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1217081439.jpg

2008-12-17T14:40:00.001-08:00

1217081439.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

1212080903.jpg

2008-12-12T09:09:00.001-08:00

1212080903.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

Snow!

What Firefox add-ons/tweaks are you using?

2008-09-03T16:33:00.001-07:00

Below I've bulleted my add-ons/tweaks into two categories which should explain themselves. You are running Firefox 3, yes? There are also the developer add-ons (which I'd be curious to hear people's take on) most notable Firebug, User Agent Switcher and IE Tab (which is also useful for getting windows updates).

Must haves:

Ad-block plus Firefox add-on - Blocks those pesky ads
Introducing Ubiquity - It's Launchy/Quicksilver/Do-er for Firefox. Hot.
there are two about:config tweaks (put in address bar, hit enter)
- -set layout.spellcheckDefault value equal to 2 (This does spell check everywhere, not just the large text entry fields)
- -set security.dialog_enable_delay equal to 0 (This one removes the four seconds delay before allowing you to install an add-on, do this one before installing add-ons)
GoogleToolbar - actually, I just use it for the autofill and magic link things

Nice to have:

BugMeNot - Right-click login to sites like NY Times etc, sometimes it's useful for journal articles
Locationbar² - This adds domain name highlighting and the ability to click different parts of the address to be magically taken there
Read it Later - This is a new one for me, but I really enjoy it. It's essentially exactly what it says, and works somewhat like temporary bookmarks
Delicious Bookmarks - del.icio.us bookmarks integrated into Firefox, it's much nicer than it used to be
Download Statusbar - moves downloads to bottom of Firefox window, status bar etc.
DownThemAll! - mass file downloader, good for blackboard, getting journal articles from a authors page, etc.
Zotero - It's a swanky research tool, think Endnote for Firefox
Book Burro - comparison book shops on amazon, half, buy, alibris, Barnes and Noble

09-03-08_0705.jpg

2008-09-03T07:06:00.001-07:00

09-03-08_0705.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

Yum

08-19-08_0714.jpg

2008-08-19T07:17:00.001-07:00

08-19-08_0714.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

Mmm fresh local donuts with coffee

08-12-08_1455.jpg

2008-08-12T14:58:00.001-07:00

08-12-08_1455.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

Damn bird, get off my lawn- er car!

07-25-08_1350.jpg

2008-07-25T14:27:00.001-07:00

07-25-08_1350.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

Yay for taking buckets as a walk on on the ferry.

07-21-08_1627.jpg

2008-07-21T16:28:00.001-07:00

07-21-08_1627.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

Engine start key worn down by the surf

07-14-08_2007.jpg

2008-07-14T20:12:00.001-07:00

07-14-08_2007.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

Peaks ESB, hints of smoked alder

07-04-08_1652.jpg

2008-07-04T16:54:00.001-07:00

07-04-08_1652.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

World tower building deluxe!

05-17-08_1918.jpg

2008-05-17T19:20:00.001-07:00

05-17-08_1918.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

Nice of the county to carefully match the ballot to envelope size.

05-13-08_2102.jpg

2008-05-13T21:03:00.001-07:00

05-13-08_2102.jpg, uploaded by [pompeii]

Look! Curling meat!

So. . . I hate to say it, but...

2008-01-18T23:32:00.000-08:00

It turns out that when interviewing with TechCrunch McCain and Edwards are tied, and Obama loses.

H1B Visas. . . Obama has a nice political line but come on. His stance on net neutrality appears to be not very well contemplated, he ignores or doesn't understand the question about technical literacy, and he's a politician the entire time. Hillary lost be because of pandering, and Obama wasn't even pandering to the right people when interviewing with TechCrunch.

Monotremes are so swanky

2007-11-28T10:50:00.000-08:00

And so is Hanelore’s shirt.

R is a bad name

2007-11-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

R is really really cool. It beats the snot out of excel, holds its own against SAS and makes SPSS cry like a whiny lion with a thorn stuck in its paw. R is bitchin’. But R really suffers from a name problem, not only is it not sexy, it’s actually unsexy, it may even go so far as to be a lame name. In addition certain searches for help about R are utterly useless.

For these two very compelling reasons I suggest a rename of R to RarR, not only is RarR inherently sexy, it is exceedingly easy to search for statistics related things on the Internets.

boo, numpad. hooray, calculators!

2007-10-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

They're so close, the Takumi Computer Key Calculator with USB Connectivity is where it's at, only it's not a TI calculator, that's all I want, is that too much to ask for? A TI 80-100 something graphing calculator with accompanying good software for the desktop and a USB connection? typing sqrt(log(234^3,10)) is much more of a pain than hitting the square root key, the log₁₀ key, and the carrot key. The carrot isn't even anywhere near the keypad. For that matter, neither are the parentheses!

Siliconinsight.com is dead, long live siliconinsight.com!

2007-08-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

phpWebhosting finally caught on to their billing error and shut down service for siliconinsight. I transferred domains without losing service though. However, if anyone was/(is still trying) to use their SI mail, it wont work, e-mail or IM me and i can set it up for you.

Bad day

2007-03-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

I “finished” my Chem 352 exam... I may be taking Chem 352 next quarter.

On the bright side, though, I'd have to get negative 10% on my Chem 354 final to fail that course.

blackboard is broken

2007-03-11T23:37:00.001-07:00

blackboard is broken in firefox
Originally uploaded by pompeii.

blackboard is broken in safari, too
Originally uploaded by pompeii.

