Circadian Shift

Altova, the makers of XML Spy, are now offering their Authentic 5 XML document editor as a free download. (Sorry, Windoze platform only.)

Really, really, really gotta buckle down and work on my websites. In the meantime, here is some linkage for you:

• The Empty Bowl -- "a webzine devoted to serving the cereal eating community" (via Media Dystopia)


• a quick read on NASCAR and game theory (via David Crow)


• the new Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 ruggedized tablet PC -- Drool! (via Gizmodo)

For lack of anything else to say, here are a couple links to items I saw while watching CBC television last night:

• On Marketplace, there was a piece on guarana drinks, which happen to be chock-full of caffeine, but thanks to some wierd government technicality, need not be labelled as such


• On Disclosure, there was a piece about a huge storehouse of chemical weapons in Alabama

There's a song I heard on Brave New Waves a few months back from a group(?) called LCD Sound System. In "Losing My Edge", the narrator/vocalist laments how he might not be as on top of current music trends as he used to be; his plaintive refrain is "I was there...." during various epochal moments in punk/new wave/alternative music history.

Tell me about it.

Monday night's Ladytron show went well, although I had a headache by the end of the night from all the cigarette smoke, and the noise (I had procured ear plugs for the event, but forgot to use them). I also couldn't resist playing Wizened-Old-Music-Curmudgeon by constantly applying labels to the effect of "Old Music Act 'A' meets Old Music Act 'B'" to all of the songs.

Of the first opening act (Phaser):

"Somone should tell them Smashing Pumpkins broke up already"

(Oh, OK, that was Graig's quote, but it could've been mine, dammit.)

"It's Pink Floyd meets The Happy Mondays"

"Jesus Jones hacks a Speak & Spell"

"Gary Numan meets Siouxsie and the Banshees"

"Vince Clarke (of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure fame) meets Blondie"

I'm also never going to be Ms. Fashion Queen, even on a good day, but this point was particularly brought home to me observing my fellow Ladytron fans. Women with skinny neckties (which, I archly noted to Graig, I was wearing 20 years ago), guys and girls with vertical hair a la The Cure, small round pins with band names on them (another 20 year old throwback) and even a couple Kraftwerk-meets-Chairman Mao buttoned up tunic-thingies.

At one point I was standing in line in the women's washroom and noticed one of the young fashionistas looking at me. I caught sight of myself in the mirror and observed:

• faded green Giordano sweatshirt that I bought in Hong Kong ten years ago


• black MEC polar fleece jacket from seven years ago


• faded blue Eddie Bauer khakis of unknown vintage (double pleats)


• brown leather lace-up boots made by Prospector (rounded toes)

Anyway, I did actually have a good time at the show, and have an increased appreciation for Ladytron's music, having heard it performed live (synth bands never a compelling stage presence, but the sound had a certain energy to it that I never got from listening to their recordings).

If you're curious, you can listen to a few Ladytron tracks at Epitonic.

Further reading:

• GAK's take on Ladytron's show in NYC last week


• Jeremy's writeup of Monday's show


• Carla's pithy summary


• Zhan's report


• Josie's writeup (for those of you who are cool enough to have a password)

[Addendum: Oddly enough, Graig had the opposite response to the show from me -- he thought the live act was more sterile than the recordings. Maybe it was the enthusiasm of the crowd that got me pumped, or maybe the fact that the speakers were so loud as to send a ripple effect through my entire body and make my ears bleed, but the live show definitely left an impression on me.]

OMG, reading this sent a chill down my spine:

While I was at The Corporation (a pox on King Stan!) I wrote that it was like being in an abusive relationship; you get smacked around, but you keep coming back because your sense of self-worth is tied up in there, and you keep lying to yourself that the good times compensate for the bad, and that a bad relationship (or a bad job) is better than none at all. You reach a point when it becomes so deeply a part of your life, you can't imagine what you'd do without it.

-- Lactose Incompetent

Anyway, just wanted to check in and let y'all know that I'm still alive. Didn't do any work on the new blogspace over the weekend; had a bitch of a headache that set in Saturday night and didn't release its grip until today.

