Add Subdomain to an Add-On Domain on Hostgator

I thought it might be tricky but it turns out to be really easy. Here are the instructions they provide in your CPanel:

Subdomains are URLs for different sections of your website. They use your main domain name and a prefix. For example, if your domain is x.org a sub-domain of your domain might be support.x.org .

Subdomains are relative to your account's home directory. The icon signifies your home directory which is /home/x.

The form looks like this:


All you need to do is enter the subdomain you want and select the main domain from the dropdown list on the right. And voila, you have a subdomain! The last field is autocompleted for you once you enter the name of the subdomain.

If you have any problems, leave a comment on this post.

Labels: hostgator, webhosting

The iPhone's Golden Touch - Making Money Off of iPhone Apps!

Who would've thought that you could make money selling iPhone apps? Interesting Washington Post article:

They called the company Smule and created four applications, priced at a buck apiece. There's a virtual lighter, a virtual firecracker, a voice changer that can make you sound like anything from Darth Vader or an elf on helium and the big winner of the bunch -- a program called Ocarina that turns the iPhone into an electronic wind instrument. Released in November, Ocarina racked up 400,000 downloads in less than a month.

Smule, which originally set a goal of taking in $100,000 in revenue this year, will end up making closer to $1 million. "It's amazing," Smith says. "The business is already profitable."

Apple launched the App Store in July and has delivered more than 300 million downloads of more than 10,000 applications (some choice samples: a free Bloomberg stock-market terminal and a 99-cent "iBeer" that sloshes around when you tilt the phone).

Apple won't say how much money the App Store is taking in, nor will it say how many of the 300 million downloads were free apps and how many cost money (most apps are free; the others cost anywhere from a buck to $10). Apple gets a 30 percent cut of revenue generated by apps. But for Apple right now the money isn't the point. The big thing is the race to become the dominant mobile-computing platform, the way IBM-standard PCs running Microsoft operating software -- first DOS and then Windows -- came to dominate personal computing in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The mobile-computing space looks a bit like the early days of personal computers, when different operating systems were competing to be king. A half-dozen smartphone platforms compete in the market, including Symbian (used by Nokia), Windows Mobile, the BlackBerry and Google's Android. Yet another is on the way from Palm, maker of the Palm Pilot and the Palm Treo. Next year Palm will introduce a new operating-system platform for mobile computing. Whichever platform draws the most developers is likely to rule the market.

Half the fun of owning an iPhone is trying out all the cool new apps you can put on it, and developers are cranking them out at a feverish pace. "It's kind of a gold rush," says Brian Greenstone, who runs a tiny outfit (it's just him and a few freelancers) called Pangea Software in Austin, that has created several hit games for the iPhone, including Cro-Mag Rally and Enigmo. Greenstone, 41, has been writing games for Apple computers for 21 years. But he says he's never seen anything like the iPhone app phenomenon, which this year will deliver $5 million in revenue for him.

"It's crazy. It's like lottery money. In the last four and a half months we've made as much money off the retail sales of iPhone apps as we've made with retail sales of all of the apps that we've made in the past 21 years -- combined."

Business is so good that Greenstone won't even bother writing for the Mac anymore. Besides, he says, iPhone apps are easy to create: Some get cranked out in just two weeks by a single developer. "Some kid in his bedroom can literally make a million bucks just by writing a little app," Greenstone says.

Steve Demeter, a 30-year-old programmer, built an iPhone game called Trism in his spare time, working nights and weekends. By the end of September he'd earned $250,000 in just two months. He's made more money since, but won't say how much.

Labels: mobile

Customized Select for HTML forms

It looks interesting:

After being sick of how ugly select boxes are within forms, I looked hard to find a decent solution. There are a few but some of them I found to have bugs, or not be able to use icons within the custom select box as I would like.

It was necessary to have it able to degrade to the regular select box when a user does not use javascript, and from what I’ve seen i have achieved that also.

Is this worth using? What do you think? Leave a comment!

Labels: forms

Niceforms offers nice-looking forms

Niceforms offers some helpers to make your form look nicer.

The idea is simple: since normal input fields (including radio buttons, checkboxes, textareas, etc) can only be styled to a small degree, they have to be hidden and their visual appearance replaced with similar working, new, fully customizable constructs. In theory, that doesn't sound really complicated. But from theory to practice there is a long way.
Starting with the basic XHTML code for a web form, Niceforms parses the DOM tree, gets all the input fields, hides them, and positions their new graphical appearance in place. All this is done while preserving the date transfer and selection features of the regular form. Everything is done via javascript.

Niceforms works just like your regular web form. The form fields and the buttons created are fully scalable. You can specify their width (and height for textareas) through regular HTML properties such as size, cols and rows. Buttons will automatically expand to accommodate the amount of text present. Keyboard-only navigation is also supported.

You can customize the look of your forms in any way you want by creating your own themes. Since Niceforms replaces the form elements with images, it’s just a matter of slicing these images up correctly and creating the CSS that holds them all together. More themes are on the way and you’re more than welcome to contribute as well. A short guide on how to properly create themes is in progress and should be available soon.

Have you used Niceforms? Please leave a comment to tell us what you think about it.

Labels: forms

Pinheads are real

Meet SCHLITZIE THE PINHEAD:


And ZIP THE PINHEAD:


Who would've thought?

Have you ever seen a real life pinhead? Please leave a comment!

Labels: strange

How to Add a Domain on HostGator

I'm not really familiar with CPanel and the instructions they give you are horrible and unintuitive.

And the instructions are actually greek:

An addon domain allows you to reach a sub-domain when entering the name of the addon domain into a browser. This means that you can host additional domains from your account, if allowed by your hosting provider. Addon Domains are relative to your account's home directory. The icon signifies your home directory

That's not what we want at all. But this is the only form for adding new domains. What are you supposed to do with a form that looks like this??



