Cold Again, What a surprise - comments(6)
Tuesday March 8, 2005 - 7:15PM EDT
I've finished the initial layout for the new website I was working on. Just need to get more content to fill it with from the website owner. I have to finish up two other web sites, then I'll work on the software again. I still am very broke but maybe another month or two before I start brining in steady monthly income(maybe). This special version of the software that I hope will catapult it into wide use, should only take about a day or two to complete. Then I can cut a deal with my first real client (yes there is some company out there that is interested in the software already) and see where it goes from there. I think this path may be the way to go, as seems like personal website owners aren't inclined to use the software. But if it is bundled as a part of their web hosting then they will use it just for the hell of it. And with web hosting companies putting it on their servers it will be available to more people right away than trying to sign-up people for individual copies. How I am going to make money off web hosting providers, I don't know. License fee, support contract, I don't know. Obviously those who use the software can make money off affiliate links, but can I or should I get a piece of that? I'm guessing my best bet is either support contract or just a licensing fee, probably a subscription based fee that includes free upgrades to the software and access to a link database. I figure I can charge a yearly or monthly fee for unlimited domains, per company, with no limits of the amount of servers they can put it on. I think web hosting companies would be willing to spend a low monthly fee for something they can offer unlimited to all their clients and where they would get tech support on it so they wouldn't have to worry about that. I would make the monthly price low enough so that it could easily be offset by their regular clients monthly fees. In the begining I would leave it up to them to decide whether they charge their clients. If I could get 50-100 webhosting companies to signup I could make a decent monthly income. I am thinking small-time with my pricing. Maybe later I can be more bold in the pricing but to start I'll have to be cheap. It would all depened on what kind of support I needed to provide, if it started to get out of hand I would need to charge more but if its stays manageable then I can stick with a low price. I just need this to workout as a stepping stone to bigger things, like making that movie. Well back to work.
Monday March 7, 2005 - 3:00AM EDT
I pulled one of my classic slacker move by going to see a movie tonight instead of working on a website. It wasn't that slacker, because I did do decent amount of website work during the day and did get the copying of files done for another website. I just need to escape reality, because I fucking hate my pathetic life.
I saw The Jacket which was good. I liked it a lot and I think most would find it a solid offering. I've read some movie review that keep referencing The Butterfly Effect for some odd reason. I don't know why, because that trashy movie didn't originate the type of movie The Jacket is. Also there are still those that want to question plot loopholes in movies that deal with time travel. If these idiots would figure out that anytime you deal with time travel in a movie there are going to be endless questions and plot holes because time travel intrinsicly doesn't make any sense from our standard logic. I never hear anyone trying to rip the Terminator movies for all the time travel inconsitences. Time travel in movies is a vessel, a backdrop, a setting for which the rest of the movie is carried, it allows the writer to get away with things one couldn't normally, don't question it. But you can't rely on it to tell the whole story or the movie will suck ass. Even movies that deal directly with time travel (ie: Back to the Future, The Time Machine, etc...) aren't really about time travel but have strong supporting themes to carry the movie (or else the movie sucks ass). Botton line is you can't make a movie about time travel without it really being about something else, so enough of the questioning. The good part about The Jacket was that it didn't try to explain too much about the time travel thing (or else you'd get really confused). It used it to effectively move the plot. The acting was good and although it was no deep character study you cared about the people you were supposed to. It was an enjoyable movie, that may turn off certain people. But those looking for a decent thriller will be satisfied. Adrian Broody is a good actor and shows it once again here. With Keira Knightley always playing these shiny young girls it was a change of pace to see her in a really dark role (King Arthur doesn't count, that was an small world adventure flick with a fairly weak character. Which is ironic because her character is supposed to be a strong willed fighting woman). She definately made the transition well, as she was believable as Jackie. When I saw her on screen for the first time I thought "there is no way she is going to pull this off," but she does a nice job. The makeup, the lighting and the fact they kept her smiles to a bare minimum also helped. I really liked the movie. I like movies where it is one man vs. everything or everybody else. The small movie with just a few characters and not a lot of exagerated scenery. The setting is ordinary and you get inside the head of the main character. You feel what they are feeling. Ghost Dog is another one of those movies I like. That movie has very sparse dialogue in places, I like that.
Sunday March 6, 2005 - 2:18PM EDT
About a month ago when I bought a box of Lean Mass from the Shoppe I got this free book and a bottle of creatine monohydrate. I still have the creatine unopened as I never used it. The book has some 8-week program on weight training and diet that is suppose to give you have maximum muscle growth. So for lack of anything better to do, I will start this 8-week thing. It will require waking up at 7am. I was inspired by Marrone TV's recent actions.
