da404LewZer

Use the NEW Grooveshark HTML Preview in ANY browser!

2010-11-09T10:08:00.000-08:00

If you've been on Grooveshark's Beta page lately you'll know they released an all-HTML version of their massive jukebox. However it only works in Chrome, or so they say.

Now I'm sure there is good reason to only "supporting" a single browser at this time, I want to give people the opportunity to find out for themselves. Here is a small JavaScript snippet that will enable allow other browsers to run the Grooveshark Preview.

Step 1
Goto: http://preview.grooveshark.com/ and sign in. It will soon complain about not being able to load in your browser.

Step 2
In the address bar copy and paste:

Then press enter. All the warnings should disappear.

Step 3
Have fun playing :)

Awesome Android Apps #1

2010-10-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Most of everything on here is free. If it's not free, it's because I feel it's totally worth every penny. This post is unfinished.

Utilities

Barcode Scanner (free)
Anyone who has a mobile device with an autofocusing camera needs to have a barcode scanner. Normal barcodes are boring, but here I'm talking about QR Codes. They are 2d barcodes that hold messages and links to offers or websites. They are getting popular, wise up to them.

ES File Explorer (free)
A handy tool for getting into the filesystem of your droid considering mine didn't come with one.

Es Task Manager (free)
This task manager keeps power hungry apps at bay by visually showing you whats running. Also, a handy desktop shortcut widget for killing all whitelisted apps :)

Google Googles
Need to translate spanish to english? Need to search for a book, movie or product? Take a picture of it! Google is pretty smart and uses really smart monkeys to deliver your results.

My Tracks (free)
Need to keep track of a route you take when biking or jogging or whenever? This utility does just that and plots it all on a google map. Is niice!

SMS Scheduler (free)
Ever need to send a text and a specific time and fell asleep? This app prevents all that mess. Send a text whenever you want it to be sent.

Games

Cestos (free)
A very fun and addicting multiplayer game. The basic premise of the game is to get rid of the other player's marbels by knocking them off the platform, into holes or blowing them up. Beware of the new Cestos 2 as it's in BETA and has been buggy lately.

UniWar ($5.99)
Team up or play against your friends. Steal bases, build troops and ships, it's all out war!

Robo Defense (free basic, $.99 full)
Keep waves of troops, tanks and planes from entering your base. Build and upgrade towers with an endless difficulty rating system.

Angry Birds (free)
The pigs have stolen the eggs from the hen house! You must slingshot birds to destroy the pig villages and get your revenge!

Social Networking

Foursquare (free)
Share location information with trusted friends. This is an opt-in service and doesn't follow your every move. Many businesses are starting to offer specials to people that become "The Mayor" of that location by visiting there more than everyone else.

Multimedia

Grooveshark (free trial period, $3/mo afterwards)
Grooveshark is by far one of the best music streaming jukeboxes on the web. It is now also on mobile devices and packs just as much power. You can even build playlists on your phone or pull down songs for offline play. Totally worth the subscription fee.

Google Listen (free)
Are you into podcasts? This free app will keep your podcasts up to date! Search through the categories or browse whats popular.

Rock Player (free)
The best video player I've found so far. It's free and plays more videos than the phone could when I un-boxed it.

IES Form Test

2009-05-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

Bright House is Slow and Irritating

2008-12-17T23:39:00.000-08:00

For the past couple months, the internet in my home has been very unstable. Up and down, up and down. At first, I thought that it was my roommates router, after setting up a Linksys WRT54GL and getting the same problems, we turned to the cable modem. Nothing. So whats the deal here?

When I ping www.google.com -t for a while, I get scary results:

Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239

That's a lot of timing out. And, it's been worse.

Nearly every other click, website, download, or IM is hesitated up to 2 minutes depending on the application and how hey implemented network errors.

I'm paying extra for the pro-package. My connection speed 3 months ago was registering on speedtest.net at 14mb. My average download was 500-600k/sec down and 300k/sec up, I'm starting to get a little pissed that I cant download anything from a respectable server faster than 40k/sec. Not to mention, it takes forever to just navigate around a website.

