Rae | A view from ASTP

Links and such

2005-08-11T11:59:00.000-04:00

First off, a few links that I thought were interesting:

High-speed Photography

This has some very interesting photographs of bullets going through playing cards, balloons, and lightbulbs, as well as a few other things. The coolest part is that he actually explains how he achieved taking each shot.

Nagasaki Journey: The Photographs of Yosuke Yamahata

A photographer's portfolio of photos taken in the aftermath of Nagasaki. Caution: graphic scenes of the destruction. When I was taking a class last semester that covered a lot of Atomic-bomb literature, we kept seeing the same handful of photographs over and over again. Very few from those days actually exist, or are avaliable for public viewing due to censorship and the nature of what happened. I find the photo essay interesting...

Chasing the Dream

An article about gaming, its effect on aggressive behavior, and an interesting note that a large percentage of gamers aren't actually kids; and that the adults who battle against gaming are more often than not over the age of 40... merely a decade older than the average gaming age (according to the article... I don't know if I can believe that one yet).

Freedom of Expression in the Copyright Era

A flash video I found... somewhere. I can't remember where. I think a back issue of Kaliber 10000, perhaps? (But don't worry, the video has the author's name and all.) Anyway, the link is pretty self-explanitory.

Private and Public

This photographer set up his camera in one spot in London and took pictures of passerbys. What resulted is an interesting collection of expressions, additudes, and personalities. (Alex sent me this, so some of you may have seen it already.)

I was going to post a link to my project, but I think it'd be better to wait until tomorrow and just show everyone.

TechnoBio 2

2005-08-10T01:17:00.000-04:00

The JPG table of contents inspired me. I can't hold a candle to that book, but I though this would be a cool way to show how often I use technology on a typical day and how it has changed as I've gotten older.

Legend:
Light Green: TV
Yellow: Telephone
Blue: Video Games
Green: Computer personal use
Orange: Computer job use
Red: Computer school work
Black: Alarm Clock (always a downer)

(Each end is Midnight, center is Noon)

Grade School:

Middle School:

High School:

University:

Calendar script

2005-08-08T13:59:00.000-04:00

A major problem I've run into is how to generate a calendar.

The current calendar system for the zine, is that the webmaster (not me!) updates it about once a week by hand, with his abominable code. In addition to the main calendar, there is a small "This Week's Shows" section on the front page (displaying... you guessed it, the current week's shows), which is also updated by hand.

Does anyone know of a script online that can pull in dates and events from a database or flat file and output them?

I tried searching for one, but came up empty handed.

Also, if anyone has any ideas for how to structure one of my own, it'd be helpful, because I'm at a loss.

EDIT: I don't want to output a "calendar" like you'd see in a blog to choose a post date. I need something that will list, in text, a date, and then the shows/events for that day.

Using Dreamweaver...

2005-08-08T11:49:00.000-04:00

I was wondering if anyone could briefly explain using templtes in Dreamweaver to me?

On another note, I'm slightly shifting the scope of my second project (the Digital Yearbook). I've been scripting a database-driven zine from the ground up... and I think input would be helpful this week. It's not that I'm abandoning the Digital Yearbook, but really, all I could get done with it is scripting anyhow, and a few of the things I've written (and learned!) with the zine will be very helpful to the DY. I need a lot of support from the college to even begin on the DY (past the scripting/design), so I think after finishing the zine, it'll be relatively simple to change some things and have a decent structure for the DY that I can use to pitch the idea to the powers that be.

Here is a link to what I've done so far on the zine: http://66.84.24.110/hf/index_2.php (Some menu items work... mostly just some of the "about" and "archives")

I'll probably post some of my code (and the problems I'm having) later today.

Of Templates and Bugs

2005-08-04T15:00:00.000-04:00

Well, I have a basic layout for FPG. You can see it at http://students.hamilton.edu/fpg/index.php.

A present, it seems to only display properly in Firefox. It does the obligatory IE box-structure breaking, and Safari weirds out on the nav for some reason. I'm working on getting that stuff fixed. I also need to locate the CD that has content for it.

Feedback is welcome.

Today was...

2005-08-04T01:21:00.000-04:00

Overall a productive day, I think.

I didn't get anything visible done, except straightening out my background graphics for the FPG site, but I did spend all day, evening, and night doing some scripts in PHP/MySQL. Nothing I did will actually apply to the FPG, but I have a good grasp on the foundation of a database-driven site that I can probably build up to use with the digital yearbook.

