Idle Dreams Blog a little Blog of Me

The Re-Invigoration of my ANSI Art and ASCII Art Gallery

As some of you may or may not know, I run a website, Sixteen Colors, that attempts to catalog every single ANSI and ASCII piece of artwork released by the computer art scene since it’s beginnings in 1991.

The site has been up for quite some time and has a lot of problems. When I left for my honeymoon in the middle of September I got an email from my system administrator. He purchased a new server and was going to setup a virtual machine for me. He gave me the IP address, log-in info, etc. However, I was on my honeymoon and had no time to mess with it.

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So, in conclusion, if anyone remembers calling Bulletin Board Systems, creating ANSI and/or ASCII art, or is just curious in general about the site I run, a new version was posted live on the night of Sunday, October 15, 2007.

Returning to ANSI Yet Again

It’s time for me to think about Sixteen Colors again. The site has been neglected for way too long. Well, not neglected exactly. I’ve thought about it a lot. I’ve coded things for it fairly often. However, I have yet to produce anything for mass consumption. My plan right now is to start very minimal and just push updates as I complete them. Stay tuned for more details.

The Intern

DCist is trying out a new feature titled “Touch Up DC.” My first contribution is titled “The Intern.”

Going Retro in the Digital Age

When the TiVo^® Series3™ was released in September of 2006 I came to a realization: Roughly 90% of the television programming I watch is received from broadcast networks. With this information I could cancel my DIRECTV^® subscription without a major disruption to my viewing habits. DIRECTV has been a quality provider for me, but saving roughly 65$ per month could go a long way.

After 6 months I have finally done it. I opened the package and installed my TiVo Series3 last night. I was able to get a deal on the TiVo Serie3 at almost 50% of the introductory price. This means that I will have covered the cost of the new TiVo and a year of service within 10 months due to the savings after canceling DIRECTV service. I can also potentially sell my DIRECTV HR10-250 for roughly 200$. After that time I will only be spending 15$ per month to cover the cost of the TiVo service.

It seems that I am not the only one with this idea. The Associated Press had an article this week titled “‘Rabbit Ears’ Find New Life in HDTV Age.” The article highlights HDTV as the motivating factor to returning to antennas and broadcast television. While cost is also a consideration, the compression used on most Cable and Satelite signals reduces the quality of the broadcast.

“When you’re using an antenna to get an HD signal you will be able to receive true broadcast-quality HD,” said Megan Pollock, spokeswoman for [the Consumer electronics Association]. “Some of the cable and satellite companies may choose to compress the HD signal.”

And with a format like HDTV, where the whole purpose is the clearest possible picture, every bit of clarity is crucial.

A factor that I believe is overlooked is the influence of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs). In the past cable channels were my go-to source of programming ouside of prime time hours. With the advent of the DVR I can watch fresh prime time programming whether it is 8:00pm on a Monday or 3:00am on a Sunday. The need to turn on a syndicated program on A&E has disappeared when I can watch a new episode of the same show anytime I would like. I am not aware of any data on the subject, but I believe DVRs have actually been a boost to the broadcast networks for precisely this reason. I watch not only more broadcast television than ever, but far less cable television. To the point where I have now gone so far as to revert back to exclusively over the air broadcasts.

Public Sector Speed

I have now been working in the public sector for close to four years. As is the stereotype, technology does not exactly move quickly. Within the last month we have finally started to move to the .NET 2.0 framework. Our legacy Cold Fusion applications are still running on Cold Fusion 4.5. Our movement to .NET 2.0 has been largely due to a “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission” philosophy.

My experience has been that if you are willing to put forth the effort to push keeping up with technology, it can be done. As we push to get current we have even implementing AJAX where possible and appropriate. Even with hurdles such as 508 compliance and an impending possibility of disabled Javascript on government owned desktops, the advantages are worth the headaches involved. The key is the ability to prove the advantages of each progression and show the cost benefits involved. I would estimate that Visual Studio 2005 alone increases productivity by at least 5% due to it’s improved intellisense.

Working in the public sector can be frustrating, but the job is what you make of it. Just because there is a stereotype of being unproductive, does not mean it is unilaterally true. If the job is important to you, make it work. It’s an uphill battle, but victory is possible.

So It Begins Again

In recent weeks I have come to a realization. I have grown content with my life as a developer rather than striving to learn new things regularly. I have always had a strong distaste for developers that have no desire to learn things on their own time and only look at their work as a typical nine to five job. Lately I have been that guy. As part of my attempt to move beyond that state of being I am attempting to yet again to regularly write to a blog. This will be primarily technical in nature, but I’m sure it will have the occasional foray into other areas. So here’s to learning, sharing and growing.