Useful Stuff

Useful Stuff http://usefulstuff.posterous.com Useful Stuff is kinda like a second brain for me... a place to remember stuff I've discovered about all the things I do, so that I don't forget and have to discover it all over again! posterous.com Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:05:04 -0800 Updated Video Workflow http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/SxgVNPhenwc/updated-video-workflow http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/updated-video-workflow <p> <div>Here's my basic <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/video-workflow">video workflow</a>. I've added a few items since that post:</div><p /><div>A.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Click the little gear in the lower left corner of the beginning of each clip and select Clip Adjustments. Under Video Effects, select Cartoon for OGTV videos and Hard Light for TA-TV videos. Cartoon has a dreamy look and saves video size because the soft focus means adjacent pixels are more similar. Hard Light is bigger, but necessary for the details in TA-TV.</div><p /><div>B.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>I've changed my opening title method so that the opening title is now overlaid on the first 3.5 seconds of the clip. The closing title is still on a gradient background.</div><p /><div>C.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>To finish, I export the movie using QuickTime. A few people don't have QuickTime, but it's a free download, and offers much more flexibility than the other options. In the export dialog box, click Options in the lower right. Under Settings in the Movie Settings dialog box that comes up, select Compression Type: H.264, Frame Rate: Current, Data Rate: Automatic, Compressor: Medium, and Encoding: Best Quality. Under Size, I use 512x288. This doesn't work with older iPhones, but does work on 4's and on all browsers with QuickTime. The reason for selecting this size is because it's my title image size used elsewhere on the website. Under sound settings, I leave all defaults. Under Prepare for Internet Streaming, I select Fast Start.</div> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/updated-video-workflow">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/updated-video-workflow#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/gMDbAgDU7OGR_Xbojt1UhdXoa44/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/gMDbAgDU7OGR_Xbojt1UhdXoa44/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/gMDbAgDU7OGR_Xbojt1UhdXoa44/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/gMDbAgDU7OGR_Xbojt1UhdXoa44/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/SxgVNPhenwc" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/updated-video-workflow Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:33:00 -0800 Mac HTML Email Signatures Simplified http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/A9hCZS8rQQ4/mac-html-email-signatures-simplified http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/mac-html-email-signatures-simplified <p> <div>Scroll down for my new email signature. I blogged nearly two years ago about <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/my-new-email-signature">how I created this signature</a>. Recently, my image hosting service has been screwing up a lot, so I moved the images, necessitating rebuilding parts of the signature. Fortunately, I've discovered easier ways to do several parts of it:</div> <p /> <div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">HTML Editor</span></span></div> <div>Previously, I used industrial-strength Dreamweaver because it was part of my Adobe Creative Suite. But the learning curve was very steep. Now, I'm using <a href="http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit">Komodo</a>, which is free and much easier to use.</div> <p /> <div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Image Host</span></span></div> <div>Previously, I used ImageShack to host the chiclets and book image in my signature because I could never get images to work when hosted on Zenfolio or MobileMe. Recently, I've switched to <a href="http://www.a2hosting.com/">A2 Hosting</a> as part of my <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/why-move-from-iweb-to-sandvox">move from iWeb to Sandvox</a>. After my recent troubles with ImageShack images disappearing, I decided to experiment with putting them on A2. I created a folder for the images in my public_html folder, tested it, and Bingo! It worked! Here's my <a href="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/Twitter.jpg">twitter chiclet</a>, for example, so you can see the URL.</div> <p /> <div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">What to Edit?</span></span></div> <div>I tried for almost half the day to figure out how to edit the .webarchive files directly, because that's where the signatures are stored. I eventually gave up on that, because I could never find a tool to do it directly. Back when I originally created the signatures, I noted that the first thing to do was to build html files for each signature, then use Safari to save as .webarchive files. So I still had the original html files, and that's what I ended up editing.</div> <p /> <div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Editing HTML</span></span></div> <div>I didn't need to totally create the signatures from scratch, as I was just modifying what I already had. What made it much easier was that once I fixed the image sources by changing them from ImageShack to my Original Green site, I was easily able to copy the HTML of the chiclets from the first signature and paste it to each of the other signatures quickly. You can only edit the html in Komodo, so it's not a true WYSIWYG editor, but if you click the Preview button in the toolbar, it splits the window, showing the html in the top half and the design in the bottom half.</div> <p /> <div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Saving Signatures</span></span></div> <div>I don't know why I hadn't seen this earlier, but there's a much faster way to save signatures than what I'd previously used. To begin, simply open all of the html files in Safari and Save As .webarchive files. These files should be named obviously. The New Urban Guild signatures for Wanda and I are named NUG_Steve.html and NUG_Wanda.html, for example. So the corresponding .webarchive files are NUG_Steve.webarchive and NUG_Wanda.webarchive.</div> <p /> <div>Next, open a second Finder window next to the window holding the html files and navigate this second window to Home>Library>Mail>V2>MailData>Signatures. Start at the top of the Signatures window and work down. The .webarchive file names are complete gobbledygook that you can't possibly remember or distinguish (like 2FE15CC0-C16E-458D-BCE0-A6A894EFCE8B.webarchive,) but all you need to do is to click each file and tap the space bar to bring up the preview window so you can see which signature it is (New Urban Guild, Guild Foundation, etc., in my case.) Click into the gobbledygook file name, and copy it. Go to the master html window and find the matching .webarchive file. Click into its filename, and paste the plain-English name with the gobbledygook name from the Signatures folder. Finally, move this file into the Signatures folder, overwriting the old .webarchive file. Do this for each signature and you're done.</div> <p /> <div>As promised, here's what the signature looks like:</div> <div><br /> <table border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td align="center" width="210"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1931871116?ie=UTF8&tag=theoriggree-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1931871116"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/OGBookCoverPerspective.jpg" height="288" alt="Original Green book" width="192" /></a></td> <td valign="bottom"> <p>Steve Mouzon<br /> AIA ~ CNU ~ LEED AP<p /> New Urban Guild<br /> 1253 Washington Avenue<br /> Suite 222<br /> Miami Beach, FL 33139<br /> USA<p /> 786-276-6000<br /> <a href="mailto:steve@newurbanguild.com">steve@newurbanguild.com</a></p> </td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" width="432"> <tr> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://www.originalgreen.org/OG/Home.html"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/OG.jpg" height="57" alt="the Original Green" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://www.originalgreen.org/OG/Blog/Blog.html"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/RSS.jpg" height="57" alt="the Original Green Blog" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://twitter.com/stevemouzon"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/Twitter.jpg" height="57" alt="Original Green twitter