cookiecrook²

8:58 PM #

ladrón de la galleta

I met some of the other members of the Austin FreeNet team today. Our team is sponsored by BMC Software but I think there's only one BMC employee on the team. At least two of the team members are fluent in Spanish so it looks like we'll probably get to do a multilingual site.

Pictured from left to right are team members: Victor Espinal, James Craig (me), Denise Guckert, and Rafael Torres. Other members not pictured are Melanie Boyd and Matt Sansbury.

I spent most of yesterday moving files and rearranging my desk so I could place my Mac center stage. It's official now. In fact, this is the first weblog post I've made on my Mac. Move over Mr. Gates, hello Mr. Jobs. So far, my only trouble was moving email info from Outlook on my PC to Entourage on my Mac. It's kinda funny that the only trouble I had on the Mac was with a Microsoft program.

9:01 PM #

Accessible web sites...

Like last year, there was some last minute shuffling in a few of the Austin AIR developer teams. I moved from the Community TechKnowledge team to the Austin FreeNet team.

Speaking of AIR sites, I've been doing some backend development for The Austin Project website which was designed in the 2000 Austin Rally. It's time for a redesign so I'm going to be doing that as well. The warm, fuzzy feeling and a tax-deduction is nice, but I really need some paying work soon. I'm still looking for the right job.

11:50 PM #

If it sounds too good to be true...

I had so many flat tires (3) on my bike today that I got fed up and bought a "self-healing" innertube. It's got goo on the inside that's supposed to ooze out and dry in any punctures you get while riding. When I got home, I put it on, inflated it, and green goo started spraying out the air valve. Within a few minutes it had sealed itself shut and I couldn't even deflate it enough to take the tire off... What a marvel of engineering..!!?

Anyway, I finally got the tire off and dug the receipt out of the trashcan. The miraculous "self-healing" tube is going back to the store tomorrow...

8:25 PM #

New photos posted...

I finally posted some photos from my Grand Canyon trip. They are about five years old, but I just developed them this month. I'm not going to put up any more photos until I finish that photo database I've been working on. I mean it; don't tempt me.

7:59 PM #

Making the switch...

I installed Jaguar on my Mac today and I'm beginning to make the switch; not because of the silly marketing campaign, but because I'm convinced Mac OS X is the best operating system on the planet right now.

Of course I'll still keep my Windows PC, but I'm about to start using it as my test box and move the G4 to my primary position for daily use. It'll probably take me a few weeks to ween myself from Windoze, but I've started the 12-step program and really appreciate all the support I've been getting from my fellow Mac-users. Ha!

6:40 PM #

To skate or not to skate...

I used to skate(board) but haven't had a chance to in several years. Lately though, there have been some signs tempting me to take it back up again.

Earlier this year, an indoor skatepark opened about a mile down the street and a skateshop opened right behind my house. The skateshop owners built a new halfpipe in the alley behind my back fence and I can hear them skating out there every day now.

I also learned that there's a pro skater now named James Craig. He's even got a few signature decks available (another version). I think I might buy the deck even if I don't skate; just so I can have a board with my name on it.

The only things holding me back are fear and my addiction to the internet. I'm online close to twelve hours a day now (what a loser) and I'm not sure if I want to risk breaking another bone (I snapped two in the five or six years I skated). It's not that I'm worried about pain, it';s just that I'm afraid it would affect my ability to work and earn money. Productive computer work requires full movement of both arms and being an independant contractor requires a certain amount of mobility in my legs. Nobody would hire me if I was injured... Having to worry about paychecks can really take the fun out, can't it?

11:43 PM #

Jet lag, sick dog, and overfed fish...

Sacramento was pretty fun... We forgot to mail our postcards though. Tomorrow we're gonna send them out and hope our family doesn't notice the Austin postmark.

We saw the Sacramento Zoo, and also tried to visit a place called Fairytale Town, but they wouldn't let us in. We even saw the sign that read, "All adults must be accompanied by a child" but thought it was a joke. Nothing published about this place has any mention regarding this rule mentioned until you get to the sign at the front gate. As it turns out, there is an enforced Sacramento city ordinance that prohibits adults from coming in without a kid. To get around this, we kept seeing groups of several adults go in with one child. There was one group of at least six people that walked in with a newborn so young she probably didn't even realize where she was. Jessie and I felt a little left out until we realized the law was probably to protect the kids from any creepy predators that might lurk in a place like that.

We didn't get to Yosemite, but we did manage to see the Grand Canyon from the plane on the way back. It looked smaller than I remember, but we were a long way off, and I'm not sure if we were even seeing the entire canyon. It stretched all the way to the haze on the horizon. I told you it was big!

Tonight, we came home to a stinky fishtank and a chihuahua with a hurt back. Jessie took her to the vet who implied that, since it's happened before, it might be a spinal problem. Please wish your best wishes for my dog. She could really use the love right now.

12:46 AM #

Black and white photography looks so classy...

I finally got my Grand Canyon prints back from the photo store today. I'm really busy so I only had time to post one picture.

