Matt Shelton

Ok, so I didn’t intend to actually read more than one book in a month, but since the first one was so short, and I had a couple of plane flights this month, here we are.

I’ve read several of Gibson’s books. Each was just a little weirder than the one before, but I like weird, so that’s not a big deal. What strikes me is that in each one there’s at least one person who is totally dependant on drugs. Like, cracked out of their goard. I’m fine with that, too, actually… it adds an interesting “lack-of-control” element. Though, in the case of Spook Country, it gives one character a measured level of control over another.

I started reading Gibson because it seemed like the natural following to reading, at the time, all of Stephenson’s novels. I had to take a short break when Quicksilver, the first volume of the Baroque Cycle, was released, but it’s been nice to get back into Gibson again. I’ll have to try to finish off TBC at some point this year.

books, geek life

FileDropper and SmashingApps are teaming up to do their part for the environment. Average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper per year, highest compared to anywhere else in the world. Hundreds of thousands of trees are cut down per day to support the consumption of paper that can be easily avoided.

You can get in on the free storage action here.

I’ll be honest… I’m already pretty green. I recycle and reuse as much as I can. Both sides of my family have always been pretty good about reducing and reusing any resources we can. I drive a fuel efficient sedan and make a (somewhat) good effort to drive at speeds which ensure high gas mileage.

BUT! I did sign up for a free account, so I’ll make some pledges to go even further:

• I pledge to start composting as soon as all of the snow is gone.
• I pledge to never print something I can read digitally.
• I pledge to make a (better) effort to drive at speeds which ensure high gas mileage.

I really enjoy the Paid Until date of 2038. Nice.

Originally via BeantownBloggery.

uncategorized

There’s a great article over at squawkfox about words and phrases which should never touch your resume:

Are you experienced? Sexy. Rather than cite Jimi Hendrix on your resume, pleeease just say what your experience entails. Saying you’re experienced at something and giving the facts on that experience are two very different approaches.

Via Lifehacker.

management management, resume

For a couple of years, I’ve been trying to set aside some time to read regularly. I’d set goals. I’d put a stack of books next to my bed or desk and hope it would just happen. Nothing really worked.

I’m not 100% certain I’ve figured out the best way to get past my inability to act just yet, but I’m going to give it another go. This year I’m aiming to read a book a month. To motivate me, I’ll post on the 1^st of each month which book I plan to read, and whenever I finish it, I’ll post about that. Yes, I’m a little late this month. Since it’s, well, a bit later than the first, and I’ve actually already finished a book this month, I’ll claim marginal success and be encouraged to succeed next month!

I read The Blogging Church by Brian Bailey and Terry Storch. I’d been thinking about how best to re-implement my church’s web site (which isn’t quite done — the link is to the current, and not new, design) and wondered if blogging would be a useful tool or not. I’ve always been a big proponent when it’s the right fit, but my church isn’t that big or that technologically advanced; it would be a big step for them. I’m still not sure it’s the right time, but I’m going to put the tools in place to let them get started when and if they decide it’s the right next step.

The Blogging Church helped me to put some ideas about blogging and its ministry applicability into better perspective. It was an excellent read, and certainly a very timely one as I’d just started the rebuild project when I received the book.

books, geek life, lifehacks blogs, habits, reading

Yesterday I was looking for good instructions on inserting video content into a LiveJournal comment (for someone else) and couldn’t find any. So, after being successful, I felt it my geek duty to write up my directions in case, some day someone else needs them. It’s a calling, I guess?

LiveJournal’s post editor very easily supports inserting media content into posts. There’s a semi-friendly GUI which lets you insert an <embed> block from any major video hosting site (e.g. youtube, photobucket, vimeo, etc.) quickly and easily. The comment editor, however, is just a textarea, so if you want any formatting you’re left to write the HTML yourself. This is no big deal for some, but even most HTML novices only know the basic five html 4.01 tags (a, img, b, i, u), which are fine for 99% of such situations.

As an aside, I would love to rid the world of the non-xhtml-compliant formatting tags, but perhaps that’s just me.

Posting video is a tad more work, though youtube, for instance, makes it painfully easy. They provide a handy dialog to the right of any video with all of the necessary <object> code. You can even customize the background, size, inclusion of related videos, etc. I have to hand it to the folks at youtubegoogle for understanding that their videos should be able to be seen from anywhere, not just their main site.

Well, anyway, youtube wasn’t my problem. Photobucket was. They provide you with an <embed> link only, and while that’s fine for the LJ post editor, it’s incomplete. Here’s a few quick steps to add the code necessary to adapt what Photobucket gives you to what is needed for a video to show up in a LiveJournal comment.

Photobucket

<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i32.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid12.photobucket.com/albums/abc/UserName/Video/fileName.flv">

Youtube

<object width="480" height="295">
	<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9hIQjrMHTv4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"></param>
	<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
	<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>
	<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9hIQjrMHTv4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed>
</object>

Using the Youtube code as a reference, you only have to make a couple of changes:

1. Replace the <embed src=""> code with what Photobucket provides:

<object width="480" height="295">
	<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9hIQjrMHTv4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"></param>
	<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
	<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>
	<embed src="http://i32.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid12.photobucket.com/albums/abc/UserName/Video/fileName.flv" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed>
</object>

2. Your photobucket video dimensions may be different, so you’ll need to fix the height and width in both locations: the <object> tag and the <embed> tag.

<object width="448" height="361">
	<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9hIQjrMHTv4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"></param>
	<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
	<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>
	<embed src="http://i32.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid12.photobucket.com/albums/abc/UserName/Video/fileName.flv" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="448" height="361"></embed>
</object>

…and that’s it. It’s not at all difficult, but if you’re someone (else) that doesn’t need or want to know the difference between an <object> tag and an <embed> tag and why you need both to properly display inline video, a couple of simple steps to make your online life easier can make all the difference.

blogging, code, geek life, how-to how-to, LiveJournal, photobucket, video, youtube

Edit: The latest version of the SyntaxHighlighter plugin, called SyntaxHighlighter Evolved, now supports version 2.0 and has built-in shortcode support which is way cooler than what I did here. :-)
Read more…

blogging, code SyntaxHighlighter, WindowsLiveWriter, wordpress