My Life in a Notebook

The Quirks of ActionScript

2007-02-27T00:21:00.000-05:00

Anyone out there have a problem with ActionScript? Probably not. I think it's just me. I spent the last couple days constructing a new website for the wind quintet 5 for Dinner. I am going for clean, organized design with simple functions, but like when I learned HTML, I want to do as much of it as I can "by hand."

For some reason I swear that the ActionScript I added should have worked, but for the longest time my stop commands and my button ActionScript just weren't doing what I wanted it to do.

I had a breakthrough tonight, though I swear (again) that I applied the same script as before and in the exact same place.

I guess it doesn't really matter as long as it works and I learn something, right?
However I can't tell you what I did wrong because it looks exactly the same as before.

So I am not going to figure out how to make a photo album for the site. Wish me luck!

What If Flash Were Alll Crazy!

2006-06-06T20:41:00.000-04:00

So I was searching around for something random, like why are some pigeons are a really nice white color and others look just like their own droppings (the genetic disposition of bird coloration?) and came across a site that has a great flash movie. If you work with Macromedia Flash, you will see the beauty of the movie. Check it out here. If you find it great, leave a comment!

Macs Everywhere: My visit to the Apple Store

2006-06-05T20:39:00.000-04:00

Hey kids, I am finally at the Mac store. Quite hot. Busy with all the web access you could ever want. I'm still looking for that perfect iPod accessory though I'm not sure what it is yet. I'll keep you all posted.

So, it's nice here. Just like the pictures, but with much more people around. Bright, spacious and clean with tons of people to help you. Ok, back to shopping. this MacBook Pro has a very nice keyboard.

Moving On in Bryant Park

2006-05-28T18:44:00.000-04:00

Hi friends, I am moving on with the development of my site. Today I am in Bryant Park about an hour before it actually closes for the night. A strange man is sitting really close to me and rocking in his little green chair. It disturbs me a bit. Though it isn't as disturbing as when some guy ran into me and I fell down at Penn Station. I have never fallen down like that ever...even when I played field hockey. Seriously, I didn't even see what happened, but now my butt hurts a lot. Call me if you want the whole story.

If you have checked back in lately, you will notice that it looks even better than before. I have a nice mask effect that frames the page with black so it seems as though the text/content is a nice rounded square. I'm not sure why IE doesn't have the background as black since I set the html file and the flash movie's background as black, so if you want to see what my intention is, check it with firefox.

Today I added some button sounds so when you click the menu bar you should get a nice little .wav sound that was provided by one of my tutorial books. About a week ago I figured out how to easily add behaviors to premade buttons in the external library so all of the links have nice visual buttons to click.

Hopefully some of the text is a bit more interesting to read, though I am not sure who exactly would be reading this stuff anyway.

I'm in the process of adding some more photos, too.

Taking All Things into Consideration

2006-05-09T18:41:00.000-04:00

Ok, to answer some questions about how I did the site I will do this in a couple posts because I have to go back through my work and figure out what I did. (I am posting this and updating as I go through the site).

My goal with lishlindsey.com was to challenge myself by working with a couple new programs demonstrated in CAI class and incorporate the skills learned in last semester's Tech class. My old site (geocities.com) was done by hand using html coding, so I wanted to keep the clean look with easy navigation but with some added flare that only flash can do.

So let me talk about the specifics.

Books, Tutorials and Such
The programs utilized were the Adobe Suite 2, specifically Photoshop and Macromedia Studio 8, specifically Dreamweaver 8 and Flash 8. I also worked with Audacity to edit the convert all sound clips. The graphics were from Full Moon Graphics, one of my favorite sites out there.

In class we were given excellent tutorial instruction on using these programs, but I also spent much time online and ended up purchasing resource materials since there is so much more I want to learn to do. Some favorite books I used were the Adobe CS2 for Dummies, Macromedia Studio 8 for Dummies, Macromedia Flash 8 Bible, Dreamweaver 8 Bible and Photoshop CS2 for the Web Hands-On-Training. Some interesting online sites were Tutorialized.com, Mccannas.com and Entheosweb.com. There were many more, but I think you get the idea.

