skezblog

2006-06-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

shut up

digg screening front page stories?

2006-02-20T14:37:00.000-08:00

I recently submitted a story to digg, this one to be exact, it quickly accumulated 31 diggs and I figured it was headed towards the front page. After a while I checked on it and it was nowhere to be found, not on the front page, not in the digg section (even though it had only been submitted an hour earlier). So what happened? The only conclusion I can come up with is that digg has started screening posts before they hit the front page, and for whatever reason mine didn't make the cut.

Hopefully digg will reconsider if they are actually doing this, its entirely against what digg is supposed to be.

To be fair, it's possible that people reported it because it's not "tech related", but I would think there would be a few more comments since diggers love to bitch about it.

Zooomer vs. Flickr

2006-02-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

Zooomr is a great site, almost like a Flickr lite, flickr just seems a bit bloated to me, thats my only complaint, but zoomr solves it.

The only problem is compression, check this out

Flickr

Zooomr

Flickr

Zooomr

Now maybe I'm just picky, but I noticed it without even directly comparing the two, if Zoomr fixes the compression issue I will happily switch over.

Insane Flying Lawnmower

2006-02-08T22:49:00.000-08:00

this is ridiculous

I posted it on digg, so digg it

Great shows on YouTube

2006-02-07T20:08:00.000-08:00

I've recently discovered that youtube has a lot of full episodes of shows that people have uploaded, The Simpsons and Seinfeld just to name a couple. I put a lot of them in my favorites folder to keep track of them, so check it out.

Heres an episode of The Simpsons just to get you started, gotta have my tomacco.

digg feature suggestion

2006-02-04T22:01:00.000-08:00

An automatic mirror/cache/backup link next to the title of the story so that when the digg effect kills the server everyone can still easily get to the page, the link would be through the Coral Cache (http://www.coralcdn.org/)

The Coral Cache works by automatically downloading the page to a large network of servers and distributing the load between them so that no single server is responsible for it all, this makes it extremely reliable.

Mario Kart DS

2006-02-01T23:46:00.000-08:00

Greatest Mario Kart DS avatar ever? yes.

Trials Bike Game

2006-01-26T13:27:00.000-08:00

I found this a while back, ultra-addictive, consider yourself warned.

http://www.notanorg.org/trials/

Easy guide to skinning Windows XP

2006-01-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

Changing visual styles on Windows XP is notoriously difficult, but following these instructions it should be pretty painless.

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility if this messes up your computer, this method has always worked for me, but use it at your own risk.

Download and install flyakite's excellent UXTheme.dll Patcher
Note: You will need to restart your computer, if you're relying on this guide you might want to save the link.
Go download some visual styles.
My favorite resource for this is deviantART, the files you need are craftily hidden away in the Skins -> Windows Utilities -> Visual Styles folder. One of my personal favorite skins is HmmXP
After you download your skin.
Unzip/unrar and drag the files to your C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes folder.
Right click on your desktop and click Properties to open up your Display Properties window.
Then click on the Appearance tab, now select your newly installed theme from the Windows and buttons drop down menu.
Click Apply.
Enjoy!

"I don't see my theme in the Windows and buttons menu!"
Make sure your theme is its own folder. For example, if your theme was called "mytheme" then all the files should be in C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\mytheme

Robert Wadlow - Worlds Tallest Man

2006-01-16T22:06:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia Article:

Robert Pershing Wadlow (February 22, 1918 – July 15, 1940) was the tallest person recorded in modern times. Wadlow reached 272 cm (8 ft 11.1 in) in height and 490 pounds (222 kg) in weight before his death at the age of 22. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to a tumor within his pituitary gland.

Wadlow was born to Harold Franklin and Addie (Johnson) Wadlow in Alton, Illinois on February 22, 1918, at the weight of 8 pounds, 6 ounces (3.80 kg) and normal height. He was the oldest of five children; his younger siblings were Helen Ione, Eugene Harold, Betty Jean, and Harold Franklin II. His height grew normally until he was four years old. He started attracting attention due to his rapid growth when all his four siblings grew at a more normal speed. By the age of eight, he was 6 feet (182 cm) tall. At ten, he was 6 ft 6 in (198 cm) and 220 pounds (100 kg). At the age of 14, he became the world's tallest Boy Scout at the height of 7 ft 4 in (224 cm), averaging an annual growth of four additional inches per year since birth; at that time he wore size 25 shoes. At 16, Wadlow was 7 feet 10.5 inches (240 cm) tall and weighed 365 pounds (166 kg). At 17, he weighed nearly 400 pounds (180 kg) and was 8 feet 1.5 inches (248 cm) tall. By age 18, Wadlow had grown to be 8 ft 4 in (254 cm) and weigh 390 pounds (177 kg); his size 37AA shoes (about 19.3 inches or 49.0 cm), provided to him free of charge, cost US$100 a pair, or about US$1400 in present-day inflation-adjusted dollars. In 1936, after graduating from Alton High School, he enrolled in Shurtleff College with the intention of studying law. By 1937, Wadlow had exceeded all previous recorded human heights. At 19, he was 8 ft 6 in (260 cm) and weighed 435 pounds (197 kg). However, his size began to take its toll: he required leg braces to walk, and had little sensation in his legs and feet. At 21, he reached 8 ft 8.5 in (265 cm) tall. On his 22nd birthday, he was 491 pounds (223 kg) and 8 ft 9.5 in (268 cm) tall.

