SharkBytes

Binary Arts Site Refresh

2008-01-24T08:10:00.001-08:00

Working on my cousin's Nelson Fine Arts website inspired me to finally redo my own Binary Arts site, which I'd created back in 2001 with Front Page and was really dated-looking. Microsoft doesn't even publish Front Page anymore, so this time around I looked for an open-source solution, and ended up choosing Joomla. Although it's a bit better suited to a news-oriented site, the package is flexible enough to do just about anything with the help of some of the many user-contributed and commercial plugins available for it. There are also a very good range of pre-made templates available to easily change the look and feel of the site. The one I chose even allows the user to pick their own color combination. The site is still under construction, but is complete enough that I've taken it live.

Can You Read This?

2008-01-03T16:48:00.000-08:00

You can if you try, and it's quite interesting. From Joomla!:

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are in, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteres are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

An Artistic Endeavor

2007-12-26T15:33:00.001-08:00

For the last few weeks, I've been hard at work on a new website for my cousin, fine artist Michael R. Nelson. Although I've done a few websites in the past, this one involved e-commerce functionality, which meant learning about Zen Cart and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The site is called Nelson Fine Arts.

I'm pretty happy with the results, and the process has made me think about taking on a complete redo of my old Binary Arts website.

Where Did All My Space Go?

2007-11-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

It seems like no matter how big your hard drive is, it gets filled up in no time. Today, when I found my 300GB drive's free space had dropped to less than 11GB, I turned to a utility called SpaceMonger, which is available in both a paid ($19.95) 2.xx version and an older, but still perfectly functional free 1.4.0 version. The program analyzes your drive and creates a map of how the space is being used. It's easy to spot the worst offenders, and you may find some unexpected surprises, like misplaced or unknown folders. For example, I discovered that my backup program, SmartSync Pro, kept a folder full of recently deleted files that was taking up 13GB of space. A quick change to the options settings for that program cleared up a lot of room, and after archiving off some old programs and work files, I should be able to free up 50-60GB.

For regular cleanups of temp files and so on, I likeWebroot's Window Washer ($29.95, but currently on sale at $19.95).

Security is Key

2007-11-17T09:13:00.000-08:00

If you have PayPal, I recommend getting one of their security keys to make it tougher for someone else to access your account. The key fob-sized device generates a unique 6-digit code every 30 seconds which needs to be entered along with your user name and password in order to login to PayPal. The device can optionally be used for your eBay account as well. The security key costs $5, which is billable to your PayPal account.

Gaming Goodness

2007-11-15T22:57:00.000-08:00

After spending a couple years playing mostly World of Warcraft, I finally canceled my account (at least until the next expansion comes out) and have been exploring some other fare. One of the first titles I picked up was The Orange Box (PC version), a collection of five games from Valve. The set comes with Half-Life 2 and its first two expansions (Episode 1 & Episode 2), Portal and Team Fortress 2. Of these, Portal was the biggest surprise--an unusual combination of first-person puzzle-solving and black humor. The Half-Life 2 is one of my favorite FPS games of all time, and Team Fortress 2 brings a fresh new style to class-based online teamplay.

The next title was more evolutionary than revolutionary, but I still enjoyed Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars quite a bit. The AI seems better than in their earlier games and the third playable faction (which doesn't get unlocked until you think the game is over) was a interesting twist on the franchise.

While I usually prefer the PC for gaming, I have been trying out some Playstation 3 titles and found one that really I really enjoyed playing. I'm not big on platformers, but Rachet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction pulled together an entertaining script with gameplay that doesn't require a 12-year-old's eye-hand coordination to enjoy.

SPAM? What SPAM?

2007-11-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

No one likes wading through a pile of unwanted ads every time they login to their email accounts, so here are two ways I use to deal with it with the least amount of interaction.

I use Gmail for my personal email account, and have no qualms about giving out that address since the spam filtering Google provides is the best I've seen. Out of the 400-500 spam messages sent to this address every month, only 3-4 slip by and have to be dealt with manually. Some people even use Gmail as a filter for their non-Gmail addresses--more info on this here.

If you use Outlook, another approach is a Cloudmark subscription. This is the approach I use for business clients. It costs $39.95 a year, but for three bucks and change a month, it deals with about 90% of your spam automatically. The program resides as a toolbar in Outlook and scans your new inbox messages when you download your mail, then moves or deletes those that have been reported as spam by the service or its subscribers.

Hayate Volume 5 Released

2007-11-12T11:48:00.001-08:00

Hayate the Combat Butler Vol. 5 was released Nov. 13th, 2007. This is one of a number of Japanese manga that some combination of Yuki Yoshioka, Cindy Yamauchi, Yumi Okamoto and I have translated and adapted into English for Viz Media under Cindy's Region Free company.

Hayate is a comedy manga about a teenaged boy whose parents run up a huge gambling debt and end up selling him to the Yakuza for his organs. He's rescued by a spoiled, super-rich girl named Nagi who pays the criminals for his freedom, then puts him to work as her butler in order to pay her back. Nagi is a total anime/manga/game freak (sounds familar) so many of the storylines are based on references to Japanese pop culture and entertainment.

