This poster I would guess is halfway done. It is using the same idea that I had for the wallpaper I posted last week, but then goes in a completely different direction. Really want some criticisms of this one, its a different realm of graphic design I haven’t touched before so I still haven’t decided exactly where it is headed.
The high res version is about 20×36 inches, so almost normal poster size. Below is a 3000px wide version.
Personally, I have always thought IM bots are annoying, but in the past few weeks google has opened up to them and there are one or two useful ones out there, so without leaving your im window you can find out a bunch of good information. A website launched, and was later dugg, called imified.com that is going to be the basis for this post.
Sign up here. Request an invite and then sign up with that (it only takes a few minutes for the invite to come, I don’t think they are screening them or anything right now)
After you do that you can start building your bot. Its super simple php, you just grab the msg from the user via the line :
$u = $_REQUEST['msg'];
and then you can do whatever you want with that msg. Right now I have a simple one running for bucketofawesome.com (add awesome@bot.im to your friends list to talk to ‘him’).
He really is just a test, but say hi, hello or howdy to get him started. If you follow the imified documentation you can get a few other details from the im, such as what visit # is this to your piece of code by this user. So you can step the user up the ladder depending on their visit. Then you can obviously reset that #, call back old messages from the user, etc…
If you really wanted to (though documentation is only for their side of the project) you could integrate this into a current cms to make it interact different ways for different users, and verify a user account etc…
Mine right now is just a series of if statements… if one thing is said do this… and if the user types the word ‘new’ it pulls the newest 3 articles from BoA, sends the list to the user, and if the user sees a title he hasn’t seen before, he can click the accompanying link to take him/her to the homepage.
Honestly, I can imagine my code getting really advanced and doing some cool things, checking to see if there are new updates since their last visit, OR you can even push messages to your im followers via HTTP Post if you wanted to update like a tweet when you post something new.
There are limitations though…. and most of those are on the side of the instant messenging program. HTML doesn’t really work beyond <br> (at least in gmail) so links are a pain … having to type out the whole thing obscures the rest of the text and makes it ugly. However, i think it has some cool potential if you have some good ideas for it.
If someone can help me with some stuff, I want to make a dreamincode one, I just need some help with particular sections. Comment below.
**Note : imified.com was recently dugg and had about 24 hours of downtown because they got hit at a perilous time between site chnages and a couple other worst case scenarios. getting your registration approved may take more time than normal right now.
Just watch this, he rips them one…. with a smile on his face.
Its that time of year, the end of the crappy summer schedule and the beginning of Fall TV. Like normal the shows have staggered their 1st episodes over the next couple of weeks, but really next monday is the first day of the new season. I’ve been compiling a list of shows that I need to set up my recorder for and so I suggest these to you. Included a couple new ones just to see what’s going on but all the old classics are there.
E.R. - (Sep. 25th) 10/9c - I’ve always been a fan of this show since the rents watched it back in the day, and this is its final season. Even if you haven’t watched it before you should try (at least go back and get the DVDs) because really this show has been one of the best on TV for a long time.
Friday Night Lights - Oct 1st - I didn’t see this news until I was writing this post. This ticks me off but what can you do. Friday Night Lights is one of the absolute best shows in years in my opinion, I watched it every week, one of the few shows I plan my time around to watch. Apparently this season it will be broadcast ONLY to DirectTV via their channel 101, and after that might be broadcast at a later date on NBC (most likely in a miserable time slot , as a filler, and not in consecutive weeks I assume). I didn’t read the whole news release cause it is stupid, so here you go. Also a bummer since it is filmed in Austin, and I’ve run into every cast member once, makes it a cooler show IMO.
The Office - (Sep. 25th) 9/8c - 1 hour premiere - Best comedy. Ever. Hands down. Every Episode. No Misses. Even though I almost ate my own head after the end of the last season because of the Pam / Jim mess. However…. this show is the show to watch. Watch the last couple episodes online via nbc.com but more importantly, follow theofficenbc on twitter and you can see all the webisodes / clips they did all summer. Very funny and unlike most other shows webisodes not a waste of time, just good stuff.
Heroes - (Sep. 2nd) 9/8c - 3-Hour Premiere Event - This is a re-do season after the debacle of season 2. It was universally derided by fans as terrible, and the writer’s strike made it even worse. Hopefully we get something different and a return to season 1. I lost contact with this show because it was so bad so its gonna take something to get me back in it.
