blog.rachelandjuan.com

Today, I was working with my Thunderbird client minimized, and the title that it gave me caused me to pause:

Is this just simply trash for my brain?  Or more directly, is this trash for my soul?  Perhaps more simply, it’s just a monumental coincidence.  But no matter how it came about to be, I can’t help but wonder about the massive amounts of unwanted emails I get everyday:

Today, Alderman Donovan decried the Milwaukee Public School System (MPS) as they’ve asked for a 16% increase in property taxes!  This, after many similar hikes that have left many people struggling.  Donovan said…

Milwaukee Barcamp 2 this weekend past was a hoot!  Lots of nerds, (or trendy people, depending on how you look at it) came together this weekend to discuss all things remotely related to the world wide web.  Some people even came and talked about things not related to the world wide web.  So all in all, everyone talked about everything, and the sum of human knowledge was found and lost as quickly as an LED throwie.

However, the remnants of connectivity and collaboration are sure to remain long after this barcamp is forgotten.  But until then, barcamp will forever live…

Another inspired digital drawing!  I hope you like it!  I made it using Paint.net

This week I will be attending barcamp Milwaukee 2!  Barcamp is an unconference that is held to to talk about largely tech related topics.  As the name implies, many of the participants will actually be camping out in the conference area, complete with lan parties and talks of zen.  The word bar is an interesting geek symbol that represents the technology being discussed.

In an unconference the participants are also the presenters, therefore, I have submitted two ideas for sessions:

• Cross-platform development
• On the Go!

If there is enough interest, I will be leading a session on these topics.  While I may not be…

I have to give props to Pandora.com.  They have managed to come up with an online music service that I really like!  Normally online stations have one of two things: terrible bandwidth or terrible selection or both.

However, Pandora has a smooth sound, that I haven’t heard skip yet!  Also, they allow you to create your own stations based on music that you already like.  What that means is that I get to listen to artists that sound similar to the ones I like.  Why don’t you head over and listen to Smooth and Alive, my personal radio station that was…

Just a quick digital drawing that I thought indicated good movement.  I think I might submit it to Illustration Friday for fun!  Their current theme word is momentum.  Do you think it shows momentum? 

 It was a great deal of fun trying to get the right blur effects to get color and flow.  Do you think it worked?

Portable applications have been interesting me for a while.  Essentially, you can put them on your USB flash drive and carry them wherever you go, with all your settings, files, and preferences.  If they’re well written they also won’t leave any traces on the host computer, nor will they require admin privileges.

Along with these portable applications, there have been a few application managers that give you a windows like interface for interacting with the applications.  The two major commercial ones are PowerToGo (From Ceedo through Lexar) and U3, which come with certain USB drives.  There is also a free version, which…

These are the things that seem to work pretty well that I would suggest if you find yourself in my shoes.

1) A good Content Management System (CMS) can speed up your work greatly! I’ve written my own and used drupal extensively… I like both for different reasons, but if your looking for speed and robustness drupal is great!

2) Have the important content easily accessible on the front page. Either primary links or hot items. This is where people can get the meat of what your site is about. Everyone should be able to see the these and click…