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February 28, 1998
News
Information about Ty Davison straight from the horse's mouth.
News Archives
Years worth of mind-numbing details, ponderings, and events.
News Links
External URLs that have cropped up in the course of the News history.
February 28, 1998—Eugene, Oregon
Dave and I, unmindful of just how sore we'd be afterward, pedaled off on a 20 mile bike ride around the University of Oregon down to Alton Baker park. The scenery and the abundance of wildlife were both equally amazing.After that, Dave and I took a tour of south Eugene, the area where I used to live as a child. It's remarkable how little has changed in the 20 years since my family lived there, particularly in light of the massive changes which have taken place in Salem. I'm happy to report that my elementary school, Fox Hollow, has been re-opened as "Fox Hollow French School." This is huge step forward from the karate school it was converted to after it was closed by the school district.
February 27, 1998—Eugene, Oregon
Headed to Eugene for a long weekend with my ex-college roomie Dave. Walked downtown, played computer games, fiddled with his synthesizer, analyzed chess games. Great times as always!February 26, 1998
I moved up to MacOS 8 today, and though I've only had a short time to play with it, my initial impression is that it's excellent. It's noticeable faster all-around, and thus far it's run everything I've thrown at it. Appears very stable. I'm planning on downloading MacOS 8.1 soon, and I'll give the full scoop once I figure out what that is.I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks. Expect to see a huge web site update upon my return, March 11.
February 25, 1998
Well, I've been lured into another hour of television per week, this time thanks to that annoyingly well-done Dawson's Creek. Ever since the previews started up I've been studiously avoiding this adolescent soap opera. But it was not to be. The acting is great, the dialogue is snappy and the story lines are interesting. With Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a lead-in, how can I resist?Of course, last night's DC episode had a scene where a teenage character fails to make a distinction between atheism and agnosticism, and, as you might imagine, that didn't go over well in this household. That's a frequent failure among many people exploring their faith—perhaps even more so among teens—so it's hard to fault the scriptwriter for making the same mistake. Or it could be intentional for all I know.
February 24, 1998
Won't my mom, who detests cookies (those little bits of code uploaded to your computer by various web sites), be thrilled to see that her oldest son has implemented them on his web site? Probably not. Well, Mom, I know you happily click your way through cyberspace rejecting cookies of all shapes and sizes, but really, there's nothing to fear here. I've got the details in Site Info, but even if you remain unconvinced, you can reject my cookies too and the rest of my site will remain fully-functional for you. So please, no flames this time.Since I'm on the topic, programming these cookies (or, more precisely, modifying the swiped code so that I could use cookies) has really brought back memories of my days as a teenage hacker. It only took one lousy grade in a college Pascal class to wipe out all my romantic notions (and joy) concerning computer programming, but every once in a while I find myself captivated by the ability make these machines do things on a very fundamental level. Now that I've done this cookie thing, I don't expect that feeling to return for good year or more. Enjoy.
We had a surprise visit from our friend Jennie last night, and Jennie, who has her own web site (see Friends' Links in Who I Am), showed me a cool typographical HTML trick regarding em dashes. (Basically she showed me how to use an em dash "—" instead of two hyphens "--" for my text. Of course I was quick to find out that PageMill 2.0 doesn't support em dashes, but I've managed a work-around that should suffice. I long for the day when HTML and PageMill allow web site programmers full typographic control.
February 23, 1998
Received today two packages I was waiting for MicroMat's TechTool Pro and PowerLogix' PowerForce G3 275/275/1 MB accelerator. In case of TechTool Pro—the premiere diagnostic utility for the Macintosh—I wanted to make sure that my system was running as it should and, given all the add-ons I plan to heap onto it, that it would stay that way. MicroMat offered version 1 for half price plus a free upgrade to version 2 (due end of month), and I was sold.Sad news to report on the accelerator card front: It didn't work. The PowerForce card comes with two adjustable switches so that users can modify chip and bus speeds, but despite repeated start-up attempts at different settings, the best I could manage was 140-MHz with a 40-MHz bus. Even that crashed after a few minutes. (Though I will say that for the few minutes I was at even that speed—well off the high end of the card—I saw a noticeable speed difference over my 100-MHz 601 chip.) I'm sending the card back, of course, and the distributor will send out another. This is the second time I've gotten bum stuff via Bottom Line, but as distributors (not manufacturers) I'm hardly inclined to hold them accountable, and their return service has been fine.
