Frederick Booker Noe II
Last fall, Terrence and I saw Frederick Booker Noe III speak at a debate sponsored by the Arts & Business Council2. We enjoyed the event so much that we told everyone about it. Recalling the name, my mom sent me this notice3 that Fred's father just passed away. Although I didn't meet him personally at the debate, the younger Noe seemed like a fun-loving, boisterous Southern gentleman and I hope that his spirits remain high (no pun intended). His father made a "lasting imprint4 on the industry he loved"
and made Jim Beam a household name. Fred introduced me to his father's signature bourbon, Booker's, at the debate and it has become one of my favorites. I think tonight I'll toast a glass to the man behind the bottle.
A respectable amount of bourbon to pour in a glass is about two fingers' worth. Lucky for me I have big fingers.
- Booker Noe (December 7, 1929–February 24, 2004)
Wednesday, February 25, 2004 @ 13:41 » 
Comments
Murray-Tellier
I just set up a basic homepage for my family at Murray-Tellier5. It's nothing fancy, but it gives friends and family an easy way to get in touch or to find each of our personal websites.
Saturday, February 21, 2004 @ 16:53 » Comments
Not even a press release ...
Evidently I've been neglecting my Dunkin' Donuts6 coffee fetish. Did anyone else notice that they have a new lid for their coffee?! And it works pretty damn well.
It's the little things, I guess.
Thursday, February 19, 2004 @ 13:23 » Comments
Conan Goes to Canada
I'm not quite sure what to make of the whole flap7 over Conan O'Brien's visit to Toronto last week. In a skit on Thursday night, Conan sent a puppet called Triumph the Insult Comic Dog8 to Quebec City's Winter Carnival9, where he insulted a bunch of French Canadians and replaced French street signs with alternative translations (some aimed at Celine Dion or the sexual orientation of French Canadians). As you may expect, some people were offended and accused Conan of racism and hate-mongering10. Did anyone notice that the character's name is Triumph the Insult Comic Dog?! That's what he does11! He's politically incorrect and he doesn't pull his punches. He's made fun of Southerners, American Idol12, the Westminster Dog Show13, Eminem, and Star Trek fans, to name a few of his targets. To be fair, Triumph played on the stereotypes, saying that French Canadians smelled funny and couldn't speak English, but I've heard worse from other Canadians. And heard much worse said about Americans on Canadian television! I dated a Canadian girl for a while and I spend at least one vacation a year in Quebec, which I love to visit. I don't understand the undercurrent of separatism there, but I think that is the heart of the matter. Triumph hit a raw nerve, but maybe people should focus on that, rather than the silly puppet that brought the issue to the surface once again. Conan evidently still finds humor in the situation, since he ultimately issued a tongue-in-cheek mea culpa14 in which a French translator used the opportunity to poke fun at the talk show host, calling him an "albino jackass" with a "small penis" who "wets his bed like a little girl." Now that's funny.
Update: Perhaps the best (and most grounded) response15 I've seen yet (via Kelly16). Mark Steyn, a Canadian, really puts the whole issue in perspective. And it was fun to read, too.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 @ 19:40 » Comments
Early Case of Spim
Spim, the instant message equivalent of spam, has been spreading17 rapidly this week via AIM. One of my friends got hit on Wednesday and I've already received a few IMs from him with links that attempt to install the offending software. Fortunately, he seems to be the only one in my circle to have mistakenly fallen for this new threat and I sent him a link to Wired's article, which contains information on how to proceed. People have generally been conditioned to be wary of junk e-mail, but it looks like spim could be the heir-apparent to the spam pestilence. I'm most concerned about the day it spreads to SMS, though. With the advent of smartphones, it could become all-too-easy for spammers to target your cellphone. No matter how it arrives, though, the best defense is always to verify that a link was sent intentionally. It only takes two seconds to confirm (especially via an instant messenger), but it could save you a lot of headaches later on.
