tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117196022024-03-06T22:18:52.099-08:00Hypercubed BlogIncoherent chatter on issues related to science, computing, and philosophy.<br />Random chains of thought from a scattered mind.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1130732236897908122005-10-30T20:06:00.000-08:002005-10-30T20:58:21.403-08:00Hypercubed Blog has Moved!I have moved my blog to <a href="http://blog.hypercubed.com/">blog.hypercubed.com</a>. I've copied all old posts and comments to the new system. Not only does this move allow me guaranteed future control of the domain (the hypercubed.com domain is mine) but also allows me more flexibility and control. The new blog uses the awesome (and free) <a href="http://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a> application. Look forward to a post soon regarding my experiences installing <a href="http://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a> and my overall opinion (preview: very good!). I hope I don't lose an readers... all two of you are very important to me! Hope to see you there.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1130213508678407882005-10-24T20:52:00.000-07:002005-10-29T01:15:46.733-07:00How Much Is My Blog Worth?<div style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding: 0pt 0pt 10px; float: right; width: 115px; background-color: white; text-align: center;"><br /><p style="margin: 0pt;"><img style="border: 0pt none ;" src="http://static.flickr.com/23/25822676_789bf55448_t.jpg" />My <a href="http://www.blogger.com/hypercubed.blogspot.com">blog</a> is worth <b>$6,209.94</b>. <a href="http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/">How much is your blog worth?</a></p><br /><p><a style="border: 0px none ;" href="http://www.technorati.com/"><img style="border: 0px none ;" src="http://technorati.com/pix/tech-logo-embed.gif" /></a></p></div>My blog is worth $6,209.94. <a href="http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/">How much is your blog worth?</a> <a href="http://www.business-opportunities.biz/">Business Opportunities Weblog</a> has a little applet that uses <a href="http://www.technorati.com/">Technorati's API</a> to compute and display your blog's worth using the same link to dollar ratio as the<a href="http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?storyID=nN06182182"> AOL-Weblogs Inc. deal</a>. This is based on research by by <a href="http://www.tnl.net/blog/entry/Doing_the_numbers_on_the_AOL-WeblogsInc_deal">Tristan Louis's research</a> into the value of each link to Weblogs Inc.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1130097609697500852005-10-23T13:00:00.000-07:002005-10-23T17:57:47.370-07:00Qumana Review<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/1600/qumana_spell.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/320/qumana_spell.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>While consulting <a href="http://www.google-watch.org/friedman.html">my god google</a> for more info on <a href="http://www.anconia.com/rocketpost/">RocketPost</a> (mainly looking for anyone willing to pay $150 for it) I came across several mentions of <a href="http://www.qumana.com/">Qumana</a>. Well since I'm an app junky I thought I'd give it a try. The good news is that I have no complaints about the spell check (unlike <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/06/blogjet-follow-up.html">BlogJet</a>, <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/06/testing-wbloggar.html">W.Bloggar</a>, or <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/10/rocketpost-basic.html">RocketPost</a> ). Matter of fact is probably on of the most robust spell checkers I've seen. Even includes customized autocorrection (so I can automatically convert "teh" to "the").<br /><p>The bad news is that it does not include the ability to view and edit the HTML directly. I'm sure for most people this is sufficient. But for me I like to view the HTML directly and make tweaks here and there. In addition I don't see anyway to edit the post details like publication time or post as a draft.. Such a shame considering how good the spell check looks and the fact that it is completely free.</p>harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1130025349905999182005-10-22T16:55:00.000-07:002005-10-22T17:53:53.753-07:00RocketPost Basic<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/1600/RocketPost.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/320/RocketPost.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I'm trying out RocketPost <a href="http://www.anconia.com/rocketpost">blogging software</a>. The interface is nice and solid. The editor allows switching between design mode and HTML mode which is a must. RocketPost even has the extremely useful feature of being able to download all posts off <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">blogger</a>. This is very nice for backup purposes and such. The interface allows me to edit the publication time and date; something that I’ve seen missing from other blogging software. <p>With all this application goodness I was floored at the utterly horrific spell check. One of the main reasons I ever want to use a blogging tool is to provided integrated spell check. I’ve tried <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/06/blogjet-follow-up.html">BlogJet</a> and <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/06/testing-wbloggar.html">W.Bloggar</a> and others not worth mentioning. All of them have problems with their spell check in my opinion. Unfortunately RocketPost is the worst. First of all it breaks the standard convention for spell check. Normally when you run a spell check in most applications you will be presented with a dialog box that allows you to ignore or replace the misspelled words one at a time. Often many of the words are not misspelled but just missing from the dictionary. For these you need to either hit ignore or add to dictionary. Because I am often presented with many of these in a row it is easy to just click-click-click through several at a time. In RocketPost you are not presented with a dialog box but rather a drop down menu that drops form somewhere in the vicinity of the potentially misspelled word. So in order to ignore several words you need to click ignore, move mouse to new drop down, click ignore, move mouse... and so on. It eliminates the ability of motor memory as the buttons are constantly moving. Also, sometimes the word you are checking is covered by the drop-down that fails to repeat the word. You stuck guessing... “What word did I type that looks like gurge?”. Also you need to be aware that if your misspelled word contains any punctuation (for example wo'nt) it is ignored and therefore assumed correct. Why anyone would choose to break the well established paradigm for spell check is beyond me.