I am so sick of rain. It’s been raining in southeastern Virginia for weeks. I searched Google for a while to find out how much precipitation we’ve had so far this year, but I got bored with that. It’s not really the quantity of rain that bothers me, anyway. What is so annoying is its frequency. If the rain ever ends, I’ll need a native guide to lead me to the garage to get the lawnmower.
It’s official: I have a new job. 2005-04-20 is my last day here at JFCOM. Shortly thereafter I will be reporting to EchoStorm, where I’ll be doing Java development. I’ll probably still be called on to do some web development and learning management system consulting, but Java will be the core of it. I am thrilled.
My one regret is that I never did get to go to Kiev. I had a chance to attend the ADL Working Group meeting, but the government thought it would be better to send politicians intead of people who might actually learn or contribute something. Typical. Ah, well: at least I got to see Prague and Oslo. I should be grateful of that, because I probably won’t ever leave the USA again, now that the government is cracking down on people traveling. I thought traveling by air was already ridiculous, due to the rampant lunacy which broke out in the wake of the destruction of the World Trade Center, but it’s going to get much worse. I think clamping down on our borders is just the beginning. Twenty years ago, who would have thought that Americans would ever be subjected to uniformed agents demanding our “papers” at “checkpoints”, like some film noir spy movie set in East Berlin?
Fifty years from now, people will wonder what madness possessed us to turn the Land Of The Free into a gulag. I wish I had an answer for them.
Anyway, I am looking forward to the new job.
Well, my number of projects has diminished a bit. I finished seting up my new T5, I listed all of the crap I needed to list on eBay, and the game book I offered to lay out (for free, as a favor to a game publisher whose work I like) is going to be done by someone else because the folks to whom I made the offer have consistently refused to provide me all of the files I need to do the work. I have no idea why, but that’s their prerogative. If they want someone else to do it, so be it.
On the other hand, I am now going to be putting in a gravel driveway, by myself, so that’s a new project that will join the old. Oh, well. Here’s how the project scroreboard looks now, sorted roughly from most important to least important:
Still no news on the new job, though. I have been waiting for a definite offer since December of 2004, so it’s not like I am holding my breath.
I have too many projects. This has always been one of my greatest flaws: I take on more projects than I have the time (or discipline) to work on simultaneously. I plan to knock out at least two of these this weekend, which should put me in better shape.
Whew. All of this, and I hope to have a new job soon — one that will require a lot more of my time.
“It appears that marketing America still has plenty of time to do it over, but not nearly enough time to do it right.”
Succinct and right on target. Go read the article.
Some evidence that Europeans are smarter than Americans: a study carried out Sunday 2005-03-06 by XiTi Monitor on a sample of web sites from five European countries, on a total of 16,650,993 visits, indicates that Firefox usage among consumers in Europe may be much higher than it is in the USA. Of the countries studied, Germany ranks highest at 21.4% and Italy ranks lowest at 8.6%. The United States, by comparison, currently ranks around 6%.
This study shows that the German web surfers are very advanced, with 21.4% of users preferring Firefox. For web sites whose target audience includes Germany, compatibility with Firefox has thus become an essential requirement.
…It is important to note that these measurements were taken on a Sunday, i.e. at the time of peak usage of Firefox. Indeed, one always observes less usage of this browser during the week, since businesses are slower to change than individuals.
You can read the original article at the XiTi Monitor site.
Here’s another case of a company (ab)using the legal system to make the world a less creative place. That is no surprise, but this is: this time, the evil corporation is Apple. An employee at Google created a Mac OSX inspired interface, where the icons enlarged when the cursor rolled over them, complete with a little love poem to OSX. Ah, the pain of unrequited love: Apple appears to have objected (Apple has sought patent protection for its rollover technique), and the offending page is now missing from Google (however, you can see a mirror of it here).
A patent for a rollover? Are they kidding? No, sadly: they aren’t.
Mark my words: if we don’t reverse this trend of permitting companies to subvert the legal system for their personal (or corporate) gain, it is going to be the downfall of our society. That isn’t hyperbole, folks.
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Blackmoor Vituperative