Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Posted by DSAFIRE on December 18th, 2007

Meh, Livejournal is blocked at work, as is facebook. Sadpanda face at the folks who abused they system enough that they had to install a netnanny clone. Damn college kids, messing up my lawn.

Not that I probably couldnt get around it if I tried, but *shrug*.

Off tomorrow, back thursday morning. They keep letting me leave early pretty often while Im in training, at first when my trainer ran through her lesson plan for the day (her doing that amused me to no end actually) and today because I was quite ready to roll solo, but there wasnt terminal free for me. So the pay’ll be a bit light, but it does help, being able to ease my way back in to the workforce with short days.

In other news, Lee managed to get a Wii (with a little help from friends) for his mentally disabled brother. Hopefully it will entertain him, get him some exercise and keep him out of everyone’s hair a bit now that he’s away from all the stuff he used to do. As an added bonus, it’ll be something we can all do with him too.

An immense giftmas basket arrived yesterday from the SIL’s boss, (buyer of graphics) and after I filled it with his bubble wrap collection and put it inside a huge plastic bag, the cat seems to have taken to the basket for a bed. He’s nuts, he loves plastic. Wants nothing to do with blankets or cushions. I want to see if I can pick up some heavy gage wire or whippy plastic rods and see if i can attach a tentlike structure to it, since he isnt interested in sleeping in anything that isnt covered (thus the giant plastic bag).

Nummy goodies in the basket for hoomans though. Those the cat CANNOT have. :D

How creativity is being strangled by the law

Posted by DSAFIRE on December 8th, 2007

Larry Lessig’s talk at TED2007 on digital media, copyright, and common sense.

As we stare down the barrel of Canada adopting the US’s draconian stance on copyright and fair use, I cant see reposting this as anything but timely.

Lots more vids on interesting subjects over at TED.com

Edited to add BronxElf, you in particular might be interested in David Rockwell’s talk

Cautiously Optimistic

Posted by DSAFIRE on December 6th, 2007

So Im employed. To be honest, im not celebrating yet. I’ll see how things work out through the training period.

I have training monday through wednesday from 9:30 AM till 5:30. Ug mornings. But it’s pretty standard to train during banker’s hours, so Im not taking that as representitive. Also, its starting part time. Understandable really, they dont want to sink too much in before they know you can hack it. The pay is respectable, and apparently theres a fairly nice bennies package once you go full time.

What Im concerned about is their scheduling practices. Maybe im stupidly fussy, but I’ve been through this kind of work. I know what it takes out of you. So if they’re heavily into rotating or long shifts, I dont see myself staying very long. Long enough to get some bills paid up certainly, but not neccesarily for another five year tour.

Honestly, Im to old to deal with regular twelve hour shifts or being bounced from morning to graveyard to evening and back again. Bluntly, it’s a quality of life issue with me. I work to live, not the other way around. So all I need at this point is some assurance that Im going to have some kind of regular schedule and I’ll be happy. Preferably an eight hour evening shift.

Now I just have to get to a bank and either open an account or get logged into Lee’s so they can direct deposit.

Hey Bloggers!

Posted by DSAFIRE on December 2nd, 2007

Another Meta survey for Bloggers for someone writing thier dissertation. Give em a hand by taking a survey HERE.

When giving the referal via me, please give www.dsafire.net as the blog address.

Whoring Out The Open Source

Posted by DSAFIRE on November 30th, 2007

Dsafire.net is now OpenID compatable. Go Forth and test drive it for me.

Recursive Blogging.

Posted by DSAFIRE on November 7th, 2007

OK. Now Livejournal has added some kind of functionality which will notify Facebook that I have posted something there.

So my Facebook will be updated by my Livejournal, which is updated via Livejournal Crossposter, which is plugged in to my WordPress install, which I currently update using BlogDesk. I think the only thing missing at this point is MySpace. (Which I dont really use anyway, it’s basically just a link page back to the WP blog.)

