News Politics

Homer Simpson CSS = AcidX

Posted: April 30th, 2008, 11:18pm PDT by chovy

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I was waiting for someone to do something cool after having seen the acid2/3 tests of late. Looks like Homer CSS is the first iteration of pure CSS amazement.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2008/04/11/%e2%80%9cCSS_Naked_Day%e2%80%9d_aka_%e2%80%9cForget_Usability_Day%e2%80%9d'

“CSS Naked Day” aka “Forget Usability Day”

Posted: April 11th, 2008, 10:11am PDT by chovy

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At this moment I realized "CSS Naked Day" went against good usability practices...

Sorting and Ordering in Rails

Posted: April 8th, 2008, 10:20am PDT by chovy

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Three examples of how to sort and order things using Ruby on Rails.

Wrapping Logos with an H1 tag

Posted: March 13th, 2008, 10:09am PDT by chovy

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Keep It Simple when writing semantic HTML and applying design rules in CSS.

Revert a Changeset in Subversion

Posted: September 19th, 2007, 3:02pm PDT by chovy

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Instructions for "removing" a changeset from SVN.

IAP Political Forum -

Posted: September 19th, 2007, 1:26am PDT by chovy

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Great political forum recently redesigned with speed improvements. read more | digg story © %FIRST Ettinger - visit the author for more great content.

Ruby Text in CSS3

Posted: September 12th, 2007, 12:58pm PDT by chovy

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No...not that "ruby" (aka ruby on rails). "Ruby text", as it pertains to CSS3, allows for aligning fragments of text without a complex table structure to achieve the same thing.

Mounting a Samba Share and Amarok

Posted: September 8th, 2007, 12:45am PDT by chovy

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Getting Amarok to play streaming MP3 over fish:// or smb:// protocols can be done by simply mounting the remote filesystem to the local drive.

Review of Domain Registrars

Posted: September 7th, 2007, 1:35am PDT by chovy

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Having trouble deciding which domain registrar to use? Here are a few comments about the few I have used.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/09/06/List_of_W3C_Specifications'

Paypal Subscriptions Outage — But hey, the error messages look great!

Posted: September 2nd, 2007, 3:19am PDT by chovy

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PayPal's recent UI redesign has had an un-intended effect of not renewing subscription payments...according to sources at a popular PayPal developer forum.

Telephone Microformats

Posted: August 25th, 2007, 2:56am PDT by chovy

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Examples of telephone links and microformats.

The Dresden Files: Season Two?

Posted: August 25th, 2007, 12:32am PDT by chovy

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"The Dresden Files" is a great TV show I recently rented on DVD. If you're a fan, please take a few minutes to write a snail mail letter to the executives.

Enable Screensavers to Automically Start for KDE Desktop

Posted: August 11th, 2007, 1:15pm PDT by chovy

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How to enable the screensaver to automatically start and with hotkeys in KDE / Kubuntu.

IE7 on Linux (64-bit)?

Posted: August 11th, 2007, 2:15am PDT by chovy

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Linux web developers will be happy to discover that IE7 *does* run on Linux (unofficially).

Gimp 2.4 Released with New Features

Posted: July 31st, 2007, 11:51am PDT by chovy

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Gimp 2.4 has been released with a few new features and enhancements.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/07/28/Installing_%e2%80%98cpuid%e2%80%99_on_Gentoo'

Installing ‘cpuid’ on Gentoo

Posted: July 28th, 2007, 11:27am PDT by chovy

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There is a great utility for discovering information about your CPU on Linux called 'cpuid'....along with step-by-step process of ebuilds from unofficial build scripts on Gentoo.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/07/23/CSS_2.1_Now_a_%e2%80%9cCandidate_Recommendation%e2%80%9d_by_the_W3C'

CSS 2.1 Now a “Candidate Recommendation” by the W3C

Posted: July 23rd, 2007, 5:07pm PDT by chovy

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The W3C today announced CSS 2.1 as a "Candiate Recommendation".

