I switched the index page to be an about page instead. This way people can learn about the project without being subjected to my rambling. Oh and check out the new web button:

Well thats what the blue thing is on the web button, a brain. I got sick of fighting with The Gimp and tried out Photoshop. Lets just say the user experience is ‘smooth’. The Gimp crew has a lot to learn, they have the processing all there, the usability is lacking.

What do you think of my handy work?

I finally uploaded my resume. That page has been blank for almost a year! Now I guess the job offers will just start rolling in ;-).

I also updated the template for the main page. IT had a small bug that stopped the main page from passing for XHTML 1.0 Transitional. It would almost pass for strict, but I’ve used the underline (<u>) tag in one of my posts and I’m not sure thats something I want to give up just yet. So the XHTML and CSS validity buttons have been added along with the Get Firefox button. I’m glad to finally see them up there. You can click and they will run the validator to prove I’m not fibbing.

I’ll add the buttons to the rest of the site as soon as I get the other templates validated. The Resume page is particularly broken in this regard. It may need custom CSS to render correctly and still validate. Ooo! perhaps I can get my Gimp/Photoshop skills high enough to make a mindshare web button!

Jay sent this one my way this evening: Totally Grid Bag. Anyone who’s done any GUI programming outside of Visual Basic should feel this guys pain. I mean I feel it, or I used to. I felt it so much that I wouldn’t stand for it anymore. Mindshare uses SwixML, a XUL variant for Swing. No more layout code! And, I’m happy to say, not a GridBag in sight.

Thats right people can fly, all it takes is a little music.

First up: OpenOffice. I decided that I had used Word enough in the past to know better than to try and write my thesis in it. It was going to screw the formatting right up. I wanted something that worked like CSS. You make styles, you apply styles, stupid program doesn’t change those styles. Well OpenOffice Writer is supposed to be the ticket.

And then the problems. Writer cant continue a block of numbering so if you break a block you are SOL. The good news is that the bug is fixed in the beta 2.0 code. It sort of works! But there is a crash bug with the Table of Contents feature in build 680_m45.

I haven’t yet investigated LaTeX of Doc-Book but I might do that before this is over. I want to publish HTML & PDF (shudder) versions of the thesis. I’m also looking at putting the mighty tome under a Creative Commons License.

Next up: Music. Endre – Kallocain (Robert Nickson mix) rocks my world. Very uplifting trance, reminds me of Paul Van Dyk’s For an Angel, just that good. Well worth the listen, I advise playing it LOUD! I would point you to info about the artist/remixologist but I cant find it anywhere., which brings me to the rant:

And now its time for a breakdown: <rant>Posting the above track here is part of something called “MP3 Blogging” (search of google). As such it may not be entirely legal to post the above track. However I think that by endorsing the track I am at least in some way acting to promote the artist. Note that said track is not available ANYWHERE for legal download that I can find in US currency. It certainly isn’t on iTunes/PressPlay/Napster etc. I cant run down to Best Buy and score me a copy either. In Cayman I would be totally SOL. Give me a service that has the music I want and Ill gladly pay the artists.</rant>

P.S. This is just made my day: FUH2.com.