Alex Jones: Web Technologist, Barbecue Acolyte, Information Junkie, Austinite

Mac OS X Debugging Magic

Technical Note TN2124: Mac OS X Debugging Magic - “This technote describes a number of ’secret’ debugging facilities in Mac OS X, including environment variables, preferences, routines callable from GDB, special files, and so on. If you’re developing for Mac OS X, you should look through this list to see if you’re missing out on something that will make your life easier.” Via Codepoetry

Posted in OS X, Quick Links

Disabling Google’s Autolink Functionality

A recent post by Jeffrey Zeldman alerted me to the fact that Google’s new IE toolbar inserts links into Web sites. While the idea sounds useful for the user, it could prove quite troublesome to the owners of the site. The concept is no different than what Microsoft attempted to do back in 2001. Ultimately, I take issue with Google, or any other company adding content or links to a site that I created, maintain and/or own. Luckily, as Mr. Zeldman’s post on this issue notes, there are PHP, Perl and JavaScript solutions to disable Google’s autolink functionality. Hopefully Google, will listen to the developer feedback, and provide a better method for disabling this functionality in their search bar. Google is a great company, that has had an amazing impact on the Web. I would truly hate to see their shiny reputation tarnished by a poor decision like this one.

Posted in Web Development

RIP Jef Raskin

As noted on Slashdot, Jef Raskin, “GUI pioneer, interface expert, Apple employee #31, and the man most credited with the creation of the Apple Macintosh, died of cancer on Saturday February 26, 2005.” While he hasn’t been involved with Apple since the time of the first Mac (he and Jobs were far from friends), his work is the foundation of modern computer interfaces. Sadly, few UI designers care as much about the end-user as he did. I truly hope Jobs, and Apple recognize him publicly for all that he did for them, and for us, the users.

Posted in Technology

And all that Malarkey [CSS: A tribute to selectors]

And all that Malarkey [CSS: A tribute to selectors]

Posted in CSS, Quick Links

An Interview with Lawrence Lessig

The O’Reilly Network (computer book publishers - nothing to do with Bill O’Reilly) have posted a great interview with Lawrence Lessig, covering ‘the court battle on the legality of P2P; another legal battle to free “orphan works” from their copyright gulag; rolling out new Creative Commons “sampling licenses” with the help of big-name artists like David Byrne; and supporting the “free culture” work of Brazilian musician and culture minister Gilberto Gil toward a society based on freedom of culture.’

Posted in Law & Government

Kitchen Voodoo

Photo taken from Engadget
I love the Voodoo Knife Rack made by Viceversa. They have taken a rather utilitarian tool (an object to hold knives) and designed a fun, yet useful piece of working art. Granted, I’m not keen on the exposed blades, but perhaps the danger of cutting oneself is part of the fun. Hrrrm, perhaps not. Either way, it looks cool, even if it isn’t something I would choose to use.

Posted in Architecture & Furniture, Food & Drink

Food Additives

Yet again, Cooking For Engineers provides useful information on what we eat. All too often we, well, I eat food with ingredients that I can’t pronounce, much less understand. Enter Kitchen Notes: Additives, a list of common ingredients with descriptions, side effects and common uses. Mmm mmm good.

Posted in Food & Drink

It’s too quiet…

Reasons that there have not been any entires posted in the last week:

• New job
• Taking responsibility for many projects at my new job in the first week
• Desire to spend time with my wife, puppies and friends after the commute from my new job
• A sore throat that makes me want to chill on the couch instead of write pithy commentary
• Slow computer at home, that discourages major personal projects, but causes me to look forward to the day I get a Powerbook

Hopefully everything will balance some time this week, so I can find a bit more time and energy to update this site. For those of you who have e-mailed me, and/or commented on an entry, I am not ignoring you, I just need a bit more time to catch up.

Posted in General & Tagged: General

Allowed nesting of elements in HTML 4 (and XHTML 1.0)

Allowed nesting of elements in HTML 4 (and XHTML 1.0) is a very handy page for Web Developers. Hat tip to Jeff Croft

Posted in Quick Links, XHTML

paper cd case

paper cd case will create a PDF that “can be printed and folded to create a paper CD case”, based on information you provide.

Posted in General, Quick Links