Dan McCullum DesignDan McCullum Design

An attempt at philosophical thinking or What I've been doing, and what's around the corner

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Despite the fact that I tend to like writing, I've been finding lately that perhaps blogging isn't my thing. At least, not in the traditional sense. I have neither the time nor the drive to approach it "seriously" at this point in time. I'm going through a time of change in the way that I approach life, the internet, and media. I am considering switching to a more informal style of blogging for the most part (shorter posts about interesting things, probably mostly tech related), with occasional longer posts about various things. All of these changes will be in an attempt to raise the quality of the content on my site, while still fitting into the limited time I have available for it.


So, what's been going on with me lately?

Most of my time lately is taken up with my job. I've been working at a local poultry (chicken eggs, specifically) farm owned by some friends of my family. It's tough work, and often boring, but it's money in my pocket, and it's given me an opportunity to see life from a different angle. I've learned so much about people in general simply by observing my coworkers, and even the chickens.


So, here's the philosophical part. I've been working with the baby birds (one time last week, after I had been catching loose birds in one of the "grower houses", a coworker pointed out that I was getting good practice "picking up chicks") and one day a thought popped into my head. That thought became part of this post.


When we call someone a "chicken" we mean that they are easily frightened. Working with actual chickens has definitely solidified that particular definition for me. But it also has made be think that as humans, we are often like chickens when it comes to God. When I'm walking around the pullet houses (where the chicks are raised, aka "grower houses") trying to catch an escaped bird, it will be trying its hardest to get away. Even though I'm only trying to help it survive by putting it back in its cage, where it will have access to food and water, it still runs from me, screeching loudly in fear. Often the only way to catch an escaped chick is to turn off all the lights in the building and sneak up on the bird in the dark, using short bursts from a flashlight to locate it. As humans we often run away from God, even though he is only trying to give us peace and joy. We shun the life he offers without a second thought. Sometimes, he even has to "turn the lights out" on us to get us to notice him.


Well, that didn't end up being such a poignant anecdote as I had hoped, but...


As some of you may already know, I recently purchased a Nikon D40 DSLR with 18-55mm Nikkor kit lens, and a 55-200mm VR Nikkor lens. I've quickly become addicted to photography, and I rarely go anywhere without my camera bag over my shoulder. You can see the results of my efforts on my flickr.


The secondary monitor (old, beat up 15"? hp CRT) attached to my macbook started smelling like it was burning the other day, and is now completely detached from all external power sources, and awaiting a trip to the dump. Of course, now I really miss that second screen, however, I don't have much money right now, so I'm accepting donations, preferably of the LCD type.


Summer plans

I'm considering doing (yet another) major overhaul of my website with a focus on showcasing the various new things that I am doing online, rather than just focusing on web development. Or perhaps 2 sites, one for a personal site, and one for my web work.


I've got two family trips lined up for the summer. One to Massachusetts on a long weekend sometime in early-mid July for a family reunion, and a second for ~two weeks to Montana in late July/early August to visit some close friends who live out there, and perhaps visit some attractions/national parks within a few hours of their home.


I still have to figure out where to transfer to for the spring semester, after I finish all my gen-eds this coming fall.



On a completely unrelated and unimportant side note, it's unexpectedly difficult to type and use keyboard shortcuts in the dark when your keyboard is black and far enough away from the screen that you can't see anything on it. The difficulty seems mostly to be when I lift my fingers off the keys, then go back to type something. I miss typing on my Macbook keyboard, but the higher position of the screen really helps the ergonomics.

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Attention to Subscribers

Thursday, March 27, 2008

This post is just to inform all readers that I have begun switching over my blog feed to feedburner. Please update your subscription link to http://feeds.feedburner.com/dmdzineblog.

Don't know what a feed is?

Why am I doing this? Mostly because I want to be able to track how many subscribers and viewers I have. Feel free to comment!

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Linux, I Try to Love You

Friday, March 21, 2008

I've seen a lot of comments here debating the legitimacy of Linux as an operating system as compared to Mac OS X and Windows. Neither of these systems is inherently a "better" system for the world, Linux is great for servers and high-end workstation computing, Windows is the platform for most business activities and gaming, and Mac is for media creation and home use.

That said, I use all three operating systems on a regular basis, and I really cannot justify not using a Mac as my main machine (I do a lot of media stuff though). Windows can really be a pain, even when you know what you are doing, but it is really the platform to use for games. And Linux... well, that's a different story.

A lot of people have mentioned that it's not the fault of Linux for having trouble with certain hardware, saying that it is the fault of device manufacturers for not providing Linux drivers. True as this may be in theory, this explanation does nothing to help the less computer-savvy part of the market that can't tell the difference between Google and the internet. They are simply going to want their computer to work. They are not going to find solace in blaming device manufacturers for their computer not working. They are not going to use a complicated string of terminal commands to enable their wireless card. They are not going to buy a machine based on how Linux compatible it is. And they sure as heck are going to be pissed off when they find that they can't run any of their applications without a crazy amount of hackery/magic/good luck. Linux is fine for those who know what they are doing, unfortunately, we are the small minority. Until either device manufacturers decide it is economically feasible to develop Linux drivers, or the Linux community makes it much easier to find the exact driver for your device and install it without a hassle, Linux will remain a tool for geeks only.

As much as I would like to see more people using Linux, there are just a few too many issues for most people to deal with right now.

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Updates to the Site

Monday, March 17, 2008

I just finished making some changes to the front page and about page of Dan McCullum Design. I wanted to add some more colors and imagery, and also to rewrite some of the copy to better reflect the services I am offering.

Thoughts/comments/suggestions are always welcomed.

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Journey into Reading/Thoughts on Coding

Thursday, March 13, 2008

A while back I posted about how I was ditching Dreamweaver and doing future web design by hand coding. Well, I just passed the first real test.

Version one of Journey Into Reading (http://journeyintoreading.org) was actually my second web design job, and although I was relatively happy with the design, when it came time to add some major content to the site a week or two ago, it became clear that a visual refresh would be worthwhile.

So, after a few hours designing the layout, coming up with the styling, and structuring the site (and probably quite a bit more time spent on getting the page to work correctly in Internet Explorer) I ended up with the current design.

So, now that I've done a "real" site entirely by hand (cross-browser and cross-platform this time, unlike the coda test sites I did earlier which I didn't bother spending the time necessary to make IE-compatible), how do I feel about the switch to hand-coding?

Well, it's not a whole lot slower or faster, and it does give a feeling of confidence that your code is going to be valid and streamlined. However, there are a few things that still bug me (though some of these things may be resolved by simply learning how to use CSS a bit more effectively).

Lack of Link Management
This is probably the single most annoying thing about hand-coding. In Dreamweaver, it is very, very easy to change the location/name of files and have Dreamweaver automatically update site-wide links to that file. Coda (and every other coding program that I have found) does not have this feature, making structural changes and such a pain.

Lack of Library items/Templates
The lack of Dreamweaver-like templating is also an issue that bugs me. Adding a page to the main navigation bar, or changing the order of a sidebar link list is no longer a simple matter of editing a special template file and then updating all the pages using it.

However, I recently found an article that talks about getting similar functionality by using php includes.

Despite these issues, I'll be sticking with hand-coding for the foreseeable future, and will probably find ways to adapt to these problems.

Until next time... Au Revoir

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