GlitchNYC.com

GlitchNYC has moved

After a long and sordid love affair with blosxom, my poor little 133 mhz server decided it didn't want to run perl cgi scripts with lots of plugins and tons of I/O for every single user that visited this site. Blosxom finally slowed to a crawl, and I needed to look for options.

Being a blogger interested in open source, it didn't take me long to hone in on wordpress, and I've been happily using it for a few months over at http://www.glitchnyc.com. In fact, I was so happy with it that I also used it to power the sites behind the GlitchCast, a music podcast featuring new and independent artists, the GeekQuiz, a weekly quiz show for geeky podcasters, and the Transit Strike Podcast, which covered the events following the Transit strike in NYC in December 2005.

If you're looking for new content, please head over to

http://www.glitchnyc.com

If you'd like to get in touch with me, please use the contact page over at http://www.glitchnyc.com/?page_id=132

12:18 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Disappearing Flash in Firefox? A quick Adblock fix remedies the problem!

As savvy web surfers begin to upgrade to Flash 8, they're in for a bit of a rude awakening. If you're using Firefox and Adblock (which you should be!) and upgrade to Flash 8, suddenly flash movies disappear. Instead of the expected movie, you get simply blank space.

What's happening is a conflict between Adblock and Flashplayer 8. There's no update yet from either Macromedia or the Adblock developers, but luckily, you don't have to uninstall either tool to fix the problem.

All you have to do is disable "obj-tabs", those little "Adblock" tabs that hang off the edge of flash movies. These tabs give you easy access to block annoying flash movies, since right clicking on a movie will activate Flash's own context menu, rather than the Firefox menu where your Adblock tools normally are for images.

In lieu of the obj-tabs, you can click tools->Adblock->"List all blockable elements" or hit ctrl-shift-a to bring up a list of everything on the page that Adblock can filter out.

Turning off Adblock's obj-tabs is easy. Just click Tools->Adblock->preferences->"Adblock Options" and then uncheck "show obj-tabs." Refresh your page and voila! Flash is back.

2:05 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

del.icio.us links

Selections from my del.icio.us bookmarks

Usually found by watching the feed of what's popular with other del.icio.us members, Oishii!

Patek style tenor banjo

Good site for an alternative tuning and style for the tenor banjo. This style should be more familiar to guitarists wanting to switch back and forth between instruments

GTD Introduction - PigPog Creativity Wiki

GTD - Getting Things Done - is a book by David Allen, giving a series of principles for managing the day to day tasks and projects we all have to do.

Directions for making Dried Apple Shrunken heads for Halloween

Peach Saves Mario's Ass - Kotaku

New mario game staring Princess Peach for the nintendo DS

Mario Unleashed - Google Video

Live Action Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach take on the marimba.

NYC2123

An excellent cc-by-nc-sa graphic novel, formatted for the PSP but also great for reading on the web

Tobby Pachi

Fun little flash game were you launch a little dog off a springboard to collect gems and rescue the girl. His ears flap in the wind as you launch him towards spikes and over obstacles. Cute.

Fluff Radio

The Fluff Radio Review - A live music, comedy, and talk radio podcast created by the same fine folks that brought you Fluff In Brooklyn - http://www.fluffinbrooklyn.com

Writerisms and other Sins

A Writer's Shortcut to Stronger Writing by C.J. Cherryh

Werewolf - A free, simple, party game

Werewolf is a simple game for a large group of people (seven or more.) It requires no equipment besides some bits of paper; you can play it just sitting in a circle. I'd call it a party game, except that it's a game of accusations, lying, bluffing, second

1:11 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

The Image to ASCII Converter

As a user of BBSes back in the pre-internet days, I have a special appreciation for ASCII art. Back then, image files were a download you needed to wait hours for (uncompressed bitmaps being prevalent) and then open in a viewer program, either in dos or windows 3.1 if you were lucky.

Instead, images were cleverly crafted from letters, numbers and symbols, squeezing some semblance of UI and page design out of the text only format of most BBSes.

Now, most ASCII art is relegated to .nfo files provided by warez distribution groups. Amazingly, the artform continues to advance - I've seen some of the most impossibly intricate designs weaved around text in those files, despite the crude nature of using other text as images.

A few days ago I added the Image To ASCII HTML Converter to my del.icio.us bookmarks (which you can subscribe to a feed of if so inclined). Today I finally got a chance to run an image through it that's well suited to the artform. Without further ado, I give you the "ASCII snakey worm thing!"

