July 30, 2005
Love INACTION
Is this a hate crime? Well, DUH!
This makes me sick that we even have to think about this one. For a movement that supports the dignity and worth of every human being and is against hate, anti-gay Christianity seems to have put the ideals of it's practioners before this support of dignity. It does not matter if you agree with what someone does in his/her private life, hate is inexcusable and very un-Christian.
All this hype is unwarrented, too. I doubt some of these people have read the PA legislations. Or, it could be that they don't understand them. Unless you are going to commit or make someone else commit a crime against a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person (hence the word hate crime), what do you have to worry about? It's not like the government will be all over you like it will in new revision of the Patriot Act.
This legislation was not to suppress your "values," but to end the hate and violence against a marginalized minority. (Yes, gays are marginalized, just like African-Americans, women, people with disabilities, etc).
You don't have to like gays. You don't have to like anyone, but you must act in accordance with the law. Performing malicious offenses on the basis of a person's sexual orientation is wrong. Period. If you disagree with that statement, you disagree with the law. The only people affected by this are the people who hate and act on their hate.
I hope the judges in Florida will prosecute--to the fullest extent of the law--the offenders. But more importantly, I hope that the Federal Government will recognize the pervasive hate and work to end it through legislation.
Posted by EvanReynolds at 10:40 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
July 24, 2005
Don't Pour the Greasemonkey on the Firefox
Just a warning to Firefox users out there: a security hole was found in the Firefox extension, Greasemonkey. If you run this extention, it would probably be wise to get the critical update or uninstall it completely.
"Running a Greasemonkey script on a site can expose the contents of every file on your local hard drive to that site..."
-Mark Pilgrim via PC World
For more information on using Greasemonkey, go to Mozilla's website.
Posted by EvanReynolds at 12:44 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
July 19, 2005
The Tech Age Paradox
Bill Gates gave an excellent point to hundreds of university professors at the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit which I want to expound upon.
Why aren't there more computer science majors? I mean, in this age we live in, where digital technology is an every-day occurrence, why is there a drop in interest?
Think about it. What are your top all-time favorite gadgets? Not an electric blender, that's for sure. People carry around i-pods as though they were a body part. Yet no one stops to think: "hey! someone had to make this thing!" We cruise through the web, but not once thinking, "hey! it must have taken a lot of time and energy to make this page!"
Could it be that we are still afraid of being slapped with the label GEEK? Perhaps we are more interested in higher-paying and less competitive jobs. Maybe we feel a certain entitlement to these products of technology, and never stop to think that we need someone to make them? Could it be that we truly believe, "ah, someone else will do it"?
I'm not suggesting that you should drop everything and major in computer science, but if you are interested and have a passion for it, why do anything else? More and more tech jobs are opening with increased salaries, why not?
But I feel the real issue here is the apathy and lack of appreciation or ability to recognize that someone's hard work went into designing that i-pod, coding that webpage, and yes... even programming this blog software. We tend to take forgranted the complexity and beauty of these works of technology, forgetting that someone had to work to make them.
So... hug the nearest geek take the time to stop in wonder at the time and effort it took to make these everyday things: they just didn't pop up out of the ground.
Posted by EvanReynolds at 12:31 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
July 17, 2005
The Story of South Kent
Here's a little story about a private school embracing change with the addition of athletics I found particularly interesting. The potential parallels are staggering, that is if we can follow South Kent's example and adapt and embrace such major changes in campus culture and climate. This story is an inspiring example of the ability to take a seemingly drastic shift and make the most of it.
Posted by EvanReynolds at 8:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 13, 2005
Technical Difficulties Series
Part 3: Giving Your Blog an Image Makeover with FavIcons and banners!
There's a subtle difference between a fabulous blog and an ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS BLOG. Blogs are like people in the sense that how they are dressed reflects their personality. The way a blog looks can seemingly reflect not only the aesthetics of the author, but also the content of the blog itself. When someone visits your blog, what's the first thing they see? What is the first thing you see when you meet a person?
Let your blog stand out in a crowd! Let's get started...
If you have a Firefox browser, you may notice from time to time a little icon that appears by the web address. You can drag this icon to the bar below and it becomes an instant bookmark to the site. Pretty cool, huh? Here's how it's done:
Step 1: You need to have a small .gif or .jpeg image that you want to appear in the address bar. This image should generally be simple in design. And about 50 x 50 pixels. More information on formatting images is below.
Step 2: You need to make this image an icon. The best place to do this is DynamicDrive.com.
Step 3: You need to upload the image. In MovableType, go to "Upload File". Select the icon file you created in step 2. Then, at the bottom of the upload window, select local site path (as shown below) and click upload.
Step 4: Put this code in the HEAD section of whatever page you want the icon to be displayed:
< link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" />
And you're done!
Now, how do you get an image on your banner?
