New Year's Eve</h1> <article> <h1>New Year's Eve</h1> <p>2007-12-31T20:22:00.001-05:00</p> <p>I was<a href="http://twitter.com/gabrielmansour/statuses/548609732">cleaning up the area around my desk</a> the other night and I came across a napkin on which I had scribbled down my New Years resolutions for ’07:</p> <blockquote> <h3>New Years’ Resolutions 2007:</h3> <ul> <li>Get Website launched <ins>this’ll happen eventually…</ins></li> <li>Lose weight</li> <li>Fix up portfolio pieces <ins>ugh… still in progress…</ins></li> <li><del>get a job</del> <ins>Formerly at <a href="http://tsotinc.com" title="The best place I've ever worked, especially when Joey came aboard">TSOT</a>, now back to working for myself (although, Kris has hinted that he might want me back in the spring—<em>fingers crossed!</em>)</ins></li> <li><del>check back with Phil</del>. <ins>That wasn’t really a resolution, but rather a task that needed to be done around the end of the year.</ins></li> <li>Go to <a href="http://north08.webdirections.org/?aff=gama" title="Web Directions North 2007">Web Directions North</a>, Vancouver, Feb 6-10</li> <li><a href="http://2007.sxsw.com" title="South By Southwest Interactive 2007">SXSW</a>, March</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>So, it’s only fitting I make one for this year as well, scribbled in TextMate instead of on the back of a napkin this time. First, the carry-overs from last year:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Get Website launched.</strong> OK, I guess I’ve waited too long by now. It’s just that every time I look back at my designs, I always find something I don’t like about it and end up creating a new design from scratch each time. I <a href="http://newmediarts.blogspot.com/2007/07/imperfect.html">guess I still haven't learned yet</a>…</li> <li><strong>Lose weight.</strong> Should start going to the gym this week.</li> <li><strong>Fix up portfolio pieces.</strong> Ties in with previous resolution.</li> <li><strong>Go to <a href="http://north08.webdirections.org/?aff=gama" title="Web Directions North 2008">Web Directions North</a>.</strong> I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it this year unfortunately :(, seeing as I’m going to be really busy with other things during that time (<span class="meta" title="I'm only 20">including moving out</span>), so I probably won’t be able to afford flying out to the left coast this February. This really saddens me as I really wanted to be a part of and meet the rest of the Canadian web design community (and I might enjoy the more intimate setting better than a huge event like <a href="http://2008.sxsw.com" title="South By Southwest Interactive 2008">SXSW</a>), especially since I’ve got a <a href="http://justagwailo.com/" title="Richard Eriksson" rel="met friend">couple</a> <a href="http://countablyinfinite.ca/blog" rel="met friend" title="Quinn Fung">friends</a> in Vancouver, too.</li> <li><strong>Go to <a href="http://2008.sxsw.com" title="South By Southwest Interactive 2008">SXSW</a>.</strong> Everything’s bigger in Texas, they say, and conferences are no exception. My only exposure to SXSW is virtually through the podcasts they put out (I love when conferences do that!), and I’d love to go down to Austin and see and meet everyone in person (ideally, I’d want to go to every web conference out there in existence, but that’s not realistically possible for someone in my position.). Plus, it really is the <em>ultimate</em> geek gathering, with people coming in from all across the globe. Hopefully I'll be able to make it this year.</li> </ul> <p>And now the rest:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Get GTD system down and working.</strong> I’m really adamant about this one. I’ve always had a half-assed idea about what Getting Things Done was all about before <a href="http://joeydevilla.com" title="Joey deVilla" rel="met friend">Joey</a> lent me his copy, but now I get the full picture. And with <a href="http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/">OmniFocus</a> now, my productivity and organization has really improved!</li> <li><strong>Launch MOLECULE.</strong> MOLECULE is a side-project of mine I’ve been working on. It’s an outdoor, publicly-projected mobile-enabled (semi-)massively-multiplayer game / “art” installation. I was hoping to have it ready for <a href="http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/2007/home.html" title="Nuit Blanche 2007">Nuit Blanche</a> in the fall, but other priorities came up and I wasn’t able to complete it. I’m in the process of rewriting it in hopes that it’ll be ready for <a href="http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/home.html">Nuit Blanche 2008</a>.</li> <li><strong>Become more socially active.</strong> I met <a href="http://www.givemeaning.com/blog/" title="CEO of GiveMeaning" rel="met">Tom Williams</a> of <a href="http://givemeaning.com/">GiveMeaning</a> a couple weeks ago (he’s a really amazing guy if you don’t already know him), and he sort of rekindled my spirit about this whole thing, so I think I’m going to try to become more involved with the <a href="http://greenparty.ca/" title="Green Party of Canada">Green Party</a> again next year, which sort of (unintentionally) faded after I stopped <a href="http://newmediarts.blogspot.com/2007/02/its-nice-to-be-appreciated.html">working with them</a>.</li> </ul> <p>There’s probably more, but I can’t think of the rest right now, and besides, I really should be heading off to a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=9553501141" title="NYE 2008 - Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Ughhhh.—“Tonight we's party like it's 1968.”">NYE party</a> pretty soon. Happy New Year!</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/new+years+eve" rel="tag">new years eve</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/resolutions" rel="tag">resolutions</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/personal" rel="tag">personal</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>The So-Called "official" definition of "Web 3.0"</h1> <p>2007-10-09T19:28:00.000-04:00</p> <p><a href="http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech">The Joy of Tech</a> has posted a comic entitled <a href="http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1018.html"><em>The Definitive Guide to Future Web Versions</em></a>, most likely inspired by <a href="http://calacanis.com">Jason Calacanis</a>' recent blog post where he gives us <a href="http://www.calacanis.com/2007/10/03/web-3-0-the-official-definition/" rel="vote-against">the "official" definition of Web 3.0</a>. </p> <p>Needless to say, I don't agree with any of it. He's basically declaring that "Web 3.0" is <b title="to paraphrase">Web 2.0 without the crap</b>. Which is admirable, but completely wrong.</p> <p>How many times must I say this? <strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2434256594" title="Facebook's ›Boycott \"Web 2.0\"‹ Group">The Web is not something that is versioned.</a></strong> The Web isn't a piece of software. It is an ecosystem. And like other ecosystems, it changes and evolves over time, either by nature or by its inhabitants, who are constantly striving to create an optimal environment for them to dwell in—which is exactly what's been going on with the Web all these years. These past few, however, we have experienced an accelerated growth rate. So it's only natural that some noise has come in along with the signal.</p> <p>By employing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> techniques, we're able to filter out the good, meaty data that we want without getting any crustiness that we don't want. Things like <a href="http://microformats.org/">Microformats</a> are definitely helping make this easier, and I've been a big promoter of 'em ever since I discovered them almost two years ago.</p> <p>I really think this the next direction the Web will be taking in the coming years: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web">Semantic data</a>, <a href="http://microformats.org/">Microformats</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_API">Open APIs</a>—all this stuff that's making my mouth water—because as a developer, I can only imagine all the ways I can leverage this data. Sure, other things like better-quality content will come, too—probably even in parallel to the evolution of the Semantic Web—but you really need a solid foundation to build this content onto, otherwise it's just adding to the rest of the noise out there.