The Xiphoidian

+Darin just launched

07/21/2011 @ 10:19:27 PM

Tim sent Nikhil sent me an invitation to Google+ this evening. I have mixed reactions. The interface is an unintuitive mix of different page styles. What are "Sparks"? The "hangout" feature is a winner though: multi-person video chat.

I think people will be using it long-term, because Google has integrated it into their other web services (Google.com, GMail, etc). I search for things all day every day, and now I will be doing that with Google+ features begging for my attention in the corners of the screen. It even says +Darin in the top left now.

Facebook, you have some catching up to do.

(Originally posted: 06/30/2011 @ 00:46:38 AM)

Content Backlog Counter

06/22/2011 @ 8:41:48 PM

I've added a counter on the right side of the page. It's displaying the number of links, happenings, quotes, pictures, videos, and other time-wasting tidbits that I have stockpiled to post here at a later date.

CSS and Constructive Procrastination

06/19/2011 @ 04:22:50 AM

I really liked the look of eightface.com so I used it as inspiration in redesigning my site. Today is Fathers' Day. It's late. Goodnight.

Coffee with Terry

02/12/2011 @ 8:06:36 PM

I toured a few apartments today, first an apartment on the outskirts of town with Andrei, and then a campus apartment by myself. The apartment on the outskirts of town surprised us both with how nice it was. It comes unfurnished though, so I probably shouldn't live there, seeing as how I own only one item of furniture: a lamp. The second apartment visit consisted of visiting several different types of room layouts in a single apartment complex. Some of the rooms were tiny, which others were nice, and all were expensive.

After the last tour I walked over to the coffee shop for a meeting with Terry. I unwittingly asked him lots of offensive questions and he pointed out my complete lack of social graces. Useful conclusion: I need to work on being a more empathetic person. He, on the other hand, needs to stop signing on and off of Facebook chat so often.

Time to Run

02/06/2011 @ 12:50:22 AM

I'm just heading out the door now to go to SIGArt. We're making pretty steady progress, so now I'm starting to think about how the final EOH presentation should look. The essentials for crowd involvement seem to be a big screen, cameras, and sound. So far we have the big screen...

New CSS

02/06/2011 @ 05:55:25 AM

I redesigned the look of the website and I'm liking it better now. There are still little bits of text and some links floating about that I haven't taken care of yet, but the details can wait.

I also added the ability to go back and look at old posts by month. That's a work in progress, but it seems functional as-is.

Here's today's tidbits of interest:

• A woman in Charleston, SC brought her iPhone in to a computer repair store to see why it couldn't make calls.


• Seth Kinman made an elkhorn chair for President Buchanan.


• Andy was trying to make sense of road signs.

I was also talking to Andre this evening about www.boxcar2d.com, which has a genetic algorithm for evolving 2D cars. I'll post some of our creations later, but you might be interested in checking out the site in the meantime.

Progress

01/27/2011 @ 03:03:33 AM

This week I made a lot of progress. Hence the title. Granted, it comes 758 days after I first took The Xiphoidian offline, but it's progress nonetheless. The general look and feel of this website is still lacking, so I may work on that next.

Today's 'alpha release' link is brought to you by Nikhil and Janet, who just finished watching Chaos Theory:

• Fun Trolling Facebook Polls (for science)

Hmmmmm

07/07/2010 @ 01:58:36 AM

I'm trying to add the ability to save "drafts", now that regular posts work. And that timestamp clock is way off... where is this server located?!

Solitaire

07/07/2010 @ 01:26:28 AM

This is a test of the emergency blogcast  system. This is only a test.

fafinal's request

10/05/2009 @ 1:07:20 PM

fafinal has been bugging me to finish this website for a few months now. He has a valid point. This place has been in its current state of disarray since 31 Dec 2008. That's 9 months and 6 days, if you're counting.

This is going to be a busy week, so definitely don't expect any improvements within the next few days. There are currently 156 items in the pipe waiting to go live. Maybe by Thanksgiving I will have something...