Check it out in PDF (54k)

Solution (do BEFORE you import your bookmarks):

1. Create a new profile by going to the start menu in windows and selecting ‘run’, then entering ‘firefox.exe -ProfileManager’. This will open the FireFox profile manager.
2.Create a new profile, then select and run. Note – this profile won’t have your own preferences, but it’s just for temporary purposes.
3. Now, close firefox and go back to mozbackup.
4. Use mozbackup to import the same bookmarks file with all your history.
5. Go to the Bookmarks menu (top left menu > bookmarks > show all bookmarks). ‘Export your bookmarks to HTML’ using the “import and backup” menu.
6. Go to the start menu again in windows and select ‘run’, then enter ‘firefox.exe -ProfileManager’. This will open the FireFox profile manager.  This time, select your normal profile.
7. When firefox loads, go back to the bookmarks menu from step 5. Use the “Import bookmarks from HTML” to find your file and re-import the bookmarks.
8. Presto, no memory-clogging history to search through!

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PS – Do not attempt to make this device at home. I’m a completely untrained professional assembling this, and I make no assurances whatsoever about its safety.  I accept no responsibility if you choose to make this device on your own.

Some of these locations and sightings based on the UFO sighting listings by UFOs Northwest , with permission.

Check it out at the Google Earth Forum, and the map is the attachment (note: you will need google earth to view this map)

DOWNLOAD GOOGLE EARTH: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

In this case, you can find the flight simulator feature by going to “tools > enter flight simulator” or by pressing “cntrl + alt + A”. Detailed guides will walk you through the actual takeoff process, but the movement control keys are generally the numpad keys, and ‘Page Up’ is the throttle. a light approach is needed to control the flight, but it’s definitely an interesting treat to be able to fly over familiar haunts and your own town. You can choose between a small private prop plane, or a traditional jet fighter for your flight.

Use your judo to conquer your enemies, or drive through an embedded video. Vanquish the foe of boredom in this promotional game, by the company Agency One.

Play the Game Now!

So that brings us to July 11, 2011. Sandbox 3 was quietly released for download on CryMod.com . This is crytek’s official outreach to the crysis 2 modding community, and is the central go-to point for these pioneer days of modding crysis 2. While the leaked version of the editor has been around for quite some time apparently, those that loathe the act of piracy can finally have their day!

I’m not going to lie, it’s a big file. At 416mb compressed, it can be a slow download. Still, at around 15-20 minutes, it wasn’t bad. The installation took a while, extracting to around 2gigs. On opening the installation program, the user is faced with a traditional overlaying title screen, very reminiscent of the previous Sandbox releases.

The next screen is where the full visage of the program really takes hold. On load, the user is thrust into the crysis 2 universe much like sandbox for the original crysis. You can choose to go into game mode at any time, like the far cry 2 editor, and toggle AI/physics as needed. You definitely take a graphics load working with the editor, with a decent GTX 465 dragging down to 15-20fps at points. However, when the viewer remains stationary, you can top out at 99-120+ FPS easily even overlooking dense city scenes.

For beginners, the make it ridiculously easy to learn by reverse-engineering. All of the maps from crysis 2, and the wars, are included for editing. I suggest taking your favorite level and saving it as a new map, then adding and re-arranging. The directional controls are pretty straightforward – select entity, move using the traditional easy-to-recognize main buttons in the top center-ish. A quick tip is that you can duplicate items by clicking, then pressing control+c.

All in all, i’d say it’s a great first impression of an editor that has a lot of potential to eat up a large chunk in people months, and that’s a great review!

Whenever sound is played at equal volume from both speakers, the tube seems to attenuate higher frequencies and radiate the infrasound and lower audible frequencies. It also creates an interesting demonstration of the effect of compression phases in sound, as the radiated sound seems to mostly be audible near walls or other points where the pressure wave would compress. Walking right by the unit in operation leaves one mainly hearing the attenuated higher frequencies.

Having found this video on YouTube, well, that’s kindof a buzz-kill. But not an entirely unexpected buzz-kill.

As the intro scene reveals, NY has been ravaged by an alien virus, and subsequent rioting. The streets are littered with the long-gone.The visual impact of realizing an air-born view of the city is actually the game is where the almost indiscernible reality of the graphics hit you – It’s like stumbling into a brick wall.  Watching the face of the fake news reporter, you start to realize how far down the detail goes. From skin pores to age lines, without the usual akward texture movements around the mouth and eyes when talking.

