Feed has an interview with Scott McCloud, the Understanding Comics guy. Most interesting to me was his description of switching over to using a Wacom tablet and other digital tools for his drawing. He had some transition problems, but was ultimately happier on the computer. “Suddenly, I’m so comfortable with these tools that I’m able to give voice to my thoughts more efficiently than I ever have. And in composing these images, combining them with words and painting with light, I’m finding colors and color relationships that I never thought possible.” His words remind me of the changes computers have had on architects which I wrote about on August 11. The best creations come from artists who are comfortable with their tools, and it is so uplifting when new tools propel creators to new inspirations.

iHarvest has a product strikingly similar to one I worked on a few years back at Milktruck/WebEx. Back then our market was “offline web browsing” for people who wanted to download web pages to their hard drive and then surf without delays, or away from their connection (here’s a page that still has info about the dead WebEx software). iHarvest saves web pages to their site and also has a client product that saves pages to your desktop. Their marketing spin is that if content changes, you’ll still have the information you need available. Good plan. Nowadays, when I wear my WebEx shirt, people think I’m advertising meeting software. It’s all part of the Internet evolution.

I was looking for a flexible spatula to get the last bits of smoothie out from the blender jug. I reached for one in my utensil jar and immediately thought “I can’t use that; that’s the silicone spatula for hot stuff“, instead of realizing that it was a general purpose spatula that just happens to be useable with heat. I had mistakenly pigeonholed a kitchen utensil. I realized that this often happens with people. You see someone in one setting or in one stage of their life and that’s how you think of them. I worry about that when giving and being the subject of job references. It can be difficult for people who’ve worked with you at some point in your career to change their minds about you and realize you’ve grown unless you get the chance to change their mind over time. Or if you know someone through reputation or have only seen them in meetings and had a biased or narrow view of how they operate, you may mistakenly think they are not effective. It’s best to not be so righteous about what you know about someone unless you are certain your information is current and correct. But you do want to make sure you have the right tool for the job.

Your cat can have his/her own email at MeowMail. What a relief. I hate sharing email boxes with pets. (thank you Jen!)

You can check the status of an airport (weather delays, traffic issues, etc) at the Air Traffic Control System Command Center. Not as useful as flight information, but it’s good supplemental info.

The Powerpuff Girls make me smile. The Gothik Girls parody made me laugh. (via /usr/bin/girl) (It was comforting to hear that PPG creator Craig McCracken intended the show to work on both adult humor and child entertainment levels. I thought I was just being…juvenile — not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

I had never noticed that two books I enjoyed when I was young: Julie of the Wolves and My Side of the Mountain were written by the same author. Browsing in the children’s section of a used bookstore, I found sequels to both right next to each other. Jean Craighead George has updated the lives of both characters in the past 10 years. And she has an official web site.

Carmel-by-the-Sea is so…quaint. Everyone in town goes to the post office to get their mail. There is no postal delivery, no street addresses. But now the post office says they’ll deliver mail and, of course, some residents are up in arms. Others who find it hard to get into town are looking forward to the convenience. Going to the post office is a ritual, part of the social fabric of many resident’s lives. But others say going into town isn’t what it used to be; it’s too crowded and touristy. We had a similar, but backwards issue in college when a proposal was made to centralize all mailboxes into a student union instead of having dorm delivery. Advocates argued that it would increase community spirit to have everyone coming through the student union. Others said it would just be a pain, especially in bad weather. As far as I know, it hasn’t changed, but I haven’t checked back on the issue.

San Mateo, California is considering restricting dotcom companies from leasing retail and restaurant space in the downtown area. Back when this web thing had just started booming, the little startup where I was working was renting retail space there. Looks like we were ahead of a trend that some folks don’t like. “Most people on city councils and planning commissions in these towns are older people. They are not coming from the new-economy perspective. The only things they see are a proliferation of SUVs, million-dollar homes that are tear-downs and Starbucks.” My view is that the current proliferation of dotcoms seeking space has nothing to do with San Mateo’s “small town” demise. The downtown was already in the midst of a major overhaul five ago, with chains like Starbucks and Noah’s Bagels moving in while mom & pop shops were shuttering up. In fact, having tech companies convert retail space may prevent downtown from turning into an outdoor shopping mall, which is what other neighboring downtowns have come to resemble. When I was working there I enjoyed being able to walk to restaurants, the drugstore, ATMs, and even my eye doctor.

According to my new issue of Wired, I will soon be receiving a bar code scanner device which is shaped like a cat. It’s called a :CueCat and will take your browser to the URL connected to the bar code. Unfortunately, that’s not what I’d like. I would prefer a device to store things that I want to look at later when I’m using my computer. I don’t like interrupting the flow of reading a magazine or newspaper. If they could add memory to the kitty cat and allow me to use it while I’m reading and then go to the sites later, that would be perfect. (sadly, there appear to be no puns about “cat scans” on the :CueCat site)