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Saturday, August 07, 2004
IFRAME and embedding a blogroll
Remote Scripting with IFRAME
I wanted to embed my blogroll from bloglines.com into an IFRAME on my news page. I couldn't quite get it to work in the time I had to waste. This looked like the most interesting reference though. I think I'd have to create an empty iFrame. then modify the standard bloglines blogroll inclusion code so it wrote to the empty iFrame.
I wanted to embed my blogroll from bloglines.com into an IFRAME on my news page. I couldn't quite get it to work in the time I had to waste. This looked like the most interesting reference though. I think I'd have to create an empty iFrame. then modify the standard bloglines blogroll inclusion code so it wrote to the empty iFrame.
Pogue on Verizon: his favorite carrier
Pogue's Pages
Incidentally, Pogue's site is a great resource.
Now, T-Mobile, in my experience, isn't noticeably worse than Cingular, AT&T or Sprint; the phenomenon I'm describing is a testimony to the superiority of Verizon's national range. In four years of writing cellphone reviews for the Times, I've often found myself carrying phones from several different companies-and where there's a difference in reception, Verizon nearly always wins. (Consumer Reports's much more scientific testing arrived at the same results.) Which made me realize three things.
First, I can't believe the gall of AT&T Wireless's new newspaper ads. They show a full-strength, all-bars signal indicator along with claims that suggest that AT&T has the best cellular coverage in this country. In my experience, that's pure wishful thinking.
Second, tech reviewers seem to ignore the fact that the carrier you choose may actually be more important to your happiness than the phone you choose. Coverage, pricing and customer service will probably mean a lot more than this bell or that whistle. Every phone review ought to include this warning in bold red type: "NOTE: You're not just buying a phone; you're buying a carrier."
Finally, it's too bad you can't get the best phones with the best coverage. I love the signal coverage of Verizon Wireless, but man, are its phones boring.
...So I asked a Verizon spokesperson: What does Verizon have against high tech?
She emphatically disagreed with my "good coverage, boring phones" premise. She said that Verizon simply tests its phones much more thoroughly than the other carriers, who may actually be trying to compensate for their smaller networks by offering trendier phones. And she pointed out that Verizon will finally offer its first Bluetooth phone-with a 1.2-megapixel camera and video capture, no less-on August 11 (called the Motorola 710).
Incidentally, Pogue's site is a great resource.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
IMatch image management: talk about an open approach
photools.com IMatch Overview - Import and Export
Wow. They are SERIOUS about letting data flow in and out. A big plus. I also looked at ThumbsPlus for image management on the PC. It uses an Access database, so it's very easy to get data in and out, but I found the scanning workflow awkward. I was using a beta so I couldn't consult the help files to learn more.
IMatch costs $50, so it's not extremely cheap. I do like their attitude though.
Maybe they'll do a Mac version :-).
Update: Still not quite right for my scanning project, the workflow is too awkward. SnagIt may still be my best bet, together with some renaming tool. (SnagIt bogs down with even small image collections because the browser regenerates the thumbnails on each viewing.)
One surprise with both ThumbsPlus and IMatch is one can't create an EXIF header for an imported JPEG. One can edit existing EXIF data, but one can't add new data. This is very annoying. I'd like a scanned image to have an EXIF data for when the image was taken, not the date it was scanned!
Wow. They are SERIOUS about letting data flow in and out. A big plus. I also looked at ThumbsPlus for image management on the PC. It uses an Access database, so it's very easy to get data in and out, but I found the scanning workflow awkward. I was using a beta so I couldn't consult the help files to learn more.
IMatch costs $50, so it's not extremely cheap. I do like their attitude though.
Maybe they'll do a Mac version :-).
Update: Still not quite right for my scanning project, the workflow is too awkward. SnagIt may still be my best bet, together with some renaming tool. (SnagIt bogs down with even small image collections because the browser regenerates the thumbnails on each viewing.)
One surprise with both ThumbsPlus and IMatch is one can't create an EXIF header for an imported JPEG. One can edit existing EXIF data, but one can't add new data. This is very annoying. I'd like a scanned image to have an EXIF data for when the image was taken, not the date it was scanned!
Servant Salamander File Manager - Norton Commander Clone #452
Servant Salamander File Manager - Homepage
Cute. Commander -> Salamander, Master -> Servant. I'll test this one too.
Any application that spawns as many clones as Norton Commander has, over 15 years since it vanished, was doing something right.
Update: It's missing the critical Norton Change Directory feature, but the developer tells me it's high on their priority list. WinNC.Net is missing it as well. Only Total Commander has it, but their implementation is a bit awkward. Given the size and complexity of modern drives I think to be useful today NCD would need to be constrained to a given directory structure. I believe the WCD utility allows this.
