williamclayton.com

A Stroll in Assisi

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:47:00 GMT

I’ve added photos from Assisi, Sienna, and Florence to my Italy gallery.

P.S. I’m selling a slightly-used Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) Ultra Zoom/Macro AF-D lens. If you aren’t scared off by the long, detailed name, be sure to check out the auction.

iTunes Shuffle - When Random isn’t Truely Random

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:40:00 GMT

During the years of using iTunes I’ve noticed that certain songs recur more frequently than others. Throwing out conspiracy theories that Apple has deals to secretly promote certain artists and/or songs by innocuously promoting them through shuffle, I figured it had to be something with the algorithm that controls what song plays next when you hit that shuffle button in your iTunes player.

The obvious first place I looked was iTunes’ preferences. There under the “playback” tab I found options for increasing or decreasing the likelihood of what iTunes dubs “Smart Shuffle,” which is basically the likelihood of hearing songs in a row by the same artist or from the same album. Since mine was set smack in the middle above “random,” this didn’t shed any light on why in the world certain specific songs were coming up more frequently than all the others.

Since Apple doesn’t provide their shuffle algorithm to the public, I resorted to doing what most people in my generation do when they have a question: I queried Google. After digging through some basic, obviously off-the-cuff answers provided in various forums and blog posts, I found what I thought would be a gold mine. The CNET article I ran across was titled, “iTunes: Just how random is random?” and attempted to address the very questions I was seeking to have answered. CNET detailed in the article the testing and data-gathering they did, but ended the elementary-at-best test very disappointingly by stating,

“Could this be a result of the relative popularity of each label’s artists, or is somebody conspiring to keep Sony’s numbers lower? Or is this just a natural manifestation of the known deficiencies in computers’ random-number algorithms?” It’s obviously difficult to tell whether back-room marketing deals or just dumb luck were responsible for the results we saw, but it appears that we can safely lend credence to the suspicions of myriad iPod users around the world. When it comes to choosing songs, ‘random’ clearly is relative.”

Thanks for that non-answer CNET. On top of that sad conclusion, I didn’t think CNET’s test was really that great because of how small the sample was and how many times they repeated the test (zero, to be precise). I didn’t really blame them since there are an exponential number of variables to take into account, but I was still disappointed not to have found a solid answer to my nagging question.

Regretfully, I have to conclude this post the same way CNET did their test – by telling you that I don’t have an answer. All I know is that it seems like I hear the same Nickel Creek song at least once every time I listen to my music library with shuffle turned on. Maybe I’ll just go back to convincing myself that since I listen to music so frequently while working on the computer that it only seems like I hear the same songs repeating in shuffle. That or Nickel Creek really has paid for a subliminal marketing campaign through Apple….

Dropbox – Store and Sync Files Online

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:30:22 GMT

I signed up months ago as soon as I heard about the Dropbox beta, but it wasn’t until a few days ago that I received a private beta invitation in my inbox. Dropbox installs on your computer and points to a folder on your computer (named “My Dropbox” on Window’s machines) which it then ties to your online Dropbox account and server space. Anything you drop in that folder gets uploaded to your Dropbox online and you can then access the files by logging in to your Dropbox account online, getting public URLs for the files, or by using Dropbox on another machine you’ve allowed to sync to your account. It’s much like having a personal FTP site, but it’s easier to upload and download files since you have a nice web interface and don’t need an FTP program installed on each machine. Dropbox also allows you to create shared folders that you can invite friends to access. This could be very useful for collaborating on projects. Another handy feature is the log which keeps track of the changes made to your dropbox.

Users should be cautious about uploading sensitive and/or personal files. I wouldn’t recommend doing this in the first place, but if you must, be sure not to drop it in your public or shared folders. From the Dropbox website:

“While you own the content contained in Your Files, you hereby grant all other Dropbox users a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use and exploit Your Files in your public folder. In addition, you hereby grant Dropbox users who have been given access to your shared folder a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use and exploit Your Files in your shared folder. You represent and warrant that you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents and permissions to grant these licenses.”

I have a few beta invites left if you’re hankering to get your Dropbox on.

