Brian Elliott

My brain doesn’t really grok Cascading Style Sheets, also known as CSS.  In theory it’s a very logical system where one can dictate how HTML markup actually looks as well as page layout.  By using a stylesheet, one can get a consistent style of presentation across an entire site.

I actually was all pumped to use this technology when it first came out.  Years later, I’m still a sucky novice at CSS, although I manage to solve a problem with it every now and then.  I think what prevents me from learning easily is that it’s not really like programming at all.  There are a myriad of browser inconsistencies and bugs that designers commonly work around to do their jobs.

If you look at the source code of a random sampling of pages out there, chancees are high you’ll see comments about “IE compatibility” or “Firefox only.”  That’s really too bad, considering CSS is a W3C standardized spec and this kind of crap only limits adoption!

Anyway, the reason I suck at CSS is because once I see this kind of incompatibility bullshit, my brain turns off.  I automatically become too lazy to learn.  I begin searching Google for my specific problem to retrieve a particular incantation of hacks to solve my issue.  It’s like modern day alchemy to me.  I don’t completely understand the solution or how the authors came up with the given hacks, but it seems to work out okay, which is good enough for me.

What I’d really like is to take a given page, render it, and see HOW the browser made its decision to render things in a certain way.  I would like have before and after pictures that demonstrate how a change to the CSS will affect the layout of the site.  I’m not content to simply make a CSS change and then reload random pages across all possible browsers of interest.  I want to know enough CSS to get my job done and not have to become an expert.  Anybody know of testing tools that would make CSS authoring more like actual structured programming?

Well my wife’s Macbook went offline last night.  First it froze and she had to reboot it.  Upon restart, a flashing folder with a question mark appeared and then the machine halted.  Subsequent reboots resulted in the startup chime and a simple gray screen.  At this point, she lost her patience and handed the machine over.

I’ve spent many years debugging PC issues of all sorts, but Mac debugging is still a bit new to me.  Some Google search revealed the following debugging options:

1. Safe boot - Boot with minimal drivers and kernel extensions.  (Didn’t work)
2. Reset the PRAM - This process appeared to work, but did nothing to resolve the bootup failure. (Didn’t work)
3. Choose a startup volume - Hold the Option key on startup.  (Didn’t work)
4. Re-install Leopard - Restart the computer and hold the ‘C’ key to boot off the installation disc.  (Didn’t work)

Basically, none of the startup debugging options is doing much at all for me.  I’m going to have to drag the machine to the genius bar where I suspect they’ll tell me the hard drive is broken.  The machine is not covered under Applecare, so I am unsure at this point what the cost to fix it will be and whether it’s worth it.
Anyway, if anyone knows of any other esoteric boot options, let me know!

We went to Minneapolis this past weekend with our weimaraner, Zelda, for a family wedding.  This trip was prepared for by multiple lawyers handling negotiations for our dog to stay in a somewhat pet-friendly downtown skyscraper hotel.  That’s one small step for dog, one giant leap for lawyer-kind.

It was quite an adventure, starting with the careful maneuvering required to get all our stuff up 15 floors, including the dog’s crate while the puppy proceeded to wiggle everywhere.  She was pretty shaky in the elevator.  I guess from a dog’s perspective it’s pretty freaking scary when the floor begins to move under you.  You do also get some really interesting looks from people who don’t expect a 55 pound dog in a somewhat-fancy hotel lobby.  (No, that sure isn’t a chihuahua.)

The second bit of adventure was figuring out where the heck the dog should go to the bathroom.  There was absolutely zero grass outside, but with a few minutes reconnaissance we did managed to find a little round park.  The only problem?  Well, the park was literally crawling with rabbits.  I don’t know if they were some kind of mutant strain that survives in a downtown area, but they sure made it hard for the dog to do anything but want to hunt.

Apart from these small challenges, the dog appeared to really like hanging out in the city.  There were many strange things to smell and an over-abundance of people to lick.  She seemed to have a good built-in detector to recognize the whackos and generally seemed to think it was a blast.

On Saturday, I put on my tuxedo and proceeded to take the dog out to pee right before the wedding service.  Nothing like a guy walking a weimaraner in a tuxedo through a downtown area!  Of course, it got even weirder when I got back at the hotel with the dog….The entire Detroit Lions football team was waiting to use the hotel elevators.  Yeah, the Lions were staying in the same hotel as us at the same time we needed to get up to the wedding service.