Is this giving you a headache yet? Recursive indeed.

Sadly, I dont think theres a plugin I can run at the same time as LJXP that will update MySpace. I should go look. Im tempted now to reset LJXP so my blogposts update Deadjournal and Greatestjournal too, just to get REALLY recursive. One blog, in a multitude of spaces. Reaching across the boundaries of the blogosphere to fill the lives of the six people who actually give a damn about some crazy chick babbling. And the monkey. I cant forget the monkey. He’d never forgive me.

Yea, I must go forth, reaching with my inane commentaries and neuroses, spreading even to the far-flung corners of the digital universe.

Not because I really have anything to say, but hey, coolness factor five.

Support the WGA strike.

Posted by DSAFIRE on November 7th, 2007

Check out the United Hollywood Blog. Keep your eyes on it, hopefully they’ll give us, the viewers (and Fandom in all it’s loud, shrieking glory) a way to get our voices heard as well.

Writing is work, like any other kind of work. And like any other kind of work, it has value. In this case, a value that never entirely disappears. How is it right that this value isnt reflected in pay to the creators?

Support the WGA. Support the Unions. It could be you next.

New Internet Toy.

Posted by DSAFIRE on October 24th, 2007

Ok, so after hearing about it in a number of places, and having reached the Internet Boredom Horizon, I joined Stumbleupon.

Funky-cool things discovered since?

Photos by Chema Madoz

Musicovery Interactive Internet Radio (They linked Pandora as well, but Pandora is now restricted to US only users. Sad.)

thecoolhunter.co.uk, who’s architecture and design sections are rocking my socks.

and this weird flash thing.

I could spend all day pushing that button.

Oh wait… I have…

Hacking Code with a Machete….

Posted by DSAFIRE on September 28th, 2007

OK, so I’ve found a WordPress plugin that will run a feed aggregate which functions like a LiveJournal “friends page”. It’s here. It’s even a relatively simple install. With this, I could easily and happliy never set foot on LJ’s domain again. (rss feeds dont count as page hits, right?)

Problem. It’s not calling into my WP theme properly. I *think* what’s going on is it’s not pulling the specified pagecontainer. So it looks teh crappay and is hard to read. Anyone know where (and what) I can insert into the php code to make it do that right? Right now it leaves the page as black on dark grey, at full width, and it’s imposible to read this way.
EDIT: OK, so after some more experimentation with cut and paste, it’s calling the background box. But it’s still sizing wrong… *flail*

Not the end of the world, but the end of an age….

Posted by DSAFIRE on August 7th, 2007

So Brad Fitzpatrick, Open Source prince and LiveJournal creator is moving out.

He hasnt been on the LJ Team in a long time, and as much as we’ve missed him in the recent dispute between fandom and 6Apart, it’s understandable. Enough is enough, and he’s had to deal with more than enough shit from us (the LJ userbase) over the years.

I’m happy I have my WP setup on my domain at DreamHost now. I dont personally care for the direction LJ as an entity is headed in, and if my friends list there didnt keep me feeling as plugged in* as it does, I wouldnt even bother with the crossposting. My LJ subscription will probably not be renewed. I’ll still read my comms and such there, but I’ve lost faith in 6A, and am SO glad I decided on WP instead of Moveable Type. But my WP blog is blogging in the void, and LJ is a community… a community I enjoy being a part of.

So nothing much is going to change for me. I’ll keep reading my flist and participating in my comms, but doing my main posting to WordPress. I’m just going to make sure I have my old content properly backed up to PDF, and watch to see what happens. I’ve registered a GreatestJournal, but havent moved anything over there. I’ll be watching and waiting, and if the community at Livejournal dies, at least I know I have my own space to babble in that isnt under the reins of anyone but me. Maybe I’ll start sniffing around bloggers communities in hopes of finding a new community to be a part of.

*not that I feel anyone is really paying attention, but hey, it gives me that illusion