Loading Flash Charts with XML over HTTPS

Posted: July 23rd, 2007, 4:51pm PDT by chovy

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Loading an xml-generated Flash chart or graph over https requires a smaller server tweak.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/07/21/Installing_ATI_drivers_on_Kubuntu_with_1440%c3%97900_LCD_Screen'

Installing ATI drivers on Kubuntu with 1440×900 LCD Screen

Posted: July 21st, 2007, 2:10am PDT by chovy

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After many hours, I figured out how to get my ATI x1650 card working (and learned a lot about xorg) with my 1440x900 Acer AL1917W monitor.

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The “Cascade” Effect in “Cascading Style Sheets”

Posted: July 20th, 2007, 12:12pm PDT by chovy

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Explanation of the "C" in "CSS" with specificity...

Links for 2007-07-19 [Digg]

Posted: July 19th, 2007, 10:00pm PDT

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Understanding the C in CSS
This simple tutorial explains the cascading feature of CSS. Useful for those starting out with CSS or if you need a refresher.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/07/06/Improving_HTML__Worst_Example_I%e2%80%99ve_Ever_Seen'

Improving HTML: Worst Example I’ve Ever Seen

Posted: July 6th, 2007, 1:48am PDT by chovy

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We've all written code like this at one time or another. For many of us, its how we got our start.

Example of How to Ignore Files in Subversion

Posted: July 4th, 2007, 12:09am PDT by chovy

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Brief example of how to ignore files in subversion. Great for those pesky session, cached files, or logs that are constantly changing and are not necessary to "version".

Fixing the Fieldset Bleeding Problem: Part 1

Posted: June 18th, 2007, 8:33pm PDT by chovy

First installment of a multi-part series on fixing a problem with fieldsets and legends using an alternate background color. In IE7 the fieldset background color bleeds into the positioned legend element (as shown in the image).

XMLHttpRequest Draft from W3C

Posted: June 18th, 2007, 4:55pm PDT by chovy

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Today the W3C announced a new working draft for the now widely popular XMLHttpRequest object in javascript.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/06/18/Big_Brother__It%e2%80%99s_a_%e2%80%9cG_Thing%e2%80%9d_'

Big Brother: It’s a “G-Thing”!

Posted: June 18th, 2007, 4:50pm PDT by chovy

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Google has released the highly scrutinized "Street View" of 5 major U.S. cities.

XSS: Cross Site Scripting Book

Posted: June 14th, 2007, 2:50pm PDT by chovy

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New book out about web application security and Cross Site Scripting (XSS) by Jeremiah Grossman.

Links for 2007-06-08 [Digg]

Posted: June 8th, 2007, 11:00pm PDT

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Jeremiah Grossman Named One Of Top 25 CTOs
"A year ago almost no one cared about web app sec. It was a niche inside of a niche, but what we’ve been able to accomplish as a community over that year is nothing short of remarkable. And that is in large part to Jeremiah Grossman of Whitehat Security." - ha.ckers.org

Usability on Mac OSX

Posted: June 6th, 2007, 10:10am PDT by chovy

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There are some irritating usability problems with Mac OSX that are missing when compared to Linux and Windows.

Verizon Bad Math

Posted: June 2nd, 2007, 2:31am PDT by chovy

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Amusing audio of a support call to Verizon wireless, and kilobyte usage charges. making the case for ".002 cents per kilobyte"

Conditionally Checking Existence of a Value in Perl

Posted: June 1st, 2007, 2:46pm PDT by chovy

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Conditionally checking whether or not a variable exists in Perl.

Links for 2007-05-24 [Digg]

Posted: May 24th, 2007, 10:00pm PDT

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Dell Offers Three Consumer Systems With Ubuntu 7.04
"It’s finally here. Later today, Dell will offer U.S customers three different systems with Ubuntu 7.04 installed: the XPS 410n and Dimension E520n desktops and the Inspiron E1505n notebook."
Dell's Ubuntu-installed PCs available for purchase TODAY (@4PM CST)
FTA: It’s finally here. Later today, Dell will offer U.S customers three different systems with Ubuntu 7.04 installed: the XPS 410n and Dimension E520n desktops and the Inspiron E1505n notebook. These systems will be available at www.dell.com/open by 4pm CST today.

