The Blog of Oscar Godson

I have finally released Deploy* today. You can find it at http://oscargodson.com/deploy until its reached a final release. Once it reaches version 1.0 I’ll put a link on my web site or give it it’s own domain name.

So what is Deploy*?

From the Deploy* tool’s documentation:

Deploy* is a free, open source, online tool which allows users to quickly deploy a web project folder in only a couple seconds.

It offers a couple unique features from other project folder downloads such as customization, valid XHTML, HTML, and CSS, but the most unique is bookmarking.

Deploy*’s bookmarking feature allows the user to go through the form only one time and then bookmarking the next page (deploy.php). When the user returns to that bookmark it instantly generates another .zip folder with all the settings the user had previously entered.

If you have a Mac you could add that bookmark to your dock and it’s only a click away. Windows and Linux users could also add the bookmark to their desktop and it will always be right there waiting.

Info on creating the bookmarks on the desktop and dock* (Mac users only) is coming soon!

I have done it all from scratch (except the jQuery stuff!). From a technical stand point, Deploy* takes the users form and, based on that form,  creates a folder called deploy_xxx123, grabs files from a files directory puts it in that previous folder, creates new directories such as css, js, images, etc and also creates a HTML or XHTML file based on what was chosen and when all that is done zips it and names it deploy.zip.

Download the source code if you are interested.

As of now, V0.9.5 all browsers are supported, however, IE6, IE7, and Opera are having some small CSS and JavaScript issues that will be worked out by version 1.0.

I did it! In only two years I am the youngest ever in the Graphic Design program also! Before I turned 18 I got my AAS in Graphic Design. I also broke up with my girl friend, so I don’t know what to do with all this free time?! Actually I have been doing a lot of research on jQuery which my oscargodson.com site has been programmed in.

What about this prank though? Well, first I want to say my own personal beliefs on the college idea and then you will understand why I did it. I just want to say that I personally don’t think degrees should ever be given out, grades never taken, and never any diplomas printed. Why you ask?!

You should be going to college to learn, get an education, do something with your life with this new knowledge you have gained. However, when I was there it seemed like there were so many people that were going to get checks from the state. More than I would have ever guessed. College seems to be joke to me. When I went there I went there to learn and my instructors taught me things that I would have never been able to teach myself. I thank them because they work hard and don’t get paid like shit while people throwing basketballs through hoops make enough money to own million dollar houses and pay for nannies for the 100 kids they have. To make my point of how useless the entire graduation thing is I got a friend to pull this off.

We arrived at MHCC less than 15 mins before all the graduation materials were not for sale anymore. We rushed in there and got my friend everything he needed.  The lady tells us congrats and we walk back to my car so I can get on my graduation stuff. We put it all on and walk over to the place where we all line up and get ready for the ceremony. There we fill out our paper work where we put our name and degree type, I mean, why would they have an actual list of the graduates and go off that?! That would mean that each peson would be recognized and that makes no sense right?

My friend didn’t even know what he wanted a degree in so he walks over there and says “I’m graduating college and I am confused. I’m getting a degree in like criminal justice what should I put for degree type?” She goes “I don’t know just put AAOT.” He puts it down and we get in lin.

There, everything was in place. We walk down and wave to everyone. We wait and they go row by row. They get to us and we walk up there and they read the card, I go first, “Oscar Godson, Graphic Design” then I’m shacking the ladies hand and I hear my friends name “J*** *****tt” I laugh and keep walking back to my seat. Just like that he got everything I got that took me two years to get. For that moment he had just as much respect I did. He has been there no more than two hours and that easily did this.

I think college should be about personal education. Personal knowledge is more powerful than what other people think you know. There were people in my class that I could not believe were graduating. They probably had half a brain if that and they were getting a diploma. What does a diploma mean than? You paid for 2 years of college and did the minimal possible amount of work? Don’t get me wrong, I am part of Phi Theta Kappa, presidential honors each time, got two scholarships, and graduated with a 3.8 GPA with 3, 4.0 terms. I think you should strive to be the best you can be, but this whole degree thing is meaningless to me. Maybe someone can explain?

