04.15.99
Posted in General
at 8 pm
Apr 15 Thu (08 AM)
I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but finishing off my taxes (getting copies for my records, addressing the envelopes, stapling all the slips together, putting the stamps on and sealing the envelopes) really took some weight off my shoulders. It seems strange to me, because I didn’t think it was causing me that much stress, but it feels so good to get that off the to-do list.
Speaking of to-do lists, I wanted to write up a master plan of things to do, and I enlisted Amy to help me out. Though she still hasn’t sent the list to me (ah-hem) <grin> I think it’s a great thing.
I’ve been developing a method of project management based on plain text files. I’ve started using it at Work on the promo CD project. At the top of the file is the overall view of the project, with the main project goal in a single sentence. After that comes a listing of Changes made to the file, with dates. Next comes the actual to-do list, catagorized, with target dates and initials of responsible parties in parenthises. The next to last section is the list of to-dos that have been to-done. And finally some project notes about hurdles and unforeseen problems, specific techniques (steps from Photoshop, etc.)
I started a rough form of this at OMSI and it served me well. This promo CD is the first time that I’ve used it among more than just myself. We’ll see how it goes. The documentation trail is really helpful once it comes time to show what you’ve done. Thinking of that, I ought to start it for the other projects at work. (mental note made.)
Project management is one of my weak points. Now that I have a tool that I can use and refine, I think I’m making some headway.
It feels good. Really good.
Permalink
04.14.99
Posted in General
at 8 pm
Apr 14 Wed (08 AM)
Found on Geocities: (I’ll save you the pop-up ad…)
Procrastination is my sin
It brings me naught but sorrow.
I know that I should stop it
In fact, I will… tomorrow.
See also this page on procrastination. However, I did get my taxes done last night.
I’m not quite sure why I left them to the last few days, though I know my dad did as well. Perhaps it’s genetic? … It’s not like I raked in the dough, but I have had this pattern of earning more each year, so I guess that’s a good sign.
But I’ve got to say, it’s less the money and far more the fact that I love the stuff I get to work on. Sure I think I ought to be competivly compensated, but just give me the chance to design and develop web sites and you could nearly send me home with a bad of roasted peanuts at the end of the day.
Now I’m back to working through my e-mail inbox and doing a favor for TJ. Oh, and actually sending out my tax return…
Permalink
04.12.99
Posted in General
at 6 pm
Apr 12 Mon (06 PM)
Over the past week, one of the services I use had to rebuild their web servers. Unfortunately, they neglected to report this to their users, or at least to this user.
So for the past week, the Cave Inn and my ‘I Believe’ site have been rather inaccesible. I got a hold of the main web guy there and he was very gracious in fixing the problem. It didn’t take but 10 minutes to diagnose the problem and apply the remedy, which was nice, but I can certainly tell that the company isn’t as Mac Friendly as they used to be.
I really don’t consider them a consumer friendly ISP at this point. They stated that they’re targeting businesses, and that’s cool, I just wish they would let their individual subscribers in on the secret.
Over the weekend, I found some stuff that really threw me for a loop: Atari history sites. One day I’ll write an entry about Atari and my family’s involvment (Our hardware store sold games, including the Atari line, and my brother got tons of Atari stuff). Boy, these sites brought back a lot of memories:
http://www.atarihq.com/
http://atari-history.com/
As well, I went to Bunnyfest, held by VJ over at Chez XX http://alt.portland.or.us/diary.shtml, keeper of the Pacifc Northwest Journals page and dare I say, hostess extrodinare. Although I didn’t stay long, I did have a great (and on occasion sureal) time and look forward to other parties. 🙂
And I almost started on my taxes… No really!
Permalink
04.07.99
Posted in General
at 11 am
Just got back from a morning run through the Mac Business Expo at the convention center. The keynote was all about QuickTime which didn’t hold much interest for me until they talked about ‘Interactive Pictures’. This is cool. I’d seen a demo of something like this before, but it looks like as long as you have QuickTime installed, you can see these great pictures that have certain filters running on top of them.
My brain is racing with ideas. But now I gotta go out and find more info about this…
Permalink
04.04.99
Posted in General
at 11 pm
Another weekends, another two days of avoidence.
