12.31.99
Posted in General
at 7 pm
It all seems quite arbitrary, really, but I guess it’s as good as anything to stake a particular fixed point in time. 2000 times around the sun, and I’m so very curious.
It does seem like our whole world could turn and stop on a dime, changes in our culture can occur nearly overnight.
I’ve been watching the New Year’s parties around the world on ABC and PBS. The fireworks in Paris were nothing short of exquisite. These was nothing to compare to the beauty of the Eiffel Tower alight in fire.
It’ll be interesting to see if my journal’s automatic entry script works in the New Year. This might be the last entry for a couple of weeks, as I usually take this chance to update the script. Happy New Year everyone.
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12.29.99
Posted in General
at 7 pm
Dec 29 Wed (02 PM)
I’ve got such a huge project due tomorrow, and I have to keep telling myself that this is only the first 5% of the project, they aren’t expecting to seem completely finished designs, just sketches and concepts.
Breathe In, Breathe Out. Breathe In, Breathe Out.
I’m really getting quite nervous which is strange for me, at least when it comes to work-related projects.
—
Of course anything that makes me nervous automatically makes me find time to procrastinate on other projects. I updated a few pages on Dwelling, have been working on a new navigation system (DHTML based), and I updated the site I’m putting together for my Winter Class at PSU. The URL is a bit long, but the site’s turning out to be pretty cool:
<http://authoringdigitalmedia.editthispage.com>
The design is far from finished, but it’s okay to present for the time being. Comments?
—
Oh and a big ‘Hi!’ to Bo who is visiting his family in Roswell, New Mexico. Bo, is there something you’re not telling us?
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12.25.99
Posted in General
at 11 pm
Dec 25 Sat (11 PM)
You thought I’d been slow at posting in recent weeks.
You ain’t seen nothing yet.
No really, Amy and I got a Playstation for Christmas. Whoa boy, looks like I’ll be sucked up into that thing for a while.
Ooh and I’ve been playing with the DVD player in my G3. Amy got me Depeche Mode’s ‘The Singles 86-98’ on DVD and I’ve been loving it. 🙂
We’ll back to collecting jewels and eating butterflies… 🙂
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12.22.99
Posted in General
at 3 pm
Dec 22 Wed (03 PM)
There is something very wrong about the Christmas theme music playing on this page: <http://www.reloadammo.com> It’s not so much the music itself that’s wrong as it is the context of the page.
Chilling.
—
I think I’ve found the perfect collaboration environment for my “Authoring Digital Media” class. This could be really cool, if the server doesn’t keel over from overuse. I’ll post about it more after the new year.
—
I’ll be in SF on the 30th to present some design stuff. It’s another one of those down and back in 8 hour trips. I hate having it so close to the New Year, but at least it’s on the 30th and not the 31st.
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12.21.99
Posted in General
at 1 pm
Dec 21 Tue (01 PM)
I’ve posted a new article to the WebDev section. This one was written in response to a question that was posted to an HTML list I’m on. It was obviously written by someone who had no experience with command-line interfaces, and because they didn’t understand the meanings of ‘.’, ‘..’ and ‘/’, they didn’t understand how these relate to HTML, web servers, file structures and document trees.
They’re all very strange concepts unless you have really good diagrams (which my article could use), or a chance to play with the directories in a command-line interface yourself. You can make sure you’ve got a grasp on them by starting here:
<http://www.ordersomewherechaos.com/rosso/webdev/directory_navigation.shtml>
I’ve also changed the style sheet for the site, adding more line spacing. If it looks weird, let me know. It’s difficult to test this stuff on so many different platforms. At work, we’ve drawn up ‘The ultimate chart of Browser testing’ and there are over 300 potential testing situation based on browser, version, OS, OS version, screen size, depth, and connection speed, plus. Perhaps that’s worth an article.
Bo dropped me a line in regards to my last entry noting that it seemed like a serious case of ‘I, Borg’, referring to the famous Star Trek episode where Picard gets assimilated. Sometimes that’s what it feels like. Plug in that management module and throw me back into my cube.
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12.19.99
Posted in General
at 1 pm
Dec 19 Sun (01 PM)
Sorry ’bout the lack of updates. I’ve been letting a lot of things slip through the cracks of late.
I think my biggest distraction has been the addition of 3 new web developers that I’m leading into battle, with two more coming on in the new year. I’m finding myself in a management role, more so than I’ve had to deal with in the past. So far, things are going well, but I’m only a couple of weeks into it.
