James Piper - Entries on JamesPiper.com

Sunday, April 11, 2010

...one To Do is off the list...

recently completed a task that was completely irrational. It was a fixture on my To-Do list because I always put it off. This week I decided to change that. I dug through my files of sketches and drawings and scanned them into my computer. A simple concept, sure, but tedious and time consuming. I suggest wearing latex gloves or buying hand lotion, but maybe that's a personal choice...Anyway, I now have a folder with 1.2 GBs of JPEG and PSD files.

Here's an example from 1992.

Right, where's that To-Do list? I want to sketch a line on it.

Posted 2010/04/11 at 13h54ET in JamesPiper.com. [View single entry]

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

...some things don't change...

should just change the date on my last entry and say I wrote it today, but that would be cheating...

For various reasons I haven't posted any entries to this web since last October and today I am in a position to change that and hopefully on an ongoing basis. (Yes, my stay in club prison was enjoyable. Thanks for asking.)

I have two new categories to add to my web site. 1. Don't Need THAT and 2. iTunes.

Don't Need THAT is a play on words. There are certain things we think we need, but we don't. That's not the that I'm referring to, but THAT as in "I knew that I was in trouble..." The THAT in the quote just isn't needed. You don't need THAT. I hope to create a collection of examples from published books. Maybe with time we will see that disappear except for all the needed situations. As for other that, that's for you to decide. It's personal.

Then there is iTunes. I have joined the iPod generation. I've long since listened to MP3s and CDs with a computer, but only recently bot a portable MP3 player of any merit (The Sansa Clip from Scandisk. I like it a lot.) As you can see from the iTunes stats, I have over 16,000 songs in my library. 94 GBs. They are all from CDs I have ripped. No file sharing downloads. I have so many CDs to rip, I bot a two 1 TB external hard drives just to store the music files (one for the originals, the second as a backup). Plus other backup processes. Too much effort gone into creating this library to see something happen to the files. As I learn something knew about this quirky program called iTunes, I may post an entry.

Posted 2010/03/17 at 15h58ET in JamesPiper.com. [View single entry]

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

...it has been a while...

t's been a while. Is that one word or two? I say, two because I'm using it as a noun and not as an adjective or adverb...I'll check.

When “awhile” is spelled as a single word, it is an adverb meaning “for a time” (“stay awhile”); but when “while” is the object of a prepositional phrase, like “Lend me your monkey wrench for a while” the “while” must be separated from the “a.” (But if the preposition “for” were lacking in this sentence, “awhile” could be used in this way: “Lend me your monkey wrench awhile.”)

I'm going with two words. It seems right to me.

Anyway, it's been a few months. Summer and the holidays are definitely over and while I might have been here just after Labour Day, I ran into some computer problems. That's for another time.

And there's lots to write about and that's for another time as well.

Posted 2009/10/07 at 09h28ET in JamesPiper.com. [View single entry]

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

...there'll be days like this...

ast Thursday I decided to do some computer programming for my movieDB program. I wanted to be able to download information from IMdb.com and automatically include various bits of data from the web site and store it in my db. A simple concept, but one that presents a number of challenges. For the next five days I worked like an obsessed person on this coding. The end result is I have a program working the way I want it to work. (There are additions I want to make, but the base is there). The other result was I ignored my web site and didn't write any movie commentaries during this time. I was focused on the coding. With the coding done, I return to my web site. New entries today and more to follow in the days to come.

Posted 2009/04/08 at 21h39ET in JamesPiper.com. [View single entry]

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

...The evolution continues...

rom time to time I run into computer troubles. I know enough about computers to solve the problem, but not always, and the solution is usually found with a web search. I haven't been contributing to the body of knowledge because the solutions are already out there. Yesterday I discovered an answer that didn't exist (at least I couldn't find it) so I decided to document it and put it on my web site. Writing it took on a life of its own, that's another story, and I needed a new category: Computers.

To do that I changed the RightNav file by adding code for a link to Computers under the Category listing. Plus add the category to the database. It takes a minute or two. Seamless change.

It's not the first time I've changed it. A new month came on Sunday. More changes. Links for Movies watched in March. March Archives. I'm up to version 12 for this one file in this year. There maybe a better solution, but it works for now.

It was during the changes I clicked on to something unusual. March 1st was a Sunday. February 1st was a Sunday. Two months in a row with Friday the 13th. That can't happen very often, but since the calendar repeats, it must happen at predictable intervals like solar eclipses or passing comets.

Posted 2009/03/03 at 23h51ET in JamesPiper.com. [View single entry]

Thursday, February 26, 2009

...When coding a web site or a program, there's always room for improvement, updates and changes....

o date I've posted fifty-five entries in the category of movie commentary. Until yesterday, if you clicked on the Movie Commentary link you would go to a page listing all 55 entries one after another. The page was obviously too long and too slow to load.

The solution? Clink on the same link and see a list of each movie with a link to the individual movie commentary. Now it's most reasonable to view and navigate.

I suspect as other categories grow in size, the same procedure will have to be used.

In the process of making these changes to the code that underlies the web site, I realized two other things I should change or update. I've added them to the list--a list that keeps growing.

Posted 2009/02/26 at 17h27ET in JamesPiper.com. [View single entry]

Saturday, January 17, 2009

...A return to this web site....

here has to be a return and here it is.

The site has been updated to properly list entries by category. See the links on the right nav bar.

More to follow.

Posted 2009/01/17 at 15h28ET in JamesPiper.com. [View single entry]

Sunday, March 4, 2007

...This is the start....

here has to be a start and this is it.

Is there an objective, a purpose? I suppose, but it's personal.

If there are rules, then I set those rules and I like that.