del.icio.us links for 2005-03-31

• Tabtastic: This library is a simple way to implement tabs on your page using CSS, a little JS, and semantic markup which degrades gracefully on browsers with CSS unavailable or disabled. (css design javascript)
• Nifty Corners: "This page is intended to present the solution I came up, that doesn't requires images, extra markup nor CSS. " (css html layout web)
• Talk.org: CSS tips for coders: The only layout rule you need to know: Absolute positioning is just about the coolest and most obvious feature of CSS that you hardly ever hear about.. With this you can control exactly where you want things on a page. (css html layout web)
• Direct Manipulation Using JavaScript and CSS: Direct manipulation, particularly drag and drop, is under utilized in desktop applications and is almost non-existant in web applications. The following examples demonstrate that direct manipulation is possible in modern browsers. (css design javascript)
• A CSS styled table: "Further to my article about the creation of a CSS calendar the thought crossed my mind to show you an example on how you can style a table using CSS." (css html layout web)
• ReportLab - Open Source Software: PDF and XML Python tools (pdf python tool xml)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-28

• EZTrip.com: discount hotels, motels, hotel reservations, car rentals, airline tickets and vacation packages (tool travel)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-22

• How to make a good ID in Atom: There are several ways to construct an unchanging, globally unique URI, but some are better than others. (atom xml)
• The Atom Syndication Format: Atom is an XML-based document format that describes lists of related information known as "feeds". Feeds are composed of a number of items, known as "entries", each with an extensible set of attached metadata. (atom rfc xml)
• inknoise Layout-o-matic: Automagically generates a CSS layout (css html layout tool)
• mxmDynamicPage, Plone content type for dynamic lists: The mxm Dynamic Page product for Plone makes it easy for end-users to make dynamic pages that aggregates lists of content from a part of a Plone site. In short, it makes it easy to add dynamic lists to a document. (design layout plone zope)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-17

• RFID crack raises spector of weak encryption - Computerworld: With a little bit of technical acumen and a few hundred dollars, enterprising thieves can walk away with some late-model cars and gas them up for free to boot (cryptography rfid security)
• Dan’s Horrendous Waste of Bandwidth » Further Japanese Pocky Commercials: “Can you see that I am serious?”: These all have an edge of anime-inspired weirdness, especially the last one. (japan video weird)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-15

• The Fade Anything Technique: inspired by 37signals Yellow Fade Technique. FAT builds upon the YFT by allowing you to fade any element from any color back to its native background-color without the use of inline JavaScript. To activate FAT on an element you simply give it the class of (css design javascript)

Mmmm, Tabasco

I think the thing I like about Tabasco is it's simplicity: Salt-cured red peppers and vinegar, aged and fermented for up to three years. No added preservatives; salt and vinegar keep make it incapable of supporting bacterial life. I like it on fried eggs, particularly the yolk. As food products go, it's pretty successful, so it should be no surprise that there are spin-off flavors. And as you'd expect, the spin-offs are not always as good as the original.

Green

The first, and worst, of the spin-offs. Originally this was billed as Jalapeño, but now it's Green, which I think says a lot. Green food coloring and xanthan gum (last time I checked the label). It's not that it tastes bad (it's been a long time since I've tried it); I just have philosophical problems with it. Weak.

Habanero

This is touted as a Jamaican-style pepper sauce, and based on the real Jamaican pepper sauces I have had at Jamaican restaurants, it's a failure in this respect. It's got some tropical fruits and sugar and other spices, and has a regular Tabasco base. It also has tomatoes, which do not seem to be an ingredient that is very common in Jamaican pepper sauces; the ones I am familiar with are mostly yellow-orange from all the habanero peppers. The Tabasco version is orangish-red. It's kind of like comparing the "Lord of the Rings" movies to the books: If you've never read the books and go watch the movies with no expectations, the movies are pretty good. If you've read the books, the movies are an affront. If you avoid comparisions to Jamaican pepper sauces, this is a good pepper sauce. I still like it, even it is not a faithful adaptation of the original. It's about twice as hot as regular Tabasco.

Chipolte

Chipolte peppers are really smoked jalapeños, and based on my previous comments, you'd think this sucks. Actually, I think the chipolte is the best of the bunch. The smokiness really adds a lot to the flavor. It's roughly as hot as regular Tabasco, and good for kicking up weak salsa.

Garlic

It sounds interesting, but I haven't tried it yet.

Tabasco: Eat some today before you die.

No, I really don't have anything more interesting to talk about on my lunch break.

