Behind the Screen
The opinions, views, and insights stated within this Monologue are my own. The facts, fallacies, and errors, however, belong to someone else (see disclaimer).
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
This morning, I found a few hundered emails directed to my jasonpearce.com server. It appears there's a new virus in town:
Wired News: Tricky E-Mail Worm Spreads Fast
"A malicious program attached to seemingly innocuous e-mails was spreading quickly over the Internet on Monday, clogging network traffic and potentially leaving hackers an open door to infected personal computers.
The worm, called 'Mydoom' or 'Novarg' by antivirus companies, disguises itself as an e-mail error message. A small file is attached that, when launched on computers running Microsoft's Windows operating systems, can send out 100 infected e-mail messages in 30 seconds to e-mail addresses stored in the computer's address book and other documents."
Sunday, January 25, 2004
The roommates Adam, Scott, and I drove up to Vermont this weekend to do a little snowboarding. A friend of Adam's at work has a time-share cabin near Mount Snow, so we took advantage of the free place to stay.
Snow conditions were great on Saturday. But despite a sunny day, it was just bitter cold. At the summit, the temperature was -8 degrees with moderate wind. Who knows how cold it was with wind chill. Every part of skin had to be covered or you risked frostbite.
Boarding, however, was fun. I'm still a beginner, so I spent all of my time on greens and blues. Though I fell a few times, not once did I have a big fall.
Two weekends from now, the three of us and a few others will head up to Maine to go skiing. Having never visited Maine, I'm looking forward to the trip. I hope, however, that things might warm up a bit before then.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Sadly, the the Experience Music Project, Paul G. Allen’s rock-and-roll museum, just experienced its third round of layoffs. This is one of the best museums I've ever visited, so get to Seattle and support it while it still lasts.
SEATTLE -- Even the pet projects of one of the world’s richest men are not immune to the effects of the continuing recession here. More than a third of the work force at the Experience Music Project, billionaire Paul G. Allen’s rock-and-roll museum, got pink slips late last week.
Friday, January 16, 2004
Thanks to the Northeast freeze, I have discovered that iPods are not designed for cold weather.
For starters, the buttons on the iPod cannot be operated while wearing gloves for they are touch/heat sensitive. This greatly changes my listening behavior, for if I hear a song that I don't like or is too loud, I'm more likely to tolerate the inconvenience much the way I tolerate my bladder in the morning as a try to catch a few more minutes of sleep.
The other problem is static electricity. If you are wearing fleece, your inner ear might be in for a big static-electricity shock as you unbundle yourself from your gloves, scarf, jacket, etc. Twice I have zapped myself. The static travels from the iPod's stainless-steel body, up the earphone's cord, and right into your ear. Ouch.
Saturday, January 10, 2004
Though I've known about Plaxo.com for several months now, it wasn't until this week that I decided to give it a try. This means, of course, that I soon will be subjecting each and every one of you with a request to update your contact information.
Plaxo is a downloadable tool that you install and use with MS Outlook to help you manage your contacts (e.g. address book). Once install, Plaxo reviews your entire address book to see if any of your contacts are also Plaxo members. If they are, it automatically updates your address book with their most recent records. For these individuals, I never have to update my address book when they move because Plaxo does it for me.
Of course, the more people who use Plaxo the more useful it will become. But for those who don't want to become a Plaxo member, I can still get their address updates by having Plaxo send them an email asking if the information I have on them is still correct.
Like it our not, you'll soon get such a request from me, for it has been a long time since I updated my address book. A little help from Plaxo is most welcomed.
Last night I headed into the city (New York) to catch up with Bob London, a former boss, co-worker, and friend from my years on Lambda Chi Alpha's staff. He is currently serving as executive director of Alpha Phi Omega, a professional fraternity headquartered in Independence, MO. Bob was in town for the Professional Fraternity Executives Association (PFEA) so I took the train in the crash their party.
It was great to see Londunski, re-tell old stories, and to catch up. It was also nice to meet and re-meet some of the other fraternal executives. Frankly, it was simply fun to hang out with a few fraternal professionals again. When I worked for Lambda Chi and also as a fraternal vendor, I always enjoyed attending conferences and was fortunate to make many friends from many different fraternities.
Any rate. Bob and I stayed up late, enjoyed a few drinks, and talked about what some of our mutual friends are up to. We eventually realized I wasn't going to make the 1:30 am train back to Connecticut, so I had to crash at the Hyatt at Grand Central. I'm glad I did.
Hyatt had given PFEA the Presidential Suite. Since no one was actually sleeping in the suite, I moved in. So at 2:00 am, I had the place to myself.
With views of the city from three sides of the building, I'd say the place was rather large. One room had a piano, another had a plasma TV handing on the wall, the dining room had a marble table, and it even had a full kitchen. Needless to say, it was much better than sleeping on the couch in Bob's room.
Thanks Bob for a fun evening. It was great to see you.
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
I found a useful reference regarding how to Hide CSS from Browsers using various CSS hacks and techniques. I've long been using many of them, but have yet to find such a well organized resource as this one.
I frequently visit the blog SimpleBits. They had a recent discussion on typography that I felt useful. I commented on the article, noting the following, which I wanted to have on my blog for future reference as well.
Character: Single Left Quote (‘)
Mac: Option-]
Windows: Alt-0145
HTML: ‘Character: Single Right Quote (’)
Mac: Shift-Option-]
Windows: Alt-0146
HTML: ’Character: Double Left (“)
Mac: Option-[
Windows: Alt-0147
HTML: “Character: Double Right Quote (”)
Mac: Shift-Option-[
Windows: Alt-0148
HTML: ”Character: En Dash (–)
Mac: Option-Hyphen
Windows: Alt-0150
HTML: –Character: Em Dash (—)
Mac: Option-Shift-Hyphen
Windows: Alt-0151
HTML: —