K. Fellows

For those of you who don’t know, Times is an application for the Mac created by Acrylic Software. Normally, I’d completely gush over how fantastic this application is. It’s beautifully designed, it runs very smoothly, and is completely functional. Unfortunately, it just isn’t for me.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this program. In fact, I’m positive that many people will love it. Times is great if you love reading feeds from more major, often-updated news sources like Yahoo!, CNN, Engadget, or Slashdot. I think that the problem that I might be having is that I’m not sure that I’ve ever actually read a newspaper.

Honestly, it’s not as if I’m illiterate or don’t keep track of the news. I read constantly and subscribe to RSS feeds from major news sources all of the time. It’s just that, in this day and age, I’ve never really needed to read a newspaper. I’ve never had a subscription or even picked one up at the store, café, library, or school. I suppose that this is why I’m not a fan of Times; the nonlinear format catches me off-guard. I’ve been using Google Reader since its invention and haven’t really switched since, so seeing things in a completely different layout is a bit off-putting.

Conclusively, don’t let this semi-review stop you from buying the application. For those of you who feel uncomfortable having steady streams of information flowing right at you, Dustin MacDonald has written a perfect piece of software that will give everything to you piece-by-piece, letting you skim through the headlines like you would with a physical newspaper down at the local coffee shop.

And, thanks a bunch to Glenn Wolsey at Desktop Vibes for the free copy.

I’ve been extremely busy as of late, but things are finally starting to quiet down a lot. College finals were last week (yes!) and last weekend was insanely busy because of some social engagements on Friday and Saturday, and of course Mother’s Day and my birthday on Sunday.

Speaking of which, my birthday was the best one yet. I finally managed to get a Macbook Pro, my friends were incredibly nice, got me some great gifts, and baked some awesome food. Overall, the best day ever.

So, now that things are beginning to settle, I’m hoping to get started on some summer projects (and hopefully a job/internship… email or @kfellows me with information!) while I scrape up some free time. Meanwhile, check out my constantly-updating Twitter profile, or MacFocus Magazine for some Apple-related posts. Last weekend, I took a break due to the madness that ensued in my personal life, but I’ll be getting back into things soon.

Lately, I’ve been running into many sites that just drive me completely crazy because of poor design. So, I figured that I’d go through some of the reasons here.

Seriously, what someone is thinking when he/she decides that creating an entire Flash website is a brilliant idea boggles my mind. Unless you’ve got some amazing, life-changing implementation on your site–which I highly doubt–Flash is just going to anger me and force me farther away from your site or business. Even if your company DOES offer amazing products, services, or information, how is anyone going to know that if I can’t show them? I spend a massive amount of time on my mobile phone and iPod, neither of which support Flash. I’m not going to be able to pull out any of my mobile devices and show my friends how awesome your site is, and that’s a loss to you. Designers should at least attempt to make websites viewable in any browser, and Flash is just… yuck. If your product is REALLY worth paying attention to, I don’t need crazy graphics flying all over my screen.

Secondly, I despise websites that have weird navigation bars. I’ve encountered many of these sites before, and I rarely visit them just because I hate trying to work my way though there. There should be a static navigational bar at the top of every page. Period. If it EVER changes in ANY WAY, it fails. Go back to the drawing boards, or I will never visit your site ever again. It’s not worth the headaches.

If I suddenly remember what else I wanted to share about poorly designed websites, I’ll get back to this post. But, for the moment, I’m just too annoyed to concentrate.

I listen to podcasts all of the time. My iPod’s chock-full of them regardless of what time of the week, so I figured that I might as well post some of the podcasts that I listen to regularly and why. And, for the record, these podcasts are listed alphabetically to avoid any conflicts amongst fellow fans.

Apple Universe With Daniel Brusilovsky - I highly doubt that anyone reading this blog wouldn’t know about this podcast, but I’ll describe it for any stumblers. Apple Universe is a podcast hosted by Daniel Brusilovsky that covers some of the highlights of the latest Apple-related news every week. As an Apple fangirl lacking a Mac, it’s one of the sources that I use to keep up with the latest goings-on in the Apple world and one of the many places where I keep up with general tech news.

