Dromedary Apothecary

Bloggity blog blog... Crap!

So in my neverending quest to overcomplicate things to the point of dysfunction, I have caused things to choke and barf. I am able to post from Flock, Moveable Type, Word Press and my phone, the only problem is that I have noidea where everything is going and where it is controlled. At this point it looks like I'll have to wipe everything clean and start from scratch. Stay tuned!

Del.icio.us and WordPress

Okay, I have already hit a snag with the posting via del.icio.us. I keep receiving the error 'no transport protocol'. That coupled with my abyssmal attempt to move the site from kitkemper.com/mt to simply kitkemper.com has me thinking that I may want to move to WordPress. I have been a supporter of MovableType since I first encountered it, but I have also played with WordPress on other sites and found it to be much easier to install and use. What I will likely due is create a test site at kitkemper.com/links and see where that gets me. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Updating the Site

So I have to admit the I took great pleasure in my ability to "bring the ugly" with my previous site design. However, in light of the fact that I designed it while on a train from Portland to Seattle two years ago and it was a bit unpolished and hard to read, I decided it was time for an update. Hence what you see here now. It isn't a total redesign as the layout is pretty much the same. What you will note is...

A new color scheme thanks to Daily Color Scheme. I will likely play with this a bit and make changes periodically.
Along with the ugly colors go the the old moniker, "Dubious Party Tricks and The Benefits of Complicated Belts". There isn't much mystery behind the name, and let's just agree that it needed to be updated. Don't try and make to much sense of the new name, "Dromedary Apothecary", as there is not a whole lot of meaning to be read into it.
Finally, I am going to be adding a few new "features"; nothing too groundbreaking, just a chance for me to try out some cool tools and expedite content delivery so this sucker doesn't get too stale. One of these new features is a del.icio.us Daily Blog Post, that should appear today although I haven't tested it, so fingers crossed...

Let me know if anything is too distracting, painful or just ugly and I'll do my best to fix it.

technorati tags:blog, daily_color_scheme, web_design

Blogged with Flock

OSCON - Underpants Gnomes

A lot of people would name a session "The Underpants Gnomes Strategy Guide: An eCards Case Study" to employ a bit of shock value and pique interest in their talk, leaving the attendee no choice but to walk away disappointed. Terry Chay, however used it as an understated description of his presentation. In what was easily the most entertaining session of the show, Terry broke down how he implemented an eCards program at Plaxo. It is best represented here by saying that the statement "Don't worry about dancing bunnies and shit like that, because you'll get your ass handed to you by people that are good at dancing bunnies..." made complete sense within the context of his talk and was one of the more family friendly moments (you know with the bunnies and all...). Terry promised to post the video of the talk on his blog (which apparently only runs when he is there), so visit often to see if it is live.

technorati tags:OSCON, Plaxo, Terry_Chay, PHP

Blogged with Flock

OSCON - When Interface Design Attacks

I have never really given much thought to web design and usability. Not that I don't think that it is important, I just always thought it was someone else's job and that if I mimicked what other people had done, it should be right or pretty close to right. I have the feeling that is pretty much the attitude of most programmers (not that I claim to be one of those either). That being said, I had the opportunity to attend Amy Hoy's session at OSCON entitled 'When Interface Design Attacks'. I did so because I have known Amy for some time via the PHP Community Project, but have never had the opportunity to meet her in person. I have also thought that she would make an excellent author as she ably combines the skills of a designer and developer.
Surprisingly, this design centric session at a "coder show" drew a standing room only crowd. And Amy, for whom this was her first time attending let alone presenting at OSCON, handled the crowd perfectly. The content was dead-on eliciting numerous follow-up questions and ample note taking. It was a nice mix of Jakob Nielsen-esque by the book usability advice and street smart web design. I could bastardize the presentation by summarizing it here, but you'd be better off visiting the her site and downloading the slides for yourself.

Blogged with Flock

OSCON Nauseum

I whole-heartedly endorse anyone who wants to string up the "carpet-selector" for the Oregon Convention Center by the body part deemed most painful. The repetitive pattern that seems to trail off infinitely gives me a severe case of motion (or sedentary-sickness) of some kind every time I look at anything other than the carpet itself. Since OSCON contains its fair share of hung-over, computer-gawking nerds, surely this has caused multiple instances of ralphitude.

