January 2005

Two more webcomics

I found these comics one right after the other, and wouldn't you know it I had to read all their archives as quickly as possible.

Paradox Lost makes me think of Megatokyo in regards to the plot line, although the art style is quite different and nobody is stranded in Japan at the moment. Aside from the aforementioned similarity, it's still a funny, original comic that's worth a read through. Alas, it seems to update only once a week ... when it's on schedule, at least.

Seraphic Blue could almost be considered a sister comic to Paradox Lost, what with the number of references I found between the two in the rantspaces. This futureistic sci-fi comic has wonderful art and a developing story line that makes me wish they would update a little more often ... say, maybe 3 times a day. Alas, the real world often interferes with comic creation time, so I must be content to wait.

Bandwagon Jumping

Ok, so I've signed up for Blogazoo. They're not as good as BlogExplosion, but every little bit helps, I guess.

Camino

Ok, this one's for the Macintosh users out there eager to jump on the Firefox bandwagon, but missing the Aqua interface - there is an alternative, and it's name is Camino.

The best way to describe Camino is to imagine that Safari and Firefox had a kid - the resulting infant (it's a public beta, after all ...) has traits from both, both good and bad.

First, the Aqua interface rocks. It's not that noticeable when compared to Firefox, it's just ... smoother. You can also use it to import your bookmarks from most other browsers just like Firefox does - INCLUDING Safari.

According to the Mozilla Project you can also download plugins for Camino, but not all of them have been tested yet.

As for load times, I've seen Safari work better for some pages while Camino works better for others. If there's an error loading a page when surfing BlogExplosion in Safari, I have to go back and start over. With Camino, I just need to click on the right number again. I liked this so much that, because of this and the fact that Camino refreshes it's browser cache more often, I decided to dump Safari for a while and made Camino my default browser.

Alas, all is not a bed of roses. you see, underneath all the ease of use there are some problems as well. First, I can't sync my bookmarks up with my .Mac account. That's not too mad, since I can still use Furl to do that. It's a little more work, but oh well.

The biggest problem is the reason it's still a beta browser, I'm sure. You see, it crashes.

A lot.

Sometimes at the most inopportune moments.

So, long story short, I'm using Camino for things like Furl and BlogExplosion, but for most other web sites Safari is still the way to go on the Mac.

At least until Camino hits version 1.0

A.O.T.M. 23 - Winter Sky

Name: Winter Sky
Where: Greenbelt, Maryland
When: 2005
Print Available?: Yes

After waiting so long for a decent snow storm in which I can take pictures, what do I do? Take pictures of the trees instead of the ground, of course!

Well, I guess you can sort of see the snow - that's why the trees are so hazy in the background.

It's been a long time since I took a photograph that I felt would look better off in black & white. I remember when I took photography in college, B&W was the only type of film the intro students were allowed to use, since it was easier to process. This limitation actually helped us become better photographers, as we had to work hard to keep from being distracted by color. Color had nothing to do with our assignments, they were all about light, shadow, and how the two interacted. (Of course B&W photography by default looks more "artsy," so photos that would look like crap in color sometimes looked much nicer without it.) I enjoyed the class so much that I continued to use B&W film for some time after I lost darkroom privileges. (As an Art Ed. major, I rarely had the time to take an upper level course outside of my main curriculum. Jack of all trades, master of none.)

Now the easiest film to process is digital, and that's color by default. Usually, that's not a hassle. Most people WANT color - Color photos, color printers, color TV's, color LCD panels on their MP3 players, and so on. Other times, it's nicer to get back to your roots (no pun intended - the it's a picture of trees, after all...) and leave the color out of the equation.

Will Richardson, you've got your "Amen!"

Mr. Richardson posted a fabulous article about blogging & education over on his site, Weblogg-ed. If you're a teacher, or know someone who is, you might want to take a peek.