Thursday, February 12, 2004 @ 19:48 » Comments
Did somebody say survivor?
It's always good to see a friend's company in the news, especially when it's a real success story18 (mirror19) about Intranets.com20.
Update: CBS News did a story21 after the NYTimes article was published. (For those of you who know him from our pub crawls, keep an eye out for Jeff Cody.)
Thursday, February 05, 2004 @ 14:57 » Comments
Web Standards Rock
For some time now, I've been a big proponent of web standards, expounding on the benefits of standards-based design to both clients and anyone who will listen. Yet until now, I wasn't taking advantage of what "web standards" means on my own site.
As of this moment, that has changed.
You are looking at an evolutionary new design for JackHoya. I have streamlined the site structure, tweaked the design, and cleaned up the code. The look is now completely CSS-driven, which enables the site to degrade gracefully and print appropriately without any fiddling on the viewer's behalf. Behind the scenes, I have rewritten lots of my custom magic to make future development (and the transition to .Net) much easier. I'm still planning to make a few more adjustments in the coming days, but for now I'm pretty happy with where things stand.
One caveat, however. I am but one man with one computer (ok, three ... but the other two are end tables right now), so I don't have a real browser testing facility. I can say for certain that this site looks pretty darn good in modern browsers (e.g. the latest versions of IE/Win, Netscape/Mozilla, and Opera), but IE/Mac and Safari are a complete guessing game. At some point I hope to enlist the help of friends (or BrowserCam22) to verify that the design works on other platforms and older browsers. I've used very few hacks to massage the appearance, though, so for now I'm trusting the standards.
Thursday, February 05, 2004 @ 14:55 » Comments
Best Quotes and Memorable Moments
The Patriots23 have had plenty of coverage24 this week, but I just wanted to mention a few of my favorite quotes from the preparations and celebrations.
Mike Vrabel to Roman Phifer before the game: "Let's go out and change our lives."
Tom Brady at the parade: "One was nice, two was nicer, but I need number three."
Troy Brown, mimicking his NFL/United Way commercial: "Bingo! We've got bingo!"
Bill Belichick to David Letterman on Janet Jackson's halftime fiasco: "We didn't see [it]. We were in the locker room so we missed that. Nobody kept us abreast of that."
I'd also like to point out that Snoop Dogg is a Patriots fan. In case you missed him after the game, he was wearing the team jersey of his close friend and high school classmate, Willie McGinest (#55).
Thursday, February 05, 2004 @ 11:05 » Comments
Why I Shouldn't Hang Out With Parag
I've recently been delinquent about new entries, but not without good reason. In a few days, I'm planning to debut a new design for this site. However, I couldn't let yesterday's Super Bowl victory25 by the New England Patriots26 pass unmentioned!
Parag was in town for a week-long network engineering class that started this morning, but I have a feeling that he's not enjoying himself much at the moment. It could be just a guess, but it could also be the "OMG kill me now"
IM that I just got from him. You see, Parag doesn't come to town very often so we have to celebrate when he does. And when our favorite local sports team is playing in the biggest game of the year that same day ... well, let's just say that adds a few more reasons to enjoy ourselves. Unfortunately, when a ginormous Indian man wants to drag you from one watering hole to the next, resistance is (as they say) futile.
The Pats pulled out an exciting victory27, though, with a game-winning drive28 in the waning seconds and outstanding performances from Bill29, Tom30, Mike31, and (of course) Adam32. While some of the game's most exciting plays33 and shocking moments34 didn't happen on the clock, the Patriots are the biggest news item35 in New England this week and nothing, not even the coldest winter since 1888, can keep us from celebrating their victory tomorrow with a parade through Boston. If you can't make it, be sure to watch NECN36 for a live broadcast. Oh, and if you missed any of this year's commercials ("Fergus, Bud Light!"
), you can watch them over at IFILM37.
Monday, February 02, 2004 @ 08:54 » Comments
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