This is Vicki's Typepad Profile.
Join Typepad and start following Vicki's activity
Vicki
Writer, Reader, Techie, and Cat Mom
Interests: Cats. Books. Tech (Mac OS X, Palm, Perl...). <BR>
The Internet. Weblogs and social software.
<P>
I have some weblog <A HREF="http://www.cfcl.com/vlb/Memes/index.html#_MyMemes">memes</a> (writing prompts). Take a look if you're interested in playing.
<H2 class="archive-header">More</H2>
You can read <A HREF="http://cfcl.com/vlb/about.php">more about me</a> and my interests in my home pages.
Recent Activity
Look at those ears!!!
UPDATE! Happy Hollow Fennec Fox Kits Still Adorable
On Monday, March 30th, we started off your week with the undeniably adorable Fennec Fox kits, at Happy Hollow Park & Zoo! The quad is back, to help round out the week, with images from their latest photo-op! As you can see, they are getting stronger and growing fast…ears and all! The two boys ...
Tim - Thanks for commenting and for adding to the discussion.
I do have to push back on your comment that " it isn't the individual answering the questions who is choosing labels for themselves. Instead, it's the researchers behind the instrument that are exercising this power." because that's not strictly true.
The researchers created the labels, yes. But the individual chooses. Part of the point of the MBTI is that, of you get to the end and don't think the code it gives you is a match, you are Supposed to read the profile (and other profiles) and make a decision. It is _expected_ that the questions may not be perfectly answerable by all people.
The better someone knows himself or herself, the more accurate the results will be. Part of the MBTI instrument is the understanding that it should NOT be done in a vacuum and it is important to look at the results and decide if you believe them.
No one "assigns" you a type but you yourself. If anyone ever tries to tell you "this is your type whether you agree or not", that person is misusing the MBTI.
The MBTI is Nothing Like Astrology
I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but I haven't had the right nudge until now. But today, someone gave me that nudge. Every now and then, someone blathers about the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) being no better or worse than Astrology. The articles make for amusing punditr...
This is why zoos are important. They may be extinct in the Wild, but they are not extinct in Israel. And mama can safely care for four when there are no predators to worry about.
Extinct in Israel, Sand Cat Kittens Emerge at Zoo Tel Aviv
In early August, keepers at Zoo Tel Aviv Ramat-Gan were thrilled to discover that mother cat, Rotem, had given birth to four wriggly little kittens. Initially there was concern that Rotem would be unable to care for so many kittens, but she has proven to be a capable mother for her curious you...
See also: http://ideas.time.com/2012/08/16/gadgets-are-great-for-introverts/ by Susan Cain
The War Against Outliers
An article in Forbes suggests that people without Facebook accounts may be viewed with suspicion. This is based, largely, on: a Slashdot story (flagging a German news story), a woman who wrote to an advice column, and anecdotal evidence of job seekers and employers wondering aloud "about what it...
Fabulous! Bright, colorful, creative. Just wonderful.
a blanket for the rug ::
well a blanket version of the rug at least. Ever since we got this rug I've intended to crochet a blanket which matched in some way. Originally I was just going to use the colours and do a traditional granny square blanket. But the more I've admired the rug and thought about the blanket t...
I'm like Moshe (but with a different browser). I use Camino's Flash blocker. I open sites and see a little squiggly (ƒ) in a circle. It's very calming (and no change to the CPU/fan).
Here's the #1 Reason I Hate Websites That Use Flash...
Right here in the screen capture: If the fan on my MacBook Pro starts kicking in... or if it gets slow... or if I look at the CPU monitor and see it jacked to near 100%... all I have to do is open my Activity Monitor and...99% of the time it's an issue with Flash! Now, granted, it's probably n...
WTF is back today. :-(
Turning off .wtf-component makes the list and avatars go away.
Not perfect. Still hunting for the magic bullet. Advice welcome.
#$^&@! "features"
New Twitter Fixes: Remove Who to Follow and More!
UPDATE (October 30th) Some people are reporting that the AdBlock Plus fixes aren't working for them any more. It seems to be people using Firefox 4.0b6, which appears to have known compatibility issues with ABP - the joys of using a beta 0 and I'm currently looking for a workaround. If you're a ...
When I tried .tweet-user-name, it removed both user ID and full name, so I've turned off .tweet-screen-name instead. That seems to only take away the bold user id / handle and leave the greay "real name". I can live with that.