</p><p>In addition there is my pet peeve. I am coastally writing the word “teh” rather then “the”. MS Word is smart enough to automatically make all my “teh”s into “the”s. In <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/06/blogjet-follow-up.html">BlogJet</a> and <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/06/testing-wbloggar.html">W.Bloggar</a> I has to perform a scroll to replace “teh” with “the” during the spell check. Even worse in RocketPost “teh” isn't even one of the options. It also provides not capability for replacing the word with your own word not in it’s dictionary. That means every time the spell check comes across a “teh” I need to stop the spell check, change it manually, and start again. That is very unproductive. In then end I still haven’t found any blog posting software better then good old <a href="http://buzz.blogger.com/bloggerforword.html">MS word</a> or bloggers built in WYSIWYG editor.</p><p>I have also noticed that there appears to be no feature to publish your blog. In blogger you can post an article but it will not be updated until you publish your blog. This means after you post your article you need to log into blogger and manually publish. Then what is the point of blogging software. </p><p>[Edit: Wow! They charge $149 for the full version.]</p>harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1129864134541607632005-10-20T20:04:00.000-07:002005-10-22T16:58:27.900-07:00Einstein has his priorities in order<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/1600/einstein_hypercubed.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/400/einstein_hypercubed.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://hetemeel.com/">hetemeel.com</a> is <a href="http://www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php">a very cool web app</a> that allows you to add text to Einstein's chalkboard.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1129779161018364282005-10-19T20:32:00.000-07:002005-10-20T14:29:55.803-07:00Save Flash from FirefoxThe other day I posted an article on <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/09/flash-on-your-desktop.html">how to place a flash file for display on your desktop</a>. I mention a couple of methods for saving the flash file to your hard drive. Both methods involve examining the source code to get the flash file URL. Turns out there is a much easier way in Firefox. I'll leave <a href="http://www.cruciallimit.com/blog/?p=20">the details</a> to <a href="http://www.cruciallimit.com/blog/">the source</a> but basically, you can view a list of all media on the page, including flash files, from the "View Page Info" menu. Once you find the appropriate item in the media list there is a "Save As…" button that allows you to easily store the file to your HD. Very nice stuff.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1129699925868504752005-10-18T22:32:00.000-07:002005-10-18T22:34:47.553-07:00Weblog Usability or How I Suck as a BloggerThe king of usability <a href="http://www.useit.com/jakob/">Jakob Nielsen</a> has list the <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html">top ten design mistakes for weblogs</a>. So I thought I would check out how Hypercubed blog stack up. 9/10 is not bad right? Well it is if that is the number of usability rules you’ve broken. Let's go over them one-by-one:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. No Author Biographies</span><br />Not having a biography on this blog was a conscience decision. I decided a long time ago that this blog was not going to be about me and I avoid writing about myself. My blog is a place where I can share my technological experiences not my personal ones. I tried at one time to talk about my self and my chronic case of mental randomness but I didn't like it. I prefer to stick to science, technology, and philosophy; although I've been weak on philosophy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. No Author Photo</span><br />See #1.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Nondescript Posting Titles</span><br />I rarely use descriptive titles. I usually try for something pithy. I most likely fail at that but at least I’m trying.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Links Don't Say Where They Go</span><br />This is a basic web no-no. I know I should avoid using links that that don't describe the destination like <a href="http://www.this.net/">this</a> or <a href="http://www.that.com/">that</a>. However, when writing a semi-informal blog I make some sacrifices to allow the content to flow. It is hard to find the time to write as irregularly as I do. If I worried too much about this type of thing it would inhibit my ability to supply content. It takes me too long to write each post as it is. Hell, it takes me several minutes just to get through the spell check (if you ever IM’d with me you know that is true).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Classic Hits are Buried</span><br />This is my one out of 10. On the right sidebar I've linked to several notable posts. What defines a notable posts is arbitrary but I try to include posts that I thought were especially interesting or humorous or posts that seamed generated a lot of traffic.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation</span><br />Unfortunately a calendar approach is the only navigation of the archive available through blogger. I've been considering several options to add categories including using del.icio.us tags as described <a href="http://blogfresh.blogspot.com/2005/06/3-ways-to-use-delicious-for-categories.html%5d">here</a> (damn, did it again, see #4). Personally I haven’t liked the results so that will have to wait tell I hack together something of my own (or blogger.com gets on the ball and adds them).<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">7. Irregular Publishing Frequency</span><br />I want to say that I publish when I have something to say but the truth is at any given time I have a backlog of topics I want to write about. Usually the problem is finding the time to create a coherent post. There is a certain minimum level of quality (very minimum) that I'd like to achieve and if I don't think I have the time to dedicate to the subject what I think it will take I don't. I'd rather miss a day (or a week) if it is needed. Is this inconsistent with #4?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8. Mixing Topics</span><br />Wow, I really screwed up on this one. Can science, technology, and philosophy all be considered one topic? How about stuff I’m not allowed to talk about with my co-worker, wife, and lunch buddies?<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss</span><br />I don't write for my future boss but I am conscious of the fact that people that know me or work with me will be reading. That is one of the reasons I don’t talk about myself and try to keep it mostly safe for work.