Chris Ullrich dot net - Page 26 of 92 -

Blogging from the iPad (Again)

Posted on July 10, 2012

This post will test my ability to post something from the iPad using Google Chrome. So far, so good. I can open a draft in Chrome and the UI looks pretty much as it does on my Mac. Let’s see if I can include a picture. (Sound of gears grinding).

Well, posting from within Chrome, and including a picture, is a bit of a pain. Would it be so hard to have a way to insert pictures from the photo library on the iPad? And no, there’s no way to cut and paste, at least not that I’ve found. Not into a Chrome window at least.

I guess Apple doesn’t like that idea. They probably don’t want a “full” file system in iOS. That’s what Mac OS X and Macs are for.

Anyway, on to other methods like Blogsy. I’ve tried this tool before with some success. I haven’t tried the latest version yet, so here goes.

After getting all my info set up in Blogsy I was able to get a picture from the photo library on the iPad uploaded to this site and inserted into this post. It’s the dragon pic above. Scary, right?

So far, it looks like Blogsy is the winner. The UI is a bit confusing and has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy to use. Not as easy as using Chrome on Mac OS X, but it may just be good enough for my purposes.

That is, unless I’m in a hurry to post something. Then, we may have a problem as thre steps are a bit time consuming. This is especially so if you’re looking for an image online to use in a post. You need to find it, save it to the photo library and if editing or resizing is necessary, use yet another iOS app to do the resize and crop, then bring it back into Blogsy to upload to your site for the post.

The resize/crop app I’m using at the moment is iResize, which seems to do the job pretty well. I guess you could always resize an image once you get it uploaded to your site but that’s not really the best way to go about it. Plus, cropping is out of the question if you do that. So, an additional resize/crop app seems like a must.

So, for the moment, it looks like Blogsy is the winner. I’m going to look into some other apps and workflows to see if I can improve my time to post and ease of use. Still, for normal blogging this setup works pretty well.

 

Standing Room Only

Posted on July 7, 2012

If you don’t follow me on the Twitter or Facebook or Google+ (if you don’t, why not?) you might not know I’ve been having some back problems of late. In short, it sucks. My back seems determined to thwart me at every turn.

Sitting and working for long periods is especially painful. Good thing I don’t sit and work for long periods. . . Oh, crap, I do. Well, so much for that.

To help alleviate the problem I have started standing to work and am, in fact, standing as I write this. It’s not so bad. The only downside so far is that my kitchen counter is pretty much the only place I can do this and it’s about a half foot too low.

At least I’m closer to the coffee.

My plan for the near future is to try and stand more often and just move more in general. If you believe all the latest research, sitting too much is killing us. I don’t know if it’s really killing us (probably), but it does seem to be killing my back.

In case you don’t know how bad sitting is, here’s a handy infographic from the folks at Medical Billing and Coding dot Org to give you a clue.

Things Are Different . . . But Also the Same

Posted on June 30, 2012

Some of you may have noticed, at least those of you who are paying attention, that the name of this site has changed. Well, if you came here looking for chrisword.com, then you’ve come to the right place.

I’ve taken the liberty of consolidating some of my websites to make things easier on, well, mostly me. However, it may make things easier on you too, I can’t be sure.

So, from now on if you type in chrisword.com you will end up here at chrisullrich.net. I think that has a better fell to it and I’m going to make chrisullrich.net my complete home on the interwebs.

I hope the change wasn’t too hard on all of you and I hope those of you reading this via RSS won’t get too confused. To summarize, chrisword.com is no more (except to redicrect you here).

All of my personal stuff will be here at chrisullrich.net. I hope that clears it up and I hope to see you around here often.

Fun With Trailers

Posted on June 19, 2012

It’s no secret I like movies. In fact, you could even say I love them. Although, that’s a bit weird. They’re just things after all, not people (or dogs) or anything so how can I really love them?

