screenLoaded

Since I can’t seem to get a moment to update this really nice, but “borrowed” Wordpress template, I think it’s time to give Screenloaded a break. Just too much happening and far too many interesting ideas shaping up.

Thanks to the guest bloggers, commentaries, encouragers, and subscribers. The next round will most likely be something all together different.

Writing to you all the way from Seattle, Washington as I took bus, boat and escalator to spend the next few days with Flash folk. I told my wife that this was sort of Macrodobe’s last chance to get me interested in the platform. Well, it’s been 1 hour 5 hours and I’m convinced still interested. At least the inventor side of me is still interested.

If you’ve known me or seen the work produced by Ingram Labs for the last 10 years, you know we’ve been about 80% Flash since the days of FutureSplash. However, in the last two or three years, I’ve been unable to convince myself that Flash was worth selling for more than product tours and animation. Even with some of the great progress made toward the platform, to support more document deployment applications, it’s always been sluggish and unusable when compared to age-old HTML and certainly more recent iterations of the Web 2.0 movement.

It would seem, as many of us had hoped and even celebrated, the Adobe/Macromedia merger is proving to be as fabulous as anticipated. But is it anything more than really cool? Post your guess and we’ll see what the answer is in time…

Since the birth of screenLoaded in April of 2004, we’ve been running the site on WordPress 1.0.2. I tried to upgrade in the past with zero success (most likely due to user error) and thus it’s remained a proud member of the Old Dog, Old Tricks club. Well, this tired old dog just got a new collar.

Last weekend, I stepped up to TextDrive’s Mixed Grill. Belly full, I figured it was time to get off my lawn chair and learn SQL… at least enough to take down an app.

By Saturday night I had…

1. Created a SQL backup using phpMyAdmin
2. Openned the new .sql file in SQLGrinder
3. Compared the number contents of comma-delimited items in each line of my backup to the number of “fields” in each corresponding “table.”
4. Edited BOTH to make for the most simple import of the old data into the new (modified) database.
5. “Executed SQL commands” for each table (this is the step where some kind of script generated during the backup process is run and pushes the individual data elements into thier prescriptive database fields). I really stumbled accross this by accidently pasting part of the dabase into phpMyAdmin and it worked.
6. Loaded the home page… with tons of errors that I didn’t understand, but figured it was because I had deleted all those DB fields.
7. So I compared my newly modified, but upgraded SQL database “schema” to an unedited freshly installed one (created during the WP installation process).
8. Recreated all of the fields that I had previously deleted in order to match my outdated schema. (about 12 fields were altered or deleted).
9. Loaded the home page… AND THE FLIPPIN’ THING WORKED! (please see next step for caviat)
10. It kinda worked. There were a bunch of “\” that got inserted everyhwere a ‘ or ” appeared in the data. This messed up a bunch of my post image paths (fixed in my post editor) and you can see this problem in copy for posts older that a couple of days. I’m not sure i’ll get around to fixing this. I could probably just backup the new DB, open it in SQLGrinder, search and replace to eliminate the “\”, and re-execute the SQL commands. But that’d be too easy.

I’m calling this method, “The Stupid Designer’s Guide to Poking At SQL Until It Quits Yelling” method.

It almost killed me, being a simple man. But I have to say, I’m better for it.

How would you have done it diferrently?

Many of you experienced Mark Shimada’s performance at Currents 9 Influenced this last may. After performing his ONE ARROW, ONE HEART show on July 16, Mark performed at Seattle University’s Organizational Renewal graduate program, then to standing ovations at the Asian American Journalist Association’s Anniversary Event at The Aspen Institute, and at three shows at Boeing.

Mark writes:

“I am writing to let you know that I am doing my one-man show again. There will be four shows on February 24, 25 and March 3, 4 at 8pm at the Northwest Actors Studio, 1100 East Pike. I am also doing a half-day workshop on Sundays, The Pursuit of Possibilities, for interested individuals to take the next unexpected step in their personal and professional lives. I am sending out press releases to over 20 newspapers and having over 200 posters placed throughout the area — so watch for my smiling face (after two martinis at the premiere) at a local bookstore or cafe.”

I would personally like to invite you to join me and other’s in the Seattle area for what will certainly be a moving and unique exploration of Mark’s journey and his heart.

To purchase tickets and for more information about the show and the workshop:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3195

I’ll be at the show on the 24th and hope to see you there!

One Arrow, One Heart show dates: 2/24-25, 3/4-5
The Pursuit of Possibilites half-day workshop: 2/26 and 3/5

Tickets for both available at:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3195

Mark’s Web site: www.pathscrossing.com | “discover the unexpected”

And I’m still only half-way there.

For the very few of you that have thought, “hmmm, paul sure hasn’t been blogging much lately,” A new screenLoaded has been in the works for over a month. Much of it has been the tedious manual migration of the original WP 1.0.2 database to the WP 2.0.1 promised land. She is lovely and flowing with standards-based milk and honey.

I’ll post my process soon for those of you like me who couldn’t find JACK SQUAT on Google in the language of designer common folk for dumping, reading, executing, and qualifying SQL data.

Design: I’m screwing around a lot with templates—peekin’, pokin’, smokin’, and stealing really interesting presentation ideas. We’ll see what sticks.

A buddy of mine is a flight attendant with Alaska Airlines. The other night he mentioned that there\’s been quite a sequence of errors since the executives fired the entire staff that handles baggage. The contractor that stepped in has allowed their incompetent, and poorly screened workers to hit several planes with baggage carts, bend baggage separators in the cargo areas, and he even mentioned a case where the cargo holding areas below one plane had been tagged (the graffiti kind) requiring a visit from the Seattle Police Gang Unit to determine whether or not the markings were gang-related and what, if any, it all meant.

I\’m sitting here waiting on one of these screwed up planes. Figured I\’d let off a little steam while they find us a new plane.

1. Christmas.
2. New Year\’s Eve.

If I lived anywhere other than the United States, I\’d miss those two days a lot. I can\’t imagine how the rest of the world can live without its merriment.

On a related note: I will say that I\’m glad we\’re finally getting around to addressing the offensive and hate-based epithet; \”Christmas.\” For centuries, American\’s have whirled this label like a pair of nunchucks–bruising a winter month that a small, yet loud minority would prefer to treat as personally determined mid-December Events. Since the American\’s invented this weapon of words, it\’s also our responsibility to destroy it.

So, to Americans everywhere, I wish you all a very inoffensive winter merriment time span, unless you don\’t personally choose to observe that.

Minstrel Cramps : A condition effecting the muscles of the hand. Most commonly associated with excessive guitar playing.

Hyprophesis : (hi-prah-feh-sys) The result of one who claims to possess a message from a higher spiritual being, to be found only in possession of their own thought or explanation.

Not Earl… That\’s a TV show, not the pronunciation of Uniform Resource Locator.

Wanna fight?

My point of view… It\’s not pronounced like the peanut butter. And to anyone who thinks it is, you need a tall glass of ice cold milk so your tongue can properly work along the roof of your mouth.

Wanna piece of me?