http://cassidyjames.com/blog Tech-related blog covering topics such as Ubuntu, web development, and more. http://cassidyjames.com/b/85 The "SOPA" and "Protect IP Act" are threatening to destroy the freedom of the Internet by giving goverment the power to blacklist entire sited from the Internet due to the actions of others. The bill is angled in such a way that it makes sites such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, MySpace, YouTube, and thousands more easy targets for complete blacklisting. Wait, what? Yeah. The bill would give the government the power to effectively block all access to any site they want, given it somehow allows al... http://cassidyjames.com/b/85 http://cassidyjames.com/b/84 I'm sitting in Barnes & Noble Cafe, working on my computer, and I've begun to notice something; people ask for their coffee in varied and interesting ways. "I need a... venti caramel latte. And gimme a grande mocha." You'd think it was some rude customer demanding these drinks, but no, it was a generally polite woman, probably in her lower to mid thirties. "I want a grande peppermint mocha, and she'll take a tall hazelnut latte. No whip." Again, reading it after the fact seems like it'd be... http://cassidyjames.com/b/84 http://cassidyjames.com/b/83 Haha, okay, so that's what you'd think if you follow elementary and Microsoft. So before anyone accuses elementary of somehow retroactively stealing this from Windows 8 after it comes out, here're some things to keep in mind: Launchpad project registered: December of 2010 (meaning it had been thought up and approved before then). OMG! Ubuntu! article: March 2011, when it was already fully functional and implemented in a full OS. Microsoft shows it off in their OS: September 2011 (using the ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/83 http://cassidyjames.com/b/82 I'm a frequent reader of OMG! Ubuntu!, a popular Ubuntu-centric blog that's goal is to provide Ubuntu news to "regular" users. Today, they posted an article detailing some recent changes in the alpha version of Ubuntu. Looking at each new item, I thought, "Hm, okay, interesting. Some good design here," and so on. Almost all of the changes I was mostly indifferent to, aside from one: the new Software Center icon. This icon looks like nothing in Ubuntu. In fact, it reminds me of a lot of open s... http://cassidyjames.com/b/82 http://cassidyjames.com/b/81 I've been working with elementary and the community for quite some time now, and I've gotten a pretty good feel for the individuals that make up the awesome team. Not only that, but I know the direction of the project as a whole, and I help keep things on track. Heck, that's why I'm part of the team to begin with. I've invested countless hours of my time into helping to craft an incredible open computing platform. So when it receives criticism, I take it personally. Criticism is great; it hel... http://cassidyjames.com/b/81 http://cassidyjames.com/b/80 It's subtle, but I've done a little theme refresh on my site! The general layout, structure, and even color scheme are all the same, but there are some nice updates. First of all, fonts. I recently discovered Josefin Sans, and after looking at all its weights and the fact that it's available on Google Web Fonts, I decided to use it here. It's the new title font as seen at the top of every page and on every green heading. I like how it's classy and light, especially in my "logo." I also switched... http://cassidyjames.com/b/80 http://cassidyjames.com/b/79 I love Google+. There, I said it! But seriously, I've been using it since my invite, and I really like it. It's the product of Google's crazy engineers that combines many of their services into an awesome social and sharing platform. It makes the Internet come together (I know, that sounds cheesy, but it's the truth), and that's why Google's doing it. Reasons I prefer Google+ (and why you should add me there): + Circles rock! I can easily sort people into them and share my posts with any combi... http://cassidyjames.com/b/79 http://cassidyjames.com/b/78 Hey everyone! I (as usual) have been pretty stinkin' busy with life lately. There's just so much to talk about! I'll try to be somewhat brief. Work I'm still working hard at Webspec Design as a web developer. The company has grown a ton lately (especially with the launch and success of DSM Daily), which means more work and more people in the office. Because of this, we started renting out a third connected office, about doubling our square footage. It's nice that we'll all have a bit more brea... http://cassidyjames.com/b/78 http://cassidyjames.com/b/77 Today kicks off the two-day Google I/O event where about five thousand developers gather to learn about Google's latest developments. As usual, Google held an opening keynote to show off some new stuff (last year this was used to demo the then-upcoming Google Music service, for exapmple). However, this year it's clear Google has Apple directly locked-on and has begun to fire shots. Android