This is why I hate blackboard at WWU. The courses website is something that's kind of mission critical when it comes to blackboard courses. And yet, it seems like WWU's blackboard has about a 20% uptime rating.

And look, now it's back.

Blogger and I are fighting.

2007-03-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

I'm sure we'll make up, but until then... There may be random, stray, super-duper old posts showing up in RSS feeds... Which I don't get.

NEWSFLASH: Microwaves kill germs!

2007-01-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not even kidding. My mom has done this for years. It just makes sense. I'm personally a little hesitant to nuke (wait for it...) sponges as I like my microwave to be free from superheated plastic goo gases. The researcher is reported saying:

The microwave is a very powerful and an inexpensive tool for sterilization.

That's right. For some reason it's surprising that the same device used to sterilize toothbrushes and superheat water (neat a video!) can kill bacteria in the common household sponge.

Science!

advertising, timeshifting, adblock, oh my!

2006-11-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

Advertising is really in the consumer's best interest.

No really, it is. When I'm watching [scrubs] on NBC at home, rarely see the ads. I make it a point to either have time saved up, or have the show already recorded. I hate ads, and I particularly hate how local channels cannot equalize their ad volume to the volume of the show (though this is less of a problem with satellite TV); so I just skip them. I hit the little grey jump forward button—now completely lacking it's printed arrow—six or seven times, then back twice, and I'm back at the show. Why would I waste my time I've set aside for entertainment on boring, uninteresting television?

At least GE has gotten smart (or, more accurately, their advertising firm), and given those consumers who do sit through ads and who own television time-shifting devices—such at TiVo or ReplayTV or the DISH DVR—some extra entertainment in the form of one second goodies in their ads. So, why is advertising good for the consumer? Well, simply, it reduces the upfront cost we pay for an unrelated service. I think that's worded correctly, an economist would argue that it costs us more in time, and emotional strain and overall wellbeing, and they're probably correct. But I'm a huge fan of advertising subsidizing the goods I use, especially relevant unobtrusive ads.

Google has done a marvelous job with their contextual advertising, for one, when I send a message from gMail it doesn't say "SIGN UP FOR gMAIL NOW!!!!1111ONEONEONE and SAVE $$$$" in fact, aside from the "from" address and the headers of the mail message (which would terrify most users if they ever saw it) the recepient never even knows I used a free web-mail service to send them their e-mail. Google can, of course, afford to do this because they've got little faeries or gremlins looking inside every message I've ever sent or received coming up with what they deem relevant ads to show me. A recent one that showed up was a neuroscience research award.

These ads don't hurt me, I generally don't even notice them. And to those who cry out that it's an gross invasion of our privacy... Bullshit. As I think I've said before, you're crazy, if you don't want targeted ads don't sign up. Use another service and feel secure in the knowledge that your e-mails are sent in plain text through the very secure pneumatic tubes of the Internet, which are controlled by only trustworthy reputable individuals.

To combat all ads on the Internet, not just harmless pleasant ads: enter Adblock, more relevantly Adblock Plus (as a side note there's a nice history of Adblock which is also a fine account of why open-source developers are silly). Adblock Plus is fantastic, you can block those annoying pop-ups from fastclick get rid of flash ads, remove the obnoxious flashing banners. Plus to top it all off, you can make sure you never see those banner ads for Child's Play, or webcomics related to the one you're currently viewing, or announcements of new sites, or television shows. But the built in subscription in Adblock plus, and Filterset.G are the true menaces of web consumers. Before individuals could block ads and be on their merry way, making the decision all the while as to whether this was just an ad they wanted to block, or if they should block every ad from the provider, Filterset.G is over the top though. EasyList USA isn't much better, bit is some. As time-shifting is doing in television, advertising will just move to be part of the content. Why pay for a 30 second spot on TV when you can pay a similar amount and have your brand forever embedded (until someone takes Photoshop to it, at least) within the show? Hey, why is it now obvious that the—apparently—delicious food Dr. Dorian eats at the hospital is made by Sodexho? It's interesting that Dell exists in the year 3050 as a benevolent technology company, and wow, those invading aliens really can't resist the Coca-Cola, can they?

I know that if I'm going to try to make money on the web it's not going to be through banner ads (though there are easy ways around Adblock and Filterset.G), I'm going to go straight to the source, you want to advertise to my readers? Okay, sure, yeah I can plug Fukk, not a problem, hmm, maybe I'll write an article about how much better it is for you can Cocaine (the drink), perhaps I'll talk of how I've been using it in cooking. You want to advertise your laptop to my readers, sure I'll talk about how I use it every day, and it's never done wrong by me, I won't even have to lie when I talk about the fantastic customer support, because you're giving me straight access to the engineers.

I'll kick you in the head if you break out the roaring full screen Hulk-smash ads, or most pop ups, but relevant text ads, tasteful banners, even well done hot-linked ad words, I'm uncaring. So, since I like some advertising I think I might start putting together a sane Adblock Plus subscription, just to block the obnoxious and bandwidth hogging stuff.

this post brought to you by the letter "G"

2006-10-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

I don't see the point in using Google Docs & Spreadsheets for posting to Blogger. It doesn't really provide any controls that are superior to other blogging clients (such as the deepest sender), nor does it really look any better. I suppose it does have the revisions bit, and the ability to collaborate, but how often does an individual collaborate on a blog post?

what's your skin look like?

2006-10-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well? What Firefox skin are you using? I like Qute.

they came from... behind...

2006-10-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

First Steve Irwin, now this. “Attacks are extremely rare,” my ass. The sting rays have declared war, first they attack some curious Australian, now their attacking old American men in front of their grand daughters.