February 4, 2010

Thanks Microsoft!

Microsoft Expression
Image via Wikipedia

So, Microsoft sent me a complimentary copy of Microsoft Expression Studio 3 today for being a partner.  Kudos to them.

As to Expression Web, it works wonderful for prototyping but, doesn’t really handle CMS themeing that well.  Will be playing around with Expression Blend a bit later to see what geekiness I can come up with.

It has an interesting screen capture utility too (try the demo flash video below full-screen).  Oh yeah, I’m gonna have fun…

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February 2, 2010

Web 2.0 MacGyver

MacGyver
Image via Wikipedia

TV shows like MacGyver and Junk Yard Wars, as well as real world survival and minimalist training [even camping] tell us that it’s cool to take bits of whatever is lying around, and jury-rig it into something useful, and potentially vital to our survival.  Today as I was thinking about the plethora of hacks we need to do something insanely simple…like…embed a flash video and have it work properly in all browsers. This made me realize, anyone who does web development or design is a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants, certified, Web 2.0 MacGyver.

We use CSS hacks to get things to look right in IE, load extra images or add a wack of useless tags to get rounded corners to work.  And, don’t think HTML5 is going to save our butt, it won’t.  We’ll need to make videos in 2 different formats and nest three different video and embed tags and hacks for it to work (seriously).  Worse, one of those formats we’ll need to license and pay for (or, as is the online way, hope we don’t get caught for not).

So, developers, hold your heads high; we’re holding the world together with duct tape and paperclips, and we make it look easy.

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November 18, 2009

Microsoft may have crippled up to a million of their Xbox 360 consoles

Xbox
Image via Wikipedia

A recent PCworld story, suggests in a measure to prevent hardware modding (which does have fair use purposes as well, such as making backups of content) they have banned up to a million Xbox 360 consoles from the Xbox LIVE service, and may have rendered the machines mainly unusable.

DailyTech’s sources claim the ban blocks game installations to the hard drive and the Windows Media Player extender, corrupts save games and Gamertags, and disallows the console from accessing Xbox LIVE.

If this is in fact true; and does render installations mainly useless; it may result in ~$200,000,000 of consoles (at new market value) no longer being usable and requiring their owners to purchase new consoles from Microsoft if they want to keep gaming on the 360 platform. Sounds like Microsoft may be stuffing their Christmas stockings a little earlier in the name of fair play.

[Kudo's to a friend of mine for nudging me on this, thanks Dylan!]

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November 7, 2009

Social Experiment for Prizes! Yellow ribbons and red balloons (messin’ with DARPA)

DARPA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia
Image via Wikipedia

So; someone pointed me to a rather interesting contest by DARPA, the DARPA Network Challenge. Now, I appreciate what DARPA tries to do as much as the next guy (basically throwing money at problems hoping someone finds the solution).  But, this context in particular struck my fancy; socially organizing a way to find, locate and then tell the government where something is for a prize.  Granted a bit of big-brother outsourcing, but I found the idea curious nonetheless.

Basically, DARPA is going to place 10, 8′, red, anchored weather balloons around the US; and thenwants people to use social networking to find them all and report in for a prize.  One thing I instantly thought of, is “hey, I want to do another social experiment”.  So, here’s the skinny: For each person that hangs up (within their local laws, legally) an 8′ red weather balloon somewhere visible in the US and provides a photo I’ll list you here and send you $15 US via PayPal to cover your expenses and buy a fancy coffee (up to a max 15 entries).

What’s the point?

  1. To give DARPA another angle to deal with, dealing with extraneous data… it is social networking after all :)
  2. To show just how fast ordinary people can get out there and organize when needed.
  3. Hey, it’ll be funny too ;)

Let the balloonigans begin!

Edit: Yes, things that look similar to 8′ red weather balloons do count, including painting a similarly sized white balloon red.
[and just one more note to do this legally, don't go setting up the balloons on someone's else lawn without permission, etc]

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February 13, 2009

Wordpress Upgrade: I could cry

[This whole post is written tounge-in-cheek.  Please don't flame/bash/perl or python the author.]

I just did an upgrade from Wordpress 2.7 to 2.7.1, and it was completely done in under 5 seconds. Didn’t need to connect to SSH, didn’t need to connect to FTP. I click two buttons and my blog was running the latest and greatest Wordpress.

Why are they allowed to make it this simple?

This kind of proceedure should be hard, time-consuming; and most of all full of stress.  Why, if this keeps up, I’ll be out of a job.  So, with that in mind:

Drupal must never become this simple.

All of us that work that Drupal consultanting circut need to rise up and make sure that Drupal never becomes this simple, easy or friendly to use.  Why, it could ruin the entire Drupal eco-system.

