Tidbits

Lap Desk

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:05:45 -0600

Usually I get fed up with my laptop being too hot on my legs and stick it on the ottoman and lean forward uncomfortably. Today I grabbed a spare piece of MDF board that I had laying around (we needed some cabinet shelves), wiped it down real good, duct-taped the edges so they aren’t sharp, and threw a Givoo sticker on it. Voila! A convenient, cheap (uh, free?) lap-desk. As a nice added bonus, my mouse fits reasonably well too, so I’m not trying to Photoshop with a track pad. Wooo!

The Internet is for Porn, and Being Wrong.

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:36:39 -0600

One of the greatest things about the internet is the relative anonymity it affords users. It takes a lot of the consequences out of being wrong, thus empowering people to try more. A person will answer questions with flat-out wrong answers, share terrible photos they took, and blog about dates gone wrong, all right out in public. They’ve let their guard down for the benefit of learning and growing as individuals.

That’s half of why Quora is as popular is it is: anonymous questions remove embarrassment from the equation, and it’s the only reason anybody uses online dating or the personals section of Craigslist.

Behance Network = Liars

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:37:38 -0600

So I’ve been reading “Making Ideas Happen” over the last couple of weeks, and it talks about the Behance Network quite a bit (the CEO wrote the book). I figured I’d give it a shot. There were several issues with their signup process, and I ended up writing into support about one. In short, they require an invite code to signup, and then the signup process is multiple pages. If you stop the signup, you lose the invite code and you can’t sign-in. This is compounded by the fact that the signup doesn’t work on the iPhone, so if you hit the link in your email on your phone, you lose your invite code and you’re unable to signup.

The first email representative is clueless of the issue and tries to get me to document the problem with screenshots for them rather than testing what I explained. They do let me know that they’ll look into it and hit me with this:

Although we do support the iPhone and iPad, these devices are a work in progress, since most of our users use the Network from home.

My response was forwarded to a (the?) community manager, Sarah Rapp, who told me they don’t support the iPhone, so this whole mess isn’t a bug, but instead “simply not a feature we offer”. I explained again in detail, and received this juicy snippet:

[W]e are aware that the dropdowns don’t work on the iPhone. This is intentional, as we do not support signup on the iphone. The Behance Network is not meant to be used to its full extent on the iphone, so we cannot be held accountable for an experience we don’t purport to support.

[…]

If we supported this feature, we would change the way they were implemented, so that they worked on the iPhone. However, in concepting, we decided that we did not want sign-up to be a feature of the iPhone at this time; hence the reason the dropdowns don’t work. Sorry if you found this unclear. This isn’t a “shortcoming,” it’s a feature that doesn’t exist.

So there’s nothing wrong with the network, they don’t support the iPhone, and in order to make sure I don’t signup using the iPhone they had their developers use non-standard dropdowns that were frustratingly difficult to use on the iPhone and iPad. Riiight. It all makes sense now.

I’m struggling to create work that I want to create lately. I sit down and start developing...

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:05:12 -0600

I’m struggling to create work that I want to create lately. I sit down and start developing photos and I just start feeling antsy and moody, and my photos end up looking like I’m trying to create something depressing. I can’t think clearly, and as a result, I feel lost in Photoshop and can’t get my photos to give off the emotion I want them to.

WTF is wrong with me?

This is Bre. She just moved to Austin a couple of weeks ago from...

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:21:46 -0600

This is Bre. She just moved to Austin a couple of weeks ago from California, and a short couple of months ago she was living in Japan where she met her girlfriend. She’s never done any sort of modeling before, but she wasn’t letting that or her nerves stop her. While she’s certainly not a natural, she fell into the roll pretty quickly. She’s excited to be able to send some of the photos to her girlfriend who lives in Florida, and maybe convince her to do some photos with her next time.

Adrian on Castle Hill in Austin, TX. If you look closely you can...

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:48:54 -0600

Adrian on Castle Hill in Austin, TX. If you look closely you can see the state capitol building in the back. What you don’t see is that behind me is the castle that Castle Hill got its name from. It’s got a lot of history.

Karma determined to be “Unfair”

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:41:43 -0600

Just caught this juicy bite over at NPR: (emphasis my own)

“Basically it’s a cash business, and they don’t keep track of how much they’re selling,” Lee said. “But the big concern is they don’t know how they can come up with the proper documentation to show they have a certain income.”