Well, they rock to me because I made them. I hope you all will check them out. Until I can get this blog really redesigned and integrated into my new website design (which none of you have seen yet!) I will post on here more regularly. Right now I’m in the process of totally redesigning this site and getting iEatCorn.com going.

• iEatCorn.com (Mac OS X App Reviews)
• JesusWasAYellowBelt.com (A friend bought me a cheeseburger if I made this, so I did.)
• JakeHockett.com (A prank on a friend after making JesusWasAYellowBelt.com)
• BooZker.com (A central point for all my sites. COMING SOON!)

Check em’ out and dig any if you likey!

I have been a huge fan of freemacware.com for quite some time. I used to suggest it to all my friends, colleagues, and even family because it really did have this huge assortment of freeware for the Mac. I found just about everything I needed there. Recently however a new app came into my Mail RSS inbox. BBEdit which I wasn’t quite sure could pass for free. I knew about this app long ago and it has never, ever been free. They have always had trials however.

I sent them an email awhile ago having a crazy notion of them replying in a fashionable time frame. I was mistaken, again. They have yet to reply to my email and it has been a week.

Maybe this was a one time accident? In a matter of days, two actually, they had new software which I was interested in. As always I went to the developers site to read more about the application. I was extremely surprised to see that just a couple days after the BBEdit “mistake” they had made another “accident”. Pomoto was the software and if you go to their site you can clearly see on the right hand side that its a $3 a month or $30 a year. Not only do you need the service to upload the images using Pomoto, you need the software right? Unfortunately, that is not free either. The software has a 15 day trial with a 50 picture upload limit.

I think software developers should set any price whatsoever on their software, but is Bare Bones and Pomoto just trying to get some free trial downloads hoping for some to buy or is FreeMacWare changing into ShareMacWare because they are lazy or have some sort of advertising deal?

I sent an email to both Bare Bones and Pomoto today, and I will update you all on the response.

Within hours of sending an email to Pomoto I got a response. His response was,

I appreciate your concern and would like to express our deep support of keeping commercial software developers honest.

In this case, I was not aware of FreeMacWare and can guarantee that we had nothing to do with Pomoto being posted there. The only freeware/shareware sites to which we’ve submitted Pomoto are VersionTracker, MacUpdate and iUseThis.

I also didn’t realize this, but he went and noticed these other not-so-free “freeware” Those of which were

• Media Edit
• Dragster
• SWF2Saver
• OmniGraffle

BBEdit contacted me a few hours later (Wow, so now so far, only freemacware has yet to reply to a couple emails I sent at least a week ago now.) Their response was closely the similar

I’m not familiar with the site you mention, but they’re either quite confused or being purposely misleading since BBEdit certainly is not free.

So what is the reason? I think it’s simply one of these two:

1. They are simply lazy and do not want to actually look and see if it is free.
2. They are becoming ShareMacWare within a couple of months.

 Here is a magic trick I am waiting to be published. Check out this video until then! It will, hopefully, be published on http://magichat.co.uk . I have had one other published on the site, but it was a beginner trick I created and I wanted to ramp it up!

Sorry for the downtime! It was only a few hours during the dead of night, so many of you probably wouldn’t have known. I switched my domain name over from Trap 17 DNS servers to my new servers at Host Monster ($5.95 a month for 600GB and 6,000GB of BW!) and I changed my registrar from GoDaddy to here and while that all was happening the blog was being switched as well. If you saw the default WordPress skin that is why. Should all be fixed up now though. Tell me if you see anything strange.

I wanted a mouse for years. My mother would always say no. I would always look into other animals, but they were never the same. I almost got a hedgehog, but eh, not the same. I finally came across this animal called a Sugar Glider straight from Australia and New Guinea. When I saw them they looked so cute, fuzzy, and awesome! They were just cool because not very many people have them. They are not like mice or hamsters. Biggest differences is they can glide, they are nocturnal, and live about 15 years.

At first my mother was not into the idea of having this “flying” animal in the house. “They will poop everywhere!” she said. I gave up on trying to convince for a few months. There seemed to be no hope. Even more so when the ones I found were online and they were 200 minimum.

A couple months later my girlfriend was looking for Chihuahuas online. She was scrolling through the animals for sale in her area and she found a sugar glider for sale for only $150. I thought this was an awesome deal, so I had my girlfriend call and ask a few questions. I told my mom about their pooping habits, which really aren’t that bad, and just other basic questions. She finally gave in and I was going to get a sugar glider for $150.

I made an appointment to go and get it that weekend. When the day came to pick them up my mom had found an even better deal on craigslist. $125 and there were two AND they came in a cage, two actually, and toys, food, and more. It was to good of a deal to let go. I went and picked them up the next day with my girlfriend. That’s where my story truly begins.

\\\Day One

I read online in more than one place you needed to let them get used to your smell so the night before I made for I wore the same shirt all day, to bed, and when I picked them up I took that shirt off and placed it inside of the cage. I didn’t do much with them the first day because I was told not to. I saw them at night for only a few minutes and then went to bed after getting them water, fruits and veggies.

At the end of the day I knew the perfect names. As many of you know I am a total computer nerd. I had to come up with a name that would make sense. The two sugar gliders I have are a mom and a daughter. The mom is a bit chubby from the previous owners feeding them only yogurt, fruits, and vegetables. “What is small in computer terms?” I thought. Bytes! I named the little one Bytes, but what about the big one. Then it hit me. It’s a girl name, but has a twist. Tera! Tera as in Terabytes! Which is a step up from a Gig.

So Tera and Bytes were named.

\\\Day Two

When I had awoken I went downstairs and saw them sleeping in their pouch. Today I was not going to take them out of the pouch but I was going to take them out , but leave them in their pouch. I had them for about 3-4 hours that day carrying them around in the pouch.

I made the the BML Mix as well as gave them their 3 large mealworms, vegetables, and fruits.

I didn’t see them much that night either. I wanted to, but just couldn’t yet. They were crabbing and not fully comfortable with me yet.

\\Day Three

Day three was the day I got to actually see them. I brought them into a weight room that we are putting everything in while we move. It has a lot of things for them to climb and jump off including two very tall shelves. I went in there with them in the pouch, with water, baby food, and plain clothes (my biggest mistake) .

I set the pouch down and put my finger in the baby food that they licked off me the day before for just a second. I waited there for them to come out, but nothing. After almost ten minutes I gave up and tipped their pouch gently upside down. I had to wiggle it a little bit, but they came out. Tera came out first and scurried into the shadows of the weights. Bytes wouldn’t come out and I had to wiggle some more. He finally came out.

When he came out he jumped on me and ran up my shirt. I was wearing a single shirt. At the time I didn’t think it would matter all that much and that their claws can only be so big… wrong. It wasn’t dark enough so they ran in my shirt. I was fine with it at first because they sat right at the top of my butt and the bottom of my shirt. Then they started moving around and they scratched my back pretty bad.

I did that for about two hours and put them back in their pouch then in their cage and got their meal ready and lastly I went to bed.

It was so neat having them scurry around you and hide from the light.

\\Coming up journal entries

• What TO wear
• How they now come out easier
• No more crabbing
• Actually petting them
• Darkness and computing

Hope you enjoy this. If you have any questions I am actually going to be putting in back entries because I have had them about a week from typing this up. Once I get all caught up it will be one journal entry a day and see what is happening with my suggies, Tera and Bytes and ask questions and learn.

Here is my video that I have been working on for class. It is a kinetic type video which is a video using only type, or only basic graphics as long as the type is the main focus.

I used a NOFX song called Murder the Government. You should buy some of their CDs. They are awesome. If you don’t know who they are, get yourself out from underneath that rock you have been under and listen to some of their music.

