Archive for July, 2008

WordPress

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

I’ve been using WordPress for several months to manage this blog. It was easy to set up and easy to use. Recently I upgraded to the latest version and find that it remains my favorite Content Manager. 

For comparision, I have tried Drupal, e107, and Joomla.  I also keep some other websites running using my own scripts and hand-coded php pages with MySQL backends, and some flat-file websites that I keep running with TextPad and ftp. I use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 (Now called Adobe Dreamweaver CS3)  to help design some of the pages, but I am not confident in my use of Dreamweaver to build an entire site using the capabilites within.  

Unfortunately, I’m old school and tend to build my webpages using raw HTML.  Not because I’m good at it, but just because I don’t know a better way.  As you can imagine, hard coding pages is tedious and time-consuming.  I use a lot of php includes for headers, footers and menus, but even so, it is a lot of work.

In my brief search for a Content Management System, I stumbled across WordPress (someone was using it for their blog), and I have been a happy customer ever since.  Always looking for a better tool, I tried the other packages. 

By far, WordPress impressed me with it’s ease of use and intuitive menus. Simple is good.  I can schedule posts to appear at a predetermined time, can manage links and other pages, and have great control over the look of the site through a wide array of themes and color selections.  It is well thought out.

I have not had the same success with Drupal, Joomla, or e107.  I found that I needed to read a lot of poorly written how-to manuals and forums (I think they are written from the perspective of someone who already knows how to get the system up and running, so there are details missing that I am unable to interpolate), do a lot of trial and error, and yet, I still cannot get the look I want. 

I have not given up on trying other Content Management Systems, but while I struggle with those other software packages…I use WordPress when I want to get my blog up and running with no fuss and minimal maintenance.  It just works.

But it is not yet perfect.  I don’t know how to view a list of my posts, by title under each category, on the right side of each page.  I have seen other WordPress sites with this feature, so I know it is possible, I just haven’t figured it out yet. If you know, please feel free to direct my attention to the proper setting or theme. Thanks!

P.S. While I was out surfing, I Just came across this list of other CMS packages. I was naturally intrigued to discover there are so many…10 years ago it was difficult to find even one!  But now there are literaly dozens.

But I feel I must do two things….learn to use WordPress reasonabley well (It is now up to version 2.6). And then see if there is anything else to compare with the ease and ability of the CMS capabilities inherent in this blogging software.

Popularity: 3%

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Intelligence

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

“It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is  perfect mechanism. nature never appeas to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers.”

-The Time Traveller in H.G. Wells The Time Machine.

Popularity: 1%

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The Divergence of Mankind

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

I watched the 2007 I am Legend movie on Netflix and glimpsed the May 2008 released alternate ending online.  I followed that up with Mattheson’s original 1954 I am Legend book (which is well summarized on Wikipedia).  That drove me to read H.G. Wells 1895 Time Machine (summarized on Wikedpedia) (and also found in the Complete Science Fiction Treasury of H.G. Wells).

All three have the same basic concept…that man has diverged into two separate and opposing species. 

  • In Time Machine, there are the Eloi who live in the light of day, are docile as lambs, weak as sheep, small of stature, quite pretty and fun loving.  They fail to render assitance to any of their kind and have no fear of anything other than the night. They peform no labor and eat only the fruits that are readily available and appear t be planted just for the purpose of fattening them up.  They are paired against the Morlocks who have retreated below the surface, cannot stand light, and feast on the meat of the fair Eloi. The Morlocks only come out at night to snatch the Eloi for their meals.
  • In Mattheson’s 1954 “I am Legend”, a bacteria has brought vampires back to the planet.  In this case, there are three kinds of beings: Neville, the sole remaining survivor of the plague who is immune to the conversion, those who live, but are vampires, and the un-dead…vampires who have returned from the dead, but have no faculties of thought.   In this version, Neville kills the sleeping vampires by day, unaware that there are both un-dead and living among them. The living vampires seek him out as a danger to their new society and eventually exterminate him.
  • In the 2007 movie version, a “cure” for cancer turns out to convert the host into a vampire-like being that is rabid, does not converse, and has no remorse for others.  The disease sweeps through the planet and leaves only one remaining survivor.  It sleeps by day, and hunts by night. In this version Hollywood version however, a cure is found and so are the other survivors.  
  • In the 2008 Alternate ending, the zombies are capable of jealousy, rage, and other complex emotions, and thus are not just blood-thirsty zombies as they are made out to be in the Hollywood version.

All of these left me wondering about the state of mankind.   They point to extremes in nature: the hunter and the hunted…and the reversal of fortunes through unplanned or unforseen changes in the environment or rather, unrecognized changes. 

Perhaps the message is not to lash out when we don’t understand.  Our first instinct is to treat the unknown as insignificant, without feelings, and with disdain…perhaps we should try to step in someone else’s shoes before we dismiss them so quickly…

Popularity: 2%

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Mac OS look on a PC

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

Mac OSX is a great looking way to interface with a computer.  The man machine interface is certainly improved and it can only get better.  But it is only software written to make it easier to operate the machine.   So someone decided to make a PC look and feel like a Mac. 

