Steve Zeidner

Languages

Stephen Zeidner — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:57:23 +0000

Lately, I’ve been on a kick of wanting to experience a broader set of languages, frameworks and programming techniques. I listened to an (epic?) episode of FLOSS Weekly with Kent Beck on Extreme Programming and have been thinking about going back to some of my textbook learning in college and applying it to real projects.

First off, I’m going through a Python book as I figure it is not too huge of a leap syntax-wise from PHP. Aside from a little bit of syntax difference, there are a few nuances conceptually (everything is an object, different data structures like tuples, etc…), but for the most part, it seems to be pretty straightforward so far coming from a PHP background.

However, I’ve been hearing a few rumblings lately about PHP gaining a little more traction as a respected language – Facebook after all uses it. In fact, an employee at Facebook has even been rewriting PHP from the ground up for speed. It sounds like it may finally be a compiled language which could help with performance issues.

Other platforms I would like to dive into include Ruby (and RoR) as well as going a little deeper with Javascript frameworks and some of the nuances between the toolkits/frameworks. I also like the idea of accountability that is a part of Kent Beck’s “Extreme Programming” style.

For now, I’m picking Python to use for my next personal project. Once I pick a project, I need you to keep me accountable to finish it.

HTML and CSS Starter Templates

Stephen Zeidner — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:10:48 +0000

Out of laziness, when building a website, I’ve often just started with one of the Dreamweaver basic template layouts – I’ll go in and delete a bunch of stuff and rework it to the way I wanted. This included copying and pasting code from websites I have built previously and rewriting the same sections of code with each new site. I was also using Dreamweaver as a code editor just because I started there. Dreamweaver is quite bloated however and if you are not using the WYSIWYG features, it is completely unnecessary. There are much better text editors out there already. I’ve currently switched to Notepad++ on the Windows side (what I use at work) and so far it has been working out quite nicely. I have put together a base CSS (2.1 and 3 valid) and HTML (5 spec valid and backwards compatible) template file with the structure I typically use for building a site. There are a few items in the CSS (like the comment block at the top) that are geared towards Wordpress users, but those can be ignored or removed as necessary. Now, let’s see the code. First the HTML





Website Title








	
		
			
				Item 1
				Item 2
				Item 3
			
		
	




	

	




	
		Copyright © yyyy Website Name

Pretty basic, right? The only thing that might throw you off is the DOCTYPE. This is the way HTML5 does it – much simpler. Also, there is some Javascript included for backwards compatibility with IE.

Now, on to the CSS

/*
Theme Name:
Theme URI:
Description:
Version: 1.0
Author:
Author URI:
*/

/* reset styles */
html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center,
dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
	margin: 0; padding: 0;  border: 0; outline: 0; font-size: 100%;
	vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;
}
body { line-height: 1; }
ol, ul { list-style: none; }
blockquote, q { quotes: none; }
blockquote:before, blockquote:after, q:before, q:after { content: ''; }
:focus { outline: 0; }
ins { text-decoration: none; }
del { text-decoration: line-through; }
table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; }

body {
	font-size: 62.5%;
	text-align: center;
	color: #000000;
}

/* container - place inside each section or around the entire page depending on your layout */
.container {
	width: 960px;
	margin: 0 auto;
	text-align: left;
	position: relative;
}

/* for clearing any floats 
 */
.clearfloat {
    clear:both;
    height:0;
    font-size: 1px;
    line-height: 0px;
}

/*--- header section - put whatever you want here ---*/
#header {
}

/*--- horizontal "block" menu ---*/
#menu {
	float: left;
}
#menu li {
	display: block;
	float: left;
}
#menu li a {
	display: block;
	text-decoration: none;
	height: 50px;
	width: 125px;
	padding: 5px 10px 5px 10px;
}
/* wordpress specific menu stylings */
#menu li.current_page_item a {
}
#menu li.first a {
}
#menu li.last a {
}

/*--- content section - put whatever you want here ---*/
#content {
	font: 1.2em Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

/*--- footer section - put whatever you want here ---*/
#footer {
}

A few things of note in the CSS. One is that at the top, I’m using a modified version of Eric Meyer’s CSS reset. I changed some of the spacing and indentation to make it a little more compact. I also removed the ‘content: none;’ from the ‘blockquote’ and ‘q’ resets so the stylesheet would validate with CSS3. A final modification I made was to the font size (from 100% to 62.5%). This resets the font base to 10px for easy em calculations (i.e. 1.4em is a 14pt font). The rest of the stylesheet should be mostly self explanatory.

So, what do you use as a starting point when building websites? What do you like about my templates? What don’t you like? What would you do differently?

Finally, last but not least, here is the zip file if you want an easy download: SZ’s Barebones HTML and CSS.

Update: I made some minor changes to the font placement in the CSS file. It didn’t quite work properly before. I’m now setting the font size to 62.5% in the body rather than in the reset. Font size can be defined in em’s in individual classes or ids.

Veridian Dynamics…Predicting the Future

Stephen Zeidner — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:32:50 +0000

So, you know that ABC show, Better off Ted? It’s based around a company, Veridian Dynamics, that makes cool products based on research in their labs. I’ve found this strange phenomenon happening where I watch an episode of Better off Ted and then a few days later find that the product they created has actually just been created in RL (real life).

OK, so maybe this doesn’t happen with every episode, but I’ll give you two examples:

Season 1 Episode 2 – Phil and Lem (Veridian’s top two scientists) grow beef in the lab. The day after I watched this (not the day after the episode was released), I saw this article titled Scientists ‘grow’ meat in laboratory. Creepy.
Season 1 Episode 13 – Veridian Dynamics introduces a face-scanning Internet search program. On Dec. 7th, 2009, Google introduced Google Goggles. While this software is initially intended for identifying places, it will also, once privacy concerns are worked out, identify faces in the near future and perform and Internet search on the person.

So, how is Better off Ted predicting the future? Do they have insider information in science and tech industries? I don’t know the answer, but if I see another scenario like the two above, I will have to believe that it is more than just coincidence.

The Tenants of Google

Stephen Zeidner — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:14:22 +0000

On This Week in Google: Episode 17, Leo suggested that Google may have a set of rules that they follow when building each of their products. Matt Cutts responded with a few of the fundamental tenants of Google. I have listed these below.

Don’t be evil
Organize the world’s data to make it useful
Don’t trap user data – Eric Schmidt, Web 2.0, 2006
- Be an advocate for users
- Compete on merit (don’t give yourself an advantage – no proprietary APIs, etc…)
Regarding products…
- Go for a great product first, then figure out how to monetize
- Don’t launch a “me-too” product – add some innovation to your product

I know a lot of people are very wary about Google especially as they grow into a larger and larger corporation. While they do seem to be reaching into more technology spaces, it is interesting to see how carefully they make their approach.

What is your take on Google and their level of “evil-ness” in the marketplace? How well do you think they follow the tenants outlined above? Are there more that should be added to this list?

Why host my own?

Stephen Zeidner — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:32:32 +0000

Social websites open the door for anyone to easily place their content online. This is great as it eases the barrier to entry, but think with me for a few minutes about the implications.

What if it goes down?

We have all seen Twitter’s growing pains over the past couple of years. As people are beginning to rely on Twitter more and more as a source of news, this becomes a bigger issue. It was interesting to watch a few weeks ago when one user’s (Cyxymu) Facebook, LiveJournal, Twitter and YouTube accounts were DDOSed and to see the effects on the various services. Twitter could not handle the load and was down the better part of the day. Facebook had some issues, but handled things better than Twitter (they isolated the attacks) while Google’s services didn’t take much of a hit at all (they have tons of servers and a nice redundant/self-healing network). A year ago, hardly anyone would have cared that Twitter was down, but now it is almost as if CNN went down.

Who owns my content?

That is a good question. Who owns your content when it is stored on a server that you don’t own. What would happen if Facebook went out of business tomorrow? Or Gmail? What would happen to all of your messages…all of your email? Sure, they may say that you own the content, but ultimately the control of it is in the hands of owners of the server where that content resides.

Finally….security

Of course, security is an issue that must be consider whether you are administering a server or somebody else is. MySpace is a great example of a network with very little concern for security. Accounts on that network were being compromised left and right. By the same token, Twitter can distribute a virus just as quickly as it can dispense the news. Security is always a concern when you have the control, but when you don’t, it is an even riskier issue.

Conclusion

There must be an answer to all of this madness. Well, I don’t think there is one elegant solution, but there certainly are options if you are comfortable with a *nix server.

Twitalytic – Gina Trapani of Lifehacker is working on a tool to keep a local copy of your tweets (and related tweets from your friends) and do interesting things with them. Things like statistics, matching responses with the original tweets, etc… I’m trying it out on my server at the moment, and while it is definitely still an “alpha” product, it looks very promising. I think the end goal of it is to eventually be a federated Twitter network….when Twitter goes down, the Twitalytic nodes can still communicate amongst themselves (using pubsubhubbub of course).
Fever – Fever is a feed reader that you run from your own server. Not only does it help you take control of the feeds you read, it also helps you read them more efficiently. I have not tried this yet as it is not free, but looks like an interesting option.

So, there you have it. My little rant on why you should host your own stuff. I don’t always follow my own advice, but it is something I have at least been thinking about lately. What are your thoughts or solutions to this problem? What apps do you use now to help you out until an ultimate solution is discovered?

The Incremental Web

Stephen Zeidner — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:13:28 +0000

So, this is not an original thought of mine, but I thought it was interesting anyway. I was listening to This Week in Google (TWiG) and the panel brought up an interesting article by Anil Dash that proposed the idea that online trends work because they are incremental and the learning curve is weekend-project sized. He brought up a couple of other points, but I thought those two were the most interesting.

Baby Steps…

If you think about it, it takes most people a long time to catch on to new technologies. Google in particular likes to change the interfaces to their products just enough to confuse people who are used to the “standard” interfaces for that product. Gmail for instance shifted the thinking of “folders” to “labels”. Labels offer the same functionality as folders and add more display options. The only difference in Gmail is that you would also have to “archive” a message to get it to leave the Inbox. Honestly, I like the fact that Google rethinks how things have always been done and attempts to make a simpler, more powerful interface.