The Grand Canyon is one of those places that is so massive, no picture could ever make you understand. It's over a mile deep and in some places, it's ten or twenty miles wide! Trust me, no picture can capture that scale. You have to see it for yourself.

I will try to post the rest of the photos after I get back from Sacramento next week. While Jessie and I are in California, we might try to go see Yosemite Valley again. It's another place you have to see to believe. Greater Yosemite Falls is over 900 feet tall and El Capitan is a straight cliff face that's over 3000 feet tall! Yosemite also happens to be the most beautiful place on earth.

11:56 PM #

AIR training today...

Developer training for the Accessible Internet Rally was today. I think we all learned a lot, especially with Jim Thatcher there to answer all the really hard questions. The whole event seems well organized and planned. Our team will be assigned a non-profit organization soon and we get meet them on October 1st at Scholtz Bier Garten. Hooray Beer!

After the session, Jordan and Geoff Traugott showed off some of their capoeira moves. Then I went home and put the milk in the pantry... Seriously... I took the milk out of the fridge, poured myself a glass, and put it in the pantry... I realized what I had done a few minutes later. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I only had about four hours sleep last night. I'm tired. I should go to bed.

11:16 PM #

This just in...

Mason (also of digital?confusion) just posted a video compiled from bits of our performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art - Chicago back in April. Watch out though, it's a 16 megabyte download.

You can't see this from the compilation, but the hour-long performance consisted of several semi-narrative video pieces mixed and compiled by digital?confusion about the work of various artists. These artists included Sterlarc, DJ Spooky & One Infinity, Margaret Dolinsky, Shaka McGlotten, and Chelsea Smock. To close, we performed a live audio/visual remix of the previously shown pieces. The performance was part of the VersionFest 02 conference which also featured other performers and artists such as Negativland, Hexstatic, and OVT.

9:10 PM #

Ribbit.

I'm back at frog this week filling in while some people are out of town. It's only a week-long contract though so I'm still job hunting. Let me tell you how hard it is to get up before dawn after a full month of sleeping late. Arghh!

Tomorrow night, the Austin Museum of Digital Art is having their monthly Digital Showcase as part of the Cinema Texas opening. It promises to be an entertaining and creatively stimulating experience. I'm going to be so tired on Wednesday.

1:25 PM #

Will design websites for food (or charity)...

Jordan is putting together a developer team for the upcoming Austin Accessible Internet Rally. The team consists mainly of developers (including yours truly) from the txraves geeks list, which Jordan also moderates. I'm excited; I tried to enter last year, but the teams were already filled.

The Accessible Internet Rally (AIR) is mainly a one-day event where volunteer developer teams build websites for non-profit organizations. These websites are designed with ADA, Section 508, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in mind. The idea is that handicapped people should be able to access the site of the charities that assist them. Imagine that!

1:40 PM #

five-year old memories

While cleaning up my office recently, I found three rolls of black and white film that I didn't remember. They were unlabeled so I had no idea what was on them or how long ago I had shot them. It was like a wrapped present. I took them to Holland photo and had to wait for couple of days while they were developed. The anticipation was ripe when I finally saw the contact sheets.

It turns out the photos were from a trip to New Mexico and Arizona about five years ago. Most of the shots were from the Grand Canyon, but I had forgotten all about the cliff dwelling, giant meteor crater, and the car graveyard. I only have contact sheets now, but I ordered some prints so I'll scan and post the photos when I get them back.

11:27 PM #

Microsoft Windows P.o.S.?

I was in the Albertson's grocery store the other day and noticed the operating system they used on the checkout machines was labeled "Microsoft Windows P.o.S." Ahem. Now, I suppose it's meant to stand for "Point of Sale", but I can think of a much better meaning.

I found a great quote on this page: We specialize in windows pos systems and provide total pos system solutions for automating retail businesses.

10:43 PM #

It's hard to believe it's been one year...

I was planning on posting something special for today, like a silent "remember" post with nothing in it, but I reconsidered when I realized how terribly cheesy and pointless that would be. Despite what the media might imply, no one in this country over the age of ten will ever forget what what happened on this day last year. It's one of those occurances like the Challenger explosion or Kennedy's assassination. I remember the exact moment and place I was when I first heard the news on the morning of September eleventh. I will also never forget the look on Mr. Lee's face when he told our fourth-grade class about the space shuttle tragedy.

Jessie and I decided not to watch all the commemorative programs on television today. Instead, we went out to the lake to be by ourselves. What better way to remember than to be with your loved ones: the friends and family we take for granted until sometimes when it's too late. These events should be remembered as Pearl Harbor is remembered, with a national holiday. It should not be an excuse to bar-b-q, like Labor Day, but a day for revered reflection, like Pearl Harbor Day. But what would we call it? Perhaps just "September 11th", but that has no semantic meaning and wouldn't do justice to the victims memory. Not "WTC Day", because that would dismiss the victims who died in Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. A name mentioning terrorism would do more for the terrrorists than for the victims. Perhaps the holiday should be named after patriotism or vigilance, things that many of us had forgotten until last year.