I love how near the end Mr. Richardson begins to associate blogging with every subject area that exists in our public schools - mainly because I've been saying the same thing about Art Education since before I became a teacher. If a (good) Math teacher reads the article, they might say that Math relates to every other subject, and so on and so forth.

Over the years we seem to have divided our education system into neat little compartments, not unlike the old sturdy plastic lunch trays I remember using when I was in elementary school. It's almost like the powers that be were finicky about their lunch, and didn't want their mashed potatoes to touch their green beans. It's too bad that the real world isn't sectioned off as neatly. Oh, some people try to varying degrees of success, but all it takes is one heaping portion of gravy to show that all those little indentations in the tray are all related to each other.

One of the things I love about teaching in a K-6 environment is that the subjects can tie together so nicely when the same person (or small group of people) is coordinating the lessons. In high school, where inter-departmental conversations seem limited to the teacher's lounge during lunch, such integration is a rare thing indeed.

It's too bad, really. It seems we're frontloading our students with the best teaching techniques, then slowly forgetting about them as they grow up.

Comments!

I've now added the functionality of comments to my blog - let the spamming begin!

Seriously though ... I had more than one person tell me that this blog should have a comments section, and to be honest the lack of such a feature was the only thing prohibiting me from abandoning LiveJournal entirely. It took me a while to figure out how to add it, but now it's here.

As an added bonus, I've got Gmail invites ready to go for the first 6 people who comment and ask for one. You've got to use a valid email when making the request, of course - how else can I send you the invitation?

Kappacino

I just found out that my friend Sara has moved Kappacino to http://www.kappacino.com/.

This is of course a good thing, since it's a shorter URL and that may very well mean more traffic. Better yet, she now has downloadable icons (Mac & PC) and desktop pictures. Of course her flash animations will always be the site's main draw, but it's cool that she finally caved into me bugging her about the extra stuff. ^_^

If you like Homestar Runner/Strongbad, you'll love Kappacino - non-sequitur nostalgic gamer parody animation at it's finest.

A.T.O.M. 22 - Ominous.mp3

Name: Ominous.mp3
Length: 2:28
Size: 2.8 MB
When: 2004
CD Available?: No

The nice thing about Apple's GarageBand program is than now anyone with a Mac can now arrange their own music, with or without an instrument. Of course, this can also be a bad thing. Heaven only knows how many times I fiddled with this program and came up with absolute rubbish.

Every now and then I make a mix that I actually feel is worth saving, and this is one of them. I handed it over to my oldest sister, and she fired back an e-mail that not only did SHE like it, but several people at work also enjoyed it. This might sound like nothing to you, but she plays at least 4 different instruments so I value her opinion.

That's why today's Artwork of the Moment is "Ominous." If I recieve any positive criticism I may upload more of my songs, but for now I think I'll still focus on photographs.

You guys are smart!

This just in: Internet Explorer's market share has dropped to 90.3%, by some surveys even more. Are it's lack of innovations and susceptibility to security flaws finally motivating the average computer users to switch, perhaps? From what I'm told Microsoft DID add a pop-up blocker with Service Pack 2, but that still doesn't put it on par with most of the other browsers out there.

9 out of ten users still seems like enough to make any malevolent hacker happy, but I checked my own site's statistics and found the following:

46.79% of you are using some form of Explorer, including the built in browser included with AOL.

48.01% of you are using some form of Mozilla, including Netscape & Firefox.

That leaves 4.08% using Safari (Mac only) and 1.1% using Opera 7 (Yes, I know you math experts have added it up and only gotten 99.98%, but don't forget there's been some rounding.)

My point is, with these statistics it seems over half of the people who look at this site are using a decent, relatively secure browser - good for you!

... and if you're still using Explorer ... do yourself a favor and protect yourself from viruses and spyware - try out one of the alternatives listed above.

Barry? No, can't be ...