stream" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://we-do-this-because.posterous.com/"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/Posterous.jpg" height="57" alt="We Do This Because... blog" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=1042127"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/LinkedIn.jpg" height="57" alt="LinkedIn" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/original.green.sustainability"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/Facebook.jpg" height="57" alt="Original Green page on Facebook" width="57" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://www.mouzon.com/MDZ/Home.html"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/MDZ.jpg" height="57" alt="Mouzon Design" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://www.newurbanguild.com/NUG/SmartDwelling.html"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/ProjectSmartDwelling.jpg" height="57" alt="Project SmartDwelling" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://www.newurbanguild.com/NUG/Home.html"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/NUG.jpg" height="57" alt="New Urban Guild" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/shops/mouzondesign"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/MouzonBooks.jpg" height="57" alt="Mouzon books" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://samouzon.zenfolio.com/"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/MouzonImages.jpg" height="57" alt="Mouzon images" width="57" /></a></td> <td height="66" align="center"><a href="http://www.mouzon.com/MDZ/Plans.html"><img src="http://www.originalgreen.org/ChicletsWhite/MouzonPlans.jpg" height="57" alt="Mouzon plans" width="57" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/mac-html-email-signatures-simplified">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/mac-html-email-signatures-simplified#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wJQ00RNvWawSwYYh3CeiIU3AdQg/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wJQ00RNvWawSwYYh3CeiIU3AdQg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wJQ00RNvWawSwYYh3CeiIU3AdQg/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wJQ00RNvWawSwYYh3CeiIU3AdQg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/A9hCZS8rQQ4" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/mac-html-email-signatures-simplified Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:37:00 -0800 Figured Out plist Editing! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/NmJPNAy8VUg/figured-out-plist-editing http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/figured-out-plist-editing <p> <p>Ever since moving my websites to Sandvox, I've been bedeviled with one little aspect of creating new themes: modifying the plist. Let's start at the beginning: <p /> A. Determine which Sandvox design is closest to the look of the site you want to build. My choice is Clean Sheets, FWIW. <p /> B. Do you have any custom Designs that are closer to the look of the site you want to build than a stock Sandvox Design? If no, the navigate to Applications>Sandvox. If yes, skip to C. <p /> 1. Right-click or Control-click on the Sandvox icon, which will bring up a list of choices. Select Show Package Contents. <p /> 2. Navigate to Contents>Designs <p /> 3. Select the .svxDesign file for the design you've chosen (file names are fairly self-explanatory) and duplicate it. <p /> 4. Move the duplicated file to username>Library>Application Support>Sandvox. <p /> C. Select either the Sandvox design you've just moved (if the answer to B was "no") or a custom design already in this folder (if the answer to B was "yes") and rename it for the new Design you're creating. For my New Media for Designers + Builders site I'm working on, I renamed the file NewMedia.svxDesign. Now, you're ready to modify the Design. <p /> 1. Right-click or Control-click on the .svxDesign file, which will bring up a list of choices. Select Show Package Contents. <p /> 2. The file you're looking for is Info.plist, but don't just double-click it. If you do, it'll open it up in Property List Editor, where (for reasons I can't fathom) it's almost impossible to save correctly. I've worked with this for many hours on my first two sites, finally stumbling on the right combination of keystrokes and mouse clicks completely by accident, and unable to remember precisely what I did. So don't do that. Instead, do this: <p /> 3. Open Info.plist with TextEdit. <p /> 4. Change the Bundle identifier to "Sandvox.<newthemename>" (don't include < or >... I'm just using those to make clear that "newthemename" is a variable... the name of your new theme (remove all spaces and other extraneous characters.) <p /> 5. Change the title to <newthemename>. <p /> 6. Save and close. <p /> 7. Modify your Design by changing main.css. I've had great luck with CSSedit, but that app has been bundled into Espresso, which I haven't worked with yet. In any case, it's the main.css file that determines the look and feel of your custom Design.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/figured-out-plist-editing">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/figured-out-plist-editing#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/tzty4HZj54RWWKXUZsw07Gns9yo/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/tzty4HZj54RWWKXUZsw07Gns9yo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/tzty4HZj54RWWKXUZsw07Gns9yo/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/tzty4HZj54RWWKXUZsw07Gns9yo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/NmJPNAy8VUg" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/figured-out-plist-editing Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:14:22 -0800 Creating Modified Email Signatures http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/63B44Izujfc/creating-modified-email-signatures http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/creating-modified-email-signatures <p> I blogged some time ago about the <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/my-new-email-signature">process of creating my email signature</a> from scratch. But what about when you just need to duplicate and modify a signature in Apple Mail? It's a lot simpler:<p /><div>A.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Go to Mail>Preferences and click the Signatures tab.</div><p /><div>B.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>At the bottom of the second column, click "+" to create a new signature. Don't do anything to it right now.</div><p /><div>C.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Quit Mail.</div><p /><div>D.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>In the Finder, navigate to (your username)>Library>Mail>V2>MailData>Signatures. The signature names (the ones with a .webarchive extension) are complete gobbledygook, but don't worry. You'll see one with a Date Modified of just a moment ago. Click on that one to select the file name.</div><p /><div>E.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Copy the file name.</div><p /><div>F.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Delete the file.</div><p /><div>G.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Now, click one of the other .webarchive signature files. Hit the space bar. This will bring up the Preview window. Scroll until you find the one you want to modify.</div><p /><div>H.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Duplicate that .webarchive signature file.</div><p /><div>I.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Reopen Mail and go back to Mail>Preferences>Signatures. You'll find the duplicated signature in the list.</div><p /><div>J.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Change its name to whatever you want.</div><p /><div>K.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Make the changes in the text of the signature.</div><p /><div>L.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Copy it into all of your email accounts where you'll be using it by simply dragging it onto those accounts in the left column.</div><p /><div>M.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Close Preferences... you're done!</div> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/creating-modified-email-signatures">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/creating-modified-email-signatures#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GjFQlMndxyayW0f9beyl3lCPIC4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GjFQlMndxyayW0f9beyl3lCPIC4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GjFQlMndxyayW0f9beyl3lCPIC4/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/GjFQlMndxyayW0f9beyl3lCPIC4/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/63B44Izujfc" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/creating-modified-email-signatures Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:23:30 -0800 Why Move from iWeb to Sandvox? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/hgsvHQaediY/why-move-from-iweb-to-sandvox http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/why-move-from-iweb-to-sandvox <p> <div>I went through months of agonizing over what to do about the demise of iWeb, and ended up with something that's an improvement on several counts: <a href="http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/">Sandvox</a>, by <a href="http://www.karelia.com/">Karelia Software</a>, comes closest to iWeb's ease of use, but with several advantages:</div><p /><div>A.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>It does Search Engine Optimization stuff as second nature, whereas iWeb wasn't SEO-friendly at all. It had been conceived by Apple as a sort of personal website maker before Facebook came out, and so SEO stuff was never built in. I've had MUCH better Google results since moving to Sandvox. The Meta Description is right there at the bottom of each page, waiting to be filled in. Tagging a page with keywords is simple, as is tagging photos with alternate text. Sandvox is set up with a dialog box to easily configure Google Tools and publishing a Google sitemap (the sitemap.xml.gz) is as easy as clicking a checkbox... only once, not every time you publish. These are all things that iWeb could only do with difficulty, using third-party software.</div><p /><div>B.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>At first, the layout seems to be a bit of a downer... iWeb let you move text and graphics all over the page, like a page layout program, whereas Sandvox is more restrictive about how and where you place stuff. But iWeb sites often did very unpredictable things on different machines and browsers, whereas Sandvox sites are far more predictable... so the restrictions are a blessing in disguise.</div><p /><div>C.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Karelia has an active user community like iWeb did, but the difference is that whereas Apple never talks about future products, Karelia's engineers and even their owners are heavily involved in discussions of where to take Sandvox. And they listen. Already (I've only been using Sandvox for 6 months) they've implemented several changes I asked for.</div><p /><div>D.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>These changes come quickly in the form of new versions, especially if you choose to take part in the beta program. No waiting a year or two for upgrades, like we did with iWeb.</div><p /><div>E.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>The mechanism Sandvox uses for blogging (a "Collection") is extremely versatile. Basically, you can use the blog mechanism not only with a collection of blog posts, but with a collection of project pages, tool pages, book pages, services pages, product pages, plan pages... whatever. If you need a cover page and several detail pages within it, either organized chronologically or alphabetically, this is a really nifty feature.</div><p /><div>F.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Sandvox is much more nimble with template pages of any sort. Just set the page up the way you want and click Draft (do not publish.) You can now duplicate your new template anytime you want a new post, detail page, or whatever. Also, unlike iWeb, you can duplicate an entire collection if needed. Better yet, you can even drag and drop pages or entire collections from one domain file to the next. For example, I could copy my entire Original Green blog to the Mouzon Design site if desired just by a quick drag-and-drop.</div><p /><div>G.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Publishing is easy and clever. And if for any reason the site doesn't publish entirely (internet hiccup or whatever) you just click Publish again and Sandvox picks up where it left off rather than starting over.</div><p /><div>H.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Sandvox's sidebars are a huge time-saver. In iWeb, because it acted like a page layout program, sidebars on two pages were two distinct elements. This means that if I wanted to post lecture dates in my sidebar, I needed to change it on every single page the dates are found. With a large blog, this quickly becomes too labor-intensive. Sandvox, on the other hand, is extremely clever. For every object created on your page except for the basic text block, you can choose whether it's Inline (moves with basic text block) Callout, or Sidebar. If Sidebar, the then it gets listed as one of the available sidebar elements and you can place it on any page that has a sidebar. So if I want to change my lectures, I simply click into any Presentations element on any page of the Original Green site where it appears, make my changes, and it automatically revises it on every page where it occurs. A HUGE time-saver!</div><p /><div>I.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>Sandvox has a lot of built-in Objects, from raw HTML objects to Amazon lists, Facebook buttons, contact forms, Flickr thumbnails, lists of external links, page counters, Google maps, Twitter buttons, YouTube content, etc.</div><p /><div>J.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>It's easy to create a favicon for your site... you probably know already, but a favicon is the little icon that occurs in the URL line of your browser for each page of a more sophisticated site.</div><p /><div>K.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style=""> </span>iWeb used its own blog comment system, but it was quirky and when something went wrong, it was usually impossible to fix... the comment was gone forever. Sandvox, on the other hand, has built-in support for several comment systems. I use Facebook comments, and to great effect because it drives many people to my sites that would never have known about them otherwise. When one of my Facebook friends comments, it goes on their timeline and all of their friends have an opportunity to see the comment and join the discussion. If each has 500 friends, then each comment on my site reaches close to 500 people I don't know, assuming we don't have heavy friend overlap. And you can put Facebook comments anywhere you want, not just on a blog post. Matter of fact, I have a comments module at the bottom of almost every page, because I want visitors to have the opportunity for a conversation about my entire site, not just my blog.</div><p /><div>There's much more, but you get the idea... leaving iWeb seemed really painful at first, but it's been one of the best changes I've made in years to my internet presence.</div> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/why-move-from-iweb-to-sandvox">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/why-move-from-iweb-to-sandvox#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kQMj8Yim3fNCjiaSSgd8k8mcP9E/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kQMj8Yim3fNCjiaSSgd8k8mcP9E/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kQMj8Yim3fNCjiaSSgd8k8mcP9E/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/kQMj8Yim3fNCjiaSSgd8k8mcP9E/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/hgsvHQaediY" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/why-move-from-iweb-to-sandvox Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:34:00 -0800 TinkerTool http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/jf0B9T1scEA/tinkertool http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/tinkertool <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-11-22/valBqDzpimlEdqxnjAdoruAFxwCkGtaCvFIhxlgGCoDuplHksvoxgoGwAIyu/TinkerTool.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Tinkertool" height="149" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-11-22/valBqDzpimlEdqxnjAdoruAFxwCkGtaCvFIhxlgGCoDuplHksvoxgoGwAIyu/TinkerTool.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>I've just found a great little tool called <a href="http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html">TinkerTool</a> that lets you set all sorts of obscure little settings on Mac OS X Lion all in one place... things like showing invisible files, etc. It doesn't change any component of the operating system, and it's easy to set everything back to previous conditions with just a keystroke.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/tinkertool">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/tinkertool#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/fD3CoYKtkeKlRGl-R5Fqk7yenQY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/fD3CoYKtkeKlRGl-R5Fqk7yenQY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/fD3CoYKtkeKlRGl-R5Fqk7yenQY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/fD3CoYKtkeKlRGl-R5Fqk7yenQY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/jf0B9T1scEA" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/tinkertool Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:40:00 -0800 We Do This Because... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/j-_qP9o25d0/we-do-this-because http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/we-do-this-because <p> <p>I started Useful Stuff nearly three years ago as a sort of external memory device, to help me remember things I've figured out so I don't have to figure them out again a few months from now. Others have apparently found these things useful as well.</p> <p>Recently, however, that original mission has expanded to include all sorts of musings, and I worry that people looking for how-to stuff won't be so interested in the theoretical rants, and vice versa. So Useful Stuff will go back to being a "know-how" blog, and I'll put all the "know-why" stuff on my new blog instead. It's entitled <a href="http://we-do-this-because.posterous.com/" target="_blank">We Do This Because...</a> because it looks more at the reasons behind things, rather than just the practicalities of getting stuff done.</p> <p>I've just gone back and copied nearly three years of Useful Stuff's theoretical posts there... if you like posts like these, please consider following this <a href="http://we-do-this-because.posterous.com/" target="_blank">We Do This Because...</a></p> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/we-do-this-because">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/we-do-this-because#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mBXiLH09Pr0_LTIvR-4jQzTsciM/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mBXiLH09Pr0_LTIvR-4jQzTsciM/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mBXiLH09Pr0_LTIvR-4jQzTsciM/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/mBXiLH09Pr0_LTIvR-4jQzTsciM/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/j-_qP9o25d0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/we-do-this-because Wed, 09 Nov 2011 07:51:48 -0800 How to Do a Visual Preference Survey http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/967i-sOWFyQ/how-to-do-a-visual-preference-survey http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/how-to-do-a-visual-preference-survey <p> A Visual Preference Survey takes the pulse of a group of citizens concerning their preferences between various pairs of objects. We use them to test public preference for various languages (styles) of architecture, but they could also be used to test for many other object types as well. <p /> To begin, select two sets of images... some use 50 pairs, others use 100, although the number isn't critical. Rather, there should be enough pairs to show trends, but not so many that they cause participant fatigue. You'll project each pair of images side-by-side, and participants will choose which one they prefer. <p /> Each pair of images should show the same building type, but in two different languages of architecture. In other words, comparing a house to a gas station will almost always favor the house, so that result isn't useful. Also, a cottage often gets better ratings than a large house, so the size of the buildings should be similar. Also, you should control for image externalities. In other words, if one image has a blue sky, the other should as well, as a blue-sky image almost always rates higher than one taken on a grey and cloudy day. The bottom line is that you want to make the architecture the primary difference between the images, so that the results are meaningful. <p /> Participants are given a simple scorecard, and are instructed to check the right box if they prefer the right image, or the left box if they prefer the left image. Each image pair is numbered, as are the checkboxes on the scorecards. When the survey is complete, the results are tallied in a database where they can be analyzed. <p /> The results are often striking. Whereas we as architects can debate endlessly over architecture, the non-architects are usually quite decisive. It's really a technique we should use more often, IMO. </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/how-to-do-a-visual-preference-survey">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/how-to-do-a-visual-preference-survey#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/2L4VUvC0MBv1Mg1lKPG0YtxuQDw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/2L4VUvC0MBv1Mg1lKPG0YtxuQDw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/2L4VUvC0MBv1Mg1lKPG0YtxuQDw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/2L4VUvC0MBv1Mg1lKPG0YtxuQDw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/967i-sOWFyQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/how-to-do-a-visual-preference-survey Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:50:00 -0700 Time Passages and Fully Living Life http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/DAzdWbWYudQ/time-passages-and-fully-living-life http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/time-passages-and-fully-living-life <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/Rui9nvfmci1ODWZL0Ydos4LLy3uB9mYE9Qhpi6ETXIIqQIPgI20E4eIodyXi/Venice-11OCT17-3144-web.jpg"><img alt="Venice-11oct17-3144-web" height="332" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/yvJZ8emvcynbH59bEYgBFNUEw7WoPjAhr7auCEIndZRdGgDeoooIKIIaW1ac/Venice-11OCT17-3144-web.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p /> <div>Italy unlocked the strangest secret to me this week. I've just returned from there, where I spent more time (almost 3 weeks) than ever before because with airfare skyrocketing, it's uncertain how much longer I'll be able to afford to go.</div> <p /> <div>The first day back was completely surreal because on the one hand, thinking back over all the things that happened on the trip through Rome, Pienza and the Tuscan countryside, Fiesole, Parma, Bologna, Vicenza, Venice, Florence, and back to Rome again, it seemed like several months since the beginning of the trip. On the other hand, sleeping in my own bed, showering in my own shower, making coffee in my own kitchen, and riding my bike to the office seemed like things I'd done just... yesterday. Not before the seemingly months-long trip. How can this be?</div> <p /> <div>I'm no brain scientist, but I do have a fascination with the ways we remember. And I'm wondering if maybe our minds have a kind of shorthand for the things we do many times, so that instead of creating a whole new memory from scratch, it instead says "I did one of those things again for the umpteenth time"?</div> <p /> <div>If that is so, then one could spend years doing mostly repetitive things and have few memories to show for it. Doing so would seem to impoverish the mind and possibly even the spirit. This mechanical paradigm has been the ideal of the <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/new-media-for-design-types">Era of the Company</a> that began with the Industrial Revolution, and thrived on armies of humans as cogs in the machine, doing the same thing each day, <a href="http://www.originalgreen.org/blog/retirement-vs-the-pursuit.html">living for the weekend</a>. At its extreme, a life spent this way might seem like little more than a few weeks from graduation to retirement, assuming someone worked the same place and did the same thing throughout their career.</div> <p /> <div>In the end, maybe the secret to a long life isn't how late we die. Rather, maybe it's how fully we have lived. Put another way, living 100 years repetitively is not nearly so good as living 1/3 that long most meaningfully.</div> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/time-passages-and-fully-living-life">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/time-passages-and-fully-living-life#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/dxdCJwQoEafKW8Mo9U8wgMSIk5g/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/dxdCJwQoEafKW8Mo9U8wgMSIk5g/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/dxdCJwQoEafKW8Mo9U8wgMSIk5g/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/dxdCJwQoEafKW8Mo9U8wgMSIk5g/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/DAzdWbWYudQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/time-passages-and-fully-living-life Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:11:01 -0700 Building a Better Mousetrap http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/R6pYC_uMR18/building-a-better-mousetrap http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/building-a-better-mousetrap <p> <div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/Vjp50lsB2gOZvWAzmkFWoPUBmvY8dOWyDz15LNyKZO6BMxKZUZYQfhSUMPoy/photo.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Photo" height="373" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/RG1IK3tY0Ad5GeqhZMSWS2gSlFXzsR684hJVv7JL7k99aEO66umV7niqgvFO/photo.