Toolemera Blog

The Deacon's Masterpiece

The Deacon's Masterpiece; or The Wonderful "One-Hoss Shay"
by Oliver Wendell Holmes

A Logical Story

Have you heard of the wonderful one-horse shay,
That was built in such a logical way
It ran a hundred years to a day,
And then, of a sudden, it--ah but stay,
I'll tell you what happened without delay,
Scaring the parson into fits,
Frightening people out of their wits,
Have you ever heard of that, I say?

Seventeen hundred and fifty-five,
Georgius Secundus was then alive,
Snuffy old drone from the German hive.
That was the year when Lisbon-town
Saw the earth open and gulp her down
And Braddock's army was done so brown,
Left without a scalp to its crown.
It was on the terrible Earthquake-day
That the Deacon finished the one-hoss shay.

Now in building of chaises, I tell you what,
There is always somewhere a weakest spot, -
In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill,
In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill,
In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,--lurking still,
Find it somewhere you must and will,--
Above or below, or within or without,--
And that's the reason, beyond a doubt,
That a chaise breaks down, but doesn't wear out.

When Bigger isn't Better

I've been using a major media fulfillment service. Fulfillment is jargon for a company that fulfills your orders for you. In this case, it's a company that produces media. These are big guys, handling media orders for a lot of the big name software companies. You'ld think they would be a good bet for someone like me, right?

Wrong. You knew that one was coming, didn't you? These guys came highly recommended. Now I can safely blame them for the delay in getting Mechanick Exercises into production. Four, count'em, Four times I've fixed supposed problems with my master files and uploaded the files to their site. Each time something new has happened.

Try #1: Preset links between files and files within folders were lost. The Acrobat search index ceased to work.

Try #2: Links and the search index worked. But a bunch of blank folders appeared on the check disk.

Try #3: No blank folders, but the autorun function lost some links.

Try #4: (you'ld think I would have learned by now!) The file and folder structure I had included in the compressed upload file was lost. All the files were there, but as individual files on the desktop. No folders, no links, no navigation, no search index, no autorun. And two new files called pogo something.

I've ditched this company and am switching to another one. While not as massive as the first company, these guys seem to understand the little guy. They also promise to unzip whatever I send to them and burn it to the disk precisely as-is.

Now that I am in sort-of-retirement, I have time to actually pull this all together properly. I'm going to sick the AARP on that first company and accuse them of age discrimination, disability discrimination, poor customer service and flat pepsi. All four of these are my favorite complaints with the world.

As Chris Schwarz might say: "Bigger isn't always better!"

Till next
Gary

PS: Sometimes customer service actually comes through. Apparently my less than pleased feelings have resulted in some fixes. The unstuffing problem was solely the fault of the vendor. I think that for future titles, I'll simply mail a complete master disc instead of uploading a compressed file. Which I should have done at the very first. Just because we can do something in a digital way doesn't mean it's the best way. If I could, I would pack all the bits n bytes in a carton and hand carry them. Soon as I check that the disk is working properly, we'll be off and running.

PPS: I've been informed by one who knows that the 'long s' in the introduction is improper. Absolutely true. Finding a workable yet legible font that both replicates the 18th C typeface and is legible has been a chore. Hopefully my informant will be able to direct me to a font that more properly replicates the typeface. Some typefaces that do a better job (I used CaslonOldFace) are nearly illegible, at least to my aging eyes.

Good Web Design Stuff

Today, or this morning's post will be to the point: a few links to sites that I really like when it comes to web site & blog design. Or, what I do when I get bored with how things look.

Colors. Isn't it a pain in the *rse to try and figure out what the hexidecimal numbers are for a color? Or even what a color looks like? I have the answer in the aptly named HTML Color Names site. When you click on the Color Hex number, you'll see an entire page in that color. That's how I finally found the hexidecimal number for the new color scheme here. I was looking for the color to match the green on the logo. Little did I know it's called Dark Cyan. Who knew?

Banners. Another problem if you are not a photoshop wiz or ham handed when it comes to selecting layouts. Another aptly named site, The Free Online Image Editor is great at pulling together a banner, or whatever else you would like it do to. There are limits to it's features, but work within those limits and you can do quite a lot.

Search. Google search for blogs and websites annoys me. The layout annoys me. The ranking annoys me. So instead I moved the search functions to Lijit (as in ligitemate... a pun that I missed at first). If you haven't yet, check out the Search widget on the blog and the website. Cool stuff there. I particularly like the visitors feature so I can see what people around the world are doing when they should be working.

What you should and shouldn't be doing: Jakob Nielsen's Newsletter is a must see. Opinionated, true. Biased, true. Given that, I've been reading his stuff for years. Lots of good tips on what to do when designing a site and what not to do. In particular, Nielsen tells you why you should or shouldn't do it.

Roman Numerals: I learned this stuff in high school but forgot it all. So I go to the Roman Numerals Converter website to figure out just when that book was published.

Search Engines: As if you hadn't heard enough about Google, here is Search Engine Watch, the site for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). True, you have to pay to see deep content, but there is still stuff there to read for the shallow pocketed people like me. 

Finally, the most important, most life changing, most vital to your health website there is concerning copyright and the terrors unto death.

Till next, Gary

Changes aFoot

You may, or may not (as far as your powers of observation extend) noticed some changes to both the website and blog. It's not my fault. Blame The Village Carpenter. Some time ago I asked Kari about putting together a business card for me. My endeavors in that arena typically look like your bland government business card. Within a few heartbeats Kari sent a batch of samples my way. One in particular I liked, but, me being me, I prevaricated for a while between a few other possibles. In the end I came back to the first pick as my favorite. Clearly, Kari is as skilled a graphics artist as she is a woodworker.

In fact, I liked this gadget so much so that it has proliferated throughout my blog and website. Bit by bit this image, or variants thereof, has taken over the banners of each entity.

Kari also commented on the improvement of additional colors to the website. That got me to thinking that mayhap it was time to rethink the color schemes and brighten up the world. Look around the blog and you'll see what I mean. The website is also in the midst of a redo. Not punk or goth, but some nice coloration to liven things up. I'm tired of the monotone dark blues and grays. Out with the old and in with the colors!

I also needed a logo to use on eStore products as well as a few other spots. The "little man", as so many people call him, has become a Brand in his own right. So back to the basics and we have:

This little guy will pop up when you least expect it in Black & White and with this nice Parchment background. Luckily for me, this piece of engraving is from sometime in the last quarter of the 19th Century. Just in case the artist returns to claim his due, I've trademarked the image. If anyone uses the "little man" without my permission, I'll sick my killer maine coon cat on you. He'll lick you to the edge of death.

On the Moxon topic, there was a minor glitch in the check disk which I am working on fixing. I wasn't happy with the splash screen software and have been trying out a few different types. Finally, there is one that suits my lazy approach to production. I'll have the new zip file uploaded to the media printer this week, receive the check disk next week and if all is well, I can actually offer Moxon for sale!

Lastly, I am no longer at MIT. Well sort of not there. After fussing over the decision for a year, I elected to take them up on their offer of extended sick leave followed by applying for long term disability. The toes are in need of a some major tuneups at the surgeon's table. Not enough cartilage means fusion time, which, as drastic as it sounds, is fine with me. That plus reaching the end of the long road of a cornea transplant signifyed time to get away from the Library field and the encroaching electronification of that particular world. Working at databases and spreadsheets all day was making my eyes cross. Well, actually that can happen anyhow as I have diplopia (double vision) but living at a monitor was making it worse.

So here I am, enjoying the scent of lilacs wafting in through the window. And thinking of things to blog about...

Till next, Gary