I have heard that somewhere between Bakersfield and LA is a broken connection and is therefore contributing to this mess, true or not, this sounds feasible. I have various friends all over Bakersfield who have the same issues. In the time it has taken me to write this blog, here are my pings:

Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=181ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=74ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=239
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=65ms TTL=239
Reply from 74.125.95.104: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=239

Magically all better, WTF??? Any why am I still averaging 67ms to google.com ???

This is the kind of crap this is bugging the hell out of me. As a programmer I make a lot of FTP uploads and navigate the web quite often. It's pretty annyong chatting on yahoo about how google.com won't load. It's irritating.. existing connections work somewhat ok, but making NEW connections is iffy...

Bright House needs to get their shit together because I for one am tired of this crappy service. I was at a friends business and a Bright House employee came in to 'inspect the modem' and was greeted with "So, here to fix my internet?" his responce was "Well, I can't guarantee that"

So, could Bright House be sending out employees to keep people thinking it's their faulty equiptment? You decide.

If you are having issues with Bright House, please leave a comment and a sample of your pings by using ping www.google.com -t in cmd

Six tools you shouldn't live without

2008-11-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

Hello, I have decided to blog about some of the various applications I have installed and can't live without. These applications will help you speed up your computer lifestyle.

Process Explorer

What it is:
Process Explorer is a Task Manager Replacement and I can't stress this one enough. The Task Manager that comes with windows is a piece of crap, to put it kindly. Process Explorer is actually recommended by Microsoft, what, huh? That's right, and it does a HELL of a better job.

What it does:
It allows you manage your processes, and get TONS of detailed information about them. For example, you can right click on firefox.exe and see how many TCP connections it has and where.

Notes:
I have mine set to replace the system task manager. You can do this by going to:
Options -> Replace Task Manager (doing it again reverts it back)
I also turn off the bottom tray, because it can get annoying unless you need that information.

Get it! http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

TaskSwitchXP

What it is:
A replacement for the standard Alt-Tab Task Switcher. This is my second favorite application.

What it does:
In addition to the standard alt-tab, it can be configured to use different skins, become sticky, and you can even right click an application and end it's process without even needing to use Process Explorer or Task Manager (shun).

Get it! http://www.ntwind.com/software/taskswitchxp.html

UltraMon

What it is:
UltraMon is screensaver/desktop/taskbar manager for multi-screen windows users.

What it does:
UltraMon gives you the power to have seperate screensavers, wallpapers and even extends a taskbar to your other monitors. Also, applications are given extra buttons to toss them between monitors. If you are using multiple screens, you NEED THIS.

Get it! http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

TeraCopy

What it is:
TeraCopy is a Windows File Transfer replacement. It's fast and not as annoying.

What it does:
TeraCopy handles file transfers in copy/move operations and when you tell it to always do something, it remembers that. File transfers also don't get killed with an error on low disk space. The application simply waits for free space. All in all, great applications!

Get it! http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

AutoRuns

What it is:
This is a MSCONFIG replacement recommended by Microsoft.

What it does:
AutoRuns shows you tons of information about your system startup and is a better replacement for MSCONFIG.

Get it! http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

DirectFolders

What it is:
Direct Folders allows you to have shortcuts to applications and folders. It will also assist in remembering applications open/save dialogs so the settings for displaying files is set per-application.

What it does:
Too much to explain, watch this video: http://www.codesector.com/directfolders-demo.htm

Get it! http://www.codesector.com/directfolders.php

I hope these tools help you as much as they've helped me! Don't forget to comment!

The Database

2008-10-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

When re-writing a project that you've already done it sometimes gets difficult planning out the entire project in your head. This is easy to do with smaller projects, but when you are working on something that manages multiple sites, employees, users, products, orders, email, reports and accounting, things can get a little hectic at times.. especially when you've put hours into something and have to re-write it or hack it to death to implement an overlooked feature. Welcome to programming! Just like the first photoshop job you did, looking back on old work is hard and sometimes down right scary.

I believe the first thing to be considered when starting a project is your database. It most likely will containing every bit of data you will be outputting to the user and it only makes sense to satisfy the needs of correctly storing and handling it. Once you have thought out your database tables and fields, the next step is to fill your tables with test data.