Blogged with Flock

The Glory of Flock

I have switched to using Flock as my default web browser since the beta went public around June 13. There are a number of features that, so far, have made me not miss my previous browsers one bit. In fact, I used to have a case of multiple browser syndrome whereby I chose my browser based on what I was doing:

I used Camino for on the spot web browsing and quick searches since it opens and runs the fastest on the Mac.
I then used Safari for all of my usual browsing and checking my daily favorites (which is a tab-fest in all of its pathetic glory) mainly because I could use .Mac to share the links between computers.
I used Firefox for work stuff (just because I had all my bookmarks there and Safari doesn't work with a lot of our company's proprietary sites).
Finally, good old IE 5 stuck around (and still does) for those folks who refuse to let you use more recent web browsing technologies.

While it may not have the speed of Camino, it seems to meet all of my other needs and I can just keep it open to avoid the somewhat lengthy opening start-up times. Anyhow, that lag is easily understandable based on the features it accesses. Since it is based on Firefox, I have no compatibility issues and the way that it handles bookmarks and blogs makes it a nice replacement for Safari.

The Features

Bookmarks
The first, most obvious feature is that your bookmarks are not stored locally, per se (more on that in a moment). Instead, Flock is equipped with a little blue star on the left of the address bar that will post the site into your del.icio.us bookmarks. To be honest I never really "got" del.icio.us, but now I am loving it. Since, Flock allows you to post to your account, your bookmarks are always accessible no matter where you are assuming you have access to the Internet. When you tag something, it will pop open a window allowing you to type in a description, add tags, and add it to your local favorites. The local favorites appear essentially in the bookmarks bar as they do in Safari and Camino, but you are equipped with multiple bars that you can flip through in addition to the folders as in other browsers. Once you have posted something to del.icio.us, the star next to the address bar becomes yellow, so you are not constantly sending the same sites. It did take me a while to get used to not having my bookmarked objects locally, but that just took some getting used to. Basically, I keep anything I visit regularly in my bookmark bars and any one off item (articles, for example) on del.icio.us. I have found this to really be a much more efficient way of handling your Virtual Junk Drawer than storing it locally and del.icio.us makes it equally easy to share as store. I have been using it to store items that I come across that I would like to read or refer back to later, but do not have the time to deal with at the moment that I encounter them. I can then go to del.icio.us and do a tag or keyword search to pull them up when I need them or (and this is super-groovy) you can use that handy search field in the upper right-hand corner to search your personal bookmarks from within the browser itself.

Photos

The second feature that is likely to jump out at you is the Photos tool. Within the browser window, Flock allows you to view your Flickr or Photobucket images in a bar across the top of the screen (as seen above). With Flickr, you can even access your contacts images. From the bar, you can easily drag images (small or large version) into an email message, blog entry, Message board or anywhere else that accepts rudimentary HTML.

It is even possible to star favorite photos or search by tags or keywords. Included with the photo tool is the ability to load to your photo storage account including adding descriptions, titles, tags, adding to sets, cropping images, rotating images, and determining whether they are public or private. All in all it is one of the best Flickr uploading tools I have seen. All of this make it my favorite way to load images, and makes blogging images all the much better. Even the loading tool is darn quick. I do find that I need to dig into the HTML a bit in order to align and size the images, but otherwise it is a breeze and I like the way the images are presented (including cool Flickr features like instantly accessing the photo stream).

Blogging

The blogging tool may not be for everyone, but it is growing on me quite a bit and encouraging me to post a bit more often. Next to the photo tool, it is likely my favorite feature within Flock. Like a lot of the features, it is not over-complicated. Essentially, if the urge to blog strikes, you simply need to hit Command+B and a windows like the one above appears. It accesses virtually any commercial blog software and provides a nice wysiwyg interface for creating entries. At the bottom is a tab that lets you switch from the wysiwyg mode to an HTML mode. You can also activate some extensions at the bottom that allow you to create snippets, clear the content or even drag and drop in photos that you plan on adding to your post. The super-cool ability to drag and drop from the main Flock window into the block post. You can also right-click or hold down the mouse key over a URL or link and add blog it immediately (although it essentially drops the URL into the first line of the post). Once you have completed your entry, the posting options, at least for Movable Type, are identical to those offered by the full-fledged environment. I personally like the ability to quickly jump to a posting environment without leaving the page I am on. It retrospect the Movable Type and WordPress environments appear a bit sterile in contrast. One caveat is that the blogging environment is completely different from the rest of Flock. Don't make the mistake of closing all of your other windows while blogging. You are allowed to only access the blogging menu once you have done this and can only open a new window by quitting Flock and reopening. This also means you must complete or save the blog post. Luckily a local version of the post is created.

