Mr. Computar [Archive] - MostlyCloudy Bulletin Board

dnl2ba

06-08-2005, 11:09 PM

some really awesome Greasemonkey scripts (http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/greasemonkey-and-business-models/)

Examples:

From any book-viewing page on Amazon, see prices at other book stores
Save Gmail searches, like "mail from Joe" or "mail from within the last week, with Blah in the subject, with an attachment"
Make any text box bigger
Turn any text URLs on a page into links
Tons more (http://dunck.us/collab/GreaseMonkeyUserScripts)
If you don't know what Greasemonkey is, Greasemonkey lets you install Greasemonkey scripts, which can extend existing sites' functionality by running 3rd party JavaScript as if it were part of the existing site. You need to install the Firefox Greasemonkey extension (http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/) to be able to install Greasemonkey scripts.

There's an alpha version of Greasemonkey for IE (http://www.daishar.com/blog/archives/2005/03/greasemonkey_fo.html), but no bets that it'll work. Consider that most scripts will be tested for Firefox only.

Hey IE users (which I think is almost all of you), we (http://www.reifysoft.com/)'ve now developed Turnabout (http://www.reifysoft.com/turnabout.php), an IE plugin that'll run user scripts. A lot of the scripts written for Greasemonkey need to be adjusted to be cross-browser, but here's a few useful ones that've been ported already (http://www.reifysoft.com/turnabout.php?p=g). PLS TRY IT OUT LET ME KNOW HOW IT GOES THX

deevan

06-09-2005, 04:08 PM

Sorry. :P Using the fox.

dnl2ba

06-16-2005, 07:58 AM

If you use Firefox, get Greasemonkey.

My Search Term Highlighter (http://www.reifysoft.com/projects/turnabout/scripts/SearchTermHighlighter.user.js) script now works a lot better-- it only highlights if you came from a search engine, so you don't get highlighting in random, unrelated pages. (I only figured out how to do this recently. Didn't realize JavaScript had access to the referrer URI.)

I've updated Linkifier (http://www.reifysoft.com/projects/turnabout/scripts/Linkifier.user.js) to work better for each email addresses (it now works if there are periods in the username part) and URLs (now ignores punctuation surrounding a URL).

I've also written a couple scripts I think most people will find very useful, but they're not public yet. We'll bundle them in our upcoming consumer version of Turnabout, as opposed to this sort of developer preview that's available now.

deevan

06-16-2005, 05:37 PM

I'll do that when I get home tonight. Can't at work... :(

dnl2ba

08-22-2005, 01:08 AM

Marcin Wichary interviews John Gruber about Mac OS X UI (http://www.guidebookgallery.org/articles/interviewwithjohngruber)

Wichary does GUIdebook (http://www.guidebookgallery.org/), the UI gallery.
Gruber is the guy behind Daring Fireball (http://daringfireball.net/) (Mac site).

dnl2ba

08-25-2005, 12:10 AM

Gmail preview bubbles (http://persistent.info/archives/2005/08/20/gmail-preview-bubbles) - requires Firefox + Greasemonkey

Wasn't written to support Internet Explorer + Turnabout, but it could probably be ported.

dnl2ba

09-11-2005, 02:38 AM

One million of Windows Vista versions (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050910-5298.html)

dnl2ba

09-20-2005, 07:16 PM

Opera (the web browser) is now free (http://www.opera.com/) with no ads.

If not Opera, then I recommend Firefox for Windows users. They have very different approaches: Opera includes the kitchen sink, while Firefox says you can download the kitchen sink (https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/?application={ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}) when you decide you need it.

Since many of you do some web development, you really have no excuse not to install it if only for testing your sites.

There are diminishingly few sites that support IE only (often things like corporate intranet applications). My bank and credit card company used to support IE only, but I noticed a year ago that Firefox started working on their sites.

schally

09-22-2005, 12:25 AM

Thanks for the tip re: Opera. I like it. The "O" logo makes me think of Oprah or Overstock.com, though.

I just now discovered that you can customize your own Google homepage. A+, if I do say so myself. It's pretty much the most convenient thing ever.

dnl2ba

11-06-2005, 08:04 AM

New Yahoo Maps Beta (http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/) - done in Flash, not JS like MSN Virtual Earth (http://virtualearth.msn.com/) or Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/).

The places of interest (like search for gas, coffee, whatever) turn up a lot of false positives for me.

dnl2ba

11-15-2005, 10:51 PM

Google will pay you $1 for every Firefox + Google Toolbar download referral (http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2005/11/11/push_firefox/) using AdSense Referrals (https://www.google.com/adsense/referrals)

Holy crap! How did I not see this till now? It was announced on the 8th.

Google hired all the main Mozilla developers some time back. Rumor says they're going to use Mozilla's cool web technology (SVG support and XUL for building rich interfaces with an XML dialect) to build their next generation of rich web applications... which will only work in Mozilla browsers like Firefox.

FF 1.5 is supposed to come out today. It adds Canvas support (http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=6461) (for vector graphics), E4X (ECMAScript for XML to make it easier to manipulate XML documents), and SVG.

dnl2ba

11-28-2005, 02:27 AM

dnl2ba

11-29-2005, 12:14 AM

Single-letter second-level domains (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-letter_second-level_domains)

The rest were reserved, but will be available for purchase soon (http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-5974204.html?part=rss&tag=5974204&subj=news).

dnl2ba

11-29-2005, 12:43 AM

Writing username (at) company (dot) com does fool most spam address harvesters (http://news.com.com/FTC+study+says+spam+filters+are+improving/2100-1033_3-5974200.html?part=rss&tag=5974200&subj=news)

dnl2ba

11-29-2005, 07:49 PM

Oops, I didn't mention this?

Tahoma is getting replaced by Segoe UI as the new Windows UI font (http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2005/11/23/1921)

I don't like it aesthetically at small sizes (it's kinda busy for a sans serif font) and the l and I are too similar.

dnl2ba

12-01-2005, 04:35 AM

Firefox 1.5 is available from mozilla.com (http://www.mozilla.com/).

dnl2ba

12-02-2005, 08:38 AM

Learn Ruby (the programming language) with these simple tutorials using only your web browser (http://tryruby.hobix.com/)

Neat! Does enough hand-holding that non-programmers can get through it, though I dunno how much they'd retain.

The Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) homepage has been redesigned.

schally

12-04-2005, 05:49 AM

I want to replace my old site with one that is more professional-looking. I want to try doing this with pure-CSS (yes, I'm abandoning tables; I'm sure Matt will be pleased).

I want to try something different than the standard three-column blog-esque layout. Here is an idea I'm throwing around:

The color and tree are just an example. Mostly I wanted to try the white rounded boxes that extend to the edges of the page. I kind of like the idea of all that white space surrounded by color. Another possibility might be trying to do transparent boxes with some kind of image--clouds, whatever--and a white background. But I dunno about transparent boxes. Anyway.

1) What do you guys think about a layout based on this? Ugly, ambitious, what?

2) Would I need to have a three column layout with the boxes within, or should I skip the columns completely? Right now I'm playing around with putting boxes inside columns, but I just started doing that and I don't really know what the hell I'm doing yet.

dnl2ba

12-04-2005, 06:59 AM

Do the graphic design before thinking about how to implement it. Draw it on paper. The web standards militia spends all day talking about beautiful code. While it's true that maintainability is important (if it's too hard to maintain, you won't want to do it), you're not doing it right if you're not getting the design you want. Frankly, I think your body donor layout was much more innovative than "white round boxes on a colored backdrop," which is neither pretty nor novel.

Look around at a lot of really (http://www.mikeindustries.com/) hot (http://www.p01.org/news/latest_news/) sexy (http://www.apple.com/) sites. Very few are boxed in. Okay, the content is in boxes... but the edges are all white or some light color. It feels open and clean. Throw in uniformly cased, widely spaced titles in sans-serif fonts and some glossy-looking icons, and you've got the look all the cool kids are into these days.

Cameron Moll design portfolio (http://www.cameronmoll.com/portfolio/web.html)
Suspire Media portfolio (http://www.suspiremedia.co.uk/)
Odeo (http://www.odeo.com/listen/featured/) - I like this because they make liberal use of hot pink without making it girly. It's gender-neutral, IMO, though it definitely feels young.
This is Cereal (http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/057/057.css&page=0) - My favorite CSS Zen Garden design. Try it in anything other than IE6.

Would I need to have a three column layout with the boxes within, or should I skip the columns completely? Right now I'm playing around with putting boxes inside columns, but I just started doing that and I don't really know what the hell I'm doing yet.
Don't let them get you thinking about columns all day just because they do. CSS sites always talk about columns because some sites need columns and because they're hard to do in CSS. Do you have content that makes sense in 3 columns?

I saw you discovered CSS Zen Garden, since I have your Delicious feed in my Firefox live bookmarks. They kinda cheated by adding extraneous elements all over the place, which really helps when you're trying to use CSS background images for every damn thing since the CSS spec that IE implements basically only lets you apply 1 image per element (no generated content, no border images). In the real world, dynamically infinitely scaling boxes with images for each corner are hard to do without adding extraneous markup. Thankfully, they aren't that useful, either. Content can only get so wide before it hurts legibility. (Optimal width for newspaper-size type is somewhere around 4" wide. CSS has an "in" unit for inches, though you're not guaranteed it will actually come out as that many inches on a user's monitor.) Infinite height is often desirable, but that's easier. If you have some box you want with infinite height, fixed width, and rounded corners, assign 1 image to the heading element (H2 or whatever) and one to the encapsulating box.

Check out this sexy design (http://www.rakaz.nl/nucleus/) in anything but IE6. That whole "faded background image under the content" thing still hasn't lost its appeal to me after several years of playing with it, and you can accomplish it in IE6 too as long as you don't need the BG image to follow scrolling.

My personal page needs a redesign, too. It doesn't reflect my current tastes.

ohvermie

12-04-2005, 05:15 PM

I'm not feeling it. I think mostly because of the picture of the tree. Unless you took the photo yourself, there really isn't much purpose to it. It's just kinda like a generic tree. Also, since the tree image does not spread past the image area, it looks even more lame. I'd have the image go across the entire page, but that kinda keeps you at a certain vertical height. Also, I think you're trying to show the solidarity of the tree, and with the image cropped off like that you don't get that feeling.

Also, the boxes as Matt was saying are not very nice. They're just so boring, white box with text.

But what do I know...my sites were never really much to look at...

dnl2ba

12-04-2005, 05:46 PM

She DID say the tree was just an example.

ohvermie

12-04-2005, 08:27 PM

She DID say the tree was just an example.

::shrug::

Reading comprehension -20. :(

dnl2ba

12-10-2005, 02:09 AM

Yahoo acquires Delicious (http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/2005/12/yahoo.html)

dnl2ba

12-10-2005, 04:32 AM

The Delicious blog had other neat stuff, too:

Delicious Firefox extension (http://del.icio.us/help/firefox/extension) (any of you weiners still using IE or a browser that uses IE like Avant or Maxthon?)
Active Channel favorites synchronizer for IE (http://del.icio.us/help/activechannel)
Embed your Delicious tagroll (http://del.icio.us/help/tagrolls) into your website
Use PlayTagger (http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/2005/11/we_rock_part_2.html) to make any MP3 link playable right in the page (it'll embed a tiny Flash player)
Tag stuff for other users (http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/2005/07/tags_for_two.html) with the "for:username" tag syntax

schally

12-10-2005, 10:28 AM

I was thinking about putting up an rss feed of new delicious bookmarks in the footer or something, but actually, I think I like the tagroll better.

dnl2ba

12-10-2005, 11:06 AM

Well, the downside to the tagroll is that it's not apparent when you've added new stuff. If you're like most people and use the same tags pretty consistently, it'll basically never change, and there's no real incentive to click anything.

I'm much more likely to click "Jack Thompson gets beaten up in a bar" than "video_games (53)."

What else are you thinking about your site now? I'm kind of tempted to do something just as a tech demo (since a lot of the people who find my resume via search then check out my web page), like showing off my new awesome JS skillz, but there isn't really any content that could make use of it. Galleries, maybe... but then I'd need to rewrite the server-side gallery thingy too.

schally

12-10-2005, 11:33 PM

I'm not totally certain. I have little ideas that I'm piecing together.

It will be writing-centric. Not just my writing, but other people's. I liked the idea of having an rss feed of my delicious links at the bottom, which basically just shows whatever current shiny bit of the Internet has my attention. I'd like to have a "book I'm currently reading" type thing--maybe a thing that has the title, the cover, and a blurb about it.

I want to have a blog-esque updating thing but I don't really want to use LiveJournal and I haven't decided how else to go about it. I'd like for people to be able to comment on updates if they want, but it's not a huge concern for me at the moment.

Mostly I want to make a nice, tidy page using CSS and stuff because it's fun and I'm tired of all of my old stuff.

schally

12-11-2005, 01:23 AM

This is the idea I'm currently playing with. I should take back what I said before because I'm incapable of tidy design. I have a cluttered mind.

Years ago I had an idea for a "all paper" gms layout that utilized scotch tape, paperclips, doodles, and general desk clutter. This is like that, only less insane.

The icons would just be uniform boxes linking to mc and whatever else. Feeding delicious would cover whatever other off-site linking; the feed would probably be at the bottom of the clipped paper.

