rev's blog
Wrap Your Head(er) Around HTML 5
Submitted by rev on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 07:58
If you have landed here, it's likely you are trying to get a bead on the next best thing since tabbed browsing. You also, like me, may have looked for explanations around the web and come up frustrated. One of the best ways I learn about new specifications and software is by seeing them in action. If I can see it built from the ground up and what it's supposed to do, I get a better handle on the concepts at hand.
Note: If you would like to see some examples of HTML 5/CSS 3, try this site.
This tutorial at net tuts+ lays out in very clear terms what is new in HTML 5 while showing some styling tricks to
get CSS 3 to work some magic in select browsers. From the doctype declaration to rounded corners (a long-time struggle for designers) to
making striped lists & required fields in forms – it's all so much easier. For the average user, everything can look a lot prettier and
function more cleanly, not to mention the interactive capabilities.
Help Me Honor a Great Man
Submitted by rev on Sat, 03/27/2010 - 21:20
I was recently contacted by Mass Giorgini, a kind of real-life Buckaroo Banzai, who lives, teaches and produces music in my hometown. He and his brother, Flav (a punk-rock heavyweight & generally great human), grew up in the same tiny neighborhood as me.
Their family was the only other "weird" one on the block, other than mine. Like my mother, their father Aldo was an artist. The familiar smells of paint and thinner permeating their basement reminded me of home. Not to mention that Aldo was very nice to me. He was that way with everyone.
When his sons got into punk music, he stood by their efforts to start an all-ages club where local and touring bands could play - the only one for miles. And, no matter how freaky you looked, Aldo still treated you like a human.
Aldo passed much too early for those that loved him. He is now being honored at
I Want My Wubi
Submitted by rev on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 21:58
So I have a LAMP server I set up using Ubuntu Server at my home. I had to do this because I have a Windows laptop and the Virtual Machine & WAMP/XAMPP softwares were not working for some reason. But then someone did something amazing (amazing to me anyway).
I needed something that I could use on the road. So, I began backing up all of my data on my laptop (a must at all times) in case of data loss. You see to do a dual-boot system (a Win/Linux machine), most of the time you have to resize the Windows partition and create a new one to install Linux on.
While doing all of that, you hope that your drive doesn't get hosed or any number of other things. If that happens you will have to reinstall your other OS and any data, that is.. if you backed it up. Anecdotally in one instance, I lost the MBR after a Linux Mint install and couldn't load Windows recently.
Nothing Tastes Better
Submitted by rev on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 16:38
...than success.
My site is now fully operational, thanks to Drupal & Lynda.com. It's been up for about a month since it was officially unveiled to the public, but I've been adding functionality and working out some bugs. By bugs, I mostly mean my coding errors and attempts to use incompatible plugins.
For those not in the know, Drupal is a website Content Management System (CMS). Basically it makes a dynamic website that's easy to administer by people with little to no coding skills, once it's set up and after adding some modules.
Let's Keep It Real
Submitted by rev on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:02
My pals over at FreePress.net keep me up-to-date on matters regarding "net neutrality". In short it's what helps keep the Internet open to small entrepreneurs as well as the larger companies. This may not seem like something that pertains to you, but as television & web content merge (as I think they will), and as we shop online more & more, you may start to feel the pinch.
Leveraging the Power of Social Networks for Fame & Fortune
Submitted by rev on Mon, 01/25/2010 - 04:36
As you may have seen from my 2 previous posts:
I used my moribund blog (really I hadn't posted with any regularity for a year or so), Twitter & Facebook to goad ThinkGeek.com into taking a second look at a customer service issue that my girlfriend had raised with them.
Robot Rights!
Submitted by rev on Fri, 12/04/2009 - 04:47
So I've set up a tongue-in-cheek cause on Facebook called Robot Rights!
It promotes securing rights for robot-kind due to their possible intelligence (artificial or not), but it's also attached to a real charity that aims to increase access for schoolchildren to the technological tools necessary to stay current and competitive in the information age. Its focus is "low-performing schools".