Running in extreme mode, the ray tracing of the light is flawlessly realistic (running on a DX11 GTX 465). Looking around, there are so many hints of daily life gone awry in the shadows, intensely specific details about your environment and everyday objects, in a mostly free-form environment like Crysis. Minor flaws in the textures and pixel-level viewing are really the only reminders that you’re in a game, which may not be a bad thing. Something to keep you grounded other than the massive weight of the nanosuit.

The enemy AI is incredibly responsive , at least from the tactics seen so far. With threats coming in all directions, the only way to survive is looking over your shoulder, sweeping rapidly to see the enemy pop up. Explosions pierce the silence when you strafe a barrel mid-gunfight, a familiar tactic for any crysis fan.

When not fighting, enjoy the serene view of the metro skyline. Familiar buildings grace the backdrop, with an incredibly detailed and glare-inducing sun at various stages throughout the game.

The controls also feature an expansive amount of actions, from simple leaning to sneak attacks, to complex power-assisted jumps and the usual enemy grabs.

In short, This is the last line i’m writing tonight before getting back to the game (and eventually work)

You can also filter by different types of vessels, or many other search criteria.

Check it out at http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

FAR CRY 2:

• Total Frames: 3722, Total Time: 51.01s
• 1680×1050, 4X AA, all other  settings maxed
  
• Average Framerate: 72.97
• Max. Framerate: 110.37
• Min. Framerate: 57.88

GTA IV:

• Average FPS: 65.01
• Duration: 37.34 sec
• CPU Usage: 36%
• System memory usage: 72%
• Video memory usage: 96%
• Video Mode: 1680 x 1050 (59 Hz)
• Texture Quality: High
• Shadow Quality: High
• Reflection Resolution: Very High
• Water Quality: Very High
• Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x4

CRYSIS:

• Benchmarks to Come

FRONTLINES: FUEL OF WAR :

• Benchmarks to Come

A recent christmas gift, this beautiful piece of graphics bliss easily runs everything I could throw at it on the highest settings, with 8x Anti-Aliasing. Crysis, the previous graphics benchmark, ran at 1680×1050, under the highest detail settings possible, with 8x AA, at 60-70fps. Reducing it to 4X AA shot it up to between 80 and 100fps, and under the most intense action (and cheating to view the entire level from above, it only sank to 30-40fps.

Using the relatively new (early 2010) Fermi architecture, it boasts an almost ridiculously high texture fill rate making all movement completely smooth. No more do quick turns or new scenery clog up the graphics processing and produce any noticeable delays. The average framerate is around or above the highest rate the eyes can perceive.

Currently Tested and Beautiful on the highest settings (some 4X AA):
GTAIV, Crysis, Far Cry 2, Frontlines: Fuel of War

Web-based games have long-since established themselves as a classic timesink. Whether it’s internet poker, farmville(tm), or one of many flash-based sidescrolling games, we all get our fix. With that in mind, I present the Great Internet Timewasters list, Volume 1.

1. Balldroppings.com
Ok, the URL could be a little misleading. But this simple javascript-powered whole-window “game” is remarkably addicting in its simplicity. A point at the top spawns balls that drop down and bounce with an almost hypnotic rhythym, hitting and bouncing off lines that you can draw on the screen. A music note plays each time the ball strikes, which really rounds out the senses.  You can change the tempo, or trap the balls to make a sound that can only be described as a hive of angry wasps.

2.

1. SearchTempest – http://www.searchtempest.com/

This service allows you to search by a wide variety of factors, opening the search results for each city in a separate frame for each search that yielded a research.  Save your mouse-clicks from having to open a tab for each results.

1. CraigsPal

This free program allows you to search by different criteria, using a standalone program that needs no web browser. It also conveniently saves your previous searches (until deleted manually) allowing you to return to your search. You can also highlight and mark as read, much like managing most email clients. It is however ad-supported, generally with a banner ad at the top.

In addition to making your searches easier, You can also improve your own postings with just a few easy tips.

1. Use a craigslist template.

Luckily, with craigslist you can use some light HTML skills to quickly enhance your ads. Make your ads look more professional, and standout with unique layouts and personal graphics.  Search the web for easy copy-and-paste web design templates.  If you know HTML, even better! You can use virtually any table layout – just make sure to use inline CSS since craigslist strips out classes otherwise.

2. Use special characters to bring your listing out of the shuffle

Window’s character map offers some great ways to make your listings stand out. Any character from the Arial font can be used, generally (note – macs may display differently). Some of the best are : “★ ☎  ► █  ♣” . These can be used in the text, the title of the listing, and the location box. They’re a great way to get noticed. In fact, some people may even ask if they’re a premium feature.