One thing I have learned over the years is, NEVER EVER WRITE ADD/EDIT FORMS FIRST!! It is far easier to use phpmyadmin to load the database with values to test things than it is to have to keep going back and forth editing your form html and form logic pages. Once you have the data successfully stored, create a way to display/edit and then finally add your data. This has always saved me time, try it yourself.

I was just bored and thought I would write something

Updating Old Code

2008-10-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

The time has finally come. A custom CRM that I developed for a company about 5 years ago needs to be completely rewritten. You might say that at the time of writing version 1.0 I was a bit of a newbie. I didn't understand Objects, I was still designing in tables and my CSS abilities were limited to in-line font modifications.

When I first opened up my code, I was immediately frustrated. I decided that as I go about writing version 2.0 I should share the experience.

The CRM has a couple basic sections:

Today Page
Orders Page
Address Book
Messages / Notes
Sample Requests
Mass Mailer
Report Generator

With new features planned for v2, I need to get v1 code ported to prettier code that I will feel good about calling v2. This requires re-writing all the MySQL tables and updating all the old MySQL queries to take advantage of join optimization, separating the logic from the presentation and from the data, re-designing the CRM with divs and smarty, and writing scripts to convert the old db to the new db.

I will be doing lots of posts as there is a lot to do. I will report in daily.

GrandCentral Dialer

2008-09-13T00:21:00.000-07:00

I am developing a standalone Windows application that allows you to dial any number from any phone using your Google GrandCentral Account. If you are interested, please download the latest copy from the download site.

http://gcdialer.thedblc.com/

I would appreciate feedback, digg and/or stumble support. Thanks!

Guitar Hero!

2008-04-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

Regular Expressions

2008-04-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

i <3 it

Easter :P

2008-04-06T19:48:00.001-07:00

Lollies

2008-04-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

Disk Geometry - Tons of information on hard-drive structure
Children vs Artists - Awesome side-by-side shot of kids drawings re-done by an artist.
Major Pwnage - This is a pretty sweet little maneuver...
Trippy Tail Light - These cool lights are gonna cause crashes, drunk and high people will love them until they get arrested over it.
Saturn - Freaking awesome
A Monkey Riding a Dog - Brilliant.
This made me laul - enough said.

i'll post more later.. l8r..

Holy freaking crap

2008-04-06T19:31:00.001-07:00

Compiling

2008-04-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how true this is. Well done xkcd, well done.

My Portfolio

2007-12-22T20:53:00.001-08:00

Well, I've finally compiled a list of some of my web and video projects.

Here's My Website Portfolio

Here's My Video Portfolio

Terror To The World Bitches!

2007-12-12T01:48:00.000-08:00

Alright, F-Teezy's Terror to the World music video is completed. Rickey Bird did the filming and I did the editing. The project took a couple days and was shot locally in Bakersfield. I have to say that this was a very fun project and I look forward to many more.

If you get a chance to watch this, please leave me a comment. Also, be sure to leave a comment on F-Teezy's Video Page!

The Taco Squirrel

2007-12-07T18:22:00.000-08:00

The Taco Squirrel radio stream is up and streaming again. I'm always playing a plethora of random genres. :D

New! Control the stream by adding songs to the queue!
You can now search through the music to enqueue songs. They will be played in the order they are added. If a song title is wrong, you can also help us correct it by updating it's attributes. More music has also been added.
Click here to get started!

Accessing the Stream in your Music Player
The Taco Squirrel currently supports Winamp, Windows Media Player 9, or any other player that can stream shoutcast.