But, getting back to incremental web technologies, RSS is one of these that is so simple, yet is an enabler, a building block that yields more interesting results as time goes on. An extension of the RSS protocol, pubsubhubbub now allows for a feed (or hub) to ping readers rather than the readers having to check periodically for updates from the feed. As the protocol extends and changes, so are other uses realized for the technology. Podcasts are just audio files with an RSS feed and a reader to check for new ones periodically. So, I wonder if iTunes will adopt the pubsubhubbub extension for more efficient updating?

Google Wave

Anyway, the whole point is that if all this technology came at once rather than the uses for it being built up over time, would it be usable, or would the learning curve be too steep for it to be adopted at all? This is the question I would ask about Google’s Wave. Are we at a point where we can understand how all of this technology can work together in the way that Google deems best? Wave is like a federated wiki for real-time communication. In addition to having a client and server piece, the really cool thing is that it is an open protocol. I guess we’ll find out how open people are to adopting it around Sep. 30th when the first 100,000 invites go out for Wave.

What about you?

So, how do you react to new technology? Are you overwhelmed by too much new tech (it is coming at us much faster in the past 5 years, then it every has before)? Or, do you love living in a world where things are changing and there is always something new to learn? Oh yeah, and will you be using Wave when it is available to the general public?

Chapter 5 – n00bs

Stephen Zeidner — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:39:24 +0000

Business at Explorer Micro was booming. People were ordering PII’s and PIII’s from us faster than we could build them. There was a stack of paper 3 feet thick underneath the printer of unfulfilled customer orders. People were flocking to the internet to find the best prices on computers and we had them. What we were losing on margins, we were making up for with volume. It was time to hire some more employees to catch up.

Of course, the best and easiest way to find a new hire is to ask your current employees if they know of anyone who could work on computers. Of course any high-school age kid knows far more about computers than 99% of the “old” CEOs out there.

First off the block was Justin. He was Mark’s neighbor. Justin’s mom liked to yell out to him, “Justin, I need to talk to you!” with her lips pursed and voice coming from the back of her throat. So, this became Justin’s tagline…the phrase we would all yell out (in faux mom-voice) whenever he walked in the door.

So, after Justin came Dave. Dave was living with Justin for the summer (his parents lived in Canton). Dave and Justin were inseparable. They hung out together, drank together, passed out in the back of trucks together…they were best buds. Tony of course got the brilliant idea to put Justin on the phone for customer service. He would answer the phone in a different accent every time – usually Chinese: “Exploha Mahcwo, how may I help you?” He would carry the accent for a while and then immediately switch back to a standard midwestern accent to see if the customer would notice.

Dave on the other hand liked to build computers. He sure had a temper though. If he stripped a screw or his screwdriver slipped, he would pick something up and throw it. And so began the infamous battle of the screws between Dave and Allen.

The Grace and Truth Paradox

Stephen Zeidner — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:21:54 +0000

The Grace and Truth Paradox by Randy Alcorn was given to me (and a copy to each of my siblings) by my Dad last Christmas. I had picked it up a number of times and read bits and pieces of it, but finally decided to read the whole thing through as I’ve been trying to get back into regular reading by picking a book to read each month. It’s a short read at 92 small pages and has a balance of anecdotes, truth about well, grace and truth and scripture to back it up.

The ideas of grace and truth are compared, contrasted and each shown throughout the book to be incomplete without the other. Without giving you a whole review of the book, I’ll just give you something about each that stuck out at me.

Grace

In The Grace and Truth Paradox, Randy Alcorn explains some of culture surrounding the parable of the prodigal son. Regarding the father, he says “Dignified men in the Middle East didn’t run. And they certainly didn’t throw parties for sons guilty of shame and waste.” I never really thought about this parable of a rebellious son who finally decides to come home in any context other than our own culture before. Certainly in any time and place, the father’s reaction of love and forgiveness towards his son is an act of grace, but this grace is even more radical considering the importance that Middle Eastern culture places on respect for family and the disrespect that this father’s son displayed to him and the rest of the family. This and much more is the kind of grace that God offers to me and enables me to offer to other people if I accept it.

Truth

How I handle truth in the seemingly small situations in life has just as profound of an effect as how truth is handled in the big moments and tough decisions. I’ve been watching Dead Like Me recently and one theme that seems to repeat itself is that the people who are dead (or undead) often regret the “small” things that they did not take the time for in life, like spending more time with family, or saying sorry or I love you more often. When it comes to truth, how I handle the small situations in life is what will be remembered.

Coming Up…

Next month’s book will either be Crazy Love, or I might possibly switch to fiction and read Eldest. Only time will tell, and you will find out for sure in another 30 days or so.

Creative or Technical?

Stephen Zeidner — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:05:44 +0000

I spend a lot of time on the computer. My job requires me to be in front of a computer for 8 hours a day. When I get home, in addition to online bill payments, blogging, catching up on news feeds, Twitter posts and Facebook, I often spend time working on web (or design or programming) projects here and there and watching online content (much more choice than TV). Besides all of the time-wasting stuff (ahem….Facebook), when it comes down to working on a computer, you can really take 2 very different approaches:

Technical: Programming, development, IT/Network management, etc…
– or -
Creative: Graphic design, web design, video/photo editing, etc…

Technical

I’ve been interested in software and hardware and how they inter-operate for quite a while. I remember scouring the ticalc.org forums every day for new advances in assembly programming on the Texas Instruments graphing calculators. It was so amazing to me that someone had found a hole in every one of the TI graphic calculators to get around the limited Basic programming with its slow interpreter and be able to run machine code straight on the Z80 processor (or Motorolla 68000 in the newer models).

Once I was in college, I learned how a pipeline on a processor worked, how machine code was interpreted, and even how to write a compiler. Pretty cool stuff academically, but you would have to learn a lot more if you were going to go into any specific field relating to one of these topics.

In most work situations, the technical side of computers means software development (and this kind of work varies a lot depending on the language, platform and scale of the projects you work on) or IT kind of things like deploying servers/server clusters, security testing, network design or a support role.

Now, there can be a creative side to the technical as well. When designing a network, server room or even end-user protocols, there are always constraints (time, money, etc…). To get around these constraints and still achieve the desired results, you often have to get creative as an engineer and figure out a way to get the project finished with the given resources.

Creative

While I started out my career in a more technical role, recently I have been focusing more on the creative side of what computers can do. In particular, my focus has been on web design.

When juxtaposed to the black and white world of the technical/engineering, this right-brained creative culture seemed totally out of place to me at first. This was until I had a conversation about originality in creativity. For a long time, I strived to come up with unique designs and found myself falling way short or just having very few ideas that actually worked out. I heard from someone very knowledgeable that there are actually very, very few innovators in any particular field. These are the people that have established themselves as experts over many years of producing works that are recognized by many to be the best (original or not) among their competitors. It’s that whole thing that Pablo Picasso said: “Bad artists copy. Great artists steal.” My interpretation of this is to copy work, but make it your own. Sounds kind of counter-intuitive, but it’s all about totally acknowledging that there are many other people in your field who are better than you and who you can learn from and it’s OK to steal the ideas and innovations that they came up with because after all, there are very few people who truly innovate and even fewer who are recognized in their lifetime for the work they have done.

So, just as the technical side of computing must embrace some creativity, so the creative also has a lot of logic to it. There are many rules to follow (which I am still learning as I did not go to art school). Rules like complimentary colors, how to effectively use white space and what fonts to use when. I’ve found that a wonderful resource for learning how some of these rules are used in modern web design is Smashing Magazine. Another logical aspect of design (well, web design in particular) is that all designs eventually have to be turned into code, and if you want to make any changes to that code over time, it should be made to be quite organized and re-usable. Of course, CSS is often not logical because not all browsers interpret it in the same way, but that is another story for another day.

What are you?

What do you prefer? Do you like the technical or the creative side of things better? As you can see there is a lot of overlap and if you learn to embrace them both for what they are, you will not only have learned a new skill, you will have improved the one you already have.

These are a few of my favorite expressions.

Stephen Zeidner — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:27:16 +0000

New words are created every day in the English language. If you think about it, there are endless combinations of words that can be made out of the 26 letters in the alphabet because there is no restriction on the number of letters that can be in a word and the letters can be repeated. Hence, the number of permutations of letters in our alphabet is 26!/(26-infinity)! = ?? (OK, basically it equals an infinite number of words). Now, my math teacher would have berated me for not using “grows large without bounds” instead of “infinity” – fortunately, this not math class. Many of these words and phrases (or new uses for words) are born in online communities. Here are a few of my favorite exclamations that people have come up with:

Huzzah! – Another word for hooray! I’ve commonly heard it from DigitalKitty (Colleen Kelly of TWiT).
Woot! – Yes, Woot! is a website that sells one item a day at a blowout price. It’s also short for “Wow, loot!” from old RPGs (table-top), but gets used today as a general term of excitement.
Screw You! – One of my favorites. This was exclaimed by Leo Laporte (aimed at Mike Arrington of Techcrunch) on 6/6/2009 during a recording of the Gillmor Gang.
OMG!!! PONIES!!! – April 1st, 2006, Slashdot went way above and beyond their classic April Fools pranks of fake news stories and turned the whole site pink. Hence, OMG!!! PONIES!!! was born.
Why I oughta! – I’m not sure exactly when this phrase came into popularity, but it was often used by the Three Stooges as a curmudgeony expression. It’s part of the whole old man culture…you know..like “get offa my lawn!”. It has been heard online from the likes of Veronica Belmont and I Can Has Cheezburger?.
Fail! – There is a whole blog dedicated to failures that are often funny. I first heard the derivation of this phrase, “failure”, from Mark H. Back in the Explorer Micro days. It’s used very widely now with one of the most prevalent references being the Twitter Fail Whale.
Oh hai! – Another Lolcats phrase made famous. This word has become almost as ubiquitous as “indeed” in my everyday language. According to the Urban Dictionary: “Or ‘Oh Hi’ Derived from the epic pictures of lolcats. Used when something the cat, dog, aardvark, long cat, etc. sees something surprising or interesting yet is not limited to.”