Hosting Information
The hosting information is as follows. For my geocities site I did upgrade awhile ago so I would not have any ads on the page. That is about $4 a month. My flutespace site is a free geocities site. My new domain is through godaddy.com and my total was around $22 for two years which includes a $6.00 fee to make it a business capable site and then there was some $3.00 discount which was from signing up for two years. My site is hosted by lunarpages.com but at a reduced rate because I am piggybacking on my friend's account. In total I pay $30 a year to have my site hosted there. I believe for my friend his total is $170 per year for all 4 sites he has. I guess you can say they are bundled. I get tech support as well as email addresses. Right now I am only using lish@lishlindsey.com but I could have anything@lishlindsey.com. The ftp program is aceFTP which is freeware.

Back to the tools used to build this site.

To create my main.swf movie, I used one main timeline, rather than multiple scenes so I could manipulate my information easier. The background, heading, content, side markers, actions, etc. all have their own layers. I wasn't sure if there was a better way of getting rounded corners of the textured background graphic, so I just made a mask layer with rounded corners and made sure the swf's background matched the html file's background.

The majority of text I used is Blackadder ITC at 25 for the menu with some variation on the contact page. The smaller gold font (#ff9900) is Franklin Gothic Medium at 12. The original size was 640px x 480px, but since I couldn't fit in as much text information as I wanted, I ended up changing it to 1024px x 768px.

Hot Tip
I found that the snap to, rulers, grids and align and distribute panel were essential to organizing the site. I highly recommend them!

Menu Markers and Text Buttons
The marker was tricky because I wanted to have the text be a button, but I also wanted to have some other type of visible action to happen when a menu button was clicked. I used the button that was provided in the button library and manipulated its shape via Photoshop. You can see that the marker will show you which menu item is selected since the text button returns to it's original color. To make the marker move, I just inserted a keyframe, dragged the marker and inserted the next keyframe.

To create the menu buttons I converted all text into button symbols. When selected, I inserted a blank keyframe on the hit frame. I used the onion skin button to see the text so I could place a hit area over the actual text. The free transform tool was helpful to create a hit area big enough for the longer words. The hit area itself was converted into a graphic symbol. After placing the hit area over the text, I inserted an identical keyframe as the one on the hit frame on the over state of the button. Then I changed the text color to gold so I would see a change when the mouse was over the button. The one step that I constantly forgot was to add the actionscript so that the marker would work with the text button! An example of the script is: on(release){this.gotoAndStop("links"); I made sure that I had a separate layer with just the marker frame names set up with keyframes so that this would work.

Other Stuff
The moving text pages were all motion tweens and the photo album was also created by using different frames and actions on the buttons to navigate from one picture to the next.

I also included a component text area for my concert schedule.

Overall I tried to incorporate many different things into this site. From here I have an udea what works and what I could add to it in the future. Check back because I might just blog about the additional changes.

So...how did you do that?

2006-05-04T22:19:00.000-04:00

I had a couple questions from people checking out the new websitelishindsey.com since I did it in Flash. I am in the process of trying to discuss what I did exactly, but you might have noticed that it is still going through changes.

I really don't feel that it should be a stagnant site, but rather something that can include new information. For now I can just say that the site has two parts, the intro movie with is embedded in the index.html file and then the main movie which is located in the main.html file. I only created one scene for the main.swf movie, too.

I hope that makes sense.

Favorite + Icon =Favicon

2006-05-04T18:56:00.000-04:00

I failed to mention this during my presentation on yesterday, but I created my own Favicon on my website. If you do any search, you can find information about creating your own, but I used the favicon.co.uk site because can create your own then embed the code in the head portion of your html page.

This icon will come up in the browser window and often when bookmarked, it will appear there, too. Rather neat! I tried to upload it here, but I don't think blogger supports the .ico file. If you check out my website, it will appear as a red treble clef. You might have to try different browsers to see it and sometimes you have to bookmark it instead.