So, today has been very good, in my opinion. I hope I can get some work done on FPG tomorrow, though.

Progress?

2005-08-02T16:39:00.000-04:00

One of the main things I needed to learn before getting a start on any scripting for the digital yearbook was some sort of intro to MySQL. Aaron's tutorial today helped me get a grasp on what it was, and the userface, and I'm sure my book, when it comes in, will help as well.

I'm slowly making progress on a layout for the FPG website. I have a color scheme, and a background, which I should be able to share tommorrow.

I've been struggling with ideas about a layourt for the digital yearbook, because I'm not sure if I want it to tie in with the school website design (which I'm not a fan of), or for it to be its own seperate entity. I'm going to make some decisions on that later this week, but I'm more concerned about getting a handle on the scripting side.

Tomorrow I need to do some research on CSS that my brain doesn't seem to be willing to remember... and hopefully I can get a template done for the FPG.

My brain really is fried today, for some reason.

Bad News for Both of my Projects

2005-08-02T12:34:00.000-04:00

I just recieved an email from the HC ITS department:

Beginning July 1, 2005, ITS no longer provides server-side tools (programming or databases) for new student or organization Web sites. This is one of the services we were forced to cut due to a lack of resources to support it.

This essentially kills the basic structure of my sites. I can still go on, especially with the FPG site, but in the end it means more work for me as the webmaster. I'll have to find funding for the Digital Yearbook, which, may or may not be a problem depending on how stingy the Student Activites Board/Publications Board decides to be.

I'm still going to get workable scripts going, and get a non-database driven FPG site going.

Creativity Block needs to break!

2005-08-01T11:44:00.000-04:00

I really wish I had a little more art in middle/high school, it'd really have made my life for the last couple years a bit more easy.

I've been trying to come up with a layout for both the FPG and Digital Yearbook. I tried this weekend, and at present, the few shreds I've patched together look horrible, and are never going to see the light of day. I had a decent design going for the FPG at one point, but I think it needs work. And by work, I mean needs to be sent to the byte bucket in the sky and for me to completely start over.

While I'm on here whining about lack of creativity, I'll hand out a useful link or two.

Vanilla

An open source forum code that is based strictly on PHP/MySQL and CSS (I think it's even standards compliant) Don't ask me how to implement it, though. I'm still working on that part.

WordPress

WordPress is one of the more common blogging softwares avaliable. It comes with many templates, and you can create your own, add plugins, etc. You have a lot of control over what you do with it, so it's essentially possible to run any type of site using it as your foundation. You have to provide a domain that runs MySQL and PHP, but it really steps up the functionality of a blog.

That's all for now, folks. I'm going to try to get some more work done.

Response to a couple comments

2005-07-28T17:02:00.000-04:00

Organization for the digital yearbook will be based on each event being a parent to its specific media elements. The event itself will have a profile page of sorts with liks to its media, and probably a randomized image from the event, possibly with pieces of student narration.

As far as the student narration is concerned, I'm actually not entirely sure how to set it up yet. I called it a wiki in my last post, but I don't know at this point if a wiki or a blog would be better suited. The requirements for the narrative would be that it needs to promote single-submissions with editing capabilities so that the same person doesn't submit five different things, and I don't want it to allow comments (I'll explain that another time). I'd like to be able to pull out a snippet of the narrative to randomize on the main page as a sort of "Blah blah blah... the event inspired me to... | View Complete Narrative" thing. With a wiki, I believe I'd be able to set up an index page with a sort of metanarrative (just basic details) with links to the student naratives.

I'll take a look at Cunningham's book on Wikis tomorrow.

And, because Bryan asked:

This is a Google Earth shot of the small town I lived in from 3rd-5th grade. Peculiar, MO (I kid you not!) located about 20 minutes south of Kansas City. I believe Bryan asked me to post it because I can pinpoint the time of the picture. If you look to the right of the school, you should be able to make out a yellow earthmover. The picture was taken in the spring/summer/fall of 1997; they started construction on a new wing the spring that I moved on to 6th grade.

7-day Plan Of Sorts

2005-07-27T16:45:00.000-04:00

By this weekend:

Order books!
- Something on PHP and MySQL
- JPG
- Game On
- Rules of Play

Get a solid layout drawn

Sort out a graphic style and color scheme(s?)