If you kept the original stylesheet from MovableType, it's just a matter of uploading the image like the FavIcon, copying the code in the window, then finding the following code in your templates:
< div id="banner" >
< h1 >< a href=" < $MTBlogURL$ > " accesskey="1" >< $MTBlogName encode_html="1"$ >< /a >< /h1 >
< h2 >< $MTBlogDescription$ >< /h2 >
< /div >
When you've found it, replace all the code between "< div id="banner >" and "< /div >" with the code you copied in the upload window.
Formatting Images: Links and tips.
- Keep the image simple. Sometimes, the more you mess with an image, the worse it looks.
- Don't try to scale an image disproportionately or to excess. (this creates either jagged or blurry edges).
- If you're using Photoshop and you go to save it, use "save for web." This allows you to adjust the file size so that your image doesn't take forever and a day to load.
- Simple images with few colors should be saved as a ".gif" file. Complex images and photos should be saved as a ".jpg" file. .Gif's are lighter and any opportunity to save an image as a .gif will save a lot of download time.
Here's a list of sites I recommend for formatting images:
GIMP This is a freeware program quite comparable to Photoshop. It's free! Check it out.
FreeFoto (kinda self-explanatory)
Photoshop tips
Photoshop tutorials
Posted by EvanReynolds at 1:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 12, 2005
Freakonomics
Think you hate economics? Try Freakonomics; you may be surprised!
Posted by EvanReynolds at 7:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 11, 2005
Technical Difficulties Series
Part 2: Boost Your Traffic... Syndicate!
RSS is the format of which people can syndicate regularly updated webpages (even your blogs!). This is not to be confused with the language (XML) that the feeds are written in and the style language (XSL) which makes sense of the XML to browsers. (The RSS feed of this blog is an example of XSL in action)
RSS was actually designed to boost traffic. The trick in effective RSS is the "tease." The idea is to give just enough content in a feed to catch the reader's attention and make them want to read more. And that is the biggest idea behind RSS: boosting traffic on your website. Since not every web surfer enters a website through the main page, it's nice to have a good-looking syndication. Thankfully, Movable Type automatically syndicates your blogs into XML. However, when you visit the syndication page, it displays a convoluted tree of XML tags.
The point? With a little help from XSL and CSS (covered in the previous part of the series), we can make your syndicated site look like this.
Note: Please read the previous part of the series before you read this part. (It gets kinda confusing!) ;')
Your XML page (RSS 2.0) should look something like this:
(the circles were added for reference)
An XML document is like an outline. The red circle is the channel; this contains all the content we need. Under the channel are the subdivisions. The tag in green is a subdivision of the channel (in red). And the arrows in green are pointing to a subdivision of the tag in green (the image tag). This means the ones circled in purple, orange and blue are subdivisions of the channel. XSL needs to know what division(s) of the document you want to show.
First, this must always be on top:
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"? >
< xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" >
(minus the spaces)
Underneath all that we put this: < xsl:template match="/" > This just tells the browser we're starting at the very beginning of the XML document. Next, we put this: < html >< body >. Hey! That looks familliar! That's because it's html. What we're doing is converting the XML to HTML. The only thing you need to be careful about is closing each single tag with a "whatever / >" and each double with a "< / whatever >".
To display the data within the XML tags, you have to say what division of the document you are in. < xsl:for-each select="rss/channel" > tells what part of the document to start (in this case the channel). Usually "< item >" contains the posts and titles you make. All the information within the "channel", but outside of the "item" tags are general information about your blog. (The title, link, description, etc.) But make sure you end the "< xsl:for-each >" with an "< /xsl:for-each >". Everything inbetween will stay in that specified division. To display the general information about your blog, use this: "< xsl:value-of select="name-of-tag" />". Just make sure you replace "name-of-tag" with the actual name of the XML tag at the top of the document (ie: title, description, etc.) :')
To move into the item subdivision, use the same "for-each" tag, but instead of using 'select="rss/channel"', use 'select="rss/channel/item"'. This is similar to saying "the point I made in my outline about weblogs was in topic I, heading A, section 1..." The trick is keeping with the flow of the XML.
Next, under "item", there should be subdivisions called "title", "link" and "description". To display the items under "item" (bad pun, I know!), use the same tag as before (< xsl:value-of select="name-of-tag" />)
Now, all you have to do is close with this: < /xsl:for-each > < /body >< /html >< /xsl:template >< /xsl:stylesheet > then add and format HTML however you want, remembering that YOU MUST CLOSE THE TAG!!! (ie: If you put a < div >, you must close it with a < /div > with the "xsl:value-of" tag inbetween.
If you have any questions or problems, please e-mail me at: e_reynold@yahoo.com.
Posted by EvanReynolds at 12:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
July 5, 2005
Food Fight!!!
Although something an elected official says is not representitive of the overall opinion of a country, I find the crack French president Chirac made about British and Finnish cuisine quite amusing.
"One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad."
-Chirac via BBC.com
The BBC reported that the joke was something about Britain having the worst food after Finnland.
Anyone for some blood pudding with steak and kidney pie?
Posted by EvanReynolds at 7:05 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)