviour. With the help of a mathematical model, we have studied the conditions that allow the evolution of both capacities. We consider four different genotypes: "the only-learner" that learns by trial and error, "the imitator" that learns by trial and error and imitation, "the only-assessor" that learns by trial and error but that can also approve or disapprove of offspring's behaviour and, finally, "the assessor", who behaves like the imitator but, he can approve or disapprove of offspring's behaviour. The assessor genotype is the best genotype and the only-learner genotype is the worst when the learned behaviour that would be culturally transmitted is adaptive.... "

Evidently, there's nothing that applies to long-ago debates with my parents over my not going to medical school...

Awright, I ran a Google on the the refrain I babble about below, and discovered that it originates with a 70s era group called the Last Poets and a tune they did called "Mean Machine" (as opposed to Meme Machine). So, just to drill it in your head one more time, it's:

automatic pushbutton remote control
synthetic genetics command your soul

Just try shaking that out of your head now...

The other day I broke down and bought a double-CD compilation of retro club tunage ca. late 80s and early 90s. Now I've got a phrase (lyrical memes ahoy) running through my head.

There's a common refrain that appears in the M/A/R/R/S tune "Pump of the Volume" and Hithouse's "Jack to the Sound of the Underground". According to various lyrics pages, the M/A/R/RS refrain goes like this:

rythmic, systemic and world control
magnetic, genetic, dement your soul

Whereas (as far as I can tell) "Jack to the Sound of the Underground" intones:

automatic pushbutton remote control
synthetic genetics command your soul

Anyone else know any other variations on this? Does anyone care?

Been spending some time reading the blog Fuzzy Blogic. I especially took interest in Jacob Schwirtz's comments about metablogging (and more comments about metablogging).

I also have run across the The One Percent Bloggers W/ Content Web Ring, which is:

"...a webring for those Blogs that actually provide content and not just links to other Blogs and useless sites. You won't find they typical "This is so funny!" or "Dude check this out now!!!" links on our Blogs."

OK, I'm one of the guilty. I post silly links, and just gobs and gobs of links in general. I metablog (blog about blogging). I post whingeing crap that the vast majority of humanity does not give a rat's ass about.

I feel torn between the urge to try and do better, and the urge to defend my not doing better. (Dammit, I'm metablogging again.) Taking the latter tack for now, I'll point you to my inaugural post for this blog, as well as my post that explains some more of what this blog is about.

If your interests are similar to mine, then presumably you will like the links that I post. If not, you will likely think this blog is a piece of crap and move on. And while I don't really know how many people who know me personally actually bother to read this thing (one of you has confessed that you do), then I suppose this gives you an opportunity to see how I'm doing, since I really suck at keeping in touch with people. (I keep saying I'm going to work on that.)

As for trying harder to post actual content, I'd like to work on that too. But it's tough, y'know -- writer's block scares the shit out of me (although not as badly as it used to) and it's all I can do to just sit at the keyboard and bash out stuff, without worrying whether or not what I'm writing is pure journalistic brilliance. I'll try to be interesting. But sometimes I'm going to bore you silly.

BTW, do take the time to read Fuzzy Blogic if you have the chance.

Wierd how I don't think I've ever visited the site for Technology Review, yet I've now come across it twice in the same surfing session....

This blog posting pointed me to an article on "The Rules of Innovation" which covers what are purportedly four maxims for success that you should follow when bringing a new technology to market. I haven't actually read the article yet, but the blog post provides a nice summary.

Visiting the Technology Review homepage yielded a link to a list of top innovators who are under 35 years of age. And all I've done lately is rack up 50 bonus Air Miles at Dominion from buying six boxes of Pop Tarts. *sigh*

Perhaps a more motivating read would be the article on how Lockheed Martin is integrating design and development software in the construction of jet fighters. Or, for a laugh, there's the column on "Mimetic Management" which talks about how when the press covers some bigwig's ideas for doing something, everybody else has to run out and do it too.

Or maybe I should just read my goddam textbook like I'm supposed to...

More link propagation....

Perusing this blog gave me a link to a site that translates the phrase "Oh my god! There's an axe in my head" into 102 different languages.

Via Slashdot, I've come across this article titled "10 Technology Disasters". Quote:

"The 10 examples offered below, drawn from a span of 373 years, show that though technologies change, many of the factors that make them go spectacularly wrong are surprisingly consistent: impatient clients who won?t hear ?no?; shady or lazy designers who cut corners; excess confidence in glamorous new technologies; and, of course, good old-fashioned hubris.