In his time, Wadlow was among the most popular of American celebrities; he was well-known due to his 1936 U.S. tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus and his 1938 promotional tour with the International Shoe Company. He continued participating in various tours and public appearances until his death.

On July 4, 1940, Wadlow was hospitalized in Manistee, Michigan while making a professional appearance at the National Forest Festival in Manistee; a faulty brace had irritated his ankle, causing a blister and bad infection. Doctors treated him with blood transfusions and emergency surgery but his fever only worsened. On July 14, his condition was said to be "very grave" and he was using a feeding tube. His temperature never dropped below 106 °F (41 °C) during that day. At 12:40 pm on July 15, 1940, he died in his sleep. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in upper Alton on July 19. His half-ton casket required a dozen pallbearers and eight other men to carry. On the day of his funeral, all city businesses were closed out of respect. Around 40,000 people attended his funeral that day.

In 1985, a life-size bronze statue of Wadlow was erected at the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine. To this day he is still affectionately known as the "Gentle Giant".

He is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest person.

Whinney the cat

2006-01-16T20:03:00.000-08:00

Yet another Google Video (fishing)

2006-01-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

Yeah yeah yeah... I know...

But just watch it, how could I resist posting such madness?

Google Video Link

Fallout Boy Music Video Parody

2006-01-13T00:12:00.000-08:00

I dont usually post this kind of thing here but this is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

Google Video Link

Google Video Test

2006-01-10T15:47:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to test out how embedding Google Video's works

Old Version AIM + Old Version DeadAIM

2005-12-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

Tired of crappy IM clients? Me too, but here's a good FREE option.

The old version of AIM is significantly less shitty than new versions, there are no obtrusive ads, and its not bloatware. Add the old version of DeadAIM and you have a real winner. Deadaim is now $5, but this version is freeware, it adds tabbed IM windows and removes the ads, what you end up with is a simple AIM client that is fully functional (you can use direct connect and file transfers) and just rocks.

Free Image Hosting

2005-04-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

Note: This is pretty out of date now, do a google search for file host list for best results.

Heres my running-list of free image hosting services.

FileHost.ws - Upload to most of these from one place, very very nice.

ImageShack.ws - 1MB File size. Files never deleted. 1 File at a time.
File Types: .jpg .jpeg .png .gif .tif .tiff .swf

PaintedOver.com - 1.5MB File siz. 1 File at a time.
File Types: .jpg .jpeg .png .gif

fapomatic.com - 1.5MB File size. For adult/NWS images. 1 File at a time.
File Types: .jpg .jpeg .png .gif

ImageVenue.com - 1.5MB File size. Image Resizing. 5 Files at a time.
File Types: .jpg .jpeg

WTFhost.com - Run by me. 1MB file size. Tons of files at a time.
File Types: .jpg .zip .doc .txt .phps .bmp .jpe .gif .png .rar .htm .html .swf .avi .mpg .mpeg .wmv .mp3 .wma .wav

Rapidshare.de - 30MB File size. Best for videos/other files, not images.
File Types: A crapload

UploadHut.com - WARNING: may try to install spyware, use firefox. 50MB File size. best for videos/other files, not imagse.
File Types: Any

Public Upload Thingy - Wouldnt count on it being around forever.
File Types: ???

FrozynFyre's Uploader - 4MB file size.
File Types: .jpg .doc .txt .bmp .jpeg .gif .png

FapFap.net Uploads - 350KB file size
File Types: .jpg .jpe .gif .png

rawr

2005-03-28T00:38:00.000-08:00

rawr

Answers.com Firefox Extension

2005-03-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

-------
NOTE: this is hold as crap now, my new solution is to install the google toolbar and set the normal search box to answers.com
-------

Description:
I wanted an Answers.com search box, but I didnt want to give up my Google search box, so I made an extension that adds an Answers.com search box.

Screen Shot:

Installation:
VERSION 0.3

After installing you will have to right click on your toolbar (where the drop down menu's are) and click on customize, then find the search box from window and drag it onto your toolbar.

Disclaimer:
I didnt make all of this, its mostly hacked together.