Not paying taxes is, of course, illegal. But St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro says it would be unfair to penalize the fishermen now for past misdeeds.

Wait a hot second – isn’t that exactly what punishment is? How isn’t it fair that they weren’t honest in the past and now it’s biting them in the ass? Poor them they didn’t know they would have their livelihood threatened so they didn’t bother paying taxes.

Chalk it up to Karma, assholes.

Indigo is quite a character. She’s had a fair bit of...

Fri, 28 May 2010 13:03:35 -0600

Indigo is quite a character. She’s had a fair bit of hardship thrown her way, and she’s still a trooper. The tiger stripe tattoo seen here is mirrored on the other side of her back. She got them in rememberance of her brother.

You can’t argue that an expression is incorrect. When a...

Sat, 15 May 2010 20:07:00 -0600

You can’t argue that an expression is incorrect. When a child throws a tantrum in the grocery store, that’s their expression of their feelings. You might not like it, and it might not be socially or culturally accepted, but it doesn’t make it wrong. You can’t convince a child not to throw tantrums because it is an invalid expression of their feelings. But I’m not here to talk about tantrums; I’m here to talk about expression.

When Joe Steck flew his bi-plane into the IRS building in Austin, TX a few months ago, it was his way of expressing his frustration at the tax system in this country (though this is a gross simplification of his detailed feelings). Just because his actions are not what you or I might have done does not make them an invalid expression. We can debate about exactly what feeling he was trying to express or whether or not it was acceptable. What we cannot declare is what he should have done differently – it was his expression, not ours. I’m not talking about Joe Steck, though, but expression.

The point I’m getting at with expression is that while there are commonly accepted means of expressing one’s self and commonly rejected ways of doing so, none of them are “wrong” in the sense that they are not an accurate expression of a feeling.

So when I take a photo like the one above to express a feeling or opinion I have and people explain to me like a two year old that Sabrina should be smiling in the photo, I can’t help but want to express myself further by kicking them in the face. It’s my expression. If you don’t want to listen, dont, but don’t tell me my expression is wrong, asshole.

Ironically, I’m not even a big fan of this photo anymore. It expresses a feeling I no longer feel in-touch with.

;)

We made a fairly spontaneous decision to find somewhere to shoot...

Sat, 15 May 2010 00:51:00 -0600

We made a fairly spontaneous decision to find somewhere to shoot portraits of Stephanie downtown, and wound up stumbling upon the gate to Seaholm, the old, iconic Austin Power Plant off Cesar Chavez. Coincidentally the gate was open, and so too was one of the massive overhead doors on the same side of the building. We drove on up and went in, careful not to look like we were trying to hide. After shooting for five or ten minutes a couple of filmmakers came around and inquired politely. They had rented the place for a shoot and it so happened that they stepped out for a moment precisely as we arrived.

I’d love to get back in there and do a proper photo shoot, but a little birdie told me that it costs a pretty penny to get access.

These are photos of my friend Bethany taken in her little house...

Fri, 14 May 2010 16:11:03 -0600

These are photos of my friend Bethany taken in her little house off of SoCo. Bethany does amazing print design work, has a great voice and plays guitar. She’s also well travelled, having lived in Vietnam for 3-years. She rides her bike everywhere (and typically refuses a ride). If you’re looking for an open-minded friend or great designer, be sure to send her a message.

Imagine

Fri, 14 May 2010 15:44:31 -0600

Fighting off the mid-day drowsies, I shot out to my favorite coffee shop (Once Over Coffee Bar, naturally). I’m glad I did, because I realized what a gorgeous day it is. It filled me up with passion and love, and got my creativity gushing. When that happens, my mind opens and I’m able to see things more clearly. I realized that it’s not that today is any more gorgeous than yesterday or the day before, but that I’m more open to appreciating it. I notice things that normally go unnoticed, like the blue paint peeling off of an even older building against the stormy sky.

If everybody felt like this at once, just imagine the world we’d live in. No war or fighting, greed or corruption. If we could all become creators and appreciators, all moving forward in our own directions yet connected by a common love for life and the world we live in…

From the MyHumana portal of Humana’s website: Humana.com...

Thu, 13 May 2010 15:56:54 -0600

From the MyHumana portal of Humana’s website:

Humana.com offers our members and customers the most recent, top-level software. We currently support the following browsers on Windows Operating Systems:

Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.x

Netscape 6.x

I’m quite glad that you’re committed to offering “top-level software”. Only that’s a lie. The dialog box above is what happens when I try to send them a message using Chrome for Mac.

