Author: Steven Garrity

Gaim Needs You

by Steven Garrity

Gaim dude

The fabulous instant messaging client, Gaim, could use your help. That is, you’re a talented and generous web designer.

With the impending release of Gaim 2.0.0, the Gaim website is in need of an update to be as slick as the application it represents. If you are a web designer that is interested in helping create a new, better Gaim website, please let me know.

There may be some budget available, but we’re really looking for people to contribute sans-monetary-compensation. That said, if you’re worth it and can’t afford to volunteer, but are still interested, let me know.

I’d love to do it myself, but I’m too fabulous busy doing other stuff.

 

Lyrics: White & Nerdy by Weird Al Yankovic

by Steven Garrity

“Escher is my favorite MC”.

Truly this is Weird Al’s greatest work since he rhymed “brain-dead AOL-er” with “jpegs to Hellen Keller” in It’s All About The Pentiums (video). The audio is available from Digg. Here are the lyrics (source) – listen and read them. It’s worth it.

White & Nerdy by Al Yankovic

They see me mowin’
My front lawn
I know they’re all thinking I’m so white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Can’t you see I’m white and nerdy?
Look at me, I’m white and nerdy
I wanna roll with
The gangstas
But so far they all think I’m too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
I’m just too white and nerdy.
Really really white and nerdy.

First in my class here at MIT
Got skills, I’m a champion at D&D
MC Escher – that’s my favorite MC
Keep your 40, I’ll just have an Earl Grey tea
My rims never spin, to the contrary
You’ll find that they’re quite stationary
All of my action figures are cherry
Steven Hawking’s in my library
My MySpace page is all totally pimped out
Got people beggin’ for my top eight spaces
Yo, I know pi to a thousand places
Ain’t got no grills but I still wear braces
I order all of my sandwiches with mayonnaise
I’m a whiz at Minesweeper – I could play for days
Once you see my sweet moves you’re gonna stay amazed
My fingers’ movin’ so fast I’ll set the place ablaze
There’s no killer app I haven’t run
At Pascal, well I’m number one
Do vector calculus just for fun
I ain’t got a gat but I got a soldering gun
Happy Days is my favorite theme song
I could sure kick your butt in a game of ping pong
I’ll ace any trivia quiz you bring on
I’m fluent in JavaScript as well as Klingon

They see me roll on
My Segway
I know in my heart they think I’m white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Can’t you see I’m white and nerdy
Look at me, I’m white and nerdy
I’d like to roll with
The gangstas
Although it’s apparent I’m too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
I’m just too white and nerdy
How’d I get so white and nerdy

I’ve been browsin’, inspectin’
X-Men comics, you know I collect ‘em
The pens in my pocket, I must protect ‘em
My ergonomic keyboard never leaves me bored
Shopping online for deals on some writable media
I edit Wikipedia
I memorized Holy Grail really well
I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL
I got a business doing websites
When my friends need some code, who do they call?
I do HTML for ‘em all
Even made a homepage for my dog
Yo, I got myself a fanny pack
They were havin’ a sale down at The Gap
Spend my nights with a roll of bubble wrap
Pop, pop, hope no one sees me
Gettin’ freaky
I’m nerdy in the extreme
And whiter than sour cream
I was in AV Club and Glee Club and even the Chess Team
Only question I
Ever thought was hard
Was do I like Kirk
Or do I like Picard
Spend every weekend at the Renaissance Fair
Got my name on my underwear

They see me strollin’
They laughin’
And rollin’ their eyes ‘cause I’m so white and nerdy
Just because I’m white and nerdy
Just because I’m white and nerdy
All because I’m white and nerdy
Holy cow, I’m white and nerdy
I wanna bowl with
The gangstas
But, oh well, it’s obvious I’m white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
Think I’m just too white and nerdy
I’m just too white and nerdy
Look at me, I’m white and nerdy

 

Bounty for Previewing Photoshop files in Evince: $100

by Steven Garrity

Tango image iconUsing PDF documents on Linux used to be quite unpleasant. The PDF viewing apps were ancient and ugly and the quality of the rendering was nasty.

Today, though, the picture is much better. OpenOffice.org does a great job of creating PDFs and a relatively new viewing application called Evince has made browsing/reading a pleasure.

Evince is a lot like the Preview application on Mac OS X. One thing that Preview.app does well, though, that Evince cannot do is display Photoshop files (PSD).

While the Gimp can open/save PSD files, it does not support Photoshop layer-effects and some of the layer-mask features. The end result is that many Photoshop files look broken/incomplete.

Preview.app manages to show pixel-perfect previews of Photoshop files, including complex layer masks and effects. I presume (but don’t know), that preview is using a flattened bitmap that is included in the Photoshop file rather than parsing/rendering all of the layer effects itself. If anyone can confirm/deny that this is the case, please do.

If it is indeed the case that Photoshop files include a flat bitmap of rendered version of the file, presumably Evince to use this to preview PSD files.

The Offer

This isn’t the kind of thing I’m capable of doing myself, but I would love to see it happen so I am putting out a bounty out for this to be done. I’m willing to pay $100 USD to the person who can implement PSD viewing in Evince.

Requirements for Payment:

  • Evince must display recent Photoshop (6, 7, CSx) PSD files accurately, including layer effects and other complex Photoshop-specific visuals.
  • The code must be included upstream in Evince. If they don’t accept your code, you don’t get paid. I’d suggest getting in touch with the Evince maintainers and keep in touch with them during your development. If you do all the work and they don’t commit it, you’re out of luck. Note that I have not been in touch with the Evince maintainers about this.
  • The code must be committed upstream by the end of 2006.
  • If there are intellectual property issues that prevent the code from being included in Evince, the offer is off the table – you might want to investigate this first.
  • Money will be sent via PayPal after the code has been committed upstream in Evince.
  • If multiple people complete the project, the one who gets their code (or the majority of it) committed will get the bounty.
  • If no one completes the project, I will keep the money for myself and roll around in it.

If you do have a go at this, contact me and let me know you’re working on it and I’ll give you a heads up in case it’s already underway somewhere else.

$100!?! Screw you! That barely pays for an hour of work

Yeah, I know. $100 is not a lot of money. I’m not trying to hire someone to write this code and I have no illusions that this is even close to enough money to actually cover the work required. Rather, I’m doing this as a cheap stunt to get the attention of someone who might have been interested in doing this anyhow.

 

Cable Not Included

by Steven Garrity

When did it become acceptable to sell printers without the cable to connect them to your computer? I’m not only talking about those crazy-cheap practically-disposable ink-jets either. I’m talking about $400 color-laser printers with no cable. Isn’t that like selling a toaster without a power-cable?

This also seems oddly counter to the “batteries ARE included” movement I’ve noticed in other electronics devices. Just about every battery-using device I’ve bought in the last few years came with batteries (even if they are the cheap kind, it’s fine for something like a remote). Maybe they got tired of ruining Christmas.

 

The Human Workplace

by Steven Garrity

Our friend Robert Patterson is working on a theory about how successful modern workplaces organize themselves as tribes. He interviewed Dan, Nathan, and I about how this theory holds up in the world of silverorange (short answer: pretty well).

Read the full interview at Robert’s weblog: The Human Workplace – silverorange.

I love the photo Rob chose – it’s the entire silverorange crew hanging out back-stage at a Sloan show in Toronto (Sloan is a client). The Sloan guys were gracious and kind – and only look slightly bored in the photo.