Mark Deffenbaugh's Blog

Gmail issues

2007-02-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

Why don't they just rip off my arms while they're at it.

Flickr Account Migration

2007-02-02T23:00:00.000-08:00

There, I did it. Happy? I liked being "old skool".

My biggest gripe, though not 100% positive yet that this will affect my Flickr login, is about how Yahoo has this tendency to log you out on a whim.

Wishing for Summer

2007-02-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

I hate winter. I hate snow. I hate the cold.

My son however.... at about 5:30 this morning he was not feeling well, though I think he was fine, so he came in to bed with us. Only in a dire emergency will I let them sleep with us, like the time we didn't have power and we all slept in the same room. So I was all ready to carry him back into his bed and stay with him for a little bit when, after he crawled under the covers he turns and says, "Daddy, I love you". Shoot. Can't kick him out now.

At 6:30 I try and wake him up. It usually takes me carrying him out of bed and plopping him down in our room and turning on Higglytown Heroes. This time, while he looked dead asleep, I leaned over and whispered quietly, "It snowed". BAM!!! Eyes shot wide open...covers flew off...he ran over to the window and exclaimed, "It snowed, it snowed!!!!", as he danced a little jig.

I take him into his room, get out his clothes and tell him to put them on. He then hops in his bed, euphoric expression replaced by dread, and says in his best 'I'll do anything to get out of this' voice, "I'm too sick to put my clothes on. Can you do it for me?"

Talking he must get from Laura....laziness, yours truly.

theBoy and God

2007-01-29T14:35:00.001-08:00

son: Is God everywhere?
me: yes
son: Is he in Heaven?
me: yes
son: Is he in us?
me: yes
son: Is he in me?
me: yes
son: Does he catch the food when it goes down?
me: ..........yes

Learning to walk

2006-10-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

She's learning to walk with her walker. She could do this all day but you have to follow her around and turn her because she only goes in a straight line.

A+ for effort

2006-09-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

son:	My tummy's hot.
me:	Your tummy's hot?
son:	Yes
me:	Do you feel ok?
son:	Yes
me:	<checks for fever> You don't feel hot.
son:	Yeah, but my tummy is hot. I think I need some ice cream to make it cooler.

It's starting

2006-09-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

Sitting at the table eating supper.

son: Why do I have to eat?
me: So you can get bigger.
son: Then I can drive a car?

...sigh...

You know you're a dad if...

2006-08-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

...you get yourself a glass of water and half-way up the stairs you realize you're holding a sippy cup.

To play, or not to play - make up your mind

2006-07-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

son: Daddy can you come outside and play fwisbee (frisbee) with me?
me: Yes, just a minute.
<repeat 20x>

We go outside with the frisbees.

son: Wait daddy
<runs off to play with something else>

me: I thought you wanted to play frisbee?
son: Oh, ok

I throw the frisbee at him but he's too busy looking at the other 4 things he wants to play with and just lets the frisbee hit him in the head.
<repeat 4 times>

me: Ok, if you're not going to play frisbee I'm going inside.
son: NOOO!! I wanna play fwisbee <starts crying>
me: Fine, we can play but you have to play too.
son: Ok

I throw the frisbee at him but he runs off to go hang on the tree.

Nighttime routines

2006-06-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Putting kids to bed at night is generally wrought with a long list of items.
- bath, check
- brush teeth, check
- go to bathroom, check
- hugs and kisses, check
- water cup, check
- kleenex, check
- read a story, check
- sit up by himself to read a story after we already did it, check
- turn light off, check

And if it's not done in that order you can pretty much count on doing it again. Then there's the final, last second ditch effort "Daddy I have to tell you something" phrases that he always musters up just as your closing his door to keep from going to bed.

"Don't run into monkeys."
"Ummm......ok"

"I love you daddy"
"I love you too"

And that makes it all worthwhile.

Levels of Knowledge

2006-06-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here are 3 sites that list the levels of knowledge for CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. I think I rank a 5 on all 3. Level 6 in CSS and HTML would require a more forward thinking, "How can I make CSS and HTML better", type of attitude. While I think it would be interesting to work on making CSS and HTML specifications better, I'm happy just sitting on level 5 and knowing how to work with it.

I would, however, like to bring myself up to a level 6 on Javascript. In the past Javascript has always been looked at as a "kiddie language" and that isn't the case today. With the emergence of the social Web 2.0 sites and the Javascript frameworks like Prototype, Script.aculo.us, and Atlas.net (among others), Javascript has become a very big player in the game.

Mmmm...Apples

2006-03-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

scene: My son is eating an apple at the kitchen table and using both hands like it was a chocolate cake covered in chocolate sauce and sprinkled with M&M's.

me: I'm going upstairs real quick - take little bites - eat slow - don't die.
boy: Ok
<I come back maybe 60 seconds later>
me: Where's the apple?
boy: I ate it.
me: Did you throw any of it away?
boy: No
me: You ate the whole thing?
boy: Yes. (Kind of like a "Well duh" type of yes)

Mmmm...Apples + core + seeds + stem + the little flowery thing.

Amazon S3 - An unlimited harddrive

2006-03-16T09:05:00.000-08:00

I heard about Amazon launching yet another API and I assumed it was just another way to poke into the inner workings of their product engine. However S3, Simple Storage Service, is an API that allows the developer another place to store data. The cost is 15 cents for each Gb/month of storage and 20 cents for each Gb/month of data transfered. If you have a lot of data this would be a very cost effective way of storing it. Keep in mind though that this is web storage and not web hosting. While you can store the files used on your website you still need to access them via the API.

