ChrisJF

Connect to UOIT's Campus-Air Wireless in Windows 7

2010-02-03T15:19:00.015-05:00

Follow the instructions below to connect to UOIT's Campus-Air Wifi in Windows 7. Or download the Instructions.docx (982k) which can be read by WordPad.

Open Network and Sharing Center

Manage wireless networks

Add

Manually create a network profile

Name: CAMPUS-AIR Note: All capital letters
Security: WPA-Enterprise
Encryption: TKIP

Change connection settings

Advanced settings

Specify authentication mode: User authentication
Save credentials

Type username and password

Settings

Uncheck Validate server certificate
Configure...

Uncheck Automatically use my Windows logon name and password

Click OK and then Close. You're done!

This is smart UI design

2009-01-30T13:38:00.004-05:00

I just saw a neat little feature in Gmail that automatically detects an event and suggests to add it to my calendar. It is helpful yet unobtrusive. Little things like these set a product above the rest.

New Blog Design

2009-01-28T23:54:00.008-05:00

My blog has a new template. Some key design features are as follows:

Typography as UI.
Proper leading (line height) increases readability. It is current set at 1.5em.
Correct measure. Mine is about 80 characters per line.
Completely elastic design (which ensures a consistent measure). Used em for all units (but I'm fairly sure Blogger meddles with things and throws in a couple px's).
Utilized an off-white text background to aid readability for people with low-vision.
Made the background in Paint. Yes, really. Not really a design feature, I know.

That's about all I want to say. Goodnight.

The Hybrid Radial Context Menu for Firefox

2008-11-01T17:00:00.029-04:00

This is in response to Jono's great post on Radial Menus.

After seeing Microsoft's approach to contextual commands in Internet Explorer (Accelerators) and Mozilla's approach in Firefox (Ubiquity) I was dissatisfied with both.

Accelerators

add yet another context menu (read: those annoying little paste icons in Word). Plus it doesn't scale well with a large number of commands.

Ubiquity

does not denote context. I.e. you're translating the selected text from French to English. So why do you do this in some bizarre off-in-space mode? Also, Ubiquity is invoked in an unintuitive way by pressing Ctrl+Space.
I think Jono mentioned that he was contemplating the effects of combining the Awesomebar and Ubiquity when I talked to him at the Toronto MozDevDay two months ago. Regardless, I think this evolutionary idea would be the wrong approach for two reasons. 1. UI overload (awesomebar vs ubiquity == search for an object vs do something to an object). 2. Still wouldn't denote context.

Just for clarification, context and situation are important because you can hide features the user doesn't need and show them when the user needs them. As well, context is partially derived from how close in proximity things are grouped together – aka visual context.

Before I explain my solution, let’s go over what's been stated in the comments so far.

Requirements

1. A radial menu is faster to physically click on something.

2. A radial menu is slower for visual scanning.

3. A radial menu doesn't scale.

4. A radial menu obscures things below it.

5. A radial menu doesn't work near the screen edges.

And my gripe:

6. Need to denote context.

Solution: Hybrid Radial Menu

Search + Radial Menu = Hybrid Radial Menu
(I apologize for the ghetto mockup. I haven't installed Photoshop on my new laptop so I was confined to Paint.)

I think Ubiquity, along with radial menus, should replace the right-click menu in Firefox (aka the context menu).

The most frequently used commands are "pieces of the pie." One quarter of the "pie" is devoted to Ubiquity.

Satisfaction?

1. A radial menu is faster to physically click on something.

Using a radial menu satisfies Fitt's Law (as described in Jono's post).

2. A radial menu is slower for visual scanning.

Fitts law only takes into account the time to move from point a to point b. It does not address a human's ability to search a list. That said, this raises a few questions.

Are linear menus easier to search because our eyes have been trained over time to scan them efficiently (i.e. muscle memory of eye movements) or because our eyes naturally scan across and down (our DNA determines efficient eye movements)?
If we have been socialized, can we train our eyes to scan radial menus quickly too? This needs to be researched before investing more time developing radial menus. Optometrist anyone?