Pages within the site would need a different style; probably something much simpler, like a semi-weathered sheet of paper near the middle of the screen with a staple in it or something. Or, I guess, the rejection note could just be removed for those pages so it's a black space.

The letter is based on publisher form rejection letters. That's the cropped version--the original has all manner of stains and tears you can't even see in that.

dnl2ba

12-11-2005, 01:38 AM

Neat. I just wonder what you'll do if the page scales... or will it just cut off at some point? If the right-side image is just a decoration, it might be fixed-position (can even slide under the post-its for narrow screens).

dnl2ba

12-12-2005, 09:34 PM

Firefox 1.5 (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/releases/1.5.html) is supposed to launch for reals this week. I'm using 1.5 RC3 right now. The most noticeable change, besides being able to reorder tabs, is the turbo-speedy back/forward action, since it's caching the fully rendered page now. I think Opera has done this for a while, but I can't stand Opera's UI.

The new JS Console actually includes things like CSS and XML parsing error messages. Neat! I just wish I could disable certain categories of stuff (and I don't mean errors vs. warnings, etc., since everything seems to be an error anyway), or enable it only for whitelisted sites (the ones I'm working on).

Firefox Canvas demo: "Canvascape" (http://www.abrahamjoffe.com.au/ben/canvascape/) (think Faceball)

Ars Technica article (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051127-5634.html)

Firefox 1.5 for developers (http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Firefox_1.5_Beta_for_Developers)
So now that Firefox 1.5 is released, I hope you've all downloaded it (http://www.mozilla.com/)! Even for those of you who prefer IE (or something else) for browsing, you have to get it if you're a web dev.

There's now a textured version of Canvascape (http://www.abrahamjoffe.com.au/ben/canvascape/textures.htm), and it'll supposedly work in Opera 9 Preview. I wonder if performance will improve with subsequent releases, or if 3D + textures is doomed to suck when written in script. Or maybe the browser could provide a 3D engine. I understand that <canvas> and SVG are supposed to be for 2D stuff, so the Canvascape author is doing all the 3D himself using 2D drawing APIs. The code contains a .getContext("2d"), so that suggests that the API at least accounts for 2D vs. 3D, even if 3D support isn't there yet.

I wonder if there'd be use for a Flash-to-<canvas> utility, since basically everyone has Flash installed now and it's had a lot of time to mature as a development platform. Still sucks for accessibility, though (e.g. for a computer to read it, like for a search engine; or for blind people, so their screen readers can tell them what's going on; if you don't have Flash installed for some reason; etc.).

IMO, the world is shifting toward markup-based UI for everything (observe Microsoft's XAML + Expression (http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/demos.aspx) for Windows Vista, Mozilla's XUL, and SVG-- which admittedly never got traction). Is script-based UI in <canvas> a step backward? Now, it's based off of Apple's <canvas> element for Dashboard (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/), and I recall hearing you could make Dashboard widgets with HTML + Javascript, which is similar to XUL (which doesn't use HTML, but some other ML). So it's odd that the <canvas> examples I've seen don't use HTML. And also, Flash did script-based UI, and it took off because it provided a nice GUI for developing Flash stuff. Maybe that's what <canvas> needs.

<canvas> in Opera (http://annevankesteren.nl/2005/12/canvas) - Anne van Kesteren (an Opera employee)
This <canvas> demo (http://annevankesteren.nl/test/html/canvas/demo/002) works in Firefox 1.5, too.

prodos

12-12-2005, 11:07 PM

I don't understand your comments on Dashboard <canvas> vs. other <canvas> examples. Isn't <canvas> and HTML tag and thus you are inherently using HTML when you use it?

dnl2ba

12-12-2005, 11:28 PM

Yes, but my questions / musings are about whether the content drawn therein is described with markup vs. script. In the <canvas> examples I linked, everything is drawn with script just like in Flash ActionScript (as opposed to all markup, like old-skool HTML with formatting tags).

XAML includes structure as well as formatting, plus I think style sheets sit on top of all that.

prodos

12-13-2005, 01:04 AM

Oh, I'm pretty sure even in Dashboard everything is drawn with script as well. Dave Hyatt's original description of <canvas> was:

Another extension we made to HTML is a new element called the canvas. This element is essentially an image element that supports programmatic drawing.

I don't know about it being used to implement a full UI however. Have you found any examples that use actual mouse clicks? I would imagine that the javascript onClick element still works for it, but I don't know if you can determine what coordinates the mouse was at when it was clicked.

dnl2ba

12-13-2005, 01:29 AM

Okay, so that's probably just how <canvas> works all around.

How funny that Mozilla supports all of XUL, SVG, and <canvas> now.

From my own post (http://mostlycloudy.net/forum/showpost.php?p=4688&postcount=24) on page 3 (http://mostlycloudy.net/forum/showthread.php?t=13&page=3):

Google will pay you $1 for every Firefox + Google Toolbar download referral (http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2005/11/11/push_firefox/) using AdSense Referrals (https://www.google.com/adsense/referrals)

Holy crap! How did I not see this till now? It was announced on the 8th.

Google hired all the main Mozilla developers some time back. Rumor says they're going to use Mozilla's cool web technology (SVG support and XUL for building rich interfaces with an XML dialect) to build their next generation of rich web applications... which will only work in Mozilla browsers like Firefox.
There's a handful of XUL applications already out there, but (presumably because of no IE support) nothing prominent using any of those big rendering technologies. What it'll probably take, if'n you don't want to wait for everyone to adopt a Mozilla-based browser, is for some killer app-- maybe a simple game like Bejeweled, or some multiplayer whatsit-- to be available only in SVG or something that supports <canvas>, so you get people downloading Firefox or Opera just to play some game their friends are playing.

prodos

12-13-2005, 01:34 AM

Like I pointed out though, <canvas> is designed purely for graphics output, and pretty limited support for user input. So I expect potentially high use from the graphics weenies and the demoscene that enjoy using it to create crazy art and perhaps some reincarnations of keyboard-driven games like Doom... but I think mouse interaction is almost none, which is what you'd probably want for any modern sort of app. You might be able to layer DHTML on top of it so that the graphics and the HTML change at the same time... that'd be pretty nuts, but I don't see that method of creating web apps as being any easier than straight up Java or Flash, so I'm not sure why you'd choose to do it.

Do SVG and XUL have support for mouse interaction?

Also, since Doom is already in the works, how long do you think it'll be before someone writes an implementation of Linux for it... you know it's coming.

dnl2ba

12-13-2005, 01:52 AM

I think SVG is purely for rendering, but like <canvas>, it could be driven by a JS/DHTML UI. Actually, come to think of it, I could swear I played with some demo with a slider bar... but I've probably seen like 2 SVG demos in my entire life, so I don't want to try to sound authoritative.

Apple Dashboard seems to support user interaction just fine.

XUL is specifically for UI: XML User interface Language. The Firefox UI is written in XUL.

Edit: XUL doesn't have any slick arbitrary vector rendering tied in AFAIK, but I would be surprised if none of this neat stuff Mozilla's up to doesn't culminate in some sort of competitor to Flash and XAML. There's been a trend toward simpler programming languages for a long time, and now it's hitting UI. Makes sense; lots of us UI guys are comfortable with markup and simple programming, but don't want to muck around with Swing and WinForms and shit. That was the rationale behind Sparkle, according to a Channel 9 video I saw a while ago.

XUL vs. XAML (http://www.xulplanet.com/ndeakin/archive/2003/10/27/) (Oct 2003)
xul:js:mozilla :: xaml:c#:ie/longhorn (http://www.devx.com/DevX/Article/17899/0/page/2)

Oh yeah, almost forgot Laszlo, a proprietary system for converting some XML dialect to Flash.
(http://www.xulplanet.com/ndeakin/archive/2003/10/27/)

prodos

12-13-2005, 07:49 PM

Well the dashboard UI is done entirely though HTML/JS... the <canvas> element was just to make certain compositing jobs easier, like the analog clock applet. Before canvas you'd have to have a different image for every possible set of hand positions, but with <canvas> you can rotate and composite the hands to be in any position want.

So I guess what I'm saying is, I don't see <canvas> and SVG as threats to the markup-based UI trend. All the UI is still done in markup, unlike Flash

dnl2ba

12-13-2005, 10:26 PM

Well, there's also the possibility of tie-in, i.e. use markup or style sheets to "call" vector rendering methods. You can already call script with CSS selectors using IE Behaviors (http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/behaviors/overview.asp) and Mozilla XBL wrapper + Behaviors (http://dean.edwards.name/moz-behaviors/). (Dunno about Opera and Safari.) So for example, you could say any element that matches "div#blah img.foo" should be resized as soon as it's loaded.

dnl2ba

12-15-2005, 05:04 AM

Google widgets (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/build-your-own-google-homepage.html) - for your Google Personalized Home

Is ColorJunction based on an existing game?

BTW, I'm not the Matt M. from Mountain View who made the clock widget. :p Must be my doppleganger. I'll have to kill him.

dnl2ba

12-21-2005, 09:37 AM

Hey, go to www.yahoo.com in Firefox. Does a message at the top appear and tell you how to set Yahoo as your Firefox default search thingy? Seems they set a cookie so it only shows up on the first visit.

dnl2ba

12-21-2005, 09:34 PM

Dell 3007WFP 30" LCD available January 5, 2006 (http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/21/the-dell-3007wfp-to-drop-jan-5th/)

No word on pricing yet, but everyone's guessing it'll be cheaper than Apple's $2500 30" LCD. (I think it was the 2005FPW that was the same panel as some Apple LCD, but it was $500 instead of Apple's $1200 or something like that. The Apple 20" is now down to $800, which is better but still overpriced.) Plus, it has better specs:

same 2560 x 1600 resolution, but 700:1 contrast ratio over 400:1, 11ms over 16ms, and 400cd/m2 brightness over 270

dnl2ba

12-22-2005, 03:04 AM

Google Personalized Search - Trends (http://www.google.com/psearch/trends) - check out your own browsing habits

Whew, I'm just glad nothing, uh, unpalatable cropped up in mine. The worst was some Lil Kim lyrics in top clicks because I was using that page to test my search term highlighter script. (I must've found it in the first place by trying something like this (http://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+licks+does+it+take+to+get+to+the +center+of+a+tootsie+roll+pop&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official).) Some of my searches were probably borne out of weird things I found in the MostlyCloudy access logs, e.g. "mostlycloudy nipples (http://www.google.com/search?q=mostlycloudy+nipples&hl=en)."

Top searches
1. dnl2ba (http://www.google.com/search?q=dnl2ba&hl=en)
2. sbl (http://www.google.com/search?q=sbl&hl=en)
3. how many licks (http://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+licks&hl=en)
4. test (http://www.google.com/search?q=test&hl=en)
5. weather 94087 (http://www.google.com/search?q=weather+94087&hl=en)
6. ie blog (http://www.google.com/search?q=ie+blog&hl=en)
7. undersaur (http://www.google.com/search?q=undersaur&hl=en)
8. stocks:SBL (http://www.google.com/search?q=stocks:SBL&hl=en)
9. sixx mixx (http://www.google.com/search?q=sixx+mixx&hl=en)
10. javascript date (http://www.google.com/search?q=javascript+date&hl=en)

Top sites
1. msdn.microsoft.com (http://msdn.microsoft.com/)
2. www.w3schools.com (http://www.w3schools.com/)
3. www.mozilla.org (http://www.mozilla.org/)
4. en.wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/)
5. www.mostlycloudy.net (http://www.mostlycloudy.net/)
6. www.w3.org (http://www.w3.org/)
7. www.devguru.com (http://www.devguru.com/)
8. www.quirksmode.org (http://www.quirksmode.org/)
9. www.php.net (http://www.php.net/)
10. www.azlyrics.com (http://www.azlyrics.com/)

Top clicks
1. dnl2ba :: home (http://www.mostlycloudy.net/%7Ednl2ba/)
2. GreaseMonkeyUserScripts - An Unnamed MoinMoin Wiki (http://dunck.us/collab/GreaseMonkeyUserScripts)
3. LIL' KIM LYRICS - How Many Licks (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/lilkim/howmanylicks.html)
4. JavaScript String object (http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_obj_string.asp)
5. Sending XHTML as text/html Considered Harmful -*- Mode: text ... (http://www.hixie.ch/advocacy/xhtml)
6. JavaScript RegExp Object - Using Regular Expressions with Client ... (http://www.regular-expressions.info/javascript.html)
7. JavaScript Date Object (http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_obj_date.asp)
8. Party Ben - The Sixx Mixx is Sixxtacular (TM) (http://www.partyben.com/downloads/sixxmixx.html)
9. axentric. a web designer's “tackboard”. (http://www.axentric.com/posts/default/7)
10. Rune Word Catcher (http://dclone.eskysse.com/rwcalc.php)

The "text/html considered harmful" thing is there because I look that page up every time I want to copy the crazy escape string for JS or CSS in XHTML.

dnl2ba

12-22-2005, 03:19 AM

Holy crap! Foxpose (https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=1457) is like Mac OS X's Expose (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/expose/), but for Firefox 1.5+. The hotkey is Ctrl+Shift+X (not customizable yet).

