Spread the word to help a child

Posted on September 28, 2005 
Filed Under Kids | Leave a Comment

I found out I was pregnant with Laini in June 1995. Back in those days, I was spending a lot of time on the misc.kids.pregnancy group on Usenet. Usenet is going to be one of those things we tell our children about, but they don’t believe it really existed. ;-)
I read a posting that someone had started mailing lists for mommies due in any given month. Sounded like a good idea at the time. I joined the February 1996 group sometime in September 1995. Ten years later, and that group is still together. We’re down from around 60 give or take to around 30 give or take, but still going strong. Many of us have met in person over the years and even though I “took a break” from the group for a year or so, I’m back and I don’t have any plans of leaving any time soon. Divorces, more babies, moving, dying grandparents, politics, we’ve seen it all. One minute we’re talking breast vs. bottle, the next (it feels like) we’re talking signs of puberty.

One of the children on the list born in February 1996 is facing an incredible challenge and we’ve been emotionally supporting the family all along. They need more than hand-holding now. Kaleb was born with a rare bone condition called [osteopetrosis.](http://www.osteopetrosis.com) It’s a condition where the bones are overly dense and it causes all sorts of problems. Thankfully, he has the dominant form which creates problems but is not fatal as the recessive variant is. He’s had multiple surgeries to save his eyesight. A few years ago, he started complaining of hip pain. It has gotten to the point where there are days he can barely move. After seeing more doctors and so-called specialists than his Mom can count, it appears he has something called osteonecrosis where the hip bone is literally dying. It typically affects older people and treatment options include hip replacement. You can’t do a hip replacement on a 9 year old boy, and other treatments are complicated by the osteopetrosis. Meanwhile, this child is in pain and can barely move and the family isn’t getting any real help to help him.

His mom Lori (and Dad, Mark) are lost and helpless. A few weeks ago, I had the idea of using the Internet to spread the word about his case in the hope that we can get this boy enough attention so that someone, somewhere will step out of the shadows and be this boy’s miracle. The family is in Ohio and I can’t help but wonder if there’s a doctor or researcher sitting in his office in Texas or California who has the key to getting this boy out of a wheelchair and moving again. Because little is known of these two conditions together, no one knows what Kaleb’s prognosis is.

So we put together this website: [Febmoms for Kaleb](http://www.helpkaleb.com) It has all the medical information, some pictures and Kaleb’s mom is blogging her struggles. Please, visit the site. If you have a blog, mention it. Even better, if you know someone who may help, let us know. A trust account has been established and we do have a PayPal link there as the Davis family is prepared to travel to the ends of the earth to help Kaleb (even considering treatment in Beijing!) but funds are tight so any help there would be appreciated.

This isn’t a charity, it’s just a family facing a mountain I know I’m grateful I’m not standing in front of. Please help us help Kaleb.

Bank of America doesn’t suck. At least for me. So far.

Posted on September 25, 2005 
Filed Under Life | 3 Comments

I know [a lot](http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2004/07/bank_of_america_sucks) [of folks](http://liberalserving.typepad.com/liberalserving/2005/09/bank_of_america.html) [have had trouble](http://www.rateitall.com/i-10199-bank-of-america.aspx) with [Bank of America](http://www.bankofamerica.com). So far, knock on wood, I’m not one of them.

We opened our accounts (both personal and business) in Connecticut when it was Fleet Bank before we moved and since BoA is *everywhere* it was easy to pick right up here. My accounts all switched over completely to BofA at the end of June and so far, I’m not disappointed.

First lesson: Don’t [talk to an online bot.](http://ponzarelli.com/blog/_archives/2005/9/25/1255721.html) Pick up the phone. Every time I’ve done so, I’ve spoken to a human being at BoA in under 3 minutes and I’ve never ended a phone conversation dissatisfied. If anything, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the level of service I received. Online chats for anything other that routine sales questions are a disaster. Not just with BoA, I’m talking about Dell and every other company that has tried it. Can you imagine having a conversation where you say a sentence…wait…wait…wait…the other person answers with a question, you answer the question…wait…wait…wait…they come back, you answer…wait…wait…wait… It’s maddening! It’s doesn’t work. Either send an email or pick up the phone, you’ll be much happier in the long run.