Market First, there's the existing Android Market web interface that was released earlier this year. Goog... http://cassidyjames.com/b/77 http://cassidyjames.com/b/76 This past month has been busy; I've started working hardcore on web and press stuff with the elementary team, we released an operating system to some great reviews, and I've been involved with the large Easter drama production at my church (stage managing! :D). I've also been busy keeping up with school and work, so I'm overall exhausted. I did want to take a moment and share some thoughts regarding elementary OS and my involvement in the project. I've been following the project for quite ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/76 http://cassidyjames.com/b/75 I recently (earlier today, in fact) wrote up an article that covered what to do with a new Android phone. As promised in that article, I've decided to write up my impressions on my top five favorite Android games. I've included them below, with number one being my favorite. I've taken the time to pull the Market links for you, so simply click on an app name in the heading of its section to hop over to its page on the Android Market website! Disclaimer: I own an HTC EVO 4G and have persona... http://cassidyjames.com/b/75 http://cassidyjames.com/b/74 Tyler (yeah, the guy from Webspec that I've mentioned a few times before) was talking to me earlier today and was excited for his wife to get the new Motorola Droid Pro on Verizon. He asked me what the first things she should do with it were, and I really didn't know what to tell him (though I did point him to a nice lengthy post on Lifehacker). He told me to write a post on my blog, so here goes! Setting Things Up Of course, the first thing you do is set up the phone. This doesn't take long a... http://cassidyjames.com/b/74 http://cassidyjames.com/b/73 Okay, so this is a super short post. But who cares? I updated the search bar at the top of my site (the one in the navbar) to actually function. Go ahead, try it. Yes, I know, I cheated by just passing you off to Google, but I thought about this and I decided that for now, for my purposes, that's actually best. Google catalogs my site and can search it way better than any PHP function I can write, so why reinvent the wheel? Of course, having my own in-site search would look much more profe... http://cassidyjames.com/b/73 http://cassidyjames.com/b/72 I’ve been using the Cr-48 for the last few months and would like to share some thoughts. Last December, right around Christmas time, I was accepted into Google’s Chrome OS Pilot Program and received a developer notebook called the Cr-48, which runs Chrome OS. It’s been my day-to-day computer (something I thought I wouldn’t happen) and I’ve nearly fallen in love with it. What’s so great about the Cr-48? It’s no single feature; it’s the combination ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/72 http://cassidyjames.com/b/71 For the next week or so I'll be testing various Android ROMs that have builds for the HTC EVO 4G. I'm testing for fun, to show people what's out there, and to see what works best (for me). So far I've been downloading, installing, setting up, then nandroiding each ROM. Once I have all the ones I'm looking at nandroided, I'll switch to each one, play with it (maybe use it for a day or so), then record what I like/don't like. After that I'll throw together a video and a blog post detailing t... http://cassidyjames.com/b/71 http://cassidyjames.com/b/70 I've received a Cr-48 from Google to test. My initial thoughts and a short review have been published on Muktware, the open source news site. I encourage you to read the review there as well a my more personal thoughts below. Google announced a couple of weeks ago that they've been working on Google Chrome OS, a custom Linux-based OS that uses Chrome as the only interface. They opened up a pilot program to allow developers and testers an opportunity to get a Cr-48, a test notebook running ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/70 http://cassidyjames.com/b/69 Yesterday I decided I'd help out with the elementary project's web site (see yesterday's post about that). This morning I decided to take it further and implement the navbar on a copy of the elementary project's home page. You can see that effort here (I also tweaked the large button after chatting with DanRabbit!). I was wondering how I could best show off the navbar in (real-life, fully-functioning) action, and it struck me: my blog! That's right, look up at my shiny new navbar! :P All credit... http://cassidyjames.com/b/69 http://cassidyjames.com/b/68 I've recently gotten back into browsing/commenting on DeviantArt and I love it! I'm able to follow some great artists and not only find wallpapers and art to decorate my desktop, but to interact with and learn those who make the art. I've been using a tweaked version of the elementary theme on my desktop for a while, and I've always loved it. I found DanRabbit (the main artist behind elementary) on