So. Search results (from Ubiquity) are displayed in a linear fashion, while the most frequently used items are shown in a radial pattern. Hybrid FTW!

3. A radial menu doesn't scale.

The most frequently used commands are "pieces of the pie" and any other desired command can be searched for using the Ubiquity "slice of pie." This approach also gets rid of the dreaded "More..." button and endless hierarchy of lists of lists of lists. Scalability solved.

4. A radial menu obscures things below it.

Yes, my hybrid radial menu does obscure things below it but I would argue that rectangular menus do as well. What happens if the user right-clicks in the top-left corner of their selection? In this case, the rectangular menu obscures the selection just as my hybrid radial menu would.

With that said, pointing out hypocrisy still does not solve the problem. I haven't thought enough about this issue but my first inclination would be to make the hybrid radial menu semi-transparent (even though that might decrease readability, but I don't think that's an issue considering icons would presumably be used instead of text for radial menus).

5. A radial menu doesn't work near the screen edges.

I got nothing ... maybe some sort of slide the page over and put negative space à la Fennec slide controls?

6. Need to denote context.

By placing Ubiquity in the right-click menu, there is strong visual context. Invoking Ubiquity finally makes sense! I.e. a user wants to do something to the selected text right here, so do it right there (pun intended), not off in la-la-land.

Conclusion

Thanks to Jono for an amazing post as I previously dismissed radial context menus on the basis of scalability alone. And any feedback on my design would be thoroughly appreciated!

Printing to the UOIT Printers from a Non-School-Issued Laptop

2008-10-30T23:22:00.007-04:00

On Windows:

1. Open the Run command. (Press Windows Key + R)

2. Type the following and hit enter:

\\osfp01.oncampus.local

This is the address of the print server. (Note you must be physically on campus for this to work.)

3. When a window pops up:

For your username put: "oncampus\*********"
(replace the stars with your username. i.e. 100123456)

For your password: put your password that you use to login to one of the computers in the commons.

4. Hit Enter. The window will now load listing all Durham College and UOIT printers. Find the printer you want to use, and double click it to install the printer.

5. Now you can print from your non-UOIT-issued laptop!

Please note: If you restart your computer, you must reconnect to the print server first before you try printing again.

Letter to Apple Re:Opera Mini for iPhone

2008-10-30T18:46:00.002-04:00

Hi Apple,

It recently came to my attention that you did not approve the Opera Mini Browser for your App Store.
http://my.opera.com/haavard/blog/opera-mini-iphone

I am emailing you to ask why you did not allow the Opera browser on the iPhone App Store?

I want Opera's browser on the App Store regardless of whether it competes with yours Safari browser.

Competition is good and spurs innovation. Whatever happened to free market capitalism?

Thanks,
-Chris

UOIT MyCampus Email in Thunderbird or Outlook

2008-03-20T17:12:00.006-04:00

IT doesn't allow Auto Forwarding for MyCampus email. Consequently, I never check my MyCampus email. However, I recently found out from Zander that you can access MyCampus email using IMAP. So now I'm using Thunderbird! Here are the settings for your favourite Email Client:

Protocol: IMAP
Server: itsosims02.mycampus.ca
Port: 143 (standard one), and no SSL (no authentication)
Username: Your Student ID i.e. 100123456
Password: Your MyCampus password or your original MyCampus password if you changed it i.e. Your Birthdate MMDDYY

Thanks again to Zander and happy emailing.

Note: It appears that you can't send email when not on campus but you can receive email anywhere.

Download The BQE by Sufjan Stevens from WNYC

2007-10-30T11:40:00.003-04:00

Sufjan Stevens and a small orchestra were guests on WNYC's Spinning on Air radio show. They played excerpts from Sufjan's upcoming orchestral piece The BQE. It will premier at the BAM Festival on November 1st. You can listen to the show on Spinning on Air's website using their cumbersome flash player if you want. Fortunately, using some handy View Source-ing skills I found an actual MP3 download link for the show.