Saturday March 5, 2005 - 7:15PM EDT
I'll begin work on the additional enhancements to the software on Monday. Additional enhancements that people are already intrested in using and may just be the catalyst I need to propel the software into some type of major use. I am thinking that these new enahacements will be the money maker and the individual software will enventually just be given away freely. It depends though on the response to the enhancements. This weekend though I have a few other things to finish up. I've begun the initial planning for a new project, based on some websites that I am working on now. I've worked out the initial estimates and they look good. This project has great potential.
Friday March 4, 2005 - 2:12AM EDT
So it has been a really slow two months as far as getting web work for money. I've gotten some but not nearly enough. Probably because I don't really go out and try to get work. But someone came to me today that needed a website done by next week so I should get some decent money out of that. Also work with current clients has picked up a little bit, which reminds me I need to send out invoices. The software is on the back burner for a few more days until I finish up some other things. Today I started some initial layouts for a redesign of a website I maintain that badly needs a redeisgn. Should finish up the layout comps tomorrow and show them to the owner. Hopefully the website owner will like them and I can begin the redesign soon. I guess there are a few other posible work sources that I could try and tap. But for the moment I need to finish some other websites before I begin searching out more.
Thursday March 3, 2005 - 1:44AM EDT
I've been making multiple posts per day for a few days now. Oh yeah when I was in San Fran I saw a hummingbird for the first time ever. Walked right by it as it was feeding on some flowers on a bush. I've been very slowly getting better at managing my time and getting things done. Still room for a lot of improvement, but maybe one day I will be disciplined. I need at least a part-time job. But I wasn something that pays well. I'll probably never find the $40/hr part-timer that I had a few years back. That was possibly the greatest deal ever. To bad I was fucking depressed all the time, I really should have made more of that situation. I did get random trips to Japan out of it so it is not a complete loss. Still though I could have done much more with the money I made from there, ah well, hindsight is 20/20.
I should start actually trying to promote my web design services. I really don't and I don't know how I get the work that I do now. Maybe that would help the whole being broke situation. I guess I am still trying to build a decent portfolio. I have only done a few projects, but fuck, I am damn good. How many people can design the database, layout the CSS/HTML and do front-end scripting all with expert skill (ok, my graphic design sense is not spectacular but it is serviceable). These recruiters and hiring managers don't know what to look for, that is why businesses today screw up technological decisions so much, because they hire morons. Fuck I am just bitter. Those job boards are worthless, all of them. No one gets a job that way, such a small percentage do.
Wednesday March 2, 2005 - 11:49PM EDT
I think I want to turn into a sleazeball for like a day or so. Just be rude and imply things with heavey sexual overtones to people. Maybe a perve for a day would also be cool. As you can tell I am bored. Not really. Been working on a website and I am almost finished. I was at the diner counter tonight and who sits down a few chairs down but somone dressed like a symbiont Trill from Star Trek. You know the Trills with the spots on the side of the head. Well this woman had it all, the star trek suit, the spots, the tricorder, it was quite a sight. I wish I had my camera. She was attractive young lady in my humble opinion. When she got her fries on a plate she pushed them all to one side with her hands and put ketchup on the other side. She also asked for a side plate of pickles. Ok so I stared at her little to long probably. Mutual friendly smiles were exchanged when she caught me looking. The whole situation was kind of freaking me out and I wanted to burst out laughing.
Other than that as I've been updating the pictures on a website I have been singing songs about the pictures of the breeds of dogs as I upload them. Can't wait for the next episode of The O.C. Thursday at 8. I just saw a super cheesy Burger King comercial with the lead singer from Hootie and the Blowfish and Brooke Burke. Have their careers sliped that much or where they smoking crack or maybe they just wanted to have a jolly good time.
Wednesday March 2, 2005 - 1:31PM EDT
I'm off to the gym before I get back to work. Actually I haven't done much all day, bits and pieces here and there. Mainly I just cleaned up the house a little, actually not even that much. I need to make these ideas worth something, because I'm spending a lot of time on things and not getting much out of it right now. I guess I'll just have to wait and maybe (ha) it will get better later. Oh fuck, I am going to have to go back to work for THE MAN. Never! THE MAN will never grind my soul again. I just need to get psyched. I got a new idea for on of the websites I work on, for a new design and tracking system that should help organize things in the future for the website. I need to at least finish the work I have for that site and come up with comps in photoshop to show to the website owner so I can get working on the new layout.
