I was browsing the Museum of Modern Betas and noticed AIM Pages was released in beta. I logged in with my AIM ScreenName, created a profile, and filled out the Basic Info section. I selected “Straight” as my sexual orientation from the drop down menu and “Christian other” as my religion, and this was the result after clicking save:
Something tells me there may be a few bugs left to iron out before the “beta” comes off. Plus, I couldn’t add any of my friends on AIM to “My Buddies” because nobody on my list has created a profile yet. I can see why…
Recently, I decided to try out Ruby on Rails and see what all of the commotion around Rails is about. I’ve managed to get it setup on my OS X machine by following several conflicting and confusing instructions. Only after I went through the pain and suffering of manual setup did I discover Locomotive, a simple tool to develop Ruby on Rails apps. It’s everything you need all in one elegant package and you should check it out if you’re at all interested in RoR on OS X.
Following ONLamps’ excellent getting started article (and it’s followup), I have been able to make a simple demo app that retrieved content from a database using the generate scaffold command as a foundation, but for some reason when I try to edit, delete, or do anything else I get mysterious errors relating to ActiveRecord after trying to change a few things. I’ve familarized myself with Ruby by reading some of Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby (which I highly recommend reading), but I’m confused when it comes to the vast Rails API. I think I’ll be ordering Agile Web Development with Rails before going any further.
Nevertheless, I was impressed on how easy it was to create a custom template and how retrieving stuff from the database just worked in the template. I can only imagine what stuff you can do when you actually learn to use the framework properly. 
Many times I find something I want to post that is too small for a full-blown blog post. Thus, I’ve added mini-posts, or asides, to the website. Take this very post for example. Expect more frequent updates from now on in the form on these small tidbits of whatever I fancy at the moment. (Also, I apologize for the recent decline in updates… I’ve been busy with school exams and work as of lately.)
I recieved my VS-840 multitrack recorder a few weeks ago and it’s a nice little machine. I am getting started with recording and this will be the heart of my setup. Despite not having anything the plug into it yet I’ve already gotten used to some of its features. However, the total time I can record on a Zip 100 disk on medium-high quality is 49 minutes between all tracks. That means for a simple stereo 2 track recording I can only record about 25 minutes at a time. That doesn’t sound too good because I plan on using this to record long concerts sometimes.
To remedy this, I’m going to add a hard drive to the VS-840. But before I can do that, I had to upgrade the firmware to that of the VS-840’s replacement: the VS-840 EX. The difference between the two is a larger Zip 250 drive and newer firmware with more features. Although Roland offered an expensive upgrade kit for upgrading VS-840 to an EX, the secret is that the EX firmware can typicially be applied to most plain 840s. Luckily, my 840 took the firmware upgrade without an issue and I now have a VS-840 EX sans the bigger Zip drive. The smaller Zip drive is okay though, because now with the new firmware I can install a hard disk. If you’re interested in how I did it, check out my success story on the VS Planet forums.
Now I have to save up for some good microphones and I’ll be set for recording!
Today I attended the SIU Computer Science Day for high schoolers in the area. The Computer Science department hosts many sessions about Linux, basic programming and basic web design. They also host a web design competition, where you have the day to develop a web site design from the instructions they give you. I was the only person who knew any web development skills, so the other 3 people on my school’s team were gathering images and information while I coded everything and designed the graphics in the matter of a few hours.
The final result is pictured on the right and is available online. We had to use the standard SIU template that used tables, but everything inside of it is pure CSS. Although I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted, it still was fun to make. We got 2nd in the competition, which didn’t really make too much sense. Third place was awarded to a school who used animated GIF headers, tables, and JavaScript that generated a cursor trail (that breaks outside of IE, thankfully). First place was awarded to a school who used tables, uneven text spacing and even a blink tag. The fact that the judges graded all 15 or so entries in 5 minutes didn’t help either. Oh well, you guys can be the judge here.
