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my daily hitlist
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Mar. 25th, 2008 @ 12:27 pm
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These change periodically, but here's my current list of sites I check about every day -
http://dilbert.com - This is the most permanent of the list.
http://woot.com and http://sellout.woot.com - the daily deals from woot, sometimes there's something pretty good. I got 3 2GB SD cards for like $20 a couple months ago, and some supercheap spare HDMI cables last year.
http://mashable.com - The latest social, ajaxy, flashy, web 2.0-y sites.
http://ps3fanboy.com - playstation 3 scoops
http://nintendowiifanboy.com - wii rumors
http://forum.blu-ray.com - down at the bottom there's a board for deals
http://amazon.com/videogames - then I click on the "Deal of the Day" to see what it is
http://lifehacker.com - they've got some interesting and useful stuff. I had no idea my blender would fit perfectly to a mason jar until they told me.
http://downloadsquad.com - occasionally they have some good advice, freebies, or timewasters
http://cnn.com - gotta stay connected to the world outside of tech
http://pilotonline.com - gotta find out what's happening locally
http://joystiq.com - more games news
http://blog.papervision3d.org - 3d in flash plugin - news and cases
I've stopped reading http://consumerist.com just because it is too good of a site that can catch me all day if not careful. |
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flash plugin update broke our xml request
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Mar. 25th, 2008 @ 12:06 pm
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Long story short - our site has a flex app that reads Rails-generated xml from elsewhere in the site. Originally we did the site in http, but switched to https. Now we were setting up a testing site, which started out in http. And the flex app kept getting "500 internal server error" back from the server when it tried to get the request.
As it turns out, the latest flash plugin (released between our original tests and now) blocks headers, including SESSION COOKIES, for non-secured http requests. Why? Security or something I guess. If we didn't need the cookies to get the data, it wouldn't matter, but since we have to be logged in to get it, it's gotta pass the session information through headers.
So, the fix is to install SSL/https. Or to have every client roll back their flash plugin, which I don't even think is possible. I don't even notice when my flash updates itself, but even the linux plugin does it.
So, this was a pretty nerdy post but I figured somebody might be scouring the Internets for the same issue - I didn't find it anywhere so figured I'd post it.
Oh, here's Adobe's vague reference to this issue, basically saying "tough luck" -
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb403030
-RC- |
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my latest interest - 3d flash from flex
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Mar. 10th, 2008 @ 03:52 pm
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I've recently stumbled across the Papervision 3D API for flash, a nifty 3d API for flash and flex. I've tinkered some with a simple model loader that can load collada models. I'll have to experiment with it some more, but it's looking very nice for some simple ideas I have.
Some bulletized observations on where industry is heading -
- Flash is what java always claimed to be: compiled bytecode that runs anywhere. (It seems like java updates itself on my machine twice a month and still never manages to run correctly in a browser.)
- The next generation "platform" isn't an operating system - it's "standards" mixed with any compliant OS.
- The tools in demand will be data-related. Getting "my data" into the cool app in a secure, portable, reliable way (securing data is a big priority).
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id multiplatform smoothness
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Jun. 14th, 2007 @ 04:29 pm
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I caught a video of id's upcoming latest quake engine version on Joystiq yesterday, and it looks pretty nice. Pretty cool, especially, though, is the multi-platform aspect of it: PC/360/PS3/OSX cross-platformness of the engine, and then their designers can just create the content once. That's pretty nifty. Also, I hadn't realized until I clicked through to the id site that the Q3E has been released under GPL by id, with licensing options available. I'm thinking with all the homebrew wiimote apps out there that somebody could make a decent wiimote-version of the classic "nav" app for Quake worlds. Or just a recompile of the full Q3 game using either wiimote directly or a trackd/trackd clone client for control, a ala the classic CAVE Quake. I loved the strafing once I discovered it in that version of it - it was very natural to just rotate your arm around the long axis of the wand, and the weapon could still point the right direction. Where am I going with all this? I don't really know, but one interesting point is that pieces of next gen VR systems are being outpaced price-wise by consumer versions, finally. Games drive the technology, and just as it's on the order of 10x cheaper to build a cluster CAVE out of PCs with over-the-shelf cards rather than driving it with a single ONYX, the input devices should be taken over by much lower cost devices. Mount an ic2 to an HMD for 800 bucks, or tape a wiimote onto your head for $60? Build complex interactions with a scene graph in a dead API, or choose between licensing the most advanced graphics engine or using the full source code of one from a generation back?