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service</span><br />Well, I failed this one too. I’ve considered for sometime moving my blog to my primary website. Matter of fact I have a not so current backup located <a href="http://www.hypercubed.com/blog/">there</a>. One of the reasons I don’t switch over is that I enjoy hacking up the blogger templates. I can still do that if host the blog myself but I know I’ll have the tendency to start playing with some server side stuff here and there mostly eventually creating my own blog system. That might be fun but who has the time. I consider keeping the blog at blogspot an act of self control. Besides why not use bloggers bandwidth rather then mine.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1129090304846414612005-10-11T21:11:00.000-07:002005-10-14T23:21:55.893-07:00And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earthI get lots of e-mail spam and I mean a lot. For some reason much of it is in Russian. Maybe because of <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/06/research-services-in-outlook-2003.html">a post</a> I made about the ease of translating e-mails in outlook. I don’t translate it by the way, in case you Russian spammers are listening. The rest is usually trying to sell pharmaceuticals, penis enlargements, or penny stocks. I blogged about using CloudMark (<a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/07/cloudmark-marks-to-much.html">here</a> and <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/07/cloudmark-better-then-i-expected.html">here</a>) but the spam e-mail continues to roll in. I also receive many spam posts on <a href="http://www.hypercubed.com/megabbs/category-view.asp">my websites’ forum</a>s. Most of those are links in Chinese and get promptly deleted. There ar a few more subtle spam posts by some folks pretending (poorly) to have a conversation regarding certification tests. Those I tolerate because I want to see where they’re going. I’m also starting to have to deal with a new form of spam… blog comment spam. Most of theses I delete unless I can find some why to post a humorous comment back.<br /><br />So what is the deal? Why all this spam? Well unfortunately the answer is pretty easy. Sending spam (or posting spam) is cheap and it works. That is the thing that annoys me most. Why the hell does it work? Who are the idiots that are buying these “Medhictions” that promise to “IMMEDIATE SIZEGAIN ON UR SMALL SIZE @1%# seize”? Would you ever buy anything from a store that advertised satisfaction guaranteed “or your monneyy back without question ask!”… No! So why in the hell are people buying this crap? The solution is as simple as the cause <a href="http://www.spamdontbuyit.org/">just don’t by from spammers</a>! But unfortunately some people are just too stupid. Maybe we should require a license to gain internet access?<br /><br />How about the penny stocks... well you might think that the spammers want you to buy them so they can experience a quick price surge and then sell. You might be tempted to try and ride the wave. The truth is these stocks don’t increase much and the drop pretty rapidly. If you need proof read <a href="http://www.spamstocktracker.com/">Spam Stock Tracker</a>. This guy tracked several spammed stocks to determine how much he would lose if he had purchased shares in each. At last check he would have lost 7,550.40 of a 17,405.00 investment. Again the answer is just don’t do it!<br /><br />Ok, now what about my forum and comment spam. We’ll I’m not going to buy anything from these people. What about you my loyal randomly-acquired-and-most-likely-lost reader? Well, if I do my job well you will never see the comment spam. Hopefully the spammers will get the hint and stop spamming my sites (a man can hope can’t he?). But I’ll take it one step further… I’m going to post the names of the sites that are spamming me and encourage you to NEVER buy from these people. I know some will think that I’m giving them extra advertising. This may be true, but in a way I think it is therapeutic for me. Think of it as my public hate list.<br /><br /><strong>NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM (or even visit) THESE WEBSITES:</strong><br />http://www.emeraldcityhost.net<br />http://www.emeraldwebhost.net<br />http://www.emeraldwebhost.com<br />http://www.riskfreemoney.biz/<br />http://hosting.desired-info.com/<br />http://www.tudormagnetics.com<br />http://www.enlargementreview.info/<br />http://kittens.ipoogle.com/<br />http://www.freedom-online.org/<br />http://www.prestonswebhosting.com/<br />http://www.zangocash.tk/<br />http://x.homebasedbusiness-123.com/?siebooks.free<br />http://www.save-gas.net/harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1128891833335334362005-10-09T14:03:00.000-07:002005-10-09T14:03:53.383-07:00Monopoly Best Chance Game 3.0McDonald’s is once again running their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly">Monopoly Game</a>. For those that don’t know this game is played by collecting game pieces (monopoly properties) through purchasing certain products at McDonalds. This game is very popular among consumers which is surprising considering that the first 6 years or so that they ran the game were a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly_scandal">complete fraud.</a> Turned out that the Chief of security at that promotion company that had been responsible for administering the contests had been stealing the winning pieces and distributing them to associates for a share of the profit. In total something like $13 million was embezzled in this manner from 1995 to 2001. In this case they were caught and McDonalds has now setup security measures to make sure it never happens again. Every time I hear about something like this it makes me wonder how many more times it is happening without anybody being caught. It is like speeding on the freeway… every time you see one person getting a ticket you know there are 100 more that didn’t get caught.<br/><br/>In any event the interesting part of the Monopoly game is that in order to win a prize you need to collect all of the properties of one color, all four train depots, or both utilities. Makes it sound easy… you collect two out of three and you think “Wow! I’m 2/3rds of the way there”. Well not really you see two of the three properties are very common while the last piece is rare. That is how they control the number of winners for each prize. I think most people realize this and I’m not revealing any dark secret or anything. What is secret (somewhat) is which properties are the rare ones. I’m always worried that I’m going to get the rare pieces, essentially winning the prize, and not realize it. If I never get the other two, which is very likely, I effectively have forfeited the prize. Well the great <a href="http://www.google.com/">google</a> has once again shown me the light. I found a page that lists all the <a href="http://www.amazing-bargains.com/mcdonalds2005.html">rare pieces</a> for this year’s game. So now I can rest assured that I won nothing other then high cholesterol!harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1128747740095211082005-10-07T21:58:00.000-07:002005-10-07T22:02:20.103-07:00My Periodicals<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/1600/Img_1426_mod.