Now that I have everything pretty much organized the way I want it, this site is a bit too large to browse the traditional way. Here are some ways to categorize this site that will allow you to peak into my past a little bit. If you ever have some spare time, you may find this of interest.

Music Category - Both finished and unfinished songs.. a way to reduce the site to just music and playable files.
LJ Category - Old pictures, including our New Hampshire and Alaska vacations.
Snapshots Category - Sick of me blabbing? Tired of reading about linux? This is a way to reduce my blog to nothing but photos.
Video Category - YouTube videos, mostly of my child.

'Bio' Tag - A list of posts I have written that tell an artist's life story.
'Animals' Tag - Posts relating to animals, most of them being images of my pets.
'Photog' Tag - Tags where I mention techniques related to photography. May contain insights/tips.
'Favorites' Tag - This is a subsection of my snapshots category that contains my favorite photos.
'Linkfest' Tag - Posts containing a lot of links to other sites/articles/videos.
'Facts' Tag - Facts gathered from a variety of locations. A good series on this site.

Pogo (otherwise known as "that kid who cuts up scenes from Disney movies and makes songs out of them") is back, with a real-world mix of 100% original samples. The subject: his mother and her pretty garden.

In the words of my friend Adam: "This kid is annoying. Everything he does is perfect." After seeing all those beautiful camera shots, I agree that this guy has too much talent. Everything he does is so ethereal, atmospheric, and professional. I wonder how he made the video. It looks like some really nice lenses, so it's probably a digital camera that can shoot video also.

Stephen certainly is mesmerized as soon as the lady comes on screen. This is one video that he watched the whole way through.

Edit: I don't know why I said that Pogo is "back," considering he never went anywhere.

I grew up on the demoscene, though I never participated. When I was 13 years old, I would dial in to a BBS that had ftp capability so I could download demos and songs off hornet.org. In its most basic form, a "demo" is an executable file that shows off the graphics/programming/music talents of a group of people that form a "demogroup". It can be any visual effects/themes imaginable, synced to music. Demos have been around for over 20 years on all platforms of computers. About a week ago, I was curious to see if the demoscene was still alive, and it is still alive and well (mostly in the EU, just like when I was a kid).

Demos were always "cutting edge" as far as technology was concerned. People were programming 3d effects in their demos well before computer games were using 3d textures and shadowing effects. The average user could not run the current day's demos when they were first released due to not owning the most current model of CPU/graphics card. Nowadays, the visual effects/animation world has completely caught up to the demoscene as far as visual effects go. Special effects producers can now do all the things that programmers could do. This has really made the demoscene less relevant, in my opinion.

One thing that continues to be fresh about the demoscene, though, is the file-size limitations. There are categories for 64k, 4k, and 1kb filesizes. This places a limit on the total size of the demo (including textures, music, graphics, and coding). For instance, this demo has a file size of 1k:

That entire video, including the song, is generated on a PC from a .exe that is 1024 bytes (smaller than the size of this post). These days, it's all about exploiting tricks in people's graphics cards. Even though it has a very small file size, it has very steep system requirements to run this file. There are even competitions who can make the best PC Game at different file sizes. All downloads are free and can be found at pouet.net.

Some more demos with small file sizes:

4k - Elevated by RGBA and TBC (2009)
4k - nasa by Still(2010)
128bytes - spongy by TBC (2009)
32bytes - matisse by orbitaldecay (2010)
1k - Tracie by TBC (2007)
4k - Sincere by TBC (2008)

One day before Stephen turned 10months old, we spent our first dollars on formula. Since the hospital gave us so much formula and my wife has been pumping like a machine, we have not had to buy any formula for Stephen. Theoretically, he'll be done with formula altogether in another 8-10 weeks. He's eating a lot more real food now, just stuff I give him that I'm snacking on. Popcorn, banana, dry cereal, oatmeal. He can use his sippy cup pretty well by now.

What would you do for five bucks? Fiverr.com finds out (actually, sellers only receive four dollars after fees and stuff).

This is all the rage right now, and it will only be relevant for 1 or 2 more days. A 24/7 webcam of some hatching hummingbird eggs. The entire nest is slightly bigger than a golf ball and the eggs are about the size of Tic Tacs. Yesterday around 11am EST, some cracks were spotted on the eggs. Since then, more and more people have tuned in to watch. Last night when the sun went down, no progress had been made. There should be light on the west coast at 10am EST. I've been watching a blank screen since 6am this morning.