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p>You've likely heard the "Build a better mousetrap..." proverb all your life. Well, someone has actually done it! No chance of snapping your finger when cocking the thing. Don't get messy while emptying it. Easily cleaned over and over again, etc. <p /> This makes me wonder how many other proverbs there are out there, right under our noses, waiting for someone to take them seriously?</p> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/building-a-better-mousetrap">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/building-a-better-mousetrap#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/LROVJirU9ClzB2L9_qUHjD4M7w0/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/LROVJirU9ClzB2L9_qUHjD4M7w0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/LROVJirU9ClzB2L9_qUHjD4M7w0/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/LROVJirU9ClzB2L9_qUHjD4M7w0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/R6pYC_uMR18" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/building-a-better-mousetrap Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:10:08 -0700 Fashion vs. Sustainability http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/RV58yjBltc8/fashion-vs-sustainability http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/fashion-vs-sustainability <p> <div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/bHHQxppWwu8VWHwCiPezHrdRHf3qjkXjrZY1pPDgohPQiYvTaQaBnfMxqqGs/photo.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Photo" height="373" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/ueEVbaDvRMD2FUlBzgdV3zzt5LIHiD2UwDJqXWBHlKHv9wnbJmJEbllQMNbl/photo.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p>This was my grandmother's mixing bowl. My mother got it when she died. My mother has had Alzheimer's for a decade, so when Dad & Mother were closing up housekeeping not long ago, Dad gave it to me because he knew I've loved to bake bread ever since I was a kid. <p /> Actually, that's not exactly right. What I actually liked was eating raw yeast dough. But Mom and Grandmother wouldn't let me eat very much of their dough, so I thought "I'll fix that - I'll watch Grandmother really closely (she was a master at bread) and see how she does it." And so I did. But back to the bowl. Obviously, this bowl is out of fashion... You won't find one of these at Williams-Sonoma (unless by chance it's now been deemed "Retro.") If I wanted our kitchen to be in fashion, I wouldn't have it around. <p /> Fashion lines the pockets of manufacturers by enticing us to buy something new each season. Sustainability works by handing things down. Because sustainability, after all, is "keeping things going in a healthy way, long into an uncertain future." <p /> Here's the bottom line: if you want to be sustainable, you likely won't be in fashion. If you want to be in fashion, you likely won't be living a sustainable lifestyle. It's really a simple as that. Isn't it?</p> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/fashion-vs-sustainability">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/fashion-vs-sustainability#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_tFl1Dpf4Qzp9hLSugIcOQmiOSA/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_tFl1Dpf4Qzp9hLSugIcOQmiOSA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_tFl1Dpf4Qzp9hLSugIcOQmiOSA/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_tFl1Dpf4Qzp9hLSugIcOQmiOSA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/RV58yjBltc8" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/fashion-vs-sustainability Tue, 20 Sep 2011 03:02:00 -0700 Setting Up Another Domain http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/WTaJ8Nmi2RM/setting-up-another-domain http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/setting-up-another-domain <p> <p>I'm setting up a second domain (<a href="http://www.mouzon.com">www.mouzon.com</a>) on my new hosting account, and it's not so clear-cut as the first. Because I'll be doing this with at least three more domains (<a href="http://www.katrinacottages.com">www.katrinacottages.com</a>, <a href="http://www.newurbanguild.com">www.newurbanguild.com</a>, and <a href="http://www.guildfoundation.org">www.guildfoundation.org</a>) I'll need these instructions again. <p /> I host with A2 Hosting primarily because they were recommended by Karelia Software, author of Sandvox… and because the research I did didn't turn up any other hosting companies of substantially higher benefit/cost ratios. A2's Control Panel looked almost identical to many other companies' so this set of instructions might work for others as well. <p /> 1. Log into Control Panel and click Home icon. Down the page, there's an icon that says Addon Domains. Click that. I entered the following: <br /> New Domain Name: mouzon.com <br /> Subdomain/FTP Username: mouzon <p /> 2. Go to mydomain.com, where I register all my domain names. Go to Manage Domains and select mouzon.com. It gets a bit complicated here for reasons that have gotten a bit fuzzy. It has something to do with hosting mail on MyDomain and hosting the website elsewhere. But in any case, here's what it's currently set up like under DNS Management: <p /> MX record - points to my incoming mail server <br />A record - points to the URL of the MobileMe servers <br />CNAME record - points pop.mouzon.com to my incoming mail server <br />CNAME record - points smtp.mouzon.com to my incoming mail server <br />CNAME record - points webmail.mouzon.com to my incoming webmail server <br />CNAME record - points <a href="http://www.mouzon.com">www.mouzon.com</a> to mouzon.com <p /> Normally, you'd think you could just change the name servers and that would be fine. Not so here, because of the mail and website being handled by two different companies. Instead, all you need to do is to change the A record to 75.98.166.130, which is the A2 Hosting server's URL. <p /> 3. Set up the iWeb version of the site to publish to A2. Later, I'll install redirects on all the old site pages that take you to the new site. Settings should be as follows: <br /> Publish to: FTP Server <br /> Site name: MDZ <br /> Server address: ftp.originalgreen.org <br /> Username: (my main A2 username)<br /> Directory/Path: public_html/mouzon.com <br /> Protocol: SFTP <br /> Port: 7822 <br /> URL: <a href="http://www.mouzon.com">http://www.mouzon.com</a> <p /> 4. Publish iWeb version of the site, hopefully in time that there's no downtime once the nameservers switch over. <p /> 5. Go to developers.facebook.com/apps. This should show all of your existing apps. Once you're there, do these steps: <br /> a. Click Create New App. <br /> b. It'll bring up a New App window where you have to name the app. I use the same name as the name of the website… in this case, Mouzon Design. <br /> c. On the next page, set App Domain to mouzon.com. <br /> d. Set the category. <br /> e. Click Edit Icon and upload your favicon. <br /> f. Click the larger graphic and upload your logo. <br /> g. Under "Select how your app integrates with Facebook, click Website and enter <a href="http://www.mouzon.com">http://www.mouzon.com</a>. <br /> h. Save Changes. <br /> i. Under Settings in the upper left corner, click Advanced. <br /> j. Under Description, enter "This app provides Facebook connectivity to the Mouzon Design website." <br /> k. Under Privacy Policy URL, enter the URL of your privacy policy page on your website. In this case, <a href="http://www.mouzon.com/about/our-privacy-policy.html">http://www.mouzon.com/about/our-privacy-policy.html</a> <br /> l. Save Changes. <br /> m. Go back to developers.facebook.com/apps and copy the App ID. <br /> n. Go to Sandvox. <br /> o. In the Page>Appearance Inspector, Click the Setup button beside Comments. <br /> p. Select Facebook for the Comments Provider, enter the App ID, set the number of posts to 20, and click Done. <br /> q. Turn on comments on all the pages you want them on. I have them almost everywhere, because I want to give people every chance to discuss our site. <p /> 6. Set up the Sandvox version of the site to publish as follows: <br /> URL Format: <a href="http://www.mouzon.com">http://www.mouzon.com</a> <br /> Hostname: ftp.originalgreen.org <br /> Username: (my main A2 username)<br /> Document Root: /public_html/mouzon.com <p /> 7. Publish Sandvox version of the site. Note that it can't confirm connectivity until the site has flipped over from MobileMe to A2 Hosting. <p /> 8. Set up Google Analytics: <br /> a. In Sandvox, select File>Configure Google Tools. <br /> b. In the Sitemap window, check Publish Google Sitemap <br /> c. In the Google Analytics window, follow the instructions for registering the site with Google Webmaster Tools and installing Analytics. It's quite self-explanatory.