Not as sexy (the resized images look kinda gross, and it's not very fast), but does the trick.

dnl2ba

01-12-2006, 11:32 PM

Meebo (http://www.meebo.com/) - IM over the web
Supports AIM/ICQ, Jabber/GTalk, MSN, and YIM.

schally

01-13-2006, 02:49 AM

I wonder when Trillian will have GTalk support. I noticed they have plugins for Jabber, but I guess you have to have Trillian Pro to use 'em.

Do people still use ICQ?

dnl2ba

01-13-2006, 02:58 AM

I have a few people on my contact list with only ICQ, but I dunno if they might also have some other protocols. Unified clients like Trillian make protocols basically irrelevant between those of us who use the unified clients.

Do you really know anyone who uses Jabber/GTalk exclusively (i.e. can't talk with them with Trillian non-Pro) and doesn't look like Comic Book Guy?

dnl2ba

01-14-2006, 01:42 AM

The origin of the Mac command key symbol (http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Swedish_Campground.txt)

It's difficult to come up with a small icon that means "command", and we didn't think of anything right away. Our bitmap artist Susan Kare had a comprehensive international symbol dictionary and she leafed through it, looking for an appropriate symbol that was distinctive, attractive and had at least something to do with the concept of a menu command.

Finally she came across a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground.

dnl2ba

01-19-2006, 12:13 PM

Gmail gets a delete button (http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_whatsnew.html)

It's not in my account yet.

schally

01-20-2006, 02:32 AM

I saw that when I checked my e-mail a minute ago and wondered if I'd somehow been missing it all this time. A+. Saves me an extra mouse-click.

dnl2ba

01-26-2006, 09:19 AM

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=x%5E2+%2B+4x+-+16+%3D+32
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=killers
more (http://search.msn.com/docs/help.aspx?t=SEARCH_PROC_FindFactsNStatistics.htm)

Neat!

GOOGLE YORE DAYS ARE NUMBARED. AFAICT, Google had "one-boxes" first, but everyone's catching up. I appreciate the music samples linked directly from the search results, as opposed to having to click through a few pages first like you do on Google. OTOH, Google has content from any number of music stores, whereas I think MSN just provides stuff available from the MSN music store. Only one recognized Godspeed You Black Emperor as a band (http://www.google.com/musica?aid=A5taD4923MB&oi=musicr).

Edit: Hey, the MSN music playlists won't even load in Firefox! Okay, back to Google...

schally

01-27-2006, 02:41 AM

Never turn your back on Google, soldier. It's a jungle out there.

ohvermie

01-27-2006, 01:33 PM

Google will kill your children and steal your uterus if you betray it. Yes, it's that spiteful.

dnl2ba

02-01-2006, 07:43 AM

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview available for download (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/default.mspx)

dnl2ba

02-03-2006, 10:56 PM

Why doesn’t Mozilla display my alt tooltips? (http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/faq.html#alttooltip)

Came up because IE's Dave Massy apparently doesn't think there's anything wrong with IE's behavior (http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.InternetExplorerProgrammingBugs). I think technically, he's right-- nothing in spec says a browser shouldn't show the alt attribute value as a tooltip-- but the Mozilla rationale is reasonable to me, and that's why I've been exclusively using the title attribute for tooltips.

The IE developers are kind of between a rock and a hard place for this, though, because lots of web pages (including things like IE-only corporate intranet apps) rely on IE's current behavior. Changing behavior, e.g. IE7's updated CSS support, can be a reason for whole companies not to upgrade their browser and to stick with the old one for years and years.

When IE added support for the W3 box model, they handled the backward compatibility issue with doctype switching (http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/about-boxmodel.htm)-- so the new rendering rules were "opt-in" (if you want standards-compliant rendering, include the appropriate doctype) and old pages would be unaffected. IE7 doesn't have any way to opt in; things like CSS hacks (e.g. the "Holly hack," where you use a selector like "* html #foo" to apply only for IE/Win and IE/Mac) will go kaboom and authors will have to find a new way to apply IE-only rules.

dnl2ba

02-07-2006, 07:52 AM

Did a "chats" folder just appear in anyone else's Gmail account?

dnl2ba

02-07-2006, 12:00 PM

Did a "chats" folder just appear in anyone else's Gmail account?
Gmail Chat (NYT) (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/technology/07google.html?ex=1296968400&en=94d57a25d17db102&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)

Mr. Kamangar said Gmail Chat would be available Tuesday to an unspecified number of Gmail users, and to all users of the system by the end of February.
So it sounds like Meebo (http://www.meebo.com/) will have some Ajax IM competition. Meebo's advantage is that they let you use your existing AIM/ICQ/YIM/MSN/Jabber/GTalk handle, whereas Google only handles Jabber/GTalk. But Google's advantage is that everyone's already using Gmail, so all the have to do to entice you is add a contacts list to your Gmail account. You don't even need to go out of your way-- you'll just notice your friend is online and decide to IM rather than write an email.

Can't recall where I saw a screenshot (or mock-up?). It showed a contact list in the lower left and a floating message window that was dangling in the lower right. The message window had a "pop-out" link for opening it in a separate window. Meebo doesn't do that yet.

Edit: Oh yeah, I just clicked the Chats folder in Gmail and then clicked a help link (http://mail.google.com/mail/help/chat.html) to get to the screenshot.

IIRC, Meebo launched in October or November, while this screenshot appears to be at the end of November or soon after.

dnl2ba

02-07-2006, 12:11 PM

While we're talking about Google... I just looked at their widget directory (http://www.google.com/ig/directory) to see if there's anything new, and the Orkut Birthdays thing caught my eye. Hey James, it's Jess Lee! Doesn't work in IE, though.

prodos

02-07-2006, 07:08 PM

Ha! I thought she was still at Intuit... I'll have to email her and ask if she's aware of her celebrity status.

dnl2ba

02-07-2006, 08:37 PM

I forget if it was Jess or Filip who accepted an offer at Intuit, but never actually showed up because (s)he accepted a job at Google immediately after. I think that was Jess, and I think Filip worked briefly at Intuit and left... or maybe it was the other way around.

You should address her as Jackie Law.

schally

02-09-2006, 12:37 AM

Google Chat is pretty cool, however, none of my hometown compadres use gmail due to the fact that they're all fucking illiterate, so I probably won't get much use of it.

Still, it's nice.

dnl2ba

02-09-2006, 12:42 AM

Wait, is it in your account? I only have that "Chats" folder.

dnl2ba

02-10-2006, 05:33 AM

I have teh Gmail Chatx0r :cool:

dnl2ba

02-10-2006, 01:37 PM

Logo 2.0 (http://flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022) - Web 2.0 logo collage on Flickr. Note the prevalence of bright (and multiple) colors, gradients, and gloss, compared to Web 1.0 logos (think Yahoo, Google, EBay, PayPal, etc.).

Swoosh logos (http://www.thestreet.com/tech/internet/986150.html) (TheStreet.com)

schally

02-12-2006, 01:52 AM

Don't use Google Desktop (http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1895,1925079,00.asp)

schally

02-12-2006, 02:14 AM

A friend of mine recently installed Norton Internet Security and now she can't use IE--she always gets a long wait followed by the error message:

Network Error
Unable to request URL from host www.comcast.net:80 through proxy server etc...

Along with a list of connections that were refused.

Other applications have no problem accessing the Internet with the exception of AIM.

She uninstalled Norton and the problem went away, but when she tried to install the Staples' brand antivirus program instead the problem came back.

She's got AdSubtract on her computer and I think that might have something to do with it. I'm going to recommend that she start using Firefox instead of IE (she's really worried about spyware) and I'm going to suggest that she try disabling AdSubtract... I think it may be a problem with her Hosts file, but I really hope not. I've never used AdSubtract before so I'll have to look at it myself. Hopefully it's just a simple matter of fiddling with the options.

Have any of you seen this before? If so, any suggestions?

dnl2ba

02-12-2006, 08:44 AM

I've heard of an issue with IE7 vs. security programs, but not IE6.

dnl2ba

02-16-2006, 09:03 AM

Concerned that Firefox 1.5 is hogging memory? Here's how to "fix" it (at the expense of Firefox performance) (http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/009749.html)

dnl2ba

02-17-2006, 11:17 PM

Web standards war horses like me don't need CSS cheat sheets, but I still got a kick out of Specificity Wars (http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/archives/css_specificity_wars.html) (cheat sheet direct link (http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/archives/images/specificitywars-05v2.jpg)).

dnl2ba

02-18-2006, 08:49 PM

Try my Google Personalized Home module, the To-Do List.
Get To-Do List (http://www.googlemodules.com/get/443/)
Source XML (http://mostlycloudy.net/%7Ednl2ba/subpages/gdir-test/tasklist.xml)

schally

02-18-2006, 09:20 PM

Ha, nice one. Thanks, I'm gonna use it. Having post-its and white board notes all over the place only works half of the time.

dnl2ba

02-19-2006, 06:13 AM

Whoops, looks like mine isn't the first (http://www.googlemodules.com/?q=list&mode=showSearchResults). The one by Rafael Lima (http://www.googlemodules.com/module/42/) implements the next thing I wanted to do, server-side password-protected data. (Mine saves to cookies, so you can only get your items on your current PC. OTOH, mine is much faster than his since he makes his module wait for the server response at every turn.)

dnl2ba

02-23-2006, 07:14 AM

Regex visualizer (http://osteele.com/tools/reanimator/)

prodos

02-23-2006, 04:50 PM

Awww, but it doesn't do epsilon-NFAs.

dnl2ba

03-01-2006, 06:55 PM

MS Virtual Earth tech preview - drive around Seattle or SF (http://preview.local.live.com/)

Sort of like A9's street-drivin' thingy (http://www.amazon.com/gp/yp/B00046VDEW/002-9851277-2183261?v=ypglance&n=3999141). I always have a hell of a time finding how to use A9's feature, though-- it's not apparent from their normal maps.

dnl2ba

03-03-2006, 07:16 AM

Google web authoring statistics (http://code.google.com/webstats/index.html)

Neat!

Whoever's doing the commentary is obviously a web standards snob, though. I sympathize, but I'd like to see him/her go over the Google search markup... :p

The graphs are in SVG rather than plain images. When I tried viewing them in IE, IE tried valiantly to get some Adobe SVG plugin, but failed, and I was left without graphs. Thanks, web standards!

prodos

03-03-2006, 04:00 PM

Those aren't just any old SVGs... it tried to start some Adobe thing in Safari too, which has its own SVG and PDF support... wtf.

dnl2ba

03-03-2006, 09:55 PM

Designing Against a Degrading Experience (http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/03/02/542118.aspx)

What do we see more often in the real world? Toolbars everywhere--floating over the document, floating outside of the window, docked to the side, sometimes even docked above the menu bar. The menu bar itself tends to get dislodged through an unfortunate click or two and ends up docked to the left side or even floating. In short, the longer and harder people use Office, the more messed up their UI gets.

The reason? Current versions of Word or Excel or PowerPoint tend to reveal more and more of the UI as you go, and seldom does that UI get put away. So, because someone used a picture once, the Picture toolbar is floating, but everything is grayed out because there's no picture in the document. And the reviewing tools are up. And the Table toolbar. And Mail Merge. And Drawing. There are tiny icons everywhere.

But when we ask people why these toolbars are up, they don't know and the top question we get asked is "is there some way to close these without losing the features?" People are worried that they won't be able to find the tools they need again once they close a toolbar, so they just defer to keep it open, using up space (or covering their document) even though they hardly use the features in question.

schally

03-04-2006, 02:24 PM

Do you guys know if there's any kind of Firefox extention or something that will let me know when there are unread replies on the forum?

I just went on a Firefox binge and got a some useful extensions but I didn't see anything like that when I was browsing. It's not a must-have, but it might keep me from absentmindedly clicking my MC link whenever I'm working at the computer. By the time I'm seventy it might save me a couple of hours of my life or something.

dnl2ba

03-04-2006, 06:22 PM

What we need is a feed that shows the latest posts rather than the latest threads.

deevan

03-11-2006, 03:13 AM

What we need is a feed that shows the latest posts rather than the latest threads.

Some sort of feed, like, in the lower right hand corner? :eek:

dnl2ba

03-11-2006, 03:30 AM

I... wait, what?

dnl2ba

03-14-2006, 07:57 AM

LiveJournal ads (http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/236361.html)

So there were 2 tiers:
Free, basic features, no ads
Pay, extra features, no ads

A 3rd tier is coming soon ("not for another month or so"):
Free, extra features, ads

schally

03-15-2006, 01:26 AM

Well, that seems pretty reasonable. I guess the only extras that apply to the average Joe are extra icons and... uh... extra icons? Oh, and page customization.

dnl2ba

03-16-2006, 04:49 AM

Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character? (http://www.cerado.com/web20quiz.htm)

Marc at O'Reilly Radar says (http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/03/star_wars_or_web_20.html):

I may be the only person who has worked at both O'Reilly and Lucasfilm, so I had an unfair advantage when taking Cerado's "Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character? (http://www.cerado.com/web20quiz.htm)" quiz. I account for missing two out of the 43 questions due to laughing so hard while taking it.
I got 36 by assuming Web 2.0 unless I knew it was a Star Wars character. I completely don't recognize about a third of them.

prodos

03-16-2006, 07:27 PM

35 for me

schally

03-16-2006, 10:53 PM

39 here... I'm not really sure how I feel about it, actually.

