theMediaman.com

Playing with the random entry link, I found this post I made a while ago. I’ve noticed that my last several posts have numbered between two and three billion words each (or so it feels if you’re reading them), and postitioned once every week or two. So I’m going to try to return to making more innane comments on stuff I see around me… more frequently and under 100 words or so.

Damn. I think I’m already closing in on 100… well, here’s my comment then:

Edward Norton is a good actor, but thoroughly unconvincing as a “smart guy“.

I’ve made a couple of modifications to the web site. First, I replaced the header graphic with something that actually is interesting.  I’m fully aware that my logo is really only interesting to me and my imaginary friends, but I didn’t want to stick one static graphic in there.

Instead I have a random image, haphazardly touched up to keep in the visual style of the page. The only problem is, the script that I use accesses the directory where I store my images and gets a file-listing every time the page loads.  Low administration is great (just add a new header graphic and it automatically is put into the queue). However, long load times for every page on my site is not good. I’m going to have to modify the script in order to pull from an updated text file or something.

The other big update comes from the horrifying realization that my pre-2007 entries (run by Blogger) are no longer catalogued in Google, Live Search, Yahoo!, or much of any other search engine!  I used to have the number 4 spot on Google for the most common misspelling of “Buddism”, now none of those pages show up even when directly addressed.

I asked my resident SEO expert (Simone) if I should recode the pages so they look like they’re being regularly updated, but she said that will drag the relevancy of my entire site down.

Instead, I’ve used some WordPress feature that lets you import Blogger. I backed up the current theMediaman.com site, and ran the program.  BOOM. Several hundred posts suddenly part of my WordPress weblog. 

Now I have a new problem… well, it’s more like an old problem I ignored but is now compounded. I haven’t really been using the “tags” feature of WordPress, and opting instead just to focus on “Categories”. Now I have four to five hundred posts that need to be categorized, tagged, and many of them even lack formal post titles. However, all posts are now searchable, which helps when I’m trying to reference one of my earlier postings in a self-congratulatory back-patting upon confirmation of one of my predictions.

Of course, it’s also easier for all of you to find when I’ve been wrong.

Minor changes made to the interface and some behind-the-scenes code on tMm.com. Nothing big has been written since I got home because I almost immediately got a crippling flu (complete with fever and runny nose) that took me out of commission for any time I wasn’t at work.

The only other coder had personal reasons he had to be out of the office suddenly, and that left just me for the week.  Sometimes it’s difficult being so damned talented.  I’m convinced we would have upgraded the desktops by now if I wasn’t so capable keeping old P3’s running like new.

I’ll fill you all in on the trip to New York last weekend, and some cool things I learned at FOOA. Just don’t know when yet.

It seems like my procrastination towards updates is compatible with the new site.

I’m priding myself on how all the websites I build now conform to W3 standards. It’s part pride, part irritation that there are no less than eight browser/OS configurations out there that I need to address: IE 6 and 7, Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 and Opera on Windows, and Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 as well as Safari on Mac OS X. 

If I program to widely accepted standards, then I cut my QC testing down to a small fraction of the time it used to take. Unfortunately, I’m not quite there with this new site. Click on the XHTML button at the bottom of the page to see what I mean.  There are two key lines of code that are causing problems, and they’re both coming from the auto-generated code produced by WordPress. What I compose in the end will probably be a workaround rather than a proper solution.

I remember discussing with Hwan (and maybe Reg) about creating a custom markup language regarding real-world actions following a journal entry written about a programming typo, “onlick()“. It didn’t really go anywhere, but I guess that’s the fun thing about Thought Experiments. You don’t really have to think practical enough to do it. In fact, the more ambitious and elaborate you get, the more likely it will be impossible for you to have to prove. 

Maybe that’s why Quantum Physics is so popular.

The site is still undergoing a lot of layout reconstruction, which is why the nav bar at the right will be changing from time-to-time. One of the things I’m trying to get done is enable enriched links for those sites that have RSS feeds.

One change I’m quite happy about is the Categories. A simple check-mark when I’m writing an entry, and you can find all my useless, 30-second PhotoShop Fun pics in a nice, uniform layout.  The old way was far less pretty.

I also call these moments “Boredom Ensues”, for when I perk up my emotional state by doing something off the wall. So from now on, all these graphics will be available by clicking on the category link on the right.

My first entry is my own contribution to the already-overpopulated “LOL Cats” Internet trend. It’s also the first time I’m going to try and embed a graphic in-line to a journal entry… wish me luck!

Riley likes sleeping in boxes, and the smaller the better. She once crawled into a box that held a Sirius satellite radio… only her front half got in, but she made her point.