......................................................
......................................................
......................................................
...........................            ...............
.......................  :C@@@@@@@@@@@O:   ...........
....................  c8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@C  .........
..................  c@@@@@@@8o:..c8@@@@@@@@@O. .......
.................  O@@@@@@O :8. C@:o@@@@@@@@@8. ......
................ .8@@@@@@8 c@O  .@o:@@@@@@@@@@O  .....
...............  C@@@@@@@8 .@O  .8.c@@@@@@@@@@@. .....
..............  :@@@@@@@@@O  o:   :@@@@@@@@@@@@: .....
..............  o@@@@@@@@@@@8o::o8@@@@@@@@@@@@@. .....
..............  O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@C ......
..............  8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8O8@@@@@@@O  ......
..............  O@@@@@O8@@@@@@@@@@o8@8@@@@@@o  .......
..............  O@@@@:    o@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8c  .........
..............  C@@@@8C.     ::cccoocc.   ............
.............   C@@@@@@@@8O:         .................
............   c@@@@@@@@@@@8  ........................
........    .C@@@@@@@@@@@@@@o ........................
.......  C@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@c ........................
......  O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8  ........................
.....  c@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@. .........................
.....  O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@O   .........................
.....  8@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@c   ..........................
....  :@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@:   ...........................
..... :@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8.              .................
..... .@@@@@@@@@@@@@c     ......        ..............
..... .8@@@@@@@@@@c  :O@@@@@@@@@@@@@Oc    ............
.....  O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@O   ...........
.....  :@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8  ...........
......  o@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@.  ..........
.......  :@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@c  ...........
.........  :O@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@8c    ...........
............                             .............
......................................................
......................................................
......................................................

8:57 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Delicious Links

Over the past few years, I've changed the focus of this blog to match my moods and interests. I've also grown my own sensibilities about what "personal publishing" should look and feel like and what I aim to do here.

In doing that, I've dropped many of the "cool links" I used to feature. There's plenty of blogs that do that sort of thing (boing boing and slashdot spring to mind), and I didn't want to simply repost their stuff with some added comments.

That said, I still find a handful of cool sites a month, and my bookmarks were getting really out of hand (and out of sync) between my work and home copies of Firefox.

http://del.icio.us came to the rescue, and provided me with a way to archive and access all my bookmarks in one place. It even integrates with firefox through a very unobtrusive plugin, so all I have to do is right click on any webpage to add it to my list of cool links. I also "tag" the links I put up there so it's easy to search for them later without remembering exactly what they were called.

When I post a link, it gets added to both my "home" and then general tally of what people are looking at. When sites are getting noticed and bookmarked by a lot of people, they move quickly up the ranks at del.icio.us. Watching that feed through Oishii! has been fun, and I've found some amazing sites for CSS web design, acquiring software and media, and other fun stuff. Because the Oishii feed tracks sites that are being bookmarked now (and not just the most popular overall), the signal to noise ratio is just slightly better than random. Which is just about how I like it. These aren't the sites that everyone knows about yet, but damn some of them are neat.

Because del.icio.us provides RSS feeds of just about everything, it was easy for me to syndicate into my blog. It won't show up in the feed, so I may occasionally cross post some of these links here in the main story section, but if you go to http://www.glitchnyc.com and look on the right you'll see a new "del.icio.us" links section that features the 5 most recent sites I've bookmarked.

To give you a taste of what's in there, here's my latest 5.

• The Pirate Bay - The worlds largest BitTorrent tracker
  
• Random - Google Video Search
  
• Revolutionary Venom Line Being Developed by Specialized
  
  crazy looking bikes
• .: UNEASYsilence :.
  
  has info on installing mac on PC
• Agata Report
  

2:48 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Google for Dorky Teen

Hahaha... I was just looking at my webstats and I got a bunch of hits for the search terms Dorky Teen (no quotes). Turns out I'm #2 on google for that search. Hahaha, well, at least its true. I mean, the dorky part... Can I even call myself post-teen anymore? I'm going to be 25 in a month and a half. Wow.

3:59 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Fluff In Brooklyn's 50th Comic Fiesta!

Colleen has already hit 50 comics of her hilarious stuffed-animal-roommate-comedy-biopic Fluff In Brooklyn. Zany Delta Burke infused humor abounds in episodes 1-50, who knows what the future holds! The 50th comic came complete with a fantastic party in Brooklyn that the characters themselves attended. Check out the comic and the pics.

Congrats Colleen! You've successfully posted 47 more web-comics than your average web-comic-poster, and 48 more than I ever managed. Here's to another 50!... And then another party. Wink wink, nudge nudge, NUDGE POKE PUNCH TACKLE... Oops, uhh, sorry about that. Umm, here, let me help you up. Oh. Okay, yeah, yeah, I'll just... I'll just leave now. You sure you don't need.. okay, yeah I'm gone.

step step step step... creak... cha-thunk.

creak. "it was a great party, throw another!" cre-cha-thunk.