Gump

03-17-2006, 01:36 AM

32. Frankly, I'm amazed I did that well. If well is the word I should use.

Rhys

03-17-2006, 02:54 AM

35. I wish it would show you whether you were right or not. I want to know which one Collective X really is.

dnl2ba

03-17-2006, 02:56 AM

http://www.collectivex.com/

ohvermie

03-17-2006, 03:41 PM

38, but only because I was picking out Star Wars characters.

schally

03-19-2006, 03:20 PM

Comcast gives free downloads of McAfee but I feel weird about using it. I'm looking for a free AV alternative.

Has anyone heard of or used ClamWin (http://www.clamwin.com/)? People say since it's new it's slow.

Avast! (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html) offers a free version for non-commercial home use.

There's also an AVG Anti-Virus free edition (http://free.grisoft.com/).

Thoughts or suggestions?

ohvermie

03-21-2006, 01:21 PM

AVG Free is what we use at work. And it seems to be pretty nifty keen. There's also Norton installed on this machine as well, so I dunno if its to cover any spots that AVG might miss. And AVG doesn't seem to be very intrusive (just updates when you first turn your machine).

schally

03-26-2006, 02:10 PM

del.ici.ous now has private bookmarking.

Go to settings > private saving (experimental) > check box to activate it.

dnl2ba

04-06-2006, 07:56 AM

Apple Boot Camp (http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/) - dual boot OS X and Windows XP on your Intel-based Mac

So James, does this mean you're getting rid of your PC?

--

I just placed my order for all my new computer parts last night except for the video card, because it appears no one carries a 7900GT yet. Specs:

From Newegg.com
Motherboard - Epox EP-9NPA+ Ultra (nForce 4) - $105
CPU - Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester - $295
Fan 1 - Scythe S-Flex SFF21F 120mm S-FDB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835185006) - $14.99
Fan 2 - Scythe S-Flex SFF21F 120mm S-FDB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835185006) - $14.99
Fan 3 - Scythe S-Flex SFF21F 120mm S-FDB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835185006) - $14.99
CPU HSF - Scythe Ninja SCNJ-1000 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835185001) - $49.99
PSU - Sparkle 400W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103013) - $43.99

From SecureMart.com
Case - Antec P180 - $96.31

From a guy who knows a guy
RAM - Wintec 2x 1GB PC3200 - $110.00

Creative Audigy 2ZS sound card, 19" LCDs, speakers, 8x DVD+/-RW, and 250GB HD are coming from my current box.

The CPU choice came down to a 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego core ($210) vs. the 2x 2.0 GHz Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester core ($295). I went with the latter, even though it's slower for purposes of single-threaded apps (including most of today's games), because I'm hoping for a more responsive desktop/multitasking experience and because I'm hoping the apps of tomorrow will take advantage of it. After all, dual-core and dual-CPU are getting much more common than they were a few years ago.

A 7900GT should be around $290-330. If I find it's too loud for me to sleep at night, it's another $30-50 for an aftermarket heatsink/fan.

prodos

04-07-2006, 01:05 AM

Well since my MacBook Pro can play WoW reasonably well, I haven't actually turned on my PC in some months, but yeah, I probably won't have to ever buy a new PC until Half-Life 3 comes out and demands the newest $3000 video card in order to achieve 30fps.

FYI, my 6800GT is by far the noisiest part of my whole PC.

dnl2ba

04-07-2006, 09:39 AM

I'll probably need one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118001), then.

So I couldn't find the 7900GT in stock anywhere, and finally dug up some articles saying they're in scarce supply. I checked a bunch of online retailers and found one that claims to have them in stock, and it's $350 instead of $300-320. It's Outpost.com, which I hope hasn't been totally corrupted by Fry's. :( I ordered. We'll see if they're actually in stock or not.

dnl2ba

04-07-2006, 03:58 PM

Ah crap. Sparco.com claimed to have an inbound shipment of 7900GTs to their PA warehouse ETA 4/6/06 (http://www.sparco.com/cgi-bin/wfind2?spn=A76J206), but I didn't want to order until their website said they were in stock. Now PA says "none." So maybe they did get them and sold out immediately... at $65 cheaper than what I paid.

ohvermie

04-07-2006, 05:54 PM

All this shit for Oblivion?

You could've bought an XBox 360 multiple times at that cost. :P

dnl2ba

04-08-2006, 02:08 AM

An XBox 360 wouldn't be very effective for Photoshop or Painter. And good luck with Oblivion community mods. Community mods fixed up a lot of dumb shit in Morrowind. My compubox is 3.5 years old, and it's now at the point that I can't even play a lot of games (e.g. AoE3). Besides, only the video card is really a gaming-specific component.

I love Newegg. The guts are all in (CPU, mobo, PSU, CPU HSF, case fans). The case (which I ordered from SecureMart) was FedEx Ground with signature required, so I had to call to try to put it on hold. Hopefully, I can pick it up Monday morning. I should be able to get the memory off my secret source when I need it. The video card? Who knows, man. Who knows. (http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=02042003)

ohvermie

04-08-2006, 02:18 PM

Hahahaha...Achewood is awesome.

I didn't realize your current box was almost 4 years old. For some reason I thought you had newer gear than that.

dnl2ba

04-08-2006, 04:07 PM

YAY!~ The video card shipped!

dnl2ba

04-09-2006, 07:19 PM

New anti-spam software, alternative to CAPTCHA: KittenAuth (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060407-6554.html)

Identify which 3 out of 9 images contain kittens. Good luck getting a computer program to do that!

OTOH, if the program only comes with so many images, can't a spammer just detect which image you're serving up and compare it to the known ones? You'd have to keep making new images, or keep processing the images in a way so that software couldn't tell that the manipulated image is derived from a known original (known to have kittens or not). But if you're processing the image with software, other software could presumably "un-process" it, the same as they do with CAPTCHAs today.

The basic problem with anti-spam bot software is: how do you generate images computationally that can't be read computationally?

dnl2ba

04-14-2006, 08:13 AM

YAY!~ The video card shipped!
IT IS ALIVE

It's still really loud even after putting in my aftermarket HSF for the CPU and GPU. I have yet to put in my aftermarket case fans, remove the fan on the CPU (it's surrounded by 2 case fans, so I think it should be okay), and swap out the northbridge HSF for a huge heatsink I just ordered.

I wrote out a long post about how impressed I am with the attention to detail in today's products, compared with those of 6 years ago, but I hit F5 when trying to refresh a driver download page on the new box (I mixed up the keyboards). Serves me right.

dnl2ba

04-15-2006, 03:24 AM

:eek: Holy crap, why does MostlyCloudy have a DVD drive? :eek:

I must've put it in the last time I did a clean install of Linux, and then just never took it out. I also found a spare CD-RW in a box of mine hidden in our garage. And to think I was scrounging around last night for an extra optical drive so I wouldn't have to borrow one from Delitescence...

dnl2ba

04-19-2006, 02:57 PM

Core Duo on the desktop (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060418-6624.html) - benchmarks (http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q2/core-duo/index.x?pg=1)

Holy crap, that thing is fast. OTOH, it's $700 for a Core Duo 2.1GHz compared to my $300 Athlon 64 X2 2.0GHz (I think the most I've ever spent on a processor before was like $200), so that says something.

Something I didn't know:

It should be noted that the Core Duo (codenamed Yonah) is not the same as the Core architecture (codenamed Merom and Conroe) previewed in Hannibal's excellent article (http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/core.ars). The Core Duo CPU could be considered a transitional phase on the path to the "real" Core architecture.
--

On another note, my DiNovo Media Laser (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2158,CONTENTID=10777) (huge pic (http://www.123computers.nl/prod-img-large/groot-toetsenbord-logitech-dinovo.jpg)) came yesterday. It's nice (I like the laptop feel of the keys), but some of the mouse key mappings are weird. The "cruise" feature (basically page up/down) didn't work consistently on my secondary display, so I remapped those to Ctrl+Tab and Shift+Ctrl+Tab (for Firefox tab cycling). The back/forward buttons mysteriously stopped working, so I'm gonna check that out. Lastly, rocking the mouse wheel left or right scrolls left or right, but whatever keypress it's simulating (apparently not left/right arrow, but something else) can switching between Firefox tabs if the tabs have focus. So when I middle-click to close a tab in Firefox, the tab bar gets focus and I end up cycling through an unknown number of tabs. It's really disorienting.

A volume control dial (rather than buttons) like my old wireless set would be nice, but I got buttons instead. Maybe it's just too expensive to build and too problem-prone (moving parts = damage potential).

The media pad is nice. If I'm reading from bed, I can take it with me and control playback from there. It'd be a good remote control if I were watching video from a distance, though that's not gonna happen from this computer. It can also go into a "nav" mode where the keys become navigation keys (back, forward, arrows, Open, Close, Windows), as well as a free-standing calculator mode (it has an LCD).

Edit: The back/forward buttons stopped working because those idiots made the buttons run software commands rather than actually telling Windows that I'm pressing a back or forward button. So, it worked in IE, but didn't work in Firefox because they didn't bother writing Firefox compatibility. MORONS. So I remapped them to Alt+Right Arrow and Alt+Left Arrow.

dnl2ba

04-20-2006, 02:24 AM

Huh. Apparently, when I middle-click, my finger pushes to the left. That's why I was getting the weird FF tab behavior.

deevan

05-01-2006, 05:54 PM

Huh. Apparently, when I middle-click, my finger pushes to the left. That's why I was getting the weird FF tab behavior.

My middle click is almost worn out on my MX510... :(

dnl2ba

05-04-2006, 04:42 AM

Drunk Men Work Here / On Bots (http://drunkmenworkhere.org/219) - analysis of how Google, Yahoo, and MSN crawled a site.

deevan

05-04-2006, 06:51 PM

Drunk Men Work Here / On Bots (http://drunkmenworkhere.org/219) - analysis of how Google, Yahoo, and MSN crawled a site.

I thought Google's algorithm was super-secret. :eek:

dnl2ba

05-05-2006, 02:47 AM

PageRank? They published whitepapers on the Big Idea (TM) years ago. The details and modifications since then, of course... those are teh secret.

dnl2ba

05-25-2006, 03:08 AM

Anyone used Windows Live Local (http://local.live.com/) recently? It and Yahoo Maps have gone way beyond Google Local in functionality, plus they're getting pretty slick.

Live Local has some weird quirks in Firefox (e.g. the zoom slider doesn't work; use your mousewheel instead), and some of the behavior confuses me (left-click a search result on the left pane and it opens a new window), but I like it so far.

schally

06-05-2006, 12:32 AM

What do you guys think about locking down IE as an additional safety measure? Is it really necessary?

dnl2ba

06-05-2006, 04:18 AM

What do you mean by "locking down"? How about just keeping current on patches and/or switching to Firefox?

schally

06-05-2006, 11:27 AM

I was reading an article called 10 tips to keep that new computer spyware-free (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/index.php?p=733) and I saw this:

4. Lockdown Internet Explorer. Yes, do it even if you use a different browser.

I was curious because I'd never heard of doing this before. So I googled "locking down IE" (http://www.google.com/search?q=locking+down+ie&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official) and found a few (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1640173,00.asp) articles (http://spywarewarrior.com/sww-help.htm).

Some people say that you should lock down IE even if you use another browser.

Note: even if you do switch to an alternative browser, you should still lock down Internet Explorer, as described above. Given that Internet Explorer has effectively been integrated into Windows, it can still be exploited by adware and spyware that gets installed to your system through other means. Thus, locking down Internet Explorer remains important even if you're not regularly using Internet Explorer to browse the internet.

I have my firewall blocking IE at the moment, so I don't suppose anything is getting through there anyway.

dnl2ba

06-05-2006, 04:08 PM

As long as it's not causing more trouble than it's worth, sure, why not.

Personally, I've had more problems with Linux web server security (3) than Windows security (0) in the last 5 years.

When I was a freshman, I clicked a weird attachment (a friend had previously sent a legit weird attachment and this looked similar) and got hosed, and when I was a sophomore, a friend got console access and pwned my box. But I haven't had any issues with Windows viruses spyware or anything like that since then, at least AFAIK, and I've never had a serious antivirus solution. The only thing I have right now is Windows Defender.

I don't mind occasional virus scans (there are some that will run as ActiveX controls so you don't even have to install them), but I hate performance-crippling real-time monitoring like what Norton Futilities does.

That reminds me... I should back up my shits soon.

dnl2ba

06-05-2006, 04:56 PM

I tried to edit this before leaving for work, but I guess my changes didn't go through. I wanted to change the first paragraph to say, "That article just says to use SP2 if you're using XP, and provides alternatives if you're not on XP." And there was something else, but I forget.

dnl2ba

06-08-2006, 03:34 AM

MS makes Windows Vista Beta 2 available to the public for free download (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/default.mspx)

However, as CNet says (http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-6081301.html?part=rss&tag=6081301&subj=news):

The software maker is still cautioning that Vista is not ready for the average consumer, pitching the CPP as suited for developers and tech workers, as well as hard-core enthusiasts who don't mind a few bugs and have a spare machine for testing. Microsoft also recommends those interested in the CPP run its recently released adviser tool, which helps detect how Vista-ready a PC is.

dnl2ba

06-27-2006, 08:27 AM

Features new to Windows Vista (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_Vista) is currently #182 on the long pages (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Longpages&limit=250&offset=0) list on Wikipedia.

I think many users (who, granted, probably haven't read that list) don't think of Vista as being chock full of features because it doesn't have lots of new applications. I like bundled apps as long as they aren't insistent (Windows Messenger in XP and in Outlook comes to mind*), but they're arguably outside the purview of an operating system, never mind the legal BS MS would have to slog through if it bundled more apps again.

it comes with a calendar and a photo organizer! zomg it is copying os x!

Aside from security, the improvements are largely under the hood to enhance the platform. We probably won't see the benefits until applications take advantage of them. As a developer, I can say that a better, more developed platform with rich APIs means I can focus on cool features and user experience without spending time sweating BS like how to send data from A to B.

On the downside, WinFS has faded a little more into the background (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060625-7128.html). That's one of the things I was most excited about in Vista, though they've apparently still kept the attribute-based stacking UI (e.g. group your Word documents by author, or by date, or page count, or whatever; do this for any available attribute, and assign documents to a group by drag-and-drop).

* Windows Messenger is reportedly removed from Vista.

dnl2ba

06-27-2006, 03:17 PM

I know not all Mac people are idiots, but a lot of Mac people need to STFU.

Alienware releases 3 new laptops (http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/27/alienwares-m3450-m5550-and-m5750-go-core-duo/#comments)
User comment:

Funny how these laptops have the exact same size screens as the apple macbook pros and macbook.
Please stop talking and get cancer.

ohvermie

06-27-2006, 03:19 PM

A lot of Mac fanbois are under the impression that anything that is even remotely similar to any Mac product's form factor is "ZOMG copying Apple."

"This laptop has an AC adaptor! ZOMG!!! COPYING APPLE!"

prodos

07-06-2006, 11:17 PM

Stop feeding the trolls.

dnl2ba

07-07-2006, 12:58 AM

Thanks for the advice, Quick Draw. :hmmm:

Rhys

07-07-2006, 01:25 AM

I thought the entire idea of this message board was to troll each other. I mean when we don't make cock jokes and show each other cock joke related links.

schally

07-07-2006, 02:12 AM

STFU N00B

O WAIT I AM THE N00B! NVMD :(

dnl2ba

07-07-2006, 02:52 AM

And also, um, computers!

dnl2ba

07-11-2006, 08:29 AM

Windows Game Advisor (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/gameadvisor/default.mspx) (Internet Explorer 6 only)

Scan your computer to see what games your hardware is capable of running well. If you agree to the prompt, it'll install a Futuremark component that identifies your hardware components. Since Futuremark makes 3DMark, for which many users doing benchmarks have uploaded their scores and hardware details, I bet they compare your rig against comparable ones for which they have 3DMark scores and use that to figure out what games you can play.

I was able to do the scan, but when I looked up a game and hit "System Scan" to see how my penis^h^h^h^h^h computer stacks up, it said it couldn't identify some components. Bleh.

dnl2ba

07-13-2006, 08:49 AM

I guess this is computer-related, though the appeal to me wasn't necessarily because it has to do with computers.

Slate editorial: editor identifies more with the dorky PC guy than the young, hip Mac guy (http://www.slate.com/id/2143810/)

As the Mac character, Justin Long (who was in the forgettable movie Dodgeball and the forgettabler TV show Ed) is just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster we've always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast. He's perfect.
Meanwhile, the PC is played by John Hodgman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hodgman)—contributor to The Daily Show and This American Life, host of an amusing lecture series (http://www.littlegraybooks.com/), and all-around dry-wit extraordinaire. Even as he plays the chump in these Apple spots, his humor and likability are evident.
The final straw, for me, is that the spots make unconvincing claims. The one titled "Network" has a funny bit where "that new digital camera from Japan" is represented by a Japanese woman in a minidress. While Hodgman has trouble talking with the woman, Long speaks Japanese and shares giggles with her because "everything just kind of works with a Mac." Now, I happen to have a digital camera from Japan, and it works just fine with my PC. It did from the moment I connected it. Similarly, the spot titled "Out of the Box" (again, a very funny visual metaphor, with Hodgman and Long crouching in cardboard boxes) suggests that new PCs require tons of attention and alteration when you first fire them up. But I bought a new ThinkPad notebook just a few months ago, and it ran on all cylinders pretty much straight out of the gate. Why insult my intelligence by telling me something that I know isn't true?
On-topic: VH1 spoof (http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/11/vh1-spoofs-im-a-mac-and-im-a-pc-ads/) (Engadget)

Off-topic:
On a total tangent, I've been having Windows issues recently ever since one of a) Logitech SetPoint driver update, b) Creative driver update, or c) Windows security patch (all of which have been installed recently). SetPoint occasionally goes berserk and I can't even open Task Manager to kill it. Thanks, Logitech. If I try to log off while SetPoint is like this, I get stuck staring at my wallpaper with nothing to interact with.

---------

Sony's tiny big thumb drives (http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/12/sonys-micro-vault-tiny-now-shipping-in-the-us/), from 256MB for $30 up to 4GB for $220. The 4GB isn't available yet, but I see the 2GB Micro Vault for $80 (http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=sony+micro+vault+2gb&hl=en&btnG=Search).

schally

07-20-2006, 02:08 AM

Okay, so I'm redoing my Blue Seed page. It's fun.

One problem I am facing is how to handle the image gallery. Previously it was text links because the Geocities account has a limited bandwidth thinger and I didn't want to make a billion thumbnails.

I had a fleeting idea that I should just dump them all on an image host, like photobucket, and make the account public.

Other suggestions?

dnl2ba

07-20-2006, 03:22 AM

Do you have to have it in the context of your Geocities account? You could just link to a Flickr page. (Does Flickr allow inlining?)

Otherwise, image hosts are precisely what that's for.

schally

07-20-2006, 11:14 PM

Flickr was my first thought. Rhys said something about how you have limited organization with a free account, but I can get over that.

I have encountered a small problem with using a XHTML frameset, and that is that it won't validate with border=0, but frameborder=0 isn't doing the trick and those white lines are fugly.

I want this whole site to validate.

What I need is a way to keep a long contents menu updated without having to do a lot of work. Like, I don't want to have to type a new link more than once.

I had this problem with the same site before. Frames makes everything hella easier in some respects but they suck in others. The no-frames version (http://www.geocities.com/schalbunny/), which I currently have up, is a pain in the ass because the menu bars on the left and right have to be manually updated on each page. Nobody has time for that shit.

Matt, I remember when I last redesigned the page several years ago you recommended server side includes. I couldn't do that then due to Geocities limitations at the time.

What would your recommendation be today? SSI still?

dnl2ba

07-21-2006, 04:02 AM

First, why are you using XHTML? You can use HTML 4.01 Strict or Transitional and still have it validate as that, and it won't have all the disadvantages of XHTML (http://hixie.ch/advocacy/xhtml). And good luck getting anything to validate on a free host, since they're likely going to inject ads in W3C-unfriendly ways.

I like web standards, but ultimately, successful validation is just 1) an indication (but not a guarantee) that the site might work as designed in alternative/future user agents you haven't tested and 2) a way to make sure you didn't write total bullshit markup that you'll regret later when you can't figure out why something is rendering funny.

I don't use frames so I don't know what specific property you'll need to use, but I suspect maybe the CSS border property replaces frameborder and border.

Either use a server that supports dynamic pages (SSI, PHP, whatever) or use JavaScript to insert stuff. The former is preferable to the latter for most purposes unless you need dynamic behavior, though the latter will work on Geocities. You'd just write your content once in JS and just include that script file on every page.

SSI is limited because you won't be able to do stuff like decorate a link differently if it's for the current page. It'd be trivial to do in PHP or JavaScript. (Or you could use SSI, and have separate JavaScript that marks the current page in your links.)

dnl2ba

07-24-2006, 05:49 AM

I had enough of XP SP2's networking BS with my current box and installed the free Windows Vista Beta 2 even though there are lots of reasons not to (incomplete features & maybe nasty bugs, no upgrade path when Vista comes out, etc.). XP had been good to me for years until my current hardware, but whatever, Vista seems great so far.

Hardware support
It had drivers for basically everything but my Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro sound card. I'm glad it had drivers that worked with my Epson Stylus Photo 890, because the 2K/XP drivers I tried to install wouldn't install. (The driver might actually be fine, but the UI for the installer wouldn't show up, even though I could see from the Task Bar that it was open.) I still haven't installed the Logitech software for my mouse and keyboard, though I probably ought to eventually for the encryption and battery monitoring. I don't really need all the extra buttons, since the navigation and media keys are supported by Windows anyway (this was also true in XP) and the rest mostly get in the way (like the left/right wheel clicks, which often interfered with my Firefox tab-closing).

Initial impressions
A lot of people are complaining about the semi-transparent chrome, but you know, it works fine. Text gets a contrasted halo, plus you can adjust the hue, translucency, and saturation of the chrome to your whim, or even make it opaque. The only effect so far is that I made sure to have a good desktop background so I could see it show through the window borders. :)

Window animations and stuff are plenty fast, though some things are inexplicably slow (e.g. animating things on the Task Bar when you close a window). My biggest UI gripe is how every second thing I do prompts a "this needs administrator privileges" dialogue (even though I'm already logged in as an admin). So I say Continue just to get the confirmation dialogue (non-admin users have to provide an admin password at this point), and then I have to agree to the action-- 2 clicks. I'm glad that they're serious about security and user awareness of potentially dangerous actions, but I'd really like something more seamless.

When Windows first started up, it bombarded me with a bunch of dialogues to address configuration of various things. That warrants polish, but they now have something to prompt you about how you want your multiple displays to work. Sweet! On that note, the new screensavers still aren't multi-monitor... oh well. LCDs don't benefit much from screensavers anyway. (I thought they didn't need screensavers at all, but one of my LCDs at work has a Windows login box burned in on it. I've never had a good experience with an IBM LCD.)

Asian fonts were installed by default, and now enjoy ClearType anti-aliasing. It's still not as good as the CT AA for Office fonts, though.

The new Windows Explorer will take some getting used to, but I appreciate all the new features. Windows finally joins the 21st century in file browsing. I love the breadcrumb address bar that helps you leap to sibling folders of any ancestor folder of where you are currently. You can still type/copy/paste Windows file paths, though.

I've been eagerly anticipating the Explorer "stack by" UI for a while, but I haven't found a good use for it yet. (I think when I'm viewing or assigning properties en masse, it will be my best friend. Plus, Windows still hasn't finished indexing my gamillion files, so results are currently incomplete.) I appreciate that it's now easier to sort by different criteria in non-Details views, since they all now have the sort columns listed up top even if they don't display files in columns.

I'm not a big fan of the new Picture Viewer. It now allows opening multiple viewers simultaneously (great!), and shares the WMP 11 / Vista style, and will even switch to being a WMP 11 window if you're viewing multimedia, but it's slow to display pictures sometimes. It'll show a blurry version for a split second before sharpening up. OTOH, it's much faster when backpedaling through pictures than it was in XP (the XP picture viewer was slower going backward than forward, presumably because it would preload the next image). Hopefully, they'll speed this up for release, only showing the blurry version if the full display is taking too long.

I've already been using WMP11 beta under XP for a while, so no surprises here. It's better than WMP10, which I already liked better than iTunes. My main gripe is confusion over the filter-as-you-type scope: sometimes it searches your whole library, and sometimes it just filters down whatever you're already looking at, and I'm not really certain of the rules. I'd prefer if it always searched the whole library.

I barely fooled with IE7 beta before I installed Firefox, so eh. I like the idea of the phishing filter, but IE is still playing catch-up in the features and rendering departments, not to mention that it has a weird UI. I did notice that it now supports closing tabs on middle-click (like Firefox), which I specifically requested from Chris Wilson over lunch at Mix06. :p

Compatibility issues
Vista warned me about compatibility issues Cyberlink PowerDVD 5.0, but since WMP11 beta and Windows Media Center both hung when I tried playing a DVD, I went ahead and tried anyway. (WMP11 beta played them fine in XP, though its UI doesn't seem geared toward DVD-playing. It's a little weird to see all the menu states listed in playlist.) Well, I'm impressed that Vista is smart enough to warn about stuff like that, but PowerDVD worked fine. I've read that it might be PowerDVD 6 that actually has the problems, which would be ironic.

I haven't been able to install Flash for Firefox yet (!!!). The in-page installer doesn't do its thing and the downloaded one does nothing when launched. This might be a huge PITA if I can't get this working.

schally

07-29-2006, 05:44 PM

I HAVE RETURN

Okay, so I have a dummy version of my Blue Seed page up at schally/blueseed (http://www.mostlycloudy.net/~schally/blueseed/). If anyone cares to glance over it and give thoughts or suggestions, I much appreciate.

All of it is, as far as I know, validatorified HTML 4.0 Transitional. Obviously when Geocities begins stuffing cocks everywhere that will no longer be the case.

I'm a little concerned about the header, but I couldn't think of any other way to do it short of making an actual image.

I have noticed that on some pages the header/menu line up slightly differently, and this is noticable when you go to another page. I assume I have thrown in an extra space somewhere or something, but I haven't hunted it down yet.

dnl2ba

07-29-2006, 06:59 PM

Nice.