Google takes down Google X

2005-03-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

Another Update:
I just looked and theres a bunch of news stories about it now, so heres the links to actual news sources.
ZDNet
MacDailyNews
Google news search for "Google X"

Update:
Heres a mirror of Google X
http://www.theplaceforitall.com/googlex/

Google took down its OSX-style search page that was at the link below
http://labs.google.com/googlex/

Notice that the error is not Google's normal 404 error message, instead giving the error "The requested URL was not found on this server." with just that text and nothing else.

The Google Blog article for Google X is still up.

Heres the Google Blog entry in case they take it down

Google goes X
Today is an amazing day: A small idea - a fun late-night coding jaunt to help me learn Javascript & DHTML - has just launched on Google Labs. I never expected it to make it as far as it has when I wrote it a month ago, especially since my "real" job is working on Keyhole, where I'm having the time of my life taking our cool 3D mapping application and putting the power of Google behind it. It's fulfilling to have the opportunity to reach the audience we always dreamed of when we started Keyhole five years ago, and that by itself is absolute coolness.

And now there's Google X, which came about because I wanted a quick fun way to access all of Google's services. I gave it to a few friends in the company, who gave it to their friends, some posted it on their blogs, others sent it around on mailing lists, and it eventually made its way to Marissa Mayer, who liked it enough to say, when do you want to put it up on Labs? So after some spit and polish from some enthusiastic Googlers and the keen eye of the UI team, Google X is here. I hope all of you enjoy it - especially Mac users, who I'm sure will appreciate its lineage.

Chikai Ohazama
Software Engineer
Posted @ 4:40 PM / Permanent Link

Google user tracking mode?

2005-03-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

I'm usually on Google's side when it comes to privacy issues, but this is just a bit creepy...

Today I was trying to figure out why my Google Preview Firefox extension wasn't working (it only showed an image of google.com), so I went to the extensions website and right at the top of the page it explained the problem; Google is in user tracking mode. What does that mean? It basically means that Google is tracking which links you click, so for example if you searched for "some site", the first result might be "www.somesite.com", and normally the link to somesite.com is just "http://www.somesite.com", but when Google is in user tracking mode the link might be "http://www.google.com/url?
sa=U&start=1&q=http://www.somesite.com/&e=9800" (or something similar, that's what it was for me), and this means that Google knows which search results you click. On the Google Preview extension site they say that you can fix this by clearing your Google cookie, this worked for me, so if you have this issue then I suggest you clear out your cookies.

What are they doing? I'm sure there is a reasonable explination for this, but it'd be nice if they would tell us whats going on.

linkhold

2005-03-14T18:33:00.000-08:00

i made a little script that can hold a link for you so that you can right click -> save as it (if you use AIM a lot, you may have had that problem before)

here it is
http://www.wtfhost.com/link

update

2005-03-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

just figured i'd give an update if theres actually anyone reading this.

I added some features to WTFstart, there is now a weather module (which needs some work) and you can also change your search engine to yahoo (if you are stupid enough to do such a thing!). I also cleaned up the customize page, should be a bit more straight forward now.

I did a minor bug fix to texthold. now there arent slashes before quotes in your .txt files.

I've also been somewhat working on a firefox extension to automatically install the firefox ad blocking trick, but no one told me how facking hard making firefox extensions is! (i suck at java)

edit: almost forgot! theres a whole shit ton of cool pics here (56k warning)

Every SNES game ever

2005-03-10T16:17:00.000-08:00

I put every SNES game up on my server, hope you all enjoy.
http://www.skezdispenser.com/snes/

List of all my projects

2005-03-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

Answers.com Firefox Extension

notanorg - paid web hosting

WTFhost - free web host

WTFstart - customizable start page

texthold - holds your text

PHP scripts - a bunch of PHP scripts I've made/am working on

Block almost all ads in Firefox

2005-03-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

Advanced Users:
If you know wtf you're doing, go here.

Novice Users:
With just a few easy steps, you can block 99% of ads in Firefox.

Install the ChromEdit extension

Go to the tools menu and click "Edit User Files"

Go to the "userContent.css" tab

Go to this link and copy the code.
http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/adblock

Paste it in your userContent.css file and click save

Restart your browser

Enjoy ad-free surfing!

In case you're wondering how this works, it just blocks elements in the page that are the same as those specified in your userContent.css, so it doesnt even load the image/iframe/whatever (unlike Adblock).

skezblog

digg screening front page stories?

Zooomer vs. Flickr

Insane Flying Lawnmower

Great shows on YouTube

digg feature suggestion

Mario Kart DS

Trials Bike Game

Easy guide to skinning Windows XP

Robert Wadlow - Worlds Tallest Man

More Reading:

Wikipedia Article:

Whinney the cat

Yet another Google Video (fishing)

Fallout Boy Music Video Parody

Google Video Test

Old Version AIM + Old Version DeadAIM

Free Image Hosting

rawr

Answers.com Firefox Extension

Google takes down Google X

Google user tracking mode?

linkhold

update

Every SNES game ever

List of all my projects

Block almost all ads in Firefox