Links for 2007-05-18 [Digg]

Posted: May 18th, 2007, 10:00pm PDT

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Next Generation Job Board RANKS candidates by Merit
New Job board ranks resumes by merit within their industry. Employers can go directly to the strongest candidates in an industry. The resumes are ranked by peers who are voting against others.

Finding an Intersection Between Arrays in Perl

Posted: May 17th, 2007, 2:43pm PDT by chovy

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Short recipe for grabbing an intersection between two arrays in Perl.

Correctly submitting a blog post with a trackback url

Posted: May 15th, 2007, 5:31pm PDT by chovy

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Testing a trackback with wordpress postings.

Links for 2007-05-11 [Digg]

Posted: May 11th, 2007, 10:00pm PDT

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How To Build An Open Source, Distributed Google Clone
Open source Google

Renaming JavaScript Objects

Posted: May 4th, 2007, 11:58pm PDT by chovy

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javascript:var foo = {baz: 'bizzer'};
var bar = foo;
bar.baz = 'bazzer';
alert(foo.baz + ' == ' + bar.baz);

As you can see the object’s property of ‘baz’ is updated in both foo object and bar object (a copy or reference to foo).

Got DeCSS? How about HD-DVD 09 F9?

Posted: May 4th, 2007, 11:56pm PDT by chovy

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For those who are not familiar with the EFF (Electronic Freedom Foundation), the organization prides itself in helping to ensure free speech on the Internet is available and sustainable.

Other sites of interest include an “09 f9″ or HD-DVD search at cafepress for t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, bumper stickers, et. al. I have not linked to the key directly, as recommended by the EFF page above. There is a dedicated site (not surpisingly) with the key which can be found by using your brain (and adding “.com” after whatever it is you come up.

You can track the developments at the Doom9 and Engadget links at the bottom of the EFF legal primer for more information.

Links for 2007-05-03 [Digg]

Posted: May 3rd, 2007, 10:00pm PDT

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OLPC Project Clarifies: No Plans for Windows Support
Late last week the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project had a media event in Cambridge, and while I couldn't make the event, I did tape a video interview for the BBC on the project. During my preparation I kept coming across these claims that Microsoft and OLPC had partnered to put Windows XP Starter Edition on the OLPC
Why Digg's quiet CEO is suddenly talking to the press
Kevin Rose is the face of Digg. So why did Digg's usually quiet CEO Jay Adelson (and not Kevin) talk to the New York Times, Fortune, Wired News, and BusinessWeek? Because they got funneled through the same PR firm that I did.

Links for 2007-05-02 [Digg]

Posted: May 2nd, 2007, 10:00pm PDT

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I Support Kevin Rose and Digg
Kevin and Digg stood tall last night after taking a beating.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/05/02/Don%e2%80%99t_Break_the_Back_Button'

Don’t Break the Back Button

Posted: May 2nd, 2007, 11:46am PDT by chovy

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The adoption of Section 508 accessibility guidelines has been a controversial issue at best. depending on the site involved, and those developing and using it.

Breaking the back button means that traditional browsing with forward and backward buttons will be rendered useless.

Too many times I’ve seen sites that have a rich UI experience, but only tested in one or two browsers (usually IE and FF). As a web developer, I often cringe at sites who have not adopted standard-based DOM scripting techniques, or worse yet throw an error page if I am not using one of their supported browsers, as is the case with Konquerer and weightwatchers.com.

I often bring up my favorite sites on my mobile phone as well. The more popular web sites have started to realize the potential of mobile phone usage and accomodated either with standards-compliant markup and scripting, or offering a dedicated WAP 2.0 site.

CSS Get Naked Day: April 5th

Posted: April 3rd, 2007, 8:06pm PDT by chovy

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CSS “Get Naked Day” is coming up! Remove your css for the entire day of April 5th.

You can also install a plugin to wordpress to do it for you.

See Dustin Diaz’s naked site for more details.

Truck Tops USA : Leer Camper Shells in the Bay Area

Posted: March 25th, 2007, 11:48am PDT by chovy

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I purchased a Leer 22 camper shell from Terry over at Truck Tops USA this weekend. After visiting the Santa Cruz and calling the Watsonville Leer shell dealer, and hearing negative feedback from my father-in-law, I decided to go over the hill to Hayward and buy from Terry at Truck Tops USA.