DeviantArt and enjoyed seeing his latest mockups and ideas. He recently posted an idea for a navb... http://cassidyjames.com/b/68 http://cassidyjames.com/b/67 I'm developing a theme for the EVO (and possibly other Android devices) based on the gorgeous elementary theme seen on Ubuntu and eventually its own derivative OS. I've had my HTC EVO 4G since the week it came out and I love it. However, being the geek I am, I always find it fun to modify and customize my computing devices--phones included. I've also recently played around with modifying and customizing the elementary theme for my own enjoyment (and others' if they choose). I've decided to take... http://cassidyjames.com/b/67 http://cassidyjames.com/b/66 I've been pretty busy at the last few weeks with both work-related and other sites. Clients, new projects, community sites, and a new startup company are all partially to blame! First of all, I've been dealing with a problem client who we just recently ceased working with. I'm thinking about submitting a story or two to Clients from Hell. :) Essentially this client expects the company I work for to be their personal 24-hour help desk, developer, and (excuse my French) chienne. More on this... http://cassidyjames.com/b/66 http://cassidyjames.com/b/65 I've decided to have some fun with my theme (at least for the time being), so I made it bright green! I briefly made it dark gray, but my wonderful girlfriend informed me it was too boring. So here it is. :) I've also simplified the design, killing the borders, transparent (translucent, actually) backgrounds, and doing away with the box shadows. I've kept the same general markup (I actually cleaned it as a bi-product of looking at it to theme it) and plan to roll out some more changes soon. I'd... http://cassidyjames.com/b/65 http://cassidyjames.com/b/64 You've probably heard (since it was covered on many big sites), but Facebook recently got a lot of negative exposure over the issue of third-party apps giving away user data without asking. Most of the biggest games on Facebook are affected and Facebook's scrambling to minimize the negative exposure and to "tighten up" their privacy once again. Luckily I don't have a Facebook profile so I'm not affected. The funny thing is, I recently killed my Facebook profile, partially because I predicted so... http://cassidyjames.com/b/64 http://cassidyjames.com/b/62 Long time readers may have noticed a few things changing around here, so I thought I'd compile a list of what's changed, what will be changing, what won't change, and what I'd like feedback on. What's Changed Due to the popularity of my last article (Mac OS X Lion's Features Ripped from Ubuntu), I've been approached by a representative from Muktware—the free software and open source news site—and offered a position as a contributing author. Now, this is more like a "if your post is... http://cassidyjames.com/b/62 http://cassidyjames.com/b/61 Update: I've been approached by Muktware to have me publish on their site. I think this is better for everyone since it gets my work out there and allows more people to read it. You can follow the article and discussion here.Today Apple held its "Back to the Mac" keynote in which Steve Jobs and crew introduced their new iLife suite and their upcoming release of Mac OS X Lion. During the keynote (yes, I followed along out of curiosity) they highlighted many "brand new innovations" for OS X Lion... http://cassidyjames.com/b/61 http://cassidyjames.com/b/60 Ubuntu, a Linux-based computer operating system, has been gaining popularity very fast. In fact, it's estimated that it is the most used and fastest growing open source operating system. One hurdle for Ubuntu (and any other open source operating system) is new users; people who are not as technologically inclined as the typical Ubuntu user find the interface different from what they're used to and therefore "scary." Typical users are also afraid to install an operating system themselves, let alo... http://cassidyjames.com/b/60 http://cassidyjames.com/b/59 Sometimes I get bored. When I get bored, I typically browse the Internet mindlessly. Occasionally, however, I do something productive. Last night was one of those occasions. I've created a simple (and probably quite rough in its current incarnation) Chrome-esque notification bar function using jQuery and JavaScript. All you do is include the JavaScript and CSS, drop a bit of HTML on top of your page, then call the function with a message and URL to load if the user clicks "Continue." My i... http://cassidyjames.com/b/59 http://cassidyjames.com/b/58 Today I finally deleted my account on Facebook. I've been weening myself of Facebook since the end of last school year, but today I actually completely deleted my account. I was introduced to Facebook by my older brother when it was first opened up to non-university students. I liked how it was simple. You could write on walls, send private messages, upload photos, and say "Cassidy James is writing a blog post" (yes, you had