So, if you're creating the next greatest photo storage website or whatever then you could find a cheap web host and use S3 as a way to store the files. This way you're not paying for unused space or bandwidth as you would if you went with a more expensive web host package that offered greater storage space.

Innocent honesty

2006-02-14T16:43:00.000-08:00

My wife and I were walking at a furniture store the other day and the sales guy was leading the way. theBoy, never having been quiet for 30 seconds in his life, was talking the sales guys ear off.

theBoy: This is my baby sister...her name is [theGirl].

sales guy: Oh really, her name is [theGirl]

theBoy: Yeah, mommy pushed her out.

nice

Muscles

2006-02-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

My wife said that her, her mother, theBoy and theGirl were going somewhere with pumpkin seat, diaper bags, purses, etc. in tow. All theBoy had to carry was his LeapPad.

boy: Mom, this is heavy. Can you carry it?
grandma: If you carry it you'll get big muscles.
<30 seconds later>
boy: Mom, I don't want muscles.

Cool aerial shots in Mexico

2006-02-08T11:58:00.000-08:00

This picture almost looks fake - but it's not. This guy flys his chopper around taking shots of Mexico City. There's a lot of cool one's in there - go take a look.

Google Talk search added to GMail

2006-02-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not a fan of IM but this is cool. The ability to search your chat history already existed with Google Desktop but you were restricted to the machine you were chatting on. Now you can search via a centralized location.

The service has to be activated from your GMail settings for all your chats to be recorded. This could pose an issue with the person your chatting with not wanting their conversations to be recorded so they have the option to go "Off the Record".

Not bad for IM fans but for the rest of us we now have a useless link cluttering up the GMail interface.

Flickr Badge Viewer

2006-01-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

In my quest to make free blog hosting work more like a having your own full website I've finally added something I've been wanting to do for a long time - Flickr Badge Viewer.

Flickr provided a JavaScript file that you can place in your site and it will display however many images you set. You can see the four photos to your right (or here if your viewing through an aggregator).

I threw together some JavaScript to take the HTML that Flickr feeds to the client and strip out the image url, Flickr url, and image title. I then re-write the anchor tag for each image to call a JavaScript function (displayImage) to remove the main content of the site and display the image.

var mainHTML;

function displayImage(img, url, title)

{

//Replace the main2 div element with the image.

var main = document.getElementById("main2");

main.innerHTML = "<div style='font-size:17pt;font-weight:bold;margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:5px'>" + title + "</div><a href='" + url + "'>View this image on Flickr</a> | <a href='javascript:displayImageClose();'>Close</a><br/><br/><img src='" + img + "' />";

}

function displayImageClose()

{

//Put the original html back into the div element

var main = document.getElementById("main2");

main.innerHTML = mainHTML;

}

function editFlickrBadge()

{

//In the event the javascript from Flickr

// messes up then don't do anything.

try

{

//main2 is where we're going to put the image

var main = document.getElementById("main2");

mainHTML = main.innerHTML;

//photos is the div element wrapping the

// Flickr Badge javascript

var rootNode = document.getElementById("photos");

for (i=0; i<rootNode.childNodes.length; i++)

{

if (rootNode.childNodes[i].nodeName == "A")

{

aNode = rootNode.childNodes[i];

imgNode = aNode.childNodes[0];

title = imgNode.title;

img = imgNode.src;

img = img.replace("_s.jpg",".jpg" );

url = aNode.href;

aNode.href = "javascript:displayImage('" +

img + "','" + url + "','" + title + "')";

}

}catch(ex){}

}

//Calling this function should probably be called after the page loads

// ...but I'm lazy

editFlickrBadge();

</script>

Cindy's place

2006-01-27T16:26:00.000-08:00

Must be difficult to step out of your bedroom and fight all that rush hour traffic by walking down the hallway to the office. Then having to deal with the unsightly views of the lake out the office window must be torture. I don't know how The Graphic Goddess does it.

Dream Custom Homepage

2006-01-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

Home pages built on AJAX are a dime a dozen. Here's a small list of them on TechCrunch. Every single one has exactly the same thing - weather, basic rss feeds, stocks, blah blah. I'm looking for 2 main things that I have yet to see any of them have.

The first is an aggregator. Yes they all have the ability to add rss feeds where you can view a site feed in a little box on your screen but if you have 50 feeds then you're going to have 50 boxes on your screen. I want a full aggregator that could take up half the screen while the other half is left for things like weather, stocks, and movie times.

The second...ah but you'll have to wait. Because the second is actually a very decent idea. And I'm not one to throw out a good idea for just anybody to snap up.

Get with the RSS

2006-01-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

I'm amazed at the list of people, technical people, who do not use an aggregator. All these people tell me how they read news, blogs, technical articles, etc. and how they actually go to each one of those sites to look for new articles. I won't name any names on what set me off - you know who you are. Most of the technical, non-aggregating, people I know are not quite that technical but the one I talked to today is and has no excuse - none!

So, go get an aggregator - there are tons of them. Here's how.

