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Technological Evolutions I’m eagerly awaiting …

I have a love/hate relationship with technology.  Printers – it’s mostly hate.  Mobile internet – it’s a mix.  User interface cleverness – it’s mostly love.

Here’re six things I’m waiting on for technology:  (I’ll cross-out these as they develop)

  • Region-free iTunes purchasing agreements.  Ordering UK albums shouldn’t be so difficult for American consumers.  Thankfully, there’s always amazon.co.uk , where I got the Downton Abbey soundtrack.
  • Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited on the iPad.  I’m a sucker for good plot … ‘nough said.
  • Communication Arts as either a periodical or app with in-app purchases on iPad.
  • WordPress meta-support for taxonomies as there is for post types.  For the non-geeks, this isn’t a big issue.  But I’m ready for my wp_ update functions on taxonomies to include all the additional custom meta fields I add to the category user interfaces.  (I have at least 4 projects waiting on this … which means I should carve out the time and try to tackle it …)
  • Scaling bandwidth limits for Verizon Mifi mobile internet plans.  If Google can raise my total storage incrementally each day, why can’t my bandwidth limit also increase at such a rate?  (Oh wait, it’s quarterly earnings season … I know why now …)
  • Widespread 3G access across rural parts of midwest U.S. on Verizon’s network.  ”Can you hear me now?” The classic Verizon ad would now be “can you download me now?”  And in many churches I travel to across Iowa and Minnesota, the answer is “well, give me a couple of hours, and those pictures will come down …”  Having 3G as a base speed would be nice.  I realize it’ll take some bandwidth upgrades for the remote cell towers … but seriously, my grandma in Fairfield, IA has fiber internet in her home.  Pick up the pace, you pseudo-monopolistic, great company!
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On vacation

It is common today to locate one’s “true self” in one’s leisure choices.  Accordingly, good work is taken to be work that maximizes one’s means for pursuing these other activities, where life becomes meaningful.  The mortgage broker works hard all year, then he goes and climbs Mount Everest.  The exaggerated psychic content of his summer vacation sustains him through the fall, winter, and spring.  The Sherpas seem to understand their role in this drama as they discreetly facilitate his need for an unencumbered, solo confrontation with unyielding Reality.  There is a disconnect between his work life and his leisure life; in the one he accumulates money and in the other he accumulates psychic nourishment.

…

On the other hand, there are vocations that seem to offer a tighter connection between life and livelihood.  Can such coherence be traced to the nature of the work itself? …

“Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work – by Matthew B. Crawford




I’m off!

As I seem to only update this blog on vacations, I wanted to recap/foreshadow my experiences.

I just got back from officiating my cousin’s wedding in Sundance, Utah.  Not only was it scenic, but the couple (Jenny + Jake) are themselves exemplars of beauty.

Heidi and I are mid-trip for a fun week with friends in Portland, Maine. This is the second year in a row that we’ve taken this trip and it’s GREAT. While the “reds” in the tree leafs aren’t as vibrant as in the past, the friends and food are even better than we remembered (both here and on the way here …).

Here’re shots from the train:

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On Pricing

I think we’ll always be willing to pay extra for the benefits we get from getting something first, getting it curated or getting it customized. But for most of what gets purchased in pop culture, none of those three are at work.  - Seth Godin

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So about Santa Fe …

If you didn’t know, Arizona is pretty much on fire.

The week we were in Santa Fe wasn’t “horrible,” but it wasn’t the normal scenic lusciousness either. The crystal-clear mountains were murky. The air was cough-able.

Here’re the pictures from the first day of our trip:



Heidi and I didn’t realize how much the smoke was affecting us until we left. Then we found out George and April + family decided to leave after we did because of the air conditions. They went on an impromptu vacation to visit family out of state. Hopefully the weather was better there!





Here’s their family:

I convinced this antelope buck to leave the tree sprouts alone — with my bare hands!

Santa Fe is known for its chiles. (Red, Green, or Christmas). Spread over their enchiladas, I preferred Green — but I think that’s just because those were the specialty for the restaurants Heidi and I went to.





