Marty December 6th, 2004
‘Update 12/6
I have 95% of the posts up, but I have some formatting to do. Also, I want to say thanks for the theme I picked off of Alex King’s site: Ian Main’s Human Condition. I’m going to modify it, but I figured I should offer up the praise in the mean time. If you want to download it, check it out here
Marty November 30th, 2004
It seems that most of my favorite blogs are done by people based on Macs. I would have LOVED to switch when I got a new computer, but I couldn’t afford the software changes even if I wanted to spend 2-3x as much for the computer itself. Someday, but I’m far away from that step. But in the meantime, I get to hear about all of these sweet programs for the Mac by the likes of Jon Hicks, but have a hard time figuring out a great one for the PC.
I use Dreamweaver MX for most of my core design, although I use StyleMaster 3.5 for a lot of the basic CSS (the wizards are good time-savers, even if I have go in and fix them). A lot of the designers I know swear by Homesite 5, although I can’t seem to find it anymore - Macromedia seems to have stopped production of it. Others swear by TopStyle, although I made the choice earlier to opt for StyleMaster 3.5. However, after beta testing StyleMaster 4.0, I’m thinking that I might need alternatives unless they manage to work out all of the bugs before release.
Supposedly Dreamweaver MX 2004 has Homesite +, which is an upgraded version of Homesite 5.5, but I think having a bare-bones editor (without the processor lag of DW) would be nice option. But are there other options out there that I don’t know of?
Marty November 10th, 2004
A few days ago, I heard one of those sounds that you know can’t be good coming from my computer. At first, I wasn’t sure whether it was the fan or the hard drive, but later decided that it was the fan. Still, I quick tap to the back of the cabinet seemed to fix it. It happened again last night, so I cleaned out the dust and everything seemed normal.
**CRASH!** Suddenly, my computer locks up and I hear the gutteral death throes of my hard drive. NOOOOOO!!!! I turn the computer off, let it cool down and try it again. After a quick disk scan, the computer booted up and was working properly, but I knew the prognosis - I would need an immediate disc replacement. If I could just get it to last long enough to buy a new Hard Drive so that I could move my data over, everything would be fine.This morning, I foolishly decided to check on the computer - and now it won’t boot. It gets to the WinXP loading screen (yes, I’m a Windows user - flame away), and then shuts down completely. Not the power
- because I still have power to the keyboard and monitor - but just to the PC. Now I’m scared. If the hard drive has fried, I’m going to need expert help to get my data back, and despite the fact that I have been backing it up fairly regularly, there is still about a month of work on there that would be unrecoverable.
But the worse thought (or better, depending no perspective) would be that the problem is my processor, my motherboard - or both. In that case, I’ll be able to at least salvage my data, but that means a new PC to be bought. NOT the expense I was planning on making.
Update: Unfortunately, the hard drive is (probably) fine - my processor and mother board went. On the plus side, it means that I get a new PC, although I am skimping a little bit right now to save some money until I have that whopping ‘free turkey’ bonus check. I can always get the advanced graphics board and the flat screen after Xmas. To start with, I’ll have a 3.2GHz Pentium 4, 80GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 48x CD-RW and 16X DVD-ROM to get me through reinstalling EVERYTHING I had. But it will be a better video card than I had, a better sound card than I had, and more hard drive and RAM than I had. It’s a start. But my wife is going to kill me as I get the itch to finish it off…
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Marty November 1st, 2004
I finally got some time this weekend to do some stuff on the side that I had been meaning to do. The first was trying out the new beta of a CSS-editor program. I’ve used the previous version, and enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to seeing the new version and seeing if I could help iron out some of the bugs that I had found/quirks that I hadn’t liked. This is my second beta-test of a program (first real one, though) and I have to say I’m hoping that it gets better.
The program I am working on is a complete mess - while the functionality is marginally better, it seems that they have spent more time on interface design than architecture. In fact, the processing of this program is so slow that the program is nary unusable. I have put my comments in, and hopefully will see some fixes in the near future. If not, this program is doomed…
The other was a demo of a game that I have loved in the past in both board game and PC versions - Axis & Allies. I have always liked the board game version, but can’t find anyone willing to spend the hours to play. The first PC version was a mess, but the Iron Blitz version was more playable and fun. Far from perfect, as the AI was nearly incomprehensibly stupid, but at least close to the flavor of the board game. So, when I heard that Atari was putting out a new version, I was excited.
