08-19-2008

Bitter:Sweet Puts on a Great Show

I’ve been going out to see a lot of live music lately. Tonight, I had the pleasure of seeing Bitter:Sweet at the Parish. The show apparently started much earlier than I’m used to. I got to the club a little after eleven, expecting to have missed just a few songs. Instead, the door man said that he’d only charge me $5 since it was so late. I only got to see half a dozen songs or so, but I was very glad I did get to catch the band.

The sound at the club was a bit disappointing, but the band still put on a great show. I wasn’t too familiar with the background of the band, except that their publicity photos show just two people; however, there were six people on stage: a DJ, guitarist/trumpeter, bass player, drummer, violinist, and lead singer/keyboard player.

They have a rich cinematic sound that reminds me of several of my favorite bands: part Propellerheads, part Kirsty MacColl, part Morcheeba, and a little bit of Andrew Bird.

Posted by Matt in video, music | No Comments »

02-22-2008

Three Music Videos to Inspire Creativity

Smashing Magazine recently linked to a bunch of creativity inspiring music videos. Besides the OK Go video I’ve blogged about before, two of my favorites were the Bat for Lashes video for the song “What’s A Girl To Do” and the RJD2 song “Work It Out.”

After discussing those two videos with my friend Steve, he recommended a video by a bluegrass band called Uncle Earl. The video for “Streak O’ Lean, Streak O’ Fat” is a mind-bending mix of genres that I’ll call “Bluegrass Tiger, Hidden River Dance.”

Bat for Lashes — What’s A Girl To Do

RJD2 - Work It Out

Uncle Earl - Streak O’ Lean, Streak O’ Fat

Posted by Matt in video, creativity, music | No Comments »

12-18-2007

Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet

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The Drupal Handbooks are an exhaustive resource for learning all things Drupal. Unfortunately, sometimes finding just the information you need can be difficult. The Theme Developer’s Guide alone includes 14 sections, most made up of additional sub-sections.

With that in mind, I put together a Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet that includes some of the most handy reference information for themers. The cheat sheet is specific to PHPTemplate, the most common theme engine for Drupal. The two page cheat sheet includes information on available variables, file naming conventions, sample code, and more.

If you have any corrections or suggestions for improving the cheat sheet, please leave a comment.

Download the PDF: Drupal Theme Developer’s Cheat Sheet

UPDATE: Horacio Salazar has translated the cheat sheet and posted a Spanish language version on his DrupalMex site.

Posted by Matt in Drupal, learning, tech | 12 Comments »

11-01-2007

45 Screencasts to Get You Kicking Ass with Drupal

I’ve been working a lot with Drupal lately. Drupal is a content management platform that can be difficult to learn, partially because it is so flexible and modular. Though the Drupal learning curve can be steep, the Drupal project founder and leader, Dries Buytaert posted a useful road map for getting you past the “I Kick Ass” threshold with Drupal.

Even with the road map, there’s still the matter of how to learn it all. There are Drupal books, Drupal podcasts, Drupal documentation, Drupal forums, Drupal IRC channels, Drupal groups, Drupal blogs, Drupal mailing lists, and more.

I’ve spent the last year or so developing a variety of Drupal sites both at work and in my off-time. I’m not an expert, but I have learned a lot during that time. For me, the various Drupal screencasts have proven to be one of the easiest ways of picking up Drupal concepts quickly.

Luckily, there are Drupal screencasts for practically every step along the Drupal learning curve, which I’ve collected below. One caveat: because the screencasts are free and produced by a variety of individuals, the quality can vary and some will definitely overlap in what they cover:

Installation and configuration of Drupal core

Node system

Block system

Users, roles and permissions

Installing contributed themes and modules

Upgrading, patching, (security) monitoring

Navigation, menus, taxonomy

Locale and internationalization

Drastically customize front page

Theme and template modifications

Contributing documentation and support

Custom content types and views

Actions and workflows

Theme and module development

jQuery, FormAPI, security audits, performance tuning

Contributing code, designs and patches back to Drupal

More to Come

There are some gaps. For anyone who is interested in creating screencasts, the following topics from Dries’ list could use some more up-to-date coverage: drastically customizing the front page, security monitoring, security audits, performance tuning, locale and internationalization. If you find or create any screencasts covering these or other related Drupal topics, please leave a comment with a link.

This is my first of probably many Drupal-related blog posts. Subscribe to the RSS feed, if you’d like to keep up to date.

Posted by Matt in Drupal, learning, tech | 8 Comments »

08-02-2007

Humans Still Beat Computers at Some Tasks

I read that recently computers have “solved” the game of checkers, having now mapped out every possible game. That means that a human player’s best hope would be to tie a game against such a computer.