And “The French Pastry Shop and Creperie” in downtown Santa Fe was incredible. It made me miss the Medici Bakery in Hyde Park. Anyone who loves high-quality croissants or crepes should make this a priority.





As much as you can “have a blast” at ancient ruins, we really enjoyed Bandelier, Pecos and Chimayo.




Here’s Heidi and I at Bandelier — mid-day in full sunlight made my external flash essential!




And in perhaps the craziest sighting: at the Shiboni art center, I found a bronze Horned Frog. Made this TCU Alum proud:

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Santa Fe Magic

Heidi and I stayed with friends for a week of vacation in Santa Fe, NM.

’twas awesome!

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Natural Iconoclasm

This is definitely unfortunate (and yet, still funny!), but mother nature took a brand too literally during the last blizzard. Target’s sign never stood a chance …

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Bible Taxonomy – AJAX / WP Integration

Note: This post is series explaining how I created the new Bible Taxonomy tool as seen on DiscipleShare. To see it in action, or to find great, free curriculum to use in churches, visit: http://www.discipleshare.net/

So how does the user input get saved dynamically to the database? It already happens in a similar way with post tags. Users enter them on the fly and they’re processed and the user interface is updated without needing a postback or page refresh.

The hard part was figuring how to tap into the existing AJAX / PHP functions from my child theme. After some deep, deep digging, I found the interactions in the WordPress core.

Click to continue

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Bible Taxonomy – Parsing Input

Note: This post is series explaining how I created the new Bible Taxonomy tool as seen on DiscipleShare. To see it in action, or to find great, free curriculum to use in churches, visit: http://www.discipleshare.net/

Here’s a confession: this part of the plugin is only half-baked. It’s a work in progress.

Users can select Books, Chapters, Verses using the Javascript tool. But what about quick entries? Surely a good user interface maximizes keystrokes and minimizes mouse clicks, right?

Well, I tried. The issue is how many permutations of entry types I’d have to deal with — let alone the abbreviations and commonplace names of books that I’d need to check for.

For instance, how many ways can you cite a scripture reference?

  • B
  • B C
  • B C:V
  • B C-C
  • B C:V-V
  • B C:V, V
  • B C:V – C:V
  • B C:V – B C:V
    B = Book, C = Chapter, V = Verse. And this obviously doesn’t account for other styles of notation (such as using a period (.) instead of a semi-colon (:) ).

    Click to continue

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Bible Taxonomy – User Interface Look

Note: This post is series explaining how I created the new Bible Taxonomy tool as seen on DiscipleShare. To see it in action, or to find great, free curriculum to use in churches, visit: http://www.discipleshare.net/

The Bible’s BIG. 32341 elements in the XML file, to be exact.

The WordPress custom metabox spaces are pretty small. I started out wanting to put this in the side panel on the Admin screen. How do I fit that many elements into a 300px width and not have the page go miles and miles deep?

Javascript was the easy solution — but not so-easy was figuring out what UI tools I could use within the JS. I started with tables, bot those became clunky and inconsisted very quickly. Plus, they broke horribly. I wanted it so that if the user shrunk their window < 800px wide then they'd still be able to have the tool degrade gracefully (and maybe even still work). Tables were shooting off the edges and messing up the spacing.

Fluid web design != tables; and in this case, it didn't even = div tags. I did it with unordered lists (ul) and list-items (li) carefully controlled by the CSS.

Click to continue

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Bible Taxonomy – User Interface Data

Note: This post is series explaining how I created the new Bible Taxonomy tool as seen on DiscipleShare. To see it in action, or to find great, free curriculum to use in churches, visit: http://www.discipleshare.net/

So the CSS was the eas(ier) part. Then came the Javascript. It had to be snappy and non-clunky.

I started out trying to parse the XML with my own logic. Not a good idea. I used the JQuery framework to get it working. Here’s the resulting JS code snippets with commentary:

Click to continue

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