"Email is for old people!" written by News on estrip.org

Category: web

07/28/05 12:06 - ID#30133

Email is for old people!

9 of 10 teens now using the Internet ... Nearly half have cell phones to keep in touch with home and friends. They text message their friends. They think e-mail is something used to talk to "old people."

Welcome to the technology-enhanced world of the typical American teen. A survey released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly nine in 10 teens (87 percent) are Internet users. That's 21 million teens ages 12 to 17, up from 73 percent five years ago. By comparison, only about 66 percent of adults use the Internet. A whopping 84 percent of teens reported owning at least one communication device, either a desktop or laptop computer, a cell phone or a personal digital assistant.Quoted from: 9 of 10 teens now using the Internet?u=news

Permalink: Email_is_for_old_people_.html
Words: 134
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: estrip

07/27/05 09:50 - 66ºF - ID#30132

Quick Correct and Theme Select

As if the low bandwith mode upgrade wasn't enough I have added two new things.

[size=m]Theme Support[/size]
Theme support so that you can choose which theme you want to see. To switch themes just click on the desired theme icon in the upper left hand corner of the homepage under the browser war stats. Currently you can switch between banana, watermelon and fall 05. I know its a little early for fall 05, and it's not done yet, but I wanted to give you more options. I am also working on adapting some of the old themes to the new format and adding an Amerika theme.

[size=m]Quick Correct Support[/size]
I also souped up the auto correct feature the we have had for a year and renamed quick correct. It also has a new prettier icon. I know now works on at least firefox and IE. However, I would test it before trying it with any long entry on another browser. Basically, you type and entry and then just click the quick correct button. It fixes the most commonly misspelled ord typos such as switching the to the. There about 150 words it fixes, more will be added when I can think of them.

Permalink: Quick_Correct_and_Theme_Select.html
Words: 202
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: estrip

07/27/05 04:25 - 77ºF - ID#30131

New Low Bandwidth Mode and Media lib

I totally redid low bandwidth mode and moved the toggle for it to the top left of the screen. You can easily switch between (high bandwidth) and (low bandwidth) mode. The link shows the name of the mode you will switch to by clicking it. Low bandwidth mode is obvious because there is a big low bandwidth logo.

Less bandwidth is good if you are on a slow computer, a dialup connection or a mobile. Media is reduced to links to the media, chat is present only as a link, calendar is a link, only 8 in the top 12, no inner scroll bar, no updating peep list, no banner, no stats, no big userpics, no user data, no journal dots, no journal overview, no fav five, no links list, no categories list.

But what you do get is something that is easier to load on a connection with low bandwidth, which is exactly what it is made for.

I also redid the media library so that it makes thumbnails which are bigger to see yet much faster to load and reduce bandwidth when oping the media library. Try it you will be surprised at how much faster it is..

What I really need is goldschlager. So if anyone wants to know what to bring on Saturday the answer is goldschlager.

More new features to roll out tomorrow. I compressed this image with gimp but the ocmpression sucks. Maybe I will have to use photoshop again after all.

Permalink: New_Low_Bandwidth_Mode_and_Media_lib.html
Words: 248
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: events

07/26/05 11:43 - 76ºF - ID#30130

10,000 Entry Party

Well, we have almost made it there. Right now we are 8 entries away from having 10,000 journal entries written for the site..

This Saturday night we will be hosting a party to celebrate 10,000 journal entries at Le Mansion de PMT. You are all invited. Please feel free to bring as much alcohol and food as you want. We hope to see you all there and to meet those of you we haven't met yet.

We are also looking for some people to organize some sort of entertainment, any takers? I have a video screen, does anyone have a projector? If so we have lots of options. Or does anyone play an instrument, do some crazy dance, make a special recipe, spin music, or do circus tricks.

Permalink: 10_000_Entry_Party.html
Words: 127
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: estrip

07/25/05 02:37 - 77ºF - ID#30129

plabs userpic maker beta

userpic maker

can be used to crop a user pic based on an image from the internet. Try finding one on google images. Simply input the image url and hit go! to get started.

Once the image loads you can drag the white, transparent box around to select a userpic from the pic. Once you have selected which part of the image you want, click just outside the upper right hand corner of the white box. Your userpic will be converted and you can save it from there.

Permalink: plabs_userpic_maker_beta.html
Words: 101
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: estrip

07/23/05 06:25 - 84ºF - ID#30128

New Categories

I have added categories to the site. Seeing as this is a community the categories are cross-user. That means, when you add a category, everyone else can use that category. It is ok if the actegories are specific, we will create sets fo categories after we have a bunch of them in the future. To associate a journal with a category, just type the category name into the category box in your journal publish box. If you click on the (?) next to the box you can see alist of all categories already added by other users. Clicking on the category name assigns your journal to that category. You can also add a new category to the list, by typing in a category that doe snot yet exist.