So the Podcast Thing...

2006-04-23T14:52:00.000-04:00

Well folks, the podcast thing never really panned out. I've been watching a lot of video podcasts and have been really entertained. My favorites right now are ABC News, Ask A Ninja, Fluffy TV and Flash TV, though I think I subscribe to every one, even the ones in languages I don't understand.

Even the non-video podcasts are enjoyable to listen to. NPR allll the time.

The most intimidating thing that may have prevented me from actually doing it (other than the time and planning it takes) was just finding a good idea to explore. I brainstormed for quite awhile, weeks infact and ever found an idea that I really liked.

It's difficult being witty in a planned-sort-of-way. I guess I am going to have to put the project on the back burner and figure out exactly how I can justify messing around with my website ideas and then just breaking them down because it just wouldn't work. Arggg.

Stop Bugging Me

2006-04-14T16:41:00.000-04:00

Technology, the more I think about it, the more it bothers me a bit because when I want to hide away and get work accomplished, something is always running, ringing or beeping.

There is a drone that happens everywhere all the time and most of it is due to things we plug in and charge.

Actually, I really like it, but it's funny how few excuses I can come up with when my parents are trying to get in contact with me. Sometimes everyone needs a breather, right?

In the past we could just leave the room where the phone is since it was all about landlines and even before that if, like WAYYYYY before that, we could just move to a different continent to escape those we didn't want to talk to; however today we are so lucky to never be far away from those who love us.

Perhaps my issue is that my online presence is often more descriptive than my off line life. I wrote to my mother to let her know I can be easier reached via comment boxes and inboxes via myspace. She didn't take to that too well.

So today I just want to unplug everything and not worry about my inboxes, but I know that eventually they always call me back!!!

So Many Options

2006-04-09T22:04:00.000-04:00

Anyone out there feeling crazy with all of the software? Specifically I noticed that I can do a lot of the same thing by doing many different things, all of which are valid and worthwhile.

For example, generally I am trying to have an online presence on the web via my own domain name and publish using a program rather than coding all of the html myself. Great! It's a super goal, but is much more challenging than I had anticipated. For example, in class we were talking about tables in relationship to our webpage layout, but as you know, there are various ways on organizing the design. Tables, layers, slices, frames...there are so many choices.

I feel somewhat tired since I've spent so much time trying new things and exploring the different options out there. It's really an amazing process. However, now I really need to apply what I have been working on and try to display some results.

I'll check in later since my current question is whether or not I do my navigation through photoshop, flash, etc.

Measuring Emotion Article

2006-04-05T15:54:00.000-04:00

Check this article out about
measuring emotion.

Teresa Marrin Nakra, a new music professor at my old school, is involved with this project. I found the link while visiting TCNJ's website. I believe the jacket was part of her doctoral project at MIT.

My initial reaction is that I'm not quite sure if the jacket's data can really document or register emotion. Physical reaction yes, emotion...hmm. I can run a distance and increase my heart rate the same way my heart could race if I were playing a movement on violin that required a lot of movement and speed; however, I could be sad, happy, mad while running or performing.

I have to think about this a bit more.

using your noodle to moodle

2006-04-03T23:48:00.000-04:00

We started to discuss moodle and the benefits of using this service during our last CAI class. In Keith Underwood's flute rep class we utilized moodle as an experiment to see if it was useful to us. I liked that moodle supported videos, audio, and images as well as being a great place to post information concerning the class, private lessons, and flute playing in general; however, like most communities, if members don't keep it running, the community doesn't grow. You can visit Keith's site here here.

I have been thinking about utilizing moodle in some format for my private studio. For my website for the last tech class I had an area on my site that offered flute information, so I think this might be the next thing to work on.

