DAT Stuff

Random thoughts and observations from DAT

Archive for the month “January, 2006”

13 Jan 2006

MoneyTrail

I got an idea for a web site — MoneyTrail.com. The domain is taken but not active.

My idea is to write something in the margin of a bill to drive people to the website. The web site would have a way for the person to identify a bill and see where it’s been. Then they could add their own information:

  • name
  • location
  • how they got the currency, or other comments

I had this idea last week, but didn’t bother to check Google. Today I discovered that the idea has its own Wikipedia topic and the news page on Where’s George shows that it’s had major media coverage since 1999 (USA Today, Money, CNN).

Posted in Internet | Leave a Comment
05 Jan 2006

Cubicle Art

I’m not sure it really qualifies as art, but over the course of a year at work, my coworkers and I had a constantly changing display of action figures on top of our cubicles. Some days were more creative than others, with the scene changing several times. Other days were fairly static, with the figures hardly moving at all. Mike Martindale got some pictures to give you an idea, as did James Collins. I know several of the scenes were my creation, but I’m not sure I can take credit for all of them.

The eyes in the background are those of my daughter Serena. They were enlarged using The Rasterbator (originally here).

Many thanks to James and Mike for capturing the images and adding the narrative.

Posted in General | Leave a Comment
03 Jan 2006

Wacky Wiki

I have a much longer post in the works (mentally) on a related topic, but I had to get this thought out…

One of the main things I look for in the software that will run my web sites is something that (once installed) I can completely manage through the browser. I’ll accept that software upgrades may require working at the command line, but if I want to change content or layout, don’t make me edit files or muck around in the code.

For that reason, I think my use of MediaWiki may come to an end. I need to check out the new version (I’m using 1.4.x, and 1.5.4 is available), but from what I’ve seen in the few configuration changes I’ve made, I can’t imagine it being satisfactorily improved in the new version. The latest frustration point (changing the contents of the navigation sidebar) has been fixed in 1.5, so we’ll see…

Posted in General | Leave a Comment

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