Month: February 2004

SUV – NOT Safer

I read this article a couple of months ago in the New Yorker and was happy to find that it was online, so I could share it with those I love, i.e. You. (awww)

Anyway, it’s a really interesting article about the false security of driving an SUV. People say they drive these behemoths because they feel safer in them. Well, guess what, they’re not.

In a thirty-five-m.p.h. crash test, for instance, the driver of a Cadillac Escalade – the G.M. counterpart to the Lincoln Navigator – has a sixteen-per-cent chance of a life-threatening head injury, a twenty-per-cent chance of a life-threatening chest injury, and a thirty-five-per-cent chance of a leg injury. The same numbers in a Ford Windstar minivan – a vehicle engineered from the ground up, as opposed to simply being bolted onto a pickup-truck frame – are, respectively, two per cent, four per cent, and one per cent.

Read the article

R.I.P. Webmonkey

When I bluffed my way into a dot com job about 5 years ago, I needed to learn html. And fast. Webmonkey seriously saved my ass. Reading those well-written, humorous and instructional articles about web design, coding and theory were how I learned to do what I do.

I was also lucky to work with Stephanie. She taught me everything else. When I couldn’t decipher why a complicated nested table wasn’t displaying properly, Stephanie would take one look at it and say, “you’re missing a </tr> tag right there.” Having her around was crucial in making sure I didn’t lose my mind and she was a patient, highly-skilled teacher. Stephanie chipped in where Webmonkey couldn’t.

Anyway, the point of all of this is, thanks Webmonkey (and Stephanie!). You rocked my and many people’s world and will be sorely missed.

Webmonkey, 1996 – 2004

Wake Up!

I’ve only experienced this a few times, but it’s always really cool and disorienting at the same time. My clock radio woke me up this morning with my band blaring back at me.

It’s a weird sensation because you know the song so well (almost before you consciously realize that this song is coming from outside of your head), but it’s not just the tune, it’s the sound. The guitar tone, the room sound, the snare crack are so stuck in your head from listening to the song over and over again during mix down that you will always instantly recognize it from the millisecond that the sound waves enter your ear.

Add to the equation that you just came out of a dream and you can see why this is such an odd way to wake up.

Mac Me

Well, just like my buddy Mr. Ass, I have taken the plunge and bought a Mac. It’s my first major computer purchase in years and I am tickled pink to be joining the Mac brethren.

After much consideration (and almost going with the Powerbook), the wife and I decided on the 20″ iMac. I upgraded it to a 160 GIG hard drive and beefed up the RAM to a single 512 MB DIMM. This baby will smoke!

I’ll post more about this exciting development in the months to come and will probably become a raving lunatic with my excitement for all things OS X once I see the light. In the meantime, take a look at this baby!

Behold, our new computer