Year: 2006

  • December 31, 2006

    2006 in Review

    This post I have been thinking about for a couple of days now, and I am not sure what to say. 2006 was a pretty good year for me. JLC Web Design had a benchmark year, doing pretty well client wise. I’ve picked up a few new skills, like programming in AJAX and C. I’ve taken more pictures and got a litany of new toys, including a new laptop, camera, mp3 player, and of course, my Treo 650.

    I also started a couple of series on this site that I hope to continue. The first one is The Business, where I give some insight on running my business, JLC Web Design. I also started a series on productivity and staying organized.

    Coming in 2007: a new design to the blog, and hopefully a whole new project. All in all, it was a pretty good year. I’ve learned a lot, and hope ’07 is just as good! Later!

  • December 27, 2006

    Facebook vs. MySpace II

    The Showdown

    This is part 2 of a 3 part series that started here.

    Add-Ons

    Since joining Facebook and Myspace, both sites have added a number of features. Facebook has made major advancements in features and technologies, using the latest programming languages and web standards. I have also written multiple posts on the new features. Some of the more notable ones are the photo albums, the notes and the API. The photos I love because I like taking photos, but don’t want to post friend pics on my Flickr site. With the Facebook Albums, I can organize and add photos, and tag friends. And I can add way more than on MySpace. AND with Facebook’s built in Java unloader, I don’t have to do it 1 at a time. The Facebook Notes allow me to add thoughts and (more importantly) import my posts from this blog to my facebook profile. While I haven’t used the API yet, it’s nice to know that if I want to build an application using Facebook, I can.

    There are a number of other features that Facebook added that I can go on and on about, but won’t. Just to mention them: The mini feed, Share This! and the Facebook Badge (mine is on the About page). As for Myspace, the add-ons are not as plentiful. I can add more than 8 friends on my profile page now! Up to 24. But I am sticking with 8. I can also add more pictures. I do not know what the limit is, but with no way to organize the photos, I wouldn’t want to add too many anyway. One cool feature is the ability to add videos to your profile, which I actually took advantage of. Other than that, not to much that I have seen is going on at MySpace.

    Sorry MySpace, but Facebook wins this round too. The people over at Facebook have been busy making things better for it’s users. In the last installment of this series, I will be talking about the user friendliness of both sites. Later!

  • December 23, 2006

    SwishMax

    SwishMax

    As a developer, you will get the occasional client that specifically requests flash elements on their site. Me being more of a coder than a graphics guy, I need an easy to use [cheap] flash application that can help me out. That application is SwishMax.

    At $100, SwishMax is your best bet for easy to use at that price. It is no replacement for Macromedia Adobe Flash, but it gets the job done for my needs. Simple transitions, linking, sounds, etc. And that is just scratching the surface. Based on some of the tutorials on the site, I have not tapped SwishMax’s power.

    Bottom Line: If you are looking for cheap easy flash software, SwishMax is your best bet. Later.

  • December 20, 2006

    Facebook vs. MySpace I

    The Showdown

    After using both Facebook and MySpace for some time now, I have been able to see how they both have grown and what kind of things the have going on for the user. Since I’m a big ‘groups of three’ person, I will break this up into 3 parts- The Overview, Add Ons, and User Friendliness. The last topic will be the most in depth, since it is the most important. Right now, it’s time for The Overview.

    First of all, Facebook and MySpace are both social networking sites where you can set up a profile, friend people and search for people with similar interests. Facebook up until recently was open only to students at schools that agreed to have it. I started on Facebook last January and followed with MySpace in April. I did not like MySpace for a number of reasons, but joined to link up with people who could not get Facebook. Facebook was a nice looking interface that allowed me to link up with not only Scranton students(#), but any of my friends from home who went to college. I was able to link up with people I haven’t spoken to in a couple of years. MySpace was similar when I joined, though most of my MySpace friends are also Facebook friends.

