Chasing My Own Tale
Jul 11 Sun (02 PM)
Sometimes I love living in the future…
http://fusion.nww.com/news/1999/0201cerf.html
The concept of someone making a parenthetical statement like the one below blows my mind:
“Whether we use standard IPv6 (our preference over IPv4 for interplanetary work) or some variation in the ‘between planets’ component of the system is still a little open.” -Vint Cerf
“Our preference for interplanetary work…” That’s just (so) cool…
Whoa. It’s really there.
http://www.extended.pdx.edu/mmedia/sumweb.htm
INTRODUCTION TO WEB GRAPHICS (WD301)
No prior experience with graphics production or the web is required. Learn the basics of creating, processing, and compressing images for the web. Adobe PhotoShop will be used extensively to manipulate bitmap graphics, and Macromedia Freehand will be used for vector graphics. In addition to applying design principles and producing still images, students will create GIF animations and complex image maps.
Four sessions, Wed/Friday, 9:00 – 5:00, July 21, 23, 28, 30
That’s the class, right there, second to the bottom. I guess I’d better get cracking on those materials.
As well, I’ve scheduled a Web Developer’s Coffee to be at the Millennium Cafe, SE 21st and Clinton, at 11:00 am, on Saturday, August 14th. http://www.millennium-cafe.com
Long time readers may remember a Web Developers group I used to be part of, that fell apart when I left for Prague. Well, this might be the chance to restart that group.
I’ll presenting the materials that I developed for my class, though it will likely be more of an informal chat than anything else.
Everyone in the area is invited to attend! Bring a friend or a couple of URLs.
I finally got through a major project at work. Gango Editions, a company that was profiled in the Oregonian on Tuesday now has a site of their own.
It’s not a full bore commerce site. They didn’t want to pay for the whole sha-bang up front so they’re going to settle into just having their catalog online, listing their items.
http://www.gangoeditions.com
The design and coding is all mine. Looks like my table fetish continues. It’s a fast little site, even if it’s not finished yet. Plus, Amy thinks the way that it looks good in a wide array of window widths is pretty good. She says that ProjectCool(.com) likes sites like this, so I might submit it. Who knows?
(Another project at work is finally off to the printers. After 5 months, I’ll finally have real business cards. I’ve thought about doing a whole collage of my previous cards. There’s about 7 or 8 by now.)
My summer class at PSU is a sure thing, and I’m working up all the materials for it. I kinda jumped ahead in the outline of the class. After getting some more feedback today from The People In Charge (John and Brad) it looks like I’m going to need to drop back a few yards and start out at a more basic level.
This means introducing Windows people to the MacOS, showing them how to organize their files, and teaching them an intro to Photoshop and Freehand. I was hoping that we could concentrate purely on Web design, but it looks like these people won’t necessarily have any graphic design skills, or even solid computer skills.
Less fun, but it will certainly hammer home some basics for me. That’s looking on the bright side. The dark side says, Screw ’em! Let ’em sink or swim on their own!
Oh yeah, I was cut out for this job…
In connection with this class I’m putting together a WebDev page on tools/utilities that I use for working with the Web. I’ve always had to search out the pieces that I use each time I move to a new employer. Now I’ll have them all online and ready to go for me.
A couple of articles I’ve been working on are now posted in the WebDev section. The first is my tutorial on 404 Error pages which have been a pet project of mine since I was working at OMSI. http://www.ordersomewherechaos.com/rosso/webdev/errors.shtml
The other piece that I’ve added are my notes from the Macromedia conference sessions. These are the actual work part of the conference that I aluded to in a previous entry. http://www.ordersomewherechaos.com/rosso/webdev/ucon/
I’ve not put a lot of work into either, so they have gramatical and spelling errors, but I wanted to get these out there and available in whatever form I could. This isn’t to say they’re unreadable, they just aren’t as polished as I’d like them to be.
Jun 30 Wed (09 AM)
A short interlude, and now things are really picking up, pace-wise.
Between work, some pre-employment work, and this summer class at PSU, I’m hardly touching ground every few days.. finding time to be with Amy, doing laundry, the recycling, responding to e-mail, meeting up with friends, is keeping moving a a pretty incredible pace.
Then there’s those 12:30am showings of Deep Space Nine that I’ve been watching way too late in the evening. :p
I honestly don’t know how other people (with families on top of it all) find the time to do everything. Perhaps I’ve just got too many projects, or I’m wasting too much time somewhere along the line. Just being organized isn’t going to help me get around that.
(Thanks to Paul Simon for the title of this entry.)
Jun 24 Thu (06 PM)
It seems like this week is better.
I’ve been feeling more ‘up’ and have had some more energy. I had kind of chalked it up to this lingering spring rains and clouds, but I think it’s more just me.
Getting more sleep hasn’t seem to have been the answer as I’ve gotten less sleep this week than I have in months previous. It’s not diet (though it affects, to be sure) nor health, nor workload. It’s simply positive outlook, the approach, the viewpoint. The direction that you attack your day.
Amy’s been showing me the light on this. All this week she’s been putting a lot of effort into making sure that I keep up a good attitude. It’s gotta be exhausting putting so much energy in a mawing pit that is my energy level, but it’s paying off… at least for me.
I worry that it’s draining from her. As I see it there’s only a certain ’emotional stamina’ that everyone has. You can only put so much energy into someone or something before you tire of it.
The question is, have I reached a point where I can put out the energy I should? And what are the consequences if I haven’t?
