The ring...
My digital camera didn't take a very good picture of the ring, so I had to try and clean it up a bit. Anyway, here's the best picture I could get of it. Click the picture for a larger view.
I'm engaged!
I proposed to Jenn tonight.
I was originally going to do it on New Years Eve—which would have been the 3rd Anniversary of the first time I told her I loved her. I then decided I wanted to do it before we go to her parents for the Holiday, so I was thinking about Christmas Eve. Last night I decided I wanted to do something with just the two of us, something a little more memorable.
So, I decided to take Jenn to Mills of Clifton Gorge—where they do a huge Christmas Lights display every year.
Compare prices with a picture phone with SCANBUY
I was watching the local news last night when they did a quick blurb on a mobile phone service called SCANBUY. This company looks to have been around for a while and I can't understand why the idea hasn't been talked about more.
The basic concept behind the SCANBUY service is that you run an application (via your wireless carrier) on your picture phone. When you're at a major retail store, you can take a picture of the bar code of the product. SCANBUY will then report back the pricing of that item at other local area stores. That way you know if the asking price is in par with other stores in the area.
This is a really great idea that will hopefully catch on. It's on available on a limited number of phones right now. In addition to the software being available for your phone, you wireless carrier must also provide the service. In my case, they list the Motorola v710 phone as being supported, but Verizon doesn't currently offer the service—which sucks.
Firefox - Upgrade JavaScript Console Extension
Jim Rutherford over at Digital Media Minute blogged about a next generation JavaScript console which is a Firefox v1.5 extension called Console².
This extension adds a lot of necessary functions to the Firefox JavaScript Console window (which is renamed "Error Console") such as: sorting errors, filtering errors by type (CSS, JS, XML) and you can even search over the errors.
One tip, the "Clear" button isn't on the toolbar by default. To add it you'll need to right-click the toolbar and choose "Customize". Not sure why they didn't add the "Clear" button by default—seems like a button that's absolutely necessary. I know it's a button I use pretty much any time I have the JavaScript console open.
Cool Firefox Extension - foXpose
The Viamatic foXpose plug-in is an extension for Firefox v1.5 that will show all your open tabs in single window with thumbnail previews of the window.I've seen this blogged about a lot recently, but finally tried it out based upon an IM from Cameron Childress.
I was worried that the plug-in would be too CPU intensive, but it does really seem to negatively affect my performance in Firefox. Plus, it's really slick being able to see thumbnails of all my open tabs.
You can activate foXpose by either pressing [CTRL]+[SHIFT]+[X] or by clicking the pane icon in the lower-right hand corner of the window.
Possible Buffer Overflow Bug in Firefox v1.5
John Dowdell posted about a possible buffer overflow bug in Firefox v1.5.
I'm not sure why you wouldn't cap the document.title object at 256 or 1024 characters. There's really no reason why you should be able to dump that many chars into that property anyway.
So, if you find Firefox v1.5 is crashing everytime you start the application, try deleting your history.dat. Actually, I'd recommend renaming it to history.bak that way you don't lose everything if it doesn't fix the problem.
TIP: Adding "Command Prompt Here" Context Menu
I often find myself needing to open up a command line on a specific directory. Since Windows Explorer is almost always open on my machine while I'm developing, it makes perfect since that I'd want to use Windows Explorer to open up a command line prompt in a specific directory via the context menu. How can you do this you ask? You edit the registry.
This is not a new tip. It's been around since Windows 95. There's even been a Microsoft PowerToy that does this for every version of Windows, but essentially all it does is create some registry entries for you. I prefer manually editing the registry, as I then have complete control over how I want the listing to appear.
- Open regedit
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes/Folder/Shell
- Create a new key called command prompt
- Your default value should be Command Prompt Here
- Create a new key called commandunder the command prompt key
- Your default value should be cmd.exe /k pushd %L
A FPS Shooter Example Using Firefox v1.5 Without Plug-ins!
I caught this on Blogzilla. If you have Firefox v1.5, this is very cool. The <canvas> tag looks pretty slick, but since only Firefox supports it, I can't see much use for it right now.