The school that I attended for my two undergrad degrees (The College of New Jersey-the school where Freshman John Fiocco was last seen...he's been missing and there are posters all over midtown Manhattan) had a program called SOCS, or Simple Online Courseware System. This is a lot like Blackboard. It is a web based application makes the the communication between student and teacher easier and more organized. I wonder if it will continue to thrive on the campus since moodle is making such an impact everywhere else.

blog is not in my dictionary

2006-03-14T20:44:00.000-05:00

People, why isn't "blog" in the BLOGGER'S dictionary? One would think.....

Death Blog

2006-03-07T15:50:00.000-05:00

So I had this whacked out idea to have a death blog. Something that would be kind of like a time capsule of all of your secrets that you would liked released after you cease to be. I guess it's just getting things off of your chest without having to deal with the repercussions. You could tell Aunt Flo what you really think about her, the good and the bad, and you could post all of your own thoughts about life and death. It wouldn't be a will and not released to the public until you are clinically gone. It could get messy if you were in a coma and then came out of it.

Also, I liked the idea that people reading the blog would know you are dead. I think that creates a very different atmosphere for the reader.

The thing is, I guess people do that already. With blogging and webpage design so accessible, there is so much stuff posted from those who've passed on.

This brings me back to the article in the Baltimore City Paper I mentioned in February: Ghosts in the Machines
What Happens to Your Online Self When You Die?. The article links to diedonline.com and mylastemail.com, both sites that help notify your contacts in the event you die. I guess it isn't anymore morbid that my idea of the deathblog and they serve the same function, but the more I think about it, the more I don't mind having a presence online after I go.

Ok, so maybe having email accounts that just collect spam forever are not too great to keep, but having profiles is a neat way of still be there, or at least being remembered.

Anyway, I don't plan on cutting out anytime soon. Until then, I guess I'll just have to leave my extensive list of logins, passwords, and websites in the hands of my closest friends.

Frozen ipod

2006-03-02T01:36:00.000-05:00

This is in response specifically to Elaine's comment about the frozen ipod because I was totally there! I figured it out, but at some point I ended up erasing everything on it. Oooops. Ahh technology.

I am Connected to my Music!!!

2006-03-01T16:33:00.000-05:00

Finally I feel connected to my music via my new video ipod. This is a big deal to me because I am moving from one point in my life to another. Good bye old CD player. Actually, I considered getting an ipod a long time ago and I kept thinking about it, but my CD player finally died and I realized that it was TIME. I always had a G1 old-school ipod on loan to me, but since it wasn't exclusively mine, I never had the feeling like I do now.

I am as excited with this new technology as I was with the notebook. I feel somewhat free and because of that I have not really turned the ipod off. I've listened to artists and albums that I haven't heard in YEARS and the crazy part is that I am listening to non-classical musicians. Usually I inundate my senses with whatever orchestral or solo music I am working on at the time, but now I can listen easily...for fun. Oh Fiona Apple, how I missed you!

Plus having fun with podcasts and video is just a whole other amazing thing to explore. Niccceeee.

My Domain

2006-02-26T01:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally ordered and set up lishlindsey.com through godaddy.com and am piggybacking for a couple bucks a month on my friend's hosting service. I transferred some information from my geocities site to the new one just to have something there and to really learn how to work with the ftp program.

On the side I have been working in various tutorials of photoshop and flash. I have a new design for the new site, but am finishing learning about slices and working with dreamweaver. I hope to have a somewhat working site in a couple days. I just feel that so much of the learning process is just doing the actions again and again.

Actually, it's a lot like learning new (contemporary) music. Sometimes the techniques are somewhat strange and unusual, but as I work on them, they end up becoming chunks of information and processes that are incorporated into my brain so they are easier and easier to recall.

I had to be very careful in not becoming too overwhelmed since there is so much stuff to learn and so many different ways of doing some things. For example, I wanted to learn to do certain graphic effects, but at first I would just try to create a crazy star graphic (for example) and would miss a couple steps or not know the exact tools to use to create what I wanted. So I figured I first needed to start with the very basic way of creating shapes and then adding effects and then doing research to find out what else I could do with it.

I think it's going well and hopefully the hours and hours! of work will prove worth it.