News

News is essentially the Flock version of an RSS aggregator. I have swapped aggregators quite a bit for a few years now and I finally have found my mojo with NetNewsWire Lite. The News section works about like any other aggregator (see Safari), but allows a fairly limited list of options. It appears that most of the control lies in the view section where you can toggle between new, saved, and viewed; full, excerpt, and headline; and single and double column. In contrast to NetNewsWire, you cannot quickly run through headlines stopping on those that you find of interest. Additionally, the "viewed" tag seems to be arbitrarily attached to stories such that you have to sort through every story (even those you have actually seen) when looking at stories. I also have a hard time switching over from a dedicated browser to a web-based browser.

The one feature that I really like is the ability to quickly tag an RSS story as a favorite so that you can come bag later. Right now from within NetNewsWire, I am going to site from which the feed came and then adding the entry into my del.icio.us account. The "saved" feature essentially bypasses these steps. That being said, I think the News feature is the one that needs the most work if Flock hopes to be my one-stop shop for the web. Having gone from pretty much using a different browser for each different hat that I wear, I must say that I am absolutely thrilled with the Flock user experience. The full integration with web based apps actually helps make the transition easier, making the user feel like they do have a desktop application that handles the se tasks and does so efficiently and effectively.

technorati tags:Flock, Browser, Tech, OpenSource, Firefox, Flickr, Images, RSS, del.icio.us, Bookmarks, Blogging

Blogged with Flock

The Indespensible Dork Pack

I have always traveled quite a bit for work and had gotten into the habit of keeping a backpack stocked full of gear for work and fun while on the road. These days, I pretty much carry it with me everyday to work, especially since I would prefer to work on my Mac than the PC laptop that my company has provided to me. Lately though, I have noticed it getting heavier and heavierso I decided to do an inventory. What I discovered is the modern version of the utility belt only much dorkier in form factor and contents. Behold the contents in all their glory.

A quick rundown of the contents:

12" Powerbook G4
Incase Sleeve
Sony Camcorder
Canon Powershot S400 Digital Elph
Apple iSite
5th Generation IPod
iPod nano
iPod Shuffle
iPod Speakers
iPod Earbuds (3 pairs)
iPod In-Ear Buds
iPod Charge/Sync Cable (2)
Leatherman
Gerber Pocket Knife
Treo Bluetooth Headset
Apple Pen
Retractable Firewire Cable
USB Cable
Mini Jack Audio Cable
Retractable Ethernet Cable
Moleskine (3)
32MB USB Flash Drive
1GB USB Flash Drive
20GB Firewire Drive
Business Card Holder (2)
Bag for Cables
Sunglasses
Sunglass Cleaning Cloth
Treo 650 (not pictured)

Okay. That is just ridiculous. Also not included are items like pens, folders that frequently travel with me, books (at least 2 are generally in there), medicine and toiletry items. Also, probably 2 days a week, I travel with my work PC (that is honkin' huge). It appears that I have a problem. Three Cameras, three iPods, and three notebooks are the sign of trouble. Not to mention that if you count the hard drives in the iPods, Cameras and in the laptop, I have 8MB, 32MB, 256MB, 1GB (2), 2GB, 20 GB, 60GB, and 80GB storage solutions. The most disconcerting item to me though are the 4 sets of headphones. I really do not plan on jacking 3 strangers in to anything I own, so I am at a bit of a loss as to how this has happened. I suppose it could be attributed to my OCD-esque obsession with sorting and classifying GI Joe accessories as a kid, or it could be that I am just an odd kind of packrat/technophile hybrid. of course I did the same thing when I briefly got into backpacking in college and would carry below freezing gear when camping in the summer time. I either need to sign up to become an Eagle Scout or seek an intervention immediately. I think I'll take a stab at lightening my load and see how I survive without so much clutter.

Blogged with Flock

Panic!

Oh my gosh! Ted Leo and Jimmy Eat World appear to have had a love child and blessed it with the ability to create nonsensical and complicated song names. I picked up Panic! At the Disco's new (er... relatively new) album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out today largely because, I have recently developed an addiction to having new music every week or so. I had held off on snagging this album largely because it is sold at clothing stores frequented by snotty adolescents that make me feel old and lame and would have labeled me as a pop music loving sell-out in the eyes of my significant other and opened me up to endless ridicule (Maroon 5 Gate continues to this day). Alas, I caved. At first listening, I recoiled finding it to be pop-ish enough to send me into hiding and keep my car windows rolled up, lest someone spy me not acting my age. However, after a few rotations, I have fallen victim to involuntary head bobbing and toe-tapping. It is actually quite catchy and leans a little in the direction of the aforementioned Ted Leo and the Pharmacists who have been frequently rocking out in my ears these days. That, in my mind, is a good thing. I probably need to spend a little more time with it, but for the time being I think I'll give it a thumbs up. Who knows in, I may soon be behind the wheel cabbage-patching with the windows at half mast so the snotty nosed adolescents can admire my homage to lameness.