This evening, am going to see Ladytron play at The Phoenix, accompanied by other members of the local blogging posse. Yay.

I don't. I really don't.

brought to you by lizvang.com

Blogwhore 2, brought to you by Shel, is in its final week; Liz has shown that she can whore with the best of them. Go, Liz!

BTW, new web space has been obtained by yours truly. I'm in the process of fixin' it up so it'll look all nice 'n perty, and all that. Will let you know when it's time for the big blog-warming.

On a less bile-filled note, there is a gallery of vewy adowable puppy pictures available for your viewing enjoyment (via sam-i-am).

I'd meant to stay up last night and read e-Business Essentials. Instead, I found myself re-reading Bridget Jones's Diary; Chapter 1 is available online for your perusal.

BTW, according to Helen Fielding, "fuckwittage" rhymes with fromage.

Meanwhile, over on Heartless Bitches International, The Morrigan is back after a very long absence with several new additions to her "I'm Not Bitter" column.

Pardon me for one moment:

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!! AAAARRRGGHH!! AARRRRRRGGGGGHHH!

breathe

AAAAARRRGGGHH!! AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!! AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH!

Tunage links:

• Brilliantine offers amazing "mix tapes" that delightfully combine artifacts from the 80s with present-day electro (props to Josie for bringing this site to my attention)


• Canadian DJ Tommy Zee has house, trance, and other dance music sets available for download
• 
  
• Rare 1980s MP3 of the Week is currently featuring the 12" mix of Ministry's "Over the Shoulder"; if you haven't downloaded it yet, what's wrong with you?

Just because I'm such a glutton for punishment, I thought I'd try to fix my Blogger template again. No dice.

Yeah, I'm still planning a move to other webspace. It's in the works. Really.

I just realized I never use my pens any more.

I have several fountain pens; some are nicer than others, none are particularly expensive. I prefer them over ballpoint or felt-tip pens when I have to write more than a few sentences.

The fact that my pens have fallen into disuse means that I have not been:

• writing in any of my notebooks


• studying anything and making notes


• working on any projects

sigh

I reorganized all my CDs and books yesterday, so that I can actually find things when I want them. I went to make some lists of books to read, and that's when I realized that I didn't know where my pens were. I did find some of them (fortunately, the nicer ones) but the others are still hiding somewhere in The Hovel.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this little screed. I've also got some Roxy Music playing on the stereo ("Out the Blue" seems tailor-made for moody 2 am listening), so that's distracting me slightly.

Perhaps a wee break from blogging is in order.

Yay, quiz time!

What Lizvang Personality Are You?

Thanks, Liz!

I don't believe this vindictive self-righteous shit. Here's a choice quote:

"Anything we can do to hurt them without hurting us, I will support," Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.)

"I was at a celebration of India's Independence Day," he told reporters, "and a Frenchman came walking up to me and started talking to me about Iraq, and it was obvious we were not going to agree. And I said, 'Wait a minute. Do you speak German?' And he looked at me kind of funny and said, 'No, I don't speak German.' And I said, 'You're welcome,' turned around and walked off."

In the early years of the war, the majority of Americans were opposed to sending troops overseas. It wasn't until after Germany's ally Japan smacked the U.S. upside the back of the head at Pearl Harbour that they undertook active involvement.

So, like, thanks, and all, but shut up already about WWII. Because you really weren't doing it out of selfless concern for the rest of the world, now, were you....

Y'know, when your bed is all comfy, cosy, and warm, there's even less incentive to get up when you don't really have to.

For the inquisitive:

• How Coffee Works
• How Caffeine Works

There's a very nice post over on Blam!Blog.

Awful lot of bloggers out there talking about/referring to Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. For those of you who lack the time/inclination to read the whole bloody book, there is a Tipping Point -- Net Version available for your perusal. (Via Mathemagenic.)

Good to see that Random Blog Quotes is back in the saddle again. They hadn't updated for quite some time.

Anyone who has ever dealt with cranky customers on the phone will enjoy the quote taken from this blog:

"Billy: Ma'am. I believe I have been very patient with you. I have done nothing but try to help you and explain the situation to you. I'd like to tell you that normally, we would disconnect a caller after they have used foul language twice. I'd like to let you know that you have sworn nine times and that I'm still here trying to help you.