New in Firefox 1.5 is support of the <canvas> tag, which is a new HTML element that can be used to draw graphics using JavaScript. It's not SVG, even though it overlaps functionality with SVG.
Rafael Robayna has created a simple painter demo. A little more detailed is the first-person shooter demonstration.
While both are a little slow and not so smooth, it's still cool to see something like this is possible.
More on <canvas> tag:
Mozilla Developer entry for Canvas
Mozilla Wiki entry for Canvas
Stupid Glasses...
Around 1993 I developed an astigmatism in my right eye. The first time it started acting up I got real nauseous trying to focus on anything for too long at a medium distance. I went to the eye doctor to have my eyes checked out, which is when I found out I had an astigmatism. My vision has always been at least 20/20 (it's still 20/20 in my right eye and 20/10 in my left.) Anyway, the doctor prescribed me glasses for reading (and for staring at the computer screen) to help calm the astigmatism. I wore the glasses for about 3 or 4 weeks until my eye calmed down and then I just stopped wearing them.
Anyway, about every 4 years or so the eye acts up again and I go through a similiar routine. Eye starts bothering me, go to the doctor, get glasses, feel better, stop wearing them. Well, just recently my eye starting bothering me again, so I just got my third pair of glasses.
The thing I always forget (and they never tell you about) is how much glasses can shift your perspective until you get used to them. Any rectangle within 12-24" of my face looks like a trapezoid. Here's what I'm talking about:
Cool App: True Launch Bar
I was just recently tipped off about a pretty cool replacement for the Windows Quicklaunch bar called True Launch Bar v3.2. Overall, it seems to be a really good enhancement to Windows XP. The only thing I've found that I dislike is that I haven't found a good way to apply configuaration changes across different toolbars (you have the ability to customize each toolbar to behave differently--which is great, but often I want to make the same change across multiple toolbars.) I'm sure there's probably a way to do this and I just haven't figured it out.
I've always used multiple toolbars, I usually have the default "Quick Launch" toolbar and then a couple others for Remote Desktop Connections, VPNs Connections and Games. The nice thing about the True Launch Bar is you can configure a bunch of different virtual folders on a toolbar to really customize how Windows XP works. They even have "plug-ins" which are active items that run in a toolbar.
So, I've broken my taskbar into 3 different toolbars. The "Quick Launch" bar, a "Virtual Folders" bar and a "Plug-ins" bar. The Quick Launch bar shows the default items in the Quick Launch bar. I use these for the applications I use every single day that I want one-click access to. The "Virtual Folders" bar consist of icon shortcuts that pop-up a folder of shortcuts (which can contain subfolders.) Basically think of this as a bunch of specialized "All Program" folders. My "Plug-ins" bar currently has two plugins in it—the Battery Life and Wireless Signal plug-ins. These give me live feedback on my battery status and my WiFi connectivity.
Firefox v1.5 Released
Firefox v1.5 is being released today. The website still says RC3 is the latest build, but you should see an official announcement later today (probably between 6pm-9pm EST.)
Cool App: TaskSwitchXP Pro 2.0
I ran across this application a few weeks ago and have been using it since. It's a pretty slick replacement for the old Windows ALT/TAB application switcher. It has a lot more features and includes thumbnail previews of your windows. This works a lot better than the Windows XP Power Toy. Plus, you can configured it to minimize applications to the systray instead of the taskbar—which is useful for applications like Thunderbird which don't do that natively (although I use an application called ThunderTray for doing that w/Thunderbird.)
Oh yeah, it's totally free! For more information, click the link below:
TaskSwitchXP Pro 2.0
Sorry for the hiatus...
Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I threw my back out (doctor says it's a bulging disc) a couple of weeks ago. I've been trying to minimize my time sitting in front of a computer screen and working on rehabbing and strengthening my back. Anyway, I'll try to get back to blogging. :)
Upgrade to Firefox v1.07 Immediately - Severe Security Hole Found
For all of you running Firefox, you really should upgrade your version immediately. The Washington Post has reported a severe security hole that can allow a malicious hacker to take control of your PC.
Upgrade to Firefox v1.07 now by downloading it from the Firefox Product page.