Neal Grosskopf Dot Com A NG Designs Site

Chris Retlich @ 4/9/2010 2:44:13 PM

They coat hangers sound better, actually ;) Make great dirt-cheap DIY TV antennas too, just need to buy a $2-3 balun and cut and bend the metal coat hangers the right way. Not sure on the range though.

Chris Retlich @ 4/9/2010 2:45:46 PM

Gah, forgot to re-add the parentheses around the words "coat hangers" when I re-submitted my post because the spam filter caught me using the word cheap. Oh well.

Chris Retlich @ 4/1/2010 6:46:33 PM

Yeah, exactly one of those.

Chris Retlich @ 3/31/2010 3:07:15 PM

LOL, this is on my "Wacky Web Sites" day-by-day calendar for March 29th!

Chris Retlich @ 12/21/2009 1:09:15 PM

That effect looks really cool. Did a page info->media in firefox, and saw the three images they used to accomplish this, one of which had the "sprites" scattered about on it. Still haven't looked into the code itself too much.

Chris Retlich @ 9/21/2009 11:18:25 PM

Repost. Well, not exactly the same site, but similar principle. A very useful service, I would imagine, for anyone who uses RSS feeds.

Chris Retlich @ 8/26/2009 3:23:59 PM

I also recommend this - in particular to disable the evil new tab button. This links to the same extension for disabling the tear-off tabs behavior. It's pretty easy to be re-ordering tabs and accidentally drop it onto the wrong place causing a new window to open. One workaround is to open a second blank tab in the new window to show the tab bar (unless you have it set to always show), then drag the tab back to the original window, then close the new blank tab.

Chris Retlich @ 8/17/2009 3:27:26 PM

Neat! I swear, CSS is fast becoming the next Skynet! Just as long as we don't add "self-aware:true;" to the specification, I think we'll be fine.

Chris Retlich @ 5/13/2009 11:25:08 AM

But I read someone complaining that "start" isn't actually part of the code, it's just necessary to start the game, and would be pressed whether you entered the code or not. Neat find anyways.

Also, I like eeggs.com, found the site many years ago.

Chris Retlich @ 4/30/2009 10:41:00 AM

Hehe, I just noticed that the thumbnail generated has the sidebar thing on /. all messed up.

Chris Retlich @ 4/29/2009 11:53:43 PM

Ah, I hadn't noticed that bug yet (I of course have that extension installed) - of course, when I just hit view source to test it, then it crashed. I'm on 3.0.10 now as a result of restarting FF from the crash. That might explain why my one friend's FF kept crashing the other day at random (he doesn't have that extension, but apparently the bug can be triggered by other things).

Chris Retlich @ 4/7/2009 12:35:08 AM

That's a pretty neat idea, other than it scrolls pretty fast. It also seems to break the back button, though - that is, going "back" doesn't jump you to where you were on the page before clicking the anchor link. It does at least give you the sense that you are still on the same page, unlike how anchor links normally work.

Chris Retlich @ 4/7/2009 12:38:27 AM

Hey, 3.0.8 is also known as "rv:1.9.0.8" - it appears that their internal version numbering scheme is much farther behind their marketing version numbering, assuming that this number means anything. Go to help->about to see it.

Chris Retlich @ 4/7/2009 9:41:03 PM

Seems like a pretty nice resource, nice to have as a reference for building your own, or to use as-is if appropriate.

Chris Retlich @ 3/25/2009 9:34:53 AM

I think the comment field probably contains some other information. For example, Amazon songs contain a "Song ID" value in the comments field, other sources might contain other song identifiers. I can't tell if the "Song ID" value is unique per purchaser, or if it's unique per song without re-purchasing the same song from a different account. From the article, it looks like the RIAA are using the MD5 hash of the entire file either generated on the fly, or as broadcast by most P2P programs. In any case, it's quite easy for several people to create the an MP3 with the same MD5 hash - if they use the same CD version of the song, and use the same commonly available encoder program with the default settings, they should all produce the same file. In any case, it's easy enough to clear the ID3 tags or otherwise change their contents to throw the MD5 hash off.

Chris Retlich @ 3/18/2009 1:45:17 PM

Wow, IE really mangles that image up (without bicubic interpolation, that is)! It would help if the sample image didn't suffer from JPEG compression artifacts. I wonder why this isn't the default? Performance, apparently?