Terry was upfront about pricing over the phone when I made my order. I felt he was genuinely happy to have a customer at the phone, whereas in Santa Cruz I got a bad vibe from the Santa Cruz salesmen — felt they just wanted my money and get me out of there. I was pretty sure had something gone wrong, they would’ve brushed me off and not taken responsibility as was the case with my wife’s dad.

The was a recorded error in the phone order I place, to which Terry wholeheartedly fixing it free of charge. I told him I’d “put in a good word for ya”.

Truck Tops USA carries the best Leer camper shells in the bay area. You’ll be making a mistake if you buy from someone else. I felt that Terry appreciated our business and I highly recommend him over other Leer dealers in the bay area.

But don’t take my word for it, give him a call yourself: 510-889-8100, or visit his web site. Truck Tops USA is located in Hayward, CA. Tell him “Anthony Ettinger” recommended you.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/03/13/Learn_to_write_%e2%80%9cProper_Perl%e2%80%9d'

Learn to write “Proper Perl”

Posted: March 13th, 2007, 1:10pm PDT by chovy

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Perl::Critic is an excellent way to not only validate your Perl source code, but to learn some tips from the Perl monks who have contributed to the Perl::Critic documentation.

I uploaded one of my latest CGI scripts written in Perl to see how good my Perl chops are…turns out I picked up a few tips that I was unsure about in my previous Perl scripts.

A few simple techniques can be used to make your code more standardized in the event that your are not the only person reading it.

The Perl Critic web site has a nice usable web interface for uploading source code and checking its validity — although for obvious reasons if you’re working on enterprise code you should probably download an install the Perl::Critic CPAN module on your own server.

Replacing a Tag Name in VIM

Posted: March 8th, 2007, 1:56am PST by chovy

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I needed to quickly replace acronym tags with abbr tag names since I read somewhere that acronym might eventually be deprecated because of its confusion and redundancy in meaning — although I fully realize the debate is still in progress.

In VIM (vi text editor for the command-line) you can use regular expressions for searching and replacing.
Although a bit confusing at first I have found that my regex chops have quickly improved simply by learning how to use them efficiently within my favorite editor — VIM.

First, if you’re not already familiar with command-mode in VI, we need to invoke the “substitute” mode (type :he substitute for documentation).

The line below will do a search and replace of ‘foo’ with ‘bar’ on the current line (g = greedy/global):

:s/foo/bar/g

To change the acronym tag to abbr we need to do the following:

:s:acronym:abbr:g

Note: I changed the regex delimiter from forward-slash to colon to avoid escaping forward-slashes used in closing HTML tags.

The above example is not good enough, as there’s no gaurantee we are acting only on the tags themselves.

:s:\(]\=\):\1abbr\2:g

A simple explanation for the arcane syntax is that capturing parenthesis need to be escape in VIM: (…) becomes $…$, and thus can be refered to in the replacement token by \1, \2, etc.

The \= forces a 0 or 1 match on any character(s) defined within the brackets []’s — in this case, we want to first match an option / forward flash to apply to opening as well as closing tags.

The second set of brackets: [ >] contains a literal space character and a closing carat to signify the end of the opening or closing tag. This will preserve other HTML attributes (ie - “title”) defined on the opening tag.

Finally, after testing it on one line first and seeing positive results, you can apply it to the entire document by invoking the substitution function in VIM with a preceding “%”.

The final regex applied to the entire document becomes:

:%s:\(]\=\):\1abbr\2:g

…more VIM tricks from PixelBeat.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/03/05/Sattle_Up__%e2%80%94_It%e2%80%99s_Dish_Network__Miami_Style_'

Sattle Up! — It’s Dish Network, Miami Style?

Posted: March 5th, 2007, 5:41pm PST by chovy

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As a recent Dish TV convert, I soon realized that many of the shows I watch start 2 hours ahead of their regular west-coast schedule.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing…at least I get live shows when they’re live, not a 2 hour delay for us late-bloomers on the west coast.