With that in mind, it’s nice to know that humans are still better than computers when it comes to certain tasks. Yesterday, I watched a Google Tech Talk given by Luis von Ahn, a computer science Ph.D., who specializes in harnessing the computational strengths of humans. The talk was not as dry as it may sound. In fact, it was one of the most interesting Tech Talks I’ve watched.

Von Ahn has developed programs and games to help thwart spammers and collect useful data for search engines and other databases. His reCAPTCHA program helps in recognizing classic texts for the Gutenberg Project in a very novel way. When users enter text into a reCAPTCHA script to prove themselves human, they are actually helping to recognize words that computers were unable to.

Von Ahn’s games pit players against one another in ways that allow useful data to be collected. Von Ahn does a much better job of explaining and demonstrating the games that I can. I recommend checking out his presentation (below or on Google Video). Or read the recent wired Magazine profile of von Ahn. Or play one of Von Ahn’s games online.

Posted by Matt in video, tech, creativity | No Comments »

05-26-2007

Cell Phone Security Tips

David Boch’s blog on Yahoo! Finance recently had an eye opening post about cell phone security. I consider myself relatively security conscious, but I hadn’t considered the potential financial consequences of a lost or stolen cell phone.

In addition to some harrowing stories of lost phones, the article also offers some basic tips for keeping yours safe. It’s important to keep in mind that it’s not in a cell phone company’s best interest to watch out for you, so be diligent in guarding and protecting your own phone.

Eileen Perrera’s story revealed what happened after her phone was stolen while she was on vacation. She filed a police report and contacted Sprint immediately, but then received a bill totaling almost $16,000. Sprint claimed to have never received the call from her reporting the stolen cell phone.

Eileen was able to submit proof from landline phone records that she had indeed called Sprint customer service. As her late fees piled up, the situation remained unresolved for months.

Since the tips in the post were a bit basic, I did some more digging and found a similar story on Bruce Schneier’s blog, which includes some good security tips in the comments.

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Posted by Matt in money, tech | No Comments »

05-01-2007

Video Translation Could Change How We See the World

I ran across a new service called dotSUB that streamlines the process for subtitling and translating online video. The site recently featured a Rocketboom episode explaining how the service works, allowing users to quickly and easily enter captions which are overlaid onto a Flash video file.

The captions also allow other users to translate the content into other languages. Once subtitles are entered, the new language is immediately available for viewing, since the original video is shown with the new language overlaid on top.

Unfortunately, dotSUB’s options for embedding video in other sites appears to be limited. I wasn’t able to embed the Rocketboom video here because it would break my template’s layout. However, it’s worth visiting the site to check out. I’m willing to bet that the options for embedding video will expand as the service matures.

I think dotSUB has some excellent potential. Off the top of my head, I could see it being useful for nonprofits, activists, language learners, and anyone with hearing problems. I’d love to see some good foreign language documentaries made available through the site.

UPDATE: Apparently dotSUB was listening (see the comments). A smaller version of the dotSUB player is now available, so I’ll include the Rocketboom video below. Try clicking on the up and down buttons (to the left of the speaker icon) to switch between the various subtitle languages.

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Posted by Matt in communication, tech, movies | 2 Comments »

04-26-2007

São Paulo Goes Ad-Free

The OnTheCommons blog recently ran a post about a new law enacted in São Paulo, Brazil, outlawing most outdoor advertising. I know some U.S. towns have laws to limit the size of such ads, but I haven’t heard of anything on the scale of what São Paulo has done. I’m interested to see if the ban stays in effect.

The City of São Paulo, Brazil, the largest, most prosperous city in South America, has gone ad-free! Last September, the City Council by a 45-1 margin approved a law that bans all outdoor advertising in the city of 11 million people. The law applies to outsized billboards, neon signs, electronic screens, ads on the sides of buses, the distribution of fliers, and even advertising banners pulled by airplanes and placed on the sides of blimps.

Posted by Matt in communication | No Comments »

04-23-2007

Kinetic Scupltures That Walk

I first saw Theo Jansen’s sculptures on a video of his 2005 presentation at the Gel Conference. The kinetic sculptures he builds are otherworldly and amazing to watch, as they walk across the sand. Unfortunately, the quality of the Gel video isn’t the best. For a quicker, better introduction, check out this 1 minute video:

For more background, Jansen gave a 30 minute presentation the 2005 Pop!Tech conference. You can download a higher quality quicktime version of the presentation from the Pop!Tech website or watch a streamed version below:

Posted by Matt in creativity, movies | No Comments »

04-18-2007

Please Help Save Internet Radio

I’m a huge fan of music, but very little of what I listen to is mainstream enough to make it onto corporate radio stations. There are some good community radio stations in Austin, but even those can’t come close to the variety of music that’s currently available online.

Thanks to Internet radio, I’ve been introduced to a wide variety of new musical genres. I’m able to keep up with Hawaiian, ska, Asian underground, and electronic music. I’m also able to discover new music through streaming services like Pandora.

