Perusing Macintouch yesterday as I do during my morning routine, I came across a couple of interesting things, one of which is what looks to be like a cool little application for web design for the technically-disinclined (provided they use OS X): RapidWeaver by RealMac Software. Despite their less-than-inspiring company name and confusing URL pathnaming convention, this looks like a cool little app. Not only does it come with a number of style templates, and what looks to be impressive integration with iPhoto and .Mac (should you use it). Depending on how clean their output code is, might be a cool learning tool to boot. All for $34.95.

I’ve downloaded the demo out of curiosity, whenever my mother should happen to upgrade from her beige G3 (Lord knows she wouldn’t be able to grasp the complexities of a Dreamweaver or GoLive - or afford them, for that matter). In just playing around with it, I have to say it’s pretty cool for a web design app with training wheels. The integration with iPhoto is pretty cool (and seamless) and the drag-n-drop approach works pretty well. Check it out if you get a chance - your mom might thank you for it.

It doesn’t appear to be in the wild, nor (currently) capable of the kind of crap that should make everyone swear off IE, but it affects Moz projects, Opera and Safari. Courtesy of Internet News.

Again, apologies to the SNL skit writer, but after tripping over this article in ComputerWorld (“Anything but IT”), I couldn’t help from re-ripping off SNL. So people are surprised kids don’t want to sink money into an IT education because they fear it would be just a matter of time before what job they could find would be outsourced? (I still remember back in the bubble days when US kids didn’t want to do anything with computer science for fear of a Dilbert lifestyle.)

So I guess it all comes back to implementing some sort of protectionist measures for the preservation of the US workforce. Get a crazy-complex as you want, or do something as simple as sunsetting those tax rewards encouraging outsourcing and implementing tax benefits for companies that keep their jobs on domestic territory. Who knows? Just do something!

Update (11/30): So this latest CW article makes mention of how employers are going to fight to increase the H1-B cap next year, but the really interesting blurb from the article is this sidebar talking about the additional restrictions made to the L-1 visa. It’s kinda scarey (but not surprising) that of the two abuse concerns about the L-1, that is, using it to replace existing employees or contract out to other businesses - it was the latter that the government was trying to combat. Well, regardless, hopefully it’ll help the unemployment situation…

Looks like I need to be reading OverMatter a bit more - the latest posting links to an interview with Lindon Leader, the guy who designed the “new” FedEx (as opposed to Federal Express) logo.

(For the record, I didn’t see it on my own)

Michael points to the ACLU drive to recruit 100,000 new members, pledging to “not surrender (their) freedom” by January 20th. Given the fact that the ACLU exists solely to defend the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, there’s really no reason why anyone concerned with any of the rights granted to them by the federal government who can afford to join shouldn’t.

And yes, those of you concerned about the right to bear arms (not the privilege to have access to assault weapons you have no business using) would be better served by this organization rather than the monstrosity the NRA has become.

So this past weekend was my employer’s bi-annual warehouse sale. Generally, as these things go, super-crazy die-hards start camping out on Saturday morning an hour or two before we open the doors. There’s a crazy feeding frenzy for the first couple of hours, it tapers, then a little bit of a rush, repeat until we close the doors in the afternoon. Sunday is an entirely different experience - it’s pretty much dead all day with an occasional straggler coming in every now and again.

Curiously, after about 11:00 on Saturday morning (prior to which there was a feeding frenzy that I haven’t seen so bad in all the sales I’ve worked), it was dead for the rest of the weekend. Of course, there was the “Big Game” being played in Berkeley between UC and Stanford, but considering we get people that fly in for these sales (I kid you not), I was surprised that nothing was happening at all for the rest of the day on Saturday. Furthermore, Saturday afternoon saw some really intense winds come through at least the northern part of the bay, continuing through Sunday night. As a fairly popular manufacturer of windproof fleece, you’d think there’d be a little more interest on the “impulse-buy” end of the scale - in fact, I pretty much gambled on it and segmented out all the windproof fleece onto one rack and had signs drawn up calling this out on Sunday morning (even with the sparse traffic, the rack was pretty picked clean at the end of the sale).

So what happens when you’re not answering questions, ringing the register or otherwise trying to tidy up? Work “security”, i.e. sit out in the parking lot and make sure there aren’t any grab ‘n dashes. For the majority of Sunday, this was my responsibility. Well, it didn’t take very long before idle hands and minds got the best of yours truly and some others…

Can’t say that I’ve ever watched SportsCenter, but I love their ads. Check out the latest.

While he wasn’t perfect, and there’s certainly partisan neo-cons out there who would like to wipe out the general bonhomie reaction when one speaks of “Camelot”, I cannot fathom how anyone would consider designing a first-person shooter around JFK’s assassination to be a good idea.

Does this mean that this company will be following that up with a Lincoln sequel? Would the neo-cons be upset about that?

An editorial written by a Novell alum… Interesting synopsis on that circus…

Thanks to Scot in pointing out this very bizarre collection of lounge covers of popular songs (Buy). While I’m not ready to plunk down the cash for it yet (I don’t really entertain enough at all, and my disposal income budget has been severely restrained eliminated presently), but it’s pretty funny. Don’t miss the sequel.

Amusing enough to share…

So my roommate Milla’s husband John was telling us about this absolutely ridiculous thing he came across last week: the return of the Big Wheel. But that wasn’t the amazing part of it. Check out the modified-for-adults models.

That’s the kinda sucky thing about being grown-up. Even if you don’t have a problem plunking down $250 for something fun that reminds you of your childhood, how many times after the inaugural ride would you even ride it?

While I can’t say that I’m surprised (and I have to confess at least a little relief in the masters or doctorate pre-requisite), Congress approved another hike in H1-B visas.

At least you can say one thing about the neo-cons in the White House & Congress - they’re pretty consistent about California; unless they’re getting a check from someone here, they really couldn’t care less. (Which isn’t to say that this only affects California, it just has a pretty pronounced effect here).

While I’m surprised that my barely-known blog would show up on any spammer hit list, I’ve gotten tired of manually going through all the comment spam. So I’ve done a little bit of research into what I can do to fix the problem and came up with two solutions that can be used in conjunction with each other: Spammer Tar Pit and Kitten’s Spam Words (check out Comment #11 in the latter to make a useful tweak).

The battle continues…

Update: Looks like Kitten’s Spam Word choked on something that I couldn’t really diagnose, so when I popped back to her site to trouble-shoot, I noticed her new Spaminator solution. Figured I would try that (as installation is a heckuva lot easier that trying to parse scripting language) and I’m happy to note that it’s working great.

In a stunning show of irony, Prince Charles has just announced his not-necessarily-wanted opinion:

“What is wrong with everyone nowadays?

“Why do they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities?

“This is to do with the learning culture in schools as a consequence of a child-centred system which admits no failure.

“People think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability.

“This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history.”

While I don’t necessarily have a problem with one indirect aspect of the argument (you can aspire to great things if you work at it), the rest of it strikes me as highly ironic for a member of the royal member to say (Um, Charles? What exactly in your experience or ability qualifies you to be king?). What’s really rather odd is what this was in response to: a request from a former Clarence House secretary for more training at work (who incidentally is in the middle of an employment tribunal against Charles’ household for sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal).

Granted, I know that things are done differently when it comes to monarchy-related things where it’s all about who your parents are/were, but what the heck is so wrong in wanting more training to get ahead in life?