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/320/Img_1426_mod.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>I was flipping through the periodicals that I have subscriptions to and I thought "What an interesting collection of magazines." Here are a few... What does this say about me? It sure covers my interests fairly well.<br /><br />P.S. I'm not really a Paris Hilton fan... she just happened to be on the cover this month.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1128475045036212962005-10-04T18:17:00.000-07:002005-10-04T18:17:25.090-07:00Five-second ruleSo I recently was caught in a discussion about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_second_rule">five-second rule</a>. You know that rule that says if you drop a piece of food on the floor it is ok to eat if you pick it up within 5-seconds. One person said that they thought the rule was disproved. I disagreed and said that I thought the rule was proven correct by a high school student science experiment. With such a disagreement there is only one thing to do… consult the all-knowing oracle or wisdom (that would be Google). So I did the “research” and discovered that the 5-second rule was proven false… but yet true at the same time.<br/><br/>High school student Jillian Clarke studied the five-second rule as part of summer internship in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her study won an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize">Ig Nobel Prize</a> for Public Health in 2004. In the most literal sense Clark’s study disproved the five-second rule. Clark showed that foods dropped on intentionally pre-contaminated tiles (hard surfaces) were contaminated in less than five seconds. It appears that five seconds has no bearing on the how contaminated the food will get. If you drop your food on a contaminated floor it should not be eaten.<br/><br/>So this seams pretty straight forward… right? <a href="http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/dropped.asp">Snopes</a> marks this one as an urban myth. But wait a minute! They are missing a vital part of Ms. Clarks study. The details above are from Ms. Clarks 2nd experiment where she intentionally pre-contaminating ceramic tiles with E. Coli, dropped various food products for various amounts of time, and then measured the E. Coli count on the food. However, the first part of her experiment (details <a href="http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/sefton092903.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news2467.html">here</a>) Ms. Clark and her team took swab samples of floors at various locations around her campus. They showed that the bacteria levels where not high enough to cause significant contamination of your food product. It is noted that this is more then likely due to the types of surfaces sampled. They measured dry hard surfaces. It is likely that soft damp surfaces will have higher bacterial counts.<br/><br/>So the literal sense the 5-second rule as it is stated is correct for some floors. If food that falls on your kitchen floor sits for less then 5-seconds it is, most likely, ok to eat. Matter of fact if the food is on the kitchen floor more then 5-miniutes it is probably ok to eat. But nobody would suggest you apply this “rule” to food dropped on your damp doggy bed. Besides what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… right?harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1127782940361518412005-09-28T22:02:00.000-07:002005-09-28T22:59:06.316-07:00Job Burnout<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thefabricator.com/Articles/Photos/917/Lead.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.thefabricator.com/Articles/Photos/917/Lead.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>TheFabricator.com has <a href="http://www2.thefabricator.com/Articles/Fabricating_Exclusive.cfm?ID=917">a three part article on job burnout</a>. It includes help on identifying job burnout and some tips on how to manage it. According to their self-diagnosis test I'm 97 -- "a candidate for job burnout" 4 points shy of "burning out". That is a relief as I thought I was already burnt out! I know shouldn't feel burnt out. I haven't been at this job long enough to feel burnt out. But the feelings of pointlessness and the total disgust for big business attitudes have crept in. How can anyone feel a sense of accomplishment in this big business culture were you are ranked solely on your cost savings for the company rather then the quality of your work. Where every idea for quality improvement needs to be accompanied by a 10 page report on how your proposal saves the company money. I don't think it is my company in particular but big companies in general. One of this articles tips is to get a new job. I really don't think that will make a difference... it will be the same crap with different people.<br /><br />To me the most reasonable tip for a burnt out employee appears to be detachment... in other words just stop caring. I care about my job because I feel it is a career. If I view it simply as a 9-5 job then I wouldn't care as much and I wouldn't stress as much. You just can't stress out about a job that you don't care about. Is that the best thing for a company? How successful can a company be when all the employees don't care?<br /><br />Part discusses the need for companies to take greater responsibility for employee job burnout. It mentions that in the current economic environment employee burnout often is considered a relatively insignificant, individual problem that needs to be handled through the employee's assistance programs. And besides there are plenty of employee where he came from. This article calls that type of thinking is<br /><blockquote>wrong, shortsighted, and ultimately can lead to an organization’s downfall.<br /></blockquote> I think it is true... as burnt out (or close to) as I think I am I see other employees that are even further down the line. I think asking these already stressed and often overworked employees to take time off to attend a voluntary assistance program and most likely have more work piling up for them when they return is ridiculous. Employee burnout needs to be addressed as a company wide problem and take steps to identify the causes and prevent it in the first place. From the article:<br /><blockquote>The bottom line is that an organization should care about and take steps to prevent job burnout if it wants a healthy bottom line long-term.