About ten years ago, my family's van was broken into across the street from the National Archives building in Washington, DC. The next day, I remember examining a statue outside that same building. The statue was of a man, ever-watchful, with an inscription that read, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."

1:11 PM #

cookiecrook comments are down

It looks like the site that hosts my log comments has been suspended which means that comments are down at least temporarily. I've been meaning to write my own so I wouldn't have to rely on other sites, and I guess now is as good a time as any.

I will still post my videos soon, but I'm working out a capture problem now. In the meantime, feel free to watch this low-resolution version of my Turntablism documentary (7.5 Mb) from college featuring DJ Nick Nack and DJ X-Man.

11:25 PM #

Recommend a good book?

On the geeks list, Shyama recently proposed the question, "What sci-fi books do you recommend?" My first thought was Neuromancer by William Gibson — she hadn't read it — but it got me thinking about other good books. Not necessarily sci-fi, but what's the first book that comes to mind when I ask for a recommendation? Fiction or non-fiction; I'm down for both.

My site's been down for a while, so I've probably lost most of my reader base, but if you read this, please comment: What good book do you recommend?

8:41 PM #

Riding in the rain...

I went riding today. The sun was shining and, after two days of rain, it was looking to be a great day. I was only planning about a ten mile ride, but it seemed longer because the second half was in the pooring rain. The only unnerving thing is that Austin drivers tend not to see me even when it isn't raining; I've had someone pull out in front of me almost daily but it's scary when their tires skid on the wet pavement.

I was filthy: soaked from head to toe with mud splatters all over. I had a streak of brown up the middle of my back where my rear tire had been tossing mud up on me. The ladybug didn't seem to mind though. It hitched a ride on my hip for at least a couple of miles. It was just happy to be out of the rain — the rain was pelting my other side — and the ladybug picked one of the few dry spots on my body.

9:42 PM #

Color schemes and web standards

I added a few more color schemes to the customizations page: a grey one as a tribute to the the now-defunct breathless.org and an orange one as a tribute to web standards guru, Jeffrey Zeldman. Mr. Zeldman is also wrote the featured article in this month's issue of DigitalWeb magazine, 99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete. Just so there's no confusion, this site isn't one of those... :p

4:09 PM #

Craig James, IJ Cryptic Elliptic

Glenn Israel (pictured here) is a talented illustrator and friend of mine. I was digging around on his site the other day and found something I had forgotten about. Several years ago, he wrote a science-fiction short story loosely based on me — the character named Craig James.

The story involves the future of the stock market. Instead of stock tickers, brokers and traders get their tips from talented IJs (information jockies). These IJs spin a subtle web of sound and information, underlaid with stock tips and advice that can only be perceived by talented listeners. I found the story immensely entertaining (though that might be from the ego fluff), but it'd be interesting to hear opinions from some of you.

9:01 PM #

Don't waste money on a rental, just buy it...

Yimay and my sister were right... Amelie was a great movie: probably the best I've seen all year. When I told Yimay I wanted to see it, she pleaded, "Don't waste money on a rental, just buy it."

If I had known that the director was Jean-Pierre Jeunet, I would have listened to her. (I own his other movies: Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children.) Amelie, a love story, is quite different his other strange science-fiction films, but it is obviously the next step from a master craftsman. Jeunet's visual style and attention to detail really make you understand the artform and quality of craft in film-making. The writing, direction, acting, color, framing, editing, casting, wardrobe, location, and overall feel of the film is flawless. It's quite a change from the typical Hollywood block-blunder that comes through. You won't see collectible Amelie cups at Taco Bell, but please realize that's a good thing.

10:22 PM #

Still grinding away...

I'm still hard at work tweaking every bit of the site I can. My previous site also conformed to web standards, but I hid the style from Netscape 4 browsers. This time, I was was able to maintain my geeky XHTML 1.1 spec, but I added a seperate stylesheet that ensures most of the design can even be visible in five-year-old Netscape 4. I also added some site customizations back in. Customizable color schemes are coming, too.

Netscape released their Navigator version 7.0 browser yesterday (Hat tip: Doug Cook). It's based on Mozilla 1.0, I believe, and they still seem to have a problem storing the browser chrome icons. When I first ran it, some of the buttons looked like Netscape 6, some of them looked like Mozilla, and some of them had the new Netscape 7 theme. Besides that sloppiness, it ran really well.

11:51 PM #

Is labor day a holiday if I'm unemployed?

The redesign continues. I added the page for my recent object-oriented javascript experiments.

I took some pictures of Jessie at Inks Lake yesterday that I'll post tonight. Pretty soon, that random photo up top will be clickable but I'm still setting up the database for my photos. Until then, you'll just have to deal with the thumbnails.

1:08 AM #

cookiecrook redesign complete (almost)

Wow, finally I got the site back up. It's still not quite finished but all the pages should be active again. This week, I'll be adding my personal portfolio including a lot of my old student work from UT. Check back soon.