DZine-Studios

Off To Baruch

Dan — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:42:32 +0000

My summer vacation’s nearly over, and college begins on Thursday. I’m going to Baruch College, to get a BA in Business Communication (graphic design, basically). I attended the orientation yesterday, got my schedule, my bill, ID Card, and a bunch of passwords. My schedule is pretty rad, school from Monday to Thursday, with Fridays off. I begin school at 9am on Mondays and Wednesdays, and at 11am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It ends at 3:45pm every day, which is cool. I don’t have to get up too early, nor stay too late. I also have two hour breaks on nearly every day, as well as 15-minute breaks between classes. I got the wifi password, so now I can surf the internet (mostly Facebook) all day, haha. Unlike most students who groaned when they got their bills, I was like “fuckyeah!” when I saw mine, because I got a Pell grant that paid my entire tuition. All I have to pay for are books.

To celebrate this new step of my life I also ordered an iPhone 4 online on Sunday, and it’ll be here tomorrow. Life is good.

Good Designers Complete, Great Designers Discard

Dan — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:42:12 +0000

Recently while redesigning Z-Up (It’s still a mess), I realized halfway through the process that my design didn’t fit the branding of it at all. See, for Z-Up, I used the whole cardboard box metaphor, representing the files that one can upload onto it. For my “redesign” of it, I started going for the whole airmail envelope look, with the diagonal stripes on the borders. Yes it looked pretty, but I soon realized that it just did not go with the branding I had established for Z-Up. It was poorly thought out, and done on a whim, with little thought to how well it works for the brand.

After mulling it over for a while, I made the decision to completely discard what I had done so far and start anew, this time taking the branding into consideration. Yes, it was quite painful to just toss away hours of work (it took a while to get the borders right, and they still didn’t quite align), but it was a move that had to be made. Being a great designer doesn’t only mean making pretty layouts— it’s knowing when to discard parts of/entire designs if needed, for the purpose of making the end result even better. Sure, this is a step backwards in the redesign of Z-Up, but I think it’ll benefit it more in the long term.

Plus, having Z-Up look like an airmail envelope would be quite confusing to newcomers; they might associate Z-Up with email, because an envelope does not imply storage, whereas a box does.

Outdated But Still Effective

Dan — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:55:21 +0000

I used to wonder who in the world still used Windows DOS anymore. Well in my past and current jobs I’ve seen it being used in a number of places where you wouldn’t expect to see it. It’s used in McDonald’s and Burger King, as well as for telemarketing. In fast food places, the cash registers and order screens are all based on it. In telemarketing, DOS is used to display the scripts as well as for inputting information. At first I was struck by the thought “wow this shit’s outdated…”

However, as I worked in those environments, I came upon the realization that the reason some businesses haven’t upgraded from DOS is because it simply works. It doesn’t require a powerful computer, is very reliable, and workers can’t waste their time playing solitaire— because the systems only do one thing. For entering textual information, there just isn’t a better way than DOS. I spent a bit of time thinking about “better” solutions, and I honestly couldn’t think of any. Mac OS X and Windows are good for a multitude of uses, but when it comes to single-purpose machines, DOS is still relevant.

Plus, using a command line in DOS at work makes me feel all 1337.

Hooray For America?

Dan — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:56:49 +0000

So today’s Independence Day here in the US. It feels a little odd to be celebrating America when our president isn’t even close to being American. Personally, this holiday meant a lot more to me back when America was better, and not overrun by these liberal assholes.

The fourth of July has pretty much become “grill and get drunk day,” but hey at least the fireworks promise to be somewhat entertaining.

Typing this on my iPod Touch in the WordPress app while sitting in Hudson River Park with my girlfriend napping on my lap. Yay for free wifi.

Call Me Old Fashioned, But..

