Okay, here’s my plan for this site. I’m going to abandon dynamically generated content altogether and go old-school. The site will have more or less the same stuff as now (blog entries, categories, etc.) but will be built with just plain ol’ HTML. I’ll build it on local machines and then sync it to the server. I’m looking into various ways and means of doing this in an automated manner; obviously I need something that’s quick and easy to use because if it’s not quick and easy I won’t use it.
This Site May Vanish Without Warning
I guess this is the warning. This site has been hacked, once again. I believe that I have fixed the problem but, in the course of researching the problem and updating WordPress, the software on which the site is based, the update process f—ed things up and damaged the database that contains the content for the site. (You’ll notice that a number of things are currently missing, such as links to the photo gallery and the blogroll on the right bar.) Hence two things have been made crystal clear: 1) WordPress can’t be trusted. It’s not that it isn’t as secure as its authors can make it. The problem is that it’s popular and hence a prime target for the script-writing spam-hackers of the world. 2) I either need to find something else or give up altogether. I’m tired of these fire drills. Each time someone exploits the site it takes me about a day to get things straightened out, and this time I’m not sure what it will take.
Giant Jellyfish!
Yes, really. See photos here on the wondrous Pink Tentacle blog. I had no idea such things existed.
November?
The weather really isn’t acting like November here. It’s been warm and dry all month, and was the same for most of October. We’ve had no measureable snowfall yet, and not much rain. I’m accustomed (after living in Colorado since 1983) to getting some snow by the end of September and a few storms in October. We haven’t even turned on the furnace yet, which is faintly ironic since I had a new one installed earlier this year. (Our friend Richard suggested that it’s not cold because we had the furnace installed, in much the same way that it never rains during days you remember to carry an umbrella.)
Pardon Our Dust
I’m about to mess with this site a little. I apologize if anything acts strangely. Check back after around 8:00PM MST if you have problems.
Neat Time-Lapse/Stop-Motion/Origami Video
This is fun: it’s a time-lapse movie of someone making a stop-motion animation of an origami crane, followed by various renderings of the animation:
Thanks go to Chris for pointing this out to me.
Apple Opens Doors to iPhone Developers
Apple just emailed me to tell me that the iPhone Development Center is now open. I thought it would be gracious of me to mention this here since I previously ranted about how Apple seems to be giving third-party developers the cold shoulder. No, I’m not about to get out of the audio plug-in business and start writing iPhone apps, but I imagine that there will be people who come up with clever ideas and manage to make some bucks this way.
First Snow of the Season
It’s snowing here this morning. This is the first snowfall of this season, which is a little late by my recollection. It seems like it usually snows by the end of September, although that’s been less dependable in recent years. So far it doesn’t look like it’s going to amount to much; it hasn’t accumulated at all and it’s starting to peter out (as of 9:55AM).
Audio Damage Releases Vapor
I’m pleased to announce that there will not be any more Audio Damage product announcements with silly headlines, at least for the next several products. I’m more pleased to announce (belatedly) that we’ve released our third and final (for now) low-cost modulation effect plug-in. It’s called Vapor; it’s a diffusion chorus. A diffusion chorus is a sort of a cross between a reverb and a chorus. It’s probably easier for you to listen to some demo recordings than it is for me to describe it. You can read more about it, hear those demos, and buy it here.
You Think I’m Obsessive About Japanese Vending Machines? Hah.
I suspect that I’ll never really succeed in conveying the allure of Japanese vending machines to my fellow Americans, despite my concerted effort to do so in my travel blog. People I’ve spoken to since returning have looked at me with thinly hidden skepticism when I expound upon my fascination, or when I remark that domestic vending machines are entirely dull and narrow by comparison.
As evidence that I’m not the only one with this fascination, and that there is at least one other person whose obsessive interest completely overshadows my casual observation, I direct you to this site. Someone in Japan takes photos of the same vending machine nearly every day and documents any changes they observe. It appears that they’ve been doing this for over two years. The site is in Japanese but you can pretty much get the idea anyway, and Google’s translation service can help fill in the blanks and/or make it all seem sillier than it already is.