So, there you have it. A few of my favorite exclamations. What are yours? Do you know if any other languages (like German) have similar funny little expressions?

Why you should pay attention to cloud computing.

Stephen Zeidner — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:11:37 +0000

Have you heard of cloud computing? Sure you have. Do you use Gmail? That’s cloud computing. Anytime data is stored somewhere “on the internet” or a computation is done without using your local computer…that’s cloud computing.

So, why should you care about this term that has popped up recently for describing a service that has been around in one form or another for quite a few years now? Well, it’s more than just a new word…it’s a way of thinking about how we store data, about what kind of computers we purchase in the future, about how we scale applications, it’s about having data centers and supercomputing clusters with usable interfaces in every home.

So, who offers cloud computing? One of the largest proponents of this revolutionary implementation of technology surprisingly has been Amazon. Yes, Amazon.com – that place that got started by selling books online. Why in the world would they be into the cloud computing business? Well, every company’s core competency is eventually trumped at some point by another business that can do the same thing faster and cheaper. So, while Amazon realizes that an online marketplace is a pretty good business right now, they also see that there will always be competition from the niche markets who can run their own store with better knowledge of their products and better ways to market them. While their algorithm for the mass online retail market has been pretty well optimized (like Walmart), Amazon realized that they have this huge, underutilized resource in the server farms used to run their marketplace. Processing power is always underutilized when what is really needed (and is also the least expensive) in a hosting environment is memory and disk space. Innovations in server virtualization (Xen in particular) made reselling this extra computing power all that simpler and more attractive for a business like Amazon that needed another business model to make them to stand out in the wild wild World Wide Web. Today, they really are the leaders and innovators in the world of cloud computing, offering cloud hosting, databases, storage, computing and more, all with an intuitive, consistent developer interface.

Of course, there are other plenty of other companies doing the whole cloud hosting thing. Scalable hosting in the cloud (only using the resources that you need when you need them) makes so much more sense than cramming a bunch of virtual server instances into finite slices on a single server. Companies like Media Temple, Rackspace, GoGrid and more are already doing this quite effectively at a reasonable price. So, this brings us back to the question of why you should care about cloud computing.

You should care because the obvious implementation in hosting is only the beginning of the application of this technology. Everything you are doing on your desktop at home today is going to be done better faster and cheaper online in 10 years (or less) and all the data and other content you generate will be accessible to you from anywhere at any time. This also means that it is (technically) accessible to anyone with some computer experience and a little ingenuity in their back pocket. Think about how much of your email, your banking info (online bill pay), your personal life (facebook) is stored online right now. Imagine the default storage of every piece of information being somewhere in the cloud.

But, don’t worry. In my opinion, security will never be what it should be, but I will never worry about it as much as the doomsday security experts tell me I need to worry. Why? Life is really too short to worry if someone will get a hold of my personal data. If you are transparent and have little to hide…sure we all have our bank acct. #’s and other sensitive information…but, if you are transparent about the rest of your life, you have very little to fear when cloud computing is unleashed in full force. Instead, you should enjoy the future benefits of being able to run all of the latest and greatest applications online without having to upgrade your computer every 3 weeks. You should appreciate the fact that the power grids won’t be totally overextended by adding more processing power to them, but rather by more efficiently using existing resources. You should be excited that you will soon be able to get unlimited Blu-Ray (or higher) quality content streamed to your TV at less cost because there is less overhead in the distribution.

Now, there are probably 30 more reasons that you should be excited about cloud computing…so, please let me know what they are. And while you’re at it, let me know how you are using cloud computing right now.

How to Wow

Stephen Zeidner — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:44:20 +0000

I’ve been reading the book “How to Wow” by Frances Cole Jones. Sarah suggested it to me and loaned me a copy to read. Since I’ve been having a hard time getting motivated to read lately, I thought that I would give myself the goal of reading one book a month, starting with “How to Wow”. Well, the month is drawing to an end and I am almost finished reading, so I thought I’d give a quick synopsis of my thoughts on the book so far.

“How to Wow” is mostly a collection of expanded bullet points on topics such as presentations, meetings, interviews and other situations you might encounter in a work environment. Frances Cole Jones lays out suggestions based on her experience for conducting yourself in such a way as to leave others with the best possible impression of you.

While there were many wonderful and helpful pieces of advice in this book, two things in particular stuck out to me. One is that 55% of communication is transmitted through facial expressions and 38% through tone of voice. I have always focused on what I am going to say and not how I say it, so to read that 93% of your communication is not about content, but about delivery certainly introduced a shift in my thinking of how I will communicate with others in the future. This isn’t to say that the change in communication will happen immediately, but it is something to start working on.

The second thing that jumped out at me is preparation. In every area of the book, Frances Cole Jones stresses the fact that you can’t really over-prepare for a meeting or event. I tend to under-prepare for things because they often seem overwhelming or unfamiliar, so I often think a lot rather than do anything to prepare. This will also require a shift for me to take action rather than becoming too entrenched in thoughts to move forward.

All-in-all, what I have read so far has been enlightening and very applicable to life (both work and personal). It’s also a pretty easy read as far as non-fiction goes.

Web 2.0 Fashion

Stephen Zeidner — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:06:51 +0000

Fashion has typically been ignored by geeks, nerds and the like in the past. However, now that so many startup companies these days revolve around technology (either as a product or a service), they often have young/hip CEOs that don’t wear the traditional suit and tie that has been the staple of business professionals for so long. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples of Web 2.0 styles.

The first example comes from a tweet that Jason Calacanis (the CEO of a few startups himself) made on June 1st, 2009. He tweeted, “Web 2.0 uniform: blue blazer, pressed white shirts, dark jeans, black ankle-high boots. #cmsummit @fredwilson @johnbattelle” and referred to the image shown to the left of Fred Wilson and John Battelle. Fred is a blogger and venture capitalist that has invested in companies such as Twitter, Etsy and Feedburner. John was one of the founders of Wired Magazine and is a published tech writer/journalist. While they are a little older than some of their fellow CEOs in the web sphere, they give off that look that says (as one commenter of this photo put it), “I care, but not that much.”

Another way that fashion has been influenced by Web 2.0 (post dot-com bubble) is in the prints that go on t-shirts. T-shirts have always been a way to express your personality and silently share a message with all who read them. Twitter alone has spurned a whole new wave of T-shirt designs. Threadless for example has a section of their online store devoted to “Twitter Tees”. They even have a contest for best tweets to put on a T-shirt.

As a side note, it’s interesting that in the pre dot-com era, the media often portrayed computer geeks as either rebels or losers and dressed them to fit those stereotypes. The rebels were “cyberpunks” and the freeloaders looked like hobos. Hackers (1995) is a great portrayal of the cyberpunk style. Motorcycle jackets, tight-fitting pants and crazy hair styles were all a part of this teen subculture. Take a look at the portrayal of Bill Gates in Pirates of Silicone Valley (1999) or Alex Lowe in Takedown (2000).

My Web 2.0 style? I keep it pretty simple with my chuck taylors, jeans, and maybe the occasional white button-up shirt. What’s yours?

Material Computer

Stephen Zeidner — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:26:40 +0000

The culture surrounding computers and programmers and sub-cultures that grow up in various corners of the internet have been a growing interest to me as of late. Wikipedia refers to these type of cultures as Cybercultures.

At some point, I am going to set up a separate blog (Material Computer) dedicated solely to observations, analysis and possibly some original contributions to this internet culture. I will be looking at various parts of life that this culture has shaped, including language, clothing, lifestyles, law, music, businesses and much more. Until I get the Material Computer website up and running, I’ll start putting content on this blog under the “Culture” category.

I thought I would start with a top 10 list of technologies that have fostered the growth of internet subcultures:

World Wide Web – The WWW is made up of web pages that you can see through your favorite web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, etc…). Duh, without this we would not have websites like Facebook or Twitter which is where you probably spend most of your time online.
Instant Messaging (IM) – First made popular by AOL in 1997 (although the technology itself actually started as chat rooms in the early 90’s which birthed the first client/server IM software – ICQ in 1996), IM soon became a platform on which a new language of emoticons and abbreviations for frequently used words and phrases was born.
Digital Video (and Still) Cameras – These consumer devices enable anyone to easily create content to share with the rest of the world. Without these, we would not have YouTube.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) – IRC is protocol that has enabled a huge (and I mean massive) chat room community to grow and develop into all kinds of niche communities of its own.
Blogging – It’s such a simple concept – write something and publish it online for free. As simple as this may be, bloggers have molded and influenced thinking on the internet in many of the same ways that traditional media so influences our thoughts in the offline world.
Email – This technology has totally revolutionized business communication. While the kids don’t use it as much as their parents do, email is still around in almost the same form it was at its inception.
Adobe Flash – A technology that not only provides rich website interfaces, but also powers much of the online video delivery that communities such as YouTube are built on.
RSS – Really Simple Syndication. Not really much of a technology, but its simplicity has made online content much more easily accessible.
Podcasting – Built on the simple technology of RSS for notification of content delivery, the new media of podcasting is enabling audio and video content creators to shape the online world in much the same way that bloggers have done in the past.
Open Source Software – The community around open source software is brilliant because by nature, most open source projects are community driven. Just ask Jono Bacon the Ubuntu Community Manager.

Top 10 Favorite Free Programs

Stephen Zeidner — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:57:43 +0000

Below is a list of my top 10 (free) programs (in no particular order) that I have found to be extremely useful over the years.

