Blogged From the Phone
A Picture/Video Message!, Originally uploaded by iChris.
March 24, 2007
March 22, 2007
A Picture/Video Message!
A Picture/Video Message!, Originally uploaded by iChris.
Just fooling around with photo blogging - took a picture on my phone, uploaded it to flickr which automagically sends it to my blog. I am awesome.
The device in the picture is our store's DVD/CD printer/burner - snaps off 50 DVDs or CDs at a time.
March 20, 2007
Youtube Clones
I think I threw up a little in my mouth when I saw this. Godtube is a copy, almost line for line, of Youtube complete with a Askaninja.com clone (SoldierinGodsArmy), Mac vs PC clones (link) and Clay Aiken videos?!?
Yet another 'safe place' that is a copy of something succesful, with all the bad stuff removed so that the Christians won't have to struggle and deal with the real world out there.
I read about this on Wired, in this writeup - including the quote below regarding this video:
Admittedly, this one's pretty clever. Pan-offensive novelty rap is turned into a stunning anthem of Bible-literacy by changing a single word in the title. Unfortunately, it took almost twenty years for Christians to get around to parodying a song made famous in 1992, when Christians were still busy trying to come up with 11 minutes of Christian-themed lyrics to insert into Don McLean's "American Pie."
I don't think it was 20 years, but the point remains.
March 18, 2007
TwitterVision
Want to know what geeks around the world are doing right now? Probably not. But even still, twittervision is pretty neat to watch and realize what is happening around the globe.
March 17, 2007
Ze Frank's Final Show
Today is Ze's final show. A good writeup on his show can be found here on the Movabletype blog.
If you dig around into the org it's crazy/inspiring/nutty/strange what people have been willing to create and take part in over the past year. There's over 20,000 people who have signed up to be a part of the org (actually pronounced Oh-Are-Gee) and 30,000+ who watched the show on a daily basis. All started because of the popularity of an instructional dance video he sent around and was amazed to discover how many people grabbed on to it. You can check out lots of his other one-off videos/demos/stuff here or hit up the popular shows from the past year here.
March 1, 2007
Last.fm
I've reunited with Last.fm recently after a brief falling out. It's a great site for anyone that loves music and likes finding new stuff to listen to. Click here to see my profile on last.fm.
You can download the Last.fm player if you like, but the way I use it is by grabbing the iTunes plugin (Mac Users - iScrobbler / Windows Users - iSproggler) which just dumps the songs you're listening to from iTunes to Last.fm.
Then you can create your own radio station from the songs you listen to/like/have found:
Great fun. It's also how I get the recently played tracks on my blog's main page.
February 28, 2007
Joost?
I may have an invite to give out to join Joost. Send me an email if you're interested.
February 23, 2007
Obsolete
I will be there to get one of the first iPhones in June with the other iPhone fans, but when October rolls around and these iPhone users around me get angry because the 20 gig iPhone launches, remember, these people are making themselves obsolete, not Steve Jobs.
Take some responsibility for yourselves people and stop pointing the Finger of Obsoleteness at others.
The plaque on my teeth is about to become obsolete. I have to go to the dentist. Ugh.
February 12, 2007
The Future of Chairs
From the future of GUIs to the future of sitting:
The Future of User Interfaces
The way you use Windows or Mac computers is called a GUI (Graphical User Interface). This is the next generation, currently somewhat implemented in the new iPhone from Apple, though not to this degree:
Updated: That video was causing havoc with my site. Just go view the direct link below.
February 5, 2007
Back on the Block
The iBook auction I had put up on ebay was an exercise in frustration - the winning bidder first said s/he didn't have a paypal account but was setting it up. Then s/he said they didn't have the money to cover the auction. Luckily s/he agreed to cover my listing expenses - so I'm only out the time/frustration of having to list it all over again. Which I did - iBook ebay auction #2. Bid away!
February 2, 2007
The Machine Is Us/ing Us
January 31, 2007
Flickr Sold Out?
Thomas Hawk has compiled a bunch of comments from flickr users who are upset over Flickr's recent decision to force users to get a Yahoo ID in order to continue their flickring, among other things (limiting a photo to 75 tags, limiting you to 3,000 contacts).
I made the switch a month or two ago and it didn't really stress me out this much. It's a similar whining sound that people make when their favorite band that no one has heard of suddenly gets their song on the radio/tv/movie/etc. If you'd like to join in on the wailing, hit up the flickr forum. Otherwise, make the switch and continue flickring.
Flickr Sold Out?
Thomas Hawk has compiled a bunch of comments from flickr users who are upset over Flickr's recent decision to force users to get a Yahoo ID in order to continue their flickring, among other things (limiting a photo to 75 tags, limiting you to 3,000 contacts).
