Friday, August 5, 2005

User-servicable parts inside

Howtoons. Rocks.

There's a keynote going on about this right now here at OSCON.

Blogosphere welcome and instructions

Tony Pierce:

this is what i hope from the new generation of blogs that were created in the last twenty minutes that its taken me to get it together and write this post:

you will have the courage to write your blog out of honesty, transparency, openmindedness, and creativity.

tell us what you really think. dont hide behind the links that you provide or the pictures you post or the commentors that you attract

if youre going to do what it takes and stay up late and work to tweak your blog, make it a direct reflection of your soul

whats yr soul?

its the picture you have in your head of you as a little kid

its the good part of you that will get compared to the adult part of you to see how it matches up

if youre ever lost think about that little picture or that elementary school picture of you with your chipped front tooth or fucked up hair and say

am i living up to the hopes and dreams of that excellent kid

or have i sold out to the fears of society and become a tool

and echo of a fat guy in a little coat.

He adds,

i have sold out in many ways but my ultimate goal is to be the man that that little kid wanted to be when he grows up.

and since i'll never make the major leagues, at least my blog can grow up to be the blog it always wanted to be, instead.

I've always wanted to be as good a blogger as tony.

Related, in a way

Tom Searls, who writes for the Charleston (WV) Gazette, won a 'Nak award for Police reporting, from the Denver Press Club. Dawn Hobbs of the Santa Barbara News Press was the runner up.

Just ran across that, while doing some research on journals, journalism and journalists (and how the online environment is changing what we know and expect from all three, yada, etc... a subject that hasn't been done to death quite yet). I live in Santa Barbara and have read Dawn's work, but I'd never heard of Tom before.

Still, given the coincidi of surname and geography, it only seemed right to provide some linkage, even if there really isn't any. Congrats to both.

Drummond's It

Stowe Boyd on Drummond Reed on Open Tagging. Co-taggers: Kaliya, Mary.

Verity du jour

What you do on the Internet stays on the Internet. Dave "dizzyd" Smith just said that in a conversation we're having about identity here at OSCON. Dave and Peter Saint-Andre introduced Passel here at the show.

I first met both guys when they were early Jabber developers.

Another fun (head)line: Blessed Is the Cancerous Justice, For He Shall Vacate His Seat. By George.

Remembering a brave messenger

Just learned from Chris Albritton that Steven Vincent has been killed in Basra.

Steven was kidnapped at gunpoint and shot to death after writing this op-ed piece in the New York Times. Its final words:

...real security reform requires psychological as well as physical training. Unless the British include in their security sector reform strategy some basic lessons in democratic principles, Basra risks falling further under the sway of Islamic extremists and their Western-trained police enforcers.

Steven had been writing mainly for National Review Online. Here's his last piece there. Kathryn Jean Lopez has a eulogy with a list of Steven's recent articles for NRO. Mudville Gazette has a roundup of whodunitry.

More here.

Arm(s)ageddon

Dr. Weinberger:

One more such event and I'm going to start preparing for The Rapture. (In my case, that means buying heavy weapons and downloading all the music I want.

Raw advice

David Isenberg: How to eat sushi.

He sources Noriko Takiguchi's lessons, which begin here. Lots of interesting tidbits, such as

You see the signs of discipline everywhere in a sushi restaurant, even before you sit down and pick up the first piece of sushi. A very good sushi restaurant usually does not have red paper lanterns or menu outside the door. It is only decorated with a little curtain (called noren) which shows the name of the restaurant on a rough-textured bleached white cloth.

And,

You may notice that sushi chefs usually do not have hair on their arms. Every piece of sushi has to be produced from clean plain looking hands and arms. Chefs, I think, shave every day, unless there is some kind of industry-secret to deal with it. Also, you would rarely see chefs with beard, mustache, long hanging eyebrow or sunglasses. They have to look enormously plain.