Unfortunately, the governing body in charge of copyright royalties recently decided to more than triple the rates Internet broadcasters must pay. Put simply, the rates are more than the total revenue for some stations and will likely cause stations and streaming services to cease online streaming altogether. PC World posted a story yesterday covering the latest developments in the fight to keep Internet radio alive. Hopefully it won’t be too-little-too-late, but please join me and take a moment to sign a petition to help save Internet radio.

Between the consolidation of radio stations, the RIAA suing music fans, and now this, it seems the music business is taking two steps back for every step technology takes forward.

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Posted by Matt in tech, music | No Comments »

04-05-2007

Prius vs. Hummer

A recent editorial in the Central Connecticut State University Recorder Online has a surprising and sad analysis of the hybrid Toyota Prius. Apparently when you take into account the overall environmental footprint of the car, especially the multiple batteries required for the hybrid engine, the Prius is not all it’s cracked up to be.

The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

UPDATE: A more thorough analysis of the Prius lifecycle and additional background on the editorial above can be found in the April 16 article Prius Versus HUMMER: Exploding the Myth on The Car Connection. The article may raise more questions than it answers, but it is definitely a more thorough analysis than the editorial I originally pointed to.

Posted by Matt in general | 9 Comments »

04-04-2007

Thwarting Spammers Through Creativity

The ongoing battle against spam brings out some of the most creative problem solving in programmers and system administrators. Techniques like greylisting and bayesian filtering are applied in an attempt to keep the spam problem under control.

A recent behind-the-scenes blog post about The Architecture of Mailinator details some creative problem solving that went into the design of the Mailinator service. By foregoing perfect service in favor of near-perfect service, Mailinator is able to significantly alter its approach to the problem.

Now if this all sounds a bit shaky, as in we might just lose an email now and then - you’re right. But remember, our goal is 99.99% accuracy. Not 100%. That’s an important distinction. The latest incarnation of Mailinator literally runs for months unattended. We do lose emails once in awhile - but its rare and usually involves a server crash. We accept the loss and by far most users never encounter it.

Posted by Matt in tech, creativity | No Comments »

03-26-2007

Microsoft Bumbles Vista at a Crucial Time

I recently ran across a blog post entitled Vista - Arrogance & Stupidity that takes a look at Microsoft’s new Vista operating system and its flaws. The article does a good job of detailing why users and institutions may want to avoid Vista for the foreseeable future.

  • It’s an exercise in frustration to try to upgrade an XP computer to Vista. Few Vista drivers are available except for new devices designed for Vista, and manufacturers don’t plan any.
  • Even many current printers don’t have Vista drivers, and many never will. Developing Vista drivers and getting them approved by Microsoft is just too expensive.
  • Vista is effectively a Windows price increase. Vista Home Basic, shipped with lower cost consumer market computers, is rather minimal, This often forces a $79 upgrade to Home Premium (equivalent to Windows XP Media Center) or Ultimate for $139. Vista’s built-in Anytime Upgrade handles that - have your credit card ready. Actually all versions are on the machine but must be “activated”.

On a related note, Eric Steven Raymond recently wrote a detailed article entitled “World Domination 201” that explains the importance of operating system positioning as the world transitions to 64-bit hardware. In a nutshell, the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit processors presents a window of opportunity for competitors to overthrow Microsoft’s OS monopoly. The article goes on to outline a strategy that might help Linux to gain ground during the transition phase.

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Posted by Matt in tech | No Comments »

03-22-2007

Learn More About Music via Pandora Podcast

I’m a big fan of the streaming music service Pandora. I’ve been turned onto a variety of new bands through their customized stations. In addition, they recently started offering a Pandora Podcast to provides fans with a bit of music theory to help enrich their the listening experience.

The most recent episode, on “Reggae, Ska, Rocksteady and Dub” was especially interesting to me. I’m a long time fan of ska, the that episode will help me next time someone asks me “What is ska exactly?”

Ever wonder how a band creates its unique “sound,” or what makes a particular song so distinctive?

As we spend our days dissecting tracks for the Music Genome Project, it occurs to us that most people don’t get to hear songs before they’re finished. We thought it might be interesting for folks to learn more about what goes into songwriting. These podcasts are our attempt to give you an inside look at the techniques musicians use to put their signature on the music they write and perform.

We do get into a little music theory, but we’ve tried to make it interesting and understandable for anyone who’s even just a little curious about music.

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Posted by Matt in music | No Comments »

03-18-2007

Influence and the Secret Impact of Social Norms

The University Channel website is a collaborative project between several universities to catalog and link to a variety of audio and video guest lectures. It’s a great place to get exposed to interesting research and thinking.

