http://www.communitymx.com/blog/?blogger=9 Community MX Member Blog: Kim's blog admin@communitymx.com en-us Reprinted from my Brain Frieze blog, just because I thought it was that good. (Caution. Satire ahead. The products and people in this "interview" are purely drawn from the author's imagination and any resemblance to real Web 2.0 companies is merely accidentally intentional.) ******************* I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Geoffrey Smidgen, CEO of Virtual Absurdities LLC, a company that has just received its first round of venture capital funding for its Web 2.0 startup know as MoLekULr. The service has just completed its initial round of beta testing and will be launching a wide-scale public beta in the near future. Geoffrey and his engineers have devised an entirely unique approach to the concept of social networking that he discusses in this interview Brainfrieze: Geoffrey, welcome. This is a pretty exciting time for your company isn't it? Geoffrey Smidgen: Boy it sure is. Lots of late nights and.......................time spent at the computer. But things have really................................come together and I believe we've really nailed the entire................................essence of Web 2.0 with our product. ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=870 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=870 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:37:16 GMT Hey! We have a meme going! Our worst presentation moments.OK, I have several, including the time I reset the clock on my laptop and lost the trial software I was going to demo, as well as the time the "network guys" decided to unplug the router to the room where I was presenting to over 200 people. Oh those were good alright.But my first disaster goes back to my college days. I was in ROTC at the time, not because I wanted to be an Army officer necessarily, but mostly to get a little $$$ to help me finish college. So, in one of our courses we were tasked to provide an executive briefing. Hey, no problem. I'm not afraid of public speaking.In addition to ROTC I was also working in the university cafeteria in the morning, also to help pay my way through school. That tended to leave me ready for a nap after work and classes, and on the day of my first big presentation that's exactly what I did. I had plenty of time before my late afternoon ROTC class. Until I overslept. Then it was a mad dash to throw on some clothes, jump on my bike, and pedal over to the ROTC building. Whew! Just in time, and with all my notes in hand I took a deep breath, gave my presentation, an... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=748 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=748 Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:13:45 GMT There have been lots of great postings here and there surrounding the 10th Anniversay of Flash this past week. If you've missed the many announcements and congratulations, here are a few that I thought particularly interesting:Adobe kicked things off with a nice article from 10 different designers and developers titled Flash: Ten years, ten perspectives, featuring stories from the likes of Justin Everett-Church, Dan Carr, Stacey Mulcahy and our own Rob Reinhart and Tom Green. It's interesting to see how different people became interested in Flash and where the application has taken their careers.In addition to that article, Adobe also hosted a very interesting Breeze Presentation with Kevin Lynch, Mike Downey,  Mike Chambers, and Eric Wittman talking about the early days of Flash and how the product developed from its humble beginnings as a drawing and animation tool into the application we know today. My favorite part of that presentation was the photograph of the shrink-wrapped box that was released as Flash 1 where the only change was the slapping-on of a sticker over the FutureSplash name. That and the little hole where it looks like someone started to remove the cellophan... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=741 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=741 Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:48:38 GMT For Immediate ReleaseYahoo! a global Internet communications, commerce and media company, today announced it has acquired Community MX, the world's leading online journal for web development information, tutorials, and news revolving around the Adobe Engagement Platform. The merger was announced at the winter meeting of the Community MX partners in St. Tropez, France."We're extremely excited about the partnership between Yahoo! and  Community MX", stated Mr. Ron Feeblebrewster, Vice President for Shoveling Cash at Internet 2.0 Companies. "We feel this will be a dynamic opportunity for Community MX to become part of the wider global audience and expand their offerings outside the English-speaking world."Ray West, titular head of Community MX, provided additional information on the merger. "Well, this wasn't an easy decision by any stretch. We're doing pretty well at Community MX, but the opportunity to take the cash and run ultimately overcame our initial reluctance. So, basically, we did it for the money."Details on the exact price that Yahoo! paid to acquire Community MX were not immediately available, but a company spokesperson described i... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=683 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=683 Sat, 01 Apr 2006 11:50:57 GMT Starting this week we're opening the doors here at Community MX and making all 1,415 of our articles and tutorials free for an entire week. Whew! That would take some serious reading time to work through all of those. Maybe we can get a little help from those of you out there who have been regularly subscribers to Community MX in the past and would like to point to your faves. Me? Well, I would like to recommend the fabulous series of articles from Zoe Gillenwater which really reads more like an eBook than just a series of articles. In A CSS Web Design Case Study: Constructing a Personal Site Zoe begins with a simple premise--reconstructing a web site from scratch. Throughout the 6 part series she takes you through the planning process, the construction of site compositions in Fireworks, how to slice out images for use in a CSS-based design, and brings the whole thing back together in Dreamweaver where she completes the design using web standards. It is the most comprehensive look at a site design using Fireworks and Dreamweaver I've ever seen outside something you'd find at the bookstore. Now what about you? Do you have a favorite article or series of articles you'd like to shar... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=640 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=640 Mon, 26 Dec 2005 12:09:33 GMT With all the news of mergers and acquisitions going around, one constant seems to be how much all our Macromedia gear may be worth on eBay some day. I thought it might be fun to take an inventory on what everyone else has out there. Admittedly I have a fair amount from attending conferences, my time as a member of Team Macromedia, working with the Macromedia Education Leaders group, and other stuff that I'm not allowed to talk about, but I'm sure there are plenty of other folks who proudly wear the "M" log, and will miss it when (and if) it goes away.To that end let's pass the baton.Total Macromedia Shwag in your possession:10 t-shirts (My brother once asked me if I owned any shirts that didn't have the Macromedia logo on them.) 2 ball caps 1 backpack 1 lap blanket 1 CD car visor holder 1 CD case 2 Flash drives 1 fleece jacket 4 polo style shirts 1 long sleeve Team Macromedia shirt Various and sundry pens, notebooks, and doodadsOldest Macromedia shwag in your possession:A white t-shirt with the two-color MM logo circa version 4 of Dreamweaver/Fireworks/Flash. It's been relegated to the lawn mowing t-shirt pile, but I haven't brought myself to part with it yet. Last Macr... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=559 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=559 Fri, 29 Jul 2005 16:13:41 GMT Microsoft today announced their new vector based drawing and painting application, code named Acrylic. Redmond describes Acrylic as "an innovative illustration, painting and graphics tool that provides exciting creative capabilities for designers working in print, web, video, and interactive media." I've had a quick run through with Acrylic this afternoon and like much of what I see. There might be a pretty steep learning curve for what is in essence a painting application, but I do like some of the effects the program is able to achieve and the tools methodology. This is a beta, so there are bound to be changes coming to the user interface, which I find to be both sparse and overcrowded at the same time. A preference to turn labels on for tools would be a good start since the tool icons in use are meaningless to me as a new user. Still, as with any graphics application it's what you're able to create that really matters, and what I've seen of Acrylic so far looks very very nice. Acrylic is built on top of the Creature House Expression software program that Microsoft bought a few years ago, but clearly they have set their sights much higher than what was possibl... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=514 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=514 Fri, 10 Jun 2005 19:58:24 GMT In preparation for the installation of Breeze at our school district I've prepared a 12 minute video with an overview of how a PowerPoint presentation is converted into a Breezo. (Macromedia-speak for Breeze presentations. Get it?) How to Publish Online Content Right from PowerPoint gives you a quick run-through of Breeze 5 and the off-line method for creating presentations. Since the presentation itself was created in Breeze you can also see the new Breeze 5 interface. Breeze tends to be seen as a meeting and collaboration tool by many people, but the plug-in that is installed into PowerPoint for recording and converting presentations to the Breeze format is pretty slick. In fact, the PowerPoint plug-in is a more mature technology than Breeze Live and it just has the feeling of a well engineered product. For content area experts and teachers and students and anyone else who wants to present training on line, Breeze Presentation is by far the easiest tool to use that I've seen. (Thanks to the good folks who run the Macromedia Education Leaders program for providing a Breeze account to experiment with.) ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=503 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=503 Fri, 03 Jun 2005 10:02:28 GMT Very exciting news for me personally and for the school district where I work this week. Our purchase of a license for Breeze Live and Breeze training was approved by our Board. Over the coming weeks and months I'll be heavily involved in administering accounts and training users in this great tool. As in any large organizations shepherding the purchase through the required permissions and multitude of questions took a great deal of time and energy on my part, but it was a worthwhile endeavor for the simple fact that Breeze just works. Along the way various groups tossed out ideas for competing products and services, with the usual question being "Have you looked at this?" And yes, I did look at a number of video conferencing solutions. I won't get into all the details here, but there are any number of companies offering services similar to what Breeze does, but there were compelling reasons to stick with the Breeze purchase. Not least of these was cost. One popular service would have cost $129,000.00 more each year than our entire purchase of Breeze for a comparable number of users and meetings. The second reason for choosing Breeze was the impact on ou... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=499 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=499 Sat, 21 May 2005 20:42:03 GMT Macromedia released version 5.0 of Breeze and Breeze Live today, with some nifty new features being announced. The only problem? Actually finding a complete list of everything new. (Look for a full review of the new version later this week at Community MX.) After a bit of digging I was finally able to come up with a Flash Paper document that details all the new features, of which there are many. It appears that much of what has been done is targeted at the corporate world, including better participant tracking, integration with LDAP to make the creation of accounts much easier, and some new pricing options to allow for larger meetings with more participants. I'm not surprized at these changes based on how Breeze is currently being used and who is using it. You can see a full recap of all the new features at the Breeze 5 Product Overview. (Flash Paper format.) ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=469 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=469 Mon, 02 May 2005 13:07:43 GMT Well. We certainly expended an awful lot of energy yesterday around the news that Adobe and Macromedia will merge into a single digi-opoly in the coming months didn't we? As the dust begins to settle on this development we who are fans of Macromedia have much to ponder yet. In my initial reaction to the news (well, I'd rather not print my initial reaction) I talked a bit about how losing the Macromedia identity was going to be the hardest thing to swallow. It still feels that way now. Like most of the partners here at Community MX I've devoted a lot of energy as a fan of Macromedia. Even though I had to back off my Team Macromedia commitment to do more volunteer work with the education side of Macromedia (and see my family from time to time), the time I spent in the incredible Dreamweaver and Fireworks newsgroups--with all of the smart, funny, creative people who hang out there was really valuable to me. Not just from a technical sense, but also because of the friendships I developed there over time. Thankfully many of those friends work with me here at Community MX, so giving up my newsgroup habit didn't completely cut me off. So I know that those groups ar... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=448 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=448 Tue, 19 Apr 2005 10:26:51 GMT I recently completed a little design work for someone who was happy to see their site get fixed, but apparently less eager to pay me for my work. What a drag. Now, I do design work like this almost as much for what it teaches me as for the money. After all, I have a full-time job already, but my modest web development "company" does take on design work. I usually get into these things when someone learns that I teach web design. "Really? I need some design work done. Would you be interested?" If the project looks interesting, and won't take too much time, I do dive in from time to time. Recently I was presented with a site redesign job by a friend through one of those tangled relationships that are hard to understand. "Yeah, my brother-in laws sister's neighbor needs a site done. Can you do it? They're eager to get this done and are ready to pay." Oh, OK. Doesn't look too hard, there's a little PHP work involved (and Lord knows I can always use practice in that) so I took on the job. A quick discussion through the friend (not with the actual client--which should have been my first warning sign) and a few hours of work and the job was done. Contract? Frien... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=444 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=444 Fri, 08 Apr 2005 10:57:36 GMT Last night I posted a little verbal ditty at my BrainFrieze blog about the connection between standardized testing and kids coming out of school unprepared for high-tech jobs. The connection might be a little convoluted for non-educators, but my premise is this. The more we focus on standardized testing and the crieria that are used to judge the effectiveness of schools, the less time we have to spend on courses that promote the higher-order thinking skills that kids need in high-tech jobs. Our curriculum and schedule and spending is all aligned here in Florida to producing good test results. If that hasn't happened in you state, it's just a matter of time until it does. From a practial standpoint this means the loss of lots of elective classes. In cases where things like band and art and web and graphic design are still being offered either the classes are huge or the kids who want to take the classes are being turned away. If you can't quantify the results a course achieves through testing, then it's going to be tough to get it funded in the current climate. There are far-reaching implications to the loss of these classes, and I hope folks in the industry wi... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=428 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=428 Thu, 17 Mar 2005 10:46:03 GMT It seems like I've been in a ton of meetings lately--some related to the day job, and others that cover some of my outside interests. Nothing unusual about any of that, but what I have been paying attention to is the dynamics of these meetings where what people say is vastly different from what I know they're thinking. Here are some examples: What they say: That's a very interesting observation. What they mean: Is this twit paying attention to any of this? What they say: Yes, we've discussed that issue on our team. What they mean: God, please don't bring that up. Do you know how many hours we've already devoted to that kind of trivia? I've got to shut this guy up or we'll be mired in minutia for the next hour. What they say: That's an excellent question. What they mean: Has this idiot been listening at all? For God's sake! We just now covered that. There's goes another 10 minutes of my life that I won't be able to get back. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. What they say: We'll have to review that internally and come back with some answers to that question. What they mean: Nooooooo! It's all laid out in the documents. Any 3rd grader would understand what we're talking about... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=426 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=426 Thu, 10 Mar 2005 10:01:20 GMT Last night was week 8 of the Fireworks course I teach at our local community college, and as usual the subject was automated and workflow features found in Fireworks. As I like to tell my students, I think of Fireworks not as a graphics editor, but more a graphics production tool. The ability to get great looking images put together in a production environment is part and parcel of what makes Fireworks such a top notch application. As we explored different ways of cutting down on the time required to get those images together we explored Fireworks Styles, and after showing them how to make their own we went on a little web expedition to find free Styles that they could download. I want to mention two here that are far and away some of the best. First stop is Richard (aka RichieB.) Blenkinsopp's site, where you can find some really tasty Styles in flavors from candy-coated to metallic. Richie has added a bunch of new ones since the last time I dropped in, and they look awesome. You also might want to check out his Fireworks sample files for some great designs that are available in their original PNG format. Our second stop was Macromedia's DevNet Center where ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=420 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=420 Fri, 04 Mar 2005 10:12:31 GMT The cost of ethics: Influence peddling in the blogosphere: J.D. Lasica takes a long and detailed look at the matter of getting paid for blogging at the Online Journalism Review. There are some excellent points made throughout the article, and much of what he has to say rings true with me. As an interested observer of the rise of blogs and their influece in certain groups, I'm waiting to see how the business model of blogging will unfold. Will people be able to make money from writing blogs? Should they? Or will blogs, as I believe, be more important as a peripheral   device? A means to promote news, products, and even a sense of community among users of products. A way to put a human face on a corporation that allows its customers to feel better connected to a product that they are interested in. The article is heavily linked, and in addition to the author's main points I found two articles cited to be of particular interest. Jonathan Dube's Blogger Code of Ethics at Cyberjournalist.net leads off an excellent discussion on the topic with lots of well-taken comments posted by readers. Rebecca Blood posts an excerpt from her book, "The Weblog Handbook" in a... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=407 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=407 Tue, 22 Feb 2005 10:10:36 GMT Uh-oh. Another major disturbance in the blogoshpere this week. This time the political bloggers of the world are all a twitter over the resignation of Eason Jordan at CNN. Who cares? And maybe more importantly, does it matter in the least? I'm sure it matters to Mr. Jordan, and to the White House staffer who lost his job, and maybe even to Dan Rather, but for the average person of the world it matters not a whit. I don't read politcal blogs for the same reason I don't listen to talk radio or watch Fox News. Too many self-important people blathering on about themselves and how important they are. "Have you heard/seen/read what I had to say about this topic? I was right. You were wrong. Blather, blather, blather." It's tiresome and boring after a while, and it may well be that this type of self-congraulatory attitude will lead to the ultimate demise of the politi-bloggers of the world. Right now it's news because the people who write the news are paying attention, but for the average person in the world this blogging "phenomenom" means absolutley zero. Being a Famous Blogger is roughly akin to being a Famous Philatelist. Sure, it's a big deal in your own small ci... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=401 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=401 Wed, 16 Feb 2005 10:35:09 GMT Why Usability Folks Don?t Focus on Visuals in Design: Very interesting article from Joshua Porter on the confusing disconnect that seems to take place between usability "experts" and design types. Can a visually stimulating design be highly usable? Can a site that's easy to navigate be interesting and strikingly original? How about both? Josh does a nice job expolring the gray areas between the black and white world of either/or.... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=396 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=396 Thu, 10 Feb 2005 00:53:53 GMT An interesting end--or perhaps re-purposing--of my favorite blog tracking service is making the rounds with the news that AskJeeves has apparently purchased Bloglines. The link cited here has the longest story that I've found so far, but there are others reporting the same news, with the general take that it's probably a good thing for all concerned. I like Bloglines since I move between multiple computers in the course of the day and I can usually count on an accurate listing of new posts that I subscribe to. Why would a search site buy out a blog aggregator? Simple economies of scale apparently. This gives AskJeeves access to the huge repository of categorized blog entries that Bloglines has been tracking for the last few years. And for loyal Bloglines users like myself, perhaps a fresh infusion of cash will help smooth out the growing pains that the company has been suffering from of late. ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=394 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=394 Tue, 08 Feb 2005 00:40:36 GMT If you share my love of language you may already know about the Language Log blog where cunning linguists discuss the English language and all its wild and wacky usages. Really. And besides, any serious linguist who is also a Dave Barry fan can't be all that dull, right? Today as I was scanning the blog a story caught my educator's eye, a study done in the UK that maintains that teaching grammar is a waste of time. OK, that looks like a yawner, but reading down further I was amused by something that the blogger mentions.  How certain phrases get butchered in common usage and become something much more funny that the writer or speaker intended. Chris Lieberman coined the phrase "eggcorns" in honor of a woman who wrote eggcorns when she meant to say acorns. Still yawning? OK, stay with me here. The fun part of this comes when you turn to Google and look for examples of the mis-statements and mis-spokements as they're archived on-line. In today's example the author referred to teaching (and learning) grammar as being "dull as dishwater" (given) and then searched for that phrase on Google with some eggcorns in mind, for dull as dirtwater. Some other more enter... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=393 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=393 Sat, 05 Feb 2005 13:55:31 GMT I'm giving a presentation at a big conference this week and in my preparations I was faced with a pretty serious challenge. How to demonstrate something that's being done on-line when you can't trust your Internet connection. In my case I'll be talking about the CMS that our school district uses for parent to school communications. It's a pretty robust system, but web connections at these conferences can be notoriously slow. There's nothing worse than standing in front of a roomful of people watching your connection slow to a crawl. ("OK folks, while we're waiting for that web page to load I'll be doing card tricks and reading selections from War and Peace.") The solution in my case was to capture the demonstration portion with Captivate, output to a SWF, then embed the SWF right into the PowerPoint presentation. The instructions in the Captivate Help files were clear cut on how to get it done, and I made my life a little easier by simply putting the SWFs into the same folder where the PowerPoint file resides. Then it's a simple matter of entering the file name as the URL to the movie and running the presentation. Right-click the movie when the slide appears a... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=388 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=388 Wed, 26 Jan 2005 01:45:13 GMT Google Index Notification: Here's a goodie. A little PHP script that will automatically generate an e-mail to you when your site gets indexed by Google. Developed by JRBTech, this would be a great service to add on for your clients. "Hey! Good news! Your site got indexed by Google 5 minutes ago." They'll think you're a genius. From the developer's site: The google index notification tool lets you keep track of what pages google is indexing on your site. This is a free tool, and anyone can use it. The query tool will show you which pages are being indexed. GIN will even notify you via email when google indexes a page. This is a great feature when adding a new site, and wanting to know when google indexes you. The tool is very easy to setup. All you have to do is include, or require the php script we provide you with below, into your code on your site.via Robin Good... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=382 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=382 Sat, 22 Jan 2005 17:23:45 GMT Out for a morning jog today, iPod blasting, and once again I was listening to an old favorite--Richard Thompson. What? Never heard of him? Rolling Stone has him pegged at number 19 on their list of all-time greatest guitarists, but for me it's always been the combination of his driving guitar and incredible lyrics that make him my favorite. Consider the swagger that he injects into "Fully Qualified to be Your Man": I don't want to be your friend anymore You've got fifty friends knocking at your door Life is short so please understand I'm fully qualified to be your man You know zoology is up my street And your anatomy is far from discreet I'm good and ready for my entrance exam  I'm fully qualified to be your man I've been studying your every need I've got statistics that'll make you plead I'll put my thesis right in your hand I'm fully qualified to be your man Whoo! Mick Jagger has nothing on Richard for out and out totally testosterone driven tunes. How about these lines from "I Feel So Good", a song about an unrepentant troublemaker out of jail for his first night on the town: I feel so good I'm going to ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=381 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=381 Sat, 22 Jan 2005 13:22:36 GMT I spent some time this afternoon working with Flash video for the first time in more than a "let's play around and see what happens" fashion. The need arose when a colleague posted a movie on our site to share in Quicktime format. Shortly after the news went out that the video was on-line the person who sent the news out was swamped with e-mails saying it didn't work. Seems that many of the viewers in our organization can't get the update to the Quicktime player loaded in Internet Explorer, our official browser, due to network and machine security and firewall settings that just make it nigh on impossible. Flash video to the rescue! It sure is great to have all the Community MX asssets at my fingertips when this sort of thing happens. I downloaded Paul Newman's awesome Flash Video Player extension, did a quick read-through on the directions, and had the basic movie ready to go in less than 30 minutes. Cool! All I had to do now was get the video converted to FLV format, and this is where the struggles began. First stop, a trial version of Sorensen Squeeze. The price is right to go ahead and buy the full version, but since the link is already out there and the e-ma... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=368 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=368 Wed, 19 Jan 2005 23:14:20 GMT Fangs: The Firefox Screen Reader Emulator Extension: Here's another good reason to jump on the Firefox bandwagon--a free screen reader emulator that simply and effectively renders a page into plain text as it would be seen by a "real" screen reader such as JAWS. Currently in beta, the extension is getting good reviews despite the developer's tongue-in-cheek warning that the beta "may cause your computer to burst into flames".  Considering the high cost of JAWS and other screen readers, this appears to be a great alternative for testing the accesibility of your site. Take the time to read on down the page in the comments as well for some other accessibility testing options. The Interactive Multilingual Demo at AT&T Labs is certainly worth a look, as you can enter text and have it read back to you with different voices and even languages. I know this is serious stuff, but I coudn't resist having the UK male voice read back to me "How about a pint then mate?" and imagine that it's my good buddy Jojo. Juliette the French dialect speaker also presents some possibilities.... Via Digital Media Minute. ... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=357 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=357 Sat, 08 Jan 2005 11:01:08 GMT My latest copy of Macworld landed in my mailbox the other day, and there's an excellent article about routine cleanup and maintenance for us Mac-heads in there. I'm not all that big on OS tweaks, accelerators, and all the other things that you can do to mess up...oh, I mean...fix up your 'puter for optimum performance. Actually, that's exactly the reason why I don't like many of the free programs and other OS tweak techniques that are out there. My experience going back to Windows 3.1 days is that you're (OK, maybe it's just me) just as likely to make things worse as you are to make them better. Maintenance is another matter though, and I do take the time to Repair Permissions on my Mac from time to time, which seems to be the only routine task that's absolutely necessary to keep things operating smoothly for me. But after reading the Macworld article I decided to dig a little deeper and clean things more thoroughly. Waaaaaaaaaay down in the article was a little gem of information that made the cover price of the mag worth this month's price. A donation-ware program called OnyX that lets me run the routine cleanup chores that are supposed to work automatically i... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=354 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=354 Thu, 06 Jan 2005 14:44:22 GMT Well, I am just so proud of myself. My one surprise gift for my wife is all set and ready to go. 8 hours of custom iTunes mixes burned to CD and labeled with a nice collage of album artwork with the help of Fireworks and Freehand. I think she's gonna love them, and it will be the one gift that she hasn't picked out for herself already, or even bought and given to me to wrap for her. (Anyone else's wives help you out by buying their own gifts?) You gotta love shopping like this--or at least I do. I can sit at my trusty Mac and pound on my credit card for a while to get a nice mix of tunes from the Music Store. (I won't admit how much I spent, but let's just say that there were a lot of "Ooooh! Gotta have that one!" moments.) She gets a collection of folk songs that I know she'll like, with plenty of Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King. A 60's and 70's mix with Aretha, Jackson Browne, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, and The Eagles. And a couple of car tunes mixes with "Love Shack" (gotta have Love Shack!), some John Hiatt, and other goodies that I know she likes to sing along with. Oh yeah, and a tasty Tom Petty CD with all her favorites. It's been fun, and a li... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=336 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=336 Fri, 24 Dec 2004 11:34:03 GMT I took part in a big news conference yesterday, announcing a project that will bring computers into community centers, churches, and other non-profit centers around Palm Beach County. You can read more about that initiative at my other blog. From a web developer's standpoint, this project has been a real eye-opener for me. I've definitely stretched my web design and usability skills in new ways, had to think towards the future and plan for inevitable changes and new technologies, and most importantly, had to really consider how a school website ought to be marketed to a wider audience. For the most part, school and school district sites are intended for use by teachers and administrators, and by students in a classroom setting. Wanting to open thinks up to a wider audience--parents and after-school programs primarily--we decided to register the domain name PalmBeachLearns.org and really work on marketing the site. (We picked up the .com extension for the inevitable "mistakes" that we know users will make.) This has been a great project to be involved with, and I'm excited about the future of our little endeavor. I have 6 co-workers who are beginning to use Cont... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=335 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=335 Thu, 23 Dec 2004 10:58:22 GMT One of our partners here at CMX--Derrick Ypenburg--has been blessed with a new baby very recently. Congratulations Derrick! I have a bunch of friends and acquaintances and coworkers who are new Dads these days, and thought this would be a good time to clue them in to some of the mysteries of parenthood. (My own daughter just turned 12 so I've had some time to reflect on this whole thing a little bit.) Here's the deal. The best way to get through all of this, especially the first 6 months, is to just treat it like an episode of The Twilight Zone: Welcome New Father, We here at the Planetary-visitor Opportunity Orientation Program (P.O.O.P.) wish to thank you for your selfless decision to accept one of our alien visitors into your home. We assure you that your wife will stop being angry with you in time, although we do recommend contrition and obeisance in the interim period. This transition period for your marriage may last anywhere from several weeks until the end of your natural life. During the first 6 months with your alien visitor you will be faced with many challenges. As the visitor becomes acclimated to our climate here on earth they will require alm... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=330 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=330 Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:56:31 GMT I've been using Breeze Live the last week or so in some further experiments in my day job. It's been interesting to see some of the things that can be done in Breeze, especially in terms of screen sharing. I have a free Breeze account through my work with the Macromedia Education Leaders program, one of the nice bennies that we get in exchange for pestering the people at Macromedia to do a better job in the K-12 education field and for helping them define what works for us. (I even get a spiffy bio page, not that I'm vain or anything). Sort of a Team Macromedia for educators. Back on topic, one of the interesting things I've done is set up a virtual Help Desk as a separate meeting room in Breeze Live. The room is always there when I need it, and I keep the URL stashed in my Tasks section of Entourage. When I need to see what's going on at someone's desktop I just fire them an e-mail with the URL and meet them in the room. Here are some examples of how that feature has saved me lots of time and aggravation: I'm collaborating with a coworker who's office is about 30 miles from me. We needed to discuss the training materials he's working on and be sure that we ha... http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=323 http://www.communitymx.com/blog/index.cfm?newsid=323 Fri, 10 Dec 2004 10:09:28 GMT