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-14

• Firefox Extension: Tab Mix: Improves Firefox's tab handling. In particular, you can re-order tabs. (extension firefox mozilla)
• Spell with flickr [via Boing Boing]: Create ransom-note-style lettering with images from flickr (boingboing design flickr image typography)
• Help the Googlebot understand your web site [Scribbling.net]: As a web site author, there are a few simple things you can do to help the Googlebot understand your web site as fully as possible. (design google web)
• AJAX and Accessibility - Standards-schmandards: "In this article we will have a look at the implications for accessibility and usability when using Javascript to dynamically update a web page. I will also show how you can increase accessibility for AJAX-based forms." (accessibility ajax dom javascript xml)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-11

• Schneier on Security: More Hash Function Attacks: Here's a pair of valid X.509 certificates that have identical signatures. The hash function used is MD5. And here's a paper demonstrating a technique for finding MD5 collisions quickly: eight hours on 1.6 GHz computer. (certificate cryptography md5 schneier security x.509)
• XML.com: XML on the Web Has Failed (Mark Pilgrim): Miserably, utterly, completely. Multiple specifications and circumstances conspire to force 90% of the world into publishing XML as ASCII. (http rant rss unicode xml)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-10

• Usable XMLHttpRequest in Practice | Baekdal.com: One of the great benefits of XMLHttpRequest is that you can use it to make complex WYSIWYG. This has previously been hard to do on the web. (ajax design http javascript usability xml)
• Colorization Using Optimization: Our method is based on a simple premise: neighboring pixels in space-time that have similar intensities should have similar colors. (color photo photomanipulation video)
• Jay Pinkerton.com - Superman Origin Comics!: The not-so-likely origins of SUPERMAN on KRYPTON! PLANET OF SCIENCE AND SENSUALITY! (comic funny superman)
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1: The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. (http reference rfc)
• Guide to Using XMLHttpRequest (with Baby Steps) from WebPasties: The XMLHttpRequest object is a handy dandy JavaScript object that offers a convenient way for webpages to get information from servers without refreshing themselves. (ajax dom howto http javascript mysql php rest xml)
• XML.com: How to Create a REST Protocol: This article outlines a series of steps you can follow in creating your protocol--guidance that will help you get all the benefits that REST has to offer, while avoiding common pitfalls. (howto http rest xml)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-09

• Hurricane Electric - Looking Glass: Check BGP, traceroute, ping from one of HE's routers (network routing tool)
• A CSS styled calendar: How to build an HTML calendar with semantic markup and CSS styling (calendar css howto html layout)
• Wicked Weasel Bikinis: BEACH WEAR FOR NAUGHTY GIRLS. Very naughty indeed. (australia beach boobs naughty nsfw photo)
• S5: A Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System: S5 is a slide show format based entirely on XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With one file, you can run a complete slide show and have a printer-friendly version as well. (css html javascript layout)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-08

• Main Page - Uncyclopedia: The bizzarro world Wikipedia, where everything exists as it's evil opposite. (evil humor reference wiki)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-07

• PEAK - The Python Enterprise Application Kit: If you develop "enterprise" applications with Python, or indeed almost any sort of application with Python, PEAK may help you do it faster, easier, on a larger scale, and with fewer defects than ever before. The key is component-based development, on a re (framework python)
• Building your own PBX: Sounds too hard to believe doesn't it, but using old hardware and some open source software, you really can build a commercial quality phone system that would normally cost thousands of dollars. (howto linux telephony voip)
• Bright Coop, Inc. E-Z Catch Harvester: For chickens. Must see to believe and understand. (animal chicken meat video weird)
• Bullshit Bingo [Random!]: Do you keep falling asleep in meetings and seminars? What about those long and boring conference calls? Here is a way to change all of that! (game humor meetings)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-06

• Batman's Greatest Boner!: Batman and Robin gaily exchange boners with the Joker (comic funny)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-05

• Science Made Stupid: Put most simply, science is a way of dealing with the world around us. It is a way of baffling the uninitiated with incomprehensible jargon. It is a way of obtaining fat government grants. It is a way of achieving mastery over the physical world by threa (humor science)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-04

• Essential Fonts For Designers: 300 Free Truetype Fonts You Should Have (fonts truetype)

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-03

• The coming crackdown on blogging | Newsmakers | CNET News.com: bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines. (blogging liberty politics)
• Kernel Korner - Unionfs: Bringing Filesystems Together | Linux Journal: Unionfs merges several directories into a single unified view. We describe applications of Unionfs and also interesting implementation aspects. (filesystem linux)
• OAV.Net: Apache 2.0.x mod_vhs: mod_vhs is an Apache 2.0 Web Server module allowing mass virtual hosting without the need for file based configuration. The virtual host paths are translated from a any database supported by libhome at request time. (apache ldap mysql pam)
• Red Alt - I Like Your Colors: Tool that visits the website of your choice and reports what colors it uses for it's site design. (color css html tool)
• Urban Legends Reference Pages: Photo Gallery (Welcome to Austria): Claim: Austria is home to a town called 'Fucking.' Status: True. (funny photo)

Around the world in 67 hours

Congratulations to Steve Fossett for his piloting of the first non-stop, non-refueling solo flight around the world in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. Doing anything for 67 hours is quite an achievement; piloting a fragile experimental jet around the world when you're not sure you even have enough fuel and landing it safely is an amazing feat. Steve was also the first (only, to date?) person to fly non-stop solo around the world in a balloon, and that took several tries. Now, Steve, it's time for your next challenge: To be the first person to fly around the world, non-stop, without refueling, in a human-powered aircraft. Burt Rutan, after your great work on SpaceshipOne and GlobalFlyer, your job is to make an improved version of the Gossamer Condor, which was the first sustained human-powered aircraft. Your version must be capable of carrying one pilot and 10,000 gallons of Gatorade and Jolt Cola. Richard Branson, after financing SpaceshipOne and GlobalFlyer and the upcoming VirginGalactic, and other amazing feats of engineering, your task is to give Burt Rutan as much money as he wants. I am certain you gentlemen will rise to the challenge and soon we'll all have our own human-powered sub-orbital flying cars.

