Mendocino Bound

Time for some hiking, drinking, reading, and yes, House shoppping. Career moves are in progress.

Current iPod Music Rotation

Currently in heavy rotation on the iPod: Peter Gabriel - Up, Barenaked Ladies - Everything to Everyone, P.J. Harvey - Stories from the City, Counting Crows - Hard Candy, and Miles Davis - Kind of Blue.

Microsoft's Digital Music Format Too Fragmented

Thanks to everyone's favorite Rob Black for this little item:

The New York Post reports that there are dozens of online music stores that back Microsoft's digital format, but they may be too fragmented to successfully dent the lead of Apple's iTunes software. According to the article, Microsoft has been quietly shifting some of its marketing muscle to back a few of the rival stores, particularly Napster, which is owned by Roxio. "They certainly don't want to see [Apple] become so dominant it becomes the de facto service," said Michael Goodman, an analyst with the Yankee Group. The company now links to half a dozen music stores on its Web page, but has given prominent placement to Napster on its Media Center personal computers. Also, Napster is one of only two companies to have a branded version of Microsoft's digital-music player software.

This is not so much a question of technology, but a question of fragmentation. Apple's iTunes, like it or not, has a commanding lead with the purchasing and distribution of online music. Why? They are Apple and not 20 other companies. I hear the lament for Window's users, the codec sucks, the DRM is bad, it is Apple, etc, etc. However, if the shoe was on the other foot with Micro$oft, those same users (while griping) would still embrace it. I liken it to the VHS vs. Betamax debate. And we all know who won that war...don't we?

iPod a Cultural Icon?

There's a great article on wired discussing the cultural impacts of the Apple iPod and how it has helped to shift culture. It is an interesting read.

iPod Mini Innards

Someone was bound to do it, it was just a question of when. Courtesy of Slashdot, a blow by blow tear down of an iPod Mini.

I don't know which is worse, the fact that this guy tore down a 200.00 machine and couldn't put it back together, or the fact that this makes me want one. Either way, it shows just how much innovation went into this cool product. Wait 6 mos. and the price will go down with greater capacity.

How does your mood rank?

Thanks to Jason for this one. So are you having a really crappy day? A great day? Well, now you can compare your mood against the world. Check out the The World Mood Chart

Macs just don't crash

I just know I am going to get flamed for linking to this one, but it is just too good...

AnchorDesk: 'Macs don't crash, Windows machines do'

Flashback to Youth

L to R: Art Fernandez, Chris LaBerge, Al Klein

With all that negative scanning I have been doing and a little more than 30 days to my annual bender in Arcata, I thought I would post this little didy from days past. Yep, that's me back in 1993 at a pledge table. Imagine being Greek on a most decidedly anti-greek pro-environmentalist college. LOL.

32 Years of Travel

Yeah, I've been a few places. Mostly before the time I was 10. Need to get over to Eastern Europe, Australia, and Asia. Hmmm...we have offices in those countries.


create your own

Webmonkey Passes Into History

Thanks to Jeff for his blog about the passing of an legend from the wild west days of the web. That's right...Webmonkey has been shut down. The purveyors of cool, the geeks of web hacks, the secret army of the old Wired Ventures is now gone.

Sigh. Time marches on. You get old. Sites die. However, I remember these guys back in the day when I was coding on a daily basis. It is so sad.

Mixed Media Print circa 1992

The Power of a Hangover © 1992 Art Fernandez

This is a print with a story behind it. It was one of those experiments using traditional print advertising, compositing and silver gelatin glossy photo paper. Exposure set to f-4.5 and 15 seconds of exposure...poof...dark room magic without any PhotoShop (I think PhotoShop was at version 1.0 in those days).

The irony of the title is that I really was hung over at the time. I think I was pledging my college fraternity and had to be in the photo lab at 8 am that morning...ouch.

This is a one of a kind print. It shows what it totally possible with traditional photography in the dark room.

Coming Soon, new photo site

Well, all that B&W negative scanning was bound to get me enthusiastic about another project. So, as I started going through 10K images dating back to 1986, I got the idea for a new site that could feature and sell these images online.

MT Spell Checking

I am one of those people that writes in one giant stream of consciousness...disregarding grammar and spelling until the end and then going back to edit. This is a carryover from my creative writing and policy briefing days.

Now on any other form of word or story authoring tool this is not a problem. Think spell checker for the mentally lazy. However, thanks to a very anal friend (read Danularity) it was pointed out that I have been getting extremely lazy in going back over my blogs and checking for errors. Good friend that he was, he pointed out my spelling errors and suggested that I use MS Word to author my blogs and then copy/paste.

