Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
In preparation for my grad degree in composition, I decided it was time to look around for a MIDI keyboard to make notation a bit easier for myself. So my parents and I started scouting the web and found a terrific deal on eBay.
Here it is. My new M-Audio KeyStudio 49i, complete with Pro Tools M Powered 8!! Needless to say, I didn’t get any homework done this afternoon after I picked it up from the post office. Normally this keyboard doesn’t ship with Pro Tools – you have to buy it separately (about $300 from m-audio’s website). But we were able to get the keyboard I wanted with the software just “thrown in” for good measure for less than the normal selling price of the keyboard itself. Not a bad deal, eh?
I haven’t much chance to do much with it yet, but I have tried it out. I’ll let you know later what I really think of it – although my first impression is pretty much… “SWEET!” Thanks Dad and Mom for the early graduation present!
Friday, December 21st, 2007
This past week marked the first birthday of my site, PeterAnglea.com (I know because I had to renew my hosting fees). Here’s a rundown of some of the things that went on in my neck of the web this year.
- 47 posts and 87 comments.
- 1,385 spam comments.
- thousands more link spam.
- 1 site design revision
Other notable accomplishments/projects hosted here were:
- My first WordPress plugin, wpSermons. This is a plugin intended for use in church websites that use WordPress to manage their content. It allows users to easily add mp3 sermons to their website at any time for all to listen to and download. Since its launch in May of ‘07 it has been downloaded about 500 times and is being used on multiple church websites here in America and around the world (and even some non-church websites that found the audio uploader to be just what they were looking for). In fact, I saw one person who make his own audio plugin based off of mine. I thought that was cool.
- BJU Online March Madness Bracket Content. I had about 20-25 people join in on a March Madness bracket contest for BJ students/faculty/staff. Everyone paid an entrance fee and the money went entirely to the BJU Bible Conference offering which helped to pay for the completion of the parking garage as well as the new entrance to front campus. Participants logged into the site to set up their brackets and view their progress as the contest progressed.
- BJU Coffee Tycoon. This is probably my best programming achievement to date. I’ll let the site speak for itself, but here’s a little info. Between 80-100 different students (about 50 at the most at one time) were playing this game where the object to sell more coffee on BJU campus than your competitors. The game is played in real-time during the course of the semester. You choose a location on campus to be and start selling coffee. Campus events dictate which spot on campus is more popular at any given time. It’s a strategy game where you must determine what to sell, how much to sell it for, and where to sell it at while at the same time keeping an eye on your competition and using your profits wisely to outfit your coffee stand with “enhancements” that attract more people to buy from you. It was a lot of fun and I’ve talked to several people that told me they spent a few hours strategizing with their friends as to how best to play the game. They were very competitive to say the least! The best part is that it’s not time consuming as you might expect. If you’re a BJU student, try it out next semester. It will continue to run in future semesters as long as people like playing it.
All in all, not a bad year for PeterAnglea.com. I hope you enjoy reading this site as much as I enjoy putting stuff on it.
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Recently, my friend (and President of Mission Prayer Band here at BJU), Josh Michalek, asked me to design a poster for the upcoming Student Body Prayer Rally. The theme is “Are You Thirsty?” taken from Isaiah 55:1.
Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
(ESV)
They just had them printed today, and now the posters are hung all over campus. Click the thumbnail here to see a larger version. I created this poster with The GIMP in Ubuntu Linux. The font-face is Mg Open Cosmetica.
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
I recently came across a very nifty-looking screensaver from PixelBreaker. It’s called PolarClock. You can see a picture of it by clicking the thumbnail here. If you care to use it, here’s some instructions (for Windows users).
- Go to the site and click the link for the Windows ZIP file under the Download section.
- Extract the contents of the zipped folder
- Run (double-click) the .exe file included in the package. Wait a few seconds.
- This should install the screensaver with all the rest of your screensavers. You can adjust the settings however you please.
It’s cool, but I probably spend too much time looking at it while it’s running (which isn’t exactly the whole point of a screensaver). Enjoy!
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
Yesterday, June 11th, 2007, Apple released a version of it’s prized internet browser, Safari, for the Windows platform. I decided I wanted to get in on the action and take it for a spin. After all, I am a webmaster. Inevitably I will have people visiting my websites using this new browser/platform combination and I should get to know how it works (and also make sure that all my current websites check).