technorati tags:Music, Panic!, Alternative, iTunes

Blogged with Flock

Beauty is in the Eye...Oh, Nevermind

Buddha, whose face graces the header of this under-published blog, had a little work done on said face today. She has a melting corneal ulcer in her right eye and was on the verge of losing her sight if not her eye. Luckily we caught it early enough and she had surgery today. The gruesome details are that she had almost half of her cornea removed and her eyelid sewn shut. In addition she has an ever so glorious stint placed in the eye do help it drain. The E-Collar only serves to draw attention to her poor plight. This is all on top of the auto-immune issue in her ear that developed in April that has left her with cauliflower ear and the surgery she had 5 years ago to widen her nostrils so she could breathe easier. That is quite a lot for one poor face to endure. Luckily, it is still very much loved by her mother and father.

technorati tags:Buddha, Bulldog, Pets

XBox Launch

Here is a picture of the line of people outside of the Best Buy in Castleton, Indiana waiting for the XBox 360 launch. It wasn't too impressive (maybe 75 people or so), but since some of them seemed to have been there for some time, you can't help but get a little excited. This tidbit indicates that the stores will be opening at 9:00 a.m. today for the release, so I am assuming that these folks waited all night. The stores also only guaranteed 10 units each, so hopefully not too many people wasted their night. More pics can be seen here. Sorry about the quality they were taken on my camera phone.

Cleaning Out the Virtual Junk Drawer

I am once again attempting to settle into a regularr schedule of posting. In order to do so I am going to take a moment to sort through my virtual junk drawer, which is essentially a bookmarks folder where I throw anything that I think may be worth revisiting or 'blogging' at some point down the road. Obviously I need to get on the road to initiate the process. That being said, here is a rundown of the various detritus that has gathered therein. [Disclaimer: From the ludicrous, sublime and just plain lame this is meant to be more cathartic (from an information management standpoint) than informative].

• How to Make Money with Your Blog - There is actually some useful stuff in here. I suppose first and foremost one should commence the practice of blogging.

• How to Tie Various Knots in Neckties - I must admit I am a chronic tier of bad neck tie knots. I learned to tie a tie in the 4th grade and have not really updated my skills since. That sweet little 1984 knot that went well with a skinny leather tie just doesn't cut it anymore. I must admit I don't wear ties enough.

• Running an Anti-Procrastination Dash - I have become quite the 43 Folders junkie. Perhaps very much to my own detriment and in an ironic juxtaposition to the site's message. There are quite a few links here to 43 folders and other such sites. What I am doing here is contrary to everything they preach and I intend to implement the procrastination dash right after I finish this...and get a cup of coffee.

• Tim O'Reilly's take on 'What is Web 2.0" - I must admit I think about the accumulation of sites and thoughts and trends that have been piled into what various folks are calling Web 2.0. I can't say I agree 100% with what Mr. O'Reilly says here, but it does clarify some things, group some things and at least add order to some of the thoughts in my head. Maybe once I sort through them, I'll post some more detail here.

• Feedback form for the waste management company that used to "pick-up" my trash - This is only on here because I intended to use it on a regular basis. Instead it was easier to move than deal with these folks. They rarely picked up the actual trash and on one occaision I watched as they removed one bag out of 20 and never put down there cell phone. I wasn't happy and sent an anti-love note to the company. Not surprisingly I did not get a response. Since I moved this is someone else's problem now. On another note I am currently very happy with my waste removal service.

• How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog - I suppose that this should be paired with the first link above, but these are in chronological order so it intrigues me to see them charted as such. Again the first step would probably be putting your hands on the keyboard.

• Personal Status Page - 43 Folders again. I would really like a personal status portion of my website. I suppose it is really a matter of putting in the time to update it. I actually have been toying with Joomla as a community site and the whole status page stuff is much more likely to land there.

• How to Create Web Applications with AJAX - AJAX is all the buzz right now and very validly so. It is in my long list of technologies about which I want to gain a better understanding. This is not a bad place to jump off. I can't wait to get my hands on some books and maybe put together one of my own...

• TivoTool - So as has become standard for many companies, TiVo doesn't offer it's TiVoToGo to Mac or Linux users. TivoTool helps to combat thisby providing an app that essentially replaces the tools functionality. Since I have just gotten my TiVo up on our network I have not yet had a chance to do the hacking. Once I do, I will post some updates here.