Lady: Oh!? You've been counting have you?

Billy: As a matter of fact, yes I have ma'am.

Lady: Well! 9 times you said? Let me make it a nice round number for you how bout I swear 10 times. You're a Fucken Asshole.

Billy: Actually - ma'am - that would be 11.

Lady: *unintelligible mumble* *hangs up*"

Linkage, ahoy:

• Eight Technologies That Will Change the World -- not a new article, but my Business 2.0 newsletter saw fit to mention it again this week


• Nine Unconventional Strategies For Reinventing Your Career -- one of the featured articles this week on the newly redesigned HBS Working Knowledge website


• Monkeys Show Sophisticated Learning Abilities -- "researchers observed that the monkeys' learning process exhibited the same basic properties as human learning" (via Complexity Digest)


• Changing or escaping the self -- "When we become self-aware we see who we are and what we would like to be. What do we do? Do we change who we are? Or do we escape self-awareness...." (via Follow Me Here)


• Cybermethods: An Assessment -- "Methods of communication and action on the Internet, such as e-mail, encryption and hacking, can be broadly grouped into four categories: expressing, protecting, information gathering and interfering."

I've barely begun to explore, but one page that I did happen upon after following this way and that is this list of Software for Research (using Windows), cataloging all sorts of tools for sifting, wrangling, slicing, dicing, and spewing out information to your heart's content.

This from my latest Anecdotage.com newsletter:

Anecdotage.com Presents... Harry Houdini

"On one of his European tours, the master magician and locksmith Harry Houdini found himself locked in by his own thinking. After he had been searched and manacled in a Scottish town jail, the old turnkey shut him in a cell and walked away. Houdini quickly freed himself from his shackles and then tackled the cell lock. But despite all his efforts, the lock wouldn?t open.

"Finally, ever more desperate but completely exhausted, he leaned against the door - and it swung open so unexpectedly that he nearly fell headlong into the corridor. The turnkey had not locked it."

Houdini, Harry Ehrich Weiss (1874-1926), American escape artist and magician [noted for his daring feats and penchant for showmanship]

Source: Harold Kellock, Houdini

Anyone out there remember the Sharp Mobilon TriPad PV-6000?

This bad boy ran on the WinCE 2.11 OS, and was like a cross between a PDA and a baby notebook, with a 640x480 screen and (slightly undersized) keyboard; the screen could flip around so that the unit (heh, heh -- she said "unit") could be used as a tablet.

Of course I wanted one, but it was not to be.

And it's a damn shame that the various sub-sub-notebook and slate gadgets running WinCE went the way of the buffalo in the year or so leading up to the launch of Microsoft's Tablet PC, but I digress. [However, more on this in the Addendum below.]

Anyway, Gizmodo brings news of a new Sharp C-700 which runs Linux. It too can be used like a baby notebook, and the keyboard also folds 'round the other way so it can be used as a tablet.

drool

Availability in North America is limited, but here are further details on the C-700 from Dynamism, who can import it for you.

[Addendum: WebWord posts a link to an article titled "Tablet PC: A solution searching for a problem"; check out the comments responding to the post, too. The now nearly-extinct WinCE-powered tablet devices would fill this segment of the market quite nicely. And they wouldn't be as bleeping heavy, either.]

Just in case you are determined to clog your hard drive and overload your brain cells, Mathemagenic has pointed out a ton of interesting-looking papers from the IBM Watson Research Center.

I restrained myself and downloaded only the following:

• What Kind of Work is HCI Work?


• Arc Diagrams: Visualizing Structure in Strings


• What Makes a Representative User Representative?


• Social Construction of Knowledge and Authority in Business Communities and Organizations


• Design as a Minority Discipline in a Software Company: Understanding a Community of Practice


• Designing Learning: Cognitive Science Principles for the Innovative Organization

One effect of Blogger template munching is that my site meter no longer works on the main blog page. I've no idea who's been visiting lately, which is kind of good in a way, since I no longer compulsively check my site stats.

