Month: September 2003

idiot keyboards considered harmful

i have been heaping a lot of praise on my thinkpad x31 recently. i just noticed a friggin stupid feature: there are 2 special keys right beside the arrow keys that seem to be intended to go back and forward in the browser, respectively. (never mind the stupid access ibm button, at least i don’t have a shopping or email button). these buttons are not only fluff, they are harmful. if you are editing within a web form (i bet you do that as often as i do), you just have to hit the wrong button, and your form is gone. who comes up with such “innovations”?

Nailing down css

i have grown to greatly respect css. with the upcoming 2.1 spec, browser makers should have a much easier time to have compliant implementations. also, ambiguity was greatly reduced, bringing us closer to WORA for the web. maybe it is time to split web spec into a stable branch and a development branch, just like linux and other projects. there is clearly value in capturing best practice after a technology has matured, and at the same time there is value in charging ahead with new ideas.

war walking

amtrak has a clue, offering power plugs on every seat. this made the trip from NYC to boston a bit more productive, although i mostly slept through it to compensate for the redeye. i had less luck in boston. the wifi coverage is really not all that great, and it turns out, hotels are $150 up. asking about internet access, they offered me a dialup. WTF? in the end i found a good park bench with wifi though. tomorrow i’m gonna look out for an apartment. i need one of these.

internet-powered journeys

i arrived in NYC this morning, after a journey that went like this: ride to palo alto caltrain from stanford university – figure out where i REALLY have to go – call cab – drive to stanford shopping center – take bus into milbrae – hop onto bart – change at west oakland – take air bart to oakland airport – hop onto jetblue plane – get off at jfk – take bus to subway – get off at 34th street – orient on the street grid – find cafe – search for wifi
most of this would not have been possible without either notebook or wifi. technology has allowed me to be much more last minute than i ever was. no long planning, figure out your journey on the road, check the net if you are lost etc. i will try to coin a phrase for this experience, “wifi enables real time travel planning, and reduces anxiety.” will do for now.
i have to run, client meeting.

etoy on kaywa

the etoy.CORPORATION welcomes KAYWA as the official sponsor of all etoy blogging systems. as a distributed global network the etoy.CORPORATION has long faced the challenge of creating a liquid flow of assets (knowledge, info, power, expertise, and resources) between etoy.AGENTS, over the net, and from one etoy.TANK to another.

very cool.