Jacer’s Racers

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:48:00 GMT

Last weekend I built a website for Jacer’s Racers, a run/walk for life in remembrance of a dear child whose parents chose life, despite their son Jace being diagnosed with Trisomy 18 among other complications, and were rewarded with a baby boy who not only lived to be born (counter to all the medical opinions that he would never make it that far) but lived for over twelve weeks as a testimony to the goodness of God before he was called from this world into the next. If any of you live in the Houston area I encourage you to visit the website and sign up for the event.

Life has been extremely busy recently, but I’ve finally launched my Italy gallery. What did I tell you about famous last words anyway? If my definition of soon is more like two weeks, then I guess it’s accurate to say that I’ll be back at school soon.

Ergonomics in Your Keyboard

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:11:00 GMT

Your parents may have been (or still are) on your case for displaying poor posture at the dinner table or for not holding your pencil correctly when you were a kid, but they probably didn’t preach to you about the importance of your keyboard. I’m going to. I’ve been using an ergonomic split keyboard for just over a year now and it’s been one of the best computer hardware investments I’ve made. Being one of those individuals who can easily spend over 10 hours of my day working on the computer, my keyboard is very important because it’s my primary control device. Maybe your keyboard doesn’t get as much use as your mouse, and if that’s the case you should really learn to use keyboard shortcuts for the programs you use.

The vast majority of keyboards are flat and straight – much like boards in fact. You have to contort your wrists in order to type. The advantage of a split keyboard is that your shoulders and wrists are in a more natural and relaxing position while you use the keyboard. I am certainly no ergonomics expert, but I can tell you what’s comfortable and what’s not. So if you’re interested in ditching your old keyboard and buying something that won’t continue to lead you down the path towards developing carpel tunnel, ZipZoomFly.com is offering my favorite split keyboard with a mouse and free shipping for only $36! This model is more than just a split keyboard, too; it has leather wrist rests, a slew of helpful and customizable buttons, and comes with a removable plastic piece which lifts the front of the keyboard up to allow better access and ergonomics when your arms are slanted down towards your keyboard.

If you’re hesitant because maybe you’ve tried a split keyboard before and it felt too strange, or maybe you’re like me and your right hand likes to steal the left hand’s keys while typing, I would still recommend giving it a try. It did take me a little while to get used to the split keyboard, but now that it’s completely familiar to me, I wouldn’t trade it for all the normal keyboards in the world. Well, maybe I would for an Optimus Maximus.

Italy Gallery Coming Soon

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:52:00 GMT

Famous last words, but I seriously hope to at least launch a partially-populated gallery of my photos from Italy soon. For now, you can build your anticipation by checking out the below picture from St. Peter’s Basilica as well as a few others I’ve posted.

Tiber River HDR

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:59:00 GMT

Check out my other new HDR images here.

Attention all Texas PC Repair Shops: Technicians Need to Have a PI License

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:07:00 GMT

Unless this absurd law is overturned in court it looks to signal an end to mom and pop PC repairs shops. Requiring all computer repair techs to be licensed private-investigators? What next? Requiring all maids to be private-investigators too? More details here.

Via SlashDot

Sistine Chapel

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:55:00 GMT

While going to upload this photo to my server my copy of SmartFTP informed me that it will no longer be offered for free. I’m pretty bummed because I have used SmartFTP for a long time and really like it. I guess I’m either going to have to shell out $40 for a license or find a free alternative. Any currently-free FTP software recommendations for me?

Firefox 3: Setting a World Record

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:12:00 GMT

The number isn’t official yet, but the world record is – Firefox is claiming 8,290,908 downloads in one 24-hour period. The idea of setting a world record (there isn’t one for this category yet) was a great marketing tool for the release of Firefox 3. The beta version of Firefox 3 was good and so is the full release version. I don’t have any gripes with it yet, but I am still waiting for all my extensions to be updated to work with the new version. If you didn’t help out with the world record achieving yesterday, you can still download Firefox 3.

Update: Delicious released an updated build compatible with Firefox 3 which integrates extremely well with Firefox’s built-in bookmarking system. There is also an unofficial update for the awesome Tab Mix Plus extension.

Via DownloadSquad