Month: June 2005

Was there a full moon last night? I had so much energy about me I felt like I could manically, work through the night but forced myself to find sleep knowing that I would be useless today without some rest.

A new theme of memory not regret.

I really enjoyed college. Had I been smarter and worked the system for scholarships or more wisely budgeted my money I could have easily been one of those people that stayed in college for 10 or 15 years.

I broke a lot of boundaries in college. I was experimental and eager to try new things. My curiosity was exposed in many unpublishables, life threatening/thrill seeking experiences, cultural exposure and so on. I was motivated to excel and worked as a desk worker in the dorm, treasurer of the hall government (fixing some impossibly screwed up books), resident assistant, help desk, activist, and undergraduate system administrator to name a few. But the thing I took particular pleasure in doing right and doing well was postage stamps.

Yes, postage stamps. There was something about doing a postage stamp just right that was very rewarding. Knowing the joy and pleasure a person would receive from one of my postage stamps made me want to find better ways to achieve a more perfect stamp. Some folks were content with the way they did post stamps, other didn’t care to do them at all finding the process mundane or even displeasant; I on the other hand was the Jonathan Livingston Seagull of post stamps always seeking a more perfect way! Postage stamps had a bit of self-gratification also because they have a unique flavor on your tongue. At first they were almost acridic but with a hidden sweetness which was almost addictive creating a huge desire for more. The more postage stamps you lick, the more you want. A sloppy stamp just brings no joy. A stamp that is too dry will not reach its goal. Timing is also an issue. Not enough time spent with the postage stamp is like a big, unsatisfying tease to the envelop as the stamp is unlikely to hang around long while too much time could remove all the glue leaving a dry postage stamp also unable to reach its destination. Postage stamps are delicate and being too aggressive can ruin the stamp.

There are also tools for postage stamps and although more precise and often more effective than done by person, I find them impersonable and although appreciated by the postmaster the pleasure is more lopsided to the recipient. Alas, in this busy, electronic age I find myself with fewer opportunities to practice my skills. Perhaps I should pull out my stationary and write a letter.

After removing her sleep diaper, Amy declares, “I’m just naked under my pants.”
Ah! The profoundness! A true philosopher in the making.

There are not many times that I can talk about my work nor do I feel it is terribly appropriate to cross blog and work. I am one of those "anything computer" people. Over the years I have built computers, run networks, designed database, killed trees in the name of quality assurance, managed projects, managed people, danced on the bleeding edge, ridden the wave, and been blown up in dot bombs.

One of the positives about tech is that it moves so fast you are rarely bored; one of the negatives is it moves so fast you are rarely up to speed. For a variety of reasons easily looked up through Blingo, to make websites look right in most browser (IE, AOL-which really was IE, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, and so on) tables were heavily used in the past. Imagine using an Excel spreadsheet to paint a picture. Now-a-days browsers have become more compliant to web standards so there is a push to create "tableless" designs since a <table> element for HTML was really intended to create a table (say, of data) rather than be used as a hack for laying out design a la paint by numbers.

A good developer will be aware of the evolving technologies and changing standards but due to high pressure deadlines, inadequate budgets, bad habits, over working, moonlighting, resistance to change, or whatever the case may be that developer may find himself doing great work but still using techniques of a time passed. If the learning curve is going to add 150% effort to a project and only give a return to the client that is only appreciated by academia and not the client’s customer base then it does not make sense.

I have always tried to create websites that were cross-browser compatible (Netscape, IE, etc) and cross-platform (Mac and Windows…perhaps Linux/Unix et al) but I have not stuck with standards nor strived for artistic markup that produced compliant code. Instead I strove for well-documented code that was encapsulated, portable, extensible, and age-able. My work has always been documented within the code, and in external documents such as MS Word and Visio. A developer should easily be able to step into my code and maintain, continue or expand a project.

Typically an artist or a client provides the content and layout (in the form of a picture or MS Publisher document). My job is to use a markup language to present that content in such a way that the browser (IE, AOL, FireFox, Opera, etc) will render the content exactly as the original designer intended. This time around I decided to go for broke and make a site using current web standards that validates and uses a completely tableless design using CSS which in theory makes this site portable to a variety of devices such as telephones and means it can quickly, easily be styled to have a new look when the time comes.

