Mostly about my amusement

Year: 2007 (page 9 of 18)

Embedded Google maps

This is cool. A really easy way to embed Google maps.


View Larger Map

Geeky, I wonder when someone will come up with a WordPress plugin to take advantage of this? The only downside to inserting embedded iframe’s is that the TinyMCE editor blows up and dies for that post.

Not a big deal, I just turned it off in my profile, edit the post and then I put it back to WYSIWYG. With one small change to frameborder=”0″ and the code becomes XHTML 1.0 Transitional. For giggles I’ll figure out what to change to make it XHTML Strict.

Stalin would be so proud

I love this statement.

“For terrorists, travel documents are like weapons,” Chertoff said. “We do have a right and an obligation to see that those licenses reflect the identity of the person who’s presenting it.”

CNN.com: Federal ID plan raises privacy concerns

The government had the identity of each of the 19 hijackers; Real ID is not a solution, it is only a way to implement more control and pretend it is security. Forcing states and the Federal government to cough up millions does not make it security.

Let’s do this instead: Let’s make a system for passports needed for traveling between cities. If you have the wrong papers you go to jail.

We can also encourage neighbors to inform on each other, pick people up off the street and strip them of their constitutional rights (citizens only and don’t worry they’re all bad guys). Best to have them picked up at night.

We can treat immigrants like illegals despite their actual status. One infraction and poof, bye-bye.

Add a little “state secrets” as a shield for holding anyone accountable and we’ll all be better off that way.

I feel safer already.

Dell XPS free motherboard exchange

Found out about this on Engadet this morning. This is cool: go here are read this and maybe this link too. Then go to http://www.xpsupgradeprogramdell.com/ and put in your XPS 700 service tag and sign up for the free motherboard exchange.

I signed up early this morning. It’s a remarkable offer and I qualify for a free exchange as well as a free installation. I’m supposed to hear from them within 10 business days and will post an update at that time.

When I ordered my XPS from Dell I had some problems. They were taken care of and I am a happy customer. To now also offer this free exchange as a way of saying “Thanks for the business” is a great way to guarantee that I’ll buy my next PC or laptop from Dell.

Now I really, really, hope that the original XPS 700 roll out taught them about ramping up for high demand.

When SCO has to shoot, shoot don’t talk

SCO should have done more shooting and less talking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUslGSoEH8I

I can’t wait to read SCO’s official response to them not being the owner of the UNIX copyrights.

If SCO had gone after IBM in a reasonable fashion and with actual proof (as opposed to just whining about what their selective experts claimed) then they may have come out ahead. Instead they tried to extort a really huge user base and alienated what could have been their customers.

Their claims were just silly. I am sure that SCO can now buy up some electric typewriter company and try to sell licenses for the QWERTY keyboard. Assuming they have any money left after this.

Installed Vista 64 bit

After failing to get my copy of Vista to recognized my nvidia SATA striped drives, I configured them into two separate drives which was recognized. Instead of one 300 GB drive I have two 150 GB drives.  The Vista DVD recognized the drives now.

Sigh. Since I had to do a fresh install I put on the 64 bit version. The most fun came when I tried to activate Vista online. After activating it twice the online system will refuse to activate the software. You have to use the toll free number and recite the codes into the phone. I’m not sure how pissing off a legitimate customer works for Microsoft but hey, if they do anything else the the pirates will win. Or something like that.

The 64 bit version of Vista runs well. I’m going to bump up the RAM from 2 GB to 4 GB to see if there is a real performance increase.

Stupid Vista Tricks

I attempted to update the drivers for my XPS 700 using the Nvidia nforce web site drivers. After a few reboots, the BAD thing happened. I lost all the data on my workstation and I am not able to re-install Vista.

Ubuntu works well off the Live CD but that’s about it. I’m using vLite 1.0 to build a new Vista install DVD but so far what I have created is not working.

Sigh.

Adding numbers to post titles in WordPress

In the WordPress support forum (very serious neener neener neener ;-P ) I had seen a request to add numbers to each post title. Giving it some thought and testing here is one way it can be done.

In the index.php file for your theme, before the loop (I put it right after get_header line) add the following code:

<?php if ( $paged < 2 ) {
$my_paged = 0;
} else {
$my_paged = ($paged - 1) * get_option('posts_per_page');
}
$count = 1;
?>

Now inside the loop in the same file put this php code where ever you want the number to appear.

<?php echo $my_paged + $count . ". "; ?>

A good place is right after the <h2> in the default theme, so this line

<h2><a href="<?php the_pemalink() ?>...

becomes

<h2><?php echo $my_paged + $count . ". "; ?><a href="<?php the_pemalink() ?> ...

The count variable needs to be incremented for each post. Before the end of the loop put this line in

<?php $count = $count + 1; ?>

On the default theme this should go right above the <?php endwhile; ?>. This will produce a number with a period and a space before the title.

Since it is before the <a> tag it will not be part of the link to the post.

What did you do for YOUR summer vacation?

After Friday July 6th of this year I was officially no longer with my previous company. As of Monday July 30th I will be working at another financial company. Check out my LinkedIn page for more information about where.

It will be in Manhattan so I’m going to enjoy walking and eating good salads for lunch again. I’m really looking forward to this; me and idle time are not a good combination.

I used the month off well. I took the kids to their swimming lessons and they enjoyed having me around. I learned about adding JavaScript to my web page and finally figured out how to adjust the CSS for the WordPress theme I am using (I can control the horizontal and the vertical, do not adjust your TV set). I also caught up on the current episodes of the anime Claymore, Darker than Black, and saw the whole Ergo Proxy series.

Nice to have some free time once in a while 🙂 .

I’m returning to work as a consultant. I had been a consultant for years before becoming an employee in 2004 and I have to say that I personally prefer consulting. It might be a simplistic view but as an employee I had to worry about too many intangibles and politics.

The new job looks like I’ll have to get up to my elbows in network equipment and firewall design. It will include long hours, support calls, lots of change control, routing protocols, proxies, and application support.

Excellent, I so can’t wait.