Upgraded?

Hmmm.... I'm experimenting with the New Blogger here on this old, neglected blog. Trying to figure out how the new version of blogger will affect my main blogging project the SfSchools blog. So far I am not impressed.

I had hacked the my old template at the HTML/CSS level pretty heavily. After upgrading to the new layouts feature, all that is gone. Poof. In its place is an oh-so-usable touchy-feely UI that makes a lot of things possible for people that have no clue about HTML, but injects an unwanted, cumbersome layer for anyone like me that wants to fiddle the HTML.

Sigh. It looks like one can get one's hands dirty with the low level template code. So I'll have to play with this for a while before declaring it a mistake. Or maybe this will be the impetus I've always needed to switch over to WordPress or Moveable Type. Something I should have done a long time ago...

Stay tuned.

Limits to blogging Flickr slideshows

OK, so digg dug a dud. Maybe that's a bit harsh.

The code for blogging a Flickr slideshow above is buggy. Not what it was advertised. Looks to me like the set_id parameter is not working. I just get my most recent shots.

Which is OK. It's still fun to have that there. But it sure would be nice to correctly specify a slideshow. If any readers come here with more info, code fix suggestions, leave a comment.

Fun with Flickr

Thanks to Digg, I found a cool recipe for embedding Flickr slideshows in a blog.

Here's my summer vacation set, which may actually be of interest to the friends and family that make up a the majority of the audience here:

My latest forray into Google Maps

I used MapBuilder.net to quickly cook up this map: KC's map of lunks spots in the East Bay

Not bad at all for a tool-generated map. The tool definitely has its limits, but it also makes it very, very easy to pull off a map like this. The collaboration feature is pretty cool too. (Charles, let's do that noodle joint idea!)

Net Neutrality: This is serious

Ars Technica linked me up to a very cool, very concise, very simple, clear treatise on the crux of the net neutrality issue, Tim Berners-Lee on Net Neutrality: "This is serious.":

Don't let the telcos break the Internet.

Read the Ars article, but be sure to read Berners-Lee's original post, Net Neutrality: This is serious:

I hope that Congress can protect net neutrality, so I can continue to innovate in the Internet space. I want to see the explosion of innovations happening out there on the Web, so diverse and so exciting, continue unabated.

There is a lot of dense information out there about what this issue is, what it means, and why it is or is not necessary to act now. But this short post by one of the primary inventors of the Internet, by one who has continued to surf on the vanguard of the web and all it's possibilities, is the most potent arguments for protecting network neutrality.

Art of Science returns

The The second post ever on this blog was a link to the first Art of Science gallery. Now it's time for round two.

2006 Art of Science gallery is up. But frankly I'm not as blown away. There are some very nice images, but a lot of them don't grab me that much. And I'm not at all sure I like the addition of videos. I guess I'm just a sucker for a good still shot.

But really. Take this picture of lichen. Then take a look at the shot I got last weekend at pinnacles. I ask you now. Which one do you like better? I'm not bragging or anything (well, not too much), I just think thye could have done better. And that's one of the ones I liked. Oh well. I shouldn't complain too much. There are some really cool images. Again.