Evernote – I use this to keep track of all my notes. Personal things, work projects, etc… I’ve used it since its beginning when it looked a lot different than it does today. Evernote is a pretty good free alternative to MS One Note and its synchronization feature makes it so easy to use it on all of your computers. There are some small ads in the corner of the program, but they are non-intrusive. Mac, Mobile and Windows.
X-Chat – I used to use mIRC back in my high school days and loved it as an IRC client, but X-Chat is free and open source and does most of the same stuff very well. Windows and Linux.
GIMP – Ahh, the GIMP. Another piece of software that I’ve been using for a while. Despite what many people say, it is a great free (and again, OSS) alternative to Photoshop. IMHO, Photoshop is still better if you can afford it, but at free, you cannot beat the GIMP for features and I think usability as well. It is very simple and really just works for photo editing and web graphics. Linux, Mac, Windows.
Digsby – Digsby is my command center for IM, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. What more can I say…it rocks and gets more stable with each version. Linux, Mac and Windows.
FileZilla – The only FTP client I have used in a long time. It’s open source and has both a client and server version of the software. I have mostly used the client. It has all the features of the non-free clients except for directory synchronization. The resume feature is great for large uploads or downloads. Linux, Mac, Windows.
VLC – I have talked about Video Lan Client before, but it has a soft spot in my heart. It can play back multimedia files that other plays (ahem, Windows Media, Quicktime) can’t…plus it’s also open source and constantly being developed. Linux, Mac and Windows
Celtx – If you have ever done any script writing, you probably know how expensive the gold standard of script programs, Final Draft, can be. Celtx aims to be a good free open source replacement and does a pretty good job. I love the synchronization to their server so you can work from multiple computers, but they are soon making this a paid service =(. Linux, Mac, Windows.
Faststone Capture – I take screen grabs all of the time for my website work. Faststone Capture makes this really easy – I usually use the adjustable size capture window. It’s no longer free, but I’ve included a link to the last free version of the software which still works great for everything I need. Windows only.
CamStudio – Another screen capture program, but this one is for video. It’s a nice alternative to Camtasia – certainly not as full featured, but works very well for free. Oh yeah, they have made a codec that looks very nice and produced small (file size) files. Windows only.
Look@LAN – I guess this is now called Fing and is currently command line only, but it is a great network scanning tool. I often use it to track down a particular computer on the network. Linux, Mac and Windows.

There are many other useful programs out there. Those are just a few that I use on a pretty regular basis that are all free. What free software do you get great enjoyment from?

Motorcycle Rebuild – Day 3

Stephen Zeidner — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:54:27 +0000

Today, Allen came over and helped me get the engine unbolted from the transmission and up onto the workbench. After trying various methods of propping the engine up from underneath, we decided (Allen’s idea) to just do the ol’ makeshift engine lift and support it with straps from the rafters. It worked out quite well in the end and nothing fell on the floor in the process. Now the fun can really begin. Also, the frame is now almost stripped completely and will soon be sent to Streetwerkz to get the nice powder coat so it’s not as rusty.

Strapping it up

Amost REady

Here we go

And it's off!

Transmission

Clutch

Frame

Yes, it's rusty

Almost up on the bench now

Look at the engine

Oops, some excess coolant

Motorcycle Rebuild – Day 2

Stephen Zeidner — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:25:55 +0000

Well, this is actually day 2.5 I guess (I removed the wiring last Sunday, but didn’t put up any pics of that). I worked off and on for a few hours (maybe 4?) today and got the frame removed from the engine (along with the radiator, exhaust, starter, alternator, etc…). So far, I really haven’t run into any stuck bolts which is good. I’m thinking that the next step will be to get the transmission and drive train removed from the engine which I’ll then be able to throw up on the workbench and start removing the top end. I also have all kinds of things to clean up and a frame to remove from the front wheel and strip to get ready for powder coating. It’s exciting that I’m actually starting to make some visible progress. You can see the state of things in the pictures below.

Just the drivetrain

Airbox

Another view

Rear shock is not too bad

Grimey

Top of Engine

Jack is just there as a backup

Front End

I need new tires

Look at all that junk

Business Talk

Stephen Zeidner — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:51:45 +0000

I had this great epiphany recently about people that are successful in business. The biggest thing these people have going for them is not that they are really intelligent or brilliant in their field, it’s that they know how to talk to people. OK, I know you all have realized this a long time ago, but I just realized that if you know how to sell yourself, your products and your skills, you are on your way towards what many people would consider success in the working world. Of course, you do have to have ability yourself or a good team to back up your talk with their work, but you do not have to be the absolute best in your field to be successful. So, my question to you is what are your tips and tricks for navigating conversations and having the confidence to convince other people to believe in you and the things you believe in?

Being Somebody Else

Stephen Zeidner — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:17:51 +0000

I’ve noticed that there have been a few of these fake twitter accounts cropping up recently. They seem to be found out quickly, but I’m always suckered into following the people before they get exposed as fakes. The latest couple have been the Dalai Lama (@OHHDL) and Christopher Walken (@cwalken). I was really bummed that @cwalken was actually a fake. After hearing all of Jason Calicanis’ impressions of him on TWiT, I was excited to see how fun the fake Walken’s twitter posts actually were.

So, this got me thinking about the motives behind taking the time to set up a fake twitter account and post content that actually sounds like something the person/celebrity would say. The person who sets up the account has to know that they are going to be figured out some day. So, do they just want their 5 minutes of fame? Are they trying to make a future name for themselves by gaining followers under a false pretense? Is there some secret obsession with the celebrity they choose to impersonate?

Regardless of any motives for setting up a fake account, I really think there is much more long-term value in building a brand around your true identity than faking it like these posers. There is something so powerful about sincerity – if you are truly interested in marketing yourself and your skills online, be sincere about it. Be open and honest enough with people that they see you are real, but not so much that you seem creepy. It’s interesting to note that even Fake Steve Jobs was forced to become “Real Dan”. People like to see what is real when it comes to online personalities.

Motorcycle Rebuild – Day 1

Stephen Zeidner — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:19:03 +0000

About a year and a half ago, we bought a 1985 BMW K100RS motorcycle with hopes of taking it across the country someday. It had a few minor brake issues that took a little while to get worked out, but once we got those figured out and took it for a few rides, more problems with the bike began to crop up. So, I’ve decided to do a complete restore of the motorcycle which includes an engine rebuild, diagnosing and fixing all of the electrical problems, cleaning everything to look like new, painting all the body pieces, powder coating the frame and inspecting everything else along the way for things that need to be replaced or repaired. I put put longer handlebars and a new windshield on as well to make it a little more comfortable for traveling.

I started work yesterday, really not knowing what I am getting myself into. Fortunately, I have some knowledgeable neighbors who are willing to help when needed (Allen and Jim). Allen helped me get started yesterday, and I’m sure Jim will help out when I get to removing and rebuilding the engine.

Here are a few “before” and after “day 1″ photos:

Before - Left Front

Before - Right Front

Before - Right Back

Handlebars

Scratch on Mirror

Body Removed

Relays

Wiring

What’s in Your Google Reader?

Stephen Zeidner — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:14:07 +0000

I love using Google Reader as an RSS aggregation tool. It is so much more efficient than visiting each blog or news website individually to check for updates. Here are a few of the favorites from my reader (in no particular order):

I’m curious as to what you have in your RSS aggregator and if you have a reader preference besides Google Reader.

My Website Design Workflow

Stephen Zeidner — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:43:14 +0000

Although I’ve been programming for the web since 1999, I’ve only been doing website design for the past year. I was handed the Adobe creative suite for the web, so that is the software package I based my workflow on. As much as I like FOSS (free open source software), I think Adobe products just do the job a little bit better than their free alternatives. So, here are the programs in particular that I use in my web design workflow:

If you want FOSS alternatives to these programs, here is what I would suggest (although I haven’t tested them with this particular workflow, so YMMV):

Xara Xtreme
GIMP
Kompozer (or your favorite text editor…Vim anyone?). Matt Brett’s barebone CSS files are a good CSS/XHMTL starting point.

Now, I also use Flash for animations and interactive content, but I like to use this in limited amounts and am going to try in the future to use more AJAX instead. If anyone has any AJAX toolkit recommendations, I would love to hear them.

OK, now that you know the programs I use, here is a brief overview of my workflow using these applications:

I begin with fireworks and lay out the entire page. If I know all of the content that will go on the website to begin with, I’ll lay out every page in the site as it makes it easier when visualize when turning the pages into code.
Once everything has been laid out and I’ve settled on the final design, I open up dreamweaver and use one of their page layout templates to get started. This just gives you a basic framework for the HTML and CSS of the page to get things started. I typically used fixed size layouts in either one or two columns (you should only use the number of columns that will be present on the entire site, not on an individual page). I’ll get the basic layout of the site (based on my fireworks design) set up in HTML and CSS (rarely using the actual WYSIWYG editor in dreamweaver).
As I set up the site in dreamweaver, I also cut out images from fireworks to use on the website by copying and pasting them into photoshop. Then, I’ll save these images for the web as their appropriate type (PNG, JPEG, etc…).
Once the site is all built as static HTML and CSS with the images from the original fireworks design, I’ll take this code and merge it with a default wordpress or drupal template. Then, I’ll fill in the rest of the content for each page in the appropriate content manager.

That’s it in a nutshell. I will be diving a little deeper into each of the steps of this workflow as well as giving you a few design tips that I’ve picked up in future posts.

Update: I was asked the question about how specifically to export images from Fireworks. Here is a little more detail on the matter. I don’t typically export from fireworks as I don’t like the code it produces. Here is my process for getting the images themselves out of fireworks:

Think about which images are background (repeatable) and which are static images. Think also about which need transparency and which do not (to think about ie6 compatibility issues)
Select the image you want to export (make sure you set the optimize settings to something that will work for you – I use png 24)
Copy the selection
If it does not have/need transparency, paste directly into a new photoshop document and edit to size and then save for web and devices.
If it does need transparency, paste into a new fireworks file, save and then open in photoshop (otherwise photoshop will replace the transparency with a background color – at least in CS3).

Once all of the images are saved into their proper formats, I build the HTML/CSS with a notepad editor – see this post for an update on the text editor I am now using instead of Dreamweaver.

Hyper-threading Thoughts

Stephen Zeidner — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:28:01 +0000

I have this problem where I can’t multitask my thoughts. So, if I am driving, I can’t carry on a conversation without losing concentration on my driving (which is bad). I can’t talk to someone very easily while trying to work at the computer. Basically, I can’t carry on a conversation while being actively engaged in some other task.