A while back, I made a post featuring a track by an mp3.com artist named Thuggin' It. Apparently there are very few people who remember Thuggin' It the way I do (here is one place that talks about it and titles the post "Worst Rap Song EVER!"). Though I didn't mention it in my post, I knew of another song that the kid had released under a different name, presumably because the material released under his Thuggin' It moniker was the butt of so many jokes. I searched the internet, I searched my hard drive, and I asked a few friends about it. No one knew what I was talking about (or even believed such a thing existed, quite frankly). I went through my ancient "misc mp3" folder and listened to every song that I didn't recognize. I couldn't find the song anywhere. Why would I have deleted such a gem?

I had one last-ditch effort. I contacted my cousin David (with whom I lived for three summers) because I know we definitely used to rock out to both of those songs. He still has his old PII up and running as a toy for his 16month old daughter. He said it was running very slowly, the registry full of junk, and his daughter had all but destroyed the mouse and keyboard, but he would look for it. The next night I received a text message: "Masta Verbalists - Welkome 2 Our World."

Sometime that weekend he was able to get the file off his old PC and email it to me. I have searched quite a bit for any reference to this song on the internet, and it seems to have vanished from the collective unconscious. So I am proud to say that I have exclusive content of this awful track, released by the Thuggin' It crew under a different name. His voice is immediately recognizable.

Masta Verbalists - Welkome 2 Our World

There is a lot of talk recently about enacting new "Financial Literacy" requirements in order for students to finish High School in this area. A lot of schools have pushed back the launch of the program for another year because of budget problems. So, the states who mismanaged their money are teaching our children about financial literacy? Am I the only one bothered by this? To quote Bill Hicks, "It's irony on a base level, but I like it. It's still a hoot."

I got this link off fazed.org: The 100 best free science documentaries online. This is my kind of thing. Documentaries. Free. Online. The list loses a great deal of credibility when Super Size Me is the first "science documentary" on the list, though. Just saying.

Michał Jacaszek finally came to America. Just come do D.C. and I'm there! A partial clip from his concert in NY on Feb 11:

I like to say how much I love Lightroom and that I don't miss Photoshop at all. This is only partially true. I sort of have to say that because I spent $299 on Lightroom version 1. With that money, you get all 1.xx upgrades until version 2 comes out, then you have to pay $99 to get all version 2.xx upgrades. I saved my $99 and did not get version 2, but version 3 is coming out this April, and I will spend the 99 bucks on it. They have put some Photoshop-like features in that will make me miss Photoshop even less, such as the ability to make selections, the ability to combine photos into HDR images, and improved features all-around, notably sharpening and noise reduction.

I have been wearing Acuvue 2 contacts for about ten years. These are now considered the "old style." They have advanced several generations since then. Now the contact lenses are made of different material and they allow your eyes to "breathe" more. When I got an eye exam two weekends ago, the optometrist gave me one pair of Acuvue Oasys and one pair of my good old standbys, Acuvue 2. I put on the Oasys contacts at the doctors office, and at first my vision wasn't as clear as it should have been. I think that after I got used to them, they were fine, since I do not notice a major difference right now (I just switched to the Acuvue 2 pair about ten minutes ago). The side of the story that I did not tell my optometrist is that I never take proper care of my contacts/eyes. I leave them in for 2-3 weeks without ever taking them out before bed. This is why I am leaning towards the newer, more expensive contacts that allow oxygen transfer through the lens. Another notable thing from my exam: I haven't needed a stronger prescription in the last two years, so that's a good thing.

I finally figured out what makes my desktop PC freeze. It's µTorrent, which is supposed to be the bittorrent client that is more streamlined. Before I had µTorrent, I was using Vuze, but that was too bloated and so forth. Anyone have any suggestions of torrent management software (preferably one with a smaller footprint than Vuze or BitComet)?