Chris Retlich @ 2/26/2009 8:38:51 AM

Yeah, using the dollar sign takes a little extra effort sometimes, but allows a few neat features, for example, directly injecting a variable into a string instead of using string concatenation, e.g. echo "you are visitor $num"; is equivalent to echo 'you are visitor '.$num; (note the different quotes used - the second example would work with single or double, the first example only works with double quotes).

Also, it allows you to use variable variables - a wacky concept where you can reference a named variable by the value of a different one, e.g. $hello="Hi";$blah='hello';echo $$blah; would return "Hi" - because $blah is "hello", and thus the other $ then says look at the value of the variable named "hello".

The $variable (or sometimes variable$ in other languages) thing reminds me of QBASIC, but I think there are a handful of other languages that do that too, such as RAPIDQ.

Chris Retlich @ 2/26/2009 8:39:39 AM

Interesting, my <code> tags got messed up, but seemed to look okay in the preview.

Chris Retlich @ 2/18/2009 12:26:44 AM

I think that I have stumbled upon this feature at some point, maybe I'm thinking of the equivalent in Gimp? Nonetheless, it's very useful when you create a much larger canvas as a "work area" then want to trim the canvas down in size to be the size of the actual image when you are done.

Chris Retlich @ 2/16/2009 10:59:33 AM

CSS becomes more Turing-complete by the day, it seems. Weird.

Chris Retlich @ 2/6/2009 3:07:01 PM

TDS, which I'm using for DSL service right now, "caps" you at 50GB/month, I think, at which point they'll allegedly ask you to clarify your bandwidth usage, and may subsequently close your account or up your price. Seems kind of bogus that they are limiting bandwidth on a 15Mbps package, which you would suspect would have a higher-than-average bandwidth cap. Also, if you get a WRT54GL (or a handful of other routers) you can use DD-WRT or Tomato firmware, which apparently have some kind of bandwidth monitor tool.

From the TDS TOS:

1.13 TDS Telecom residential Internet customers are restricted to 50 Gigabytes of bandwidth consumed (uploaded or downloaded) per month. If You exceed this limitation for two consecutive months, You may be required to purchase an upgraded Internet service for an additional monthly fee. See the TDS Acceptable Use Policy for additional bandwidth use restrictions.

Chris Retlich @ 1/23/2009 9:37:17 AM

I was running it since I was testing out the Windows 7 Beta under VirtualBox. Seems like a decent OS so far, then again, I've only used it for like 40 minutes.

Chris Retlich @ 1/22/2009 11:01:33 PM

And here I first thought your site was having some kind of database error when I saw the title to this link on the homepage. Also, various parts of your homepage, are inside scrollable boxes on IE8, especially the content in the right column.

Chris Retlich @ 1/14/2009 4:16:23 PM

Do they still have any keys left? BTW, I was one of the few who got a key/download finished on the first Friday that you were supposed to be able to get it. Tried installing it under VirtualBox - but that seems to have failed. Haven't tried installing again since then. Even the main microsoft.com site wasn't accessible for a few periods on Friday from all of the traffic for some reason.

Chris Retlich @ 12/11/2008 3:28:19 PM

This link seems to work better.

I can see your house from here!

... but... can you see Russia from your house?

Chris Retlich @ 11/28/2008 1:54:40 PM

GOT TIVO? RECORD NOW

Chris Retlich @ 11/23/2008 11:08:47 PM

This reminded me of the wallpaper for TASVideos, which I had just discovered a few days ago when they redesigned their homepage. A neat trick is that the little Mario/Luigi images in the middle of that image are used in an animation on the top banner of the homepage. Also, this trick is used so that instead of several slow requests for each individual graphic, you instead have one larger, but quicker overall request for a combination of all of the graphics.

Chris Retlich @ 10/5/2008 10:57:53 PM

Yeah, I haven't tried the parallels-like "guest window integration with host OS" part of it yet, but otherwise, you just set up a virtual machine by creating a virtual hard drive file on your guest OS, and then installing the OS there, you don't need to mess with your real HDD or anything. Seems to work fairly well. You can also set up port forwarding and stuff, so you could run an Apache/Linux web server under through VirtualBox under Windows without exposing your Windows installation should Apache get hacked somehow.