Hungry? Eat a Book

2006-02-20T13:26:00.000-05:00

Happy President's Day. Today we honor Washington and Lincoln and all the other men who served as leaders. Elementary and middle schools all around the country last Friday probably made silhouettes of various heads and stuck them on popsicle sticks. What a happy holiday for the young. This holiday (and most holidays) doesn't tend to move me. Maybe I am too cynical and know that people are multifaceted. We are all good and evil in varying degrees.

Personally, I am just glad that we don't have class. Not that I'm not fond of class, but it's like a snow day since I though we HAD class and returned to NY for a rehearsal that does not exist because of the deeds of presidents past that hang in our memories and warrant a day of rest and reflection.

But what does all of this have to do with hunger and books? I am hungry. I am in the NYU library. I wish I could eat the books. It would be nice to eat literature and absorb all the ideas that they held. Sustenance for the mind with just a pinch of pulp to challenge the digestive system. Now that is exciting.

So, what does this have to do with technology? Nothing really, but as I look down into the lobby of the library, I notice a mix of the past and the present. The backbone of this place are the books. Physical material that we can hold, open, throw, and basically read. It's paper. Tangible.

Then there are computers to help search and catalogue all of these books. The information is stored away and called when we desire it. Maybe someday all the books will be digitally saved and scanned into some online archive (if it doesn't exist already) and the library as we know it will cease to exist in its current state, but I think that humans will tend to hold onto printed text. We like things that are organic and remind us of the earth. But maybe I am wrong. I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

Aliens, Robots, Ghosts, and Will Smith

2006-02-15T13:56:00.000-05:00

I am taking a break from practicing to edit and publish some of my thoughts that have been taking up space at blogger.com. The TV is on and HBO is running Independence Day for the 12th+ time. It's like "name that movie" via the first three notes of the main theme since the theme comes back over and over and over again. If you recall, this popular movie stars Will Smith and deals with advanced alien technology versus the problem solving skills of humans, mainly Americans who outsmart them and save the world. Great, neat. Wonderful. Where's that warm fuzzy feeling?

I, Robot, has also been running on HBO. This ALSO stars Will Smith. I believe that the critics did not favor this movie, but I enjoyed watching it, though I love watching every movie I see. That is why I am NOT a film critic. So I thought I, Robot was a fun romp through futuristic Chicago.

So what is all of this talk about ghosts in the machine? James Cromwell's character talks about free radicals, random segments of code/data that may allude to the formation of free-will, creativity, and perhaps the formation of a soul in the robots that co-exist to help humans in the world in 2035. Is this idea based on some type of observed reality in today's computer systems? Originally the phrase was attributed to Ryle, a philosopher who published "Concept of Mind" in 1949. He disagreed with the Ghost concept which said the human mind was independent and separate from the physical body. I guess Ryle didn't like such a disassociation of mind and body.

Since then ghosts usually deal with smart computers capable of some level of cognitive thinking. From there the sci-fi genre likes to entertain the idea of robots evolving. Think back to the Matrix.

I like to think that all things are possible. Sure, why can't robots become smart? We build them to be just "smart enough" to do whatever task we want, but are uncomfortable with the potential that they could become smarter than us. To bring this back to I, Robot, it was the computer acting to save us from ourselves. The humans in the film weren't too thrilled with that and I guess that is what we fear in real life.

On another note, other types of ghosts can be found all over the web. Some deal with viruses and their history: Ghosts in Your Machine, some like to talk about actual smart software: The Ghost in Your Machine, and others discuss your online personality and what happens when you die (see a later blog posting about this topic): Ghosts in the Machines: What Happens to Your Online Self When You Die?

Funny thing that iRobot is also the company name what produces Roomba, Scooba, and unmanned ground vehicles among other products.

Can You Hear Me Now? If Not Now...Soon.

2006-02-08T01:02:00.000-05:00

I woke up early on Sat morning to get ready to teach in the Bronx. I actually woke up an hour earlier than my regular 7 am wake up time since a neighbor somewhere was chanting his morning prayers, I think. Very pleasant actually, but it definitely woke me up.