But within the last week, sears has rolled out a zombified version of their main online store, featuring clothes for “female zombies’ plus”, a zombie gift guide, and even a zombified twitter feed. Complete with a zombie makeover for the models on the microsite, it’s sure to make an impression for any zombie lover or Halloween aficionado.

Check it out at Sears.com

Whether it’s just looking for the next interesting thing to do, a sight to see, or just aimlessly exploring the city, it’s fun to venture without having to leave your living room. While it’s normally a fairly mundane journey, occasionally you run into interesting findings, strange sightings, and akward candid-camera moments. See a few below, or use the contact form to send me your own! (I promise to post them if they’re interesting)

1. M.C. Escher meets Office Buildings in Austin, TX
This satellite view shot was stitched together from two passes of either their satellite or a plane. Clearly, though, the angles are a little off.

View Larger Map

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2. Former Nazi Submarine Bunker with Duck
While checking out an old nazi bunker featured on the History Channel’s “underground” Series, I stumbled onto this art installation. Visit Google Maps to see Duck

Hypothesis:
That binding agents added to the plaster of paris mixture will strengthen the resulting hardened mixture in terms of tensile strength and compressive forces.

Experimental steps:

1. Measure out and record an amount of plaster of paris in the powdered form

2. Add a pre-determined percentage of an additive or adulterant, or an equal weight of plaster of paris for the control group mixtures

3. weigh and add a volume of water, along with additive or control plaster,  to create the plaster of paris mixture

4. Prepare mold.

5. To prepare each sample, measure out a constant volume of the mixture and pour it gently and slowly into the mold, taking care not to cause air bubbles.

6.  Dry the prepared samples for 24-48 hours or until as dehydrated as possible.

7. As soon as dried, remove the samples gently from the mold. How you do this will depend on the mold provided, but if it’s a simple cup you can invert the cup and tap the sample out onto a soft surface (I’d suggest a paper towel)

8.  Follow one of the experimental ideas below for each sample prepared:

Experiment 1.A : determining  strength

1. Prepare a weight application rig. This can be something as simple as two books or 2×4 boards spaced apart so that the sample just barely covers the gap resting on both ledges.

2. Add an incremental amount of weight to the top of the sample. Start very light, and add more weight in progressive steps. Record each step, and any respective observations or physical changes (like cracking, flaking, etc)

3. At the failure point, record the amount of weight it took to break the sample.

• Finish my degree
• Fly a plane
• Parasail again
• Have a margarita in a beachside bar
• get doctorate
• get married
• visit a volcano, throw something in dramatically
• go back to NM
• camp in a desert
• go snorkeling again
• visit italy, ireland, europe, and DC again
• get a patent
• stay at a 4-star hotel
• spend a night on a yacht/rent a houseboat
• skydive (tandem)
• get a research grant, do something noble
• skip a stone across a whitewater rapids
• go dune racing in a desert
• rappel in a cave
• write a book
• snowboard again
• visit a castle
• take a beach roadtrip
• learn basic rural survival skills and possibly trapping

days and days of waiting for UPS shipments

10-12 hours building and placing components

30-35 hours of web design

Priceless.

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This duzy took me around 30-40 hours to create, in total. The castle has blast-mitigating firing ports, a raised walkway, numerous gun placements, and a great labyrinth for ground battles inside castle walls.

You can download this map by searching for “A Castle Gigantico” – only available on the PC multiplayer servers (no XBOX port , sorry).

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When you stop voting for the candidates at least somewhat based on what they stand for, you get terrible candidates that mess up things for everybody, regardless of party lines.  We see good, well-qualified candidates get sidelined in favor of the candidate with the best hair. We get terrible politicians who got where they got by cut-throat betrayals and schmoozing. And yet, we keep voting them in.

It’s time to stop playing the political game by what color their party is, by whether they lean left or right, or who gave the most for favorable coverage.  Actually look at their records,  and vote for who will lead our cities, states, and nation for better.

To create a 3D Image, you simply need two images with the same basic viewpoint, spaced apart at roughly the same distance your left eye and your right eye are apart. The angle you see depends on the orientation of those two pictures. For instance, for a normal viewpoint you’ll want to keep the eye viewpoints level horizontally. Past that, it’s just tweaking the depth of the 3d image by moving the layers right and left and working with the transparency levels to get an appropriate image. I’ll leave the instructions to the pros, but those are just a couple of helpful tips.

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It’s currently up at http://www.lostinthetext.com/portfolio/

Reactions were mixed, however. For most, the game was either met with brief amusement and a few games played, or a resounding ‘meh’. But for some unlucky souls browsing at work, their regularly-scheduled on-the-clock google browsing turned into a dead giveaway as the sound from the java applet alerted everyone within a 5 meter radius, but only if they had both sound and the third-party plugin ‘coolpreview’ enabled on their computer. Within minutes, a hoarde of angry office workers and soundophobes was busy at work, registering their disapproval of the pacman stunt to anyone who would listen. However, in a great display of integrity, google kept up the pacman app, and as of the time of this writing the game is still up. Note – you have to double-click the logo to start the game (another fine moment for the eolas suit.)