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/setting-up-another-domain">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/setting-up-another-domain#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Kh9cD443l2KmJh4r2WTLviZHQx0/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Kh9cD443l2KmJh4r2WTLviZHQx0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Kh9cD443l2KmJh4r2WTLviZHQx0/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Kh9cD443l2KmJh4r2WTLviZHQx0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/WTaJ8Nmi2RM" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/setting-up-another-domain Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:43:04 -0700 The Schooner Bay Miracle http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/1lL67jB6Y2I/the-schooner-bay-miracle http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-schooner-bay-miracle <p> <div><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://www.originalgreen.org/blog/the-schooner-bay-miracle.html">New Town Takes Worst of Irene, Emerges Unscathed</a></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"><a href="http://www.planetizen.com/node/add/news?sourceUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.originalgreen.org%2Fblog%2Fthe-schooner-bay-miracle.html&sourceTitle=The+Schooner+Bay+Miracle&sourcePublication=The+Original+Green+Blog&sourceDate=1314860400#skip_tags" class="noprint" alt="Skip tags" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 88, 132);"></a></span><p /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"><a name="skip_tags" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;"></a></span><div class="submitted" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-size: 0.8em; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Town taps ancient construction wisdom, most of which is completely illegal in US hurricane zones, and fares better in the eye of Hurricane Irene at its strongest point than any other town</span></div><div class="content" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"><div class="newsitem"><div class="contents" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial;"><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px;">Schooner Bay has no houses built on stilts. They don't use hurricane windows... as a matter of fact, their windows are all homemade, fabricated onsite. Yet not one pane of glass was broken. Many of their carpenters were fishermen a year ago. Conventional construction around Schooner Bay was smashed... some houses were completely washed out to sea. This post details a stunning story of the triumph of low-tech measures that have been tested for centuries, and calls into question the direction of FEMA and hurricane codes in the US.</p></div><div class="publish_urls" style="padding-bottom: 0.75em;"><span class="label3" style="padding-right: 5px; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">Full Story:</span> <b><a href="http://www.originalgreen.org/blog/the-schooner-bay-miracle.html">The Schooner Bay Miracle</a></b></div></div></div> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-schooner-bay-miracle">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-schooner-bay-miracle#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YfToydlMGGoPn6_xwSDs-RJ5a7M/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YfToydlMGGoPn6_xwSDs-RJ5a7M/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YfToydlMGGoPn6_xwSDs-RJ5a7M/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/YfToydlMGGoPn6_xwSDs-RJ5a7M/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/1lL67jB6Y2I" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-schooner-bay-miracle Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:42:21 -0700 Original Green blog posts http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/dx7yb7oWFtQ/original-green-blog-posts http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/original-green-blog-posts <p> As you might recall <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/new-media-for-design-types">from this post</a>, I've long been an advocate of building vigorously interconnected networks of many nodes. But I've now built enough Original Green nodes that I need this checklist to make sure I catch them all whenever I do new <a href="http://www.originalgreen.org/blog/the-schooner-bay-miracle.html">Original Green blog posts like the one today</a>. So here's the list:<p /><div>Original Green group on LinkedIn - I catch this one with my first pass of notifications sent out by clicking the icons at the bottom of each post, beginning with Digg. I click the LinkedIn icon, then click the check box for adding groups to the post.</div><p /><div>Planetizen - I'm starting to submit my best work to Planetizen. Their submissions web page is <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/news/submit">http://www.planetizen.com/news/submit</a>.</div><p /><div>New Urban Network - I have for some time been submitting my best work to the New Urban Network. I do this by emailing Rob Steuteville <<a href="mailto:rob@newurbannews.com">rob@newurbannews.com</a>>.</div><p /><div>Grist - I'm hoping they pick up Original Green blog posts; I've submitted</div><p /><div>Original Green Yahoo discussion group - I email to <a href="mailto:originalgreen@yahoogroups.com">originalgreen@yahoogroups.com</a> to post to this group.</div><p /><div>Original Green Cause on Facebook: <a href="http://www.causes.com/causes/154766-the-original-green">http://www.causes.com/causes/154766-the-original-green</a></div><p /><div>Google Plus: from my Google home page, I click the +Steve in the upper left corner which takes me to the Stream page, where I can share at the top.</div><p /><div>Listservs: I post to appropriate listservs like Pro-Urb, TradArch, NextGen, Urbanists, Transect, etc.</div><p /><div>Interested Parties: I email people who might have a special interest in the post.</div><p /><div>Link Targets: I email people I'm linking to in the post.</div> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/original-green-blog-posts">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/original-green-blog-posts#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QQpyEcfOzKmDZOmMvQskiorRFPY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QQpyEcfOzKmDZOmMvQskiorRFPY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QQpyEcfOzKmDZOmMvQskiorRFPY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QQpyEcfOzKmDZOmMvQskiorRFPY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/dx7yb7oWFtQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/original-green-blog-posts Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:34:30 -0700 The Importance of On-Street Parking http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/5yHizswIQuM/the-importance-of-on-street-parking http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-importance-of-on-street-parking <p> <div><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/YtUH0E6QZwc4VEZBIqMVdslNXUzM8M31Go5uBNE44f88bygs50CH6Qnrb2zr/Miami-Beach-Night-Shots-08MAR1.jpg"><img alt="Miami-beach-night-shots-08mar1" height="281" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/8QMAuhlvqFz0pXBchv7dSzBW77SFANrpzm5FaEfk9ulKA9wRfgsDHA99cjTG/Miami-Beach-Night-Shots-08MAR1.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </div><p /><div><a href="http://bit.ly/nMP7GL">Here's how on-street parking</a> bolsters walkability & sustainability, and creates better urbanism and a healthier environment.