December 25, 2006
Agent Triple X-Mas
Happy Happy Joy Joy, the big C is technically 50% past, all that's left now are the afternoons with family, incredibly large meals, laying around lethargically and waking up to engage in Boxing Day shopping madness.
I will admit that even though I have left behind most of the childhood trappings of Christmas, I still somewhat enjoy imagining this day as special in someway. For all the stress and consumer madness, at least some families get to enjoy some time together and perhaps tap into the often sought "true spirit" of the holiday seasons.
Catching up on the story of the fine Byzantine necklace I posted about a few days ago, the trade went down, so somehow, in the oddest set of circumstances, I managed to snag "the must have" x-mas present of 2007 for myself; the Nintendo Wii.
Which is actually quite hilarious, as I couldn't care less, in fact, if anything, being an early adopter of technology is actually quite taboo in my little universe. I mean, there's hardly any software available for the Wii, it hasn't been out long enough to know if there are any substantial problems, heck, I've even heard reports that there's going to be an upgraded model in 2007.
Yet, here I am with a chunk of very modern technology, I mean, the axis sensors in the Wiimote are micron-sized machines and while not loaded with the most modern processors, it sure is a nicely compact little bundle of gamin goodness.
Continue reading "Agent Triple X-Mas"
December 24, 2006
Majoring in Cartography
I've always had quite the fancy for maps and all things map related. I think it comes from all the days I spent in my youth drawing out maps for the various Computer and Paper Role-Playing Games that I played.
Back before the days of auto-mapping (I still remember when CRPGs like the original Might and Magic came with their own special pad of graph paper) every square inch of every single dungeon had to be drawn out by hand. I would spent countless hours adventuring, mapping and then remapping, sometimes creating giant maps for all the regions of a certain game, like the aforementioned Might and Magic and also notably in my mind the winding cities of Secret of the Silver Blades.
Today, my fascination with cartography has led me to create all kinds of crazy projects, like the full Manitoulin Island Map I drew by hand in Photoshop for one of my website clients.
My latest mapping project has been to create an interactive photo map that pinpoints worldwide locations where I have sold and continue to sell various chainmail pieces over the years with pictures, as well as the locations of the markets, shows and classes that I plan on attending in 2007. I am also considering adding loose details of locations where I plan on taking road trips and locations where I'd like to hunt for various interesting rocks for my lapidary work.
The map is created and maintained through a service called Zeemap (formally known as "Flappr"), it was pretty easy to set up and my only complaint so far is that I can't choose which points take layer priority, they just assume that the further north a point is, the further back in the point hierarchy it should be. It's also a service which is obviously gaining in popularity, as the service seems a little lagged at times.
December 22, 2006
Turing Tests Have Been Implemented
One of my jobs as a web designer is to market the websites I create, obviously the ultimate success or failure of a website can sometimes depend on how many people visit said website.
When I created this web journal I decided to use it as an experimental platform for several different techniques related to web design, one of which being website marketing.
I am happy to say that in the 6 weeks (or so) since starting out I have increased traffic to this site by about 2.5 times, which is a pretty good start for a journal that is basically about esoteric digital nonsense.
Looking through statistics for how people find this site is very interesting; some of my more esoteric posts are actually my greatest traffic generators as far as Google searches. Whether or not people are actually happy with the results of their searches leading to one of my rambling posts is another question entirely.
One note of interest is how many people looking for my books or myself misspell my name. Having a name with an usual spelling as sort of numbed me to this problem, especially when living in a small town where the bank will cash a cheque with just about any version of my name on it.
However, I would once and for all like to put a rest to the subject. My name is Dylon Whyte, that's with an "o" in Dylon and a "y" in Whyte. It's not Dylan (like a certain famous Mr. Zimmerman a.k.a. Bob Dylan), who was named after a famous poet (Dylan Thomas), who was named after a Welsh Sea God (Dylan Eil Ton). It's not Dillon, like a certain movie star (Matt Dillon) or a famous fictional gunslinger (Marshall Dillon). It's not Dhillon (popular family name from the other side of the world). And it is most certainly not Zoltan (as a certain mail marketing firm has spelled it for years).
And with regards to Whyte, it's Whyte in the classic Scottish sense (Yay Robert Roy MacGregor!), not white, which is a colour representing the full colour spectrum. It's also not wight, as in the undead, magical treasure hording, inhabitants of certain Middle-earthian barrows.
Continue reading "Turing Tests Have Been Implemented"
December 19, 2006
3-in-1 Update
One
I have posted some pictures (one, two, three pictures, actually) of the project that I’ve been working on for the past few days on flickr.
