XUL?

I recently had to force quit a process called "xulrunner.exe". After a little research I found that Songbird uses XUL, an HTML-like markup language for it's media player. A sigh of relief came over me as I thought I had picked up a virus. Apparently XUL apps have to run xulrunner.exe. Wouldn't it be great if they could port it to Adobe AIR and have their own exe? AIR seems to provide most of the functionality that the media player has. (Not sure about the OS level availability of USB inputs, etc.) It would be nice, and probably cooler, if they ported Songbird to AIR!

Back to Wordpress

I'm movin' back to WordPress!!!! Here's a brief recap of my blog history.

1. Started with blogger. Easy & static.
2. Got interested in WordPress decided to give it a go. Very cool app, I like the idea of the whole thing running on my server. One small hitch, I found out I had little to say. Ditched WP.
3. Blogger acquired by google. Sweet new features that integrate w/ google services, lured be back into making posts. Still didn't have a bunch to say.
4. (Now) Got inspired by the philosophy behind todaycreate, I intend for JacobMake to be a stage for experimental personal projects OR a discourse on the reasons I'm too lazy, scared, or untalented to produce and document quality personal interest projects / tutorials. See y'all there.

My Vow to Build Things

To often I leave a vision or idea unfinished. I get easily inspired, I have great ideas, but the realization never seems to take place. I recently ran across Mike Creighton's blog, TODAY CREATE. Mike is a very talented flash developer, but what I like most about the blog is his mantra of making... building... creating... executing.

I do have a stable of personal projects I consistently find reasons to not execute. Maybe it's fear of failure. Maybe I'm lazy. For a long time my blog has lacked focus (and content). It's easy to regurgitate other things found on the web, or keep a semi-personal journal. Here is my vow to keep a log of my personal projects here, possibly establish an audience that can keep me accountable for progress.

Here's to inspiration execution.

OSX Reformat

I just resurfaced from a complete reformat of my G4 Powerbook. Sweet Lord Almighty, I had no idea how bad it had gotten. Caches in the metric ton, conflicting fonts, tiny little apps i NEVER use cluttering up my system resources. It was an interesting process. It "felt" good. To ditch all the clutter and start a new was refreshing, kind of like an "unboxing" process. Now machine runs like a Kenyan. And I will be very careful not to install the same cluttter that gummed up the works over the past two years......at least for a couple months.

marcellis not marcellus

Marcellis F. Heberlie, 80, of Perryville died Saturday, May 26, 2007. He was my grandfather.

smashing gumballs

Missouri has a kind of tree I have come to know as a gumball tree. I can only assume it's named this because of the spiky gumball-sized orbs emitted by the tree. As I chugged along during this afternoon's run, I looked down as the slushy ground slowly passed underneath. I noticed that with every step I was crushing these once intimidating land mines. The soggy whether had rendered these spikey creatures mushy lumps. My tender pink feet were able to triumph over the gumballs thanks to the engineered wizardry of pvc, rubber, and space age nike-plastic strapped to my feet.

Global Traffic Visualization

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a nut for data visualization. Packetgarden takes website traffic and builds a world with mountains and trees based off your global website traffic. The world looks similar to the worlds within Spore.

actionscript hero

I think I found another Actionscript hero. Check out this guy's portfolio. Be sure to drag the sliders, the whole experience is in 3D space. I really like that this guy has a LAB subdomain to his own website.

iFrickin' believable, Apple unveils the iPhone

Apple finally unveiled the iPhone today. My biggest complaint; No tactile response to the buttons. You will have to look at the screen to dial, and I don't think there is a volume rocker on the side so changing volume while on the phone will be difficult. Other than that it's one of the most amazing pieces of technology that has come out in the last decade.