WNYC New York Public Radio
Spinning on Air
Episode: Sunday, October 28, 2007
Audio Type: MP3
Bit rate: 56kbps
Length: 60 minutes

Download Link:
http://audio.wnyc.org/spinning/spinning102807.mp3

End of the Internets...LOL

2007-10-24T15:50:00.000-04:00

Congratulations, you've reached the End of the Internet.

Petition Blogger.com: Recycle BlogSpot Addresses!

2007-03-26T18:05:00.000-04:00

Basically, I think BlogSpot.com addresses should be recycled after two years with no updates or sign-ins. Blogger.com's policy on abandoned blogs is this:

"Blogger accounts and Blog*Spot addresses do not expire. Therefore, we can't take away somebody's blog address to give to you. Occasionally people come back to their blogs after long absences, and we want them to be able to find their blog as they left it. If you find some contact information on the blog, you are welcome to deal with the owner directly, to see if they are willing to delete the blog so you can use the address. However, we do not give out contact information for the owner of a blog."

Two years is a very long time. Chances are if they haven't updated by then they have abandoned their blog. Another problem is some people don't give out their contact information on their profile. Consequently, you can't email the blog owner to ask for their BlogSpot.com address.

We, the bloggers of Blogger.com/Blogspot.com, need to rally together and petition Blogger.com to change this ridiculous policy. Please, help me petition Blogger.com by going to the feature request page. It will only take a minute, I swear! Just sign in with your Blogger/Google account. Click "Suggest a feature" and Submit. On the next page, scroll down to the bottom and copy-paste the following in the "suggest a new feature:" text box:

I read the policy on abandoned blogs. I am petitioning that blogs over two years old with no updates be deleted and the BlogSpot address recycled. Two years is more than enough time to login. Clearly, after that amount time the blog is truly abandoned.

Or if you feel so inclined, you can write you own 45 word petition.

Thanks a lot,
Chris

Download Vista DreamScene Videos in HD via BitTorrent!

2007-03-23T01:26:00.000-04:00

Download HD DreamScene video for FREE! at VistaDreamScene.googlepages.com

I've just finished updating the site. I think I'm content with the changes. (lol)

However, I kinda wish I had been able to keep the Dream Scene videos as HTTP downloads. It's just a bit more convenient, I guess. Oh well. I couldn't find enough bandwidth. Instead, I made a torrent and from now on I will be distributing the DreamScene movies using BitTorrent. (If you still want to download the DreamScene movies using HTTP, you can try the HTTP page. I'm pretty sure I ran out of bandwidth for the month so the videos probablly won't download using HTTP. You're best bet is to use BitTorrent.)

On a more positive note, my HD DreamScene videos have been downloaded more than 2500 times! MY VIDEOS! Really. I went through 50Gb of bandwidth! Thanks to Openomy for providing a great service.

Let me know if there are any problems downloading the videos using BitTorrent. I've updated the help page to for new BitTorrent users.

So if you missed the link to download HD DreamScene movies it's: VistaDreamScene.googlepages.com

Chris' Original Twitter Badge -- Code Included

2007-03-16T00:17:00.001-04:00

[Update: Twitter has created new and better badges! You can still use this badge if you want.]

Well, I've been getting some hits for 'twitter badge' so I'm gonna give you guys what you want.

Frankly, the badges that Twitter.com supply are pitiful. The Javascript one is plain and just a one-liner. The Flash ones are... well Flash. Who wants to load that? Besides they're ugly.

So as I said before, I made my own original Twitter badge (pictured in the top right of this post). I just used the Twitter logo. I also made the color scheme match Twitter.com's color scheme so everything is nice and pretty.

After, I looked at my badge and thought "It's not cool enough yet." So then I added the actual twitter background. The end result was my new Twitter badge (picture to the bottom right of the post or you can find it in the sidebar).

Anyways, I know you want the code for my original twitter badge so here you go:

But before I give you the code, I ask only one thing; you MUST leave the comment in where it says that I made the Twitter Badge. Therefore, I'll get the credit. Thanks.

