This is perhaps one of the most sweet-looking uses of Flash I’ve seen in a while. This came across my RSS feed today, an author/artist who’s put together a book called “The Art of Wooing” — but what woo’d me most was his impressive flash preview of his book. (Hint: click and drag the corner of the pages)
Filed under: Flash (Macromedia), Websites
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Even after having updated all five of my blogs’ WordPress installations to version 2.3.2, I was still getting comment spam sent to me, asking me to moderate. While I’m thankful that it was held for moderation, it’s irritating to have to log into WordPress to mark the items as spam (which I’m convinced does nothing at all) and then delete them from my inbox. So I decided to add a few layers of protection to my WordPress installations, two of them being transparent, and one additional layer for proving the end-user to be a real person.
I added two behind-the-scenes layers of protection — Bad Behavior and Akismet — and have to say that they were VERY easy to install. Simply upload the files into your /wp-content/plugins/ folder and then activate them in WordPress. That’s it.
Bad Behavior analyzes the HTTP request information to determine the origin and nature of the request (and process accordingly) whereas Akismet is a web service API that tests comments, trackbacks and pingbacks against their API. Apparently it runs hundreds of tests against the post/request to test for spam. We’ll see how effective these two are.
And because three is not only a holy number, but heck it’s one extra layer of protection [mom always said dress in layers] I added a third layer. I added Pete’s Custom Anti-Spam Image plug-in, which allows me to set up a custom word image that my end-users have to type in, verifying that they are indeed a human being. Customizing the plug-in isn’t terribly difficult; simply do the following:
The first line contains: $cas_text[] = “snow”;
I might modify it to: $cas_text[] = “spamhate”;
Have fun with your words and make it custom to your site’s content, too. Makes it a bit more fun.
That’s all there really was to it. Now only time will tell how my sites stand up to the onslaught of spambots that plague my blogs on a DAILY basis. I was seriously tired of getting about a half dozen or more comment spams a day and had enough of it. Hopefully this triple protection will do the trick.
Filed under: General, Websites, Wordpress
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Strange title, I know. That’s pretty much the events that surround this weekend — first the big release of Apple’s new operating system, the “Leopard” brand of OS X; and secondly an update about our house.
Along with a few other blokes, I picked up the new release of Leopard this past Friday and went through the mostly uneventful upgrade. Although the DVD verification step took forever — long enough to shave my head, take a shower, and do a few other things around the house [and yes, I really did do those things while waiting for the DVD to verify itself] — the process of upgrading wasn’t painful at all…at least at the start of things.
The features that Apple boasted about — Spaces, Time Machine, the new Finder, and a number of other features — are pretty nice. I do have to say, that with all the hype that has been going on apple.com over the past several months, I just wasn’t as impressed as I thought I might be.
Cover Flow
I’ve given Cover Flow a try and have to say that for photos, it’s nice. It’s a nice way to breeze through a voluminous array of photos to find the right one — probably the same for some other files as well. But what kinda trips me up about it is the file navigation below it. It’s the typical expand/contract, accordion-style directory structure browsing. Personally, I’ve come to like the paned method of sifting through deep layers of folders. It just seems to work quicker for me. I’d love to see them give you options of customizing the Cover Flow directory browsing. Give me more options. I like options.
In addition, Quick Look (a feature that allows you to browse your documents) ought to have a feature that allows you to “quick look” through a folder in Cover Flow. Currently it doesn’t offer that sort of feature.
The Desktop
…is pretty nice, but nothing dramatic has changed. I don’t really care for the fanned out display, especially when you have a ton of things to fan through — and you can’t. What’d be slick is being able to scroll through that fan with your mouse scroller ball. Can we say “feature request?”
Time Machine
Haven’t used it. Can’t imagine using it until it’s too late. But it’s enabled anyway.
Mail
I tried it in tandem with Gmail’s IMAP capability that they just announced and hated it. It labeled my deleted item instead of just deleting them or throwing them into the trash folder. Plus, I’ve become accustomed to doing things directly within Gmail and its way of displaying things. I can’t say that I’ll ever go back to using a traditional mail application since I’ve started using Gmail.
Because I have volumes of mail in my inbox (over 2000 messages), it was a burden to have Mail sync up with all that mail. Not to mention I just didn’t care for the interface within the conversation view of things. I much prefer Gmail’s way of formatting conversations, allowing me to expand and contract instances in a conversation, rather than having to do all this double-clicking nonsense. Sorry Mail lovers…I just have no love for it.
iChat
Ewww. After having used Adium for the past several months, I can’t imagine using iChat instead. The bubble formatting of discussions is annoying, and the interface isn’t all that customizable. I do like that they support Gtalk now, but until they open it up to Yahoo and MSN protocols AND give me some chat formatting options OTHER than the annoying bubbles, I’m sticking with Adium.