Makes for a good read.

Been a while since I visited the site for Mobipocket, which makes an e-book reader for several different PDA platforms. I use it to read Palm e-books on my Jornada. They've got a new version out which will also run on a PC running Windows. And it looks like the annotation features are back in (an older version had them, but they were wonky and were removed from the next version).

Mobipocket also has their own e-book format (and free e-books on their site), and their own news thingy like Avantgo. I tried Avantgo for a while, but didn't really like it. I couldn't choose which articles I wanted downloaded to my PDA, and I couldn't control when they'd be removed and replaced with newer ones.

Since I have a PocketPC, most of my e-books are in Microsoft Reader format. Like most (all?) Microsoft products, it's got a whiz-bang set of features, but tends to be resource intensive and a bit buggy -- trying to read a larger e-book on my little Jornada causes the app to hang. Microsoft kindly ;D provides a plug in for Microsoft Word that allows you to create your own e-books. I find it to be a handy way to capture articles I find online and then read and annotate them on my PDA. (And don't start moaning at me about copyright infringement -- many of these sites provide "printer friendly" versions, which enable readers to take the content away from their PCs. I've merely done so electronically, and I don't share my files with anyone else, so I'm not depriving the sites of additional eyeballs.)

My favourite source by far for free e-books is Blackmask -- they've got a huge selection, and the books are available in many different file formats. I also visit PocketPC e-Books Watch daily for updates on e-book news. (They're also the site through which I found out about Blogspot.)

Once again I'm propagating a link from someone else's blog. The link goes to a page documenting someone's effort to drink an entire bottle of tabasco sauce at once.

The June 2002 issue of FastCompany is online. The May issue is still sitting unread on my PDA. I can't say there's anything in the June issue that leaps out at me, except maybe "The Strategy of the Fighter Pilot". I guess we've abandoned all pretense of the "kinder gentler workplace" (did we ever have it?) and are back in combat mode.

My arms hurt. At first I couldn't figure out why, but remembered that I played softball yesterday. Boo.

Intranet Journal has some new articles up, including one about rendering content in XML without, as the author terms it, "shredding" it.

Ran across this link in someone else's blog -- it's a crime scenes add-in for Visio. Sounds like a great way to spice up boring ol' sitemaps and flowcharts....

Having recently downed a pint of Smithwicks on an empty stomach, this might not be a good idea (don't drink and blog!), but what the hell....

I actually went and played softball today. Team sports make me cringe (I was one of those kids who got picked last for stuff). But my former employer (up 'til two months ago) was short of players possessing two X-chromosomes, and I was wearing sweatpants today anyway, so I went and played. Our opposing team had matching shirts, had actually practiced beforehand, and they all had their own gloves (which were not purchased from Canadian Tire during lunch that very day).

I had to borrow a glove from one of their players. I stood in the infield and prayed that the ball would not come in my direction. No such luck. The key to fielding grounders is to have your glove somewhere in the vicinity of the ground. I did actually hit the round thing with a bat when I was supposed to, but for some reason my legs forgot how to run. I stumbled and wiped out. (I also wiped out while trying to field a grounder.) I have scrapes on my knees.

One advantage of playing softball as a grown-up, rather than as a kid, is that you can go to a bar afterwards. Beer is a good thing. (I could have actually used a scotch, but we wound up in an Irish pub and it was just easier to order a Smithwicks than figure out what whiskies were available.) I think I stopped cringeing about halfway into my pint.

I think I'm now on the roster for subsequent games. It's a good thing I've stocked up on bandages. I should probably get another pair of sweatpants. And maybe a glove.

Rah, rah. Yay team...

One of my sources for 80's MP3s, Audio Paragon, will no longer be updated. *sigh* Fortunately, my favourite source The First Cut, is charging along full steam. Another frequent download site for me is the Rare 1980's MP3 of the Week site, hosted by someone (besides me) who remembers CFNY from the good old days.

It's quickly approaching 4 in the morning and I still can't sleep. Have got the Roaring Boys' "House of Stone" looping on WinAmp. Took me forever to find it. Finally did on Wave Fanatics a few weeks ago. Saw a ton of other stuff there which I'd love to get at some point, but the poor chap who runs the site is rather bandwidth deprived and I've not been able to log in again.