Wednesday March 2, 2005 - 12:23PM EDT
It's sunny outside and that is good. It is still cold as balls and that sucks. Dude, I want it to be warm so bad. It would make me so happy. Screw cold I want a tropical planet. Everyday I get obsessed with doing something with the software. I come up with a new idea or new stragety to try out. But I have other work I have to do and can't spend every second on the software. So I have to take a break from the software for a few days to get some other work done. I need to clear my mind of the software and focus on some other work for a little, fuck, because I have some things I want to try out regarding promotional efforts and need to finish the third flavor of the software. Of course I will get some sorely needed money from my other work. Ok fuck, back to work.
Wednesday March 2, 2005 - 1:41AM EDT
I recently read an article about how some economist was supportive of Adam Smith's treatise Wealth of Nation and what it expouses. Ok, so it was just one article and it could have been skewed. But regardless, I don't know why Smith's work is still seen as the basis by which economics is governed. First off, the scenarios he presents seem to be devoid of any reality and I don't think they ever took into account that resources of the planet would be strained at some point. I should research more before speaking at length. This article here
particularly makes me cringe. As it is more evidence of the sinister drive by some to make everything into a business. The idea that business "competition" is the answer to everything. If it was pure competition on level playing fields with goals to be the best it may work. But "competition" never is pure in today's business world. No one strives to be the best, they just strive to make the most money.
billions of dollars will exchange hands as companies buy and sell the right to pollute
That small excerpt from the article was a great selection by the author.
Tuesday March 1, 2005 - 11:19PM EDT
There has to be a fundamental change in the way people browse webpages for my software to make it. Basically every page on the net has to take advantage of the functionality presented by my software and it needs to become a standard by which everyone that designs a web pages uses. Now that I have figured out the language issue that is good and it opens up pretty much any page on the net. I think once people start using it, it will spread. Once people see that one website has it they will want all websites to have it. With that said, there are certain web pages that it works better for and other pages that it is really is not much of an improvement. Sure the browsers provide the same functionality but it is spotty and sometimes need to be installed as an add-on. I am relying on the fact that the content publisher knows the best places to link their pages to. I am ever going to make something of these ideas? I damn sure hope so. It just takes time, and I am impatient. Got lots of ideas and avenues I am pursuing but I'm fucking broke and have no job so its hard to stay patient. I fantasize about taking on large internet companies and beating them. I don't know, still a lot of uncertainties.
Reading some Japanese on some Japanese websites reminded me how much I like Japanese. I still rememeber the majority of it even though I haven't really used it regularly in 2 years. I just need to get back into it.
Today was an off day because I worked so much yesterday. I did get a lot done though. I want to see Constantine again, that is the only movie out worth seeing. I guess I should see Hotel Rwanda and Million Dollar Baby. They will be good no doubt. Oh yeah, I saw Boogeyman. That was the worst movie I have ever seen. Apparently a lot of people agree. Just highlight Boogeyman and go to Internet Movie Database and read the user reviews. It is hard to fuck up horror movies, because the formula is pretty well-known. But they fucked it up. The movie made absolutely no sense and the loud jolts every few minutes was just annoying not scary. I wanted to go to the movie theather manager and demand a refund after wasting away through that garbage. It wasn't an acting problem though, it was all screenplay. The story wasn't worth the paper it was written on(or the hard drive space it took up). I felt sorry for the actors who got roped into such a piece of trash. I fell asleep in the theather. I fell asleep in a horror movie, that is pathetic. Don't anyone waste their time by going to see this flic.
Tuesday March 1, 2005 - 12:06PM EDT
I fixed the issue with the software not linking properly with Japanese text. It was suprisingly easy. But now the software will work with just about any language. I'll test it out in the demo version before I add it to the main release.
Tuesday March 1, 2005 - 5:16AM EDT
I've been working all night but I have launched the new software offerings. Only two version for the moment while I work on the third. The website has been extremely slow lately. I'm paranoid that some competitor is out to get me or someone at some large company is sabotaging the website, ha, that's funny. It is really late and as I look at the name of the software it makes me laugh. What if people start using this name regularly. It is weird sounding but cool, I guess. It is just funny to think about people saying a name of a software you came up with.