BoA’s online banking and Quicken integration is the best of any bank that I’ve ever been with. I’m comparing it to [Peoples](http://www.peoples.com), Fleet, [First County](http://www.firstcounty.com) and [Emigrant](http://www.emigrant.com) which are the other banks I have experience with. BoA’s website features blow them all away and work reliably. When I started with my new BoA account, they charged me $6.95 to use it with Quicken. I called to complain, as I wasn’t told there was a charge. The CSR reviewed my accounts and offered to move me to a plan that had free Quicken *and* a little better interest to boot without costing me a dime and she refunded the $6.95. What’s wrong with that?

As our personal and business needs have changed, I’ve called BoA to discuss our situation and each time, the CSR has guided me towards options that maximize our money for minimum fees. Minimal upsell. Like I said, no complaints.

Note: I don’t have any credit cards with them and I ignore all direct mail promotions. That probably helps my opinion tenfold.

Palm and Windows Mobile? Seems likely now.

Posted on September 25, 2005 
Filed Under Internet & Technology | Leave a Comment

Let’s see:

Two years ago, I had my [eye on getting a Treo](http://www.momathome.com/viewfromhome/2003/12/treo_600.php) (Eric now has the 650, by the way)

Since then, I’ve completely abandoned Palm OS devices and I’m quite comfortable with Windows Mobile. I have no plans to go back. Seems like the industry is heading in that directions as well.

I’m eligible for a phone upgrade in November.

I’m starting to get that itch to upgrade my PDA. My [Dell Axim x30](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=momathomedesi-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=9043413585%2526tag=momathomedesi-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/9043413585%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002) is serving me well, so I have no good reason to replace it other than “new stuff envy” and the fact that there’s no OS upgrade path (Dell is only offering upgrades for the x50).

There’s been rumors for quite some time that the next version of the [Treo](http://web.palm.com/index.jhtml?_requestid=328413) [would be running Windows Mobile](http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000867059961/) instead of Palm OS. Now Palm is supposedly having a [press conference](http://www.palm.com/us/company/pr/news_feed_story.epl?reqid=760556) tomorrow with Bill Gates and someone from Verizon. Ya think?

Looks interesting, but truth is I’m not biting yet.

Verizon isn’t Cingular. Folks say that Verizon has better coverage, and while that may be true I like the Fast Forward cradle so wireless calls will ring through to my home phone without counting against my minutes. Not ready to give that up.

What, no WiFi?!? The devices are obviously capable, is it the phone companies that are in control here? If your device can do WiFi you’re less inclined to pay their expensive data usage fees. I know [EvDO](http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobileoptions/broadband/index.jsp) is the next greatest thing and this phone is rumored to have it (which explains why it’s a Verizon guy standing up there and not someone from Cingular)…but it’s way too expensive right now. I can’t see paying $60 per month for access on top of your wireless voice plan and whatever you already pay to get a desktop computer online at home. Not to mention the cost of the device or $99 card to get your laptop capable of using this service. I imagine the folks who use this are either way geekier than me with more disposable income, or they have a corporate expense account, or both.

Maybe I’m missing something…but does your Internet connection on your cell phone/PDA have to be *that* fast? I can only understand getting this service if you have a Windows PC laptop and it’s your only computer and you’re on the road a lot. No cable modem, no DSL. I check my email from my Axim or I catch up on some RSS feeds. I don’t download 30MB files with it. It’s a 320 pixel wide screen (rumored to be 240 pixels on the new Treo) by the time you’ve frustrated yourself by scrolling to the right corner of the window, whatever you wanted has downloaded. I want to hop on, get my email, maybe read the text of a few websites and get off. I don’t want to make a day of it.

By the way…here’s a great tip if you use a PDA with a browser to check email. It’s well known that the email client included with Windows Mobile in a word…well, sucks. VersaMail (the Palm OS equivalent) isn’t all that either. My host has webmail, but it’s not a PDA-friendly environment. [Gmail](http://www.gmail.com) recently added a feature where you can send email from your Gmail account as if you were sending from another email address. You have to go through a verification step to confirm that you have the right to claim that email address (so no pretending to be George Bush or Steve Jobs) but it’s an easy process. Once you do that, you need to have your POP email forwarded to your Gmail account as well to your mail server. Most hosting plans have this as an easy option. Of course, I invited myself to Gmail so I could have a separate account just for my POP email (two actually, one for my personal address one for my work address). Now when I’m on the go I use the PDA’s browser to log in to Gmail in their limited mode (which is very fast) and I can easily read, reply, forward, etc. my email and the recipient has little clue that I’m doing it through Gmail. Bonus: mail backup! Pull up an old email from any Internet connection, even long after it’s off your POP server.

