MizCD 1.1

Posted on April 30, 2006 by mizidy

I have worked a bit to get a couple new features for MizCD so I figured it was time for an update. It includes the new style I have been using on my site and a couple other small things. The bigger news is that MizCD now has it's own home on Marktopia. I have created a page specifically for MizCD that contains the downloads, version history and a demo of MizCD for people who want to try it before downloading. The demo site allows access to the admin section as well.

Because MizCD now has the /mizcd folder on the site, my personal collection has moved to /music for those of you interested. I am still working on adding all my albums, but it goes slow. Hopefully I will feel motivated tonight and get a bunch more entered.

All of these changes are in preparation for a new Marktopia frontend that will change some of the sidebar stuff and be a little more flexible for what I have on my frontpage, so stay tuned for that.? I am also still working on my new comics site.? The Ruby on Rails distraction has once again gotten under my skin so I have to work through that before going back to PHP like I always do.

New Camera

Posted on April 30, 2006 by mizidy

Yesterday Rebekah and I purchased a new digital camera, a Canon PowerShot SD450. A bit of an improvement over my old camera, the new one has 5 MP compared to the 2.1 on my old one. We havn't had much of an opportunity to use it yet, but we did take a few pics of the tornado damage in Iowa City on the drive home from church today. If you are interested in checking out some of the pics from the new camera, they are in the first 5 pictures in the Tornado Damage in Iowa City set. With the new camera, we will likely be taking more pics in the near future, so stay tuned.

Lots of Stuff

Posted on April 19, 2006 by mizidy

Lots of stuff has been going on in my life, some good, some bad. First off the bad, I am sick. Not just kinda sick, more like go to the ER and get 3 liters of fluids sick. Also bad is that Rebekah has this same sick. Today we are both feeling better, but we still need to eat something before really turning the corner. I am hoping that I can make the Tech Forum tomorrow, but I also don't want to push myself hard with very little food in my system.

On the good news side, for my birthday I bought myself a Nintendo DS. I am pretty impressed with it so far, the two screens are used pretty neat and the games I got are all lots of fun. They are Mario Kart, Metroid Prime Hunters and Advance Wars. I am playing Advance Wars the most right now, it reminds me of a more advanced version of Rampart with some Civ and Command & Conquer thrown in.

I mentioned last time that I would post more on my tornado experience, I just havn't gotten around to it. It is going to be lengthy and with everything else going on (a trip to Chicago to see my parents and the illness) I havn't had a chance to, but it is coming. I also have some more pics on my camera that I will post soon.

Finally, I have gotten a bit of the web design kick again. I like the Marktopia design, but reading up on some web design tips, I realize it could be improved. I am using Inkscape to design the site first, then work on building the CSS around it. This is the first real attempt at designing something, then putting the CSS around it, so we will see how it goes.

Iowa City Tornado Update

Posted on April 14, 2006 by mizidy

As you may have heard on news outlets across the country, there were tornadoes in Iowa City last night. I will go into my account of the storm a little later since I have meetings still this morning at work, however I will add a couple of links below for pictures. The first is my Flickr set for damage I saw this morning and the second is to the NoHelpDesk.org where there are a more complete gathering of photos from a number of people. Quick note, Rebekah and I are save and sound and there was no damage to our apartments.

My Flickr Set
NoHelpDesk.org

The Years of Rice and Salt

Posted on April 9, 2006 by mizidy

I will admit that it seems like I havn't been reading much lately.? That is because I have been struggling with the title of this post.? I have read the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson and really enjoyed it, so I thought I would give this book a try.? The premise of this book is that instead of wiping out 25% of Europe, the Black Death wiped out over 99% of Europe, pretty much eliminating Christianity from the planet.? This alternate history goes through the Middle East and Islam competing with China to be the world power.? It goes from the Middle Ages to near present day, or so I think.? See here is where I explain that I was unable to finish this book, this is the second time I have tried to read it but it is too detailed and dry and spends more time with the individual stories than the potential alternate history.

The book is broken into sections about the same people as they are reincarnated through history.? Some of these are more interesting than others and each goes into a lot of detail.? The bottom line is that it isn't as engaging as I was hoping and I am forced to give up once again.? Now I am moving onto something I have read in the past but need to read again, Ender's Game and all associated books.? The 4th in the Bean series has come out on paperback and I want to be as familiar as I can with the series before reading it.? I am also rereading the trade comic Astro City, this time reading all of the notes with it to get a better glimpse into this amazing series.? If you want to get into comics, read Astro City, if you don't know if you want to be into comics but are intrigued, check out Astro City.