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Brad Pineau
The bloggerman.
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Posted by Brad Pineau on August 16th, 2003 at 5:36 pm AST [4883 views]
Welcome to Bloggerman.
Bloggerman is my first attempt at weblogging. After being an avid reader of some fantastic weblogs (Acts of Volition, CEOBlues, New Recruit, Reinvented, and many others)... it was only natural for me to start my own.
Working at silverorange, I had the option of using the silverorange weblog platform. However, I wanted to use a weblogging platform that could be open source (didn't depend on the silverorange proprietary codebase), and most importantly, could run on a MySQL database, which is the standard database supported by webhosting companies.
Being a programmer at heart, I decided to build my own weblogging platform. Bloggerman is the first weblog to use this platform, and perhaps not the last. I have several friends who have expressed an interest in starting a weblog.
While building this weblog platform, I kept many of the Ultimate Weblogging System features (posted on Acts of Volition) in mind. Things like clean and search engine friendly URLs, article archives, article categorization, and article management were very important to me. There are still a few features I plan to add in the very near future, such as pinging Weblogs.com, accepting article entries thru email or messasing systems, a more customizable website layout, and several article management features. However, such things aren't required for a weblog, so I figured I could launch Bloggerman without them.
Designing the layout of the Bloggerman weblog platform proved to be very tedious. I wanted to build a platform that was original and of my own design, however much of the layout and many of the features began looking very similar to other weblogging platforms. Especially the silverorange weblog platform. There was really no getting around this, as that platform has a flawless design, and as they say, great minds think alike. My first website design ended up looking very similar to CEOBlues. It had a blue theme with a grey sidebar. I finally ended up with the current design, which I'm fairly happy with. (My heart was originally set on blue).
The name "Bloggerman" was not chosen until the day I sat down to register a domain name. Sadly enough, the choice of weblog name depended on what domain names were still available. I am a huge superhero fan (Superman, Spiderman, etc), so I eventually had an idea of naming my weblog after a superhero. To my surprise, bloggerman.com was still available.
So that's a little background behind Bloggerman. Thanks for reading my first post. I tried to break it up into paragraphs to make it more palatable. I look forward to having countless discussions with everyone.
Posted by Brad Pineau on August 26th, 2003 at 1:39 am AST [13318 views]
I gave the Bloggerman Weblog a face lift today (again). It now has a new blue & grey color scheme.
I just wasn't happy with the green, so I decided to go with my orignal design, the one you see now. I may eventually go for a tableless page layout, but I probably won't be changing the colors again.
Posted by Brad Pineau on September 24th, 2003 at 10:49 pm AST [6309 views]
silverorange, the web development company I work for, has been awarded an honorable mention in the Nielsen Norman Group's The Intranet Design Annual 2003: Ten Best Intranets of the Year, for its outstanding Intranet software.silverorange had previously placed on this top ten list in 2001 with an earlier version of the silverorange Intranet.
You can read about the news release on the Nielsen Norman Group's site.
You can read about the news release on the silverorange site.
You can also see a live demo of our Intranet on our silverorange site.
Posted by Brad Pineau on September 28th, 2003 at 4:16 am AST [4592 views]
Saturday at 2:55pm, Bloggerman recieved its 10,000th hit!
It was a Bloglines subscriber, checking the RSS feed... so I have no idea who it is.. as the IP address is the Bloglines IP. If you think this may be you, let me know - you may win a special prize!
Posted by Brad Pineau on September 28th, 2003 at 5:43 am AST [9095 views]
The Bloggerman Store is open for business.
If I ever see anyone wearing a bloggerman hoody around town, I'll buy you lunch! =)
Posted by Brad Pineau on October 6th, 2003 at 1:52 pm AST [10207 views]
Radical Entertainment, the Vancouver based developer of games such as The Hulk, Dark Angel, and Simpsons Road Rage, is now looking to fill more than a dozen game developer positions.Radical is going all out in search for the best employees... they are offering incentives suchs as seasons tickets to hockey games for the Vancouver Canucks, a fully equipped gym, a kitchen stocked with free food, passes to local ski slopes, and a "competitive relocation package".
Posted by Brad Pineau on September 28th, 2003 at 9:59 pm AST [8858 views]
The Bloggerman Weblog is now running a new version of the Bloggerman Weblog Platform. Over the past month, I've been doing upgrades and various feature additions to a secret experimental test weblog. Today, I synced over the changes to bloggerman, and as you can see... it was a flawless upgrade. I had about 30 seconds of downtime, as the files copied over.