Now I’ve got to run, just noticed I need to upgrade a wordpress plugin…I’m sure that’ll take all of 2 seconds too :)

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January 16, 2009

Admin Role: Another Drupal Module That Just Makes Sense!

If you’ve been using Drupal for any amount of time you’ve probably ran into the problem of needing to go to the access page each time you enable a module to ensure the admin users have permission to make full use of it.  This is a module that I was planning to write, but then I discovered JacobSingh had already made it; Admin Role is another Drupal module that everyone needs, because it solves this basic but anonying–and sometimes time-consuming–problem.  

Admin Role creates an “Administrator” user role, that it then manages to ensure that this role always has all permissions.    Admin Role is a light and very clean module available for both Drupal 5.x and Drupal 6.x sites.  You can pick up the latest versions by visiting its project page at drupal.org.

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January 15, 2009

Reviving CivicSpace Theme: Making a useful Drupal theme for grassroots communities

CivicSpace LogoBack in the day, the CivicSpace theme was designed by Chris Messina (factoryjoe on twitter, amazingly tallented guy) for CivicSpace.  The theme was designed to make it incredibly easy for grass roots organizations and campaigns to develop a site that had the style and features they would need for their campaign or community to suceed.

Unfortunately, the theme has gone down-hill with time. And hasn’t seen a true upgrade since Drupal 4.6 (the time of the CivicSpace distro). Last year I got permission to take over the CivicSpace theme project, and to remake it into something useful for communities today. And that brings me to the reason for this post. I’m looking for two things to help develop version 2 of the CivicSpace theme into the best possible base theme for community organizations.

Firstly, I want to get feedback from those of you who are working with community organizations right now.  What kind of things do you want in a theme?  Also, I want to hear from theme developers, who might be interested in helping make the next generation of grass roots base theme.  The CivicSpace theme should put community first, so be sure and have your say!

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January 11, 2009

Add Another: A New Drupal Module That Just Makes Sense

 

Add Another in action

"Add Another" in action

In my wishlist last month, one of the items I had on my list that didn’t already have a solution, was the ability to have a message when a user created a node that would present them with a quick way to add another node of the same type.

Today, I’m happy to say I’ve created a new contrib module that generates this useful feature.  “Add Another” provides a this in a light and simple module package for Drupal 6.  It’s possible to choose what node types, and what user roles have the feature.  This module only took about 30min to create.  Enjoy!

Download for Drupal 6.x

Update: Thanks for all the wonderful feedback!  For those who want a button when saving a form “Save and Make Another”, there is Submit Again for Drupal 6.  I like my concept a bit better; namely because a user can decide to make another node after their first node is made and displaying.

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January 6, 2009

GMcast #5 Released

I refuse to call this an ‘Audcast’ but thankfully this once-in-a-blue-moon GameMaker discussion has re-branded itself GMCast after taking the name from a rival to GameMaker TV which never materialised.

Listen as Robin Monks, Dan Eggers and myself make fools of ourselves while talking about topics such as the best GameMaker games of 2008, the security issues effecting GameMaker and YoYo Games’ instant play and a summary of the events last year.

Cringe at the cheesy opening and at my reluctance to speak as I find that recording a podcast with people I’ve never met is much harder than writing a blog or magazine article.  Disagree with our thought-up-in-10-minutes round-up of the best games of the year and complain that the entirety of my pre-record is taken from previous GameMaker Blog posts.

But above all tell us what we can do to improve.  What kind of features would you like to see on the show?

via GameMaker Blog – Game Maker News, Comment and Opinion.

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January 3, 2009

[via lifehacker] New Year’s Deal: Get 24 Months of Hosting + Domain for $11

umair shuaib.
Image via Wikipedia

If anyone missed that deal, here is another for $97 off any yearly plan, and $51 off a monthly plan (no known expiration date).  The coupon code is rm0 (are-emm-zero), and, since all the dicounts are set to the maximum possible, I don’t get any kickbacks from anyone using this (just like I didn’t get kickbacks from the link below).  I’m just trying to save people money on some good hosting.  Go to Dreamhost to use it.

 

Via lifehacker:

DreamHost is running a New Year’s promotion right now. 95% off a 2 year hosting agreement which works out to $10.47.

To use, go to DreamHost, select a two year plan, and use promo code 202 (expires Jan 3, 2008 — today).
For $10.47 you get unlimited transfers, bandwidth, a free domain registration and all the perks that come with a full account like unlimited MySQL databases, email accounts, and domain hosting.

DreamHost also has a plug and play web control panel for quickly adding in popular components like Drupal (and WordPress).

+

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