Star Trek: The Animated Series Online

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When I was a kid growing up in the eighties, in a very rural part of the country, my exposure to Star Trek was somewhat limited. I was too young to the original series that much, opting for Lost in Space reruns if they were on, instead. However, when Nickelodeon began showing reruns of Star Trek: The Animated Series
, I was very much into it.

Unlike the original series (and, for that matter, subsequent ST series), this show had very alien-looking aliens1. Though some of the stories were cribbed almost line for line from the original series, some others were new and even more fantastic than anything with live actors. My wife is a die-hard ST: The Next Generation fan and I’d venture most folks either go for the original series or TNG. The Animated Series has always been my favorite.

So I’m very excited that CBS is streaming all of the episodes on StarTrek.com.

Decent animation, good stories, and voice acting from the origonal series stars (including, the wonderful James Doohan as Arex as well as his more famous character, Scotty)

I just watched the first episode over lunch and I can’t wait to watch more with the family. Given the very different budgetary concerns of animation, where special effects are cheap but each frame costs a lot, the show has little movement in any given shot but the shots are often dramatic. In fact, rather than looking as dated as one might expect, much of the show looks like a modern flash-animated series for those very same reasons. The stories are excellent; on par with a good science fiction novel and with less techno-babble than many series in the genre suffer from2. Though

  1. I have read that part of this was Gene Rodenbury’s desire to never cover the actor’s features. He seemed to feel that a more realistic portrayal of an alien’s emotions and facial expressions was more important that make-up and prosthetics. Admirable, though there is absolutely no reason to believe that alien species would express things in the same way as us (or even have the same emotions or logic), given that pretty much no other species on Earth does.↵
  2. The jargon used in the first episode is actually all pretty sound science and very little of it is just science-y sounding filler.↵

Brave New World for Entrepreneurs

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The story of how a couple of guys used Kickstarter to raise the funds to produce a great product idea.

On July 11th, 2010, Tom Gerhardt and I had an idea for an iPhone accessory: a tripod mount that doubled as a stand. Five months later, customers began to receive our product, the Glif, in the mail. This turnaround, from idea to market in five months by two guys with no retail or manufacturing experience, signifies a shift in the way products are made and sold — a shift only made possible in the last couple years.

This is has become a darling example of how a great idea and some smart execution can leverage a flat world to make some money, and rightly so. (via Gruber)

Hacking the DITA-OT to Print Multiple Pages from a HTML Help File

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Here’s one that took a little poking around to figure out. One of the many (nay, countless) drawbacks of using HTML Help (.CHM files) is that printing from them is awful. Ideally, a user could print from the Help Viewer to get a hard copy — or at least a .PDF copy — of the manual. This would reduce the burden of trying to continue to produce .PDF deliverables for writers like myself and keep all of the help in one place for the user, allowing them to print what they need1.

The Problem

So, as a writer, I’d like to be able to style differently for the screen and for print. There are a whole host of reasons why (different readability issues, scale issues, etc.) but often as not because web browsers just don’t print everything they render for the screen. Background colors or images, for instance, don’t get sent to the printer. This can quickly go from a style issue to a readability issue.

While CSS gives the writer a fair bit of control over the display medium, good ‘ole HTML Help is right there to block you. It all works just fine when you print only the current topic. However, HTML Help offers this wonderful little feature which allows you to print the current topic and all child topics (for example, the Chapter heading and all contents of that chapter). Sounds great, right? Except for how it is implemented breaks all links/references between files.

Print Topic dialog in HTML Help Viewer

The Print Topic dialog: The cause of all this trouble.

That’s right. Hyperlinks? Broken. JavaScript? Not only broken, but will now present big, scary error warnings to your user2! And CSS? Completely busted.

You see, when you select this option in HTML Help, Windows copies all of your files (conveniently renaming them, thus breaking links between your topics) into some temporary folder and them concatenates them into one long HTML file, which it then prints just as it would have the single topic file (minus all of the CSS, scripting, and other things I, as a the writer, spent weeks on).

The Solution

Fortunately, we can use one of Windows’ other oddities to combat this one. That is, the very strange behavior of .CHM files in the file system. For some insanely odd reason which I cannot fathom, Windows simply doesn’t care about the folder where a .CHM file was placed. Upon opening it, it sends it to some other place where directories and folders don’t exist and you simply only need to call for the name of the file and it will locate it no matter where it is on your machine.3

So, where we would have put a relative file path within the .CHM file’s internal folders, we will use the MS-ITS syntax call to bring it forth! There is no place safe for these temporary print files that Windows creates due to it’s own absurd behavior.

Now, obviously, this all applies to any HTML Help file, not just one created using the DITA Open Toolkit. However, I’ll show you some of the extra know-how it takes to pull this off from within you’re authoring tools if you’re using DITA. Some other help authoring tools have options to correct for this4.