Dan — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:57:31 +0000

I’m sticking with using my own, self-hosted WordPress-based blog. All the youngsters and even some professionals have gone over to microblogging, with services like Tumblr. Sure, it may be convenient (having the whole theme in one .html file sounds extremely tempting), but it doesn’t give me that same satisfaction I get from running everything on my own server. Plus with WordPress, I can completely change anything I want, even on the backend.

Exercise

Dan — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:37:30 +0000

It’s a word that conjures up images of torture, sweat, and boredom. And it’s more complicated than ever now. Apparently exercises now have levels, breaks, rest days, and sets. Almost sounds like a bad video game.

I have a better idea for all those exercise fanatics out there— go to the nearest ghetto, shout a racial slur as loud as you possibly can, and run as fast as your lard legs will take you. While being shot at by dozens of angry ghetto people, weight loss will quickly disappear as a concern. Luckily for me, I never have to deal with it, because I can eat fast food all I want and still stay in my weight.

Done With High School!

Dan — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:41:00 +0000

On Thursday, June 24th, 2010, I graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School. All I have left to do is pick up my diploma and report card on Monday and I never have to go back to that prison ever again, awesome. I’m going to Baruch College, but before that, I have a summer to enjoy.

I might be getting a job for the summer, which would be great, because I need some money. As my graduation gift, I’ll also be getting an iPhone 4. I was going to go get it on Monday, but instead I’ll wait until the screen and reception problems are fixed. Plus the 16gb iPhone is nearly out of stock, and I don’t feel like waiting hours in line. Guess I’ll just suck it up and wait another week or two.

Z-Up is going to receive a minor facelift, and ads will probably be added, to help pay for the cost of domain names. It’ll still look nice and the ads won’t be obtrusive at all. I upgraded WordPress to 3.0, so far nothing seems too screwed up, but if you find something messed up, do tell me. I’m still getting used to the lighter look of the WordPress backend, but no big changes other than that.

Now back to uploading amateurish photos onto Flickr.

If You Have A DSLR…

Dan — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:08:00 +0000

A good idea would be to set the mode to automatic when you let a friend use the camera. Sure you might know how to work the camera and all of its elite features, but not everybody does. I came upon this conclusion when I was looking through my camera’s memory card earlier today. Out of 136 pictures, about 50 came out decent, and those were the ones I took. It’s a small tip, but it could save potentially photo-worthy moments from being ruined by a technically inept friend.

Lame

Dan — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:54:44 +0000

So apparently this is the new design of all new plates registered in NY state:

Not only does the new plate design look remarkably similar in color to several other states’ designs, it’s also fucking ugly as shit, with a color scheme that’ll clash with any car color. C’mon NY, are we too broke to even afford a decent graphic designer? So far in 2010 I’ve filled your pockets with about $250 in fines, surely you could afford a better designer. Oh wait you’re all too busy pissing our money away on lap dances and hookers.

Anonymously Degenerating

Dan — Sun, 16 May 2010 03:03:23 +0000

Now the internet has come up with several stupid trends before (streaming every second of your life on camera, updating the internet about your bowel movements, etc.), but this one takes the cake in all-out stupidity and senselessness. The trend I’m talking about is anonymous. It first got major in anonymous forums such as 4chan, but now it’s grown to be quite widespread.

You have websites like Omegle, Chatroullette, and Post Secrets, where you can talk to random people, webcam with random people, and share your secrets with random people. What they all have in common is anonymity, as well as pointlessness. I don’t see the appeal in talking to complete strangers, especially on webcam. What’s worse is that Chatroullette is full of douches and morons jerking off on camera. Nobody needs to see that.

What happened to actually going outside and socializing with real people? The internet’s great and all, but c’mon people, we’ve got to draw the line somewhere. What’s also fucked up is that people use these anonymous online services to harass people, whether it be verbally or sexually. They do it because they know that there’s little risk of getting in any trouble. Just curse the other guy out and click next, that’s what it’s all become. This has spawned a whole new generation of internet shit-talkers, who act all high and mighty behind the computer but are total pussies in real life. Go outside and talk to real people, you spineless cunts.