Releasing more high resolution photos under creative commons

I got quite a few pleasing shots this past Wednesday when I visited the Dallas World Aquarium with my parents. I decided to process some of my favourites for use as wallpapers on my Macs and I am sharing them with you. I present for your viewing/wallpapering pleasure …

Beautiful horror

There is a screensaver for X11 called "Galaxy." The concept is rather simple. As the screen is initialized you are presented with a number of a galaxies. These are simple clusters of pixels arranged in a disc or spiral. It approximates what we see into galaxies from …

How do you design for density?

Lately we've seen a lot of movement towards usability and clean design on the web. Indeed it's a relief, and quite needed. I feel like we're still missing something.

A couple examples:

In the case of tabular data Veerle Pieters has a couple of excellent tutorials on …

Found time to practice again!

Today I recorded two practice sessions, and I'm pumped. There first one I was mainly working on strumming and keeping an even rhythm through a chord progression. I chose Matchbox 20's Rest Stop to work on because I can sing it without butchering it too badly.

Recorded …

Keys to the kingdom

Here's the most complicated fingerstyle piece I've been able to do so far. I'm working on one that's much more complex, but I can't get through it all the way yet, especially not up to tempo.

I love the sound of this one. It gives my fingers a good workout, and I move …

What is the meaning of my life?

This post is in response to Question of the Day

The question today is what is the meaning of your life. That's close to the ultimate question everyone seems to be asking, what is the meaning of life, which is unanswerable. Luckily, this slight variation to that …

Don't buy from Fantom Drives/Micronet

I bought a fantom drive in January. It's failing. I believe it's their enclosure rather than the drive inside. Contacted support via email, no response. Tried to call, got voicemail, no response.

Posted a review on newegg where I bought it - immediate response! …

A christy triple play

Christy: what is urethra?

James: the thing you pee through.

Christy: urethra franklin?

Alex's magic stick is glowing towards me. (she calls my iPhone a magic stick)

I'm drunk, I may steal too many.

French Onion non-Casserole Casserole

1 lb. Green beans, fresh or frozen, not canned

8-12 oz. Cheese of choice. I used a smoked provologne, you could use Gruy

Apple wows us again

I wish I had Apple stock.

We've been expecting an SDK, and a path for getting 3rd party apps on the iPhone and iPod touch for a while now. Even with the expectation there I am blown away. Not only do we have ridiculously cool and high tech hardware, but it looks like …

Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts

Nine Inch Nails has just released an Instrumental collection.

I've been waiting for something like this for ages. Trent Reznor has always been amazingly creative in the soundscapes he creates. Even some of his earliest works are more layered an detailed than a good …

Total lunar eclipse photos

Putting the post up now to maybe snag some extra search engine traffic

Photos will appear here in the next hour for the 2008 lunar eclipse visible from North America. Got some good pictures from my home near Dallas, TX. It's cloudy, but the clouds are moving fast so …

I do not know what to call this one

My dinner tonight followed an interesting path.

I sliced a large Avocado, set aside.

Chopped some Tomatoes, set aside.

Julienned Red Bell Pepper, thrown into hot dry pan to sear.

Chopped 3 small zuchini, tossed into pan with pepper, lowered heat.

Dusted with Paprika, …

Getting the hang of Garageband

Spent a couple hours messing around in garageband today. It's got some annoying tics, but there's a lot that you can do with it and it's fairly easy.

Here's a clip of a work in progress. This is a cover of Linkin Park's Pushing Me Away. Right now I have the same …

West Texas Pano

Trying something new here. Here's a panorama I put together a couple weeks back from my drive across Texas. I'm putting a high res version up here free for all to use. The jpg here is about 9 MB. If you want to use it in a print project, just contact me and I'll …

Best movie sequel, ever.

This post is in response to today's Question of the Day.

I didn't have to think about this one long. Most of you know movie sequels rarely live up to the original film they are based on. There's always good sequels... but hardly ever QUITE as good as #1. Well I've …

A day in the life of me

Happy year of the Rat!

Super Sunday

Today many Americans sit around their TV, stuffing their faces (two things I'm all for in celebratory situations.)

The thing is, they're watching men play a game. A game the men are paid millions of dollars to play-far better pay than most doctors and scientists. A …

Crossing Texas

Spent today on the road.