paintedlines

Friday, March 31, 2006 8:21:00 AM

Word without Word

A lil bit of 2.0 webby goodness

This is just a short post to test a new little web-based toll/toy.

Zoho Writer.com is a web-based word processor (read: a Microsoft Word killer.) Its free to use, works well in most browsers and is basically all the function of Word, even spell-checking, without the evil of MS.

You can print and input and publish out into many file formats, as well as being able to email copies of your work to your own accounts or any address you want. You don't even need to carry storage , since you can send the files via email and ZoHo offers free storage too!

Now for the the feature and reason I'm even writing this: You can post anything you type at Zoho right into your blog! Most of popular bloging options are supported, in my case Blogger.

So yeah, this is a test post. So if anything looks odd, blame Zoho, but nothing is perfect. And if it turns out fine - wellI think I may have found a new home to post from.

Yeah, its geeky, but useful - so *blah*

**UPDATE**

What's up with the bullets on the right?

**UPDATE 3**

The odd bullet alignment is only in IE. Ok people, its really time to dump Explorer! Get FireFox (for Win or Mac) or Camino (Mac only) - both are free. Its time to see the net as it should be!

Thursday, March 30, 2006 7:29:00 AM

Tetrahydrocannabinols

A first, in what will be an on going theme

What is this country's problem with Tetrahydro - 6,6,9 - trimethyl - 3 - pentyl - 6H -dibenzo[b,d]pyran - 1 - ol? We have no problem with (S)-3-(1- methyl-2- pyrrolidinyl) pyridine, which is actually a form of neurotoxin - its in the nightshade family! Even better we have a whole socially accepted interpersonal economies based on that and Hydroxyethane. .... *cough* The Gun Club *cough* Now I could blow into a rant about how it seems that the only things that we can legally buy to alter body chemistry also seem to be things produced and run by Big Business. Or, when was the last time you heard:
The driver was well over the legal C21H30O2 limit, ramming into and killing a bus full of the elderly and those with special needs.
Never, and god-willing, we never will. But still the point is there. And while these are wonderful topics, at the moment I'm just going to let you ponder them yourself. I am sure I'll cover that sooner or later - while stressing the point that I neither personally support nor do I disapprove of said activities. I'm simply a humble cultural observer. Now, what brings this to mind? Well, its today's photo essay over at Slate.com. Images of all sorts with a common theme: Its part of society no matter what we do, there is no real type, it knows no color, or age. But mostly importantly, shown as part of life, as it should be. Ah, the idealism of photographs. How is it that one can click a snap-shot of real life yet society still tries to deny and change what is captured for them on that negative.
I see it - but its not there, nope, ' cuz i say so ... damn still there. Then it must be evil!
Its rather stunning stupidity. *click* ... now pass the funyuns.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006 8:13:00 AM

News! Must have more news!

Yes, you really can have to much of a good thing

So as it turns out it is harder to find a site that lacks RRS feeds than those that do. Here then is the problem: Who to link to and post? Who's news is the best? Who is worth the screen space? ... Too many damn choices! Then again I'm a hypocrite, because I just added news feeds to my family's Startpage. Barred from touching The New York Times by fatherly dictate, I ended up going with Yahoo for the US National coverage and the BBC for International. I'll be giving them a run for a while, although I think I may be moving closer to dumping Yahoo in favor of Google's verson of the feed. They seem to have a better selection, but we shall see. Testing the quality of the feeds on the Startpage will also let me feel out what I want to run on the main FeedFarm site. In the end the news selction of the Startpage wil probably end up just like the "junior side-bar" - an extention of, as well as linking back to, the main FeedFarm page. But since everything is basically in beta and rigged to work as fast I could get it - things are still not set in stone. Neither is the name, but I like the analogy: FeedFarm: "fresh picked news" ect, ect, ect ... so mock me if you want but I like it so: blah! Tangent thought: I just spent $40-some on a soon-to-be 5 year old, for a boxset of a show from my childhood. Then again introducing a new generation to Fraggle Rock, and as a result getting to see it again myself ... seems rather cheap in the end.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:10:00 AM

