Geek

It’s 2008. I can’t believe we haven’t figured this out.

In Copyright, Geek, Internet on 13 June 2008 with Comments Off

If you read this site via RSS, you may notice that now you can only read the first couple lines instead of the whole post. That’s because apparently, amazingly, we still have not figured out how to use RSS and still abide by copyright law on the web. (You can read the rest of this post at powazek.com.)

An Update to a Savvy Approach to Copyright Messaging

In Copyright, Geek, Internet, Photography on 23 January 2008 with 13 comments

In my original post, I suggested adding a copyright message to a photo and use CSS to crop its view. This accomplishes the goal of adding robust copyright information without defacing your own work. I got a lot of responses to this idea, and wanted to update the post with a few responses to the [...]

Hey Apple, Don’t Make Me Think

In Apple, Design, Geek, Interface, iPhone on 23 January 2008 with 17 comments

As an official Apple Fanboy and Interface Geek, I have a complaint about the recent iteration of Apple’s iPhone software (1.1.3).
On the iPhone, the web browser is called Safari, just like on the Mac. This sameness is reinforced by the visual design of both applications. But in the new iPhone software, when they added a [...]

A Savvy Approach to Copyright Messaging

In Copyright, Geek, Internet, Photography on 12 January 2008 with 32 comments

I’m a photographer. I’m also a web geek. And those two sides of my brain sometimes fight with each other.
As a photographer, I’m outraged when people grab photos off the web and use them without consideration of copyright. I’ve been fighting this “It’s on the internet, so it must be free!” ignorance for more [...]

DePo Skinny Theme for WordPress

In Geek, Weblogs, WordPress on 6 January 2008 with 8 comments

The DePo Skinny theme for WordPress is a variation on my original DePo Clean theme, developed by myself and my lovely wife for her new site. We thought we’d make it available to you, too!
It’s a super-simple theme with only one 500-pixel-wide column. It accommodates categories and tags easily. Like DePo Clean, it has a [...]

If It Bleeds, It Leads

In Blogging, Geek, Journalism, Writing on 23 November 2007 with Comments Off

With my month-long experiment in daily posting a week away from its blissful conclusion, I thought I’d check to see what effect, if any, it was having on the site’s traffic. So I checked in with the handy WordPress traffic page. Here’s what I saw, with the addition of the most trafficked posts and the [...]

New Term Coinage: Baboop

In Geek on 21 November 2007 with 8 comments

Baboop: To encourage someone to hurry up and get to the point, after the iconic sound TiVo makes when fast-forwarding.
Usage:
Her: … and then what happened was, well, because when it was happening, the thing is –
Him: Baboop baboop baboop.
Her: Fine. I’m not telling you now.
Him: Baboop.

A Geeky Take on the WGA Strike

In Business, Geek, Internet, Politics, WGA Strike, Writers on 9 November 2007 with 15 comments

So if you’re missing your Jon Stewart, you probably know that the WGA is on strike. That means, unless this gets worked out soon, your television is about to get a lot more boring. And that sucks for everyone.
I’m an author. I actually wrote a book that I theoretically get royalties on. I say “theoretically” [...]

NaBloPoMo Q&A 4: The Web Biz

In Business, Geek, How to, Internet, Interviews, NaBloPoMo, Q&A on 6 November 2007 with 3 comments

Zazzy asked:
I’m studying web development. Do you have any tips for crossing that hump between moderately-talented-amateur to professional (or you know, semi-almost-professional)?
I’ve worked in the web biz since 1995. Back then, there were no courses in web stuff. No degrees. So the people who got hired were the ones with “killer homepages” (to use the [...]

Google Now in Vaporware Business?

In Business, Geek, Google, Internet on 5 November 2007 with 15 comments

First Google announced Open Social, which is going to solve all the problems you didn’t know you had with social networking sites, and now they’ve announced the Open Handset Alliance, which is going to solve all the problems you didn’t know you had with your cellphone.
Each time we get a pretty illustration, a new [...]