Dustin Riley

Cyphan 2010

Dustin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:09:56 +0000

Last weekend I attended my first convention, Cyphan, in Wheeling, IL. This was a first year sci-fi/fantasy/horror convention, but it felt far from it. Everything was well planned and put together, Mike and his staff worked hard and it paid off tremendously. The first day had several seminars and of course the dealer hall was open. The dealer hall had some very nice products in it, especially at the steampunk booths. In the evening there was a costume show where everyone showed off their costumes, including a spot on 10th Doctor (David Tennant), Batman, and Number Six. Following the costume show was a magic show put on by Ron Fitzgerald. Ending the night was a very entertaining show put on by Hot & Heavy Burlesque. Saturday was absolutely filled with things to do. First there were two special guests this year: Battlestar Galactica’s Nicki Clyne (@nickiclyne) and Firefly’s Jewel Staite (@jewelstaite). Both had photo-ops, Q&A’s, and autograph signings. In the evening the Browncoat Bash was held, here Jewel and Nicki came out and talked to everyone. Right behind the bash was a wedding reception that had been planned to be happening at the same time as Cyphan, so that storm troopers would come in and do their thing. Closing out the night was the Imperial Ball, Jewel and Nicki joined in on the fun here as well, look around on their twitters or blogs and you’ll see some pics of them on the dance floor. The last day there wasn’t a lot going on as expected, but I managed to buy a few things at the dealer floor before I left.

Cyphan was worth every penny and I will without a doubt be attending next year. I met some cool people, saw some awesome costumes, and got to meet Jewel and Nicki.

Before attending Cyphan this year, I hadn’t planned attending any other conventions this year. However, I’ve decided to go to the San Diego Comic Con, in a few weeks. I’ll be meeting and hoteling with a fellow geek I met at Cyphan. Granted it’s not the small personal feel of Cyphan, but it’s still something to experience. You may even see me in a costume or two.

I also have to give big kudos to United Airlines. The main zipper on my luggage got ripped off in the conveyor at ORD. I went to the United information booth to get some fragile tape or shrink wrap so I wouldn’t lose anything until I could get to some place that sold luggage. Instead of giving me shrink wrap, they replaced my luggage without hesitation. Thumbs up!

Photos

Importing a DVD ISO in iMovie ’09 is Too Easy

Dustin — Tue, 25 May 2010 03:41:27 +0000

I recently helped a friend with a video project that required importing video created with a Mini-DVD camcorder. The software that came with the camcorder was absolutely horrible and didn’t really work. I didn’t have a lot of time to spend as this project was due the following day, so I skipped trying to import the movie to Windows Movie Maker. I decided to use iMovie ’09 on my MacBook Pro. I couldn’t just use the Mini-DVD’s directly because the MBP has an auto-loading drive. As a result, I had to create ISO’s on a PC and then transfer them to the MBP. Importing video from an ISO is done in two easy steps. First is to mount the ISO of the drive. Then inside iMovie, simply go to File, Import, Camera Archive, then choose the mounted ISO. I guess my point of this is to say, why can’t all software be this awesome and user-friendly.

Useful Expression Engine 2 Add-ons

Dustin — Sun, 23 May 2010 23:09:47 +0000

For the last couple of months I have been using the new version of Expression Engine to create Travel Codex. Expression Engine is a paid for content management system created by Ellis Labs. Version 2 brings many improvements to the system, including being built upon Code Igniter. I have used the Code Igniter framework for several personal projects and have really grown fond of it. I was planning on writing the content management system to run Travel Codex and other network sites, however, I quickly decided I would much rather spend the time on getting content together than developing a backend. The new version of Expression Engine caught my eye and I decided to take the plunge because it allows me to related data in ways many other content management systems don’t. Another big plus for me is that it’s not as cumbersome as some systems such as Drupal. Throughout these couple of months I’ve come across several add-ons for Expression Engine 2 that come in handy.

Channel Images (Paid) – This add-on provides something that is surprisingly absent from EE2, a way to add multiple images to an entry.

Playa (Paid) – This add-on expands on the relationship system in EE. It allows you to relate multiple entries and set rules for what can be selected down to the category level. No longer do you have to sort through a drop down box of potentially hundreds of entries looking for a single entry.

CP Analytics (Free) – This add-on connects to your Google Analytics account and shows the data on a tab in your control panel.

Freeform (Free) – This add-on allows you to easily create contact forms. Data submitted through these forms get dropped into a queue that’s accessible through the control panel. It also provides the option to send e-mails when a new item has arrived.

Facebook Connect (Paid) – This add-on integrates Facebook’s single sign-on method with EE.

User (Paid) – This add-on brings user template functionality to regular EE templates.

MX Google Maps (Free) – This add-on adds a Google map fieldtype to EE, which allows you to easily display a location in Google Maps in your entries.