Diggnation - Diggnation is one of the first vodcasts that I’ve ever watched, and I’m still a hardcore fan. If you’ve never seen an episode of it, you couldn’t possibly understand why I’ve kept watching for the past three years, give or take. There isn’t really another online show that comes even remotely close to it, in my opinion… but, then again, I’ve been watching for a few years strong now. I’ve invested greatly in it. Being able to sit down every week to download and watch this podcast has been one of the many highlights of my Fridays for quite awhile now. If I could, I would change the meanings of BC and AD to “before creation” and “after Diggnation” so that all dates would be measured in accordance with the introduction of the best online show of all-time… in my opinion.

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing - Yes, I know. It’s probably lame beyond words that I actually download this podcast weekly. But, if you know me AT ALL, you should really be expecting something like this from me, anyway. That is all.

Hamish & Andy - OH MY GOSH. Once again, I know that this is probably a horribly lame podcast to download every week. Except, I’ve got you corned this time. It’s a shortened podcast of a RADIO SHOW, so it’s released every week day. I listen to Hamish & Andy–the kind of radio show that I can only hope of having in the USA one day–every afternoon after school, many times while I’m working on my homework. I believe that I’ve been listening to these two guys for about a year or two now, so I’ve got quite a bit invested in this show as well.

Nerd News Radio - I ran into Kabren’s podcast about a year ago, I suppose. However, I just added the site to my never-ending list of bookmarks at the time. Now, it’s actually been added to my list of subscriptions on iTunes… congrats for making the jump! Nerd News Radio does a great job at summing up some of the highlights of the week (or part of the week) in the tech headlines, so I listen to it mainly in order to remember many of the stories that showed up in multiple feeds on my Google Reader list.

thebroken - Yes, I’m perfectly aware of the fact that it hasn’t been updated in around a year-and-a-half. Whatever. It’s so awesome that I refuse to remove it from my subscriptions. I can’t possibly give up hope that Kevin might randomly update the feed… a girl can dream, right?

The Totally Rad Show - The Totally Rad Show and Diggnation are kind-of like two siblings for me, now. I really cannot imagine having one without the other, although I still admittedly favor the older child a bit more. (That was a joke… sort-of.) Alex brings a bit of Diggnation flavor to The Totally Rad Show, Dan is like the younger kid who sometimes sounds like a poser when he swears (sorry, but it’s true!), and Jeff seems like the parent who walks around the mall with his kids on a leash, trying to keep his children from running away. This combination sounds weird, but turns out as an excellent combination when they’re constantly going off on tangents while talking about and reviewing movies, TV shows, video games, and comics. It’s an excellent addition to my Tuesday nights.

Wine Library TV - Obviously, I’m not 21. So, I obviously don’t drink. But, Gary Vaynerchuk is absolutely fantastic on-camera and is really enjoyable to watch. So, I’ll keep on watching him bring the thunder in hopes that I’ll actually pick something up from the show in the next five years.

So, this is a short list of a few of the many different podcasts and vodcasts that I keep track of. Had I written about every show, this post would have been too long for any sane person to read! I’m always looking for more interesting podcasts, though. So, be sure to let me know if there’s one that you think I’d like!

For people interested in film-making, or just people who enjoy looking behind the scenes of movies, The Set to Screen Series is an awesome podcast. I’m not into film-making — I discovered my disinterest in the production of feature-length films during a class last semester — but I’m a massive fan of Baz Luhrmann. Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! are two movies that people tend to have strong opinions of (love or hate, but little in-between) and I love them both. Romeo and Juliet is definitely my favorite play and Romeo + Juliet is the only modernization of a Shakespearean play that I’ve even remotely liked — O was just plain awful.

Still, regardless of whether or not you enjoy either titles, you have to admit that they’re unconventional twists in their respective genres. So, Baz Luhrmann is essentially the only reason why I’m even slightly interested in Australia. I’m not an avid movie-watcher, but he’s basically my favorite director. I’m a bit of a Baz fangirl, and this podcast goes behind-the-scenes of his latest motion picture, Australia.

The latest episode of the podcast shows the process behind the on-set still photography for the movie, led by James Fisher, who is just… gah. Awesome. I can’t wait for the next episode.

<rant>

People are just going crazy with proxies at school. But, really… MUST you access Facebook, YouTube, or MySpace RIGHT NOW? What’s so important that you need to log in as soon as possible? What could POSSIBLY be happening on MySpace during the middle of your social studies class, while every other one of your friends is ALSO in class, that it is imperative that you log into your account?

I can see the need for watching some videos on YouTube. Practically everyone uses YouTube now, including many educational websites. But, MySpace and Facebook? Really? What educational purpose could that possibly serve?

What I’m getting at is that people are wasting bandwidth by downloading things that serve no purpose, playing games that require faster connections, and visiting websites that are completely un-required for whatever assignment that they should be working on. It’s really annoying for people who are ACTUALLY working and ACTUALLY need a faster connection. Your super-time-wasting activities can definitely wait until you’re at home, sucking up your own bandwidth.

<rant/>

I know. It’s pretty shocking. But, at least I didn’t have to send any nasty emails or phone calls to get my point across. That makes me happy. Frank Eliason runs a Twitter account for customers to, well… erm, complain to. It’s the best customer service idea in the history of the universe, in my opinion. (For those of you who have NO idea how Twitter works, statements that begin with “@comcastcares” are written by me, and those that begin with “@katiefellows” are written by Frank Eliason.)

@comcastcares Please make sure that a connection is available during 10-11 pm and 12-1 am on weekdays. TDS and TCR are on Comedy Central.

@katiefellows We should strive for as close to 100% up time as possible!

@comcastcares Yes, but in my experience, you tend to have downtime RIGHT when The Daily Show fires up.

@katiefellows I will talk to my friends in our Houston Office regarding that

@comcastcares That’d be nice. My friends and I just CAN’T go without TDS and TCR. T 8c would be good… I can live w/o Dancing With the *’s.

@comcastcares Oh, yeah… the error screen that comes up when the cable is down says “Please Standby”. Shouldn’t it be “Stand By”?

@katiefellows I agree. That is actually programmed by TV Guide, but I will share it

Yes, Frank Eliason. Share it with the world!

In short, I don’t like it very much. But, the Adobe Media Player has some upsides, like this (click to expand):

PBS podcasts, Rev3 shows, and the original Star Trek series, all in one client. It doesn’t get much better than that… except that Comedy Central’s coming soon! Obviously, Viacom’s not handing out full episodes, but clips are a start, I guess.

The country courthouse of Cumberland Tennessee decided to turn its lawn into a public forum awhile ago, and the beyond-amazing person at itlovesyou.blogspot.com erected a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on it. Legendary.

We are lucky enough to live in a country that allows us, its citizens, the freedom of speech. I have chosen to put up a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to represent the discourse between people of all different beliefs. The many faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds of Cumberland County’s residents make our community a stronger richer place. I respect and am proud that on the people’s lawn, the county courthouse, all of these diverse beliefs can come together in a positive dialogue. Here, we are all able to share the issues close to our hearts whether it is through a memorial to the soldiers killed fighting for our country, the Statue of Liberty honoring our nations welcoming promise to all, a group’s fight to stop homelessness, or powerful symbols of faith. I greatly treasure this open forum between everyone in the community.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a pile of noodles and meatballs, but it is meant to open up discussion and provoke thought. Being able to put up a statue is a celebration of our freedom as Americans; a freedom to be different, to express those differences, and to do it amongst neighbors -— even if it is in a noodley way.

Until I saw it posted on YesButNoButYes, I assumed that this site was common knowledge. I mean, really? A site purely devoted to passive-aggressive notes? How could it NOT be? Passive Aggressive Notes.com has been on my Google Reader subscriptions for awhile now, so it’s awesome that it might finally get the glory that it deserves.