Other books we've done for Viz include Shakugan no Shana, a Rurouni Kenshin novel, Fullmetal Alchemist Anime Profiles and the Train_Man manga series.

The Day the TV Died

2007-11-12T07:54:00.000-08:00

About 15 months from now, on February 17, 2009, broadcast TV as two generations of Americans know it will end. Sort of.

What's happening is that Over-The-Air (OTA) analog television broadcasts--the ones people have received through antennas on their roofs for the past 60 years--will be going digital, and unless you have the proper equipment, you won't be able to receive them anymore. This won't be a problem for people who have cable or satellite TV service, or those who are already able to receive digital OTA channels, but chances are you know someone, like parents or grandparents, who will be affected and doesn't even know this change is coming.

Why is this happening? Because digital signals require far less bandwidth than old-style analog signals do, so the US government wants to auction off a good-sized chunk of the radio spectrum used by conventional television so it can be used for mobile communications and other purposes. What this means is that if you are getting your television from an OTA source, you'll either need a digital-ready TV or a converter box that will translate the digital signals and analog ones your old TV will recognize. The government is supposed to subsidize these converter boxes, which may otherwise cost around $40 each, but you'll need to apply for the voucher when they become available for a short time in 2008. There probably won't be enough vouchers to meet demand, however, so if you need one, act as soon as they are announced. If you have a small portable TV--like the kind you might use in the stands at a football game--you might want to eBay it off while it still has some value, because it probably won't be practical to use a converter box with it.

The Joy of Podcasts

2007-11-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

Over the course of the past year, I've really come to enjoy podcasts. If you're not familiar with them, they are basically pre-recorded audio "broadcasts" posted on the Internet that you download and play on your iPod or other digital audio player. Think of them as customizable talk radio you can take with you wherever you go. I listen to them while doing chores around the house, driving and shopping. Not only does it take my mind off of tedious tasks, but depending on what I'm listening to, it can be a painless way to keep up on current events or learn about new subjects.

If you have an iPod, the most convenient way to get your podcasts is through the iTunes store, where they are offered free. You can find podcasts about almost any subject from Art to Zoology, although you may have to listen to a few different offerings before you find one you like. Here's some of the (mostly tech-related) podcasts I listen to on a regular basis:

Buzz Out Loud - A short, lively daily recap of recent tech news.
Cranky Geeks - Tech codger John C. Dvorak leads a weekly panel that discusses tech news.
PC Gamer Podcast - Weekly news and reviews from the staff of PC gamer magazine.
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe - A weekly skeptical look at pseudoscience and superstition trying to masquerade as reality.
Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott - Not really weekly, but an interesting look at what's going on in the Microsoft world.
This Week in Tech - Yes, another weekly tech news show. I can't seem to get enough of them.

Favorite Free Windows Utilities

2007-11-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of free software. While there is a lot of junk out there, good freeware programs can rival commercial software. Here are some of the freebie Windows programs I use all the time:

SYSTEM/GENERAL
Pure Text - This little utility sits in your system tray and converts whatever text is in your clipboard to plaintext on command. This is very useful for stripping out existing formatting when pasting text into a document or spreadsheet.
Belarc Advisor - Analyzes your system and creates a webpage-style profile of installed software and hardware, including version numbers.
Wallpaper Master - This background wallpaper utility is highly customizable, and even allows you to display to the different wallpapers if you have multiple monitors.

SECURITY
AVG Free - Solid antivirus program with daily updates.
AD Aware - Scans your system for adware and spyware.

GRAPHICS
The Font Thing - Great utility for browsing fonts that are installed on your system or on font library disks.
Irfanview - Fast image viewer that handles almost any file format. Does slideshows too.

Shorter URLs

2007-11-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

Old habits die hard, and one thing I've noticed that a lot of people still type "http://www." or at least "www." at the beginning of a website URL in their web browser. At one time, it was necessary to include this information, but no longer. I can't speak for all web browsers, but this is unnecessary in both Internet Explorer and my preferred browser, Firefox.

On a semi-related note, the web site TinyURL takes those humongous links that go on forever and turns them into nice, short URLs. For example, the link to my 3D book on Amazon is the very ungainly "http://www.amazon.com/Graphics-Animation-CD-ROM-Mark-Giambruno/dp/0735712433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195286964&sr=8-1"
but when I put that through TinyURL, it comes out http://tinyurl.com/3bytlo. Nice!

Why a Blog?

2007-11-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

During the course of my day, I sometimes come across interesting sites, utilities, and information that other people may find useful. While I sometimes e-mail friends or family with these discoveries, I don't want to be a spammer--therefore, a permanent repository in the form of a blog (weB LOG) seems like a good alternative. I'm using Blogger because it's accessible through my Gmail account and I can post from any computer.

For the most part, I want to try to keep these posts fairly short and to the point. I'm not planning to blog about what I had for breakfast, cap on celebrities or rant about the injustices of the world here. I want to make these posts useful, and this site a resource than a "breaking news" type of blog.

Feel free to leave comments on any of my posts with your own thoughts and suggestions. Thanks for visiting!