Diesel Sweeties tells it like it is 2008

Original here.

Yes. 2007

The Web is Us.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Yes yes yes!

Plotting and planning 2006

This is that coy "I'm up to something" post to act as a placeholder for the big announcement and link to all the details.

For now, I'll just say if you're a weblogger, journal writer, photoblogger, podcaster, citizen journalist, video blogger, mashup artist, linker, coder and/or random web geek and you can get to the San Francisco bay area on Monday July 3rd, just mark that day off now in your calendar.

We're going to have a great time...

The Comforting Web 2005

When you suddenly wake saying "Oh my god. Pableaux." wondering if a friend from New Orleans is safe, and it's late at night, you can flip on the bedside light, grab the laptop and visit his blog to find out what's happening.

And when the news is good (he's okay) but also sad and bad (his city is gone), your uncle will send you a link to a page full of pictures of cats sleeping in ridiculous positions and you'll find something that will make you laugh (Junior returns with the Sideways Sofa Snorkle Relax-0-Matic) and you'll be able to get back to sleep.

Thank you, Internet.

Fun beta toys 2004

I don't remember if I've mentioned that I've been playing with the new thingy from my friends at Ludicorp. Flickr is, well, it's, um, it's kind of a social network, but really it's more of a chat tool, except it's all about sharing pictures, but you don't have to do that at all if you're more interested in conversation, and you don't have to go into any of the public rooms if you just want to use it, say, to chat with some friends or family. It's a bit hard to describe and it's quite fun, like most thinks from Ludicorp. Give it a try!

Congratulations, Justin! 2004

He's celebrating 10 Years of Links.net which I linked to back in the very first piece of MetaGrrrl content. (I don't call it the first post because it appeared on its own page as an essay. The first "reverse-chronologically-laid-out-writing-with-expectations-of-subsequent-similarly-formatted-entries" was a week later).

10 years since he started, 5 years 4 months since I first wrote about the connection I feel with him just from reading his site, and he still inspires me.

This weblog wouldn't have started when it did without the bold risks he takes and blazing love he gives out to the universe. Keep shining, Justin!

Lower than low 2003

Now you've probably all received spam like this before, but I found this one exceptionally clear in their obvious cluelessness about the Web (and therefore either representing an excitingly stupid company or just another tedious address harvesting effort by copraphagic spammers):

From: Kim Summers
Date: Wed Sep 10, 2003 7:52:16 AM US/Pacific
To: webmaster@[domain name]
Subject: [domain name]

I am contacting you about cross linking. I am interested in [domain name] because it looks like it's relevant to a site that I am the link manager for. The site is about services for attaining high search engine rankings through website promotion and optimization.

I keep the web address confidential and will send it to you only if you give me permission to do so. Just let me know if it's OK, and I'll send you the web address for your review. If you approve of the site, then we'll exchange links.

Looking forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Kim Summers
kimgsummers@link-builder.com
http://www.link-builder.com
Experts in Quality Link Building

P.S. If for any reason you don't want me to contact you again, just email me and let me know that.

Okay, so let me get this straight; you're trying to use linking to build traffic to sites, so you're going to randomly mail millions of people (my ass I'm the only one who got this!) and then "keep the web address confidential". Uh-huh.

Such a shame that Kim's email address will get scraped from the page by spambots, huh?

Bad Use of Astounding Coincidence 2003

How bad has spam gotten? Well, you know how they sometimes fake the from address with a random address from the thousands they send to? I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, and given my webbishness extra likely to happen to me, but I got a piece of spam which claimed to be from someone I know, but which I know she'd never send.

So I wrote to her:

Hi Evany,

I guess sooner or later two people who know each other - albeit vaguely -
would be chosen as recipient and faked sender of a piece of spam. Either
that or you're really sending me applications from Wired.

Hope all is well otherwise.

Dinah

To which she replied:

Wow! But so sad that the laws of outstanding probability are being wasted on something like this. I want my fucking lottery cash!

XXX,
e

Very interesting developments 2003

Macromedia is breaking new ground. This presentation on Macromedia Central is intriguing.

The concept of the occasionally-connected user feels much more realistic than the "everyone continually wired into a broadband connection" dream of recent years.

