sneaker.org

Yes folks! That’s right. I need your input!

For a while now, it keeps annoying me no end that the front page of sneaker.org is so cluttered and hard to read. I myself have trouble keeping I straigt sometimes! And a couple of good people have been kind enough to offer positive criticism about it too. So Iknow the issues, but I don’t have a good solution. So I’m just going to lay out the issues here and request that some of you who are more design/html proficient than I will have some good suggestions I could use to improve the usability of this site.

So here is the list of issues/considerations:

1) The front page is cluttered with too much information.

The front page is currently a syndicated blog of the four main blogs I maintain: whatsnew (What’s new @ sneaker.org), writings (Thought — caught in the act!), quotes (Eavesdropped!) and reviews (Rants and Raves). The reaosn for this is that I update all four blogs relaively often and I would like people to see all of them as opposed to only seeing the one that is on the front page.

One proposed solution is to pick only one and show that on the opening page and put *new* images next to the others in the navigation when there is new content, but I’m still thinking about that.

2) The front page takes a long time to load.

This is a function of the above as well as the fact that the current script o count the number of comments is just very inefficient because of it’s use of Perl and having to open each comment file o get a count each time. Now I could just move to aspcomments and fix that, but that would mean building the box with Windoze and opening up to all kinds of security issues. The Linux box has been working great with minimal problems thus far (this is NOT an open invitation to the hackers reading this… please leave my box alone! )

3) The blog archives are not linkable which makes them unsearchable.

This is my personal pet peeve with the site. I’m using Frames in order to show the blog archives because that way I have the entire site automated using SSI (Serve Side Includes) and Blogger, so I don’t have to muck around too much (not that I mind mucking around, but the less time I spend mucking around, he more ime I spend writing… so…). But what the use of Frames does is that I cannot provide direct links to the blog entries. And that seems to be becoming increasingly important. Also, google et al, index the page and I can see people searching for specific things which were there on a previous date, but since google brings them to the frame index page, they can’t really find what they are looking for since it’s moved deeper into the mess of frames and archives.

I guess if I stop syndicating the 4 blogs on the front page and leave only the whatsnew then I could just use Blogger to generate the shtml files which would do everything right… but that would mean that the front page doesn’t have some of the funnier stuff and people may not read it… what a dilemma.

4) Link colors and subheading colors are the same.

This IMHO is bad style. Since the hyperlinks are green and the subheadings are green as well, does that cause any confusion about what is clickable or not?

There’s my list of issues with the site. And while I can go ahead and putz around to fix it, I’d like getting yout input first! So please leave me some comments attached to this entry or email me. Thanks!

Several weeks ago, I landed up on this site called TheWhyILog and it got me thinking about why I myself am doing this? Though I did touch on the topic when I resurrected sneaker.org now that I’ve been doing it for a while, I think I could write more about it so…

Blogging is a weird thing. At some level it goes completely against my fears of privacy and security and at a different level it has become somewhat addictive. I guess the inklings of becoming a blogger probably started when I put up my original home page (what I now call vanity pages) and began posting weekly updates on what’s new on the page; but I never got completely hooked until recently I think it was around mid-july 2000 when I really go into it. But why? I’m not an extroverted person by any means, so why would I get so addicted to blogging? Why wouldn’t the fears of security and privacy take precedence over the urge to share information over a public medium?

To a large extent I, and possibly several other bloggers as well, treat this as a vent, a release, something to let the pressure out lest it muster inside to the point of causing a devastating explosion. Especially, when you’re not sharing the stuff inside your heard with another person - and that could be for multiple reasons, either you don’t have anyone you can share it with (an s.o.), or you’re not comfortable sharing it with the people who you know would care (family and friends), or you’re just afraid of only a few people knowing what you think. In either case, and possibly in several others, blogging becomes the substitute and a damn good one at that.

My fears of privacy and security still come up every once in a while and possibly taint my entries somewhat, however, for the most part there is a security in public anonymity, as I have described it earlier. The web becomes the audience. An audience you do not know and so cannot for the most part fear. What you write is public.. available to everyone… so there are no secrets and if there are no secrets there is less to worry about. It’s an open book. What I write in my blog is an open book. If you care enough to read it, more power to you.