Update 10/12/04: I ended up primarily using WCD to find directories along with some extensions the developer suggested that unified WCD with Windows Explorer. As for Salamander, I discovered there was some kind of Windows extension loaded on startup that lived in my TEMP folder. I don't like that kind of uninvited guest -- even if it is probably fully benign. I uninstalled Salamander.
Cute. Commander -> Salamander, Master -> Servant. I'll test this one too.
Any application that spawns as many clones as Norton Commander has, over 15 years since it vanished, was doing something right.
Update: It's missing the critical Norton Change Directory feature, but the developer tells me it's high on their priority list. WinNC.Net is missing it as well. Only Total Commander has it, but their implementation is a bit awkward. Given the size and complexity of modern drives I think to be useful today NCD would need to be constrained to a given directory structure. I believe the WCD utility allows this.
Update 10/12/04: I ended up primarily using WCD to find directories along with some extensions the developer suggested that unified WCD with Windows Explorer. As for Salamander, I discovered there was some kind of Windows extension loaded on startup that lived in my TEMP folder. I don't like that kind of uninvited guest -- even if it is probably fully benign. I uninstalled Salamander.
Total Commander - another Norton Commander derivative
Total Commander - home
Now I'm uncovering an array of these clones. And, if I type a few names into Google, I start discovering more of them.
This one is a tiny executable. It's a text mode windows program, so a bit ugly by modern aesthetics. Very fast. It does have the Norton Change Directory feature I need, though again that's not pretty. The desktop integration is a bit odd -- I don't see an obvious quick key to get to the desktop though it is a menu option.
It's not as elegant as the original, but it might work. I'm starting to get a list of the alternatives.
Now I'm uncovering an array of these clones. And, if I type a few names into Google, I start discovering more of them.
This one is a tiny executable. It's a text mode windows program, so a bit ugly by modern aesthetics. Very fast. It does have the Norton Change Directory feature I need, though again that's not pretty. The desktop integration is a bit odd -- I don't see an obvious quick key to get to the desktop though it is a menu option.
It's not as elegant as the original, but it might work. I'm starting to get a list of the alternatives.
Bug Me Not Firefox Extension: the cyber war continues
Digital Media Minute - Bug Me Not Firefox Extension
This is a paradigmatic hacker solution to a stupid real-world problem. Like most such solutions it's somewhat ethically dubious, and comes with a peculiar risk.
Almost all news sites require registration of some sort now. I could handle this for a few sites across which I used the same authentications, but I can't do it when my username must vary, especially since I regularly use at least 3 machines. It's completely impractical. If the news sites all used the (evil) Microsoft Passport tool I'd be ok with that. If they all agreed on a central authentication authority, I'd be ok with that. Yes, they all want to spam me -- but that's ok. That's what my Yahoo address is for.
So now I'm using BugMeNot. It works very well. It's also something that IE will never be able to do.
Risk? Ahh, there is risk. I'm using the same credentials as many other people. Some of them will use them on not-nice web sites, or may be guilty of crimes of one sort or another. Of course they won't have a fixed IP address, but I do. So when Ashcroft invokes his Patriot act to trace down a credential, they may come for me.
Welome to 2004, 20 years past Orwell's 1984.
BugMeNot.com is a nifty online service that allows you to bypass compulsory registration at many popular sites like Business Week and the New York Times for example. As cool as the service is, it can be annoying to use as once you get to a site that requires registration, you must open a new window to visit bugmenot.
But now a BugMeNot Firefox Extension is available that will make searching this resource possible by simply right mouse-clicking on the site.
This is a paradigmatic hacker solution to a stupid real-world problem. Like most such solutions it's somewhat ethically dubious, and comes with a peculiar risk.
Almost all news sites require registration of some sort now. I could handle this for a few sites across which I used the same authentications, but I can't do it when my username must vary, especially since I regularly use at least 3 machines. It's completely impractical. If the news sites all used the (evil) Microsoft Passport tool I'd be ok with that. If they all agreed on a central authentication authority, I'd be ok with that. Yes, they all want to spam me -- but that's ok. That's what my Yahoo address is for.
So now I'm using BugMeNot. It works very well. It's also something that IE will never be able to do.
Risk? Ahh, there is risk. I'm using the same credentials as many other people. Some of them will use them on not-nice web sites, or may be guilty of crimes of one sort or another. Of course they won't have a fixed IP address, but I do. So when Ashcroft invokes his Patriot act to trace down a credential, they may come for me.
Welome to 2004, 20 years past Orwell's 1984.
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