Jun 22 Tue (10 AM)
Pirates of the Silicon Valley was on TV Sunday. It was not a documentary. It was entertaining. The best scene was where AMHall walks into NW’s office, there’s a small click as the door shuts, a pause, and then without turning around… “YOU STOLE FROM ME!”
Too bad they didn’t mention Apple’s undisclosed settlement (multi-billion from what I heard) with MS, the millions that Xerox made after Apple gave them stocks in exchange for seeing the GUI at PARC, the Apple comeback, nor MS’s problems with IBM over OS/2, nor either company’s metioric rise in stock prices.
There were far more dramatic things that they could have explored. Perhaps mentioning that Jobs built another billion dollar company in the entertainment industry, and sold a third company to Apple would have made it more interesting…
Plus the sum up lines were pitiful. They were two years old, and seriously dated. the $100 Million in (non-voting) Apple stock that MS has would be more considered a good thing for Apple because it was part of a package saying that MS wouldn’t drop Apple’s platform. It was part of the MS appology.
As for the analogy about stealing TVs, a better formulation would have been that the rich neighbor had a yard sale of left-over junk, Apple bought it for a cheap price, then MS stole it from Apple.
I want to see Steven Levy do a HACKERS II, a sequle to his his incredible re-telling of the history of the valley (and MIT) up through… 1986? or so.
Jun 20 Sun (04 PM)
Is it really a good idea to advertise like this when you’re in the middle of an anti-trust lawsuit?
(will open in a new window)
Doesn’t seem like a smart move to me.
This was taken from an ad seen on http://www.wired.com/news/
I may not remember to write about all these things but I at least wanted to gloss them over before the week’s end.
Amy got an award for her volunteer work. Had she been at the international conference, she would have received it in front of the entire conference. I’m so proud of her!
On the way home from work yesterday, there was a little border collie loose on the southbound I-5 near the Rose Quarter. I helped calm it down and catch it along with three other concerned drivers. I hope it’s found its home by now.
This morning I was sent an e-mail from a German television station, asking me to appear on their Game show!?!?!?! This was not a mistake. I’ll have to get the full translation to figure out what they really want, but it’s just bizarre any way you slice it…
Jun 15 Tue (12 AM)
It was a quick trip back home. I got a lot of time to be with my family and just a few hours for friends. Most of which was with Bob, Jan and Bo, http://www.valleysoft.net going over Mac OS X and lots of goodies. Bo, thanks again for the CD. The people at work loved it.
On the way down to GP, Ryan and I stopped at a casino. (The Native American tribes in the area are allowed to have them.) I was a patient observer on the way down, but we stopped again on the way back up to Portland the next day.
I had been watching the various games: roulette, video poker, video slots, craps, etc.
I wanted to try one, for the experience if nothing else. The video games held no interest for me. I’m quite familiar with random number generators in computers. Hell, I programmed versions of both craps and blackjack for the TI-81 that I had in high school.
Blackjack. Now there was a game. Get to 21 but don’t go over. 2 or 4 cards or so and that’s about all. Oh sure there are variations, but the main trust of game is there.
On Sunday, with a green Jackson firm in my sweaty hand, eyes burning from the smoke in the air, I watched a couple of BJ tables. One had just a few people at it and I looked on till I got a feel for the rhythm of the dealer, the cards, the bets, the signals. Two fingers placed on the felt, just in front of your cards and then drawn back towards you: hit. An open hand, palm down over your cards: hold.
I think I’ve got it.
I waited till the deck of cards were being re-shuffled. I took the chair to the dealer’s left, the first position and placed my $20 on the table. The dealer handed me back 2 red $5 chips and two stacks of white $1 chips. I placed 3 whites in the little painted circle in front of me.
Mind you, I had never gambled at a casino before. The last time I was in Nevada, I was 19 or so. I’d never been interested in throwing away money before, at least not to some machine. But here was a dealer. A person paid to lay out these cards, collect and hand out these chips. There was a trill. I figured that trill was worth the $20.
My first hand: a queen and a 7. 17 points, the same number that the house (the dealer) holds at. I figured that was a good place for me as well. The house ended up with 23. Therefore I ended up with another three chips. A good start.
I jump into the pulse. My cards are foremost in my mind. I need to quickly add the cards’ points, (though the dealer quietly states the number as well) and then decide whether to hit or hold. The other people at the table are a range. Across from me is a small hill of a man, taking up quite a bit of the chair next to him as well. It looks like he’s here quite a bit, judging by the slightly glazed look in his eye.
Next to him, standing, is a cowboy. Older, maybe late 60’s, but still has a quick, sharp smile and a dusty leather vest, and I’m sure he had cowboy boots on.
Next to him is a woman in her 50’s, who is joined off and on by her husband. She’s new to this like me, though while I keep reasonably quiet, she’s a bit more exuberant with each new hand.
As I catch a look at each of the participants, the game play is continuing. It’s not till Ryan sits down next to me and notes my pile of chips that I realize, hey, I’m still playing.
As a matter of fact, I’m not just playing, I’ve collected a few more of those red chips. I take 4 of them and slide ’em a little closer to me. A bit later I slide another 2.
20 minutes later, the end of the deck comes up and I look down. There’s a whole bunch of white chips and quite a number of red ones. A little voice says: “Take the money and ru.. err, walk.”
So I do. I walk away with $66 dollars. I didn’t play a lot of money, but for the first time out, I figure I came out on top well enough. I swear I heard Kenny Rogers playing in the background on my way out the glittering doors.