Finally, here is the code for my twitter badge:

<div style="background: #9AE4E8 url(http://assets4.twitter.com/images/bg.gif) no-repeat bottom left; padding:5px 5px 3px 5px; text-align:center;">
<a href="http://twitter.com/chrisjf" title="ChrisJF's Twitter"><img border="0" width="210" alt="Twitter Logo" src="http://assets4.twitter.com/images/twitter.gif" height="49"/></a>
</div>




<div style="border: 1px solid #9AE4E8; border-top:0px; padding:5px;">


<div id="twitter_div"><ul
id="twitter_update_list"></ul>
<a id="twitter-link" style="display:block;text-align:right;"
href="http://twitter.com/chrisjf">follow me on
Twitter</a>
</div>
<script src="http://twitter.com/javascripts/blogger.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script text="text/javascript"
src="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/username.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=5"></script>

</div>

NOTE: You're going to have to change a few links at the beginning of the code so that they link to your page (i.e. twitter.com/username and title="YourName's Twitter").

Download NEW! DreamScene Videos Movies Video Movie Whatever You Want to Call Them!

2007-03-09T00:35:00.000-05:00

So I found some more new quality HD videos that I thought would make good DreamScene videos. I edited all of them to loop smoothly, as usual. There are three new Dream Scene videos in all. The first DreamScene video is of a Sea Turtle peacefully swimming in the ocean. The second and third Dream Scene movies consist of a school of Yellow Fish. These last two DreamScene movies are practically the same except the third DreamScene movie is closer up than the second.

Download these new HD DreamScene videos for FREE! at VistaDreamScene.googlepages.com

P.s. Apparently, GooglePages has a maximum bandwidth limit so none of the pictures load but the text still does!?! Random, I know. But don't worry, all the DreamScene movies are hosted on a different servers so you can still download those videos!

Vista DreamScene Movies Available for Download

2007-03-06T21:22:00.000-05:00

I finally found a proper host for the DreamScene videos (Openomy). They are now all posted on the website.

To download the DreamScene movies just go here: VistaDreamScene.googlepages.com

Did I mention they are High Definition (aka HiDef aka HD) movies?

For more information see the first DreamScene blog post that I wrote.

Download Vista DreamScene Videos

2007-03-02T18:15:00.000-05:00

Right. So recently I replaced Mac OS 10.4 with Windows Vista Ultimate which I installed on my Thinkpad R60 Laptop. (It was a sad day; I had to say goodbye to my Mac-wintel because the OS had driver issues with my sound card, video card, and ethernet card.) But I was pleasantly surprised by just how fun Vista is to use.

Anyways, getting to the point, a couple of weeks ago Microsoft released the full version of DreamScene as a Windows Vista Ultimate Extra. DreamScene allows you to set any video as your desktop background. I downloaded the update and installed DreamScene. It was pretty cool to see the Aurora background "come to life" (which is bundled with the update).

Soon, I became tired of that background and started google-ing the internet for DreamScene Videos. I didn't find much. Most of the videos were low-quality garbage. Consequently, I decided to make some DreamScene videos myself and I have a website to show for it. It's only two pages but hopefully I'll be able to find some more HD footage that I can edit to make more DreamScene movies.

All of the movies on the site are HD quality, widescreen, and in the WMV format. I got rid of the sound so that videos take up less memory. (And because who wants to hear the same thing looping over and over again everytime they use their computer?) Also, I edited the footage so that the videos loop smoothly and don't just cut (because that looks stupid).

So if you would like to download DreamScene videos for free just go to the simple site I made. VistaDreamScene.googlepages.com

chrisjf's Origional Twitter Badge

2007-01-30T00:25:00.001-05:00

Check out my new Twitter Badge. (Look at the sidebar.) I made it myself. And I didn't read any help files. Its pretty snazzy.

What is Twitter you might be asking? Twitter answers the question: What are you doing right now.

Update: I've updated my Origional Twitter Badge. You can find it here. Also, I've included the code for my Twitter Badge so you have a cool Twitter Badge too!

Welcome

2007-01-11T22:02:00.003-05:00

...to the blog. This is a test. Please ignore for now.