</div> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-importance-of-on-street-parking">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-importance-of-on-street-parking#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sjW9qPnWTE61x1sj3S86LJGA4A8/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sjW9qPnWTE61x1sj3S86LJGA4A8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sjW9qPnWTE61x1sj3S86LJGA4A8/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sjW9qPnWTE61x1sj3S86LJGA4A8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/5yHizswIQuM" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-importance-of-on-street-parking Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:20:45 -0700 Finding Movies in iTunes http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/9xQlNPuH7n4/finding-movies-in-itunes http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/finding-movies-in-itunes <p> When you have thousands of photos in iPhoto, it's kinda hard to find the movies if that's all you're interested in at the moment. I found a really cool method just now on <a href="http://ruk.ca">ruk.ca</a>. Rather than steal this blogger's thunder, why don't you just <a href="http://ruk.ca/content/find-videos-iphoto">read his really simple description</a> of how to do this? </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/finding-movies-in-itunes">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/finding-movies-in-itunes#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IQYuBzp8Efz2hby7Ghfgp2QEF5M/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IQYuBzp8Efz2hby7Ghfgp2QEF5M/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IQYuBzp8Efz2hby7Ghfgp2QEF5M/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/IQYuBzp8Efz2hby7Ghfgp2QEF5M/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/9xQlNPuH7n4" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/finding-movies-in-itunes Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:46:29 -0700 Video Workflow http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/lFmPesAkVmw/video-workflow http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/video-workflow <p> I'm beginning to get my video workflow in order… at least for OGTV, on the Original Green website. Here's what it's looking like: <p /> A. I'll be shooting on my iPhone from now on (at least most of the time) because the quality of the iPhone 4 back camera is so good, and because I always have it on me. Here's where I go from there: <p /> B. Import the movies to iPhoto 11 because that's the easiest way of getting them off my phone, deleting them once they're downloaded so they don't clog the phone (they can be massive.) <p /> C. I can see all my iPhoto videos from inside iMovie 11's Event Library, so getting them into iMovie is no problem. <p /> D. Create a new project in iMovie's Project Library window by clicking the plus in the lower right corner. This will open the project's window in the upper left, where the Project Library window was a moment ago. <p /> E. Drag the clips you'll be using into the window. Normally, I have just one clip as I try really hard to say everything I want to say in one take. <p /> F. Click on the T in the middle right of the window to bring up the Title Browser. <p /> G. Drag the Centered title (upper left) into the project's window, to the beginning of the project. Drag another Centered title to the end of the project. <p /> H. Each time you drag a title, it'll ask you for a Background. I'm starting to use Gradient, but use whatever makes the most sense with your videos. <p /> I. Double-click each title in turn, then double-clicking the text to select it. Then, change the font, color, and special features to what you're looking for. I use Futura Extra Bold, no outline, with the Original Green color. <p /> J. Change your titles. I use the title of the clip at the beginning, with the name of the participants (normally just me, sometimes Wanda as well) at the beginning, then <a href="http://www.originalgreen.org">www.originalgreen.org</a> at the end. <p /> K. Click on the Transitions tab, just right of the T (Titles) tab in the central right of the iMovie window. This will bring up all available transitions. I use Cross Dissolve. <p /> L. Drag a transition between the titles and each end of the clip(s.) <p /> M. Because the final credit is only the website (which is quicker to read than the opening title) I select the last second of the final credits and delete it, leaving 2.5 seconds of final credits and the default 3.5 seconds of opening titles. They each come in at 4 seconds to begin with, but once you insert the transitions, it clips a half-second off each end. <p /> That's it for now… more as I figure out more of this stuff. </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/video-workflow">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/video-workflow#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SHsMWPBrPQpIq3VYo7hjm64i0do/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SHsMWPBrPQpIq3VYo7hjm64i0do/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SHsMWPBrPQpIq3VYo7hjm64i0do/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SHsMWPBrPQpIq3VYo7hjm64i0do/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/lFmPesAkVmw" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/video-workflow Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:08:00 -0700 Taxis and Credit Cards http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/ogYRE0iElHk/taxis-and-credit-cards http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/taxis-and-credit-cards <p> <p>I've just spent several days in Boston, where the taxi drivers treat credit cards like Kryptonite. They would rather sit where they are for another 20 minutes to pick up a cash fare than to take a CC fare. But in that time, they could be back to pick up that cash fare! Go figure...</p> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/taxis-and-credit-cards">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/taxis-and-credit-cards#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cpFaNyoaLWlKEK0mtZmirkv_VbA/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cpFaNyoaLWlKEK0mtZmirkv_VbA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cpFaNyoaLWlKEK0mtZmirkv_VbA/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/cpFaNyoaLWlKEK0mtZmirkv_VbA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/ogYRE0iElHk" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/taxis-and-credit-cards Sat, 23 Jul 2011 08:39:00 -0700 The Web - Why I Did What I Did http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/EYV5vajIFKI/the-web-why-i-did-what-i-did http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-web-why-i-did-what-i-did <p> <p>Getting your stuff on the web can lead down many expensive dead ends, but I think I'm finally getting close to my ideal web interface after all these years. Here are some of the big hurdles, and how I got over them. But first, is anyone old enough to remember one of those first Mac ads back in the mid-'80's where a stern looking guy says "I use a Mac because it helps me do what I do best. And I don't do computers!" Remember him? Well, that guy is me. I never did DOS, and I don't want to learn HTML or CSS, <a href="http://bit.ly/nvJH1P" title="Web Publishing's Big Mistakes" target="_blank">as I said earlier</a>. I have other things to do with my life.</p> <p>I could hire a web development company (that's what I once did) to build the <a href="http://www.originalgreen.org" target="_blank">Original Green site</a>, the <a href="http://www.katrinacottages.com" target="_blank">Katrina Cottages site</a>, the <a href="http://www.newurbanguild.com" target="_blank">New Urban Guild site</a>, the <a href="http://www.guildfoundation.org" target="_blank">Guild Foundation site</a>, and the <a href="http://www.mouzon.com" target="_blank">Mouzon Design site</a>. At $5-10K per site, I'd be out enough money to buy a car or two. But that's not the worst of it. Every web developer I've ever worked with has been really nice. One was even a good friend. But every time I wanted to add something or change something, I had to go to them, get on their schedule, and then pay them to make the change. Both during initial site development and forever thereafter, it required more of my time (a lot more, actually) to have them get it exactly the way I wanted it than it would take me to just do it myself... If I had the proper tools. So going the conventional route of hiring someone is now out.</p> <p>So what are the tools? I've used iWeb for years, and it was crucial to the development of the Original Green idea. Without it, the idea would likely still just a warm fuzzy in my mind. But with it, it's <a href="http://bit.ly/fba7OW" target="_blank">a cause with hopes of graduating into a movement</a>, and it has thousands of supporters spread over every continent except maybe Antarctica. The <a href="http://bit.ly/umTNB" target="_blank">Katrina Cottages site</a>, meanwhile, has languished because it was built conventionally by an HTML guru in a way that is painful to modify as noted above. So it has not been modified since 2007. Yet it gets more hits than any other site I've got... By far. Imagine how much good we could have done with Katrina Cottages had I taken the time to rebuild it in iWeb years ago.</p> <p>But iWeb was never perfect. Its biggest Achilles heel was its unfriendliness to search engines. Simply put, it allowed novices to create beautiful sites better than any other tool, it was a pleasure to use, but then your site was unlikey to be found by Google. Original Green Blog posts, followed by dedicated adherents to the cause, normally get a few hundred readers. But posts on this blog frequently get a few thousand, even though I promote this site less and they're more general in nature... presumably because Posterous is far more Googlicious.