Brian Sweeting

I’ve made the switch recently from Bloglines to Google’s updated reader for reading RSS feeds. One cool feature they have is a bookmarklet that opens the next unread item in your reading list and lets you read the item the way it was intended to be viewed in the context of the original site. This is nice when you get tired of just unbolding things, and want to experience your RSS feeds in a unique way.

Bonus: When you get to the end of your unread items, you get this screen.

IconFactory takes the “Under Construction” animated gif to a whole new level as they prepare for the launch of their new site.

I guess I’m trying to set a record for the least timely write-up of a conference. A couple weeks ago I attended SxSW 2006 for the first time. I have to say that it was basically what I expected.

The Panels

Do not go to SxSW thinking you are going to get a lot out of the panels. I hate to say it, but most panels were pretty lackluster. I think I prefer a speaker vs. a panel. Speakers seem more engaging. The panels just seemed too disjointed.

The People

This was one of the better parts of SxSW. I really enjoyed meeting many people from my blogroll in person. There are too many to name individually, but it is nice to interact with these people beyond a comment on their blog or through email.

The City

Austin is a very cool city with much to do. I doubt it was just because of SxSW, but the place is loaded with venues hosting cool parties, concerts, and comedy shows. It’s a place I wouldn’t mind visiting again.

Things I learned from SxSW

• Take business cards, or something to give to people you meet that will allow them to contact you…the more memorable the better.
• Stay at the Hampton Inn. We were six or so blocks away at the Marriott, and I was not impressed. For a place that charges a couple hundred bucks per night, they offer no perks. We even had to pay extra for internet access.
• Eat local. There were a bunch of great places we ate at that are local to Austin: Stubbs, Daddy’s, The Iron Cactus, Paradise, Moonshine, The Salt Lick. Don’t go to Austin only to eat at Wendy’s.
• Take a small digital camera vs. a DSLR. I took the Canon 20D and basically it was too cumbersome to pack around so I ended up not taking hardly any pictures.
• Unless you have to, arrive Friday Night/Saturday Morning and leave Tuesday night. We were there from Friday afternoon to Wednesday morning and that was just too long.

Wrapping it up

I liked SxSW, but I’m not sure I would attned again on my own dime, unless I had a product/service/business to promote.

I’m off to SXSW this morning. For those of you going, I look forward to seeing you there. For those of you staying, I’ll be blogging as much of it as I can.

I caught this on Digg this morning. How diabolic! Beware website owners, this is a common exploit that all browsers are capable of executing.

Internet Archive has 26,097 public domain movies that you can download for free. I especially recommend the classic cartoons section.

Okay, so at the risk of being forever branded a “Mac Nerd” I was about the 50th or so in line for the grand opening of the Apple Store at the Gateway. I arrived at about 7:30am, but the first person in line was there at 9:00pm the night before. I felt like 2 and half hours of waiting was “nerdy” enough. So the store looks great, the employees were really getting into all the excitement, and overall it was pretty fun. They started letting 70 people at a time in at 10:00am. I left there about 45 minutes later, and the line was about 2-3 people wide and about two blocks long! I took some photos, you can see them on this site or on Flickr.

I was looking through some archived files tonight and ran across the first website I ever created. It was 1998, I was in college, and I was working for the college bookstore. Keep in mind that I had only been learning HTML for a few weeks, the design is cheesy, and the navigation isn’t very usable, so don’t be too harsh.

I give you, in all its tabled, and sliced image glory the Dixie College Bookstore website circa 1998.

I’m going to pass the baton to a few friends and maybe this could prove to be an interesting meme. If you are a web designer or developer, feel free to post screenshots (or even the whole site, if you have it) of your very first website, and leave a comment about it here.

Jake Hilton has posted the Napoleon Dynamite ads for the Utah State Fair (in flash format) for your viewing pleasure.