The best aggregators are internet based. 2 of them are NewsGator and BlogLines. Although I'm told that the new Google Reader is good but I've tried it and...well...ick.
Go to the blog or site that you want to read and look for their rss feed. If they don't have one then they're morons and aren't worth your time. Most links to rss feeds are marked by a little orange icon.
Grab the url to that rss feed and add it to your aggregator.

RSS is also just a format - XML feed is the real name. Another popular format is Atom. Saying RSS is kind of like saying Bandaid or Kleenex (because really, who say's "I need a facial tissue").

There, now you just have to go to one website to get all your news and you can rest easy that I won't be making fun of you. Because I will be making fun of you - in a big way.

David's Tidbits

2006-01-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a Yahoo group that lists a ton of information on getting the best deal for various items. In one of David's recent Tidbits he mentions that he wrote his own software to track items.

I now have the internet monitoring software working on office depot, I am using a testing software that allows me to record my shopping online, I filter out the SKU and make it a variable and I can get all the price changes at a store that I load the sku's for. I have these run via scheduled task then dump the data to a excel spreadsheet. I now know when all of the St. Louis market is dropping their prices and what stores have it available.

While most of what is listed relates to getting deals on computers, monitor, printers, cameras, etc. there are also items that are related to the more technical crowd such as his Tidbit on Microsoft firewalls.

Hey, ever wanted to know what the MS firewall is doing, can you make direct changes? well amazingly there is a way
To enable logging of dropped packets:
netsh firewall set logging droppedpackets=enable
To enable logging of connections:
netsh firewall set logging connections=enable
If you want to see the firewall configuration for logging:
netsh firewall show logging
Turn it on and you will now be able to look at the log (default %windir%\pfirewall.log) and you have it.

On the downside - sorry David - there is no structure for the messages that are posted. I think this is more of an issue with Yahoo Groups (that's a negative in itself) more than anything else. Trying to search for past items is near impossible with the search tool provided by Yahoo.

However, with his new software program and his uncanny sense of penny pinching (honestly, I think he separates 2-ply toilet paper and re-rolls it into 1-ply), I think Tidbits is still something to keep an eye on - or at least aggregated.

IE7 gets native XMLHTTPRequest object

2006-01-23T18:13:00.000-08:00

Well, look at that. Microsoft is doing something that's industry standard. Special code will still have to be put into place for IE6 and below but and least it's a start.
Link

Quick tour through the Google campus

2006-01-21T18:53:00.000-08:00

ABC takes a quick walk through the Google campus. I like the monitor with all the current searches going on in the world. Take a look at the video.
Update: Here's another video from the BBC. This one is 30 minutes long and is done much better than the ABC one. I didn't really like the guy from ABC since he seems sort of ticked off as he's walking around the campus and he treated that guy in his office like a child. "So, all this stuff helps your creativity? You actually work better? Well, my office certainly doesn't look like this." Moron.

2 new Google News sections

2006-01-21T07:06:00.000-08:00

Popular and Recommended. Sign in to your Google Account and if you have Personalized Search enabled the new Recommended section will pull the news articles based on your past news selections.

Microsoft Research Group Shot

2006-01-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

Have you ever taken a picture of a bunch of people and one person will have their eyes shut? Did you take that picture again and someone else's eyes are shut? Microsoft Research has created an application that will allow you to take the best parts of those 2 pictures and put them into one shot were everybody is looking their best.
Link

Back to the grind

2006-01-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

Today is my first day back to work after having 17 days off - the most consecutive days I've ever had off. Coming back to work was almost physically painful. I would completely be ok with my wife getting a high paying job and me being a house-husband.

Tip

2005-12-19T09:15:00.000-08:00

When washing your car in 24 degree weather always, always use the automatic car washes. Under no circumstances should one wash their car at a car wash by hand. This is even more true when the wind is blowing at about 6 mph and the car stall acts like a wind tunnel and it's so cold that the soap has frozen in the tube for the brush.

Not that I would ever do something that stupid of course.

Google and AOL

2005-12-18T19:55:00.000-08:00

I never really "got" AOL. It always felt to me like they were dumbing down the internet for people too stupid or unwilling to learn how to surf the web - though I could be wrong. I can see where Google benefits from AOL using Google as their search engine - that part of this new 1 billion dollar deal is understandable. But what urks me is this:

Google.com will promote AOL programming on the right side of its page under the "sponsored links" heading.

If AOL wants to pay Google through their normal Ad Words then fine but I really don't want to constantly be subjected to a stupid AOL ad.

Is it just me or does Google really suck lately?

2005-12-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

Google, in all their billionaire-ness, has, in my opinion only come out with 3 good products. Search, Gmail, and Maps. Everything else is crap.

Custom Homepage API
Google has created an api that allows you to build a module for the Google custom homepage. Now, I think that would be cool if you could create your own module - then just use it. But you have to submit your module and, if lucky enough, Google will put it in the directory. I guess I just really don't like a custom home page - takes too long to load. So I really don't see how this is cool.

Google Reader
This is crap on so many levels I don't even know where to start.

Gmail WebClips
Gmail is one of the 3 things they did right. Don't screw it up by adding useless crap like WebClips. The name is even stupid.

Gmail
When is this going to come out of beta? It's been like 2 years. I'm really looking forward to what Yahoo and Microsoft are going to come out with. Microsoft is already showing signs of moving ahead of Gmail.

Google Calendar
There was a big rumor several days ago about Google announcing a calendar. That date has come and gone with no calendar but I'm not that sorry. Based on past launches (see Google Reader) I'm almost dreading what Google is going to come up with.