Here's what I found on the HostGator forums:

1. Before you add an addon domain, Please make sure the “Name servers” for the addon domain is already pointing at you primary name servers and is propagated. Cpanel will not allow you to add the domain name unless the domain name is pointing to your server.
2. Click Addon domains
3. In the box to the right of “New Domain Name:” input the domain name for which you would like to add to your account. Please do not input “http://” or “www”
4. In the box to the right of “User name/directory/sub domain Name:” provide a name for a folder which will be placed inside of your public_html directory. What you place in the box will create a folder for you to upload your website files to for the addon domain.
5. In the box to the right of “Password:” Please provide a password for which you will use to FTP to the folder which is created for the addon domain.
6. Click Add Domain

You domain is now successfully added. If you open up a browser and type the new domain name in the address bar you will see a skeleton of your new domain. You can upload the website files to the folder which was created in the public_html of the primary domain or you may connect via FTP directly to that folder.

That's a little better.

And this is their official HostGator documentation:

Before you can add an addon domain you must change the name servers for the domain name to the ones provided for your hosting account. You cannot create an addon domain if your DNS for the site you are trying to add hasn't propagated yet.
To create an addon domain login to your cPanel and click "addon domains"

There are three fields cPanel asks for when creating an addon domain.

1. "New Domain Name:" You will put in the newdomain.com do not put www in the name!

2. "Username/directory/subdomain Name:" This will be the folder cPanel creates in your main accounts public_html folder. MAKE SURE that the name you give it doesn't already have a folder. Example... If you want to give it the username chris. You cannot have a folder in your account named chris already. If you do and still try creating the username for the addon domain to be chris you will corrupt multiple things on your account.

3. "Password:" fill in any password you want here.

After reading the above please watch our Flash movie on how to create an addon domain here.

About addon domains:

Addon domains are handled like subdomains as far as the server is concerned, but to the outside world they are separate domains.

When you setup an addon domain, you enter the domainname (without www.) and the system will automatically suggest an appropriate folder and will create that folder so don't make the folder first.

You can enter any password you like. It doesn't have to be the same as the main domain.

You don't need to create a subdomain for the addon domain.

An FTP account is created for the addon domain so when you FTP using that FTP account it will direct you to the created folder for that addon and that's where you will upload the addon site.

If you need to change the password for the addon you do it through the FTP manager.

To view stats for the addon, you look under subdomain stats.

You will setup emails for the addon domain in the main cPanel. Addon domains on a shared account do not have their own cPanel.

Anyway they make it sound a lot more complicated than it actually is. When you look at the form it can be intimidating, but once you enter a domain name (don't enter www or http), it autofills the rest of the form for you, with the exception of the password Why do you need to set another password? That's in case you are setting the domain up for somebody else for example. You wouldn't want them to use the password for your main account, right? So the password you're setting up is what someone would use to FTP files up to the new domain's directory. That's all there is to it.

Labels: hostgator, webhosting

3D tag clouds for Blogger (blogspot)

It didn't work for me but maybe it will work for you. Give it a try.

This is the Blogger/blogspot port of WP-CUMULUS, the 3d rotating tag cloud (flash).

Did you get this working on Blogger? Please leave a comment.

Labels: blogger, tags

3D Tag Clouds for Wordpress

3D tag clouds for WordPress are built on Flash so they're interactive, rotating spherical 3d tag clouds.



Wow, these are really cool!

The WordPress plugin is called WP-CUMULUS. Here's the official announcement by Roy Tanck.

You can see a small version of it in the sidebar of Roy Tanck's site, but a larger version can be seen at AdesBlog.

Obviously there are usability issues, but it's novel and could work on sites with relatively sophisticated audiences. Mostly it's just something new to look at. Enjoy it before it gets annoying!

Have you successfully set up a 3D tag cloud on WordPress? Please leave a comment.

Labels: flash, tags, wordpress

Ron Holiday, Cat Dancers

I watched a fascinating HBO documentary last night about some big cat trainers/dancers/entertainers (Ron Holiday, Joy Holiday, Chuck Lizza), operating under the name of Cat Dancers, who got attacked, killed and eaten by their own white tiger, Jupiter, who is something of an inbred retard of a tiger (he eventually gets shot by the SWAT team that comes to rescue Joy Holiday).



eflimcritic interviewed Harris Fishman, the film's director.

How it came to be:

Well I hate to admit it but it started one summer afternoon when my mom called and said, “You know that place in Florida where your brother is?” I said, “Yes,” and she said, “Well, the man who is teaching your brother has this amazing story and it would make a great film.”

Of course the last thing one wants is for their mother to tell them what to do, but she was right as most mothers usually are and I knew after I looked more into it that Ron’s story would make an amazing film. It was the summer of 2000 and I remember going to brunch with a few a friends and sort of casually “pitching” them the story. One of my first very close friends who I met when I moved to Los Angeles, Chris Keenan, immediately said, “This story sounds amazing….let’s go down to Florida next week.” Chris, one of the co-executive producers of CAT DANCERS gave me the first monies needed for me to go down to Florida and shoot some initial interviews to determine whether the story would work on film. In Florida, we also got to see the animal sanctuary where Ron had moved to heal after the tragedies. I then spent months reviewing, cataloguing, cleaning and combing through Ron’s home video, super 8mm, photos and other archival materials in order to peel back the layers of Ron’s story so to speak and figure out how to tell his story using those materials. After that initial period I worked intermittently on the project over the course of the next 5 years. I would meet very smart and sensitive filmmakers along the way who would come on board to work with me and help to move the doc forward. Perhaps most importantly, it was my old friend and creative collaborator, Silas Weir Mitchell, who helped finance the second round of shooting and was with me during all these years of making CAT DANCERS.

I was able to make a trailer and a few assembled scenes that I took to the IFP Market in NY and showed as a work in progress. The trailer attracted some nice attention and I was then introduced by Caroline Libresco (Sundance Programmer and Associate Producer) to my now Executive Producers, Josh Braun of Submarine and the wonder women at Cactus 3. They loved the samples I had and were able to attract HBO to giving me a nominal amount of development money to again move the project forward.

