Binary Bonsai

Debuting in K2’s Sidebar Manager earlier this evening, Humanized Messages (demo) is a jQuery extension written by me, based on Aza Raskin’s article on transparent non-modal messages.

Transparent messages are the brainchild of Jef Raskin. It’s simply a large and translucent message that’s displayed over the contents of your screen. They fade away when the user takes any action (like typing or moving the mouse). In practice, the message is both noticeable yet unobtrusive. And because the message is transparent, you can see what’s beneath it. It’s just humane

I’ve tested it in Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer 7 (thanks to Joen, without whom I would be a wreck of IE loathing), and as near as I can tell, it works across the board.

Please report any issues (or feature requests), discuss it and, not least, enjoy.

I didn’t figure Black Hawk Down as a particularly influential or important movie when it came out. Competent, dashingly handsome and slightly odd in places; but not influential. Yet now, when looking over the trailer for Call of Duty 4, which I’m sure will be a genuine hoot to play, I see how wrong I was.

Except, judging from the trailer, they made the classic computer game misstep of underestimating the importance of voice acting. Fair enough, I’ve never been in combat, especially with the US Airborne Cavalry (which I’m guessing is what the trailer is portraying), but I nonetheless call a fumbled ball on that gruff macho ‘Do this! Do that! I-eat-gravel-soup hut hut hut!’ order-barking voice of the squad leader (not to mention the ‘look at us, we can shine a red light in the face of a man sucking on a cigar; isn’t it wuuuunderbarrr?”).

The net effect is turning what could have been reasonable human-facsimile’s into cliché-ridden charicatures (at least judging from the trailer…)

I promised Joen a while back that I would put together a list of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis, and I’ve finally finished crafting my list. Now despite my enthusiasm for the medium, I’m not nearly as nutcase-worthy as some people out there in the (blargh) podcastosphere…

But there is no denying that there are some genuinely great shows available, across a disturbingly wide spectrum of topics. Personally, I find my interests falling into a fairly narrow array.

Because podcasting is such a choice medium, I don’t hesitate for a moment to unsubscribe from shows that annoy me (The Movie Blog), are poor quality (iTunes New Music Tuesday), long-winded (Binary Bonsai… wait…)