Archive for Random Internet Vectors

Kill the Meebo bar

[ music | Styx – Show Me The Way ]

I heard about the Meebo bar via this Gizmodo article about it, and how Boston.com killed it within 48 hours. Well, the AJC here in Atlanta has begun using it now too. It’s crap, but I use Firefox which makes getting rid of it easy. Here are some simple steps to kill it on the AJC’s website.

  1. Find your Firefox Profile directory
  2. Open the folder labeled “Chrome”
  3. Create a new file named UserContent.css or edit the one already there if it exists. this file is just text, so use Notepad or another text editor
  4. Paste the following into the file:
    div#meebo.meebo-00 { display: none ! important; }
  5. Save the file, and restart Firefox.

That’s it. Now, other sites that use the Meebo bar can be cured just as easily, you’ll just need to know the proper identifier for the Meebo bar on that page. If you’re not technically inclined, find a technically inclined friend to do the following:

  1. Right click in a blank area of the toolbar, select “Inspect Element”
  2. Examine the DOM nodes in the breadcrumb bar at the bottom to find the parent element of the Meebo bar. Do this on AJC.com and look for the identifier I used for that as listed above for an example.
  3. Copy the above code onto a new line, and edit the line in the above directions with the identifier for the site you’re concerned with.
  4. Save and restart Firefox.

Thanks to Gavin Sharp for pointing out the incredible usefulness of the new inspection tools, and everyone who contributed to the ifantastic new devtools in Firefox.

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I’ve been a bad blogger…

[ music | Rilo Kiley – So Long ]

I’ve been neglecting my blog all year. For this,my dear readers, I apologize. I shall endeavour to be a better blogger in the new year. Between a really busy real life, and Twitter, I’ve just neglected to sit down and write up much. Even my previous post is a half-assed attempt, and I dislike doing that. For my day to day crap, check out my twitter feed.

However, to help make up for it, I’ll soon be making a kick ass end of year wrap-up post covering the best and worst everything from my viewpoint. Unlike some year-end wrap-ups, this one will be at the end of the year, between Christmas and New Years. I like to wait till the year is over to recap the year. 😉

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ISO: Webhost outside the US for long walks on the beach

[ music | Jesus Jones – International Bright Young Thing ]

I personally am quite happy with Dreamhost. However, I have a customer who is based in Europe, and would prefer a European web host, or one based elsewhere in the world. So, Lazyweb, does anyone know of a non-US web host with a comparable feature set? A healthy bandwidth allotment, PHP, several domains and subdomains per account, and supporting HTTPS/SSL are required, and SSH access is a really welcome feature. I’m more than open to invite or referral codes for good deals to get us in the door. Please email me or leave a comment. Thanks.

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Seven things you don’t care about

[ music | Dido – Me ]

Blame Daniel Glazman, it’s his fault. 😉

  1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
  2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
  3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
  4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

Let the self indulgence begin!

  1. Building on Dan’s medical theme
    • As a child I had some severe migraine headaches. They’d last for days, and I’d just sleep the whole time, but they’d also be accompanied by incredibly high fevers above 105°F. I’m told by doctors it’s a miracle it didn’t cause any brain damage.  I’m told by friends it most certainly did.
    • In 2006 I got to enjoy the agony of gallstones. I mentioned that, and the subsequent removal of said gall bladder. I have a rather high tolerance for pain, you see. My major attack in October had been increasing in discomfort and pain for about 18 hours before I finally went to the ER. I thought it was bad gas or indigestion. This had happened twice before and passed long before it felt this bad. I was crossing the street, and nearly passed out, so I grabbed a cab home and called 911 (I was still caring for my mother at home and wanted her in the ambulance with me so she didn’t worry, here’s why). Turns out I had developed acute pancreatitis and was in shock. Apparently shooting pains throughout your abdomen is a bad sign, and you should get help. Lesson learned!
  2. I used to run a Mozilla news site called Mozilla News. It’s gone now, the domain lapsed, but you can read our old stuff via Internet Archive. I broke some news a time or two that some people weren’t happy about, but over all, I think we did a lot of good for the community. Also, we had the first animated favicon ever.
  3. I was engaged once.
  4. I got to meet and shake hands with Bill Clinton during his 1996 campaign. He came to Pittsburgh in August and had a rally in the Sewall Center at Robert Morris College (now Robert Morris University). Amazing guy.
  5. My first computer was a TRS 80 Model 100 (I had the printer too!). I loved that computer. It was very light and incredibly portable, ran on 4 AA batteries, and had a built in 300 baud modem. Once I bought the modem cable and started checking out local BBSes, my entire world changed forever. I bought a second one, cut off one modular connector and attached alligator clips, and went phreaking. Some of the best times of my life.
  6. About a decade or so ago, I got hit by my own car. I was at a motel and someone tried to steal my car. I heard it start up, ran out, and stood in the middle of the parking lot. He drove right into me, and I rolled up the hood, over the windshield, and off the side. I hurt my back, but no broken bones or cuts.
  7. I’m a published author. I’ve been published in a couple poetry reviews, a technical book, and most recently tech-edited a book for Wiley, HTML, XHTML, and CSS: Your visual blueprint. I’m also about 170+ pages into a novel, but that’s another story. (Get it? Another STORY? Ha-ha! (that one’s for dolske))

So, now I need to harass seven other people about this.

  1. Justin Dolske because he’s a punny guy.
  2. Chris Thomas because he’s a really smart guy.
  3. Josh Soref because he’s a genuinely nice guy.
  4. Jeff Walden because is hard to find.
  5. J. Boriss because I’m still looking for Natasha.
  6. Sean Umphlet who is a good guy and will not give you up nor let you down.
  7. Tim De Pauw who is my favorite waffle (and a good musician).