I also congratulate Macromedia on not wasting time and money on a slick and impersonal press release, but instead using Flash to let a team member give a personal presentation. It makes me think that more business meetings and conferences should be a combination of this sort of "now I'll show you slides and tell you what they mean" presentation in advance with the face-to-face time being used for roundtable discussion and in depth questions. (Though I confess that approach would take away most of the learning experience of watching an audience react to a presentation).

Art Can Be Anywhere 2003

Very nice 404 error page over at cacophony.com.

Favorite Phrase Today 2003

"if you want to send me mail that goes in a truck"

Found on Sam Brown's wonderful site explodingdog.

Now That's Great News 2003

Six Apart, Ben & Mena's company, the maker of Movable Type (which powers this weblog), just got funding and hired Anil Dash, one of the sharper minds around. Plus they've announced a new product: TypePad personal publishing service.

Let me be the first to ask the question of the great unblogged: "Will you be getting your own pad?"

The Web Is People (yes, Virginia, just like soylent green...) 2003

The best thing about the web is the way it allows people to speak with their own voices and be heard by many more and more varied folks than might otherwise get to here that personal voice.

I wrote (spoke?) recently about how much I enjoy spending time with the bits of themselves which Billy Boyd and Ian McKellen choose to share on their websites and something just reminded me to check in and see how another person I like is doing these days. I do recommend a visit to Neil Gaiman's site to see whatever happens to be catching his interest at the moment. From a recent post:

You're a very strange and interesting person. Are there more of you?

I keep hoping that sooner or later a few more of me will show up, and then they can write some of the things people are waiting for. Maybe they could even even catch up on e-mail. But currently it's just me. Peculiar, isn't it?

Lovely fellow.

And then there's the folks I actually know. Tonight I was commuting home and waiting for a Muni train that had a tiny bit of space for me to squeeze into, when suddenly there was Heather and I got to give her a hug and chat for a few minutes before her train came. She's been a great support to me over the past couple months, though she doesn't know it; her site is the first on my very short list of daily visits and it cheers me up no end. I hope she has an equally nourishing bookmark in her list.

By the way, it seems as though I'm beginning to get my feet under me again. Not that work is any easier or there's less to do. More actually. But somehow two days off in a row with only a little bit of moving made a big difference. Had a nice surprise visit with my folks yesterday and saw Geoff Hoyle's "Feast of Fools" which we quite enjoyed.

Now I'm listening to music - rating unrated songs in my iTunes list, in alphabetical order which makes for a rather eclectic playlist - and finally catching up with household bookkeeping. (Hmm, are there any other words with three doubled letters in a row?) Of course, since it's me, this productive activity is interrupted by whatever occurs to me to look up on the web such as what Mr. Gaiman's doing these days (bouncing on a trampoline, which I find completely endearing) or who was it who was cast as Aragorn before the absolutely-perfect-for-the-part Viggo Mortensen (Stuart Townsend, who is definitely too young and soft).

Prodigal Child 2002

Happy birthday, dear Google
Happy birthday to you!

Restored Joy 2002

It's been hard lately. The political news has been very depressing and I've heard enthusiastic calls for war from many quarters. True, I've heard calls for peace and calls for caution, but so much argument and hostility all around. ugh. Sometimes I get very depressed by humans.

Tonight I had a reminder of why we are pretty damn great little apes. We are the story-telling species. And o the stories we tell! Thank you, Derek and everyone, for another wonderful Fray Day!

Search Engine Ants 2002

Hey, does anyone remember the URL of that cool search engine visualization that showed a bunch of ants walking around spouting current search requests? First time in a long time that Google has failed me. Anyone remember what I'm talking about?

Truth in Advertising 2002

You've just got to love a piece of spam with a subject line like "Malicious e-mail protection software!" All you need to do is read the first two words and delete the sucker.

MetaGrrrlzilla 2002

Is it GODZILLA?
brought to you by Quizilla

Movin' Money 2002

Thanks to the wacky idea of the folks at Where's George?, I now know that a $1 bill I had in January made its way to Ione, California where it was used to buy ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Too fun!