</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/web" rel="tag">web</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/web+2.0" rel="tag">web 2.0</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/web+3.0" rel="tag">web 3.0</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/microformats" rel="tag">microformats</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/semantic+web" rel="tag">semantic web</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>I wanna make a movie</h1> <p>2007-09-26T22:06:00.000-04:00</p> <p> I don't know what it is about me, but I've got the urge to go out and shoot a movie. Maybe it's because of the <a href="http://ollieman.net/screenbundle/">ScreenWriting bundle</a> for <a href="http://macromates.com/">TextMate</a> I discovered today and wanna make use of it, maybe it's ‘cause I've been reading <a href="http://silentbobspeaks.com/">Kevin Smith</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Smith">Wikipedia bio</a> today (because, thanks to my friend <a href="http://animasomnio.com/" rel="met friend colleague">Andrea</a>, I'm gonna get to attend a live taping of <a href="http://cbc.ca/thehour/">The Hour</a>, and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1707">tomorrow's show</a> is featuring the ever-so-brilliant <a href="http://silentbobspeaks.com/?p=358">Kevin Smith</a>, who I'm a <em>huge</em> fan of! I really hope I get to meet him!) and I yearn to do something like that (I used to do video stuff in high school, but after I left, the Web really took over my interests almost completely), or maybe I've gotten bored of what I'm doing now and feel like doing something new. </p> <p> I don't know exactly what it'll be about, but I know it will have a video component. An installation of some sort, perhaps? Short film? Not really sure. I need to find out a *bit* more before I start it. Conveniently, <a href="http://www.cfcmedialab.com/infp/LateFragmentNuitBlanche.html" title="Late Fragment, An Interactive Film: Nuit Blanche Screenings">Late Fragment</a> is being shown this Saturday as part of <a href="http://scotiabanknuitblanche.ca">Nuit Blanche</a>, so maybe that'll help me better understand what I want. I've been <a href="http://twitter.com/gabrielmansour/statuses/19403531">wanting</a> to do something like this for a while, and I think it's finally about time I did so. I'm sure my friends like <a href="http://dotboom.ca" title="Brian makes a hysterical puppet show about web designers who hate themselves. You should watch it." rel="friend met">Brian Hogg</a> and <a href="http://pwd.ca" rel="met friend colleague">Gabe Sawhney</a> will be able to help me out in giving me advice on how to go about things, since they've got plenty more experience doing this sort of thing than I ever have. Although, someone once told me that <strong>passion</strong> is the most important thing to have in what you do, and I've got plenty of it. I do things because I like to do them; it doesn't feel like a chore to to me. I just need a clearer vision of what I want—something I seem to lack often times. </p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/film" rel="tag">film</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/video" rel="tag">video</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/life" rel="tag">life</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Lazyweb Request: What the heck is this thing called??!?!</h1> <p>2007-08-06T14:54:00.000-04:00</p> <p class="update"><strong>Update:</strong> Thanks a bunch to <a href="http://visualounge.techsmith.com/" rel="vote-for">Betsy Weber</a> for solving this ever-so perplexing problem I had. As it turns out <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/1030687302/">this shape</a> is called a <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypotrochoid">hypotrochoid</a></strong> (and the tool used to create it is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph">Spirograph</a><abbr title="Trademarked by Hasbro, Inc.">™</abbr>.</p> <p>Well, well. My first official LazyWeb-addressed post. Don’t I feel special…</p> <p>I’m trying to simulate electrons orbiting around the nucleus of an atom. I remembered this <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/1029953163/">stencil</a> I got many years ago that draws shapes comparable to what I want the orbit path to look like. Now I need to find out if there’s an existing programmatical function out there on the Internets to replicate an object moving in this shape. But in order to do that, <strong>I need to find out what the heck <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/tags/syrosomething/">this thing</a> is called.</strong> I’ve searched for at least an hour online trying to think of possible names this shape might be called—ellipsogram, septellipse, gyrogram, parabolic septagram, hyperbolic septagram, etc. — and haven’t found anything even remotely close. The closest thing I could find that may or may not be on the right track is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_geometry" title="Euclidean Geometry on Wikipedia">Euclidean Geometry</a> (found by way of <a href="http://google.com/search?q=parabolic+geometry" title="Google Search for 'parabolic geometry'">parabolic geometry</a>), though I wouldn’t know, as advanced mathematics is far beyond by comprehension — I didn’t take Calculus or Finite Math in high school and haven’t had any formal education on the subject since.</p> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/1030687302/" title="Photo Sharing"></a> <p>If I had to guess, I’d say the name for it begins with ‘gyro-’ (which means <em>rotation</em> in Greek), and it might have ‘hepta’ or ‘septa’ in the name too, to indicate the seven cusps it has, although this is complete speculation. </p> <p>This shape appears to be made up of 7 identical <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabola">parabolas</a> (though technically I’m not sure if you could call them that because they start curving inwards at a certain point, and typically parabolas don’t do that).</p> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/1029834975/" title="Photo Sharing"></a> <p><strong>Anyone have any idea what this seven-“pointed” flower/star-like shape are called?</strong> I’m sure there’re plenty of other people who know a lot more than me when it comes to this stuff, and have even formally studied it in University at one point or another.</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/lazyweb" rel="tag">lazyweb</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/geometry" rel="tag">geometry</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/shapes" rel="tag">shapes</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/math" rel="tag">math</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/what+is+this+called?" rel="tag">what is this called?</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Imperfect</h1> <p>2007-07-25T12:56:00.000-04:00</p> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcpig/223524350/"></a>  <p>Things don't have to be perfect the first time around. They just have to be good enough at first, and then they can be improved in the next iteration.</p> <p>This is not an easy concept to grasp for perfectionists like me. I had to learn the hard way. Many a time I've been faced with the situation that my deadline was too close and I knew I wasn't going to finish it in time, so instead of submitting what I had done at that point (or explain how I needed more time), I'd rather not submit anything at all and continue working on it until I get it done, and by that time it would've been too late for my work to be accepted.</p> <p>But I'm slowly learning to accept that it's okay to be imperfect. Not everything I do is going in a museum for everyone to see (although I often treat it that way). Things can always be made better, and being imperfect really isn't as bad as it once seemed.</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Things+I+Learned" rel="tag">Things I Learned</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Life+Lessons" rel="tag">Life Lessons</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Interesting Similarities</h1> <p>2007-06-06T12:49:00.000-04:00</p> <p>Today I decided to check out <a href="http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/">Google Maps Street View</a>, which is an awesome new service just recently released by <a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a>. It's almost like having a virtual tour of anywhere in the world! Check out the video below:</p> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/91wuBqlny50" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> </embed> </object> <p>Interestingly, that first shot of <a href="http://ryangermick.com">Ryan Germick</a> immediately reminded me of <a href="http://www.wildapricot.com/blogs/newsblog/archive/2006/07/26/wild-apircot-demo-at-democamp-toronto.aspx">Dmitry Buterin during</a> his <a href="http://barcamp.org/DemoCampToronto8">DemoCamp8</a> presentation. (I unfortunately missed the demos, but I did catch the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/sets/72157594213148446/" title="my flickr photos from DemoCamp8">after-party</a> that evening.)</p> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brycej/198598702/in/set-72157594212587223/" title="DemoCampToronto8-01 originally uploaded by brycej"></a> <p>It's because of the neon polyester, isn't it?</p> <p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/google+map+street+view" rel="tag">google map street view</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/dmitry+buterin" rel="tag">dmitry buterin</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/democamp" rel="tag">democamp</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/similarities" rel="tag">similarities</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>A tribute to mesh</h1> <p>2007-05-30T08:55:00.000-04:00</p> <a href="http://meshconference.com"></a> <p><strong><a href="http://meshconference.com">Mesh</a></strong> is a mere <del>six</del> <del>three</del> <del>two</del> <del>one hour</del> 5 minutes away (yes, I'm late. <a href="http://twitter.com/gabrielmansour/statuses/83924292">Grr last-minute client calls</a>), and I'm really excited to see what new and exciting things I'll get to experience and what people I'll get to meet.</p> <p>However, before I go on about the razzle and dazzle of what is to come over the next couple days, I'd like to take a step back and reflect what has happened over the past year.