Tuesday March 1, 2005 - 4:08AM EDT
The more I work on this software I discover more and more about web browsers. Stuff that is very hidden. I think I have either found a bug in the Mozilla engine or I just don't know the rules of XHTML strict well enough. Botton line is that when you declare the XHTML strict document type in a Mozilla based browser and then try to use a stylesheet link that is dynamically created from a php script it doesn't work. It works in IE and Opera and I think Safari and Konqueror but in Mozilla based browsers it doesn't import the stylesheet properly. It better be a bug because if it is some dumb-ass rule that fucking sucks. Luckily it is only with a XHTML strict declaration, so I am assuming it is some lesser known bug. Of course the Mozilla server's are having a problem and I can't download the latest version to see if they fixed that bug. It is fucking late, I am exhausted and my mind is cooked.
Tuesday March 1, 2005 - 12:38AM EDT
A new blogger has appeared in the blogosphere. It's Marrone TV. Check out the link on the right. You know good thing are to come when the second post has this little tidbit.
moral of the story; when one tool thinks something is cool, the tool to the left is surely going to mimic them.
Taking that little tidbit from the site just revived a brillant new use for the software that I had a while back. Taking funny excerpts of something and either posting them to some webpage or emailing them to somebody. All with just two clicks. I got it! Here is the idea. Provide a webpage for people to post funny excerpts with links back to where they came from. All provided through the easy one click interface provided by my software. In fact I'll create the web page as a sub domain of the main software. It will be a place you can view funny excerpts from the webpages of users of the software. Ok so that idea isn't that good, but it might work. Getting the right trackback URL could be an issue though. Ehh, I'll explore that later. Almost finished with the new offerings. It is taking a little longer than expected but I should be done sometime Tuesday afternoon. I am hoping these new offerings will make these much easier for potential users. More importantly attract more users. Fuck I need to be getting paid for this stuff, it is taking a lot of time and it's not exactly free to host a website, get trademarks, SSL certs, etc.
For a second allow me to bask in my own self-assured arrogance (or toot my own horn whichever euphamism works for you). The web-based software created for distributing and administering the software is really pretty good. It really freaking is. There are a few things here and there that need to be made better but as a whole it works awesomely. Now why won't a company hire me?
Sunday February 27, 2005 - 3:06PM EDT
I discovered the software being used on a Japanese website today. It was just the demo, but interesting nonetheless. I'll have to modify the software to work with Japanese encoding and any language encoding. Shouldn't be too difficult and is a minor change. After I finish the current changes to the website I'll translate the software's web page into Japanese. It will be good to get back into Japanese heavily again, of course I'll need a little help from my Japanese friends. But once I get going it should be good.
New Direction, More Work - comments(0)
Saturday February 26, 2005 - 6:20PM EDT
I've been feverishly working on the software and website all day. Like I said earlier I have revamped the offerings and I am finishing up those additions to the website. Sometime when I think about all the impulse things done and said in relation to the software it makes me laugh. It makes me laugh because I don't care. I don't care about the etiquette or netiquette for that matter, fuck the rules they don't make sense anyway. Honestly, for me it can't really get any worse and selling my soul to THE MAN for it to get better just irks me. So I continue along in whatever way I deem worthy and if I fail it sucks ass no doubt, but if I succeed then it is all that much sweeter. Right now though, I have a gathering to attened where there will be lots of unwinding (ie: booze).
Saturday February 26, 2005 - 12:40PM EDT
I've been trying to feel out this software thing and I've been going about it rather haphazardly, I hope it doesn't bite me in the ass, ah well, devil may care is the way I do it. Over the last few days I've come up with some good ideas which will soon be reflected in the website. I don't know if I can beat larger companies with their mounds of cash, legions of programmers, marketing muscle and teams of attorneys but all it takes is one person to come up with an idea and to innovate. At least I can be on a level playing field when it comes to that. Can the little guy make it, especially when the little guy is clueless? I've revamped the software's offering structure to maximize user-friendliness and profit potential. I don't like being driven by profit I just want people to use the software and it be a cool help. But there is no way I can maintain a website for the software and continue everyday living without trying to make money somehow. I'm have huge debt.
Friday February 25, 2005 - 10:22PM EDT
Its cold outside, what else is new. It is also supposed to snow again on Monday, it just snowed yesterday. I hate this crap. I wonder what I could accomplish if I was organized and knew what I was doing (in regards to the software)?
Friday February 25, 2005 - 7:41AM EDT
It took about 8 hours, but I have my first free account sign-up. Not giving details of the sign-up as that would violate the privacy policy. Hopefully more people will signup today. I would be pleased if the software became the standard by which copycat software went by or became a verb in usage like Google, ha. How ridiculous does that last sentence sound, ha.