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Memorial Day
Yesterday was memorial day. A lot of people paused to think of loved ones. The holiday is meant to remember fallen veterans of foreign wars. To many, they think of and visit the graves of loved ones. There are the usual cook out functions, parades, even fireworks. Everyone is grateful for an extra day off.
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Veterans
I am really more concerned with veterans that are living. Not the ones like myself that are apathetic, resourceful, or lucky enough to put aside the things that they saw and did to get on with their lives. I’m much more concerned with the veterans who are not able to resume functioning as a result of the things that they did, or that happened to them. Injured men who saw and did things that would render many of us insane. Unfortunately, there are many of them that are in fact insane, homeless, and are not being cared for properly.
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V.A. Hospitals
I’ve been to V.A. hospitals in Detroit, and other parts of the world. Frankly, they are terrifying. Only those who have no choice use them. The Clinton administration reformed a lot of health care laws that required disabled veterans to use those facilities for care related to a service connected injury. Subsequently, there has been an improvement due to that attrition. But, believe me those hospitals are absolute bedlam. There is very little that I can do to describe to you the despair that one feels in those places.
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We Are All Street People
Only the desperate ones that can get there, enjoy those miserable places. Those that don’t have the mental or physical ability. Live on the streets. They are our winos and bums that we rush out of town. I feel that most don’t realize or care that these men deserve to be treated, cared for, and given safe warm homes by us. Not allowed to die of starvation or exposure under our noses.Who cares? Not congress, not your mayor, not your police. Everyone is saddened, no one dares to speak against them, everyone will tell you how terrible it is.
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Thanks to Jeffrey Zeldman
Thanks to Jeffrey Zeldman for making some nice observations and saying some things that made me feel a lot better. Thanks to Dave Elfving for starting me thinking about memorial day.
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cateraidinc.com
I finished cateraidinc.com Monday. I’m very proud of the amount of work that went into this site. It’s not the most striking site you’ve ever seen, but I think it’s clean and professional. I was trying for elegant. I’m not sure if I made it. Check it out if you care to. I haven’t had much feedback from the client, but what I have had is positive. They’ve been pretty busy recovering from a recent national culinary exhibition. I’m very fond of these guys, they were wonderful people that make a lot of amazing products. Being somewhat of a cook…
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paxtonland Labs Update
I’ve been in the process of building a new computer to add to paxtonland. We’ve got three running now, with various configs. We really need a big old “god box” here to help keep files and act as a server. The kids are wanting to play more current games, I need more mp3 storage space and just a bunch of other reasons. I’ve started with a case. My friends will laugh because I’ve had the new case for a long time, but have not done anything with it. I’ll make a new page here to document my progress. Anyway that…
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Yet Another Poll
Please take the survey below. I only wanted 100 votes to call it off. Now, if I can just get 50, I’ll be happy.
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Please Take My Stupid Poll
Please take my stupid poll: Which HTML authoring software/package do you use? Macromedia Dreamweaver Microsoft Frontpage Netobjects Fusion Adobe GoLive Hotdog / Hotmetal Notepad, you dumbass What the hell are you talking about? View current results Discussion later.
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SVG For The Rest Of Us
I’m learning a lot about SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). I’m interested in this very much. Support for this will exist in Mozilla and does exist in a quirky, unpredictable 4/5.x browser plugin from Adobe. But, that’s about it. Oh there is an Illustrator 8.0 plug in available to export into SVG format, but… who the hell has time to do all that. Also, you’ll find some super beta, independently authored utilities and export tools, nothing substantial. Those developers will eventually all be hired by Microsoft, who will bastardize the standards, support, and implementation to their suit evil plan for world…
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Weblogs
Web logs. Or, weblogs, or ‘blogs. Whatever you’d like to call them, they are here in spades. There are so many weblogs out there that there there are directories of weblogs and directories of directories of weblogs. I’m quite fond a a few of them, metafilter, camworld, and more… But, what exactly in the hell are they? Everyone has long and complicated definitions of what weblogs are and what they mean to the internet, since they are so very hip right now and all. I’ve actually had people refer to this site as my weblog. Now that’s a stretch…. (hehe)…
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The 5k contest is over
The 5k contest is over. The winners have been chosen. Some were amazing, some where hard to understand, some where not even describable. I must say that this collection of sites, pages, and in some cases, applications captured my attention for a long time. Please go and look at some of these entries, not just the winners. Also please visit gradfinder.com, who helped support this effort.