I wanted to contribute something actually more useful. I am just now starting to blog regularly and receiving comments, which if they are not contributing then I delete them. How I want to contribute is how to make a 100% valid XHTML/CSS site. I’ll be including “homework” for you to do before the next post. Each post will rely on that work you did previously. This guide is expecting you know very basic XHTML and CSS. I will be building a site with you and you can see how to use those elements, but I ask that you know what tags are and just a very basic idea of those main programming languages. If you do not know these visit these sites:

• http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
• http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/default.asp
• http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp

W3 Schools is a great place and learned every bit of (X)HTML and CSS there. You can learn and practice in their editor, but you will need an editor of your own and some other tools.

Tools you will need in developing any website are

• Computer (duh)
• Text Editor
• Web Browser (please not Internet Explorer)

Those are the very, very basic tools. If you are serious about this in any way, and want to put this on the web you will need the following in addition to the above tools:

• FTP
• Vector and/or Bitmap Image Software
• Web Host
• Domain Name

If you are new to web development you probably don’t know what software to use. Feel free to skip each category if you already have software you like in that category. I’ll be giving the recommended software and then a free equivalent of that software. Please remember I am on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). If you are on Windows I don’t have a lot of software compatible on that and I refuse to use it, so you will have to do some research on your own. If you are using a Linux distro I will help you as much as possible. I also own Ubuntu 7.10. I’ll give an example for each app in Linux as well, but the paid software is mostly Mac stuff.

Text Editors
Text editors are a dime a dozen. There are so many out there. If you are on Windows you could very well use Notepad. I would not recommend it, but you can. I personally use TextMate which is my personal favorite and the only editor I would ever pay for. It has color coding and is very minimal which I like. It has great features and is fairly cheap compared to the alternatives. If you are looking for something free, but still powerful get TextWrangler. I can honestly say its a great editor and the best free one out there.

Ubuntu (Linux) users could use TextEditor which is my favorite when using Ubuntu and it’s preinstalled. I also used Screem for awhile as well. You can download this in the add/remove apps.

Web Browsers
Almost all browsers are free, but there are certain browsers you need to make sure you have. The three browsers you will need to test on are:

Firefox (Windows, Mac, Linux, and more)
Safari (Windows and Mac)
Internet Explorer (6&7) (Windows only)

Unfortunately, the most used browser is IE 6 which is a big, gigantic, humongous, piece of crap. You will end up writing an entire separate style sheet just for it and it doesn’t support transparent pngs.

FTPs
How are you going to get files to the server you have chosen? Unless you have your PC as a web server, you will be using a FTP to transfer your files. FTP stands for file transfer protocol. My favorite FTP for the Mac is Transmit from Panic. They make some awesome apps. If you are a student get Fetch which is the FTP I used for a long time until I got Transmit which I like much better. If you want a totally free app for the mac though I would get Cyberduck. I have used it a few times and used it at my work and it’s the best free one out there.

On Ubuntu I never used an FTP. I used the Connect to Server in the Places folder. I then select FTP and fill out the info. I think it work great and it makes it look just like another folder on your OS.

Vector and/or Bitmap Image Software
A website isn’t a website without any images. Even Google’s stark homepage has their logo. How you are going to make these images is your choice. You could always use stock images from sxc.hu which are free, but free vector files are harder find and you might need to create basic images such as rounded corners and such. I usually use two different image editing software. The most used is Adobe Illustrator CS3 and then after that I use Adobe Photoshop CS3. I recommend these, but these are by no means cheap. I will go into the differences of these two and what vector and bitmap mean in a later chapter.

If you can’t afford this, which is understandable, there are two widely used apps for both Mac and Linux. InkScape (replaces Illustrator) and GIMP (replaces Photoshop) Both are very good, but I don’t have a lot of experience in either. More in InkScape then GIMP, but I can say that both are plenty good enough for basic web design.