Early 2009 - LOST - Watch all 4 Seasons in HD online - What more is there to say about this show? I’ll probably do recaps when the season comes back. I’ve watched the season 1 and 2 dvd’s about 5 times (of course every episode in order, over the course of a week, thats like 4 hours a day).
Early 2009 - 24 - This is a re-do season for 24. Just like Heroes, the last season was not what we have come to expect from this show, and the producers realized it promising us something drastically different this time around.
Entourage - HBO - (Sep. 7th) 10/9c - Great comedy, lacking in depth but still a good entertaining watch. Just don’t expect to be reciting the finer social commentary.
How I Met Your Mother - (Sep. 22nd) 8:30/7:30c - (date comes from wikipedia, couldn’t find it anywhere else) - Comedy that must be viewed by all. Watch the first 3 seasons online if you can find them, it is legend-ary. Also it is the origin of legend-ary. Must See TV.
30 Rock - (Oct. 30) 9:30/8:30c - Sketch ball comedy. Not office level but definitely a good one to watch.
My Name Is Earl - (Sep. 25th) 8/7c - 1 hr Premiere - I watched the first season and stopped but then for some reason started watching again and it is a very funny show.
The Less Important :
Fringe (Sep. 9th) 8/7c – from the creators of Lost comes another TV show with a sci-fi twist, this is sorta x-files-ish. This time on Fox, with Joshua Jackson (The Mighty Ducks / Dawson’s Creek) and one of hte chicks from CSI. Check out the trailer here (I can not for the life of me find a decent version that will let me embed it).
Other shows I am going to add to the list but am not sure about :
Chuck - it was decently funny, the pilot and one or two other episodes, we’ll see if it holds up this season.
Eli Stone - I watched it due to following LOST but dropped off as the season progressed. Gonna try again.
Two and a Half Men - Also a funny show, I just add it to the list, I don’t make it a date to see it or anything but if you have some time it is good.
To preface this review I want to do a quick rundown :
Google Chrome sort of came out of nowhere in the last week when they (Google) accidentally released a little promo a little early. It was released (in beta) today to the world and will surely get torn apart over the next couple of days to see what is going on behind the scenes but my review is a broader review covering my first interaction with it.
Google : As you know the leader in search but also massively expanding in online apps with an online office-like suite of products, gmail, maps and all those other products you are used to. However, I have said before on this site I think google gears is where the future is going to take the web. Integration with google gears allows a site to work both online and offline, to work alot more like a standalone desktop solution which negates the main negatives of an internet solution by removing the NEED for internet connectivity.
I love google products, I really do and I use most of their suite in my daily life. However their design aestethics, the minimalistic, blue, gmail-like scheme sometimes rides on me. I have a couple plugins to mess with that cause its a little annoying, child-like in my opinion. So I was worried when I saw the first screenshots of Chrome. However, it is pulled off nicely. I wouldn’t say it is as crisp as Firefox’s theme which I have really gotten used to, but it goes in a different direction with smaller icons, less menus, and focusing on a few things well instead of trying to incorporate everything.
The main thing you are going to notice at first is the tabs are above your address bar. Instead of the file, options menu that you would normally see, its a string of tabs running the top of your window. At first this sounded stupid to me because I use those tabs all the time, why put them farther away? i have seen no difference in my browsing since moving them, it didn’t even take time to get used to. Problem one bypassed.
The other thing you see is there is no google search bar in the top right. What? How does that work? You would think google would do everything in their power to integrate search in here. Well, they do, the address bar is now an ‘everything-bar’ allowing you to type a url , a search term or whatever else floats your boat. Unlike Internet Explorer’s annoying attempt at something like this, this works. Plus, it rides on Firefox 3’s new address bar tech of searching for whatever term you are typing throughout urls, titles etc… so you get good results when you use it.
The UI is your basic UI, nothing special , the basic buttons you are used to, and that makes the switch simple. The FF3 back / forward button while intuitive sometimes throws off new users just because it looks different. This will be an easy switch for everybody.
My only complaint so far is that I right click to open in a new tab quite often and it seems the open in new tab / open in new window / open in incognito window are right on top of eachother. I have 2 or 3 windows open right now because I clicked the wrong one.
May just take time getting used to that set-up.