At that stage, I also was introduced to an amazing DP, Amanda Micheli, who went on to shoot a trailer with me that eventually led to HBO providing completion money for me to finish CAT DANCERS. Once HBO came on to help me finish CAT DANCERS, I recruited Amanda to not only finish shooting the film with me but also to be my producing partner on the project. Shortly thereafter, I was introduced to a very talented editor and filmmaker, Alexis Spraic, by Submarine and Cactus 3. We both immediately clicked on my vision for the film and she never stopped challenging me which was enormously important. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Herculean efforts and pure genius of Mirabelle Ang, who was our Assistant Editor, and wonderful filmmaker in her own right, who oversaw with me the labyrinth of technical details associated with finishing a film on Final Cut Pro. As I hope you can see, I am enormously grateful to every single creative person who has helped me along the way…I wish I had more time to enumerate everyone’s contribution…please see my “thank you” list. Its 7 years of acknowledgements!

Technical stuff:

My producing partner and DP, Amanda Micheli, will answer this one: CAT DANCERS inter-cuts constantly between the present and the past, which is represented by archival footage of greatly varying quality from consumer video, Super-8 film, and dubbed VHS sources. The present-day material was shot on the Panasonic SDX-900 at a 16:9 ratio and 24 frames per second, to set it apart from the archival clips and give us a more controlled voice amidst this collage of formats. The SDX-900 is great for smooth handheld work and lowlight situations, and comes as close as we could get in standard def to a truly cinematic look with video.

There's a cool song at the end of the film from The Magic Show by Stephen Schwartz called Lion Tamer. I know the song's been covered by Kristin Chenoweth, but I don't think this is her version. If you know who did the version in the film, please leave a comment!

I'd like to be a lion tamer,
Sequins and tights and silk top hats.
I know I could be a lion tamer,
I've always gotten along with cats.

I'd have a whip but never use it,
I'd simply hold it in my hand.

I'd like to be a lion tamer.
If I could be a lion tamer
I would be someone grand.

I couldn't be a ballerina,
I never could stand on my toes.
I couldn't be a Spanish dancer,
I'd look ridiculous with a rose.

But ev'ryone has a special calling,
Something that only she can do.

I could be such a lion tamer.
If I could be lion tamer
I would be special too.

I could begin with baby leopards,
Move on to tiger cubs and then,
After I learned to handle lions,
Maybe I could work up to men.

I never wanted fancy mansions,
Butlers and footmen liveried.
I never wanted lots of money,
Money can't buy what you really need.

I never prayed for any favors,
But here I am on knobby knee.

Please let me be a lion tamer.
If I could be a lion tamer,
Wouldn't he have to finally notice me?

Labels: movies

Christmas LOLCATS!

Check out these really funny Christmas LOLCATS!

iz not happi holidayz. iz merri krizmas!



Bah Humbug!


Go bed Santa be here soon!


Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

Labels: funny

MediaTemple SSH cheapos!

I noticed that when I'm using SSH shell console on MediaTemple they're constantly timing me out. But on Hostgator, I've never had them time me out. What's up, MediaTemple? Why so cheap?

Labels: hostgator, mediatemple, webhosting

Three Books by Victor Davis Hanson

Carnage and Culture

Amazon.com Review
Many theories have been offered regarding why Western culture has spread so successfully across the world, with arguments ranging from genetics to superior technology to the creation of enlightened economic, moral, and political systems. In Carnage and Culture, military historian Victor Hanson takes all of these factors into account in making a bold, and sure to be controversial, argument: Westerners are more effective killers. Focusing specifically on military power rather than the nature of Western civilization in general, Hanson views war as the ultimate reflection of a society's character: "There is…a cultural crystallization in battle, in which the insidious and more subtle institutions that heretofore are murky and undefined became stark and unforgiving in the finality of organized killing."
Though technological advances and superior weapons have certainly played a role in Western military dominance, Hanson posits that cultural distinctions are the most significant factors. By bringing personal freedom, discipline, and organization to the battlefield, powerful "marching democracies" were more apt to defeat non-Western nations hampered by unstable governments, limited funding, and intolerance of open discussion. These crucial differences often ensured victory even against long odds. Greek armies, for instance, who elected their own generals and freely debated strategy were able to win wars even when far outnumbered and deep within enemy territory. Hanson further argues that granting warriors control of their own destinies results in the kind of glorification of horrific hand-to-hand combat necessary for true domination.

The nine battles Hanson examines include the Greek naval victory against the Persians at Salamis in 480 B.C., Cortes's march on Mexico City in 1521, the battle of Midway in 1942, and the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. In the book's fascinating final chapter, he then looks forward and ponders the consequences of a complete cultural victory, challenging the widespread belief that democratic nations do not wage war against one another: "We may well be all Westerners in the millennium to come, and that could be a very dangerous thing indeed," he writes. It seems the West will always seek an enemy, even if it must come from within. --Shawn Carkonen

From Publishers Weekly
"The Western way of war is so lethal precisely because it is so amoral shackled rarely by concerns of ritual, tradition, religion, or ethics, by anything other than military necessity." Ranging from Salamis in 480 B.C. to the Tet offensive in Vietnam, Hanson, a California State at Fresno classics professor, expands the scope of his The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece, offering a provocative look at occidental aggression as illustrated by nine paradigmatic battles between Western and non-Western armies. Hanson sheds the overly romanticized view of battles as nationalist or ethnic honorifics and vividly portrays the deadly killing machines Western powers evolved for the destruction of non-Western opponents. Throughout, Hanson stresses the technology based lethality of Western warfare, and the role of individual initiative as opposed to the more collectivist strategies of the Persians, Carthaginians, Arabs, Turks, Aztecs, Zulus, Japanese and Vietnamese opponents who get a chapter apiece. The single Western defeat chronicled in these pages, of the Romans in Cannae in 216 B.C., shows a victorious Hannibal unable to capitalize on his win. (The idea of the citizen/soldier, the role of civic militarism and the republican ideals of Rome seem to be the reasons why not.) A number of Hanson's conclusions will engender debate, such as his claim that America won in Vietnam, but failed to recognize it, as well as the larger claim that "free markets, free elections, and free speech" have led directly to superior forces. The book's last few chapters are fairly driven by that idea, which, along with precise, forceful writing, sets it apart from the season's secondary-sourced, battle-based military histories. (Aug.)Forecast: Hanson's direct, literate style and his evenhandedness should appeal to the liberalist middle of the left and right alike. By isolating the ingredients of military success via elaborate examples, the book can potentially draw on two separate military-history readerships: those looking for theory and those for action.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

