Friday, March 31, 2006
links for 2006-03-31
-
Excellent! Ted's band from NBC's SCRUBS has an album!
Thursday, March 30, 2006
links for 2006-03-30
-
Do-it-yourself easy databases on the web. We'll come back to this.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
links for 2006-03-29
-
Wow. Just wow. These are awful. (iTunes Music Store link)
-
I love this site; Joe reminded me of it today. It's especially good as a reference when reading period literature.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
A little help?
My friend Savannah is having a spot of very frustrating trouble with Blogger. A bot (likely) has mistakenly identified her small-town library's website as spam and refused to allow her to update it. So far, all she's encountered is unhelpful canned responses to her inquiries and wonky resolution sites that stall at login.It'll be a major pain in the ass to move her site to another service. Any of my pals at Blogger or Google got a tip for getting this resolved? Let me know and I'll put you in touch.
Monday, March 27, 2006
links for 2006-03-27
-
What? No portable hole? Hmmm...
-
You know, if you're going to build one of these for the backyard, you really ought to make it larger on the inside than the outside. More room for the garden shears and barbecue gear.
-
An art installation that could destroy the museum which houses it if it becomes too popular.
Hey there, gorgeous…
Hey, looky: That's my pals Stewie and Caterina on the cover of Newsweek talking about Flickr and the future of the web. Rock!Saturday, March 25, 2006
Hooray, hooray!
My heartiest congratulations to Meg and Jason. I'm pleased to say I knew them when.Wednesday, March 22, 2006
The serenity of margaritas
"Hold still," Andrew said. "I'm going to take your new headshot.""What?" I said, partly because I believed I didn't entirely hear him correctly, partly because I was distracted by the stunningly attractive Brit seated at my left arm and partly because, if I had heard correctly, he was due a correction, because I didn't have an old headshot.
Well, that's not entirely true. I do, in fact, have an old headshot. It is, in keeping with the unwritten regulations of the Actors Equity Association (of which I am not a member) regarding headshots, at least ten years out of date and actually closer to 15. It looks nothing like me.
"I said," he said, "I'm going to take your new headshot." And then he did.
I like it very much. It looks like me, although not enough like me that I actively hate it. It captures me in my natural and preferred habitat: at a bar, in the company of friends, with an attractive man open to guileless flirting at my side. I like it because it was taken by a smart, witty person in Austin, Texas, my third favorite place in the world, just like my last—and still—favorite picture of me.
My only regret is that rather unbecoming white lanyard. Nooses or neckties, lanyards or layers of worry...there's always something around my neck, I suppose. I only wish it'd been the arms of the Brit.
links for 2006-03-22
-
Most-linked weblogs in September 2000. Ah, those were the days. #27! In your face, Zeldman!
-
Your own private del.icio.us? A PHP web-based social bookmarking system.
-
Aw, daddy, say it ain't so. Well, as Gus says, knowing when to get off is a sense to be appreciated in theatre and in porn. I shall miss you, sir.
-
A great service, utilizing the Project Gutenberg texts, run as a public service by my pal Matt. If you find it useful, please consider a donation to offset hosting costs.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
links for 2006-03-21
-
It seems unlikely this site will ever want for material.
Monday, March 20, 2006
links for 2006-03-20
-
Verbatim, my DVD-R of choice, comes out as a "Premium" disc. Good to know.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
links for 2006-03-19
-
Yes. Yes it is.
-
You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
links for 2006-03-18
-
"Nay," quod he, "Sholde this thynge seise us, ynne the wronge place, such as for ensaumple mass, thenne we sholde ben lit uppe lyke lollardes. If thou canst not hele yt, thou muste stande it."
Friday, March 17, 2006
links for 2006-03-17
-
Tired of that same old monotonous water? Bored with water that doesn't look like futuristic alien mouthwash? Need to make your midnite bathroom appointments more exhilarating?
-
NetNewsWire releases a public beta that adds, among many other niceties, easy posting to del.icio.us. I [heart] Ranchero Software. Thanks, Brent!
Thursday, March 16, 2006
links for 2006-03-16
-
Some of the contestant designs are quite nice. Some things to think about as I begin to explore Expression Engine.
-
Put me down for two.
March 16, 2006 at 5:27 PM
| 
Sunday, March 12, 2006
What I’ve learned at SXSW so far:
Obscurity is the new fame.Rock on.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
SXSW Photo Hunt
If you can find me and you ask nicely, I'll get you two points in the SXSW Photo Scavenger Hunt.For added accuracy, I had a few beers first…
B9 D++ T+ K S F I- O X+++ E++ L C-- Y4 R- W P+ M5 N+ H++
Thursday, March 9, 2006
links for 2006-03-09
-
Oh bother. Looks like I have a couple of banks to call.
-
Scott Adams talks about his rare vocal condition (Diane Rehm has it too) and how Google helped him self-diagnose when everyone else thought he was crazy.
-
Putting admin links into Movable Type content.
