Archive for May 2008 Return to Archives List
Goals and a quick laugh
May 30th, 2008 | 1 Comment
I am researching a university for a possible event with Shaun and so I decide to visit the school’s website and this is what I am greeted with:
Apparently the image is randomly selected each time the page is loaded, so please feel free to refresh a few times until you get the “Goals” image.
Generally university websites have rotating pictures of people sitting in the grass reading textbooks (because that’s what college students do) or majestic buildings or atheletes, but not Huntington. They apparently want to stand out from the crowd. They will not conform to social norms of university website design.
When visiting the site I immediately pictured one of those inspirational posters that business folk always have hanging in their offices or bathrooms. I can just see a big picture of Frankenstein’s Monster with the word “Goals” under it and some cheesy blurb about setting your (transplanted) mind to something and achieving it… then the townfolk killing it?
Of course, once I read the full caption next to the image it all made sense. Anyway, thanks to Huntington University’s IT department for a little laugh today.
Must-have Mac apps pt. 1
May 27th, 2008 | 4 Comments
I made the switch from PC to Mac a year and a half ago. While I don’t consider myself a total Mac fanboy, I definitely like the Mac experience better than my former life with PCs. One of the cool parts of Mac life is finding great little applications that make the experience better.
1. Quicksilver (free)
At first I didn’t understand how to use Quicksilver. I had never used anything like it on a PC, so it wasn’t a part of my workflow. But too many people told me I should use it so I forced myself to start using it here and there. Today, I rely on it.
Basically, it is an application launcher. That means that with a couple of keystrokes I can launch any application installed on my Mac. But it doesn’t stop there. It’s open architecture allows developers to write plugins for many other tasks. For example, I can set it up to control iTunes — it will even show me track information whenever a song is played. I can post items to web applications like Stikkit or Google Calendar. I can search through my browser’s bookmarks or history, people in Address Book, or files on my hard drive. I can even setup universal hot keys to do just about anything.
But the best thing about Quicksilver is that it makes all of this functionality look so good. There are multiple interface skins I can install and customize from the standard “bezel” to a cool “cube” effect and even an iTunes “cover-flow”-style interface.
After you download Quicksilver you should check out some good blog posts about how to use it.
2. Perian (free)
If you do anything with video (including just downloading and watching occasional videos from the interwebs) then you need to download Perian. It calls itself the “swiss army knife for Quicktime” and indeed it is. It allows QT to play various video formats that aren’t normally supported — a simple but essential task. It installs as a preference pane and works completely in the background. So, you just install it and forget it.
3. Flip4Mac WMV (free)
Much like Perian, Flip4Mac WMV extends your Mac’s ability to show videos. This time it adds support for Microsoft’s WMV format. As much as I would love to just forget this little app and WMV altogether, sometimes you just have to watch a WMV and this app helps.
4. AppTrap (free)
One of the first challenges I faced after making the switch was installing and uninstalling applications. First of all, on a PC applications are called “programs.” Second, on a PC programs are all “installed” with some kind of graphical “wizard” and then uninstalled through the Windows Control Panel.
In the Mac universe, programs are called “applications.” Most applications don’t have to be “installed” at all — they can be run from anywhere as soon as they are downloaded (although it is a good idea to move them all to the “Applications” folder for various reasons). Some apps do have installers (adding a little confusion for Mac newbies) and they are automatically “installed” in the Applications folder. When it comes to uninstalling apps… there is no uninstalling apps. Most apps can just be moved to the trash. However, sometimes this leaves small preference files and other misc. files that the app created scattered throughout your hard drive. This isn’t a big problem, but it is definitely less than ideal.
That’s where AppTrap comes in. It installs as a preference pane and simply monitors your trash can for applications. Whenever you drag an app to the trash it asks if you want to delete the associated system files with the application. Simple, efficient, Mac-like, and free!
If you don’t like that method there is always the “traditional” Mac app-uninstaller AppZapper. It is a standalone application, so it does require a little more work to use. Basically you drag your app into AppZapper’s window (or icon) and it does the rest. AppZapper gives you the first 5 uninstalls for free, then it’s $12.95 for a single license.