You can update previous journals categories using your journal update icon. You can always change a journal category at any point as well. Once you have a journal asisgend ot a category , that category will show up in a list uner your favorite five list. By click ing on the category, the user is presented with a list of titles that you have associated with that category. Clicking the title load sthe entry.

My plan is to make it so that you can subscribe to a category and then have new posts of that category emailed to you. Or RSS feeds of category.

Permalink: New_Categories.html
Words: 230
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: events

07/20/05 12:52 - 80ºF - ID#30127

Buffalo Infringement Festival

[size=m] What Is The Infringement Festival?[/size]

Various members of Buffalo, New York's arts community have come together to organize the first annual Buffalo infringement Festival

-- An eleven-day event designed to promote eclectic, independent, experimental, and politically charged productions of a wide array of artistic projects including theater, performance art, live installations, street theater, and multi-media presentations.

The "buffalo infringement festival" is the result of six months of planning by an ad hoc collection of volunteers from the local theater and arts community and is a part of the international infringement festival circuit which holds similar events in cities throughout North America including Halifax (June 2-12), Montreal (June 16-26), Ottawa (June 30-July 10, Toronto (July 14-24), and New York City (August 25-September 4). Further information on the international component of the infringement festival can be found at www.infringementfestival.com

We are excited to announce that this event will be held at various venues in the Allentown area.

Thursday, July 28 to Sunday, August 7, 2005

Local writers, directors, and performers – as well as artists from New York City and Montreal – have answered an open call to present their work as part of this new festival. The resulting assortment of activities includes world premieres of one-person shows, gender-reversed productions of classical theatrical pieces, street theatre, political cabaret, puppetry, experimental work, virtual reality simulation, hip-hop, slam poetry, interpretive dance, outdoor screenings of family-oriented films, presentations of poetry readings by area high school students, and much more. No single style or aesthetic predominates; some events

Here is a list of performances

Venues

1. Rust Belt Books (202 Allen St)
2. Nietzsche's Bar (248 Allen Street)
3. Allen/College Promenade (Parking Lot at Allen & College)
4. Day's Park
5. Allen Street Dance Studio (85 Allen Street)
6. Squeaky Wheel Media Arts Center (175 Elmwood)
7. Coit House (414 Virginia Street)
8. New Phoenix Theatre on the Park (95 North Johnson Park)
9. Hallwalls (700 Main Street)
10. SoundLab (110 Pearl Street)

Permalink: Buffalo_Infringement_Festival.html
Words: 342
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: estrip

07/18/05 10:23 - 80ºF - ID#30126

New formatting options

I just added a new option for

[link=http://www.google.com]Here is a link to google, even whole sentences can be links now.[/link]

I renders like this: Here is a link to google, even whole sentences can be links now.

I also made it so that the (e:name) links can now detect punctuation after them so no more extra space for links like (e:paul)'s journal

Old web link formatting works the same as before, simply type in the whole address and it becomes an address.
--Paul

Permalink: New_formatting_options.html
Words: 91
Location: Buffalo, NY

07/18/05 09:28 - 80ºF - ID#30125

Artvoice Vote

omg, the artvoice survey

is back up but all the answers are gone. I think everyone has to revote. Now it checks your IP as a method to stop you from voting twice. That really sucks for poor people like us who have 3 roomates on one computer network. I guess artvoice just assumes everyone can afford their own connection.

Permalink: Artvoice_Vote.html
Words: 71
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: estrip

07/19/05 12:15 - 90ºF - ID#30124

What do do about the site

I have been debating and debating what to do with the site. I think I have decided not to go with the home connection for my $4000 superserver because I don't want the responsibility of keeping it up, seeing as I cannot find a qualified server admin to volunteer or help out.

Dr. Halavais

suggested I talk with a woman named Kera

who is a graduate of the UB informatics dept, web designer at Medaille and knows of a good local hosting company. After getting ahold of her I was able to contact buffalo web hosting

They also seem really nice and local which is good but pretty freakin' expensive. I will end up paying $46/month which is really a lot to me considering I pay it all out of pocket.

We also will be losing shell access and with Buffalo web hosting. Because I don't get ssh and I can't compile my own stuff - blah. A dedicated box with them is really expensive. Around $250/month which is pretty crazy freakin's expensive for a site that is totally free.

I wonder what options the future will hold for (e:strip). Maybe if someone out there is a grant writer, they could help us write for grants. I have no idea where to start on that (e:terry) said he could get us declared a federal non-profit but that still wouldn't help the server situation but may open up more grant opportunities.

So either a grant writer or people will have to donate. However, the best solution is that someone can offer me a really nice job for $40-50k a year where I will work really hard and just pay for it out of pocket. Here is my portfolio

I seriously have no problem paying for it all to support this local community, I just wish I had a bigger personal budget to pull from or didn't have $70,000 in student loans that I will have to start paying next month.

Kera suggest making estrip merchandise that people can buy. I like the idea but who is going to buy a tee-shirt or a coffee mug? Maybe if we put (e:matthew) ' s photos on them! Maybe I will just stick with where we are for now. an not care about the whole local thing.