</p> <p>Let's start at the beginning. Or rather, before the beginning. I first came across <a href="http://robhyndman.com">Rob Hyndman</a>'s blog via his <a href="http://www.digg.com/apple/Why_John_C._Dvorak_is_Wrong_About_Apple" title="Why John C. Dvorak is Wrong About Apple">Digg article</a> that had gained a good deal of notoriety and controversy that day. Whilst browsing his site, I had found <a href="http://www.robhyndman.com/2006/02/21/new-toronto-web-20-conference/">a little announcement</a> about an up-and-coming Toronto <b title="Don't call it 'Web 2.0'; the Web was never meant to be a versioned medium. Really.">"Web 2.0"</b> conference, and being web <ins title="put in for historic accuracy. I still hate the term '2.0'. Please stop using it.">"2.0"</ins> junkie that I am, I immediately <a href="http://www.robhyndman.com/feed/rss/">subscribed to his blog</a> so that I could get more details on the matter <a href="http://www.robhyndman.com/2006/03/23/join-us-at-mesh/">when they became available</a>.</p> <p>Because of mesh, I got a chance to meet with a whole bunch of people who I otherwise would not have met, and I'm quite glad I did, as many of these people have come to be my friends who I see on a regular basis at <a href="http://barcamp.org/TorCamp">Torcamp</a> events.</p> <p>One of them was <a href="http://sachachua.com/">Sacha Chua</a>, the most exuberant and enthusiastic person I've ever met. We kept running into each other at the conference, and it was a good thing we did. She graciously <a href="http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2006.05.18.php#anchor-1">introduced me</a> to the wonderful world of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moleskine">Moleskines</a>. I think I might've got a bit carried a way with my conversation note-taking (<a href="http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2006.05.18.php#anchor-1">à la Sacha</a>) though, as some people might've found it a bit odd (and perhaps uncomfortable) to be documented as they were speaking in conversation, but I was Moleskine-happy that day and wasn't really paying too much attention to that.</p> <p>I met <a href="http://accordionguy.blogware.com">Joey deVilla</a>, the infamous "Accordion Guy", during <a href="http://ambermac.com">Amber</a>'s <em><a href="https://www.socialtext.net/mesh/index.cgi?how_and_why_to_podcast" title="mesh wiki: How and Why to Podcast">How and Why To Podcast</a></em> workshop (check out <a href="http://commandn.typepad.com/commandn/2006/05/episode_46_may_.html">Amber's slides </a>, mixed in with some <b title="commandN Ep.46">videocast</b>). Coincidentally, I caught his appearance on <a href="http://mtv.ca">MTV</a> the previous week. It was an amazing to meet a local celebrity like Joey for the first time. I was quite excited to get to meet him, and he's a really great guy. He even stopped to pose <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/148381695/" title="Accordion Guy on Flickr">for a photo-op</a> for me!</p> Many thanks as well to <a href="http://themose.ca">Pete Mosely</a>, for organizing <a href="http://whatiswiththat.ca/mush/" title="the anti-mesh | a mesh parody">mush</a>: among the people there were <a href="http://stoweboyd.com/message" title="Stowe Boyd">Stowe</a>, <a href="http://ashleyit.com/blogs/brentashley/" title="Brent Ashley, local AJAX Guru">Brent</a>, <a href="http://accordionguy.blogware.com/" title="Joey 'Accordion Guy' deVilla">Joey</a>, <a href="http://redhead.blogware.com" title="Wendy Koslow, Joey's wife">Wendy</a>, <a href="http://hypatia.ca" title="Leigh Honeywell">Leigh</a>, and some more people who I can't seem to remember at this moment (my apologies) [I took <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/sets/72157594190325243/">some mush-y photos</a>, too]. This year, it seems mush seems to be taking the form of <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2358293976" title="Join Me!">a Facebook group</a>.</p> <p>There are countless others whom I can barely begin to name, so I apologize if I didn't mention you explicitly, but you know who you are, are I thank you all the same.</p> <p>One really important person who I owe an enormous debt of gratitude is <a href="http://davidcrow.ca">David Crow</a>. Thanks to David, from whom I learned about <a href="http://barcamp.org">BarCamps</a> and <a href="http://barcamp.org/DemoCamp">DemoCamps</a> (I originally wanted to attend <a href="http://barcamp.org/BarCampTdot">BarCampTdot</a> that took place the weekend before mesh, but I was already booked that weekend. If only I had found out earlier). I attended my first DemoCamp two weeks following mesh (kudos to <a href="http://matthew.burpee.ca">Matthew Burpee</a> for his kindness to me that day), and had a great time.</p> <p>I would love to go on about these things, but it's already <del>6</del> <del>7</del> <ins>9</ins>AM the day of, so I've got to try and cram in at least an hour of sleep <ins>(on the bus)</ins> before the conference. More to come in the future (and the update will be coming, too). To those of you who are coming out, see you at mesh [<strong>A quick sidenote:</strong> As <a href="http://twitter.com/gabrielmansour/statuses/24109851">I noted before</a>, I'm quite glad to see that the "2.0" has been dropped from the conference's name this year (be it for <a href="http://www.tomrafteryit.net/oreilly-trademarks-web-20-and-sets-lawyers-on-itcork/" title="such as O'Reilly suing other conferences who used 'Web 2.0' in their names">legal reasons</a> or otherwise). The web was never meant to be a versioned medium.].</p> <p>So thanks again to <a href="http://www.mathewingram.com/work/">Mathew</a>, <a href="http://markevanstech.com">Mark</a>, <a href="http://www.michaelmcderment.com/">Mike</a>, <a href="http://stuart.blogware.com">Stuart</a>, and <a href="http://www.robhyndman.com/">Rob</a> for putting this all together and making this all possible! Without them I wouldn't have been privileged to know half the people I know today. See you there!</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/mesh06" rel="tag">mesh06</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/mesh07" rel="tag">mesh07</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/thank+you" rel="tag">thank+you</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>No More Starburst</h1> <p>2007-05-18T21:52:00.000-04:00</p> <p>I've finally gotten rid of that retched-looking orange starburst that used to be on the top-left corner of this blog. I hated its look from the beginning, but at time I thought I could live with it as it was only supposed to be temporary, but because of certain delays and restrictions (<a href="http://newmediarts.blogspot.com/2007/01/arrgh.html" title=".newmediarts | :: » Arrgh!">*ahem*</a>) I wasn't able to get my new site up (that, aside from me continuing to procrastinate on this. But I've recently <a href="http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?309523" rel="vote-for">signed up for a new hosting plan</a> with a <a href="http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?309523" rel="vote-for">great web host</a>, and I've resumed working on a new site interface (at second glance, the once I previously designed wasn't really what I wanted it to be like), so we should be starting to see some gradually improvements over the coming weeks (I've still got client work as well to deal with during this time period, so it's not like I've got nothing else to work on).</p> <p>I've also been thinking about reworking my logo. Right now, this is my current logo, which originally spawned off from the title of this blog, <strong>.newmediarts | ::</strong>, which I truncated to <strong>.n|::</strong>, and then I played around a bit and attempted to abstract its shape & form (which gives the current result).</p> <p>But the more I focus on the site, the more I notice how my logo doesn't quite represent what I want it to. It's not necessarily a <em>bad-looking</em> logo, but I can't help but feel there's something about it that's missing / lacking in it. Perhaps a <em>human</em> factor (as I <a href="http://twitter.com/gabrielmansour/statuses/69405552">pondered on twitter</a> earlier)? After all, <acronym title="Human-Computer Interaction">HCI</acronym> & usability are among my many skills/interests that I'm really passionate about. (Sidenote: For those of you who don't know, <a href="http://jnd.org/">Don Norman</a>'s <a href="http://www.mie.utoronto.ca/hfig/index.php?on=news&show=20070611">coming to Toronto</a> June 11—I highly recommend you go if you can make it.) Anyways, I'll see what becomes of this when I do some more work on it this weekend. Right now I need some sleep.</p> </article> <article> <h1>No, I'm not dead</h1> <p>2007-05-18T21:36:00.000-04:00</p> <p>Despite my blog inactivity for the past couple months, I am still alive and kicking. These past couple weeks have been hectic, but I promise to provide a more detailed report in the next couple days when things get easier to manage.</p> <p>If you're impatient, you can always <a href="http://twitter.com/gabrielmansour" rel="me">follow me on the Twitter</a> (I've grown quite proficient at it. so proficient, in fact, that <a href="http://davidcrow.ca">David Crow</a> went so far as to call me a <em><a href="http://twitter.com/gabrielmansour/statuses/39816652">"twitter whore"</a></em>—now <a href="http://scobleizer.com/">Scoble</a>'s requesting it <a href="http://twitter.com/Scobleizer/statuses/39822482">be on a t-shirt</a>) or, if you prefer things of a more (or equally) random nature, <a href="http://tumbl.gabrielmansour.com/" rel="me">there's this tumblog</a> thing I started a few days ago. Enjoy!