The meter is still intact on most of the archive pages (as well as on The Outpost), so I do know when people visit there.

Not a lot to say. Started to write yesterday about a book that I plowed through in its entirety on Friday night. Maybe later. In the meantime, why don't you go visit some of the links on my sidebar.

I did want to share one tidbit with you. Just remember this the next time you and your family decide to stay at the local Bed & Breakfast: Ill-behaved children will be cooked and served for breakfast (via kottke).

Was actually out of bed before noon, thanks to a phone call I received this morning (Hi, Dad!). OK, so it wasn't much before noon, but it counts.

Following my ramblage about Martha and the Muffins yesterday, decided to add another MP3 to Circadian Shift: The Outpost:

"Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing" by M+M (5,531 KB)

You know you've been in a certain CD store far too often when other habitues of the establishment recognize you. (Yah, I know one of the words in that sentence is missing an accent. Don't feel like looking up the correct HTML entity for it.)

Anyway, after being in the Yonge St. CD Replay a bazillion times, toying with buying a certain disc, I finally broke down and did it.

Then Again: A Retrospective is a fine, fine compilation of tunes from Martha and the Muffins/M+M, known and loved by many Canadian New Wave fans, but perhaps best known outside Canada for their 1980 hit "Echo Beach". My favourite tune on the disc: the Brian Eno/David Byrne-esque "Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing".

Oh, and the guy in CD Replay who rung up my purchase for me says he's married to Martha Johnson's cousin.

Couple links for you:

• An Introvert's Lexicon (via MemeMachineGo!)


• Instructions for Giving your Cat a Pill (via an e-mail from my brother, who credits Fark for the link)

This morning, I dispensed with the 'Snooze' button in favour of just turning off the damn alarm completely when it sounded. Any guesses on the results?

Meanwhile, somebody on Memepool has thoughtfully contributed this list of links related to napping:

• Napping at Work is OK?


• Caught napping: Germany's surprising Siestas


• 'To sleep, perchance to dream ...'


• and, a frighteningly cheesy site for The Napping Company, Inc.; apparently the designer has been asleep since 1996

Here's an interesting article featured in this week's roundup of Neat New Stuff on the Net:

The 8 A's of Information
The gathering, delivery and application of quality information is essential to sound decision-making. The process is complex, and requires expert knowledge and professional competence through a number of steps to ensure quality results. The process can appear deceptively simple and is often undervalued. Gaulin's 8 A's of information is designed to provide researchers and consumers of information with a simple model that clearly identifies which steps in the research process are the domain of the professional researcher and which apply to the information user.

Lastly, for the geekier members of the viewing audience, two OS links:

• Sun Releases Solaris 9 for Intel processors (via Slashdot)


• the TRS-80 Level 1 BASIC Simulator (via Paramecium Parachute, where Greg relates his own tale of programming with the TRS-80)

Oops, I did it again.

The alarm(s) went off this morning, and the 'Snooze' button got another extended workout. Eventually I got up, had breakfast and surfed the net, then wound up "napping" again for another hour and a half.

It is now 3.30 in the afternoon, and I am still in my pyjamas.

Placing the clocks somewhere out of arms reach of the bed would be a sensible thing to do to prevent snooze-abuse. However it requires another empty horizontal surface within easy reach of a free electrical outlet elsewhere in The Hovel. Some rearrangement of the environs will be required.

To borrow a term from Q107 parlance, here are some "double-shots" for you....

Related to affirmative action:

• a New York Times article (free registration required) that examines how the grouping of goods in a store influences consumer choices, and relates this to how people get grouped in certain categories (via Guide to Ease)


• a post on how affirmative action in college admissions really impacts whites (not much) (via, er, somewhere...)

• an article on standards compliant XHTML that includes links to sites that let you use their code (spotted on one of the Digital Eve Toronto mailing lists)


• Jeffrey Veen's Good Code Cache of web scripts

Y'know, I was all prepped for an early night. Got into my jammies at 11, watched The National re-run, then watched this wacked-out show that they have on CBC called ZeD. Flipped around the dial a bit, caught some of Mike Bullard's monologue, turned out the light just before 12.30, and tried to get to sleep.