My other listening options at this time of the night include 1groove.com, which you can get locally over the airwaves in Toronto via CIUT between midnight and 6. CBC Radio One likes to broadcast programming from other countries in the graveyard slot. I haven't got the attention span for it right now. CBC Radio Two still churns out "Brave New Waves", but I haven't been a regular listener of that since the Brent Bambury years. And I have no idea what CBC Radio Three is, except that there's some pain-in-the-ass Flash animation on the website, and I'm not having much luck with the streaming audio portion of it at the moment. (Had to turn off WinAmp.) QFD.

("QFD", as you may or may not recall from one of the sidebars in Douglas Coupland's Generation X, stands for "quelle fucking drag". I've used it quite frequently in my written journals over the years.)

Just surfed over to Business 2.0, and from there hopped over to CNet for an article about the price Sun is going to charge for StarOffice 6.0. Whereas previous versions were free, the newest will set you back $75.95 (presumably US$). Although I like the idea of reworking all their file formatting to be XML compatible, I just don't use StarOffice enough to justify coughing up the cash for it. Yes, it's MS Office compatible but it doesn't have all the features that I use (I tend to push my software pretty hard). Still, if you're not as fussy as me and don't have to worry about 100% compatibility with M$ products, I daresay it's worth looking into.

Going to end here and make another attempt at sleep....

I took a leisurely walk home after class tonight and it was pretty apparent that the Leafs beat Ottawa and go on to the next round of the playoffs. What is with all the people driving around downtown with Leaf flags hanging out the window and honking their horns? Granted, I'm not a hockey fan, but I guess I'm glad the Leafs are doing well -- after all, the last time they won the Cup was before I was born...

No ground-breaking information here, but Builder.com has an article on "Winning the Job War".

Over at HBS Working Knowledge is an article by John Seely Brown (author of The Social Life of Information -- now available in paperback) titled "'Screen Language': The New Currency for Learning". There's also an article on predicting the unpredictable and another about ambition, envy, and self-deception.

I've been messing with the sidebar on this blog, adding links and stuff, mostly to webrings that I've joined. It's not the most elegant presentation, but what the hell...

I just thought this comic was so darn cute...

Really must turn off the damn computer, get out of my jammies, and do some reading. But not without noting one more link....

DO IT arrives courtesy of the folks at e-flux. Here's a description:

do it is a manual of artist's instructions for you to actualize. It includes works by over 60 contemporary artists, and will grow exponentially, so please visit us often!

The initial participants include:
Marina Abramovic / John Baldessari / Matthew Barney / Dara Birnbaum / John Bock / Christian Boltanski / Louise Bourgeois / Joan Brossa / Lygia Clark / Amy A. Cohen & Francisco J. Varela / Jimmie Durham / Diller + Scofidio / Maria Eichhorn / Cerith Wyn Evans / Ayse Erkmen / Hans-Peter Feldmann / Yona Friedman / Dan Graham / Gilbert & George / Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster / Felix Gonzalez-Torres / Liam Gillick / Douglas Gordon / Joseph Grigely / Tomislav Gotovac / Ulrike Grossarth / Mona Hatoum / Fabrice Hybert / Carsten Holler / Shere Hite / Roald Hoffmann / Joan Jonas / Jeong-A Koo / Mike Kelley / Ben Kinmont / Gulsun Karamustafa / Alison Knowles / Surasi Kusolwong / Bertrand Lavier / Lee Lozano / Paul McCarthy / Christian Marclay / Annette Messager / Jonas Mekas / Eileen Myles / Bruce Nauman / Yoko Ono / Pepón Osorio / Damian Ortega / Steven Pippin / Michelangelo Pistoletto / Cesare Pietrousti / Nam June Paik / Marjetica Potrc / Jason Rhoades / Pipilotti Rist / Martha Rosler / Andreas Slominski / Michael Smith / Nancy Spero / Rirkrit Tiravanija / Rosemarie Trockel / Uri Tzaig / Lawrence Weiner / Erwin Wurm.

---
Once you have actualized an instruction, please send us a picture and your name, we will include it in the manual.

+
do it is also an online compendium of artists' writings, essays and interviews. Visit the notes section and read fascinating texts on experimental exhibitions and artworks in the form of instructions.

Looks way hella cool....

I don't visit Salon nearly as much as I used to, but I did today, and ran across this article on "The art of office e-mail war". My god, it's so true.

I've witnessed more than once the "I'll be happy to look at the draft you're working on" gambit. Yeesh, I'm getting corporate flashbacks.