When will big companies quit hiring retards? Oh right, never.

Mac OS X Bug

Thu, 13 May 2010 14:24:53 -0600

When you try to copy text from a system dialog/modal window (like the ones Time Machine frequently spits out) you can select text, right click, and hit Copy. Only it does’t actually copy the text to your clipboard. Nice, huh?

In case you were wondering for a brief second there, the world...

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:47:00 -0600

In case you were wondering for a brief second there, the world is mine.

It’s been decided. Moving a Time Machine drive to an Airport Extreme might just be the worst...

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:26:47 -0600

It’s been decided. Moving a Time Machine drive to an Airport Extreme might just be the worst available product experience from Apple. It’s pretty terrible. Money and dozens of hours of lost productivity down the drain (between research and unavailable computer for heavy disk operations).

Successful startups take their time

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:38:44 -0600

I really dislike the implication that in order for a startup to succeed or for an entrepreneur to really be an entrepreneur that time sheets need to look fucking ridiculous and personal time should be sacrificed. Chances are, if you’re doing it that way it’s because you need to prove to yourself that you’re not a fuck up. If that’s not it, you’re trying way too hard to prove to someone else that you’re not a fuck up. Either way, in doing so you’re bound to burn out and fuck up.

Can we all just fucking relax a bit? It’s business. Despite what millions of unhappy salesman that got duped into buying expensive suits and gloating about the corner office will tell you, you’re in it for the long haul. Life isn’t about busting ass now and reaping the rewards later. That doesn’t happen. You bust ass now and realize later you spent years in a tunnel digging the wrong direction.

Just put in a good effort now, make your work more exciting by doing things you believe in that your mom things are crazy, and check your pulse every now and then to make sure the adrenaline is still going. If it isn’t, start doing something else. I promise you’ll live a much better life this way.

Frameworks for Dummies

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:32:20 -0600

You want a framework with a small footprint.
You need exceptional performance.
~~You need broad compatibility with standard hosting accounts that run a variety of PHP versions and configurations.~~ Strangely, my organization doesn’t run across 14 different versions of PHP and 4 “hosts”.
~~You want a framework that requires nearly zero configuration.~~ Zero configuration means zero control.
~~You want a framework that does not require you to use the command line.~~ I know, typing is scary, right?
~~You want a framework that does not require you to adhere to restrictive coding rules.~~ Isn’t that convention over configuration?
~~You are not interested in large-scale monolithic libraries like PEAR.~~ Use what you want, the rest isn’t even downloaded.
~~You do not want to be forced to learn a templating language.~~ None of them do.
~~You eschew complexity, favoring simple solutions.~~ Duh.
You need clear, thorough documentation.
You want a framework that quits assuming that everybody using said framework is stuck on PHP 4.3, has nightmares about command line and config files, and is hosting websites on GoDaddy.

Free 15-Day Trial!

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:44:50 -0600

If you’re going to offer me a free trial, instead of trying to cut me off as quickly as possible you should probably wait until I’m hooked. Giving me 14 days to use Soulver was a bad move. I played with it for a minute, quit the app, and had a need for it a few weeks later. When I opened it my “Trial” had expired, so I found something else to get the job done and now I’m unlikely to ever buy Soulver.

Instead give me a limited number of uses or only count days that I use the software. If you notice I don’t use it for 3 weeks offer to start it over or something. Anything is better than cutting me off the drugs before I get addicted.

Sex doesn't wash out.

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:43:06 -0600

I played with Chat Roulette for 10 minutes today and saw more penises than faces. Real-time video sharing appears lends itself to that sort of environment because our society says that sexual expression is not okay. Opponents to sexual expression are under the impression that they can change sexual behaviors by banning pornography, criminalizing nudity in public places, and scorning people that have different (and harmless) sexual needs.

Unfortunately for them, though, intercourse will never look like it does in Demolition Man because sexuality is not something you can just turn off. It’s hard wired into us and it’s the very excitement of it that makes us want to do it over and over, thus propelling our species’ continued existence.

What it does do, though, is force normal people to seek alternate methods of sexual gratification and expression. You know, like streaming live video of themselves masturbating to your 14 year old daughter and her friends while they have a sleepover. Just hope that it gets the job done because if it doesn’t, it could mean one more report of a young woman kidnapped, raped, and murdered in the coming months…