On the whole it was a good idea, but aside from hating MS Word it defeated the purpose of being able to blog from anywhere in the world without worrying about having that evil application. So, I took things one better...built in spell checking for MovableType. All you need is a little perl library (courtesy of CPAN), ispell for UNIX, a perl MT plug-in, and some template tweaks...poof! Workable spell checker.

The expandable nature of MovableType makes the app so compelling. It can do everything but make your sashimi for you.

Sony Receiver went Bye, Bye

Well, I did it. I sent in the Sony ES receiver for service. 186.00 of insured shipping bitterness later it is done. Now I just have to pray that they fix it on the first try UNLIKE some other unlucky owners of the same type of reciever.

Tracy Clay...time to call the day laborers

This weekend I helped my wife dig 6 holes...3 ft wide, 16" deep. Now in any other type of soil that would be a challenge. When trying to do it in in wet central valley clay it is darn near impossible. In between the rain we dug and grunted and dug just to get 12 inches of depth. Ahhh, painful. We got our roses in the ground, but next time we either use explosives or call the local day laborers to get it done.

SiteSatellite Server Status

Since siteSatellite is down for the count, I am posting a quick blog note here to let folks that are using what's left of their account time know what is happening.

STATUS: Hosted Sites Down

REASON:

• Primary SQL/Account Manager dB upgrade
  
• Remove expired and complimentary accounts on server
  
• Archive and delivery of site tarballs to former clients
  
• Customize Apache Conf. Files
  

• All account holders with paid contracts on siteSatellite will get priority
  
• My personal sites
  
• Remaining Complimentary accounts
  

After the server maintenance is completed, I am going to be redirecting remaining accounts to other hosting providers as contracts expire or disk space quota's for account holders are exceeded. While keeping the server up for all clients has been a labor of love after folding siteSatellite, I have been a little too generous with friends and clients lately and the costs are starting to mount.

Questions? Concerns? Monetary Bribes? Use that little make contact button on the nav.

The SONY ES Receiver Saga Continued

So here's the latest on the Sony Saga. The ES Receiver stopped dropping s-video upconverted video signal all the time to sometimes to very frequently. It gets even better. The nearest factory service center is in San Diego and I have to pay for shipping to get it there for warranteed service. Call me cheap, but on a high end (and I mean high end receiver) with a 5 year warranty they should pay for shipping on something that died 40 days in after purchase.

The other alternative is to go to an authorized Sony ES service center (independently owned)...pay no shipping, but pay the labor. Also equally repugnant because the receiver is under warranty. Although I would have a better chance of getting it fixed.

The bright side is the amp has great sound...but is not usable for music since the TiVo serves up all my MP3s. Yeaach.

Decisions, decisions...

Server Migration

See that little Server 2 in the footer? Yep. I was exercising pure and total geekdom this weekend. The never ending quest for a bigger, badder, and cooler server. Yep, I did it...the ever laborious (and notorious) web server migration (something every geer head just loves to do)

In one fell swoop, I moved 250 web sites from my OS X 10.1 PowerBook webserver to a big fat corillian G4 450 with 400gb of storage running 10.2 Server. The hard drive was starting to go on the old machine. So I moved to a new server. OS X Server 10.2 gives me Total control. Ahh, BSD UNIX with a Mac GUI...Linux users eat your heart out.

The move however is not stopping there...I'm putting in a new upgraded web server in running OS X 10.3 Server in the server closet to take on the load from my clients...less disk space...but afterall they aren't paying for more than 20mb of space. Actually, they aren't paying me anymore...since siteSatellite is basically on life support. Oh, well...guess they are on my good humor.

I plan on putting a big load on the G4 450...streaming QuickTime and photo management...so no one will care if I move people once again...actually they will probably thank me. As far as my clients are concerned...the move is seemless.

Although, if I put one more server in the Server (nee Hall) Closet under the stairs I will be able to cook my breakfast in there. Hmmm...think better ventilation.

Sony is Crap

Yes, I am still hibernating. However, I got to the bottom of a problem I have been having and had to share.

So, about 2 months ago my 18 year old Sony Digital A/V Receiver gave up the ghost...noise humm...etc. I decided I just couldn't take it anymore and decided to upgrade my amp.

Now in the old days, Sony's quality was untarnished...you knew what you were getting was not crap. Over the years though as production shifted to Taiwan or China from Japan their quality went down. I know becuase I went through this with a DVD player or two from Sony. However, the quality of Sony's high end ES (ack Audiophile) line was beyond reproach. All made in Japan...5 year guarenteed warranty...etc. All the forums backed this up.

With all this knowledge in hand and a home theatre to get back up and running, I plopped open my wallet and bought one of Sony's top of the line ES A/V receivers. Got it right after Christmas and it worked flawlessly. That was until...until this week.

We started noticing video drop outs on our TV whenever we were watching something on Satellite, Cable, or TiVo. Intermediate at first...barely noticable...but then it started happening when we were watching DVD's. I thought it was our creaky old TV monitor...been giving us problems. But the problem got persistently worse... and as of today intollerable.

