Merry Christmas Everyone!
Click on this link for my Christmas 2000 page.
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Tuesday - 26 December 2000
Netscape 6 Hits the Rocks. First, welcome back all of you who took last week off (lucky sods). And a happy and safe New Year for those who are taking this week. InforWorld confirms (see the article here) what I experienced when I installed Netscape 6 recently. It would be charitable to say that this browser is not ready for prime time. Too many bugs, too many features not implemented.
But then, to blow my own horn, if you've been following this column you would have known that already. You didn't need to be clairvoyant to know that Netscape, if they shipped before the end of the year, would be doing so for marketing reasons, not because the software was ready to go. All you had to do was track the hundreds of bugs that are still in the software to confirm this.
While I do not appreciate the myriad of security problems in their main competition, MS IE, Netscape has only themselves to blame for driving their installed base to other alternatives. Having said that, the basic engine itself is still very good and very fast. Too bad everything around it sucks dead dust bunnies through small diameter straws.
Teller Tells All. The Los Angeles Times (see the article here) has an interesting interview with the otherwise silent half of the Penn and Teller team (see one of their fan sites here).
He's written a book about his father called When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours : Joe Teller -- A Portrait By His Kid (see it at FatBrain here). If you see the book in your local library take a few minutes and see if it interests you. YMMV.
Making a List. Well, it's that time of the year. No, not Christmas, it's list making time. You know, like the Top 10 Best Widgets of the year 2000. So let me be first to start things off with the New York Times list of the Best Movies of the year (see it here).
Jakob Nielsen's Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design
Microsoft's Top 10 Knowledge Base Articles
Top 10 Critical Security Holes and How to Eliminate Them
Aloha!
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Hump Day Wednesday - 27 December 2000
Scan This. Got a box full of negatives collecting dust way in the back of the closet? Well, Pacific Image Electronics (see their site here) has just the film scanner for you. Until now, if you wanted to scan 35mm negatives or slides you pretty much had to get one of the excellent Nikon CoolScan series of scanners (starting at about $800 USD). But Pacific Image has a film scanner for $169. No, it will not give you images as sharp as the Nikon (2700 dpi), but its 1800 dpi should be good enough for the rest of us. And at that price, I can live with the difference. YMMV.
Paint This. So you have that new Palm Pilot sitting there with nothing but a bland default screen to look at. Well, TealPoint Software (see their site here) has the answer for you. TealPaint, as the name implies, is a paint program for the Palm line. You budding Monets out there can create your own art work, or view and download some from the gallery (see it here) at their site.
Count This. The Census Numbers are coming! The Census Numbers are coming! The US Census Bureau will publish the official population count for the United States, including the state-by-state totals required under the US Constitution (see Article I, Section 2 and Amendment XIV, Section 2) to determine how many seats each state is allocated in the US House of Representatives (see the press release here). Expect New York state to loose a seat or two, and California to gain one or two.
Under federal law (see Title 13, U.S. Code (1976)), each state will be allocated a seat in the House for an average of each 625,000 people counted by the census. The Constitution mandates that each state receive at least one House seat. Additional seats are assigned to a state based on a ratio that changes every 10 years because the country's population keeps growing and the number of House seats remains at 435.
Read This! An official welcome to the newest member of the Daynotes Gang - Mike Barkman. Welcome Mike, even if you are a Kiwi and now have a certain cup that is highly prized in sailing circles (which is what US yachts do), I'll still drop by and read your posts when I can. On the other hand, frames? Why frames? And Simple is Good. <G>
Aloha!
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Thursday - 28 December 2000
Telecommuting Jams. The Los Angeles Times has an article (see it here) on the decline and fall of telecommuting. They say many companies are scaling back work-from-home programs, convinced that the practice isn't as valuable as employers had believed.
Some managers now say that telecommuting breeds resentment among co-workers and that teleworkers are harder to monitor. And perhaps most significantly, many managers have come to question a central tenet of telecommuting--that it raises productivity.
Rocky Roads. So how did the Easter Islanders move those huge carved stones from the quarries to the coastal areas? Research reported in USA Today (see the story here) indicate a road system may have been created to smooth the way. The research does not answer the question as to how they were moved, just over what route. There are hints that may lead to a conclusion but only hints.
New e-Vangelicals. Guess who is the largest Internet Service Provider in the Philippines? The Roman Catholic Church. They say they are on a mission. A mission from God to spread His word. And what better way to do that than via the Internet (see the story here from the San Jose Mercury News)?
The church has constructed the nation's most comprehensive Internet backbone, running the 1,000-mile length of this far-flung archipelago. Eventually, CBCPNet, as the church-run entity calls itself, intends to wire every diocese, parish house and parochial school in the country. In partnership with private companies, it is also setting up Internet cafes around the country to give the nation's urban poor access to the Internet.
I got the readings for my class next semester so I gotta go - Aloha!
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Aloha Friday - 29 December 2000
It's Friday!
I'm treating myself to a half-day off today so I need to get going and finish some stuff before I go. While I'm doing that, take 10 minutes or so and read about the history and current times of Honolulu in this balanced article from the New York Times here. The story covers the ancient times of Tahitian and Maori settlers (Arohanui Mike!) to what's cooking at local restaurants. A good read if you have the time.
Have a Great Weekend Everyone and I'll see you next year - Aloha!
© 2000 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.