Spruced up the look of http://ala.sda.ir last night. Will probably leave http://www.alasdair.biz as-is for the next year – I haven’t found any clean and professional looking designs that I like as much as the one it’s currently using, and it is on my CV, so probably shouldn’t be anything too odd.

That just leaves me wondering what to do with site number three, the old and faded http://www.black-ink.org, which is traditionally where I put pieces of original writing, and is equally traditionally something that I only update in the first third of every year, after which point I become distracted by some other shiny thing.

Anyone got any fun suggestions for what I should do with it in the first part of next year?

• appropriate christmas
  This was pitched to me as "the sound of a mall dying". I would call it the death knell of the holiday season. It is a massive dose of festive bitterness, as some genius has basically mashed up every festive song ever, and produced well, just give it a listen.
  (tags: remix mp3 christmas)

• Mir:ror – Give Powers to your Objects – Violet •• Let All Things Be Connected
  I think I want one of these, provided I can hack it not to transmit to a third party for it's scripted rubbish, because I can do without my private life being profiled…
  (tags: gadgets rfid)
• DreamHost Status » Blog Archive » debian upgrades and custom php
  I suspect I might need this in the next few days.
  (tags: php maintenence)

• rune guneriussen
  A norwegian photographer. Really very lovely stuff, has given me a few ideas.
  (tags: photography artist)
• Photojojo » Take Family Portraits That Break the Rules.
  I have a well documented hatred of portraiture, and family gatherings are always a bit of a photographic trial for me – I feel obliged to attempt a bit of photography, but I'm never happy with the results. I might see if I can get anything out of some of these ideas…
  (tags: photography)

• Optimistic, though accurate advice.
  Please view these links as a pair. Mangement accepts no responsibility for cognitive distortions caused viewing either without proper context.
• Pessimistic, though accurate advice.
  Choose between this, and the next link.
• Upgrade Me! | Ask Metafilter
  I pretty much do have everything I want aside from more and more camera lenses, but I have a number of possessions I want to upgrade over the next year or so, particularly in a homewares kind of line. This might be a handy reference.
  (tags: home shopping wishlist)
• 50 Most Beautiful Icon Sets Created in 2008 | Noupe
  It's about the time of year I start putting a little brain space into the revamp of my website(s). I'll probably go with yet another off-the-shelf template in the end, but some of these icon sets are just fucking beautiful, and crying out to be used in some way if I do finally do another roll-my-own.
  (tags: web icons design)
• Wikipedia: List of common misconceptions
  An on-line friend passes this one on, saying "new favourite wikipedia page". I think it may be mine, too.
  (tags: wikipedia trivia)

• Not My Gorilla
  This is an excellent argument for developing in the manner one wishes to. I don't need to support IE on my personal sites, and while I'm good enough at what I do that they're going to remain legible, the fact is that I am not going to waste hours of my life on support a product I heartily wish people would stop using.
  (tags: web browsers)

• Terminal Tips: Enable "path view" in Finder – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  Than fuck. I hate not having a proper path in my finder windows.
  (tags: osx terminal mac tips)
• Johnny Chung Lee – Projects – Wii
  It occurs to me that I own a Wiimote, but no Wii. Using it to turn my Mac screen into a multitouch surface might be fun. As long as, y'know, I use a pen and not my fingers. I'm not a client, after all. I don't need to do fingers-on-the-screen rubbish.
  (tags: interface howto wiimote whiteboard)

• Getting OpenID Into the Browser – O'Reilly Radar
  Ding! I have an OpenID (in fact, I have several, thanks to having accounts at a number of different sites that provide it, and keep meaning to set my own up so I've got control of my own ID) but I never use it, because it's as much faff as creating a username and password. If there was simply a button on my browser that I could click to say "identify me to this website", I'd use it a lot more.
  (tags: identity openid internet)

• Does the broken windows theory hold online?
  Jason Kottke wonder if poor site appearance and lack of care in administration and moderation is a factor in the behaviour of its users. I have no way ofr proving this, but it feels true. Anyone know if there have been any proper studies in this area?
  (tags: internet design community)