Too bad there's no difference in classes between my incoming stream and your outgoing stream.
I looked through the CSS file and I applaud your perserverance in working this stuff out! So many classes with similar names. Yurck!
New Twitter Fixes: Remove Who to Follow and More!
UPDATE (October 30th) Some people are reporting that the AdBlock Plus fixes aren't working for them any more. It seems to be people using Firefox 4.0b6, which appears to have known compatibility issues with ABP - the joys of using a beta 0 and I'm currently looking for a workaround. If you're a ...
Have you discovered any way to remove the author's ID and full name from every tweet.
If I'm looking at Your Page, I know You wrote what I'm reading. I don;t need to be reminded on every line. (I filed a complaint to Twitter about this).
New Twitter Fixes: Remove Who to Follow and More!
UPDATE (October 30th) Some people are reporting that the AdBlock Plus fixes aren't working for them any more. It seems to be people using Firefox 4.0b6, which appears to have known compatibility issues with ABP - the joys of using a beta 0 and I'm currently looking for a workaround. If you're a ...
I like that we still use the word "dial". You press the "Dial button" on your desk phone.
Daddy... what's a "dial"?
Daddy, what's a "dialtone"?
I had to laugh when I saw this tweet from Dave Troy last week: With the ubiquity of mobile phones and the change they bring to the dialing paradigm, will the generation growing up now only really know about "dial tone" as a historical artifact mentioned in places like Wikipedia? For those of u...
In Camino (Mac-focused Mozilla) the file should be called userContent.css. Place it in the chrome folder of your user profile (~/Library/Application Support/Camino).
More at http://caminobrowser.org/documentation/annoyances/#adv_block
Oh, and, THANK YOU!!!!!
Removing Twitter's Recommended User to Follow "Feature"
#newtwitter fixes here: New Twitter Fixes: Remove Who to Follow and More! waves at all the shiny new people Hi, Internet! I must admit, I am sort of stunned at the response to this post. I thought if the lists annoyed me, there must be a few others out there who agreed. A few. That's my ...
No. The bottom line is that it's the job that matters, not the way I'm paid. (Or so I believed at the time I wrote this.)
Contract or FTE?
My spouse, Rich, has been a freelance computer programmer, consultant, and small-scale entrepreneur since 1975; that is, for nearly all of his professional life. I, on the other hand, when offered a 6-month "trial" contract for my first job out of grad school (in late 1984), pushed back hard for...
Vicki is now following The Typepad Team
Mar 15, 2010
So many people have said thank you even more eloquently than I can but I wanted to add my voice. Thank you, Wil. This story made me smile.
there and back again
Someone, I think it was Shane Nickerson, recently recalled the apocryphal advice given to people who choose to come live in Los Angeles: this city sucks, so if you're going to live here, you should at least love what you do... I got into Hollywood at 11 yesterday morning, and came back out at 7:...
My response to Ms. Dick: "You have GOT to be joking." (And if not, you should be.)
New Name Beat: Nexus One
On Tuesday, Google introduced its Nexus One app phone, which runs on the Android open-source operating system and may or may not be the iPhone killer Google would like it to be. I'll let others debate the technical pros and cons, as well as Google's marketing strategy (selling directly through ...
Well, we're not going to _that_ Webinar. :-)
How NOT to send out an email marketing message... (FAIL!)
This just arrived in my email inbox... can you say... "FAIL?" It's 2010, people, never assume that people have their email programs set to display all images... If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either subscribing to the RSS feed or following me on Twitter or identi...
Heh, Nancy. I see you don't moderate the trolls in your comments.
Brand names are important. Brands have gained customers with a good name, lost customers with a bad one. Happily, however, most people will never read the brand name on the airport scanner; they'll be too busy removing their shoes, belt, watch, and keys; bemoaning the loss of that precious bottle of water; or wondering whether the scanner is showing off their celullite to the other travelers.
(Lewis Carroll is also resonsible for coining "gallumphing" :-)
Bad Brand Names: Rapiscan
Remember Michael Chertoff, who as homeland security secretary during the Bush Administration said ill-advised things about illegal immigrants (and who, predictably, was later found to employ them)? Since leaving government service, he's kept busy running the Chertoff Group, a security consulting...
Oooh. Ouch!
re: Grievance the Second: at least it's obvious why they're seeking "Copywriting Experts". They understand that they need some.