Fresh milk from the net

The joy of PHP, RSS, XLM, & other arconyms

Its time to tend the cows and feed the chickens, 'cuz FeedFarm is up 'n run'n! Well the beta version of FeedFarm Jr. atleast. As promised I have indeed been toiling on the site and now some of the fruit of that work is finally visible. You can check out the beta (its live now) over on the main page at lot C. Ok so I know, self-updating news aggregator, big whoop, but the geek and news junkie in me are freak'n thrilled. So let me enjoy this moment: ... ah ... Anyway, thats all for the moment but I'm still chugg'n along with much more in the pipeline. Just remember, there's always toast, but you are on your own if ya want peanut butter! ...somewhere there is a beast, possibly a blue one, grumbling.
Monday, March 27, 2006 8:18:00 AM

Weekend? What weekend?

In the game of life I get the Draw-Fours

So was I productive this weekend? Eh, thats up for debate. Let's go to the list shall we: Weekend TO-DO-LIST:
  1. Buy the 1st season Of Fraggle Rock
  2. Up my monthy cell phone TXTing plan before Tim costs me a small fortune
  3. Work on getting my site up .... I can hear you snickering damn it!
  4. Maybe hit the "Gun Club" - dunno
  5. Sigh, catch up with all the emails I have to respond to
  6. Try not to think about why no one "likes" me
  7. Drink at the "Gun Club" if I can't pull off #6 - lol
So, I got some things done, others not, and even had some time for a lil self-pity. Oooo, what fun! On the site front, I actually got a tiny bit work done. Ironically its nothing that the visitor can see, yet. But I got more of the gooey PHP guts in place. Namely code that wil let me serve up RSS/XML and ATOM feeds as content in the site. My inner news junky is doing cart-wheels. Now I can pull in the latest from Digg, Slate, BoingBoing, and any other sites that offer the raw XML. (If you are clueless GOOGLE: RSS or any of those site names - thats why God gave us Google damn it!) You really can't beat free, self-updating content, plus its flushing out the site. So when it launches there will be no empty or dead pages. I repeat: EVERYTHING will be LAUNCH READY ... 'cuz I'm nuts with lofty goals. And to end off topic... I bought yet another useless thing for my cell. This time its: UNO. Yeah I know, but im a sucker for UNO, and have been jones'n for it since I played Tim's copy. So I'm i sheep, sometimes its just easier to follow. I Baaah with pride damn it!
Friday, March 24, 2006 8:12:00 AM

Lazy S.O.B.

I'm the first to admit - the willpower be lax

So, another post, after how long? No, this site isnt dead, far from it. It really isn't even alive yet. Hence the lack of updates. In the meantime the family site is finally up and basically running. The only thing lagging is the Photo Album. On this point, I blame the code and my server. But everything else seems to work, and hell, thats all that really matters. As for lot C, I'm going to try my damnedest to get the site up this weekend. And the blog will move to its new home over there. There is plenty of content to flush it out, the shell to contain it all just needs a lil tweak'n. I really dont have anything else to report, and this will be a rantless post. So, it will be a lil short. None the less, as soon as lot C is up - watch the hell out. Friends, family, tech, society, and things that just piss me off. Nothing gets spared! * maniacal laughter * Weekend TO-DO-LIST:
  1. Buy the 1st season Of Fraggle Rock
  2. Up my monthy cell phone TXTing plan before Tim costs me a small fortune
  3. Work on getting my site up .... I can hear you snickering damn it!
  4. Maybe hit the "Gun Club" - dunno
  5. Sigh, catch up with all the emails I have to respond to
  6. Try not to think about why no one "likes" me
  7. Drink at the "Gun Club" if I can't pull off #6 - lol
Monday, March 06, 2006 8:18:00 AM

Open for business

Beta test'n, but things work - just like most of Google!