Well, maybe that last one is not exactly right. Games industry is driven by software profit, not by research, so of course hardware prices are constantly pushing down, even while software prices are squeaking upward. So, it's probably not cost-effective to license a game engine for research. |
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instant weather info
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Nov. 16th, 2006 @ 07:54 am
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Why is it that weather.gov is the only site that does what I think they all should do - 1-step weather forecast.
Just type in weather.gov/23464, replacing 23464 with your zip code, and it instantly gives you a 5-day forecast with details. I've been trying to do this on the other weather sites (weather.com, weather.yahoo.com) for years, and it never works, but a government site gets it right and auto-refreshes to the page I'm looking for. cool. I know you can google search for "weather 23464" to get a 4-day summary, but it still requires a click for details.
Another woot-off today. |
| » interesting project: tote-bag to messenger bag conversion |
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Saw this link on lifehacker yesterday. I have a tote bag from vis 2003 under my desk at work that's ripe for the conversion. too bad I have no sewing skills. Or machine. Well, maybe I'll skip it, but it's still a cool project:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/duganj/sets/72157594364544458/
Nov. 9th, 2006 @ 11:03 am
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| » Win32 Sleep ( DWORD ms ) is unreliable for values < 10 |
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Win32 Sleep ( DWORD ms ) is unreliable for values < 10!
After days of trying to figure out where my timing logic was wrong, I began to suspect that Sleep was actually not accurate. I had heard that win32 timers weren't good for under 20 ms, but I didn't realize that Sleep is unreliable as well. The first hit on a google search confirmed my suspicion.
http://www.geisswerks.com/ryan/FAQS/timing.html
For me, the work-around was easy - I'm not going to have the Sleep commands in my final code, I just need them there as place-holders to test that all the logic and data flow is correct before adding the real code. So, I just multiplied all my values by 10, and can test the data flow.
Still, this was a pain. I also wonder if this is why Yahoo widgets timer-based animation is so much slower on Windows.
Oct. 27th, 2006 @ 02:36 pm
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| » deal on G15 keyboard |
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Here's a decent deal on what's consistently rated the best gaming keyboard:
woot side deal at tiger - you should find the logitech g15 gaming keyboard here.
$55 before shipping, $67 with shipping (no tax here), still a better deal than bb or cc. If the deal's over, they still sell it for $60 regularly.
Oct. 24th, 2006 @ 11:34 am
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| » woot-off today! |
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For those who haven't seen it, woot is a cool little site that almost always has one deal per day. Sometimes the deal is really cool and it sells out in an hour, sometimes it sucks and doesn't sell out.
Well, once in a while, they take all the deals that didn't sell out and clear out their warehouse by having a "woot-off" - they put one item up at a time until it sells out-then move on to the next one. There's a whole woot-culture, where people stay up till midnight central (1 am for us east coasters), and then if they don't like the deal of the day, they leave a message like "This woot sucks - good night everyone." During a woot-off, the comments on expensive items that take a long time to sell out are how they are "a woot-off killer." And comments on every item along the lines of "I'm not getting any work done today - hope my boss doesn't read woot," are not unusual.
Occassionally, there is a grab-bag item, which woot refers to as a "bag of crap". However, I think their server software replaces that text or any occurance of "BOC" with a random phrase that has the pattern b____ of c____, e.g. "bandolier of carrots", or many other things. So people who get bored with woot-off-killers demand crap in the comments, and to others it seems as though they demanded carrots.
Anyways, check woot once a day, and if there's flashing yellow lights, check it all day at work.
I stayed up for this? 'night all.
Oct. 12th, 2006 @ 08:17 pm
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| » Random wikipedia as home page |
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Got a cool tip from lifehacker.com this morning -
Set your browser's homepage to the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Randompage
Now, every time you open your browser, you get a random wikipedia entry. I tried it twice, got some town in Connecticut and then the entry for "Area code 336", so some are lame, but I'll give it a week or so before I make a final decision...
