Great Moments in Sunset

There was a wonderful sunset across the distant sky, reflected in the sea streaked with blood and puffed with avenging purple and gold as if the end of the world had come without intruding on every-day life.

-- Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Chapter 4)

In Memory of a Great Phone Number

858-535-1995. The best phone number I ever had. I'm sorry to see it go. Dial it. It will make you feel better.

This Day

A couple interesting anniversaries today:

1066 William the Conqueror invaded England.

I once claimed descent from William the Conquerer.

1542 Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived at present-day San Diego.

Making this the 462th birthday of modern San Diego.

Wiki

I've always been curious about Wiki. Still don't feel like I completely get it, but this article helps.

Wikis, based on the Hawaiian word "wiki wiki" for "quick," grew out of programmer Ward Cunningham's desire for a new way to discuss software design. He launched the first Wiki in 1995. Thousands more followed, including Wikipedia in 2001.

Though for now largely the domain of techies, Wikis are poised to become what blogs have turned into — still in the Internet avant garde yet widespread enough to be influential.

At its core, a Wiki is an empty room, devoid of furniture and decoration, said Sunir Shah, founder of an online community called Meatball. Visitors bring the personality and mission, turning the Wiki into a library, a party or a conference room.

Wikis are also described as online whiteboards, shared notebooks or group memory. They are forums for sharing knowledge and control — and fostering trust in the process.

At Wikipedia, any visitor can make changes without needing to first prove expertise. This month, it surpassed 1 million articles, including 350,000 in English — three times that of the online Encyclopedia Britannica. More than 25,000 people have written or edited at least 10 articles.

Andre the Giant has a posse

Where all those stickers covering construction signs and utility boxes come from:

Download, Peel and Stick, and All the World's a Gallery

Random Blog : Lonely Tree

This blog is rather beautiful -- probably mostly because I'm exoticizing the arabic script. Even so...

One Simple Question Blog

Saw this on another blog. Clever. I've not contributed. I already made a donation to the DNC.

CSS Hacks : @import

Trying to figure out some of these hacks I see. The link offers a clear explanation of this one.

PHP

Some Sites:

PHP and MySQL Bible Code

PHP-Nuke

PHPSlash

Books Returned

William R. Clark, Sex and the Origins of Death
(much less existential than the title might suggest, and accordingly more interesting)

John Locke, Locke on Money
(don't think I actually read any of this, though the subject -- mostly from a philosophical perspective -- always fascinates me)

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
(get my own copy back from DR)