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
SXSW -48 hours
I have a lot of things still on my pre-departure to-do list, but I'm actually optimistic they'll all get done so...in about 48 hours, I'll be boarding a plane for my annual escape south of the boredom for South by Southwest Interactive—my seventh trip to Austin, Texas and environs for five days of creative battery-recharging.By all reports, this year's conference (and the attendant music and film conferences and festivals) will be the biggest ever. There's a hotel crunch in Austin with the rise in attendance; even campgrounds and RV parks are booked solid. I guess there'll be one whale of a crowd. That's great for SXSW, I guess. Growth is good, to a point. But it's a little disappointing that five or six years ago, it was possible to "do it all" and see and chat with everyone you wanted. Now, not so much. Because there's just so much.
Check out the conference website for a flavor, or c'mon over to SXSW Baby!, the unofficial weblog, and you'll see what I mean. Panels and parties, shows and Shiner, events from sun-up to long past sundown. And all those big, beautiful delicious geek brains. It's a little like Burning Man without the annoying playa dust and with a significantly less diverse recreational pharmacopeia.
Some call it spring break for geeks. That's about right.
For the sixth-and-a-half year in a row, I'll be hosting Break Bread With Brad on SXSW Eve Friday night, and about that a few words I think get to the heart of my feelings about SXSW, then, now and evermore. Bear with me.
A little history: Break Bread With Brad started, sort of, in 2000, when I was attending my first SXSW Interactive. (I'd done the music festival a few years prior, but hadn't been to Austin in a couple of years.) On the evening before the conference got underway, Matt Haughey, Robert Occhialini and I got together for dinner. It was the first time we'd met and it was the best way I can think of to ease into a new experience like SXSW. We had a grand time chatting and proceeded to the official opening party, each of us I think comforted knowing we'd know at least two other people there.
The next year, 2001, a few weeks before SXSWi, I e-mailed a bunch of friends, some I'd met the year before, some I wanted to meet in person, and invited them to dinner. I whimsically dubbed the dinner "Break Bread With Brad", a wink toward the significantly tonier Cocktails With Courtney events organized by networking nabob Courtney Pulitzer.
That first event was simple and fun. I made a dinner reservation for about 30 people, we gathered on the rooftop deck of Iron Cactus, ate, drank and made merry. A few folks pooled some cash and bought me a decadent dessert. Many digital photos were taken. I got to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.
At the time, there was a lot of grumbling about the social stratification of the web community, the division into perceived A-list and B-list and so on. (Some things, alas, never change.) So from the beginning, there have only been a few "rules" guiding BBWB events: It's casual. Don't just dance with them that brung you. Meet someone outside your usual social or professional circle. (I'll introduce you!) Don't congregate in A and B groups; mix with other consonants and vowels.
It worked a treat that first time out and we all left the restaurant ready to have a great week together, most of us knowing a few more folks than when we came in.
Naturally, I wanted to do it again the following year. In 2002, it was back to the Iron Cactus, a private dining room this time, and a few more folks, about 50 all together plus one sock monkey.
In 2003, BBWB was at Stubb's (sorry vegetarians). Attendance: 70+. The first crappy attendance prizes were given. Food was eaten, beer was drunk, waiters were overworked, and we scooted downstairs to the bar after dining to make way for the Loretta Lynn fans.
Back to the Iron Cactus in 2004, around 90 folks. I drank heavily, ate little and generally wore myself out just trying to say hello to everyone. Last year, BBWB moved to The Ginger Man, one of my favorite Austin hangouts. 90 beers on tap, great empanadas, at least 120 folks showed up.
This year, I'm headed back to The Ginger Man for BBWB 6.5 (that first dinner with Matt and Robert is the mysterious ".5"). I didn't even send out e-mail invitations this year. As I write this, there have been 143 RSVPs. I'm excited and very much looking forward to the event, but I'm also a little nonplussed to realize that number is probably the tip of the iceberg. It seems unlikely I'll even get a chance to say hello to everyone who drops by.
A few observations and maybe a couple of lessons:
Every year at SXSW, at least one person comes up and thanks me for organizing Break Bread With Brad. I've gotten better at graciously accepting those thanks but the truth is, I do very little to make it happen. I pick a place I'd like to go, announce it and people show up. For the past few years, I've imposed on the kindness of various restaurant and bar managers who have been willing to set aside some tables or a room, but I've never been charged a rental fee. Until last year, if you can believe it, everyone ordered dinner and drinks and at the end of the night, they handed me one very big bill. I took up a collection from the crowd, paid it with a very generous tip for the waitstaff and never once got stiffed on the tab.
Think about that for a minute: In 2004, 90 people ate and drank their fill, pushed some money into my hand and I paid a $1,500+ dinner tab without putting in more than my own fair share. That's pretty amazing. Hell, I can't go out to lunch with three co-workers without spending 20 minutes dividing up the bill. So that's pretty cool.