Quick rundown of other things I like : history / downloads organization (looks like a webpage as opposed to sidebar etc…) , imported all FF data with no problems, developer console added in by default , its SUPER FAST, should have commented on this above but it seems to be flying. Most importantly, I’m not missing anything yet. It seems to have cut away the fat which runs the risk of leaving me short on something I use since I am outside the realm of a normal internet user, but I’m not missing anything yet.
I’m not going to talk alot about the real programming changes becasue I am not versed as well in that area but do want to hit upon a couple experience changes.
1) Incognito mode - Turns off the saving of any date (urls, cache, ip addresses etc) to your computer while you browse, also limits cookie interaction and only uses ones necessary to continue browsing, which it deletes when you leave this mode. This can be accomplished via FF add-ons, and I don’t really use it on my personal computer, but some people find this useful.
2) Gears integration - Of course google integrated Gears into this release. It will make running online apps that much easier and you won’t have to install any add ons anymore. Along with this they made linking to apps via desktop icons very easy, so you can just load up gmail via a shortcut made by Chrome. This has always been possible but if Google pushes it then more people may get used to it, and it will again push their online services.
3) Tab Manager - I don’t know too much about how the tabs work in Chrome. Apparently they run completely seperate from each other with their own processes, memory etc… which should result in better performance. Google also has a nice tab view / history view when you load up a new blank tab or as a start page.
– Note there are also other coding advances such as better javascript for increased speed and functionality and other things I will not get into in this post.
I have not been able to test interaction with every website out there such as netflix but since the codebase is familiar with FF I assume its going to be similar in what I can and can’t do online. (Remember most things you can’t do aren’t a result of the browser not being able to it but is a byass against those browsers…. Netflix and IE integration is stupid.)
Result. I am loving Chrome right now. Its slick, the fastest browser on my desktop, it surprised me with how good it looks, all the changes seem to be for the better, and it makes browsing both easier and more attractive. Way to go Google you really have hit a very good shot with this beta. I know your version of beta is practically a stable release so I don’t expect many changes and we might have just gotten another valid competitor in the field of browser wars .
I’m back as a Netflix user. I took a hiatus to focus that entertainment money on more important things like food and shelter, but as school is back in session my extra curriculars dwindle so I watch some more cinematic pieces.
I joined up again for a couple of reasons but none more important than the xbox’s coming integration. In the past few weeks I have been using play-on to watch hulu on my tv and it does drastically change the experience from watching on a computer. Thats why in my opinion when some of those podcasts we all watch (such as diggnation or the totally rad show) get into a platform where they are easier to stream to the TV, then they really will take off. Huge numbers of people online, and I watch it via my xbox, but even still when Internet enabled TV’s (or similar systems accomplishing the same thing) become more commonplace then those shows become more than just a web-geek world.
So, before that tangent what I was trying to say is that my xbox + netflix will become my first direct to box content service and its going to be interesting to see how it works.
One bone to pick with Netflix and it is a major annoyance on my part. How on God’s green earth do you still not support FF. I’m assuming it has nothing to do with tech specs and that there is some microsoft tie-in because honestly I have not opened Internet Explorer in months before yesterday so that I could watch my show via the netflix player. (Those 30 seconds from loading IE to getting to my movie start make me hate myself).
Someone please fix that. Or know a work around? maybe I just need an IE Tab extension for FF. See, writing these posts makes my brain work better.
I will be posting a couple technical (not so much) posts later , 1 on animated favicons and the other on building your own im-bot. Also hopefully a review of google chrome. If you don’t know what that is, please plug in the internet. Thanks.
It was Nate’s 21’st birthday so give him a shoutout at natemcguire.com. We had a fab time in downtown Austin, and cheering on the Texas Longhorns to their first of many victories this season. As I moved back into cyberspace today I hit up on some VERY interesting stuff. So here goes with a quick recap :
1. This is pretty crazy if true and the evidence is mounting. Mostly circumstancial but some very weird things going on at the least. Sarah Palin, the republican VP nominee, you may better know her as the attractive one McCain has been walking around with for a couple days… may not be the mother of her youngest daughter. She may be the grandmother. You need to read this one, it will take 5 minutes, and take it with a grain of salt its not a news network or anything, but I’ve seen it pop up in a couple places in the last 24 hours.
2. Also, Sarah Palin related, I saw a fox news clip where her experience on the national stage was cemented in place by the assertion that Alaska is the closest state to Alaska. Let me tell you what, all questions I have about her viability are now cleared.