UPDATE (10/12) - I didn't like it, there's too many dumb and lame entries in the wikipedia. My homepage is back to the cafeteria menu at work.
Sep. 11th, 2006 @ 09:39 am
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| » finally, apple store opening at macarthur |
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Right next to Harry and David:
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 Grand Opening
Apple Store, MacArthur Center
10:00 a.m., Saturday, September 9
We created the Apple Store in the same way we create our products—with you in mind. Come to our grand opening this Saturday and help us celebrate our newest store, complete with The Studio. There you can meet our team of Creatives—professional designers, filmmakers, and photographers who can help you bring your creative projects to life.
With so much going on, what will you do first?
- Enter to win a Digital Lifestyle Collection valued at over $2100.*
- Stop by The Studio and work one-on-one with a Creative.
- Learn about everything you can create on a Mac.
- Test-drive any iPod in the iPod family.
- Ask about our free workshops on creating and sharing music, movies, and photos.**
- Bring technical questions about your Mac or iPod to the Genius Bar.
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Sep. 6th, 2006 @ 10:41 am
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| » Wordspew in a Wordpress Widget. |
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For lack of a better place to put this, I'm putting some code for a wordpress widget here. It's just a copy-and-hack of the included gsearch widget, but lets you use a shoutbox in the widgets sidebar. Hopefully LJ won't think I'm trying to hack with all the code here.
Copy and paste the following into a file called wordspew.php, and upload it to your wp-content/plugins/widgets/ directory. If you already have the wordspew (aka Wordpress AJAX chat) then you are set.
/////////////////////////////// begin of file
<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Wordspew widget
Description: Adds a sidebar widget to let you use live chat shoutbox.
Author: Modified the gsearch by Automattic, Inc.
Version: 1.0
Author URI: http://automattic.com
*/
// Put functions into one big function we'll call at the plugins_loaded
// action. This ensures that all required plugin functions are defined.
function widget_wordspew_init() {
// Check for the required plugin functions. This will prevent fatal
// errors occurring when you deactivate the dynamic-sidebar plugin.
if ( !function_exists('register_sidebar_widget') )
return;
// This is the function that outputs our little Google search form.
function widget_wordspew($args) {
// $args is an array of strings that help widgets to conform to
// the active theme: before_widget, before_title, after_widget,
// and after_title are the array keys. Default tags: li and h2.
extract($args);
// Each widget can store its own options. We keep strings here.
$options = get_option('widget_wordspew');
$title = $options['title'];
// These lines generate our output. Widgets can be very complex
// but as you can see here, they can also be very, very simple.
echo $before_widget . $before_title . $title . $after_title;
jal_get_shoutbox();
echo $after_widget;
}
// This is the function that outputs the form to let the users edit
// the widget's title. It's an optional feature that users cry for.
function widget_wordspew_control() {
// Get our options and see if we're handling a form submission.
$options = get_option('widget_wordspew');
if ( !is_array($options) )
$options = array('title'=>'Shoutbox');
if ( $_POST['wordspew-submit'] ) {
// Remember to sanitize and format use input appropriately.
$options['title'] = strip_tags(stripslashes($_POST['wordspew-title']));
update_option('widget_wordspew', $options);
}
// Be sure you format your options to be valid HTML attributes.
$title = htmlspecialchars($options['title'], ENT_QUOTES);
// Here is our little form segment. Notice that we don't need a
// complete form. This will be embedded into the existing form.
echo '<p style="text-align:right;"><label for="wordspew-title">Title: <input style="width: 200px;" id="wordspew-title" name="wordspew-title" type="text" value="'.$title.'" /></label></p>';
echo '<input type="hidden" id="wordspew-submit" name="wordspew-submit" value="1" />';
}
// This registers our widget so it appears with the other available
// widgets and can be dragged and dropped into any active sidebars.
register_sidebar_widget('Shoutbox', 'widget_wordspew');
// This registers our optional widget control form. Because of this
// our widget will have a button that reveals a 300x100 pixel form.
register_widget_control('Shoutbox', 'widget_wordspew_control', 300, 100);
}
// Run our code later in case this loads prior to any required plugins.
add_action('plugins_loaded', 'widget_wordspew_init');
?>
////////////////////////////////////end of file
Apr. 19th, 2006 @ 01:22 pm
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| » best job in America |
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Apparently, I have the best job in America, according to Money Magazine:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/top50/index.html
Top 10 best jobs
MONEY Magazine and Salary.com researched hundreds of jobs, considering their growth, pay, stress-levels and other factors. These careers ranked highest.
