Wazzup? Not Elián Web Parody: "The latest in a quick string of 'Wazzup' commercial website parodies -- this one a takeoff of last weekend's Elián Gonzalez drama -- is history. The Associated Press, which holds the copyright to the now-famous picture of an armed agent about to seize the 6-year-old Cuban boy from a caretaker, has threatened legal action against the creator of the Internet-based animation. Although site creator Sean Bonner took down the site, he did not slink away quietly."

Posted by John at 10:23 PM | Permalink

I have been working on Rocketstable and several new designs for this site for some weeks now. Without a deadline, of course, nothing sticks to the wall, and every design seems to lack some strength of another. All very frustrating. And why change from a Winter to Spring design when snow is still on the ground?

It has done me a disservice to look at so many blogs at Blogger and Weblogs.com. Even with my relatively sparse social life and a surprising addiction to href="http://www.unrealtournament.com/">Unreal Tournament, I don't have the time to maintain the sort of riveting online journal that seems to be in demand these days. Instead I occasionally contribute to Metafilter, which although billed as a sort of "collective blog" seems to remind me more of the grand old BBS discussion forum of the early-1990s, or even, dare I say, old old Usenet.

Anyway, when I switch over to the new scheme I will also be switching over to Blogger for three more specific and probably not over-frequent blogs. Stay tuned.

Posted by John at 3:00 AM | Permalink

Tomorrow, I move. And Friday, and Saturday, and Sunday. Move move move, to a sunny place in the Glebe. Three and a half years ago I came here to Ottawa for a two week contract at IDRC, and ended up finding more family at number 2 Sweetland Avenue then I had had in years. And though I have outgrown this high-ceilinged room, I'll miss it.

Yes, things have been unravelling for awhile, with Greg in Rome and Rebekah in Guelph and Caro with her new little bundle of joy, Emilie. Beck moved her stuff out, the last of it, a couple of weeks ago. There are new people here now and as nice as they are it isn't the same, couldn't be the same.

I learned many years ago to accept the good and appreciate it while it is around, because it may not, and probably won't, last. So it is with this.

Posted by John at 3:00 AM | Permalink

Excellent free CGI scripts from Dr. Grohol Mental Health site: OpenJournal will manage and maintain your Web-based musings and writings from a completely Web-based interface; Personal Open Directory allows you to provide a powerful directory-based search function from your Web site; and MaxComm is for Amazon Associates who want to maximize the earnings from their web site.

Posted by John at 8:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Do MP3 encoders sound different? by Will Ryu: Do MP3 encoders affect final sound quality? Yes, they do. Not only do compressed samples from different encoders sound different, they measure differently as well. How can this be, considering that MP3 is an encoding standard? While you might expect different players to decode MP3s differently, you might be surprised to learn that encoding can make just as much difference.

Posted by John at 9:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Junk Food News 1877-2000: "Given the diversity, enormity, and propensity of the media for Junk Food News, it is readily apparent the problem is not a lack of time and space for news. The problem is the quality of the news selected to fill that limited time and space. Today we’re suffering from news inflation—there seems to be more of it than ever before but it isn’t worth as much as it used to be."

Posted by John at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

National Campus and Community Radio Association (Canada): "The National Campus and Community Radio Association is the non-profit national association of organizations and individuals committed to volunteer-based, community-oriented radio broadcasting... The NCRA is dedicated to advancing the role and increasing the effectiveness of campus and community radio in Canada. It works closely with other regional and international community-oriented radio organizations to provide developmental materials and networking services to its members, representing interests of the sector to government and other agencies and to promote public awareness and appreciation for community-oriented radio in Canada."

Posted by John at 4:19 PM | Permalink