Spaces
A nice idea, and I’m glad they integrated it. However (why am I starting to sound like I didn’t care for the Leopard upgrade?), if I’m working in one space and I have an IM notification in another, I can’t get notified in any of my spaces except the one that has the IM client running in it. A small detail, I know, but a big enough deal. But the ease of customizing your various spaces is nice. I’ll give them props for that. But for now, I’m just not THAT big of a multi-tasker yet to justify the need for more than one desktop space…yet.
Safari
One word…Firefox. I use it and only use Safari if I have to.
I haven’t used Boot Camp or the parental controls yet, so I can’t speak to those things.
On the whole, Leopard’s nice and has a few nice features and changes, but I’m just not so sure that I’m going to rush right out the next time Apple comes out with an upgrade to the OS. Leopard is worth waiting for the next update release.
OH…and I’ll have you know that you have to re-set up your printers, and my M-Audio MIDIMAN USB MIDI device doesn’t work now for whatever reason. I tried the latest drivers and it’s not working.
Just a quick update on our house situation…we’re taking it off the market because it just hasn’t been getting any action; and we want to pay off our 20% mortgage before buying again. The irony is that this weekend we’ve had three requests for showings… even AFTER telling the real estate company that we want to pull our house off the market.
Filed under: All Things Apple, Applications, General, Home Ownership
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My last post, which reviewed GarageBand ‘08, might have come across the wrong way, sounding a bit like I’m poo-pooing the application as being substandard to the industry and severely lacking. Well, in some ways it is and other ways I must admit it impresses me.
I was messing around with it a bit more this evening; and though my first composition was fine, I felt myself finding the edge of creativity with the instrument voices that I had available to me — with the styles that I was trying to pull off. But I decided to persevere and try something totally off the wall and go dance/techno style and see what I could come up with just for the sake of fooling around.
The end result actually surprised me: audio file (192 kbps, 5.4 MB, 3:56). It’s got kind of a dance-funk-charlies-angels theme-phish kind of thing going on with it. Kinda fun.
It did start out to be a techno-type tune, but then I started throwing in some a few things, changed the beat up a bit and then despite my laurels, I even used a “fake” electric guitar in the tune and it actually sounds good for a GarageBand tune. I was VERY surprised.
I still hold my ground that Apple REALLY needed to include a lot more instruments in the default packet—I mean seriously, they don’t even have a clarinet in the list of woodwinds. While purists and clarinet players alike might prefer it that way and use the real thing, I don’t play clarinet and can think of times I’d really like to use a clarinet sound. Or a nice oboe or french horn. I LOVE the french horn. But none of those nice, real instrument sounds are available in the default package.
Anyway, I like the latest tune I came up with—it’s fun, upbeat, and something I could probably listen to a couple times and not get sick of it. Enjoy!
Filed under: Applications, General, Music, Recording
3 Comments
I don’t pretend to be a virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination, and though I’ve been doing music for years, I’m plenty rusty and have much room for growth as with any other musician. With that disclaimer aside, I’ve been playing around with GarageBand a bit lately, an application part of iLife ‘08.
All in all, it’s a good application and can do quite a bit with so little. I’ve managed to throw together a few samples of what I’ve done with it so far; just messing around really and getting used to the interface, how things work, and some of the various quirks associate with the application. You can hear a few tracks here:
demo test 1.mp3 (1.8 MB, 1:18)
demo test 2.mp3 (3.6 MB, 2:38)
demo test 3.mp3 (5.7 MB, 4:07)
demo test 4.mp3 (2.6 MB, 1:51)
They’re nothing fancy; mostly midi stuff with a few guitar tracks or loops thrown in here and there, but gives you an idea of what you can do with the application. I’m sure if you’re a prodigy you could create some amazing things with it. I’m not, so the results will be ordinary.
Anyway, all that aside, it’s a decent little application that has a few drawbacks. The biggest drawback is the lack of sounds and instruments that come with it. You are essentially given an over-glorified Casio keyboard in terms of your options; not quality-wise necessarily, but in terms of volume. There really isn’t a whole lot to work with and after a few songs you may find yourself getting bored with your options.
This is where Apple decided that they could make a little more money off of you — give you a taste of what you can do, but leave you empty handed and wanting more…more instruments, more soundbanks, more effects. Personally, I find myself on Google searching for freebies to keep me somewhat satisfied.
I don’t think I’ll use GarageBand for any of my projects unless I’m able to acquire some more decent sounds; namely some quality stringed instrument sounds, a wider array of pads, and other cool instruments that could add value to your recording. Presently there just isn’t much going for GarageBand in terms of instruments unless you buy the expansion packs.
I’ll pass.