I enjoy NY early in the morning, especially on a Saturday. People are up and about but the traffic is mellow and quiet. The local fish market on the corner of 40th and 9th is open for business and the people at Project Find have not yet found their way to the back of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, fewer drunk people to fend off in the morning.

I usually take the 2 to Pelham Parkway in the Bronx unless the 2 is actually the 5 or something else on the weekends, if you know what I mean. I’ve noticed that people are quite dazed in the morning and once I hit the train, so often the silence can put me to sleep. It’s not until the subway unearths itself up around 149th do people come alive. Snap, click…all cell phones out.

So what will it be like if we can get reception underground? NY tunnels are the last non cell phone polluted area in the city, right? We all have the same thing in common…zero bars. Until the new installations are in place, I will savor looking around at weary and wary passengers, chattering tourists and maybe make a new friend.

Adsense Widget

2006-02-07T01:32:00.000-05:00

Now you too can track your adsense account with an adsense widget. Life is sweeeeet.

WWW: The Wonderful World of Widgets

2006-02-07T00:54:00.000-05:00

So we talked about Widgets, a JavaScript runtime engine formerly referred to as Konfabulator, during last semester's tech class. I believe Felix was a class favorite. Well, I moved in a whole slew of fun toys that are inundating my desktop. Hours slip by, precious moments when I should be blogging, as I watch sheep walk by my notebook window, try to figure out how to understand a new binary clock program, or just tend to my new widget bee-mouse, Ivy.

This is true bliss. Actually, I find Widgets to be very practical for me since I spend so much time in a practice room alone with the laptop. Now I can watch the sun (or moon) travel across my screen or see what the weather is like outside without even having to leave the Education building. Stimulating, isn't it?

We are All Tweens

2006-02-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

Tweening is the process of moving between two key frames in Macromedia Flash (or any animation project) where an image moves or evolves into a second image smoothly. I see flash everywhere and appreciate it's contribution to presenting information in a fun and informative way.

So I started to wonder about humans and our ability to tween. My life seems to be marked by various events at different times. How do I remember them? Well, like most people I tend to categorize my past, sometimes by birthdays (13th, 16th, 18th, 21st), sometimes by large periods (baby, child, teenager, young adult, adult) and sometimes by smaller increments like freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. I know I don't remember everything I did on a given day, but I do remember key events that happened at various points. I guess tweening is a part of life.

Flashing

2006-02-01T17:03:00.000-05:00

Flash is on its way. I had to order Studio 8 since we are going to be working with Flash, but in the meantime I took a tour of some flash tutorials that were online. I was somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of resources posted on the web, so I just browsed around. I hope some of it makes more sense when I get the program and have a focus.

Podcasts

2006-01-31T01:23:00.000-05:00

Last week we had a chance to check out podcasts via itunes. Reminds me a lot of public radio like NPR programming, something that I catch a lot of while driving in my car. I actually spend a lot of time listening to the "TV" while back in Jersey since I have less and less interest in music radio stations. While I am working in the notebook I am always listening to itunes radio so something is quite amazing and different when listening rather than watching media. Podcasts just remind me of a format that anyone can produce and be heard by so many people. What an interesting way to express ourselves.

A New Toy

2006-01-22T02:41:00.000-05:00

Technology requires "stuff" and this is the first time I purchased my own notebook. No more do I have borrow, beg and steal from my friends and loved ones. Yes, I will pirate their wireless networks, but I am with LAPTOP that I can deface and abuse all I want. I loved the iBook (let it rest happily at home), but it was time to get something that would serve my current purposes. Nothing fancy, just fun.

Computers are the window to the world and in some cases, the soul. I can not tell you how excited I am!!!! Am I alone in this feeling of freedom? I think not.

Here We Go

2006-01-19T01:18:00.000-05:00

This is my blog for NYU's Computer Assisted Instruction class taught by Dr. Gilbert and Dr. Yen. The class is intimate and promises to be an interesting forum for discussion and reflection.