And It Made My Day...

I awoke this morning and checked my email as my coffee brewed. I was humbled by the words of a staranger passing through the "internet" night. It was from a person living over seas in the country of Dubai. They had found my site randomly and were generous enough to spend a second of their time to pay me a compliment. Thank You!

As I was taking a smoke break on my balcony last night. I noticed the full moon. No big deal. There are many full moons. I started to think of all the pondering, debates and arguments that I have had throughout my life. I realized that most of that time was spent thinking about the afterlife and the unknown. It's such a waste (well to a certain extent). What I mean is that we forget that we have a ground to stand on and a life here to try to enjoy. It's either spent in worry and disarray. No one knows and who cares. If we do know, then let's discuss.

I guess this is my promise to myself that I will try to taste my food one last time before it goes down. Laugh just a little bit more when listening to a joke. Drink a bit more when drinking (not too much). Hug Keen a bit tighter every time I see him. His baby scent is so sweet. Take pictures and try to remember everything. It can be good. It when we think in scarcity do we make decisions and choices that are ridiculous and not so fun. Life is abundant!

Watching Videos(AVI) with Subtitles

For a while now, I have been searching for some software that would allow me to watch a avi movie with subtitles(.sub). It is really hard to find good software these days. Especially free or reasonably priced. Luckily scouring the net I was able to find probably the best video viewing software for the PC I could find. I installed it a while back and completely forgot about it. Now I use it religiously. It is Windows Media Classic and it ISN'T a Microsoft product but an open source software. It can be downloaded here:

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_players/media_player_classic.cfm

IE Version Browser Testing

As a designer and developer, I have always needed to check and see that the sites I am developing/designer are cross-browser compatible and that everything looks the way it should. As you know when you upgrade IE version, it is exactly that an upgrade and installs itself onto of an existing version. Ruining any chance of keeping your current version as well for testing.

I recently found an amazing site that offers a download which will install all versions of IE as far back as 3.0. I installed it and all browser work fine and it is not interfering with my latest version (7.0).

Check it out:
http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

Thanks Tredosoft

Fix: ASP.NET TextBox controls don't display properly in FireFox.

I have always had trouble displaying my ASP.NET TextBoxes properly. Through trial and error I found that the WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes in the controls do not translate over to FireFox. The following is how they are displaying:

This is how they should look and do look in IE:

The following is the code for the workaround:

private void TextboxFFHeightAndWidthFix()
{
 foreach(Control c in Page.Controls)
 {
  if(c is TextBox)
  {
   TextBox obj = (TextBox) c;
   obj.Style.Add("width",obj.Width.ToString());
   if(!obj.Height.IsEmpty)
   {
    obj.Style.Add("height",obj.Height.ToString());
   }
  }
 }
}

Voyage into my self portrait

It is an anomaly why people do self-portraits. It seems a bit egocentric. As if it is important to draw yourself.

These are the different iterations of "self toons" I created through the years. Going back to about 1999. Man, have things changed. Perception and physically. I am getting old and looking a bit more anime.

Thoughts?

 

XML + FLASH + MP3 = Simple MP3 Player

Something simple I created for a client using flash, xml and mp3. Just update the xml file to add more music.It is pretty easy.

THE XML FILE
THE FLA FILE
THE SWF FILE