Renewal of the Blog, Part I
Posted by David | Filed under Photography, Technology
This past month has seen precisely no updates to this poor website, due in like parts to both travel and the sudden disappearance of my precious Nikon Coolpix 885 camera, lost or stolen on the carnival-swept shores of New Jersey. I have said my condolences, moved on graceously, and today ordered a replacement in the form of Canon’s Digital Rebel EOS.
In the spirit of change, this site is to be officially transformed back into an arm of my communication arts portfolio. Though updates will be spotty until the renovation is complete, you should begin seeing physical changes this week. Let me know what you think!
Testing BlogTunes
Posted by David | Filed under Technology
There seems to be a problem between running the program and the actual sending of a trackback ping to this blog. Still giving it my best shot, though, so one day you’ll get here and voila! new music to check out. Or not, if you aren’t into that kind of thing…
Update: I solved the first issue, which was that the program wasn’t running at all. For some reason it was searching for its files in the C:\Program Files\blogtunes\, when I normally run programs on another. After moving it, the program actually started running. Now, however, it doesn’t read my iTunes library’s updates.
2nd Update: Apparently I’m not the only one with this problem.
3rd Update: WOO! Got it to work finally! And for anyone else looking for an answer, here are the problems I ran into. Special thanks to Jeff for inspiring me to keep at it and make it work.
1. When unzipping the files, they need to be under “C:\Program Files\blogtunes\“.
2. When listing the iTunes library location in the blog.properties, the listing really does use the “\/” slashes together, instead of just a single “” — how simple is that?
Apple Store Sagemore
Posted by David | Filed under Technology
Last week I stopped in at one of the Apple stores that keep popping up around the country. The temptation to walk out of that store with half of its inventory was stronger than any other retail experience I’ve had (except maybe the Opern Confiserie in Vienna). Instead, I took home a few iPod accessories and a determination to come back after winning the lottery.
Their checkout system is awesome — run entirely on iMacs with receipts printing on standard paper detailing the entire purchase like an invoice. The whole process was quick, painless, and surprisingly free of all the standard sideline clutter. Other retailers really should take notice of how Apple runs these little boutique shops; they deliver the exact experience I, as a consumer, desire.
Dream, Design, Kreate.
Posted by David | Filed under Technology
To all the ladies out there (and a few smart boyfriends), check out the handmade scarves, ornaments and jewelry at N.A.K. Kreations. It’s the new website for a good friend’s artistic ventures, and I can personally vouch for her amazing talent.
(Hat Tip: SonsMelody)
Trying Something New…
Posted by David | Filed under Technology
For Windows iTunes users, there’s a program that allows you to post the most recent song played to your weblog - BlogTunes. If this ends up working properly, you, the inquisitive reader, will be able to track my listening habits well enough to stalk me. In theory.
Update: Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get BlogTunes to work with TypePad. The trackback system doesn’t work quite like it does in MT. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!
Featured Photos of, er, 2002
Posted by David | Filed under Technology
The photograph featured above has not been updated in some time, due to the heart attack that my camera apparently had. It’s digital, so all I know is that it has had a system error which recharging and resetting won’t fix. This, just a few months after the warranty has died, has been somewhat of a hindrance. So for now enjoy some older photos that have never been seen online, while I raise money to pay Nikon.
Vicarious living through iTunes
Posted by David | Filed under Music, Technology
Apple has finally released a Windows version of iTunes for the vast majority of Microsoft junkies like myself, and its presence on my desktop is like a breath of fresh air. Upon launching it, I feel uplifted morally somehow, as if it’s the first step in a MS recovery group.
My only qualm is that money spent in its store (which, at $0.99 per song, is the cheapest legal downloads have ever been) is still finding its way into the RIAA’s pockets.
Now if only I could purchase an iPod…
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Posted by David | Filed under Technology
I dream of meeting the designers of Hotmail’s current interface, preferably in a dark alley with few witnesses. All other complaints aside (and believe me, there are many), whoever thought it was a great idea to place the Select All box right next to the Delete button was an idiot.
Yes, I just deleted ALL my messages for the third time this week. At least they can be retrieved, after sifting all the junk mail out a second time.
Designing for the Masses
Posted by David | Filed under Technology
A tentative new design has replaced the ugly mess of CSS and typography that used to be this website. Surprisingly enough, this is the first time I’ve ever used a pure CSS-driven design (instead of tables), so we’ll see how it goes. Although it’s a plus to remove old ties to bad markup, there are still a lot of compatibility issues between MSIE 6 and Mozilla that nearly drove me back to my beloved <TD> tags.
Oh yeah, this has become a photoblog as well… at least for now. 
Update: Beware the Archives and Comments links.. they work, but get a lil’ funky until I can set aside time to revise their design.
There’s a Fly in my CSS
Posted by David | Filed under Technology
Hm… for some reason, neither Mozilla Firebird nor MSIE 6 can properly display my site here. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of immediate options for alternate designs either, so I may build a brand-new layout a whole lot sooner than originally planned. Stay tuned.