I still sync to Windows Mobile Messaging through ActiveSync so I have the last 2 days of synced email accessible to me on the go with or without a network connection. I can read & reply, it sends next time I sync.

Mayble I’ll just hold out for the [Motorola Q](http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0,,113,00.html).

ArtRage

Posted on September 21, 2005 
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments

If you want to simulate natural painterly effects in a digital file, everyone knows that the application of choice is [Corel Painter](http://www.corel.com/painterix/home/index.html), right? Only $400 and all the palettes, dials, switches and options you can get in a paintbrush.

I have the limited version lying around somewhere that came with my Wacom tablet years ago. Played with it a few times. I’m not even sure if the version I have will install in OS X. When I want to draw something, I tend to fire up Photoshop (such as the flowers in my banner and icons).

Well, what if you just want to “play” with painting either for fun or profit and you don’t have the money to shell out for Painter or Photoshop? You have to try [ArtRage](http://ambientdesign.com/artrage.html). I know it’s been out for a while, but I just got around to trying it. It’s beautiful, runs on Mac OS X or Windows and it’s free! Really! When you launch the application there’s a kindly request for money, but it’s more of a suggestion than a rule. So far, it’s well worth whatever pocket change you can spare if this is what the company is capable of.

I’ll say this off the top…it’s not Mac-like. I don’t know why being Mac-like is so important to some people. If you’re one of those people, then avoid this application. It takes over your screen with its own set of menus and sliders, although you do have the option to have the interface in a separate floating window. It’s not Mac-like (or Windows XP-like) and quite frankly, I don’t care. You don’t need a manual on how to use this application any more than you need a manual when someone hands you a wooden stick with bristles glued to one end and a can of paint. A child instinctively knows what to do when you stick a crayon in their hand, and so will you when you launch this application.

This is a screen shot of the interface. Isn’t it purty?

Artrage-1

You can load an image to trace over, or import an image and it loads as if it were paint (so you can blend colors together from the original image). You can export your masterpieces as JPEG or PNG (or BMP if anyone still uses that) and select from different surfaces to paint on. Mind you, those are limited options compared to Painter and if you use Painter this is probably no substitute, but for a free application it’s great.

While I was playing with it, it reminded me of Kai Krause. His applications (most famous for Kai’s Power Tools) are more about the experience than the results. You get lost in them, just clicking and seeing what happens next as one things mutates to the next. Great for finding that “happy accident” not-so-great when you want to duplicate the effect and can’t remember what the #%#@ you did to get it. Sure enough, [Ambient Design](http://www.ambientdesign.com) developers appear to have worked on a number of [KPT filters](http://ambientdesign.com/kpt.html) when the company producing KPT was called MetaCreations (many buy-outs and mergers ago…now Corel [has it](http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307431&pid=1047022702225)) so my sense of comparison was not coincidental.

When I went back to ArtRage to check on a few things while writing this, I had to remind myself to stop doodling and get back to ecto and finish this entry. Just fun and creative for the sake of being fun and creative, without interface getting all in the way and no supplies to put away when you’re done.

Macromedia Studio 8

Posted on September 19, 2005 
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

I’ve been using the new [Studio 8](http://www.macromedia.com/software/studio/?promoid=BSOT) products for many hours over the past two days, making changes to the [C3](http://www.c-three.org) site and working on another special project I’ll be announcing soon.

So what’s the verdict?

On first glance, it’s not really Studio 8. It’s more like Dreamweaver 7.5. It’s very similar to the previous version, especially on the Windows side which didn’t see the interface overhaul the Mac version did.

But there are subtle changes. Little things that pop up as you’re working after a while.

Biggest difference is in code view. First, you can tie Dreamweaver in with a 3rd party comparison utility to compare files. I downloaded the demo of [Beyond Compare](http://www.scootersoftware.com/) a while ago but haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. This may be a good reason.

By far, the number one change for me is the way Dreamweaver 8 handles auto completion when typing code. In Dreamweaver MX 2004 and previous versions, let’s say you needed to type an unordered list from scratch. You would type `

` the moment you typed `

Bad Behavior has blocked 5561 access attempts in the last 7 days.