I called Dish Network’s 800 number, and spoke with a tech. He confirmed that it was going to be that way, since they are based out of Miami, Florida.

Suprising with all the technology, that they can’t deliver the schedule time to other geographic locations — but I admit I know virtually nothing about how Dish TV works, it’s limitations et. al.

I like the interface for Dish Network better than Comcast or Charter (cable needs some serious UI upgrades if they want to compete).

Built-in picture-in-picture (although this requires the TV have a dedicated receiver), better searching and pre-view channel while browsing guide, and you can even preview 6 channels at once — although from what I can tell you get the 6 most popular. I couldn’t find a way to pick which channels I wanted to preview.

The built-in DVR is an excellent feature (still not available from Charter in my area). For the past 2 years I’ve been calling Charter every 3 months and they always say the same thing — “it’ll be here soon, in 3 months’ time”. Well, I got tired of waiting.

Next on my list of things to do is get an HDTV — costco.com had a 42″ for $500 today.

I also went with the bundle from AT&T for DSL, lanline phone (unlimited USA calling), and Dish Network — it all came to about $120/month, but the price is locked in — meaning that it won’t raise after the initial 18 months are up.

The AT&T landline plan was unlimited for US only, Canada was an extra $10/month for unlimited — kind of cheezy when Vonage, Packet8 and Skype give it all to you for one low rate.

What I have to do now is figure out how to get a cheaper Verizon wireless bill.

Update: — I had mistakenly read Comedy Central shows “Colbert Report” and “John Stewart Show” as starting 2 hours ealier…turns out those are the previous days shows…and have always been at that time. I find it amusing that Dish Network’s customer service rep (and the tech that I was handed off to) confirmed my observation and told me that the reason is because they are based out of Miami and that all shows would be EST. This however, is not the case.

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2007/03/04/More_Problems_with_Weight_Watchers_Accessibility'

Learning JavaScript

Posted: March 3rd, 2007, 9:16pm PST by chovy

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Digital Web had a short but worthy interview of Jeremy Keith — author of DOM Scripting

He’s got a new book out about writing Bulletproof AJAX…if it’s as good as Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm, then it’ll make my life easier.

Inaccessible Design - Verizon.com

Posted: February 4th, 2007, 9:53pm PST by chovy

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I just punched in www.verizon.com and found that I could not do a service check with my phone number, because their site is using the document.all property, which has been deprecated for quite some time in favor of the document.getElementById(’id’); property in JavaScript.

I’m quite surprised at this…I’m using a Mac with Firefox 2.0 and came across the problem.

The solution for me was check AT&T and Charter Cable for comparable services…perhaps they will get on board with the W3C sooner rather than later, and write unobtrusive javascript, instead of requiring it.

Weight Watchers: Inaccessible Design

Posted: January 26th, 2007, 1:33pm PST by chovy

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Today I tried logging into weightwatchers.com to track my points for today.

After a brand-spanking new install of Kubuntu on my 64-bit computer, I tried accessing the site in KDE’s default browser - Konqueror.

The result was not pleasant…

Unfortunately for me, and many others, we have to have Flash 9 installed on one of 3 browser (IE, Safari, or Mozilla). This is rather poor design on WW’s decision to simply block access for unsupported browsers.

There are many, many more than 3 browsers, and perhaps they don’t care about 2-3 people a week in their stats that won’t be able to access their site, but when it happens to me - I write about it.

Flash 9 Broken on x64

Posted: January 26th, 2007, 10:47am PST by chovy

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I recently installed Kubuntu 64-bit on my desktop, which went off without a hitch - about 20 minutes to install and I had a working dual boot system (the other OS being Windows XP 64-bit).

I have to say the windows install was more trouble than the Ubunut install, mainly in XP’s lack of a SATA driver.

I have come across one problem of which I have no solution - yet.

Flash 9 is not supporting the x64 architecture. After downloading the .tar.gz file for Flash 9, and following Adobe’s instructions on their Flash 9 download page, I got the following error:

$ ./flashplayer-installer

ERROR: Your architecture, \'x86_64\', is not supported by the Adobe Flash Player installer.

This is a bummer for me, as one site I regularly use everyday requires Flash. I’m even more disappointed that a major web site does not realize the inaccessibility of using Flash.