I made the switch a month or two ago and it didn't really stress me out this much. It's a similar whining sound that people make when their favorite band that no one has heard of suddenly gets their song on the radio/tv/movie/etc. If you'd like to join in on the wailing, hit up the flickr forum. Otherwise, make the switch and continue flickring.
January 13, 2007
iBook on eBay
Since Sue has been upgraded to a MacBook, we've got an extra iBook sitting around here. I've listed it on ebay - click here to view the listing - so feel free to go make a bid if you're interested. Obviously those of you living near me wouldn't have to worry about paying for shipping.
It's a 1GHz G4 iBook with a 12" screen, 768MB SDRAM, 100GB Hard drive, DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo, 802.11b/g wireless, 2 USB 2.0, 1 firewire 400 and warranty on it until May, 2007. Send me an email if you're interested. Now that it's on ebay I'll have to follow through with that sale, but you can still pay in person and bypass the paypal stuff if you want.
January 10, 2007
DailyLit
I'm sure this will cause some reading/book purists to drop their copies of The Iliad and throw up their arms in disgust - but you can now read books by email thanks to http://www.dailylit.com. Basically any book that's in pubic domain (i.e. the copyright has expired) can be sent to you in email digest form. The emails can come daily, on weekdays or just Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
December 12, 2006
Flickr Easter/Christmas Egg
Flickr added a little easter (or would it be Christmas) egg. Any photo that you add a note to with either 'ho ho ho hat' or 'ho ho ho beard' will give you a little beard and/or hat to add to your photo.
Flickr also recently removed the upload limit for pro users (previously 2GB/month) and also upped the limit for free accounts from 20MB to 100MB/month.
No better time than now to give the gift of flickr. :)
Via boingboing.com.
December 11, 2006
Twitter Is The Latest Internet Fad
The above is my 'badge' from twitter.com. You can tell the world what you're doing at any time of the day through the web/mobile/gtalk. So now you can follow along with your friend's boring lives more closely than before.
Needless to say, I'll be addicted to it for the next little while if you want to follow along.
November 9, 2006
Mac OS X and Rumsfeld
Even OS X wanted him gone: Rumsfeld booted by OS X.
November 1, 2006
Robots In Disguise
Ultimate Transformers costume. If I didn't know any better, I'd have sworn this was Mark's costume. :)
Comments from digg:
Comment 1 - Can he go through doorways?
Comment 2 - So is this guy stuck in the room?
Comment 3 - No, this guy is stuck in his parent's basement.
From digg
October 26, 2006
.CA Registrations
I was always under the assumption that .CA registrations were $50, 5 times that of .COM, .ORG registrations. Turns out prices have come down a bit on .CA. I just registered a .CA for a super secret new project (hush hush) that was only $13CDN/year. I registered it through www.namespro.ca (Disclosure: I get $1 per domain registered via that link) and it was pretty simple.
September 14, 2006
Wii Details Announced
Nintendo, who is fast becoming the Apple of the home console wars IMHO, has announced details on the forthcoming 'Wii' console. Hit up Nintendo's site to see all the details and visit wii.com to view the menu/channel system that will be included. $249US price point and a November 19th arrival date. They hope to sell 4 million of these in the 43 days before the end of the year - or 93,000/day. Crazy!
Skype v2.0 for Mac w/Video Support
Skype has upgraded their software to v2.0 for Mac which now adds video chatting support so you can talk with PCs or Macs via video and voice now. Go grab yourself a copy.
August 29, 2006
Flickr Adds GPS/Mapping Support
Flickr has added the ability to say where your pictures were taken. This is terrible news to a stats geek like me because now I have to go back and enter in all the places my pictures were taken. Luckly Flickr makes it really easy to do through the organizer (pictured above).
So on this picture in my flickr photostream, scroll down and on the right hand side you can see where it was taken (if you're one of my friends/family - a little bit of security added via an option to decide who can see where your pictures were taken). Click the (map) option and you should see a pop-up something like this:
You can then check out other pics from the same area by me or by anybody. Neat!
Update: Wow. In 24 hours, 1.2 million flickr photos were geotagged. That's a pretty decent rate of adoption by users.
July 11, 2006
Free Skype Long Distances Dates
Skype is offering free calling to various places from the U.S./Canada over the next couple of weeks. Normally with Skype you can call another computer for free from anywhere, but what's different about this is that you can call a U.K./Mexico/Japan based phone number for free during these dates.
July 6, 2006
Sudoku in the Loo
June 14, 2006
Don't Be a T-Shirt
I sometimes wonder about shirts like this and what the response would be if I were to wear it to, say, church? Obviously the "d" word is a bit harsh and probably not what a lot of parents would want their kids reading and repeating, but surely you can't argue with the sentiment?
Oh, WWWD. (As in 'What Would Wade Do')
Alas, he's gone up to the great, great white north.
And no, I didn't order the shirt (yet). And I (probably) won't.
June 2, 2006
Mosquito Killer
Here's a couple tips for killing off those deadly little mosquitos that have come to suck your blood.