to use the word "is"). That was about it, and it was nice. The... http://cassidyjames.com/b/58 http://cassidyjames.com/b/57 A new addition to my blog that is pretty neat is how I'm creating my URLs. I recently decided to dive into the art of URL rewriting! I thought it was really difficult and would take all sorts of voodoo to get it to do what I wanted, but within a couple of tries I was able to make some pretty advanced URL rewrites. First of all, if you visit my site from identi.ca (or Twitter), you'll notice my URLs have changed from something like http://cassidyjames.com/blog/?post=57 to http://cassidyjames.com... http://cassidyjames.com/b/57 http://cassidyjames.com/b/56 It's often touted as a major feature of newer versions of Android, but I never would have guessed that I have a use for synchronizing my EVO with an Exchange server. Today I stand corrected. My local community college provides each student a webmail account. It uses Outlook Web Access, which, after using for a few days, I found to be a piece of garbage and total waste of time. I set out to figure out how to connect to the Exchange server that runs the mail back-end. After watching a YouTube vid... http://cassidyjames.com/b/56 http://cassidyjames.com/b/55 I've decided it's finally time to develop a new theme for my site. I thought I'd take some cues from the Ubuntu web guidelines, but I think I've managed to still make it my own. Most notably, I've decided to use the new Ubuntu font throughout my site. Even if you don't have the Ubuntu font installed, it should show up across my site. I've also chosen a slightly different color scheme compared to the previous (current) one; the green has been darkened, the background has been changed to a more ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/55 http://cassidyjames.com/b/54 As a forewarning, this post is half test post for a new identi.ca integration feature and half real post. I've wanted to begin developing my own little blogging platform for some time now, but never got around to doing it. Well, after a lot of hacking around on my ancient code (seriously, this site was the first code I'd ever written in PHP), I feel like I can actually work toward making a simple and slick blogging platform. I've decided (for now, at least) to call it cJblog (or cJb for sh... http://cassidyjames.com/b/54 http://cassidyjames.com/b/52 No, I'm not coying Engadget with this move (though they did kind of convince me to finally do it), but as of right now, all comments on the site have been switched over to Disqus. I think that works out better in the long run because it lets people post easier and faster than possible with my hackish commenting system. It's not defeat! I still want to crank my hand-coded blogging system out and add my own features, it just might use Disqus by design since it's such a sweet (and easy) comme... http://cassidyjames.com/b/52 http://cassidyjames.com/b/51 Whether I'm introducing a friend to Ubuntu, installing it on one of my own machines, or testing the latest version in a virtual machine, I often find myself with a clean install of Ubuntu. Being the long-time user and customize-freak that I am, I have a certain way I like everything set up. I have a mental list of things I do when I install Ubuntu, but I'll usually forget one or two things and wonder a week later why it's not set up that way. Wouldn't it be easier if I just kept a checklis... http://cassidyjames.com/b/51 http://cassidyjames.com/b/50  While there may still be 50 odd days until Ubuntu 10.10 is officially released, the biannual promotion of Ubuntu via community-made countdown banners has once again begun. Community members may post their submissions to the Maverick Countdown Banner page on the Ubuntu Wiki. A few of the best submissions will be chosen to be displayed on the Ubuntu website and made available for use by others to promote Ubuntu 10.10 around the web. This time I've decided to throw something together for my ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/50 http://cassidyjames.com/b/49 I've done a couple small updates to the site! I'm going to begin reworking a lot of the site piece by piece. I've started by including more information on the home page! Since I no longer use social networks for the majority of my communication, I'm making my site a bit more personal and eventually interactive. My home page will be similar to a "profile" page with info about me and my interests (since I can actually control what I share with people on my own site). You can see this ha... http://cassidyjames.com/b/49 http://cassidyjames.com/b/48 Hello! In case you haven't noticed, I'm on vacation. :) My family has a somewhat unique tradition for the kids; each time there is a graduate, said graduate has/gets to plan a family vacation. The graduate is given a set amount of money and can go anywhere for however long so long as they stay within their given budget and all members of the family (who are currently residing at the house) are able to go. Well, I graduated