The game featured the traditional “waka-waka” sound scheme of the timeless classic, bringing to mind memories of a simpler time in gaming’s history (and this coming from a child of the 80s).

And, just because i’d like this post to be more than one paragraph long, I introduce:

Ghetto ipsum doggy gangsta amizzle, shizzle my nizzle crocodizzle adipiscing sizzle. Nullizzle sapizzle shizznit, for sure volutpizzle, mammasay mammasa mamma oo sa quis, black vel, fo. Pellentesque shizzlin dizzle tortor. Sed erizzle. Fo shizzle at fo shizzle turpizzle tempus nizzle. Maurizzle pellentesque dawg mah nizzle turpizzle. Break yo neck, yall in the bizzle. Pellentesque dawg rhoncizzle daahng dawg. In bizzle check out this platea dictumst. Dope we gonna chung. Curabitizzle tellizzle urna, nizzle cool, mattis izzle, things pimpin’, nunc. Things suscipit. Sheezy semper go to hizzle hizzle purizzle.

You can get your own  from the  Gangsta lorem ippzle generator at Lorizzle.NL

It’s called AESOP, a reference to both the famous fables, and more truthfully just what the first 5 letters of Set B happened to be in the first grid.  This cipher, also known as a Polybius Square is a simple encryption technique dating back to ancient greece.

• A grid of the alphabet, numbers, punctuation and characters is layed out, each represented by two characters. The characters represent each letter’s place on the grid.
• For better security, false and blank characters are spaced out between the characters on the grid
• For confusion,  some commonly used characters have duplicates on the grid so different letter combos can be used for vowels, etc.
• for less translating, common words and adjectives can be included
• blank spaces are to be ignored. For confusion, you can throw these randomly in the mix once you’re done translating.
• For best results, use the space characters and don’t use spaces in the final code.  However, to add confusion, you can add false punctuation throughout.

INSTRUCTIONS

For each letter you’d like to translate, find the letter/number at the top of the column (SET A), then find the letter/number to the left of the row (SET B). For instance, on this graph the letter “P” translates to “TA”.

Try This Demonstration.

If you want to sneak a peak at the answer, roll over the image below with your mouse.

YK TL YL 8L QK TS hK TE TO TS hK hL YL TK Q5 QK Qz QP VO QZ QK T7

Download a Blank AESOP template to try your own code-  AESOP Grid Template

Check out the personas by downloading Firefox 3.5.9+,  then go to GetPersonas.com to customize.

When not working on a client’s site,  and in between gaming sessions, i can often be found in the deep recesses of a graphics editor, conjuring up new works and abstract imagery. With that comes an almost ravenous appetite for new stock photos to work with.  Here are just a few examples of great resources for free  stock photography.

FREE  GPU licensed and Royalty-Free stock photography :

1.  Public Domain Pictures
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
With 5,742 Photos to date, this is a great resource for freebie stock photos, which can be used for both personal and commercial purposes. If you use an image, you’re encouraged to either buy the author a cup of coffee, or at the very least give thanks where it’s due.

2. Free Public Domain Images
http://www.pdimages.com/web6.htm
100+ Free stock photos. A lot of good reference, almost encyclopedic, images.

3. 5000 Free Stock Photos
http://www.public-domain-photos.com/
well, as the name implies, this 5000+ image stock photography resource is a great place to scour for random projects.  These images may be used for both commercial and noncommercial projects,

4. Burning Well
http://www.burningwell.org/gallery2/main.php
I’ll admit i’m unsure of how many images are here, but it’s a great resource for stock photography, with an apparent interest in animals and wildlife.  Some very beautiful images, and a lot of great collage fodder.

5. Teacher Tap : Public Domain Images
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic98.htm
This one isn’t an image archive itself, but a well-stocked list of sources

6. Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_image_resources
A fitting final entry, wikipedia offers a much more comprehensive list of stock image providers, that I honestly wish i would have stumbled on earlier in my search.

Materials needed:
1. Crushed red pepper
2. Sage
3. Spice grinder / Fine blender

Instructions:
1. Add both the crushed red pepper and sage to the blender, in the desired proportions. I think we used a 1:4 ratio of crushed red pepper to sage, but it’s been quite a few years.
2. blend until the mixture is so fine that the dust takes a while to settle inside the blender once it’s turned off.
3. You’ve now got a sneezing powder that will work on the majority of people.

