Owner: rioleo media design studios URL:http://www.rioleo.org Join Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:39:38 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: rioleo is the website of Rio Akasaka, where beautiful design meets strict standards of accessibility and valid coding. Site statistics:Click here
A funeral like none other 2007-10-10 23:58:44
As I stood there at attention, my right hand in a salute, standing alongside hundreds of others who had traveled from far and wide in order to do just the same, I felt the awesome yet sombre power of the community that represents the emergency services, of which I have been fortunate to be part. Many of those who were there most likely did not know Mike Reagan, a 19-year old firefighter who succumbed to his injuries after a detached garage wall collapsed on him and two other firefighters. Most probably never heard of him until the news of the tragedy spread across the county, the state, and the nation.
In 2006, 106 firefighters died in the line of duty, 77 of them volunteers, 36 while engaging in firefighting. 2007 counts so far 98, clearly 98 too many.
As I stood there, the majority of the (if not the entire) county represented by men and women in their uniforms, a chill ran down my spine, knowing that a fallen among one is a fallen among many. And Reagan family, perhaps, can take c
An Explosion of Colors 2007-10-05 02:50:36 The internet is full of an explosion of colors, it seems, and not surprising, after all, since Web 2.0 is all about rich, sometimes fluourescent, sometimes deep prime colors. Here are a few things you might consider setting your browser to:
Sony Bravia advertisement: Play-doh (view)
Remember the Balls advertisement that required 250,000 superballs tumbling down a steep street in San Francisco? Nicolai Fuglsig made that one in 2005, and Fallon made the ‘Paint’ ad of Glasgow in 2006 (the one where paint was exploded out of the buildings in sync), and now they’ve released Play-doh, a 60-second spot that required 2.5 tons of plasticine, 40 animators, three weeks and 100,000 images to sift through — all shot on location in Manhattan. (You can spot some photographs here). Simply beautiful, and the time and effort that has gone into it is remarkable.
Jen Stark makes beautiful sculptures and artwork, particularly very colorful ones like ‘The Coriolis Effect&lsquo Read more:Explosion
, Colors
Prayers 2007-10-01 18:03:34 I had a bad week. I’m not going to dwell on it much here, as bad moods are fairly contagious, but suffice it to say that the loss of a fellow firefighter in the neighborhood hasn’t been the best of the things I’ve gone through. I missed the monthly Critical Mass that I had been looking forward to, after suffering a minor injury that had me racing into Philly with one hand wrapped up in a gauze only to arrive too late.
News trickling in from the stricken Burma has me very worried as well - a country whose citizens suffer from a unrelenting, oppressive regime stifling the buds of democracy, murdering helpless citizens and shuttering all means of communicating such violations of human rights.
How I wish I could do something about all of this.
Tonight’s prayers are without hesitation to Mike Reagan and Kenji Nagai, in whose memory I have just recently purchased a Canon S3 IS.
The Gmail Hijack 2007-08-28 20:50:52
While I have tried time and again to raise this issue it has clearly not been resolved by Google, and it truly truly worries me.
For the past three years I have been, periodically, receiving genuine emails from Google (accounts-noreply@google.com) asking me to visit the provided link to ‘initiate the process for resetting the password’ for an existing email account that is not mine. The link is valid, the page it points to is a valid google.com website (no phishing, trust me). What is happening here? This has happened 7 times already, and I don’t quite know what to make of it.
No phishing, as shown by the bottom inset. Clicking on the link brings me to…
Now what do I do? By purely moral and ethical standards I uphold I have done absolutely nothing, except kept those emails for future record-keeping. My greatest concern is: what is happening to my emails? Do they ever get sent to the wrong recipient? The strange thing, that has already happened to me in that Read more:Gmail
, Hijack
What a world we live in 2007-08-25 16:05:31 It’s 86°F outside but it feels much hotter. I’m on 40th street, Brian Adams streaming into my ears, and the Fifth Avenue crowd is eager to walk into the stores to escape the devilish heat.
On the sidewalk a relatively nodescript pretzel stand is parked, and it doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of customers today. Oh, but there is one guy- bedgralled, his hair gray and askew, he holds a white Duane Reade bag, most likely homeless - who’s getting two diet Coke’s and two straws to go along, the water dripping from the outside testament to their chilled state. I doubt he paid for it, considering the grin on his face and his attire, but the smile on the stand owner’s face is priceless. It makes me almost want to give $2.00 to him so that next time another guy comes along he won’t feel pressed.
I walk along, a small smile on mine.