Since I was taking my mental health day, I went to get to the bottom of this. Yanked another TV into the room...plugged the S-Video cable into it , watched, and waited. Good for an hour...then two...then..video drop out hell. Holy crap.

I narrowed it down...either it is the S-Video Cable or the brand new (supposed to be high quality/expensive) receiver that is the problem. I got ready to go out and get a new cable, but then thought I should check the Sony user forums...lots of Sony fans out there.

What did I find? I found out that this is a big friggin' issue with all the new Digital Drive ES Receivers and that Sony hasn't been doing much about it.

So, if this was not a brand new amp and I was not an Audio/Videophile I wouldn't be so upset. However, the Receiver is literally the heart of everything...audio (MP3s), Video (DVD, LD, VCR), TV (DSS, CABLE). I am essentially screwed. I now have to fight Sony's (now I know better) crappy customer service to get a warranteed RMA to one of their service centers and wait 6 weeks.

Crap. Now I have a crusade on my hands.

Lesson Learned: Despite solid design...Sony is Crap...even with good reviews. (No wonder they are suffering Apple envy)

Will post periodically to update on my Quixotic quest.

Classic Humboldt County Photo

Nilsen Feed and Seed, Ferndale CA © 1992 Art Fernandez

O.K. I sort of lied...I am in Blog hibernation...not retirement. Took the day off to recharge and relax and get some perspective. I have been going through my 10,000+ black & white negatives from my professional portfolio and ran accross a print that I sort of forgot I took.

'Still making changes though on all the levels mentioned before.

There's more on momentaryshadows, but I am going back to the negatives and will be rescanning and processing them for a new site.

A day of last times

It occurred to me that a lot has been going on that I have not shared. So, today is the day.

1. I am folding illuminare and sitesatellite permanently. After 8 years on the web, a bad economy, and too little time to devote to side projects its is time.

2. I am no longer enamored with the web. I have "been there and done that" for far too long. User Experience, at least the way I have been practicing it, has not been fun. I am mulling a change.

3. Blogging - I jumped onto the blogging bandwagon back in 1999...just when Blogger came online...when it was a "Cool" and "underground" thing to do. Most of my posts have survived the numerous site redesigns due to the database nature of my site. However, after 4 years it is a little tiring. Too little time, too much to do, too much to blog about. I could blog for days on the stuff I am learning on the web, but it would be largely for my own consumption. So, what's the point?

4. This site is tired. With the things I am contemplating doing, the blog and the design in current form must go.

Bottom line, change is good.

So, today is a bunch of lasts:

1. Last blog post for a long while
2. Last day of consulting business
3. Last day being satisfied with being "an idiot in the machine" career-wise

Domains for sale:

illuminare.com (1 owner since 1996)
sitesatellite (.com)(.net)(.org) - you get them all in a package

Drop a note to domains at sitesatellite dot com in you are interested. Make sure you have a compelling use for the domain names as all brand equity goes with them.

-pp

EZ Winetasting

I went wine tasting with a couple of alumni from EZ after work this past Friday. We went to this local winetasting shop out in Dublin called winecentives. It was cool on multiple levels.

First of all, the place was all so welcoming and not pretentious like a lot of places you find in and around the Bay Area and Napa. The owner guy is in the business out of sure love of wine. More than willing to share his knowledge on different viarietals and small vineyards. There is no such thing as a stupid question. They do themed wine tasting events there...one week Zinfendels, another Pinots, etc. The night I went was a night dedicated to Cabarnets...all levels ranging from the most expensive Caymus to the very reasonable 25.00 a bottle Devils Lair from Australia. It was all good. MMMMM.

On another level, it was a great opportunity to network with alumni from EZ an d Chi Phi. Even after all these years of being out of college, there is something to be said about Brotherhood. Many of these guys are in related fields, IT, Marketing, etc. You never know when you have a need for some career help...built in network... I got a chance to meet a guy that predated my pesense up in Humboldt by at least 4 years. Very cool guy. IT guy and wine afficionado.

People that know me in professional life always seem to wonder why I continue to go up to Humboldt for my annual Alumni bender. Those happy few that are EZ alumns or went to Humboldt understand it. The reasons are multiple...1. The country is just so darn beautiful...if I could have made a living up there I would have lived out my days in Arcata...2. Networking: Every year I meet up with EZ alumns that are closer to retirement than beginning their lives. It is an enormous opportunity to learn from their life experiences and seek their wisdom as well as their career contacts.

It may seem silly to some, but it is somewhat comforting to be an alumni of a national organization that dates back to 1824 and has very famous members. I can move pretty much anywhere in the country and have an instant social and career network becuase of my affiliation with Chi Phi.