Last update: 6/3/01; 11:58:53.
Thoughts and ideas as they occur to me.
Saturday, January 13, 2001
ETEXT archives services. (01/13/2001 17:01 EST) This looks like an interesting service if you're a writer or if your organization produces documents that may be of interest to others (and fall within the ETEXT services guidelines). I haven't made use of their services, yet, so I can't vouch for them or give a personal recommendation at this time.
From their website:
"The ETEXT Archives provides content hosting services to people or organizations seeking to make their documents, periodicals, books, and/or works of fiction available to the public.
The ETEXT Archives does not maintain lists of links to content on other sites. Please do not request that we link to your off-site content. This project is only an archive; it is not a list of links. If you want a link, go to John Labovitz's E-Zine List.
Publishing your materials via the ETEXT Archives yields substantial benefits:
* Publishing on the ETEXT Archives is free. Disk space is allocated generously as long as it is available. Shortages have not existed for several years.
* Content published on the ETEXT Archives is indexed regularly by both public web crawlers and our own search engine.
* Potential readers of your materials are already finding and reading similar publications on the ETEXT Archives, and you'll benefit from the regular "foot traffic" of users browsing the archives. Users come to our site to search for documents and e-zines. Publishing your materials on the ETEXT Archives is the only way your content will end up in our search engine.
* We're committed to preserving your work forever, whether or not you choose to continue publishing.
* You retain editorial control, and can directly manage your own content (if you wish).
* You retain all rights to your work, and the ETEXT Archives will not sell or otherwise profit from your work.
* Your materials will be made available to the general public via both FTP and HTTP protocols. "
They will not host some things, including business and marketing materials of a strictly commercial nature, porn, and other items that are listed on the linked page.
** JD **
5:16:16 PMMajor HTML tags reference. (01/13/2001 16:48 EST) Bignosebird.com is a very helpful site for webmasters. I found this in one of their newsletters:
"Ever wish you had a usable reference of the major HMTL tags? http://bignosebird.com/tags.shtml contains complete explanations and options for the 25 or so essential tags."
Looks handy to me.
** JD ** 4:54:46 PMCare and Feeding of Your Hacker. (01/13/2001 14:21 EST) I find lots in this that describes me. I'm proud to be a hacker, in its original sense. If you think that a hacker is a criminal, intent to destroy your data, you've fallen for the media propaganda. Check out this site.
Especially if you try to manage a hacker.
If you're a hacker who's trying to understand your manager, check out The Manager FAQ at:
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/su-se.html
** JD ** 2:37:18 PMFreebies Aren't Forever. (01/13/2001 13:30 EST) I found a link to this article at Fortune magazine online. I don't know how long this link will be good.
Deborah makes some good points, and I'm especially interested in Dave Winer's comments, since I use his products and his servers, all for free. And I don't expect that to last forever.
From the article:
"January 12, 2001 Freebies Aren't Forever By Deborah Branscum"
"On January 2, Pyra Labs launched an appeal for donations to improve Blogger (www.blogger.com), its free hosting site for online journals, called weblogs. By January 9, the company had raised $10,622.71, enough to buy three new servers. Depending on whom you ask, this development is a promising harbinger of the future, a deconstruction of the dot-com model, or just a drop in the bucket. One thing's for sure: whether you'll be picking up the entire check or just paying the tip, the free ride on many of your favorite sites is about over."
[much snipped]
"The poor users don't get this yet," says Winer. "It hasn't dawned on them yet that all the freebies are about to disappear. They're going to go kaput. The dot-com bubble burst, we're now in a recession, and it ain't coming back. The whole idea that you can get something for nothing is nutty. It's a bad idea."
** JD ** 1:37:04 PMCatching up. (01/13/2001 13:00 EST) I've had a very busy week.
It seems that my total burnout on programming is finally over. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going back to programming commercially for anyone else, or back into consulting. That's over with. Don't ask me.
However, I've started some new projects here at JohnDilbeck.com and I realized it would be a terrible waste of my precious (and non-replaceable) time if I did it all manually, as I originally intended. After all, I spent 30 years learning to program and manage databases, it's time to use those hard-earned skills for myself.
I finally found a client who doesn't question and second-guess my decisions (in a field they never really understand). I've decided to become my own client. Now, if the client is brilliant, I'll know it, and if he's an idiot, I can tell him straight-out without trying to spare his feelings. This might work out!
I've been using a wonderful product to manage my websites. Frontier and Radio UserLand are products created by UserLand Software. That company provides the free hosting of John Dilbeck's Ramblings (at http://johndilbeck.editthispage.com). Both products are based around an outliner with a complete object-oriented database and a full scripting language.
Up until a week ago, I didn't realize how full that scripting language really is, or how powerful some of the verbs are. This language lets me abstract my programming constructs to a much higher level than I've previously enjoyed. It means I'm getting more done with less work on my part. But, it still gives me low-level access if I ever want it.
So, during the last week, I've been teaching myself a new language. I've read three books, lots of tutorials, scanned many examples, and searched web sites all around the web to learn how to program in UserTalk. I like this language, even though I'm still quite confused in some of the syntax and trying to find which verb is the best fit for what I'm attempting. It's been a matter of digging in, finding what I need, and playing with it.
And you know what? No headaches. No wanting to run screaming to the top of a mountain and hide myself in isolation.
It's great to be able to do this again, but I'm not going to let it take over my life like it has in the past. Programming is great to solve problems, but it really sucks as a lifestyle.
More as it develops.
** JD ** 1:18:02 PM
© Copyright 2001 John L. Dilbeck, jd@johndilbeck.com.