[ Posted by Tara
Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:17:00 GMT ]
Three months after our wedding day, Kevin lost his first wedding ring. To his credit, this one was totally not his fault! His finger had shrunk in the Pittsburgh cold and the ring flew off into a snow bank when he removed a glove. We searched, we rented a metal detector, we posted signes in our neighborhood – the ring was gone. So Kevin ordered a new ring. He didn’t hide his excitement for the chance for change. He loves change, newness, variety. His first ring was gold and his second ring was both gold and silver. He loved his new wedding ring until April when he lost it. We’re not sure where the second wedding ring went. The current theory is that we left it in a hotel room in Montreal where we visited for a business conference. He didn’t actually tell me he lost the second wedding ring until early May. I wasn’t mad when he lost the first one, but Kevin feared I would be a bit peeved at the loss of the second one. I just laughed. Kevin’s average is now 1 wedding ring every 5 months. He started shopping for a third wedding ring. He was enamored by Native American designs in silver, turquoise, and smokey gray. He asked me if $150 was too much for the ring. I told him he should consider that he’ll probably only have it for 5 months before he needs another one :) He ended up buying a beautiful silver ring with a celtic design in gold running around the center.
The day the Kevin’s third wedding ring arrived, he received a knock on the door. This day was also Kevin’s birthday. A lady stood on our doorstep and asked if he had lost a ring. Kevin, surprised, said that he had lost a ring. The lady said she found a ring across the street and had heard he was searching for one during the winter. She presented his original gold wedding ring. Happy birthday, Kevin!
We are very happy Kevin found his original wedding ring. I don’t expect we’ll have it forever, but at least we already have a backup ring waiting :)
9 comments | 1238 trackbacks
[ Posted by kevin
Wed, 19 Apr 2006 18:03:35 GMT ]
I hate dealing with multiple screen resolutions. Can’t our socialistic welfare government just give everyone a 30” monitor and designers everywhere can rejoice?
I really miss tables. They were evil to use in design, but they worked so well! if you gave each cell a width, but not the overall table, the cells would collapse smaller if the screen was too small.
I’d use this in my current project, except that each cell needs a #pixels width, which then means that the spaces between cells vary, as it’s the cells themselves that are the same width. Which, for a navigation bar, look strange.
I’m continually amazed and inspired by the changes web2.0 has brought us, in terms of scriptaculus, delicious, ruby on rails, open design, and so many other things. We’re able to get so close to the programming power of a local program, but with the decentralize and social aspect of the web at our fingertips.
But just because we’ve been able to layer javascript and html so well, I still think we need a better underlying layout and programming platform. How long can javascript/CSS/HTML last? We outgrow everything, it’s just a question of how long…
Technorati Tags: css, delicious, design, javascript, rails, ruby on rails, web design
Posted in Ambitions, Coding, Society | 4 comments
[ Posted by kevin
Tue, 18 Apr 2006 00:42:38 GMT ]
OK, so Tara bring home a miniDV recorder that has firewire so she needs me to get it off her.
I plug it in. Nothing happens – damn!
I spend 20 minutes googling – nothing! Finally come across a forum saying maybe you need to use something like iMovie. I remember imovie being one of those huge space-wasting programs included with my computer, so I tab over and run it.
Yay! I turn on the camera. It says ‘import’, i click it… and it records the blank 10 seconds on the end of the tape. Aren’t these things supposed to be idiot proof? And I’m not even an idiot. I fudge with the DV camera’s controls to rewind the tape. Import again, finally a clip!
So now, how do I save this sucker? Sure, it will be File > Save, right? Nope, that’s as a wierd iMovie project, I want to export it as a quicktime/whatever movie. File->Export? Nope, no such thing. File > Share? Maybe. Email? Not really, i want control..
Finally, I find it under File > Share > Quicktime.
A simple user process diagram would have shown that this is so far from what people expect they’re going to be cursing the day they got started with this program. How do you spend so much time making an otherwise good product, but have such crazy UI issues? Someone hasn’t been doing enough usability testing…
As fun as it is to rant on Apple, usually their design is pretty good. The truth is, everyone does this. MS windows is even easier to yell about. Why is the damn start menu called the start menu? Why is there a start menu tree that isn’t related to the file structure? 99% of windows users have no idea what to do when something gets removed from their start menu.
Program grouping of items on the start menu – you’re working, suddenly something flashes and all of your windows are gone! So you open a new version of the program, and it’s not there either! Say you actually realize to click the sub-menu to get to your window – you’re in classic “this-takes-me-twice-as-long” mode. Sub-menus suck! And don’t even get me started about how many damned ‘advanced’ panels and sub-panels there are. Phew.
Often I think I can put myself in the user’s shoes and know what they’ll want. Clearly someone has thought this before and been terribly, terribly wrong. Does that mean I’ll start doing the actual user testing I claim is so important? I hope so, it’s so just so much work, and such a conceptually distant activity from actual programming. I mean, you have to, like, talk to people and stuff!
