Nick Lewis: The Blog

"Ups the Ante..." ...that's pretty funny.

Six Apart, the proprieters of typepad, think that their upcoming blogging service, code named Project Comet, will revolutionize the platform. Their press release said it all:

Project Comet is creating technologies that will advance weblogging as we know it today, giving millions of people worldwide the ability to easily stake out, build and share their own distinctive place online.

Let's begin with "new technologies"...

Users will be able to create individual blogs and share sections of them with other users in an elegant and customizable way that has never been done before.

Hmmmmm..... Drupal does that. Or wait, its done that for over 3 years... So, where does one go from drupal's "a blog for every user, infinite categories for every blog, (and more content types beyond blogs)"? I suppose Six Apart is just saying that their's does it in a "elegant and customizable way that has never been done before." Just as I cry the elegant sentence: "Quick! Hide the fish-sticks in the ditch, and get your cain out! The sun will be up soon." -- which, most likely, was a sentence that has never been said before.

For the first time in the 52-year history of giving Hurricanes names, we may have to move over to the B-side names.

After Rita, we'll have Stan, Tammy, Vince, and Wilma (WTF? This set of names is straight out of The Far Side comics). Now reader, since you are such a smarty pants, you probably realized that Q,U,X,Y,Z are missing. Good job, and good eye.

After Wilma, our Hurricanes will be named after letters of the greek alphabet. We'll begin with Alpha and end with Omega

On an only half-kidding note, God help us all the day we see Hurricane Omega form...

Apparently, Rita is the third most powerful Hurricane on US record (which began 1851). I'm in Austin, Texas. This morning on my way to Texas Telecom, I saw 10 miles worth of clogged traffic on the otherside of the road. I hate to admit it, but I've been working so hard lately that I assumed it was construction (and if you're from "these parts", you'll probably understand that error).

I have nothing profound to say about this impending disaster. "Meaning" is a human construct -- and Rita is a lifeless reality that happens to be very incompatible with our ways of doing things. Perhaps that might sound cold -- yet, the closer one looks at nature, the more one realizes that our world itself is "cold".

After watching this weather man's over-the-top meltdown[wma], you will, at the very least, say to yourself, "I didn't expect to see that today!".

This is the true scandal of Lolita. Not that a man should love a child, but that he should prove so helpless to stanch his desires. Deep emotion is the book's central transgression and its saving grace.      Never has this been more obvious than the current era, which has placed carnality in the service of capitalism by stripping from sex any vestige of authentic feeling. We see more and more these days -- virtually any dirty image is at our fingertips -- but feel less and less.

At certain times, people whom I admire and respect share foolish and misguided opinions. Most of the time, I let it slide; for what is more human than folly? However, ever so often I feel a need to voice disagreement. As you may have guessed, O soothsaying reader, is one of them. The opinion is:

WYSIWYG text editors are for amatures. Real men hand code their web pages.

Paul Scriven's post brought this topic up. Paul, who is no less than the CEO of 9rules, Inc argues (correctly) that you will never be a competent builder of webpages if you depend on a WYSIWYG editor. This fact is undeniable.

Listen to HE-MAN; for he shall sing to you a soft ballad of post-80's meloncholy. His voice is so tender -- and his hair so damn beautiful. You are powerless to resist.

He-Man sings 4 Non Blondes. (quicktime)

On September 28, 2004, a search on “podcast” in Google turned up 24 matches. AS I write this, the number is 17,000,000.

-Seth Godin, in his new free* e-book on blogging and the new media

*BTW, when I say the e-book is *free*, I don't mean "free" like "free baby vomit." Rather, I mean, this book is well worth the short read.

Need a quick cheer up? Watch these first three wimpy cops get stun gunned.

Then, if you would, help me convince the web master of that site to drop the satanic "signature" laugh at the beginning and end of every single freakin' movie on the site.

One link, Color Lovers. Its the [insert preferred buzzword*]-powered color scheme idea machine.

*Buzzwords could include, but are not limited to:

1. Web 2.0
2. social software 
3. tag
4. bottom-up
5. emergent-processes