Most of the features added/upgraded are things that users will never see... the items that top the list are:
- Cleaner HTML and CSS.
- Dynamic Blogroll section on front page, (changable thru the admin).
- More features when adding articles, such an uploading an image directly. No need for FTP anymore.
- Double post paradox fixed - clicking refresh after posting a reply will not post the reply again.
- A new admin look, very simple and clean layout..
- All weblog text customizable in one place - admin user can change all text across the weblog inside one constants file (soon to be moved to the database). This means upgrading a weblog is much easier - as the constants file is the only file that differs from site to site.
- All weblog layout and colors are from a CSS file.. this means changing the look of a weblog only requires changing the styles.css file.
There was also a lot of other little changes not worth mentioning. But all in all, I am very pleased with the evolution of the weblog platform. It is now very easy to create a new weblog - the process only takes a minute... and all weblog customization takes place in the constants.php and styles.css files. The main reason I worked for this is because I have several friends, including my girlfriend, who have expressed interest in getting their own weblog. By all means, if you would like to put up a weblog using the Bloggerman Weblog platform, don't hesitate to ask.
Posted by Brad Pineau on October 30th, 2003 at 1:36 am AST [6645 views]
According to this article, Physicist John Cramer of the University of Washington in Seattle has created a WAV file depicting what he beleives the Big Bang sounded like. He was prompted to carry out the research after an 11-year-old boy wanted to know what the Big Bang sounded like for a school project.
It's news like this that really makes you wonder if scientists really know what they're talking about. I'm sure they have research and evidence to support their theories... but who's going to challenge them?
Posted by Brad Pineau on November 1st, 2003 at 10:27 pm AST [12619 views]
Test locations that are selling movies on ez-D formats are reporting that the ez-D concept is about as disposible as the ez-D product. It turns out that sales of the ez-D are turning out to be unbelievably low. Wow... what a surprise... I didn't see this coming...
The ez-D is a DVD disc that you buy for $6 USD, watch it, and 48 hours later the readable side turns black and unreadable. The idea came from Flexplay, and was financially backed by Disney.
A DVD disc that you throw out? Why would anyone buy this? Why not go rent a DVD for cheaper... or spend a little more and buy a real DVD and own it forever?
On June 4th of this year, Michael Eisner (CEO of Disney) said that the disposable DVD project is an idea that "probably won't work". What I don't understand, is if he didn't think it would work, why would he invest millions and millions of dollars in an idea that he knew would flop regardless?
Posted by Brad Pineau on November 4th, 2003 at 1:15 am AST [1688 views]
Ron pointed out to me today that Napster is back and kicking. They've changed from the old file sharing network they used to be... now they're offering a new pay for music service.Here's a quick blurb from their website:
Napster is the world’s most recognized brand in online music. Napster has extensive content agreements with the five major record labels, as well as hundreds of independents. Napster delivers access to the largest catalog of online music, with more than 500,000 tracks spanning all genres from Eminem to Miles Davis.
Posted by Brad Pineau on December 3rd, 2003 at 4:54 pm AST [2825 views]
I heard about this story yesterday, and I didn't believe it. So I did a quick search on Google News, and sure enough - it's true.In 2001, a German computer scientist named Armin Meiwes advertised on the Internet that he was looking for a willing victim to kill and eat. Amazing, an engineer named Bernd Juergen answered the ad.
The two met at Meiwes' house, and taped the whole event.
Meiwes started by cutting off Juergen's private parts and eating them, then he slowly stabbed Juergen to death, ate 20 kilograms of his flesh, stored some in the freezer, and then barried the bones in the backyard.
A year later, in 2002, Meiwes ran another ad on the Internet... but this time, the authorities spotted it, searched Meiwe's home, and found the body in the backyard garden.
Meiwes is now standing on trail for murder. His lawyer is trying to get Meiwes off on a "killing on request" conviction, which would only be 5 years instead of a life sentance.
Posted by Brad Pineau on February 14th, 2004 at 5:35 pm AST [64863 views]
It's been a while since I made a post.... so I figured I'd get back into it with a bang...This Valentines Day is a special one... I asked my "Junior-High Sweetheart", Zoe, to marry me... and of course she said YES. =) Here's a picture of the ring on the right. Sorry that my camera doesn't take nice close-ups... I'm going to try and find a better picture of it.
