Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From the comments to this entry in xiphias' journal, 2004-03-06:

lstone:	I often dress as a ninja when depressed. And then I figure, "Well, if I'm dressed as a ninja, I might as well assassinate somebody." So I do. Then, after I've escaped, and changed into my civvies, I feel kind of bad. So I get depressed. And I dress up as a ninja...
xiphias:	There's a twelve-step program for that, now.
lstone:	Twelve-step programs depress me.

I'm not a very demanding user. I only want a few basic tools. Like an alt-meta-frobnitz-rightclick command that has the effect: Copy <a href="[url of current page]">[currently selected text]</a> into the copy/paste buffer ... Maybe bonus points if it can follow that by switching focus to the telnet window where I'm accumulating links (e.g., editing a link sausage entry or my quote-of-the-day queue). Extra bonus points if it can automagically suck in all the information for my usual short citation format (author, date, the HREF surrounding the date instead of the text, and the text in italics).

I mean, all I want is to be able to think, "Oh, that's interesting; I should post a pointer to that," and have it get copied into the right buffer without my having to interrupt my train of thought to go through all the steps of the process -- the switching back and forth between windows and selecting different bits to copy and paste -- or being tempted to say, "Oh, I'll just leave it open in a background window when I'm done reading it and deal with copying and linking when I have time" (and then having to remember where on the page the quote that got my interest was, or losing the reference entirely the next time my browser loses a fight with the operating system over memory allocation). Come on, the BatComputer and the ship's computer on the Enterprise didn't have any trouble understanding what users wanted to do, and those were back in the 1960s -- my computer ought to be able to read my mind by now, right?

(I'm not too keen on my applications being very tightly bound to my OS, but the idea of a macro tool/language being tightly coupled so that it can do things like switch between open applications and have effects in each is rather appealing ... Until I slow down a moment and consider what power it would deliver to a worm or virus or a malicious Javascript page. Whoops.)

Or how about a control-doubleshift-thingumy-rightclick command that does: Copy the selected block of text from the displayed web page with markup, embedded links, etc., intact, as though I'd selected it from the source view instead of the rendered view, with extra points for reducing crappy machine-generated markup with boneheaded do-nothing DIV and FONT tags to the minimum clean HTML to replicate what I'm seeing? (Heck, I might settle for "switch to source view with the cursor positioned RIGHT HERE in the source at this bit I've selected.")

While I'm at it, I want a browser that never crashes. And doesn't forget how to get back to some of the pages I had open when the machine crashes and I restart it with "continue browsing where I left off".

Just in case it turns out that I'm not being as unreasonable as I think I'm being (no, I do know that without standardized XML markup on each page I read, the "grab author and date" bit isn't reasonable at all), my usual browsing environment is Opera under Windows with a few telnet (NetTerm) windows open to Linux and UNIX machines. I'm willing to leave open telnet sessions dedicated to editing each of the files I want to be able to drop links into. I edit using 'vi'. Being able to also do this when using iCab or Opera under MacOS 8.6 or 9, or Lynx in a telnet window, or Firefox under Windows, would be nice, but 85-90% of the time I'm in Opera under Windows. Occasionaly Opera under Linux via X under Windows. Does a macro tool for Windows exist that will let me create such shortcuts ... and not simultaneously hand ownership of my machine to the first cracker to figure out how to reach past my NAT box or subvert one of the precious few web sites I'm willing to turn on Javascript for? Will learning the macro language (or fighting an awkward macro-recording interface) drive me batty?

Dear Santa, I've been a good hacker. Please bring me the Bat Computer, upgraded to 21st Century standards. Or maybe the version of the Bat Computer from Batman Beyond. And a DSL connection. I'll clean up the living room to make space for it. Thank you.

Last night I wound up not actually nodding off until after six, and slept right through the parties I'd wanted to go to, and obviously also did not make it to Virginia. I woke around 3:00, read a bit, and fell asleep again around dawn. Did not get to Bowie. Did get up to grab food and shower so I can go to the informal memorial for Dawn tonight in Little Italy, but my body is telling me to take it slowly and not push. So I'll get there late if I get there, and for now I'm gathering my strength. My hair is clean and my instruments are by the front door, so once I feel up to looking for parking in that part of town, I can head out. If I don't make it to this, I'll still have the memorial service on the 12th to go to. But I'd rather go meet with her other musician friends, and play something in her honour. We'll see.