My Life Pixelated

Love it or fix it!

Administrator — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:44:11 +0000

We live in a great country. I wouldn’t want to live, work and raise a family anywhere else. For all of the greatness in the United States, there are flaws. Currently our political system has many. If you haven’t watched Lawrence Lessig’s “Corruption” presentation, please, please, please check it out. You will be pleasantly surprised by the message. His response to what he sees as one of the large problems is this new group: Change Congress. I feel that calling your Congress critter and recommending that they join these pledges is the most important thing that you could do to enact change for the good in th United States right now. Please call, write, or go a knocking, and let your representatives know how they should represent you.

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SOLD - IOGear MiniView™ Extreme Multimedia KVMP Switch w/Cables (GCS1734)

Administrator — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:49:00 +0000

I have no more need for this excellent KVM switch, so it is now for sale. It is in excellent condition and was only used for a few months. The IOGear page for all the details is here: http://www.iogear.com/product/GCS1734/. Notice the price is $169.95!

Here are pics of the items:

Included are only the items listed here:

Switch (Main Unit)
Stand
Power Supply
4 Cables
Firmware Upgrade Serial Cable
Manual

Buy this on eBay. Item number 180226306278.

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The Laws of Simplicity

Administrator — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:56:26 +0000

I would really like to lay out every book I have every read and give a review, but by now that is mostly impossible. I can start from now on, so here we go. I’m going to try and post about every book I read from now on. I may even try to hit some of my favorites as I remember them.

I heard about John Meada on a blog I follow. I don’t remember exactly which one. I put it on my library hold list and it took a while to come available so I must be somewhat popular. There were some very profound ideas and I would recommend reading it. It sticks with the simplicity theme in length so you could storm through it quickly. On of the nice quotes I liked:

Emotional intelligence is now considered an important facet of leaders today, and the expression of emotion is no longer considered a weakness but a desirable human trait to which everyone can immediately relate.

In one section he details the idea of Omakase an idea that the sushi shef knows better than you do what you’ll enjoy. I’ve done this before at a restaurant I trust where there is some interaction with the chef. An interesting way to simplify.

The most profound part of the last half of the book [I read the first half a while back :( ] was that of the “power of undo”. He poses an interesting idea that I’ve expanded on a bit of gift recipients, ctrl+z, tattoo removal, quick diets. etc. Where does that lead us in society, in our relationships with others and in life as a whole? An interesting thought, when life is so easy to call a redo, in so many things, are we tempted to do the same when redo is not and option, or shouldn’t be. Are those lines blurring?

Good easy read! Fun and thought provoking.

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What is the purpose of Copyright?

Administrator — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:33:53 +0000

Answer that question in your head. Better yet write down the answers to these questions.

What is the purpose of copyright?
What is the history of copyright?
Do you know anyone who exchanges copyrighted material over the internet?
How do you feel about file sharing?

Now watch this video and see how you compare with a few in Chicago…

This is a video I saw blogged about and watched. It got me thinking about how little I know about copyright. I have much to learn, even though I think that I’m somewhat informed. The video shows that most people have varying ideas and understanding of the purpose of copyright. One idea that often comes up in a negative context is that of “sharing files over the internet”. Next time you hear that term, think of these questions. Can you legally share copyrighted material over the internet? What is sending an email attachment? Can bit torrent or P2P be used for legitimate authorized uses? What does “sharing files over the internet” bring to mind for you?

Here are some good resources to learn more about copyright:

A good Google Tech Talk presentation about the history of copyright.
Wikipedia on Copyright
The Copyright Clearance Center is a not for profit that deals with copyright.
Free Culture is a book I enjoyed about copyright and its impact on culture. (Legal free download of a copyrighted work.)

I like what the framers of the Constitution (Article I, section 8, clause 8) had to say:

Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

Notice that Congress is promoting progress by granting limited monopoly. This is very different than the not so limited “life of the author plus 70 years” of today. It is also very different from the thoughts of those in the video that copyright is for protecting authors. It looks to me that the founding fathers were looking to promote general societal progress rather than the progress of authors.

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Wordpress Uploading Images

Administrator — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:20:03 +0000

This is the first half of part 1 of the Uploading section of My WordPress Image Process.

First off, you need place to store your images. I tried the host your own website under the table style without paying the extra to my ISP and just updating the IP address when it changed every month or so. That was more hassle than it was worth. I’m a horrible IT manager. I’m now hosting a bunch of sites on a virtual server and have fantastic paid tech support (MillcreeekSys). This works out because I have a website that brings in come offsetting revenue, so I’m not going it the hole every month. The problem with image hosting there is that there is only 10 GB. With all that i have on my virtual server I had to remove all my originals and re-upload pre-scaled-down version to fit all my images. This way is not a long term solution. Then I heard about S3, Amazon’s Simple Storage Service. There is a flat storage fee and a bandwidth use fee. So for every image you store you’re charged and for every image that is viewed, downloaded or uploaded, you get charged. Sounds expensive!!! Well actually is is amazingly cheap. If you bought a hard drive and kept you photos on it, you’d still end up on the loosing side. Redundancy, unlimited storage, and cheap rates make S3 a great service.

