JAMESBLOG!

September 21st, 2006 - Added a graphic section

I've always had my hand in graphics.  I'm finally getting my feet wet and actually pursing this by adding a graphic section to my site.  Right now I only have some WIP quality spheres.

July 6th, 2006 - Major Website Update

If you knew what my site use to look like, you should be amazed at what it has turned into.  I've got color!  And some content!  My site takes over 90 MB now.  Wow!  I've been working on this since May 25th, so I'm really happy to get it live finally!

Here is a summary of changes.

I've finally added my AT-STP animation and project files.  I'm very happy with this model.  Well, I did most of the work on this over a year ago, early 2005.  But I basically put it off because life got busy, and the improvements I wanted to add were, well, difficult.  So I've finally wrapped up what I already have and made it presentable.  I hope you enjoy it.

I've updated the StarCraft Marine animation and made the project files available (they were previously unavailable).

I've updated L3P Launcher version .8.

I've added a webcam archive with some timelapse movies (which aren't online yet except for the snowmelt movie, which is over 20 MB and very "geeky"....).

I've added more photos, namely from my SIGGRAPH trip last year.

I think that covers most of the new content.  But this isn't the end of the new content.  I've got a bunch of stuff almost ready to publish.  I actually wanted to publish it all at once, but I was getting so sick of my old site and I'm not sure how much time the new stuff will take.  So I polished up the stuff that was pretty much already done and went live.

Also, I've removed some old content, LDGLite Launcher (LDGLite no longer needs it, and it was OLD, and AppleScript Studio, and blech), and some old QTVR stuff (the first stuff I made, very yucky).

Please be patient because I know there are a few bugs.  Some pages aren't really XHTML 1.0, for example, I accidentally added a bunch of <br> tags without closing them to the webcam archive.  The webcam timelapse movies aren't up yet.  And who knows what else might be broke.  I'll just have to find them over time.

If you are curious about my new site, I'm using Magnolia.  Kinda.

First off, we started using it at work, and I like it so much, I decided to move my personal site to it as well.  I learned XSLT writing a media database.  JSP is so much like XSLT I just picked it right up and love it.

Second, Magnolia uses Tomcat instead of Apache, or in combination with Apache if you use mod_jk.  I'm using Tomcat and Apache with mod_jk at work, but I don't want to set it up on my brother's server because he is running Linux, and well, I'm a Mac head.  Don't get me wrong, Linux is great.  It is just that 'make' isn't my favorite method tool for installing software.

So, what I'm doing is running Tomcat with Apache on my Mac, and using wget to mirror the site as static html to my brothers server.  So that is what I mean by "I'm using Magnolia, kinda".  I'm still working on the script that mirrors my site to my brother's server (I do some post-processing to tweak a few things), but I hope to have that done soon so that updates are a piece of cake.

My good buddy Chems is also helping me do some real design work too by getting me to think like a designer.  It is kinda a rocky process though.  I am, after all, the same person who makes animations by staring at POV-Ray source code...

Hope you enjoy the new site!

July 5th, 2006 - Public Social Security Number Database

So I typed up my thoughts about Social Security Numbers up on Orson Scott Card's forum because I wanted some comments.  Instead of putting the content up twice, I'll just link to the forum.

Public Social Security Number Database

If you want to comment, I suppose you'll have to register for the forum.  That is, until I figure out how to support comments on my website.

Feb 4th, 2006 - Website Updated

I've begun to join the web revolution and I'm moving to CSS for site presentation. Obviously, I hardly do any presentation right now, seeing as how everything is white or black with a few images and a margin. But I should be able to spice things up easier than I could before by switching to CSS. The updated pages are XHTML strict! (cool). I should spell check though.

Oct 4th, 2005 - Fixing the Dishwasher

I fixed my dishwasher tonight (KitchenAid model KUDI24SEAL5). I bought a multimeter. After googling a bit, I 1st: tested the circuit breaker. It was good. Tested to see if power was getting to the washer (opened the bottom and tested the AC line by poking the thingies into the twisted wires). That was good. Turned off the circuit breaker. I took the dishwasher front cover off. Tested the door switch continuity. It was good. Tested the next part, which turned out to be an electronic thermal fuse. It was blown.

I called Sears to get a replacement. It would be a week before they could send one. I called a small repair shop. The guy said tomorrow at the earliest, unless... If I got this far on my own, I could probably just go to Radio Shack and buy any ol' thermal fuse and replace my blown one with it. But get a higher rating temperature because the KitchenAids are rated low. Or something like that.

So I drove to Radio Shack, bought a 140C fuse (old one was 110C) and a soldering iron. I still had a few tools from high school electronics, such as self closing tweezers, dikes, and pliers. I didn't realize it until I read the back of the thermal fuse instructions that the soldering iron would likely blow the thermal fuse. But if I used the tweezers as a heat sink, chances of blowing it were lower.

I was never really good with a soldering iron. I always cooked things too much. So I tried to be quick, and I had some water to cool the fuse (not the solder though--I know that is bad for the bonds). So anyway, I did it without blowing the fuse. My dishwasher works again, and now I have a multimeter and a soldering iron. The fuse cost $2. A website listed it for $12 (including the plastic holder--I used my old one).

Oct 1st, 2005 - Liberty Park Skating

Went to an Inline Skate Barbecue at Liberty Park. Liberty park is a huge park in downtown Salt Lake. The diameter is 1.5 miles. Anyway, I got there and found out the park guy had told us to pack up and leave because "Earth Jam" had reserved the park. It doesn't matter that we tried to reserve the particular pavilion months ago and were told that starting Oct. 1st, there are no reservations, it is first come first serve.

So Earth Jam was there first. That is, they were there yesterday and decided they wanted it another day. We didn't see any Earth Jam people near us. They were about .5 miles away in another part of the park. So we stayed. One of us got in a big fight with the park guy and told him off in not very kind words. He said he'd call the cops. So he did.

By the time the cop showed up, a bunch of return missionaries had showed up as well. They wanted to use the pavilion as well for their mission reunion (it is conference weekend). [LDS General Conference is when missionaries decide to have a reunion with other missionaries where they served] So the cop asks if anyone called the cops. The park guy was long gone, so we said no. So he left. Awhile later the park guy drives around the pavilion in his golf cart and then drove off. That was it. We enjoyed our barbecue.