In Winamp: Press Control + L (or click here to load the playlist)

In Windows Media Player: Press Control + U

Copy and paste the URL: http://iconps.propagation.net:8000/

If you like The Taco Squirrel's stream please tell your friends. I'm always adding more music. Please leave me comments if you like :D

thanks

Twitter Mosaic #121

2007-12-03T21:31:00.000-08:00

I was checking out the newest Twitter Mosaic and realized that I was apart of the madness. I did a search through the usernames used for the image, I was one of them :D

Here's the original: http://www.twittermosaic.com/?p=121

Multi-Zone Multi-Purpose Kitty Collar

2007-12-01T23:42:00.000-08:00

My cat has really started to bond with me and over the past month it has gotten pretty annoying. He comes and goes in my room as he pleases, pretty much 3 seconds after he comes in or out. I like my door closed, but the cats bed is in here due to having roommates, so i like to leave my door open only enough where the cat can fit through. Mr Fluffles aka Mr Puffy aka Tom Hanks is a cat that is very fat, wide load is a better way to put it. He always knocks the door wide open and i'm tired of it. I have come up with an idea that could help solve this.

Alas! da404lewzer's Multi-Zone Multi-Purpose Kitty Collar

Simply put the patent-pending da404lewzer brand multi-zone multi-purpose brand kitty collar on your gato, then lay the included zone-strip along the doorway of a room in your house. When the cat tries to get near the door, the cat is horribly electrocuted taking him/her to the ground instantly. The cat will learn from this and stay inside the room. You can control when the cat can leave, if he ever tries to again that is.

Step 1. Install Kitty Zone Strip

Place the Zone Strip on a door your cat frequents.

Step 2. Attach the collar to the victim, er, your cat

Once you get this thing on it's neck (which weighs eight pounds) it will really show kitty who's boss.

Step 3. Configure your TCP/IP settings

This is DHCP get used to it. Your cat can now sync up to BlueTooth enabled devices for practical joke shocking.

Step 4. Control your Kitty's Zones

Using this small and organized remote you can easily let your cat in or out of a room, or disable a russian satellite with missles via Google's NukeSat service (requires a Gmail account)

Step 5. Watch your cat walk up to the door and get the shit shocked out of him.

Watch your cat walk up to the door and get the shit shocked out of him. lol This is the most fun of all the steps. You can also manually induce shocking via the handy dandy remote.

Coming soon: Mind Control Kitty firmware update!

Now that you've had time to think about the possibilities of this invention, i'm sure you wished that you would had come up with it first. Well, you didn't, so there. lol

Warning, this product may kill your cat in which case you should set up a camera so the funny can be cought on tape and then uploaded to youtube remixed to techno music. Your little kitty may die suddenly from exploding/leaking batterys or the radiation that the freon tank emits.

Underground Movie Make Up Classes!

2007-11-30T17:27:00.000-08:00

We at Hectic Films are going to start doing makeup classes to help people make their films look awesome! For more information visit hecticfilms.com

Great Firefox Extensions All Developers Need

2007-11-29T16:21:00.000-08:00

I have been developing websites for about 5 years now and I have come across some of the neatest Firefox extensions ever made. By that I mean I use them every single day. If you've even gone to Firefox's Recommended Add-ons page, you'll find some plug-ins that you wont ever use. What's this?? They're recommended!! Yes, but that doesn't mean you'll use any of them. Their list of recommended add-ons includes things like MAP+, ChatZilla, Cooliris, Weather, eBay, and auto-blog-posters. All of these things are cool and useful, except for helping with web development.

Alas! da404lewzer's list of Great Firefox Extensions All Developers Need!

Web Developer 1.1.4
This handy tool allows you to take full control of your website's css, form, source and misc. information. It is a MUST HAVE for anyone doing websites or at the very least, myspace designs.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

Firebug 1.05
This tool is very awesome for debugging source, javascript and css. Again, another must have.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

Html Validator 0.8.4.0
This handy validator will inform you if your page is w3c compliant without having to submit it. It shows all warnings and errors and can be configured to use TINY and SGML parser.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/249

StumbleUpon 3.16
This is simply the liquid crack of the interclick. Once you have an account specified with tags, you'll be given a new site related to those tags each time you click Stumble! You will learn more and more every day with this.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/138

IE Tab 1.3.3.20070528
This extension allows you to use the Internet Explorer engine directly inside Firefox. This is great for ensuring the page will look good in both browsers. Click the FF logo in the status bar to switch to IE and back.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

DownThemAll! 0.9.9.10
This handy tool is great for when clients give you links to pictures to use as content. This will save everything, mostly time!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201

Mouse Gestures 1.5.2
This will shave seconds by not having to go all the way to the top of the browser to click back or use backspace. You might actually get something productive done today because of it.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/39

Yoono 4.0.3.5488
Yoono is very cool because it shows you lists of sites similar to the one you are on. This is very handy when trying to find other sites in the same category. When your client says, "have you heard of digg.com?" You can reply, "of course, have YOU checked out slashdot, delicious, reddit, engadget, technorati, lifehacker, boing boing, wired, fark.. etc etc?"
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1833

I hope that these help you out. If there are any I missed I will add them. Please leave me comments as to what your favorite Firefox Extensions are and what you use them for!

IF!

2007-11-29T12:57:00.000-08:00

'nuff said

Lost In Translation

2007-11-29T12:50:00.001-08:00

The dialog in this script was written in English, translated to French, then to German, only to be translated back to French, and then English.. got it? Ok. So you might say that the dialog is a bit weird. Anyone who has seen the Star Wars ep III translation will love this. Smelly boy...

http://www.noob.us/humor/lost-in-translation-seriously/

GTA: Insane Jump

2007-11-29T12:11:00.000-08:00

Thanks everyone who watched my GTA Insane Jump video and helped rate it! I'm very happy to announce that I've recently rolled over 355 thousand views! A very special thanks goes out to the following websites and blogs that took the time to write about my video!

Articles:

SIGNALDIGITAL 2.0
http://www.signaldigital.com/2006/08/web-20-10-ways-to-make-yourself.html

DESTRUCTIOID
http://www.destructoid.com/gta-firetruck-national-geographic-special

T-Portal
http://www.tportal.hr/tehnologija/internet/fset.html

References:

Links to the most interesting videos
http://videosbest.blogspot.com/2007/05/gaming.html

Format: La TV vista da dentro
http://format.blogosfere.it/2007/02/ecco-il-format-ideale-dei.html
在YouTube上出名的10种方法
http://bloodinheart.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!3B88BDE04775BE1!460.entry

linkgratis.com.br
http://www.linkgratis.com.br/materia/Video_GTA_San_Andreas_Insane_Jump/

videosift.com
http://videosift.com/video/Ocean-Jump-GTA-San-Andreas-cheats

Rated: 4 stars (727 ratings)
Views: 355,475
Comments: 616
Favorited: 817 times
Links: 5

I love Stinko Man!!

2007-11-29T00:47:00.001-08:00

1:23 - coool

2007-11-22T01:24:00.000-08:00

I'm bored and it's 1:23a so I figured I would write an entry in my blog. I'm currently writing a custom web spider which I've left running for a while and am quite happy with. I've also been editing a few videos. I filmed a quinceanera last week and need to finish editing it. I have a couple weeks but don't want to delay it any longer than I have to.

I've been watching Family Guy religiously again, this time with newer episodes! For the longest time I'd only had Season 1-4 and half of Season 5. Thank god it's complete now, Season 5 is freakin' hilarious. I need to finish my Season 6 torrent but I've been too busy to care to keep it going. I need to save my bandwidth parsing page after page, second by second and all.

I have Le Püf back and he loves to chill in my room. He's been sleeping under my comforter the past couple days, tho not while I'm under it. I think he's starting to warm up to me after seeing my roommate. Mr. Fluffles is a very fluffy kitty and is very scared tho he IS getting better... slowly.

I realized two days ago that today was Thanksgiving. I hate when I lose track of time. Bleh, l8r

Winamp 5.5 w/Mentos

2007-11-20T14:44:00.000-08:00

So I have been using Winamp 5.5 and it's new Bento skin for a couple weeks now and I must say I've fallen in love with Winamp all over again. Ever since Frankel left the team, I thought that Winamp was lost to the darkness of AOL. Remember, AOL wasn't doing so hot not too long ago... anyways, the point is, they are trying to redeem themselves. High-five!

Bento Skin
Man this skin is cool! Have I mentioned it's coolness?? It keeps the window-shade mode that I love and still manages to keep me happy all over. The media library un-shades from mini-mode and even stays in-tact when docked to the top. Too bad crashes leave the un-shaded window to shrink the desktop real-estate. Makes programs really short. lol

Winamp Remote
This is a cool feature even tho it's been around for a while. It allows you to stream your music to wherever you are and it can even be accessed via an XBOX 360 or cell phones and pda's.

Multi-Content View
This view is a life saver. It allows you to view one of the 5 settings, file info, eq, stored playlists, etc. The file info pane is great and allows for easy voting.

Song Change Notification
This handy dandy notebook pops-up in the corner to inform you of the song change. If it only had stars on it to vote...

Well, I must say that instead of talking about it, you should just download and install it over the old one you do have installed... right?

Download Winamp 5.5 at: http://www.winamp.com/

StumbleUpon Enhancements

2007-11-12T12:44:00.000-08:00

I've been using StumbleUpon for quite a while now and I must say that I'm in love. For all of you that don't know what Stumble is, you need to get rid of your life and join something called the internet. Stumble is your personal channel-surfer for the newest coolest stuff on the web. It's one of the best toolbars you can ever install. Once you setup an account, you choose from a huge list things you are in to and click Stumble on the toolbar to start seeing sites of those kinds. Any time you come across a site in Google for example, you can click "I like it!" to add it to StumbleUpon's directory, tag it and so forth.

StumbleUpon has been bringing me consistent content ever since i've installed it. But still, there are a few features I would really love to see:

The Ability to Stumble my own 'Liked' pages. When I do a username search for my username, why does it tell me i've already seen everything? I want to see it again damn it!
Bookmarks. I don't like having to use Stumble AND then del.icio.us to keep track of a site I liked. There's an "I like it!" button and I want it to work damn it!
Squirrels. There's definitely not enough squirrels... or tacos.
Integration with Digg. Sure someone likes it, but how many?

I'm done. I cant think of anything else right now, i'll go back in and fix it later.

Some of my favorite tags on Stumble include PHP, Graphic Design, and lolcats.

4x4 Off Road Action

2007-03-01T12:36:00.000-08:00

Went off roading in some land rovers, i'll spare your lives with this video:

PHP: creating a simple GET navigation system

2007-01-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

Websites are wonderful for giving the user information about your product or service. Sometimes the amount of pages are staggering, and updating many pages takes time. PHP is great for websites that have dynamic content. In this day and age, using multiple HTML files is too much hassle when making a subtle change. In this example, you will setup a website that appears to do everything inside index.php (even though includes are performing the work). This is a good way to navigate your site using only one GET variable. We will be using 4 files in this example, altho it can be expanded upon very easily.

How it all works
When the request to index.php is made, PHP will first check the url to see if the variable "a" has been set (e.g. ?a=home). It will check this value against the keys of the $pages array, if the key is found inside the array, the value of the array (the filename) is passed to the include function and loaded. In the case that the variable is non-existing or a 'bad value' the default page ($default_page) will be loaded. The header.inc and footer.inc files will automatically be inserted before and after the content page respectively.

Required Files

These files are included, not linked to. Your users will never know these files exist, unless you have an error message dump it out somewhere.
(error.inc and style.css are not required for this example)

index.php - this is the daddy script that determines what to do
includes/header.inc - this file will contain everything from the doctype to the end of the header/nav system.
includes/footer.inc - this file will contain everything from copyright to the final </html> tag.
includes/main.inc - this file will contain the middle part that has all the content.
includes/aboutus.inc - this file will contain the middle part dealing with the about us page.
includes/error.inc - (optional) this file will contain the middle part dealing with the about us page.
style.css - (optional) this is where your styles will go, should you seperate them from header.inc

Lets look at the files:

index.php
<?php

/*
What this does:
This script will load a header, content, and a footer for output to the browser.
The content file is loaded based on the value of $_GET["a"].
This script will double check to ensure that the keyword is valid, otherwise it uses a default.
No complicated if or switch statements are used, this is where the $pages array comes in.

Breakdown:
$cur_page will be populated from $_GET["a"] (the keyword), eg: index.php?a=home or index.php?a=
$pages contains an array of 'keys' (for ?a=) and 'filenames' (in includes/) to valid pages that can be accessed.
If the keyword doesn't exist, $default_page will be loaded instead. (this can be modded to use an extra error.inc file)
The include file is loaded.
*/

unset($pages);
$pages[""] = "main.inc";
$pages["home"] = "main.inc"; //setup home as well
$pages["about"] = "aboutus.inc";
//add more pages here!

$cur_page = $_GET["a"];
$default_page = ""; //this needs to be a valid key from $pages
$inc_path = "includes/";

//lets include our header
include $inc_path . "header.inc";

if ($pages[$cur_page]){
//lets include the correct file
include $inc_path . $pages[$cur_page];
}else{
//the keywords didn't match anything so lets load $default_page
include $inc_path . $pages[$default_page];

//OR you could have another file error.inc loaded
//include $inc_path . "error.inc"; //include a custom error handler
}

//lets include our footer
include $inc_path . "footer.inc";

?>

includes/header.inc
<html>
<head>
<title>This is an example site</title>
<style type="text/css">
.copyright {font-size: 10px; text-align: center}
</style>
</head>

<body>
<h1>Example Site</h1>

includes/footer.inc
<span class="copyright">© 2007 my website. all rights reserved</span>
</body>
</html>

includes/main.inc
<h2>Welcome to Main!</h2>
<p>This is an example of what could go on the main page!</p>

includes/aboutus.inc
<h2>About Us</h2>
<p>Here you can find all about us!</p>

includes/error.inc (If you uncomment the error code)
<h2>Error</h2>
<p>There was an error found!</p>

Thats it! Copy the files to your php webserver, be sure the paths are correct and the files are in the proper places. Also, links should start with: "index.php?a=KEYWORD&more=vars"... etc etc (or just: ?a=KEYWORD&more=vars if its' your index.php file :P )

Testing
To test your page, navigate to these urls: (home should load when trying a bad keyword)
index.php?a=
index.php?a=home
index.php?a=about
index.php?a=badkeyword

Programmers have dirty mouths...

2006-12-27T10:29:00.000-08:00

I've been poking around on Google Code Search a bit and have pulled a few funny queries.

Bitch – 15,400 results. "$bitch" pulls up 50 results.

Shit – 47,300 results. "$shit" pulls up 100 results.

Fuck – 36,400 results. "$fuck" pulls up 100 results.

Ass – 10,800,000 results. "$ass" pulls up 17,600 results.

i hate ff/firefox – 0 results

i hate ie – 20 results

i want to die – 50 results

i will kill you – 100 results

kill myself – 300 results

fuck yourself – 3,000 results

funny comments

...I fucking hate you, you monopolizing piece of Netscape feces. */

/// @note we fucking hate itunes for taking over podcasts and inserting
/// their own attributes.

/* I fucking hate dealing with strings in C. */

# I FUCKING HATE YOU WINDOWS AND YOUR FUCKING FILENAMES, GO TO HELL
if "\\" in name: name = name.replace("\\", "/")

/* I FUCKING HATE NICKSERV!!!!!! */

# Fucking windows!

return NULL; /* STUPID FUCKING WINDOWS COMPILER WON'T SHUT UP */

// are you crazy? o_O, no fucking windows directory? o_O

/* Fucking windows ass-shit. */

* client/src/memcache.c: Fucking Linux/GPL/gcc, why can't it just curl up and die?

/* I hate fucking Unix. This shit drives me nuts. Oh, and while we're at
* it, what the HEMHORRAGING FUCK is with sun_path being 180 bytes (!?) and
* that not being #defined anywhere? Fuck me with a ladder. */

/* RFC1035 SUCKS ASS! */

/* Holy shit! Quick, put everything back! */

// sometimes I Hate Mozilla... ;-(

/* I hate to include an include inside an include (ha!) however, I don't */

# we could call the root "My Computer" and mess with get_contents()
# to return "A:", "B:", "C:", ... etc. as it's children, but that
# would just be terminally cute and I'd have to shoot myself

Error("no consoles found in configuration file");
kill(thepid, SIGTERM); /* shoot myself in the head */
return;

# This is where most people should stop reading.

Why I hate developing for idiots...

2006-10-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

In this day and age, technology is all around us, from cars to watches, to cell phones to the Internet. The Internet is an infinitely growing hard drive with infinite amounts of knowledge, communication, and people dancing on treadmills. It boggles my mind when I hear people describe the web as some overly hyped-up fad. The web is obviously much more than a 'fad' with all the search engine services processing and categorizing everything. 10 years ago the www was tiny compared to what it is today and couldn't do half of what it can. Websites and the capabilities of what they can do double daily. The internet is not going anywhere anytime no matter how hard you close your eyes. You cant escape change.

That brings me to my next point, people who don't understand the technology, data or www potential because they wont research it for themselves. Don't get me wrong, lots of people research lots of things and are very active online. I'm talking about a different breed of idiots unlike you or me. The kind of people who want buttons everywhere instead of links. The people who use bright yellow 24pt Aral black bold italic underline on a white background whenever they have the opportunity to edit text on a 12pt layout. The people who think the layouts color or position can be radically altered with just a click of a mouse like in 'word.' The people who want the spinning email gif that always has a wrong jagged background color. The people who think that whe web can be used to fold the 7TH dimension through the 8TH dimension to the -2ND dimension. Oh, did I also mention the fact that most people expect everything to be easy and a 2-second job?

The web is all about information. With technologies like RSS and ATOM you can force data down users throats. You can keep people very well informed by getting them to use an RSS feeder. I wont even get into what you can do with the power of AJAX apps, just look at gmail. However with these new technologies emerging and people not understanding that they are new, its not hard to believe that some people want the impossible and think that because google literally does it overnight, you can do it overnight despite the month of actual work the project might need. People think that when you develop something, no matter how complicated, it shouldn't of taken as long as it took you. Here's my philosophy on programming: If it's easy to make, it's difficult to use. If it's easy to use, it's difficult to make. Why is this so hard for people to grasp?

Digg Bugg - Dup permalinks?

2006-08-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

I found a digg bugg today when I accidentally submitted an article twice via a dbl-click. It seems that the articles are given a unique key, however, the title doesn't seem to be checked for a duplicates when submitting. This allowed two articles with the exact same permalink.

The link given to the articles is here.

When following the link, one of the two seems to be randomly chosen for display (try F5 a few times). They have their own comments and own digg value. Without being able to delete something like this, it can cause confusion and server problems as the wrong one might be getting dugg, burried or commented on. I notified digg of the problem and hope it gets resolved.

In my submitted list, you can see the two diggs that i've marked dups.
http://digg.com/users/da404lewzer/submitted

Not the best month for AOL...

2006-08-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

Aug 3rd, AOL announces they will be laying off 5,000 of the 19,000 people working for them.

Aug 7th, AOL releases 3 months and 650,000 users worth of search queries. The New York Times has identified one of these anonymous people from one of the many sites that have the data available.

Aug 15th, AOL was caught spamming articles on Digg.com. They were having employees digg items to get ratings. (Maybe why they are getting fired? lol)

Aug 16th, AOL says a convicted spammer may of hidden half a million dollars in gold and platinum on his parents' property. Tonka Time.

hrm. 2 weeks left in august. lets see what happens.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/03/technology/aol_layoff.reut/
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~dangelo/aol-search-query-logs/
http://data.aolsearchlogs.com/
http://www.splunkd.com/
http://diggforlife.blogspot.com/2006/08/aol-busted-for-spamming-digg.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14365934/

Google Maps Beta

2006-07-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

It's been too damn long since i've posted something, so to kick things off, ya gotta love the power of Google! Google Maps for Mobile launched today in Beta status.

Here's the scoop: Real-time traffic estimates & directions, check traffic conditions and one-touch favorites.

Wait! What about aerial shots!? No problems, it includes the awesome satellite images that we all love to stare at for hours.

Google really said it best, it's the new hotness!

SSo what?

2005-11-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

I got my first Double-S score on Percussion Freaks today on my lunch! Thats right, my score for Break Out (Normal) was "SS"!! Even got 5th place on the board as "404" ;)

key!

2005-10-21T11:40:00.001-07:00

This is Yoda, aka Key-Key
She's a cam whore.. and yes.. she bumps D-R-E