this year, so it was my turn. It took me what seemed like eons to decide ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/48 http://cassidyjames.com/b/47 Hello, everyone! For those of you who know me through school, this first part will be redundant (and redundant), so feel free to skip down to the next paragraph. For everyone else, read on! I recently graduated high school! It's been four years of my life spent learning (a bit, at least), having fun, and getting to know my friends and myself. Now I'm moving on in life, though I hope to retain many of my current friends. I graduated with some credits for the local community college... http://cassidyjames.com/b/47 http://cassidyjames.com/b/46 Hey everyone! Just thought I'd let you know I've got a new site I've been working on online! Head over to http://blaedesign.com to check out the site I'm making for my dad's business (and for my web design class). It's pretty broken in Internet Explorer at this point, so if you use IE, beware. :) I guess I could also take this time to ask what you think about the little design tweaks I've done to this site and what I should do to make it even better. So, what you think about the litt... http://cassidyjames.com/b/46 http://cassidyjames.com/b/45 Last night was the third-to-last episode of Fox's 24. Ever! It was really intense... but I'll let someone else talk to you about that. Why I'm posting today is because I'd like to get your input; I need a new show to get hooked on, one that will hopefully be around for a while, one that I will enjoy watching. I'm not a big fan of "reality" shows, but otherwise I'm pretty open to suggestions. I also wanted to test out my new commenting system, so let me know how that goes. :)... http://cassidyjames.com/b/45 http://cassidyjames.com/b/44 Today has been a looooooong, generally boring day, though there have been a couple of highlights: Getting MaggieMoo's ice cream with Katie. :) Confirming that Ubuntu is about 10x faster than Windows 7 on my fancy new work computer. Receiving my new 16 GB microSD card for my Hero (Android phone)! Putting that 16 GB card to good use by copying a bunch of music onto it. I also installed a new release of Android on my phone; I'll be testing it out to see if I&... http://cassidyjames.com/b/44 http://cassidyjames.com/b/43 In related news, I've begun concept and mockup work on a web-based game! I'm not sure how to define it other than it's an online multiplayer(ish) strategy game... similar in play to Mafia Wars, I'm told. It's a military-command game set in some sort of a sci-fi universe (based loosely on Star Wars, but my own world). There will likely be three initial military corporation (perhaps more in the future) with distinct quirks. Players will have statistics such as health, stamina, money, and ammunitio... http://cassidyjames.com/b/43 http://cassidyjames.com/b/42 No, not together. Today, Tyler at Webspec bought an iPad. He brought it in and let everyone play around with it. While it's a nice device, I just don't see its purpose in my everyday life at this point in time. Yes it's pretty, yes it has Apple's lovely polish all over it (both hardware and software), but I just don't need a glass tablet to carry around. Perhaps I'll see some nice uses for slate-computing in the future and consider getting one (though I'd lean toward an Android- or ot... http://cassidyjames.com/b/42 http://cassidyjames.com/b/41 Ignore me.... http://cassidyjames.com/b/41 http://cassidyjames.com/b/40 I've decided to make some changes to the site based on for what I think I'll be using the site in the near future. Basically I'll be scrapping the currently-broken gallery until I have some original (or user-submitted) content to actually put on display. I'm also going to add a Resources section (or something similarly named) for posts that are less blog-like and more resource-like (such as posts that are made to help you out and aren't just my usual rants/thoughts). I will probably write a blo... http://cassidyjames.com/b/40 http://cassidyjames.com/b/39 I have succeeded in neglecting this site for another couple of weeks... but I've actually accomplished some pretty sweet things! First of all, I've programmed a texting service through this site. I have the simple one hosted under my Tools section and I'm in the process in developing a database-focused mass-text service. I may put a sample up on the site sometime, or I may just demonstrate it by having people sign up for text-alerts when I update my blog. The main idea behind this texting-servi... http://cassidyjames.com/b/39 http://cassidyjames.com/b/38 In the near future, I'll be redesigning and slightly programming the site! I have a few design issues I've wanted to address and just haven't gotten around to them. I've been inspired by working on two side-projects (programming the new StoneChurchEagan.com and helping Mark E. Smart with some programming on RedMarkEdward.com) to give some much-needed attention to my personal site. First I'm going to program a mobile/lite