Which reminds me of some stuff I've read from Ayn Rand. I don't agree with everything she says, but her description of the parasite is dead on. Her book Anthem explores similar themes.

Oh, just got a link in via e-mail (thanks, Morag!) -- check out Heartless Bitches International. And wouldn't you know it, Ayn Rand makes the list.

Ack. Back to compulsive blogsurfing via BlogSnob. Ran across two blogs that document silly personality tests -- here and here.

(OK, that was very bad usability -- link text should describe what it's linking to. If Jakob Neilsen comes looking for me, tell him I'm at the library, will you?)

And, for your fix of metablogging, try the Blog About Blogs.

There's a bunch of interesting new articles at InformIT.com, including:

• an excerpt from the book Designing from Both Sides of the Screen
• "Who Am I Writing for, and, Incidentally, Who Am I?"
• "Design Differences: VUIs Versus GUIs" (VUIs are voice user interfaces)
• "Designing E-Business Web Sites, Part 1: Designing for Success" (first of two parts)
• "Principles of Organizational Design"
• "Finding the Right Tactical and Strategic Mix for Your Infrastructure"
• Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines: Menus (OK, so the content of this isn't new, but a refresher is always nice)
• "5 Questions with Feature-Driven Development Author Stephen Palmer" (talks about FDD and the future of Agile software development)

It occured to me yesterday that, depending on the context, "UI" can stand for either "user interface" (as in "GUI" or "VUI") or "under the influence" (as in "DUI").

Frig. I've killed two hours messing with my blog -- added a site meter and a listing via BlogSnob. Also ran another Google search on "Circadian Shift". Funny, a direct link to this site didn't turn up, but a link via Post-Atomic (hiya!) did. Wierd.

Am wide awake, but thinking that I ought to go to bed. At least I should turn off the frigging computer.

One more link (because I can) -- check out the Worst-Case Scenarios website. Those books are damn funny (I have two of them).

Tonight's blogging is taking place at my parents' house in Port Severn. They have satellite television. I might not get to sleep for a while. Iron Chef is just starting right now. Yay! I don't even have cable at home (just a set of rabbit ears that picks up 5 channels), so I get to watch all sorts of shows that I don't normally see. Then again, I did bring my textbooks with me. *sigh*

Listed my blog on BlogHop earlier today. Dunno if anyone will actually read it, but what the hell. Just look for this handy icon:

There's an interesting article on LawMeme titled "Top Ten New Copyright Crimes". They're the "logical" extension of the reasoning behind this quote from Jamie Kellner, chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting:

[Ad skips are] theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming.

Yes, the article's funny, but makes some darn good points too.

Swung by the website for Application Development Trends and spotted a few things that I should probably read in my copious spare time. The first is an article titled "Putting the business in Business Process Modeling", which discusses adopting a business-centric focus rather than a techno-centric one when modelling your processes. Plus there's a guide to various articles on XML and Web Services that have appeared in ADT over the last while. Third is a similar page on articles about metadata.

Did I mention that I should be doing the assigned readings for my course? This other stuff will have to wait.

Wandered into a bookstore today (on the pretense that I might buy a book for Mom for Mother's Day) and noticed that the latest Nick Hornby novel, How to be Good, is out in paperback. I'm not sure if I'll get it -- I really enjoyed High Fidelity, but found it harder to get through About a Boy. The latter story is now currently viewable on the big screen. I'm not sure if I'm going to see it, although it might be easier to get through than the book was. Going back to High Fidelity, I really enjoyed John Cusack's big screen adaptation of it, and the soundtrack was pretty damn cool too.

Have to admit that I almost got sucked into the hype for Spiderman -- initially it didn't even occur to me to go see it, but then I started thinking about it. Have decided that my scarce movie-going dollars would be better spent elsewhere. I will eventually go see the latest Star Wars episode when it's released, if for no other reason than to see Ewan McGregor.

The latest issue of New Architect is out.

The lead story queries a number of IT gurus on how they stay ahead and which technologies they've got their eyes on. There's also an item on design patterns for web programming. And as if that isn't enough to feed my ongoing information anxiety, there's also a piece on the languages of the semantic web which talks about XML and RDF. WTF....

Seeing as the course I'm taking is running in double-time (will finish in 7 weeks, instead of the usual 14), you'd think I'd have plenty to read without having to surf for more stuff. Well, I do, but that doesn't seem to stop me.