First up is a $200 device that looks suspiciously like the backpacks they used in Ghostbusters to vanquish the Marshmellow Man (or was it the Michelin Man?):
Next up, for you do-it-yourself types is something that came out of a Taiwan school class' experiments:
May 17, 2006
The Garden Hose Sucks the Bandwidth
Haven't looked at Strongbad in awhile, but #152 was pretty funny.
"Thank you for calling the internet. May I have your account number or identity theft please?"
May 15, 2006
Free Calls To Land Lines in US/Canada
Skype now offers free calls to land lines in US/Canada - more details here.
If you’re in the US or Canada, you can use SkypeOut to call any landline or mobile number in both the USA and Canada for free.If you’re in the US or Canada and calling any other country, OR if you’re in any other country and calling landline or mobile numbers in the US or Canada, the standard SkypeOut rates apply.
Of course, Skype-to-Skype calls continue to be globally free, so no changes there.
Free Calls To Land Lines in US/Canada
Skype now offers free calls to land lines in US/Canada - more details here.
If you’re in the US or Canada, you can use SkypeOut to call any landline or mobile number in both the USA and Canada for free.If you’re in the US or Canada and calling any other country, OR if you’re in any other country and calling landline or mobile numbers in the US or Canada, the standard SkypeOut rates apply.
Of course, Skype-to-Skype calls continue to be globally free, so no changes there.
January 5, 2006
7 Year Old Takes Second at 550 Person Halo 2 Event
December 2, 2005
I'm Flying
November 16, 2005
Google is Taking Over the World
Google base is live today. It's basically a big database of information that is user submitted. So if you want to store your favorite chicken tikka masala or are looking for a used car or course information related to differential equations - it's all there. It's basically a classified ad system for the internet that's free.
November 11, 2005
Make Your Own Mosiac
This is a Mac only tip, though I'm sure there's something out there for Windows like this. MacOSaiX makes a mosiac using images from either your iPhoto library or a Google image search. Depending on the size/complexity of the photo you're trying to create, it might take awhile.
November 4, 2005
Crazy Animated GIF
Animated GIF - someone with lots of time on their hand. :)
October 26, 2005
Suudsu - GEWD!
I haven't watched in awhile so I thought I'd check and see how Strongbad was doing in his latest email.
October 20, 2005
Dream Machine
Now who wants to loan me $23 grand?
October 13, 2005
New iPods, iMacs and iTunes
Serious Apple nerds watch Steve Jobs present the new products and get blanketed by his reality distortion field.
For the rest of you, new video iPods, new iMacs with integrated iSight camera and a new version of iTunes with the ability to buy videos for your new video iPod.
If you're connected to the UofS in some way, my store has some great deals on the now disco'd iMacs.
October 7, 2005
More Time Wasted
Sims 2 University for Mac is available for pre-order. Travis?
October 5, 2005
Video iPod or Just A Nerd's Dream?
So Apple has a big event planned for Oct 12th (next week) and lots of rumors are floating around as to what's going to happen - video iPod, video enabled Airport Express, or upgraded Powerbook/Powermacs.
I'll believe a video iPod when I see it. Not that I don't think they'll come out with one, but why do it so soon after releasing the iPod nano that's been getting tons of press and publicity for Apple? But then a big media event like this doesn't really make much sense for a simple speed bump to the Power line. We'll have to wait and see what Steve Jobs has up his sleeve (or in his pocket) next Wednesday.
September 20, 2005
Hang On to Your Hotel Electronic Keys
Some hotels keep your personal info, including your credit card number/expiry date, on the electronic keys. I'm not sure why exactly they would do this but it's really nothing to get all that worried about, so long as you destroy the card when you're done and don't lose it while you're staying at the hotel - just like you wouldn't want to lose your credit card.
The idea that the employees of the hotel have access to this information because it's on your hotel key is not really something to worry about - if the employee wanted to he/she would steal your credit card info long before it hits the electronic key.
September 15, 2005
All the Good Ideas Are Taken!
Dang it - I knew I should have put more effort into this idea when I had it and now someone's beaten me to it: a portable bidet that doubles as a digital camera.
I'm not sure which is more funny, a portable bidet that doubles as a digital camera or flipping it around and saying a digital camera that doubles as a portable bidet?
September 14, 2005
Google's Blog Search
Narrow down your searchs to just blogs: http://blogsearch.google.com.
August 26, 2005
More Stats with Movabletype 3.2
Weblogs: 16
Authors: 18
Active Authors: 11
Entries: 1609
Comments: 2963
TrackBacks: 7362
Version: 3.2
I can guarantee most of those trackbacks are spam. And probably a good portion of the comments as well. They're the ones that we've inherited since upgrading from MT 2.xx, before MT had comment/trackback spam blocking.