Now, maybe this sounds pretty normal to you. I know it’s not unusual for guys to not be able to multitask. But, consider this. I was watching a little bit of the live video stream from Leo Laporte earlier today. He has a tech call-in show where he answers questions people have about their computers/gadgets/etc… So, Leo is carrying on a conversation with someone on the phone/Skype AND watching a chatroom full of people giving him ideas of how to answer the questions AND doing research online about all these things. All of this happens while he drives the conversation with the person on the other end of the line and never loses his train of thought. Oh yeah, and he’s hosting a 3 camera live show while he sits/bounces on his exercise ball. During one show, the ball he was sitting on popped, and he would have just kept on going except that someone asked what the noise was.

So, I know it’s just a movie, but Rocket Science portrays a high school debate team. The kids on this team talk so fast that I can’t even hear what they are saying. My mind can’t even keep up with this fast of a train of thought. Now, I know with debates, every possible talking point is prepared before-hand, and I know that you could easily speed up talking on film without changing the pitch, but dang. There are just some people that have that really strong brain to mouth connection and can keep one line of thought with plenty of other distractions going on around them.

I would like to train my mind to have more than one active process at a time. A kind of hyper-threading if you will. Anyone have ideas for how to do this? Perhaps a more efficient conversation pipeline? Let me know your best tricks of the trade.

It wasn’t the eggnogg that almost killed me.

Stephen Zeidner — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:58:06 +0000

So, the last couple of weekends…one was a wedding in Indiana which also consisted of interesting conversations late at night and some relaxing time in the hot tub. The other was filled with things such as watching Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, karaoke with friends, etc…. OK, so nothing too out of the ordinary, but these past two weekends provoked a thought: “Live free. Live with grace. Listen. Let go.”

Last Sunday at the C.R.A.C.K. House, Mitchell told us that life is so much easier to live when you stop trying to fix things yourself and let God work on them. I still have an image in my head of Mitchell leaning over with his ear out saying that this is like God’s ear on the earth. He can hear what you are thinking…like you listening to your parents conversations downstairs through the vent in your room. So, let God take your problems on Himself…His yoke is easy and His burden is light. It’s not that He takes all your problems away, it’s that He helps you with them and He does a much better job than you. In fact, His work is perfect every time.

So what I am saying is that God cares about how you feel and it’s OK to let Him take care of things and rather than spending your time worrying about them, spend some time talking with God about them…spend some time with other people…have some conversations…experience some new things.

This is why I like movies like Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Juno, Garden State, Sideways…and the list goes on. I like these movies for the fact that they are all about the people…the character development. Sometimes they are screwed up people (albeit in various stages of life), but aren’t we all in some ways? So, if you haven’t already, let God handle the things you are trying to control yourself. If you are already doing this, encourage someone else to do the same. I have the feeling it will be a worthwhile experiment.

2009 Predictions

Stephen Zeidner — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:20:45 +0000

Here are a few things that I think will happen next year.

Netbooks sales will continue to rise and may overtake notebook sales (at least for one month in ‘09).
2007 and 2008 were years of huge online video growth. 2009 will be a year of trying to figure out how to better monetize this media platform and how to stand out among the crowd (hint: dense, quality content will win out).
We are going to see more Hulu knockoffs that will fail for lack of good content
This whole Twitter/microblogging thing still won’t be figured out.
The US will officially be out of its economic “recession”, but not until the 4th quarter.
Styles from the early 90’s will be back in vogue.
2009 will be the year of the thinker and the innovator. We will see more creativity as unemployment rises and people have more time on their hands to come up with the “next big thing”.

This is a very short list, so please add to it. What do you think will happen next year and what are you looking forward to doing differently yourself in 09?

Fear and Media

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Let me be the first to tell you that I’m not much of a news junkie in the traditional sense. I have been at times obsessive about keeping up with tech news online and on podcasts, but I don’t typically read newspapers, watch news on TV or check out msn.com for the latest news stories every day. It’s my opinion that we should make a drastic change in the way that the news is reported in this country. Now, I get my general news updates by word of mouth from people who have done the watching or reading already for me. A common emotional response to the news that I hear from these people is fear. They are afraid of what will happen with the economy, afraid of gas prices, afraid of criminals on the loose, etc… Now, what I have also found when I have listened to the news and heard something that I knew a little bit about (technology related pieces), I see that there are all kinds of inaccuracies and misinformation presented. It makes me wonder about the subjects that I’ve heard reported on that I am not as familiar with. Are they also full of false or exaggerated information just to increase the shock factor which seems to boost ratings and viewership?

I think we all know that the media will present news to us in the most shocking and negative way possible because it garners a response. The question is, what is our reaction to all of this? Do we live in fear of the future? Are we simply fascinated by the shocking stories? Do we hold out hope for citizen journalism to gain more credibility through sites like Current TV and Beat Blogging? Or, do you have another solution? You tell me…

Esteban’s Thanksgiving Fable

Stephen Zeidner — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:34:35 +0000

There was once a cat that lived with a family of dogs. She had a great life and got everything she desired. Still, she never really felt at home. So, one day Whiskers decided that she was going to leave the house to find out if there were any other cats out there in the world. As she bid adieu to her family of dogs that she had known her whole life, whiskers let out a little meow of delight. It was finally time to hit the hit the pavement and find out what the rest of the world was like.

Whiskers found that there many things she had never heard of before. Catnip, in particular. The longer she spent living in the wild, the more catnip she had to have to feel happy. Sure, whiskers made many friends. She met big cats, small cats, cats with no hair, and even a three-legged cat named Tripod. But, as Whiskers trekked farther and farther from home, she began to look more and more haggard. Her friends all got their fill of food from their owners, but Whiskers found herself stealing food and trading it for catnip because she just couldn’t bring herself to go without. Alleys where steam rose from the sewers were her favorite place to sleep. As Whiskers awoke one morning from her catnip induced sleep, she heard a faint gobbling noise in the distance. Some creature she had never encountered before was waddling through the steam – it seemed to hop over the piles of trash almost as if it could have flown in another life. As it grew closer, Whiskers heard a voice: “Hey there cat, watcha doing?” Whiskers answered back, “Oh, just trying to get some sleep before my next meal.” “Why are you sleeping out here? Where is your family?” asked the Turkey. “What?” said Whiskers. “What are you anyway?” “My name is Thomas. Thomas the Turkey”, replied the strange creature. “Well”, Whiskers said “my family is a bunch of dogs and I’ve left them to discover the world. I was sick of being the only cat in that house.” “Look at you now though”, said Thomas. “You have nothing to eat except this one bite of catnip.” As Thomas reached out his wing to point, Whiskers hissed back, “Merooowww. Don’t you touch my catnip.” With pity in his eyes, Thomas said softly, “Look, if it were me, I would go back to my family even if they were all different from me. I’m sure it must have been much better than you have it out here on the street.” “Whatever…” Whiskers mumbled as she turned to walk away. But, she couldn’t get that thought out of her head. Life was so much better when there were dogs around that loved her. So, Whiskers decided to head back home and the dogs all accepted her with open arms…err paws. As she was coming into the house, one of the dogs said, “You’re just in time for Thanksgiving…and we’re having Turkey!”.

Moral of the story: Be thankful for the life you have.

Running Away

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

There are a different approaches to hardship in life. In fact, there are different types of hardship that one may experience in life. Ignoring for a moment that the trials you, I and probably most other Americans experience are nothing compared to what many others in our crazy world suffer, there are still some kinda crappy experiences that we face in our lifetime. There are different ways to respond when life gets wacky. In my experience, it’s not out of the ordinary to feel more down than up in life. So, the choice is how to respond to such feelings. Is it best just to learn to become numb to those feelings and realize that life is more than living on your emotions? Is it better yet to realize that there are more things to be learned during emotional or circumstantial turmoil – to realize that there is a God, a higher power that is much bigger than my immediate problems? What about starting over – changing the scenery, doing something different in life, something with purpose (which of course poses the question of what is actually meaningful)? In fact, are the meaningful things of life those things that you don’t actually feel like doing…at least at first? Or, is it in fact worthwhile to let life take you to the bottom – to follow a hedonistic way of life to your own demise – only to be brought out of it and be given the opportunity to realize how much God has saved you from?

I feel like I *should* ignore the crappy feelings of life, like I *want* to go start over with some new things in different areas of life, and like I’m *jealous* of people who are able to appreciate so greatly where God has brought them from in life.

I know that there is a good (or possibly even right) answer posed in one (or a combination) of the questions posed above (you don’t need to tell me which one you think is correct). I know that there are a lot of easy answers to hard questions in the world, but I also know that there is a big difference between knowing, believing and living.

My questions for the week are these: 1. What do you find joy in? 2. Do you live more by your emotions, your mind, or your spirituality? 3. What kind of furrie are you?

Competition

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I had a somewhat strange thought today as I was listening to Mark Driscoll. So, Mark is going through the Song of Solomon in a sermon series and today he was giving us insight into men’s brains. One thing he mentioned is how competitive men are and how much they like to win.

Before I share my thought, let me take you back to my early childhood days. I used to love playing basketball and even played on a small rec center team in elementary school. It was a lot of fun until I went from being somewhere in skill around the top 50% of people I played with to being worse of a player than most of the kids my age. Even my own sister would beat me at just about every game of 1-on-1 we played (no hard feelings sis). So, instead of working on improving my game, I gave up and became bitter. I resented anything related to the “common” team sports (i.e. basketball, football, baseball, etc…) – “extreme” sports were OK with me though. *sarcasm* After much therapy *sarcasm*, I’m proud to let you all know that now I am OK with you playing whatever sport you choose – I am no longer bitter. Personally though, I enjoy snowboarding, skateboarding and running.

Fast forward to today…the thought I had (as I was out running, ironically enough) was that if all guys are competitive, where does the competition go if you are not into sports? At this point in my life, it goes into competing with others in what I know about computers (this is unhealthy) and competing against myself and others with my running (healthy). It would be nice to put more of that competitive energy into running and into wait for it…serving others…what does service have to do with competition you ask? Only that the energy has to go somewhere, so it might as well go to something to combat the unhealthy competition.