More links on information anxiety:

• Information Anxiety 2 by Richard Saul Wurman


• Information Anxiety2: A Guidebook for the Information Age


• Erik Spiekermann on information design: what is it? who needs it?


• Conquering Information Anxiety


• information anxiety log (a blog -- hasn't been updated in a while)

OK, I'm in class and blogging instead of following the discussion on MS Project....

One of the new blogs that Blogger highlights on its homepage focuses on videogame theory. There's a link to the author's thesis on the potential of videogames as a medium for fostering critical thinking and discussion about social and personal problems. Looks neat, but I doubt if my marathon hours of Tetris and DX-Ball qualify.

Will have to end here, since I feel wee bit goofy doing this....

Ack! Must stop surfing! Must stop surfing! I rue the day I discovered Blogger!

OK, so I don't, but I've been compulsively blog-surfing instead reading for school / excavating my apartment / job hunting / etc. etc. Not to mention doing those cutesy little "what kind of ice cream flavour / mythical creature / character from Trainspotting are you?" quizzes.

I will deign to commit one quiz result to blog-dom:

take the antisocial test.
and go to mewing.net. because laura's feeling social.

Like I needed a quiz to tell me that.

Hewlett Packard has published a product roadmap whitepaper (thanks, Slashdot!) outlining what's going to happen to various HP and Compaq product lines following their merger. Looks like the Jornada is being phased out in favour of the iPaq.

I like my Jornada, but I'll admit that if I were to choose my first PocketPC over again, I'd go with the iPaq. Of course, now I have a bunch of Jornada accessories (folding keyboard, extra synchronization cable) that aren't compatible with iPaq.

I wonder if prices on the Jornada 560 series are going to drop anytime soon -- I wouldn't mind upgrading from my 540. Somehow, I think that's being optimistic.

As long as I'm talking about toys, I spotted the Sony Vaio PCV-MXS20 in my local Sony store a few days ago. Drool!! Amongst other goodies, it includes an FM stereo receiver, a personal video recorder, and a DVD burner. Only Cdn$3,999.99. I'll start buying my lottery tickets now.

A search for "Circadian Shift" (quotes included) on Google does not turn up this blog. However, here's a nice link to everything you ever wanted to know about sleep disorders.

And one of my favourite novelty posters / fridge magnets/ greeting cards / etc. says "Coffee! You can sleep when you're dead!"

Picked up a carton of Breyers' Creamsicle Swirl ice cream after my class today. That stuff rocks....

The latest issue of First Monday is out, and there's an article on Creating a Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections. I'll add it to the reading pile.

Spotted this link on someone else's blog -- it's a list of things not to do when you're working the psychic hotline. Don't try it at home, either.

I would much prefer to be sleeping right now, but they're testing the fire alarms in my building today, which makes it kind of difficult.

Been surfing other people's blogs. Seems like everyone has at least a dozen links to other blogs, and many belong to at least one webring. Whatever.

I also notice that a lot of people post their results from various "What kind of slacker / color / Powerpuff Girl / bubble tea / Nokia cellphone / etc. etc. are you?" How many ways can you reduce yourself to a glib stereotype? (If I were a colour, I'd be black. Paradoxically, I am also a 'subtle flirt'. Wha?)

If you're in the mood for taking a bunch of quizzes, there's no shortage at Emode.com.

I installed a game called Swapper on my Jornada a while back and I'm still totally hooked. It's one of those deceptively simple and thoroughly addictive games, with much emphasis on pattern recognition. Supposedly, the game was invented by Tibetan monks, although I don't imagine they called it "Swapper".

On my notebook PC, I've been playing Clickomania, which is also screamingly addictive.

I ran across a site on organizational theory a couple weeks back, which I've bookmarked, but not looked at. And wouldn't you know it, there's a blog as well. Everybody blogs, now, from the looks of it.

*sigh*

I ran across this via an article on Boxes and Arrows, but thought the link bears repeating -- it's a quick reference guide to Dante's Inferno. Makes it easy for people with short attention spans to traverse the Nine Circles of Hell quickly and painlessly.

Was at the Toronto Small Press Fair last weekend and happened to pick up a preview thingy of Jim Munroe's latest book Everyone in Silico. Went by his website this week and discovered that he's posted the entire text of his last book Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask for free on his site. Of course I had to download it and transfer it to my PDA. Where it'll sit until I actually get around to reading it.

Was listening to CBC Radio One earlier, and learned that the song "Ring Around the Rosie" is actually about the symptoms of bubonic plague. We all fall down, indeed.