Got a great tip from my chess friend Al on a wonderful new site, YourBooks.Com. This site allows people who have books to sell—and don't we all?—list them for sale on-line. No middleman, no commissions, no hidden fees. Great web site idea. [Update: YourBooks.com has closed.]
February 21, 1998
Registered with the major on-line search engines in what will probably prove to be a vain effort to increase web site hits. In truth, I think we're getting more visitors here than we ever have, but leave it me to be discontented with improvement.February 20, 1998
Fender-bender in Erin-land, as a lady in a Toyota Corolla cuts across a few lanes of traffic to give a car-spinning love tap to Erin's vehicle. No apparent injuries, though some types of trauma can take a couple weeks to show up. Erin was a little shaken by the event (and who wouldn't be?), but she's alive and obviously that's item number one.In other, now far less important, news: Talked with George at Bottom Line and purchased a PowerLogix PowerForce G3 275/275/1 MB card for Fritz, my Power Mac 7500. As I feared, I had to spend a little more than I originally wanted. Of course, the upside is that, come Monday or Tuesday when the delivery arrives, I will be running one of the fastest Macs on the planet with a Mac Bench processor score of over 1,200. Even though this glory will likely only last for a few weeks as faster Macs come on the scene, that's still none-too-bad for a guy whose main computer for the last three years, a Mac IIci named Henry, has a Mac Bench score of 11.
I don't know if anybody's wondering why I didn't just go out and buy an Apple G3 750/266 and save myself the rigamarole of buying separate computer components to build my system for about the same price, but here's the scoop: The Apple G3 750/266 comes with 32 megs of RAM, a 5 MB/sec SCSI interface and a MacBench score of about 860. I like the neat mini-tower design, but we're still only talking 3 PCI slots for expansion, so other than aesthetics there's no advantage to me.
In contrast, the system I've built has 80 megs of RAM, a 10 MB/sec internal SCSI interface and a MacBench score, as I say, of over 1,200. I do come up a little short on the CD-ROM end of things with only a 4x versus the Apple system's 24x, but I pretty much only use that for installing software anyway. Pricing, after throwing in the cost of getting the G3 750/266 upgraded to at least 64 megs of RAM, is virtually identical.
When all was said and done in terms of stacking up the positives and negatives, what really swayed me were the processor scores. At about 350 MacBench points higher—and remember, Fritz' current score is only 144—there was little doubt in my mind that this was the way to go. Both VirtualPC, the Windows 95 emulator I have to run for business reasons, and Mark of the Unicorn's Digital Performer need processor speed. (In fact, with Digital Performer the number of audio tracks and effects I can apply at any one time is very much a function of processor speed and RAM.) I'm not saying that Apple's G3 750/266 is a bad machine by any stretch—I think it's a definite winner. But for my intended usage, the system I compiled was the best for my needs.
February 19, 1998
Talked at length today with Michelle from PowerLogix about their PowerForce G3 accelerator cards. Apparently, the card I was looking at isn't quite as fast as I'd hoped (MacBench under 1,000) and isn't generally available anyway, so I may have to step up to the plate and spend more money than I wanted. At the same time, my ability to "lag technology to the greatest extent possible given my intended usage"—the technique I advise for saving huge dollars on high tech purchases—well, that ability is pretty severely hampered by my need to run a PC emulator and professional audio recording software. In both those cases, faster is definitely better, and there's really no way around it. So it looks like this is gonna cost me a relative fortune.I've got a call in to George at Bottom Line, the same guys I bought my memory upgrade from. Great pricing, and even though the first RAM chips they sent me were bad, they handled the replacement deal without a hitch.
February 17, 1998
Received proof today that sometimes it pays to complain. Although Erin and I have been long-time flyers of Alaska Air, our most recent flight experience was nearly enough to make us want to forego any further travel with the airline. The flight itself was fine—and as usual the eats were more yummy than most—but the baggage service was late and destructive. Not only did Alaska take an extra couple hours to get our bags on baggage claim carousel, but one suitcause—a rugged Samonsite—had its metal frame severely bent.So I sent off my letter of complaint and didn't think too much about it.
Well, today I received a letter of apology and 2 vouchers for $75, one for Erin and one for me. Does it make up for the lousy experience we had before? Well, yeah, pretty much. So here's to Alaska Air for caring enough about their customers to right a wrong.