Here are a few threads about Flash 9 and getting it to work on Linux + 64-bit (actually, that is a mis-statement), because it requires you convert your browser and kernel to 32-bit…now what’s the fun in that?

My advice? Don’t support these “flash-only” sites…find an alternative. Another work-around is to install Opera + ia32-libs ;)

Links for 2007-01-10 [Digg]

Posted: January 10th, 2007, 10:00pm PST

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Digg Data in TreeMaps
Watch digg data in multicolored treemaps. You can even choose the channels you want to see and the number of stories in the channel. Right click to browse to the Digg page or the source page.

Installing Windows x64 on A8V Deluxe with SATA Raid Promise Drivers

Posted: January 6th, 2007, 2:51pm PST by chovy

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I had wiped out my Win32 XP install after ordering Win x64 SP2 from newegg. My hardware is the ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard and Western Digital WD Raptor 74gb SATA drive.

I’ve been working on this problem for 2 days, so here is a re-cap in hopes of saving your some time and avoiding the “instant BSOD” after completing x64 install and rebooting with the ASUS supplied Promise drivers from their web site (warning: do not use these - at least for the A8V Deluxe mb as you will be wasting your time).

The only choice for my configuration (1 SATA RAID) and Win x64 is to use the Promise x64 raid drivers, which you will have to download from this zip file.

Here are the short-steps:

Configure BIOS for Promise Raid support (see a8v deluxe manual). If using 1 disk, RAID 1+0 (which is 1 disk and 0 = striping for performance).
Configure RAID 1+0 as described in A8V Deluxe manual
Create Promise Raid x64 driver diskette for “F6″ Windows x64 installation.
This was the tricky part, as I did not have a windows box with a floppy for extracting the zip file and creating a dos floppy….Linux saves the day again with mtools I was able to create a usable floppy for the “F6″ + “S” Windows x64 installation procedure.
When first starting x64 installation make sure you hit F6 immediately when it notifies you, otherwise you will have missed it, and will need to restart. Note: You will be asked to type S to load the latest Promise x64 drivers from the floppy created.
No need for any other drivers (64bit LAN, etc. - worked fine with my zip file (not asus’s))

Up until now, I’ve always had to rely on a working windows machine in order to do all my computing - it now seems that with a working linux installation and a floppy drive I am now “free from windows” as they say.

Warnings:

If you have a KVM switch with two systems hooked up to it, do not switch back and forth during x64 install.
I think I botched mine the first few times because it did not recognize the monitor, keyboard, etc. Just sit back, and watch the install - it’s worth the 20 minutes in order to ensure you do not have errors.
My CD-ROM /DVD-Rom froze up on me at one point asking for “D:\amd64″ files - I don’t know why this is, but again I blame it on the switching to other computer and leaving the install in a state of “limbo” until I returned to it.
Update: it’s come to my attention that latest drivers should be downloaded directly from the chipset manufacturer (ie: Promise, VIA), instead of the motherboard manufacturer (ie: ASUS) - this may have allowed me to use SATA instead of RAID 1+0 (although RAID should be faster for “striping” method in the event I add a 2nd drive).

25 Sq. Mile Ice Break - Dear Barbara Boxer

Posted: December 29th, 2006, 8:15pm PST by chovy

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Hello Barbara,

This is the 2nd time in 2 years I’ve written you.

With the recent discovery of a 25 square mile crack resulting in a floating ice shelf (BBC News 12/29/06)…I’d like to recommend you and your colleages invest for the future.

Let’s encourage telecommuting and give tax incentives for companies that allow their employees to telecommute during the regular work week. This would encourage people to drive less, resulting in cleaner air, un-congested roadways, and less dependency on oil (foreign or domestic).

My “sphere of influence” and I are willing to support those in office who are devoted to solving the climate crisis. We will voice our support globally on the Internet and throughout local action, from family and friends, to co-workers, and on the web.

Thank you,
May the ice be with you.

