Author Archives: Jesse

Quick Update

Hello everyone! If you are a new visitor to the site, take some time to look around and, as always, please contact me if you have questions and especially if you need some work done.

I wanted to add an update since it has been so long. A lot of work this summer as well as a brief training internship for a local magazine made for an interesting few months. I have learned quite a bit and am anxious to get to work on a couple projects that are coming up.

First is 1099jobsportal.com. It is a site dedicated to helping people discover a short-term or long-term contract/1099 job. Please take a moment to check it out. WordPress is the foundation of this site and a great job search plugin allows for easy use and easy development. Something I was particularly excited about is the home page. I used a fair amount of CSS3 to design the hover image. First, the crowd fades and each captioned person becomes highlighted. Using the great :before and :after pseudo classes, I was able to add a caption to each hovered image with very little effort. One problem becomes clear though. Content residing within a stylesheet is never a particularly good thing but, in this case I think an exception can be made since the content with those pseudo classes does not need to be updated often, if at all.

I also learned that I can “nest” a pseudo class within a pseudo class. For instance, I only wanted my :before and :after pseudo classes to display when the mouse is hovered over a particular person. I had never tried this before but it worked quite well: an example .doctor:hover:before. I will have to add support for IE7 and below.

Second, is medairsystems.com. It has been a long time coming but I was commissioned to design and build the MAS website and inventory system. Using wordpress, I used the custom post type functions to create a robust inventory. This website will be up and running within the month. Stay tuned.

Speaking of IE, isn’t it great that although its user numbers are relatively steady, more and more people are opting to use much better browser technology in Google Chrome and Firefox. STOP USING Internet Explorer 7! This is just an assumption on my part but, if you refuse to upgrade your browsing technology then your internet experience is suffering. There is another explosion of ideas coming through the use of HTML5 and CSS3 and Internet Explorer is stuck in the past. The purported beautiful internet that IE9 was to show its users is stagnate and based on old technology. A fair amount of CSS3 does not work in IE. Not only this but Internet Explorer has always made the dream of standards on the internet nearly impossible with its proprietary rendering engines and various other system flaws. IE is a bad browser no matter how much I want to like each new version.

Alright, that’s all for this update.

What is WordPress?

It seems there is some confusion about what exactly WordPress can do. WordPress is not only blogging software but is also a cms (content management system). It can be customized in almost every way. There is a difference between wordpress.com (the wordpress hosted blog) and wordpress.org (the self hosted wordpress installation option). The latter is one of the best cms applications I have ever used. WordPress can handle high traffic and is adept at avoiding spam (within the right hands).

I know some of you will say “…but I don’t want a blog.” Well, that is the point. WordPress can be a blog but it can also be so much more. In fact, if you do not want a blog (posts/comments), that part can be left off of your site completely. WordPress plugins/functions are easy to create. This means that you can have an easily updated inventory or a database of photography and videos. The possibilities are almost endless.

For instance, I am working on a site that I chose to compile in wordpress. It is not a blog, it is a product inventory/description site. I began developing a custom cms program for this client but was not happy with the process of development. Rather than reinvent the wheel, wordpress was there to show me its ease of use.

WordPress is literally thousands of lines of code and is a beast that has become more and more domesticated over the past 8 years or so. Sites built using wordpress as their back-end are very popular. In fact, wordpress is one of the most popular content management systems in the world. It is easily configurable. It is easy to customize and your current design can be adapted to fit around the skeleton that it provides. So, for those less inclined to start-up a blog, allow me to recommend wordpress. For those who wish to start-up a blog, try wordpress.

I can design you a wonderful site using wordpress as the glue that binds it all together as well as update your current wordpress installation/design. If you need assistance with wordpress, I can help you! Post a comment or Drop me a line.

Graynoise Media

I have finally gotten around to setting up a page for Graynoise Media. This is my freelance design trade name and has been my online moniker for quite a few years. This is exciting for me. I’ve been wanting to do this for quite some time and now that I have a decent portfolio I am finally able to give it a go. If you or anyone you know needs a website or any other design/layout work, please put them in touch with me. You can check out the site, @Graynoise Media.

Waste Time. Civilization 5.

I have successfully wasted hours of my life. I have taken over the world by force, through diplomacy and the power of culture. I have researched technology from the wheel to the atomic bomb. Civilization 5 has not disappointed. After about a month of mashing my brain with hexagonal warfare, the time has come for a break just long enough to deliver this message. Seriously though, if you are a fan of this series you should purchase this game.

The most obvious upgrade is the system of warfare. The battles feel more real and more strategically sound than they ever have. In other words, you line up your troops in a way that adds realism to the game rather than moving an abstract stack of units around a map. The turns move more fluidly as reminders will blink and chime when something is overlooked including units with moves remaining, research selection and building construction. This aspect of the game is nice as an user of the auto-turn setting could tell you.

