Meet Anita Marks, the nation’s most prominent Jewish woman football player/Playboy model.
Month: August 2002 (Page 2 of 3)
Making Mistakes Well in New Architect. Smart, sensible, obvious, and essential. Even simple solutions, like the standard 404 error page I developed for Economist.com, reduces confusion and aggravation, making the user experience more pleasant (and likely more successful). The more a site can customize and fix a user’s mistakes, the better the user will respond.
My weekend to come: driving to Rockland County; driving to Foxwoods; gambling; driving to Rockport, Mass., on Cape Ann; checking into the Yankee Clipper Inn with my family and my to-be-betrothed; eating seafood; meandering/shopping; buynig penny candy; climbing on rocks; swimming; blowing bubbles; and wading thigh-deep in a tide pool looking for starfish (to look at) and crabs (to race).
See y’all Monday.
WebWord has published a nice review of “Site” written by the guy behind usabilitymustdie.com. I appreciate that on so many levels.
“Web standards? You can’t afford to ignore them anymore,” writes Paul Boutin in Webmonkey (via bBlog, as I didn’t know Webmonkey was still breathing).
I agree, but essays like this ignore mitigating factors: Man-hours, revenue-generating issues, time allotments, legacy code, browser stats. I’m knee-deep in a push for standards at Economist.com, but I am required to advocate a long-term solution, which will take a year or more to fully implement.
Last I saw, too, the 4.x browser usage on my employer’s site was still a lofty 15%, which complicates things. Every “compliant” markup I see has all sorts of level-4 browser contingency workarounds which, while “clean” in the purest sense, are no more useful than the old table-and-font model.
In short: Baby steps. I want standard code as much as the next plastic-bespectacled usability expert, but I want it without sacrifice.
Rock of Abraham, indeed
This month’s Fantastic Four comic book reveals that The Thing is Jewish. Growing up my mind wandered the most with Mr. Fantasticâgray temples, don’tchaknowâbut I always felt like I could relate to Ben Grimm just a little bit more. Fascinating. (via BoingBoing)
Amy and I set a date last night: August 23, 2003, at the Essex House in Manhattan. We have our band lined up too. Progress!
Amy didn’t want me to set up a Web page about our wedding but I did anyway. Nothing mushy in there, I promise.
Added this site to BlogTree today—I was curious to see who my “sibling blogs” were.
Feels nice to give credit to the sites that inspired me to start this site (although it was more of a journal than a weblog, as it often is today). Humbling to admit today, but I used Jason Kottke’s “steal this website” iniative to get mine started.
If you’re wondering, I got online in December 1987 (yes, ’87), began my Internet career in October 1995, started Web design full-time in August 1996, launched the Ideapad in November 1998, and bought netwert.com in July 2000.
The Steven Spielberg edition of “Inside the Actor’s Studio” ends with Holly Hunter, Spielberg’s good friend and one of his favorite actors, crashing the taping. Host James Lipton calls Hunter to the stage and, after exchanging amused greetings, she asks Spielberg how he enjoyed the evening. Spielberg’s reaction reveals the magic of the show.
The Steven Spielberg edition of “Inside the Actor’s Studio” ends with Holly Hunter, Spielberg’s good friend and one of his favorite actors, crashing the taping. Host James Lipton calls Hunter to the stage and, after exchanging amused greetings, she asks Spielberg how he enjoyed the evening. Spielberg’s reaction reveals the magic of the show.
“Best time of my entire life,” he says to her.
Hunter’s eyebrows raise excitedly. “Really?” she asks, and he repeats himself.
As the audience resumes a standing ovation, Spielberg shakes Lipton’s hand and draws the host into an embrace. Spielberg speaks quietly into Lipton’s ear, but the microphone is still live, and the viewer can hear Spielberg tell Lipton, “I really want to thank you. I’ll never forget this.”
“Inside the Actor’s Studio” is a fascinating combination of education and celebrity worship. Lipton, who runs the New School film department, interviews Hollywood stars in front of an audience comprised of university film students and assorted film buffs, all of whom want an honest glimpse into an actor’s mind.
My parents had “Studio” tickets this past semester, and I attended one of the evenings (with Dennis Quaid as the guest). The night is incredibly long and intense: Lipton’s interviews can last three hours, and the Q&A sessions that follow can easily run an hour or more.
I assumed actors and directors who volunteered for the interrocation did so because of the honor, but Spielberg’s comments reveal something more.
“Inside the Actor’s Studio” makes these people feel special. Indeed, they are often placed on pedestals, sometimes against their will, but that is out of admiration or envy, dissociate characteristics to the craft of acting.
Lipton gives the interviewees a different angle: They are special not because of their celebrity, but because of what they do and how they do it. Not because of looks or humor or good casting, but because effort and accomplishment is seen and appreciated by people who understand the degree of difficulty behind such excellence. Celebrity is shallow; recognition of craft is an invaluable reward.
A man like Steven Spielberg can make money in his sleep and receive awards and bring things to life that touch the world. But for him, spending a few hours discussing his craft with an excited, impressionable audience, and being appreciated by his peers for the superlative quality of his craft, is a rare and special treat.