disobey.com

From CamWorld: Thinking Outside the Box:

Lots of buzz among the hacker community about the hack Trinity performed in Matrix Reloaded that shut down the power grid. Here's the shell transcript: state service 22/tcp open ssh No exact OS matches for host nmap run completed... (camworld) Read more from this post.

From Gamegrene.com:

Role-playing has always been a big thing for me: "House" as a kid, "Cops & Robbers" after that. When I first discovered the Internet in 1997 (go ahead and laugh), I stumbled upon "Yahoo! Chat" and before I knew it I was freeform role-playing online. The world it opened for me was immense. (Eas9CXCIV) Read more from this post.

Do I have a mullet? See older photos here. Be honest.

From Meerkat: An Open Wire Service:

There've been a number of interesting releases in the game design arena lately, all of which are coming from New Riders. I'll wax poetic about four books, all slated to deplete my monies, inside. (Kevin Hemenway). Read more from this post.

From Meerkat: An Open Wire Service:

There've been a number of interesting releases in the game design arena lately, all of which are coming from New Riders. I'll wax poetic about four books, all slated to deplete my monies, inside.

NOTE: Yes, I'm testing again. Ignore this, eh?

Bare Bones is running an essay contest to win free BBEdit swag. Simply write less than 1000 words on "how have you used BBEdit to change the world?" Points are awarded on Creativity, Clarity, and Discovery, and entries must be datestamped by June 9th. I dunno if submissions are private, but here's a quick 500 word-er I whipped up (if I disqualify myself, perhaps I'll inspire, eh?):

<<BBEDIT_ESSAY;
I had an idea the other day. This, fortunately, is nothing new - I have ideas day in, out, under, and above. What differed, however, was location: being at work meant my only consolation was a Start button. See, when I'm at work, my creative five nines sleeps [0], instead replaced by a fury of monkeys mindlessly typing Hamlet for an ignorant peanut gallery.

Having an idea at work was frightening, similar I suspect, to asking a yes-man multiple choice questions. There were no programs with their arms open, no casual blue diamond beckoning invitingly. As confused as a basket full of puppies on a roller coaster, my only action was to shakily type an email, sending home a barely intelligible life-line. The monkey's clamored at the gate and, when released, the Blanket of Soothing Limbo returned.

Of course, when I got home to read email, I had not a clue what I meant.

Without rest, BBEdit's icon remains perched on a tiny black arrow in my Dock. It is my buttock-impressioned chair, my tattered shirt, the piece of unidentifiable plastic in my coat that gives me something to do as I walk: comfort, tried and true.

BBEdit has been part of nearly every creative effort I've attempted over our long history, including the better-left-dead "Ok, So, If I Were A Goat..." [1], my "Content for the Discontented" Disobey.com [2], and the popular open-sourced aggregator AmphetaDesk [3]. Besides coding and programming (where BBEdit has been as much a staple as a paperclip), it's my primary writing tool, used to write O'Reilly's best-selling Mac OS X Hacks [4]. It is also the primary (ok, ok, the only... sheesh!) IDE of the Perl scripts destined for my next book. Likewise, BBEdit made it easy to give back a writing toolkit: a set of glossaries and stationery's for DocBook Lite [5].

An unknown actor appears from stage left, dressed in
all blue, with a square frame extending from his torso.
A large black "B" has been shoddily duct-taped to his
chest. He looks like a pathetic super hero.

BBEDIT IMPERSONATOR (LAMENTING)
Oh, user, do you love me?

MORBUS IFF
Baby, you know I love you, damn, girl!

This being his first time playing a woman, BBEDIT
IMPERSONATOR noticably blushes and toes the imaginary
dirt at his feet. He begins to sway side to side.

BBEDIT IMPERSONATOR
Why?

MORBUS IFF stammers, looking for the nearest exit.

MORBUS IFF
Girl, whatcoo askin' somethin' foolish
like that for? Of course I'm down!

BBEDIT IMPERSONATOR
Well, if you can't name three things,
I don't think we should be together.

MORBUS IFF reluctantly pulls a comically large Greek
scroll from a hidden compartment. After unrolling it
like a toilet paper commercial, he begins with a heavy
sigh.

MORBUS IFF
"Why I Love BBEdit, in More Than
One Thousand Words"..."

FADE TO BLACK [6]

--
[0] 99.999% of the time, I'm creative. You know, the
whole uptime thing, right? UberStatistic, yes? Sigh.
[1] http://www.disobey.com/d/2000/morbus-goat.jpg
[2] http://disobey.com/
[3] http://disobey.com/amphetadesk/
[4] http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mcosxhks/
[5] http://disobey.com/d/code/bbedit/
[6] My apologies to true script writers. This is one creative
outlet that BBEdit and I have never before attempted.

BBEDIT_ESSAY

Imagine sitting in a theater watching an incredibly imaginative and compelling movie with incredible art and special effects, but one thing is missing: music. I was gaming at a friend's last week, as a trial foray into his new Shadowrun campaign, and I flogged him for the lack of atmosphere that he created in his gaming space.

NOTE: Fiddle-e Fiddle-i.

Imagine sitting in a theater watching an incredibly imaginative and compelling movie with incredible art and special effects, but one thing is missing: music. I was gaming at a friend's last week, as a trial foray into his new Shadowrun campaign, and I flogged him for the lack of atmosphere that he created in his gaming space.

NOTE: Yup, testing again. Told you.

Imagine sitting in a theater watching an incredibly imaginative and compelling movie with incredible art and special effects, but one thing is missing: music. I was gaming at a friend's last week, as a trial foray into his new Shadowrun campaign, and I flogged him for the lack of atmosphere that he created in his gaming space.

NOTE: I'm working on a new book, and I'm testing some Perl scripts here and there. Please ignore this entry. You may see a few more in the coming days too, but eventually, I'll leave your aggregators alone.

Just because I'm not updating DNN (I really should be - there's so much to say but so little time), that doesn't mean I'm not doing good things. The one thing I can publicly announce is that I'm the new columnist for MacTech, a paper (mMmMm, texture!) magazine which has been publishing since 1984. My first column should appear in time for Apple's WWDC (the June issue). I'd like to heartily suggest that if you enjoy any of my other stuff, you're sure to lust for this one too.

The "official" intro is:

Most spider webs contain elegant symmetry, layer upon layer of silk and polygonal beauty. Some, however, create chaotic weaves with no apparent rhyme, reason, or pattern. For those who've never delved into setting up their own web server or coding their own web scripts, this "tangled Web" of confusing acronyms, daemons, and protocols is enough to make sucking blood a viable career change. With MacTech's "Untangling the Web" series, we'll alleviate your stomach knots with a guide to turning your OS X machine into a web serving and web programming powerhouse. Free those butterflies!

Happily though, I've got wide creative license to talk about "anything to do with the web", which is just far too delicious to pass up. I'm very happy about this.