1. Software Engineer
2. College professor
3. Financial adviser
4. Human Resources Manager
5. Physician assistant
6. Market research analyst
7. Computer IT analyst
8. Real Estate Appraiser
9. Pharmacist
10. Psychologist
Cool beans. I should get back to doing it...
Apr. 13th, 2006 @ 09:35 am
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| » Norfolk to get Apple store. |
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The largest metro area in the States without an Apple retail store will have one some time soon, presumably in the next six months. Apple has been advertising "Apple Retail" positions for MacArthur Center on their own web site and others, including the norfolk.craigslist.org boards.
Yay. Now we can see the shininess in person rather than seeing the shininess on the website. I wonder whether or not Virginia Beach made any pitches to them put a store in the up and coming downtown area of Virginia Beach. I personally think the new area in the Beach is nicer than the supposedly resurgent downtown Norfolk, plus the per capita income in VB is nearly 30% higher than Norfolk, and parking is free all the time downtown VB in either of the nearby garages - not so in Norfolk, the streets are metered till 6pm and the MacArthur garage has hourly rates that go up when there's a hockey game or other event nearby.
Sources:
http://www.apple.computer.jobs.com/jobsearch.asp?q=apple+retail+MacArthur&re=0&sort=rv&tm=&vw=b&co=xacompx&aj=Apple%2BComputer
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=98876&ran=125692
http://norfolk.craigslist.org/ret/ (scroll down to Feb 2)
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/?s=norfolk
Feb. 24th, 2006 @ 04:36 pm
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| » Online Maps |
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For online mapping, I've been using primarily two services: google and yahoo.
If I want a map of a location, in firefox I can highlight the address and click "Search for [...]". Firefox google searches in a new tab for the address, and google sees it's an address and gives the option to map it in google maps, yahoo maps, or mapquest.
When google maps appeared, it was by far the best interface available. Drag-to-scroll, the best example of how to use AJAX to create a dynamic website. All the other services suddenly seemed outdated.
However, yahoo maps had something else going for it besides interface: the ability to log in and store addresses. This is the best feature of yahoo maps. I can click from the google search to the yahoo map, click on directions, and I have a drop-box of my saved locations. From whichever computer I'm using. I have saved my house, my girlfriend's house, and my work. So I can get directions on any computer from any of my saved locations to anywhere without ever typing. That's the best feature of yahoo maps.
This week, yahoo unveiled maps beta, its next generation of mapping (http://maps.yahoo.com/beta). By the way, I really like yahoo's naming convention - SERVICE.yahoo.com for everything - it's so simple. If you don't know if they have a service, try it (mail, blog, calendar, realestate, auction, etc.) - yahoo is really undervalued. At any rate the new yahoo maps has an excellent interface - it's flash, not AJAX - but the dragging is there, and even better the scroll wheel zooms in and out like NASA's bluemarble and other standalone apps. They have a little corner box that shows a smaller scale of a larger area - very useful in figuring out where in the city you are looking. I used to do this manually - zoom out then zoom back in - to get bearings on google maps. And, best of all, my saved addresses are there, and I don't even have to click "get directions" for the drop box to appear, they just add drop boxes as you need them. I don't know if that makes sense - just try it.
So, once yahoo's out of beta and my google searches click through to the new yahoo maps, I will exclusively use it. It's got the interface features I like, and the no-typing directions that yahoo already gave me.
Nov. 5th, 2005 @ 04:40 am
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| » Internet Radio Streams |
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My first real experience with Internet radio streams was when I would use a lab in college and some kid that used it overnight would often be blasting BBC's Radio One on the nice sound system in the lab. British DJ's playing American and Brit hip-hop. Oh, the headaches.