</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/updates" rel="tag">updates</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Underestimating</h1> <p>2007-03-03T00:14:00.000-05:00</p> <p>After several months (just over a year, actually) of text messaging on my old <a href="http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.jsp?globalObjectId=72" title="Motorola V551">Motorola V551</a>, I've finally realized today that I've been miscounting the number of characters I'm able to send. In the 'create message' <acronym title="User Interface">UI</acronym>, there's a counter that shows how many more characters I'm able to type before reaching my limit. Good feature, except for some reason it starts counting down from 450 instead of the standard 160 we've all come to know and love (and hate, too, at times), and I don't think I'm able to change it. </p> <p>Some time ago stuck it in my head that in order to stay below my 160 character limit, I shouldn't let the counter go below 340. This, as you (and I, regrettably) should know, is only 110 characters, restricting my content limit 50 characters short of its maximum length. Simple mistake: subtract the 100, but then subtracted the 60 from 400 instead of 350 (because I like thinking in terms of easy, rounded numbers). But this restriction hasn't really been too burdensome. In fact, it's helped improve my writing in many ways. Just because the space there, doesn't mean you have to use all of up. Why not make wiser use of those 160 units instead of filling it up with bagatelle</p> <p>I find it gets my cerebellar juices flowing, try to condense my message to accommodate the shorter, making sentences sound better (I'm a bit of a spelling / <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204428376" title="Facebook Group: Good Grammar is Hot">grammar nut</a>. And an major etymology geek. (I guess I almost qualify as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philologist" title="Wikipedia: Philologist">philologist</a>, no?) So playing with words is fun for me). I often find myself expanding my sentences by cramming more words into them than need be, but I've found that the shorter they are, the better. They're more concise, and much more usable, especially since people don't really "read" text on the web, but rather skim. Less is more. It's amazing how much unnecessary, jargony crap can be taken out. Reading over and revising your text once you're done really helps improve quality, I find. Brushing up on my <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/141/" title="Bartleby: The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr.">Elements of Style</a> couldn't hurt, either ;). </p> <h4>Helpful software</h4> <p><a href="http://www.supermagnus.com/mac/Word_Counter/" title="Word Counter for Mac OS X">Word Counter</a> is a handy little app (essentially <a href="http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/work/23/">TextEdit</a> with a counter, plus a few bonus features), and combined with <a href="http://www.reelintelligence.com/BluePhoneElite/">BluePhoneElite</a> to send <acronym title="Short Messaging Service">SMS</acronym> messages from my Mac via my cell phone using Bluetooth (almost as if it were like an <acronym title="Instant Messenger">IM</acronym> client), I find it to be a godsend, especially when I'm trying to stay below that accursed 160-character limit. One small quirk I have in Word Counter though is that when I change my refresh rate preferences to "-1" (so that the counter updates instantly), it doesn't save my preferences after I've quit the application. But other that that, it's excellent.</p> <p>*Note: I am aware that this post is this exact opposite of what I've been discussing, but I'm just using this as a place to put down my ideas, and I like getting as much out of my head and onto paper (well, sort of) as possible :).</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/sms" rel="tag">sms</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/text+messaging" rel="tag">text messaging</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/writing" rel="tag">writing</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>It's Nice to be Appreciated</h1> <p>2007-02-28T18:00:00.000-05:00</p> <p>I was at the <a href="http://www.tpl.toronto.on.ca/">Toronto Reference Library</a> earlier today when I noticed that the gentleman sitting at the computer next to me was looking at the (recently re-launched) <a title="The Green Party of Canada" href="http://www.greenparty.ca">Green Party website</a>, something I helped build! That brought a big smile to my face, knowing that people were actually using something I created. I silently watched him out of the corner of my eye for a good twenty minutes until he got up and left. It fascinates me to watch how users (or total stangers) use your site, seeing what elements can be changed or tweaked to make their experience better.</p> <p>Which reminds me, there's still more work that needs to be done on the site, so I mustn't put it off any longer. <em>Off to work!</em></p> </article> <article> <h1>Cory Doctorow in Toronto, February 1</h1> <p>2007-01-29T02:26:00.000-05:00</p> <a href="http://craphound.com/overclocked/"></a> <p class="vevent"><a href="http://www.craphound.com/" title="Cory Doctorow's blog">Blogger</a>, <a href="http://craphound.com/index.php?cat=3" title="A list of Cory Doctorow's articles">journalist</a>, <a href="http://craphound.com/index.php?cat=5" title="A list of Cory Doctorow's science fiction novels">sci-fi author</a>, and <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/">Boing Boing</a> co-editor <span class="summary"><strong>Cory Doctorow</strong> is coming to Toronto for the launch of his new book</span> entitled <a href="http://www.craphound.com/overclocked" class="url"><em>Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present</em></a> this <strong><abbr class="dtstart" title="20070201T1900-0500">Thursday, February 1</abbr></strong> at <span class="location"><a href="http://www.bakkaphoenixbooks.com/">Bakka Books</a> (697 Queen Street West)</span>, the world's oldest Science Fiction bookstore. <span class="description">He'll be there at 7:00 PM signing and reading books, so make sure to <a href="http://upcoming.org/event/145848" title="Upcoming.org: Cory Doctorow Book Launch at Bakka Books (Thursday, February 1, 2007)">come on out</a>!</span></p> <p>I'm really excited about this. After all, it's not every day that <a href="http://craphound.com/bio.php">Mr. Doctorow himself</a> is in town. Hmm...I wonder if <a href="http://accordionguy.blogware.com/" title="Accordion Guy">Joey</a>'ll be there... it'd be interesting to see him back with his old friend (and ex-boss) from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCola" title="Wikipedia: OpenCola">OpenCola</a>...and a little accordion rock-and-roll on Queen Street on a Thursday evening around an <acronym title="Science Fiction">SF</acronym> bookstore and a gathering of geeks couldn't hurt, too .</p> <p class="vcard">If you can't make it out Thursday but you still want a signed, personalized copy of Cory's book, you're in luck! You can <a href="http://craphound.com/overclocked/2007/01/08/get-a-signed-copy-shipped-to-your-door/">get a signed copy shipped straight to your door</a>! Just <a href="mailto:inquiries@bakkaphoenixbooks.com" class="email">contact</a> <a href="http://bakkaphoenixbooks.com" class="org">Bakka Books</a> (Phone: <span class="tel">416-963-9993</span>) and tell them what you want Cory to write in it. The only catch is you have to do this <strong>by February 1st</strong>. </p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/cory+doctorow" rel="tag">cory doctorow</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/events" rel="tag">events</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/toronto" rel="tag">toronto</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/overclocked" rel="tag">overclocked</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/bakka%20books" rel="tag">bakka books</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Hide file extensions in URLs with .htaccess files</h1> <p>2007-01-26T15:37:00.000-05:00</p> <p>I was working on a (rather neglected, outdated) <a href="http://www.manco.ca" title="The MANCO Group - Accounting, Immigration, Legal Services, Real Estate, and Human Resources">site</a> I had previously done and decided it needed some (rather, a lot of) improvements. I was looking for a way to get rid of to clean up the <abbr title="Uniform Resource Locater">URL</abbr>s without having to remap my files. <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/htaccess.html">.htaccess</a> to the rescue!</p> <p><code>.htaccess</code> files are a wonderful thing, and incredibly powerful, ignoring the <a href="http://newmediarts.blogspot.com/2007/01/arrgh.html" title="Previous Post: Arrgh!">bad experience I had with them on my current web host</a> (fortunately, this project is hosted by another web host, and everything runs perfectly with them :)), and <a href="httpd.apache.org" title="Apache is a free and open-source web server">Apache</a>'s <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html"><code>mod_rewrite</code></a> module does exactly what we need.</p> <p>There are a bunch of reasons you'd want to do this, mainly: <ul><li>it looks cleaner and easier to read and remember</li> <li>by using search-engine–friendly <abbr title="Uniform Resource Locator">URL</abbr>s, you're <a href="http://www.google.com/technology/">Google PageRank</a> will increase and will increase your website's findability</li> <li>it makes your website environment-independent, so if you ever decide to change the technology your site uses, everything would appear seamless to your visitors.</li> </ul> <p>In this case, we're using <a href="http://www.php.net" title="Hypertext Preprocessor">PHP</a> files, but you can change it to whatever type of file you're using, be it <code>.<abbr title="Hypertext Markup Language">html</abbr></code>, <code>.<abbr title="Active Server Page">asp</abbr></code>, <code>.<abbr title="ColdFusion">cfm</abbr></code>, or anything else, as long as they're all the same type. (If you want to do this for multiple file types, just copy lines 2–4 and apply the same technique accordingly.)