LaserBlog.com

Here are some full-res copies of some of the pix I’ve taken w/ the Aiptek Mini Pencam, for those of you who might like to see what the full-res images are like from that camera. Because they take up more room, I don’t know how long I’ll leave them up. I’ll have to play that by ear (I have tons of space though). .:PHOTOS:.

Pretty Trees

I need a mail program that’ll let me have, like, a drop-down box for when I send an email I can select what the FROM field will look like. I have my main email, then my business email which forwards to my main email… then I have a new sub-contracting gig and they are going to give me yet another business email that forwards to my main email. So I’ll be getting email from many sources into one email. But when I hit reply, I don’t want my clients (or the people I am sub-contracting for) see my MAIN email address. Sometimes I’ll want it to by my own business .com, and other times it’ll have to be the company I am sub-contracting for. No, I won’t use Outlook. If u have any suggestions, lemme know. I can search Google, but first I have to try to come up w/ a work-around for all my lousy technology.

I am so fucking SICK of technology falling down on the job. I’ve got enough money that I can buy the best computers, pda’s, accessories, yet it doesn’t matter. Money doesn’t matter. Between us, my better half and I own more than 13 computers, 6 or more of which are “new” quality. Yet everything acts like a piece of shit. I can’t DO most things I need/want to do w/ this equipment. Read more —>
(more…)

Interesting photos of Airplane Landings

I saw this at Photosig.com and it’s very interesting. This shows “the work that photographers still do in deep Africa using a wooden box view camera.“

We got a new toy today. It’s an Aiptek Pocket DVII (DV2). It’s an el-cheapo digital video camera. It’s like a toy; low quality, doesn’t do well in low light, etc. (just like the Aiptek Mini Pencam that I have [and love]). Playback on the tv was “ok”. But playback on the PC is GREAT. It’s 1.3mp. I saw it online for $150, but we got it at Best Buy today for $99 (AND we had gift cards for Christmas, so it was a steal). I’ll post a sample api later on. For “toycam” enthusiasts, I recommend it. (I also recommend it for web cam and web video.)

Enjoy this moment of cuteness: (click for larger) (via SuperLaugh.com )

I went thru ALL of my March posts and assigned titles to them. This way, when u search, you can click in the search results to read the whole post. Mind-numbing! Oh, and never name all of your posts the same, or else you’ll be sorry when u go to “list and edit posts”, LOL.

Oh shit. Turns out that since I have never used titles before, I’m screwed. I just got SEARCH working (in the blue box on the right sidebar). Problem is, when u run a search, if they keyword you are looking for is not in the excerpt that the search thingie shows, you can’t click to see more because I never used titles before, it’s the titles that are clickable and take you to the permalink. So, either Search will really only be useful for posts after last night (when I first started using titles), or I’ll have to go back and make up titles for all/most of my old posts.

*sigh* Live and learn.

We FINALLY got DSL. I’m sure I posted about our high-speed woes before, but I can’t find my own post because I have not gotten the search feature working yet.

Anway, after many delays and lots of bullsh*t, we have DSL!

Now, I can enjoy many sites that made we wait before:

PhotoSig.com
Strongbad Email
Rathergood.com

Am I a photoblog? I think so. According to PhotoBlogs.org I am. Their FAQ says: “A photoblog is a type of blog that is regularly updated with photos. Some photoblogs focus only on photography, while others have photos in addition to other content. All photoblogs, however, consider photos to be an important part of their chronological blogging structure.” I don’t have photos in every post, I don’t have photos every day, but I do have photos often.

Speaking of War Driving, I saw this article in my NewzCrawler “breaking news” window this morning: Commuters hack wireless networks

P.S. I must thank Christine for turning me on to RSS and NewzCrawler.

I wonder what happens if you have an extended entry, and you want to view that post in NewzCrawler. Well, lemme try a test…
(more…)

I’m not sure why, but when I view my own blog in NewzCrawler, the newest posts are dated 3-26, and the OLDER posts are dated 3-27. (Posts dated 3-23 on my blog are showing up in newzcrawler as being dated 3-27.) Makes no sense, and my genius computer-engineer programmer better-half has gone to bed. Whaaaaa!

Great, I was going to go to bed early, because now I have a new web-design gig and need to be more in-sync w/ the land of the living… and also I have to do laundry, dishes, clean the house, etc etc etc. But now that I’ve discovered how VERY COOL NewzReader is, I’m blog-surfing for the sheer fun of it. Oh well.

I want to go war driving this weekend. You can’t go war walking in this town, everything is so spread out. But I think it’d be fun to go war driving. And hey, it’s free! (War driving is driving around w/ your laptop looking for open [unsecured] wireless networks. Some people then use this open access point to surf, blog, or download stuff off the internet.)

I am beside myself! I use Mozilla now (Netscape 7) because it’s really the only browser that’ll display blogs (CSS) properly (and I won’t use IE). BUT, mozilla does not support that thing where you slide your finger down the SIDE of your trackpad to SCROLL the window. And I’ve been sad for MONTHS because of this. HOWEVER, I just discovered that Newscrawler supports this! I can now trackpad-scroll while blog-surfing! My life is complete! WheeeeEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Yes, I am a nerd.