I take 3mg of melatonin before bed every night. Well, every night that I don't forget. I have been doing it for about a year now, and I really like it as a sleep aid. It is a naturally occurring biochemical, so it doesn't have the same effect as a "drug" would. The purpose is not to make you really sleepy or groggy; it just makes you feel naturally tired. Around 20-40minutes after taking it, I just sort of yawn and say "I think I should go to bed now. That would be good." It has other advantages, too, like the fact that it allows me to get up feeling completely normal if Stephen starts crying at 2am (where 99% of sleep aids make it much harder to get up before you have gotten 8hrs of rest). It is safe, has no side effects, and has no chance of addiction. The problem is that an overwhelming majority of the population says that melatonin has no effect on them. I will say that it took two weeks of me taking it every night before it had an effect on me. Maybe I wasn't noticing the subtleties before that, or maybe my body had not gotten adjusted to 3mg of melatonin at roughly the same time every day. No idea, but I like it.

And finally, How Tough are NES Games? Answer: really, really tough. Like, getting-run-over-by-a-car-and-still-working tough. Like, getting-dropped-thirty-feet-onto-concrete-and-still-working tough. (Note: usually when I find out about a YouTube video via another blog, I don't actually link to the blog post, but this is my friend Martha's blog, so I didn't take the credit this time)

Edit: fazed.org copied me for once (not really), and put up a link to the 60 Minutes story about the Bloom Box. Nice try, copycats! I was first!

Well, I'm composing this post in linux (Ubuntu 9.10, to be exact). Now I can be an elitist. Yay.

They make it so easy to set up a dual boot. You can download a "Windows Installer" that automatically sets up a partition and the dual boot screen when you restart. It also leaves Windows XP as the default boot option (something that doesn't take over your PC, how refreshing).

First and foremost, when you set up a new computer or operating system, you try to get on the internet. Well, that didn't work for me. After reinstalling Ubuntu three separate times, printing about 50 pages of forum nonsense, and typing "sudo [command]" about 200 times, I finally got Ubuntu to recognize the WiFi card in this laptop. I was immediately introduced to the negative aspects of linux. Supporters of linux say "It's not linux' fault that manufacturers don't make drivers for linux!" I had to use ndiswrapper to convert Windows XP drivers into linux drivers. Finding the correct drivers was a snap, the rest is entirely linux' fault. They have to know that a lot of people are going to encounter the same problem that I did, and they do absolutely nothing to make it intuitive to new users. I had to download 4 packages (installers for utilities/software) on another computer, burn them to a cd, install them in Ubuntu, and then figure out how to use the wrapper. Then I had to diagnose what the conflicts were and remove the other...... okay, I'm bored typing this, so I can only imagine how it is reading it. I'll stop now.

The point: it is definitely linux' fault that this nonsense isn't at all accessible. I am in at least the 98th percentile of computer users, and it took me 8-10 hours of work to get the internet on this sleek, modernized installation of linux. There is nowhere I can go and click "disable all default WiFi drivers," for instance, which would have saved me a lot of time. At least do something to try to make it intuitive for new users. From what I read, my problem occurs in a large percentage of Ubuntu installs, yet there is still no easy (or even reasonable) fix.

I guess it's just a different mindset.

There are some advantages I have already found. You update all your software from one window. Just a few clicks, and all the software on your whole setup is updated at once. Also, Ubuntu natively supports a desktop that is twice as big as your monitor. Just scroll over, and you have the space of a whole other desktop. It also natively supports scrolling by dragging with two fingers at once on the trackpad (like a MAC). That's something that could get addicting. I already use it kind of naturally when browsing. No need to find the scroll bar to browse further down on a web page. We'll see how this pans out.

Also, all software downloads files to the same place. Adjusting the colors/theme of your setup takes effect on all installed software.

I feel that I have been engrossed in WordPress long enough that I can put together a fairly authoritative list of WordPress plugins with an explanation of each. These are the plugins I use. I don't use twitter or facebook, so you won't find anything related to those two services in here. Presented in alphabetical order:

