Author: Steven Garrity

Lazy Journalism on Buy Nothing Day

by Steven Garrity

When “news” becomes a product delivered on a regular schedule, press releases and made-for-news events must become pretty attractive to journalists.

Today, most major American news websites are running something along the lines of “Lots of People Go Shopping” as their leading story.

Screenshots from MSNBC.com and CNN.com on November 26, 2004
CNN Screenshot
CNN screenshot #1		 CNN Screenshot
CNN screenshot #2		 MSNBC Screenshot
MSNBC screenshot

The CNN front-page story blurb reads:

Early bargain hunters packed stores across the nation this morning, but industry watchers say it remains to be seen if the buying momentum will hold going into the weekend. The day after Thanksgiving is one of the most important shopping days for U.S. retailers.

Is this news? Who decides to run a story like this? I understand that holiday shopping is a powerful economic driver in the U.S., but this is so hollow a “story” it feels like a vacation for journalists.

Note, as always, the “More News” stories on right side of the CNN.com screenshot are so absurd as to be hilarious. All of this on Buy Nothing Day.

 

Garment Interlocking Standards

by Steven Garrity

I wrote last year about a simple marvel of real-world standards when a paint-roller handle broke and we were able to screw in a broom handle into the same socket (fantastic!).

I was amused and amazed at lunch the other day by my colleague Peter Rukavina with another simple display of standards. He was layered up in two coats. The first coat (green) was purchased at the REI corporate store in Denver, CO in April of 2004. It was assembled in Mexico of US material. The second coat (grey) is a Ralph Lauren Chaps-brand coat purchased at the Eatons store in Toronto in 2000. It was made in China.

Both coats sport the ubiquitous YKK zipper brand and as Peter demonstrated with flair, despite their distinct origins, the coats can zip together because they share a common zipper type/size.

Also dining with us during this marvel of overcoat synergy, Dan James informed us that sleeping bags can be easily zipped together. This seems like the thing of nightmares for the parents of teenagers on co-ed camping trips.

 

New Sounds for Gaim, thanks to Brad Sucks

by Steven Garrity

When looking for help in creating an improved set of sounds for the open-source instant messaging application, Gaim, I turned to a virtual rock star. The ironically named Brad Sucks was a great help and came back with a great set of sounds.

Here, for contrast, are the previous set of Gaim sounds (still included in current releases of Gaim) and the BradSucks-engineered new set (to be included in the upcoming 2.0 release of Gaim).

Gaim Instant Messenger sounds: Before and After (all files in WAV format)
Gaim 1.x Gaim 2.x (by BradSucks)

Message Sent

Message Sent

Message Received

Message Received

Arrive/Online

Arrive/Online

Leave/Offline

Leave/Offline

Alert

Alert

Thanks Brad! Ok, what’s next…

 

Weblogs on The West Wing

by Steven Garrity

The latest episode of The West Wing features weblogs breaking a news story before the mainstream press. It’s a cute episode in which weblogs pick up a story of a White House staffer test driving a huge SUV right into a brand new Toyota Prius hybrid.

 

Mystery Door Repair

by Steven Garrity

My broken door glass

A few weeks ago in a large windstorm, the outside screen/glass door on my house blew open and caught the wind, bending some of the spring mechanism, pulling some of the hinges out of the wall, and most noticeably, smashing the large glass pane. I wasn’t home at the time, so when I got home, I was greeted with a large pile of broken glass on my door step and front lawn.

The door was old, so I wasn’t too disappointed about the prospect of replacing it with something newer. I intended to go get a replacement door, but didn’t get around to it. Then, I went to California for a few days, and when I came back, the glass pane was replaced in the old door with new glass.

At first I figured my parents had done it, since they often help me out with things around my house (thanks mom & dad), but they were as confused as I was – especially wondering why I would replace the glass when I wanted to replace the whole door. My girlfriend knew nothing of it, nor did any of my friends and co-workers.

So, I don’t know who did it! I have two witnesses that saw a glass company truck at my house doing the work, so it was professional, but they don’t remember which company.

I’ll call around the to glass companies in town next week and I’ll post an update here if I solve the mystery.

Anyone here have any clues?

 

Today in (My) History

by Steven Garrity

Inspired by Peter Rukavina’s post in which he looks through the history of his weblog on November 19th, I would like to do the same:

November 19, 2003
Like Peter, I was celebrating the launch my friend and co-work, Daniel Burka’s weblog Delta Tango Bravo. My witty post title: “DeltaTangoBravo.com? Roger that.” It’s been a great site since – especially when Daniel talks about me.
November 18, 2002
I didn’t post anything on Nov 19th in 2002, but on the 18th I posted a reply to Joel Spolsky’s Law of Leaky Abstractions. My clever post title: “Abstract Abstractions”
November 19, 2001
I posted about a Windows XP billboard that had been hacked to read “Suddenly Everything Sucks”, which also made for a great post title. The site I linked to no longer has the image, but they were kind and wise enough to link to a new location for the photo.
November 19, 2000
In 2000, when this weblog was only a few months old, I posted about CBC Newsworld’s Alternative Election Debate. This alternative TV debate included many of the fringe parties not included in the primary televised debate, including the Community Party, The Marijuana Party, and The Natural Law Party. Boring post title, with lame all-lowercase capitalization: “tonight: the real debate”.

It’s fun to look back. Thanks Peter.