The oddest thing about it is the fact that I seem to be sabotaging myself in the midst of trying to do well. I’ve never been one to accept authority all that well. As my Dad told me, when I was in school, I had no problem going off and doing my own thing if I didn’t like where the rest of the group was going. It’s not so much rebelion as just lack of interest in the group activity if it didn’t serve my needs/wants/desires.
But now I’m the head of the group, though my style certainly doesn’t reflect any kind of military rigor, but is more of method of getting buy-in from the members, listening to ideas and thoughts of the teams. Then I’ll suggest tasks and responsibilities that each member should take on.
I think my style will probably work well in a smaller group, where there aren’t any challanges to my position, but there would be problems if there was a head-strong personality or a larger number of people. Perhaps if that kind of growth occurs, I’ll have to change my style but for now I think I’m hanging in there.
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12.11.99
Posted in General
at 1 pm
Dec 11 Sat (05 PM)
One of the great things about the G3/400 that I’ve got is the Speah Recognition software that’s built into the MacOS. I activated it and have been having a ball ordering my machine around. First it was simple stuff like ‘Computer, what time is it?” or “Computer, close this window.”
I’ve been digging around in the AppleScripts that are part of the system and have put a couple of them together. One is “Computer, Check my mail.” The machine dials up my ISP, opens Eudora, tells it to check my mail, downloads it, and in the mean times says “I am attempting to connect and download your mail.”
The other script opens all of the web pages that I like to read each morning. I’m quite pleased with it. The only hitch I’m running into is that the system keeps setting the audio input to “Microphone”, even though the systems works better if it’s set to “Sound In”. Anyone have any hints on how to make this the final setting?
Speaking of speech, I read a great article on the freedom of such and the changes that have been coming about of late: <http://www.applelinks.com/abacus/all_the_news.shtml>
Amy and I are off to a cocktail party tonight. It’s being put on by <http://www.prodx.com> and as their partners, a few of us from Exact got invites. The party is at the Portland Art Museum. It should be a lot of fun.
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12.09.99
Posted in Dreams
at 1 pm
Wow. Talk about dramatic.
All of the demons of Hell were fighting the legions Angels of Heaven in a very large and beautiful mansion. They were struggling for control of a sword and a clock.
The Angels had always had the the Sword which was used to send the humans to hell as needed, and the demons had possesed the clock, which told of when people would die.
The demons were like the monster from Disney’s Night on Bald Mountain sequence in Fantasia (which is having an IMAX-only sequel released, btw.).
The battle was taking place in the parlor, a vaulted ceilinged, late 1800’s room, with lots of paintings on the wall, ferns and stools all around.
The demons wanted the sword and the angels wanted the clock. The destruction was ferocious, the noise deafening and the walls and floors were shaking.
An angel was run through, and I woke up.
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12.04.99
Posted in General
at 1 pm
Well the articles just keep on coming, and this time it’s follow up article to the ‘Printer Friendly’ version of the XSSI Library. A few people had already expressed interest in the method, so here it is. <http://www.ordersomewherechaos.com/rosso/xssi/whatsnew.shtml>
That was a pretty quick write up. I did it just tonight, in under 4 hours, while the TV was on. It would be smart of me to go back and edit it, but I think the gist is there.
Cam over at Camworld posted a great article on his design process at work: <http://www.camworld.com/work/process.html> It’s pretty in-depth, but I wonder if he knows the true power of XSSIs… bwhahahahah… Everything that he notes in that particular article anyway would be doable with a few well-placed commands.
Considering that I bascially posted the entire set of notes for the next to the last class of the Web Graphics course I taught, I guess I could also write up The Process, which is the outline that I’ve developed for working up web sites at work. It stretches all the way from the first Sales lead on through the design and development stages and into the launch of the site.
It’s just an outline at this point, but making it an article would give me the opportunity to flesh it out and make it more ‘abstract’. This piece would be especially effective for my class next term.
Speaking of teaching classes, I got my check from PSU today… That’s always a nice way to finish out the week. After the 105 hours of work last week and the stress capable of tearing the fabric of space and time that was this week, I’m happy to unwind a bit.
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Posted in General
at 1 pm
Amy and I went shopping today with my check from my PSU winter term class.
Now I’ve got a new computer…!
Wowza. It’s a G3/400… DVD and Zip drives. It’s sooooo nice. 🙂 It’s amazing how my perspective on web development has changed, just since bringing it home. It’s one thing to have a G3 at work. It’s an entirely different beast to have it at home. For me. Just for me…
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