Read up on wiki software

This weekend:

Start getting graphics set up

Get a barebones stylesheet going

Start scripting some of the HTML

Next week:

Get down to business

A Fleshed Out Idea

2005-07-27T01:19:00.000-04:00

I think I'm pretty set on making this Digital Yearbook idea work (hopefully a beta for 2005-06 with a full launch in Fall 06).

For my time here at CET, that means I want to get a site template done (meta-site, so to speak) and basic organization set up.

Organization:

Events

Audio
Images
Video
Wiki/blog-type structure that allows members of the campus community to give their view of the event

The interface will be a XHTML/CSS/PHP/MySQL website, but it will be campus interweb access only. The available content will be from the current year only, with an archive available on DVD, possibly available to anyone who wants one, possibly only available through the library, depending on if good 'ol HamTech wants to give the project funding.

The Film Production Guild design will tie into this because one of the biggest events that will utilize this would be the 24 Film Fest. I'd like to be able to use the same video upload script for both it and the digital yearbook.

I will need too much help from certain groups on campus (IT, Student Assembly, etc) to be able to launch the Digital Yearbook without consultation with the campus, but for now the FPG site is my responsibility and I have access to everything I need for it.

What I need: I definitely need to learn some MySQL. I have a pretty good hold on the HTML and CSS I'll need, and mostly on the PHP. I'd like to learn a little more about DHTML, seeing as I know nothing about it, although I don't think I'd implement it.

I'm also going to have to study Wikis, because I think they would be an excellent way to archive a narrative of the events on campus.

A lot of this has to do with my absolute fascination with databases and archiving anything and everything I can. I think that a lot of the Hamilton experience cannot be captured in print, and that this would come a little closer.

Recap - What I'll be doing over the course of the next two weeks:

Designing and coding Hamilton's Film Production Guild website.

Hosting for student-made films for the 24 Hour Film Fest
A database of skills (Jane Doe can Act/Film/Do Lights/Whatever)
Meeting minutes
News

A script that will allow a user to upload a video file complete with Title, Crew, Cast, and other pertinent info into the database
Rough draft template for the main Digital YB site

The End.

Pax.

2005-07-26T22:43:00.000-04:00

Pax. An Instrument.

The course of the narrative in Pax depends soley on the interaction of the "player." The "instrument" is a flash interface. It is split into two sides, one of which has the interactive elements, and the other has the textual narrative. Figures scroll vertically through the first half; these are the pieces with which the "player" interacts. The narrative is expanded by clicking these characters. Sometimes, a click results in a sort of random, inner-thought, other times as a more direct thought. The piece itself is set up according to a 24-hour time span, with six different stages. Each character has different thoughts according to which stage the environment is presently in. It is up to the "player" to decide when he/she wants to click on a certain character, if at all. The interaction creates a unique narrative that is directly related to the choices the "player" makes.

//edit:

I had a sample narrative here, but Blogger didn't like it and cut 3/4 of it off, and the rest of my post.

The rest of the post was just asking Bryan if he'd post hyperlinks to the other cybertexts. But, I think that has been covered.

Project Ideas Take Two

2005-07-25T14:17:00.000-04:00

If this were large scale, it would take an insane amount of bandwidth, but I was thinking of a database of identities:

Each "identity" would have some mix of pictures, video, audio, text, or whatever media the person making the id chooses. I guess for the program, I'd make one of my own, and try to recruit one or two other people to help out. The idea of identity and how someone sees themselves is a very broad thing to study, so this wouldn't be a study of that, so much as a showcase and how media can define something, or someone.

Because my main background is the web, I think this would be web-based, although I'm not sure how I'd organize it. Eventually, I think it would be interesting to expand it to public domain and get submisions from all over the world.

I'll probably have a completely different idea before we actually begin working on the projects.

Project Ideas

2005-07-24T23:11:00.000-04:00

I've spent all weekend thinking about a project, and I still can't really come up with anything. So far all I have is trying to further webstandards knowledge by using php/css/xhtml to display some of the basic things people often use flash for (like interactive menues and photo galleries). I hope this is just some creativity block that will break in the next couple days.

On a somewhat more producive note, I put some of my photos from Saturday up on Flickr in the ASTP 2005 group pool, so if you join up (Sara sent out an invite via email), you can see mine, hers, and some of Alex's. I'll probably put some up from today's bridge expedition as well.