42nd street. Another pretzel stand. A guy walks up with a wad of notes and asks for a bottle of water, as I stand by
Links 2007-08-23 14:08:50 Estonia suffers Web War One: how botnets crippled Europe’s foremost wired country. In today’s digital age this is a serious threat.
An IM infatuation turned to romance. Then the truth came out. Freaky and scary at the same time, and it ends in such an unexpected way it’s even more shocking.
The first web 2.0 burger joint: among my favorites: The Digg: Twenty burgers are served tableside. Whichever burger receives the most amount of votes from the other guests is the burger which you shall eat. Some burgers will appear better than others.
125 code snippets that all web designers should take a look at, if not just for inspiration.
Banner blindness: that explains why no one clicks on my ads! Among the things to replace them with: text ads, faces or cleavage…
Becoming fontastic - mastering fonts 2007-08-19 17:56:19 There’s a really interesting article about the transformation of the typesetting of the highway signs, a change from Highway Gothic to Clearview. Impressive work, no doubt, but it’s surprising that it wasn’t tended to earlier, methinks.
As of late I’ve noticed that there’s less and less emphasis on forcing users to adapt to the web designer’s concept of a website and more stress placed on the web designer creating around the user or visitor, and I must say I’m a very big fan. Flash is unflashionable (pardon the pun) or at best targeted to a niche market and is exceedingly inaccessible, and sIFR, of which at one point I was a large proponent, appears to have all but quietly disappeared. Web 2.0 boasts large fonts, dynamic colors and user-generated content that seems to push design back a step.
But mastering fonts is another thing. Truth be told, there are only so many fonts you can dabble with, only so many fonts that are web-safe and cross-pl Read more:Becoming
Voices of concern: Google not the best? 2007-08-15 20:14:43 As a Google
addict (Google Apps and 20 other services currently employed, thank you) it pains me to think that stronger and more outspoken critics can exist of the company I have hoped (and continue to hope) to work for some day. It is, however, undeniable that they exist, and it makes me certainly wonder how it can possible be.
Consider Pegaro’s article in the Washington Post claiming that blog searching is Google’s weakest link, betraying its supposed functionality with the return of advertising-spammed spoof/blog/spam that give nothing very relevant. I must say I never knew Google’s Blog Search existed, but even a quick search for “Barack Obama” returns legitimate and interesting pages. I’m not sure what Pegaro was searching for, but I find very little fault, even from an objective standpoint. He does make a good point, however, that many search engines put a little too much emphasis on selling and advertising (Google, perhaps too much so).
What d Read more:Voices
The power of color 2007-11-03 23:48:26 Can you identify which colors correspond to what popular brands? Click on the image to find out.
The point I’m trying to make is that one color is nearly not enough to make a lasting impression on user experience. It’s the ability to combine and select the right combination of colors that, in addition to the logo and the branding, provide a solid foundation that lasts. Read more:power
Canon S3 IS Review 2007-11-09 14:17:57 To call the Canon
S3 IS a ‘point-and-shoot’ would be to akin to calling a BMW a town car. It’s the amateur photographer’s dream, in that it has all the tools that make having such a size of camera completely worthwhile. Not that it’s any bigger than the palm of your hand. And while we’re on the metaphor of cars, it makes all other point and shoot cameras like puny, wimpy smart cars.
The Canon S3 belongs in a category of its own, in particular because it can do so much, despite the price and its size. My first reaction upon purchase was that it was so small- it fit snugly in my hand, and yet it felt rugged and strong enough for the bumps that I would undoubtedly subject it to.
I wasn’t keen on purchasing those 10MP cameras that have recently made their appearance- my personal experience was that more megapixels meant a larger photo size, but didn’t translate well into better pictures. I wanted something solid, something built to take good
The power of color 2007-11-03 23:48:26 Can you identify which colors correspond to what popular brands? Click on the image to find out.
The point I’m trying to make is that one color is nearly not enough to make a lasting impression on user experience. It’s the ability to combine and select the right combination of colors that, in addition to the logo and the branding, provide a solid foundation that lasts. Read more:power
PayPal Security Key 2007-10-27 21:32:38
As an avid eBayer and a frequent user of PayPal
, online security is often on my mind, what with scammers and phishers become more and more intelligent and craftier with their techniques in trying to dupe your everyday user to give up their credit card numbers (and for others, like myself, who continue to get random emails in their inbox with emails not destined to them, but some of which actually contain valid credit card information). So when PayPal came up with their Security Key (which apparently was new back in January but I didn’t really know), I decided, with little hesitation, to purchase the $5.00 RSA SecurID encrypted key. In short, the internal algorithm generates a new 6-digit number every 30 seconds, which is connected to your account and must be entered in conjunction with your username and password.