The Airing of Grievances
Happy Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us! The aluminum pole has been lofted, the Feats of Strength admired. Now it's time for the Airing of Grievances, my favorite ritual of all. I've been saving up grievous examples for more than a month in anticipation of this special day. Too negative ...
As Kevin M points out, the default now is to show @replies only from your network. I don't see @ replies to anyone I don't follow. So, not much noise.
I do see @replies to me from people I don;t follow but there are few of those and only 3 times have I wondered "well, that made no sense." Perhaps that was spam? It was small enough to consider to be an accident.
Finally, Twitter, unlike the intranet, is a closed system. If someone is reported for suspicious activity, the account is suspended. Try that with email or blog comment spam. In fact, not long ago, a "real" user account was suspended for @replying over and over to many people as a way to spread his message. Oops. Bad twitiquette.
The great thing about Twitter is we can all see what you've sent (unless you're private and even then Twitter cust svc can see). We can see how many messages you've sent. We can track how many per day (and there are limits to messages per hour.) Unlike the interwebs as a whole, we control our world in Twitter.
I just don't see "spam" as a Twitter killer... I don't even see it as much of an annoyance.
Mourning the loss of Twitter
Enjoy Twitter while it lasts, because it won't last how it is today. In my last post, many a tweet celebrated the publicness of Twitter over IM and Email. We value the serendipity of social messaging and how wide-open Twitter is. @replies, #hashtags and persistent searches (track) help us disc...
We have four kitties as well. This sounds very familiar!
Talking to the Cats...Thursday 13
I find myself saying the most bizarre things to our four cats: Emma, Gracie, Buzz (pictured) and Woody. Here are thirteen of them: It's time for kitten review. This is your litter box and it's where we go potty. OK, everyone with fur off the kitchen counter! Here, go be a kitten... Has it...
I admit it. I started reading your weblog lo these many years ago because I'd heard of you. I'd watched ST:TNG. Wil Wheaton... didn't he play Wesley Crusher? He has a weblog? I wonder what he says. Hey, he's funny and smart and he writes really well.
When Twitter came along and I learned you were @wilw, that gave an extra boost to Twitter for me - it must be good if Wil's on it. And he's funny and smart and interesting in 140 characters too. (Not everyone is.)
I continue to follow you because you continue to make me laugh and because the Twitter @wilw and the Blogging WWdN both seem like someone I'd enjoy talking to in real life.
If the 56,000 followers starts to get to you, just take a deep breath and think about stephenfry; he's hit twice that, with half of them in the past week or two. The next FailWhale I see, I'll have to blame one of the two of you! :-)
Thanks Wil for being _you_. I'm happy you're here.
what to expect if you follow me on twitter (or: how I'm going to disappoint you in 6 quick steps)
Yesterday, my friend Alan tweeted a link to this story of how Twitter was born. If you use Twitter at all, you should totally check it out because it's awesome. If you don't use Twitter, you should totally check it out, because a lot of what you may have heard about Twitter is probably filtered ...
Before someone yells at me, that's 2% of voters, not necessarily 200,000 voters. Last I saw it was roughly 400,000 with ballots still uncounted. Probably Dec. till we know for sure. Still not a strong majority by any means.
see, it's really not that complicated
(from graphjam, via reddit)
Before someone yells at me, that's 2% of voters, not necessarily 200,000 voters. Last I saw it was roughly 400,000 with ballots still uncounted. Probably Dec. till we know for sure. Still not a strong majority by any means.
see, it's really not that complicated
(from graphjam, via reddit)
Those reading from outside California should keep in mind that the "majority" that voted for Prop 8 was 200,000 people more than the "minority" that voted against it. 200,000 people out of 10 million voters.
I don't call that "a majority". I call that a squeak.
In most states, as in the US, a constitutional amendment requires at least a 2/3 majority.
Shame on California. :(
Thanks Wil for your support.
see, it's really not that complicated
(from graphjam, via reddit)
Those reading from outside California should keep in mind that the "majority" that voted for Prop 8 was 200,000 people more than the "minority" that voted against it. 200,000 people out of 10 million voters.
I don't call that "a majority". I call that a squeak.
In most states, as in the US, a constitutional amendment requires at least a 2/3 majority.
Shame on California. :(
Thanks Wil for your support.
see, it's really not that complicated
(from graphjam, via reddit)
Subscribe to Vicki’s Recent Activity