5. Growl (free)
This is another one of those “you-don’t-know-you-want-it-but-you-really-do” apps. Growl is a system notification application — sounds lovely, right? Seriously, it allows various applications to pop up information when different things happen. Still vague? Let me give you a few examples.
Say I’m chatting with a friend using Skype or Adium but I am also doing something really important like surfing the interwebs. Whenever my chat client is the the background I can’t see what my friend is saying. Sure, I know when he says something because the app makes a noise and bounces the dock icon, but I have to switch over to my chat client to see what he said. Not so with Growl installed. My chat client sends the text over to Growl who then pops up a lovely little window on top of my browser showing me whatever my friend said. Now I can choose to switch over to my chat client to respond or just leave it until he says something else more important.
Still not convinced? OK, I previously mentioned using Quicksilver to control iTunes. One feature of this setup is using Growl to display the current artist, song, and album art whenever a new track starts. So, Quicksilver lets you search, play, pause, skip, etc. while Growl shows you whatever is currently playing.
Growl works with a lot of popular applications and it allows users to customize when and how it displays messages (as well as when it keeps quiet). It comes with a lot of different notification styles, too. Again, it is a preference pane so once it is setup you don’t have to touch it again unless you want to. Plus, most applications that utilize Growl will automatically register themselves with it so they just automatically start working.
That’s a good start. I have so many other great apps to list, but they will have to wait for another day. If you have a favorite “must-have” app please post a comment.
Site Launch: CompassionBloggers.com
May 16th, 2008 | No Comments
The first phase of CompassionBloggers.com has officially launched. This site will be a place for bloggers to get resources and information about how they can partner with Compassion International to help release children from poverty. Compassion Bloggers will also take select groups of bloggers overseas to various countries allowing them to see the work of Compassion first-hand. The site will also document these trips by featuring blog posts, images and videos from each trip.
The site is currently running on a custom, PHP-driven infrastructure but I hope to transition everything over to Django for the next iteration.
Head over to CompassionBloggers.com and check it out. Then come back and let me know what you think.
IE takes the lead
May 15th, 2008 | No Comments
Well, it’s a bit of a sad day here on the blog. Ever since Shaun made encouraged me to start a blog I have become a bit of a stats junkie. By that I mean that every day (whether I post or not) I check all of the numbers of people who have visited my site, how they got here, etc. The numbers are all pretty low, but that doesn’t keep me from checking every day. It’s an addiction.
Well, one of the stats that I track is what browsers people use to view the site. From the beginning Firefox has had the lead over Internet Explorer (and Safari, Opera, etc.). That may not sound like a big deal, but across most of the internet Firefox generally gets up to 20% market share. No more. IE is very dominant. So, I have been kind of proud of the fact that most of the people who roll into my site use Firefox.
Until today. This morning’s stats revealed IE taking the lead by 2%. There is still hope for Firefox to come back, but I fear it’s a slippery slope from here. If only people knew what they were missing. And now, a moment of silence for Firefox’s lead…
Messiah?
May 14th, 2008 | No Comments
A friend of mine called me the other day to ask about an audio clip that I let him hear a long time ago. It’s a clip that I got from the interwebs and thought was hilarious, so I downloaded it and I’m posting it here.
Wait for it… it’s worth it.
IE6 ghost text bug
May 13th, 2008 | No Comments
Warning: geeky web content below! Proceed with caution.
Anybody who builds websites knows that different browsers render websites differently. Most web designers will also agree that Internet Explorer 6 was a horrible at rendering websites correctly. Thankfully Microsoft fixed most of the IE6 bugs in version 7, but not everyone that was using IE6 has moved over to IE7. So, I’m stuck with the task of creating a website the way that it is supposed to be done, and then changing what I have to so IE6 will display it properly (or as close as possible).
This afternoon I was checking a new website in IE6 and everything was moving along nicely until I got to one particular page that had a random character at the end of one line of text. I checked my HTML and PHP and I couldn’t find the character in the code anywhere. It was like it just appeared out of nowhere.
So, I searched the interwebs and found out about the IE6 ghost text bug (ooh, spooky). This seemed like a similar symptom to what I was facing since it appeared as characters from nowhere, but I didn’t have any HTML comments between floats (the most common trigger). So I kept searching but only found more articles about this same bug no matter how I described my problem. I thought, “Maybe this is the right solution after all.” So I started messing with the CSS.