• The Netflix Settlement Sucks - Recently there was a class action lawsuit against Netflix whereby the "victims" (read: subscribers) receive a one-month upgrade to their Netflix service and the lawyers on the case receive in excess of $2.5million. Netflix is one of the few companies about which it is very difficult to complain. They have reduced costs, increased quality of service, and offer outstanding customer service. This would seem to be a clear case of a frivolous lawsuit whereby lawyers win and the consumer loses. You can opt out of the settlement and hopefully kill the suit at the link above. Even if it doesn't hurt the settlement at least you'll sleep better knowing you didn't contribute to this lunacy.

• One Bag - I found out about this site via commandN and for someone as tightly wound aas I am it is a great resource packing for me can take days and be a truely gut-wrenching experience. This is a great resource for determining what to pack, what to pack it in and virtually anything else you need to know. I only wish I had found it sooner.

• Anytown Marketplace - This is a cool Craig's List knockoff from Ning. That all makes sense, right? Good thing there are links there so you can learn for yourself.

• How to make the perfect paper airplane - Required reading for every ten-year-old and anyone who wants to feel like a ten year-old. Highly reccomended for professional settings.

• Procrastination Hack (10+2)*5 43 Folders, again. Yeah, I really need to get around to reading these articles...

• Three Liger Cubs Born - Because it would be a crime not to acknowledge it.

That's it! Sadly there were many more that I deleted because they had run their course or because in hindsight they just weren't that insightful. Oh well. Now that I have that done maybe I can get down to posting worthwhile and thoughtful information. Of course anyone who knows me knows that is highly unlikely.

Treo 650

So I finally splurged and got a Treo 650. I did so by switching over to Cingular to get the best deal. It should have been about $300, but I am yet to receive the final rebate for $100. That is not surprising since I ordered the phone on 8/15 with overnight shipping and received it on 9/6. Who knows what all it involved, but it was a less than stellar customer service experience and I don't know whether to blame Palm or Cingular. Palm, who provides next to no information on their web site and replies to every email with a standard informationless reply and phone calls result in customer service reps who have no info, falls far short of other tech companies that seem to have nailed the integration of web services into customer service (I was even promised a phone call that never occurred). Then there is Cingular who apparently could not get Sim cards to Palm and took 5 days to approve my application, switched my number a week before my phone arrived and then had no record of the transaction altogether. Finally, they seem to be unable to provide any info on their internet service for which I signed up through Palm and yet Cingular (of course) has no record.

Needless to say I am relieved to be up and running on the phone. I am surprised that it really just seems to be a color version of my Handspring Visor that I bought 5 years ago combined with a so-so phone. I am just playing with it now and hope to get more in depth over the next week. I did snag a copy of Treo Essentials by Michael Morrison, which hopefully will provide some advanced content beyond just using the accompanying apps.

Of course one of the reasons I got the phone was to be able to blog remotely and more frequently, so if anyone has any best practices or tips in this area, please send them my way.

Break in Case of Fire

I have recently come into possession of a Cipro mouse. It is presumably a tchotchke created by Bayer Group who develops and sells the antibiotic Cipro. Encased within the mouse appear to be actual Cipro tablets. I like this very much. Cosidering that gonorrhea is listed among the primary uses of Cipro, I find comfort in the fact that should I experience a "burning sensation during urination" I can begin my course of treatment by breaking my nearest pointing device.

Of course we all know that an ounce of prevention is worth...well...a lot more cure (or something like that). In the case of sexually transmitted diseases there hand in hand with everyone's favorite method - abstinence - is the ever-popular condom. Personally, I have never really favored one brand over another in this area. This was largely due to a the fact that no one spoke to me as an individual. Well, friend, those days are over. Thanks to a post on Boing Boing I am happy to endorse "Kit Sacks". It's about time I had something named after me other than a lame candy bar and the Knight Industries Two-Thousand, as cool as it may be (in an eighties, David Hasselhoff kind of way).

Bigfoot's Monobrow

Loretta, one of my coworkers, gave me a Bigfoot Action Figure for my birthday. I was going to go on and on about bigfoot and why I merit such a glorious gift, but something is amiss. This bigfoot just doesn't look right. I stared at him for quite some time before determining that it is his decided lack of monobrow that makes this bigfoot look more like an excessively hirsute modern male (you know who you are) as opposed to the prehistoric manbeast that he is. If you are going to go to the trouble of maintaining the eyebrows, splurge on a little waxing there, buddy. Shame on you for selling out.