</blockquote><br /><br />[Via: <a href="http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/26/1917226&tid=4&tid=218">slashdot.com</a>]harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1127550132489535462005-09-27T10:01:00.000-07:002005-09-27T10:03:15.060-07:00Flash on your desktop<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/1600/Clock.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/200/Clock.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>The other day while visiting the <a href="http://omniverse.blogspot.com/">omni’s blog</a> I noticed a really cool flash clock on the right hand side of her website (<a href="http://omniverse.blogspot.com/2005_09_25_omniverse_archive.html#112765598752007954">now removed out of courtesy to our CPU impaired brothers</a>). I thought it would be cool to have that on my desktop. It is actually quite easy to add web pages or parts of web pages to your desktop in win 2000 or XP. All you need to do is create a HTML file and add it to your active desktop (I’ll show how to do that in a minute). So while viewing the omni’s website I selected <u>V</u>iew -> Page So<u>u</u>rce and scanned through the extremely tidy HTML (women have to keep everything clean don’t they) until I found the embed tag for the flash file. It would be easy enough to copy this HTML word for word (or should I say tag for tag) and place it on my desktop. However, if you do this the flash file itself will need to be loaded from the original website every time you boot. This can be very annoying if you are behind a firewall that requires authentications and is considered rude to the site hosting the content as you are using their server’s bandwidth. So the best option is to download your own copy. I noticed that the HTML contained the following text:<br /><br /><code><!-- Get your own clock/calendar FREE at<br /> http://ptnuke.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=132 --></code><br /><br />But either my Portuguese is really bad or the files are missing (Actually my Portuguese is non-existent and the files appear to be missing). So the next option is to download the flash file directly from the source. Unfortunately, unlike images, you cannot right click to download flash files directly from a webpage. In general to download flash files you have two options:<br /><ol><li>In some browsers (not IE) you can copy the file URL into your toolbar, hit enter to load it, and then select File -> Save page as... to save the flash file to your hard drive.</li><li>You can also create a simple HTML file that contains a single link to the flash file. Open that page in your browser and right click on the link and select Save Target As...</li></ol>In this case I have already done all the foot work so you can just download it from <a href="http://home.ripway.com/2005-5/299107/clockcalendar.swf">here</a> (use right click, Save Target As...). Now that you have the flash file somewhere on your hard drive you need to create a simple HTML file that contains the embed tag to invoke the flash player. This is just a matter of copying and pasting the code from the HTML source file (in this case omni’s code, let’s hope she doesn’t mind) and changing the source URL to be our local copy. Again I can save you some time if you just copy and paste the code I already created:<br /><br /><code><html><br /><body bgcolor="white"><br /><!-- Get your own clock/calendar FREE at<br /> http://ptnuke.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=132 --><br /><embed src="clockcalendar.swf" width="210" height="225" quality="high"<br /> pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"<br /> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#ffffff"></embed><br /></body><br /></html></code><br /><br />Save this text to an .html file on your computer in the same directory as the clockcalendar.swf you downloaded earlier. Notice that you can also change the two bgcolor tags to match your background.<br /><br />Now to get the file onto your desktop will depend on the operating system you are using:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/1600/ADesktop1.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/200/ADesktop1.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><strong><u>WinXP</u></strong><br /><ol><li>Right click on your desktop and select Properties.</li><li>In the Display Properties box that appears select the Desktop tab the Customize Desktop...</li><li>In the new Desktop Items dialog select the Web tab then new.</li><li>Now you can enter the path of the HTML file we created above or use the browse to find the file. You may have the urge to select the clockcalendar.swf file directly but that wont work.</li><li>The item will then appear on your background. Click on the items border to move and resize the window however you like.<br /></li> </ol><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/1600/ADesktop.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/200/ADesktop.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><strong><u>Win2000</u></strong><br />For some reason it is easier to add a desktop item in Win2000. Right click on your desktop and select Active Desktop -> New Desktop Item. You will now be presented with the New Desktop item dialog. Now you can follow steps 4-5 above. If you see anything in addition to the clock that you don't want on your desktop (your home page is displayed by default) just right click on your desktop and select Active Desktop and unselect the items you don't want from the bottom.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1127758046436746542005-09-26T11:07:00.000-07:002005-09-26T17:19:53.900-07:00NO deaths greatly exaggeratedOver the last several weeks many websites and the main stream media have been running multiple stories on the <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Katrina">Katrina</a> rescues and aftermath. The reports of rape, murder, and piles of bodies at the Superdome and the Convention Center were extremely disturbing. However, now that the horror stories have stoped and recovery has started where is the news? Well, apparently these sites are mute for a reason... because they were all duped. While the conditions in New Orleans were horrible beyond anything I have ever experienced the rumors of deaths and violence have been <a href="http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_26.html">greatly exaggerated</a>. This article posted at NOLA.com give great details of the reality found in the aftermath. No evidence of murdered babies and not the rumored hundreds of bodies. Will major websites and the main stream media take responsibility and clear up the disinformation? We'll see... we may have to leave it to the bloggers that don't have to save face:<br /><p><a href="http://rpv.blogspot.com/2005/09/deaths-greatly-exaggerated-in-new.html"> Deaths greatly exaggerated in New Orleans</a><br /><a href="http://www.nemov.net/blog/archives/000716.html">exaggerated crime in katrina aftermath</a><br /><a href="http://minorjive.typepad.com/hungryblues/2005/09/rumors_of_death.html">Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated: Widely reported attacks false or unsubstantiated</a><br /><a href="http://butcherfam.blogspot.com/2005/09/exaggerated-reporting-on-superdome-in.html"> Exaggerated reporting on the SuperDome in N.O.?