Ok, so apparently my grasp on the term “a few days” is a little rough. It may just come from feeling like I’m writing for an audience of one (me). I suppose I’d be a little flattered and a little mortified if I found I had a larger audience.

Anyhow, on to the actual content, such as it is. I’ve been spending a fair amount of time reflecting on the palette display and editing. First, a quick photoshop mock-up of my thoughts.

The buttons up top would show up on each color on rollover, allowing selecting a different color, duplicating or removing that color. Removing was bumped to the right since that’s a fairly common standard and gives it a a little room to prevent accidental deletion. There would be a plus button to the right of all the colors to allow adding also. The palette would also vary a lot from the current setup, in that it would be shown and edited in its own window. That’s going to introduce some window management issues, but it feels important to me. There are still a few issues I’m debating about (editing the name of the palette for example), but I’m getting there.

No timeline promises, I’d just miss it at this point anyhow. Hoping to move from mock-ups to coding soon. Maybe I’ll even get more posted up here. Life is full of surprises though, so…

When I released ColorBrowser it got way more attention than I expected. Adobe featuring it on the AIR 1.0 install thank you page had a lot to do with that. It’s surprised me in continuing to generate interest though. Which makes me feel even worse about having basically abandoned it. So, it’s time to mend my ways, onward to 2.0. I’m trying to move forward without overwhelming myself and dropping the ball again. Here’s my to-do list for this version:

• Allow full import and export of ASE files.
• Re-work palette editing and display.
• Allow further export formats.
• Clean up and tighten the UI.
• Walk through the process here.

I’m looking for a few benefits from posting here during the process. It’ll provide some accountability since my commitment is now public. I’m also hoping to learn some things myself from breaking down the process as I go through it. If someone else gets some benefit from it, even better. Next up – some UI mockups on the display/editing of a palette. Look for those in the next few days.

Sunrise, originally uploaded by •Aaron Leavitt•.

Well, I haven’t done great reviving this blog. So, in order to move forward here’s something rather different. Trying out some variations on my photos. We’ve got some sunflowers just starting to bloom in the backyard (a little late, yes). My wife was nice enough to act as my VAL (voice activated light-stand). This is late evening, flash bounced off of our umbrella above and to the left. Just loved how it turned out.

I’ve been thinking about a number of topics to write on. Topics relating to photography, design, programming, or even writing (as awkwardly meta as that is). I had a realization though, through all of these there’s a sort of thread, and challenge. The better and more comfortable I become the more difficult it is to maintain the ability to have the spontaneous, wonderful accidents that can happen when you have no idea what you’re doing.

I’m always striving to figure out what my voice is (cliché, yes, but true), and I’m starting to realize that it’s impossible to find without venturing out from time to time and exploring the edges. I find it easy to sit in the center where I’m comfortable, but the most exhilarating experiences happen when I’m a little off balance, pushed a little harder than I like. So I’ll walk out of the house for the day with a lens on my camera that I don’t usually use. I’ll shut off the computer and sit down with a pen and paper to write. I’ll try a new language. Something at least a little off my well worn path.

I think as paradoxical as it sounds, when I schedule time or an activity to break my routine it lets me grow directions I wouldn’t have otherwise. Stagnation can certainly easily be mistaken for comfortable efficiency.

I’m not even sure a “reboot” I the appropriate term. It’s a bit debatable that I had a solid “boot” to begin with. I tried to restrict my writing, or just address topics that I thought my audience would like. A silly exercise when there’s not really a particular audience. I’ve gotten some attention from the wallpapers and textures I’ve made, but I can only generate so many of those with my busy schedule.

Going forward my intent is to use this ase a sounding board of sorts on whatever topic catches my fancy. Yes, tech, the occasional wallpaper, the fleeting interesting (ooh, shiny!). I’m mostly looking to write more and catalog my thoughts, if others are interested that’s wonderful, but not the real point. Which is how it should have been at the start.

We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve put some work into my bit.ly application (I’m calling it Bit Pile for now), and I’ve got some screenshots from it to show. It still needs some work, but most of the functionality is there. I’d like to add mass import and export at some point, but those functions haven’t made their way in yet. Here’s the first shot (I’ll get to the others after the break).

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I’ve been playing around with the APIs for bit.ly a bit, and started mocking up a little application. Here’s a quick screenshot, I’ll outline my ideas afterward.

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