portfolio link!

i have sufficiently owned my history final, despite my frequent mind-wandering in class to storyboard flash projects and the like.

anyway, here's the portfolio link.

i'd also like to take the time to apologize for my heartless dreamweaver comment. i like dreamweaver, and it probably would've taken me half the time to do my portfolio in dreamweaver instead of by hand, but as a general principle i personally just really like to hand code stuff myself. it sucks time like a black hole, but i get this insane, godly feeling of accomplishment when i do it. i considered doing it in flash at first, actually, but realized quickly that would probably suck more time out of me than was necessary. also, my flash disk is broken :( must obtain new one... (off to dc++!)

slightly altered after effects

so no matter what i do, the audio is still a little glitchy. but it doesn't get as thrown off now, so this is the updated link for it.

scientists have created a self-replicating robot

which i think sounds pretty groovy. read for yourself.

also, the most amusing thing i've run into today (gacked from one of my livejournal friends) is How to Destroy the Earth. you know, in case there's anyone else in the class who would like to know how.

i've been wasting my tuesday

tooling about on the internet, and wound up on a blog called threadbared that takes those vintagey clothing patterns you can buy at the craft store and makes fun of the packaging.

one of my personal favorites was this one:

“You’re shitting me! I’m going to be on the cover of Doll Crafter magazine!?! Tell me you’re not shitting me!! You have got to be shitting me!”

also, the guy over at x-entertainment went to this store out in the middle of nowhere and wound up finding a treasure trove of items that are about a decade too late for our time. things like ninja turtle postcards, mario napkins, and salsa flavored sunflower seeds, for example. go see.

old news story from ~5 years ago

Student Suspended Over
Suspected Use of PHP

friends don't let friends do PHP.

adobe vs. macromedia: top 10

i belong on the mailing list for experts-exchange, which if you google (i'm too lazy to link it) will turn up a site dedicated to answering any and all computer-related problems, issues, glitches, what have you. they also have the occasional article of some sort, and in this last e-mail someone wrote up a list of what adobe should do now that it has macromedia. it's cute, so i thought i'd post it.

From MHenry, Macromedia Page Editor
Adobe Vs. Macromedia - Top 10: Surely everyone has heard that Adobe will be buying Macromedia. The real question is, what is this brute going to look like when all the dust settles. Adobe, sit up straight and pay attention, here's my wish list.

1. Please don't get rid of FreeHand. I love this program. Everything about it is sexy: Multiple pages, no switching between direct select and the arrow tool -- trust me, this program is the Swiss Army Knife of vector illustration. The only justificatin for using Illustrator over FreeHand is that most printers don't know what the heck to do with a FreeHand file.
   
2. If you are going to dump Fireworks, at least incorporate some of the tools into Photoshop. Wouldn't it be great to have the gradient control of Fireworks in Photoshop? Or the vector tools?
   
3. Let Macromedia use the tabbed panels. Remember when Adobe sued Macromedia to prevent them from using their interface? Hopefully, we can get rid of the God-awful interface that MX+ users are faced with.
   
4. Get rid of all the garbage that Macromedia spewed out this last year or so: FlashPaper? Contribute? Captivate? Flex? Who cares? Apparently, Macromedia thinks all us freelancers are a bottomless pit of money. Incorporate these tools into Flash and Dreamweaver the way you should have in the first place or get rid of them.
   
5. Quit pricing upgrades differently. I don't care if I have version 1.0, quit charging me like I never bought anything from you. Let me upgrade if you are offering an upgrade! Hey Adobe, want to make some quick money? Let users of Director 8.0 and prior upgrade. Now that Director supports DVD, there's a legitimate reason for some of us to buy the newest version.
   
6. Upgrade Fontographer and quit charging so much for Adobe fonts. You'll be making plenty of money now, so cut us a break!
   
7. It's Dreamweaver, ok? Not GoLive. Don't even think about it. We all switched to Dreamweaver because it didn't muck with our code. Of course, in MX2004 we now get stuff like ">!--DWLayoutEmptyCell--> " in blank cells. Hmmm, wonder if Pagemill is still around?
   
8. Not every program is worth $400 or more. Sure, Acrobat Professional is a nice program but it doesn't do anything! You can't even create a PDF from scratch using it. It's a plugin, nothing more. Price it accordingly.
   
9. Please don't get rid of FreeHand.(see #1)
   
10. More complete manuals with purchase. I hate buying "studio" versions. You get this scrawny little book that doesn't cover half the features. If you want to encourage me to buy the studio, then give me all the manuals. At least in PDF format.

Ok, so it was more of a rant than a wish list. The truth is, I'm hopeful that this merger will bring good things to the community. I really do hope that Adobe will incorporate some of the more useful Macromedia tools. I wish that Adobe will be able to build quality apps with a smaller footprint. I hope that Macromedia's innovation and Adobe's quality will combine to build apps that are superior to what we have today.

And I wish I would have bought Macromedia stock a couple of weeks before the news broke!

Contact MHenry: MHenry@experts-exchange.com

issues with the sound

that i can't seem to fix. you hear it immediately when it starts; the song skips back a couple of times and since i've tried exporting in several different ways in several different file formats and the sound is still glitched, i've deducted there was a problem with the original song file in the first place. ARGH. that's frustrating, especially since i cued a lot of the "actions" to the music.

this project underwent some changes--it was first intended to be about solar power and how much it rocks, then it went to hybrid cars b/c i didn't think i'd have enough time to work in solar cells anyway, then it went to the atomic bomb b/c i couldn't get the amount of footage i wanted for hybrid cars, and then it wound up being somehow related to how the simple maneuver of "duck and cover" will save you from the sun exploding and killing everything.

in case you're unfamiliar with its history, "duck and cover" is this short from the '50s instructing schoolkids what they should do in the case of an atomic bomb being dropped on their heads. apparently, crawling under your desk and putting your hands over your head as you assumed the fetal position was enough to save you from nuclear fallout. it's kind of cute and kind of... well, no, it's really dated, and insanely silly, especially 50 years later. practically all of my footage came from that short; the footage of the "sun exploding" is footage of the a-bomb going off in japan (whether it's hiroshima or nagasaki i'm not sure). this page has more information on the original short, as well as a link to the site where i got all the footage. everything there is under a creative commons license, so it's totally free for public usage and viewing.

i was kind of aiming to poke fun at the ridiculous idea that the mere act of ducking and covering would save you from an atomic bomb being dropped on your head, so i took the duck and cover rule and applied it to the equally ridiculous idea of the sun exploding (of course, it could happen millions of years after we're already dead anyway)--and so i guess it's doubly ridiculous that ducking and covering would save you from the ridiculous notion that the sun would explode in our time? and the beatles' song adds that oh-so ominous tone--"here comes the sun, man. you're so frickin' screwed."

i have to shower the s.o. with good things for allowing me to utilize his webspace, as i am sorely out myself.

remember kids: duck and cover!

i'm going to try to fix that audio glitch in time for the portfolio presentations, though i imagine all i really need to do is to grab another copy of the song, preferably off the actual cd this time rather than the marvelous world of file sharing. i hope it's ok i'm using a copyrighted song; it's not like this movie is going to start making the rounds on the internet and generate insane media buzz, after all.