Hidden Melody

Today, I installed the beta versions of Windows Live Photo Gallery, Messenger, and Writer.  So I decide that I wanted to set my wallpaper (I use Photo Gallery as a wallpaper manager as well!) However, I did find that something was making it crash.  Alot. So this is what I did:

• I went into C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Photo Gallery
• I renamed NavTree.State, pictures.pd4, and pictures.pd5 to *.*.old.
• Then I restarted Photo Gallery.

Unfortunately, I am thinking that it could possibly be something within my Pictures folder.  Because even with the file being essentially “deleted” from the folder (which clears out your Watched Folders and resets it back to default,) it just well… crashed.  I will update this post a little later on after I take out all of my videos from Pictures (Because that could be it!)

edit: (11:33) It STILL crashes! I really do not know what to do now.  I doubt that photos can cause WLPGbeta to crash like that…. however when I looked into my Problem Reports and Solutions, I get this:

• Product
  • Windows Live Photo Gallery
• Problem
  • Stopped working
• Date
  • 18.09.2008 11:32 AM
• Status
  • Report Sent
• Problem signature
  • Problem Event Name:    APPCRASH
  • Application Name:    WLXPhotoGallery.exe
  • Application Version:    14.0.5026.905
  • Application Timestamp:    48c1b919
  • Fault Module Name:    xvidcore.dll_unloaded
  • Fault Module Version:    0.0.0.0
  • Fault Module Timestamp:    41c6a36e
  • Exception Code:    c0000005
  • Exception Offset:    096df684
  • OS Version:    6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
  • Locale ID:    4105
  • Additional Information 1:    fd00
  • Additional Information 2:    ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
  • Additional Information 3:    fd00
  • Additional Information 4:    ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
• Files that help describe the problem (some files may no longer be available)
  • Version.txt
  • AppCompat.txt
  • minidump.mdmp
• Extra information about the problem
  • Bucket ID:    933416744

I see… so XVID is to blame.  Now, why is it looking for videos…. damn.  I guess that I am going to have to move everything out of my Videos folder too?!?!

Well well well… it’s less than a week until I return to NSCC down in Truro for another year of residence, fun, memories… oh I almost forgot, studying. :)

I haven’t been doing much in terms of working on my porfolio website lately, as I have been busy with my first client, one of my dad’s friends, to work on a family history website.  Not too bad considering that this is my first time.  (p.s. -> work on a simpler way of showing downloads. kthx.)

Personally, these days I am twittering more often than I am blogging, and it’s not just me.  Maybe blogging is starting to die off.  Or maybe we are starting to see a revolution in the way that we all create blogs. Ahh, mmm, k.

But anyway, hope that everyone had a great summer! I’ll continue (at least attempt) to post twice a month.  Seems quite reasonable.  Also, now I have my twitter posts appearing here as well as side-posts. :)

Indeed.

The main reason is because I haven’t had much to say. Summer for me hasn’t been very interesting, however I did had to go down to Truro a couple of times regarding various things, as well as a couple of LAN parties, the most recent one being today.

Even though I haven’t been posting much lately, I do have my twitter feed being added to my blog.  I like this because I do twitter more often than I blog, which seems to be the case with alot of people lately.  But anyway…

I am having a little difficulty again with making my portfolio website.  I did do a great design, but however I think that I can do better.  I’ll try probably at least do another design, and decide if I want to put that to rest and redo it.  The reason?  I want to get better at designing. Right now I look at all of these portfolio sites and of course they are made by 25-35 year-olds.  I’m 19.  To me, having a nice looking (and correctly coded) website at 19 would be well… quite interesting ;)  Most people who are out there now only started around 20-23, while I started at 14-15 and even then I was learning about XHTML, and CSS, and stuff like that.  That, to me, is quite an accomplishment.

There are people in my Web Development class from Fall 2007 (last year) were pretty much learning how to do that for the first time (or so I think.)  Now, I do say that when I was first hand-coding HTML, I would not write tables.  At all.  I felt that they were difficult as heck. :p  But now, I can do it pretty well, because I eventually just started to accept tables.  However I do not use them for layout. ;)  I have NEVER coded HTML tables for layout.  Well, with an exception for a local website that I had to rewrite the whole page for, and I wanted to keep a similar look to the rest of the website.

Another reason why I want to start over again with the design.  I want to try different methods of showing the navigation, logo, and content.  So far I’ve only done top-down “HNCF” (Header, Navigation, Content, Footer) layouts. (Should I coin this term? <g>) I want to try things like positioning the logo and navigation to the left, and content to the right, or something along those lines. Perhaps this would be the time to look into different concepts and ideas, such as my previous “Coffeehouse” layout, which utilized a blackboard for navigation, and had a coffee[house]-inspired logo.  Also, this might be a great time to learn how to make my own backgrounds and effects (I’ve already figured out the half-tone effect.)

I do not know whether saying that this portfolio website is going to be two-going-on-three years in the making would be an understatement, but however to be honest, I’ve restarted this project pretty much every time I put a layout in storage.  That would be… at least 35 times.  Although I have been slowly getting better every time, and actually, the latest two layouts (”Azure Heaven” and “Coffeehouse“) have been a step up in what I had before.  I think that if I keep at this one, it’ll be another - possibly big - step up from the previous one, which I could have added a light coffeecup stain and some texturizing to the header + footer.

If anyone has any Web Design resources that they wish to share with me, there are several methods that you can reach me:

• Comment on this post, that way it can be shared with anyone
• Email me, mark.seymour@live.ca -> I check this every single day, so nothing will be missed!
• Or @reply me on Twitter -> http://twitter.com/azuretan/

Either way would be really helpful to me, as a growing Web Developer and Web Designer. It’s always interesting to see what other people find on the internet. :)