My New Favorite Album

Ok, not really. I put this together on a dare from a friend to go to this page and do what it said: http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/wikipedia-names-your-band. Basically, you generate some random results on a few sites and throw them together into the next “album of the year“. My random amalgamation resulted in this album cover. Why Wikipedia chose Ciales for me, I’ll never know.

Go try out your own luck.

By the way, that big Aviary stamp at the bottom is because I made this in Aviary while taking a five minute break at work. If you are interested, Aviary has some really nice online image editing programs. I assume if you have a paid account, they won’t put their logo on everything you make.

I’m sure I’ll be getting some interesting search referrals on this post.

Embedding Flash was a pain

As you may have noticed, I embed a lot of Flash files into my blog posts. Embedding Flash content into WordPress posts is a tedious process at best. There are several options and parameters, all needing to be entered correctly or the object won’t display properly. Add to that the complexity of multiple browser support and you’ve got quite a mess, especially if you are concerned with valid XHTML markup.

Up until this point, I’ve been copy/pasting the object code into my posts. First I ftp the Flash file onto my server. Then I pull up a past post that had Flash in it. Then I copy that code to my new post, and edit the items that have changed such as the src and the object dimensions. Finally I save the post and preview it to see if I entered everything correctly. This takes way longer than it should.

Some recent developments

Last year I came across the SwfObject project. It is a great tool to simplify embedding Flash content. The markup is XHTML compliant, but still works most browsers, including IE6.

Flash forward to last month, when WordPress 2.5 was released. The new release includes the handy shortcode feature as well as improved media support with a nice API.

Flash magic voodoo

Combine the two and for me, you’ve got something magical. Assuming I’m not the only person who embeds heaps of Flash content into their posts, I decided to put together this new plugin: SwfObj.

While there are still a lot of features in the works, this initial version has significantly simplified the process of embedding Flash into my posts. A simple shortcode, such as the following, is all the markup I need to embed them. Here is the new shortcode, and the resulting embedded object.

[swfobj src="http://orangesplotch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/constellation.swf" width="500" height="196" allowfullscreen="true" required_player_version="9.0.0"]

Admittedly this shortcode example isn’t that short. But it sure is a lot shorter and easier to read than the resulting embedded object code.

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="swfobj_0" width="500" height="196">
  <param name="movie" value="http://orangesplotch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/constellation.swf" />
  <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />
  <!--[if !IE]-->
  <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://orangesplotch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/constellation.swf" width="500" height="196" allowFullScreen="true">
  <!--[endif]-->

    <p>The Flash plugin is required to view this object.</p>
  <!--[if !IE]-->
  </object>
  <!--[endif]-->
</object>

For more details on the plugin, visit the shiny new SwfObj WordPress plugin homepage. Feel free to download it and use it on your own site. Any feedback is welcome.

orangesplotch goes green

Installed lots of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs. We slowly have been phasing over our lights and I’ve found that not all bulbs are the same. The last batch we got were uber-environmental friendly, being mercury free also. They also don’t work in a lot of our light sockets, while the mercury versions do. I guess broken lights are the most environmentally friendly, so way to go!

We’ve always used cold water to wash our clothes. Mostly as a way to keep them from fading as fast, but I’ll claim the extra green-cred, too. Although I don’t know if hot water is all that hard to generate here in Arizona. During the summer there isn’t much difference between the hot water and the “cold” tap water coming through the pipes.

Bought a simple network file server for my home. Why does this save energy? Because before I was running two separate computers at the same time to store all of my files. Now I only need to have one computer on, and I still have access to all of my files. That is a lot of electricity saved, and it keeps my house a few degrees cooler while I’m working.

The way of the future

What are my plans for the future super-green orangesplotch? Well, for starters I need to swap out this mammoth CRT monitor with a nice flat panel. Not only will that save me lots of power, I could really use the extra real estate on my desk. My poor Star Wars action figures have no where to go right now.

So what are you doing to save the world? I’d love some pointers.

Recently I built a Flash bubble tornado for a client. Last night I was going to simplify it and write a tutorial on the process. While building the Flash files, I started experimenting in polar coordinate plotting. It wasn’t until around 2am that my eyelids started to droop, yanking me from my geek induced trance. Realizing I’d wasted the whole night on this tangent, I crawled off to bed for a bit of sleep before work.

Thanks to my several hours experiment in Flash, I still have no tutorial to post. But I do have this cool animation. I know I’m a total geek, but I can’t be the only person who thinks this is neat. Drag the sliders around to change the effect.

I built a dozen variations on this last night, but liked this one the best. Perhaps I’ll post some more later and maybe even put together a tutorial on the whole thing. Although for now I’ll be avoiding it so I can get some work done.

As all addictions begin, I started as a casual user over a year ago. Each month IconBuffet’s “Icon Chefs” release several new icon sets. Once a set is released, users can be given it by other users. However, there is a limit to how many sets you can give an receive each month. To make things a little more interesting, you also get points for various things, including how many sets you’ve given away to other users.

Originally I innocently got a few new sets each month as my tokens were refilled and then went about my life as usual. A month later I’d check in, get a few more and be on my way. But then something happened.

Suddenly I started wanting points. (Probably due to the fact that getting a ton of points gets you extra tokens, which means extra sets each month.)

So for the past two days I’ve been checking the blog on IconBuffet every five minutes. Anytime someone posts asking for a set, I immediately rush to be the first to delivery it to them.

If that wasn’t bad enough, today I completely snapped. I visited dozens of random users sending them snowmen sets until I was all out of stamps. It was a virtual blizzard of icons flying from my maddened fingers. I’ve turned into a pathetic snowman spammer all for free icons.

