Eric’s Journal

I’m putting the finishing touches on my minor redesign of the Eckstein web site. Some of the new features include:

* Revisions to color scheme so navigation links are not a on blue background.
* Removed the boxpunch to allow for more white space in the main content area.
* Reworked to header image to improve image quality.
* Added a style switcher with a high contrast/large font view (see bottom of left menu”). The style switcher is written in unobtrusive javascript.

Overall, I’m quite happy that this looks much cleaner, but the most important finishing touch is the link I just added to make a donation to the Red Cross Hurrican Katrina reflief fund. I’ll leave it up for a few weeks.

Filed by Eric at 11:47 pm under Web Design
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I saw this on some other blog a few months ago. Most readers thought it was faked. So did I until it happened to me. This came up while trying to watch a video of Hurricane Katrina on the BBC new web site. I don’t image the BBC was trying to do anything malicious to my computer. I never did get the video to load.

Filed by Eric at 8:07 pm under Technology
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Last night I went to see the 1995 classic Hackers at Movies of Mass Destruction at the Re-Bar. While it was a fine movie for its time, the do-it-yourself sensibilities of the new millennium call for a sequel. I present my movie pitch for Modders.

A couple of geeks are sitting around an Alienware pc playing Big Car Heist, the latest rpg from Punkster Games. One of them, Tim Wade, a.k.a. Pop-I, wonders if there are any hidden games to be unlocked. Mike Bradford, a.k.a Vitamin Be, discovers a hack that enables them to unlock a secret sex mini-game hidden in the code. They decide to publish their mod under the name “Soy macchiato” on the net. That’s when their troubles begin. Parents of young children across the country are outraged that their kids could access graphic sex on an “M” rated game, so they write angry letters to Punkster Games. Punkster agrees to change the rating to “X”, but the C.E.O., Peter Gaston, a.ka. Blue Crush, decides to get revenge. He invests some of his millions of dollars earned from pre-teen sales of Big Car Heist to pay off the F.B.I. to spy on Pop-I and Vitamin Be. Since Pop-I’s wireless network has an easily guessable password, the F.B.I. are able to monitor their web surfing habits. Pop-I is arrested for publishing a mod for Robotron and Vitamin Be escapes to work at a technical support desk in India. Also, all of the characters ride around on Segways and a climatic scene will involve the phrase “mod the planet.”

Angelina Jolie is rumored to be “interested,” but could not be reached for comment.

Filed by Eric at 10:54 pm under Arts and Entertainment, Technology
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I just set up blogger mobile at purelyspeculative, one of this site’s siblings. Blogger mobile allows you to publish photos to a blog from a camera phone by sending them to g0@blogger.com. Easy to do, but typing the entry into the keypad is a chore. Check out a photo of my dog Max.

Filed by Eric at 10:30 pm under Web Design
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