</p> <p>Open your text editor and create a file called "<code>.htaccess</code>" with the following code in it, and upload it to your site's root directory (<strong>Note:</strong> On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix">Unix</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like" title="Wikipedia: Unix-like">unix-like</a> operating systems, files that start with a dot are hidden files, so you may not be able to see the file after you save it. To get around this, omit the preceding dot when naming the file, and then rename the file back to "<code>.htaccess</code>" after you have uploaded it to your webserver):</p> <pre><code> RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php </code></pre> <p style="font-size:9px">(adapted from the <a href="http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/httpd-users/200306.mbox/%3CDAEEJBNAPAICFNHJOIFGEECBCIAA.csebe@fx.ro%3E">Apache mailing list</a>)</p> <p>Using this code, instead of having to type in <code>http://mysite.com/contact.php</code>, you only need to enter <code>http://mysite.com/contact</code> to access that page. And the best part is, you can still access the page with <code>.php</code> on the end of it, so no old incoming links or bookmarks become orphaned as a result of this, and everyone is happy.</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/web+dev" rel="tag">web dev</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/lamp" rel="tag">lamp</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/htaccess" rel="tag">htaccess</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/mod_rewrite" rel="tag">mod_rewrite</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/server+side" rel="tag">server side</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Stuart MacDonald to be speaking at FITC Toronto 2007</h1> <p>2007-01-23T17:11:00.000-05:00</p> <p>I just got the latest <a href="http://fitc.ca"><acronym title="Flash In The Can">FITC</acronym></a> Newsletter in my inbox and noticed that Mr. <a href="http://stuart.blogware.com" rel="met friend">Stuart MacDonald</a> was on the <a href="http://www.fitc.ca/speaker_list.cfm?festival_id=12">list of presenters</a>! If you don't know Stuart (shame on you), he's the one who is responsible for starting <a href="http://www.expedia.ca">Expedia.ca</a>, and well as co-organizing the very successful <a href="http://meshconference.com" title="Canada's First Web 2.0 Conference">mesh conference</a> last May (as well as the <a href="http://upcoming.org/event/129277/">upcoming one</a> this May 30-31).</p> <p>At first I was a bit surprised to see <a href="http://stuartmacdonald.ca">Stuart</a> on the speaker list at a <em>flash</em> conference, but I'm assuming he's going to be talking about some of the business aspects. It'll be great to see one of my favourite <a href="http://www.meshconference.com/about.php#who">mesh organizers</a> speaking at two <a href="http://meshconference.com">excellent</a> <a href="http://www.fitc.ca/event_detail.cfm?festival_id=12">events</a> this spring (I'll be volunteering again, as I did <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/sets/72157594149983756/" title="my flickr set from FITC Toronto 2006">last year</a>), along with over 70 great speakers, among them flash guru <a href="http://moock.org">Colin Moock</a> and rock star flash designer <a href="http://joshuadavis.com">Joshua Davis</a>. No <a href="http://mezzoblue.com">Dave Shea</a> this year, though :( — looks like you'll have to go to <a href="https://secure.webdirections.org/wdn07/aff/wdngm">Web Directions North</a> or <a href="http://vivabit.com/atmedia2007">@media 2007</a> for that (and I <a href="http://newmediarts.blogspot.com/2007/01/ask-and-you-shall-receivealmost.html">really wanted to go see him</a>, too...).</p> <p class="update"><a href="http://pucknell.com">Shawn</a> has <a href="http://newmediarts.blogspot.com/2007/01/stuart-macdonald-to-be-speaking-at-fitc.html#c2681704581535724857" title="Comment by shawn on 'Stuart MacDonald to be speaking at FITC Toronto 2007'">left a comment</a> saying that Stuart unfortunately won't be able to speak at FITC Toronto this year after all due to a scheduling conflict. Bummer :(</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/stuart+macdonald" rel="tag">stuart macdonald</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/fitc" rel="tag">fitc</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/fitc2007" rel="tag">fitc2007</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Arrgh!</h1> <p>2007-01-20T05:56:00.000-05:00</p> <p>I just spent the last 4 hours trying to get my <code>.htaccess</code> files to work under my <a title="Netfirms" href="http://www.netfirms.ca/">restrictive web host</a>. I hope I don't have to go through anything as horrible as that ever again. It was like spending hours working on a jigsaw puzzle, only to find that you've got one missing piece that's preventing you from finishing what you need to do.</p> <p>Let me explain: Apparently, <a href="http://netfirms.ca/">they</a> only allow <a title="Netfirms Support: .htaccess" href="http://support.netfirms.com/idx.php/0/002/article/How-do-I-fix-a-500-Internal-Server-Error-on-my-website.html">a handful of directives</a> to be used in <code>.htaccess</code> files, which to me sounds like only getting half a slice of pie instead of a full slice <span lang="fr">à la mode</span> as you'd expect.</p> <p>This reminds me of <acronym title="Digital Rights Management">DRM</acronym> in a way, crippling your use of their services, even though you're paying full price for what you'd <em>expect</em> to be everything you asked for.</p> <p>And this isn't the only limitation their hosting plan offers: they only allow you to have 2 custom <acronym title="Mail Exchanger">MX</acronym> records, so when I wanted to use <a href="http://www.google.com/a/">Gmail for your Domain</a>, there was nothing I could do since Google <a title="Google Apps for your Domain Help: MX Records_ Netfirms" href="http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=57155">needs you to set 6 of them</a> in order for it to work properly. I was distraught, but I had the fallback option of using plain old Email Forwarding... or so I thought. So I set it up, and when I tried testing it to see if it would work, it didn't. I tried again days, weeks, months later, even just five minutes ago, and it still doesn't work. Sure, I <em>could</em> use one of their <acronym title="Post Office Protocol">POP</acronym> accounts, but the main reason I want to use email forwarding is because I prefer Gmail's user interface, and having to use a desktop client would completely defeat the purpose of what I want to do.</p> <p>I've paid for the hosting already, so I guess I'm stuck with them for another 6 months, but after that I think I might sign up with another hosting company like <a href="http://www.dreamhost.com/">Dreamhost</a>, where they seem to be much more allowing of what you can do with your account, that is, unless <a href="http://www.netfirms.ca/">Netfirms</a> resolves all its problems. And the only reason I bought my Netfirms account was to support <a title="Amber MacArthur" href="http://www.ambermac.com/">Amber</a>, <a title="Jeff MacArthur" href="http://jeffmacarthur.com/">Jeff</a>, <del><a title="Mikey is no longer co-hosting commandN" href="http://mikelaz.com/">Mikey</a>,</del> and <a title="Brian McKechnie" href="http://bamcat.com/">Brian</a> over at <a title="one of the best tech news vidcasts ever" href="http://commandn.tv/">commandN</a> (and because I needed a web host at that time). Ah, the deception of promotional discount codes...</p> <p><strong>And the worst part is, once I had figured out what was wrong in my <code>.htaccess</code>, I only needed to modify <strong title="On line 75, remove the leading octothorpe and change the path to '/'"><em>1 line</em></strong> from the original file to make it work (if only I knew that from the beginning).</strong></p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/netfirms" rel="tag">netfirms</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/hosting" rel="tag">hosting</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/htaccess" rel="tag">htaccess</a></span> <p style="text-align: right; font-size: 9px;">Blogged with <a href="http://www.flock.com/blogged-with-flock" title="Flock" target="_new">Flock</a></p> </article> <article> <h1>And another thing</h1> <p>2007-01-12T14:19:00.000-05:00</p> <p>And not to mention I've got to get my site's Unfailed Redesign launched before <a href="https://secure.webdirections.org/wdn07/aff/wdngm" title="February 7, Web Directions North in Vancouver">then</a>. I've made a such mess of <a href="http://www.stopdesign.com/">Doug Bowman</a>'s elegant designs & code. I should probably choose a new template so I can stop worrying about how many validation errors this site's got for now, even if it'll destroy all the <del>hacks</del> <del>code injections</del> <del>superfluous crap</del> customizations I've added. Luckily, <a href="http://drupal.org/drupal-5.0-rc2" title="Drupal 5 release candidate 2">Drupal 5 <acronym title="Release Candidate">RC</acronym> 2</a> was just announced, and as the final release date for <a href="http://drupal.org/">Drupal 5.0</a> draws nearer and nearer, so does the day my new site will be launched. I'm working on it, along with a bevy of other things. It will come, soon enough.