randomWalks

What browsers will Mac users be rockin' 6 months from now? Raul Gutierrez has the lowdown.

“‘Frankly, when I hear this claim that in [Silicon Valley] they don’t discriminate, that makes me deeply suspicious,’ he says. ‘Why do people inside high tech think they can filter out their prejudices and only hire based on skill, when people in other industries can’t? To my way of thinking, there’s no industry or group of people who are beyond prejudice and free of discrimination.'” Paul Igasaki of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission knows what time it is.

“The truth is that hardly anything is as real as it used to be. Stone or brick on a building, despite the solidity it connotes from the days when thick piles of stone and brick actually held up the floors and roofs above, is now all veneer, four or eight inches thick and arranged on the outside of an equally thin, hollow, framed wall.” Anita’s LOL introduced me to Ken Friedlein’s wonderful architecture column The Built World.

“The first draft really took shape when I found that I needed to slow way down and distract myself at the same time so I used a paintbrush and Tuscan red watercolor and painted the manuscript on legal paper, trying to concentrate on the calligraphic aspect of writing rather than trying to craft beautiful sentences. I figured as long as the sentences looked beautiful, the rest would take care of itself.” Lynda Barry talks about Cruddy, her latest book.

Lasers in the Jungle is a good site for Paul Simon fans.

It must have been an incredible sight on Tuesday when a huge cloud of ash rolled down the slopes of the Mayon volcano.

Once your form arrives (with a unique 22-digit number) you may be able to fill out the 2000 census online. This census is particularly interesting because to indicate your race, you can now check as many boxes as apply. Salon offered some extremely offensive and ignorant, though sometimes informative, coverage of the issue last month.

I saw Goodfellas for the first time last night, and now I want to watch Animaniacs for all those Goodfeathers cartoons I never quite got.

According to MacDeals, hundreds of lucky jerks got Nikon CoolPix 950’s for only $510 yesterday through Accompany.com. My birthday is coming up, I just might have to treat myself.

I’m looking forward to riding some of the great Rails-to-Trails bike trails (abandoned railroad lines converted into long, narrow parks) in the greater DC area this summer. One of the best known is the Washington & Old Dominion trail, which connects Shirlington and Purcellville, Va. across 45 miles. If you ride it, be sure to visit some of the African-American historical sites along the route. I was reminded of the rails-to-trails system (which I’d first heard about in an old Banana Republic catalog, believe it or not) by this Washington Post article about an overnight trip on the Northern Central Railroad Trail, which runs from Baltimore to York Pa. Apparently, recent improvements have made the Mount Vernon trail (which was never a railroad) even more enjoyable than when I used to ride it.

You’re our only hope, dude.

“Ganguro want to look black and American, like their idols TLC and Lauryn Hill. In pursuit of a color that’s beyond tan, they frequent tanning salons, purchase sunlamps and smother their faces in brown makeup. It’s not uncommon for a girl of limited means to color her entire face with a brown magic marker.” Salon reports on the latest fashions to sweep Japan.

“42 miles of traffic-free cycling! You’ll start at 8:00am from Battery Park in Manhattan through the skyscraper canyons of Sixth Avenue into beautiful Central Park You’ll ride across five bridges, with breathtaking views of New York and unique ethnic neighborhoods. Along the way, you’ll enjoy dramatic views of New York’s changing skylines and waterfronts, business districts, and parks.” Bike New York (May 7, 2000) sounds like a great way to say goodbye to this incredible city.

We recently saw more examples of how “Black” radio stations (that is, white-owned stations targeting Black listeners) are failing the communities they serve. Washington DC station WPGC mishandled news of the Diallo verdict, and apparently Hot 97 in New York City didn’t even report it.

Lake Effect linked to a bunch of Watchmen stuff yesterday, and at the risk of being rude I’m going to have to link it all right here too, so that I can forever find it when I want to. First up is the Annotated Watchmen, then we have one Watchmen reference after, er… before, another, and finally a graduate paper—all devoted to the greatest comic story of all time. In a rare trip to a comic book store the other week, I noticed that they’re re-serializing the book into 12 issues. If you haven’t read it, what are you waiting for?

I have to remember to check out Spank Radio when I get my DSL connection active.

There is a Jamba Juice in DC!—yet another indication that we’re making the right decision by moving.

I love outdoor art. Washingtonpost.com has a small photo gallery depicting murals from throughout the nation’s capital. The best murals are probably found in the West and Southwest—Los Angeles (the mural capital of the world), Austin, San Francisco, Tucson and San Diego have some great ones.

“I had only one choice. Shave half of my beard.” Now I’m crying.

Dude, you must read this. I had the EXACT same idea once, and so did some friends of mine. I still think it’s true. There is so much more great stuff at the Portal of Evil I want to cry. Go ahead, dig through the archives… it’s not all grotesque and offensive.

There is a great rant on Bird on a Wire about Web designers' ignorant use of Helvetica in their pages. Bottom line: Helvetica was not designed to be read on a computer screen. Designers at Apple long ago decided to name screen fonts after cities. If you want to specify a screen font on the Mac, your choices include Chicago, Geneva, Monaco, and New York. Most people using either Windows or Mac have Microsoft’s TrueType core fonts for the Web installed on their machine these days, which means designers can specify Andale Mono, Arial, Comic Sans, Courier New, Impact, Georgia, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana, and be reasonably confident that a majority of viewers will see their pages as intended.

OmniEdit lets you edit files on any ftp site with a Web browser. It’s free and requires no registration or commitment of any sort. What a great piece of browserware.

It looks like the FringeWare store closed just a couple of months after I had a chance to visit. It was a great place—I think I spent $80 there on books, magazines, postcards, a CD of Ghetto Life 101 and Remorse: the 14 stories of eric morse, and a videotape of Waco: The Rules of Engagement.

The current issue of Blu Magazine features women in struggle, including Angela Davis, Bahamadia, Assata Shakur, and Yuri Kochiyama. I have two issues, one from the FringeWare store in Austin Texas, and the other I found, oddly enough, at a small drugstore just a few blocks from my apartment here in Brooklyn. I’ve been meaning to get a subscription, it’s great stuff.

The Reverend Al Sharpton answered one of my questions (about the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association) in a Washington Post-sponsored online forum… pretty cool.