A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
All things geeky.
For folks working with CSS and Firefox, there is an outstanding tool called Aardvark. There is also a javascript bookmarklet that does something similar and can be used in any browser that supports javascript. Simply go to this page and drag the Bookmark this link for MODIv2 link to your bookmarks toolbar. When you want to use it, click the shortcut. (of course, you can skip going to the page and simply drag that link).
I still highly recommend Aardvark.
Troubleshooting a dns problem? Is your site not coming up? Want to be more standards compliant? Are you setup correctly with your webhost? Who is that anonymous commenter?
These questions can be answered with these three links: AboutURL, DNS Report, and DNS Stuff. Those last two have long been in my arsenal of tricks which have helped me quickly troubleshoot client issues.
I find CSS to be much fun. I like reading other people’s options of CSS techniques. PingMag lists 5 steps that I like.
I don’t necessarily agree completely or adhere to these steps but they are certainly worth reviewing. [Source]
This is the stuff that makes my eyes bleed:
<FORM action="{$register_script_name}?{$smarty.server.QUERY_STRING}" method="POST" name="registerform"{if $js_enabled} onsubmit="javascript: if (check_zip_code(){if $default_fields.email.required eq 'Y'} && checkEmailAddress(document.registerform.email){/if}) return true; else return false;"{/if}>
Kudos to efnet‘s #coldfusion‘s MacGeorge for writing his representative regarding net neutrality and bigger kudos to Tammy Baldwin for responding!
I strongly support network neutrality, the guiding principle which
ensures that the Internet remains open to all and guarantees
everyone equal access. …
…I am a cosponsor of the Network
Neutrality Act, H.R. 5273. This bill clearly defines U.S.
telecommunication policy to include the preservation of the
freedom to use broadband telecommunications networks, including
the Internet, without interference from network operators.
Specifically, it outlines responsibilities of network providers to
ensure that the Internet remains open and available to everyone. …
Sincerely,
Tammy Baldwin
Member of Congress
Good stuff! Her letter also mentions that it is better to send email than physical letters.
As a result of the anthrax incidents, all
mail sent to Congress is first irradiated. This process causes
significant delays. To ensure the fastest response, I encourage all
constituents who have access to the internet to contact me through
my website…
Be politically active in your life. There is time for a simple phone call or email. Contact your representative frequently!
See also Markey Amendment to COPE Act, Markey bill, and The Library of Congress.
Are you a Skype user? Want to enhance your website by giving users the ability to call you from a link? Call Doug Or perhaps you want to give your users an easy way to add your Skype link to their contacts. Add Doug as a Skype contact
Those links will fail if you haven’t installed Skype on your computer. So some javascript can help changing the error message to a prompt to download Skype. Call Doug or if you don’t have skype get prompted to install
Instead of calling, perhaps you want to text chat with Doug. There are other links for conference calls, regular phone numbers, viewing profiles, and even sending files.
These techniques are described in Skypes Advanced Links. Also read How to show your Skype status on the web.
EEEwww! I want!
A barely-there Bluetooth experience, the revolutionary Motorola H5 MINIBLUE is designed around the way your body works. The tiny headset fits discreetly in your ear and includes a built-in microphone and speaker, so your ear canal picks up your voice.
…
The advanced in-ear technology lets you hear and talk clearly. When you find yourself in a noisy environment, don’t worry about having to remove yourself when you receive a call. Just use the Motorola H5 MINIBLUE for strain-free conversation on the freeway* or in a coffee shop.
I enjoy blogging. I enjoy both the writing side of blogging as well as the reading and interacting side of blogging. I personally think it is more pleasureable to read a blog that has a steady stream of information rather than bursts of quantity followed by silence. I believe that is one aspect of Instapundit that makes Glen Reynolds (and his rumored ghost writers) stand out. Like dead air on the radio, several days or weeks of no posts can cost your blog readership.
I collect links and tidbits as I work. When I’m researching and see something interesting I open a tab in Firefox and hold the link. My goal, of course, is to write something substantial and correlate to other sources and similar tidbits but rather than Pulitzer I often end up with a couple of sentences saying, "check this out!" I also have friends that instant message or email interesting links which go into the pool of possible publishings. And my browser homepage for Firefox is the Geek Crack site http://popurls.com/ while Internet Explorer retains the news portal iWon.
My trick to steady posting is to devote a bit of time each Sunday to making non-time sensitive posts into the future. This was a feature that Blogger lacked. On blogger, posting in the future made the information immediately available but with a future date. As you can see in the picture, WordPress handles future posts correctly! The screenshot shows my recent posts today but also reveals seven scheduled posts already written which will appear whether or not I’m frantically working, or even away from my computer. The next one arrives in 16 hours then another in 20 hours, three post in 2 days, and finally two posts 4 days from now. These non-time sensitive posts come from the links I’ve collected over the week. The scheduled posts may only be a couple of sentences but if time permits over the week, I can improve the information before their scheduled time (and being what a blog is, I can update them at any time but my style is typically to leave a post alone once it publishes).
By using scheduling features of your blog publishing software, you can have posts appear while you are at the office of a business that has a policy against blogging at work. You can keep your readers satisfied with a steady stream of good writing. By spreading your material out over time, you avoid turning your readers into skimmers because of information overload. Write steady!
Update: Swap Blog also offers bloggers some good advice.
We all use Microsoft Office. Maybe some of us use Open Office but most people will lay hands on MS Word or Excel at some point in the day. So why not use them better? Microsoft offers all kinds of downloadable templates to make our lifes easier! I’ve decided to quit reinventing the wheel and appreciate what is already made for me.
I’ve had Pete Freitag’s Ajax Tutorial and Prototype open for awhile with intent to share. Since I haven’t looked through it yet, I can’t say anthing beyond that. It is written in conjunction with ColdFusion.
I posted a link called Understanding Net Neutrality which presented a video in favor of net neutrality. A commenter pointed to a video against net neutrality. Both videos seemed to leave out critical information in my mind. Tom Maszerowski point us to Larry Lessig who links us to a must watch video by Tim Berners-Lee. The summary:
Net neutrality is this:
If I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then we can communicate at that level.
That’s all. Its up to the ISPs to make sure they interoperate so that that happens.
Net Neutrality is NOT asking for the internet for free.
Net Neutrality is NOT saying that one shouldn’t pay more money for high quality of service. We always have, and we always will.
Be politically active in your life. There is time for a simple phone call or email. Contact your representative frequently!
If you aren’t going to secure your security cameras (why yes! Some of those do say k12 and edu), then perhaps you should not name them "Peniswart" and "greenshit".
For the voyuers out there, someone has put several of the public cams on one page.
None of my arsensal of antique pci video cards have available drivers for Windows XP (yes, they are that old!). Despite knowing this, I periodically shut down all my machines and go through the exercise of removing and trading out video cards to try to get a second monitor working on my workstation. Eons ago when I had two functioning monitors my productivity felt so much greater. Usually I do this at the crux of a critical deadline (call it avoidance.. call it procrastination.. whatever label, it is just plain stupid.).
So, I now put this down for the world to see so that 6 months from now, when I am certain that I overlooked a compatible car in the stack of useless hardware or buried in the depths of a dusty case, I can be reminded that I’ve been through this exercise enough!
CNN reports: Study: Earth ‘likely’ hottest in 2,000 years
The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the “recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia.”
A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is heating up and that “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.”
This is Bush’s fault!
Other new research Thursday showed that global warming produced about half of the extra hurricane-fueled warmth in the North Atlantic in 2005, and natural cycles were a minor factor
Or maybe Jesus’…Because, it was cool when he was around.
The Bush administration has maintained that the threat is not severe enough to warrant new pollution controls…
Yes! It’s Bush’s fault!
The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization chartered by Congress to advise the government of scientific matters.
Ok then…it’s Jesus’ fault.
Does anyone have video drivers for the SiS 5598/6326 pci video card that actually work with Windows XP?
UPDATE: Just not an option for XP.