Google Answers
I have to pay to get a question answered? What kind of crap is that! Yahoo's is much better.

Blogger
By now, Google should have changed Blogger up a bit to give it's users more functionality. Granted, I can fully edit the template - but I want categories, stats, multiple pages, etc. (Note: Blogger's editor really sucks too. I had to make a change to this post and it totally screwed it up and I had to delete/repost)

Beta/Alpha
I'm tired of hearing about beta products. If a multi-billion dollar company can't launch a product without tagging it with beta then go away.

</cranky>

Delicious is down

2005-12-10T05:14:00.000-08:00

I don't really like the fact that Yahoo bought them. Delicious's outage this morning just makes for a real nice omen.

To: Blogger - Fix your Atom feed!

2005-12-10T05:04:00.000-08:00

Blogger's Atom feed runs on version 0.3 while FeedValidator is now validating version 1.0. Consequently if you use a feed service such as FeedBurner you'll get error messages every now and then.

Google Calendar expected 12/6

2005-12-05T18:44:00.000-08:00

[rubs hands in anticipation] Link

Windows Live Custom Domains

2005-11-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

Microsoft's Windows Live has added a feature that allows you to point the MX record for your domain to their servers. You can then manage your accounts at http://domains.live.com. This is pretty cool for those that want to use their domain name for email but don't want to pay their registrars for the service.

Some of the items they are offering.

Create up to 20 e-mail accounts within your domain
Get a 250 MB inbox for each account
Check your e-mail from any Web-enabled PC
Junk e-mail filter protection using Microsoft SmartScreen technology
Virus scanning and cleaning of e-mail
Seamless access with MSN Messenger, MSN Spaces, etc.

Since I'm not using markdeffenbaugh.com for email I decided to set it up. To register you specify your domain name, login with an existing MSN account, then get the server to point the MX record to. Once you set up the MX record they will verify it then give you the ability to start creating accounts. Once an account is created you have to go to Hotmail and login with the newly created account.

They say they'll give you 250Mb but there is a disclaimer where you may only get 25Mb. I received 2Mb. The Custom Domains people do say in their blog that you have to go to http://accountservices.msn.com and set your country before you sign into Hotmail for the first time. If you did it like I did then you have to dump your account, wait 30 days, then recreate it.

While the service is a good thing for those that need it I'm not real impressed just yet. First, I hate Hotmail with a passion. The interface, the ads, the ads sent with the email messages - it's all bad. The work they're doing with Windows Live however is a major step in the right direction. There is a new email system called Kahuna coming out soon that, if they dump the stupid ads, may give gmail a run for it's money. Tie Kahuna with Custom Domains and Microsoft will come out the winner - for a change.

Everybody should have a wishlist

2005-11-25T12:37:00.000-08:00

Everybody has a Christmas tradition. One of ours goes like this.

wife: So what do you want for Christmas?
me: I don't know.
wife: Didn't you want <insert something here>?
me: Would be nice but I don't really need it.
wife: So you don't want anything?
me: Not really.

Actually I do want stuff but I just don't remember over time all the little things that I think would be nice to have. I also hate having money spent on me - seems wasteful. The things I do remember would cost way too much - like a 50" widescreen Sony tv. I used to hate shopping for Christmas gifts - still do actually but my wife does it all now. People are hard to buy for and I'm no exception. Therefore, everybody should have a wishlist.

As an avid Googler I've always used the shopping list on Froogle. It worked but it was far from perfect because I could only add things to it that I found on Froogle. Yahoo has come out with a bit more advanced version called the Shoposphere which allows you to sort your items into categories though it's still limited in that I can only add items from Yahoo Shopping.

Then I came across Kaboodle. Not only is it for keeping a wishlist of products, you can keep a list of, well, anything. Let's say you're going on a trip with some family and you want everybody to decide on where to stay, eat, or what to do. Load all the websites for the hotels, restaurants, entertainment and have the family add comments or vote on the one they like the best. Kaboodle is a great way to keep thoughts organized while browsing different sites.

Here are a few things I'd like to see added and I'm sure these and more are in the works since Kaboodle has only been live for a month.

RSS feeds.
The ability to move an item from one page (or category) to another.
While the ability exists to make your items public or private, I can only see the latest public additions that everybody on Kaboodle has made. It would be nice to browse for an item to see what research, if any, someone else has done on a certain product.
Need a way to administer your account (change password, email, etc.)

For now it's still worthwhile and very easy to use - try it out.

HP - short review

2005-11-21T07:37:00.000-08:00

So I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this weekend. We got there a half an hour early and they were already seating. A few people were trickling in as we made our way to the theater and most of them felt the need to push their way around you so as to, I can only assume, aquire a better seat. The worst part was the old man with a walker - I let him go by out of fear of him raming it into my shins.

I realize they were going to cut stuff but I think 60% of the book was left out. Still, it was a good movie with very good special effects. One of the best things about all the movies is the casting for the characters. The people they chose fit perfectly with how I envision the characters in the books with one exception - Dumbledore. The first one, Richard Harris, was perfect but it's difficult to see Michael Gambon in the role. The PG-13 title is justified - we let The Boy watch certain parts of the other Harry Potter movies but there's no part of this one that I'd let him see.

There, short and quick, just enough to bug certain anti-Potter people I work with.