3. Bucket of Awesome found the greatest. cover. ever. Nickelback’s Photograph but Better.
4. If you have been hiding in advance of Gustav, here is an up to date tracker. Yours truly might have a quote in a local newspaper cause of a quote I gave. Hooray.
via :http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222358,00.html
The fact that I am reporting on celebrity gossip is downright distressing to me. However, this is Californication, its a different thing. Its an amazing show, and for that reason, I will bring you this news.
David Duchovny has entered a rehabilitation center for sex addiction, his lawyer, Stanton “Larry” Stein, tells PEOPLE exclusively.
“I have voluntarily entered a facility for the treatment of sex addiction,” the actor says in an exclusive statement. “I ask for respect and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family.”
Duchovny, 48, has been married to actress Téa Leoni since 1997. They have two children, daughter Madelaine West, 9, and son Kyd, 6.
Holy Smokes Batman. I thought you were acting in Californication.
I am slightly distressed because I heard this show was filming as of early August, and if they still are then we might have to put up with a short season. Son of a ……. Funny quote from forum : “how can you be addicted to sex? thats like being addicted to ice cream… or life… or anything else awesome.” — I do not condone this quote.
My name is Fred.
I had a house. It was destroyed by this big predictable hurricane called Katrina. After Katrina I asked you for money and took that money to rebuild my house exactly as it stood before. Even though it happened once, it couldn’t happen again. But now there is another hurricane coming called Gustav, so I’m evacuating again. I’m gonna come hang out with you for a little while, and before I go back will probably need some cash to rebuild my house again. No actually, I’m going to demand the cash, and then blame the hurricane on you.
That is what I imagine New Orleans residents are saying to FEMA right now, which I don’t understand. How can you build an entire city in a below-sea-level area, in a hurricane-prone area, with sub-par levees? The argument that Katrina was an extraordinary storm are just wrong. Katrina was a strong hurricane, but its not like Andrew wasn’t as bad, or a number of other storms that have hit in the four decades since the construction of the levee system. NOLA rolled the dice for 40 years and when it finally got unlucky it decided to call on FEMA / our government … to rebuild it.
Now here is the thing. You would think that that money would go towards a) building the sickest sea wall ever or b) moving out. However, the levee system is not nearly enough to stop another hurricane (like Gustav) or anything else for that matter until up until 2011. What? How does it take 6 years to throw some dirt on a hill. I know thats an extreme exaggeration but you think a little bit more effort would go into fortifying an entire city. So, 15 billion is going into a ‘plan’ to re-protect the city, but only 20% of that is done and the rest won’t be done for some time.
I wouldn’t rebuild a house there. In 2008 there are expected to be 8 hurricanes that hit the US, 4 of which will be major hurricanes, along with 15 tropical storms (because parts of the levee may not hold up to that). Note that these are on the east coast (since on the West they are tsunamis), and that the Gulf of Mexico is sort of Hurricane Alley. So any resident of NOLA is rolling the dice that between 2005 and 2011 (6 years), that 1 of 48 (predicted) hurricanes will not hit close to the city (because if you remember Katrina wasn’t even a direct hit) . Yikes. Not odds I would bet my livelihood and home on.
While looking up some of these facts I found some other interesting tidbits such as parts of NOLA have sunk 3 feet in the past couple of decades, and some parts quite a bit more than that. Meaning a) the levees are lower than designed and b) the future of the city as a whole is seriously in doubt. Yikes, again.
So, it is with the above statements that I kind ask my government to not send my money to New Orleans this time around, that they can keep it and use it for other things, like re-painting the white house pink for Obama’s daughters…
P.S. Why stay in NOLA anyways? It sorta sucks outside the French Quarter, and really, you can move that anywhere. I hope I get hate mail.
In honor of tomorrow, the first game of the Longhorn season, I must say hook’ em. VY is stopping by to get his jersey retired so I expect a raucous crowd even though the game is against Florida Atlantic and we are 25 point favorites. Hopefully our team plays like it did in the Holiday Bowl for the length of the season and we just might have ourselves another ring.
About the Hook’em sign (Via Wikipedia) :
In some European cultures, the identical corna gesture is used to suggest spousal infidelity or Satanic association. Images of Jenna Bush publicly “throwing the horns” resulted in startled reactions in Norway. In 1985, five Americans were arrested, due to its satanic connotations after dancing and displaying the gesture in front of the Vatican while celebrating the victory of the Longhorns.[9]