The Hack

  1. Create a new style sheet for use with print display or simply use an @media print { } block to add print-relates styles to an existing style sheet. You can reference the same style sheet multiple times in the same HTML file with (apparently, in HTML Help Viewer, at least) no ill effects.

  2. Locate the XSL file responsible for adding the <head> contents into your HTML files: dita2htmlImpl.xsl

    For example, for XMetaL, this file is located in C:\Users\<user.name>\AppData\Roaming\SoftQuad\XMetaL Shared\DITA_OT\xsl\xslhtml\, where <user.name> is your Windows user name. On older version of Windows, AppData is Application Data and this is usually a hidden system folder.

  3. Near the end of this long XSL file, you’ll find a number of <xsl:template>s, one of which is used to generate links to CSS files.

    Hint: Just do a search for the string "text/css".

  4. Go to the end of this Template (the </xsl:template> line) and add the following link:

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="MS-ITS:<your.filename>.chm://<file.path>/<stylesheet.name>.css" media="print" />

    Where: <your.filename>.chm is the name of the HTML Help file you’re generating. Note that you’ll need to update this file for any different output filenames you generate, unless you want Windows opening up some random .CHM file every time the user clicks Print.

    <file.path>/<stylesheet.name>.css is the relative file path and stylesheet name inside the HTML Help file. If you really just aren’t sure, grap a copy of 7Zip and use it to peek inside your .CHM (it can read them just like a .ZIP file; awesome thing to have in your toolkit).

I’m fairly certain this concept can be applied to the issue of <scripts>, as well (though I haven’t gotten it to work thus far). However, it will never fix the issue of hyperlinks between topics as this system of concatenating files into a temporary file irrevocably breaks those links. You can’t do a one time read this file back in the source .CHM for that issue.

A huge credit goes to Yuko Ishida who sent the key to this over to Helpware.net. I should also point out that this hack was tested in HTML Help Workshop v 4.74.8702, Windows 7 64-bit, XMetaL Author v5.5, and DITA-OT v1.2.

  1. In engineering, it is occasionally necessary to print off some of the technical reference or methodology sections of design software documentation for clients.↵
  2. God only knows we’ll get calls about viruses on this one…↵
  3. Truly, this has the potential to wreak havoc should you have two or more .CHM files of the same name on your local drive. However, for the most part, it is completely invisible. I can assure you, I have oodles of copies of various .CHM files with the same name and I only recently learned about this Windows weirdness.↵
  4. MadCap Flare, for instance, has an option to correct the appearance of multi-page printing for .CHM files which I’m fairly certain does the same thing as I describe here.↵

Printing in iOS With Your Old Printer

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The feature that I (and I’m sure, many) was most looking forward to in iOS 4.2 was printing. Apple advertised this as one of the main features and, having used Bonjour to configure many a printer in the past, I looked forward to actually being able to use it. Bonjour is Apple’s nearly-zero configuration utility for sharing resources (mostly printers) among computers on a network. It is one of the best examples of Apple’s it just works motto. If you’ve never tried to configure a printer on a network then you can’t really appreciate the special level of Hell from which this little technology saves you.

Not having any printers makes my iPhone sad.

So, despite this, I was upset that Apple had all but canned printing in the final release of iOS 4.2. Oh, sure it works with a handful of new HP printers. However, I wasn’t really interested in purchasing a fancy new printer when I have an old HP that works just fine, thank you very much. I am holding out hope that this is a matter of not releasing the feature until it really does just work. Regardless, it seems like a half-baked way to put a feature out there. I had even told friends that they should consider buying an iPad because printing would becoming soon. I’m not looking forward to explaining the rest of the story to them (as they are not really techies and are likely to simply blame me).

Fortunately, there are a couple of nice mac utilities that can at last bridge the gap for our household (an OS X computer which is on and shares a printer): Fingerprint by Collobos and Printopia by Ecamm Network. I downloaded a copy of Fingerprint (free seven day trial which allows you to ensure it works with your network & printer). Open the application, select my shared printer, and then print from my iPhone 4.

That’s it.

The Fingerprint utility window. Not really much else to show here, actually.

Zero configuration. It simply uses Bonjour to tell my iPhone that there is a printer available. I select that printer and set the number of copies I want. All other settings are just the default for the printer (so, no grayscale printer, for example). I can also save to my desktop or DropBox folder in .PDF file format, which is great for saving and sharing things which I don’t really need tp keep a hard copy. Fingerprint even includes the capability send it your print job to iPhoto, which is a nice touch. In fact, that is how I transferred all the iPhone screenshots for this post.

Note: Apparently, Printopia does all these things as well (minus the iPhoto bit) for a couple of dollars more, so I chose Fingerprint. However, Printopia is nice in that it is added to the System Preferences panel instead of being a separate application.