A War Like No Other

From Publishers Weekly
Hanson (Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece, etc.) presents an elegant, lucidly written analysis of the 27-year civil war, a "colossal absurdity," that ended in Athens's 5th-century B.C. loss to Sparta and the depletion of centuries of material and intellectual wealth. Hanson deftly chronicles these destructive decades, from the conflict's roots (e.g., the fundamental mutual suspicion between Athens and Sparta) to its legacy (the evolution of the nature of war to something "more deadly, amorphous, and concerned with the ends rather than the ethical means"). Hanson considers the war's economic aspects and the ruinous plague that struck Athens before delving into his discussion of warfare. He offers a tour de force analysis of hoplite (or infantry) combat, guerrilla tactics, siege operations and sea battles in the Aegean. Though landlocked Sparta ultimately brought down Athens's once-great naval fleet and replaced democracy with oligarchy by 404 B.C., Hanson complicates the received notion of a lost Hellenic Golden Age. Throughout this trenchant military and cultural history, he draws parallels between the Peloponnesian War and modern-day conflicts from WWII to the Cold War and Vietnam. Across the centuries, these are lessons worth remembering. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mexifornia

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Classics professor Hanson is also, like generations of his family before him, a fruit farmer in California's central valley. He has employed immigrants, seen them flood his community during the last 30 years of mass flight from Mexico, and endured the crime associated with illegal immigrants. Hanson is immensely sympathetic to poor Mexicans, however, and the most powerful chapter here outlines the harried life of the illegal alien. But he hates to see the ordered culture in which he grew up drowned by an alien inundation whose undeserving beneficiaries are Mexico's kleptocratic rulers, for whom an open border is a safety valve expelling the potential for democratic change. The four solutions to the mess that Hanson enumerates include continuing de facto open borders but insisting on rapid acculturation; patrolling the border effectively and reducing legal immigration; imposing "sweeping restrictions on immigration" and ending Mexican chauvinism in the U.S.; and allowing present policies to make California increasingly mirror an unreformed Mexico. Hanson thinks that the U.S. "still need not do everything right" to prevent social collapse in the Southwest and that the totalitarian uniformity of valueless mass culture may soften that collapse. He also sees very clearly what has brought this crisis on: the American globalist ideology's lust for cheap labor and emphasis on "raw inclusiveness" instead of "standards and taste." Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Hanson's 'Mexifornia' is that rare book that combines scholarship with personal experience to provide genuine insight into a complex issue." -- Linda Chavez, author of An Unlikely Conservative

"Victor Davis Hanson brings a lifetime of experience in California's Central Valley to this indictment of multiculturalism and mass immigration." -- Mark Krikorian, Center for Immigration Studies

Labels: books

Does Propecia work right away?

What I found out about how fast Propecia works. Actually, I should say, how long it takes for Propecia to work, because it seems to take a long time:

Finasteride (marketed as Propecia) starts to work right away however, it might take up to 3 months to see less hair loss. In order to see any visual effects such as the thickening and strengthening of miniaturized hairs, it takes up to 6-12 months.

Please understand that you may experience additional shedding over the first couple months. This is actually normal and an indication that the hair loss medication is working.

Visual effects take 6-12 months!

Labels: hair, propecia

Add9 Chords

David Bowie's Quicksand calls for an Am7add9 and Am7add9*

What is THAT?

Interesting thread on Add9 chords for guitar players:

They are standard major triad chords (1-3-5) with the 9th (2nd) tone of the scale added. Using the standard moveable C-A-G-E-D chord forms everyone learns early on, I think these adjustments will give you add9 voicings:

C form - raise 2nd string two frets

A form - drop 2nd string two frets (play open)- I remember this as the Townsend chord due to how it resolves in Behind Blue Eyes (play at end of verses such as "to telling only lies")

G form - raise third string 2 frets

E form - raise 4th string 2 frets - the Prince chord. He actually uses three add9s in Purple Rain. The verse progression is Aadd9-F#m11 (6th-2nd fret ,5th-open, 4th-2fret, 3rd-2nd fret, 2nd -open, 1st-open)-Eadd9-Dadd9 (the one with the 1st string open). FYI, as part of an acoustic set, this is a great tune for getting the bar crowd singing the chorus with you!

D form - Raise 4th string 2 frets, or drop the 1st string two frets (play open), or raise 2nd string 2 frets. You may have to barre across the bottom 3 depending on your reach on the last one.

The add9s also sound great in ii-V-I progressions as the I chords because they resolve so strongly.

Another interesting article:

As the label indicates, the add9 chord is a major chord with a 9th added. It is a four note chord, as opposed to the proper 9-chord, which is a five note chord. An add9 has the notes 1-3-5-9, while the 9-chord has 1-3-5-b7-9. A Cadd9 has C-E-G-D, while a C9 has C-E-G-Bb-D. The b7 note makes a huge difference, as it together with the 3 constitutes the important tritone in the 7th chord. The add9 is a sweet sounding chord, while the 9-chord is dissonant and drives the harmony towards a solution.
You do not need very advanced mathematical skills to see that 8+1=9, and that the D in a C-major scale could be labeled as a 2 rather than as a 9. For a proper 9-chord, the reason is that it is an extended 7th chord. But this is not the case for the add9, and I cannot give any good reasons for why this is the most common way of labeling the chord. And having said that, you might see the chord labeled as either a 2 chord, or add2 chord.