    Facebook has a much cleaner look to it, with virtually no advertisements. I cannot say the same for MySpace. One think I really don’t like about MySpace is that it is packed to the max with ads where ever you go and it gets pretty annoying. The Facebook ads are nicely integrated into the design, and not in-your-face, but still noticeable. And Facebook offers cheap and easy advertising for us students.

    The final point on this ‘overview’ is that MySpace has so much spam on it, where Facebook has none. Everytime I log into MySpace I see I have a new message from a profile that was either deleted, or a message that looks like this:

    Hey Cuti, I saw ur MySpAcE ProFiLe and luvved it! Hit me up sum tym to chat! XOXO DevilGurlPrincess69

    As much as I love it, it’s horribly annoying. And the same thing goes for bulletin spam about porn and Viagra. If I cannot do anything on my end to fix it, MySpace should do something on theirs. Sorry MySpace, but Facebook takes this round easy.

    Next tym Time, I will talk about what new features both have gotten since I have joined. Later!

  • December 19, 2006

    Backing Up Data

    Computer

    Backing up data (or the lack there of) seems to be a pretty big problem among college students, or just PC users in general. My most recent computer, the Gateway, tanked on me a few weeks ago. After some tinkering, I diagnosed it as a hard drive problem, and prayed I didn’t lose my data. Luckily, it was recoverable. However, not all that much was on the line because of my back ups.

    Admittedly, I do not back up as often as a should. However, I do back up more than most. And I get a lot of, “What should I do to back up my stuff?” Honestly, backing up is just copying your documents somewhere else. Having a second copy of them. There are procedures you can do; but a simply copy and paste somewhere, like a CD or flash drive, will do the trick for the important stuff. I use an external hard drive.

    With an external, you can theoretically copy your entire hard drive. The way I have things set up (or should anyway), when I first got the hard drive I manually copied all of my documents to it. I also set up Norton Ghost to copy my hard drive exactly to the external. I scheduled my PC to do this weekly. Right now, I am also looking for a program that will sync files between the two drives. That way I don’t have to worry about over writing documents or losing any data.

    Setting that up will seem like a lot of work at first, but if you’re like me, it is well worth it. Later!

  • December 16, 2006

    Gears of War Follow Up

    Gear of War

    I finished Gears of War recently, and it was awesome. The game was short but left room for a sequel (Halo 2 esq). After playing the campaign on single player and co-op, I’ve gotta say Co-Op is so much more fun. Running the missions with a friend gives you that extra communication/fire power that at times you really need.

    I’m going through it now on hardcore, which is pretty serious. Now that I am home and have a good internet connection (not a flaky WiFi one), I will also be doing online play a lot more! Later!

    (PS- Now that I have a break, I will probably be posting more.)

  • December 8, 2006

    Using GMail for files

    GMail

    As a college student I am often bouncing around from PC to PC as I go through my day on campus. This often means when I want to work on a project in between classes, I end up emailing it to myself and keeping it in my inbox. GMail, of-course, lends itself to this quite nicely. With it’s search, star, and label features, as well as close to 3GB of storage, you can make a nice file server out of GMail.

    Up until just recently, I have been emailing myself these documents with some fake subject and body text just to make the process faster. However, since you can easily search your mail, there is a better way. What I have been doing recently, and plan to do with past assignments, is in the subject put the name of the project, attach the project and in the body of the email use comma separated key words. For example, if I wrote a PHP program for my Web Dev class that uploaded images and emailed myself the PHP file. The subject would be “Image Uploader” and in the body of the email would be “PHP, Web Dev class, school, project” etc. This makes it infinitely easier to go back later and search for something you may have lost. Later!

  • December 5, 2006

    New Facebook Features

    Facebook Prefs

    It’s been a short while, and I apologize for that. Right now it is crunch time in school with the end of the semester, and my primary laptop’s hard drive bombed on me (the third to do so on me, on as many computers). Right now I am on the back-up, which is not as good, which is making me less productive. But that is for another post. Now, I want to talk about a couple of new Facebook features.