The reason I started blogging was because I just had to (and still have to…) get things out of my system. The biggest thing being my immense frustration with irrationality, followed closely by my need to widen my circle of friends which, as I realized a bit too late, had dwindled into a null set during the time I was going out with my now ex-girlfriend (nearly 4 years). So there was a void I needed to fill and blogging filled it for me. It gave me an outlet and has also helped me to get closer with some of my existing friends since even though we may not discuss what I write about on my site now know me better than they did… to be a social recluse who often thinks too much

The one other thing I hoped to achieve by blogging was to come across people who have a head on their shoulders. I’ve found that most people who blog seriously (about more than just this is what I did today) are generally all highly intelligent, well read and mature individuals. Similarly, my site is really targeted towards people who think and those who like to think. To drive the point home by use of an exaggeration: Stupid people annoy me and since I can’t find enough people with adequate clue in real life, the Net is the medium that may help me establish contact with people who may have learnt to make use of their ability to think.

So why do you blog?

For over a week no sneaker.org has been pretty static. Which for me translates into boring. It all started with that stupid Wingdings crap. I happened to post it on the Net and it kind of blew itself out of proportion. Recently, judging from the level of activity in my web logs (traffic was up atleast 6 if not 10 times more than usual because of it) I think it is finally dying down. It was fun initially, but by now I’m so sick of it, that I think it is a good idea to move sneaker.org along and not get caught up in this rut. Even spending time writing about crazy shit like this is a waste of time, effort and bandwidth.

But before I put this topic to bed off of sneaker.org I figured I would thank all of those people who came here, visited the site and took the time to leave their comments, sign the guestbook or even email me or IM me. Thanks to ALL of you. I had several interesting conversations with many of you and talking to some of you and watching the activity on the site was a pleasant reprieve from what was otherwise a harrowing week or ten days (because of multiple allnighters in order to meet some deadlines…). You comments and reaction has definitely run the gamut from praise and gratitude to contempt and disdain. But all of them are welcome The one which made me laugh the most is one that was sent to me by email. I’m quoting it below, but will refrain from posting the email address of the sender.

Subject: [sneaker.org/whatsnew]: blog response

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 18:34:11 -0500

From:”Thomas Bodtke” <email suppressed>

To: <sneaker@sneaker.org>

You know, it must nice to be so damn smart in a world of idiots.

Did you ever think that some of us ‘idiots care, and would, in

a heart beat, pass on whatever we could to help this insane situation,

that we all face. Why don’t you consider getting a life, you weed!

You really are an ass! Someday you will realize it.

A Caring Person

Now, I responded to most of the emails I received, but I didn’t respond directly to my dear “caring person” since if he really thinks that spreading competely baseless and unfounded rumors in any way helps the cause of the victims and the families affected by the events on Spetember 11th, then there is little more I can think of saying to this person other than: “Your hearts in the right place, but I can’t say the same about your head.”

In fact for that matter I have a lot of respect for Congresswoman Barbara Lee who in the midst of crisis maintained her ability to think for herself and the conviction to stand alone in support of her opinion.

Anyhow, folks, again, thank you and time to move on from the psychic font or the psychedelic font or whatever the heck you wish to call it today (Where to you want to go today…).

Nothing is easy.

:Me while trying to get a new product version rolled out when several of us had already pulled multiple all-nighters … yes, the folks who work with me are so great and care so much that they are willing to pull all-nighters to make things work…

toliburger: sh*t travels faster than light sometimes

:random Yahoo! Messenger instant message that I received rearding how quickly that Q33NY thing spread all over the Net. Well put toliburger!

Well folks it’s been over 24 hours now that sneaker.org has been getting bombarded by people searching for Q33NY and Wingdings. Things are holding up pretty well… but can’t say the same about my opinion that there are an even number of rational people and irrational people in the world. Some of the comments people have left on the site and even more so the emails or instant messages I have received on this topic have definitely made for a fun-filled, hilarious day. Crazy. People, don’t you get it? I think my friend karenika put it best… it’s a F*ING FONT people!!

This has gotten SO out of hand now that the lead story in the Wired News email this evening was MS Denies Wingding Thing, Again. Now, my skepticism, doesn’t preclude me from putting it beyond some Microsoft developer from planting such an easter-egg. That’s still possible. But I still stand firm that the whole Q33NY thing related to the tragedy at the WTC is completely bogus, completely fabricated and utter bullshit. (Anyhow, for those of you who still don’t get it read on below for yesterday (in What’s New) and day before’s (in Thought - caught in the act!) posts.)

