I make things on the internet
A project created by four Dalhousie Architecture students. I noticed it in a recent Maclean’s issue, mostly for the novelty value. That said, there’s probably a larger overarching message concerning our use of green space, etc. Unfortunately, the original article at the Halifax Daily News doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
Truth and the Net. Wikipedia gets it wrong all the time. So do bloggers. But then, so do newspapers, magazines, TV and radio. The interesting thing about systems isn’t how they perform when they’re working to specification, it’s what happens when they fail.
NewsFire has a slick, stripped-down interface — it’s one of the best looking mac apps out there. Too bad that the dock icon pales in comparison. That said, the internet always provides for your most whimsical fancies.
Enter Denis Radenkovic, who recognized the problem long ago and created a beautiful replacement icon that helps the program stand out in the dock. Visit his site to download the icon package.
There was also a comment offering a new badge colour — something more subtle than the bright green. I grabbed the four pngs out of the package and changed it to the blue. If you don’t feel like doing it yourself, download them from me. To install, just throw them into the package resource directory along with the replacement icon.
Beyond the program’s visual identity, it would be nice to have the ability to rename feeds after you add them. I’m also not a big fan of the floating sidebar behaviour, moving targets are bad. Everyone knows that the dock is a UI nightmare, we don’t need copycats. Other than that, I’ve been quite happy with Newsfire. It’s the first software RSS reader that I’ve stuck with for more than a day or two.
The time has come for another pack release (grab the last one if you missed it). And what are these packs exactly? For the most part, they’re a bunch of photoshop templates and a semi-functional WordPress theme. It won’t work out of the box — I call it a learning experience, you might call it lazy.
This theme was featured on CSS Import, and people seemed to like it. I liked the graphics but had issues with the structure and bailed on it after a month.
Download the Tool Pack 2.2mb
I set the backgrounds up oddly, the movement is kind of weird at times. It always bothered me.
The sidebar on the main page is setup to use my asides category, you’ll need to change that number. There are also a number of function calls for plugins that will make it fail.
Both the stylesheet and the screenshot portray the layout with “Lucida Grande” as the body font, that wasn’t always the case. It was originally designed for Arial, and I kind of liked it better that way. I was experimenting towards the end, to each his own.
Just so we’re clear… there is no support for this package, take it or leave it. There is also no license per se, but that doesn’t mean you can use it for anything. I haven’t made any money off the pack, it wouldn’t be fair if you did. Use it for your personal sites… if you need something professionally, you can do better. The forum might offer some help.
Cory Doctorow was in the crossword this weekend, and I had the presence of mind to email him (it’s every kid’s fantasy to be in the crossword).
Me: Dude, you were in the Globe & Mail’s cryptic!
Cory: I’m pretty sure that’s EL Doctorow.
Me: Uh…
Cory: The famous writer?
Me: I hid my brain under a rock. It’s now King of the Centipedes.
Cory: That woulda been hella cool.
Well, the conversation was actually a bit longer, a bit more boring and wasn’t really a conversation at all. My idiocy aside, the answer is IND(EL)ICATE not IND(CORY)ICATE. So, the email exchange helped. The internet is a weird place.
My trusty old mac is starting to show its age. Nothing terrible, but you notice the odd wheeze as it struggles with a high-resolution slideshow or a large Photoshop comp. That said, it’s hard to complain when the machine is rock solid:
Coronado:~ dkellam$ uptime
16:46 up 61 days, 4:14, 2 users, load averages: 2.76 2.67 2.44
An uptime of 61 days? Guess it’s been a little while since the last reboot. A few specs for the curious: PowerMac G4 933mhz, 1gb SDRAM, 64mb GeForce4MX (my about screen image).
From a recent BBC interview with John Perry Barlow of the Grateful Dead and EFF, concerning Dan Glickman and the MPAA:
I’ve got good news and bad news and good news. And the good news is that you guys have managed to buy every major legislative body on the planet, and the courts are even with you. So you’ve done a great job there and you should congratulate yourself.
But you know the problem is – the bad news is that you’re up against a dedicated foe that is younger and smarter that you are and will be alive when you’re dead. You’re 55 years old and these kids are 17 and they’re just smarter than you. So you’re gonna lose that one.
But the good news is that you guys are mean sons of bitches and you’ve been figuring out ways of ripping off audiences and artists for centuries…..
Welcome to the prolonged media war of attrition. Maybe, the **AA’s should stop suing all of us and hire the odd person under-30.
For those interested in designing large-scale web applications, it’s worth taking a look at O’Reilly’s database war stories. They tap some of the larger real-world players for your reading enjoyment.
The future human consciousness will not be stored in a flat file.
“Hello website, my old friend… it’s been awhile.”
“I didn’t mean to ignore you.”
“Seriously, I tried to call a few times, but it never seemed right.”
“You’ve run off with a root-server?”
“There has to be something I can do.”
“A makeover?”
“Yes, but the last one was so ill-conceived.”
“One more chance? I promise it will be better this time.”
“I’m about to explode with glee.”
Today is CSS Reboot, that means a lot of your favourite personal sites will be sporting a fresh new look. Other folks have been at it for months, I signed up on Saturday. Suffice it to say that the place is looking a little dicey right now.
I’ll avoid details about the implementation and what I’m up to for the moment. It’s mostly about having a fresh spring-look and encouraging myself to produce more. April was not a great month in terms of my online presence. My last theme was solid, but it didn’t fit my style — look for it to reappear elsewhere in the near future.