</p> <p class="update"><strong>Update:</strong> Well, I tried upgrading my blogger template to the new version, but upon passing it through the validator, it had <strong><a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A//newmediarts.blogspot.com/" title="W3C HTML Validator test on archived version of this site with the new Blogger template system">901 validation errors</a></strong>, a lot of them being false positives on the validator's part (it recognized Blogger's proprietary <code><Variable></code> tag when it was contained within CSS comments), and others being bad template coding decisions that have no clear way of modifying in the new template <acronyn title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</acronym> editor (such as wrapping an extra paragraph tag around each blog post). Even though some template-updating features have been added to improve workflow, I think I'll stick with my old template for now until I finally migrate over (soon, I promise).</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/promises" rel="tag">promises</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Ask and you shall receive—almost</h1> <p>2007-01-12T12:30:00.000-05:00</p> <p>I was just in the middle of an email to a friend of mine about how I may not be able to attend <a href="https://secure.webdirections.org/wdn07/aff/wdngm">Web Directions North</a> in February last night (which is a real shame, I've been wanting to go ever since I found out about it in September), how the price was too high for me, and the affiliate badge I had put on <a href="https://newmediarts.blogspot.com/">my site</a> had yet to yield any results. But last night as I was checking the <a href="https://secure.webdirections.org/wdn07/aff/wdngm"><acronym title="Web Directions North">WDN</acronym> site</a> to reference what <a href="https://secure.webdirections.org/wdn07/aff/wdngm?page=tags">presentation topics were being covered</a>, I noticed a special <a href="http://north.webdirections.org/2007/01/11/wdn-student-scholarships/">announcement</a> of a student scholarship program, where I'd be able to get a ticket for a much more affordable $195! It was as if my prayers had been answered! Quite a coincidence, I must say. For a while it made me forget about how crappy I was feeling from <a href="http://newmediarts.blogspot.com/2007/01/lost-ipod.html" title="Lost iPod :(">losing my iPod earlier that day</a>. Thanks <a href="http://www.mezzoblue.com/">Dave</a>, <a href="http://boxofchocolates.ca/">Derek</a>, <a href="http://westciv.com/">Maxine, and John</a>!</p> <a href="https://secure.webdirections.org/wdn07/aff/wdngm" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></a> <p>But alas, the Fates may have determined that this was not meant to be for me. As much as I've been yearning to go these past months, it simply may not be possible for me. Not for now, at least.</p> <p>Also coming up soon is <abbr title="South by Southwest">SXSW</abbr> in March, which promises to be excellent week, and twice as costly.</p> <p>Here are th Top 5 reasons I'd prefer attending <acronym title="Web Directions North">WDN</acronym> over <abbr title="South by Southwest">SXSW</abbr>:</p> <ol><li>It's Canadian (<span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Georgia,serif;" title="as am i" lang="fr">comme je suis</span>) ;).</li> <li><a href="https://secure.webdirections.org/wdn07/aff/wdngm?page=detail/speakers">They've got an excellent speaker line-up</a>. I was giddy with excitement just from reading the names of the presenters</li> <li><abbr title="South by Southwest">SXSW</abbr> is <em>huge</em>. Maybe too huge for my first out-of-town web conference. I find the (relatively) smaller atmosphere more comfortable to be in.</li> <li>I've already met <a href="http://joeclark.org/">Joe Clark</a> at a <a href="http://www.torontointeracts.ca/Events/PastEvents/document.ashx?datasource=460&document=99&viewmode=content" title="Accessible Websites: A Road to Usability and Profit">Toronto Interacts</a> <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/sets/72157594354168123/" title="my flickr photos from the event">event</a> he <a href="http://joeclark.org/tint/" title="Joe's notes">spoke at</a> in November (my first time listening to a <span title="web design">web</span> guru live and in-person), and I'd really like to see him speak again, as well as to get a chance to hear all the other great speakers who, up until now, I've only <a href="http://www.webdirections.org/" title="Web Directions South podcast">had</a> <a href="http://www.webstock.org.nz/recordings.php" title="Webstock session recordings">the pleasure</a> <a href="http://www.webjamsession.com/" title="Webmaster Jam Session Conference podcasts">of</a> <a href="http://2006.sxsw.com/coverage/podcasts/" title="SXSW 2006 podcasts">listening to</a> <a href="http://www.vivabit.com/atmedia2006/index.php/category/podcast/" title="@media 2006 podcast">via</a> <a href="http://2006.dconstruct.org/podcast" title="d.construct 2006 podcast">podcast</a>.</li> <li>I've always wanted to go to Vancouver, but I've never been.</li> </ol> <p>And being on a student budget doesn't help my situation much. I'd have to work twice as much to be able to go to both events, which might not be possible.</p> <p>Pros for <abbr title="South By Southwest">SXSW</abbr>:</p> <ul><li><em>way</em> more people will be there (and in turn more presentations with more prestigious speakers, more parties, <abbr title="et cetera">etc.</abbr>), therefore more opportunites to meet interesting people and web luminaries</li> <li>4-day event <abbr title="versus">vs.</abbr> 2 days for <acronym title="Web Directions North">WDN</acronym></li> </ul> <p>Cons:</p> <ul><li>it'll cost nearly <abbr title="Canadian Dollars">CAD$</abbr>1500 for me to go to <abbr title="South By Southwest Interactive">SXSWi</abbr>. <acronym title="Web Directions North">WDN</acronym> would only cost half as much.</li> <li>It's in the <acronym title="United States">U.S.</acronym>, so I'd have to get my passport details sorted out before March (but I'd need to get that done eventually anyways)</li></ul> <p>Sigh... I really would like to be able to attend both, but sometimes things are not meant to be. However I'll be working hard to try to do everything in my power to get things sorted out soon and hopefully they'll still have a student ticket available for me by then *fingers-crossed*.</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/wdn" rel="tag">wdn</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/web+directions+north" rel="tag">web directions north</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/sxsw" rel="tag">sxsw</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/sxsw2007" rel="tag">sxsw2007</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/web+conferences" rel="tag">web conferences</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/difficult+situations" rel="tag">difficult situations</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Lost iPod :(</h1> <p>2007-01-11T16:21:00.000-05:00</p> <p>I really wish I hadn't left my <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodnano">iPod</a> by that computer in Room 243 earlier today between 1:25 PM and 2:00 PM <acronym title="Grenwich Mean Time">GMT</acronym>-05:00. If it hadn't been for me suddenly remembering to print that that 278-page 'CSS Hacks' e-book, I would've never gotten into this mess.</p> <p>The fact that I've just lost a $250+ piece of electronic equipment isn't what's even bugging me the most; it's the fact that someone would actually <em>Steal</em> something that wasn't theirs to begin with. (Of course, it's not unlikely to imagine what a typical college student would do in that situation. Have these people no morals?)</p> <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/frijole/325316969/"></a><p>Then again, that e-book I had printed wasn't exactly acquired lawfully. I've been known to use peer-to-peer software <em>occasionally</em> to acquire digital files, but that's not the same: digital files are easily reproduceable and the previous owner still has his orginal copy. And unless I had a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_assembler" title="Wikipedia: Molecular Assembler">molecular assembler</a>, this isn't the case and now I don't have my iPod anymore. :'(. (As a result of this I've put a hold on using any <acronym title="Peer-to-Peer">P2P</acronym> software on my computer.)</p> <p>(I really should be more responsible with my valuables. Last year I lost a <acronym title="Universal Serial Bus">USB</acronym> drive the same way.)</p> <p>I really want my iPod back. Fortunately, most of my data on there is safe. All my music is in my iTunes Library, so I'm not so worried about that, and I can live with someone else knowing what my Calendars hold; as for my Notes, some of them had personal information of a friend, but knowing her and how open she is, I'm sure she wouldn't mind too much about it.</p> <p>I've got bits and pieces backed up, as I've synced most of the older folders on there with my <a href="http://www.apple.com/imac">iMac</a> individually, so I don't know exactly what I do or don't have copies of, and since I haven't used my nano to store any new files for the past couple months, I'm fairly confident in assuming that all I'm missing is maybe 5 or 10 files (possibly crucial; I haven't yet been able to recall what they were, hopefully nothing too important), plus the work I did today. It also had the Photoshop mockups of my site's new design (backed-up, thankfully), and a 2x5 sheet of my business cards, so that should provide him with my contact info and the ability to contact me.</p> <p>I had my folder of unfinished, unpublished blog posts on there, too, as well as some other personal documents that I'd prefer others not to read, but I guess by having personal data on it (and assuming the looter goes through my files), he would be able to identify who originally owned this iPod, and make an effort to reunite the device with its rightful owner.