Well, I'm now on MediaTemple, for starters. Yes, after seven (SEVEN?) years with the same webhost, I've moved on. In that time both my host and my domain reseller have been bought by other companies. Since this blog started sputtering to a protracted death shortly after I started working at Intel in May 2005, I've more or less ignored those changes.
But then, Jennie presented the opportunity to move to a (dv) account with mediatemple, and I didn't want to pass that up. And she brought on board a bunch of her old surreal crew, and there's a bunch of excitement about reviving long-stagnant sites. It's starting to feel like 2002 again, back when everyone was excited about going from Greymatter to MovableType (I totally just dated myself there).
Speaking of MovableType, I'm still using it. Yup. I know everyone and their grandma's ferret are on WordPress now, but there's something to be said for staying with the tried and true. And I'll be honest, I'm a self-confessed Luddite (I stubbornly insisted on sticking with Netscape Navigator 3 over 4, simply because I thought it was better). In all seriousness, though the latest release is pretty spiffy-looking, and exporting entries from the old host and importing them here was a cinch. Can't wait to dive in more.
Although importing entries was a cinch, I'm pretty sure I all but destroyed this slightly respectable PageRank. Oh well.
Honestly, that's part of what kept me from writing, or updating the design of my site: the legacy, both of PageRank and the quality of past posts (yeah, yeah, stop laughing). The weight of living up to that was discouraging. Ignoring it is a remarkably freeing exercise. I was even tempted to not import my old entries at all, but in the end decided to. I mean, there is some darn good stuff there (though I think I peaked circa 2003-2004).
It's also a challenge: can I rebuild from the ground up, in a more crowded online space?
I'm sure going to try. I've done lots of exciting work in the past couple of years, and I'm really eager to start writing about them.
Holy cow, I know this is just a boring "I'm not dead" status update, but man does it feel good to be writing again.
Have a great weekend all. I'll be back soon.
]]>Wife: *sniffle* "I have no idea what I'm allergic to."
Me: "Well as long as you aren't coughing up blood and don't have a fever, I think you'll be OK."
Wife: "Well, I did cough up this black liquidy stuff."
Me: "WHAT?!"
Wife: "And my hand started turning into a claw."
Me: *starting to get it* Oh. I was wondering about that. I didn't mention it because I didn't want you to feel self-conscious.
Wife: One of my eyes is turning yellow, too.
I love my wife.
]]>We sittin' here, I supposed to be the lead developer, and we in here talkin' about DOCTYPEs.
I mean, listen. We talkin' about DOCTYPEs. Not user experience, not user experience, not user experience. We talkin' about DOCTYPEs.
Not user experience. Not the user experience that I develop and die for. And make every site like it's my last. Not the user experience. We're talkin' about DOCTYPEs, man.
I mean, how silly is that? We're talking about DOCTYPEs.
"I Have a Rendezvous with Death"
"The Last Day"
If you're wondering (like I did), the poem from the first promo is "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" by Alan Seeger, an American who died fighting for the French Foreign Legion during World War I. And the song in the second Promo is "How it Ends" by Devotchka, a Denvier indie rock group.
This is all in keeping, of course, with the memorable "Mad World" ad for the original Gears of War.
]]>But I'd appreciate it if the fork didn't warp out of shape when I try to eat the delicious kibbeh my wife made for my lunch.
By the way— I love my wife and her delicious kibbeh.
]]>Usain Bolt is not the next Maurice Greene, Michael Johnson, or Carl Lewis. He's in a league of his own.
I'm almost mad at him now for showboating in the 100m. He could have set a mark in that event as untouchable as Johnson's in the 200m.
]]>That, coupled with Usain Bolt's stunning 9.69 in the men's 100m, got me thinking about another world record: Michael Johnson's unbelievable 200m sprint at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Johnson himself says he's ready to see Bolt break his record, which is surprising given how untouchable Johnson's mark seems. I remember seeing a chart about a decade ago that illustrated how dominant Johnson's record is, and seeing how I couldn't track it down with Google, I've recreated it here (if anyone can find the original chart, circa 1998 or so, I'd love to give credit to the original creator).