Enough with the hard sale. None of this is any good, unless you have a way to use it with WordPress. Luckily there is a plugin that meshes with the normal uploading that is native to WP. Tan Tan has given us the WordPress S3 plugin. With this plugin you can add images to S# and they will act exactly as they do if they were stored on your personal server or hosted elsewhere. If you need bulk upload. There are a few options but the one that I like the best is a Firefox plugin called S3Fox. Plug it in and bulk upload to S3.

There you have it step one. A place to put your pixels. Next up… Adding on to the basic upload of WordPress. Yes it even works with S3.

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My Wordpress Image Process

Administrator — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:30:48 +0000

I think I finally have the image process for WordPress figured out. It’s been a long time in the making. I’ve been running WordPress since March of ‘04. I’m no blog expert and have very limited PHP and CSS, but I’m apt to try, and try I’ve done. I’ve had 5 or 6 themes that I’ve massaged into doing what I’ve wanted and I’ve been fretting about the images all along. On the latest blog that I’ve done I think it has all gelled. That means it’s time to get it all down so in 6 months when I get around to doing it on my site I’ll still be able to remember what I’ve done and how to do it again.

What I’m trying to accomplish…

Uploading - I want to be able to upload images in bulk or one at a time. If I load them up one at a time I would expect to have the thumbnails made and the image sized. For bulk uploads I would do thumbnails and sizing that before hand.

Storing - I need a way to store my images in all the various sizes that I desire without breaking the bank and breaking into a new tier on my virtual server plan. I want my image storage to act as a supplemental backup for my images as well as serving the sized and thumbnail versions.

Displaying - I want to be able to easily place images in my post where and when I want them. I want these images to be pre styled to float (top right or left), and or contain the correct titles, alternate text, description, etc. I would also like the pre style to allow for lightbox and simple gallery displays. Oh yeah, all of these need to work together.

I use the following tools to get all this done and wanted this to be an all-in-one post, but I doubt that I could ever be so brief, especially with the many plugins and tools that I use. This will have to be done in parts. Here are my tools.

GIMP, Phatch, Flexible Upload, S3, WordPressS3, Iimage Gallery, Random Image, Lightbox 2

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The Nations Largest Junk Mail Advertiser

Administrator — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:41:48 +0000

What if you had a Sony TV, and Sony decided that they would hijack your TV and run random ads for Sony. Wouldn’t you dump that TV for one that just played the channel you chose with no Sony interruptions?

To be a citizen you need an address. Paychecks, taxes, insurance, etc. all are based on your address. So how can the Post Office send out ads for the post office? How can they sell all the addresses to Bed Bath and Beyond and Hollywood video. I have to have an address. I cannot exist without an address. If I don’t like radio advertising, I can turn it off. If I hate TV ads, the same goes. How do I stop getting ads from the Post Office? I can’t!

There needs to be some change. For the second year in a row in 2006 more bulk business mail (Standard Mail) was sent than personal mail (First Class Mail). The rub there is that businesses can also send First Class so the stats don’t show how much personal correspondence there is vs junk! First Class is more money, but at least there is a return service. So, the kind of mail where if you don’t exist, that mail gets returned to the sender so they can remove you from their list, is the the one that most businesses don’t use. Businesses don’t want returned mail, they just want saturation, low cost, and easy advertising. Who gets screwed? Us!

Standard Mail is how businesses get a better rate by grouping mail into zip codes for the post office. This mail is predominantly junk. From the USPS website here is what standard mail cannot be: “It can not be used for sending personal correspondence, handwritten or typewritten letters, or bills and statements of account.” Those are the only pieces of mail I want or need. So why do we need Standard Mail? We don’t, junk mailers do, and so does the USPS.

Check out these stats found on the USPS website. In 2005 pieces of first class mail delivered is eclipsed by pieces of standard mail delivered. Again in 2006. Look at the trends. First class mail is in decline and standard mail is gaining. Where is the future of the USPS? Junk mail!

When are we as a society going to draw the line and say enough? In every facet of our lives are we going to allow advertising to be foisted upon us?

I AM NOT “[Your] Nieghbor At…”!

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OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, and Mapquest

Administrator — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:45:07 +0000

I love the fact that I can get map data for basically anywhere I go. I am a Google fan. I use Gmail to manage all of my email and pretty much only search with them. I have had some incorrect directions from their map service so I have been useing Mapquest of late. That’ll be the case until I get bad data from them. These services are all well and good, but not exactly what I’m looking for.

Personally I’m pulling for OpenStreetMap. It’s attempting to be the equal of Google Maps and Mapquest but wiki style. All of the data will be open source and not subject to the terms of the Google API or Mapquest.