version of my site that pulls the same content but in a small-screen-... http://cassidyjames.com/b/38 http://cassidyjames.com/b/37 Hallo! I realize it has been an extraordinarily long time since I last posted (yet again), but I have good reasons! I've been busy with schoolwork, I've programmed two new sites [HeatherShoning.com and IowaSinus.com] and have been hacking away at the back-end of this site. What have I to show as a result from my work? LEGIT COMMENTING is now possible on my blog! I have also reworked how things display, giving each post its own "page". You can access this page by clicking on the ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/37 http://cassidyjames.com/b/36 I have been super busy since my last blog post! I've been working a lot [check out one of the sites I recently programmed at KristinHoffmanMusic.com] and doing good ol' schoolwork. I actually threw together a site for my World Literature class as well [worldlit.cassidyjames.com], though I should've spent more time on the content. At least it looks halfway decent and my teacher was impressed. As far as this site goes, nothing has really changed recently. I want to keep it as self-progr... http://cassidyjames.com/b/36 http://cassidyjames.com/b/35 I'm incredibly impressed with the beta of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala! It's fast; even the live disc was faster than preinstalled Windows on my dad's laptop. Boot time is greatly improved and blows away Windows yet again, though I'm not sure if it's as fast or smooth as the Mac OS X boot. It's getting there. The default theme is uglier [in my opinion] than previous themes, but is easily changed to a prettier preinstalled theme. The preinstalled wallpapers are also very nice. I'm glad the... http://cassidyjames.com/b/35 http://cassidyjames.com/b/34 My work recently lent me an Apple Mac Mini to play around with for a few months and possibly keep. Me, being the Linux guy I am, promptly installed Linux on the machine to see how well it ran. I chose Ubuntu for lack of other discs laying around. I was pleased with the familiar ease of installation, but what impressed me was that 100% of the hardware worked perfectly on first boot. WiFi, Bluetooth, internal speaker, graphics card, disc drive, everything. But this post isn't about Linux on a... http://cassidyjames.com/b/34 http://cassidyjames.com/b/33 I've recently found myself jumping between web browsers, staying surprisingly agnostic [save for not using the wretched IE on a regular basis]. Perhaps it comes from working for a web design company, or maybe it's because the current batch of modern browsers aren't so different? My primary browser [for the time being], Firefox, has improved greatly with the previous two major updates, 3.0 and 3.5. Firefox 3 brought a revamped interface with system-native looks, improved speed, and a few new fea... http://cassidyjames.com/b/33 http://cassidyjames.com/b/32 I've decided that all blogs should have a pet peeves post and it's time I write mine. I was inspired today by a pet peeve I have while exiting the restroom: When guys [or anyone] use the facilities then proceed to briefly rinse their hands off with water. Guys, if you peed on your hands, wash it off. As in with soap.  If you think you're completely sanitary while peeing, there's no reason to 'pretend' to wash your hands. Another pet peeve I often encounter is stupid driving... http://cassidyjames.com/b/32 http://cassidyjames.com/b/31 Hi everyone, I've finished the theme and am putting it live this morning! How exciting! Check out the screenshots below of the site in Firefox 3.5. Let me know if there are any bugs/glitches/uglies in the theme and I'll be sure to fix them right away. ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/31 http://cassidyjames.com/b/30 I've been working hard the past couple of days to make a brand-new theme for this site! I decided that I'd go the route of making it look sweet in modern, standards-compliant browsers, then make it degrade to the point of it still being legible in older browsers or less-compliant browsers *cough* Internet Explorer *cough*. What's my method for developing this new theme? I start with a syntax-hilighting text-editor (Geany in my case), creating an HTML file and a CSS file. I open up Firefox ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/30 http://cassidyjames.com/b/29 "Hi, I'm a Mac." "And I'm a PC." "So, PC..." You know the ads. Apple's "I'm going to slap Microsoft in the face and get away with it" ads. They're brilliant; the ads are true marketing genius. Apple's marketing crew scored with the entire campaign: supporting valid arguments, entertaining people, making a Mac sound more fun. The problems come with the successful brainwashing that Apple is performing. No, they don't want to take over the world or corrup... http://cassidyjames.com/b/29 http://cassidyjames.com/b/28 Hey everybody, micro.cassidyjames.com is up and running! It's my little experiment... a micro-blog [like Twitter] running on