A little something I read about via wired.com, a really slick CSS ‘compressor’ called CSS Tweak, a web-based tool that will take whatever CSS you’ve written and consolidate styles, reducing the size and overhead of your style sheet code. Cool!
I spent the evening helping my brother with his plan for European domination. He’s got a super-giant vacation coming up from CompuHyperGlobalMegaNet (as my friend Gone Ronin calls it), and is planning to spend a month and a half running around like a crazy person to Greece, Italy, France, Holland, England, Scotland, Germany, and Austria. Kelly and I have been to most of those countries so he was looking for tips on where to go & what to do. It was fun to be able to share my experiences with someone going to most of the same places.
What’s even more fun is that he and his wife will be meeting Kelly and I in Scotland for a few days (since our trip to the UK coincides with their trip).
Europe beware! We will be over there simultaneously, to drain your countries of all your beer. Best double-up your brewing efforts now, lest riots break out in the streets! Mwaa-haa-haa!
Europe beware!
Europa passen auf!
L’Europe prennent garde!
Europa si guarda da!
While reading through a blog that Kelly sent me to (good Portland blog, Metroblogging Portland) there was mention of the March issue of the magazine Portland Monthly had a list of 50 Things Every Portlander Must Do and that another Portlander blogged a response with a more realistic list which was hilarious (and sadly true). Take a look! My favorite entry: "5. Ignore the Rose Festival." 🙂
Had another busy day, culminating in a trip to the Moon & Sixpence.
My ‘unemployment’ has been anything but the lazy layabout life I was hoping for, with all the freelance work I’ve had since my layoff in mid-January, and I continued along that path today by working on yet another project. This one for a good friend of mine for his new engineering firm, Greenlight Engineering. I built a quick "coming soon" page for him until the full website is designed… which included the logo I helped him with.
Afterwards I made a trip down to the bank (near Lloyd Mall) to deposit my gub’mint cheese, and then took the MAX back up to Hollywood district on the way to meet Kelly and some friends at the Moon & Sixpence. On the walk from the transit center I ventured into Things from Another World, a local comic book / gaming / collectibles shop. Fun place, picked up one of James O’Barr’s ‘The Crow’ set, this one featuring a female lead. Looking forward to having the time to read through it.
Afterwards I walked up to Moon & Sixpence to read, sip beers, and await the gang. As usual, had a blast there (despite a first; a rather gruff server, rather than the super-friendly serving staff I’d encountered previously). I got to meet my friend Brian’s brother, and later my brother and sister-in-law arrived. We ended up hanging out past Kelly’s bedtime, but we had a great time.
Thanks all for coming out to the pub! Hope you liked it as much as Kelly and I do. 🙂
P.S. This post is partially prompted by my friend Miranda, who pointedly reminded me that I’ve been slacking in my blogging duties. 🙂 That, and I’ve been waiting for a good reason to post. hehe.
This morning I decided to catch up on some news articles (Wired, C|Net, and Slashdot, the nerdy trinity) and was again angered by the examples of corporate greed and complete disregard for us, the people (you know, the ones with the money), in their strategies.
First was news regarding the future of computers. TCPA (or ‘Trusted Computing’, an encryption system between the hardware and software) and DRM (Digital Rights Management, the system content distributors use to lock down your purchases) are working together actively. Initially TCPA described as a way of locking out malware (such as viruses and spyware) only. It’s clear now that the media & content restrictions possibilities are endless. Without getting too tinfoil hat, it’s certainly possible (probable? we’ll see) for new PC’s to reject my ability to install some software that’s not signed (say, Linux or some other open source software), or play my media that’s not signed (say, my own self-ripped MP3 or OGG files). I find it obtrusive and invasive that the next piece of computer hardware I buy will contain components that can track my usage and send data about my activities all over the web.
Grrr!
Next I read an article about how new high-definition disc players (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD) may not have output support for component (a 3-plug system that all HDTV’s have, used to deliver high-definition picture from devices such as your dish receiver) because component is analog, and there is no way for content makers to restrict your viewing with it. Instead, in order to watch the new shiny HD-DVD disc you bought at full high definition, your TV will need to have an HDMI input (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) which is digital and can be restricted with DRM. The problem is, according to the article, nobody is talking about it and it will affect a lot of people. What may happen is if you only have component on your HDTV, it may drop the resolution down to what current DVD resolution (480p), thus removing any benefit of HD discs.
This sucks for a lot of people because until relatively recently many HDTV’s didn’t even have HDMI inputs, and if it did, there was only one (compared to multiple component inputs so people can plug in their Dish receiver, their XBox 360, etc.). Here again we see content makers pushing hardware makers into things not based on market pressures, but based on their desires to lock down what we do with the things we buy.
Double-Grr!!
Maybe we need to be reminded of how far corporate greed will go to make an extra penny, but I don’t see either TCPA & DRM or the new high-definition disc issues being things that benefit us (the people making the purchasing decisions) in any way. I’m more inclined to see it as another way for these big corporations to commit yet another invasive act (crime some would say), and this time we have no recourse thanks to the DMCA. I can’t hack my PC to not send personal data over the net, becuase I’d be breaking the law. I have to just take it. But I’m not going to be smiling.