February 14, 1998 — Valentine's Day
Took an hour drive through schitzophrenic weather systems to Walnut Creek, where we—Erin, Christine, Mark, Liz, Bernard, Aunt Marianne and myself—celebrated multiple in-family birthdays at a fine Italian restaurant, Spruzzo! (It's highly recommended, by the way, if you're ever in Walnut Creek and looking for fine dining. Call for reservations.) I think everyone was exhausted by the end of it, but it was a great trip and a lot of fun.February 13, 1998
A day of web site fix-ups and chess analysis. Of the two, I think I prefer the chess analysis, though that's probably just because the web site stuff was all re-working pages I'd messed up. Normally I like web site programming and design a lot.
| Wider is Better: Web Site Redo, Part 2 Davison On-Line is showing a new look for the second time in a week. Fixing what's being called a "fundamental design flaw" in the original navigation bar system, owner/operator Ty Davison was quick to explain what happened. "Many users understandably did not wish to maintain the navigation frame as they continued surfing the web," said Davison, inventor of the salad fork, "Because of the way the navigation system was designed—and we fired that designer by the way—it was impossible for users to continue surfing without a frame unless they opened a new browser window." According to Davison, an on-call test pilot for the Air Force, this error was not caught until late last night when it cropped up in on-line usage. "The big culprit here is Adobe PageMill 2.0," said Davison, a backup center for the Lakers. "When we tested it on PageMill it displayed and operated perfectly. Unfortunately, it simply doesn't work that way on real browsers like Navigator which, if our surveys are correct, is what the vast majority of our viewers are using." Davison, the fourth man to walk on the moon, seemed somewhat chagrined by the development. "There's no question this replacement navigation system is artistically inferior. But the bottom line is that it works, and that's more important." —February 13, 1998 |
February 12, 1998
Terrific inaugural Yahoo! Chat session thanks to my friend Dave. We'd already been trying for a while to meet up on-line, so this provided an excellent opportunity. The pseudo-topic of "the Clinton Sex Scandal"--and I was referring to this Clinton sex scandal in case anybody was wondering—was discussed for maybe a minute, and we quickly moved on to more interesting things. Here's hoping that next week more people will decide to join in the fun!On the downer side, I discovered my web site navigation system had what I consider to be a fatal flaw: It maintains the navigation frame even after a person leaves the Davison web site. Now I'm as big a booster and fan of this site as anyone I know (and well I should be), but I really can't see forcing people to cut off 15 percent of their browser window to display my nav frame as they surf their way through the web. So I spent most of today redesigning the site again.
February 11, 1998
I have so many reasons to be thankful that I almost don't know where to start. It's been a year now since I (1) biffed up my back bad enough to keep me bed-ridden for months and (2) started this web site. It's been an interesting year along the way, full of pain suffered and wisdom gained. I won't bore you with the gory details, since in many respects the last year of my life is already laid out here, on this web site.But I do want to reitorate my sincerest thanks to you, my family and friends, for your support. Your affirmations of my endeavors—this web site, my music or whatever—continues to mean a great deal to me.
Thank you!
| Web site celebrates first year anniversary Generating more than 725 hits since Aug. 9 and well over 1000 hits in its first year of existence, the Davison web site today celebrated its first anniversary by launching a completely re-worked site. "I wanted to move toward a cleaner, more open design," stated owner and part-time superhero Ty Davison, "while improving the graphical consistency." In addition to the design update, the new site also features a variety of other improvements. The most obvious is probably an improved Navigation Bar which will help with movement through the site's various sections. "Our old Nav Bar was pretty weak," admitted Davison, a former Mr. America, "It worked well for the main page, but because it wasn't implemented throughout the site, users were constantly having to click back to the main page in order to go a different section." Not everything has changed, however. Almost all the sections from the old site return, including the long-time favorite Views & Reviews, now called Opinion. "This new Opinion section will incorporate reader questions and recommendations as well," said Davison, sometimes referred to as the "fifth Beatle." This points up another noticeable factor in the re-design: a strong appeal for user interaction. "We have a weekly chat room starting up on Yahoo! Chat as well as repeated requests for user input in various sections of the site," remarked Davison, friend and advisor to the Dali Lama. In addition to the present upgrades, Davison indicated hope for a slew of additional improvements later in the year. Among the improvements: movement to a personalized World Wide Web address, streaming audio, and QuickTime movies. In other news, Presidential Press Secretary Mike McCurry declined comment today on reports that President Clinton's pants had been declared a federal disaster area. —February 11, 1998 |
February 10, 1998
Another overcast day here in the normally sunny Bay Area. We had a beautiful respite from the storms yesterday, but today is grey and miserable. No rain this morning, but it's on the way according to satellite photo.Okay, 10:40 AM, time to amend that last statement. The rain is falling in a pleasant little drizzle.
