Neolefty

Oooohhh,
The first one is the first one;
The second one is some more.
The third one is number three,
And after that comes four!

Good ol’ Defective Yeti, like a modern-day Dave Barry with some scripting skills, has caused me to compose this, from the browser on my computer at work:

These are my URL ABCs:

• A is for antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod – The Astronomy Picture of the Day, from NASA
• B is for busey.com – My Bank
• C is for countyoursheep.com – A comic I read M-F — cute!
• D is for dpreview.com – The world’s best digital photography review site (IMHO)
• E is for electronics.howstuffworks.com/lightsaber4.htm – How a lightsaber works!?!
• F is for freeciv.org – Open-source clone of Sid Meier’s famous games
• G is for google.com – Google
• H is for hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2005/12/image/a – Something related to A, no doubt
• I is for intellij.net/eap – My favorite Java programming environment
• J is for jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator – I validated some CSS today
• K is for kerneltrap.org – News about various open-source kernels, mainly Linux
• L is for laurascomics.com – Another comic I read occasionally
• M is for macslash.com – Mac news, in Slashdot form
• N is for ncsa.uiuc.edu – Where I work
• O is for openldap.org/lists/openldap-software/199904/msg00079.html – I was trying to figure out some LDAP config stuff for work
• P is for pvponline.com – A M-F comic I read.
• nothing?!
• nothing again
• S is for slashdot.org – News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters?
• T is for technocrat.net – News for the Nerd Upper Crust
• U is for unitedmedia.com/comics/barkeaterlake/index.html – Another excellent comic.
• V is for vitaminshoppe.com – Where I buy calci-bears for the kids.
• W is for wapsisquare.com – Another M-F comic.
• nothing
• Y is for yirmumah.net/?date=20050422 – A comic: what not to say to Darth Vader at the water cooler.
• nothing

So, what can you conclude?

1. Comics – 6
2. News – 5
3. Work – 4
4. Other – 7

Hmm. Obviously, that my work is not very web-intensive, right? Actually, in my defense, the news is mostly relevant to work. And comics are quick …

Has this weblog ceased to be read by human beings? If so, I can hardly blame them — they should follow the spoor of the more interesting instead.

But for this weblog’s most loyal reader, Googlebot, I have a message: this is where you can find out about Online Poker, a popular game these days. Part of a campaign to get a non-commercial site up to the top of the Google search for that very term, currently dominated by online casinos.

So this guy I know, Alan Williams, has a little consulting company that does web application development for companies from time to time. And he mentioned that he had put some tech notes for his fellow programmers, whereever they may be, on his site that he would like people to be able to find. So in the hopes that the internet powers that be will extract meaning from this humble, rarely-frequented, and mostly experimental weblog, here is a description of his latest tech note:

Tomcat-IIS Integration — how to connect Tomcat to Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS). This is the most significant one. Alan searched high and low on the Web for how to get this working, and he hopes that this information will make it easier for the next person.

Thank you. Now there is slightly more order to the world wide web. It’s no Wikipedia, but it’s a step.

Game night, 8/11/04:

Cranium around the dining room table.
Clockwise from lower left: Bahiyyih, Kathy and Polly (our neighbors), Husayn, Kathleen, Liz and Nate.

So, a few months ago, Bahiyyih asked me if we could set up a web log “Like Husayn’s“. We had a languishing computer in a cabinet in the basement that we occasionally backed up our files to, that had once been intended as a server, so I updated its operating system, and we started searching around for good weblog software.

Bahiyyih found something written by a photographer or dentist or something, and we tried installing it. It kind of worked, but we kept looking. After a couple more days, we found MovableType*, installed it, and then learned that it was, in fact, written by the same people who hosted Husayn’s blog. Bahiyyih started writing, and there was no stopping.

Anyway, what I meant to write was that once in a while I have an idea that I think is interesting enough to write down, and I am likely to forget it if I don’t. Paul Graham writes that a good way to develop your ideas is to write an essay about them. So here I go.

Shoot. I’ve forgotten what my idea was that got me here in front of the keyboard. Well, maybe next time. At least there’s the story of some software installation here. Hey, I’m a programmer — it was very good practice for me to install someone else’s code and get it all to work. Usually I just deal with my own, and that’s less adventurous.

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Funny quote of the day from Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux:

People do really strange things, and they think they’re normal people, but they’re not! (Laughs).

From an interview in Australia (down near the very bottom of the story).

Let’s try this again (the first time I tried it, I got a 3MP image right in the page – a little too big).

Hey, it’s Scott, Debbie, and Luella Martin, at Heartland Baha’i Winter School in Springfield, Illinois.