An Argument Against Free? 2002

Jason once again reminds me why it's worth checking his site every day. Today's post is an interview with G. Beato containing this thought-provoking idea:

I think an important point has largely been overlooked -- and that is that an environment where the majority of content is free or sponsored by advertisers ultimately favors corporate-created content.

I highly recommend you read the entire interview.

Happy Dinah 2002

So, I began my task of making sure all old content is contained in my happy new Moveable Type content management system by opening up Dreamweaver and using its site tool to browse my files on the server (hosted by those fine folks at Hurricane Electric).

First directory: .status. Oh, hey, I haven't checked my referral logs for ages. I'll just take a look.
Surf. Surf. Surf.
Hi TecGirl!
Surf. Surf.
Hey! Cool! My Musee Mechanique information is listed in the Librarians' Index to the Internet (and they referred to me as librarian Dinah Sanders, which I think is awful cool bein' as how I don't even have a library job. I'm chuffed; chuffed, I say!)
Y'know, I think those Blogdex referrers are more special now that I've actually met the charming, talented and rather cute Mr. Cameron Marlowe.
Oo, pictures from SXSW and weblogs I haven't checked in on in a while and new friends and and and

oh. Heh. Elapsed time: approx. 1 hour, 45 minutes. Progress towards goal: zippity do dah zippity ay...

Modern Times 2002

I just had a wonderful technology-enabled moment: my friend Jay just instant messaged me from the airport in Austin where he's enjoying free wireless internet access. He said "I'm about to board" and I got to wave a virtual handkerchief farewell and see him off as he sets out for half a year in Europe. Keen!

In retrospect, more strange and even more poignant 2000

Being sick is awful, but what I am dealing with is nothing in comparison to the pain others endure. If you want to be reminded how lucky you are and how wonderful people can be even when living through terrible things, please visit Kaycee and Steve:

Warning Signs 1999

How to interpret Under Construction signs. (Thanks, JOHO!)

Learning by imitation 1999

Edmond is a cleaning whirlwind! Whoooshh!

I'm working on the computer. I guess I can virtually clean out this backlog of links for all y'all (insert clever backlog/weblog pun here).

Dave McKean is as cool on the web as in print - just wait for those purty images to download. The Dreamline site is very well designed by Scotch [comments pertain to no longer extant site at vivisect.org] and is the most beautiful piece of web work I've seen in a long time. I am shamelessly stealing some of the techniques used there beginning with the elegant use of the status bar to indicate the destination of a link. This is a much less intrusive way for me to tell you if a link goes off the MetaGrrrl site than using this icon: . It's a cute icon, but I'll be phasing it out now; just look down at the status bar in the bottom of your browser window as you mouse over a link and I'll tell you where I'm sending you. [Except I since (sometime between May 1999 and now, August 2003) learned that that means you can't see the real URL the link goes to and that's even worse. The advent of the title attribute for links makes this all obsolete.]

I have so many books I want to buy. *sigh*

MetaGrrrl's Bigass Book List

The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design edited by Brenda Laurel

more Donald Norman

Building Dynamic HTML GUIs by Steve Champeon
(and check out his bibliography)

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

Death & Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

[Of course, this list seems like nothing now in comparison to my Amazon wish list]

Ok, time for me to jump on the cleaning bandwagon with Edmond.

Online home life 1998

Happy black cat appreciation day! (Special message to Oban: brrrraaah?)

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

You need Webmonkey!
(ok, now do you recognize the icon up there in the navigation buttons that isn't the ball or the spot? Yes, yes, I'm gonna redraw it). [That old navigation was retired long before I migrated this post into Typepad]

I was not exactly motivated at work today, but managed to actually accomplish a surprising amount anyhow.

I did leave an hour and a half early so I could deal with the chaos caused by my bank getting bought by another bank with an uglier logo. It was a pain in the ass.

I was disappointed the other day not to have been able to add a brush with fame to my sixdegrees profile: "ICQ'd Peter Merholz while he did dishes in his underwear. No, I don't understand how he does that."

I followed links from Peterme and ICQ'd the brand himself while doing so. Seems like there oughta be a word for that.

Now I will do dishes, but my apartment is too cold for me to strip down to my underwear. You'll have to go back to imagining me writing my thesis in the bathtub if you're looking for titillation.