Now, I’m very disappointed.The whole point of moving the board game to the PC was so that people like me whose friends think spending time with their kids is more important than playing games can still play some of their favorite games. It’s to take a relatively finite board game and jazz it up with moving graphics, new features and single-player playability. The old versions had this (well, mostly). The Atari version … well, it’s just a mess. First of all, it IS NOT Axis and Allies. This uses the name in an ostensible manner for what becomes a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game. Instead of creating units and using strategic oversight (as a general does), now you control individual units, supply chains, ammo dumps, and the minutiae of warfare in WWII. Using what seems like the old Age of Empires engine, you micromanage units as they go and try to achieve objectives handed to you by the generals. You decide what units you want to build and then deploy them in lengthy animations. Granted, this is a demo and my graphics card needs a serious update, but I found myself hating this.
What happened to simply making the game better? If I wanted a RTS, I’d pick up Battlefield: 1942, which is infinitely better than this game. I want Axis and Allies, albeit an improved version, and this is nothing of the sort. They’ve taken Monopoly and made you analyze construction contracts and real estate zoning regs. They’ve taken Life and now you have to add auto maintenance, stock portfolio management and local crime stats to how you play the game. It was a complete disappointment that the folks who have made such a fantastic board game have killed themselves with this PC version. Now, this might be a good game for what it is, I didn’t get that far. But it isn’t Axis and Allies, and THAT is what I was looking for.
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of Bush “Whoops’s”
Marty October 28th, 2004
Well, I tried to upgrade to WordPress 1.2, and it killed the blog, so I’m back to the old version for now. I might consider loading the newest version directly from WordPress instead of through my ISP, or I might try out MT - which seems to be a bit more versatile. Anyone out there have a preference?
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Marty October 10th, 2004
I’m going to be beta testing the new StyleMaster software from WestCiv, and I’m psyched to be able to finally make an impact on some of the products that I use. Sure, I’ve posted comments to the Mozilla boards about things, but this will be my first opportunity to really get into the nitty-gritty of a good program to see if I can help make it a little better. I liked Style Master 3.5, but there were some quirks that it had that made it a little less useful (see my review). Already it looks as though they have thought through a lot of the redesign of the product. I don’t know how much I can tell at this point (need to read the beta testing documents again), but if anyone out there wants to put out some suggestions, feel free. If anyone is even reading this, that is…
In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I would dredge up this image from my past. It’s me and 3 college buddies enjoying the chance to relive some of our youth. I haven’t seen most of these guys in years, but I know for a fact that ‘Paul Stanley’ has this same picture up in his house. And now to come up with something for this year…
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Marty September 18th, 2004
So, I was checking out Spread Firefox, and found out that almost 800k people had downloaded it in 3 days. 24 hours later, they’ve beaten a million. And I was one of the lucky ones who went to do it - and I am SO glad that I did. The newest version is brilliant.There are a ton of new features, and the browser seems to have even picked up some usability and speed. The stylesheet chooser has been included (I had heard that they were going to scrap it - but they didn’t), and it’s a nice touch - easily flip between any stylesheets a site has to offer you. And the new Live Bookmarks gives you the ability to accept RSS and Atom feeds directly into your bookmarks. Drop down like you would any other bookmark and voila - there are the latest feeds from your favorite sites. There is even an icon in the task bar that lets you know if they have any available feeds. There are some caveats - some of my old extensions and themes don’t seem to work in 1.0PR, which is a bit of a bummer. But many of them do - and they have a handy list that you can sort through of extensions and themes that are supposedly 1.0PR valid. I say supposedly, because I have seen some that state that they are, but then turn out to be invalid - but Firefox even lets you know that before trying to install them and fragging your installation.
One more thing, if you are going to install the newest version - BE SURE TO UNINSTALL YOUR PREVIOUS VERSION. Go to the forums to get more info, but basically back-up your profile, uninstall previous Firefox installations, then install 1.0PR. Then copy your profile files back over the new installs (except for bookmarks - import them from wherever you backed them up so that you don’t overwrite the Live Bookmarks info). It takes about 15 minutes all told.I can’t stop going oohhh and
ahhhh over this program. Internet Explorer - do you see that little flashing in the corner of your eye? That’s your career light and it’s about to go out.
In other useless news »
Marty August 20th, 2004
Okay, I sent out some emails about getting me a free iPod - I’ll apologize now to those who think I spammed them. But believe it or not, the offer is real! Check out Wired News to learn more.
Basically, you need to register and try out one of the offers to get me a completed referral. Don’t worry - there are some free ones, so you can sign up with your junk email address, sign up for a ‘free info’ link, and that counts for me. And if FIVE of you do it, then I get my $299 iPod for free. In case you already deleted the link, you can click here to access the site.
Thanks,Marty