Labels: bowie, guitar

eBay RSS feeds disappeared!

It used to be that you could get an RSS feed on each of the eBay search result pages. But with their new interface, they have apparently dropped the RSS feeds, which is a real bummer. Don't know if they're bringing it back. In the meanwhile, if you still need the RSS feeds (and who doesnt?), scroll to the bottom of the page and find this:

You are currently testing eBay's new search experience. If you prefer, you can opt out of the test.

Just click to opt out of the "new search experience" and you'll get the RSS feeds back!

Labels: ebay

Quicksand by David Bowie - Acoustic Guitar Chords/Tab

How to play Quicksand by David Bowie (from album Hunky Dory):



From lovebolts:

QUICKSAND from Hunky Dory 
 
 
INTRO:  G  Am7  G  Am7  G  Am7  G  Am7
 
 
    C
I'm closer to the golden dawn 
                                 G        Gsus4  G
Immersed in Crowley's uniform of imagery
    C
I'm living in a silent film
                                       G
Portraying Himmler's sacred realm of dream reality
    Eb 
I'm frightened by the total goal
F*
Drawing to the ragged hole
      G             Em        C
And I ain't got the power any more
                             G    Am7  Am7add9  Am7add9*  A
no I ain't got the power any more
 
 
        D
I'm the twisted name on Garbo's eyes
                                    A       Asus4  A
Living proof of Churchills lies I'm destiny
    D
I'm torn between the light and dark
                                     A        Asus4  A
Where others see their target divine symmetry
F
Should I kiss the vipers fang
   G
Or herald loud the death of man?
    A              F#m7      Em7   D
I'm sinking in the quicksand of my thoughts
                              A    Asus4  A
And I ain't got the power any more
 
 
CHORUS 1:
A         E7         F#m7
Don't believe in yourself
         D#dim        E
Don't deceive with belief
          Edim                 Bm7
Knowledge comes with deaths release
   Fdim  A
Ah ah ah ah
   F#m7  E6 E
Ah ah ah ah ah
 
 
    D
I'm not a prophet or a stoneage man
                                              A
Just a mortal with potential of a superman I'm living on
    D
I'm tethered to the logic of homo sapien
                                               A
Can't take my eyes from the great salvation of bullshit faith
     F
If I don't explain what you ought to know 
        G
You can tell me all about it in the next bardot
    A              F#m7      Em7   D
I'm sinking in the quicksand of my thoughts
                              A    Asus4  A  Asus4  A
And I ain't got the power any more
 
 
CHORUS 2 and 3 
 
CHORUS 4 - No vocals
 
-----------------------------------------
INTRO: The notes that double the chords are just 'G' and 'A' They're played on 
some sort of vibe. 
 
Ain't got the power...bit: You know, the bit where the guitar strums heavy and 
then plays harmonics at the fifth fret. In case you don't know, harmonics are 
achieved by holding your finger gently on the string directly above the fret, 
and sort of pulling it away as you play the note! (easier said than done 
probably!) 
-----------------------------------------
CHORDS:  EADGBE
         ------
G        320033
Eb       XXX343
Am7      X02213
Gsus4    320013
Am7add9* X02003
C        332010
Em       022000
Em7      020000
Am7add9  X02203
F*       XXX565
F        133211
E7       020100
Fdim     XX3434
D#dim    XX1212
A        X02220
E        022100
Edim     XX2323
Asus4    X02230
D        XX0232
E6       022120
Bm7      X24232
F#m7     242222

Labels: bowie, guitar

Forcing Firefox to Save Passwords

Courtesy of mydigitalilfe (also see Daily Gyan).

Normally, the request for web browser especially Mozilla Firefox so that it does not offer to remember password (and not saving any user ID and password) when user submit the login form or sign in page, and hence does not autofill on next visit is made by using autocomplete=”off” parameter.

Remember Password bookmarklet hacks and makes the Firefox browser ignores web site requests of not remember passwords temporarily, allowing users to save passwords (and hence the Firefox can auto-fill username and password the next time the same log in page is opened), even on sites that use autocomplete=”off” command.

Photos by ihao and laihiu

Which firefox girl do you prefer?

Labels: firefox

Nintendo Wii is the shit

I thought Nintendo was going to be destroyed by the deep-pocked Microsoft and Sony, but it looks like Nintendo is still king of the hill because their Wii is the shit:

Revolutionary controller design offers unique motion-sensitive gameplay options; built-in Wi-Fi delivers free online services and gameplay; Virtual Console has major nostalgia appeal; compatible with all GameCube games and controllers; built-in SD slot for storage and photo viewing; includes Wii Sports game; most affordable home game console...

It lacks the graphical prowess and rich media features of the Xbox 360 and the PS3, but the Nintendo Wii's combination of unique motion-sensitive controllers and emphasis on fun gameplay make the ultra-affordable console hard to resist.

And it's selling like hot dogs at a ballpark:

Nintendo's red-hot Wii system outsold the Xbox by almost 3-to-1 in November. Wii shipments in the month totaled 2.04 million, while Xbox shipments came in at 836,000. Sony (NYSE: SNE)'s PlayStation 3 ranked a distant third, with shipments of just 378,000 units, said NPD.

Photo by Mr.Thomas.

Somebody get me a Wii for Christmas pleeez :)

Labels: wii

Windows Vista Task Manager is Broken!!

So you think it's broken because it only shows you one panel, right?


I was wondering about this for weeks until I figured out that all you have to do is doubleclick somewhere around the edges of the task manager window, and it comes back. You can then see all the panels. If you want to "minimize" again, just doubleclick the edges again. Pretty stupid from a usability point of view, but it's Microsoft. What do you expect?

Labels: windows vista

Django on Hostgator (How to Install)

Here are the instructions for installing Django on Hostgator shared hosting.

I've successfully installed Django on my Hostgator account ('Baby Croc' plan) using these steps. Hostgator has been really great for me, but they don't support fastCGI. Using vanilla CGI with Django is not generally recommended and results in crappy performance, but for a low traffic site it's bearable (barely).