I’m not sure how I feel about switching to a one-sidebar layout. I LIKE, no… I LOVE my two-sidebar layout. Sometimes I just sit and stare at my blog lovingly. (Yes, I’m sick.) I got the design from CSS Colouring Book which I found via GeekyChick… and I really like it.

I’m sure I could easily switch to the one-sidebar format (so that when you view it with NewzCrawler it won’t be smushed… but I need to sleep on it. I love my design. I don’t want to change it. It’s fine on MY monitor, but my laptop screen is 15.7 (real) inches AND my display settings are set at 1280 x 1024, so I have LOTS of “real estate” when viewing things. But I know that not everybody has the same view as me.

Ok, lemme think on this.

OH NOW I SEE what the big deal is, NewzCrawler IS A BROWSER! I didn’t know that it showed the whole blog, graphics and all! NOW I SEE!

Um, now I also see that since the blog shows in just one pane, that those w/ smaller monitors and/or larger settings will see a smushed version of my blog.

That’s why some people have moved to having one sidebar instead of two.

Oh god, more MoveableType tweaking, GOD!!!! Alright, alright, just gimme time. *Sigh*

(I downloaded NewzCrawler and am playing w/ it.) And NOW for some reason I don’t have to click on the titles to see the whole post. Hmm.

Starting today I’ll have titles associated w/ all my entries, which means that if u use NewzReader to view my blog, you will be able to click on the title to read the rest of the post. (I assume this is how it’s supposed to work?) I’m new to this, I’m new to this! Ugh!

Oh no, I kinda need entry titles for RSS. I hate titles. I hate thinking up subject lines in emails, message board posts, and now this? Fine, I’ll use titles, but don’t expect them to be very thoughtful or original. Tough shit.

Ok, I’m beginning to read up on RSS feeds. Here’s “What is XML? And What is RSS? Why Do I Want It Anyways?” written by Christine

UPDATE: Another article, from TechTV, which is LIGHT but has links.

I’ve come across a few people who have flat-out said that they will “not” come to your blog unless you offer an RSS feed. I guess these people are just not going to use web browsers at all? I can set up an RSS feed, but why? Peer pressure? It just blows my mind that people would be so exclusionary. I mean, are you telling me that you are NEVER going to use a web browser again? I’m just confused, not mad. I mean, I’ve only been blogging for what, 2 months? I’m new to all this. I don’t even know if I CAN set up an rss feed seeing as how most of my posts have photos inline, and the related text relies heavily on the associated photo. I’m not going to seperate my photos into a photoblog. I WANT my blog to be text and photos, it’s how I want it. So, we’ll see. I’m going to read up on it.

Celine Dion’s big concernt is on tv tonight (CBS @9pm). I can’t wait.

I love Celine Dion. I love Oprah Winfrey, too. Yesterday Oprah did a sneak peek at the new Celine in Vegas show, it was neat!

UPDATE: Why did she do that to her hair? She’s got SHORT blonde hair now and she looks like a fifty-year-old. She was (is) SOOOOoooo beautiful, and w/ all the hair styles she’s tried, long and short, she looked great. But this is awful. Isn’t anybody going to TELL HER? Oh Celine, PLEASE GROW YOUR HAIR BACK AND GET RID OF THAT BLONDE! Whaaaaaa! : … ( *sniff* *sniff*

This makes me just want to PUKE: “by May 30th Office Depot will only be carrying computer products that have been certified by Microsoft and carry the ‘Designed for Windows XP’ logo. This may be an initial glimpse at how Microsoft could introduce Digital Restrictions Management by ensuring all retail hardware and software products are approved by Redmond.” ( … link from Slashdot, heard story from TechTV but couldn’t find a link on their site.)

Cool: PDF draw (… via Chris Pirillo )

Are area is experiencing “the hottest March in one hundred years”. Yay. I hate the south. I hate the heat. I hate the heat. Did I mention that I HATE THE HEAT? And the humidity is even worse. I have to shower twice a day just to feel clean. It sucks. It really sucks. And now we’re being robbed of spring. We’ve had days in the NINETIES (F). Hep me! Hep me! Take me to Canada! Or Alaska!

=:o

I about had a kiniption last night, I was so excited. It turns out that if we switch from Direct TV satellite to Dish Network, I can get a channel called “BOLLYWOOD 4 U”!!!! (An entertainment channel from India.) I’m never going to leave the house man! We get DSL Tuesday or Wednesday, and THAT was already going to make me more of a couch-potato (I mainly surf on my laptop on the couch in front of the tv).

Anyway, we saw on local news last night that “anybody with a dish” can get Al Jazera tv and see war footage that you will NOT SEE via american tv, so we went online to check it out, and if you have Dish Network (not Direct Tv) you can get the arabic package w/ 5 channels or so including Al Jazera (aljazera?) [[no, it's Aljazeera!]] tv for $50 a month. But you need another piece of equipment AND a second satellite dish.

Then we say that you can add Bollywood 4 U for $20 a month or so, and I about had a fit because I LOVE music and movies from India.

I gotta run, I just got a phone call and now have a meeting w/ a client in a couple hours, whoo hoo!