</a><br /></p> <p>[Edit: I removed a reference to a particular website. This article was not about them <span class="187141900-27092005">in particular</span> but directed at the misinformation sources in general.] </p>harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1127611237203975242005-09-24T18:20:00.000-07:002005-09-25T10:43:45.226-07:00Battlestar Galactica Season Finale<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.maximonline.com/entertainment/reviews/editorial_images/tv_battlestar_071505.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 181px;" src="http://www.maximonline.com/entertainment/reviews/editorial_images/tv_battlestar_071505.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>So last night was the season finale of <a href="http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/" rel="tag">Battlestar Galactica</a>. What do I think? Actually I’m not quite sure yet. This season finale had to be the most intense (or should I say tense) cliff hanger I’ve ever seen. This episode itself was excellent. That was a good surprise compared to the last two or three that sort of sucked. The whole episode left me in a sort of post-traumatic state. Things got really screwed up, everything we know about the pattern of life on Battlestar has changed, and right when things are coming to a head… To Be Continued. Sure it was successful at what it was intended to do but to leave us (me) hanging when the situation is in such a state is almost torture. Maybe I’m being over dramatic, after all it is just a show, but it is really going to leave me in an uncomfortable state for the next 4 months until next season. In other words the season finale was great but at the same time I fracking hate it!<br /><br />In other Battlestar news the show has been selected as the <a href="http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/gallery/topscifishows?pg=49">#2 best Sci-Fi show of all time</a> by Boston.com.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1127550029253249432005-09-24T01:04:00.000-07:002005-09-24T01:26:11.900-07:00My blog defiles the pages of the pharyngula and omniverseI just noticed (ok... I noticed a few hours ago, stop nit-picking!) that my blog is listed as a "Weblogs of the Week" over at <a href="http://pharyngula.org/">pharyngula.org</a>. In the famous (slightly modified) words of Wayne and Garth....<br /><blockquote>[I'm] not worthy! [I'm] not worthy! [I'm] not worthy!</blockquote><br />I was wondering why my daily visits went from around 5 to over 30 in the last few days. And I thought it was all due to <a href="http://omniverse.blogspot.com/">omni's link</a>. Wow, it really looks like this blogging thing is paying off. I'm going to be rich any time now. Watch out Bill Gates I'm coming for you!<br /><br />All kidding aside thanks to <a href="http://pharyngula.org/">pharyngula</a> and the not-quite-opposite end of the spectrum but kinda-kitty-cornered <a href="http://omniverse.blogspot.com/">ominverse</a>.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1127439988834880672005-09-23T18:42:00.000-07:002005-09-23T21:49:22.356-07:00My first meme (how cute!)I saw this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme">meme</a> on <a href="http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comments/a_quickie/">pharyngula.org</a> and thought I would participate just for the fun of it. But don't worry teh risk of falling into <a href="http://www.mrhelpful.com/archives/000994.html">meme hell</a> is slight.<br /><br />Meme rules:<br />1. Go into your archive.<br />2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It happens to be my most popular post: </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/04/visual-studio-cannot-debug-mappoint.html">here</a><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br />3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).<br />4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.<br /><blockquote> I could setup the application just fine (see instructions <a href="http://www.mp2kmag.com/a119--metropolitan.statistical.areas.msa.mappoint.html">here</a>) but for some reason I could never get the runtime debugging to work.</blockquote><br />Interesting. Most popular post and the root of the problem. Creepy!</p>harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1127432470045503802005-09-22T16:41:00.000-07:002005-09-23T21:26:09.523-07:00ING Direct Orange Savings Account<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://home.ingdirect.com/about/images/trees_260x140.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 260px;" src="http://home.ingdirect.com/about/images/trees_260x140.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>I recently signed up for an <a href="http://home.ingdirect.com/products/products.asp?s=OrangeSavingsAccount">ING Orange Savings Account</a> savings account, made an easy $25, and am now receiving <s>3.30%</s> 3.40% interest on my savings. In case you don’t know about the ING Orange Savings let me explain. ING is a regular FDIC-insured federally chartered savings bank but there are no branches. Your account gets linked to up to your regular checking account(s) allowing you electronically transfer money in and out via online banking just like you would with any other bank account that has online banking. Because ING does not have any branches their interest rate is much higher then traditional banks. The interest rate is currently <s>3.30%</s> 3.40% at ING vs. 0.5% at BofA and CitiBank and 0.25%-1.01% at Wells Fargo. If you want read more opinions you can check out the <a href="http://www.epinions.com/content_6747557508">ING Epinions page</a>.<p>If you want to sign up for an account you can do it directly through the <a href="http://home.ingdirect.com/">ING direct website</a> but to earn the <strong>free $25 </strong>you need to be referred. If you would like a referral from me please <a href="mailto:harshblogger@hypercubed.com">contact me</a> your first name, last name, and email address.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">[Edit: For the sake of full disclosure I should point out that I will also receive $10 if you sign-up through me.<span style=""> </span>However, that in no way influenced my opinion of ING.<span style=""> </span>It may have encouraged me to post it rather then just spreading the word verbally but my opinion is uninfluenced.]