While reading Obfuscated Networking, I encountered this flash animation. I mention it only because the song is catchy and the lip-syncing gentleman resembles a friend of mine from public school (and later college) of whom I've since lost track. He was also just the kind of extroverted person who would do something like this.

Drink Pepsi, get iTunes

Woohoo, they're doing it again! Starting at the end of January, I'll be drinking lots and lots of Pepsi.

Real Geeks Wear Silly T-Shirts

You know you want one.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know what "leetspeak" (or "134+5p34k") is, you might want to check this out. Knowledge is power. :)

If you like this one (or perhaps if you don't), you might want to check out some more of my stuff.

The thing about blogs.

O.K., so getting all this extra traffic to my site through BlogExplosion is cool, but I can't help but notice some common trends that bug the heck out of me. If you have one of the items listed below please do not feel insulted. Rather, please accept it as constructive criticism from a college educated artist who's been making web pages since @1996. I don't know everything, but trust me, I know what I'm talking about and I'm not the only one who thinks this.

1. Blogs should load in 30 seconds or less. (Photo blogs are naturally exempt from this.) If you're using BlogExplosion, and chances are that if you're reading this, you are, then you move on to a different blog every 30 seconds or so. For those of us on dial-up modems, sometimes the pictures haven't even loaded by then! A few pictures are fine, but if the focus of your blog is on what you WRITE, then don't put half a meg of pictures on it. If the focus is on photos or some other form of art, then a thumbnail and a link to the larger image is the way to go.


2. Blogs should not include everything under the sun. Yes, I know a blog is a form of personal expression and you are free to put anything you want on it (assuming your employer doesn't catch you), but just because you can use anything does not mean you should use everything. Phases of the moon? Fine. A java clock? No problem. Web cam? Good for you! All of these plus half a dozen other things, each requiring a separate plug-in that the viewer may or may not have? Now you're overdoing it a bit. My advice is to pick your one or two favorite things and stick with them. If you have to, there's a way to steal borrow some javascript code and have only one of them show up on your screen each time it reloads.


3. Be different, just like everybody else. I've seen some very creative, original blogs out there. I've also seen a lot of them that used the exact same template. Sure, my blog uses a (modified) template as well, but you know what? The first time I see a blog using the same template, I'm changing mine. I don't care who was using it first, but I don't want to become another cookie cutter scenario. If your host and/or software doesn't let you customize your blog's appearance in some way, then in my honest opinion it's just not worth using.


4. Where's the title? Whether it's something snazzy or something simple, your blog should have a title. If nothing else, it'll help people to remember your site. This problem is exaggerated for BlogExplosion surfers, since at the top of the window the blog's title is replaced with "Surfing - BlogExplosion.com" (as if we didn't already know we were there). If someone sees your blog and wants to plug it on their site/blog/whatever, they should know what to call it, shouldn't they? Please, please, please, whether it's just text surrounded by an h1 tag or a totally spiffed out image, put a title at the top of your page. Thank you.

Is there something you see online that bugs you a lot? Something that you think was designed perfectly? Drop me a line and tell me about it.

A.O.T.M. 21 - Lost

Name: Lost
Where: Seabrook, Maryland
When: 2005
Print Available?: Yes

This is another shot I took at my school - one of the first shots of 2005, actually.

I have a thing for fog and mist. Idunno, maybe I like the forced atmospheric perspective it creates, or maybe it just forces everyone to see the world like I do without my glasses. (My vision's 20/400 without them, that would make me legally blind.)

In any case, the haziness of this picture really caught my attention. I've received some criticism about just how hazy it is, but you know, when I was editing it I just couldn't find a variation that I thought looked better.

Look both ways before blogging

They're apparently building a list of "organizations that have fired, threatened, disciplined, fined or not hired people because of their blogs."

One more reason for me to love my job: it's not on the list.

Well, this explains a lot.

Looks like our capitol has lead in the drinking water. And you thought they were crazy for no reason.