Anthony Ettinger
Web Developer (telecommuter)
http://chovy.com

Permalink for 'Chovy_s_Blog/2006/12/20/The_%e2%80%9cTelecommute__Hemp_Seed__Solar_Power%e2%80%9d_Agenda'

The “Telecommute, Hemp Seed, Solar Power” Agenda

Posted: December 20th, 2006, 4:33am PST by chovy

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Enter a Few Billion People…

Finding more oil does nobody any good - China and India together coming online will make our consumption look like a drop in a very large bucket in a relatively short amount of time. When I was over there (India) I was blown away by the over population and lack of any apparent EPA emissions standard.

I completely agree that we need alternative renewable sources…you mentioned ethanol, which has been said to use more gas in it’s production than what is produced…making it like paying $10 for a $5 bill.

How Much Would Hemp Seed Oil Cost?

Hemp seed oil is a viable source in addition to cane and corn and can be refined and produced for far less.

If you’ve seen “An Inconvenient Truth” you’re probably in the same boat as me…Gore says we have less than 50 years - but I’ve seen one report that says the “Point of No Return” is less than 10 years away.

Tax Breaks for Telecommute Supporters

I think companies (especially Internet-related) should take the lead and encourage telecommuting as much as possible. I’ve cut my gas bill and pollution down considerably since I started telecommuting. Governments around the world should be giving tax breaks to both employees and employers who adopt this policy on a regular basis.

$3,500 Mercedes Running on Free Vegetable Oil

There’s also vegetable oil, which is free to the consumer (or dirt cheap if you buy it at Costco). Friend of mine has a conversion kit $500 on a $3,500 1991 mercedes that now has virtually zero CO2 emissions and gets excellent milage. It’s free because the restaurants that use vegetable oil have to pay a fee to dispose of it, and more and more people are home-brewing their own biodiesel vehicles and picking it up at local sushi restaurants.

Last week the local news reported on the first “Central Coast” biodiesel refinery + distribution center in California. It’s an excellent opportunity to make some serious money as people start to adopt and more consumer choice becomes available. Not to mention it’s right in my back yard…not cross-globe shipping + delivery to get it to me.

Sun of a Sun of a Sailor

The greatest thing I see in the near future is solar power. That is an obvious one…how else do those Redwoods get to be 300 ft. tall and live for hundreds of years?

ProForm Exercise Bike - Dead at Less Than A Year

Posted: December 18th, 2006, 7:43pm PST by chovy

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ProForm XP 90 Exercise Bike - Dead at age 3/4 of a Year. This one gets filed under “consumer advocacy”, last April 2006 I purchased the ProForm XP 90 exercise bicycle at Sears for $299.

Cheap(ly Made)

“Not a bad price” I said to myself as I ordered it online. After having had the Elliptical trainer for more than 2 years with no complaints but an abnormal amount of squeaking, I decided again to buy ProForm. However, I will never buy from that company again after my recent phone call with their service department

ProForm Exericse Bike - Broken after 8 Months

I don’t care that it only has a 90-day manufacturer’s warranty - if the product breaks in 8 months time so it’s unusable, then I should get a replacement part free. After explaining that the bike’s computer console malfunctioned for the past month and half, and finally died last night, they wanted $200 for a replacement console - on a $300 piece of equipment.

ProForm Values “Extended Warranties” Over Quality

I explained to them, that as a customer, what they are telling is to “never, ever buy ProForm products again.” And their representative refused to let me discuss it with a supervisor, then changing her story that I had actually gone through improper channels (the 800 number on the proform web site)…and should’ve called another 800 number from the user manual.

Bottom Line - Buy Schwinn Instead of ProForm

The bottom line is, while ProForm Exercise equipment is cheap, and somewhat attractive, plan on buying a new bike or exercise machine within the year. My recommendation is to forget about ProForm unless you get it free from a neighbor or friend, and look into spending an extra $100 on a better quality piece of equipment, Schwinn is one that comes to mind for exercise bikes.

For the Price of an “Extended Warranty” - I Could’ve Had a Schwinn

I could’ve spend $100 on a 1-year warranty, which would’ve *barely* saved me in this case since it was under 1 year. But that doesn’t make much sense - forget “extended warranties” and buy a better bike.