<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">[Edit #2: The <a href="http://home.ingdirect.com/products/products.asp?s=OrangeSavingsAccount">ING Orange Savings Account</a> savings account is now at 3.40% as of 9/22/05]<br /></p>harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1127155210929784022005-09-19T11:34:00.000-07:002005-09-19T11:40:10.940-07:00Arrrrr....Avast, me hearties! It be international talk like a pirate day!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.talklikeapirate.com/partykit/tlapdbanner2.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.talklikeapirate.com/partykit/tlapdbanner2.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />What is a pirate’s favorite letter? It be Arrr!harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1127015067403741162005-09-17T20:44:00.000-07:002005-09-17T20:59:05.250-07:00Robertson Blames Hurricane on Choice of Ellen Degeneres to Host EmmysIn a follow-up to my previous articles on hurricane Katrina and Pat Robertson (<a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/09/katrina-was-caused-by.html">here</a> and <a href="http://hypercubed.blogspot.com/2005/09/pat-robertson-blames-katrina-on.html">here</a>) is <a href="http://datelinehollywood.com/archives/2005/09/05/robertson-blames-hurricane-on-choice-of-ellen-deneres-to-host-emmys/"> this</a> article in the prestigious news site Dateline: Hollywood. According to the article Robertson is now blaming Katrina on the choice of Ellen Degeneres to host the Emmy Awards. He has a point this time... he notes that last time Degeneres was chosen to host the Emmys, in 2001, the September 11 terrorism attacks took place shortly before the ceremony. We all know that <a href="http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/posthoc.htm">post hoc ergo propter hoc</a> (after this therefore because of this) is one of the most profound logical arguments known to man.<br /><br /><em>By the way in case you don't get it Dateline: Hollywood is a </em><a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/katrina/robertson.asp">satire</a><em> site. </em><a href="http://franklinavenue.blogspot.com/2005/09/anatomy-of-internet-rumor.html">Apparently</a><em> many people didn't get it. But I really don't blame them with Pat's track record. If you want to read some of his memorable quotes please look </em><a href="http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/pat_robertson/">here</a><em>. Some of the best:</em><br /><br /><a href="http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/feminism_is_a_socialist-anti-family-political/217913.html"><blockquote>Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.</blockquote></a><a href="http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/many_of_those_people_involved_in_adolf_hitler/174792.html"><blockquote>Many of those people involved in Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many were homosexuals - the two things seem to go together</blockquote></a><a href="http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/i_know_one_man_who_was_impotent_who_gave_aids_to/196865.html"><blockquote>I know one man who was impotent who gave AIDS to his wife and the only thing they did was kiss</blockquote></a><br /><br />[Via: <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/17/pat_robertson_blames.html">BoingBoing</a>]harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1126841774806379802005-09-15T20:36:00.000-07:002005-09-15T20:43:48.343-07:00Tongue-eating bug found in fish<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40757000/jpg/_40757072_louse.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40757000/jpg/_40757072_louse.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4200000/newsid_4209000/4209004.stm">This</a> is a very bizarre news story about a insect that eats the tongue of a fish down to a stub, then attaches itself to become a replacement. Sounds like Sci-Fi!<br /><br />[Via: <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/">http://www.boingboing.net/</a>]harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1126582242433982002005-09-12T22:55:00.000-07:002005-09-15T20:38:04.493-07:00Don't let context menu get out of control<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/1600/Context.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3863/955/320/Context.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>In MS Windows when you right click on a file or folder you are presented with what they call a context menu. The menu contains many useful tools that can be evoked on the file you have selected. The “copy to folder” and “send to” are some good uses of the context menu. IN addition many programs you install add new items to the context menu. Some of these are useful but more often then not they are useless additions that don’t seam easily disabled. Pretty soon you can have two dozen useless items on the menu that not only take too much room but also can create a huge delay before windows displays the context menu. Recently my context menu became so cluttered that right clicking on a file made me wait a good 30 seconds. Unacceptable when all you want to do is get the properties of a file. So I figured I’d go through and delete all the unused context menu items for example “escuche in winamp”… don’t need that one.<br /><br />You can try removing the items from the register manually (see <a href="http://windowsxp.mvps.org/context_folders.htm">here</a> for instructions). This works but takes time and there is always the prospect of a catastrophic failure they always warn you about before editing the registry. Thanks to <a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a> I found a better solution. I found a simple little application called <a href="http://www.bartdart.com/downloads/contextmenueditorinstall.exe">Context Menu Editor</a> by a freeware developer <a href="http://www.baxtersoft.com/">BaxterSoft, LLC</a>. With this application you can easily remove items form the file context menu (when you right click on a file), the folder context menu (when you r-click on a folder) and from the IE context menu (when you right click on a webpage viewed in IE). You simply select the menu item, view the information to make sure that is the one you want to delete, and hit delete. All done. The program is simple but works well for what it does. However, for some reason the installation program doesn’t add any listing to the start menu so you’ll have to find the executable in file explorer. I wouldn’t mine seeing a new version that has undo feature.<br /><br />If you need more you can also check out <a href="http://windowsxp.mvps.org/redirect.asp?url=http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html">ShellExView</a>. ShellExView is similar to Context Menu Editor but on a much broader level. ShellExView doesn’t just show items in the file, folder, and IF context menus but all shell extensions on your computer. This is nice but it actually becomes more difficult to find the items that you want to remove. ShellExView installs nicely, can restore items disabled, and has a reporting feature. All very nice but not a simple as Context Menu Editor and a bit of overkill for what I needed in my case. I suggest you give Context Menu Editor a try first and go to ShellExView if you need something more powerful.