Categories
Burningbird

It is all about me

I’ve added an ‘about me’ link to the sidebar. I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, though my About page is probably not as professional as many of the ones I’ve read elsewhere. Oh well — life is full of wonderous variety, as they say in the movies.

Seriously, when I get the ‘professional pages’ in my site up (not this weblog, no worries there– it will always remain as funky as I can make it), I’ll replace the About Page; but I figured it’s fun for now.

A succinct version of this page could be that I’m a Moron on the Pilgrim Specification Adherance Scale. I hope that I’m a fairly successful Moron, and that I keep my forays into being an Asshole to a minimum. I do try, though, for the Expert Moron ranking in the technologies I work with frequently–except for syndication feeds I hasten to add, where I’m happy just to remain a simple Moron.

When it comes to RDF, I even wavered for a time as Angelic (though some thought I tended more to Asshole than Angel); but then the W3C came out with changes in the released specifications, and my work was pushed back into being Moronic again.

Ain’t that just the way it goes?

In the About page, I also mention my Port-a-Bloggy business, and the camera fund. I have a new port-a-bloggy customer waiting in the wings for WordPress 1.3 to release and then *poof* I’ll have him off Movable Type and into WordPress, quicker than a cat can clean its whiskers with a spit soaked paw. Just think–I can do the same for you.

I’ll have you know, that WordPress is very sexy. Just ask any WP site owner, they’ll say that their sex appeal has increased by a factor of 2 since they moved to WordPress. And you’ve never been moved until you’ve been moved by someone like me.

I did want to say thanks to those who have helped so far with the camera fund, or have trusted me enough to manage the move of their weblogs. I also wanted to thank those who have come out with tips on what to do with my current quirky camera. Because of them, I can continue to take the photos just like the ones posted this week until I do get my new camera.

Those with a modem, tremble with fear.

Categories
Diversity XHTML/HTML

The women of XML

Dare Obasanjo wrote a terrific post in response to my noticing that the Applied XML Conference had no women speakers. He listed out several women in the XML world who would be great speakers, several of whom I was familiar and agree with him, 100%.

In particular, I would be intrigued by a presentation by Lanqing Dai, who is now working with WinFS, but used to work with the XmlDocument class. The subject of WinFS came up in conversation in a thread associated with a post I wrote over at Practical RDF, and I’ve been wanting to learn more about it.

(Yes, time to drop some of my bias about Longhorn and take a closer look at the technologies.)

Another person to add to this list of exceptional XML leaders and practioners would be Dorothea Salo, who recently gave a tutorial on XML classification systems at Extreme Markup, and who was also one of my tech editors for the Practical RDF book.

Categories
Plants

By any other name

I do love roses. I know that the orchid is more exotic, and the daffodil more egalitarian; the tulip more proud, and the sunflower more bold; the daisy is more shy and the iris much sexier, while the carnation fills buttons the world over. And how can I forget the buttercup and dogwood, or the rhododendron that provides the only color in areas bleak and gray. There are a thousand, thousand other blooms to choose from, and the rose so ordinary…but I do love its promise.

O my luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
O I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve,
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.

Hee. Who else? Robert Burns

Categories
Photography

Camera tricks

I did manage to get some fairly decent photos today. Using the speedlight white balance helped, though I wish I could figure out what is causing that odd blinking symbol to show in my camera’s preview – it’s not mentioned in any Nikon 995 article or manual. Whatever is happening, plays havoc with the focus. If you have any guesses, please drop me a note.

Thanks to Sheila Lennon who helped me identify that odd tiny little oval symbol as the ‘date not set’ indicator. Yeah, I know: Shelley! Duh!

I set the date when I bought the camera, and haven’t touched it since. However, I must have unset it somehow in all my tinkering around. It was one thing I just didn’t think to check.

Nice to eliminate the blinking, and thanks much to Sheila. Unfortunately, focus is still screwy and white balance is off (now, these menu options I am familiar with) but it does okay for photos here to the weblog. Good! More bandwidth sucking pages, just for you all!

Anyway, with patience and a lot of missed shots, some water lily photos – thanks to Rev Matt, who turned me on to them.

True, a rose and not a water lily – but you have to embrace the roses when you can; before they’re gone and all you’re left is a stick in the mud, the ghost of a scent on the breeze, and a pansy at hand…if you’re lucky.

Categories
Weblogging

Disclaimer: I can be bought

Both David Weinberger and Frank Paynter reference a bizarre posting about issuing disclaimers on who pays for the blog.

Mr. Weinberger took it seriously, but I prefer Mr. Paynter’s response:

You people have got to be kidding. Conflict of interest? Disinterest is more like it. Who cares who pays for my blog anyway?

Hmmm, I am begging for a new camera–does that count? As for hosting, through the kindness of friends my weblog hosting was paid for last year, though I did share space with a group of really interesting people (it is true what they say about poets, the poetic at heart, and other strange people).

Currently I’m now covering all my hosting expenses. However, I can be bought; you can buy me for a very reasonable price.

update

I think perhaps I should put a caveat on the word “bought”.