Check it out!

Open Street Map

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Tryad and GoogleMaps on my Treo 600

Administrator — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:34:14 +0000

I’m old skool. Yes I own and actively use a Treo 600. It doesn’t seem to want to die, so I can’t justify replacing it. The only thing I’m lacking is blue tooth, and why upgrade just so you can be an uber-borg-ear-piece-wearing-geek. Maybe when they get wifi access.

I used to love this Treo application called Directory Assistant. It was the sweetest 411 service, but it stopped working so I’ve been without a good way to get addresses and phone numbers. I’ve even looked up some numbers in the phone book. I know… desparate! I have been using GoogleMaps to act as a surrogate, but you need to know the general area, go to that location on the Google map, and then do a category search. Eventually you can get to a business address and phone number and are then able save it to your contact list. Residential addresses? Good luck!

Luckily there is a new incarnation of Directory Assistant called Tryad. This is juat like the old one but now seamless ly works with GoogleMaps to not only get you the right number to you contact list, but plug that data right into the map. From there directions are only a few taps away!

These two apps are must haves if you are a Treo owner and have a data plan that connects you with the internet. Try them out!

Tryad
GoogleMaps

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Archos Album Covers with Amarok from Ubuntu

Administrator — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:59:21 +0000

I have this nifty new Archos 605 Wifi 160 GB personal media player. I like it a lot. I’m also exclusively on Ubuntu these days. No Windows for me. This makes life a bit interesting when dealing with peripherals that are not mainstream. It has not stopped me yet. I found a way to get album covers for my ripped music to display on my Archos. Here is how it’s done:

First off let’s get some things straight: Archos, Ubuntu, Amarok, CopyCover, ImageMagick

Open Amarok and with your Archos mounted, choose Settings >> Configure Amarok from the menu. From the Collection option in the left menu navigate to your Music folder in your Archos. For me this is /media/A650/Music/. Check the box to the left of the Music folder. Also check the Scan folders recursively and Watch folders for changes below the file tree and click the OK button in the lower right corner. Amarok will now load your music collection and watch for future additions.

Now that you have your collection into Amarok you can use the Cover Manager to get the covers from Amazon. In the Amarok main menu select Tools >> Cover Manager. Click the Fetch Missing Covers button in the upper right corner of the Cover Manager wizard to obtain the covers. You can adjust the locale of the Amazon you’d like with the pull down to the left of the Fetch Missing Covers button. You will want to double check all the covers, as this is not an exact science and the naming convention of different albums along with rare or obscure artists and albums may fool the script. Click on the offending or missing album cover and search through what they offer. If none match, you can find the image manually from the band site or via Google and save it in the album folder on the Archos and then right click again on the cover and use the Set Custom Cover Option. Browse to the image. The default folder is the album folder on your Archos. You will be happier if you can save your found image as a JPG if you have the option.

Now that we have all the album covers into Amarok we need to get them into our Archos. The terms of service with Amazon do not allow for real naming of the images that we downloaded from their site. Thay are stored in with jibberish names and as PNGs. We need JPGs and to be able to sort the album covers by album. Never fear the script CopyCover takes care of half of our problem for us. Download and install the CopyCover script for Amarok. In the Amarok main menu choose Tools >> Script Manager. In the Script Manager wizard click the Get More Scripts button in the upper right corner. This will open the Get Hot New Stuff wizard that lists the scripts available. Scroll through until you find the CopyCover script. At the time of this writing it was the 3rd one listed. Click on CopyCoverin the list to select it and then click the Install button in the lower right corner. Once installed, you must select it in the Script Manager wizard and select the Run button in the right list. A “play’ arrow will appear next to the script int he list signaling tha tis is running. Now each time a song is played the script looks to see if the cover in Amarok exists in the album folder on your Archos. If the image does not exist it copies it there and renames it with the album name. Play your music collection in random overnight, or manually play a song from each album to get all the covers copied over.

Now we have all the cover images on the Archos, but they are in PNG format. Archos will take a JPG from the album folder and make it the album art displayed on its screen. We need to convert all the PNGs to JPGs. For this we employ the ImageMagick application. Use synaptics to get ImageMagick if you don’t already have it installed. I have my Archos set up as a hard drive and all my music is stored in the Music folder on the root of the Archos in this format /Music/Artist/Album/Songs. From the command prompt I navigated to my Music folder:

cd /media/A605/Music/and used this command:

find . -name *png -type d | mogrify -format jpg ./*/*/*.png

If you want this to be as painless as possible set all this up and run that script once in a while after loading new music. A smarter person than I could set it up to run each time I mount my Archos. Do comment with said script if you are that person.

I’m not sure if I had to go to the Archos settings from the main page and in the system option reload the files to get the images to show up. Menu >> Settings >> System >> Update ARCLibrary. It wouldn’t hurt to do so if they are not showing up.

That is the way I did it. I hope it helps some other of you Archos and Ubuntu users!

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