February 9, 1998
My music writing continues in earnest, this time with an acoustic guitar tune called Undeserved. Lest any of you think I'm a whiz at guitar, I'll hasten to point out that I actually wrote this on the XP-80 while making liberal use of the arpeggiator. Given that my knowledge of guitar is limited to about 3 or 4 chords, this was clearly a better way to go. I could be wrong, but I think Undeserved will find its way onto the upcoming album.Speaking of guitar, I have been practicing the real thing. About 10 months after the actual event, Erin got her birthday present of an acoustic guitar, and we've been taking turns sounding terrible on it. Because Erin's actually studying chords and learning how to play the instrument correctly (and I'm just chunking things out), eventually she'll sound great, and I'll probably have to save face by slinking back to the XP-80. Sure is fun in the meantime.
February 8, 1998
Attended a great party this afternoon celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Peterson Remodeling, the Redwood City-based company for which I'm doing the financials. Turnout at the event was exceptional, particularly given the stormy/floody conditions we're facing here in the Bay Area.I've not mentioned much about Xena: Warrior Princess or Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, two of the shows I've been watching semi-regularly in recent months, because, well, they're essential simplistic morality tales with a little bit of comic book violence and sexuality. Be that as it may, this week's Xena, a mostly musical adventure, was one of the better hours of television I've seen this year. Maybe I'm a sucker for themes of forgiveness and love (I am), but this was great TV.
February 6, 1998
Nothing like a little wind and rain to really put a damper on the Northern California soccer season. I was out on Higgins Field yesterday, and it's a mess. Yesterday's soccer game was cancelled, and given today's storm system I can't fathom that we'd play this afternoon. Perhaps it'll be go for tomorrow, but I'm doubtful.I've been in something of a mad rush to complete the web site upgrade—four sections remain unfinished—in time for the grand re-opening on the 11th. I'm sure there will be a few bugs to work out, but on the whole, I'm hoping that people will find this site much more user friendly than the old one. There will be another more minor re-design this summer after Adobe releases PageMill 3.0 for the Mac.
February 4, 1998
Shortly now—within a day or two—ye ol' Davison web site will go off-line. In its place, you'll find a large number indicating the number days left until the new site comes on-line. (We're scheduled to come on-line February 11, if that helps.) Obviously there won't be any updates while the site is down, though I will likely add a few words to the new site, so be sure to look around once the new site is up and running.Thanks in advance for your patience.
February 2, 1998 — Groundhog Day
If you not seen the Bill Murray movie of the same name, please visit your local video rental store now. It's one of his best (along with Stripes, Ghostbusters, Meatballs and Scrooged).Wonderful dinner with the in-laws last night, where they were kind enough to listen to me babble about computers, web sites and music.
Got an Oregon-size storm through the Bay Area today, washing out soccer practice and potentially tomorrow's game as well. The league season only runs another week, so I don't know how we're going to fit in the 2 games remaining. Head coaches meeting tonight to determine that very thing.
My replacement RAM—the first chips were bad—arrived today, and I'm currently celebrating Fritz' ability to run with a whopping 80 megs of RAM. I've even turned off RAM Doubler (God only knows what I'd do with 160 megs of RAM, or 240 megs of RAM if I decided to triple it). That should improve system speed slightly.
In the meantime, I've put all this RAM to good use by dramatically increasing my on-line web browsing speed. The trick is to create a RAM disk (I use 7 megs but it could be much smaller) and set Netscape Navigator's preferences so that Navigator puts all its cache files into the RAM disk. Talk about a massive speed up! I'll bet stuff is loading a good 25 percent faster. Just make sure that when you set Navigator's cache size, it's lower than the size of the RAM disk (which System 7.6.1 and up PowerPC users can set in the Memory control panel). Happy surfing!