But the point is, I don't really do much to make it happen. And that's lesson number one about SXSW and the environment that surrounds it: If you want to make something happen, you can and you can do it pretty easily.
Want to have a happy hour with devotees of your favorite web development platform? You can. Want to see what happens when hundreds of clever minds are presented with cool toys? Do it. Want to see dozens of geeks in bowling shoes? Go for it.
Austin during SXSW is a big sandbox to share. At most, you have to bring your own shovel and pail.
Another observation: Some events take on a life of their own. (Crowd: "Duh, Brad.") Macro example: South by Southwest Interactive, nominally a new media festival and conference, has become an always-on orgy of geekitude around which dozens of cool ancillary events—most organized independent of SXSW itself—have grown. Kickball, Fray Café Sterling's party (est morte?), massive groups getting together for lunch, late night chats in hotel lobby bars...all of these are things folks have come to anticipate as much or more as the conference itself.
Same with Break Bread With Brad. What began as a small way for me to meet folks who read my website has become...well, I don't know what it's become. But I do know that it's grown a lot and it isn't the same thing it was before. That's not a good thing or a bad thing. It's just a thing.
Until relatively recently, there wasn't anything significant going on the Friday before SXSWi. Now there's a pre-party sponsored by the conference (and a few pre-pre-parties too), but when BBWB came along, there wasn't much. And so the folks I knew invited other cool folks to come along for dinner. And they told two people and they told twelve people and so on. And because I'm a nice guy, I've never (and will never) told anyone they can't come. We've squeezed together at tables; we've crowded bars. We've made room because that how you make people feel welcome and that's how I felt in 2000 and that's how I want everyone to feel.
That's so cool. That's social networking, pre-MySpace. That's how I've gotten to know some of my favorite pals.
So, lesson number two: Sometimes the things you create will grow in ways you couldn't imagine and become things you couldn't predict. And that's OK.
And here's lesson number three: You get weird feelings about things you put your name on.
As I said, the whole "Break Bread With Brad" schtick was sort of a joke, a one-off that stuck. But the "With Brad" part is right there and, despite my protestation that I don't actually do much to make it happen, I feel really paternal about it. So it makes me a little sad when there's the possibility I might not meet everyone who shows up. (True story: Last year, I was smoking on the balcony of the Convention Center on a break when I started chatting up a cute guy next to me. Somehow, he mentioned it was his first time at SXSW and that a friend had taken him to BBWB the night before. "It was cool," he said. "Did you go?" I sheepishly introduced myself.)
So do me a favor: If you come to BBWB Friday night, find me and (re-)introduce yourself. We'll shake hands or hug or something, and I'll give you an ancient and traditional "Hello, my URL is..." nametag and maybe a door prize for your trouble. I might even buy you a beer. But I want to keep the "With Brad" at least a little in the foreground of things, not because I'm a vain, self-centered host, but because I like meeting people.Last year during SXSWi, I was approached by a nice fella from a fairly big web concern who asked if I would consider taking on a sponsor for BBWB. We had a pleasant chat, even though I politely declined. Other folks have mentioned I might want to solicit sponsorships for the dinner, but I don't think I'll ever be doing that. "American Airlines presents Break Bread With Brad" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
But here's lesson number four: Change is inevitable. Every year, unfortunately, my work schedule seems to arrange itself in such a way as to make my SXSW attendance at least momentarily dicey. But I always find a way to be there, because I love it and I need it. And as long as I'm there, there will be a Break Bread With Brad event.
It's probably grown to the point where I stop cajoling restaurants to squeeze us in and start actually paying for the space. That's OK, even if my tummy does a couple of flip-flops thinking about finding suitable and cool venues that are available on a Friday night. And we're beyond the place where everyone who shows up knows who I am or why I'm throwing a party. That's OK, too. I figure the party goes on all week and everybody's hosting a few minutes at a time.
I'm not a web guy, I have no real professional interest in new media and I'm barely above the mean that demarcates geekitude. It's a little odd that this event—SXSWi, I mean—has become such an important and constant thing in my life. But it has and it is and I. Can't. Wait.
links for 2006-03-08
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
links for 2006-03-07
-
What the lady said.
Monday, March 6, 2006
links for 2006-03-06
-
OS X client for managing a NetFlix account. Nifty, but I'm not that much of a freak.
Sunday, March 5, 2006
links for 2006-03-05
-
Ooo...I can't wait to get this! (See the trailer in the "Screaming Room" to witness to horrifying terror that is the Hideous Box Monster.)
March 5, 2006 at 5:25 PM
|
Saturday, March 4, 2006
links for 2006-03-04
-
This is the most fabulous thing I have seen in my entire life.
Must See HTTP:// Only
Add Must See HTTP:// to Technorati Favorites
Brad L. Graham is a writer, editor, riverboat gambler, fashion consultant, softshoe dancer, professional assassin, freelance factotum and singer of sentimental ballads.The BradLands is his home on the web. 
Find Brad elsewhere on the web.