1:04 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Aaaaaand, We're Back.

Well, this little server certainly isn't immune to some downtime here and there, and last week it was down for a few days. The beauty is that google felt so bad about my server being down that they decided to take their's down in a show of solidarity. If that's not nice, I don't know what is.

11:00 am | permalink | /technology/web/blog | 0 writebacks |

How Ajax (and lots and lots of amateurs) are Changing the Web

Adaptive Path published a piece back in February about the way that smart web applications are changing the web by doing away with the click-reload-click-reload paradigm. You only need to look as far as Google Maps to see why this is a great thing. If you're a web designer or just entranced by how cool not having to wait for Google Maps to reload is every time you move the map check the piece out. It's fascinating.

A few days ago, Adaptive Path's CEO (who boasts clients such as the UN and Intel) busted out with a very "1999"-ish prediction: the web itself is about to change.

The catch here is that Janice Fraser was here in 1999. In fact, she worked for Netscape back in 1996. She's intensely familiar with the whole "bubble" thing and isn't about to be sucked in by one cool new technology that promises to change everything.

Instead, she sees changing coming from the outskirts of the web, growing like a tide. She sees our army of amateur encyclopedia writers at wikipedia, our wannabe news-writers blogging away, our hobbyist geeks churning out open source code. And she's not alone.

Combine that groundswell of truly innovative development power (in the way that only hobbyists can innovate because they've got nothing to lose) with the coming shift from click-reload to true web based applications - and suddenly, her predictions of massive change don't seem that crazy. Speaking from my own experience as both a serious web-surfer and a writer/web-designer, my habits have changed significantly in the past few months. I get most of my "web" fix through my email client, thunderbird's rss reader. I've switched back to doing most of my design in a text editor using php and CSS+XHTML. The web is changing and the way you surf may never be the same. The user has more and more control over the content they consume every day. Some people see the tides of change as scary and threatening.

I say, grab your board - surf's up.

3:54 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Audioscrobbler - Tracking your Tunes

Audioscrobbler is a combination website and plugin for your favorite music application which keeps track of what you've been listening to.

To answer the obvious "so what" question, once the site has a decent idea of what you've been listening to, it's then able to recommend other groups you may like based on what others who like the same music are listening to.

It also provides a nifty RSS or text feed of the songs you've listened to most recently linked to info about the music on Audioscrobbler, which you can include on your blog (check out the lower right of Glitchnyc.com). The realtime data will also allow them (soon) to keep charts that will put billboard to shame with its accuracy and speed.

The plugins are all free and open source, so you can download them without fear of becoming spyware infected or sending tons of personal data over the wire, and the data they collect is Creative Commons by-nc-sa, so you're free to redistribute it as long as you follow the guidelines of that license.

It's fun to look at the personal charts of what you've been listening to and see just how bad you are with certain artists (can you tell I've been on a Rilo Kiley kick all week?) Now I'll just have to remember to turn the plug-in off before going on my occasional "guilty pleasure" Avril binges.

10:47 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

REAL Ultimate Power - Now in Book Form

FROM:Real Ultimate Power.net
Hi, this site is all about ninjas, REAL NINJAS. This site is awesome. My name is Robert and I can't stop thinking about ninjas. These guys are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet.

Facts:

1. Ninjas are mammals.

2. Ninjas fight ALL the time.

3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.

If you don't already know what RealUltimatePower is, you've got to go to http://www.realultimatepower.net and check it out. It's part of web history at this point.

The Big news? THERE'S NOW A BOOK, which is awesome, and by awesome I mean totally sweet.

This link stolen from my cool new lunch buddy Jessie. And by cool, I mean totally sweet. Is the joke dead yet? Have I killed it? I'm a joke killer.

2:06 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Twenty Questions

My parents introduced me to a crazy website this past weekend. 20q.net is a game server that asks you seemingly random questions in an attempt to guess the object that you're thinking of.

Skeptical, I picked Pyrite (aka Fool's Gold) and gave it a shot.

The thing had me at 13 questions.

The technology behind this (presumably a hash table of answers to questions representing each object) is really quite ingenious, and the game learns as you play, updating the hash value for objects as you answer questions others haven't answered before. It also moves down through a "tree" of relevant questions as you play, so that it narrows in on your chosen object.

It's pretty fun to try to stump the machine - so far I haven't been able to!

Try it yourself. They've got a handheld version as well which is pretty amazing considering the thinking power in this thing.

1:34 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

The Wikinews Crossword

While working at Wikinews editing an article tonight, I came across the Wikinews Crosswords. Apparently someone is putting together daily crosswords for free as part of the Wikinews project released, as all wikinews content is, under a public domain license. This is brilliant!