August 25, 2005
Movabletype 3.2 Released
Sixapart has released Movabletype 3.2. To any mennoboy/mennogirl/etc users I'll be upgrading sometime in the near future. It's Andrea's (my sister) wedding on Sunday and so there's lots of family/friends that we'll be hanging around with. Look for 2 bazillion pictures to be uploaded on Monday after all the dust clears. :)
[Update]: Nevermind. I decided to quickly do it while I was waiting for Sue to get home from work. Let me know if you see anything wierd in your travels.
August 24, 2005
1985
Check out what was big in 1985 on engadget's 'special edition'.
August 23, 2005
Google Launches Their Chat Service
And it's based on Jabber, an open source instant messenging service, which is good because iChat AV for Mac is also based on Jabber. Here's how to get set up if you have a gmail account already and a Jabber client:
Server: talk.google.com
Username: youremail@gmail.com
Password: yourpassword
Let me know if you want/need a gmail account.
Nothing too exciting here - they've got a client for Windows folks to use - but I know how tied most people are into using MSN. It's similair to how everyone used to (still does?) use Internet Explorer just because it came installed on Windows.
August 17, 2005
Laser Trip Wire
I think I _need_ a set of these to protect my... uhm... something I'll think of later. Either way, it's frickin lazer beams.
August 16, 2005
Word Blogger
Blogger releases a plugin for Word that allows you to blog from Word.
August 10, 2005
Testing Movabletype 3.2 Beta
I'm trying out the beta of the next version of Movabletype, the program I use to blog here on Mennoboy. The blog is at beta.mennoboy.com.
If you'd like to check out movabletype 3.2 beta, send me an email and I'll set you up with a login.
August 5, 2005
William Gibson on U2
William Gibson writes for 'Wired' as he follows U2 on their tour.
August 4, 2005
Awesome - First Windows Vista Viruses Are Out
and the OS isn't even due until next year. Bear in mind that this report is from a Mac publication so it may be a little slanted in the Apple's favor.
August 3, 2005
Storm Takes Out Internet
There was a storm here a few days ago and ever since then my Shaw modem hasn't worked. I've been waiting to see if maybe it would wake up, but nothing has happened. I phoned Shaw and they said it's likely shot and that they'd just give me a new one to replace it. In the meantime I've noticed that there is at least two wireless networks that I can get access to from pretty much anywhere in my house so I haven't really missed the internet that we have right now.
Which begs the question: Why not freeload off of some other person who hasn't figured out how to lock down their network? Saves me $30/month and they probably won't notice much of a performance hit for the amount I use (except when I download torrents of 'The Daily Show').
My main issue, aside from the fact that I think it's probably in the grey area of stealing, is that potentially someone around me could actually know what they are doing and are leaving their network open in the hopes that someone will use it to access their banking/secure information and thereby leave a trail for them to try and 'hack' in. A bit far fetched to be sure, but entirely possible since everything I'm doing would be going over their network - including this entry.
As tempting as it might be, I think I'll just get our modem replaced and go back to using my own network. Maybe I'm just yella.
Apple's New Mighty Mouse
Apple finally came around and released a two button mouse. It's way too easy to make fun of this based on the fact that it took them 3+ years to get on the two button bandwagon. I haven't heard a single argument that really makes any sense as to why they stuck with the one button version for so long.
Educational pricing is at $58 which is a bit steep for a mouse - but because it's Apple I'm sure it will sell just fine. It's got some sort of built in speaker to account for the fact that there's no actual buttons to press - so when you click there's an audible 'click' sound that it makes.
Tom Cruise is An Idiot
Advertising Works?
I'm experimenting (again) with having some Google text ads on the blog. It's one 468x60px block right after the first entry so it's not really that intrusive. It's funny because it's really not that I care about generating money from clicks, it's more that I'm a statistics geek and love to know little things like how many people have clicked this, or how many times this image was viewed or who else is talking about things with this 'tag' on it. The temptation though is to start throwing ads everywhere if/when you see a few dollars start trickling in. The reality is that it does cost money to do hosting like this, but I made that choice and I shouldn't really pass that 'burden' on to the visitors of my site (or sites). But like I said, the stats geek in me can't help it sometimes.
This is where flickr is so great because they have data on everything. Most viewed, most 'favorited', most comments, and their new one, most interestingness (their word, not mine).
So far it seems the advertising works. The first ad that popped up was for a Limited Edition Settlers 3D box set that costs $349US. Both Phil and I clicked on it.
July 20, 2005
Google Moons Everybody
It's true - the moon is made of cheese!
July 19, 2005
Old Japenese Cars Are New Again
... to Canadians anway.
Cars like this one and this one are available to purchase from a distributor in Canada. Due to Canada's import laws stating that the car must be at least 15 yrs old, we get 15 yr old imports like these. Since, as a general rule, the Japanese don't drive their cars nearly as much as we do they're more like 5-10 year old cars to us.