The following comment by one of the visitors to the site definitely merits being highlighted…

Len (lgjohnson@adelphia.net)

US tail numbers start with “N”. An alpha character is not allowed following the N. According to “Landings”, no tail number like Q33NY or N-Q33Ny or N-33NY has ever been assigned. My tail number, N-637PS, is typical. The other explanation for why Q33NY is a hoax is also bunk. Flight numbers refer to a route, not an individual airplane. Airplanes are temporarily assigned a flight number when they fly the corresponding route. It is never the same as a tail number, which is assigned by the FAA permanently to an individual airplane.

09-22-2001 21:23

reachmanu: I have a young kid from Israel chatting with me on ICQ

reachmanu: interesting…

reachmanu: seems like a smart kid.

karenika: he found you thru the web page?

reachmanu: yeah…

reachmanu: talking about the Q33NY thing

karenika: yikes he hee

reachmanu: and how he believed it because his 50 yr. old neighbor told him it was true

reachmanu: but he decided to go check on the net

karenika: lol

karenika: it’s a FUCKING FONT people!!

reachmanu: oh.. but it’s the psychic font!
reachmanu: but, I might have to quote you on that
karenika: wow will it tell me my future??

karenika: it’s free psychic advice? man! how come i missed it all these years!

reachmanu: yeah.. you just type in the year you want to know about

reachmanu: and it tells you what’s going to happen in pictures!

reachmanu: LOL!

karenika: damn! i should go try, maybe next thing it will tell me the lottery numbers!!

reachmanu: or if you want it to be specific down to the day, just enter the full date.

karenika: he heeee

:IM conversation between karen and I…

Yesterday, I wrote about how some gullible people are going on about some baloney that is being circulated via email (some crap about the flight number - which in itself may or may not be true - for one of the NYC flights having some hidden meaning when you enter it into Microsoft Word and change the font to wingdings). Well, turns out there must be lots or people who are trying to search for this since my sites been getting tons of hits off of google all searching for Q33NY.

So I figured I’d let people know why sneaker.org may be a little slow today and also for those of you who came here looking for the Q33NY thing… scroll down and read my blog note on it in Thought - caught in the act!. Bottomline is that all this stuff is made up. Wingdings is a funky font. In fact, even if you type in “NYC” in Word and change the fonts to either webdings or wingdings you get weird results (thanks to Brandon for demonstrating this to me; I’m not going to put up an image of this. You can go try it yourself) . One can make up all kinds of stuff like this. Anyone who believes that these is some hidden meaning in stuff like this… needs to get a clue and needs to visit snopes.com: Wingdings Urban Legend and for good measure also go read CSICOP Hoaxwatch.

Mermortal ICQ’d me a link which really shows what the global sentiment on the attacks at the WTC, The Pentagon and the crash of UA 93 in PA is like. The site has some amazing pictures. I just hope whoever is hosting it doesn’t take it down so that the link remains active.

So check out: America’s Tragedy as seen by the World

A friend of mine who is well aware of my proclivity for being skeptical forwarded me an email he received. Here is what it said:

Did you know that the number of one of the planes that hit one of the two towers was Q33NY?

In MS Word, type in this flight number Enlarge the font size to 26 or more. Change the font to Wingdings.

So I did this and here was my response:

This like everything else is completely STUPID. In fact, why don’t you go type in the word STUPID into Word. Enlarge the font and change the font to wingdings too. Notice anything? You can assign meaning to anything. It’s all perception. And people are just f’d up…

Since it’s really not worth wasting time in trying this out (but you do NOT have to believe me, so you’re welcome to go try it yourself), I’m providing a screenshot of what this looks like in Word. Q33NY shows up with a plane, 2 sheets of paper, a danger symbol and a star. Stupid shows up with what could be seen as oil, snowflake, a cross, a flag, a hand and a thumbs down. Draw your own conclusions.

On a similar note, I’ll post a copy of an announcement I just received from CSICOP via email as a public service announcement:

CSICOP Tracks Misinformation and Hoaxes in the Wake of the Terrorist Attacks

September 20, 2001

The terrorist attacks in Manhattan, Washington, DC and the Pittsburgh area constitute the most tragic and violent events ever perpetrated in the United States. As with other tragedies, conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and other forms of misinformation crop up almost immediately, playing on people’s hopes, fears, and appetite for amazing tales. E-mail has multiplied the speed and extent to which hoaxes, rumors and urban legends spread.

In the interest of public service, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal has created the HoaxWatch Web page, a source for factual information that debunks much of the claptrap circulating in e-mails, the Internet and elsewhere. We will update this site in reaction to new developments and we’re extremely interested in any e-mails or Web sites circulating suspicious information.

We ask everyone to please forward any suspicious e-mails or links to our hotline e-mail address at info@csicop.org.