Question for you all: What do you put your competitive energy towards? Question #2: Is it healthy to push your kids (especially boys) to play sports?

Movie Ideas

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Back when we started Wide Open Mind one goal we had was to become more familiar with using the gear, editing and being on camera. Well, I think it’s time to start using some of this experience that we’ve gained to make a short film (I know, I’ve been talking about this for a while, but I want to at least start the writing process). I’m just in the idea phase at the moment which is what I need your help with. Once I settle on an idea that has potential, I’ll flesh out some of the details in an outline and then start writing. Here are a few ideas for just general themes:

Hacker movie (in the vein of Antitrust or possibly based off of something like “Little Brother” or Scroogled)
Story based on my life growing up (our family had some unique experiences which might be interesting if embellished)
I have a few short monologues written already (Soul Safari) with a story around them that could be turned into a brief (10-15 minutes) sci-fi flick
A story driven mostly by character development (think Garden State/Sideways). I have a few ideas for characters, but I’d like to hear what you think are interesting personalities in people to see onscreen.

What thoughts or ideas do you have for a film? Any thoughts on the very general themes I’ve presented above?

Sights and Smells

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I remembered what I was going to write about. It’s a matter of familiarity. In particular, with regards to the senses. The workplace of every job I’ve worked has it’s own particular smell. I think that’s takes the longest to adjust to in a new position – the smell. The smell at any new place can be so overwhelming at first. If it’s unfamiliar, that can evoke feelings of either excitement or trepidation depending on your personality and possibly your mood that day. If the smell is familiar to your senses (such as a hint of vanilla or cinnamon) it could take you back to a memory from long ago. Familiarity of smells often breeds peace and relaxation rather than contempt regardless of whether it’s a “good” or “bad” smell.

Maybe this is just a guy thing. I heard recently that a woman’s smell can actually be an influence on how a man feels about her. Maybe this is why women are more concerned about their hygiene than men.

Back to the subject of smell relating to location. I walked into a friend’s place of business and was so overwhelmed by the new smells that I became dizzy and almost had to sit down. They certainly weren’t offensive, but were all so new to me that it sent my senses into overload. So, this is just something to keep in mind. When someone first comes into your home, your church or your workplace, what smells are they greeted with. Will they feel at home because the smells are familiar? Will they feel apprehensive at the hint of something they haven’t smelled before? Or, do I just have a hyper-sensitive nose?

Fragile Minds

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I was sitting in church last Sunday and came up with a great idea for a blog post. Now, for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was. I need to start carrying around some sort of recording device with me, whether that’s a pen and note cards or a voice recorder, just something to take down ideas as they come up. I just took a look at my phone and it has a notepad function, so that may be a place to start (however crude it may be).

Earlier this week, I talked to Todd some about GTD (Getting Things Done). Maybe it’s time to bring some organization at least into capturing ideas so that they don’t get lost in the shuffle. What tools do you use to record your thoughts and keep your ideas organized?

Politikin

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I started out this election year not really caring much about it since I am not particularly fond of either candidate. However, as time has gone on, there have been very strong opinions that I have seen coming from Republicans and Democrats alike. In past elections, I remember seeing very strong emotions from one party or the other (border-line hatred for the opposing party), but this year, there seems to be hatred coming from both sides toward the other party. Certainly not everybody who is for one party or the other expresses such strong feelings, but speaking generally, the emotions are running much higher all around this year.

In some ways, I still don’t care too much who gets elected this year because I know God will place in authority whoever he chooses. However, the emotional response from others has led me to do a little more online research about what issues each candidate supports. If you are only interested in the two big parties, this is a great website to check out to compare and contrast Obama and McCain. http://www.bobbarr2008.com is another good research website if you are interested in the main Libertarian candidate’s stance on some of the issues. I won’t go into what I agree or disagree with about each candidate since you are capable of forming your own opinion and don’t need one more thrown into the mix to influence yours (and you don’t need another person to hate on when you disagree with me either). The media does a good enough job of swaying people’s opinions as it is. When a president’s ratings go up and down based (inversely) on the price of gas, you know we live in a nation full of people (or if not the nation, at least the survey population) who have an odd basis for their convictions.

Reading through the candidate’s positions on each of the issues on the websites mentioned above and watching the debates so far has gotten me thinking about which of these issues are important to agree with when placing your vote. Since the president is commander in chief, I would think national security/war issues would be kind of important. On a selfish note, I would like them to have a decent plan for the economy, but I’m certainly at a loss as to what a good plan at this point would be. Schooling issues are certainly important as the youth will be our future leaders – some may argue that these issues should be left to more localized government while others may point to Florida’s school system as a counterargument. Then there are the moral issues. Although the “bigger” issues are the most talked about, I think the moral issues are what people get the most passionate about (at least for Christians). The issue of abortion in particular is the most controversial. I’ll just say that I am definitely pro-life/anti-abortion, whatever you want to call it. I’ve thought a lot about whether I would vote against a candidate solely because of their stance on abortion. I honestly do not have an answer for this. I don’t know a lot about politics, but isn’t the president in the executive branch of the government and not the legislative? Wouldn’t it be better to lobby congressmen about these issues rather than placing your presidential vote based on this criteria? Just my opinion, but feel free to disagree.

One last little thing to share…again, just my opinion. Sarah Palin is not the one running for president and she does not come into the VP candidate position with a lot of relevant experience (feel free to disagree). That being said, the thing she has going for her is that she is able to speak without as much of the usual BS that often surrounds politicians’ speech.

If you are going to vote this year, I’d encourage you to think carefully about why you are voting for a particular candidate. Or, just vote for whatever you feel like since the election is not going to be decided based on one vote, despite what the media may tell you (I wasn’t sure whether to put sarcasm tags around this or not). Please share your thoughts in the comments. One last thing…if you haven’t watched them yet, check out the SNL debate skits on Hulu. Absolutely brilliant.

Like getting well…

Stephen Zeidner — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:53:35 +0000

When you’ve been sick and lying in bed for a number of days and finally make it past that turning point where you can get up and walk around, there are a series of steps that must be taken to feel quote-unquote normal again. There’s the showering, then washing all your bedding, then the progression of eating food that’s easy on your stomach until you are able to handle normal food again. Finally, you must decide in your head that you are better and go about life per usual.

I realized today that some sort of similar ritual is needed when feeling in a slump. I woke up this morning realizing that I would not being doing any long runs this weekend (or any running at all). I also realized that I needed to do something (nay, something productive) today. There are many unfinished projects and things in disarray around the house that I decided to start tackling some of those. Here is the story of my day:

It was good to sleep in a little bit. The alarm began buzzing at 7:01, but after realizing it was Saturday, I hit snooze. Subconsciously, I pressed the button every nine minutes until it was finally 8:30 and felt so late that I must get out of bed. I love the fall when the mornings are cool. The nights are just the perfect temperature to sleep under a blanket or two and rest comes easier to the body. This morning, we took the dog to the vet for an ear infection. He hadn’t been in 4 years, so the veterinarian, bless her heart, reprimanded us for not taking him in more often and proceeded to tell us everything that is wrong with Berrie. His teeth are in bad shape, his ear infection is the worst she has ever seen, his nails are too long (dogs’ feet get more sensitive as they get older) and he is such a nice dog that she couldn’t believe we have taken such bad care of him. I just heard “dog”…he is only a dog. And hey…at least we brought him in. They’re going to get him all fixed up though and with some proper care he should be as good as new…or as good as an 11 year old dog should be.

Phew, after a visit to the vet, it was time to start cleaning the house. Just a light dusting, vacuuming and wiping of the counters and, oh yeah…the basement. That was a project I had been putting off for a few months. But, it’s finally finished! Well, almost finished. We got the wrong size blinds, so those will go up tomorrow. But, at least it’s clean. Leigh and I did a few errands after that (dropped off a bunch of unneeded coats, went to the library, grocery shopping (Meijer was a madhouse!), and bought a new toolbox). After all of that, we did some more filming for our podcast (which went really smoothly) and are soon sitting down for some fish and banana bread.

Bored yet? I probably would be if I made it this far in the post. But, all of this is just to say that it’s good every once in a while to clean things up, get caught up on day-to-day things and get started on projects again…even if it is just something small. Hey, we even talked today about Leigh looking into the possibility of working part-time so we don’t get too far behind on everything at home. What projects do you have in your queue that you can’t wait to get completed? Some of mine are: 1. Getting the motorcycle in reliable shape, 2. Ripping out bar and installing booths, 3. Lots of website projects.

Frustration

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Lately, things have just seemed a little bit harder than usual. Running has been tough – I may have a stress fracture in my right shin as well as one in my left foot. It has made it hard to put in the miles and I’ve been debating how much to rest up until the marathon. Anyway, my car just started making weird noises this week. I feel tired out all the time – I go home in the evenings and just want to lay in bed, but there is too much to do in the evenings.

So really, none of this is a big deal, but things during the day seem to add up to frustration at times. I started thinking about all of this last night as I was out running and listening to Mark Driscoll’s podcast about praying like Jesus. My first thought was that my frustrations dwindle to almost nothing when compared to what things that other people go through on an every day basis. I’m just experiencing normal every day life. My second thought was that no matter what degree of frustration I experience, what really matters is what my response is to the frustration. Am I going to complain or am I going to go to God and ask what I can learn through this?

As a side note to all of this, I received an email from Jocey and Andy last night that they got free tickets to the Funny Bone next Wednesday and invited us to come along. I remember when I first started blogging with a paper and pen and everything I wrote was depressing. It was a lot of naval gazing and introspection. I thought to myself, I need to write material that is a little more upbeat…so naturally, that would be comedy, right? Well, I made a number of attempts at it and realized that I’m just not that funny of a guy (and good comedy takes a lot of time to write). I still love comedy though and appreciate it even more after trying my hand at it. I’m learning now that if you can laugh at yourself, your circumstances and even your emotional state, it can make life much more enjoyable. There are times and things in life to take seriously, but there are many times when it’s good just to laugh and move on. Suffice it to say that I’m looking forward to next Wednesday when I can enjoy someone else who makes their living from making other people laugh.