One of the lectures I listened to recently was a talk given by Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion, on the Secret Impact of Social Norms. The lecture is especially interesting because it is focused on influencing people toward positive and sustainable changes.

Professor Robert Cialdini is the author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, a book which has established itself as one of the most important publications on the subject of the psychology of persuasion. The book was the result of a three – year programme of study into the reasons that people comply with requests in everyday settings. Yet it also provides a highly accessible guide to the subtle influences that drive behaviours and decisions in everyday life, from the size of a tip left in a restaurant to life and death decisions. Professor Cialdini is now turning his attention to the subject of sustainability. How can cutting edge persuasion techniques be used to encourage environmental responsibility?

In this RSA lecture, Professor Cialdini delivers a presentation on his recent research into the successful use of social norms to promote pro-environmental action.

Even if you’re not interested in influencing others, Cialdini’s research and writing is fascinating because it can help you to see and understand how others try to influence you.

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Posted by Matt in communication, reading | No Comments »

03-13-2007

6 Sources for SXSW Interactive Panel Notes

I spent some time tonight tracking down notes from some of the SXSW Interactive panels. There are some panels I couldn’t attend because they overlapped with others and some I attended but wasn’t satisfied with my own notes. I’ve compiled a list below of six blogs that I found to have great notes.

In addition, the official SXSW Podcasts are already being posted. Unfortunately, the official podcasts get posted over weeks and months, so if you’re looking for specific panels it may be a while before they make it onto the site. The podcasts from SXSW Interactive 2006 are all online though and there are some definite gems in the bunch.

Unfortunately, the SXSW Baby Notes Exchange Wiki has seen almost no updates during the festival. The the wiki was a great idea, requiring a login goes against the nature of wikis and was apparently enough to keep anyone from creating or adding content.

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Posted by Matt in communication, learning, Austin, tech, reading, wikis | 2 Comments »

03-07-2007

Wiki Patterns Site Collects Tips for Wiki Success

Wiki Patterns is a new site that is site attempting to gather some best practices or “patterns” to help make wiki implementations more successful:

Looking to spur wiki adoption? Want to grow from 10 users to 100, or 1000? Applying patterns that help coordinate peoples’ efforts and guide the growth of content can give your wiki the greatest chance of success. Equally important is recognizing anti-patterns that might hinder your wiki, so you can fix them or avoid them altogether.

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Posted by Matt in communication, tech, wikis | 1 Comment »

03-06-2007

Free Mindmapping Software, Today (3/6/07) Only

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Giveaway of the Day website lately. Every day, the site posts a new Windows program that is available for downloading free for just one day. The programs are fully licensed, though they must be installed the same day they are downloaded and are not upgradeable.

In the weeks that I’ve been checking the site, the offerings have been hit-and-miss, but today’s software looks interesting. It’s a mindmapping program called ConceptDraw MINDMAP Personal 4.

I’ve been using mindmapping software for a long time. Mindmapping has been especially useful for outlining my ideas before sitting down to write. I originally used Mindjet MindManager, but it has gotten to be too expensive, in my opinion.

Lately, I’ve been using the free, open source mindmapping package called Freemind. Freemind is slow to start up and a a bit clunky overall, but it is remarkably useful, especially considering the price. Still, I’m interested in giving MINDMAP Personal a try. I’ll be downloading it as soon as I finish this post.

Posted by Matt in business, learning, communication, writing, tech, creativity | No Comments »

03-04-2007

SXSW 2007 Stuff I’m Looking Forward To

I’ve done all my SXSW research. I’ve read the descriptions for the Interactive panels. I’ve watched the trailers for the documentaries that are part of the Film festival. And I’ve listened to at least a short snippet of each of the songs in the 2007 SXSW music bittorrent.

Here’s a short list of some of the stuff I’m most looking forward to:

Interactive

Film

Music

Overall, I’m a bit disappointed by the music this year. While Jim Bianco and Golem are artists I got turned onto by listening to the mp3s, most of the artists I’m looking forward to seeing are ones I was already familiar with. The interactive festival is bigger and better this year though, so it may make up for the disappointment of the music.

In addition to the official SXSW events, I’m also looking forward to the Drupal presentation at BarCamp Austin and the Lifehacker party.

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Posted by Matt in Austin, tech, movies, music | 1 Comment »

02-27-2007

How To Simplify WordPress Upgrades Using Subversion

The WordPress Codex documentation site has a very handy page on Installing/Updating WordPress with Subversion. For anyone who maintains a WordPress blog, especially if you maintain more than one, it makes the process of upgrading a snap.

If you have command-line access to your web server, and if your server has the subversion (svn) client installed, you can take advantage of the easiest possible WordPress installations and updates. svn is a version control system designed primarily for developers, but also useful for end-users who just want an easy way to install and update software.

Posted by Matt in lifehacks, tech | 2 Comments »