I was using a list (ul) and each list item (li) contained a header (h3) and image (img) and a definition list (dl). So, I had a few tags to mess with to try to find the problem. I floated things, I un-floated things, I made sure everything had layout… nothing worked. And then I read something online that mentioned one cause of the ghost text bug being whitespace. The space between HTML tags.
You see, whitespace isn’t supposed to matter in HTML. Browsers are supposed to only pay attention to the stuff inside the tags (or tag pairs) and not the space in-between them. Keyword: supposed. IE6 apparently does not conform to these “standards” and chooses to do wacky things if it finds space between certain tags like repeating random characters in strange places. Who knew?
The solution: take out the whitespace (in this case a new-line character) between my definition term (dt) and definition definition (dd). And it’s fixed. Lesson learned: burn all copies of Microsoft Internet Explorer 6… or just keep down the whitespace in HTML.
Will the thrill
May 11th, 2008 | No Comments
So one of the perks to living in a dorm (and oh, there are so many) is getting to pick through all the stuff college students leave behind when they move out. It’s amazing what people leave behind. I’m talking things like couches, microwaves, printers, clothing… all because they don’t want to move it home. Amazing the mentality of poor college students.
Aside from end-of-the-year leftovers, we also get to poke around at any lost-and-found items. This stack isn’t usually as big or as interesting. However, the other day Rebekah found a gem! An iPod-shaped gem!
After waiting two weeks for the owner to ask about his lost friend, Rebekah decided to be pro-active. First, she charged it up so we could see the name of the iPod. It’s called “Will the thrill’s iPod.” That didn’t really help so we checked to see if it was engraved. It is, but it didn’t help either. I guess sometimes it is a good idea to put a phone number on your iPod. Looking through the music library wasn’t any help either. Just a typical college student mix. As much as we wanted to just keep it at this point, we knew we should try to do everything we could to track down the owner.
Next, we visited our local Apple store to see if they could look up the owner’s information in their records. I thought, “Surely the owner registered it and the fine folks at Apple can just look them up and ship it home.” I have to be honest here, the next thought that crossed my mind was, “What if the Apple employee just pretends to return it and actually keeps it for themselves… don’t we deserve it more than them?” But we both knew that it was better for us to try to do the “right thing.” Well, it turns out that they couldn’t tell me anything anyway. They suggested we call Apple.
So, we called Apple. After a lovely 10 minutes or so I was informed that the iPod was not registered. Their only suggestion was to call Apple’s security team and give them my contact info in case the owner calls them searching for their lost companion.
Now the only question left is whether I get to use it or Rebekah (because there will be no sharing allowed). Neither of us have owned an iPod that will play videos. In fact, we have never had a real “big boy” iPod at all… only Nanos. And, of course, if the owner asks for it back then we will (gladly) return it. But for now you had better believe we’re gonna put that iPod to use.
The EDGE Conference: Roanoke
May 7th, 2008 | No Comments
This weekend I ran sound for The EDGE Conference in Roanoke, VA.
This was a free version of our regular EDGE winter conferences that was funded entirely from offerings taken up at our winter conferences as a way for those students to give the Roanoke community a chance to attend a high-quality youth worship experience for no charge.
The event included Drew Worsham (illusionist), Ed Newton (speaker), Craig Tackett (speaker) and The Jonathan Project (worship band).
As expected, everyone did a great job and everyone who came out to worship with us seemed to have a great time. Several students made decisions to follow Christ and many others took the opportunity to refocus their lives on serving God. What could be better, right?
I even got to use one of these. Although it was unexpected (we had asked for an analog console) and I had to learn as I went, it was definitely nice and I want one… or two.
Thanks to all of our volunteer staff and especially to the rest of the production crew who came from Missouri, South Carolina, and North Carolina. You all made my life easy.
Subscribe
Design
Friends
- Brian Seay
- Chad Jarnagin
- Geron & Lydia Brown
- Jason and Jen Bradford
- Jeff & Sarah Arnold
- Josh Scott
- Mike Harder
- Scott Glascock
- Shaun Groves