    The first is pictured above. I just discovered this a couple of days ago, but it launched in mid-November. The sliding bars allow you to indicate what type of stories you prefer to read and who you want to see less or more stories about. From a user stand point, the sliding bars are pretty cool. I frankly don’t care who is in a relationship, or who friended whom today. The “Read More Stories” about a particular person is kind of creepy. The “Read Less Stories” is nice. From a programmer’s point of view, the sliding bars are really cool. They look nice and are really easy to use. It’s a smooth interface and it auto saves. Well done Facebook Engineers.

    The second feature is the Facebook Firefox Toolbar. This is a tool bar that allows you to quickly search Facebook, share websites you are visiting, and alerts you on New friend requests, wall posts, messages and pokes. It will also tell you when friends write a note, update their profiles, or when someone writes on their walls. You also have the ability to enable/disable features and add links to it. Over all it’s a nice little tool for the Facebook power user. I think this will make it so I am less often checking Facebook and more often doing real work. Later!

  • November 26, 2006

    Xbox Marketplace gets better

    Xbox Live Marketplace

    One of the selling points of the Xbox 360 was free access to the Xbox Marketplace, where you could download game demos, new levels, trailers, etc. This is called the “Silver Package” on Live. Since November 22nd 2006, one year after the 360 came out, you could also download TV and Movies (available in HD as well). You use Microsoft points to get TV shows like South Park, UFC, The Nine and much more. Movies include V for Vendetta, The Matrix and The Untouchables to name a few. The list of companies partnered with Xbox Live can be found here and the pricing can be found here

    According to Joysig, the prices break down like this:

    • New 720p HD movies- $6
    • New 480p SD movies – $4
    • “Classic” 720p HD movies – $4.50
    • “Classic” 480p SD movies – $3
    • 720p HD television – $3
    • 480p SD television – $2

    Not to shabby if you ask me! I have not tried the service yet, but will most likely post my experience when I do. Later!

  • November 23, 2006

    Gears of War (for Xbox 360)

    Gears of War Screen

    Two Tuesdays ago was a pretty big day for games on the 360. Call of Duty III (CoD III), a game I was highly anticipating due to its amazing prequel, and Gears of War (GoW) came out. I happened to pick up both that week and promptly played CoD III until I got to busy to play, and then when the work let up, played Gears of War. Here is how that game stacks up.

    I didn’t really know what to expect from GoW. It looked cool, with a Halo-esq feel to it. However, I grossly underestimated this game. Not only does it look kick ass graphics wise, but the game play is pretty awesome. It takes place in the future, where you are fighting in a post-apocalyptic world against “The Locusts.” It’s a team based game where you have to look after your squad or you won’t win. The controls are pretty sophisticated, and because of that the game has a pretty high learning curve but the basics are intuitive. It’s in third person, which allows you to hide against walls and behind almost anything. From there you can move to another hiding spot or rush out, jump over walls, etc. When behind these formations you can blind shoot, a feature I like a lot. You can shoot enemies while still hiding, which isn’t very accurate, but effective against a lot of locusts.

    The weapon set is also really sweet. The default weapon is an AK/chainsaw, and when you are up close and personal with an enemy, that chainsaw comes in handy. And using it looks awesome. There is also a weapon called “The Hammer of Dawn,” which harnesses the power of the sun to obliterate the target.

    As for multiplayer, you can do co-op, versus and Live. Co-Op is fun- your friend becomes part of your squad, and you guys have to communicate and work together to beat the levels. VS pits you 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 and you guys just find each other and go to town. Once you die, you’re dead until the end of the round. Live is the same way, just with more people. It’s cool with bigger teams, but again, if you guys don’t work together, you will probably lose.

    Over all, the game is amazing. One of the best. The graphics and detail, the game play, the online experience. I was excited about Call of Duty III, but Gears of War is clearly the better game here. Later.