12May2008

New Dilbert Widget

There is a new Daily Dilbert Widget out that is… better! At least that what Dilbert says. You can get the widget at http://csharptricks.com/Articles/DailyDilbert.aspx.




9May2008

This Friday Song Of The Day is Say from John Mayer.

Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems
Better put ‘em in quotations

Say what you need to say (x8)

Walking like a one-man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you’d be better off instead
If you could only

Say what you need to say (x8)

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You better know that in the end
It’s better to say too much
Than never say what you need to say

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say (repeat to fade)

Quoted from LyricWiki.org

Here is the music video. Click through to the site if you cannot see the video.




8May2008

Hot Girl AvatarMost people running blogs and doing… well, anything on the internet these days use social networks. These could include the likes of Facebook or StumbleUpon and other more blog-centric ones like BlogCatalog or MyBlogLog. One of the interesting things about these networks which I’ve noticed is the use of avatars. Avatars are small pictures that are meant to be a visual representation of you on whichever network you happen to be on. In many cases you can use a Gravatar which attempts to be a global avatar that follows you wherever you happen to be on the internet.

So let me ask you a question. Do you use an avatar that truly is a representation of yourself? Or do you use an avatar that is designed to get a higher click-through rate like the picture shown in this post? I’ve noticed a lot of users who have sexy, half naked women as their avatar, but the username will be something like “Ben” or “George”. Anyway, this struck me as funny that sex in advertising even applies to social network avatars. So for a bonus question… how many times did I mention the word avatar in this post? lol




7May2008

Javascript Wolfenstein 3D
Here is a little nostalgia for you gamers out there. The Nihilogic site has created the Wolfenstein 3D video game using Javascript, Canvas and a little AJAX. Pretty cool.

Improving Code Readability With CSS Styleguides
Smashing Magazine brings you a great article on some “best of” practices for keeping your CSS code nice, neat and legible.

OpenJDK7, Solaris, and Sun Studio 12 Compilers
Check out the status on the new upcoming OpenJDK7 straight from the horses mouth… er, Sun.

100 Killer Web Accessibility Resources: Blogs, Forums and Tutorials
Jimmy Atkinson posted a really great (and long) list of web accessibility resources. Go check it out and get your accessibility on.

Breaking: Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Bid; Walks Away From Deal
Good ole TechCrunch has the skinny on Microsoft’s latest move in their efforts to acquire Yahoo. They’re walking away!




6May2008

So, can you really change the spoon to fork ratio in the spork? Click the image below to see the exciting conclusion.

Forks and Spoons




5May2008

Minneapolis Skyline

I am in Minneapolis, MN this week for business so I’m not sure how prolific my posting will be. So I thought I’d just drop in a quick note to say, “Happy Monday!” It’d be happier if I were back in my home office, but oh well. In the mean time you can check out a previous of mine relating to travel and work - Code On The Road? Work Portability Review. Have a great week!




2May2008

Of course with the highly anticipated Iron Man Movie coming up I had to post this song as a FSOTD. This is Iron Man by Black Sabbath as it appears on their Paranoid (1970) album.

I am Iron Man

Has he lost his mind
Can he see or is he blind
Can he walk at all
Or if he moves will he fall

Is he alive or dead
Has he thoughts within his head
We’ll just pass him there
Why should we even care

He was turned to steel
In the great magnetic field
When he traveled time
For the future of mankind

Nobody wants him
He just stares at the world
Planning his vengeance
That he will soon unfold

Now the time is here
For Iron Man to spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved

Nobody wants him
They just turn their heads
Nobody helps him
Now he has his revenge

Heavy boots of lead
Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron Man lives again!

Quoted from LyricWiki.org

Finally, instead of the usual music video for the song I’m going to do something different. Here instead, is the movie trailer for the upcoming Iron Man Movie.

* Click through to the site if you cannot see the video




30Apr2008

Insoshi: Best Social Network Platform Evar
Mashable covers an open source platform for creating your own social network. Insoshi is built with Ruby on Rails and looks like it has most of the bells and whistles that come with modern social networks.

Lycos On the Auction Bloc
Interested in competing with Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live? Well now is your chance! The Lycos Europe search engine company is up for sale.

Java Secrets Revealed #1
Ethan Nicholas goes into the underbelly of the beast and reveals some intriguing secrets about Java.

45 Photo Editing Tutorials For Photoshop
Vandelay Website Design does it again and brings you a nice juicy list with great tutorials geared towards the web designer.

5 Techniques for Creating Java Web Services from WSDL
Milan Kuchtiak presents a very good tutorial on how to create Java web services from a WSDL.




29Apr2008

soundsnap - Pro Quality Free Sounds And LoopsI recently ran across this site and was impressed, so I thought I’d throw them some props. If you have any needs for sound files or loops then soundsnap is a great place to start. Their tagline is “Search for pro quality free sounds and loops.” They are kidding either. I sampled (hee hee; pun intended) many of the sounds and they are really top notch with respect to quality. Not only that but there is a huge selection to choose from in 16 various categories such as animals, buttons, comic & film fx, exteriors, house, human, industrial, interiors, music loops, music samples, nature, science fiction, sound art, sports, transport and unreal.

There is a competent search engine included on the site that allows you to really focus in on what exactly you are looking for. They have a forum so that you can communicate with other people who are interested in great sound loops. Finally you can also create an account which allows you to upload your own sounds, create a profile and have an identity on the site.

Of course I guess the proof is in the pudding as they say. So here are a few samples that I pulled from the site so you can see just how great the sounds are.

Ragga1 - Simple little reggae loop created with FL-Studios 8

Boingy Springy Sound

Pradzia Warp - Crystal Fx sound from the Outer Space Sounds category under Science Fiction.

Baby Cry 1 - Short recording of a baby girl crying for her mother. Recorded with Edirol R09.




28Apr2008

In which case you should go take a coffee break or something… according to them.

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