Compact Flourescent Light Bulbs

Posted: November 29th, 2006, 10:48pm PST by chovy

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After watching “An Inconvenient Truth” tonight, I went to their web site to see what I could personally do to make a difference.

The site recommends using a compact flourescent light bulb to reduce environmental impact. You can read more about that on the wikipedia page link above.

From my experience, the bulbs do not last longer than a regular bulb. I am not discouraging you from trying…but my experience was that the bulbs only lasted a few months, and are more than twice the cost of a regular light bulb - not economically viable at this poin, and since I was using nearly twice as many bulbs, it was hard for me to understand how that was helping, at least in my household.

Your results may vary.

Links for 2006-11-19 [Digg]

Posted: November 19th, 2006, 10:00pm PST

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Top 12 Ruby on Rails Tutorials
A former student asked me a few days ago how I learned Ruby on Rails. The answer was that I simply read alot of great tutorials. So in the spirit of sharing, here are the 12 tutorials that I found most useful:

RGB Color Chart - Browser Safe Explanation

Posted: November 11th, 2006, 12:33am PST by chovy

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I’ve been trying to figure out the logic of RGB hex codes, and this is starting to make more sense…

R G B
00 00 00

Only every 3rd pair is supported, like 003300, 006600, (shortened as #030 or #360 for css).

But what about letters? Same thing, but there is no equivalent of 0, so we do every third starting at “A”…so

00CC00 is browser safe, but not 00AA00 or 00BB00.

00FF00, or #0f0 in css short-hand.

Thanks to Dave Child over at ILoveJackDaniels for the image.

Sedation Dentistry - Sleeping Through the Fear

Posted: November 3rd, 2006, 9:04am PST by chovy

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Sedation dentistry might be an easy answer for those dental chair fears. I wouldn’t say I’m afraid of the dentist, often times I quite enjoy a visit to the dental office. However, the other day after cracking my upper-rear molar, I went to the dentist to have it looked at.

For one reason or another, I started to feel anxious and a bit of a panic once the dental assistants started to reach back into my mouth. I figured I could tough it out, but my fear of swallowing some small piece of metal and gagging overcame me.

My dentist, Dr. Richard Bianco in Watsonville, recommended I try sedation dentistry. I was a little apprehensive at first, but after watching the video of the local news reporter having Dr. Bianco treat him, I was willing to try it. I did a few searches on the web when I got home for the drug that is used in sedating the patient - called Triazolam. The wikipedia entry is somewhat brief, but I didn’t find any major side effects.

The cost was around $250 for one visit. A bit pricey for two pills, especially if you have multiple visits in which you need to be sedated. However, avoiding the agony and anxiety of a root canal or molar crown, I think it was worth the extra expense.

My personal experience was rather pleasant, except for one glitch later that night. One hour before my appointment, I took the two Triazalom pills after fasting from caffeine for 24 hours, and food for 12 hours. Within 30 minutes I was getting pretty tired, and slightly dizzy.

Once I arrived at Dr. Bianco’s office, I remember checking in at 9:30am and sitting in the chair as they kept trying to get me to fall asleep. Another two doses of Valium did the trick. I do remember waking up in the middle of it, briefly - but I felt no pain, and was indifferent to what and where I was.

The next thing I knew it was waking up in my bed at about 6pm. I didn’t remember much, and felt no pain. Later on that night at about 12:30am I suddenly felt a rush of nausea and threw up for about 5 minutes. The feeling passed quickly, and that was the end of it.

The only drawbacks that I experienced were:

I was out of commission for the entire day
I felt nausea briefly later that night, and consequently threw up
The extra expense can add up quickly if you have multiple visits requiring sedation

In the end, I believe I will recommend dental sedation to friends and family (and all of you who read my blog) for major dental work. A quick cleaning I can handle, but a crown or root canal on a rear molar - might as well knock me out doc!

Motorola RAZR V3 Manual (PDF)

Posted: October 22nd, 2006, 11:20pm PDT by chovy

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I’ve been playing around with one of the Motorola RAZR V3 models that I recently had a chance to demo. I have to say, I love the slick feature of the phone…it’s got large buttons, which is an amazing feature, given most phones today have the smaller buttons that a fu

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