All posts by warwick

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About warwick

I manage a team of professional technical consultants for a Fortune 100 company. I like clever uses of technology whether it's in a data center or the kitchen of my house.

Raku and Me

My Hobbies

Hello!

This is a new feature of the house of warwick: a pottery weblog. I'm going to write about my classes, new things I learn, and some of the pieces that inspire me. I'm starting a Raku class tomorrow (May 20, 2003) which is something that I've never tried. I've already completed two classes at Springfield Pottery under the direction of Nathan and Jen Falter. These two have become my “clay dad” and “clay mom”, encouraging me to be detail-oriented in my work and keep my decorations simple. I've done well enough impress my family and some polite friends; that's why I'm taking the raku class.

Lovingly referred to as “Camp Raku” by the classes, raku classes are an adventure. Different clay, glazes and firing techniques give the pottery an entirely different presence. I'm certainly looking forward to my class time in the following weeks. Firing and “camp” day is July 11 and 12. It seems such a long time, but I know it will come quick. I'm taking some sketches to class with me and I'll try to set some goals: three pieces each day, all of the same shape. That will help me build technique. Maybe cylinders the first day, bowls the second day and altered forms the next. I'd like to limit the size of the pieces by clay weight (4 lbs.) to make sure that I don't let things get out of hand.

Planning will be the key to the whole thing. My wife has taught me that documenting what I do will ensure I can repeat a success and avoid a mistake. I'll plan form types and triming ideas on the same page. If possible, I'll share those ideas here.

–srk

Week of May 19th Goals

Weblog

This week's goals:

–Get webserver access or get one running for a testable Moveable Type server inside my company.

 

–Write a weblog guide for publishing internally

 

–Hold a Q&A session with my technical peer group, HR and management.

Location Freedom

Weblog

I am finally free to post to my weblog when and where I want too! I'm one of the lucky souls who:

–own an extra computer

–have an always-on Internet connection

–Radio from Userland

Now that Radio's installed on the downstairs iMac, my TiBook is free to spend it's processor cycles on more important things, like the Aqui UI (hee hee).

Homeserveradio

Weblog

First post with Radio on the new server… Yeah! I've got Radio running on an original iMac in our basement. Now, I can post from my TiBook while on the wireless network upstairs and from my PC at work, all using the same licensed copy of Radio.

Update:
I'm already seeing a problem with the Google! box macro–I need to re-enter my API key. I'm not there now–I'll do it when I get back.

Up next… SSL!

Update 2:

Google key re-entered….

Weblogs are now "Online Authors"

Weblog

The Outdated Label of Weblog

I'd like to unofficially declare the label of weblog dead. Let's replace it with something more descriptive and with less of a “geek” tinge…

Online Author

Most of the articles I'm reading by online authors are not diaries of their daily life. They are not a log of everything they are doing–far from it. Who would want to know that kind of detail (“Now I'm headed to the bathroom…”) or, to be more accurate, why would anyone care? I am interest in ongoing stories with open endings whose content falls with my current sphere of interest.

Examples:

Dave Winer: I read Dave's scripting.com to hear of his crusade's progress in the halls of Harvard University. His discussions, like all of us, contain emotion and depth and at other times, they lack emotion and depth and real content of interest. Make a tape recording of your own conversations and discussions with your peers and decide how you measure up.

Jon Udell: Jon's a good barometer of the technology industry from the inside of a traditional publication. I used to read ZDNet's Anchor Desk and editorial columns of trade magazine and found that their views were too sanitized and I had no perspective by which to judge their content. I can read Jon and compare current posts to recent posts to archive posts, deciding for myself if he's strayed from editorial to opinion or back.

Comments?

srk at mac dot com

Giving back to the Radio Community

Weblog

Here's an email I sent to Dave Winer:

—-

Dave:

Thanks for Radio and thanks for Frontier. Really. This is one of the few pieces of software I've pruchased as a luxury that's turned into a necessity.

I made some changes to the Google box generator (google.macros.box) that I wanted to share with everyone. Normally, I'd post these in a discussion group, but one of the changes is fundamental.

Here's the section where I made the change:

(code from macro)

Notice the link to the “Google” logo graphic. It comes direct from Google using a link they supply to webmasters who use the Google search engine on their site. That will ensure that the link stays active and is served on an appropriate level of bandwidth.

Next, the file name of the logo “Logo_60gry.gif” infers that it has a grey background. It does! The grey color's hex code is BABABA, changeable in the first line of the macro. Default is white (same URL but file name is “Logo_60wht.gif”) and optional is the grey that I'm using and black (same URL but file name is “Logo_60blk.gif”). The black version is the only one not anti-aliased.

Now, here's where I need your help: how can the text colors be changed? I'm hoping that with your resources you can share this and retrieve an answer much faster than me. I've noticed that no one is reading my weblog (yet!) so mentioning this there won't provide much feedback.

Most of all, Dave, like the proud son, I wanted to show you that I'm trying to contribute and give back. I've read your DaveNet columns and scripting.com for the last 6 years and now I have something of value to give back. I hope you find this information to have as much value as I do.

Best regards,

Steve Kirks
http://radio.weblogs.com/0111853/

—–

Let's see if he can help us out!