Oh.. and while I’m on the subject, there is this great set of Power Toys that integrate nicely with Windows.  Granted, some or all of these things have most likely become a part of Vista and Win7, but for those of us still behind the times, they make life a little easier.

The one I downloaded and use constantly is the Image Resizer.  It installs straight into your (right-click) context menu.  Simply select your images, right-click, and a window will pop open asking for sizes and whether you want them renamed or not.  It is a pretty neat utility.  :)

This Bulk Rename Utility for Windows is just.. pure awesomeness.  I had about 25 albums of pictures that needed to be renamed before uploading to our photo gallery at work.  Once I decided on a format that I wanted to use.. it took me only about 30 minutes to go through them all.. well.. minus time for talking, resizing other albums and running to the vending machine for desperately needed chocolate..  :)  I know that it looks a little overwhelming at first, but .. wow.  It is so amazing how simple it is to completely scrap names and rewrite, or remove one character, or give it the album name with an added suffix.  I love it.. and I think you will too!!

I have around 10 drupal installations for various work projects.  I love them.  Drupal *is* the awesomeness. As awesome as Drupal is, using a WYSIWYG editing module makes life so much easier for posts and pages.  My choice is fckeditor.  It has everything I need and could want.. it has the perfect auto exceptions (for putting limited or no editing on admin pages).. and in my opinion is better than other editors out there.

.. well, except when it decided (on my special themed sites) to take my background image and put it in the iframe for the editor.  As in this example, on a number of the sites it is a rather dark image which makes the editing process a bit harder.

Happily, upon searching, I found a comment in the “Tips & Tricks” section of drupal.fckeditor.net that I don’t think had anything to do with my weird image issue.  They mentioned adding the following line to the “Advanced options” section of the FCKEditor administration:

EditorAreaStyles = "body{background:#FFFFFF;text-align:left;}";

… and voila! White iframe happiness.  :)

Wow.  Truly brilliant article from Whitney Hess:  See For Yourself: About the Power of Observing.

At our core, interaction designers are anthropologists. We design interactions between people and people, and people and things. There is only one way to better understand people and better anticipate how they behave: observe.

The user experience profession is pretty weird. Some argue it isn’t a profession at all because you don’t need to belong to any associations or hold any certifications in order to call yourself a practitioner. We’re an occupation or concentration, or maybe we’re just a mindset.

I see us at an intersection, as a liaison. We combine principles of design, psychology, statistics and computer science to bring humanity into technology. Whether your day to day activities include drawing wireframes or interviewing prospective users or conducting usability tests, we are ultimately advocates for change — and in order to change the world, you have to see the world as it really is.

Most of my life I have been an avid people watcher.  I am constantly noting peoples movements and actions through life. I started doing this at a young age because I had issues with depth perception.  I needed to know what people were about to do, simply to move around in the world.  So, I note.. how people walk, what they look at and how it affects movement, etc.  Growing up around various religions and psychology, I can understand why people react to and do things the way they do. Years of this information has been taken in and assimilated, so I usually can predict what people are about to do spatially.. and comprehend the rest of why they do what they’ve done.

My problem is that I never found a way to put that information into words.. or even cohesive thought.  I know these things.. I just never developed a voice (even internally) enough to write things down or speak them.  I’ve thought about buying a journal for years in order to write stories that I have in my head, but I always talk myself out of it.  So, how does one develop this?

I wonder if I should just do as Whitney says, and force myself to write down those basics.. and maybe the rest will follow.

My fashion sense, although not perfect, has always been a bit too picky for certain purchases.  Those Christmas sweaters with the little scenes on them.. Crocs (kids might be forgiven for this).. parachute pants..

Well, my cousin posted something on my facebook wall about the dangers of wearing Uggs. Quelle surprise!  I’ve always hated them.  I liken their wearing to sporting pajamas outside the home.

Dr. Ian Drysdale, the head of the British College of Osteopathic Medicine, said, “Because these boots are warm and soft, young girls think they are giving their feet a break. In fact, they are literally breaking their feet.” Drysdale continued, “Their feet are slipping around inside. With each step, the force falls towards the inside of the foot and the feet splay. This flattens the arch and makes it drop. The result can be significant problems with the foot, the ankle, and ultimately, the hip.”

…

Dr. Rock Positano, Director of the Non-surgical Foot and Ankle Service for the Hospital for Special Surgery, sees no difference. “Whether they are real Uggs or fake Uggs, we’re dealing with footwear that offers no substantial and necessary orthopedic support for the foot and the ankle.” He has many clients come to him with complications from wearing Uggs and pseudo-Uggs.

(I almost forgot!!!)

Ada had been taught mathematics from a very young age by her mother and met Babbage in 1833. Ten years later she translated Luigi Menabrea’s memoir on Babbage’s Analytical Engine, appending notes that included a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the machine – the first computer programme. The calculations were never carried out, as the machine was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.

Understanding that computers could do a lot more than just crunch numbers, Ada suggested that the Analytical Engine “might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.” She never had the chance to fully explore the possibilities of either Babbage’s inventions or her own understanding of computing. She died, aged only 36, on 27th November 1852, of cancer and bloodletting by her physicians.

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I occasionally catch up on akinoluna’s “the day to day, semi-normal life of a female marine“, and she had this very interesting note back on the 13th:

John Basilone is one of the famous Marines we have to learn about at boot camp and they talk about him all the time in Marine Corps history, but they never mention that his wife Lena Riggi was a Marine too!  more»

Everyone from my area knows about Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone.  Although he was born in Buffalo, he grew up in Raritan, New Jersey.  So of course there are tons of things named after him and we can’t forget the parades each year.  But, I had no idea that his wife was a marine.. they met at Camp Pendleton after he re-enlisted.  Very interesting!  :)