Am going to make another attempt at staying the hell out of bookstores. I have way too much reading material to plow through.

One thing about this blog is that it seems to waffle between being a quasi-serious work-related blog for me, or just some place where I can hack around and post a bunch of gibberish. Even the perma-links on the sidebar bear this out.

As far as the work-related angle is concerned, I pay the bills doing information architecture, business analysis, and -- when I must -- technical writing. And it seems that any self-respecting IA/usability guru has their own goddam blog. Here's just a partial list (in no particular order):

• InfoDesign


• Boxes and Arrows


• Elegant Hack


• LouisRosenfeld.com


• peterme.com


• WebWord

And you'd be better off getting your fix of hard-core IA commentary there than here. But I figure I'm turning up at least a few interesting links (viz. my link to the piece on memes and architecture which I thought was pretty damn cool) that you might not run across via one of the above sources. And of course I have to commit my own quirky digressions to blog-dom.

So, this is some of that, plus my ramblings about music, films, books, and whatever else crosses my mind.

Anyway on to the rambling. I made the mistake of wandering into yet another bookstore today and picked up a slim volume titled The Architecture of Intelligence by Derrick de Kerckhove. To compress the back-cover blurb, it's about "creating a new alphabet for the new information space" created by IT. Nothing like a volume that combines the disciplines of traditional architecture and semiotics to compell me to break out the MasterCard. Although when I'll actually get around to reading it is another matter entirely.

Nearly bought some CDs today as well (Church of Danceology which includes Steve 'Silk' Hurley's "Jack Your Body", and a Ministry compilation), but managed to restrain myself. At least that's something.

A blog entry during regular daytime hours? What's up with that?

Finally got around to reading an article that I've had sitting on my PDA for ages, namely "12 Principles of Knowledge Management". Been also trying to plow through a three-parter on Critical Thinking in Web and Interface Design; I've gotten through Part 1 and Part 2, but Part 3 remains untouched.

A few other more fun links I've run across include this blurb about Aibo owners who bond emotionally with their pets, and another about chimps who build structures based on what they see in drawings. I'd like to turn a few of those chimps loose on some IKEA furniture and see how they do with that.

Finally dragged myself in to the hairdresser yesterday, and it boggles my mind how many magazines there are on hairstyles, and especially celebrity hairstyles. Yeesh. For me, if my head looks like it's even seen a comb in the last 12 hours, it counts as a good hair day.

Seems like I've got primates on the brain. Been looking for an adorable pic I once saw of a Japanese snow monkey soaking in a hotspring, but damned if I can find it.

Just checking....

You'd think after cruising through the whole day on two hours' sleep, I'd be able to lapse into unconsciousness before midnight. No such luck.

Picked up a copy of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff in a secondhand store. I love Tom Wolfe's writing, how he delivers his subjects' thoughts as though he were some gossipy midwife, with just an undertone of bitchy satire. And I like the subject matter of Stuff, that being the early days of the U.S. space program. (If you want to get a cross section of Tom Wolfe's work, pick up a copy of his collection The Purple Decades -- it has excerpts from a number of his books, as well as several articles and vignettes.)

Also finished plowing through a paper in the Journal of Memetics called "Darwinian Processes and Memes in Architecture: A Memetic Theory of Modernism". A long read, but worth it.

Another read on memetics that I got through recently was "Hacking Memes", which basically posits that you can spin the whole notion of passive thought contagion on its head by getting into guerrilla media, culture jamming, and devising anti-memes.

I have Jazz FM 91.1 playing on my stereo as I type this, which is a welcome respite from my steady MP3 feed of late. I keep thinking I should listen to more jazz -- it's seems so much better for your brain than electronica, which increasingly strikes me as being the Jolt Cola or triple espresso of my musical diet. It's great the way electronica pumps you up but, like caffeine, too much of it leaves you all twitchy and distracted. Jazz, however, requires energy to listen to, but if you've got a bit of cerebral juice to spare, you can get your head in gear and the jazz will keep it humming along nicely.

Which reminds me that I also snared a copy of Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (gawd, I hope I spelled that right) yesterday, but the damn thing hasn't left my backpack until now.

Been actually taking one of my notebooks out with me over the last few days and scribbling in it. Haven't done that in far too long. Not that I've committed anything worth reading to paper lately, however.

Now if only I could get to more excavation work on my apartment and finally tackle that mountain of laundry rising from my floor...