Now if only we'd waited instead of buying the Outback! :)
July 18, 2005
Optimus Keyboard
This would be an amazing technology, or will be when it actually arrives. Think of putting something like this in an internet cafe where you have people from all different languages using it - just select your language preference and it changes to suit you.
They're talking about it being available in 2006. Now you'll have to have a video card for the keyboard! :)
July 7, 2005
Wedding Crashers
Fun, cheesy way to promote the new Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson movie, Wedding Crashers. Crash the trailer. Little screw up in the credits as I punched in Carlos's name but couldn't find a suitable picture so I had to use Terry's. I guess Terry is Carlos's face double in the movies.
June 22, 2005
Odeo is the New Gmail
Got my odeo.com invite today. I still don't really get podcasting as far as how people find the time to listen to others babble? I guess if you're the type of person who can listen to radio talk shows and work at the same time, this isn't much different. But I find if I have someone yakking in my ear I can't concentrate on what I'm working on.
But as a audio geek the whole idea of it is intriguing.
Wanna Direct a Music Video?
Scott Andrew, a indie type internet musician, is offering up one of his songs to prospective music video makers out there to film/edit/design a video for his song. The best one (in his opinion) wins a iPod shuffle.
Think I'll give it a try if I have time to do it. Take a listen to the song and offer any suggestions.
June 21, 2005
IBT
The commercial for The Institute for Backup Trauma - video featuring John Cleese
June 20, 2005
New Look
I keep trying other colors, but I still find black text on white to be the easiest to read - so I went back to it (for now).
Whaddya think?
June 13, 2005
Incorporating del.icio.us Feeds Into My Blog
This is how I snagged the RSS feed from my del.icio.us links (seen on the right column, down a bit).
[Geeky Explanation] del.icio.us is basically a site that collects links. I see a website I want to remember/make note of, I click a bookmark in my browser and describe the link and it gets added to my del.icio.us link site. That site generates a RSS feed of the last 10 links I've snagged which this blog grabs and converts it to a blog/web friendly format.
June 2, 2005
Flashy Flash Flashypants
While it hasn't improved _that_ much, I can say that I'm making progress over my earlier efforts in Flash creation. I did a new intro "clip" for the groveyouth.com site. The youth room is painted a similair color with different colored blocks on it. I also used Flash to create a little banner on forestgrovecc.com. We also use it at work on our site to advertise various specials/etc.
I still haven't mastered the art of creating a complete website in flash - one that takes 5 minutes to load and has lots of techno muzak and fancy widgets flying every which way whenever you move your mouse. I'll have to take the "Crappy Website Design in Flash" course.
May 24, 2005
Web Site Design
I enjoy designing web sites.
I do not enjoy designing web sites so they can support crappy web browsers.
Why would a simple unordered list, styled to be displayed horizontal work fine in Safari and Internet Explorer - and then in Firefox (both Win and Mac) have arrows come out of nowhere.
May 19, 2005
Google Personal Portal
Google is on it's way to becoming an 'all you can eat, one stop shop' portal, even if it is a optional one - check out their new portal page here.
Crazy Guitar
Double-necked guitars we can understand, but what does this thing sound like? I suspect the dual pickups whang out some odd sounds and that Glenn Branca, art rocker for the ages, plays this with barre chords because you're probably not going to get much out of it otherwise.
Branca has also create something called Symphony #13 with 80 guitars, 20 basses, and some drums. What, no cowbell?
Glenn Branca's Double Body Guitar [BillTMiller via MusicThing]
[Gizmodo]May 12, 2005
Never A Truer Word Has Been Spoken
From a recent Slashdot article on Google's recent purchase of Dodgeball.com, a service for finding people using cell phone technology:
Initial Post: "I know it's unreasonable at the time being but, could there be a possibility of integrating this feature with google maps or google local eventually? Google local search of "what bar are my friends hanging out at tonight?" drop down some phone numbers, get a google map to where they are."
Witty Reply:"If you're searching Google to find out where your friends are hanging out, perhaps technological integration isn't exactly your biggest problem."
March 30, 2005
Retail Is Not For Everybody
March 22, 2005
March 20, 2005
Flickr Sells Out
Yahoo actually aquires Flickr - rumoured for awhile but now it's actually happened. Hopefully it'll be as cool as if Google had aquired Flickr.
And I don't really believe that Flickr has sold out. It's a very good thing for them and for the users to have the power of Yahoo behind them.
March 18, 2005
Google Goes Local
March 16, 2005
Google-X
Google done up Mac OS X dock style - click here to check it out.
For those not part of the iCult, this is what the dock (the thingy at the bottom) does to allow you to see all the icons you may have of programs installed.
March 9, 2005
Quicktime Embedded?
Just trying out some of the new tools that come with Final Cut Express HD - as well as how well it works to embed quicktime in a page. How does it look on your end?