I present you: Gano Café. Gano Café is an example of a static website using current standards. For an example of a database driven project using PHP see Werner Paddles and click "choose a paddle"

Working with standards has been an incredible pleasure! I now have little excuse to ever do anything less.

It’s really cool when you start back on a project and are impressed with your own code.

I was led to the survey by Boing Boing (of course..)

I have to say some of the most entertaining, creative writing I can find on the web is at Sanity Adrift. His posts are spaced out as if each is being drafted, proofed, re-written, tossed out, pulled from the garbage, written again, edited and finally published against a relunctant deadline of "I must move on to another topic." The time between posts is rewarded with a post of several paragraphs from which you cannot divert your eyes. It’s not lengthy in the sense that you want to skim to get to the end. At Sanity Adrift the writing is so well done that you want to read each word and sometimes twice. TV deserves to be published! I’ll leave it to the curious to explore and figure out "TV." His bio is as much a pleasure to view as is his blog.

Drapes removed from Justice Department statue. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales makes a good choice!

The drapes [covering Spirit of Justice’s one exposed breast], installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breast showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also provoked jokes about and criticism of the deeply religious Ashcroft.

Alright! That’s progress. Now how do we get the other one uncovered?

An ORANGE ALERT is issued for Saturday, June 25, 2005. Ride a KAT bus fare-free and help to improve our air quality.

South Knox Bubba shows us why we should carpool, ride buses and take other steps for cleaner air.

For those who can’t get along with your band members this is for you.

Appalachistan has led us to The Hanging Stranger for an explanation of "What happens when you burn an American flag?"

Student: My body aches.
Master: Your mind says you ache.

Sometimes white noise drives me nuts. As a child I could tell you from the opposite end of the house if the television was turned on even if the sound was all the way down while others would insist there was no noise. The hum of a computer monitor can be distracting enough to prohibit programming. At these times I like to put in some ear plugs dropping noise by 20db and effectively cutting out the white noise but still allowing you to hear.

I am programming and I hear a noise that I can’t identify. I take out an ear plug to acknowledge an airplane. A few minutes later with the ear plugs in I hear what sounds like a Cessna single engine plane flying too low. The sound is coming through the baby monitor and getting louder. I can only assume an appliance is dying despite a childhood flashback so I run upstairs to seek out the noise before it wakes everyone in the house.

The childhood flashback was to being in right field during a t-ball game praying that some lefty hitter didn’t smack the ball my way. I’d much rather hang out assuming my lack of ability than have the ball fly my way and prove my lack of ability. I was living in Kenner, Lousiana at the time. Lots of mosquitoes. During the game a skeeter eater would drive by, the game would pause as all the children would stare at the truck spouting off a wall of fog, the fog would approach and be welcomed by the crowd as we knew we’d have a few less bites that night, and the game would continue without so much as a thought toward what this horrid chemical might be doing to our lungs and tissues.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that no appliance was dying and no airplane was crashing into the house. I stood on the porch for a few moments and watched the funny looking truck approach spouting off its spray of whatever is supposed to reduce the mosquitoe population. As it neared, the outdoor cat meowed as if to say, “Am I supposed to hold my breath?” and I slipped back inside with the clean air feeling slight remorse for the cat while not allowing the dog to go out into the fog but happy to know that there may be a few less blood suckers tomorrow.

I said a long time ago that Heir Bush would try to stay in office forever. Now B.K. Delong of Brain Stream points out that Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland introduced a bill on February 17, 2005 to "remove the 22nd Amendment setting Presidential Term Limits."
Co-sponsors:

Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] – 2/17/2005
Rep Pallone, Frank, Jr. [NJ-6] – 2/17/2005
Rep Sabo, Martin Olav [MN-5] – 2/17/2005
Rep Sensenbrenner, F. James, Jr. [WI-5] – 2/17/2005

Well, your fearless dictator is trying to strike yet another blow to the Constitution.

Who keeps voting for these morons?

Time to hunker down for an all-nighter of programming. Sometimes I wonder if the trade-offs of homebased, self-employment are really worth it.