The multiplayer is enjoyable and is a near carbon copy of the single player game. Most of the single player settings are available in multiplayer games but beware of creating a game on the huge or large map setting. If you have too many people trying to connect it will cause some lag. Too many people here is about 3 or 4. We experienced heavy delays on a large map as soon as we entered the classical era. The game would not freeze but, in between turns the campaign loading screen would appear as the game synced with each client.

Be sure to host the game on a quick computer that preferably has a wired connection. There are a lot of things going on in this game and each turn adds more. So, even though the system requirements are fairly lean, as an informed and experienced computer gamer, you should know to expect some slow turns, on an older system, as you near the industrial era in the game. Even a newer computer system appears to have lag once a large world is populated. I suppose long games on huge maps are not conducive to the online format of this game. Smaller maps and shorter games should dominate multiplayer especially for the majority of users that do not have cutting edge or even year old systems.

Next Year Soon

In my last sports update, I looked with hope to a Colorado Rockies pennant and with frustration towards Carmelo Anthony. Since then, the Rockies have faded out of existence for the year and Carmelo Anthony looks to be sticking around for a little while. I bought into the hyped up rumors of a trade involving a few teams. That hype still exists and no mater how many times he refutes those claims, the rumors gain steam. I still won’t be surprised if he leaves Denver this year.

As for the Rockies, their bats died and their closing pitching returned to early season form. There’s always another year, next year. With the San Francisco Giants still alive, battling the Philadelphia Phillies, the season is still far from over.

Basketball season is almost here. Very exciting.

Boulder Fire (Four Mile Canyon)

It was about a week after moving to Boulder that the fires started and they were only about 20 or 30 minutes from the new apartment. Looking to the West, a great cloud of smoke could be seen. It blocked out the sun for at least two days. It hurt to breath for about 24 hours. The smell permiated through Boulder and, I’m sure to a lesser extent, further to the east.

Despite the destruction from where I was it was really quite beautiful. After the awe wore off, worry began to accomplish its duty. Residents west of Broadway, near the university, were warned that they may have had to evacuate. Panic never reached this far but that worry remained. Winds stirred up the fire again later in the week.

Containing the fire with those high winds was quite the task. Warm air hits the foothills from the east. That air then rises and cools causing it to drop back down. This effect causes high speed winds that are known to cause damage and accidents all along the eastern slope of Colorado. Winds are particularly bad in and around Boulder because of the natural boundary that the city is nestled against.

The past few days have seen the fire contained and some residents have been able to return home or to the what is left of it. The cleanup and rebuilding will commence this coming week. Meanwhile, check out this (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=45675)amazing satellite image showing the long smoke plume that formed around September 6, 2010.

Get Ready to Waste Hours

The ‘one more turn’ phenomenon known as the Civilization strategy series is about to be upgraded. Civ V will be coming out in a couple of weeks sporting a new UI and tons of improvements to the now classic Civilization IV.

By restructuring the UI , the designers were able to help the player focus on the game-play rather than being bombarded with notifications at the top of the screen. Now, the events will be tracked in a tidy display that one will read through. In other words, the game is much more open as nations won’t be bothering you with diplomacy while you are contemplating your construction. Ars Technica describes this tracking system well:

The tracked alerts make it much easier to do things in the order you think of them or want to do them, and if you forget anyone, the bubbles remind you. The change feels subtle, since it’s alerting you to all the same things that Civ has always been about, but it really becomes apparent how helpful it is as time passes and the game gets more complex.

The UI is much more pleasing to the eye and has been restructured to be smaller and less cumbersome. Financial stats are conveniently located inches away from each other. Keeping up with all the data that streams through the game is important but, it seems as though the real focus is on the beauty of the game design… and that’s a good thing because the graphics are much more modern and have a lighter feel to them than any previous versions.

Borders are demarcated much better as checkered lines and this helps with the introduction of a new concept to the series, city-states.

City-states award influence in a number of ways, including missions in their service. City-states are (or at least will act) sort of helpless, and will occasionally pop up in your bubble to-do list requesting that you aid them in some way, like eliminating an enemy city-state of theirs, or helping them defend against an attacking civ. You can also buy influence in city-states with cold hard cash, which improves their (continually declining) view of you.

These city-states will also provide bargaining chips on the diplomatic table which allows for a much more robust system of relations with your neighbors as well as distant civs attempting to edge in on your sphere of influence.