March 7, 2005
Classic Games Remade - Privateer
Either you were a computer gaming geek back in the day and know how much fun this was/is or you'll think - why would someone play something with such crappy graphics?
February 21, 2005
Simpsons - There's Something About Marrying
Last night's Simpson's torrent - Carlos and I both got it in about 15 seconds.
February 17, 2005
Drive-By Blogging
I was just getting a ride back to the Univ from lunch with my dad at Fudds when I heard Leo Laporte was going to be on next with Murray Wood on CKOM. Then I get back to my desk and see that Leo's blogged about it already.
I used to watch Leo and a bunch of other folks when we got TechTV on Sasktel MAX. It's a great channel for geeks - or geeks in training.
February 15, 2005
Internet Explorer 7 Coming After All
Originally they weren't going to update Internet Explorer until the next version of Windows came out (Longhorn... longtooth... long-in-coming), but Gates just announced that they will be coming out with v7 sometime this summer.
Funny how all those people running to download Firefox made enough noise to cause M$ to reconsider.
February 13, 2005
FlickrGraph
If you're using Flickr, check this out. A very cool graphical view of who's connected to who on flickr. Also a great way to find cool new photos.
February 7, 2005
Speed Up Firefox
From our work mailing list:
Here's something for broadband people that will really speed up
Firefox:
1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return.
Scroll down and look for the following entries:
network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When
you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds
up page loading.
2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"
Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"
Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30.
This means it will make 30 requests at once.
3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it
"nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is
the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it
receives. If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages MUCH
faster now!
January 27, 2005
BitTorrent for Dummies
Here's how easy it is:
- Go to this site and download the appropriate client (Windows or Mac)
- Grab a player capable of playing back DivX encoded media - mplayer for OS X or DivX for WinXP or OS X
- Go to this site and find the show you missed. Click on the name and download the .torrent file that it gives you.
- Find the .torrent file on your computer. If you installed the bittorrent client properly, it should start up and begin downloading.
- When it's done, find the downloaded AVI (or whatever) file and start watching.
What bittorrent in effect does is allow multiple people to download a single file from a bunch of other people, all pulling data from the file in different spots. As people get more and more of the file, there are more and more people with data to pull from - but they don't have to have the complete file to download it as is the case with most peer-to-peer file sharing programs.
It's great for catching a show you missed or don't feel like staying up late to watch.
January 20, 2005
Woopsy Daisy
Well I had my first system meltdown in my 3+ years working on macs. I'm not sure what happened exactly but somehow my keychain (the thing that stores all your passwords/logins for websites and other programs) got wiped out as well as various apps (Mail, iChat, Newsfan) just wouldn't start.
What's really slick is that I had just done a backup using, aptly named Backup, and so I just had to reinstall the OS, install some programs and then fire up Backup and restore all my mail settings, mailboxes, internet bookmarks and history, preferences for _all_ the programs I had installed, my photos, documents, etc.
If I'd been really serious about backup, I could've been using Carbon Copy Cloner which is a free OS X app that makes an image of your hard drive that you can use to put absolutely everything back where it came from. I used that when I upgraded Powerbooks a few months ago and it works very slick.
One more reason to love using a Mac. :)
(Disclaimer: Yes there's probably something like this on/for WinXP. I think it's only on XP Pro.)
January 18, 2005
Picasa 2
Picasa 2 is out - it's still free and still the best photo organizer on the Windows side where they don't get iPhoto.
Go and download it now.
January 17, 2005
Microsoft Poster Boy
Bill Gates posing on top of a desk. I guess it doesn't get much hotter than that for geeks. (blech!)
December 14, 2004
Google Beta
Google beta - it suggests things as you type and shows you how many results on the fly.
November 9, 2004
SPAM
For the love of everything on the internet - I DON'T WANT A FREEKIN ROLEX WATCH!@!@
November 5, 2004
Trailer Friday
For gaming nerds:
World of Warcraft trailer.
Movie Nerds:
Cars: Pixar's next movie after they finish counting the cash from The Incredibles.
October 28, 2004
More Free Photo Organizers
I think Picasa is still the best iPhoto clone out there for Windows users, but Microsoft has just released Photo Story 3 for free for anyone using WinXP.
Someone on a WinXP box try it out and let me know how well it works. It's getting rave reviews on some blogs, but then he works for Microsoft.
October 1, 2004
Based on The Sims 2
New web 'sitcom' coming:
September 23, 2004
Ultimate Boot CD
For all the nerds out there (waving your Linux penguin like you just don't care) - here's the ulimate boot CD made up for you.
September 20, 2004
Ring My Phone
I broke down and did what I said I'd never do. Buy a cell phone.
And now I've become a ring-tone whore like I knew I would be. 50 Cent's 'In Da Club' makes a really good ring tone... right up there with 'Sweet Caroline' by Neil.