A couple more helpful links

2005-07-20T14:00:00.000-04:00

stock.xchng

A library of completely free stock photos

Dafont

A font resource

Hamachi

Free virtual network client

PHP Manual

A WONDERFUL PHP resource. It has a complete list of functions, plus in-depth explanations of uses for each. This manual allowed me to teach myself basic PHP to the point that I wrote an entire M68000 assembler in it for a class final last year. If you know anything about C++ or Java, you'll be able to pick up elementary php very easily.

Color Whore

A decent resource of websafe colors and their hex numbers. It's not necessarily organized, but they try. It can come in handy once in a while when you just need to see a bunch of colors to get the creative juices flowing.

Fixed or fluid width? Elastic!

Another article on CSS... explores options avaliable about a fixed width or fluid layouts, and explains min and max width.

Helpful Web Design Links

2005-07-19T15:28:00.000-04:00

The goal of W3C recommendations:

The W3C created recommendations like XHTML and CSS so the web would not fragment into ever–more–incompatible browsers and devices, but would instead work for everyone, according to the vision of Tim Berners–Lee, the guy who invented the web in the first place.

The only way we designers and developers can help the web achieve this noble goal is by authoring to these recommendations, while taking care to ensure that the sites still work as best they can in non–compliant browsers.

From Why Don't You Code for Netscape?

The ultimate CSS resource: W3C Standards Resource

A journal of articles on innovative uses for CSS: A List Apart

A decent layout recource: Glish CSS

A couple of decent articles:
Article on browser breaking and standards compliancy.

Article on writting efficient CSS.

Article on making faux active links for navagation.

Media Analysis on website

2005-07-19T11:34:00.000-04:00

Refer to PostSecret

This website combines a few different types of sub-media within the medium of a website, or more specifically a blog.

Media Content: digitized images of postacards (USPS-style) mailed to the admin of PostSecret. Each postcard is created using different media, including, but not limited to magazine images, photographs, printed text, markers, and the like.

Media Grammar: Presented as a series of images in a blog format, sometimes with a comment or two, more often not.

Media Environment: You read people's secrets in the comfort of your own home (or anywhere else you choose to read them), on a computer screen. The environment has effect of separating you from the subject matter, yet you can often still relate to it.

Technical Constraints: The postcards are often created from textured media that you can not experience fully through the digitized image posted. Older ones are often removed because of space constraints.

Institutional Practices: Not so much a practice as a lack of one: the admin does not provide archives of the postcards. This forces the reader to visit every week, for fear of missing one, and also creates a dynamic aspect of constant changing, and if you want to see the card in the future, you must save it for yourself in a different location.

Cultural Circulation: As more people discover this, it has grown. A band has featured enlarged versions of some postcards in their music video, bringing the project to an entirely separate set of media.

Welcome

2005-07-18T16:29:00.000-04:00

It's far less humid here in cyber world than it is outside. Conclusion: I may just have some lucid thoughts written here, as opposed to the rambling I generally do in real life.

I wonder what life would be like without technology, some times. I guess I'm part of this new generation of punk kids who have always had consoles and computers to play around with. After all, the Nintendo was brought to the US the year I was born. Even my mother, who despises computers (mostly because they break any time she even thinks of touching one), helped my grandfather code COBOL programs as a teen.

My conclusion is that the world would be a lot thinner. And that I'd be somewhat useless.

I was a tomboy when I was younger, but where now the connotation may be something of a nerdy die-hard gamer chick, for me it meant playing football, baseball, and climbing trees (and gods-forbid you try to get me in a dress most of the time). In fact, being a gamer was imposible. I never had a console: my only experience was with arcade games, and occasionally a kid would know a kid and somehow I'd get to go to said known kids house and play some Super Mario Bros. And "computer"? "Computer," what's a "computer"? Finally, I got a second hand Nintendo with about 3 games, which introduced me to technology as we know it today. Fortunately, that wasn't until I was sbout 11, so my metabolism was still pretty good.

But being introduced to gaming and computing when I was just at that age where I might start gaining some sort of skill set threw me on my course of being completely attached to anything technological. My resume reads, "Advanced experience with computers, that's about it" except in more words to make me look better than I really am.

Right now, I have mediocre programming and design skills. Eventually, I'll end up in a job that uses them. Why's that? Because I don't have any other marketable skills. Unfortunately, however, there is an entire generation of kids just like me.

The pounds are adding up from the kids that don't know what to do unless they're in front of a TV or monitor. Anyone up for some excercise?