But that is not what this post is about.  This post is about the design of the webpage that talks about the hack.  I am impressed with what can be displayed using only your browser.  No doubt the future of the Internet lies in the interface.

http://osx.portraitofakite.com/index2.htm

Popularity: 1%

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Is Cuil really cool?

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

A new search engine cuil [pronounced "cool"] was launched today, 28 Jul 2008.  Anna Patterson and her husband Tom Castello partnered with Russell Power.  They started with venture captical of $33M, and $5M of their own cash according to Crunchbase.  Their goal is a new search engine that produces results with less expense or overhead, and better searching relevance than Google.  I am always impressed by new technology, so I gave cuil a spin.  I tried the following search terms:

  • Tokyo [Results: hmmm...not sure this is what I was looking for...]
  • Japan [Results: A little better, but not by much]
  • Learning Japanese [Results: Good results. Easy to parse the sites.]
  • Karate [Results: Great spectrum of results...But the image next to the World Karate Federation didn't match...it said TaeKwonDo]
  • cuil [Results: oddly, the search for cuil fails to turn up the search engine itself...hmmm]
  • google [Results: This was the best result thus far...love the 3 column layout with photos.  Looks like a magazine article]
  • who grows the best oranges? [Results: Interesting List of hits...."oranges are not the only fruit?"]
  • review of madden football 08 vs ncaa football 09 -[Results: We didn’t find any results for “review of madden football 08 vs ncaa football 09”]

Blogs are talking about Cuil.   And google is explaining away how many pages they have indexed [possibly] as a precursur to the release of cuil.

I tried again to search for

  • I am Legend [Great results--helpful]
  • I am Legend the book [Not even close...]

I’m not yet impressed.  But I hope that it will improve in time. For $33M I’d expect a little more. 

I enjoy the 3-column approach and the article format of the results with little pictures on the side.  However, I wish that the simple, uncluttered page had more information and explanations when it comes up with a dead-end search.  Like perhaps an option to complete the search in google <grin>.

Popularity: 1%

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O.K. Go

Monday, July 28th, 2008

My first YouTube Experience was O.K. Go… 

Catchy, energetic, and just fun to watch the choreography along with the cool tunes….

“Here it goes, here it goes..Here it goes it again…..”

Popularity: 3%

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Late Nite Presidential Clips

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

Just a few laughs here.  The late night comedians grab snippets of Obama shooting hoops, McCain in a pharmacy, and finishes with a couple historical moments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/26/late-night-jokes-of-the-w_n_115107.html

Popularity: 1%

Posted in Humor, Internet, Politics, Video | No Comments »

0 Soul 7

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

I stumbled across a great sound….Second time I ran across this groove.  I just like the sound.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=YNfkkydKl6I

I like the video too.  Simple, never direct, always in reflection.  Almost as an afterthought.  Often the world is reflected in those around us.  You can never see yourself the way others see you.

Popularity: 2%

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PAM

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

I randomly typed in www.pam.com to see what would happen, and I came across what looked like a neat device for tracking your activities during the day.  It is much like the old pedometer, but with a twist.  It stores your activities in its memory, and then allows you to view it on your computer.  It gives you a score and target to increase your fitness levels.

It looked so neat I decided to find out how much it costs…well, someone bought the license so the device is no longer for sale in the U.S…. hmmmm.

Popularity: 1%

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MBT

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

I just bought a new pair of shoes. 

So far, I’ve worn them for 5 minutes in the store and I don’t want to take them off.  Putting on a normal pair of shoes after wearing the MBT is like returning to earth after a trip to outer space. 

These shoes not only fit my feet well, which in and of itself was a feat, but they also force you to use the muscles in your legs and back that until now, have been dormant. The shoes do this by eliminating the heel of a normal shoe, putting a soft sponge in that area, and then having a continuous curved bottom, thus simulating walking on soft ground (like sand). If you have ever stood on the beach as the water pulls the sand from around your feet…forcing you to adjust your balance…then you know what it is like to wear these shoes. You are always balancing on your feet in these shoes, thus exercising your body all the time.

I’ll have to finish this thought after I’ve worn the shoes for a little longer.  Until then, enjoy the links above.

UPDATE: 24 Jul 08. I’ve been wearing these shoes every chance I get.  I get tired when I wear these shoes.  Why? Because I am always using the muscles in my calves and lower back.  But the more I wear them, the stronger those muscles become.  I love these shoes. But user beware.  They are addictive.

UPDATE: 26 Sep 08.  As I mentioned, I wear these shoes everyday.  I no longer get tired wearing them as my muscles have grown accustomed to constant use.  As a matter of fact, now all of my clothes are much looser on me.  In just 3 months, my weight has dropped 7 kgs. I never intended to lose weight, I only purchased the shoes to give a marginal increase to the limited exercise that I get.  It turns out that through increased muscle use, I burn more fat, as I burn more fat, I lose weight!  This is truly a win-win situation.  I am very happy I purchased these shoes!  YMMV, but I am one very happy camper!

Popularity: 4%

Posted in Internet, Shoes | 1 Comment »