The best website on the planet

2005-11-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

There is no site better than Playhouse Disney and if you disagree then you don't have a 3 year old. It's not a perfect solution but it's great for a little peace and quiet. Plus it's better than letting them watch TV as they get some learning experience out of it.

Daddy I'm Peeing!

2005-11-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

Nuff said.

Back to Blogger

2005-11-09T12:59:00.000-08:00

Blogsome could be a very good blog if they added more features that other blogs have by default. So, I'm back on Blogger for the time being.

Star Wars: Revelations

2005-11-04T21:22:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching Star Wars: Revelations, a fan flick/short movie produced by Panic Struck Productions and done by volunteers on weekends and only with $20,000. The special effects and cgi are outstanding and better than many professional movies. All the space fights, cityscaping, costumes were done very well. The movie is reminiscent of the original series with all the dialog and scene transitions so you feel like this could easily fit in the Star Wars series.

The acting...ah the acting. Obviously there was a lot of hard work that they put into the movie so you would think they could find some better actors willing to get some exposure. The worst one, though he didn't appear much, was Emperor Palpatine - his costume and voice just did not fit. After 10 minutes you kind of get used to the acting so it doesn't remain too much of an issue. Another bad part was the light saber duals. Though the special effects was done well, the choreography was not.

Overall, for a 40 minute space flick it's very good. I'd like to see it again on the DVD version, the one I saw I streamed from iFilm so it was severely compressed.

IE Tab for Firefox

2005-11-02T20:03:00.000-08:00

One of the best extensions for Firefox, IE Tab allows you to right click a page and open that page in a new Internet Explorer tab within Firefox. Note that you'll need an additional extension if you're using Firefox 1.0.x Link

delicious additions

2005-11-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

Tag Bundle
Delicious has created tag bundle which is a way to make tags for your tags - or group/organize your tags a little better. Very nice.

Play MP3's
When searching for MP3's there is now a way to play the item right from the results page. Try it out.

A better URL
For those who hated the del.icio.us or could never remember it, you now have an easier way to get to the site - delicious.com

Scoble on Microsoft's approach to the Web

2005-11-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

Robert Scoble, a Microsoft employee, talks about what he hears from other people on reasons why using Microsoft software for websites is bad and open source is good. He says it in a way that probably won't get him fired but he brings up some very valid points about why you shouldn't use Microsoft.

Link

I, for one, would like to break out of the MS shell and into the open source world. The problem is that I'm entrenched in a huge company that leans more toward the need to pay for what you want as opposed to using a free solution that you can customize yourself.

Blogsome not as good as I originally thought

2005-10-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

My quest to not have my own server has been foiled. To do what I want with my blog I'm going to have to either run the site from my house or find a decent host (GoDaddy.com just increased storage space - $4 for 5Gb).

Issue #1
Blogsome uses a multiple user version of WordPress and has placed a template manager (Smarty) between the php code and the template. However, the template tags need to be created with Smarty to link to the WordPress PHP code and it seems there are a lot of tags missing that would make Blogsome a really great system to use. Most of the WordPress tags are supposed to work in Blogsome - but, after seeing all the issues on the forum and experiencing it for myself, most of them don't.

Issue #2
Another issue is the XMLRPC problem where a "\" is placed in the front of every double or single quote. So if your main method of posting items is from an application that uses the Meta Weblog API, such as Flickr and Flock, then Blogsome is almost unusable.

Issue #3
It appears that email is not an option. Though I have the ability to add pop3 settings it doesn't actually work.

Flickr Adds Photo Printing

2005-10-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

It seems that Flickr has added the ability to print photos. It doesn't come as a shock since Yahoo recently buddied up with Target to offer photo printing. I had been a fan of using Walmart to print my pictures - cheap and easy - but Flickr's prices are now pretty comparable to Walmart.

Flickr also gives many more options in the sizes of the photo such as a 4xD photo. The "D" sizes are more suited for digital camera pictures so there's no extra cropping of your already lopped off heads. I've put together a little comparison and included SmugMug since I'm thinking of using either them or Flickr. Though Flickr now has an extra plus for them because I can pick up my photos at Target and don't have to pay for shipping - or wait for them.

Size	Flickr	Walmart	SmugMug	Recommended Resolution
4x6	$0.15	$0.15	$0.25	900 x 600
5x7	$0.59	$0.58	$0.99	1050 x 750
8x10	$1.99	$1.96	$2.99	1500 x 1200
20x30	$19.95	n/a	$21.99	4500 x 3000
5x5	$0.99	n/a	$0.99	750 x 750
4xD	$0.20	n/a	$0.25	900 x 600
5xD	$0.65	n/a	n/a	1050 x 750
8xD	$2.15	n/a	$2.99	1500 x 1200

Blogsome, WordPress, Blogger

2005-10-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

I started using Blogger a while ago just for fun and have accumulated a certain set of requirements. First I don't want to have to host it and it must be free. Other than that there are 5 main items that I would like to have. I've become accustomed to doing posts via email - have only used Bloggers editor a few times. The template must be fully editable. I don't need serious stats but I'd like to know approximately how many hits I'm getting. I'd like to have the ability to set up other pages within the blog. And finally I'd like to categorize all my wonderful, insightful, extremely knowledgeable and useful blog posts.

There are a ton of blog systems out there but I'm just looking at a few - Blogsome, WordPress, Blogger. Here's the breakdown.