Technorati Tags: apple, design, windows
Posted in Society, Coding | 6 comments | 3748 trackbacks
[ Posted by kevin
Mon, 17 Apr 2006 13:49:53 GMT ]
Google adwords and google analytics use different methods of tracking a ‘sale’ for tracking marketing campaigns! Why!
Adwords has always had a nice way of tracking ROI - you put a small javascript file or image (I always just used the image) with the particular key and sale amount in the response page, and it coordinates it with whether the user got there from an adwords ad click. Nice and simple!
<img height=1 width=1 border=0 src=”http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/1122/?value=amount&label=Purchase&script=0”>
Analytics has you put a hidden form in the result page text, along with a body on-load event. Huge pain!
<body onLoad=”javascript:__utmSetTrans()”>
<form style=”display:none;” name=”utmform”>
<textarea id=”utmtrans”>UTM:T|[order-id]|[affiliation]|
[total]|[tax]| [shipping]|[city]|[state]|[country] UTM:I|[order-id]|[sku/code]|[productname]|[category]|[price]|
[quantity] </textarea>
</form>
Is any of this information used besides the sale amount? Not anywhere I can see.
Keep it simple, please. One pet peeve of mine is when companies get so large their departments don’t talk to each other, google stay agile while you still can!
Technorati Tags: analytics, google, marketing, puppy
Posted in Coding | 1 comment
[ Posted by kevin
Sun, 16 Apr 2006 19:58:04 GMT ]
I’ve been working with ruby on rails for over a year now, and I couldn’t be happier with how well it’s done.
There have been frustrating times—just far fewer than there would have been using any other system (including my own I’d written, which I obviously knew back-to-front).
Interestingly enough, development hasn’t been any faster than it was previously! Crazy! The truth is: I expect any site I create to have so much more now, to be so much more well designed, to write test cases, for crying out loud. These things take time. Quality takes time.
I’m convinced it’s one of those “Murphy’s law” sort of things – any increase in productivity of the tool will be made up for by an increase of ambition in project design.
Anyways, here’s to Rails, the software pattern that makes me want to get up each morning, and change the world one community website at a time.
“Agile Web Development with Rails : A Pragmatic Guide (The Facets of Ruby Series)” (Dave Thomas, David Hansson, Leon Breedt, Mike Clark, Thomas Fuchs, Andrea Schwarz)
Technorati Tags: lighttpd, ruby on rails, social interaction, rails, web design
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Posted in Ambitions, Coding | 7 comments | 1073 trackbacks
[ Posted by kevin
Tue, 07 Mar 2006 15:34:14 GMT ]
There is only one reason: Because text over a certain horizontal width is hard to read. It’s hard to follow the line all the way across, and you get lost between the two endpoints of the page.
Yes, it’s less efficient. Yes, there’s more “blank space” on the page. Web design isn’t about being after efficiency, or words per square centimeter, but rather readability.
Here’s some sites that I think show the beauty of fixed width layout very well:
http://37signals.com/
http://43things.com/
http://www.blogger.com/start ( great use of simplicity, 1, 2, 3 bullets. I dislike the lack of left justification in the search window )
http://digg.com/ (pretty wide one though. note similar top menu to my latest sites)
http://www.loudthinking.com/ ( great line on the left side, with the right-justified links against the left justified body text. I still feel that sidebars should be on the right, since we read from left to right they are less distracting )
I put more mini reviews in there than I thought I would, but it was fun. Perhaps I’ll do it more sometime :)
Design is art. And no-one agrees about art. One thing they do agree about: they hate change.
1 comment
[ Posted by kevin
Tue, 28 Feb 2006 21:30:36 GMT ]
She says funny thing like “I feel like Internet Shopping”
HAH! I’ve never thought online shopping really lent itself to random browsing…
1 comment
[ Posted by Tara
Sun, 19 Feb 2006 03:11:00 GMT ]
I am an avid runner who recently moved from the West Coast to Pittsburgh, PA. I was terribly frightened of winter here, with expectations of snow, ice, and temperatures regularly below 30 degrees. However, I am also determined to continue running outside year-round. Well, winter is half over and I’ve been successful so far. Here I share my methods for keeping motivated and warm for cold winter running.
- Determination. This is abolute #1 on any list involving exercise :)
- Equipment. This is almost as important as #1. On days with temperatures under 20 degrees, I depend on my…
- “Windwall” jacket (Northface) – it keeps out wind and also provides a fairly thick, but light layer for warmth.
- Shirts made of breethable, moisture wicky fabrics – this is so important when layering in cold weather because you will inevitably get quite sweaty in some places but still not be able to take any layers off because other areas are cold.
- Turtle fleece face cover (an extra long tube that I put around my neck and face up to my nose).
- Warm fleece hat.
- Mountain Hardwear gloves (these are very warm, but soft and light).
- Fleece mittens (I need two layers on my hands to keep warm).
