Microsoft Wins, Loses

Having just finished doing an MBA I can tell you in no uncertain terms that MS Office is an amazing suite of software. Powerpoint has a lot of the basic functions of Photoshop, yet is simple enough for the non-techy to use. Sure, they are really overly “interfacey” preferring sub-menus and wizards to more natural usage, but these are to meet the needs of the non-tech-savvy who use the software, and I’m prepared to power through that and learn the keyboard shortcuts that will make my use of it fast and easy.

With all of that said, the programs could be so much better! The feature that seems like the biggest missed opportunity is SmartArt in PowerPoint. If you’ve never used that feature before, basically it’s a little menu that will help you make the nice graphics that make bullet points so much easier to digest. The problem is there are only 88 that come by default. After 2 years in school, I had pretty much exhausted all of the good ones.  For people who make presentations as part of their full time jobs, I imagine they got sick of them within months.

But there is an easy way to fix this. If they had included a way for a person to build their own SmartArt and then share it with others, then we could all design our own, or for the less image-inclined, browse a site with thousands of them. Open source or creatives commons licenses lead to free exchange and lets users “remix” to customize their experience.  Who would have thought that PowerPoint had a potential social media angle, albeit an unexploited one?

However, MS is so controlled with their products that they don’t have the imagination do this.  I’m not an MS hater, but I wish they would take more chances on their products in favour of openness. I think in this case we’d all be better served.

Auf Wiedersehen Fjordian

As a thank you for my time at Fjord, I’ve put together a collection of my special “moves” that have been the secret to my success.

A shout out to ze frank for the inspiration.

Ajax on Your Desktop

I discovered something that made my day yesterday.  Have you ever been using a PC, then right-clicked on your desktop, then hit properties, then hit desktop, then hit Customize Desktop, then hit Web, then noticed you can add web pages as active elements to your desktop.  No?  Really?  But it’s so obvious!

Well if you had, but decided that just having a web page hanging out not doing anything on your desktop wasn’t really that useful, because the minute you wanted to interact with it at all it had to launch a browser, WELL THEN, I’ve found 1 instance where this incredibly obvious feature actually works. BACKPACK.

You see, BackPack uses Ajax which is a fancy way of saying it can submit forms and change things on a page without having to refresh which makes it the only website worth keeping on my work desktop.

I’m doing things like making to-do lists, then checking them off on real check boxes. It’s so satisfying.

(Oh, and lest you think I’m really crazy, BackPack has a free version, I didn’t pay to check off boxes on my desktop, that would be madness [This post is dedicated to Kat]).

Making Your Own OSX Icons

Ok, so I like to steal. When record companies get all paranoid about the holes in your application that streams online audio, it’s people like me they’re worried about. Curious, amoral and determined with lots of time on their hands.

Last week, I stole music from FuseTV’s website because they didn’t got through the trouble of trying to disguise the directory where all the music files would be sitting. Too easy.

Today, I downloaded Facebook gifts and made my own OSX icons. The hard part wasn’t downloading the images, that was a simple “view background” click. The harder part was converting them to icons which I was determined to do since what’s the point of having a bunch of cute images? Other problem is it’s fairly easy to save as a .pict, but you also need to resize the image up AND preserve the transparency (it’s only pretty if it’s transparent).
First I checked the internet, but they directed me to complicated stuff with photoshop or special software, then it totally hit me. All the tools are in Preview, the little application that could on Macs, but the problem is the tools are inaccessible.

Solution…Automator for Mac! I made a little workflow that did it all quick and easy. I’m even attaching the workflow if any mac users want to try it themselves.

~The File Thief (if it’s possible for me to take it, you bet I will)

Geeky Weeky

It could just be this biting cold, but I’ve stowed myself away and donned the nerd hat this week. I think I was spurred on when someone (who shall remain nameless) asked for my help “tidying” up a pretty broken website. There’s nothing I love more than looking at someone else’s code/excel spreadsheet/project plan/[other analytical document] and saying “How can I make this better and more efficient.” Mostly because I like being better.
Since playing in that fun sandbox, I’ve gone on a terror of reading web books. For example, I just re-read “Bulletproof Web Design,” borrowed “Don’t Make Me Think” from work, and at probably the peak of my nerdiness, ordered “Web Standards Solutions” from amazon.

I just know that I’m going to be so over web design this time next week. But hey, at least this hobby could possibly come back down the line. Not like that painting in water colors hobby. . .

Why I’m a Nerd/Geek/Dork

The definition of what constitutes a nerd/dork/geek is up for debate, but after spending some time programming today and realizing that I had written simpler code than someone who writes a blog called “code professor” and feeling really good about it, I decided to just out my extremely uncool qualities.

• Multi-dimensional manifolds have appeared to me in dreams, attacking me, and I defeated them by integrating over them.
• My to-do list included adding a category cloud to by redundant blog, an item which I checked off.
• Looking at data and code gives me pleasure.
• I prefer imaginary worlds to real ones.
• I feel threatened by extremely outgoing people.
• Sometimes people laugh at things I say that I never meant to be a joke – and these are the funniest jokes I tell.
• I have really low self-esteem that is evidenced by my constant strive for success and recogonition.
• Favourite tv quote of all time said by Lisa Simpson: “Grade me! Evaluate and rank me! I’m good, good, good and oh so smart!“
• I make lists of the reasons why no one should ever think I’m cool

Geekiness Redux

The Order of the Stick has had a couple of comics recently that have featured the lovable Thog, who like every Half-Orc character ever created, is a lot like my most favourite character ever role-played Chug Chug.  Kara misses Chug Chug.

(And for those who don’t know, I’m talking D&D here.  If you don’t get it, just ignore it, it’ll go away)

And for Ryan, read the 2nd one, there’s an FF reference that is AWESOME.

Ok, So I Like Weird Al, give me a break

Seriously, White and Nerdy is the best thing Weird Al has done since UHF. Come on, Donny Osmond dancing in the background? Making fun of a group that actually cares they’re being made fun of? (Not like that amish paradise crap, who the fuck gives a rats ass about the amish?)

So yeah. I’m totally groovin’ to these completely crackerified hip hop beats.

This is totally my life and everyone I know’s life.

I even did the meme! LOSER!!!