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1125702328163911522005-09-02T15:53:00.000-07:002005-09-02T21:05:39.930-07:00Pat Robertson blames Katrina on...Yesterday I mentioned that Pat Robertson blamed hurricanes in Florida on gays (or more correctly Florida's support of gays). Well, it seams that he is now blaming Katrina on a single person in particular. You'll be surprised who it is.<br/><br/>[Via: <a href="http://www.ridingsun.com/posts/1125652613.shtml">www.ridingsun.com</a>]harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1125638597573955612005-09-01T22:23:00.000-07:002005-09-02T11:55:41.456-07:00Katrina was caused by....I think it may be a natural response. But like many other natural feelings (like the strong urge to steal children's candy when it looks better then your slim fast) it is one that needs to be avoided. I talking about the strong desire to blame natural disasters on someone (or something). I think we all seek answers after a major event. We want to know why, how can this happen, how can we prevent this next time. Unfortunately sometimes we jump to conclusions that are simply poor and sometimes dangerous.<br /><br />In the wake of <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/hurricane+katrina" rel="tag">Katrina</a> we are all shocked and horrified. The 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Tsunami's, Columbia, and now this (did I miss any?). The 2000's are turning out to be a tough millennium. But do we really have to blame Katrina on something?<br /><br />Director of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Endowment's research center <a href="http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453615.183333333.html">appears to be saying</a> that Katrina is punishment for not believing<span class="812420505-02092005"> in Islam</span>.<br /><br />In 1998 Pat Robertson said <a href="http://www.loper.org/~george/trends/1998/Jun/77.html">"hurricanes and other natural disasters would sweep down on Orlando, Fla., because gay men and lesbians were flocking to Disney World on special "gay days."</a> Well, all I can say is that his Operation Blessing charity is not getting my donation. <a href="http://j-walkblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/pat_robertsons_charity/">Read about use of operation blessing's resourse to support Pat's diamond mine.</a><br /><br />Maybe the closest is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/afor-they-that-sow-the-_b_6396.html">RKF Jr</a>. He blames global warming. Although global warming probably played a factor in the hurricanes this season he specifically George Bush, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, and the Republican Party for their failure to support the Kyoto protocol. Which you should know is a <a href="http://www.junkscience.com/MSU_Temps/Kyoto_Count_Up.htm">farce</a> and that <a href="http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-globalwarming.htm">humans are not causing global warming</a>.<br /><br />The truth is that Katrina is an extremely unfortunate event that is part of a <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=659360">natural waether cycle</a>. Maybe if we spent more time learning from previous events rather then attempting to place blame we could have reduced the impact of this hurricane.<br /><p><strong>What can I do?</strong><br />You should first look into donating through your companies if possible. Most major corporations offer matching funds for charitable donations.<br />Donate to organizations like the <a href="https://www2.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp">RedCross</a> or <a href="http://www.truthlaidbear.com/katrinacharities.php">others</a>.<br /><a href="http://www.hurricanehousing.org/">Click here to offer free housing to those who so desperately need it.</a></p>harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11719602.post-1125029385000385892005-08-25T20:38:00.000-07:002005-08-31T21:44:12.986-07:00Save streaming media to disk<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sdp.ppona.com/sdppanel2_0_0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://sdp.ppona.com/sdppanel2_0_0.jpg" alt="" align="right" border="0" width="250" /></a>Have you ever needed to watch a streaming video and been ex-stream-ly (haha) annoyed at the brain numbing pause you get when you skip forward or back? You see the every time you change position in the file your viewing software stops the transmission and begins buffering the section you skipped to. It can be very annoying and potentially damaging to your fist (if you're like me and tend to punch your screen). Well, all this can be avoided if you simply download the video to your hard drive. Unfortunately, downloading streaming media is disallowed. This is usually done to avoid bandwidth issues (keeps the flow rate nice and slow for the server) or so that the content provider can control the content. Often times it seams to be just annoy us. However, there is a solution. You can download SDP Multimedia's <a href="http://sdp.ppona.com/">SDP downloader</a>. SDP downloader enables saving of streaming media over MMS, MMST, MMSU and HTTP streams. With this software you can simply enter a url of the streaming media and choose a location on your disk to save the media file and let it fly. What this software is actually doing is streaming the media from the website and re-recording it to a video file on your HD for viewing at your leisure. Don't be surprised that it will take 60 mins to download that 60 min video.<br /><br />I have only two criticisms of the application. I think the GUI needs some work. It is a little difficulty to figure out at first. The more critical draw back I see is with the batch downloading mode. You see in this mode the SDP downloader is supposed to download multiple streams in sequence. Unfortunately to get this to work you need to create a asx play list. This cased me to have to search the web for several minutes to find the asx protocol and the create the play list. Why not make the play list directly in SDP downloader, or better yet simply have a grid where users can enter multiple files. But in the end these minor criticisms don't come close to the pain and suffering this application has saved me. They got my $20.<br /><br />wiki: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDP_Multimedia">SDP Multimedia</a><br /><br />Edit: Also a "Shut down Windows when finished" option would be really great.harshbloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07712459026566787713noreply@blogger.com0