	Blogsome	WordPress	Blogger
EMail	Yes - Must have pop3 account	No	Yes - Easy to setup
Template	Yes	No	Yes
Stats	Yes	Yes	No - but can do your own
Pages	Yes	Yes	No
Categories	Yes	Yes	No

Looks to me like it's time for a change.

Flock

2005-10-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Flock, a new browser based from Mozilla, has released a pre-beta version. After just a few minutes of looking at it the browser seems to be taking the best of what Firefox is and adding all the social services. Favorites can be integrated with Del.icio.us, clicking a toolbar button brings up a blog editor from which you can choose all the blog accounts that you have set up, and you can drop photos from flickr into your blog post via the blog editor interface.

The only down side so far is that I'm prompted with a login box for del.icio.us every time I open the browser. All I have to do is hit enter but that's a bit annoying.

The blogging thing is nice, has some nice features, but I'm not sure how useful it is since most blogging can be done via email now. A little GMailThis! toolbar bookmark works just fine. However, if you're going to post a lot of pictures in your blog the best way would be to load them into flickr then just drop the photos into your text in the Flock editor - very easy and very cool.

I'm sure I'm just scratching the surface with just a few minutes of looking at this but it could very well be my next browser.

Link

A Beep in the Night

2005-10-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a little break down.

~5:00am - BEEP! Ugh, one of the smoke alarm batteries is dead. But which one? I stand in the hallway to listen for another beep but one doesn't come - I go to bed.

BEEP! Looks like it's every 5 minutes, I note the time and lay back down. 4 minutes later I get up and stand in the hallway. 5 minutes go by and I walk back into the bedroom to look at the clock - BEEP! #@$%! Ok, so it's 10 minutes not 5. I note the time and lay back down.

5 minutes later BEEP! Alright, so it's 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes. Forget it, I think I know which one it is so I take that smoke alarm down by unplugging it from the house and removing the batteries (which required a trip downstairs for a screwdriver). I set the alarm on the counter and walk away - BEEP!. Stupid thing is still beeping with zero power. I go out and stick it in the car.

10 minutes later BEEP! Wrong alarm. I take another one down and put it in the car as well (hearing a faint beep as I close the door). I'm fairly positive I won't be hearing a beep again and can now get some sleep.

10 minutes later my son wakes up.

ASP.NET Jumpstart: Introduction to the Media Share Library Starter Kit

2005-10-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

"The Media Share Library Starter Kit enables you to easily create an application that allows registered users to present a collection of media items (such as movie DVDs, music CDs, books, and more) for other registered users to borrow. Users will be able to look through a library of items collectively held by the group using the application and request to borrow specific items from the registered owners of the items. The idea of the Media Share Library Starter Kit is to provide you with a framework that you can use to quickly organize a library collection that can be shared with a larger group of people."

Link

Inquisitor

2005-10-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

A pretty good search tool that uses ajax. I really like how they are probably writing a cookie for whatever search term you type in so that if you hit the back button the text you typed is still there.
Link

Google aggregator

2005-10-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

Google has added reader.google.com to their list of services. The interface for Googles' Reader is very similar to GMail and Google Groups, uses Ajax, labels, the ability to star an item, blog it, or gmail it. I have all my feeds sorted into folders in NewsGator and when I imported them through an OPML file Reader took all the folder names and automatically made them labels. I'm an avid user of NewsGator and I like seeing all of the articles for my feeds in one list. That way all I have to do is scroll down and scan the items to see if anything is interesting. With Reader I have to click the title of an article to see the article - a little annoying.

But it's not too bad - especially for it's first day in beta.

Fasterfox

2005-10-06T05:53:00.000-07:00

Performance and network tweaks for Firefox.
Link

Ning

2005-10-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is pretty cool. Ning gives you the ability to take some of the more popular social websites and fully customize them and host it on ning.com. Link

Degradable Ajax

2005-10-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

Interesting article on using ajax but still allowing your page to be viewed by browsers that don't support it. Link

Google TV

2005-09-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Need I say more?

Opera is now free

2005-09-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

Opera, once requiring users to purchase a license to remove ads from the browser, has removed the license restriction. Though I'm thinking, way too little, way too late.

Standing in line

2005-09-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

A while ago some guys at work and myself had a little discussion about bikers and the rules of the road. On the way home today I saw a biker actually adhering to this whole wildly crazy idea of - waiting your turn.

Picking Apples

2005-09-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Just because I don't feel like doing anything at work right now I'll post a link to some photos I added to Flickr.

I'm thinking of getting the pro account for $25/year. Most people I know don't like Flickr because of it's interface but I like it for the backend. For those of you who know what an api is - it has a very good api. I'm playing with it now so that I can take 3 or 4 random photos from my photos on Flickr that are tagged with something like "banner" then rotate them, add a border, and put them on the header of this blog. It will look kind of similar to what I've done with my old site design, only not static. Then when you refresh the page it would pull a new set of random pictures and display them.

Flock

2005-09-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

A new browser is about to surface. It's supposed to have more of a social type feel to it.

News Article

Flock site

Photoshop Tutorials

2005-09-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

I like doing things in Photoshop but I'm by no means good at it so I usually need a tutorial. I wish I had this site a while ago when I was trying to do and hand stitched image (guys at work know why).

Firefox Preloader

2005-09-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

This application runs in the system tray and allows Firefox to start a lot quicker. A definite must have.

