Thoughts

Good Cause: MDA Charity

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:22:37 EDT

My friend, Ryan Irelan, is organizing a drive to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This drive is specifically targeted to web workers, although I'm sure he wouldn't mind it if others donated as well. Please help do your part.

Apple

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:19:14 EDT

I've been working for Apple for a couple of months now. It's been a lot of fun, and a lot of work. There's a nice energy at the company, and it's been a really enjoyable experience. Of course, the free iPhone helps. :)

Small Update--PGP

Wed, 31 May 2006 14:58:06 EDT

Yes. Lots has happened in the intervening months since my last post. I've been working hard at PGP Corporation to help whip their web department into shape. True, I'm just another worker ant in the corporate hive, but it's a small-ish dept. where I have an opportunity to make a difference.

PGP has been a good experience on many fronts. I get the opportunity to program a lot of interesting apps. Best of all, my department is using WebObjects which I generally enjoy.

Comment Spam

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 20:39:10 EDT

sucks.

The Musical Baton

Thu, 19 May 2005 21:23:19 EDT

Having been banged squarely over the head by Dan's handoff to me of the music meme baton, I've been roused from my long absence from blogging. I've been exceedingly busy for the past several months, and sometimes music helps get me through it. Since I'm still rather short on time, I'm going to cheat a bit, and create an abbreviated entry.

Total volume of music on my laptop: 16.54 GB/2468 Songs/around 8 days

The Last CD I purchased: Modular Systems by the Eighteenth Street Lounge label

Song playing right now: "Groovy Feeling (Make Mine a 99)" by Fluke

Five songs I listen to a lot (in no particular order):

"Verdi Cries" from In My Tribe by 10,000 Maniacs
"Dies Irae" from The Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (performed by Leonard Bernstein/Maria Ewing and the Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks)
"Desafinado" from Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz and Antonio Carlos Jobim
"PARIS" from Emotional Technology by BT
"Shadows of Ourselves" from The Mirror Conspiracy by Thievery Corporation

My answers here are different than I thought they'd be... I hope you'll enjoy finding some great new (or old) music!

Automatic for the People

Thu, 06 May 2004 15:48:17 EDT

Automatic have just launched their new site, and it looks awesome! Congratulations to Dan and the design team!

Even more exciting, I'm proud to announce being part of the Automatic team. It's a great opportunity to work with the very talented folks they have on staff, and an honor to be included in such company as Dan Benjamin, John Grubin, and the other team members and partners.

So far, I've already been involved with their upcoming Enkoder 3 and the Dimensionizer, two must-have applications for any web worker. Look for some great things from Automatic!

Have no fear, though. ApparentMotion will continue to exist.

Minz Meyer - Gentleman of the Week

Wed, 05 May 2004 17:02:09 EDT

Some people would prefer not to hear from someone telling them about an error on their website. I'm of the opposite camp. I welcome the feedback. Heck, I know I'm not perfect. I'll likely make a mistake here and there — sometimes a big one.

What's special about this instance is that Minz Meyer, a talented and brilliant web designer, not only gave me some valuable feedback, but suggested the appropriate solution. If you've been bothered by the sidebar content on this blog not floating correctly in your browser of choice, you can thank Minz that it's now fixed.

How about a round of applause… Thanks, Minz

The Dimensionizer

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 13:55:41 EST

Earlier this week, I read a post on Dan Benjamin's Hivelogic that really made me think, "Yeah, man! He's totally right."

It would be very, very nice to control-click on an image's icon and have a contextual menu tell you its height and width.

So I decided to do something about it. Over the next couple days, I did some programming and whipped up a beauty of a utility, called The Dimensionizer. Since Mr. Benjamin inspired the idea, I told him about it. He had a few suggestions to improve it, which I agreed with, and quickly implemented. Over the next few days, I discovered what a fantastic guy Dan is, as he offered to host the downloads and was all-round extremely helpful. A true gentleman!

You can read Dan's thoughts about it. Apparently, he likes it.

If you have OS X, I encourage you to download it and give it a whirl.

I'd love to hear your feedback.

P.S. - I'd like to thank a few people who helped me test Dimensionizer. You are the best. You know who you are.

Update: Dan liked the Dimensionizer so much that we've decided to host the Dimensionizer download from the Automatic Labs site.

The Power of CSS Displayed

Wed, 03 Mar 2004 03:20:56 EST

For a while now, I've been trying to build only XHTML and CSS standards-compliant websites, and having fun doing so. I recently was contacted by a customer to update a few things on their website that was done previous to my "conversion". This was an eye-opening experience for me. If there was any doubt about the superiority of the XHTML/CSS dynamic duo, it has been permanently dispelled!

Would you rather look at a list of links like this?: (links removed for brevity)

<ul> <li>link1</li> <li>link2</li> </ul>

Or like this?: (links removed for brevity)

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="250"> <tr> <td><font color="white><b>link1</b></font></td> <td><font color="white><b>link2</b></font></td> </tr> </table>

Me, too. 8^) Sing the praises of CSS!

Coolest Thing I Ever Heard

Mon, 23 Feb 2004 03:50:11 EST

This is the coolest thing I ever heard. It sounds straight out of science fiction/Star Trek.