</p> <p>Advice on safeguarding your iPod from theft / how to increase the chances of getting it back:</p> <ol><li>As a future precaution, <strong>I'm putting an 'OWNER'S CONTACT INFO' file with my phone number and email address onto each of my portable storage devices</strong>. I just hope the perp doesn't format it :( (when I left it, it was plugged into the computer via its <acronym title="Universal Serial Bus">USB</acronym> cable, and that was gone when I came back for it, so he could potentially do anything with it).</li> <li><strong><a href="https://register.apple.com/">Register</a> your iPod with Apple.</strong> Theoretically, if you've registered your iPod, Apple should be able to detect when the device connects to iTunes, along with the host computer's IP address and other potentially valuable information. If the perp signs into the iTunes Store with their Apple ID, then it is possible to cross-reference the IP addresses and match the Account Holder's name. (Although I'm not sure how helpful Apple would be in helping you recover your iPod; they'd want to get you to buy a new one instead. <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300066" title="Apple Support: How to report lost or stolen Apple product">Their web site sure isn't any help.</a>)</li> <li><strong>My Apple ID and name are both stored in all files I've downloaded</strong> from the iTunes Store, as is everyone else's, respectively. The thief may try to play the songs on his home computer, but won't be able to because of FairPlay, and will most likely delete these files. Let's hope that doesn't happen, as this is one way that I'd be able to identify my iPod.</li> </ol> <p>This loss has caused me to become very distraught and upset. I used to take my iPod <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/284910730/">wherever I went</a>, listening to music while waiting for the <a href="http://www.ttc.ca/">bus</a> or on the (often hour-plus) subway rides home. It even helped me out in a couple of times with its Notes on keeping track of locations of events when I had forgotten the addresses, and allowing me to remember the name of a specific product I wanted to buy from a certain <a href="http://godiva.com/">chocolatier</a> as a gift for someone's birthday. But now, I can't do any of that anymore. I just hope whoever picked it up has enough moral sense to turn it in.</p> <p>I did have a folder with the same name as my domain, however, so if the thief is curious enough to try and access my site, he (or she) may be reading this right now. Improbable, but possible.</p> <p>So, if you were the one who unplugged a black 2<abbr title="Gigabyte">GB</abbr> iPod Nano from the computer in Room 243 on Thursday, January 11, 2006 between 1:20PM and 2:00PM, i urge you to contact me at <strong>gabrielmansour[AT]gmail[DOT]com</strong> or turn it in at the security desk. I just want my iPod back. Is that too much to ask?</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/ipod" rel="tag">ipod</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/stolen" rel="tag">stolen</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/ipod+nano" rel="tag">ipod nano</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/lost" rel="tag">lost</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/theft" rel="tag">theft</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Oops.</h1> <p>2006-12-15T14:38:00.000-05:00</p> <p>My <a href="http://apple.com/imac" title="the original Core Duo they came out with, not the Core 2 (unfortunately)">iMac</a> seemed to be acting a bit sluggish today, and I wanted to do something about it. I recalled a <a href="http://callforhelptv.com/">Call For Help</a> episode that I saw a few weeks ago, where they featured a segment called <a href="http://callforhelptv.com/callforhelp/shownotes/0441.shtml?regular"><em>A Healthy Mac is a Happy Mac</em></a>, where they showed off how to perform maintenance tasks to keep your Mac running smoothly. One piece of software that they featured was <a href="http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx.html">OnyX</a>, which does an amazing job at getting rid of the gunk on your Mac, too good a job in fact.</p><p> It accidentally deleted all my browsers' history, download cache, and recent searches in the process (luckily my saved passwords and cookies remained unscathed). ALL of them. <a href="http://getfirefox.com/">Firefox</a>, <a href="http://www.apple.com/safari/">Safari</a>, <a href="http://www.caminobrowser.org/">Camino</a>, <a href="http://flock.com/">Flock</a>, even <a href="http://www.opera.com/">Opera</a>, completely wiped out. Six months' worth of internet exploration, now gone. Sure, I can remember the usual sites I visit (<a href="http://gmail.com/">Gmail</a>, <a href="http://upcoming.org/">upcoming</a>, <a href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a>, <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/">bloglines</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/">technorati</a>, etc.), but when I want to recall that strange obscure <a href="http://youtube.com/">YouTube</a> video or blog post about a certain unix command, now I've got to rely on Google, and I don't even get purple links to tell me that I've been there before (although there is <a href="http://www.google.com/searchhistory/">Google Search History</a>, which does help, a bit). I can use my browsers' & <a href="http://del.icio.us/gabrielm3">del.icio.us bookmarks</a> as a starting point to slowly rebuild my history.</p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielm3/328370434/"></a><p> But the thing is, I explicitly told OnyX <em>not</em> to mess with my Internet settings (save Browsers' Cache). There might have been some other options that had overrid this somewhere (perhaps "Application Caches"), but they were not apparent to me. The bottom line is, if you tell a piece of software to do (or not do) something, it should do it (or not do it, in this case). Users shouldn't have to second-guess what they thought they told a program to do, and then find out it did the exact opposite happened.</p><p> On a good note, I did manage to find a library of <a href="http://www.clayloomis.com/simsong.html">practically all the Simpsons songs ever</a> (which makes an excellent supplement to my copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FSimpsons-Songs-Springfield-Original-Television%2Fdp%2FB0000033Z8%2Fsr%3D8-1%2Fqid%3D1166645168%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dmusic&tag=newmediarts-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Songs in the Key of Springfield</a>).</p><p> <strong>Update:</strong> It's been five days since this happened, and I've got about 30% back. Although I'll probably only be able to recover 90-95% at best, I'm further along than I was five days ago.</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/onyx" rel="tag">onyx</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/mac" rel="tag">mac</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/browser+dump" rel="tag">browser+dump</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>"We're Off to see the Wizard, The wonderful of GTD!"</h1> <p>2006-10-03T15:05:00.000-04:00</p> <p>I know <a href="http://merlinmann.com/">Merlin Mann</a> probably hates it when people compare him to the great wizard <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin">Merlin</a> (not to mention improperly combining movie references with ancient wizardry), but I just can't help the fact that in a matter of hours, I will meet Merlin, along with <a href="http://ambermac.com/">Amber MacArthur</a> and podcast-of -the-year winner <a href="http://leoville.com/">Leo Laporte</a>, and <a href="http://geekbrief.tv/">GeekBrief</a>'s Cali Lewis & Neal Campbell who're all getting together tonight @ 6:30 at <a href="http://no-regrets.ca/">No Regrets</a> to record a special live episode of <a href="http://twit.tv/ITN">Inside the Net</a>.</p> <p>My only concern is that I don't know what to get for him. At first I thought I'd get a Moleskine, but that seemed too ordinary for someone like Merlin. There's gotta be something better... Well, I've got a couple hours until it starts. Hopefully by then I'll come up with something. Merlin, if you're reading this and you've got a suggestion, feel free to help me out in the ideas department. Thanks.</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/merlin+mann" rel="tag">merlin mann</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/amber+macarthur" rel="tag">amber macarthur</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/leo+laporte" rel="tag">leo laporte</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/geekbrief" rel="tag">geekbrief</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/inside+the+net" rel="tag">inside the net</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/twit" rel="tag">twit</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/moleskine" rel="tag">moleskine</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Not quite ready yet</h1> <p>2006-10-02T22:51:00.000-04:00</p> <p>I know it's been almost three weeks since my promises of a better-looking site, but I've decided to hold off on it for a bit longer to work on some updates to the interface; I'm not quite satisfied with it so I'll need some more time to improve the design. Hopefully you'll understand. However I will post later tonight on some thoughts I've had lately, so hopefully that'll keep you from mauling me for my unkept promises.