The printer options screen and printer selection screen once Fingerprint is running on any machine on the same network.

Fingerprint is $7.99, which is a lot cheaper than a new printer and easily worth it for our household to have this feature. The application has in-app purchasing and licensing if you decide to purchase and they accept credit card or PayPal.

We still do print things from time-to-time and having that ability on our iPhones (and iPad, someday… right, dear?) is awesome. Because Apple may never release this for just any old printer. They really aren’t known for supporting legacy hardware, after all.

Here’s a video of how simple printing in iOS is, once it works:

Printing in iOS 4.2 using FingerPrint from Jason Coleman on Vimeo.

The Hyperion Cantos

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Last night, I finished the final book in Dan Simmon‘s epic science fiction tetralogy1, the Hyperion Cantos. My immediate reaction to the series’ conclusion was that I only want to read it again. They are just that great of a read.

In fact, if anyone who knows me had read these previously and didn’t recommend them to me, we are no longer friends. I am sincerely angry that I didn’t read these as soon as they were published (though getting to read the whole series back-to-back is at least some compensation). I spent a portion of my college years looking for more novels like Frank Herbert’s Dune and, as it turns out, Dan Simmons was writing them at that same time.

In spite of my significant and legitimately earned geek-cred.2, I have to confess a lack of knowledge when it comes to some of the high literature of science fiction. I have done my best and was raised well3, but I had decided that I needed to really educate myself on scifi and fantasy literature. So, I added any Hugo or Nebula winning books to my audiobook wish list at the library. By luck, Hyperion happened to be one of the first that was immediately available.

I didn’t have to get too far into that book to see that it was going to be something special. Oh, at first, it seemed like a science fiction version of Chaucer, but I’m pretty sure Chaucer didn’t have a Shrike; a creature describe with such terrible details that actually found myself looking over my shoulder at night. Something can be said for any book that can elevate your heart rate.

And though the Shrike thing is undoubtable why many are attracted to the book, it is the sense of mystery and promise that something lies deeper. The reader quickly senses that there are layers here; that the story is unfolding in something other than a straight line. In fact, throughout the series, we learn that the events aren’t even simply parallel but truly nonlinear.

Simmons uses various writing styles and literary devices, but always with a sense of purpose. When it I first feared that Simmons was simply exercising, it would later see that whatever device was in play served the story rather than some writer’s need to experiment. What’s more, there is a real sense of closure at the end that can only come from a writer’s long planning and effort. Though at times, Simmons could have left a little more to the imagine of his reader rather than grab them by the collar and shake them, I never felt a sense that he forgot the previous events in this epic.

What’s more &emdash; and this is where I feel that the Hyperion Cantos is closest to the Dune series &emdash; is that even though this is an epic journey, with events spanning a millennium and detailing the evolution of the human race, the story focuses on a few key figures and remains a personal story of their journey. Journey, in the Hyperion Cantos, is a word which Simmons also embues with every meaning possible. Again, what feels like something which could have started as a creative writing exercise is place in perfect context to serve a greater story. I must not be alone as this is a series where each book was nominated for notable literary awards, with three of the novels winning one or more awards. Though this is truly a book that has all of the trappings of science fiction, the personal tales are the elements which make it great. I can tell you with no sense of shame that there were moments that brought tears to my eyes.

So, if it is clear: go read these books if you haven’t. I won’t be the kind of friend who doesn’t recommend them. And, if any of you have any similar recommendations for me, you’d better make them now before I find them on my own. Else, we’ll be having words, my (former) friend.

Which reminds, me I need to get back to my library list and see whatever great gems are out there that I have missed, including some others by Simmons.

  1. Though, it seems that Simmons feels these are really two novels, broken apart for publishing.↵
  2. Seriously, I throw down with you nerds any time. I was born a nerd and ain’t no Johnny-come-lately to this stuff just because skinny guys with iPods are cool.↵
  3. Some of my very first memories are of hobbits sneaking into Mordor, as my mom read Tolkien to my brother and me.↵

AutoCAD on the Mac

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Autodesk recently announced they will be shipping AutoCAD 2011 for the Mac (and iOS) sometime in the next couple of months. I think this is great move for them. Perhaps this relys a bit much on some old stereotypes of Mac vs Windows users, but I see this is Autodesk’s greater push beyond their traditional users into the more “creative” roles (the implication being that artsy-fartsy types use Macs). With their establishment of their Media & Entertainment vertical in 1999 and subsequent acquisitions, particularly that of the animation platform Maya in 2005, they have become a major player in visual creative services. While AutoCAD (or any 3D CAD platform for that matter) isn’t a traditional tool of many creative types, that doesn’t mean that it won’t find some interesting applications.