What areas in life do you need to enjoy and laugh more about and take a little bit less seriously? What areas do you see that I to do that more? Please share your thoughts!

Alfresco Curl Login

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I thought I’d share some cURL/PHP code for logging into Alfresco. I’m using Alfresco Labs 3. I’m still trying to figure out how to use cURL to automate adding a user, but here is the basic login code for now. If you have any thoughts on how to add the user (I’m sending the exact headers I get from LiveHTTPHeaders, with no luck), just let me know. I’m guessing that the problem has something to do with the Viewstate parameter.




$useragent="Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1";

$referrer="http://myserver.com:8080/alfresco/";
// login information

$username="admin";

$password="password";

$loginurl="http://myserver.com:8080/alfresco/faces/jsp/login.jsp";

$cookie_file_path = "/temp/cookie".rand();

$postfields = 'loginForm%3Auser-name='.$username.'&loginForm%3Auser-password='.$password.'&loginForm%3Alanguage=en_US&loginForm%3Asubmit=Login&loginForm_SUBMIT=1&loginForm%3A_idcl=&loginForm%3A_link_hidden_=&javax.faces.ViewState=rO0ABXVyABNbTGphdmEubGFuZy5PYmplY3Q7kM5YnxBzKWwCAAB4cAAAAAN0AAExcHQADi9qc3AvbG9naW4uanNw';

// request to first get cookies, etc... $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $loginurl); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $useragent); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookie_file_path); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookie_file_path); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1); echo curl_exec($ch); curl_close($ch); // do the actual login $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $loginurl); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $useragent); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $postfields); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookie_file_path); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookie_file_path); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1); echo curl_exec($ch); curl_close($ch); ?>

Automation

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Can I just say that I love things being automated so I don’t have to think about them? I love the fact that a computer sitting in my basement will look for TV shows that I tell it I like and record them for me without me having to think about it. I’m also loving having a sprinkler that turns on and off all by itself. Another thing that is automated for me is the gathering of information across the internet through RSS feeds and Google reader/iTunes.

Now, there are plenty of things in life that just can’t be automated and I’m not sure if I would want them to be. What things do you automate in your life? What things do you wish could be more easily automated?

Blowing Smoke Up Your Rear

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I have to say that this is definitely not an original thought and certainly didn’t come from me. I was listening to This Week in Media and heard something that rang true with what we’ve been talking about at work lately in our production meetings. That is the fact that we should all learn to take some constructive criticism about the content that we produce. David Stripinis made the point that all people in LA tend to do is tell each other how great their ideas are because that’s what they want to hear themselves. While it is all well and good to encourage people, his point was that you should tell someone honestly what you think about their work so that they can make it even better. Most truly great artists will tell you that feel like their art is never finished and often work on things almost to the point of abandonment because they just don’t feel like it could ever be good enough to be a finished piece.

Now, I will say that it is never easy to take criticism on something that you have created. Not only that, but it’s often embarrassing to show a work to somebody before you feel like you have smoothed out all of the rough edges. However, it may be beneficial to spread your idea around to people you know will give you honest feedback while it’s still in the rough stages. That way you can steer the direction in the right path early on before it becomes too hard to change it.

As a side note, I think that anyone interested in media (new or old) as a business should listen to the TWiM netcast that I mentioned above. It will help you think outside the box a little bit as most of the people on the show are media pioneers in one way or another.

Thoughts…comments…constructive criticisms (this means that if there is something you think should be changed you give a suggestion for how to change it, not just say you don’t like it)?

Is anyone else…

Stephen Zeidner — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:34:17 +0000

…sick of hearing about Obama, Palin, and the chrome browser? OK, maybe it’s just me, but those seem to be the only topics on being talked about on twitter these days. You know, I’m actually starting to enjoy conversation occasionally about Ohio State football in RL (Real Life) because it seems like it’s talked about less than these subjects. Or, maybe I’m just an internet addict. Regardless, I think I’ve become very apathetic about politics this year. It could be like Christmas for me. Every other year I feel really excited about Christmas. Last year for instance I didn’t want to put up any lights at all. This year, I’m thinking it would be cool to rig up a whole automated display. OK, maybe I’m not that ambitious, but I told Leigh that we’re going to make a special Christmas music playlist this year. It’s definitely going to have Christmas Time in Dun Morogh on it. Anyway, I was thinking that maybe politics is like my fickle Christmas excitement. One election year I’m fired up about it and the next I just want it to be over with. Or maybe it’s just that it seems like all the candidates really suck this year.

And, the chrome browser? Well, I just think it’s crazy sometimes how these fads pop up on the internet and it seems like everyone is following them. I’m guilty of this too. Whatever other people are talking about, I want to be in on as well.

The Little Things

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Hey, you know all those little things that you keep saying you’ll do someday? Start working on them now. I’m finding that it’s so easy to just sit down at the computer in the evening and not really do anything…just read other people’s blogs, read the endless posts that come through the various microblogging services, catch up on the latest videos from Revision3, etc… I’ve been finding though that just doing a little bit at a time and keeping a project moving forward can be significantly different than not doing anything on it for a while. I’ll give you some examples of what I’ve been trying to keep moving forward recently. Well, you are reading the first example. I got out of the habit of blogging, but am trying to now get out at least one post a week. Example #2: I put the MythTV computer all back together. After spending some time building myself a (much needed) new computer last weekend, I figured it wouldn’t be too bad to just put this one that had been sitting in parts back together for the time being. I can always finish the paint job later. It looks pretty sweet as it is now though being all black with the white LEDs instead of blue ones. I guess I was a little motivated for that since The Office will be coming back on the airwaves shortly. Grrr…going back to watching traditional TV with rigid formats seems kinda archaic though (even with a DVR) after three months of watching internet only video. Or, maybe the time format just seems all too familiar now after seeing it so frequently in MC at work. Regardless, enough about TV already!

So, if you are feeling overwhelmed with all that is going on, just keep some forward motion. It doesn’t have to be a lot (there may be other things – like running for me – that tend to take a good deal of the rest of your time), but just keep them rolling. As my neighbor used to say before he moved to Colorado (well, he probably still says it out there), “Put some wheels on it and move that sucker!”. This is what we are trying to do at church. Just keep a little bit of forward momentum in the areas that we have been given responsibility. Who knows, maybe over time results will come. It’s being faithful in the little things that will eventually allow you to be faithful in the big areas of life. Wait, isn’t there a verse about that? Google tells me that it’s Matthew 25:21 “…You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things…”. So, keep on rolling even if the progress is slow. You won’t regret the time spent.

Microblogging, Social Networks and the Internet, Oh My!

Stephen Zeidner — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:20:59 +0000

Ever since I’ve started using Twitter to microblog, I’ve really slowed down a lot on the full blog posts (I’m trying to change that though). I’m still trying to figure out which places are best to place what online content. Right now, I use Facebook to contact people who I wouldn’t normally get in touch with or just to make it easier to talk to people who use it as their main form of communication rather than email. Then, I use Twitter to let people know what I’m up to (and chat with people). I feel like my actual blog (what you are reading now) is reserved for only the topics I feel are either really interesting or important to me.

On a slightly different topic, I’ve been watching (very closely) what is happening in the netcasting and more importantly the vidcasting arena lately. There is a growing shift towards live streaming of content as it is being created or streaming coverage of various events/meetups that happen around the US. Content producers who distribute solely on the Internet are coming up with new and creative ways to foster community around the content they are producing. One example of community is the recently launched TWiT Army…a microblog focused around the TWiT enthusiasts. Live meetups with the producers of shows are another way that content creators encourage community. I’ve experienced this with Pure Pwnage cinema showings in Toronto and I know vidcasts such as Geekbrief have had various meetups around the US as well.

As I’ve seen these online communities emerge, I’ve wondered how we can take advantage of some of these same ideas with our vidcast Wide Open Mind. We have some ideas in mind that you will hopefully see emerge over the next couple of months, but please share your thoughts on building online community and any ideas for live video streaming content in the comments.

You were a computer geek in the 90’s if…

Stephen Zeidner — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:50:49 +0000

1. You liked to explain how the 8088 was better than the 8086 because of its math co-processor
2. You often corrected people about the fact that Doom was not the first 3-D shooter (Wolfenstein was) and in fact was really only 2.5-D
3. You played Duke Nukem when it was a side-scroller
4. You spent hours installing Slackware linux on your parents computer just because you could
5. It upset you when people called 3.5″ floppy’s “hard disks” because they weren’t as floppy as the 5.25″
6. You laughed at the Apple users and then decided the Mac was actually decent product once the OS was based on Unix
7. The Texas Instruments calculators were little more to you than a platform for game development
8. You had to explain to people what “online” meant and why your phone line was busy all evening long
9. IRC – what more can I say about that?
10. You were scouring the internet for MP3s before Napster or P2P networks were conceived

OK, so maybe these are mostly my computer experiences from the 90’s. Looking back, these don’t seem all that nerdy or 1337, but at the time they felt that way, and it’s fun to be a bit nostalgic. Feel free to share some of your computer memories from the past 18 years in the comments.

The Machines are Human!

Stephen Zeidner — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:59:53 +0000

I’ve noticed that people often like to assign human attributes to the machines they are around every day. For instance, if their computer is having problems, they’ll say, “see, my computer has a hard time coming in on Monday morning’s too.” Or, they’ll make the machines talk to them. Someone was once showing me what happened when they started up a motorcycle that was hooked up to a battery charger. The charger started blinking and beeping, and this person said, look, it’s saying “I see a drop in power and need to start charging again”, as if it could actually speak these words. Sometimes people like to describe these machines in human terms. For instance, “If you unplug that network cable, this guy over here will start shouting, ‘Hey, I can’t talk to that guy over there’ and this one will start freaking out and say, ‘What did you do to my connection?’”. We like to name our automobiles and plead passionately with them when they won’t start in the wintertime. We protect our iPods and brag to others about them as if they just made the 3rd grade honor role. Ahhh…machines. Are they just some sick distraction, or have they really become like family in our lives?