It turns out PayPal is losing money each time they sell one (VeriSign sells them for $30.00 apiece). And as it is, it can be used for any site that uses VeriSign Identi
Step by step 2007-10-24 23:14:41 I am currently entertaining and actively pursuing the thought of conducting a pilot course in web design next semester at my college. Entitled ‘Introduction to Web Design’, the rubric, which needs to be approved by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility who will fund the project, will consist of two one-and-a-half hour sessions. The first half of the semester will deal with actual HTML and PHP coding, while the second will go in-depth into actual graphic design, using Photoshop and focusing on colors, fonts, and accessibility. It’s fueled in large part by the requests I have received from students who are keen on learning about web design but either have no time or the resources available to learn… I’m hoping it’ll turn out nicely and I’ll be able to get funds.
My future seems unclear, but I guess I’m going to have to take everything one step at a time. Just so long as my next step is on a solid stone, right?
Small updates in life 2007-11-21 09:26:33 So it’s almost Thanksgiving and I’ve given up on working altogether, having pulled an all nighter a couple nights ago and feeling like I should restore some order in my life after that. It looks like I will be able to offer the web design course after all, albeit without course credit, but I’m looking forward to it very much. I have to purchase a few materials here and there (perhaps a few good books too) and so I’ll be busy, but EMT training is pretty much over now, which means I can reclaim nine hours of my evenings back from now until the end of the semester. I do have to pass the state finals, however, and I hope to take the NREMT national test too. I just have that feeling that if there is a higher level of competency or training that I can achieve, I want to do it… Read more:Small
, updates
Why Not? 2007-12-03 18:46:34 With the first signs of winter finally showing (in other words, the howling wind and the unforgiving cold), I have decided to launch a couple of websites to celebrate. I am also proceeding successfully with the web design course that I will be offering in the spring, as there is significant interest and demand, and I am very much pleased with the results. I have also been commissioned to redesign the Engineering Department’s website. Additionally, with income from being the Internet Advertising director for the college student-led publication The Daily Gazette, I’m living quite happily now.
In a challenge to rediscover the real world, to live considerably cheaply, and to room with a splendid friend of mine I have decided to move off-campus for the next semester. No doubt it shall present challenges of its own, but I look forward to the opportunity to try something new. I think that’s what it is about me: I just am so restless, I want to try everything and anything out
Ron Paul vs. Wikipedia 2007-12-16 14:48:50
Click above for the full graph. During the same 56-day interval spanning the 22nd of October to the 16th of December, the Ron Paul
campaign saw donations of $11,485,142.91. Wikipedia
saw, on the other hand, a measly $1,191,689.31.
WinSCP + Putty = Bliss 2007-12-15 22:22:03 For your information, I upgraded from Vista to XP. Truly truly refreshing.
On a side note, as a college student taking computer science courses, doing web design, and in love with Python, there is always the need for efficient allocation of time as well as cost reduction. And while the days of Magic cards are now sadly behind me (except, perhaps, in a collector’s world) I must say there has been an uncanny ‘combo’ of free software that works perfectly in sync. (Now all I need is for there to be both of them together in one, right?).
WinSCP is an open source SFTP and FTP client for Windows, allowing easy transfer of files from desktop to servers. It works great for updating websites on the fly, though I must say the constant “Reconnect” dialogue box is a real annoyance at times when it comes to standard FTP. It is splendid for editing your Python, C, or Java code that you work off of in some server. Couple that with PuTTY, the terminal editor that allows fo Read more:Bliss
Pure Happiness 2007-12-14 14:17:24
As such I am now a certified Emergency Medical Technician in the state of Pennsylvania. 134 hours of training was long, but feels worthwhile now.
When Insults Had Class (with context) 2007-12-07 22:41:25 These are quotes taken from the recent “When Insults Had Class” page that has been circulating the web, with a bit more context.
[”…he has no courage, has never climbed out on a limb]… He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
William Faulkner, said in a Q&A with students at the UMass Dartmouth about Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was obviously not pleased (having also been a war correspondant, making the ‘courage’ part grossly mistaken). Faulkner later apologized.