How rich are you?

2005-08-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

Another reminder to count your blessings. Link

p.s. Brace your eyes for the horrid background

Another StarTrek?

2005-08-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, they kill Enterprise only to possibly bring back another? Personally I thought Enterprise was the best one and was really ticked that they ended it. StarTrek fans didn't want the show to end, the cast didn't want the show to end - so why do another. Link

Dog Wash

2005-08-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

There is a new car wash going in across the street from my subdivision. We had hopes that it would be some nice business to help alleviate a little bit of the hoosier reputation that Arnold has. A car wash in itself doesn't hurt but the fact that they're advertising a dog wash doesn't help. I think there's room on that sign for deer processing and fish cleaning.

Cool Jazz or the Wiggles?

2005-08-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

Actually it was just a beep every time he pressed a key.

My son and a mouse

2005-08-26T19:57:00.000-07:00

He's learned how to use one....snif.

Deleting locked files

2005-08-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

So Brian sends me a link to something to install and check out. Since we pass stuff back and forth all the time I have no issues with installing this thing. So I download it and run the executable. A console window pops up then goes away - hmm. We realize that the file did not download correctly (the file size was only 8 bytes). I tried deleting the file and it said another user or process had locked it. Not a big deal - get those all the time. However after rebooting - booting in safe mode - chkdsk - rebooting again - etc. I'm still not able to delete the file. This sucks because the file is on my desktop - and causes all of the guys at work to laugh at me even harder.

Brian does find this program that deletes the file on startup before windows has a chance to lock it. It worked (lucky for him).

Power Outage

2005-08-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Power's been out for 2.5 hours. It was actually pretty pleasent to be completely disconnected from anything digital - though I did start to get a twitch in my mouse hand.

Google Maps + Virtual Tour

2005-08-24T05:57:00.000-07:00

This is kind of cool. Google Maps mixed with a virtual tour of the marker you click on. Link

Branson

2005-08-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

A bunch of pics from our trip to Branson. I usually weed out the stupid pictures but this time I just dumped them all into flickr. This one is the only real good one.

Blogger for Word

2005-08-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

Yet another large reason to use Blogger over other systems is the Blogger for Word add-in. Link.

Virtual Office?

2005-08-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

Is this Mike's meaning for "Work is not a place"? Make it look like you're at work when you're not?

Actually this is a software application that allows you to take any photo and convert it into large dots. This one was printed on 45 pages.

My Favorite Commercial

2005-08-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

I've always like this commercial. Here's an article about it. Link

Google News gets RSS Feeds

2005-08-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

Finally! You can now get plain ol' Google News or your customized Google News in RSS or ATOM.

A9.com maps with pictures

2005-08-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

I didn't know this was here. A9 has been driving around for a year taking pictures of streets then combining that with their mapping software. They have only done certain cities though. Via Link

GMail Groups

2005-08-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

A friend found this earlier today. One of the large missing pieces in GMail is the lack of setting up groups in your contact list. Here is an article that show's you how to get around that. Link

Beginner's guide to developing web apps in AJAX

2005-08-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

AJAX is the new (next?) hot thing in web programming at the moment. For example, it's what enables Gmail's interface to feel so slick, and for Flickr to deliver dynamic content. If you have no idea where to start, this article will get you going.

read more | digg story

Whatever Google

2005-08-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

Psshh - nice. Ok Google we know you're the holy grail of company perks but do you feel the need to rub it in by blogging about it?

Irritating Bikers

2005-08-04T06:26:00.000-07:00

Every bicyclist must follow the rules of the road and most that I come across do. Now I don't mind passing a biker but I start to get irritated if I have to pass that same biker more than once. What generally happens is that I'll pass a biker then at a stop light that biker will pass me and wait at the light where I have to pass them again. The biker should take his place in line. This morning there was a biker riding on a narrow road where you have to wait until traffic is clear to pass them - so that was irritating by itself. But we come up to a stoplight and the biker passes everybody, then goes right through the red light at this intersection thereby forcing everybody to pass him again. I felt like taking him out with my mirror.

My son's bday

2005-08-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

Tim (brother), my son and I at a nice spot overlooking the Mississippi. There's more photos but check with me if you want to see them.

Baby Names

2005-08-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty cool java app that shows the popularity for baby names. Link

Picasa's "I'm Feeling Lucky"

2005-07-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

This is the picture before I used "I'm Feeling Lucky" in Google's Picasa software. I used a flash but I was too far away for it to do any good.

This is the picture after. I'm pretty impressed that anything showed up at all.

Start.com

2005-07-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

I had said before that Microsoft needed some serious innovation to earn back the minds and hearts of all the web aficionados out there. As with any large company there comes all the bureaucracy that hinders real innovative thinking. Microsoft has taken a step toward real innovation by allowing a few developers to do whatever they wanted. The result - Start.com. RSS feeds, bookmarks or favorites, news, weather, movies, stocks, etc. These elements are that first cup of coffee of the day for anybody starting their browser. Start.com offers all of these items and they are only in beta - there's more to come. Try out version 3 of Start.com here - http://www.start.com/myw3b

Google Moon

2005-07-20T05:39:00.000-07:00

Google has set up http://moon.google.com/ "in honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969". Also, with Google's amazing imagery power, they're able to show you exactly what the moon is made of if you zoom all the way in.