the open source Laconica platform on my server! Sign up, try it out, and let me know what you think.... http://cassidyjames.com/b/28 http://cassidyjames.com/b/27 Today I got up at 8:00 AM, went through the usual morning preparations, then headed off to HyVee to pick up Texas Toast and orange juice for a breakfast with Katie. She had set up a time to meet with a local illustrator and her husband at Mars Cafe to hopefully start receiving art lessons. We made French Toast, eggs, and fruit salad, ate it all, then took off on a fifteen minute drive to Mars Cafe near Drake. When we arrived at Mars Cafe we saw a young couple, the woman sitting at a table ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/27 http://cassidyjames.com/b/25 MarkNmark [Mark E Smart, Mark B Blaede, and I] recently undertook a project to build MarkBlaede.com. We're going after it how it should be done: client [Mark B] provides content/input, designer [Mark E] creates a design, programmer [me] programs it. We haven't exactly gotten through any of those steps yet, but I have started programming the frontend and integrating a third-party backend to the site. Of course it's all sneakily hidden from your peeking eyes [for now], but believe me, it's beautif... http://cassidyjames.com/b/25 http://cassidyjames.com/b/24 Haha! This is sweet. I installed FCKEditor in the admin system for use on the blog posts. Now I can have pretty WYSIWYG blog posting! Yay! I've also added a fancy little 'most recent' feature to the blog: by default the blog will show the 5 most recent posts. If you click the link in the bottom-right (or type'?show=all' after the address in the address bar) the page will spit out all the blog posts. You can also specify a number to show by typing in the address bar. For example, 'http://ca... http://cassidyjames.com/b/24 http://cassidyjames.com/b/22 I feel like if I make myself a public to-do list I'll have some sort of obligation to actually attempt it, so here I go: Make a new/alternative site design Revamp site backend/admin system Create pages for blog Give each blog post it's own URL Make the blog more legible Create a [real] commenting system Develop some more useful tools So there we go, it's out in the open, in no particular order. Drop me a comment on what you think about it, or if you have any ideas t... http://cassidyjames.com/b/22 http://cassidyjames.com/b/21 In case you didn't know, I recently got invited to Google Voice, hence my new phone number [if you know me well enough, I gave it to you, if you think you deserve it, it's on Facebook]. What you didn't know is that today I discovered something incredible. Check out Gizmo5. Its a site, service, and app that lets you make and receive calls over the internet. Oh, sounds like Skype, eh? Of course it does, but it's based on open standards and supports much more than Skype does. Link it up to you... http://cassidyjames.com/b/21 http://cassidyjames.com/b/20 First, I set up the RSS properly so the browser can detect it [Thanks to Tyler from Webspec]! Second, I am thinking about having a little spot on the site for 'advertising' or promoting [not paid advertising, but more like an area for me to promote things I like]. I'm thinking it'll be a separate page or something as to not be annoying/distracting. Here's my first ad to put on it: ... http://cassidyjames.com/b/20 http://cassidyjames.com/b/19 Today I got the RSS set up and operational! The little blue RSS subscribe button will now appear on the far-right of the navbar on the blog page. Click it to subscribe to my blog!... http://cassidyjames.com/b/19 http://cassidyjames.com/b/18 This is a test for the RSS feed reader thing. Hopefully it works out okay.... http://cassidyjames.com/b/18 http://cassidyjames.com/b/17 After an incredible week of camp at Lake Geneva Christian Center in MN, I am home. It was a long, fun, and intense week where I really connected with God an got to hang out and socialize with some cool people; however, I missed home, my family, Katie, and my friends who didn't go. I'll be unpacking, hanging out with family, and ultimately crashing tonight. Have a fun weekend!... http://cassidyjames.com/b/17 http://cassidyjames.com/b/2 It's 4:00 AM and I'm getting ready to head off to Minnesota. I'm tiiiiiired. It's a long drive from Iowa and I've gotten little sleep the last few nights, so wish me luck. I'll most likely be listening to music, sleeping, or playing my brand-new DSi! It's quite fun. I'll post some more info on it at a later date.While I'm gone, be thinking of enhancements I can make to this site. My first project very well may be a total theme/design overhaul, possibly changing from reds to blues. We'll see. Sen... http://cassidyjames.com/b/2 http://cassidyjames.com/b/1 Now I have a fancy little tool to update my blog! No more manually editing any files! Success.Tomorrow morning, at 4:30 AM I'll be leaving for Lake Geneva Youth Camp in Minnesota! I'll be gone for five days total, hopefully having fun and whatnot. =]... http://cassidyjames.com/b/1