DISCLAIMER:
I assume no responsibility for what you do with the sneezing powder. In some places, I suspect that would constitute a weapon, so please be respectful. This recipe is shared only for sentimentality’s sake. By making or attempting to make sneezing powder, you agree to the terms outlined in this disclaimer.

Its lack of standards compliance and the browser’s overall glitchiness with handling otherwise ordinary techniques and processes, have made IE6 a burden to tame. Designers have had to jump through hoops to get things past validation, including some not-so-effective  workaround techniques and a mountain of IE6 commented CSS.

However, bright skies are on the horizon.  A ceremonial “funeral” was held for the browser in March,  and there’s even a site counting down until the end times for IE6 (which, is apparently going to be sometime  in 2014) . Microsoft’s Internet Explorer versions 7 and 8 have made great strides towards abiding by the W3C compliance standards, and improvements are definitely being made.

Still, IE6 remains in widespread use in a wide variety of industries and government institutions, so the end is moving slowly. With any luck, web admins and designers across the board will quietly revolt, and we can move to a day when you won’t need a separate stylesheet just for Internet Explorer 6. And that day can’t come too soon for this designer.

Just a few of the new examples below:

• Grocery List – Pretty self-explanatory
• Image Gadget – Add an inline image to your wave
• Iframe Gadget – add an embedded iframe to your wave
• Phone Conference – Allows you to create an easy conference call via google wave’s VOIP services. Invite multiple participants for live conferencing, or leave an audio message for the rest of your participants.
• Likey Gadget – a very simple gadget that allows the participants to like or dislike something. Easy as pie.
• AccuWeather – provides an easy weather forecast when you provide it with a location and a date.
• Napkin Gadget – Lets you doodle or leave hand-written notes in the wave
• Waffle (Date-Picker Gadget) – Use to plan events or set a date for something in a wave. Very simple interfaceMind Map Gadget – You can use this extension to create workflows and simple diagrams for organization. A handy tool for project lists or to-dos.
• Pollo Gadget – use this extension for simple surveys and polls
• Take-Out Gadget – Gather the office’s take-out orders and strategize lunch. You can even set a timer to combat chronic procrastinators..
• Video Chat Experience- Use this extension to set up a quick video chat within the wave, with filters and basic video effects to make it more interesting

As you can see, the higher-level features of google wave are starting to shape up,  and the interface is definitely evolving into it’s potential.

It’s even more so difficult when you’re designing a website that requires ADA (Americans With Disabilities act) compliance. Luckily, this time-tested dilemna has met it’s match : the ADA Accessibility Validator (about.com) . About.com also offers a variety of other validators to make sure your code is 100% compliant – including the Section 508 standards, W3C, Valid HTML, Valid XHTML, and more. See the whole range of validation tests at their site (about.com)

Morse code keys using binder clips

Materials:

2x Binder clips

2x wire lengths

scotch/electrical tape

1x sticky note

Directions for Simple Contact Switch:

1.First, Wrap the sticky note around the end of one of the binder clips’ skinny ends, making sure to  cover enough of the metal to fit the width of the scotch tape, but leave the end exposed about .5″-.75″.  Remove any loose paper around the edges of the clip. This will form the insulator.

2.Sandwich the wrapped portion of the clip with one end of the other binder clip, and use the scotch tape to bind them together. Make sure no portion of the end of binder clip is touching, especially at the wrapped end.

3.Bend the end of one of the binder clips away from the other clip, keeping the other clip straight.  This will form your switch, essentially.

4.Back at the wrapped end, form a loop of one of the wire lengths around the exposed end of the wrapped binder clip. Then, fold the end with the loop over the wire and crimp it with pliers. Repeat this process with the opposite end of the other binder clip.

5.Finally, make sure no portion of the two binder clips is in contact with each other. You now have a simple contact switch!

Directions for Morse Code Key:

1.First, Follow instructions 1-5 for the contact switch above.

2.Second, Bend the exposed end of the wrapped portion of the binder clip so that the “switch” forms an arch with the end of the exposed portion of the clip making contact with the  other binder clip.

3. Third, separate the arched end of the switch so there is no contact between the two binder clips

4. Finally,  using the tape, mount the unwrapped binder clip to a flat, rigid surface. Now you have a simple morse key!

You can build this idea out further by having a simple metal base plate (as shown) and counter-balancing the wrapped binder clip for easier use (as shown).

Tips:

1. depending on the type of binder clip, you may need to remove the preservative coating to make a good connection. A flat-head screwdriver or any other scraping device is good for this.