</p> <p>All that doesn't matter now, because Apple is essentially killing iWeb with neglect, and with the demise of MobileMe. After getting over the denial of losing iWeb, and then after a lengthy search and evaluation period, I've settled on <a href="http://bit.ly/qabf" title="Sandvox" target="_blank">Sandvox</a> as the web development tool with more of iWeb's strengths than any other current tool, but with other strengths where iWeb had weaknesses like strong SEO (search engine optimization) tools built right into Sandvox. There are a few other utilities and resources that round out Sandvox capabilities into a system that really works for me:</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/aPa7" title="cssedit" target="_blank">CSSEdit</a> is a nifty utility that let's me see the effects of changes I'm thinking of making in my Sandvox themes without having to know the underlying coding. At $25 or so, it paid for itself almost immediately.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/dgfZuy" title="WebINK" target="_blank">WebINK</a> serves up a ton of fonts using an HTML thing known as "@font-face." It may sound like a juvenile insult, but it allows you to use the fonts you want without having to resort to "web-safe" fonts, most of which are dreadfully ugly and boring.</p> <p><a href="http://phtshp.us/NXxBo" title="Photoshop" target="_blank">Photoshop</a> is essential for developing the graphics and modifying the photos. OK, so there are others, but Photoshop is the best.</p> <p>Once I create a graphic, I used to open it in Preview and re-save it. This strips out all the Photoshop baggage, leaving just the raw graphic, often saving half the file size (or more, for small images.) the smaller your graphics are (while still being beautiful - a balancing act) the faster your pages load. Or at least that's what I used to do... I just heard from my friend, <a href="http://bit.ly/po8rsN" title="WildTools" target="_blank">WildTools</a> developer Alfred Scott, that Photoshop has a setting where you can Save for Web and Devices. Right under Save As on the file menu. It does the same thing... so now I just save that way straight from Photoshop and skip the Preview step.</p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/pp" title="PayPal" target="_blank">PayPal</a> lets me create Buy, Add to Cart, and Donate buttons so I don't need an often-expensive e-commerce module.</p> <p>That's about it... If I think of anything else, I'll add it to this post as a comment.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-web-why-i-did-what-i-did">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-web-why-i-did-what-i-did#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/9arH5JoL3BRzuYxEYBlAzJaTSms/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/9arH5JoL3BRzuYxEYBlAzJaTSms/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/9arH5JoL3BRzuYxEYBlAzJaTSms/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/9arH5JoL3BRzuYxEYBlAzJaTSms/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/EYV5vajIFKI" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/the-web-why-i-did-what-i-did Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:39:00 -0700 Delicious Disaster Aid http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~3/xqDNX5HABCI/delicious-disaster-aid http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/delicious-disaster-aid <p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/m5qAqT77NfN0b6VhumZtkcvpaQrMHR4AjWhjOtwU99sM6xb6d8DrHkd2b5AP/image.png.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Image" height="373" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/7KWE5eBbW9K5FaD8GiYoEMhv99Y4dULX5sVbonKRGMnfMq2wnL9znjJEia5n/image.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Contributing money to assist disaster victims is a good thing, of course, but contributions often dry up in short order, long before the devastation is healed. I've been wondering: what can we do that might have a more long-term effect? One of the ideas at the core of the <a href="http://www.originalgreen.org" title="the Original Green" target="_blank">Original Green initiative</a> is that we do what we OUGHT to do only for a short time, but we do what we WANT to do for years. <p /> So how might you WANT to help the disaster recovery from, for example, the Tuscaloosa tornado, or from Hurricane Katrina? What if you developed a taste for products that would bolster the local economies? Like the <a href="http://www.dreamlandbbq.com" title="Dreamland" target="_blank">barbecue sauce from Dreamland</a> in Tuscaloosa? Or <a href="http://www.tabasco.com" title="Tabasco" target="_blank">Tabasco Sauce</a> from Louisiana? Here's a delicious recipe that includes both:</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/WleMRrnFVONMBTBFezTVPF0o91IayMM3t2zNmucYEUduYdf6f2dTng6G72Fd/0image.png.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="0image" height="373" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/qA0zXdIGNmQ2wQjaRMwlFJwmOxyDJV8DCRHybgLYqXetDigGvwXQLAYh42UD/0image.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Slice up a panful of mushrooms of your choosing plus one bulb of garlic cloves and one medium onion. Pour just enough olive oil into a sauté pan to thinly cover the bottom. Heat on high until a garlic slice crackles when dropped into the pan. Now, pour the rest of the ingredients into the pan.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/ifD6LxULPQSFXJx6n9y32JTLHVTC7y2WfT3VjOQ6JjFtODxKxNE1jV3RMOer/1image.png.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="1image" height="373" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/5g135q2OKYBwyYsFGDkh10rjBqFGM8rsmNAf3zcOr6JeR0lQgOtim3zbTSsE/1image.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Reduce heat to medium-high and sauté until mushrooms have begun to caramelize and onions have just begun to become transparent.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/kYwPKT70jGAodWoB9oNVhxKkoxAiMwmCS25F3TMBal00XNf64DIfrGcFqrvm/2image.png.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="2image" height="373" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/4EHzN0TdQxCNRJaad3E9Ky7QLxGQILdzmrry1c5TBdLTDSs3KMSnyusLDQHQ/2image.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Pour balsamic vinegar into pan so that it's standing about 1/8" deep around the other ingredients.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/KuGKXDmR85frw7x5qzkMnZq8EsvlKjCY1NE4g8Oe9ZB59iEQFUrvVBT5ZCuj/3image.png.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="3image" height="373" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/KxU04hKGyfu7g2Aae3UnEi3ymrmd0JLUblvpVCzeJhM8hpWmNf2w6XZPryK4/3image.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Stir until the vinegar has entirely caramelized. Reduce heat to medium.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/QMpUVpVEAOJ7lbAzUPArJv32nj2v1NcMuGA4D5kOVbzMJtKB2vf7oN0529XA/4image.png.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="4image" height="373" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/650N7QNZIvtp9wwAs8EJK1LZ3fNZJm9564HNFXsOjoTVW2eyMe29MSEGvCxp/4image.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Pour one can of black beans into pan. Pour a healthy dollop of Dreamland Barbecue Sauce over the beans. Don't be shy... This is supposed to be a savory dish. Next, shake Tabasco Sauce liberally into the pan as well... use a bit of caution because it's hotter than the Dreamland sauce. Top with your favorite meat spices as this dish, while completely made of vegetables, can nonetheless be as zesty as many a meat dish.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/iXRu7kq2kr7WmUJOWNxvRRAxUfatJmiVRURHYvZTlXBmsQwK4tTbnf8yGDts/5image.png.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="5image" height="373" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/usefulstuff/SaNebblHJaGaGAwiDo5EVY9GjXBt594tCYFioB6GAMHQeuBOmeERZPVjF4L0/5image.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Cook on medium until the bean juice has cooked up, stirring continuously the last 90 seconds to make sure you don't overcook. Serve... and enjoy! And Tuscaloosa and Louisiana will thank you for it.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/delicious-disaster-aid">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/delicious-disaster-aid#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Qszkp7DgD9iL2cT6D5Wt6U4zjac/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Qszkp7DgD9iL2cT6D5Wt6U4zjac/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Qszkp7DgD9iL2cT6D5Wt6U4zjac/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Qszkp7DgD9iL2cT6D5Wt6U4zjac/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/posterous/rmTB/~4/xqDNX5HABCI" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/861220/Steve_cropped.jpg http://posterous.com/users/3sIMpiKNPe93 Steve Mouzon Useful Stuff Steve Mouzon http://usefulstuff.posterous.com/delicious-disaster-aid