Web Hosts
You will probably do not need a web host right away and you will be able to edit and program most every file right on your computer. When you are ready for one I have one free option for you. This is the best free option out there and I have been using it to host my various websites and used it as a testing server many times for clients. Trap 17 is it’s name and it’s just great. It supports just about everything and gives you tons of space and more than enough bandwidth. If you are going through more bandwidth than they offer you should be making some serious dough. It’s completely free and no ads. All you have to do is post in their forums. You can find me there as BooZker. I am a regular member there and I am well known, so if you have a question PM me or ask someone there if they have seen me around.

They give you a certain amount of points based on the content of the topic. one credit is equal to one day. I have had 200 credits at one time and didn’t go back there for three months. It’s nice having that security with a free host. You will only need 10 credits before you can ask for web hosting. I would get the biggest package there. Please just go to http://trap17.com for all the info.

I do not know of any other paid hosts, because I have only used Trap 17, Bravehost, and FreeWebs. Trap 17 is by far the best and is the only one without ads and isn’t dead slow.

Domain Names
Last but defiantly not least is a domain name. A domain name is a like a speed dial on a phone. Instead of typing in http://64.233.161.18 you would type google.com. This is crucial for any successful website. Plus it’s super cheap. You can get domain names sometimes for a little over a buck, but godaddy.com is my preferred place to buy domain names and they are super cheap on their .com names. I will go into detail on how to purchase and move the name to your host, which in this blog will be Trap 17, and set the DNS (Domain Name Servers) up.

So this conclude my post and Ch.1. If you have any questions, see any typos, or whatever drop me a comment. You have some homework to do!

• Get a text editor
• Get a FTP
• Get vector and/or bitmap image editing software
• As many of the browsers listed above as I can
• Learn about HTML, XHTML, and CSS. Just the basics!
• Sign up and start posting on Trap 17.

The other stuff can wait such as domain names and web hosts. Just try to get that stuff done and that way next chapter you will be able to jump right in.

Good Luck!

The iPod Touch is just plain awesome. When I got it the first thing I did was attempt YouTube. It wouldn’t connect. “Damn it,” I said politely. The fix was actually pretty easy. I couldn’t find the answer to my problem on any site. Then I remembered how I had fixed my Wii with the same problem. I changed the channel number.

My quick tutorial below is how to do this on an Actiontec router, but most should be the same or have these options in about the same area.

» First go to your router by opening your favorite web browser and type in: http://192.168.0.1

» Fill in a username and password if asked. It will not ask if you have never set this up.

» Next go to “Setup / Configuration“

» On the next screen look to the left. You will see Advanced Set Up. Click on it.

» Press the “Begin Advanced Setup” button

» Now on the left of that click “Wireless Settings”. It’s the second one.

» It will open a screen with only 4 options. Those of which are “Wireless” (on/off) Of course make sure this is on! “ESSID” (change to whatever you want, but “ACTIONTEC” is fine) “Channel” and lastly Security.

» I have my “Security” off. To be honest, I could give a poop who uses it and it’s only that much more of a hassle.

» The thing we want is the “Channel”. Set it to 11. That is what I need it at for my iPod to work, but on the other hand, I need it at 1 for my Wii to work. It’s pretty crappy and makes me pretty angry, but whatever.

People are also reporting that turning off MAC Authentication makes the internet work as well. You can do this by:

» Looking at the left and going to the option right below “Wireless Settings”, the one you just did, which is “Wireless MAC Authentication”.

» In that menu just make sure the “Enable Access List” is UNCHECKED.

Last 2 steps.

» Click on “Save and Restart” on the bottom left and then click the “Save and Restart” button

» Wait for it to reboot the modem. The wireless light should be turned on and green along with the “Internet” light

It should be fixed. Please note that I still get connection errors, but I just reboot my iPod and it starts working again. I hate it, but that’s the way things go. So if it isn’t working do a hard reboot.

Tell me if anyone comes up with any other way to get the WiFi to work.