At this point, I said “excuse me” to a dozen very large people and shimmied through what looked like a defensive line through the elevator.  The puppy followed closely in my wake with her tail thumping as fast as possible.  We decided to run up the 15 floors in the stairs because the wait for the elevator looked to be about 20 minutes long.  The puppy wasn’t crazy about the idea of going into the stairwell but a couple of the football players made encouraging noises like, “It’s OKAY puppy, you can do it.”  Good stuff.

Through the weekend, the puppy did indeed get used to the elevator and peeing on concrete, but it was a bit more stressful than we had anticipated.  Of course, I’ll never forget the puppy getting attention from the NFL players.  That’s a story that makes the whole thing worthwhile.

This kid is smarter than Governor Palin.  He hacked into Palin’s Yahoo email account by researching some publicly available answers to personal questions and then resetting the password.  I bet upon hearing this, the Governor had one of her famous winks and a quip about soccer moms ready at hand!

Anyway, the silly hacker kid got let into court in both handcuffs and leg shackles, as if he had demonstrated some skill in tae-kwon-do.  For f**k sake, the kid is a computer hacker.  He is hardly a physical danger to anyone, except perhaps himself.  He might be a dumbass for getting caught, but the Republicans really should waive the charges and hire the little bastard!

Products should be easy to use.  Seriously.  You can call Americans stupid or impatient, but no one will read the instruction manual.  Technology is supposed to make your life easier and not become another hassle that you have to deal with.  If it doesn’t blend easily into your everyday life, then you will simply not use it.

The Sony E-Reader is an unfortunate example of a company really not doing enough to make something easy.  The company releases a new revision of their e-book reader every year or two.  From a hardware perspective, it’s a very attractive device.  It has a nice screen, good battery life, and it uses that fancy electronic paper that is easy on the reader’s eyes.  It also supports many file formats, which is a mixed blessing.

Of course, what’s missing here is any mention of how one actually gets content onto the device.  Readers want to be able to turn the device and basically begin reading right away.  Consumers do not have patience for connecting a device to a computer and synchronizing content through some laborious process.  Also, there is no obvious place to buy the content from!  In other words, it is basically a product without any books!

I find it hard to believe that almost a year after the release of the Amazon Kindle, with its integrated wireless book distribution, that Sony is still updating the same old disconnected device.  I love the Kindle, and the freedom for readers that it represents, but I would also like to see viable competition in the marketplace.  Sony, please wake up and get a clue.  Nobody cares what formats your device supports.  We only want to know if we can get a copy of our favorite book inside of 2 minutes.

I know nothing about lighting for photography purposes, but photography is my wife’s hobby, so I agreed to research the subject.  She would like some artificial lighting for taking pictures indoors because the lighting in our house isn’t exactly ideal.  Our inside pictures typically have strange shadows or incorrect renderings of the actual colors because of our inside lighting.  My basic goal is to identify a good starter kit.  Anyway, I spent a good chunk of the morning and afternoon researching the subject as a complete “noob” and like any technical subject, it is replete with jargon.    I’ll try to break down some of the terminology for clarity.

There are two main types of lighting:

1. Continuous lighting -  This is what you’d expect.  An unbroken, always-on light source like a household lamp.
2. Strobe lighting - This is flash photography.  A high amount of light output is delivered in a very short period of time.

Continuous lighting

Continuous lighting comes in several flavors, which are:

• halogen - hot, bright, short bulb lifetimes
• fluorescent - cooler, less bright, cheaper
• incandescent - cheap, standard light bulb
• HMI - best, super expensive

In a studio set, a photographer using continuous lighting often has a key lamp and a fill lamp.  The key lamp is responsible for the main lighting, whereas the fill lamp is used to cover lighting gaps.  The positioning of the lamps is important from a composition standpoint because it determine how any shadows will appear on the subject.

Strobe lighting

I understand how a flash bulb that snaps into a camera works, but I was curious to figure out how a photographer times a separate strobe lamp to coincide with the actual taking of a picture.  Well, it turns out that there are serveral methods by which this is commonly done:

1. The strobe may have a built-in optical sensor that detects the flash on a camera firing and subsequently fires itself.
2. The strobe may be connected to the camera via a cable.
3. The strobe may communicate with the camera via infrared.

