Although it seems like the learning curve might be one more oriented to those already familiar with vector and raster based imaging software, this piece of software seems like it could unify a lot of tasks into one tool for me. I explored the quality and size of images that it produced and I was quite pleased.
I'm the oldest of four boys. My younger brother Chris has a great band called Die Laughing . My brother Paul works with all kinds of very advanced manufacturing techniques. My brother Dave is an amazing athelete. We are each very talented, in our own ways. I hate to confess that I am not very close to the rest of my immediate family. Lots of little issues and a couple of big ones have held things up for years.
I am getting into something here that is for another time though. Chris' band is really solid. The Web site for his band is being reworked by me, and I expect that I will finish that job this week. Go and check out his band.Let me know what you think.
I'm spending another relaxing Sunday, candles burning and I am going through a Style Sheet design book. I put two projects essentially to bed this week, but I believe the weeks to come will only be more demanding.
If you haven't checked it out yet, you should go to www.audionet.com . I discovered that I can listen to the radio stations from my old home, as well as many shows that I wouldn't have access to in the market I'm in. They also are broadcasting some television stations and eventually will have some Internet only Television type stations.
C-SPAN is replaying the Computer Industry Competition Hearing this afternoon on their television network, and you can go and listen to it over the net at www.cspan.org .
I am doing some minor adjusting to the site today, but I am also evaluating some deeper changes. I need to make a commitment to providing more content. I think that the load time is great, it could and will look better in the future though. I purchased a cellular setup yesterday, and I believe that I will allow folks to contact me there through this site.
I joined this organization for a variety of reasons, but mainly to see what other people in my area are doing. One of the really big things for me at this year's MacWorld conference was the chance to talk to people who are in the same position as I am. I am a lone web developer in a medium sized company. The talk last night got into certification. Can we be certified? It is my personal opinion that this really wouldn't make too much sense. I look at the perversion that has twisted the networking world with the MCSE certification, and I don't want to see the same thing happen in Web site management.
Right now, standards are changing rapidly. I don't think that, if you were to begin work on a certification test today, all of the included materials would be out of date in six months. Do you test on content management, creation, technical, serving technology? What defines a webmaster? I am one and I don't know.
Well, welcome to the first March Installment of Bump.net.
As usual, lots going on at work. Two large projects going, with a third starting later this week. I'm carefully tracking my time, and I'm not bashful about the fact that, as a salaried employee, I worked 250 hours in February.
I had said that I would put up a list of icon oriented links a while back, but so many of these are good, I want to give them more attention.
My favorite (perhaps of all time) icon author would have to be Igarashi Susumu . Check out his very beautiful Web site and download some of his icons and color schemes for Macintosh.(I wish I had this kind of graphics talent)
Who is this guy? Why did he interrupt the Grammy's last night? Does the Soy on his chest mean Soy as in bean or is it Spanish for me? I am searching for these answers and more. I thought that his entrance, Dylan's reaction, and the performance that ensued were the highlights of the show.
On a darker note, I thought ODB's stealing the microphone was less than endearing. I like the Wu-Tang Clan, but please. What a classless display.
Once in a while, I download a piece of software that I know, in its simplicity, that I will be using on a regular basis. I can already tell that LinkPad 1.0 is such a piece of software. I live in links, and it manages links. It is free. Check it out.
I've been working so much that I have not had the energy to devote to the new domain and site. As it is Friday, I am preparing for a relaxing weekend. My plans include playing with pixels. I've been cruising various icon oriented sites, and I have decided that I will devote some time to graphics this weekend. In the process, I will throw up a large graphics links section and pass on the icon links.
I started this little project in November with a gentle time frame in mind. Recent events convinced me that now would be an excellent time to move to my own domain. As such, I have registered bump.net and will be putting up a slightly redesigned version of this site (rendered with Frontier 5) within a couple of days. I still have to wait for the registration to go through.
Today, I was home sick from work.
Tonight, I am working on the site redesign and importing my content into Frontier 5.