I have to say that the instructions make it look pretty hard to deploy Django, but I think this may come in useful someday! Thanks to whoever wrote this. Apparently that was written in August, 2007. So no new updates since then. The thread on Hostgator forums seems pretty much dead, which is disappointing. I'm sure a lot of people are interested in hosting Django sites on Hostgator. Hopefully the Hostgator people will respond and support FastCGI.

If you have experience hosting Django on Hostgator please leave a comment. Thanks.

Labels: django, hostgator

Bernard Madoff's Address at 133 East 64th Street

I was shocked that if you search for Bernard Madoff in Google, you actually get his full contact information including his home phone number and home address:



You would think that somebody who absconded with $50 billion would keep a low profile or at least choose to not be listed in the phone book. Or would you say it's Google's fault for collecting too much personal information about people?

His $7 million apartment on New York's Upper East Side:

Deep Throat: Why he did it -- Less Than Noble Reasons

Here's an interesting article on, Mark Felt, better known as Deep Throat:

Meanwhile, around him in the Washington headquarters, the aging Hoover's internal manoeuvres to maintain his tight control of the organization became ever more Byzantine. In 1971, in a palace coup designed to outflank his too-ambitious associate director, William Sullivan, Hoover created a new post for Felt which in effect made him the organization's third-ranking officer. Since Clyde Tolson, Hoover's deputy, was seriously ill and frequently absent, it put Felt in charge of the organization's day-to-day operations.

There followed a train of events that could have been scripted for a bad melodrama. On 2 May 1972 Hoover, aged 77, was unexpectedly found dead of a heart attack at his Washington home. Felt saw himself as the obvious successor and was stunned when the White House announced the following day that President Nixon had nominated assistant attorney-general Patrick Gray - regarded as a supine flunky of the administration - to take over. Then, with the FBI still in shock over Gray's hostile opening moves, five men were arrested on 17 June for breaking into the offices rented by the Democratic party in the Watergate complex.

Seems like he became the Watergate leak because he got passed over for a promotion.

Labels: news

Roy Marvin Kronk - the meter reader who found Caylee Anthony

It's amazing how fast the Internets work, because before Roy Marvin Kronk has even held his press conference about finding the body of Caylee Anthony, the poor little girl murdered by her mother Casey Anthony, people have already dug up that:

Roy Marvin Kronk has lived in MD, TN, and Key West FL. His partner’s obit refers to him as a “life companion” but other sources say they were married.

And

Roy Cronk is from TN. His departed partner died 7/30/07. They were not married.

What else is there to know? Do we need to know that? Roy Marvin Kronk is certainly not a suspect. It's obvious who did it and it's obvious that the police department down there in Florida is incompetent.

Labels: news

Who is Ed Schlossberg

Edwin Schlossberg is Caroline Kennedy's husband. Now that she's trying to take Hillary Clinton's Senate seat and blind New York Governor David Patterson may appoint her, everyone is sort of interested in who her husband is. Sometimes they call her Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg after all. In reality, she never changed her legal name. I found this interesting excerpt from the article about him by New York Magazine:

While at Columbia, Schlossberg had published a magazine called Good News that contained only inspirational essays written by Fuller and others. The magazine led to other design jobs. "I never set out to be a designer," Schlossberg explains, "Like Bucky, what I really was doing was thinking. Suddenly people began to pay me for my thoughts."

Sort of like what blogging does for you. Certainly on account of this Chicago Web Design blog, a million people have been harassing me to design websites for them.

And he's doing well too:

With his career gaining momentum, Schlossberg used money he had made writing books on computer games to finance a design company. "My father worried that I would starve pursuing the poet's life," Schlossberg recalls. In 1977, ESI started with a staff of 2; today it employs 50.

I'm almost at 50....yah :)

But no doubt Schlossberg's Kennedy connections helped him land a lot of business (and finance his business?). The guy's smart, but let's be honest here!

More about ESI:

ESI Design is one of the world’s foremost experiential design firms — we create physical and virtual spaces for people to interact, exchange ideas and learn from each other.

We design for a wide variety of environments. Our client list includes museums, retailers, corporations, real estate developers, parks, hospitals, foundations and so on. We work with clients whose business and strategic challenges will benefit from an innovative ESI design solution. For example, we invented an experiential retail environment for Sony and designed a museum wide multi-player exhibit for the Children's Museum of Los Angeles.

Our team of 50 professionals includes physical, graphic and interactive designers, systems specialists, marketers, writers and educators. Diversity is the key to our creativity. We believe it is the reason ESI’s designs are applauded, analyzed, published and enjoyed by millions of individuals every day.

Sweet Caroline is named afer Caroline Kennedy. Did you know?

Labels: business, music, stories

Network Icon Disappeared!

My Network Icon and Volume Icon disappeared from the Windows Vista taskbar for some reason. If it happens to you, right click on the taskbar and select Properties (at the bottom). On the Notification Area panel, you'll see the System Icons section, if the icons you want are unchecked, check them.



The problem is when they are grayed out. In this case, the first thing you can try is restarting explorer.exe. Go into Windows Vista task manager, and end the process. Then restart it by clicking Create New Task and typing in explorer.exe

If that doesn't do it, then you need to go into the registry editor under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify key.

And delete from there, IconStreams and PastIconStream.

Now restart explorer.exe again just as before. The icons probably won't show up still. Now all you need to do is right click on taskbar and go to Notification Area panel and enable the missing icons by selecting their checkboxes.

Credit where it's due.

Labels: vista, windows vista

Yahoo Beats Google on Privacy

God bless Yahoo. They are taking privacy concerns seriously.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Yahoo Inc. said Wednesday that it will shorten the amount of time that it retains data about its users' online behavior — including Internet search records — to three months from 13 months and expand the range of data that it "anonymizes" after that period...

In September, Google said it would "anonymize," or mask, the numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses on its server logs after nine months, down from a previous period of 18 months. And Microsoft, which keeps user data for 18 months, said last week it would support an industry standard of six months.