New A/V Room
Finally finished off the new computer/office room (aka Audio Visual Room). I'm still looking for an old '80's style A/V Room sign to put on the door.
August 30, 2004
Gmail More
I've got a whole schwack of gmail invites if anybody wants one. Send me a email at chris dot enns at gmail dot com if you want one.
July 16, 2004
Cooler When It's Free!
That sweet photo organizing program I mentioned the other day that got bought out by Google? It's now free!
I think Google is my second favorite corporate entity next to Apple.
July 13, 2004
Google Swallows Picasa
I noticed today that Google bought out Picasa. Picasa Software makes the best photo organizing program this side of iPhoto and I seriously recommend it to anyone using a digital camera on a Windows machine. It will make managing your photos so much easier - and for any bloggers out there, apparently it integrates well with your blogs!
It'll be the best $29US you've ever spent on your computer.
July 12, 2004
Printers Explained
When you pay $100 for a printer that has $100 "worth" of ink in it, don't expect to have any sort of face-to-face troubleshooting/repair from the store you bought it from.
That may have worked 5 years ago when companies actually made money by selling a printer - but these days they just swap your printer for a new/refurbished one and send you on your way.
July 7, 2004
Beautiful
When I read something like that, it makes the back and front parts of my brain want to touch themselves together.
- Beautiful quote from today's Penny Arcade.
I tried to enlighten LT about the way that Gallery (the program) goes way above and beyond any other web image gallery program I've seen or experienced. You can even upload a zip file of images and it will automatically unzip all 300 pictures of your grandma-ma's birthday party and seperate it out into thumbnails, regular image size and freaking huge size that you forgot to shrink down, all on 30 pages with 10 pictures per page and a nice easy menu system. On top of all that you can get this amazing experience for the low, low price of free.
But LT would have none of it. All he could see was my ugly face on my own gallery and wouldn't look at it.
So I changed my default images on my gallery, added some photos of flowers, a watermelon candle and even a picture of Travis killing a fly. Hopefully this will enlighten LT into the ways of Gallery.
For the mennoboys (and girl) out there, I'm thinking about installing it on our server here - but I'm a little worried about space issues. We're sitting around 130MB of our 200MB right now and if people start going image crazy we could eat that up in a hurry. But maybe I'll install it and we can see how it goes with 5 people pumping pictures onto the server.
June 30, 2004
Beware the IE of Windows
If you're on a Windows machine and haven't switched from Internet Explorer yet, maybe this will help. The U.S. government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team is warning Web surfers to stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Here's a few browsers to check out as replacements for IE: Mozilla Firefox (and the coresponding email client Thunderbird, plain old Mozilla, or Opera.
Among the many reasons to consider dumping IE (by dump I mean stop using it... don't even think of trying to actually remove it from your computer, that would cause way more harm than good) and switching to one of the mentioned browsers: less chance of getting a web based virus, more popup blocking built in to other browsers, tabbed browsing (explained here), security.
My main beef with IE is that despite being used by the majority of users (only 44% on my site - odd), it's one of the least standards compliant browers out there. When you have to design a web page, there's all sorts of tricks and hacks you have to add because IE (and to be fair, older versions of other browsers) don't render current designs properly - and Microsoft hasn't announced any plans to update IE until they get the next version of Windows (code-named Longhorn) comes out, sometime in 2006/2007.
June 24, 2004
Gmail, Yahoo, now Hotmail
It's great to see a little healthy competition still works: Hotmail is bumping up their storage levels to 250MB and adding enhanced virus scanning.
Still doesn't have the 'coolness' of Google's gmail, but at least it removes the storage issue.
June 15, 2004
Gmail Goes Grazy
I've got 5 more invites. I'm gonna run out of people to invite pretty soon.
I sent one to David Mosher so if anyone else wants one, lemme know.
More Gmail Action
2 more gmail invites to give out today. As usual, leave a comment with your current email address/name and I'll send one out.
Mark I've already sent you one since you were begging yesterday. :)
June 14, 2004
Gmail Invites
I've got two gmail invites left - first two people that leave a comment with an actual address get one.
June 9, 2004
Google Doodles
Ever wonder who thinks up the funky changes to the Google logo on special days? Well, now you know.
Don't ever say I don't do nuthin for the peoples.
June 2, 2004
Google On Your Intranet?
Bring Google to your home network for only $32,000US for a two year license.
300 queries per minute across up to 1.5 million documents - I don't think that'll cut it for our home network.
June 1, 2004
Linksys Wireless Router
Any of you geeks out there with a Linksys WRT54G (802.11G wireless router) or thinking about getting one should take a look at this one from Linksys. There's a whole bunch of cool, nerdy things that can be done with it and Linux, which it's running on.
Anyone want to buy a Hawking 802.11b wireless router so I can play with (and break) a WRT54G?