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IM Clients
• I’ve been searching for a replacement for the typical I.M. (instant messenger) client. By that I mean programs like; ICQ, AIM, Yahoo’s thingy, and Hotmail/MSN’s thingy. So far, I’ve only come up with a couple, Boomerang SST and Jabber. Boomerang SST has a lot of features such as chat, messaging, and file transfer. Plus, it operates under automatic RSA encryption. This may not mean much to some, but for others it’s good news. Jabber looks promising. It’s open source, works on multiple O/S’s, and has transports for all of those other I.M. programs I mentioned. Keep you eye on…
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Retro Arcade Games
Lastly, I spend quite some time over the holidays downloading and playing old arcade game “ROMS.” These are the actual game… not an close copy, but the real deal. I have working copies of titles like “Frogger, Defender, Donkey Kong,” and many more. You play them through an emulator. There are many of these available, all have ROM’s that they can run. The most popular “emulator/decoder” is MAME. MAME is freeware and supports about 500+ ROM’s. There are other emulators for NES, SNES, Genesis, even Playstation and Saturn. So, if you are yearning for the old days of your favorite…
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Mozilla
I’ve been testing Mozilla since they came out with a complied, workable version. Now, AOL and the Netscape brass have compiled M12 into a corporate version. Check it out for yourself. It’s a secret and highly unofficial leaked version. I like the way that things look so far…. Let’s hope they nail a good linux version. In related news, I’ve tried to watch the Netscape documentary, Code Rush, but to no avail. I simply can’t stay awake long enough. My PBS affiliate aired it three times after 2am. Finally, there is DocZilla from Citec Information. They are a Finnish company…
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New Project
I’m working on a website, currently, for a company called “Cateraid.” They have a product line that consists of some of the finest gourmet deserts I’ve ever seen. Cheesecakes, tortes, cakes, tarts, even hors d’voures. Wonderful stuff. This site will have to be beautiful… which is a tall order from me. I’ll put a link here when I’m done.
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Dean’s Voting Guide
Still not sure what to do with Dean’s Voting Guide. It’s been around since the 1992 elections. There are a lot of links to it and it’s even been listed in some print magazines and pretty visible political websites. But, I’m not sure I have the time for it this election. Worse yet, all of the content from previous years went in the “Great Hard Drive Crash of 1999.” Therefore, making it hard to pass on to someone else. Perhaps I’ll make the time if, the election gets any more interesting. But, it better hurry up.
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I’m planning a humorous site
I’m planning a humorous site called “America’s Most Dangerous Vehicles.” I’ve rigged up this elaborate Velcro mounting system for my aging digital camera. During my 2-2 1/2 hours a day on the roadways, I plan on snapping some shots of what I think are dangerous models/makes. The preliminary results look pretty good. The drivers tend to either pick these vehicle, or the vehicles modify the drivers attitude and behavior. I’m not sure which, yet… Anyway, should be fun. Please let me know if you’d like a specific vehicle added.
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GiveTech’s Launch
Well, we launched GiveTech’s main web site successfully. You can check it out at: http://www.givetech.com I’d love your feedback, please let me know what you think.
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Misc.
Again, there is not too much news to report on my end. I’m still working on a couple of projects. One will be launched on Feb. 7th. I’ll post a link here when we are ready for the public to see it. The kids got their report cards for the end of the semester. No one is failing, that’s a good thing. Hope and Jasmine are the leaders, Jasmine with all A’s and Hope the same, making the “Dean’s List.”
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Givetech
Givetech is coming along nicely, it’s a great idea and I’m quite excited about it. Basically, we process donation for non-profit groups. We’ve managed to get out cost to the organizations down to less than 3%. Meaning that they can keep more than they probably are now using their credit card terminals. We can see organizations using givetech’s transaction system rather than hand process donations as a lot currently are.
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Merry Christmas…
Merry Christmas… I’ve taken the paxtonland photos and the paxtonland development labs are busy processing them now. Soon, I’ll post them here.