It’s a lariat style necklace made from 21ga spring hard sterling silver rings and “blackstone” beads in the classic Byzantine pattern, was commissioned by a friend and is a bit of an x-mas present to myself, as I’m trading it to her for a brand new Nintendo Wii that her boyfriend won in a raffle.
This is only the second or third time that I’ve done wire-wrapped loops for a project, which I usually try to avoid due mostly inexperience. The loops are perhaps a tad unusual in that they are double wrapped to match the chain.
Two
Regular visitors will also notice that I’ve removed the links I had to the 43 Things website, as I’m kind of miffed at them right for completely deleting all of my content without any sort of notification and explanation. I lost a lot of writing, so I guess I’ll just save that sort of thing for this site, where I have proper control over things!
I will miss a couple of the friends I made on 43 things, such as “b” and “rouenpucelle”, who both had excellent senses of truly wrapped humour!
Three
Also, I have also been invited by one of the local community collages to teach a 3 week course on blogging, but am unsure of whether or not I should accept the offer. The class would start in January and be once a week in Little Current, which is a pretty long drive if the weather decides to act up. Still pondering this one…
December 16, 2006
Cybermen
I'm pretty sure that part of the reason that I am the way I am is because I cut my speculative fiction teeth watching episodes of Doctor Who on PBS from Michigan every night at 7:30 while growing up.
Back then we had a huge TV antenna with rotor and got a total of 5 channels: CBS - 10, ABC - 8, CBC - 7, PBS - 6, CTV - 3. On nights when we were blessed with extraordinary atmospheric conditions we may have been lucky enough to see an hour or two of NBC on channel 4 and later on, TVO was introduced on channel 2, if you had a UHF antenna.
Of these 5 original channels, only 10, 7 and 3 were clear on a regular basis, 8 was around 80% of the time and the beloved home of Doctor Who was always a 50/50 crap shot.
But still, as fuzzy as PBS was and as much as it faded in and out of existence I used to watch Doctor Who religiously every night, which means I was absolutely thrilled when the series was resurrected with such panache in 2005.
Both seasons of the new Doctor Who have been excellent; while not following the original episodic format of the original version instead follow the more modern format of having 13 individual or 2 part episodes, combined into one large overshadowing plot.
I don't think there are real spoilers below, but don't read on if you are sensitive to such concepts.
Continue reading "Cybermen"
Elfed!
I'm not responsible for this!
December 12, 2006
Prehistoric Jaws
I came across this tooth stashed away in a dark corner of a hip little jewelry show in Tobermory. It was more expensive than my normal limit for pendant stones, but when I saw it, I knew that it had to be mine.
The choker is constructed from two mirrored (no easy feet) lengths of my original “Silver Serpent” chain pattern, made from hand-busting 16 gauge stainless steel. At the center of the chain sits a möbius knot that the tooth, itself wrapped in combination of finer European and Persian stainless steel chainmail patterns, is suspended from.
You can click this picture for a closer view on flickr.
Sikhote-Alin
For the longest time I had been searching for a good sized meteorite fragment to make a chain-wrapped pendant for myself from. I finally found this specimen at a rock show in Sudbury, Ontario in the summer of 2006, it is the most expensive “rock” I have ever purchased.
The meteorite, at a hefty 51g, has been wrapped with sterling silver double-cable chains and is suspended from my personal sterling silver Byzantine chain; constructed a number years ago as one of my first experiments with precious metal chains.
The Sikhote-Alin Meteorite fell over the Sikhote-Alin mountain range in Siberia in 1947, it is actually an usual meteorite in that it was composed almost entirely of nickel and iron (nature’s original stainless steel!).
You can click on the photo above for more detailed pictures on flickr.
From The Nine Lives Department
It may be that you need to grow up around loads of cats like I did, but I find the jokes on this page and this page to be pretty darn funny!
December 11, 2006
flickr
I’ve started posted some pictures of my chainmail and some pictures of the island on a flickr account, let me know what you think!
December 8, 2006
Missing the Little Things
Last weekend while I was attending the Snowflake Fair in Mindemoya I happened to have a table right beside the fine folks from the Manitoulin Soap Factory. So, as happens at these sorts of things, I was able to overhear some of conversations that the Soap Factory folks were having with customers.
Talk of luffa sponges embedded with soap caught my attention, so during "vendor wander hour" (the last hour or aso of the market, when things are super quiet and vendors tend to wander around and talk to other vendors) I snuck over to check out the luffas and ended up having the most interesting conversation.