- Brooks Dryline thick black tights.
- ...and on snowy/icy days, Yaktrax for traction (they stretch over your shoes).
- Running partners. I joined a team with whom I run about 2 times a week. Kevin runs with me on other days. Having others to run with gives me something to look forward to and a reason to keep in shape (I couldn’t keep up if I didn’t run regularly!).
- No excuses. This is a rule no matter what the weather. I may be extreme, but I run when I’m sick, tired, busy, stressed, depressed, upset. I run when it’s raining, freezing cold, scortchingly hot, windy (I do wait out lightning storms!). I run on vacation (I ran every day on my honeymoon; some of my favorite runs ever were in Europe). I run when I’ve already been active that day (i.e., going on a hike or bike ride doesn’t mean I don’t run). Even on a very bad day, I am almost always glad I sucked it up and went for a run.
1 comment | 153 trackbacks
[ Posted by kevin
Thu, 09 Feb 2006 15:40:25 GMT ]
The web was supposed to be the push button publishing revolution, but most movie reviewers suck. What gives?
Finally, I’ve found a guy that sounds very promising – http://themovieboy.com.
I’m particularly interested in his 2005’s best and worse – just added a bunch of movies to my blockbuster queue and will let you know! :)
Technorati Tags: movies
Posted in Art | no comments
[ Posted by kevin
Thu, 09 Feb 2006 14:37:05 GMT ]
After seeing this movie again yesterday, I agree with my wife’s review last week that luck plays an important role.
He is very lucky. He gets offered the free, high paying job where he has no work to do, and the beautiful scene with the ring flying through the air shows how he gets away with the murder by sheer luck. The point that Woody Allen’s use of the luck theme is trying to make I think is that he doesn’t seem to know what he wants, and luck pushes him through life. I can’t understand why luck is used so many times. He really pounds this theme into it, and I don’t think it fits that well. Luck is emotionally distant itself, which just adds to the coldness of this film. That’s what I find beautiful about it though, as I’ve always been a sucker for tragedies – the coldness is almost more tragic than the murder.
That’s not entirely true – once he meets Nico, he realizes “I want you!” And that passion becomes his object through the veil of his ordinary life. When he is with her, pursuing her, he is happy because he is doing something he wants, rather than something given to him or that he was particularly lucky for.
The tragedy, of course, is that he is driven to kill the one thing he wanted. How did this come about? Things got complicated. This led me to contemplate why anyone would ever have an extra marital affair – this had been lurking in the back of my head since the Kinsey movie when they said it was quite common. Why invest time and emotions in a new relationship instead of working on your existing one?
Why wasn’t he in love with his wife? Things were too easy. I see him as being trapped up in the web of the rich girl that can get what she wants. She wants him, and he wants Nico. I think he might have been barely strong enough to break out of the web, if only Nico and his friend would have broken off their engagement before he got married. The thing is, everyone wants money, and most people are willing to sacrifice all sorts of things to get it. Until not that long ago, marriages were always ones of political power and material wealth. That it’s tragic that he doesn’t marry for love is a throwback to that almost-more-normal style of marriage. One argument goes that if you’re not going to have sex after the first few years anyways, you may at least be comfortable. I can’t even decide if Chris believed in love at all. His line when speaking to his friend “perhaps this is finally the difference between love and lust,” is confusing, because which is which? Can he really be saying he loves his wife? I got more of the hints that their relationship could be okay (going to galleries together can be very romantic, etc) the second time watching, but I think the truth is that he is so emotionally distant the only satisfaction he derives from either relationship is the thrill of the conquest. It’s a very divine question, conquering someone’s free will, and making them your lover.
For someone who doesn’t know what he wants, Chris is very ambitious. A murder like that … is a very difficult thing. He said “it was hard, but when the time came, I could pull the trigger.” which speaks of a certain emotional blankness as well. The use of characters sitting up in the middle of the night (“I know he did it!”) is very well used here. Chris wakes up, and we all realize that he’s going to kill one of his lovers.
The use of Dostoevsky (that he was shown reading earlier in the movie) fits in well here, and as he said “it would be fitting if I were caught and punished” – but he is not. Luck saves him. What is Woody Allen trying to say? I can’t help but wonder what elements in his past went into the making of this movie. Despite Dostoevsky’s roots as one of the forefathers of existentialism, I think Allen is trying to take a more Camu like “Nothing has meaning” approach. Luck doesn’t choose sides based on moral integrity. It is this philosophical integration that made this good movie a great movie for me.
In terms of directing, at over two hours, this movie still moves very fast. His cuts between scenes I found brilliant – one minute we would be seeing him have sex with his lover, the next eating breakfast with his wife while she tests whether he is paying attention by telling him “a whole new planet was discovered yesterday!” It’s easy to wander through life, and I see this movie as a cautionary tale at the same time as a philosophical drama. Are you paying attention to where your life is going?
Technorati Tags: movies, match point
Posted in Art | 3 comments