The HTML validator isn't checking your nasty menu markup because that's all in document.writes. :p Only LI may be a child of UL. Consider markup like this:

<ul>
<li>
<h3>Site</h3>
<ul>
<li>Home</li>
<li>Email</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<h3>General Info</h3>
<ul>
<li>...</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<b> is deprecated. If you just want to emphasize text within a paragraph, use <strong>. If you have a heading you want to look bold (like in your menus), but it's not semantically emphasized, use style. I used <h3> for the menu section headers because, well, they're section headers.

I'm a little concerned about the header, but I couldn't think of any other way to do it short of making an actual image. You should look up using CSS background-image to replace text (http://www.google.com/search?q=css+replaced+text&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official), so you can still have structured markup (H1, etc.) and have a pretty header to boot. I prefer using a hugely negative text-indent and overflow: hidden to hide the text, so I don't have redundant markup, but it's worth noting that it would fail for users who have CSS enabled but not images. (Meh, IMO.) Using just a background image for a header is even worse than using an image with an alt, since non-visual user agents won't be able to say anything about it, and it's all over the Netflix site.

All of it is, as far as I know, validatorified HTML 4.0 Transitional. Obviously when Geocities begins stuffing cocks everywhere that will no longer be the case.
My biggest concern is that if Geocities inserts stuff at the top, before your doctype declaration, IE/Win up to 6 (but not 7) won't recognize the doctype (since they only check the first line for some stupid reason) and it'll fall back to quirks mode rendering (http://gutfeldt.ch/matthias/articles/doctypeswitch/table.html) (border-box instead of content-box (http://www.quirksmode.org/css/box.html)). Try looking at your page in IE6 with and without the doctype present and see if the layout changes. There are some gross hacks (http://tantek.com/CSS/Examples/boxmodelhack.html) to get around it, but if you're interested, I have other suggestions.

CSS validation (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mostlycloudy.net%2F %7Eschally%2Fblueseed%2F&usermedium=all) - 1 error and a lot of warnings about fonts with spaces in their names

You have a lot of redundant style declarations. You know, you could do this:
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1em; padding: 0; }
There is no h7-h9. It stops at h6 for whatever reason.

You should always provide a fallback font family, e.g. serif, sans-serif, whatever. Not everyone has Office installed. Georgia is a serif font. You should probably specify something like font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;

Why do you have a character encoding specified on the page? I have MostlyCloudy serve UTF-8 by default because it'll support international characters. If you want to use curly quotes, etc. from ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) and have them show up okay, use entity references, which should work despite the character encoding.

It's fine to style body as if it were the root element in HTML 4. I like to style the html element instead because XHTML doesn't treat body specially (i.e. body doesn't magically extend to the bottom of the viewport if the document is short).

From a design standpoint, you might want to add some spacing between menu sections, and maybe dump the bullets or replace them with neato images (check out list-style-image, or use background-image for more control over positioning).

If you want to go whole hog with CSS, make your menu float: left instead of in a table cell. You'll need an element wrapped around all your content if you don't want the content to wrap under the bottom of the menu. See Little Boxes (http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/boxes.html) if you need template help.

schally

07-29-2006, 08:41 PM

Okay, this is good stuff. A few quick comments before I start my evening cookery.

I knew full and well that I was cheating on my fugly menu. I did it anyway, and you caught me anyway. There's a lesson here.

From a design standpoint, you might want to add some spacing between menu sections, and maybe dump the bullets or replace them with neato images (check out list-style-image, or use background-image for more control over positioning)
D'oh! Of course, the menu bullets should be little blue seeds! I am such a dork.

There is no h7-h9. It stops at h6 for whatever reason.
I was using h7-9 for the relatively positioned words on the header. This will probably be a thing of the past before I'm done.

Why do you have a character encoding specified on the page?
The only reason I did it was because W3 was requiring it in order for my pages to validate.

That's all for now. Thankee sir.

dnl2ba

07-29-2006, 08:56 PM

The only reason I did it was because W3 was requiring it in order for my pages to validate.
I just checked, and MC is indeed specifying charset=utf-8 in the headers. So maybe when you checked, the W3 was being silly. When I checked the validator, it actually griped that the server and the page specified conflicting encodings.

If you use a dynamic page language (e.g. PHP), you can specify the charset and other headers yourself, without resorting to meta elements. The only gotcha is to set all that stuff before anything gets sent in the response-- including any whitespace in the body of your source.

Any reason why the scripts have .txt filenames?

schally

07-31-2006, 02:03 AM

Any reason why the scripts have .txt filenames?
The tutorial I googled used .txt in their examples, but it looks like everyone else uses .js.

schally

09-03-2006, 02:54 AM

del.icio.us update... I'm using sdeegee (http://del.icio.us/sdeegee) instead of my old one. Not that I expect you guys monitor my surfing/bookmarking habits, but if you want to network, there it is.

Or is dnl2ba the only delicious person besides me? :(

dnl2ba

09-03-2006, 03:36 AM

I forgot to back up all my Firefox bookmarks before installing Vista in July, so I've been rebuilding my list of feeds from scratch.

dnl2ba

09-04-2006, 11:14 AM

I can't get your Del.icio.us feed working in Firefox. It always says it failed to load. I can view the RSS directly, though.

You know, I don't often remember to bookmark stuff anymore. I think I slipped to posting to MCBB, and when MCBB was unavailable for the last month, I just sort of had to keep all the fun to myself.

ohvermie

09-05-2006, 01:52 PM

I visit perhaps like 3 or 4 sites regularly, so I don't really use bookmarks. I guess I am not abusing the internets to its full potential.

schally

09-09-2006, 02:34 AM

When I came home today I smelled a weird burnt rubber smell. Wasn't sure what it was--thought maybe the housemate had lit some bad candles. I turned on my PC, left, came back, and found the screen blank.

Delicate sniffing revealed the culprit--a literally burnt-out monitor. I've had the thing for over four years, so I'm not too sad about it.

So while I'm adjusting to this 15" substitute monitor I guess I'll be combing the weekly ads for a good deal on a flat screen. Is there something I should know about monitors, or is size really all that matters?

dnl2ba

09-09-2006, 02:50 AM

There are definitely better and worse monitors, so do some research. What's your budget?

If the rest of your computer is that old, I guess chances are so-so that you have digital output from your video card (look for a white DVI connector instead of a blue DSub/VGA connector). If you do, make sure the LCD you get takes DVI input.

ohvermie

09-09-2006, 04:36 PM

Depends on what you're using your monitor for. And definitely depends on your budget. Most of the cheaper flat panels I've seen have horrendous ghosting issues, but if you're not going to playing too many games on your PC or using it to watch DVDs, it shouldn't be too bad.

dnl2ba

09-10-2006, 05:01 AM

SOLVED!!!!

why some people keep signing their emails with a "J" (http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/05/23/604741.aspx)

dnl2ba

09-10-2006, 05:13 AM

Does anyone else use Facebook? I remember seeing the "feed" feature for the first time not too long ago and thinking, "Huh, neat." (If you don't use Facebook or haven't used it recently: It shows all the recent stuff your friends have been up to, e.g. joining groups, establishing relationships, whatever.) I was kind of puzzled to see that one of the items in my feed was a friend joining the "we hate the Facebook feed feature" group, since it seemed innocuous at worst.

Just today, I finally read up on the shitstorm around privacy concerns (http://www.danah.org/papers/FacebookAndPrivacy.html) over it. Big deal, I thought. It's all information you had access to already, in theory. And if you just added your favorite Beatles quote to your profile, well, maybe that's a good thing to let everyone know about. But when I went to Facebook, I saw their new page for opting out of kinds of things to publish about yourself in others' feeds. Some of them were things like "remove profile info," "leave a group," and "remove my relationship status." HOLY SHIT. These are exactly the kinds of things I'd rather do surreptitiously. I unchecked those and went on my way.

They list some things on the side that they'll never ever publish, e.g. removing a friend, removing a note, viewing a profile, etc., so at least they had the good sense to exclude those. (I'm assuming those were always excluded and weren't just added to the blacklist after the shitstorm.)

p.s. add me bitches.

ohvermie

09-11-2006, 01:35 PM

Facebook/Myspace are the devil. THE DEVIL I SAY!

dnl2ba

09-11-2006, 02:17 PM

Did you just put them in the same sentence? They're like matter and antimatter!

schally

09-11-2006, 11:53 PM

I'm with Dan on this one.

dnl2ba

09-12-2006, 03:17 AM

Prepare for a YUMMY DOSE of REALITY.

The Myspace one has to be enjoyed in person (http://www.myspace.com/soybuddha).

ohvermie

09-12-2006, 01:09 PM

It's like taking a trip on the Internet Wayback Machine. Only these sites are live. D:

schally

09-12-2006, 09:20 PM

We all know myspace is for mouthbreathers and all of the page designs are from Satan's bowels. But that type of social networking is boring to me no matter what the packaging looks like.

Can Facebook profiles be redesigned or does everyone have to use the default? With great freedom comes great responsibility, after all.

Rhys

09-13-2006, 01:07 AM

I don't even understand the point of those social networking sites. Is it to meet new people through your friends? Or is it just to show off how many names you can get stuck to your page?

dnl2ba

09-13-2006, 07:10 AM

Facebook is subject to all those criticisms, same as any other social networking thing, but it puts an emphasis on keeping up with folks and seeing what they're up to. People seem to use the Wall posts a lot more casually than Friendster testimonials, with lots of back-and-forth chatting, though I suppose I've also seen some back-and-forth Myspace comments too.

I'm not huge into it, but I do have a couple friends who use it regularly and I can see what they get out of it.

On a semi-related note, I think all my groups of friends started using Gmail Chat status messages for basically signatures (some quote, weird sound affect, a message of remembrance, whatever) within like the last 6 weeks. Either it's some weird coincidence, or I transmitted the meme between groups, or maybe I just started paying more attention to Gmail Chat recently (I suppose it's possible I didn't have my contact list expanded much before that).

dnl2ba

09-22-2006, 03:08 AM

NEW LAPTOP GET (http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildseriesbean.do?series=Q2010&WT.mc_id=QTEASER_5-15-06) !!!

High on price, low on features, baby. The Fujitsu Q2010's selling point is that it's 2.2 lbs. So's the Panasonic R5 (http://www.dynamism.com/r5/main.shtml), which is cheaper, has an optical drive, decent hard drive capacity, longer battery life sans battery upgrade, and upgradable memory, but its screen is smaller and... it's not as sexy. End of story.

Engadget post on same (http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/28/fujitsu-siemens-lifebook-q2010-worlds-most-desirable-notebook/). I paid $1,724 (for the base model), not $5,000, but I also don't get the black piano lacquer finish that's apparently only available in Europe.

dnl2ba

09-22-2006, 05:39 AM

While I'm at it, I want one of these USB rechargeable AA batteries (http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=3448). Only available in the UK right now, though.

I just ordered a Logitech VX Revolution (http://reviews.cnet.com/Logitech_VX_Revolution_Cordless_Laser_Mouse_for_No tebooks/4505-3148_7-32028065.html) (which is why I was interested in the AA battery) from Best Buy for my new laptop. I have to pick it up from the store, but hey, free shipping!

dnl2ba

09-29-2006, 07:04 AM

Google Reader has been redesigned (http://www.google.com/reader/view/) and looks like it can actually be used now. Before, it was more of a toy and not very useful.

dnl2ba

10-07-2006, 04:26 PM

Windows Vista RC2 available for download (http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc2/en/download.htm)

dnl2ba

10-30-2006, 07:06 AM

You know, Firefox 2's popup blocker is much more effective than the one in 1.5.

In the miscellaneous category, Google Spreadsheets seems to work much better in IE7 than in Firefox 1.5 or 2. In Firefox, I keep getting this weird rendering glitch where the blue "hasn't loaded" area keeps obscuring most of the document until I break out the DOM Inspector and highlight something so it's forced to redraw.

dnl2ba

11-14-2006, 06:25 AM

Microsoft Zune software install sucks (http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/13/installing-the-zune-sucked/)

Man, that looks fucking awful.

dnl2ba

11-14-2006, 06:38 AM

Try my Google Personalized Home module, the To-Do List.
Get To-Do List (http://www.googlemodules.com/get/443/)
Source XML (http://mostlycloudy.net/%7Ednl2ba/subpages/gdir-test/tasklist.xml)

Updated yesterday to address user feedback from the last 9 months. Get it here (http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&url=http://mostlycloudy.net/%7Ednl2ba/subpages/gdir-test/tasklist.xml&q=to+do+list&start=0).
Lists are now stored on Google's servers instead of in cookies (!!!) so they're accessible from anywhere
IE7 final release is now supported (I've been using IE7 beta 2 from Vista beta 2 and the rendering is different; a user emailed to let me know it doesn't work in the final IE7)
Options to change the height so you can see more or fewer tasks

dnl2ba

11-21-2006, 09:30 PM

The Firefox Tab Preview (http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/tabpreview/) extension is better than sliced bread.

dnl2ba

11-25-2006, 04:28 AM

Ex MS programmer describes the organizational hell of working on Windows Vista (http://www.drizzle.com/~lettvin/2006/11/windows-shutdown-crapfest.html), in response to Joel Spolsky's gripe about Vista's shutdown/whatever menu (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/11/21.html).

dnl2ba

11-25-2006, 04:33 AM

Is it just me, or is Ebay one of the ugliest major sites on the Internet?

dnl2ba

11-26-2006, 01:00 AM

Microsoft Zune software install sucks (http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/13/installing-the-zune-sucked/)

Man, that looks fucking awful.