Yeah, right.

Might as well mention a link I spotted on MeFi -- it's Einstein's Theory of Relativity, explained in words of four letters or less.

I'm gonna try the thing with the alarm clocks again tomorrow (today, actually). Hopefully without abusing the 'Snooze' button this time.

Right. One more link, then I'm turning off the damn 'puter.

The Handy Guide to the Gurus of Management is a 13-part BBC Radio series, hosted by Charles Handy. You can listen to the episodes in Real Audio format, or download the transcripts as PDFs (thus providing more cloggage for the hard drive).

Link via Onepine Updates.

More new stuff on Blackmask (although, I guess you'd want to watch out for that data overload thing):

• An Essay on Conversation by Henry Fielding


• instructions for building your own solar cooker


• Project Mercury - A Chronology -- a NASA document prepared by James M. Grimwood, Historical Branch, Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas, as MSC Publication HR-1

Checking in on some of my knowledge management and innovation links, I notice that thought?horizon has started publishing again, after a long hiatus. Meanwhile, SynapShots has announced that it will cease publishing.

Then again, there's now a new Corporate Innovation Blog from Imaginatik Research (thanks to Intellectual Capital Punishment for the link).

Had good intentions of getting up at a reasonable hour this morning and set up my alarms (yes, two) to aid me in that regard. Instead, gave the 'Snooze' button on Clock #2 a very long workout. sigh

Offline life is pulling me away from the computer, but here is some linkage for you in the meantime:

• a Wired article on how we're saving far more data on our hard drives than we'll ever have time to review (via a comment left on Manifesto Multilinko)


• a bunch of interesting looking marketing papers (in PDF) from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania -- of course, if you read the Wired article first, you might think twice before going apeshit and downloading them all (obliquely via IDblog)


• on Slashdot, a review of Po Bronson's book What Should I Do With My Life? (you may remember last month's Fast Company article on this)


• The Challenger Shuttle Disaster: A Failure in Decision Support System and Human Factors Management (via NASA's page of links about the Challenger disaster)

New on Blackmask:

The Space Shuttle Decision: NASA's Search for a Reusable Space Vehicle
"Congress, however, was deeply skeptical toward the proposed shuttle/station, as both the House and Senate came close to killing it in 1970. NASA responded to this near-death experience by placing the station on the shelf and bringing the Shuttle to the forefront. Its officials needed political support that could win over doubters in Congress, and they found this support within the Department of Defense."

Lot of people out there linking to this article:

Nasa chiefs 'repeatedly ignored' safety warnings
"But when I tried to raise my concerns with Nasa's new administrator, I received two reprimands for not going through the proper channels, which discouraged other people from coming forward with their concerns."

Usually, though, people don't die as a result.

There's a rather lengthy article in the New York Times (free registration required) on sleep disorders (link via Slashdot).

Blogging might be sparse for the remainder of the weekend (I know it's been a bit haphazard of late), but I figure I better get these links out before I forget about them:

• As a follow-up to the linkage about finding data on discarded hard drives, here are some disk sanitizing tips (via Neat New Stuff on the Net).


• Over the last couple days, Lactose Incompetent has been regaling the readership with tales of dealing with an obnoxious cow-orker. I was going to link to the various posts, but instead Edward has gone and compiled them into a single PDF for your reading enjoyment.


• Via my very-infrequently-read TECHWR-L digest comes word of a new book called Single Sourcing - Building Modular Documentation. There's a sample chapter available for download which discusses the process of transforming linear documents into modular chunks that can be re-purposed.

We're only a few hours into February, but I thought I'd get a jump-start on this month's addition to Circadian Shift: The Outpost.

So, for your listening enjoyment, and to take the edge off this winter chill, I thought I'd offer up a bit of swooning mid-80s post-New-Romantic pop. Fireplace and velvet cushions are optional.

"Digging Your Scene" by The Blow Monkeys (3,856 KB)

Again, I have to note that, while I think the quality is decent, I don't have high-end stereo equipment, so the recording may not perhaps be up to super-audiophile standards.