This chart shows the twenty twenty-one fastest 200m marks of all time. Each row represents a hundredth of a second. Eyeballing the chart would suggest that the cutting edge of human achievement in the 200m is anything sub-19.7. A 19.59 at Beijing would be phenomenal. Then you scroll down—way down—and you hit Johnson's 19.32. Usain Bolt has his work cut out for him.
| Time (seconds) |
Athlete |
|---|---|
| 19.77 | Michael Johnson (1996), Ato Boldon (1997) |
| 19.76 | Tyson Gay (2007), Usain Bolt (2008) |
| 19.75 | Carl Lewis (1983), Joe DeLoach (1988), Usain Bolt (2007) |
| 19.73 | Michael Marsh (1992) |
| 19.72 A | Pietro Mennea (1979) |
| 19.71 A | Michael Johnson (2000) |
| 19.70 | Tyson Gay (2006) |
| 19.69 | Walter Dix (2007) |
| 19.68 | Frank Fredericks (1996), Tyson Gay (2006) |
| 19.67 | Usain Bolt (2008) |
| 19.66 | Michael Johnson (1996) |
| 19.65 | Wallace Spearmon (2006) |
| 19.63 | Xavier Carter (2006) |
| 19.62 | Tyson Gay (2007) |
| 19.32 | Michael Johnson (1996) |
| 19.30 | Usain Bolt (2008) |
This data is taken from the IAAF's website (note: the all-time page didn't include two 2008 runs by Usain Bolt; I've added them to the chart). I'm not sure what the "A" stands for—altitude, maybe?
Some other interesting notes from the chart:
Update: So that's what it's like to be linked by Jason Kottke. Thank you and thanks for visiting everyone. Sorry about the comment verification—been having a beastly time with comment spam lately, though that seems to have died down, so I'll temporarily allow commenting again.
And for the record, I'm pretty sure "A" stands for "Altitude," since the IAAF site doesn't list wind-aided times, such as the 9.68 Tyson Gay posted a few weeks back in the 100.
Update 2: Needed to make an update.
]]>Speaking of websites: we've launched our official wedding website. May write up a case study if I find time, but I just wanted to note for posterity that it got featured on CSS Mania, the first time a site I've built has been featured in one of the major* CSS galleries. Coolio, and thanks, CSS Mania.
*What defines "major" these days in CSS galleries, anyways? I have no idea. There's like a jillion of them these days, but CSS Mania still seems fairly important.
]]>
She said yes.
]]>The last time I was at the Moscone Center, I was attending IHRSA, the premier international tradeshow for the healthclub industry. Quite a different crowd, let me tell you. ;)
Neat experience so far -- only had an exhibitor pass, so I couldn't see the keynote, but the Apple booth (obscured by a thick black canvas) broadcast the whole thing live (sound; no picture). Other people who didn't shell out the hundreds of dollars to get a pass into the keynote were sitting on the exhibition hall floor around the booth, listening in. I fortunately sat next to some guys with a WiFi-ed laptop, and they were able to get images from MacRumors. Felt strangely similar to camping out for a midnight showing of Star Wars.
Nice thing about being there, though, was that once the canvas went down, I got to be one of the first people to play with it. Very impressive little machine. I was surprised that it contained a hard drive (the Apple employee demo'ing the machine mentioned that it used the same drive as an iPod). Not a bad machine for $1799, though if I really wanted a second laptop (not likely), I'd probably go for an Asus Eee PC, based on bang for buck. The solid state drive version runs around $3000 -- yowsers!
]]>I got 47 out of 90. Oddly, CITE was the first tag that came to mind, although I don't think I've ever used that tag in my life.
Some of my embarassing omissions: TITLE, BLOCKQUOTE (which Kottke actually mentions in his post about the quiz ... duh), and, ironically, CODE, which I used to semantically mark up the tags in this post.