I’ve been asked why I send my kid to a Waldorf school, and I didn’t have a quick answer so I thought I’d collect my thoughts on why a Waldorf education is the way to go. This is by no means comprehensive, so do your own research.
I think it’s not a question of ‘why Waldorf’ but rather a question of ‘why not the public schooling system’.
To start, here are few videos by Ken Robinson explain this quite well (much better then I could explain):
Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms | Video on TED.com Read more…
UPDATE: Work has indeed started on the (near) IR version of this tool. Details on the AF Assistant IR 1.0 (in early development stages) can be found here.
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Right from the get go, i wasn’t the happiest with the v3.0 design (see v3.0 link for details of why I built this, and previous version history) of the AF assistant. The main concern i had with it was the sloppiness of the case, and the extra cables that were required (which some of you commented about on the hack-a-day post).
So I did some searching around at local electronics shops and came across a small case that has a battery compartment for one AA battery. Digikey also sells a version of the case in black, which I will grab for the next upgrade. Much sleeker then cream colored on a black camera, though more expensive then the $0.25 I paid for the cream colored cases.
About the same time, i received an order from DealExtreme for some line lasers i had ordered some time ago. So I put together a circuit based on the v3.0 design (plugs in the side of the camera in the remote trigger port) and i have added a dc-dc boost voltage regulator that takes any voltage (0.7volts and higher) and turns it into a constant 3.3volts (based on suggestions from the hack-a-day post comments). This is perfect since that means that regardless of what battery i use, (1.5v alkaline or 1.2v NiMH rechargeable battery) i can get a constant voltage to drive the line laser. Read more…
Deciding how to manage my photography blog/gallery is not easy, however I think I may have found a theme that will do it all.
The theme is Portfolium by WPShower. The theme provides a capability to add and manage a portfolio set of pages. This is independent of Posts and Pages.
The setup I will use is:
- Main landing page is the blog page. Each blog entry will contain a group of photos from an event, which will then be assigned to categories and tagged. There will be one drop-down menu for the category structure.
All the images on the blog will be managed by NextGen gallery.
- There will be the customary About and Contact pages listed on the top menu.
- The portfolio part of the site (which is integrated into the theme) will be handled by the theme. Apparently the Portfolio pages are nothing more then a different “type” of posts, so changing themes doesn’t destroy them. Once switched back to Porfolium, everything is back.
I love it when things are simple.
To install IonCube loading in cPanel, run the following as root:
# /scripts/phpextensionmgr install IonCubeLoader
You can then check if ionCube was installed by running:
# php -v
Frederick Forsyth – The Shepherd
Talked with a friend about re-starting my old podcast, and he recommended I start an online magazine… Never ever thought of doing that, but I like his idea. We had a great chat, and got some good info. Posted with his permission:
Today
7:45pm
you around?
7:46pm
yup
how's the new digs?
7:47pm
No new digs yet. Still in Etobicoke. moving this friday. 
:)
7:47pm
oh hehehe
7:48pm
I wanted to ask you where you buy your music from? Do you buy CDs or do you get it all online/downloads (mp3 or other format)
7:48pm
I buy from a number of different locations
7:48pm
I also get a TON of stuff for free from labels
cause they want me to play their stuff
thankfully, that's mostly digital these days... that's helped stem the flow of the boxes of albums in the closet hahaha
itunes is good sometimes
I also buy a lot of stuff from COP because they're really cheap for DJ's
and Artoffact/Storming the Base because they're local to toronto
7:51pm
Ok. What about finding what's new? Is there a definitive source of what albums have just been released in the scene?
7:51pm
yup
it's called ISN Radio :)
7:52pm
haha haa.... But you don't cover all the subgenres.
7:53pm
nope
there's no good source though, unfortunately
we're down to a very small percentage of coverage from what we used to be 10 years ago
and the number of musicians has skyrocketed
I spend a huge portion of every week tracking down new stuff
7:54pm
gotcha...
I'm asking since I've decided to re-boot my old podcast once I move to londo.
And I'll need to get on the bandwagon and start the music collection again.
7:55pm
if you'd like my advice, you'd be better off doing a magazine
for one thing, no competition lol
like literally, none
secondly, it'd tie in well with your photography
7:56pm
Like Regen magazine?
7:56pm
yeah but they've lost their edge
7:57pm
true, true
hell, even if you were just to compile a list of every new album coming out, that would be huge
7:57pm
What do you mean by regen magazine 'lost their edge'?
7:57pm
as I said, the number of resources out there now has totally dwindled
oh
well, no one there really cares anymore
the editor left last year and didn't pass anything on to anyone
so that destroyed morale
Razorgrrl is barely tied to regen anymore... she has to cover the costs for the show herself
7:59pm
hmmm. I do value your advice. I never thought about doing a magazine, but the more I think about it... I am liking it.
And like you said... start with just a comilation of new material being released (I may ask for some help from you on that at first)
8:00pm
no problem there at all
the important thing is always starting slowly, managably
don't bite off more than you can chew
8:01pm
yup
8:01pm
there is no end of things that can be done
8:01pm
I agree
8:01pm
I've seen too many people with huge aspirations get burned out
8:01pm
That's good advice.
8:02pm
if you can start with a task, then find a way of automating it, then you'll be even more effective
I automate a lot of isnradio.com
otherwise, I'd never have time to even think about doing a lot of that stuff
8:04pm
Well you certanly have given me WAY more to think about then what I initially wanted to chat with you about (music sources)
lol
8:05pm
hahah
well if you compile recently released albums, you'll still need to know music sources
8:06pm
true
but I can look at automating that. Write some scraper scripts to look at a few sites and return anything in genres of interest.
anyway, start small.
8:07pm
yup
discogs.com is a great resource
8:08pm
it gets updated regulatly?
8:08pm
yeah
it's like a wikipedia of albums
all user submitted
8:08pm
I know of it. Only used a handful of times.
8:08pm
I use it every week
lots of tasty info
AND I believe there are already scrapers for it
8:09pm
brilliant!
8:09pm
very :)