Printing^WSPAMMING Blog

On a whim, I hit the "next blog" button, and I got this so-called Printing Blog. In reality, this has not a fucking thing to do with printing, but everything to do with spamming on all sorts of subjects from cat acne to mortgages. This is certainly done with hopes of search engines indexing his site, maybe so he can scam some referral money, or maybe he gets paid by the link, since he posts a new one every few minutes. Sadly, since it's a BlogSpot site, he doesn't even have to pay for this net pollution. Now you're probably thinking, "Farce, what have you been doing all this time to just now be noticing this?" And the answer is: Ignoring you and your blog. Nathan Allen, kindly fuck off.

Abolish the FEC: Get them before they get you

Declan McCullagh reports at C|Net,

[Federal Election Commissoner] Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over.

In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

Just linking to a candidate's web site could be assessed as a campaign contribution, for which there is a $1000 individual limit. How much is your link worth? Nobody knows. Smith notes, "Senators McCain and Feingold have argued that we have to regulate the Internet, that we have to regulate e-mail. They sued us in court over this and they won." I suppose you could write your congresscritter, but they have a vested interest in the status quo. This reminded me of an article by Harry Browne on how the FEC exists primarily to enforce a two-party system. Oops, now I've contributed an unknown amount of money to Harry if he ever decides to run for President again.

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-02

• Checky Extension: Document validation and analysis Extension for Firefox, Mozilla and Netscape (css firefox html mozilla rss tool validator xml)
• Web Developer extension: The Web Developer extension for Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools. (css firefox html mozilla tool)
• [ws] Color Scheme Generator 2: Interactive color scheme generator, including viewing options for various types of color-blindness (art color design tool)
• [listulike] CSS Generator: Create cross-browser list-based navigation bars with ease. Interactive CSS generator. (css layout tool)
• Yoga Postures Step-By-Step - Index to Poses: Visual guide to yoga (exercise yoga)

Happy 25th Anniversary, CNN Headline News, RIP

Now here's why you suck. I've watched Headline News for the last 20 years. The beauty of Headline News was you could turn it on any time and get a half an hour of news. You got a minute of weather, a minute or two of sports, the "Hollwood Minute", and then maybe a two minute "human-interest" puff piece at the end. But then you got at least 15 minutes of real news. Things started to go downhill when Time-Warner bought Turner, and accelerated when AOL bought Time-Warner. " It's hipper and trendier than ever, with less and less actual news content. If you cut out all the witty banter, you'd probably have another five minutes for covering actual news. Well now you've gone too far:

On February 21, Headline News launched "Headline Prime" an all-new, prime-time lineup, featuring "Showbiz Tonight," a live entertainment news show; "Nancy Grace" a legal news and debate show and "Prime News Tonight," a nightly, national news program. Before and after the new programs, Headline News continues to provide you with top stories, business news, sports, weather and entertainment news around the clock. [Source]

This crapfest goes on from 7-10 Eastern and then repeats for the west coast, so from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., which is the time I was most likely to watch, there's no fucking Headline News. We hates it! We hates it forever! Attention Weather Channel! You are also on dangerous ground. Used to be I could get weather every 8 minutes. Now it seems like every time I want the current conditions or a forecast, I get "Storm Stories" instead. Cut that shit out. If I want weather history, I'll turn on the Discovery Channel. Stick to your core competency, which is forecasting the fucking weather. And will someone please gag The Schwartz? The man just will not shut the fuck up.

del.icio.us links for 2005-03-01

• Python Grimoire: The Python Grimoire explains how to perform common programming tasks in Python. It is a good place to go after you've read the Python Tutorial and have a reasonable grasp of the basics of the language. (howto python)
• JavaScriptTemplates: For web application developers, the JavaScript Templates engine from TrimPath is a lightweight APL / GPL open-source component that lets you have template-based programming (like PHP/ASP/JSP) while running in a web browser. (javascript templates)
• mod_security: Open Source Web Application Firewall (apache java security)
• redandblack.com - Students make 36-hour hike to Athens on a bet: On the side of the road they found a porn magazine, an escort services catalogue, a DVD called "Ebonica: Ho Sista", a crack pipe, hubcaps, an American flag and lots of condoms and condom wrappers. (athensga funny georgia us)
• Schneier on Security: Sneaking Items Aboard Aircraft: A Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice faces a fine -- although no criminal charges at the moment -- for trying to sneak a knife aboard an aircraft. (liberty privacy schneier security)