Wygwam (Paid) – This add-on adds a full WYSIWYG (in the form of CK Editor) editor to the control panel for entry textarea fields.

These are some of the most useful that I have come across and have personally used. Most of them do cost money, but I believe that if they provide a functionality you’re looking for in EE2, then they are more than worth the money.

The Codex Network: Travel Codex

Dustin — Tue, 18 May 2010 06:04:50 +0000

It has been way too long since I’ve posted anything regarding the progress being made on the Codex Network. That’s about to change, as the first site, Travel Codex, is nearing a launch. Being a social site in design, I’ve created corresponding Twitter and a Facebook fan page. Facebook is becoming a very useful tool in development and networking for Travel Codex, and eventually other Codex sites.

While I was in Kiev last August, I stayed at a privately owned hostel and got to know the owner. The owner of the site is actively involved on Facebook with pages for his hostels. Utilizing this and talking with him, I’ve gotten information, including photos, about his hostels. I’ve used this information to fill out pages for his hostels on Travel Codex. I passed the links back to him and he posted them on his Facebook hostel pages as well as becoming fan of Travel Codex. Within three days of posting this information, Travel Codex has gained 50 fans, including hostels.

The next step for me is to reach out to these hostels that have become fans on Facebook and get their information to fill out pages for them. This will allow the network on Facebook to continue to grow and information to be gathered in a much easier fashion for the site. Growing the network and growing the content is what will draw people back to the site to get travel information and talk to others about their travel experiences.

The Codex Network: Building a Network

Dustin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:10:27 +0000

For the last several months, I have been putting the pieces together to start a small network of sites. The whole idea that lead to my desire to create this network was a small off handed comment while I was in the train station in Prague. The comment was basically “why isn’t there a site that tells you about these kinds of things.” This was in reference to having a difficult time trying to find someone to give us information regarding the train we were to get on.

Once I got back to the United States, that idea began to grow roots and expand and lead to the creation of Travel Codex. The site is a community driven travel site, that will contain a wealth of information from countries to cities to lodging to attractions. The users of the site will be able to comment on and rate items such as hostels. The site also has a travel planner, where people can simply click add to planner on pages. It also has the ability for people to blog while they travel, this is useful for those who don’t have a normal blog to post at, but wish to share their adventures. It is meant to eventually be a one stop repository of the kind of information a traveler would want, but would typically have to visit several different sites to find.

Even though the site launch was months out, I wasn’t happy with just the single site. I knew that I both wanted and needed to create more methods of content distribution. If you can deliver unique content, that you’re passionate about, and make a living from that, you are living the life. To create other sites I needed an umbrella, a network, to place the other sites under. This network would be known as The Codex Network. The friend of mine that is involved in this, who needs to start blogging, actually developed the idea for the second site in the network. The details and logistics of this second site are still being worked out, but should come shortly behind the launch of Travel Codex.

In this blog, I’m going to start writing more about the things I am learning in this process as well as my travels around the world to find content for Travel Codex.

Binding Multiple SSL Sites to Same Port in IIS6

Dustin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:29:39 +0000

If you attempt to create multiple sites in IIS6 that use the same SSL port (by default 443), then you will get an error message when you try to start the second one stating “IIS was unable to start the site. Another site may already be using the port you configured for this site. Please select a unused port for this site.” To setup SSL on the second site you need to either use a different port or edit the metabase directly. II6 comes with a script that will allow you to edit the metabase and add the binding for the second SSL site

The script is located in the Inetpub/AdminScripts directory and will need to be run from there in the command prompt. You will need to know the site identifier for the site you want to add the binding to. You can find this in the IIS Manager, drilling down to Web Sites, it will be in one of the columns in the right pane.

Syntax:
cscript.exe adsutil.vbs set /w3svc//SecureBindings “::”

Example:
cscript.exe adsutil.vbs set /w3svc/1/SecureBindings “:443:server.example.com”

Once you complete this you should be able to start the site in the IIS Manager.

Generation-Y, Entitlement, Happiness

Dustin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:40:05 +0000

This has been something I’ve wanted to write about for a while but haven’t had the time to. This is absolutely my take on the subject. I’m not going to dig out statistics as it is merely my personal observation. I’m part of a generation known as Generation-Y or the Millennial generation. This generation represents people from roughly 18 to 29 years of age, give or take. As with each new generation the previous generation generally has a negative view of the next. Generation-X were viewed as slackers and Generation-Y is viewed as feeling entitled. That’s the word that I want to tackle in the post, as it relates to this generation of individuals.

Generation-X views us as feeling entitled, but I believe they label us as such because they don’t understand our motivations. The Baby Boomers firmly set into place the 9-5 job, you start out and work your way up the corporate ladder. Generation-X fell into this mold created by the Baby Boomers and kept it going. They also took hold of new technology in the 1990′s, specifically the world wide web and e-mail. They used this technology to communicate and share information at a quicker pace. Generation-Y has taken this concept of quick communication and sharing of information and has made it even faster to where information spreads out to so many more people. They have created and actively taken part in social networks, the Facebook and Twitters of the world. Having the unique perspective of seeing, at a young enough age, the old ways of the world transition into the new, this generation sees potential for change and how to break free of the molds firmly set into place.