Fin.

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What BoingBoing doesn’t get about credibility, and why it matters.

[ music | Alanis Morissette – Ironic ]

I probably shouldn’t be enjoying Boing Boing’s implosion of credibility as much as I am. And I probably wouldn’t if it weren’t for Boing Boing’s incredibly lame defense.

“It’s our blog and so we made an editorial decision, like we do every single day. We unpublished our own work.”

What Boing Boing fails to realize is that this damages their credibility. You can no longer count on Boing Boing standing by what they’ve said. Sure opinions change, but what you said should have some weight. Even if you don’t mean it anymore, or no longer agree with it, you said it, and hopefully meant it at the time. Neither The New York Times nor Time Magazine “unpublish” stories. It’s cheap, and it tells people you care so much about what you look like that you want to hide past mistakes, which costs you credibility.

“There’s a big difference between that and censorship.”

True, censorship is when a force out of your hands, usually government, prevents you from publishing something. However “unpublishing” is merely an act of editorial cowardice. It means you don’t believe in what you’re saying. It means you shouldn’t be looked to for ethical integrity. How would Boing Boing have reacted had they discovered Newsweek or CNN were “unpublishing” stories, burying bad calls they made?

“Violet behaved in a way that made us reconsider whether we wanted to lend her any credibility or associate with her.”

You denied her credibility by making yourselves no longer credible. A truly ethical journalist would have let the stories stand, and if asked about them now, merely said that things have changed and you no longer feel that way. As it is, you’re trying to bury a past you feel is embarrassing, and that’s the type of behavior we mock in our politicians and don’t tolerate in our most highly respected journalists. If Violet did something stupid, you just cut off your contact, choose to no longer cover her, and let the past stand.

You don’t rewrite history. When you try to do that, you create exactly this type of “real internet shitstorm and pile-on”, and honestly, I can’t say you don’t deserve it. You’ve been caught with your hand in the cookie jar, and this is the smack on the hand you earned. This is your rigged truck crash test, your CBS News Killian document fiasco.

You can try to claim it’s just a silly Internet thing, but it’s not. Not unless you’re willing to call yourselves just another silly Internet site. Do you want to play with the big boys or not? If so, you better play by the rules.

I used to respect Xeni, in spite of the Xeni Sucks crowd. However, this ordeal shows me that she’s not above allowing petty disagreements in her personal life to cause great lapses in her professional judgment. and play it down all you want, this is a great lapse in judgment.

I may no longer agree with things I said or wrote five or ten years ago, but I’m not going to pretend I didn’t say them. When people know I’ll be honest, they will also believe I’m credible, because I’ll always try to tell it like it is. When you erase the parts of your past you don’t like, you’re not being honest, and when you’re not honest, you’re not credible. And if you ever want to be taken seriously, that matters.

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Kari Byron Nude

[ music | In Denial – Pet Shop Boys ]Ok, look people. I do not have pictures of Kari Byron nude. Anywhere. Ever. The rash of outdated links you’re following was a gag, and they weren’t even of Kari to start with. Yes, she’s gorgeous, no she’s not naked. Hell, I think she’s even married. The pics you were lured here with are of the British model Alex Sim Wise. Go Google her if you want the photos that USED to be here. They’re gone now. DO NOT ASK ME FOR THEM.

Comments (62)

The Toy…

[ music | The Divinyls – I Touch Myself ]

In an amazing turn of events, the Brits have leapfrogged the rest of the world in the areas of cell phone convergence and teledildonics. Forget USB vibrators or the iBrator (awesome fake-ad), we’re 100% mobile with your cellphone and Bluetooth wirelss technology with The Toy.

Controlling The Toy

  • Familiar sms text command system
  • Secret 6 digit Tag in text message controls The Toy
  • The Toy reacts only to your tagged sms messages
  • Write whatever you like, The Toy will respond
  • 26 letters have 3 different movement profiles
  • Each of these has 5 speeds, 3 time settings
  • 45 possible effects from any one letter
  • 7200 variations from a single text message

There is so much I could say, I just can’t decide…

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The best news yet.

[ music | Katie Melua – My Aphrodisiac Is You ]

Lindsay Lohan is a redhead again. Actually it’s a dark brown with auburn shading, but it’s better than blonde. This girl had the most beautiful hair ever, and a figure to kill for. Then she hung out with the cocaine diet crowd, and became a 19 year old Courtney Love body double. She’s gained the weight back, and the hair’s dark again. Life once again makes sense. Unf.

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Google Maps hosts Post-Katrina satellite images

[ music | Filter – Hey Man Nice Shot ]

Google Maps now has put online post-Katrina satellite images of New Orleans. It’s not total coverage because the satellite has limited range per-orbit, but it’s something. Both levee breaches are visible, 17th Street Canal breach, and the Orleans Avenue levee breach. This dovetails nicely with some of the static but huge images that the NASA Earth Observatory has put online here.

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“These tits are way more indie than you”

[ music | Liz Phair – Conversation Overheard Between Two Bouncers ]

What a way to start a post. A smashing headache, and a horrible pun. “Pun?” you say. Yes, a pun! You see, I am obviously speaking of Indie Tits, the web comic, not Liz Phair’s breasts (which are also fantastic). I’m a huge fan of Questionable Content, which is having another guest-artist week, so this is kind of a bad week to jump in, so skip back a few weeks to take a look. Anyway, J. Jacques also does Indie Tits, and maybe it’s the splitting headache with which I am currently afflicted, but it’s hilarious. Here are a few of my favorites:

I am now going to take four aspirin and lie down. That is all.

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