We’ll get a follow-up to this post in the week that the game is released. Until then enjoy Civilization IV and watch some of this website if you need help curbing your current addiction http://www.civanon.org/home.shtml

Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2010/09/first-impressions-civilization-v.ars

It Continues

I’m sure there is more than enough coverage of sports but I must say that the Rockies continue to amaze. Another magic month indeed. Jason Giambi saved the day. With him at the plate and one on, he hit the walk-off home run driving home two and sealing the deal. It’s just amazing how someone has stepped up in each of the games this past week. Here’s to sweeping the Padres.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_09_12_arimlb_colmlb_1&mode=wrap

Expect to be Impressed

And now for something completely different. The Rockies are in the race again and it couldn’t be more exciting. It seems that every year someone steps up to carry the offense on their shoulders. This year that man is Carlos Gonzalez. The consistency issues for the team as a whole seem to have subsided as they’ve lifted their run differential by 10 runs in one week versus 2 of the best teams in the league.

They are nipping at the heels of the Giants who are now only 2 games ahead in the division. The battle for the wildcard is in full swing and another magic run like the ’07 win streak could be possible. An upcoming series with the Padres could move them into prime position to control their own destiny.

The defense is fortified by Ubaldo Jiminez who is the league wins leader with a record of 18-6. His numbers speak for his ability and the potential claim to the Cy Young. With all this positivity it came as a shock to fans as all time Rockies wins leader, Aaron Cooke, went down with a broken leg in the 9-2 Wednesday win over the Reds. He took a line drive to the leg and his injury was, at first, thought to have been a bruise. He is expected to return if their run doesn’t end at the end of the month with the end of the regular season.

If the Rockies can maintain their current offensive renaissance, the will overtake the Giants and in the very least be the wildcard winners. The next month is a homestand. They cannot settle for splitting series’ and must go into each game with the much discussed ‘must-win mentality.’ Consistency is key. The offense has to continue to play at the level that the defense has played for much of the season.

For a team declared dead by some local voices in sports they seem very focused on proving that assumption wrong. Stealing home to gain the go ahead run is not an easy thing to do and like I said before, could be the springboard for a return to the glory of the ’07 season. This series was won with heroic efforts. This sweep should prove that the Rockies are alive and kicking.

New Posts and Your Mortal Soul

Looks like I’m back. I read recently that you shouldn’t tell people what you plan on doing because what you are planning won’t happen. So I am posting this as a notification of an update to the back end as well as a kind of preface to a few posts that I am working on.

Interesting things that have happened this past week:

An argument between Lord Sacks and Stephen Hawking was reignited. Did God create the universe? Each man arguing vehemently for their faith in their beliefs. Hawking believing in the scientific evidence, Sacks looking to his faith in religion. Articles spawned up each day for the rest of the week asking, what I think are very important questions. In the very least the topic finding a place in the national media spurred discussion. I am particularly attracted to the philosophical questions that much of the current scientific evidence regarding astronomy lead to.

This comes as religious tensions across the globe are high and election season is hot. The aim of the media is to focus on the minority of zealots and the misinformed. The differences between Islam and Christianity–West and East–are being scrutinized. The mosque being built near where the World Trade Center once stood has inflamed an already mounting social struggle. Sensationalized news articles ask seemingly probing questions like, “where do American Muslims go?” and “where do Muslims fit in American society?” all because of a resurgent cache of bigoted know nothings.

The timing really is amazing for all of these lines of separate events to be intersecting the way they are. But, nothing is coincidence. The so called end to combat operations in Iraq as well as a conservative march on Washington marking the puberty of a new political movement that still doesn’t know what it stands for. Talking points circulate around the Tea Party camp but no real motivation for change other than hefty support for the pundits and entertainers that lead them.

Thanks to Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and their zombie followers, there are those that again must rehash what should be a deceased argument. Some believe that the US was founded as a christian nation. This discussion is tiresome and the seriously erroneous opinion has been refuted by, most notably, the Treaty of Tripoli and various other documents that outline the intention of the separation of church and state as well as the intention of the founders.

The problem is further escalated by a Floridan pastor who is calling for an “International Koran Burning Day.” Two wrongs have never made a right and in this particular case, it is a horrible time to start burning books publicly. Asking profiled people in Arizona to show their papers and burning books in an Old Testament, eye for an eye mentality is asking for trouble. Someone did point out to me, however, that this is simply a part of the public debate and that, in his opinion, protests such as this do not harm either side of the issue. As a political debate this issue can be solved within that framework but the warnings from Patraeus do seem prudent. After all, the printing of cartoons that some found offensive did lead to violence.

What a strange political system we have created in this country. The new century has watched the US’s image fail beneath inflated egos and stock options. This feral beast is a corporate theocracy. Word of mouth is out of control.

The focus of the collective consciousness is on existence, religion and faith:

Are We Living in a Designer Universe?
Imam Breaks Silence
Move the New York City mosque, as a sign of unity
Judge Blocks Arizona’s Immigration Law
American Soldiers Killed in Iraq
Condemnation of Koran Burning
The Treaty of Tripoli (Article 11)