More digital camera testing

2005-07-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

Continuing my digital camera testing, I've decided to try customizing the aperture and shutter speeds. In doing so I tried writing "Web Dude" with a flashlight. Yes it looks a little like Web Ducle but shut-up, you have no idea how hard that is. Out of 30 takes that was the best one. I could have done better with a smaller flashlight.

The settings for this was 3.4 aperture and a 16" shutter speed (whatever that means).

4th of July

2005-07-05T15:49:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite pic from the few I took on the 4th.

B-Day

2005-06-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to think birthdays aren't necessarily a good thing anymore.

Office Pictures

2005-06-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

Finally getting most of the home office situated. Only thing left are some pictures or something on the walls.

	The chair is the newest addition. Now Laura can read while I work (i.e. play) and/or my son can sit over there instead of crawling on me.
	The flat panel is definitely nice but I still want 2. I like the floating shelves and desk we got from IKEA.
	We took the closet doors off and put in Closet Maid shelves. I used to have all my electronic stuff stashed away in paper boxes. It's nice to now have them in clear boxes. I also like the orange wall.

The terror of being offline for a day

2005-06-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I mentioned how I think I'm addicted to the being connected to the internet. I know I'm not alone but it's funny to see someone write about it.

Testing

2005-06-24T17:57:00.000-07:00

I see Blogger now has a way to upload pictures from the Blogger interface - just checking it out. I'm also checking out the timer on my new camera. Of which I got $100 off by using AntiRebate.com

A little too late

2005-06-24T17:49:00.000-07:00

Your image really takes a hit when you try and play catch up. First Microsoft gets pounded by Google's search capabilities. Then Google turns Microsoft's Hotmail into a laughing stock when they release GMail. And now Mozilla's Firefox, in my opinion, destroys IE in every way. In all areas Microsoft has tried to come back and add the extra features that they lack. The latest one is adding the ability to aggregate rss feeds in IE. Unless Microsoft starts getting seriously innovative then...well...it's a little too late.

Colors

2005-06-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

My son knows his colors. He can organize things into piles of the same color but trying to get him to say the appropriate color is like pulling teeth.

Me: Look, this is a blue truck. What color is the truck?

Boy: yellow

Me: No, blue.

Boy: blue.

Me: What color is the truck?

Boy: brown

Me: No, the truck is blue.

Boy: blue

Me: What color is the truck?

Boy: yellow

....and on and on and on....

I'm an addict

2005-06-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

I wonder what it would be like to go 24 hours without touching a computer; or if we want to be realistic - 1 hour. Do I really need to be chained to this thing all the time? Do I have that much to do? Probably not. I have a lot to do but most of the time I'm checking my e-mail accounts, the news (tech, local, global), my aggregated rss feeds, the mortgage rates, possible job opportunities, etc. So, am I a web information junkie or a web developer keeping a finger on the pulse of the information technology industry?

Gmail + Aliases

2005-06-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

A little known feature of Gmail allows the user to use an alias with their account. I've always filtered things by the FROM email account but doing it this way will make it much easier to organize. Link.

Added Blog Stats

2005-06-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

I put some blog stats on this page. This entry is just so I remember when I did it. Want your own? Go here.

So it begins

2005-06-12T06:08:00.000-07:00

I should be going to bed around 10 but I always decide to just watch a "little" TV. That usually ends up being a couple of hours watching something like The Blind Swordsman or playing poker through PokerRoom.com (of which I'm 17,000 out of 19,000 players - so I should give that up). So after staying up till midnight on Saturday I begin Sunday morning at 6:30 with my wife screaming. It's one thing to wake up quietly with the sound of rain and something entirely different to wake to a scream. It turns out that the Boy has decided to pee in the potty.

Now, the rules of the potty training game begin with showering the child with loads of praise when he is successful - hence the earlier scream of which I now realize wasn't a bad, I'm in pain, scream but a good one. Since Laura has done her part, I'm now expected to do mine and I drag myself up, go into the bathroom, say good job, and go back to bed.

So begins the ritual of constantly placing the child on the potty, asking if he has to go, and the constant praise for successes (which requires the parent to be "upbeat" - which is not my area of expertise). This should be interesting.

Another reason why Google is cool

2005-06-02T05:55:00.000-07:00

How many large, world wide, tech companies that you know of have open source projects? Google has a bunch of projects on SourceForge that look very interesting. code.google.com

GMail Atom Feed

2005-05-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

You've probably known about the gmail atom feed
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom

But did you know you can pull just on label?
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom/SomeLabel

And you can also pull your All Mail. So if you get a new message and you have a filter that puts it into a label and archives it then you can pull your all mail to get every unread message in your account.
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom/all

Only reason I could see for using it is to write your own notifier. But thought it was cool.

Power Over Ethernet

2005-05-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

Would be a cool way to put your router in a better location to get the most coverage without having to run power to it. Link

Yeah that's me

2005-05-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

A friend at work came up with a description of me that seems to fit well. Mark Deffenbaugh n. Short for computer geek, an individual with a passion for computers, to the exclusion of other normal human interests. Social interests are deeply rooted in Sci-Fi and include, but are not limited to, Harry Potter, Star Trek and Lord of the Rings. Depending on the context, it can be used in either a derogatory or affectionate manner. Basically, Mark Deffenbaugh and geek are synonymous; "Look at that freak wearing that Harry Potter costume sitting in front of that computer. He is such a Mark Deffenbaugh."