1. AddToAny. This plugin allows readers to add a more profession-looking link to your blog on their networking service of choice. It has automatic options for Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Digg, StumbleUpon, virtually anything you can imagine.
2. Akismet. Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not, then it automatically files them under "spam" if there is a match. It allows you to manage/review the comments after they are marked as spam, and undelete comments if necessary. This plugin has already saved me from over 600 spam comments on this blog.
3. All-in-one SEO Pack. This plugin allows you to setup your metatags for your both your main page and individual posts. You can add comments, craft an excerpt, or add tags for Search Engine Optimization.
4. Apture. My favorite plugin. This allows you to contain your links within java pop-up windows on your site. Instead of people clicking your link to a Wikipedia article, they merely hover over the link and the article pops up within your page. This allows people to view material that is pertinent to your articles without navigating away from your page. It works automatically with YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, IMDB, Amazon, and many more.
5. Audio Player. A highly configurable plugin that turns your links to .mp3 files into a stylish Play button. It uses Flash animation and expands when clicked. It also keeps the clueless from stealing .mp3 files off your server and forces them to stream the files.
6. Better-Wiki-Link. This plugin automatically creates a link to a related Wikipedia article if you put double brackets around any text in your blog entry. When used in conjunction with Apture, it creates a hover-link that brings up the Wikipedia article in a pop-up java window.
7. Better Tag Cloud. A more configurable tag cloud than the default tag cloud provided with WordPress.
8. Blog Protector. This plugin attempts to prevent people from plagiarizing information from your blog. It disables the highlighting of text (and in turn disables copy-and-paste of text from your blog). It can also be set to a) disable the ability for people to drag your photos onto their desktop and/or b) disable the ability to right-click on your page. I currently do not have this plugin enabled because it causes conflict with some other features of my blog, but maybe after a few more developments of the plugin I will be able to enable it.
9. Broken Link Checker. This plugin continually checks all the links (past and present) on your blog entries and validates that no links are broken. I have over 600 links in my blog thus far, so this is a great plugin for me (this post alone has 29 links). Sometimes pages disappear and links in your old posts no longer work; this plugin keeps you from having to constantly re-check all of your links. It runs in the background and is not visible to readers of your blog.
10. CommentLuv. When people fill out their information to leave a comment on your blog, this plugin checks the URL they provide. If the URL points to another blog, the plugin will automatically add a link to their most recent blog post. This provides free advertisement to others' blogs and helps the blogging community as a whole.
11. Do Follow. Removes the nofollow attribute that WordPress adds to comments by default.
12. Feed Pauser. Allows authors to pause a feed from immediately being published. I frequently make a host of minor changes to a post immediately after it is published. This ensures that the post does not show up in my RSS feed until I have made all of my final adjustments (I have my Feed Pauser set to wait 20 minutes).
13. Flickr Widget. A widget which displays the most recent photos from a Flickr account (mine displays in the right sidebar). You only have to set it up once and it automatically shows the most recent photos for you as you update your Flickr.
14. GD Simple Widgets. This is a pack of several basic widgets. Most of them are improvements of widgets that come with WordPress by default, such as Recent Posts, Related Posts, Recent Comments.
15. Google XML Sitemaps. This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog. It runs in the background and updates automatically every time you make a change to your blog.
16. Gravatar Signup Encouragement. Encourages commenters who do not already have a Gravatar to sign up for a free Gravatar.
17. No Curly Quotes. Stops WordPress from turning the ' and " characters into curly quotes in blog posts, titles, excerpts and comments. Options can be set for each element separately. Curly quotes cause problems when cutting&pasting text.
18. Outbound Links. Forces all outbund links to open in a new window. This helps ensure that people do not navigate away from your page when they click a link.
19. Sidebar Login. Adds a sidebar widget to let users login to your blog. I use it as the top widget in the right sidebar. (No one ever logs in, though).
20. Smart Ads. Allows you to automatically place Google Ads at certain places in your posts. You set certain rules (ie, minimum wordcount) that determine if and where your ads are placed.
21. SubZane YouTube Plugin. Like the Flickr Widget, this plugin allows you to automatically display the most recent YouTube videos from your YouTube account.
22. Visitor Maps and Who's Online. Displays Visitor Maps with location pins, city, and country. Includes a Who's Online Sidebar to show how many users are online and a Who's Online admin dashboard to view visitor details. The visitor details include: what page the visitor is on, IP address, host lookup, online time, city, state, country, geolocation maps and more.
23. WordPress.com Stats. Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Similar to Google Analytics.
24. WP Super Cache. A fast caching plugin for WordPress. If your page gets a lot of traffic, this plugin can cut down on the amount of traffic to your server while still allowing everyone to view your blog. It creates an up-to-date HTML version of your site instead of the more consuming PHP version. I do not currently have it enabled because I do not get what is commonly known as "traffic," hehe.
25. WPtouch iPhone Theme. Formats your site with a mobile theme for the Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android and other touch-based smartphones.
26. Wunderground.com Weather Sticker. Adds a sidebar widget to display the standard wunderground.com Weather Sticker for your [chosen] location. Because of this widget, I actually check my own blog to get the outside temp before I go out.