August 2005 Archives
This is another case where I can't do much better than the site I'm quoting, and instead want to just call attention to it.
2005-08-22: W3C has written to the US Copyright Office regarding a notice of proposed rulemaking. The notice asks if persons filing electronic-only preregistration forms will experience difficulties if the Office requires them to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. W3C comments to the Copyright Office suggest that requiring a single browser is inappropriate for government services and encourages the Office to pursue standards-based access in accordance with US Federal policy. Read W3C's letter and About W3C.
I realize that it's only shortly after I discovered it, but YamiPod released version 0.84 Beta this past Saturday.
As always, use beta software at your own risk. But that being said, I love seeing beta versions released as it means the software is both being actively developed and properly tested. Good news on both fronts.
My diet lets me eat random stuff twice a week. Tonight felt like a good time to try something different - pizza. Mama Mia's Pizza opened up not all that long ago on Shelburne Road in South Burlington, sharing a complex with Shaw's and Blockbuster. I never bothered to try it, but tonight I really wanted to.
I'd say the prices are pretty reasonable for a cheese pie, and the pizza reminds me of what I used to get when I grew up in Connecticut. However, I don't think I'll ever try their specialty pizzas. Very pricey. It's not what I've found in most places up here, and for that I am grateful.
All in all, I'd say it's worth a try.
Last night, while in my buddy's apartment in Boston, the conversation turned to blogs. I was pointing out the change I made to my list of category archives. He pulled my site up and lo and behold the tables on the right hand side look totally different from what I see here at home. All of the text was right justified. I was shocked an appalled, and one of the first actions I took upon arriving home from my trip was to remedy that.
I have altered my style sheet to ensure this change. I also invite any of my (cough) numerous (cough) readers to notify me, either by e-mail or comment, if you see something else that needs fixing. Because here in Marc Land, we are obsessed with getting things right.
Today the Champlain Valley Fair opens to the public, just in time for UVM's freshman class moving in. The fair will be filled with rides and attractions until Monday September fifth. We'll be seeing shows nightly:
Aug 27: Alan Jackson with The Wrights
Aug 28: The Allman Brothers Band with 38 Special
Aug 29: Clay Aiken
Aug 30: Extreme Motorcycle Show
Aug 31: Figure 8 Racing
Sept 1: Demolition Derby
Sept 2: KC & The Sunshine Band and The Village People
Sept 3: Larry The Cable Guy
Sept 4: Tim McGraw with Hot Apple Pie
Sept 5: Add-on Grand National Tractor & Truck Pull
It's a fair. It's cheap. It's local. It's fun. Go. I order you to go! Or something.
Like it or not, Burlington is a college town. Home of the University of Vermont, Champlain College, and other schools, close neighbor to even more, this part of Vermont changes it's face entirely at the end of every August.
Today at UVM approximately 2,350 freshmen are moving in. This weekend is orientation for them - orientation for both school and the town. The next week, as even more students poor in, is orientation for the year-round residents, many of whom have used the calm of summer to allow themselves to forget the noise of the extra people.
There's no doubt about it, either; UVM is growing. This batch of first-year students is 20% larger than last year's. To compensate for the growth, this year the school is opening University Heights North Residence Hall (say that three times fast) and the new Gutterson Parking Garage, as well as various other construction and renovation.
RTFM! Read the fucking manual! Most likely the single most uttered phrase among sysadmins, RTFM holds a special place in this man's heart. One of the best things about RTFM is that, while it is most commonly said to a user, it is most commonly appropriate for an admin.
Blindly do we compile software, ever disregarding the annoying little README file that comes with them all. So confident in our abilities. So sure of ourselves. So vindictive when things are not completely intuitive and simple that they go our way.
Today at work I was playing with Yaa!. I unpacked it and jumped into the newly created directory to have a look around and see what's what. What do I see first? The most novel approach to RTFM! I've ever bumped into. Enjoy!
$ ls bin CHANGELOG conf doc lib LICENSE README_NOW_OR_SUFFER
Just two days after Adium released version 0.83, version 0.84 of the chat software has been released. Essentially we're talking bug fix. Major bug fix, in fact. Apparently some people had bits and pieces of their buddy list magically disappear. Yours truly is grateful not to have been among their ranks.
That all being said, I'd strongly suggest you go fetch Adium 0.84. And I assure you, this is not the least bit normal for them. It also, apparently, goes completely against their month and a half of beta testing.
Adium released version 0.83 today. Ordinarily I'd attempt to summarize the release, but you can't really summarize it better than the post on their blog.
Besides. I've rather been itching to play with <blockquote> in my stylesheet, so now I can.
Evan at Adium wrote:It's a recommended upgrade for all users, as it has many bug fixes and improvements as well as security fixes. The huge list of changes can be found in the version history. The executive summary is that after over 2 months of development past 0.82, this is the most stable version of Adium yet. Enjoy :)
As most of you probably know, Apple chooses not to provide an iPod user with a supported method of extracting music. This is a, ahem, feature. The purpose is to avoid piracy. I can accept that, really I can, but I don't have enough space on my hard drive to hold all that music and sometimes I want to, say, burn a CD for my car. Make a mix. Make a backup incase something bad happens.
For the last couple of years I've experimented with several solutions for this problem, from perl scripts to software that actually costs money. Although I did find some shareware, for a price, that worked quite well, I'd rather use freeware if I can. So I experimented and experimented, and then I found YamiPod. YamiPod has a quality user interface and a host of quality features.
It's a standalone application that runs on OS X, Linux, and Windows. You can import playlists and music from the iPod to the iTunes library or into specific folders. You can remove duplicate tracks. You can search your library. You can export a list of the music on your iPod. Speaking of, expect me to do that some time soon.
Anyway. If you have an iPod, I strongly suggest you check this out.
All of that being said, this software is still in development so if you have a way to get a backup before trying it out, do so. Better safe than sorry, and all of that.
You never really know what the weather will hand to you when living in a state like Vermont. One day it's hot, the next cold, the next sun, the next snow. Today as I left for work the thermometer caught my eye. It read close to 60 degrees fahrenheit. I thought, "That can't be right." All the same, I enjoyed the cooler air and the brief gusts of wind while I walked to my car.
I drove to the office with the windows down, wishing I'd brought a sweatshirt, and rolled into the parking lot chilly. I checked my weather widget when I got inside and it read 62 degrees. I just looked again and it's 69.
Fall is coming to Vermont, and I'm loving it. For the last few weeks I have been longing for the feeling that can only be labeled "October." I want to wear long pants and a hooded sweatshirt to work and be comfortable. I want to walk outside and not feel hot and sticky. And today I have all of that, but with leaves on the trees.
The next two days bring some heat back but soon enough we'll cool down.
Some days I really love living here. Because of that I am adding a new category to this blog entitled, Vermont. I am going to pay a little more attention to the world around me and see if I can make more entries about them.
It took some (a lot of) prodding but I'm back, and I have some new and exciting thoughts, ideas, and opinions. There might be some changes to the site, not that anyone will notice since I'm sure to have lost any regular readers I once had.
But that's okay. I had it coming.
As I type this I am de-spamming my blog. I let things get way out of hand, but with the upgrades to MovableType and MT-Blacklist things should be a lot better now - and with minimal maintenance too. But let's just say that I can't even come close to deleting all of the comments I'd like to delete in one shot.
Over the next few days I'll be perusing the latest features of MT and potentially changing things. We'll see.
Regardless, I hope to get back into writing here, however brief and occasional the entries turn out to be.