Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Horrible and Satisfying
July 11, 2008

I’ve been working on some improvements to Pastoid lately. It started out as more of a response to the URL shorteners that keep popping up everywhere and getting all the press, which Pastoid languishes in obscurity.

For those that don’t know, Pastoid is a site that serves two major functions. First, it functions as a URL shortener, like the ubiquitous TinyURL. Second, it functions as a pastebin, like pastebin.com. It has a few little extra features that set it apart, and I have a lot planned for it that will break it out as something really different and special from those other tools.
July 06, 2008

Today is the second contiguous day waking from utterly weird fatidic dreams of a dystopian future. Blame the chemicals in the air, maybe. Or something else. I think these things run in cycles.

I’ve had this thought lately that I should set about recording my thoughts during the day, and then play them back to transcribe them in a way that might read like something. This would be something more than Twitter, I think. Twitter is immediate and shareable, whereas these thoughts are more internal and insightful. On Twitter I might say, “I’m setting my hair on fire.” In one of these short summary posts, I might provide insight as to why I’ve done so. Perhaps tracking these things could lead to some kind of predictive instrument for mood or environment.

Habari and the SourceForge Community Choice Awards
July 02, 2008

A while ago I nominated Habari for the SourceForge Community Choice award for Best New Project. Unless you’re a first-time visitor, it should be clear that I think Habari is a great tool, and I’m really happy to say that we’ve managed to make the cut of finalists for the award! So now I need your help…

It’s actually one of my goals to get myself nominated for a web award. But technically, this award isn’t for me – It’s for the community of folks who have put together a really great blogging package. Allow me to live a bit vicariously and suggest that winning the award for Habari would be just as thrilling for me as to be nominated for my own award (which seems a long way off in coming, if ever).

@PodCampOhio
July 01, 2008

Over the weekend, I visited Columbus, not just to hang out with skippy at ComFest and buy too much crap at Origins, but to attend and lead a session at PodCamp Ohio.

The side dishes to this entrée are actually better than the meat, but the meat was the point of the dinner, so that’s what I’ll talk about here. I’m all about focus here. Focus.

I showed up right on time for the welcome session on Saturday and checked in. I hadn’t been able to show up for the Friday night meetup because of the previously mentioned “side dishes”. I checked in and was shown to the “Speaker Lounge”, marked off by signs with martini glasses (with olive!). After a brief welcome from another couple of session leaders in the lounge, we all shuffled down to Room A for the introduction.

I’m not going to do a play-by-play of the rest of the day, because that’s already feeling tedious. Let me cover briefly a couple of sessions I did attend, and my overall impression of the camp.

I'm Reading You
June 22, 2008

This post has very little to do with cats, except that they’ve been rampant distractions while I’ve been reading lately. They attacked a box of Rice-A-Roni in the pantry, leaving little noodles all over the floor, and also shredded a volleyball with a soft foam exterior. The cardboard scratching things are still used - I think it’s just a matter of getting in there and clipping claws. But enough cat news.

I’ve finished reading a few books recently. The first book is Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore. Practical Demonkeeping is about a demon named Catch (what a preposterous name) who eats people, and his master, Travis, visiting Moore’s fictional town of Pine Cove - the setting of many of his books. There, Travis seeks out the device that would free him from the demon that “serves” him, and Catch seeks out a new master that would free him from Travis. Of course, the interaction with the townsfolk leads to much drama, which is the crux of all of Moore’s books.