I'm looking for comments on the new look of the webpage. Overall I'm happy with the design, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet. Any constructive critiscm would be appreciated.
I know I definately need to put something to the right of the new logo. I'm thinking of moving my Flickr photostream from its current position to the header. I know the new logo isn't terribly creative, but being that I'm known as the "bar code king" at work, it is appropriate.
Yahoo Mindset is a beta search engine that you customize your search results based on if you are researching a topic or looking to purchase an item. It's an interesting idea.
After I searched for "802.11b", on the search results page, a slider shows up. At the leftmost extreme of the slider is "shopping" and at the other extreme is "researching". By moving the slider to the right, the search results are sorted with the most research-oriented relevant sites at the top (sites like .edu's, tutorials, etc...). Moving the slider to the left, sites where I could purchase 802.11b equipment move to the top of the result set.
Looks like Konfabulator has just dropped its price by $10, which makes it a much better deal. It seems like as soon as I buy something, it always drops in price. So I guess everyone should wait for me to buy some gadget and then wait a month because it's guarenteed to drop in price by at least 30%. I guess that's why I've been waiting so long to get an LCD monitor, but even then I know there will be a glut in supply the day after I order it and the prices will drop another $100.
Yes, I know the web page still looks horrible. I'm hoping to fix it up during lunch today.
Two new "IPTV" shows came out this week:
*From The Shawdows - This is the first episode I've seen from these guys (including Yoshi and Robert Heron from TechTV fame) and it is excellent. This episode features a couple neat wireless hacks including WEP cracking and a PSP mod to increase the WiFi range.
*Systm.org - This new show is created by Kevin Rose (another ghost of TechTV past) and the makers of The Broken. While I was somewhat disapointed in the first show, it does show promise.
All in all, I think it's great that these guys are doing these shows. There is a audience for this type of media (even through G4 doesn't agree) and I plan to and encourage everyone to make small donations to help keep them on the "air".
Download the Torrents and check them out.
If I only had seen this movie in November, I would have changed my vote. I can't believe it took this long for the real truth to come out.
Fines Doubled.
Click it or Ticket.
Speed Limit: 35 MPH.
The Sector has gone the route of PennDOT. Once summer arrives, we tear the system up and rebuild. So things will look a bit goofy on the site for a couple of days, but it's all good. Just like PennDOT, we will be putting away the orange barrels and miles of construction-worker free zones, but unlike PennDOT, you will actually see a difference once the snow starts falling again.
In the meantime, check out Cliff Yablonski's newest victims.
I've been toying around with GreaseMonkey in Firefox lately. It's an extension that lets you create your own DHTML user scripts to websites that you frequent and would like to modify in some fashion. At first I had a bit of a difficult time understanding the benefits of it, but viewing this demo cleared things up a bit.
Some examples of available scripts include:
* Google Maps with Geocaching - Puts a link on Google Maps that pops up a window with a list of availiable caches within the current map view.
* UPS Tracking Linkify - Automatically creates a link to UPS tracking for any occurence of a tracking number on a web page that you visit (no more cutting & pasting).
* Del-Icio-Us Auto Complete - Autocompletes tags when posting links to del.icio.us. Useful when trying to keep consistent groupings of tags (ie. secure vs. security, etc...).
Overall, I think there is a lot of potential with GreaseMonkey. It will be interesting to see whether or not the industry will embrace or reject it.
Update (5/12/2005):
As you can see below, Billy from Peerflix responded quickly to this blog entry (although I do find it somewhat intersting that my blog reached customer support faster than email). It sounds like Peerflix is going through some growing pains, and I'll stick with them. I'm very interested in trying out their "My Friends" program.
In the past, I've lauded Peerflix, even to the point where I've been interviewed by the media and this blog entry even linked directly on Peerflix's site.
However, I've received absolutely no customer service from Peerflix over the past 2 months and have therefore canceled my account. Below is the email I just sent to Peerflix:
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HELLO...
I have sent several (over 5) emails about this (ticket LTK3002447026X and others before the ticket system was initiated) and I have yet to receive ONE response to either of my issues. In the past, I've documented my happiness with your service on my blog (www.shanafeltsector.com) and am even listed on your site as a reference. Immediately after I send this email, I will be posting again but in a negative manner to Peerflix.
Here are my issues:
#1, The movie "Old School" has been labeled as "sent to me" since early March. I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED THIS MOVIE AND I'VE ASKED SEVERAL TIMES TO HAVE IT REMOVED AND THE PEERBUX CREDITED BACK TO ME.
#2, I have requested to be switched from the $5/month plan to the $.99/per disk plan.
Please credit my credit card the $5 you have charged me for last month's service and cancel my account.
-Michael Shanafelt
Just last month I posted about the lack of quality Podcasts. Over the past 4 weeks, the guys from the original ScreenSavers have come together to create "This Week In Tech", which is an excellent weekly PodCast. Check out the site and subscribe to the RSS feed with iPodder.
There's been a lot of buzz about Google's Web Accelerator. Essentially, this browser add-on will send you to cached versions of web sites hosted on Google's servers as opposed to the real site in an attempt to speed-up your surfing. However, by doing this, all the information that you are seeing is controlled by Google, which may not be such a great thing.
The fine fellows at Something Awful (who also brought you Cliff Yablonski) have written a pretty good article about Google and their zombie-eyed followers.
PS. Check out Page 50 of Cliff Yablonski to see one of my former dorm-mates. He's the one wearing the laundry basket.
Celebrating my first trip to Pittsburgh in 6 months (that doesn't sound right, but it is unfortunately true), check out Pittsblog.
I just realized that I've been to Philly at least 4 times since my last visit to the 'Burgh. That also just doesn't sound right.