Mac Tablet (iTablet) Petition

I'm passing this on, because I think it's darn cool:

"The goal of this petition is to demonstrate, that there are more than enough Mac users (or potential Mac users) that would just love to buy a tablet computer IF IT ONLY WOULD be a Mac!

Today the only choice, if one were to buy a tablet computer, is to go and buy a Tablet PC running some Windows XP Edition. We feel that this is plain wrong, given that Apple has spawned the whole PDA industry with the ingenious Newton Message Pad product family and still owns all that incredible know-how and technology. Some of that know-how, like the Inkwell handwriting recognition technology, has already made it into Mac OS X. And boy does it work!

With Inkwell being fully integrated into the operating system, handwriting input in basically any Mac application to date is already realized - not to speak of our traditional favorites such as Photoshop, Illustrator and the like, which have plenty of additional built-in features to make good use of a pen input device. It only takes one more little step, building a sleek slate style chassis in which to fit one of the smaller iBook or PowerBook motherboards and voila - we have our Tablet Mac.

So Apple, Steve, anybody, give us a Tablet Mac, please."

If you want a Tablet Mac from Apple, sign the petition & pass this link to other Mac users around the world.

LiveJournal's been sold!

Seriously, the guys who own Movable Type just bought them for an "undisclosed amount" of cash.

This scares me, as I still remember how Geocities was so cool before Yahoo bought them out, Hotmail was much better before Microsoft picked them up, and don't even get me started on TechTV's demise at the hands of G4 and Comcast. Now it's true that innovations have been made after some of those purchases, but it seems to me that immediately after such a sale the buyer looks at the purchase and says "Ok, let's strip away anything on here that's cool so all the old users will leave and the new users won't be able to remember the way the old company did things. Either that or it's "Change for change's sake," which is just as wrong.

Guys, LiveJournal isn't broke - don't try to fix it, okay? Thanks.

Of course I may be overreacting. This may be a good thing, who knows? I just haven't seen a buyout be a good thing very often.

Go, Bill! No, really - GO!

Listening to Leo Laporte right now. Apparently, Bill Gates was giving a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show, and he crashed Windows once and Xbox once ... DURRING his presentation! Kevin Rose then came on and mentioned that ALL of the Microsoft demos were crashing. Fortunately Conan O'Brian was there to help lighten the mood.

And yet my Mac hasn't crashed in months .... hmm.

Of course the media thought very little of this - after all, it's normal for Windows to crash, isn't it?

Aw, crap!

Literally. Who buys these things?

Changes

Due to deviantART no longer allowing images to be viewed on other servers (I'm surprised it lasted this long, actually...), I've had to make some minor changes to the "Artwork of the Moment" section. All images have now been replaced with links to the appropriate deviantART pages.

Sorry about that.

---

UPDATE: I'm slowly moving thumbnail pics over to my own server so that you can at least see a small version of the picture without having to click a link. I'm starting from the most recent entries and working my way back.

http://www.aoinamida.com/kappacino/

Lightning Dogs, hoooo! Duck the baby! Cats in dresses!

Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, why not?!

Boycott Monster Cable

How do you endear yourself to your customer base? Howabout you sue every company that uses the word "monster," in anything, anywhere. Jerks.

Crap TV

Just when you thought reality tv could sink no lower, this show's so bad some affiliates refuse to air the thing.

A.O.T.M. 20 - Droplets 4

Name: Droplets 4
Where: Seabrook, Maryland
When: 2004
Print Available?: Yes

Most people feel naked without clothes (I would hope so!) Some people feel naked without their weding ring, lucky hat, watch, or some other small trinket. I feel naked without my camera - I litterally carry it everywhere I go.

As a result, I have it on hand when I go to my various schools and see shots that are worth taking. Of course it doesn't hurt that I take a walk around each building on a regular basis.

Everyone else is doing it...

So many people are talking about tsunamis that I don't think I need to say more than "donate." 'nuff said.