Yearly Archives: 2007

I have a tool I wrote called MuseSig that appends random quotes to my email signature. I saw one today that I particularly like: Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety. Nor, are they likely to end up with […]

A favorite quote from Benjamin Franklin

Thu February 22, 2007 in General / Politics / Writing tagged ximba (updated 6642 days ago)

I’ve been doing a lot of web site development lately, all of it based on using WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System). I’ve found that V2.0 of WordPress makes an excellent CMS if you just dig around for the right set of plugins to go with it. Lately, I’ve […]

WordPress Plugins: Advanced Menus, Counterize, Simple Forum, Popup Image ...

Tue February 06, 2007 in Wordpress tagged GIMP / java / Lost / Wordpress (updated 6659 days ago)

I read a Slashdot post today that pointed to an AP article on Michael Dell returning as CEO at Dell, replacing his previously hand-picked crony Kevin Rollins due to lots of downside to the Dell business. The article had this interesting quip: …in recent years Dell has been stung by […]

Dell and Linux (or Unix): Microsoft still pulls the strings

Thu February 01, 2007 in General / Linux / Via Motherboards tagged dell / Linux (updated 6319 days ago)

This year’s Libre Graphics Meeting is taking shape, with a temporary website posted. The official domain is being readied and the web site will be transferred there later. The LGM is a conference for artists and developers who work with open source graphics tools such as the GIMP, Inkscape and […]

LGM 2007: Libre Graphics Meeting, Montreal

Sun January 28, 2007 in Art and Graphics / GIMP / Linux / Open Source / Software Development tagged GIMP / graphics / Open Source (updated 6667 days ago)

I just installed the official FlashPlayer9 from Macromedia on my FC5 box at work. I then went to the Lost and Battestar Galactica sites, two sites that previously would not work correctly with the FlashPlayer9 beta releases. Well, they work flawlessly now. Kudos to the Adobe team for getting it […]

Flash Player 9: Official release (and it really works ...

Wed January 17, 2007 in Linux / Lost / Video tagged Linux / Lost / Open Source (updated 6663 days ago)

I’ve been playing around with Wink to create Flash-based tutorials on the GIMP. My goal is to put some of these tutorials on my upcoming book’s companion web site. I created my first tutorial, mostly as a proof of concept for myself. It shows how you can make basic shapes. […]

Experimenting with Wink: Flash tutorials for GIMP

Wed January 17, 2007 in Art and Graphics / Education / GIMP / Linux tagged GIMP / graphics (updated 6679 days ago)

I’m taking some of those self-study courses at MIT, including the Introduction to Copyright Law and Computer Graphics. I was going to take the Circuits and Electronics course but a recent Slashdot inquiry got me pointed to some other useful material I may read through first. I have the links […]

Learning circuit design

Mon January 15, 2007 in Hardware tagged graphics (updated 3157 days ago)

I just did an update on my FC5 boxes and found that FC5 Extras will update Xine in a way that removes functionality that was there previously. This includes the ability to play DVDs. I’m not sure the reasoning, though I think it has something to do with removing "non-free" […]

FC5 extras/ FC6: update to Xine removes support for ...

Fri January 12, 2007 in Linux / Open Source / Video tagged Fedora / livna / rpm / yum (updated 6672 days ago)

This is pretty cool. I just saw on Slashdot about MIT’s Introduction to Copyright Law course, which is free and part of the Open CourseWare Consortium. This is an interesting idea, offering college level courses for free over the Internet. What’s even more inviting is that universities like MIT, Notre […]

Open CourseWare Consortium: diverse education, FOSS-style

Fri January 05, 2007 in Art and Graphics / Education / Open Source tagged Education / graphics

Take a little, give a little. I’ve been working on a Java/JBOSS project for the past 6 months and part of that includes working with the Java Native Interface. One of the things I have to do, practically at gunpoint, is to make sure our Java clients run on Windows […]

Java / JNI

Fri January 05, 2007 in JNI / Software Development tagged graphics / java / jni / Linux

I finally got some time to put up galleries of the Dept56 dioramas we built this year. Each year gets a bit more involved. This year I spent extra effort building home made lighting out of parts from Radio Shack. I’ve got galleries of the Dickens Village and the North […]

2006 Dept56 galleries online

Tue January 02, 2007 in General / Holiday lighting tagged dept56 / dickens / graphics / north pole

Michael J. Hammel

Building a better today…because tomorrow is in question…