Filed under: Applications, Music, Recording
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Well, a month has passed and I’ve been long overdue for an entry in the ol’ blog. Along with the passage of time, my days of being an active PC user have passed like gas and left behind memories only a computer geek could be fond of — rebuilding the damn computer, fighting back the rage when encountering memory errors, and of course the frequent occurrence of Windows locking up.
Alright, I wasn’t really fond of Windows, but the necessity to run such a loathsome operating system was driven purely by software.
But I decided to make the jump to light speed and purchase a new 20″ iMac (2 Ghz processor) with my wife’s blessing. With the wonderful invention of the Intel Mac, I now have a few options available to me as far as running the loathsome Windows — as a boot option or as I prefer, a virtual machine that I can run inside OS X.
So far I really love OS X…there’s just one thing I do have to complain about though…
…how about they start releasing some decent games for Mac, now!?! A few years ago, when Apple wasn’t pushing their products as hard, I wouldn’t have expected to find the big headlining games available for Mac. But now-a-days? I have come to expect the best from Apple, and instead, we’re stuck with such lame game titles like “Luxor”, “Virtual Villagers” and the ever popular “Plantasia”
oh… and can’t forget “Tom’s Hen House” and “Teddy Factory.” Sure there are a couple ones possibly worth considering, but come on now… Mac is becoming a bigger contender for the home computing share of the market. The gaming industry should sit up and take note of this fact and actually start releasing some titles.
EA Games is releasing a few games, like Battlefield 2142 and Madden NFL 2008 — but if you do recall, EA Games has a bad video game release history with their debut titles. I’ve already sworn that I’d never give them another dime. They’ll be hard pressed to gain my business after the crappy service I had to deal with in previous dealings.
Anyway, to my point…with such a consumer-driven focus on the Mac platform, it just really surprises me how many STUPID games there are compared to how many legitimately cool and interesting ones are actually available.
Filed under: Applications, Gaming, General
2 Comments
UPDATED 1/9 AT 5:20 CST WITH NEW VERSION INFO
A colleague of mine with the State of Minnesota asked me if I knew how to do close captioning of video for the web. Admittedly I did not, but that didn’t stop me from looking into it. Within a five minute search of Google, I found a link on the Law, Health Policy & Disability forum at the University of Iowa showing a proof of concept, that you can indeed take a video file and apply some level of close captioning to it using Flash.
To save you some time of hunting all the files down, I’ve put together an instruction page with a demo of how it works. The only grunt work you have to do is: acquire the exact length (in seconds) of your video file and create a close captioning text file based upon the example one I link to. You then just have to modify an XML file and you’re all set to go. See the instructions for details. (Version one had you passing a bunch of variables and it was kinda clunky to work with. In version two you’re able to put everything you need in a single XML file.)
I hope this helps you out. It’ll sure help me out when it comes time to provide close captioned videos for the State.
Filed under: Actionscript, Applications, Development, Websites
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So I’ve been spending a few free moments today on apple.com, gleaning over all the new things they’re releasing, including the new iPhone (which I SO want when they increase the storage capacity) and AppleTV. Very impressive stuff, particularly the iPhone. I can’t wait to some day have an excellent interface such as that—multi-touch sensing screen. How cool!
So I got slightly distracted and caught up on the Apple commercials, and when I decided I had enough, I closed Internet Explorer (don’t ask me why I was using it…I just was) and got this bizarre error message:
Apparently Internet Explorer was jealous with my interactions at apple.com.
Filed under: Applications, Websites
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For a few months now I’ve been doing a podcast with my band Crash Effect and have been having a bit of fun with that. Last week I was invited to participate in a podcast (that was recorded live via a web conference) that centered around various facets of Christian spirituality, including current news and some blog entries that we’ve found interesting.
So that put the bug in me to put together a podcast centered around web design. I’ve been designing websites for nearly twelve years now and consider myself to be one of many leaders within my community, a leader in web design that has been there from the very beginning and continues to evolve in skill and application. I also know and recognize that the world does not look to me for design help—and I’m quite fine with that, believe me. I don’t care to have that kind of pressure. But that said, I do feel that there is still an audience that may find what I have to say helpful.
Last night I put together the first three pilot episodes [they're going to run weekly starting January 14th] to give myself a head start. I still have to design the website that will surround the podcast (and its associated resources), but that won’t take me long.
If you want to get a sneak peak at what the podcast will sound like, you can download the first three episodes here:
episode 001: Noise-Free Design: Value
episode 002: Noise-Free Design: Function
episode 003: Noise-Free Design: Usability
Admittedly this is some pretty high-level information that I have in these first few podcasts, but it’s meant to serve more as an introduction to the components that help make websites successful.
Anyway, give a listen and let me know what you think.
Filed under: Development, General, Photoshop (Adobe)
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Vote now: http://www.worth1000.com/view.asp?entry=344650&display=photoshop
Filed under: Photoshop (Adobe)
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