James Oppenheim’s blog

Daylight savings is a curse incognito. Goodbye sleep, hello good times I am screaming as summer comes around. But it’s just goodbye sleep when old man winter comes back.

I love daylight savings. Bring on all the traditional Australian past times. The good old fashioned BBQ, which inevitable brings beer (this is a good thing), back yard cricket, picnics, long walks on the beach!?!

Starting today I am implementing a new year’s resolution, well some sort of resolution anyway. I am pledging to have more fun, not just any old fun, the summer kind of fun.

Daylight savings oh how I love thee! Well done, please don’t go back to the dark and dingy, cold and rainy old old man winter.

Technorati Tags: sleep, daylight savings, Australia, old man winter

I have had a few conversations lately about what are the most essential tools for any web designer or developer. So here you go, here is a list of my “can’t do without’ applications that I use on a day to day basis.

• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• SmartFTP
• Color Cop
• Crimson Editor
• Firefox
• Firefox - Web developers toolbar
• Firefox - measureIT

So there you go – that is me and my day in a lunch box.

Technorati Tags: web design tool, Photoshop, Illustrator, SmartFTP, Color Cop, Crimson Editor, Firefox, Web developers toolbar, measureIT

I recently changed back from Windows Live Mail to the traditional hotmail. Why? Slow load times, inconsistent behaviors with check boxes, small reading panes that you can resize, not being able to export contacts, shall I go on. Sure it is a beta version and sure it is free. However, why should I upgrade from a stable hotmail to a clunky, nonuser-friendly email client.

Long live hotmail!

Technorati Tags: live mail, hotmail, windows, email client

I recently bought a book “The JavaScript Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks” from Sitepoint while I was at the Web Directions Conference in Sydney. Note: I did this after being inspired by Jeremy Keith’s two talks on AJAX.

After skimming over the book on the plane back to Melbourne I found a strange anomaly. The book was missing about 50 pages, which, funnily enough were related to AJAX. I was a bit bemused about this situation and decided to email Sitepoint and see what they had to say.

Within an hour of the email I receive an email back politely explaining that there was a problem with the printing run and that they would send me out a new book, no questions asked. Then within the week I received the book on my doorstep. This experience left me in a good mood the whole week.

Well done Sitepoint! If only all customer service experiences were met with such speed, efficiency and politeness.

I will definitely be buying books from them again.

Technorati Tags: sitepoint, wd06, customer service

I recently attended the Web Directions Conference in Sydney and it was amazing to see the amount of reflective glow from the Apple icons throughout the conference hall. What amazed me about this was not that Apple is reclaiming the laptop market. But that so many people were publishing content to the internet right there and then. Now I know I am a nerd and that I see a unique cross section of society, but the times are changing.

Here is a prime example. This is a girl from Iraq who talks about war, politics and occupation. No loner do we have to have to be told what to here from the big publishing companies! This begs the question, are we seeing the beginning of the demise of major newspapers and television stations? I don’t know. But what I do know is that I am not a good looking as Sandra Sully.

People are blogging on the train, in lecture theatres and in wars and more interestingly with the launch of Testra’s new G3 network people will be able to view this content anywhere, any time.

The world is changing. Power to the people!

Technorati Tags: wd06, computer age, web

http://www.paumanokreview.com

Clean, simple, interesting content and updated regularly. What more do you want in a website?

The Paumanok Review is a quarterly Internet literary magazine dedicated to promoting and publishing the best in contemporary art, music, and literature. Purely setup as an electronic publishing house The Paumanok Review has been producing quality work for five years.

The quality of this sites look and feel is not where my praise will end. Skilfully hand crafted with clean, valid and semantic XHTML and CSS this site pushed the boundaries of what can be achieved in a simple text editor.

Take pleasure in this website and don’t be afraid to submit some of your work.

This weekend I went to Heide, the Museum of Modern Art, on Templestowe Road in Bulleen, Victoria.

What a fantastic way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon. “Spectacular views. Monumental forms. Dramatic skyline.” is how the Heide website describes this unique space. I could not agree more.

Walking around this tranquil outdoor setting relaxes the body and stimulates the mind. Weaving in and out of the modern and contemporary art one cannot help but feel their inner artistic passion bubble and grown inside. To see some more photos of this fantastic place please view them at my Flickr library.

If it is sunny outside and you have some free time I highly recommend the trip.

I have just become a member of Technorati.

What is Technorati I here you ask, with a quizzical look on your face. Well… Technorati is seen as the authority on blogs. It is a search engine designed to specifically search weblogs and as of August 2006, Technorati indexed over 50.6 million weblogs. Welll 50.6 milliion + 1 now that mine is on there.

The name Technorati is a portmanteau, pointing to the technological version of literati or intellectuals.

Well now that you know all this why not take a peak at my profile: Technorati Profile

Technorati Tags: Technorati, personal

On Thursday I went to a Web Standards Group meeting held by Jonathan Oxer entitled ‘Making Things Move: Finding Inappropriate Uses For Scripting Languages’.

It was a strange experience, one that I am sure I will never forget.

Jonathan Oxer is the head of Linux Australia and when he pulled out his solder iron to hook up his computer parallel port to control the fan in the back of the room, I know I would be in for an interesting night.

He went on to demonstrate how scripting languages such as PHP can be used to control and collect data from any household item such as a letterbox, light or sprinkler system. Who wants to check the mail like a sucker, when you can get your computer to inform you that ‘You got mail’?

He has also surgically implanted with an RFID chip into his arm, what? He uses this to experiment with technical issues such as authentication as well as philosophical issues such as privacy and identity.

Wow, what an interesting presentation!

Made me think. Maybe I should get my computer to make me a cup of tea and some toast in the morning. Or should I just get a butler or some helper monkeys?

Hello world!

This is my first exploration into the blogosphere. While I have been around websites for years, both viewing and creating them I am now taking the plunge into the sticky pool of the World Wide Web, going from consumer to creator. Look out Rupert Murdoch I will have a global empire soon enough.

Please drop me a line and come back soon as I will be trying to update this site on a regular basis.