There are several reasons why I choose to propose on Feb. 14.
- First, and most obvious... it's Valentine's day!
- Second, there's a deeper meaning to the date. Thirty years ago to the day, my father asked my mother to marry him. And my brother says when it comes time for him to ask the big question, he's going to do it on Valentines day.
- Third, I wanted to do it very soon... because as it stands right now, both Zoe's sister and mother are engaged, so it would be pretty neat for Zoe to be engaged too. Now, if her other older sister got engaged (which would be very possible) it would be pretty cool.
- Fourth, I wanted to buy the ring now because I had the money for it. And having the ring in my possesion... I couldn't NOT propose...
Posted by Brad Pineau on March 2nd, 2004 at 11:09 pm AST [2143 views]
Ever since I first played Axis & Allies, I've been addicted to the damn thing - I can't stop thinking about it... strategizing new plans of attacks, analyzing what I did wrong last game, etc etc...Well it turns out they will be releasing a new revision of Axis & Allies. This will be the first revision of the game in like 18 years. The news is making a lot of Axis & Allies fans excited, including myself and my co-workers.
This set of articles about the new game summerize all the new rules and changes. My favourite updates are the fact that subs can shoot at aircrafts, fighters can be build on aircraft carriers... and they have all new realistic looking peices... (the German tank is huge compared to the Japan tank). And best of all... the game will be affordable... around the $44USD mark.
Posted by Brad Pineau on March 8th, 2004 at 1:06 am AST [38440 views]
According to this article, there is plans for J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit (a prequel to Lord of the Rings) to be made into a movie.
After the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I think is this a wise decision. Peter Jackon is all set to go ahead with it, and plans to make it have the same look and feel of the Lord of the Rings. This is great news to fans and non-fans alike. All I can say is woot woot!
One question I have for this movie... in the LOTR series... remember when Frodo had the ring on... how reality was all distorted? Well, how are they going to represent reality when Bilbo wears the ring? After all, he wears the ring quite a bit in the book.
Posted by Brad Pineau on March 20th, 2004 at 4:43 am AST [4565 views]
It's been a couple of months since the launch of Petition Spot, and I'm happy to say that it's becoming a successful site. Petition Spot currently has 189 members, 175 petitions posted, and a total of 15,000 signatures.
I'm also happy to say that I'm about to rollout the next set of Petition Spot updates. These new updates will include new management tools for petition creators, and a tool that will verify petition signatures by email. I've had lots of feedback on the site, and the biggest concern is people signing petitions with fake email addresses, and these email addresses make the petition seem less professional. (petition creators don't like this!)
The new updates should be online within the next few weeks. So rememeber, if you need to create an online petition, head on over to Petition Spot! (it's free!)
Posted by Brad Pineau on March 22nd, 2004 at 6:42 pm AST [4739 views]
You may have noticed that this weblog now has quite a large "Ads by Google" advertisement along the left. I was never really a huge fan of these ads, but I wanted to try it out for a month, to see what kind of extra revenue I can bring it. (I also have the ads running at Petition Spot)
You see, I'm going to have to upgrade my hosting plan (I went over my 10 gig limit last month), which will essentially double the costs of running all my sites, so I thought I'd see if Google Adsense could help me out.
So, if you want to help a fellow weblogger pay some bills, try checking out some of the ads. =D
After a couple of weeks, I'm going to write a post of my thoughts of Google Adsense... so stay tunned. =)
Posted by Brad Pineau on March 29th, 2004 at 9:39 pm AST [5806 views]
You may have noticed that Google got a new look.
My first impressions... I don't like it. Could be because I was so used to the old look, could be because it's not as nice a layout... I'm not sure why. I was just so used to the old look... I wonder why they changed it. I don't notice any obvious features that make it better.
My one concern is that the logo seems pretty constrained up in the top there. It doesn't leave much room to change for special logos (Ie, holiday logos). I really enjoyed those special logos. =)
Posted by Brad Pineau on April 7th, 2004 at 8:13 pm AST [4767 views]
My fiance, Zoe, has joined the world of bloggers, with her brand new (pink) weblog, BloggerChick.Head on over and check it out... she'll have some interesting stories to tell.
Posted by Brad Pineau on July 25th, 2004 at 7:11 pm AST [26700 views]
It's offical, the title for the third installment of Star Wars is Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
When will you get to see it? May 19, 2005. Mark your calendars!