anesti.org

I know it’s been a while since I’ve actually posted anything here, and for that I must apologize. Life has been pretty busy and hectic and updating my blog simply wasn’t a priority. I just finished a new server rebuild and everything appears to be running smoothly. If you catch anything that’s broken, let me know – either in the comments or e-mail me.

About the Server

It’s now been updated to Ubuntu Server 8.10. I’ve added some new PHP anti-spam and security fixes, as well as implemented some referral spam blocking. I’m now using a new stats engine, in addition to Google Analytics. AWStats seems to work pretty well. As a warning to anyone on a Ubuntu server thinking of using it, the version in the repositories has an enormous security hole which could allow someone to execute terminal commands as root on your server. Updating to 6.9 fixes the known holes, and I reccomend it. I had personally tested the exploits available for AW Stats, and verified that they were an issue.

I’ve added WP-SuperCache to WordPress, and it has appeared to speed things up incredibly well. I didn’t think it would be as much of an improvement as it is. I’ve also switched my permalinks to something more user-friendly, but all the old links should still work. If you stumble upon one that does not, let me know and I’ll manually add a redirect.

My Life Lately

Firstly, I reached a crossroads in my educational career and decided to change majors. I’ve taken enough Computer Science classes now for a minor in CS, and I should be able to graduate in Mass Communication with an emphasis in New Media by about this time next year – fingers crossed.

I’ve undertaken a handful of projects over the past year, and have finished them. I helped in the construction of Troy Champ‘s blog, hand-writing a custom look that matched the rest of the Capital Church website, produced by the incredibly talented Kelly Johnson. In addition to this, I tailored a version of the theme for the 20-30 somethings blog for Capital Church.

I undertook a design for a friend of mine (also from Capital Church). I present to you Streamline Entertainment. The client had a pretty good idea of the feel and look of the site. I worked with several ideas of my own before giving more of the creative design aspects to the client. He’s been tweaking it as he sees fit now, thanks to the ease of use of WordPress 2.7. I’m moderately satisfied with the look. The client wanted things exactly the way he had in mind, so I did it just how he wanted. There are a few things that I would have personally changed or left out, but it’s not my site.

School

My classload is a bit heavier this semester. That being said, I think my classes are considerably less difficult than my previous semester. My current list of classes is below:

• COMM 3550 – Intro to Visual Communication
• COMM 1500 – Intro to Mass Communication
• COMM 3510 – Intro to Web Design – Seems like it should be easy enough for someone who has done web design as long as I have.
• FCS 3450 – Family Economics

I’m pretty happy with my schedule, despite having a killer 6pm-9pm Thursday night class. I’ve been trying to work out a work schedule with the library so I can have a decent level of income.

Geeking Out

I’ve been coding in ActionScript in Adobe Flex Builder 3, learning to build both Flex web applications and Adobe AIR applications. Flex Builder is built on top of Eclipse, which brings a familiar environment to life for me with a new language. ActionScript isn’t terribly difficult to learn, and Flex Builder has a fantastic UI designer. Look to see some fun apps from me in the future. If you’re a student, you can get a free educational version of Flex Builder. There’s no difference between the full version and the educational version, from what I can tell. This is a great way to get some excellent Adobe software.

A large percentage of bloggers online use Flickr for their image and photography hosting. Flickr is more than just an image host, though. It supports the creation of groups, discussion, comments, and geolocation. While these features build community and comradery, many of them are misused.

All-Out Spam

No doubt, there are spammers that infiltrate and attempt to permeate any website with a medium to low level of traffic. (My site even gets hit pretty hard.) Spammers mass-produce accounts and post links in comments to draw immense amounts of traffic for ads. Firstly, don’t click on ads from websites that get spammed. You’re just giving the spammer more incentive to continue spamming. Secondly, don’t post links that are spammy or even look spammy. If your comment isn’t relevant, don’t post it.

Badges, Awards, and Group Invitation

Just by perusing through the Explore (popular) photos of Flickr, you will find many “Awards.” These usually consist of some awful animated GIF with glitter, sparkles, or seizure-causing color changes. Don’t post these on Flickr photo pages. They’re downright annoying and waste valuable space that could be filled with real content. Group invites should be saved for FlickrMail, the private messaging system on Flickr. Don’t waste my time and spam my photos with group invites that are usually irrelevant and self-promoting.

Self-Promotion

As a photographer, I enjoy admiring others’ works. However, I don’t enjoy having them shoved down my throat by posting high-resolution version in the comments of my photos. If you photo has some relevance to the discussion or to my photo, post a simple link to it. Don’t try to rob even 400+ pixels of vertical space in the comments section with a link to your photo (or photos). This Flickr page clearly shows how annoying all of the previous problems can be.

Notes

I’m under the impression that most Flickr users don’t understand how to use “Flickr Notes” properly. Most use them as a bulletin board to overlay their important irrelevant comments on top of photos. These notes should be used to draw attention to a certain area of the photograph and make a point, such as: suggesting a better crop, suggesting some modifications to be made in a certain area, or generally pointing out something in the photo. Here’s a mild example of note abuse.

To everyone who’s guilty of this: KNOCK IT OFF.