After solving a couple of server issues at work this afternoon, I went through my mail from the last year and cleaned out the junk. What a great experience. I now find myself mailing people I have lost contact with and trying to recreate the connections I had with them.
Spending a much deserved relaxed Saturday drinking coffee, watching some Olympic coverage, and reading up on Web Server technology.
They have all sorts of neat new stuff in this year's winter Olympics. Snowboarding and women's hockey are the first two that pop into my head. Coverage must be tough considering the time difference.
I had a real gigantic mental moment on Friday. I didn't invent something new or finish a gigantic project, nor was I visited by some higher power. I took two pieces of information that previously resided in my head and connected them. They were both there for weeks, waiting to be moved close enough together to interact, and when they did, I had a moment of clarity. Frontier 5, the best dual platform web content management system, has been available for both Macintosh and 32 bit Windows OS`s for a couple of weeks now. While Frontier 5 was in development, I avoided it. Beta's were posted, but I didn't download them. No time to play with beta software. I stepped up to the plate this week. Working diligently this weekend, I have begun the task of bringing Bump into the Frontier enviroment. It`s gonna be great when it is done.
On Friday, I got a new Windows NT tower on my desk at work. For the first time ever in my life, I have the opportunity to work with Windows and Macintosh computers in the same ability range. Its eye opening to see what NT does better than the Mac and vice versa. (That is a subject for another essay.) Suddenly, I am checking my checkbook to see if I can afford the same setup at home.(I can't) For the first time in my desktop computing life, there is no longer an other side of the fence. I see things as they are.
My web server (I am the administrator as well as the content builder) is also a Windows NT box. I have dedicated a ton of time over the last two months porting our interactive content and moving it from an out-of-house UNIX box to the NT box. In the process, I learned ColdFusion and its markup language, CFML. Frontier previously existed in my mind as a client side only tool. Suddenly, on Friday, I put together the fact that it is capable of many of the server side cartwheels I need it for too. Simple connection, but it blew my mind that I had previously missed it.
The Frontier 5 Release is Available: I'm playing with it now. Due to various outside commitments, I will not be able to do much with the new version for a few days.
Got lots of intent to post and very little free time to do it in.
Finally, the light at the end of my huge server conversion project is in sight. I will be in testing today and tommorrow, and will then be going live(I hope.)
ColdFusion from Allaire is a great tool if you have your own Windows NT or Solaris based server. Using it to tie my web pages to things like databases and mail servers has made my life much easier over the last week.
Best of all, if you already are familiar with HTML and Javascript, the syntax is simple.
P.S. I hope to get out sometime in the next week and actually get things like my brother's band posted to this site.
Spending the day today tidying up my CPU and office in anticipation of the release of Mac OS 8.1. New file format and all.
Things here at the laboratory are stressful, and I imagine that I will be launching some new features here at Bump and trying to promote the site a little.
I am also going to bring some of my Javascript stylings to these pages in the next two weeks.
The IconFactory has been producing very high quality icons for a long time now. Yesterday, they released a set of South Park Icons. These are worth downloading.
Well, I went to MacWorld Expo SF 1998, and have now returned to work and gotten over the return jet lag. MacWorld was fun and interesting. I purchased a pass-through box so I can now watch cable on my monitor at home while working on web pages.
I am currently in the process of figuring out what my goals for 1998 are. There are so many technologies that I want to learn that I am having a hard time choosing which one to concentrate on first. I think for the time being that I will be going back to basics and working on my design skills as well as my knowledge of HTML 4.0, 3.2, and 3.0. Other technologies and pieces of software I plan on getting to in 1998 are XML, Javascript 1.2, Some preliminary Java work, Frontier, ColdFusion, Cascading Style Sheets, DHTML, better my PERL understanding, and a large concentration on imaging technologies. I have made myself a computer software/equipment budget, and I plan on buying a new workstation(PROBABLY A UNIX BOX!!), A faster Internet connection, a DV camera, and a CD writer. If you stumble across this page, please recommend!!