June 26, 2011 New Skitch plugin for Storytlr
In the past, I have typically used the Scrnshots service to publish screenshots and user interface designs. It has a simple and intuitive user interface, a nice feature set, and a decent community. The downside is that it’s basically unmaintained and often suffers from serious performance problems. The official Scrnshots desktop software and API have both sadly stagnated in permanent beta status. I started building a desktop client for Scrnshots with PyGtk a few years ago, but didn’t have time to really advance the project because Gwibber was growing in popularity and taking much of my free time.
When I started using a Mac as my main desktop computer earlier this year, I decided to stop bothering with Scrnshots and simply use Skitch. Their client software is the best desktop capture tool I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. It is very configurable and supports a number of different destinations for image publication, including their own service, Flickr, or any SFTP server.
When I set up a Storytlr stream on my website last year, I wrote a Scrnshots plugin for Storytlr so that all of my screenshots would show up on my website. I recently wrote a similar Storytlr plugin that adds support for Skitch. It polls a Skitch user RSS feed and grabs information about recent images that the user has published and configured for public viewing. The images will show up as thumbnails in the user’s Storytlr stream, along with titles and captions. Clicking the thumbnail will take the user to the Skitch page for the image.
I published the source code of my new Storytlr plugin on GitHub. It’s in my own custom Storytlr fork, but could probably be merged into the Storytlr mainline without much difficulty if somebody wanted to do so. You can see an example of what a Skitch entry in Storytlr looks like in my personal Storytlr stream.
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- Posted under Development
June 1, 2011 New blog and other website changes
The previous version of my website was built around Storytlr, an open source lifestream framework that pulls in data from a variety of different sources. It works well, but its lightweight built-in blogging capabilities are a bit limited.
I decided to set up a real WordPress blog on my website alongside the lifestream. I configured my Storytlr installation to suck in the WordPress blog entries so that they will still be displayed in the lifestream just as they were before.
I have also restructured the website so that the content is organized better. The lifestream is located at stream.phault.net and the blog is located at blog.phault.net. The main seg.phault.net destination is now a simple landing page with links to the other components of the site.
Tags: Wordpress
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May 27, 2011 The Wall of Cthulhu
I recently purchased a limited edition print by Florian Bertmer that depicts the eponymous alien entity from Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu. The piece was originally created for the Required Reading show at Gallery 1988, which featured posters inspired by literature. Bertmer sold 60 prints of the gallery edition on the Internet through Moon Editions. They sold out very quickly, but I managed to secure one to hang on the wall of my home office.
That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.
I really like limited edition science fiction posters, but I rarely buy any myself. The serious collectors tend to accumulate these things as an affirmation of their commitment to fandom. It often takes luck or significant effort to snag a popular piece before the supply is completely depleted. On several occasions in the past, I’ve taken a liking to a particular print for sale from a vendor like Mondo but found that it was already sold out by the time I decided to actually make the purchase.
When Moon Editions put up Bertmer’s Cthulhu print, I didn’t hesitate for an instant. The piece was absolutely perfect for me—one of my favorite stories rendered by one of my favorite artists. I fell in love with it immediately and decided to buy it for myself as a birthday present. It arrived right around my birthday, but I was in Chicago at the time and didn’t get a chance to open it up until the weekend when I returned home.
It arrived in perfect condition and looks amazing. The detail in the image, particularly the intricate curvature of the vines and tentacles, is stunning. Bertmer’s style is influenced by Giger, but has some Art Nouveau flourishes that make it truly distinctive. The Cthulhu poster is darker and less flamboyant than some of his other works. The lettering and structure of the composition give it the rich feel of a vintage science fiction book cover.
I had it framed at Aaron Brothers and chose gallery-style glass so that it wouldn’t pick up too much glare from the lights in the room. I selected a subtle black wooden frame and a nice olive green mat that really contrasts nicely with the dark colors of the print. I hung it on the wall opposite of a framed poster print of Dali’s Moment of Explosion.
Now that I have a Great Old One adorning the wall of my home office, I think I’m going to keep an eye open for more Lovecraft-themed artwork so I can start building a collection.
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- Posted under Art