Naturally, I will not be able to cover every minute detail about Safari here, nor will I try. But this browser is distinct enough that you don’t have to look very hard to find things you like or dislike about it. And that is how I am going to base this review – my likes and dislikes about Safari. I am also aware that Safari for Windows is still in beta. Obviously, Apple intends to do more work on it, but I shall review it in its current state nonetheless. I should also say that this is not a comparison of Safari for Mac vs. Safari for Windows as I have never used the Mac version. Let it be known that I am an avid Firefox user (and that I find IE7 more and more repulsive every time I open it). So you may see this review as being part “Safari vs. Firefox” and part “Safari vs. Itself.” If any browser is going to move me away from Firefox, it had better be pretty good.
So without any further ado, here’s a two-cents rundown of my likes and dislikes of Safari for Windows. Unfortunately for Safari, the “dislikes” outnumber the “likes.” But lets start with the good news first…
(more…)
Friday, May 25th, 2007
Today marks the official launch of my first-ever WordPress plugin. Originally created as a plugin for a web design client of mine, wpSermons is now offered freely to the Internet community. This easy-to-use plugin allows users to upload recorded MP3 sermons onto their WordPress website so that all may listen to or download them.
For more information, visit www.peteranglea.com/wpsermons/. I look forward to seeing people use it.
Update: Please leave all support questions on the WordPress site – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wpsermons/ – so that all can benefit. Comments are closed here. I will try to post some help and/or updates to correct some bugs some users seem to be having.
Friday, January 5th, 2007
This week saw the renewal of ShankDoor.com, a site that I had redesigned some time ago. I have just finished giving it a “spring cleaning” (I know it’s winter, but it’s warm enough here in PA that you might be fooled…) which included a new design, an upgrade from HTML 4.0 to XHTML 1.0, a new photo gallery, and an overall better site structure. The design template itself was the result of about 3 hours of work (probably the quickest I’ve ever done). It took another 2 full days of work (give or take) to redo the 80+ pages on the site. Overall, it was a pretty fast job speeded along by the fact that all the content stayed the same. It was just a matter of copy/pasting and a little more.
Some key features:
- Custom Graphics
- Revamped Logo
- CSS Design
- Cross-browser compatibility
- PHP/MySQL/Javascript Photo Gallery
- Email Forms
- 80+ pages
- Site Map and Search Engine
- Custom Google Map
If you have a chance, visit the site and leave a comment here on what you think. Thanks!
BTW, you can see the rest of the xHTMLpro.com design portfolio here.
UPDATE: I liked the design so much, I decided to package it as a design template and upload it to the web. It’s a hit! At this point, after being online for only 2 days or so, it has been downloaded about 450 times and is currently the 5th most frequently downloaded template on OSWD.org. Whee! Get it here.
Friday, December 15th, 2006
I would like to welcome you to the all-new PeterAnglea.com! Those of you who know me, may recall my old blog/site as being a subdomain of my web design company – xHTMLpro.com. As of today, December 15th, 2006, that site is no longer my personal internet home.
Why did I feel the need to have my own personal domain (branded with my name, no less)? The reasons are many.
- I’ve always wanted my own domain. But besides that . . .
- It’s becoming the norm for people nowadays to have a personal website/domain name for practical business and/or communication purposes. It is my hope that this website will be my virtual representative on the World Wide Web for a long time to come and that people (my family, most importantly) will be able to keep tabs on my business, my music, and my life in general.
Why do it now?
- Because of special discounts offered to me by my favorite webhost, SiteGround LLC.
- To give myself a Christmas present!
- Because domain names are getting snatched up faster than you would believe (even with a last name as “weird” as mine).
So here’s the low-down on this site.
- Powered by WordPress as a Content Management System. I originally was looking to have WordPress power only this small blog on the home page, but decided to expand it and use it to its full capacity. This required that I . . .
- Make my own WordPress template. This is actually the first template I have cooked up for WordPress. I think it works pretty well. The actual design is a slight modification of a template entitled nonzero by NodeThirtyThree design that I found at OWD.
- This site is Valid XHTML. You should view this site with at least a 1024px resolution so as to avoid seeing only half of the site at once.
One other thing you should know. I love getting feedback! So please leave comments, contact me, email me, whatever! I look forward to hearing from you about what I put on my site. Thanks again for visiting!