Arguments

Photographers appear to endlessly debate the merits of continuous lighting versus strobe lighting.  Many people prefer strobe lighting for human subjects, but others also make arguments in favor of using continuous lighting.  It is worth noting that some amount of continuous lighting is present in any location, whether it is natural light or ambient artificial light in the area.

Commonality

Whether one choose to go with a continuous or strobe setup, there are some common factors that are worth noting when choosing a kit:

1. Color temperature - sunlight is about 5500K (kelvins)
2. Intensity - the amount of watts a lamp can deliver
3. Portability - can the kit be moved easily?
4. Accessories - umbrellas, softboxes, and similar accessories are useful for modifying the light.

Conclusion

I haven’t decided which kit to go with yet, but at least I have some basis by which to judge them now!  As with most purchases, my goal is to figure out what kit will give us the most bang for our buck.  If you have any specific recommendations, please send them along.  Thanks!

The temperature is cooler, leaves are dropping, and days are shorter.  It is probably my favorite season of the year because it’s still warm enough to enjoy playing outside, but without the accompanying crowds of mid-summer.  Unexpectedly though, my favorite part of fall this year though is watching the puppy react to it.

First off, the cooler temperatures seem to translate into higher weimaraner energy and a bounding curiosity.  Maybe smells rotate by season, but everytime we go out now it seems that she is enthustically following the treasure map to a pirate’s treasure.  (This is probably why I have the urge to dress her up as a pirate for Halloween.)  It always seems like more of an adventure when the puppy is along.

We’ve been working a lot on her walking skills outside.  She’s getting better at not pulling, at least when she’s not 100% full of weimaraner stink.  She’s also practicing some obedience-oriented walking commands like heeling, side, front, and finish.  I’m not sure what all that is really for, but my wife assures me Zelda needs to know all that stuff in order to annihilate other puppies at obedience competitions.  (or something)  Anyway, I have been enjoying practicing all that stuff with young puppers when all the sudden she loses her brain and pounces on a blowing leaf.  Her little puppy brain, at 8 months old, still can’t fathom the idea that one could NOT attack that leaf!  It’s fun to get that kind of reminder that one should enjoy being outside and taking part in the season.  Humans please take note.  Do not pass up this opportunity!

Our beast, Zelda, is now 7 months old.  She has had a number of adventures recently  including a cross-country trip to the Grand Tetons, getting spayed, and many visitors that needed licking.  It certainly has been a busy summer for a not-so-little puppy now pushing 50 pounds.

We’ve got her back in class at Narnia now, where she is taking the Intermediate class with actual adult dogs for the first time.  The other dogs appear to be a good deal more with it than the puppies we had in our last round of class.  In other words, they can actually sit and lay down on command.  My Zelda will need to consistently bring her A-game if she wants to show off as the star doggy.

Anyway, the first week of class they asked what trick we should teach our dogs and an 8 year old girl chimes in that the dogs should learn to crawl.  So naturally, I am now stuck teaching my dog to crawl.  This is, of course, not something actually required to pass the class, BUT my Zelda will be ready to show off in the event that they check on whether any dogs can go beyond the call of duty.  We can’t allow for the possibility that someone else’s dog will learn and ours will not.

The other thing I like about this new round of dog class is that your dog can actually FAIL.  Because of this, I waved my finger at the wife that our dog would pass on the first try.  In order to do this, she needs a bunch of practice at walking on a loose leash and generally being calmer than she is now around strangers.  It does help motivate me to train her, though, because I definitely don’t want to enroll her in the same class again!

The Zelda pup will soon be 6 months old.  (Yeah, I’m a sucky blogger.)  She’s now over 40 pounds, has passed two rounds of puppy obedience classes, and has upgraded many sharp puppy teeth.  The teething process was kind of a pain in the ass because puppy teeth are really annoyingly sharp.  Now she has a full set of blunt, but quite powerful adult teeth.  She demonstrates this constantly by chewing through anything you leave her with for more than a few microseconds.  (She’s efficient at what she does.)  Keeping a set of chew safe items within arms reach is now a necessity of life.

It’s funny observing her in the “dog days of summer.”  During the hot days she simply wants to lie in the grass and will not walk anywhere.  In the evenings, she becomes a highly efficient, firefly killing machine.  It’s quite amusing to watch her hunt bug…

We’re looking forward to the family vacation when we’ll find out how young pupper handles a 1,100 mile road trip!

By demand: Zelda Photos