Under Yahoo's new policy, the company will strip out portions of users' IP addresses, alter small tracking files known as "cookies" and delete other potential personally identifiable information after 90 days in most cases. In cases involving fraud and data security, the company will anonymize the data after six months.

Anne Toth, vice president of policy and head of privacy for Yahoo, said the company is adopting the new policy to build trust with users and differentiate it from its competitors. Yahoo also hopes to take the issue of data retention "off the table" by showing that Internet companies can regulate themselves, Toth said.

European Union regulators have pressured Yahoo, Google and Microsoft over the past year to shorten the amount of time that they hold onto user data. And Congress has begun asking questions about the extent to which Internet and telecommunications companies track where their users go online and use that information to target personalized advertising.

Now will Google follow their lead?

Labels: privacy, search, yahoo

Some FREE Christmas fonts

Here are a couple nice Christmas fonts.

St. Nicholas:


Porcelain:


Another 8 can be found at woork blog.

Labels: fonts

The fastest browser is Google Chrome

About the new Chrome 1.0, the first version of Google Chrome out of beta, PC Magazine says:

The retest shows a 24 percent speed improvement, bringing this released browser to the same level of performance as Firefox's second beta 3.1 version. The new numbers far outstrip what Microsoft's Internet Explorer was capable of, by a factor of nearly 100, and even bested the released version of Firefox 3.0's results more than threefold.

I'm generally pleased with Chrome but still have privacy concerns. I think Google needs to put in place an opt-out feature.

Labels: browsers, chrome, privacy

Google's Cookies Live For HOW LONG?

I was amused to read this blog post from Google official blog:

After listening to feedback from our users and from privacy advocates, we've concluded that it would be a good thing for privacy to significantly shorten the lifetime of our cookies — as long as we could find a way to do so without artificially forcing users to re-enter their basic preferences at arbitrary points in time. And this is why we’re announcing a new cookie policy.

In the coming months, Google will start issuing our users cookies that will be set to auto-expire after 2 years, while auto-renewing the cookies of active users during this time period.

LOL. Are they serious??? Two years is significantly shorter than what? 10 years? What did they have it at before?

Labels: cookies, google, privacy

Google Chrome Privacy Problems

From the ACLU of Nothern California:

Google Suggest is a new Chrome feature that suggests possible completions for partial search queries, such as when you misspell a Web address or otherwise encounter an error. This feature comes at a high price paid with personal data, however. Every keystroke typed into a Google Suggest-enabled area is sent to Google, along with your IP address and any Google account information stored in cookies on the user’s computer.

While Google Suggest is found in several products, it is particularly problematic in Chrome because Chrome features only a single input area, called the OmniBox, for entering both URLs and search queries. Chrome users are thus likely to send information about all of their Internet activity to Google, not just search queries.

Google says they will "anonymize" the data they collect:

To provide its recommendations Google Suggest needs to know what you've already typed, so these partial queries are sent to Google. For 98% of these requests, we don't log any data at all and simply return the suggestions. For the remaining 2% of cases (which we select randomly), we do log data, like IP addresses, in order to monitor and improve the service.

However, given the concerns that have been raised about Google storing this information -- and its limited potential use -- we decided that we will anonymize it within about 24 hours (basically, as soon as we practically can) in the 2% of Google Suggest requests we use.

But bloggers are calling bullshit:

Google has now revealed that it will change "some" of the bits of the IP address after 9 months, but less than the eight bits that it masks after the full 18 months. Thus, instead of Google's customers being able to hide among 254 other Internet users, perhaps they'll be able to hide among 64, or 127 other possible IP addresses.
By itself, this is a laughable level of anonymity. However, it gets worse.
First, remember that Google will not delete or anonymize user cookies from the logs when it slightly smudges IP addresses after nine months. Second, remember that as long as you use a Google Web property at least once every two years, the company will maintain a unique identifiable cookie value within your Web browser.

The alternative to Chrome is Iron but who knows if they can keep up with development. Chrome should have its own opt-out system. It's not hard to implement, and most people won't even bother to opt-out so they'll still get the data they want while protecting privacy of people who want that privacy. So why won't Google just do it? Don't be evil!

Labels: chrome, iron, privacy

Where is the Adobe Illustrator History Panel?

There isn't one! Apparently, I found out much to my dismay that Adobe Illustrator CS3 doesn't have a history panel like Adobe Photoshop CS3 does, BUT you can do endless (apparently) undos (CTRL-Z). Now is that something you can do in Photoshop? I don't think so...

Wonder if Illustrator CS4 still leaves out the History panel. What's the big deal, Adobe? Give us our History Panel for crying out loud!

Labels: design, illustrator, photoshop

Don't upgrade to WordPress 2.7-beta2!!

At first, I was super excited about the new version of WordPress (2.7), because the interface is now MUCH MUCH better than the last one, except for one or two things. Yeah to make posts you no longer have to scroll up and down all over the place. On the negative side, in terms of the interface, WordPress has apparently done away with the distinction between "Save and Continue Editing" and "Publish." Now even though it says "Publish," it means "Save and Continue Editing," which is really annoying.

But anyway, the reason NOT to upgrade, is that it's much slower than the previous version! If you do any significant amount of blogging, it will get very annoying.

What options does this leave? Blogger (as in blogspot-hosted), doesn't work. The comment management functions are completely retarded. Yes, I'm using Blogger for this blog, that's how I know! I've tried Chyrp but theming it is difficult. Well probably not really, but switching themes is not the simple one-click process that WordPress affords.

Actually, I might take another look at Chyrp or roll my own blog...

Labels: blogger, chyrp, wordpress

Free Bird Vectors (vector art)

Free bird vector art available here.

Labels: art

The Designer of Calibri (font)

I love Calibri.