</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/delay" rel="tag">delay</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/again" rel="tag">again</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Maybe Tomorrow</h1> <p>2006-09-13T23:48:00.000-04:00</p> <p>I know I <a href="http://newmediarts.blogspot.com/2006/09/time-for-fresh-new-lookhttpbetabloggerc.html">promised</a> a new template for this blog tonight, but right now I'm really tired and don't have the alertness to plug in Blogger's special tags into my template to make it work. I promise I'll have it for tomorrow, if not the day after. </p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/tomorrow" rel="tag">tomorrow</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Time For A Fresh New Look</h1> <p>2006-09-13T11:54:00.000-04:00</p> <p>As you may have already noticed, there's a big orange starburst at the top of this blog saying "New Site Coming Soon". That's right, now that I finally bought my own <a href="http://gabrielmansour.com/">domain</a> <a href="http://newmediarts.ca/">name(s)</a>, I think it's time to move on to bigger and better things, <a href="http://drupal.org/">Drupal</a> being one of them. Although, since Drupal 5.0 isn't slated for release for at least <a href="http://drupal.org/drupal-5.0.0-code-freeze">another two months at the earliest</a>, and I really want to use have the powerful abilities of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28programming%29">AJAX</a> and <a href="http://jquery.com/">jQuery</a>, I may stick around here for a wee bit longer, but, for all those people who want a preview, I'll roll out the new template later on tonight here, which is a whole lot better because it'll actually <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fnewmediarts.blogspot.com%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=XHTML+1.0+Transitional">validate</a>, unlike the mess it is now from adding snippets of code from who knows where and messing everything up (and it'll look prettier, too =) ).</p> <p>And, as always, there's a plethora of things that I need to catch up on to blog. Particularly, the great times I've had these past few days: meeting <a href="http://communicationnation.blogspot.com/">David Gray</a>, CEO and founder of XPlane, the visual thinking company, and <a href="http://sanderssays.com/">Tim Sanders</a>, Chief Solutions Officer at <a href="http://yahoo.com/">Yahoo!</a> and author of the uber-cool networking book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&tag=newmediarts-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;camp=1789&creative=9325&location=%2FLove-Killer-App-Business-Influence%2Fdp%2F1400046831%2Fsr%3D8-1%2Fqid%3D1158170465%2Fref%3Dpd_bbs_1%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks">Love is the Killer App</a> (which I highly recommend), and even got him to sign it for me!</p> <p>Even though I'd love to continue blogging tonight, I've really got to get back to work right about now. I'll post more soon.</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/redesign" rel="tag">redesign</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/drupal" rel="tag">drupal</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/tim+sanders" rel="tag">tim+sanders</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/david+gray" rel="tag">david+gray</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/networking" rel="tag">networking</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>Happy Birthday Flash (FLASH PARTY)!</h1> <p>2006-08-30T13:31:00.000-04:00</p> <p>In celebration of <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/special/flashanniversary/">Flash’s 10th anniversary</a>, <a href="http://flashinto.com/" title="Toronto's Flash User Group">FlashinTO</a> (the Toronto Flash User Group) is holding a <a href="http://www.flashinto.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3932">Flash PARTY</a> tonight at <a href="http://resistorgallery.ca/">Resistor Gallery</a>! While <a href="http://pucknell.com/">Shawn Pucknell</a> (who is also the director of <a href="http://fitc.ca/" title="Flash in the Can"><acronym title="Flash In The Can">FITC</acronym></a>) has already gone ahead and made all the plans, I’ve also devised some unofficial “rules” (you can think of them as some unwritten guidelines for tonight’s festivities):</p> <ul> <li>only Flash photography will be allowed</li> <li>Music selection will be limited to the musical works of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmaster_flash">Grandmaster Flash</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FLaud-Baud-Flash-Bat%2Fdp%2FB000FFP00U%3Fie%3DUTF8&tag=newmediarts-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Flash. Bat</a>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FFlash%2Fartist%2FB000APZUDM&tag=newmediarts-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Flash</a> (particularly tracks featured of the album <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2FB000002R9P%3Fie%3DUTF8&tag=newmediarts-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">"In the Can"</a>), and any other artist who has the word “flash” in his name</li> <li>Clips from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon_serial">the old “Flash Gordon” serial</a> will be projected on the main screen</li> <li>Anyone who admits to having seen <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_%281997_film%29">the 1997 film <em>Flash</em></a> and liked it will get a prize</li> <li>somebody will incidentally <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indecent_exposure">flash</a> someone</li> <li>all <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/flashlite/">Flash Lite</a>-enabled cell phones will be illuminated with a flashlight</li> <li>There will be copies of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_%28comics%29"><em>Flash</em> comic book</a> available for reading at your leisure</li> <li><strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob">A flash mob</a> will spontaneously gather outside Resistor Gallery at 08:30:06 PM tonight (Aug. 30, 2006) and experience/discuss <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashback">flashbacks</a></strong></li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory">Flash memory</a> will be the only type of digital storage media allowed in the vicinity. If someone has a digital storage device that does not use flash memory, the item must be publicly identified as such and held out</li> <li>there will be a karaoke showdown to see who is able to sing the 1980 song <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_%28song%29"><em>“Flash”</em></a> by Queen the best</li> <li>At least two people will spend half the night competing for the title of the ultimate master of <a href="http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/">Flash Flash Revolution</a></li> </ul> <p>Those of you coming out tonight, I'm looking forward to seeing you there. Those who are not: come on, it'll be a Blast (radius)! (as in <a href="http://blastradius.com/" title="one of the most awesomest interactive media & design firms ever!">Blast Radius</a>' <a href="http://brendanlynch.com/">Brendan Lynch</a>, as well as <a href="http://tomontheweb.ca/" title="no, the _other_ Tom Green">Tom Green</a>, and <a href="http://www.newyyz.com/">Kevin Towes</a>. You're also not gonna want to miss the 10pm Retro Flash Showcase that's going down!)</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/flash" rel="tag">flash</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/flashinto" rel="tag">flashinto</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/party" rel="tag">party</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/adobe" rel="tag">adobe</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/toronto" rel="tag">toronto</a></span> </article> <article> <h1>That was when I used to like JavaScript</h1> <p>2006-08-27T15:04:00.000-04:00</p> <p>There was a time, not too long ago, when I used to <em>adore</em> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript">JavaScript</a>. I would use it superfluously in web application development, from the fun transitional effects of <a href="http://openrico.org">Rico</a> and <a href="http://jquery.com">jQuery</a>, to the powerful and seamless abilities of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMLHttpRequest">XMLHTTPRequest</a>. But then, people discovered that JavaScript <a href="http://www.spidynamics.com/spilabs/education/articles/JS-portscan.html">could be used for evil</a>. Router ports could be opened and closed, firewalls disabled; network security was essentially compromised.</p> <p>Because of this, more and more people are disabling javascript in their browsers, which means that they can't use many of the rich features that web apps offer, even in some cases rendering the sites completely useless (which really shouldn't happen, because we <em>should</em> be designing with accessibility in mind, right developers?). That number has now grown to over 10% of all internet users, <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp" title="Browser Statistics">according to the <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</sabbr></a>, which is a real shame because most people use JavaScript in their sites to enhance the user experience, but if your users' browsers don't meet your site's requirements to view it properly, then they can't really get the most out of your site.</p> <p>When did JavaScript become so malicious? Can't we go back to a time when none of this extra blather was added and just have a simple client-side programming language? Is that really too much to ask for?</p> <span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/javascript" rel="tag">javascript</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/exploits" rel="tag">exploits</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/security" rel="tag">security</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/web+development" rel="tag">web+development</a></span> </article> </main></body></html>