I spent the weekend knee-deep in code. Writing, testing, scrapping, re-writing, and tweaking the core framework of bocsy.net It looks so damn simple and clean, but the backend is far from it! No, the backend from an organizational stand-point is pretty clean. Content and code (frame and style) are structured in Xhtml and CSS. The pages and images are in there own directories. Its the code and the work that went into making it look clean that was the less than simple part. Not that it matters for most users, but I have become driven to make sure the sites I build "break-down" well. IE: How they look to older browsers and screen readers. When this is the case, simple is no longer easy. And thats why it took the entire weekend, minus time taken to txt msg a friend at a wedding ... yeah, dont ask, I'm not sure why either! None-the-less, bocsy.net is up and running. The pages up at the moment include: The Startpage - with some tweaking of the original site. I plan on re-code soon. The page is based on year-old work and I have learned much in that time, so the guts could use a fresh'n up. Hopfully that will void the need for the display tweaks. But the over all look will not change much, if at all. The (Brand-New) Contact and Email Directory. This page has been my own personal holy grail for years! Finally you will have the ability to email from inside the site - on the page. Using forms and PHP, an outside mail app is no longer needed! For the "ol skool" there are mailto: links (encoded to prevent spam bots) as well as an explaination (ie: geek sarcasm) of email address structure, for those you prefer to type the email in the mail program/site of thier choice. While its still a work in progress, at least its functional ... feel free to tell me if it breaks! Send to the webmaster in the email form!
Friday, March 03, 2006 8:50:00 AM

Digital pecking order

blood is thicker than ... even online

Why is it, that when penned-up in the mind, our ideas seem endless, deep, and utterly fool-proof? Yet, when we dare to translate the thoughts to physical form, or code for the digital screen, there always seems to be something missing. The thought falls just a little flat. It is this concept that has pushed work on bocsy.net to the front of the line. The family site has fuction to wrap the form around. Its core set of sites - the bones - have been online, in some form or another, for nearly a decade now. Over that time, although under different variations of the Bocsy Online name, have also developed a personaility. I know what they have to be, what they have to do, what they are, and I can work with that. Some fresh code, new graphics, and a tweaked color theme and logo - bang - a new Bocsy Online can be up in a weekend. lotC.info, on the other hand is a different animal. Its new, formless and lacks a "self." Its fuction is dependant on me, I define it. Here in lies the problem: I tend to design around fuction and purpose. Lacking that I dont know where to begin. I have done over ten mock-ups, with endless variations springing from them, yet there still is something missing. What that is? I have no idea, I just know when it lacks. So what am I aiming for: Structured Freedom, a site with sections that look and feel unique but still work as a whole, that feel as if they all contribute to the core of the site. I know lofty goals for a site that lacks content, well - not counting this blog and Loading-Zone. What can i say - I'm a digital dreamer - if only I could paint whats in my head! So for now im focusing on getting bocsy.net running. Maybe a little time with the familar will clear things up and I can take another crack at the lot. Failing all that, I can simply cop to the fact that family comes first, ergo, the family site aswell. But fear not, the lot is rather empty at the moment, but come hell or high water, I'll get that damn site up if it kills me. ... 'cause if I don't I'll have a beast breathing down my neck!
Wednesday, March 01, 2006 8:22:00 AM

Late to the party

An early adopter finally goes "dot"

Yes, its true, after years of net dwelling - in hovels cobbled togther at Geocities, Tripod, mooching off of other people's domains, and most reccently an extended stay on Adelphia's servers - I have finally bought a dot! In fact I have two. lotC.info will be the new home of this site. One of the major reasons I have been lax in really pushing the doors open on lotC has been due to the limitations of my current and soon to be past host. So now I'm free and things will be getting interesting. Loading-Zone, my index of net diversion, will be setting up shop here as well with the possibility of adding Google Adsence. And finally, moving in along side will be the site for backlotC Productions - the little in-house vantity lable that "runs" all the sites I work on. Its only right that the backlot be hosted with its namesake. lotC.info with be my personal playground, which is what I had in mind all along. Bocsy.net will be the destination for family business. The main directory, email and contact information, and the Startpage will all be moving to this domain. But it will not be limited to just that. While possibly not as ambitious as lotC.info, as a family site, Bocsy.net will always have something timely, from news to the latest pictures. At the very least, a new look for major holidays! I had a Hotmail account as far back as 1994 but it took until 2006 to really claim a piece of the net as my own. I guess everything happens in due time, but good lord - 12 years? In upcoming posts: Domain names, acronyms, and cybersquatting & Why ".info" ? In the meantime head on over to the BlueBEAST - a net affiliate and friend.