We see this potential for change, this is why we aren’t happy coming to a 9-5 job year after year, working slowly up the corporate ladder, making raises that are barely parallel to increases in inflation. Even though many people aren’t going to break out of the mold and will continue on not being happy at their job, there are some who will set into motion a change in how the working world works. This change will be in place for the generation following us and they will take it even further.

As I said, there are already some who recognize now is the time to change and are actively pursuing what really makes them happy, but everyone reallyshould be. Now is the time for everyone to do what really makes them happy and profit from it. The social networks and speed at which knowledge is spread on the Internet has opened up so many doors and broken down barriers. If you dread waking up Monday and can’t wait until Friday, make the change. I’m not going to write on the specifics of making the change to do what really makes you happy and are passionate about, as others have already done so. Instead I will point you to their sites.

The first is Gary Vaynerchuk, the host and creator of Wine Library TV. He has written an amazing book, called Crush It on how and why you should be doing what you have a passion for.

The second is Chris Guillebeau. He has written several guides on how to break free from the mold and do what makes you happy. He also has a wonderful blog that follows him living the life of Non-Conformity that his guides and manifestos discuss. His passion is to explore the world and visit every country, and he’s making money while he does so.

I urge you Generation-Y, if you’re unhappy, then break the mold. Help create the world of being happy and passionate at what you do for a living for the next generation.

Holding Ad Services Responsible for Rogue Ads

Dustin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:15:06 +0000

Gone are the days of getting malware by going to sites you shouldn’t be and clicking sketchy links. Getting infected with malware today is as simple as visiting perfectly legitimate websites. The delivery platform for the malware is rogue advertisements. The people behind writing these viruses have started purchases ads from the ad services that websites use to make money. Over the last year there have been reports of people getting viruses from well known websites such as the New York Times and today I witnessed two different systems getting infected due to users visiting the White Pages website. All it takes is loading the page and the user gets infected with a fake anti-malware software. One of these computers had a completely up to date reputable antivirus package and was also sitting behind a Unified Threat Management box that was also scanning for malicious sites and traffic. The writers of these malicious programs are writing them so quickly, people get infected before there are definitions to guard against them.

In both instances the users were using Internet Explorer, but I don’t simply want to point the blame at the browser. Of course the user may potentially be safer by using a browser such as Firefox or Chrome, however that isn’t always feasible especially in the business world when business related websites require Internet Explorer for one reason or another. The user can’t be hassled to use one browser for most sites and another browser for some sites. I can also badmouth the people who write the malware as much as I want, but are they going to stop what they are doing, of course not. Instead I believe the actual ad services need to be held responsible for the ads that are being hosted through their service. They need to screen the ads being submitted and implement safeguards against serving anything that could be malicious.

Users and websites both need to hold the services accountable. Users need to report any kind of malicious advertisements to the website that they were viewed on. From there the websites need to report them to the ad agency. If there continues to be issues with rogue ads, then the website needs to find a better ad service, regardless of how well their current one is paying them. If services don’t get held accountable in the near future, more and more users will be using ad blocking software. Ad blocking software is bad for everyone involved as both ad agencies and websites will be missing out on revenue that is vital to their survival.

Dawn Landes at Zanzabar 1-26-2010

Dustin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:54:56 +0000

Dawn was back in Louisville tonight at the Zanzabar playing songs from her new album, Sweetheart Rodeo, and old ones. It was a great concert as always. It’s really a shame Dawn isn’t more well known, she is so talented. I also have to give props to the Zanzabar. I’ve never been there but it’s a great small (very small) venue that also serves good food.

Setlist (In No Specific Order):

Romeo
I Don’t Need No Man
Wandering Eye
Twilight
Money in the Bank
Little Miss Holiday
Clown
Love
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Bodyguard
Picture Show
Kids in a Play
Straight Lines
I’m In Love with the Night
Tired of This Life
Young Girl

Pinktober 2009 at the Hard Rock Cafe

Dustin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:23:09 +0000

I went to the Pinktober 2009 show down at the Hard Rock Cafe last night. It was a really good show for a good cause, all proceeds went to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. About $10,500 was raised from ticket sales, signed guitar auctions, and other things. Michelle Branch, Safety Suit, and Better than Ezra all performed, although I was really there to see Michelle Branch perform. I’m glad I purchased a VIP ticket for the show, I got to get in early, sat in the VIP area next to the stage, and met the performers after their sets. I met Michelle, got an autograph, and a picture with her. Awesome.

Michelle’s Setlist:

Everywhere
Sooner or Later
Crazy Ride
Breathe
All You Wanted

Video Clips: