More regular visitors will notice a change of theme here at rich-porter.com. The more astute will also that i have reclassified the category system to make the most of a theme with an obvious categories tab. Previously I had been using around 10 categories which had been poorly maintained and a bit too specific to sensibly contain any real content baring in mind that there are still less than a couple of hundred posts here. I’ve been posting less and less in recent times, due to a mixture of being “too busy to post” and put off by the structure of things here. I hope revitalising and opening this up again will encourage me to document more as there is a lot of interesting stuff (my opinion!) which isn’t making it online at the moment.
I’ve also noticed that there are quite a few posts here that lack direction or specific information. Usually a collection of thoughts in mid-formation. I’ve decided that despite qualifying as poor examples for those “how to blog better” websites, not to delete them as they do provide insight into my life at that time and show progression. It’s crazy to think that I have had this for around 3 years now. Life has certainly changed a lot in 3 Years.
The new categories are as follows
Found
For blog posts, Youtube/Vimeo videos, and entertaining information I find on the world wide web. Despite not having any luck getting the XML to play nice with my tumblr account I will still be endevoring to share my favorite bits in this category.
Work
Does what is says on the tin really, photos and write-ups from my video projects at work.
Play
Almost everything else. Photos and stories from my “play time” and personal life that i feel important or interesting enough to want to share with the world. Infrequently my rants (like this one) turn up on here which prove to be massively therapeutic and mildly offensive. Hopefully i’ll be keeping those away from the blog in future, but for the moment and for classification purposes they’ll be staying in the play category as they’re almost always commentaries on current events in my life.
Tech
Tech was an obvious category for a number of my previous posts to drop into, and something i would like to expand on. It would be great to do some more review type pieces on the technology that i am using at work and at home to make my world keep turning. However it is a major concern as to how many fantastic tech review blogs there are out there already. Reputable ones which get preferential treatment from manufacturers for demo models and specifications. I’ve no way or interest in competing with those guys, but comments and thoughts on what work’s well for me will start popping up more often. Additionally as i get more involved with the OpenFrameworks and Arduino communities I hope to add some “How-to’s” and diagrams. A further category may spring up to keep the gratuitously geeky away from the main content and casual readers.
Back when i was talking about a new journey I’d found OpenFrameworks and decided i wanted to be able to add it to my video programming toolbox along with After Effects and Final Cut Pro
Albeit a minor success, I’ve reached that first landmark all programmers have to step over in the effort to get to grips with a language – Hello World!
Most would say laughable that i’m proud to be here, but it’s been a crazy few weeks for distractions (see recent blogposts and flickr uploads) and a mini journey getting a feeling for C++ and OpenFrameworks. I began with C++ for dummies, which i’ve absolutely promised myself i will one day finish. However i needed a quick and (not quite so easy) success to keep me focused. Programming Interactivity by Joshua Noble is my book of choice and I’m enjoying wading through that. It’s well written and makes quite a complex subject very accessible, has also introduced me to Processing and Arduino.
I’ve bought myself an Arduino, and have started playing around with the hello world (flashing LED) code for that. No doubt you’ll be hearing more on that when we get round to creating robots!
In my ongoing effort to restore my online presence the observant of you will notice that there’s now a new page on rich-porter.com
The Tumblr page has an embed of the exciting things I’m sharing on my tumblog. For those of you who don’t know it, Tumblr is well worth a look. I’ll be using it when a fully fledged blog post isn’t required but still want to post a link, video or photo found on the world wide interweb. I’ve had my tumblr account for a good 3 years now but have very rarely posted to it. Recently however ive been looking for a way to share the snippets i find online and hope that the embed will be a good solution. This should keep everything in one place.
UPDATE: The page looks like crap. Having trouble formatting the CSS, mostly because i don’t speak CSS. Suggestions on a postcard please.
UPDATE 2: Forget all that, i’ve just no patience with web programming. As much as you developers will tell me it’s easy, i’ve just not got the interest. The page is coming down.
Also twitter has returned as a favorite platform. Recent “tweets” can be found in the column on the right hand side and to follow the action add me at www.twitter.com/richx2004
Finally, the one other area of my online life that won’t be sensibly embedded at rich-porter.com is my google reader shared items feed. that can be followed at http:
Having laid off the REALLY geeky stuff for the last few months (amidst fears i may have only be able to communicate in serial numbers) its about time i come back to the fold and start another seemingly insurmountable project of geeky nature.
Despite being a fully paid up card carrying geek, I’ve never learnt a proper programming language. Whilst there’s enough code swimming around in my head to satisfy the occasional dalliance with the After Effects expressions or install a few programs in Ubuntu, real proper programming as always been avoided like the plague. The plan (albeit a fairly ambitious one) over the next few weeks is to try and get a grasp on C++ with the express intent of making the most of Openframeworks. Its a brave step towards being able to create fully interactive video.
Look at the kind of projects its been used on already:
In a bid to re-conquer my digital life, its time to show the blog a little more affection and stretch my social networking muscles. First of all, the excuses. As previously discussed (on many an occation) blogging about why i’ve not been blogging is at best dull. However in this instance i’m going to use it to plug some photographs.
So life’s been busy! There’s been some mountain biking in the lake district, drunkenness back home, a very busy spell at the office (including more geeky photos of equipment), a road trip to Brussels, and a holiday in the Alps for some more Biking!
Exciting stuff, and more than enough justification for a little break from the interweb.
However, although the 3w’s have welcomed me back into their warm familiar arms, certain stern words have been had with an old acquaintance.
Twitter.
You see really, i spoilt it for myself being a nice guy. Swept up by those who’s main life project involved getting as many followers as possible i found myself suffering a little twitter guilt and firing out a few too many courtesy follows. Foolishly flattered that people might be interested in what I’ve to say, the courtesy follow filled my stream with a few too many whom i knew nothing of, and have far to much nothing to say. So after a cull of twittererers (what’s the word for someone who uses twitter?) i’m hoping ill find my twitter stream a much more inviting and informative way to channel my procrastination.
I’m not quite sure i’ve got quite this bored of twitter yet (infact i’m still pretty hooked) But i couldn’t help laugh at this post here.
Incidentally you might be wondering where the link is ? Have a little hover over the ‘here’ and you’ll see. Since the switch to the new wordpress theme, my links have been appearing in the same typeface as the body text. A couple of pints to anyone who knows enough about CSS to help me change this. I’m USELESS at web development!
For those of you who follow me on twitter you’ll know i’m not going to russia in the end, however my equipment is on the boat. Boo! For those of you who aren’t in the loop add me! More updates soon
I’m back in Paris at the moment (twice in 3 weeks) which in general is a good experience. The photos will come soon, whenever i get chance to sort them out. But a much much greater concern is the way that some websites behave when you’re abroad. This has been driving me nuts. Places like Google, Netvibes and the itunes store all set your language based on your location. That is they’re all in French at the moment. Now whilst this might be a handy way of configuring a multi-language website from the developers end, its totally frustrating as a user! Although i might be based out here, i still certainly can’t speak the language! Anybody with any tips ?
Image from 
Time for another change
More regular visitors will notice a change of theme here at rich-porter.com. The more astute will also that i have reclassified the category system to make the most of a theme with an obvious categories tab. Previously I had been using around 10 categories which had been poorly maintained and a bit too specific to sensibly contain any real content baring in mind that there are still less than a couple of hundred posts here. I’ve been posting less and less in recent times, due to a mixture of being “too busy to post” and put off by the structure of things here. I hope revitalising and opening this up again will encourage me to document more as there is a lot of interesting stuff (my opinion!) which isn’t making it online at the moment.
I’ve also noticed that there are quite a few posts here that lack direction or specific information. Usually a collection of thoughts in mid-formation. I’ve decided that despite qualifying as poor examples for those “how to blog better” websites, not to delete them as they do provide insight into my life at that time and show progression. It’s crazy to think that I have had this for around 3 years now. Life has certainly changed a lot in 3 Years.
The new categories are as follows
Found
For blog posts, Youtube/Vimeo videos, and entertaining information I find on the world wide web. Despite not having any luck getting the XML to play nice with my tumblr account I will still be endevoring to share my favorite bits in this category.
Work
Does what is says on the tin really, photos and write-ups from my video projects at work.
Play
Almost everything else. Photos and stories from my “play time” and personal life that i feel important or interesting enough to want to share with the world. Infrequently my rants (like this one) turn up on here which prove to be massively therapeutic and mildly offensive. Hopefully i’ll be keeping those away from the blog in future, but for the moment and for classification purposes they’ll be staying in the play category as they’re almost always commentaries on current events in my life.
Tech
Tech was an obvious category for a number of my previous posts to drop into, and something i would like to expand on. It would be great to do some more review type pieces on the technology that i am using at work and at home to make my world keep turning. However it is a major concern as to how many fantastic tech review blogs there are out there already. Reputable ones which get preferential treatment from manufacturers for demo models and specifications. I’ve no way or interest in competing with those guys, but comments and thoughts on what work’s well for me will start popping up more often. Additionally as i get more involved with the OpenFrameworks and Arduino communities I hope to add some “How-to’s” and diagrams. A further category may spring up to keep the gratuitously geeky away from the main content and casual readers.
Photo by Marc Arsenault