May 17, 2004
Linxu is teh sux0r
LT came over on Saturday night and gave me a hand with setting up my machine as a server. I still have to figure out how to get PHP support going as well as access remotely to my box (through a slick little add-in called webmin) - then I'll try and get MT running.
But I did manage to get it running as web server. FTP is still not functional but I've managed to get a basic web page going.
Nerd.
May 12, 2004
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
The Mac Blog has moved to being a joint effort with coworkers and is now located here. It's just a bookmark blog for neat Apple related stuff we come across while we work. Very geeky.
The Lydia's open mic gig went pretty good last night. We had our drummer drop out at the last minute but Mark (Marc?) stepped in and covered well on congos and the full kit for Desire. I find it really hard to do much dynamically on accoustic so it felt like our set just was a mash of songs blending together. I really should have gotten a better accoustic guitar a long time ago but my techie interests always get in the way of the funds being there. Maybe a nice Simon and Patrick. Hmmmmm...
I think I have a performance inhibitor in my brain. Whenever I go on stage I'm sure it looks like I'm pissed to be there and not having a good time at all. The opposite is actually true. I'm having a great time, loving the music but I just don't know what to do with myself. I get lost in playing the guitar and forget to move... and so I end up like a statue. Which is fine if you're the only one doing it in a band... but we all tend to do that so we look like a band of robots sometimes.
Ah but we're just getting started. Give it time I guess. Once we make the jump to stadium rock we'll get the stage dives, guitar solos on my knees and flaming guitars going hard core.
May 3, 2004
Gmail Yo
Now that I've gotten in on the gmail beta, (my address is firstname.lastname@gmail.com) I'm finding all sorts of cool tips/tricks/geeky stuff you can do with it. (What is gmail? It's google's new email service. Like hotmail only instead of 2MB of space, you get 1,000MB. Plus it has an interface that works, unlike hotmail's crappy image filled page full of crappy crap.)
In other news, here's a sweet bit.torrent site for grabbing copies of TV shows, movies, etc. that you missed when they were on the first time.
Laptop for Sale
I'm selling my father-in-law's laptop on eBay. Check out the listing here and check out pictures of the laptop here.
April 21, 2004
Smart Cars Coming To Canada
It's funny because we were just talking with Chris & Lindsay about how these would never make it in Canada, and I read today that the Smart cars are in fact coming to Canada this fall.
April 13, 2004
History of the UK
HP has sponsored a Nation Photo Album of the UK's history. Very cool. Some pics are copyrighted and others are public domain - a good resource if you're looking for old pictures to throw into a video or slideshow.
Also check out the Dutch National Image archive. (Thanks Caroline)
April 1, 2004
20x6
Possibly only available today: Homestarrunner.com forgot to pay their domain bill.
The one April Fool's day item that's got everyone confused is the possibility of google.com offering email - in the order of 1GB of storage for each user. It sounds way too good to be true, but it's all over the legit news sites and Googles gone to great lengths to promote this. It's a win-win situation. Either the news sites end up with egg on their face and we get to laugh, or we get a sweet email service that doesn't have anything to do with the borg.
Atari releases the final clip in the 3 part series of promo videos they shot for Driver3. Slick cars, crashes... all the makings of a good video game.
March 28, 2004
DVD+R/+RW For Sale
I've listed the HP DVD+R/+RW I got awhile ago from some HP training.
March 24, 2004
New Party Teeth
Come on, you know you want it.
I can't imagine what would happen if the power somehow discharged into your mouth. You wouldn't just have a flashing mouth at that point.
March 18, 2004
Captain's Log...
I know Mark will appreciate this: Star Trek communicators are a reality.
March 16, 2004
Flashmaster Flash
Not very cool. Homestarrunner I'm not.
Flash This Buddy
I took 3 and 1/2 hours of Flash training and all I got was this stupid letter j.
March 11, 2004
Overclock Your Old Game System
I think it's time to pull out my old Sega Genesis... if I still have it some where... and play some Altered Beast, albeit with an overclocked processor . I don't know what you could gain by overclocking your game system where the games are already tuned to run fine on it - but I guess it's not a question of why, more a question of why not?
Link from Slashdot
August 19, 2002
Live, Hot webcam action
I was greeted with a special surprise on Friday as we were all given webcams at work. Nothing special, but free is still free and always a heck of a deal. So we spent some time fooling around with the various things you can do - and got kind of bored with it after a few minutes. But it is cool to have to chat with friends who are over-seas (or in a different country, like Matt & Heidi in Quebec!). Mark was over and so we fooled around with the blue screening software that comes with the camera:
In other news, we finally got ourselves a new bed! It's nice to have a bed that doesn't sink in the middle and you can actually feel rested after a night's sleep. We shopped around, got tired of that (pun intended) and settled on a nice queen sized mattress/box spring. The true test will be how our bodies feel after a month of sleeping on it.
Oh yeah, and happy birthday to me. :)