Zune sucks in general (http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/147048,CST-FIN-Andy23.article)

schally

12-05-2006, 09:57 PM

I really need to be more diligent about tagging stuff to del.icio.us....

Firefox 2.0 ditched all of my bookmarks and news feeds sometime between when I used the computer last night and when I checked my mail this morning. I've had this problem before, but this time it was different and the usual remedy, reinstalling the Fox, hasn't worked. What gives?

Fixfirefox.com (http://www.fixfirefox.com/) - I'll give this a shot later tonight.

dnl2ba

12-06-2006, 12:50 AM

WTF, for serious? I've never seen that... but then, I don't extensively use browser bookmarks besides the bookmark toolbar and some feeds (Live Bookmarks). That blows.

schally

12-25-2006, 03:38 AM

For the past week or so my PC has been doing this really annoying thing where it freezes up after the screensaver goes on. I can move the mouse pointer around, but I can't click anything and usually the taskbar is black.

So I'll leave it for a few minutes to go do something, come back, and have to reset it. At first I thought it was an issue with Firefox 2.0, but it has also done this when I had Word up and then later when I didn't have anything running. I think the only time it hasn't happened is when I had DC++ running in the background because I was downloading something.

Maybe I should just get rid of my screensaver and set the monitor to shut down after X minutes?

I just don't get why this is happening now. Automatic XP updates should be the only thing that has changed in the past few weeks.

dnl2ba

12-25-2006, 04:44 AM

There might be some other software that starts running after your computer has been inactive for X minutes, or that kicks in when your screensaver comes on (using the screensaver as a cue that you're not actively using your computer and it's okay to do computationally expensive tasks). Antivirus stuff (has to scan your HD) and search programs like Google Desktop (that have to index your HD) are good candidates to investigate for activity while your computer is idle.

If you press Ctrl+Shift+Esc, do you get the Task Manager?

schally

12-25-2006, 11:46 AM

No. I tried doing that each time and I couldn't get the TM. Ctrl+Alt+Del had no effect either. I always ended up having to manually reset the computer.

AVG runs all the time, but I've had it for a while now and I haven't recently changed any settings or anything on it.

I'm going to leave it on today, sans screensaver, just to see what happens. If it still occurs I might experiment with turning things like AVG off.

schally

01-28-2007, 09:27 PM

I have noticed something really weird.

When I went to Recipezaar today to print off a recipe I was logged into a stranger's account. This wasn't a bugmenot account, it was a person who was active on the site since 2003 and obviously visits regularly.

The same thing happened a few weeks ago... I went to some site, I think it was gamefaqs, and I was logged in as somebody. I've never registered an account at gamefaqs.

What's up with that?

dnl2ba

01-29-2007, 01:49 AM

Are you using a web accelerator tool? Some sites embed login info in things that get cached in web accelerators (or even ISPs that use web acceleration techniques, like NetZero or whatever that free dial-up ISP was).

Other times, sites are just buggy. Ars Technica users have at times reported finding themselves logged in as other users. (Ars is a testbed for new Infopop features, and so gets a discount.)

ohvermie

01-29-2007, 04:37 PM

It's obvious. Ghosts are using her interwebs while she's sleeping.

dnl2ba

02-02-2007, 05:40 AM

hax0rs can pwn your Windows Vista box via speech recognition (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=418)

You have speech recognition enabled, and your speakers and mic are turned on. You're viewing some web page and go to bed. In the middle of the night, the web page utters verbal instructions to navigate to some directory, delete it, and empty the trash. OH SNAP

ohvermie

02-03-2007, 01:38 AM

Well can't you p0wn any sort of OS with voice recognition then with that method? (did not read article)

Also if my PC is on overnight I turn off my ghetto blasters. But that's mostly because my sound set for Windows is annoying++.

schally

02-03-2007, 02:29 AM

dnl2ba

02-17-2007, 05:05 PM

That's fucking amazing. Dell's 30" LCD monitor is now $1,274 without any special promotions (do they still have those 20% off coupons that crop up now and then on deals forums?). My 19" Viewsonic VG191B (since sold to James) was $981 in February, 2002, and My Dell 1900FP 19" LCD was $1,299 in July, 2002.

There was that 42" plasma TV that was under $1,000 on Black Friday at Best Buy, but its resolution was probably far below what you'll get on a 30" LCD monitor (2560x1600).

prodos

02-17-2007, 05:36 PM

The real question is: is Dell's 30" LCD any good in the other specs besides resolution? I bet you that 42" plasma was probbaly pretty shitty... but Dell's LCDs tend to be (at least used to be) some of the best, right?

dnl2ba

02-17-2007, 06:38 PM

I actually recall reading a review when it came out that said it had really uneven lighting and the Apple one (then like $3,000) was better. I just read a CNet review this morning, though, and they saw only (ha, "only") 1 unevenly lit spot, in the lower left. So maybe it's gotten better over the time it's been out (like 2 years?), or maybe it's inconsistent.

I see the Apple one is down to $1,999.

If I didn't have any monitors, I'd consider getting either the Dell or the Apple. I'd have to research more (and see them in person) to make my choice. I'd be willing to pay a premium if the picture quality were really much better, but $750 in a stack in front of a Dell monitor would make that look pretty good, too.

Keith actually got a 42" cheapo LCD TV for like $1200. I don't know the tech specs, but it's not bad! You can see some ghosting on text in the Wii web browser if you scroll quickly (note: they don't have Wii component cables), and you can notice chain link fences in Gears of War soften as you look around quickly, but I didn't notice until I looked for it. (Maybe I'm just used to LCDs since that's what my monitors are.) The viewing angle was really great, too.

Hm... now that I think about it... I'm not positive that it's LCD (as opposed to plasma). That would explain the viewing angles. I'll ask.

prodos

02-17-2007, 07:21 PM

A cheapo LCD might be better than a cheapo plasma... I bet a cheapo plasma would burn in like nobody's business.

dnl2ba

02-18-2007, 12:52 AM

It's an LCD after all.

dnl2ba

02-21-2007, 02:46 PM

You know, I hate conspiracy theories. But ever since Vista was released, random processes on my Vista Beta 2 machine keep dying and Explorer keeps locking up. Then I see a little bubble in the Notification Area (a.k.a. system tray) that says I should upgrade to the release version of Vista. :(

The random processes dying actually started when I installed the new "final" nVidia Vista driver. I did a System Restore to dump it, but the problems persist. Maybe I restored to the one just after the install or something stupid like that.

dnl2ba

03-12-2007, 09:22 AM

Why Apple is the best retailer in a America (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/19/8402321/index.htm)

About the design of Apple stores.

prodos

03-12-2007, 05:08 PM

That New York store looks like it would be way too easy for a sealant/drain problem and the whole thing to get flooded during rain.

I liked the Ginza store in Japan though; 5 stories with a solid glass elevator, it's pretty freaky.

ohvermie

03-13-2007, 03:52 AM

That glass thing is just a decoration in the front of the building. The actual store is in the building behind it.

prodos

03-13-2007, 05:03 AM

Really? because it looks to me like you just walk inside it and down the stairs. (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1759)

dnl2ba

03-17-2007, 02:05 AM

My god. I had an awful saga with XP activation last night and today. Basically, some Windows update-- still don't know which-- made Windows insist I reactivate before I could even log in, and even when I successfully activated, it would give me a nice error message and send me back to the login screen. I did a repair install so I could actually get to my desktop, activated, and downloaded updates... only to run into the same damn issue. At some point, MS decided I had activated too many times. The only recourse? Contact customer service. Oh, wait, OEM copies don't get free support. It's $59.

It's evenings of teeth-gnashin' frustration like that that get a guy to consider his alternatives. But after buying thousands of dollars of software for one platform, it's really hard to leave it. And even if I left it today and re-bought all that software for another platform, only Windows runs Supreme Commander, which I've awaited for 10 years.

In short, I bought Vista Home Premium. Yeah, if a company turns your legit product into a coaster, the best thing to do is give them another $250, right? :p I don't feel so stupid for buying it since 1) it's been 5 years since I've bought Windows, and my computer has technically changed (albeit one part at a time) and 2) my current hardware has had lots of nasty issues with XP that I didn't have in Vista Beta 2. So uh, I'm going to pretend that Vista was made by a different company.

Vista works fine so far except I can't figure out how to span my wallpaper across multiple monitors.

prodos

03-17-2007, 02:35 PM

Hmm, wasn't the reason you went back to XP because the Vista game performance wasn't so hot? I hope Supreme Commander still runs acceptably. :(

dnl2ba

03-17-2007, 05:11 PM

I actually hadn't tried SupCom in Vista and was going on others' say-so. But it turns out it runs fine. :D There's also supposed to be some performance issue with Audigy sound cards, but I haven't found the game to be unplayable in any way. It does turn into a slide show in some rare circumstances, but Rise of Legends did the same thing.

I'm also not seeing the SupCom cut scene video stutter I saw in XP, and I'm not seeing the Flash audio stutter I saw in Vista Beta 2. Basically, everything is awesome so far.

I beat the UEF campaign last night. They threw every Cybran and Aeon mega giant huge experimental unit at me, but a combination of T3 artillery (think Big Bertha), gunships, and strategic bombers made such short work of them that I never even got to see one between an NPC warning me about it and announcing it was destroyed.

dnl2ba

03-20-2007, 06:44 AM

Vista DreamScene video (http://img.engadget.com/2007/03/17/vista-dreamscene-users-burn-in-hell/) - LOL. DreamScene is one of the features from the Vista Ultimate "Ultimate Extras (http://ces.engadget.com/2007/01/07/placeholder-microsoft-unveils-ultimate-extras-for-vista-ulti/)."

prodos

03-20-2007, 08:38 AM

That looks like crappy demoscene plasma circa 1993 :(

dnl2ba

04-20-2007, 09:43 PM

I dunno if anyone else here does web development stuff for kicks ever.

April links for web designers (http://tutorialblog.org/links-for-web-designers-april/)

Though I'm not sure what to make of "web designer" now. If you're making your own site, you're doing it all, so sure you're a web designer. But in the professional world, the designer and implementer are often completely different people.

schally

04-21-2007, 09:23 PM

Web design is too fancy nowadays. Sometimes I miss the Spartan times of the past.

Off-topic, but a girl cardinal and a boy cardinal are hanging out on my back deck, and they soooooo want to fuck each other. She's like O HAY I'M PRETTY, and he's like NO TOTALLY PRETTIER THAN YOU and he shows off his little red mohawk. It's rad.

Gump

04-22-2007, 12:21 AM

Is it sad that I thought of the religious Cardinals rather than the avian cardinals? First I thought, "Wait, since when are there girl Cardinals?" and then "What are Cardinals doing on Sheri's deck? Has she been sending porn spam to the Pope or something?"

dnl2ba

04-22-2007, 02:49 AM

Stanford Cardinals?

prodos

04-22-2007, 06:10 AM

No, it's Stanford Cardinal, no plural. She means like the St. Louis Cardinals... and yes, the males are totally prettier than the females. But we digress... was the hardcore bird-on-bird action, and did you record it?

Rhys

04-22-2007, 07:30 AM

Seconding the pix plz.

dnl2ba

04-22-2007, 08:47 AM

What's wrong with you people!?

schally

04-23-2007, 12:55 AM

For $10 I'll email you guys a quickie. Make it $15 and you get the money shot.

dnl2ba

05-08-2007, 05:47 PM

Dell 24" LCD, $569 (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-4335) (1920x1200)

That's fucking crazy. I paid something like $1,100 maybe 4 years ago for the 19" Viewsonic LCD James later bought off me (...for much less, of course).

That's apparently the highest resolution DVI single-link spec supports. You need dual-link to get up to 2560x1600.

prodos

05-09-2007, 04:48 PM

How are the reviews on that one? Any glaring issues? :)

dnl2ba

05-09-2007, 08:11 PM

The reviews were glowing, last I checked. It's also been out for long enough that I should hope they've worked out any kinks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_monitors
http://reviews.cnet.com/Dell_UltraSharp_2407WFP/4505-3174_7-31899303.html

Edit: Actually, with the composite and component inputs, it might be good for playing console games in my room. It also turns out the DVI port supports HDCP, so you could theoretically play protected HD content on it. (I found out just now that my TV's DVI port supports HDCP. Who knew? I thought it was only supported on HDMI ports.)

Is it finally time for teh Odin Sphere!?!?

And what the hell am I going to do with my old monitors? Maybe I can fire up my old P4 2.4GHz and use it for... something...

Wait wait! Uh... so, James, wouldn't you love to have a couple 5-year-old 19" LCDs instead of a shiny new 24" one? :p

prodos

05-10-2007, 02:51 AM

Sorry, man. There's no room on my desk for more than one monitor of any size.

Edit: And they even accept PayPal. Hot!

schally

05-15-2007, 12:30 AM

So... I was having HD issues before with my master drive. I was getting the checkdisk screen every time I turned the computer on and apparently some of the files were getting funky. I replaced it with a new HD and left the secondary in there.

When I initially turn my computer on, it will always detect the primary drive and it will sometimes detect the secondary--sometimes not.

If I reset the computer for any reason, however, it will not be able to detect either drive. But if I turn the computer off and back on, it will go back to detecting one or maybe both drives.

I'm took out the old cable and I'm using the new cable that came with the HD. Everything is plugged in securely. I made sure each one is jumpered for cable select according to the directions on each hard drive. Pins seem okay.

Mobo?

dnl2ba

05-15-2007, 12:56 AM

Did you try putting them on the other IDE channel like I suggested? Even if that's the problem, it's still a problem with the onboard IDE controller. :(

If you have a friend with an IDE-to-USB enclosure, you could try that and see if your drives work fine in that.

Consider SATA instead of IDE. Though, of course, that calls for new drives and probably a motherboard that requires a newer processor and memory... but just be aware. It's the new thing.

schally

05-15-2007, 09:57 PM

I did try the other IDE channel, but just once to see if it would detect the drives (it did). But I didn't try resetting, etc., to see if it would consistently detect 'em. I might do that next just to see.

I think I bought this computer in '01. I know it wants to go to heaven, but I'm not prepared to rend it from the mortal coil just yet. We have too many precious memories and porn sites between us.

prodos

05-15-2007, 10:09 PM

That 24" LCD linked above is pretty freakin' sweet btw. Got mine yesterday.

Oh, and Matt, I saw this when I was researching the MacBook Pro for a friend:

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors.

Now I'm pretty sure the MacBook Pro only has 1 DVI connector... so somehow they're getting past that 1900x1200 limitation, or am I just a noob and they have developed a way to squeeze dual-link into a single port/cable?

dnl2ba

05-16-2007, 12:41 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DVI_Connector_Types.svg

There are single-connector dual link ports.

prodos

05-16-2007, 02:05 AM

Ohhh, so single connector dual link ports are pretty common then? Everything I own seems to be DVI-I Dual Link.

dnl2ba

05-16-2007, 03:19 AM

Apparently, even my old GF4400 Ti (in my P4 2.4 box) has a dual-link DVI. I was under the impression for the longest time that "dual-link" meant you pair up two DVI ports.

dnl2ba

05-23-2007, 03:55 PM

Dell 24" LCD, $569 (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-4335) (1920x1200)

Oh noes, the price went up! Wait... to $579.

There's also a 27" LCD at $1,019 (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=222-7315). It's the same resolution as the 24". For that price, I'd really rather have 2x 24" ones.

So James, have you hooked up your PS2 to your 2407WFP?

prodos

05-23-2007, 04:34 PM

Why would I do that? There's a PS2 hooked up to the TV.

dnl2ba

05-23-2007, 06:58 PM

Yeah, well... maybe there won't if I get a 2407WFP too... >_<

dnl2ba

05-25-2007, 02:58 AM

Intel's ultraportable laptop OF DOOM (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2007/tc20070523_272039.htm?chan=technology_technology+i ndex+page_top+stories)

0.7" thick
2.25 lbs
Wi-Fi, EV-DO, WiMax
SSD (basically a Flash hard drive)
14 hours battery life
Auto-adjusting brightness
Back of the monitor has an E Ink display for showing your calendar, or something
Built-in camera
Can add a strap so you can carry it like shoulder bag (it looks like a purse)

So uh... my laptop, the bottom of its line, was the same size (0.75" and 2.2 lbs), with only 802.11 a/b/g, a 1.8" normal platter-based 30GB HD, 512MB RAM, and a 1.2GHz Core Solo, for about $1,800. The battery life is only about 3 hours unless you add the 6-cell battery, which brings it to 2.9 lbs and about 7 hours. So how much is this Intel monster going to cost?

dnl2ba

05-26-2007, 10:16 PM

I managed to find two copies of Odin Sphere (one for me, one for a friend) at a local Gamestop. That means I need to get a PS2 with component output set up in my room. Which means I need that 24" LCD monster. And being me, I ordered two of them. @_@

I think that means I now have enough computer components to separate out my old P4 2.4GHz box as its own free-standing machine, complete with both of my old 19" LCDs I'm using at this moment. I have no idea what I'd do with it, though. SETI? Weather? Media server? Emulator hooked up to TV? Home theater PC hooked up to TV? It's almost dead quiet, so it would do fine in the living room.

Too bad I didn't get a motherboard with two PCIe 16x slots for my current machine. Mine only has one (meaning only one video card, meaning only 2 displays unless I get a special card). I figured I'd never go for dual cards for gaming purposes, but I never really considered quad monitors.

prodos

05-27-2007, 07:50 PM

Emulator hooked up to TV? Home theater PC hooked up to TV?

Why would you hook anything up to the TV when the reason you are buying the monitors is because you don't want to use the TV?

dnl2ba

05-27-2007, 07:53 PM

Anything involving people other than me.

dnl2ba

05-30-2007, 03:27 PM

Google Maps adds street-level pictures (http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-05-29-n38.html)

This new view is available for some regions (Silicon Valley, Las Vegas, Miami, Denver and New York, according to Colin Colehour from the US, who says the Street View button disappears when you move the map away from North America)

So downtown Mountain View is in there, but it seems 85 is the southern border of the residential areas they map. South of that, it's just 101, Middlefield, and Evelyn, and even 101 stops at Mathilda.

They got most of Palo Alto northeast of El Camino Real, though.

dnl2ba

06-04-2007, 06:01 AM

Google Maps adds street-level pictures (http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-05-29-n38.html)

So downtown Mountain View is in there, but it seems 85 is the southern border of the residential areas they map. South of that, it's just 101, Middlefield, and Evelyn, and even 101 stops at Mathilda.

They got most of Palo Alto northeast of El Camino Real, though.

Have you guys checked it out yet? Super awesome. It's better than A9's street photos thing, 'cuz you can actually get a 360 degree view.

coeds sunbathing on Stanford campus (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=stanford,+ca&ie=UTF8&ll=37.427962,-122.159922&spn=0.011911,0.020084&z=16&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.424353,-122.16099&cbp=1,386.083878617363,0.613787920346983,3)

This is why Al Gore invented the Intertubes.

prodos

06-11-2007, 06:45 PM

WWDC07:

New Desktop (http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/desktop.html) (The Dock is now more of a Glass Shelf)
Brushed Metal is dead
New Finder (iTunes for files, haha!)
Spiffier DVD Player
Safari on Windows (http://www.apple.com/safari/)
iPhone 3rd party apps via Web 2.0

dnl2ba

06-11-2007, 10:02 PM

Yeah, I just finished downloading Safari for Windows. Haven't fired it up yet, but awesome that they're doing it. Now I can finally develop for Safari without having to sit at the office's moldy G3 iMac.

prodos

06-12-2007, 12:05 AM

Its UI is a really strange hybrid of mac and windows... except the window borders which are neither windows or mac and look really odd. It seems to have jammed everything that is normally under the Application menu into Edit... PopUp Blocking, Porn.. er Private Mode, Empty Cache, etc.

Also the toolbar customization doesn't have "Fixed Space" and "Flexible Space" which is kind of awkward... sometimes the address bar wasn't taking up the full space available so I had to remove it and add it again.

dnl2ba

06-13-2007, 12:04 AM

I managed to find two copies of Odin Sphere (one for me, one for a friend) at a local Gamestop. That means I need to get a PS2 with component output set up in my room. Which means I need that 24" LCD monster. And being me, I ordered two of them. @_@

One of them came from Texas via the Dell Fresno hub arrived yesterday. The other came from Texas via... the Dell Riverside hub. (That's in SoCal, for you Tennessee types.) What the hell. They were even from the same order!

dnl2ba

06-13-2007, 07:19 AM

Wired News benchmarks show Safari 3 is slower than IE 7, Firefox (http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/06/wired_news_benc.html)

Joel on Software: Apple vs. Microsoft font rendering (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html?hi=joel)

This goes for anything from silverware (people pick out the patterns that match the silverware they had growing up) to typefaces to graphic design: unless people are trained to know what to look for, they're going to pick the one that is most familiar.
Uh... I contest that training people "to know what to look for" is desirable unless we're trying to make them typographers. What would be more useful is finding out 1) what they find more legible (qualitatively and quantitatively) and 2) what they find more beautiful.

I like MacOS font rendering just fine for larger fonts, but when it gets to tiny text, give me sharp Windows fonts any day. For reading blocks of text at 10pt-12pt, I marginally prefer Windows fonts, but maybe I'd prefer Mac fonts for those sizes if I used them daily. Eh.

prodos

06-13-2007, 09:17 AM

That speed thing is just terrible journalism. Anyone with half a brain could tell you that any companies benchmarks are going to be skewed to make them look good, no duh. His refuting point is that 3 pages from the same website are slower? Well, whoop-de-shit. If I'm given a choice between random unknown benchmarking utility (iBench?) and 3 pages of GMail to tell me if the average webpage loads faster... well you know what, most of the web doesn't have anywhere near the complexity of GMail so I'm going to have to go with iBench, whatever the hell that is. Stupid Wired couldn't even test if Wired.com loaded slower or not?

Re: fonts; it's VI vs. Emacs, Pirates vs. Ninjas, Windows vs. Mac, Astronauts vs. Cavemen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DulUVxzmpDM)... what's the point.

dnl2ba

06-13-2007, 02:47 PM

well you know what, most of the web doesn't have anywhere near the complexity of GMail so I'm going to have to go with iBench, whatever the hell that is.
I for one am very interested in browsers' comparative DOM parsing / rendering speeds and Javascript performance, and Google web applications are very Javascript intensive. After all, for the most part, it's only the really DOM- and Javascript-intensive pages where performance is a big factor on the web. For "most of the web," I don't think you're going to see an appreciable difference.

My main beef was that it conflated different kinds of performance.

OTOH, Gmail startup seems to be more of a test of how faster your browser can negotiate something like 27 different redirects. :p (Not sure if that's changed since I heard that figure about 2 years ago. It sounds kind of absurd, but I remember thinking/hearing that it was for security and anti-bot purposes.)

Anyone with half a brain could tell you that any companies benchmarks are going to be skewed to make them look good, no duh.
I don't think Microsoft has ever touted IE as having faster performance than the competition. For IE7, they've been talking about security-- not just "can the hax0r break this?" security, but stuff like built-in warnings about phishing sites-- not to mention big improvements from IE6 (tabbed browsing at long last, RSS support, improved printing so it doesn't cut off pages at the edges).

Opera consistently uses speed as a selling point, but according to most of the JS benchmarks I've seen, it's crazy fast. It's also very aggressive about caching (to the extent that I often don't have a fresh page load when I think I do, like when restarting the browser), so that helps but has major drawbacks.

I think I've seen Mozilla occasionally tout performance, but mostly, like IE, it touts features. The 3 bullets on the site (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) currently say "enjoy a better web experience," "stay secure on the web," and "personalize your browser."

Apple, OTOH, consistently markets their products as being faster, even when they're markedly slower. I'm not convinced yet that Safari 3 is one of these cases, but remember the good ol' days of G3-G5 benchmarks? Yeah. Yucky. I think the issue is that they're going after basically the same market share as Firefox and Opera-- people on Windows looking for alternative browsers-- but Firefox and Opera already have stuff like tabs and RSS support (albeit kinda crappy), so they're trying a different angle to differentiate themselves.

prodos

06-13-2007, 05:32 PM

So I'll look past the fact that you are comparing IE vs. Opera vs. Mozilla vs. Apple (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyNgfcIIaeE) and try to assume that you were trying to refute my point that "companies release bad benchmarks all the time." So I guess you have no trouble believing that our home internet is "6 times faster" than DSL like Comcast claims? And I hope you only ever use ATI cards because from what I saw on their webpage their "closest competitor" looks like they sneezed on the screen the image quality is so bad. Oh, and AMD too, because HyperTransport is 48 times fasterthan some existing technologies. Please, man, companies pull screwy stuff with their benchmarks all the time, it's called marketing.

My point was that even I believe that Safari is probably slower than Firefox for plenty of webpages... it could even be the majority of webpages, but that doesn't change the fact that that Wired blog did the lamest job evar of trying to claim it is.

dnl2ba

06-13-2007, 05:56 PM

try to assume that you were trying to refute my point that "companies release bad benchmarks all the time."
I uh... I didn't say anything about marketing hyperbole because I wasn't refuting that point. What are you trying to pin on me?

I'm just saying there's any number of ways a browser can be marketed, and Apple's marketing team picked one that I'm not confident they can back up. In comparison, I really do believe that Opera is fast, Firefox has great extensibility, and IE is more secure than it used to be. I wouldn't be surprised if they toss around some bogus numbers, too, but OTOH, only Safari's home page currently parades (questionable) numbers. Apple is saying, You should use Safari because it's faster.

What if Mazda pimped the Miata for its amazing storage capacity and how you can bring your entire extended family to the beach with it? The Miata's a fine car, but Mazda wisely chooses to emphasize other factors. They also probably wouldn't get away with saying it has 27.9% more seats than the competition. :)

So I guess you have no trouble believing that our home internet is "6 times faster" than DSL like Comcast claims? For us, it might have been :p

Edit: No argument here that the Wired blog wasn't very convincing.