Chris Retlich @ 10/2/2008 3:14:31 PM

Hmmm, not a single mention of "youtube" anywhere, "sarah palin" doesn't exist, and 256MB of USB drive goodness costs $600!

Chris Retlich @ 9/4/2008 3:36:18 PM

Looks like it might be useful at some point, hopefully will never need it.

Chris Retlich @ 8/7/2008 8:58:45 PM

Funny, I set up something kind of like that just recently. I set up an email account specifically for GA, and have a visits update sent to it daily. Then a PHP script downloads the messages and saves the .CSV attachment to the webserver. Then it goes through and grabs the data from the files and conglomerates it together to make a simple graph of visits over time. Probably a little too fragile since it would likely break if you changed the type of data that GA includes in their email.

Chris Retlich @ 6/26/2008 2:54:54 AM

Have one of those already, got it for about $19 after shipping (or maybe free shipping?). Seems to work pretty well. Another idea is to use it with a surge protector to test an entire computer system at once. Of course, don't overload the poor thing in the process. It's amazing, a CRT uses about 10 more watts to display a solid white screen than it does a solid black one, whereas it makes no noticeable difference on an LCD.

Chris Retlich @ 5/31/2008 2:00:12 AM

Now I can see why my former high school principal moved to New London - he gets paid a lot more there than his replacement in Kiel does.

Chris Retlich @ 5/19/2008 4:34:58 PM

Ha, that's funny. Time to buy me some TV dinners, Baskin Robbins ice cream, and find a new area code.

Chris Retlich @ 5/10/2008 10:45:36 PM

Hey, at least they use PHP ;)

So, why does every company feel like they need to jump on the "we're hip and have a Second Life presence" bandwagon? Really, how many people does it really impress vs. the cost to set up shop and maintain it. On the plus side, if you get assigned to run it, you can get paid to play a videogame.

Also, I like that quote!

Chris Retlich @ 5/5/2008 11:11:00 PM

Yay, (web developer pay) > (web designer pay) ;) Still, fairly comparable in pay scale, and it all depends where you wind up getting employed anyways. Helps to know what the "average" is when looking for/getting a job so that you know about what to expect.

Chris Retlich @ 5/5/2008 11:11:30 PM

Too bad that the site is having issues. The Google cache link Jason sent works well enough, though. Seems like Homer Simpson is a fairly simple character to make through CSS alone, especially just his head/face.

Chris Retlich @ 4/28/2008 3:37:41 PM

Looks neat, but I could swear that there would be good free software that does the same. Also, what IDE/development environment are you using? It seems that for the most part you should be able to connect to the server through FTP with your IDE - (e.g. like Dreamweaver allows you to). I love virtual drives, "Daemon Tools" and "TrueCrypt" are something worth looking into.

Chris Retlich @ 4/20/2008 5:06:52 PM

I've done a bunch of mixed forms like that too. Not sure why exactly. Some places, and maybe a program or two) I have seen dislike that method, not sure what the "official" stance is on it. It is a nice shortcut instead of having to add <input type="hidden" /> tags to your forms.

Chris Retlich @ 4/20/2008 10:23:26 PM

The Spider of Doom and The Spider of Doom comments, from my new favorite website, of course. This article was linked to from the /. discussion of the new Googlebot behavior.

Chris Retlich @ 4/18/2008 2:47:25 PM

Well, GET is supposed to be stateless, whereas POST isn't (of course developers make this mistake fairly often, linky). So it's not supposed to break anything by sending random GET requests, assuming that the developers wrote their stuff correctly. GET methods are useful for searches, and for showing different blog posts, etc., and those kinds of applications wouldn't be broken by random bot-driven GET requests, while POST is stateful or whatever, and are for "changing" something on the server, e.g. login, submitting comments, etc. Of course, GET only changes the URL, while POST doesn't, so that distinction is important too... never use hyperlinks for something that changes something on the server! Enough rambling from me for now...

Chris Retlich @ 3/29/2008 10:13:17 PM

fixed link

Chris Retlich @ 3/13/2008 12:01:56 AM

Mostly a publicity stunt, or at least that's what I think. Also, might help tax evasion (a.k.a. ""‘tax avoision""), but you still pay capital gains tax on stock earnings, so it's not much of a savings.

Chris Retlich @ 3/13/2008 12:06:53 AM

OT: but yay, my proxy thingie works, except the stupid "magic_quotes_gpc" thing screwed my post up... must fix that.

