GizmoLA.com

We can rebuild him. We have the technology.
We have the capability to make the world's first Bionic man.
Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before.
Better . . . stronger . . . faster.

After several web years having earned some sort of living from the development of interactive systems, I felt it was finally time to sit down and get started on a project that has been in the back of my mind for much of 2004. Namely, to relaunch GizmoLA.com, using database driven technology (in this case the popular LAMP combination [Gentoo Linux running as a UML instance on a coop server coowned and operated by myself and a bunch of people I met virtually through the Linux Users of Los Angeles, the Apache Web server, Mysql database server and PHP scripting language] as the platform for a php based "blogging" server called Serendipity. I realized some time ago that the original GizmoLA.com (which was always plain old html, created primarily in Dreamweaver) had always been designed to be a "Blog" of sorts, only I began it long before anyone had actually coined the term. Back in those days you just called it a homepage or personal home page. What I always wanted was a site that I could use as a repository for notes about my various projects, diary entries and musings about the places I've been, music I listen to, books I've read, movies I've seen, people I know, products I like and dislike, and things that I find interesting.

For quite some time the task of sitting down and manually updating things in the static html pages that comprised GizmoLA have made it an onerous task. The site has also moved a number of times and in the process things that were originally on the site broke or became obsolete.

I have a variety of goals for this new system, and I'm betting that Serendipity, which is still very much in Beta, will be the platform upon which I can build the type of site I have always wanted. As I work on converting the original Gizmola over, I'll try and elaborate on my goals, and provide an occasional update in the process.

My first order of business will be to convert some of the old articles over (or not, I haven't 100% decided how to proceed), and create a template that reflects as much of the original GizmoLA.com design as makes sense. This will certainly be an adventure in wrangling html and .css.

Another important aspect of what I want from my blog is the ability to include code and diagrams in certain blog entries. From what I can see this will probably be the first thing I'll need to create a module to do, unless I can find one that already exists. I did look hard at using the popular PHP blog package WordPress, even to the degree of installing it and adding in a few modules. I can't say for certain that my experience with Serendipity will be better, but the module architecture for Wordpress required me to do a lot of manual editing of existing scripts which didn't strike me as particularly modular.

Here at Gizmola.com, we go boldly into the 21st century with Niamh's first music video. What ensues is an uneditted session of Niamh working out in her Graco Bumper Jumper which I setup in the doorway to my office. I spent a lot of time researching jumpers, reading online reviews, and weighing the pros and cons of each type. Quite simply I spent way too much time, but then I feel that in the end I got the best damn baby jumper available, dammit. Although I'm not as hardcore as the one guy who recommended it on some website and also admitted he had modified it to go beyond the specs and turned it into a backyard baby bungie, I did find that we needed to add extra cushions inside the chair to keep Niamh in the middle, and provide the head and neck support I felt she needed. As it happens we ended up using parts from a crib mat that was designed to keep infants from rolling from their back to their sides while sleeping. You can see these foam rolls stuffed in the sides of the chair if you look closely. Some people have asked if the music was playing when the video was made... well that's a trade secret. No, actually there was no music playing at all, and I just found it funny that it seemed to sync up to her bouncing in places, when I added the song ("Jump Around" by the short lived white Irish American rap group "House of Pain")

These are large files (9 or 12 megabytes in size depending on which format you choose) so if you have a modem, be prepared for a substantial wait: Highlight the link and then right click and choose save as to start a download.

NiamhJumps in .rm (realplayer) format or NiamhJumps in .wmv (Windows mediaplayer) format.

This is a bit of a catch up entry. In January Niamh was visited by Grandma Doris and Auntie Marion. Niamh enjoyed her new friends, and some photos were taken to remember the occasion with. There's a photo with Grandma Doris, and a couple from Marion's visit, including Niamh fresh out of the bath in her pooh-bear robe.

Christmas 2002 was low key and relaxing as we unwound from our whirlwind first month with Niamh. We got our tree put up, after much battling with the tree stand, which included a partial dissassemble so I could reseat the tree properly on the base pedestal about 8 or 9 times. This is the type of exercise that really puts one into the holiday mood, as I imagine replacing a carburetor in an 82 Oldsmobile might.

Tracy did the tree decorating, and when Christmas day rolled around, Niamh donned a Christmas dress, and posed with Mommy in front of the tree. Click on the Frame above. After a batch of pictures taken using natural light had to be discarded, we got the right prescription and got a great series. A few more pictures are included Here and Here.

Niamh has had a number of visitors from abroad, including Grandma Betty visiting from Ireland, and Uncle Leonard (and honorary Aunt Carolyn) from Australia. She's now one month old, and has grown to twenty two inches, and nearly ten and one half pounds. The pediatrician says if her eyes remain their current blue color for three months, they will probably stay that way, which would make daddy very happy. Of course, the real news, is I finally got a selection of photos from Grandma Betty's visit. Click Niamh for the gallery.

Betty is visiting and getting some quality time with her new Grandchild Niamh. For interested parties, I have a small Niamh update photo. The latest photo features the amazing two arms raised sleep position. I know this is another sleeping baby photo, but heck, newborns are supposed to sleep a lot. This picture was taken in the Rolston family bassinet, which was purported to have provided a resting place for my father, myself, and now Niamh. Unfortunately I'm not sure it will make it to a 4th generation of Rolstons as the base is crumbling, but one never knows.

All the recent photos have been taken with a Nikon Coolpix 995 a 3.34 megapixel digital camera. Tracy gave me the camera last Christmas and it took me nearly a year to get it out of the box and start using it, but I must admit it's an amazing techno-gadget. Between learning how to take care of a baby (and documenting this process to a degree with images for the website), I have managed to snap a few landscape photo's, and put a page together with a mixture of the more interesting shots. There's views south and north, all taken the last few days, which in typical LA winter fashion have come after days of sweltering heat, followed by high winds, and now rain. I've found that rain and wind often combines to produce some of the most beautiful atmospheric conditions and sunsets, and I've attempted to capture a few here.