I don’t know, that’s a question for the scientests or philosophers among you. I just know I love them and that’s all I have to know. Anyway, I’m looking forward to a bunch of movies coming out this Summer and fortunately for me (and by extension you) they have trailers.

So, in the interest of full disclosure, here’s some trailers for movies I’m looking forward to seeing this Summer. Or, in some cases, have already seen and/or enjoyed/hated/was indifferent to.

Yep, there’s a lot of ’em.

Django Unchained

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC8VJ9aeB_g?rel=0&w=500&h=343]

The Dark Knight Rises

The Great Gatsby

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARN6agiW7o?rel=0&w=500&h=343]

The Bourne Legacy

[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/hJh3gvmBJAA?p=1 width=”500″ height=”343″]

Looper

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCNKahG1ksg?rel=0&w=500&h=343]

Prometheus

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1byZkbNB3Jw?rel=0&w=500&h=343]

Cosmopolis

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1bv6baU1aY?rel=0&w=500&h=343]

Skyfall

[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/hJh3gvfnegA?p=1 width=”500″ height=”343″]

Savages

I’m sure there’s more, but for the moment, that’s enough. See anything you like?

35 Years Ago Today . . . In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Posted on May 25, 2012

star-wars-obi-wan-darth-vader1

On this day in 1977, before it was known as ‘Episode IV’, a little movie called Star Wars made its debut and changed the way things worked in Hollywood for all time. It also had a very significant impact on a young boy named Chris who learned an important lesson that day: there’s no limit to what you can imagine.

Happy 35 Star Wars.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gvqpFbRKtQ?rel=0&w=480&h=360]

From the ‘Want’ Department: The Sonos SUB

Posted on May 22, 2012

I may have mentioned I’m a big fan of Sonos and their products. I use a Play 5 every day and it’s an awesome way to listen to music from your personal music collection, Pandora or Spotify. Plus, like my Macs, it “just works.”

Now Sonos has a new piece of shiny I want: the SUB. Check out this video of the SUB in action and tell me you don’t want one too. And no, that’s not CG.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2KP2KUAE1I?rel=0&w=525&h=295]

‘Lazy Sunday 2’

Posted on May 20, 2012

The sequel to the great SNL Digital Short Lazy Sunday arrived last night and it did not disappoint. Watch. Enjoy.

Stuff I Find

Posted on April 19, 2012

I have not been as good about putting things up at this blog as I intended to be. I know, enough with the excuses. It’s just, well, you know. . .  a pain in the ass to find things I deem worthwhile to post here.

I tend to over analyze what I’m going to say here or post here, which is sorta dumb considering its my blog and I do what I want. It should just be enough that I manage to put up something.

I suppose I could just put up any old thing I find lying around the Internets. That might work. Let’s give it a shot, shall we?

To start us off, here’s a video of Aziz Ansari saying funny things.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzp1XlHiJWA?rel=0&w=500&h=281]

As always, no need to thank me.

Weekend Rage Update

Posted on April 6, 2012

Even on my best days, I’m not able to give all I used to be able to give. These days I’m lucky if I can get three or four good hours of work before my brain starts to wonder off and take a stroll.

I guess that’s just one of the things that comes from getting older. You can’t do all the things you used to do plus, even if you could, you wouldn’t be able to enjoy them as long. Sucks.

They say with age comes wisdom. That’s probably true, But I would trade a bit of wisdom for a full day or two of solid work and the ability to sit for long periods of time without my back starting to feel like a tiny man is sticking a knife in it and twisting. I don’t want much, really.

I also don’t want this to sound like I’m complaining too much. I’m really not. There are a lot of positive things happening in my life. Still, thinking about it more, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to age gracefully.

I think I’m going to have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into that good night. Rage? You betcha. Against lots of things, machines included.

But I think that’s good sometimes. It helps keep you alive to be still fighting the good fight.

Okay, that’s done for now. If you celebrate Easter, have a happy one.

If not, enjoy one of the greatest inventions ever devised: the weekend.

See you on the other side.