Now, normally in life I'm more curious about this sort of thing, but never before had I thought to question the origin of luffa sponges. However, when I was told that the Soap Factory folks had been thinking "growing their own", I was a bit taken back. I mean, where would they manage to put a large saltwater sea on their small chunk of Manitoulin? And how would they keep the sponges from freezing solid during winter?
Of course I was completely misguided by the term "luffa sponge", which I had related to natural ocean sponges, when, in fact, luffa sponges are the cleaned and dried vascular component (xylem) of at least 2 species of fruit-bearing tropical vine!
Well colour me green and call me string bean! Luffa's aren't animal at all, they're 100% vegetable! And all these years I had felt so guilty about luffa scrubs in the shower and had always taken special care not to wear out my luffas too fast, lest the oceanic supply become too scare! (Of course, we'll have to keep this a secret from Audrey, I don't know if she would approve of me scrubbing with the leftover bits of a deceased cousin!)
The thing that actually bugs me is that when I looked closely at the cross sections of soap embedded luffas on their table I realized that that I had seen that structure before growing on the island, albeit in a much smaller form; our own native wild cumbers!
And, just to double confirm, here are luffas and here are wild cucumbers, please note that they are from the exact same plant family!
I should have figured out the relation years and years ago! Shame on me, time to go back to my botany lessons!
December 7, 2006
Judy's Journal
A journal for one of the island’s most well known textile artists: Judith Martin, who also happens to be a website client of mine and who is directly responsible for getting me involved with Lark Books back in 2004.
Freshisle Fibers
Freshisle Fibers is a blog put together by a local teacher and friend that also dyes and sells cool yarn from local sheep over the internet.
Project: Crack House
Here’s an amusing site put together by a friend so old that they knew me before I was born. The recent purchase of an alleged crack house in Toronto spurred enough questions from friends and family that a picture web log was required to chart the progress, now in its second month.
December 5, 2006
New Winter Tip
Just a little note that I’ve posted a handy winter tip on the Discover Manitoulin Forum.
Redemption Song
It may be the sudden onset of winter, or it may have been reading about Ange's Adventures in Granada with deadlocked reggae and techno freaks, but lately I have found my mind gently drifting to plans for lifting the island's anchor and sailing south to Jamaica for the winter.
I'm not exactly sure why Jamaica is preferable over any other tropical escape, but I suspect it's because I'm a massive Bob Marley fan and while the current generation of so-called reggae doesn't really turn my crank, I simply love old-school reggae.
Currently my favorite Marley tune is "Redemption Song", which is often described as being performed as one of Bob's fervent preacher-like sermons and reading over the lyrics, I can certainly see that interpretation, however, I also have a few person ideas about the lyrics that I'd like to share.
"Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,"
Continue reading "Redemption Song"
December 3, 2006
Manitoulin Winters
To help “celebrate” our first real snowfall of the year, I have decided to start a new topic thread about surviving winter on the island on the “Discover Manitoulin Forum”, click here to read more!
And please share your own suggestions and experiences!
December 1, 2006
Psiphon (Philterproof)
The University of Toronto is set to release a piece of software named "Psiphon" today which is designed to help people in countries with Internet Censorship bypass internal Firewalls in order to access banned websites, such as Wikipedia.
Now, from a certain perspective I think that this sort of thing is fabulous, as censorship in any form is simply unacceptable! (Eris would be very pleased that Canuckian universities are working so hard to spread discord.)
However, this effort also strikes me as very ironic in a number of ways:
1 - Hackers have been using proxy tools to circumvent firewalls forever. The technology is definitely neither new nor original.
2 - The entire effort assumes that a user in a censored country can access a website that they can either log in to or download software from. By publicly promoting their effort with a fancy website and a publicized released date they have given time for censors to block their website as well. The file (literal and proverbial, as the case may be) isn't much good to the prisoner if you try and smuggle it into the prison while announcing to all the guards just what's hidden in the cake.
3 - The news has been filled with stories over the past couple of weeks that indicate that Canuckian ISPs are going to start filtering certain content. I cannot express how deplorable such content is, however, I also cannot accept censorship in any form. Once a single webpage is banned (*oops, it's already happening... let's see, 1984 was... hmmm... 22 years ago, oh dear...) for our "protection" it won't take long for more and more content to follow. Which leads me to wonder if Internet users in Canuckia are soon going to require a tool developed in our own universities? (My advice is to download this program as soon as possible, just in case you ever need it! Do some research on "proxy servers" while you're at it, you never know when such information may suddenly become unavailable.)
4 - How many kids are going to smuggle this program into schools to help circumvent school network security? (Every darn one of them I should hope!)
*This only works if you attempt to view this site with a non-american I.P. address.
April 2008