I don’t think I’m the only one who’s been overcome by the temptation. Their site’s been unusually slow lately.

Anyone else interested in becoming an icon addict simply needs to register on the IconBuffet.com. It’s only a matter of time until you’re hooked too. Fortunately for me I’m all out of tokens and stamps for another 29 days.

The good news is that things are settling down a little. Hopefully I will seize the opportunity be more responsible. To start, I’ll highlight a few of my accomplishments since the last post.

First of all, orange Splotch is now my officially registered business name. I even have a fancy certificate to prove it. It’s funny how important a piece of paper can make you feel. Even if that paper only cost you $10.00 plus a stamp.

I really wish I’d done this a long time ago.

As a celebration I went and took my fancy certificate to the bank and opened a business account. For anyone doing any kind of business on the side, I would highly recommend getting a dedicated business account. Keeping track of business income and expenses is painless when everything goes through a separate account. When you it all goes through your personal checking, it is a pain in the neck to follow.

And finally, I had a birthday. So go have a great day, too!!!

For those of you who don’t know what I look like, I thought I’d post this photo of me hanging out with Bart on the set of The Simpsons Movie. Bart and I go way back. I first met him when we were both in the 4th grade. Those were good time.

For those of you who don’t know yet, you can go visit everyone on the set at http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/. It is one of the best Flash sites I’ve come across.

Don’t forget … don’t forget … don’t forget

I’ve tried a lot of the conventional reminder techniques. Writing on my hands, writing on post-it notes, getting a planner, repeating things over and over in my head, etc. They always seem to fail me for some reason or another. Usually it’s because I get into my daily routine and the reminder part of my brain turns off. I forget to remember what I was supposed to do when I need to do it, only to remember sometime later.

The reminder part of the brain is tucked snuggly between the organization part and the common-sense part. That whole section of my brain seems to be broken.

So what is this nifty technique to never forget anything again? Basically all you do is send a reminder to yourself in the future. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Travelling through time to never forget

All you have to do to never forget something, is go into the future to the exact moment in time that you need to remember it. Then tell yourself what you had forgotten. Once back in the present, you can go ahead and forget all about it, because you know that future you is going to be reminded. Doesn’t that feel great?

Ok, so you aren’t going to be doing any actual time travelling. But that really is the basic idea of this technique. Since I can’t actually travel through time to remind myself. I pretend to travel through time to the moment when I need to remember. While this may sound childish, it actually works really well.

The trick is to get as detailed as possible in your imagination. If I want to remember to pick up some milk on the way home, imagine yourself driving in the car at the exact moment you need to remember to turn and go to the store. There is probably an intersection where you turn left instead of right or something like that. Imagine yourself getting to that intersection. Imagine the all the buildings, signs, landmarks, whatever that are there. Imagine what you’ll be thinking about at that moment, or what you’ll be doing. Maybe you can imagine how it will smell, or sound around you. The more specific and distinct your imaginary future is the better. Once you’ve made as detailed an image as you can, imagine yourself saying “Oh ya, I need to go get some milk!”

When you actually arrive at that moment in the future, all of the details that you imagined earlier will trigger your memory and suddenly you’ll remember “Oh ya, I need to get the milk!” Isn’t imaginary time travel fun!

Never forget the milk again

I’ve found that this method works great for remembering random tasks you don’t routinely do. Everyone’s different, and maybe the reminder part of your brain works fine. If it doesn’t, this might be just the trick you need. Try it out and let me know how it goes.

Clinical Studies

Here is Johnson’s claim.

In a recent study, 3 out of 5 babies had clinically visible dry skin even though the signs of dryness were not evident.

So how exactly do you have clinically visible dry skin without evident signs of dryness? It just doesn’t make any sense. Maybe you are only allowed to open your eyes in the clinic?

I do want a pair of those cool clinical goggles that they use to see dry skin that isn’t really dry.

Toddlers

My toddler loves to get his hands onto everything. Once in his ruthless grasp the fun begins. He squeezes, pokes, pulls, scratches, pounds, rips, stomps, and head-butts until something happens, sometimes with hilarious results.

Through this experimentation he’s learned a lot about how things in the house work. When he bangs on the glass door it makes the dog bark. When he pushes buttons on the remote it makes the television do weird stuff and has the added bonus of making the lazy parents get off the couch and chase him.

Tantrums

Things start to get ugly when he is unable to get his expected outcome. For instance, when he mashes buttons on the VCR remote (yes, we still have a VCR) nothing happens on the television. His reaction to this is to smash the remote until the batteries fly out, then chuck it across the room while yelling at the top of his lungs. That at least gets the parents off the couch.

Design

As a web designer I am constantly trying out new things. “Mashing the buttons” of a new CSS layout scheme, or poking at another Javascript library. After a while, I usually find things that seems to be consistent. Those becomes the expected behavior. Then I try them out in a different context, and nothing happens the way I thought it should. Rational people might rationally stop at this point and undo. Not me, I keep bashing at the problem until it does what I want, no matter how much collateral damage is caused on the rest of the site.

After my last CSS tantrum a couple of weeks ago, I tried to put the pieces back together as best I could. Sorry for the mess. I hope to fix it someday.

Turns out my son and I have a lot in common. Apparently I utilize the same learning techniques as a toddler. The only difference may be that I am mature enough not to do this on any of my clients sites, my son has no problem breaking things that don’t belong to him.

Are there any other web design toddlers out there? I know of at least one illustrator with a similar problem.