Service Dependencies

Stephen Zeidner — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:43:30 +0000

Recently, I was trying to start a service in Windows and kept getting this error: “System error 1075 has occurred. The dependency service does not exist or has been marked for deletion.” Hrm, I said to myself…what on earth could be causing this. After looking in the system log, I saw which dependency service was being referenced, and that service most certainly did not exist. However, it did not show up in the dependencies tab of the service I was actually trying to start either. So, here is the fix: Run regedit. Go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services and find the service you are trying to start. There should be a multi-string value in there called DependOnService – open this and remove the service that is no longer installed. Of course, your other option is to re-install the service that is missing. Hopefully this is helpful to somebody else who is having a similar issue.

Ahh…summertime

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

This summer so far has been amazing. Not only has the weather been wonderful (as soon as it gets hot and humid, some rain comes to cool things off and keep the lawn green), but it has been an encouraging time as well. Being involved at the C.R.A.C.K. House has been an uplifting experience so far and I learn something new there every week. Work has been very low stress for me. I’m slowly getting the hang of how to enjoy the simple things in life: Coffee. Walking the dog. Grilling out. Mowing the lawn. Coffee. Reading.

The only thing that has been a little bit frustrating lately is running. Just when I start to feel like I’m getting in good shape, I have a day like today where I can’t meet my goal and end up hurting myself by pushing too hard. However, I was reminded today that we can’t do things in our own strength, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Summer time is also a time to dream and be inspired. In 2006, Leigh and I spent a week on the beach in Rhode Island. We didn’t know at the time what would come of the many ideas and thoughts we had on that vacation, but they were dreams nonetheless. At the time, we were both obsessed with the prospect of making films. I had written most of a short film called Soul Safari (which we are still planning to make someday). Although we have not made any major motion pictures yet (or any motion pictures for that matter), this did eventually turn into the idea of doing a video podcast which we have been doing about once a month for the past 8 months or so. It’s given both Leigh and myself a chance to learn how to use a camera, frame shots, edit, etc… We’re definitely still learning a lot, but we’re a little farther along than we were two years ago. Since Rhode Island, I’ve also taken a job at a production studio, and even though I’m not specifically doing video production work, I’ve learned alot from being around it and getting to know people in the film/video business.

In Rhode Island, we spent our days on the beach and most of our evenings in the small town of Westerly. One highlight was a coffee shop/theater called the Revival House. It was there that we watched the 2005 Academy Award nominated animated shorts. One short in particular stuck out to me at the time: The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. I just really liked the style, but I wasn’t sure exactly why. Well, recently both Leigh and myself have been enjoying dipping our toes in a cultural subgenre called Steampunk which is quite similar to the style depicted in Jasper Morello.

Some ideas and dreams don’t come to fruition however…at least not in the way expected. One day in Rhode Island, feeling sunburned and seeking shelter, we stumbled into Perks and Corks, another coffee/wine shop in Westerly. Since we were the only customers at the time, we got a chance to talk to the owner for a while. He told us about all the locals in the area and how many families had lived in the mansions there for generations while never working a day of their lives. I guess just the interest made from the founding father’s money is more than enough to pay the bills for these people. In addition to going on about these people, the owner also told us how he started the coffee shop (which I don’t really remember now) and how great it was to live near the beach. Somehow or another, later that fall Leigh and I noticed there was a coffee shop for sale near us (back in Columbus) and got the idea in our heads that maybe we could actually own and operate the place. It didn’t turn out to be quite as good of a deal as it first seemed, but soon our friend Jim had found another shop for us to purchase that appeared to be an absolute steal. We and another couple actually made an offer on it, but were relieved when it was rejected as we thought about how much work it would actually be. So, instead of making drinks at our own coffee shop, Leigh now makes mocha’s at home for the two of us, and occasionally at the Acoustic Cafe as well. And of course, we still drink lots of coffee (I love coffee!) when possible.

So, what are the dreams of this summer you may ask? I certainly dream of moving out near a coast someday (east or west, it doesn’t matter). This is one that may never happen, but is fun to think about. I also still dream of making a movie someday (or at least being a part of making one happen). I’ve also been thinking about making some flash games just for fun. You can check out one that I made for work recently on the Taylor’s Attic website. Something else I would like to do is to come up with some interesting content for live video streaming and actually do it on a regular basis. Any suggestions?

And last, but not least, I want to keep in mind that God may have a totally different plan for my life than I have, so above all these other plans, I’d like to know and follow whatever He has in store for me.

Nerdliness

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I really like science-fictiony media that is all about computers. Even though it may be far fetched or not totally accurate, it still gets me pumped up to “Hack the Gibson”. Lately, I’ve been trying to venture into the strictly science fiction realm (Battlestar Galactica, Firefly) but haven’t yet been able to get sucked in as much as with the nerdier selections you’ll find below.

Books:

The Blue Nowhere – Jeffery Deaver
Digital Fortress – Dan Brown
Little Brother – Cory Doctorow
The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency – Dr. Herbert H. Thompson

Music:

Eiffel 65 – Especially their Europop album
Joy Electric – It makes me happy
Ronald Jenkees – I love his geekiness: “Hello Youtubes!”

Movies:

Antitrust – Cheesy, but I like the open source part of this movie.
Hackers – I love the styling. The fact that he spray paints his keyboard is awesome.
Pirates of Silicone Valley – Great film about the history of Gates and Jobs

Audible is out. Visual in?

Stephen Zeidner — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:42:06 +0000

I’m doing a little experiment when I’m out running on the Olentangy trail. Last summer, I tried to say “hi”, “good morning”, “how’s it going” or some sort of verbal greeting to each person I saw (could be 20-30ppl on a longer run). Yesterday morning when I was out, I decided to change things up a little and wave to most people instead. In addition I issued an audible “good morning” to a select few of these people. What I’ve noticed is that people tend to respond much better to a wave and a smile. I think it may be less intimidating to return a non-verbal greeting to a complete stranger.

What do you think? In general, are people more willing to respond to a friendly wave and a smile than to a “hello”, or does it all depend on the person and what context you are meeting in? I’m going to continue my experiment over the next few months and hopefully expand it to other venues than just the running trail.

Mindless Chatter

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I’m going to rant a little bit about conversations had with white people (taking a page from the http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com blog). OK, so maybe this has nothing to do with race and maybe it happens among other circles, but I just happen to hang out with white people more, so that is the experience I am speaking from. Why is it that we like to tell people about the newest technology or the latest news angle or opinion that we have read or heard on the radio (claiming it as our own) and then smirk when the person we are talking to looks clueless or has not been introduced to the same idea/theory/news bit? I am certainly guilty of this (although more conscious of it lately, I don’t know if has yet changed much the way I talk about these things) and I definitely hear it and see it all around me.

My brief, non-thought-out answer to this question is that it makes people feel good to be superior (in their eyes) to others because they have some piece of knowledge that the other person may not have. Feeling superior to others makes you feel good about yourself which in turn leads to thinking that if you like yourself, other people must like you too. The irony of all this is that the people you are talking to actually feel better about themselves when they can identify and be made to feel special or that someone is interested in what they have to say. This may not feel good to you, but people will like you better.

OK, the last paragraph had a lot of “you’s” in it, but by “you”, I really mean “me”. Like saying “I have this friend that has this problem…”. You know what I mean. What now? Same conclusion I think I always come to. Listen more. Talk less. Easier said than done.

The Runs

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

So, today I started Hal Higdon’s training course to get ready for the Columbus marathon. This year, I’ll be running 6 days a week instead of 5, but I’m really excited about doing it. I don’t really think that I’ll make it, but I want to try for a Boston qualifying time. Hey, you’ve got to have goals right? I was a little disappointed in my time that I got for the running portion of the triathlon yesterday (see the results for “Team Zeidner” here: http://premierraces.com/results08/wendysrelays.txt), but I realized that when I don’t have a training schedule to stick to, I have a much harder time actually getting out and doing the running because I think to myself…eh…I don’t really need to run today. Anyway, this training schedule that I’ll be following is made to help you work some on your speed which is really all kind of new to me.

Why run you ask? Well, I ask myself that too some days. Besides the obvious exercise benefits, running also releases some kind of endorphins that make you feel like you could accomplish just about anything in the world. Of course that wears off eventually and is sometimes replaced by sore legs or stomach (if you don’t drink enough water), but it is fun while it lasts. Plus, you feel like you’ve accomplished something just by running.

I will try to keep some sort of regular updates coming for the training period (if not here, then on http://twitter.com/stevezeidner). Here they are for today (it was an easy day):

Distance: 3.18 miles
Total Time: 24.20
Pace: 7:39 /mi
Avg Speed: 7.8mph

Oh the Places You’ll Go!

Stephen Zeidner — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:54:25 +0000

One thing that Leigh and I have done occasionally is to go to a coffee shop, bring our laptop, plug in 2 pairs of earphones and watch a movie. There is something that is added to the experience when you are out in public watching a movie in a setting like that. The dichotomy (is this the right word? one of you English majors can help me out) of the “public space” and “private viewing of the movie” is somehow broken or melded together in a weird way. If you haven’t tried this before, I would highly recommend it.

So, I usually listen to podcasts when I go running (or if I’m outside mowing the grass, or driving, or…well, I listen to them quite a bit). I’ve noticed that I can remember exactly where I was when I heard something that really interested me. For instance, I was mowing the front yard with the push mower last summer when I heard an interesting dialogue on teaching styles. I was crossing under 161 on the Olentangy trail as I was about halfway through my training for the Columbus marathon when I first heard the description of the flavors in a Belgian beer. I was turning onto our street on my way home from work recently when I heard a good discussion on online media vs. traditional television or radio media.

These may simply be scattered thoughts, but I just find it interesting how much place or space affects what you take in and what you remember. To use a cliche example…if you ask anyone in America where they were when they first heard about the towers being hit on Sep 11, 2001, they will be able to give you an answer immediately. Another example that I found in my reading this morning was that Jesus told the apostles to stay in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. Do you have any examples from your life of the effect of place on your memory or experience? If the place you are in when you experience something is this important, then who knows…maybe this is a good enough reason for us to re-decorate the church.

P.S. I apologize if this post kind of jumps around from thought to thought. I blame the coffee.