But I have since found radio streams that I like and would listen to if they let me listen to radio streams at work -
Radio Paradise - Eclectic Mix, Internet-only, I think commercial free.
The Planet - 107.1, from University of Illinois Campus, new alternative music.
Max FM - 100.5 in Virginia Beach. They've got the Nights with Alice Cooper show, and Alice Cooper is a suprisingly funny one-man radio show, with lots of hard rock mixed in. Max-fm's normal programming starts every hour with a Metallica cut.
The Fox 106.9 Hampton Roads Classic rock. Pretty good morning show.
WBGL 90.7 - Christian staion in Chambana. At one point, they actually had a good night show "BGL at night", lots of alternative, newer music, etc. - different from the regular Contemporary Christian stations. Not sure what it's like now, though.
Aug. 25th, 2005 @ 10:37 pm
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| » Windows Software |
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Free stuff everyone could use:
Firefox - tabbed browsing. Get the plugin "all-in-one gestures" for hyperspeed browsing.
The Gimp - The functionality of Photoshop, for amateurs.
Konfabulator - Free widgets for everyone. The weather widget alone is worth it, the rest are silly toys you may enjoy.
Hey, it turns out those are all cross-platform.
Here's some stuff I find useful, you may or may not:
Aqua Dock - looks like the Mac Dock, I like it.
Cygwin - do your UNIX development on Windows, "make" and "gcc" work out of the box, as do many other tools.
Here's a couple fun tools, for the amateur audio/visual studio:
Wax - a video editing program. It looks like Final Cut, but it's free. Also, saves as a flash file for easy web page integration.
Audacity - an audio editor. Probably not as usable as GarageBand (I've never actually seen or used GB, just heard of it), but I was able to instantly record two guitar tracks over each other by hitting record twice and save as an mp3 by hitting save as... Not bad, also free.
Aug. 23rd, 2005 @ 10:17 am
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| » Half Life 2 |
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I was playing HL2 for around 4 hours last night - the single player game, haven't tried online yet. But it is pretty immersive. I was playing in some level from an area that's been sealed off. It was called Rivenhall or something like that, it had been sealed off, apparently because there are aliens that took over people by sucking on their heads - like head-sized ticks. Ugh, all those bloody mutant things with the aliens on their heads are creepy. I was glad to get on to the next level, although they're still around. It was 1am before I knew it. The graphics are amazing, even on my laptop. The story is so far pretty engaging, but who know if I'll get back into it like that. It's a great game, but FPS's still are not my favorite genre. How come, when I smack the good guys with a crowbar, they don't do anything? I throw barrels at them, smash their windows. I even hit one good guy "where it counts" with the crowbar. No reaction. They should at least say something like, "Gordon, quit goofing off - this is serious."
Jun. 23rd, 2005 @ 09:49 am
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| » DS Mario |
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Just picked up Super Mario 64 again yesterday. I had forgotten how difficult to control it is with that floating joystick, I feel like it's constantly slipping away from my thumb. I guess I had gotten used to it, but after a few months, was expecting it to feel like the N64 version. And where my other thumb goes when I try to punch ends up just moving the camera. I did get a couple stars and a key, so it's not impossible. Just takes some getting used to.
Jun. 22nd, 2005 @ 09:30 am
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| » What's New |
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I noticed last week Halo 2 Special Edition is only $29.99 at Amazon. I've been really tempted to order it more than once, but I keep remembering that I don't really like FPS's, and haven't finished any of the ones I have. Oh well, maybe I'll still pick it up if it comes with a free Live trial sometime.
I did, however, pick up a Wireless-G gaming adapter from CompUSA for $40 after rebates - it's a decent deal, and does WEP encryption with my Belkin router just fine - I had to set it up on PC first, but it worked out alright. So I'm waiting for some Xbox Live free trial to come along and then I'll try it.
Also waiting for a good game on Xbox that's neither racing nor FPS. Both of those genres have gotten old to me lately. Maybe Tiger 2005 is my next pick-up.
Jun. 7th, 2005 @ 04:24 pm
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ruancaiman's journal
