wiredfool

I have a new linkblog.

A couple of months ago, I was looking for a linkblog for those links that would otherwise moulder in one of my many bookmark menus. Of course, it’s not quite like bookmarks, since there are far fewer on the page than on my menus. But that might just be a good thing. I think that the history will wind up being ignored as much as bookmarks my bookmark menus in the long run. But it’s still a personally centralized service, so at least I’m computer independent.
Of course, now that I have it up, it’s the scope has changed and it’s turning into your standard linking type of blog with touch of explanation rather than the very simple thing I thought I was looking for. Guess that’s what happens when you build before you run user testing on a prototype.

The linkblog is running textpattern, Php/Mysql weblogging package by Dean Allen. It’s running on a petit virtual machine that I picked up for backup dns hosting, and is more than stout enough for any websites I might throw at it.

I might be late to the whole bookmarklet thing, but I’ve got a couple of them that do one key command posting of the frontmost browser page, as well as any selected text. That’s one less key press or mouse action than adding a bookmark in Safari, so I think it’s as streamlined as possible. So with these two
links as the first two items in my bookmark bar, command 1 posts the current url, and command 2 posts an excerpt. It works even if the bookmark bar is hidden – my usual mode. Note that these work in Safari, and the getSelection command is different in the usual suspect browsers.

I had the shocking pleasure of driving a rental Chevy compact something or other down to Portland last weekend. It was your basic rental, small, white, and flavorless.

Except that it shocked the driver every single time we exited the vehicle. Sometimes twice. After a couple of times, I started intentionally touching metal with my knuckle or elbow first. When that was hurting too much I started touching it with the key. Quite an impressive display.

After this skinnerian experiment, I found myself touching other metal things with my knuckles first.

I think it’s from the silica instead of carbon black in the tires, or at least that’s what the culprit was claimed to be back when Hondas first started shocking toll booth attendants.

One of the benefits of working from home is that there’s normally a cat to scritch when the need arises. One of the downfalls is extracting your shoes when you need to go out.

Since it’s spring, its time to start doing things in the garden. This weekend worked out pretty well for the planting thing, but my hands are aching from all the digging.

It started with the removal of 2 Japanese barberry bushes — basically large prickly bushes that are interesting for their reddish foliage and their small thorns that easily poke through good leather gloves. These are the last two that needed to come out, we’ve dealt with all the others over the last few years. Then 3 rose bushes went in. Still prickly, but they should be a lot more visually interesting. And now is the perfect time to be planting them and pruning the other terribly overgrown rose bush.

We also added a row of sweetpeas along the porch railing, and some lemon thyme in front where we killed off a sage plant last summer. And on to the back garden.

In the space where we’ll have tomatoes later this summer, we now have a triple row of sugarsnap & other peas. They will be just about ready to die out from the heat when it’s time to plant the tomatoes. In where the basil will be later, we have spinach. This is all planning on a 2 stage system, where some stuff will be ready to be harvested and pulled in the end of May timeframe, just in time to add the hot weather loving things to the garden.

SUVs to the left of me
Trucks to the right
Here I am, stuck in the radar clutter with you!

Radar clutter can be very useful when you drive a little red sports car.