Multiple Screen Names in Spore
Thanks to Luka, Code highlighting in Blogger
Luka Marinko has a blog post "Code highlighting on blogger” that shows how to get syntax highlighting on code sample with Blogger. The nice thing is it doesn’t require any file hosting on your part.
Examples:
#!/usr/bin/python
print "Hello, World!"
#!/usr/bin/ruby
puts "Hello, World!"
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
printf("Hello, World!\n");
return 0;
}
RocketDock adds an OS X like dock to Windows
Here’s a short sample of RocketDock.
Requires Windows XP or Vista.
Screencast created with CamStudio.
PSA: MySpace Profile 2.0 & Privacy
If you' previously had your profile in MySpace set to private, after upgrading to Profile 2.0 your profile is now public. In order to make it private like before, you have to follow the instructions on Tom’s blog post here.
Basically, you have to go to Profile –> Customize Profile, then click on the little pencil icon on a module, and there you can set the privacy options for that particular module. If you want to hide your profile, just select the checkbox “Apply to all modules” and your profile will be hidden like before.
I figured I would post this since I had a difficult time figuring out exactly how to do it, and the MySpace help page still contained information regarding the old Profile 1.0 settings which no longer apply.
This has been a public service announcement from Matt Haley.
QTTabBar Enhances Windows Explorer
Just stumbled across QTTabBar for Windows XP/Vista. It adds tabs to Windows Explorer.
Obligatory screen shot:
Setup is a little non-obvious, after installation you have to logout and log back in then right-click in the toolbar section of an Explorer window to turn on the QTTabBar toolbars.
Requires .NET Framework 2.0 to be installed if you’re using Windows XP.
The iPhone's Most Annoying Feature
The iPhone's most annoying feature for me is the constant crashing of Safari. I am rarely surprised anymore when I get dumped to the home screen. Hopefully with the upcoming 2.2 firmware release Apple will improve the situation.
via email,
Matt Haley
Guitar Hero World Tour Tip
Don’t let your three year old spin the cymbal around until the cord rips out of the plug.
Saving Money in the Cloud
The time has come for my family to work hard at shrinking our monthly expenditures. One of the items I decided to give the axe to was my current web hosting. I only pay $8 per month for hosting at A2Hosting and the service has been excellent but I think I’m okay with letting it go.
Prior to coming to this decision, I analyzed what I was using the web hosting for and what alternatives I could use that are free. First, the services that I was using the hosting for include:
- Web Site
- Wiki
- Blog
- File Storage
- Playing around with web based apps
First on the list is email. I only had a single address that I was using and it wasn’t actually being used per se. The only activity it ever saw was the result of my Gmail account automatically forwarding copies of all received messages for backup. So, I decided it wasn’t critical and left it open to removal.
Next web come to the actual web part of the web hosting. I have yet to decided on what content to put at the site so if you happened to browse to the domain, you’d only see a logo that I had created from a photo taken in Colorado while on vacation.
Mediawiki was being run on the site for a personal notebook of mostly programming related notes. There are a couple of free hosted wikis such as socialtext.net, and pbwiki.com. I had previously created an account at pbwiki.com and had no complaints so I figured it would make a decent substitute.
File storage was not an absolute requirement and actually quite low on the list of priorities but when then it dawned on me that Microsoft had announced they were increasing the storage capacity of Windows Live SkyDrive to 25GB soon. So that would be more than adequate for my uses.
Running Wordpress on my own web site was almost replaced with the hosted version at wordpress.com but Blogger lets you use a personal domain without the $10 per year charge.
I guess there is no real substitute if you want to play around with self-hosted web applications. Fortunately I dual boot Linux on all my machines so I can still play that way. It’s just going to have to do for now.
So that would have been the end of it. Except then it dawned on me, Google offers the Google Apps service for free. With Google Apps, I can use Gmail for email, Sites for web and wiki, Calendar, and Docs. I’ll still use SkyDrive for basic files but everything else is pretty much covered.
Now, I just have to hope that Google is kind with my soul after having handed to them.
I Voted Today
This morning my wife and I took part in one of the greatest acts that an American can perform. We voted. I’m not going to say here who I voted for; I don’t believe that it matters in the point of this post.
The reason I’m posting this is because there was one glaring problem that bothered me today. In Maricopa County, you mark your ballot and then feed it into a machine that is supposed to do something with it. The problem was, the machine jammed twenty minutes after voting started. It was the only machine they had at my polling place. There wasn’t a backup machine available. Instead, everyone stood around waiting while a feeble attempt was made to get the machine working again. About twenty minutes later, they opened the hatch on the machine and instructed voters to just manually place their ballots into the scanner’s receptacle.
I believe in Murphy’s Law in that when you have a single device, in use for a single day by many people it will fail. Why was there not a backup plan in place before the polls opened? I don’t know. It would have been adequate for me at least, if the thought of opening the hatch and letting people deposit their vote manually had occurred about fifteen minutes earlier.
My concern is when voting becomes a pain in the rear; you might be less likely to vote next time. It should be quick, easy and painless. It’s bad enough having to stand in line to get your ballot, let alone turn it in.
Would an electronic voting system fared any better? I don’t know. Is their poor grammar and spelling in this post? I would be shocked if there wasn’t.