Berlin-based Dutch type designer Luc(as) de Groot has worked with and for many well-known companies and publications. He has made custom fonts for prestigious newspapers such as Folha de S.Paulo, Le Monde, Metro and Der Spiegel in addition to creating corporate type for international companies including Sun Microsystems, Bell South, Heineken, Siemens and Miele. He designed two font families for Microsoft: the ‘monospaced’ font family Consolas, the new alternative to Courier; and Calibri, the new default typeface in MS Word.

De Groot founded his own type foundry, LucasFonts, in 2000.
Its aim, in a few words: to make the world a better place by designing typefaces that look good and work well under any circumstances and in many languages. Graphic designers across the planet have discovered the special qualities of Luc(as)’ fonts. They are attracted by their functionality and friendly appearance and love the enormous range of possibilities that each family offers. Many also appreciate the idiosyncrasies – a quest for extremes that has resulted in some of the narrowest, thinnest, wittiest or boldest typefaces around.

LucasFonts

Some fonts some free

Collection of 30 fonts you "want to have," some free.

Read the article.

Those are all good fonts, but I would add stuff like Didot, Bodoni, Bembo, Clarendon...

Labels: design, typography

Benchmarking in PHP

Article on basic benchmarking in PHP:

As I expressed in the introduction, one of the simplest ways to create a basic benchmarking mechanism relies on using the “microtime()” built-in PHP function. Just in case you didn’t know, this function returns the current Unix timestamp, which additionally appends the corresponding microseconds to the output.


// define 'getMicrotime()'function in PHP 4
function getMicrotime(){
list($useg,$seg)=explode(' ',microtime());
return ((float)$useg+(float)$seg);
}


The “getMicrotime()” function that I defined above demonstrates a classic use of “microtime()” to construct a basic benchmarking system. It’s one of the most common implementations of the function that I ever saw.

That being said, let me go one step further and show you a simple example of how to use the previous “getMicrotime()” function inside of a benchmarking script. Here is the pertinent code sample:


$startTime=getMicrotime();
// do nothing for a while
usleep(100);
$endTime=getMicrotime();
$totalTime=$endTime-$startTime;
echo 'Time spent in doing nothing was '.$totalTime.' seconds';


Read.

Labels: php

Cool free art

Flickr page.

Labels: art

A few free vector art

A few free vectors are available on Vector Stock. Nothing I would use but it's better than nothing.

Great Logo Site

Logo Pond has a huge collection of logos, something like 30,000+ and a a healthy user community. Great place to find inspiration for logo design!

How to tell git to ignore files

You can put shell-style globs (e.g. *.o) in either .git/info/exclude or .gitignore.

.git/info/exclude is local to your repository only, and not shared by others who might fetch from your repository.

.gitignore is more commonly used, as it can be checked into the repository and thereby automatically shared with all users of the project.

From the gitfaq.

What is this about?

$ git ls-files -o --exclude-standard >> .gitignore
$ $EDITOR .gitignore

By the way here here's a screencast for how to set up Git for use on Ruby on Rails projects.

Labels: git, version control

Awesome vector portrait

Visit the page on Flickr.

How to Save kuler Swatches

If using the Adobe AIR version of kuler, you might wonder how to use the swatches, like I am...

You can either get the hex codes for the colors (by clicking the pound sign), or supposedly download the ASE:

Your kuler themes are supported as Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) files. To download a theme from kuler, first make sure you’re signed in. Click on the theme you’d like and click Download. This downloads the theme as an .ase file to the location of your choice. In Illustrator CS2, from the Swatches palette pop-up menu, select Open Swatch Libraries > Other Libraries, and navigate to and select your saved .ase file. The file will open in a separate palette labeled with the theme name. To move these swatches to the Swatches palette, select the swatches you wish to move and, from the pop-up menu, select Add to Swatches. The swatch will be added to the Swatches palette. In Photoshop CS2 or InDesign CS2, from the Swatches palette pop-up menu, go to Load Swatches and navigate to your .ase file. Open the .ase file; your colors should appear in the Swatches palette.

For Adobe Creative Suite® 3 components:

In Illustrator CS3, you can use the kuler panel to quickly and directly download themes from kuler into the Swatches panel. Select Window>Adobe Labs>kuler to display this kuler panel. Using this panel, you can browse different RSS feeds from kuler (Most Popular, Newest, Highest Rated), as well as custom feeds, which are explained below. When you see a theme you like, click the Add to Swatches button on the kuler panel, which downloads the theme as a Color Group directly to the Illustrator Swatches panel.

You can also import .ase files downloaded from kuler into Illustrator CS3. From the Swatches panel pop-up menu, select Open Swatch Libraries > Other Libraries, and navigate to your saved .ase file. The file will open as a color group in a separate panel labeled with the theme name. To move this color group to the Swatches panel, select the group and drag it to the Swatches panel.

In Photoshop CS3 or InDesign CS3, from the Swatches panel pop-up menu, select Load Swatches, and navigate to your .ase file. Open the .ase file; your colors will appear in the Swatches panel.

In addition, Adobe Bridge CS3, a component of Creative Suite 3 as well as individual products, allows you to view your .ase files as visible swatches for easy selection.

That's from the kuler documentation, not specifially for the AIR app.

Unfortunately, if the AIR app is downloading the .ase file somewhere I have no idea where it's going. I checked every plausible place and I can't find it.

Another blog post claims that there are even more options:

For each of the colour palettes shown you can copy the swatch values (as a string comma separated without hashes), go to the Kuler website for that palette or save the theme. Now this is where it gets a little weird. Saving the theme comes with a number of options. You can save directly to your desktop as an ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) file. Or your given the option to import the theme into Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator. Great I though I will save it to Photoshop CS3. Ah, you are then told that you need something called Adobe Switchboard which allows AIR applications to import the themes directly into the CS3 applications.

But I don't see any options. When I click the Save ASE icon, nothing happens. Maybe I will stick to using kuler in Illustrator...

In Illustrator you can do:
Window > Adobe Labs > kuler

Labels: air, design, illustrator

Free Parkour Vector Art

Urban climbing, parkour, free running--whatever you wanna call it. Here's some free vector art that can be used non-commercially:

First set (download page):



Second set (download page):