“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”
Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
They were similar in many respects: both were winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the highest national honor recognizing outstanding print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. Hemingway won it in 1953 for “The Old Man and the Sea”, and Faulkner twice for “A Fable” (195
Artificial Artificial Intelligence 2007-12-23 15:10:04
Sometime during the year 1770, author and inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen unveiled the chess-playing automaton called “The Turk” which he claimed incorporated a mechanism that would be a strong opponent to a human player. He had invented it to impress the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, and while it no doubt stupefied her, among other notables such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin, it turned out to be a hoax involving a skilled operator inside the actual mechanism.
It was an ingenious device - it used magnets to move pieces that, on the inside, were connected to strings that allowed the operator to know which pieces were moved where. The box itself was designed so as to provide the illusion that it contained only moving mechanisms, even allowing for seeing through one side to the other. Further mechanisms allowed the operator to control the movement of the model Turk sitting at the table and to grasp pieces, and a clockwork-type sound played each time it moved t Read more:Artificial
IE8 Passes Acid Test 2007-12-19 21:56:18 Arve put it in the best words when he wrote: hell just froze over.
IE8 has passed the Acid2 test.
My jaw has just reached the floor. IE8 beta is due out in the first half of next year, apparently, and I have no doubt web designers have a lot of mixed feelings about what this means. Because while the Acid2 test is not a benchmark for standards compliance, it does mean the Microsoft is paying attention to the flaws so present in IE7. One surprising thing is that Firefox has only just jumped on to the Acid2 bandwagon, as the beta (v. 3.0) that is out now and available for download is first of the Firefoxes to actually display that nagging smiley face correctly.
For the time being I think it’s best we just assume that the number immediately after 6 is 8. Read more:Passes
Recent Notable Auctions 2007-12-18 22:18:48
Item: 1297 Magna Carta
Sold for: $21.3 million, December 2007
Made famous for: being the Magna Carta. One of only 17 in existence, the only one in public hands. It was held by the Brudenell family, earls of Cardigan, who had owned it for five centuries, before being sold to the nonprofit Perot Foundation in 1984.
Item: Guitar Hero III.
Sold for: $9,100.01, December 2007
Made famous for: being the most expensive Guitar Hero ever sold (and sold on eBay), by a father keen on teaching his pot-smoking son a very sour lesson. Most Guitar Heros sell for about $200 or less.
Item: Marc Newson’s “Lockheed Lounge LC-1″
Sold for: $1.5 million, October 2007
Made famous for: being the most uncomfortable (I meant expensive) chaise ever sold.
Item: 1904 Rolls-Royce 10hp Two-Seater.
Sold for: $7,275,000, December 2007
Made famous for: being the most expensive veteran (pre-1905) car ever sold.
Item: Jackson Pollock’s 1948 painting, “No. 5, 1948″.
Sold for: $140 m Read more:Recent
Scandalous 2008-03-11 20:58:46 New York governor Eliot Spitzer has been named as a client of Emperor’s Club VIP, a high-end prostitution agency, after a FBI wire-tap caught him with 23-year-old call-girl ‘Kristen’ last month in a Washington hotel. The headlines have exploded over the scandal, in particular because he made a name for himself as State Attorney General [...]
Murphy’s Law: New York 2008-03-09 16:22:53 On the subway: If you run down the stairs and race through the turnstile, the train going in the opposite direction will just be pulling in.
You will have to explain how a Metro Card vending machine works to a bunch of tourists right as your train pulls up.
On a bike: A group of school children [...] Read more:Murphy
, New York
Fujitsu Lifebook S7110 Review 2008-03-08 14:41:41 In one line:
A powerful, lightweight and versatile device geared towards medium memory-intensive multi-taskers or the business/corporate individual.
Pros:
Excellent battery life, superior specs packed into lightweight device, expandable memory/drives, unique button-based security options
Cons:
Side vents get very warm, overall construction could be more solid, fairly loud hard drive operation, mediocre speakers
Oddities:
Left and right buttons above and below keypad
No [...] Read more:Fujitsu
3/14: Pi Day 2008-03-14 08:27:10 In honor of π day, listen to comedy/parody musical duo Hard N Phirm’s Pi:
When ink and pen in hands of men
Inscribe your form, bipedal “P”
They draw an altar on which
God has slaughtered all stability
No eyes could ever soak in all the places you anoint
And yet to see you all at once we only need the [...]
YouTube in HD 2008-03-15 17:12:55 I hope you can see the difference between the left and the right side of the image below:
One, we’re used to, the other is an omg-that’s-so-amazing thing called *higher quality*. YouTube
has conveniently kept it hidden from us, but all you need to do as append
&fmt=18
to the URL of the video to see it in [...]
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