There's a bit of discussion as to whether it's appropriate for wikinews since the wikinews is not a print publication, but I agree with many others there that crosswords are often topical and related to current news and repeat crossword users will also be repeat readers.

2:22 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Ice Pellets

This is my favorite. Every time there's a forecast for Ice Pellets I practically pee myself.

Why am I so excited about Ice Pellets? Simply because the description is above and beyond the call. There's no need for it, but there it stands, proudly describing the weather in NYC tomorrow on wunderground.

Sara: Ice pellets? Why don't they just say Ice Rockets. Or Ice Daggers.

"Cloudy with a chance of Ice Daggers tomorrow." You know some stiff corporate guys were like "Oh, no, you can't say Ice Rockets." I'd be fighting for Ice Rockets if I worked there. The guy's like "Fine, ok, can we at least put Ice Pellets? (muttered) and if I slip and put Ice Bullets..."

Why don't they just say hail?

Eric: I don't know, but that's the beauty of it. Tomorrow, Thirty-two degrees and Ice Pellets. Awesome.

11:58 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Placemat Art

Well, I was going to paste up some of the doodles that we all drew at Colleen's b-day last friday, but she beat me to it!

• Tons of Placemat Art. Whoever brought the sharpie was a genius.


• Real photos from the party.
  
  
  • There's some freaking gems in here, let me tell you. I may have a new contender for the "Worst Picture Ever" of me.

Colleen is FurboaJerboa on LiveJournal for anyone looking to add her there or here's her rss feed for fellow rss-loving nerds.

3:20 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Furboa Jerboa

Okay, I love finding zany things on the net and I love pimping friend's stuff, and today I get to do both at the same time. Both projects below are products of Colleen Af Venable's wonderfully demented mind.

FluffInBrooklyn.com is a new webcomic with a cast of 3 stuffed animals and a microscope. It looks like it's going to be quite funny, and it's only in the 4th episode. Check out the characters page to get a glimpse of what's to come.

(What do you mean you don.t know what a JERBOA is? Man...okay, click HERE and if you want to see a whole slew of um click HERE)

STALKING AND MURDERING OF A CHILDHOOD GIRAFFE is a series of 250+ photos of Collen with various giraffes.

2:05 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 1 writebacks |

Sorry Everybody

My good friend Alan pointed me to SorryEverybody.com the other day. The basic concept is that everyone and anyone can send in a photo apologizing to the rest of the world for reelecting Bush.

Some of the photos are very funny and Al himself is in there!

2:34 am | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Audio and Video of Wil Wheaton Reading Just a Geek

I'm sure he posted this ages ago and I'm just behind the times, but I figured that I'd blog it now since I just saw it.

Wil Wheaton has linked to free downloads of movies and audio of him reading from Just a Geek and Dancing Barefoot. I'm pulling down the video right now, and it's flying in at 685 KB/sec. It seems that when RCN rolled out their new higher bandwidth services (7mbps to the home!) their other tiers of service got a nice boost as well.

His readings are supposed to be very entertaining, so if you're a fan at all or just interested to hear some funny stories from a guy who's had a very interesting life so far, give it a look.

10:55 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |

Theme Park Nostalgia

BoingBoing ran a quick piece yesterday amid all the tsunami coverage highlighting a site that archives old maps from theme parks.

Of course I immediately honed in on the one from my neck of the woods and found a very nostalgic Great Escape map from the 1980s. For those of you that weren't raised in upstate NY, The Great Escape was the ultimate place to go when you were a kid. It had awesome coasters, decent theme areas, and great flume and rapids rides.

The park (which is now owned by Six Flags) is such a fixture that senior year physics classes from around the area go to the park and run around riding the rides while doing "experiments" like timing the pirate ship's rate of acceleration and the G forces exerted by the Steamin' Demon as their de facto class field trip for that year.

See if ThemeParkBrochures.com has a map from the Themepark of your childhood years

12:00 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 1 writebacks |

Power Puff Girls / Dexter's Lab / Invader Zim / Amazing Fan Doujinshi

A while back I followed a link from Megatokyo to this incredible fan-produced manga (also known as doujinshi).

It's a clever mash-up of PowerPuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, Invader Zim, Samurai Jack, and many others. I don't know if I've ever seen fan work this professionally produced or drawn, and the story is actually quite engrossing.

I didn't post it at first because it just seemed like a novelty, but I've found myself going back to the site to check on the story a few times now and I figured it merited mentioning.

Cartoon network should hire this guy.

Bleedman's "PowerPuff Girls Doujinshi"

2:36 pm | permalink | /technology/web | 0 writebacks |