Chris Retlich @ 3/11/2008 12:57:48 PM

Wow, imagine if I made that kind of money. Just think of the things that I could buy... a pack of gum, maybe a marble, a couple of staples, a paperclip, a pencil...

Chris Retlich @ 2/25/2008 1:45:00 PM

Actually, they are due to hit 7000 around December sometime. Plus there are a number of The Price is Right episodes from NBC when they had a version of the show from 1956-1965 before the 1972 CBS version.

Chris Retlich @ 2/25/2008 1:47:01 PM

Ah, sorry for the double reply, but here it is TPiR's 7000th episode in season 37.

Chris Retlich @ 2/24/2008 10:29:31 PM

Hooray for 1966-1969 TV! But it is still not as good as TPiR ;)

Chris Retlich @ 12/23/2007 12:14:28 AM

Update: Here is a really, really interesting video on the team that develops the trident rendering engine. Crazy!

Where?

Chris Retlich @ 12/11/2007 3:09:28 PM

Yeah, I noticed that too, how some of the PHP code was really simple or dumb things, such as "how to make a dynamic home page" - where it does the evil "index.php?page=about" style URL thing that is trendy for some moronic reason.

Chris Retlich @ 12/10/2007 8:31:28 PM

Nah, I'm a selfish coder ;) It's mine, all mine! mua ha ha ha ha!

Chris Retlich @ 12/6/2007 3:31:47 PM

Yes, all of them;)
but seriously, this or this are kind of neat and artsy. I'd maybe post more links, but then the spam filter would kill my message ;)
Also, it looks impossible to browse all images by a specific type of camera model for some reason.

Chris Retlich @ 12/4/2007 5:19:49 PM

Yeah? Well my camera is clearly better ;)

Chris Retlich @ 11/5/2007 4:18:57 PM

I imagine they could be using PHP/gd library, or they could be using a custom CGI program too. The serer identifier based on the header is "Server", so that doesn't really help much. I'm not sure they will take the effort to change it at all, especially since the altered images don't directly affect their sales pages or anything, maybe just to stop hotlinking or something. Looks like this info has been around for a while - lots of search results for "amazon image hacking".

Chris Retlich @ 10/17/2007 1:52:26 AM

I think I've seen that before... Another good site is perfectdark.detstar.com, and for GoldenEye: goldeneye.detstar.com/. Unfortunately, the PD one is only available from the web archive, as somehow that site got borked in a server transfer or something.

Chris Retlich @ 10/10/2007 11:47:42 PM

DAVE: Open the pod bay doors, HAL
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.

and...

DAVE: HAL, I won't argue with you anymore, open the doors!
HOMICIDAL HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

For some reason, I obtained MP3 versions of those quotes, and a few other ones on June 29th-ish, shortly after I had rented the movie from the library.

Chris Retlich @ 10/8/2007 11:20:15 PM

Thief!! You stole this link from my website! (note how mine is dated three days before yours?)

Actually, that's okay, as it's just a link, it's your website and you can put any links on here that you want, and I don't really care anyway.

Chris Retlich @ 9/17/2007 11:59:42 PM

Yeah, I wonder how much money you get for bundling the Google evilbartoolbar with your software.

Chris Retlich @ 9/17/2007 12:06:46 AM

crap... could you fix that one so that it doesn't make everything on the page after it have a strikethrough?

It should have read:

Yeah, I wonder how much money you get for bundling the Google evilbartoolbar with your software.

Chris Retlich @ 9/15/2007 10:10:49 PM

The "official" PDF reader (Adobe) comes in at 61.5 MB for me (installed), vs. the 5.6 MB for this one. Much less unnecessary bloat, and probably better privacy too (the official reader, can send usage data to people who created the original PDF, among other things, or so I hear...)

Chris Retlich @ 8/14/2007 12:21:52 PM

It appears that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slim_Helú has briefly claimed the lead over Bill, although this is disputed, apparently, hence my reference to Bill as the second-richest man.

Chris Retlich @ 8/14/2007 12:23:32 PM

Oh, and also fix that percent problem with your links again... not sure if you have the percent sign automagically replaced with the word percent or something? Whatever is happening, it's messing with your links to Wikipedia fairly frequently.

Chris Retlich @ 8/13/2007 2:17:01 PM

Make that "world's second-richest man"...