At some point I need to do them, and it looks like it will be this week sometime…. errr, yeah, sometime.
In the mean time, I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with my job. The guy in charge isn’t delegating, and he’s heading towards arrogance.
This was a problem (one of many) at my previous job. I’m seeing this as a pattern at certain companies that provide services to clients. (With that statement I’m excluding OMSI.)
The person in charge begins to develop an arrogance, a concept of not just being better informed, but in some way superior to the client. I don’t know if this is just in the technology industry. But it does seem to run rampant here.
I can see where it comes from. We as an industry are on ‘the cutting edge’, The newest of the new, The media for the next millenium. This starts to explain it. It doesn’t excuse it.
That division, that mental separation sets a company up for a downfall. Once you’ve removed yourself above your client, you start loosing touch. From where I sit, it seems like that begins to build a wall, a barrier. You build a certain amount of animosity that you then have to hide from your client. The more you have to hide from someone, the more likely they’ll start to see it. Then you lose their confidence, their trust.
If this entry seems disjointed the only excuse is because it was written while Full Circle with Michael Palin was on OPB. Just a delightful show. http://www.opb.org/whatsonopb/…
In the late afternoon there was great episode of Oregon Field Guide about the glacial floods that brought the rich farmable top soil of Eastern Washington down to the Willamette Valley. They had a fabulous series of computer animations that were layered on top of real camera footage. It really brought to life the floods that happened in the area 18 to 15 thousand years ago, from Montana’s inland glacial sea. http://www.opb.org/ofg/
Permalink
04.03.99
Posted in General
at 9 pm
Ever since the iCab browser came out, I’ve been going nutz validating my HTML all over the place.
This morning I’ve been spending time getting the HTML code in my journal to validate. With any luck, this entry will be the first to validate on it’s own. I’ve gone back and updated the HTML in the earlier entries for this week, but don’t expect me to go into the archives. Not that you would. If there’s any hope for humanity, you aren’t nearly as anal about well-formed HTML code as I am…
Here goes my 4th or 10th run at getting the new entries right. Perl and HTML character entities don’t mix all that well.
Permalink
Posted in General
at 11 am
Set the script to modify the production file, correct the spelling of a varible’s name, set all the permissions correctly, and…
Off we go!
It works! It works! It works! It works! If anyone wants the code for it, drop me a line. It’s very simple Perl, and just modifies an existing XML RSS file.
I can’t wait for Netscape to release the 1.0 version of the spec. As per the agreement to sign up, I’ve added the ‘add this channel’ button to the bottom of the front page. That’s starting to look a little heavy, but for now the buttons can just sit there.
Done before noon, and now Amy and I can spend the day together. Woo-woo! Future Shop, here we come. 🙂
Permalink
Posted in General
at 11 am
Getting the RSS file automation put together. Expect this page to be broken on occasion until I get phase one finished. So far I’ve got the A NAME=”” tags in, now I’ve got to get the file built.
File’s built, and I’m parsing it…
Now to truncate extra entries…
Little bit of clean up…
Permalink
03.30.99
Posted in General
at 11 am
Mar 30 Tue (11 AM)
I put together some screen shots of Dwelling being shown over the web, both at my.netscape.com and at my.userland.com. I think this is just fascinating.
http://www.ordersomewherechaos.com/~rosso/articles/1999/syndication/mydwelling.shtml
Last night’s showing of The Matrix was, as expected, fun. Lots of very cool special effects, including some that weren’t shown in the ads.
The dialogue really stank, the plot was okay (thank god it didn’t turn into an aliens story), and the acting was sub-par.
This is worth a $1 showing at the Bagdad, or maybe a matinee if you’re _really_ into special effects.
Permalink
03.29.99
Posted in General
at 1 pm
Mar 29 Mon (03 PM)
Woo-hoo! I’m now serialized through my.userland.com. THis is too cool… I wrote Dave Winer and told him I’m having fun! Each entry here I translate into the .rss file, and suddenly it appears at Netscape’s site and at Userland’s site.
Tonight, a friend of mine has passes to The Matrix. Yes, I’m going for the f/x, not for the storyline, acting, or dialog. 🙂
Permalink