A long time ago I applied to be included in a beta program for Yahoo’s response to Google AdSense. I received an email today stating that I was accepted in to the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program and can begin showing advertisements. For those of you unfamiliar with online advertising, Google AdSense started back in 2003 as a way for regular webmasters to show ad blocks on their website from advertisements from various companies that Google works with. An example of AdSense is an advertisement in a box that says “Ads by Google.” Such is the case with the YPN beta. I show ads, and depending on hits, clicks, and some ratios Yahoo sends me some profit. I am just testing this program out and whether I keep it on this website or not has yet to be determined. Personally, I believe advertisements degrade a website and take away from it’s design and appeal from a purely aesthetic standpoint. They are generally a huge eyesore. However, as mentioned I am merely testing this program out. I have had experience with Google AdSense on my other website and would really like to compare the two.
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Update: A new version is out. Keep up to date via this page.
After a bit of toying around and some frivolous coding and photoshopping, I’ve come up with an RSS widget for this site. It loads the last 8 entry titles every 10 minutes. Of course, each post title links to the full article and there are several links at the bottom to make website navigation easier. It currently is only for Mac OS X Tiger computers, I am considering making a Konfabulator compatible version later on. Go ahead and download it and let me know if you have any suggestions for the next version.
Download Widget Here
Here are a few screenshots. I designed the interface as the screen of an Apple Cinema display.
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On a late evening trip to the grocery store with Dan for some necessities, I spotted a BMW Z8 valet parked in front of some fancy restaurant. And the next sighting definitely warrants a mention. I’ve seen quite a few Z8’s in my time, but the next car I saw, a Lotus Esprit TT is a bit more rare. The Esprit is the larger coupe with a twin turbo, 350HP V8. All this within about one minute… the Lotus crossed me in an intersection. It’s things like this that make me want to keep my digital camera, or a separate one, in my car at all times.
I just watched the latest Top Gear DVD, Revved Up. Top Gear, a show on BBC2, is the most amazing car show. Since I’m in America I can’t watch it on tv so everything I’ve seen of this show has been downloaded or seen on the Discovery Channel as reruns. If you have any interests in cars, I highly suggest you check out the Top Gear serires. They do insane things such as a Lotus Exige vs Apache Helicopter, striking a Volkswagen with 800kVolts in a lightning test, and they take you along for a hot lap in an F1 car.
Google has secretly invited 400 big names in the tech community to attend a special meeting. Named “Google Zeitgeist ‘05: The Google Partner Forum,” attendees must sign a non-disclosure agreement form so whatever Google tells them is kept a secret. I also found out about this through episode 16 of CommandN. I believe that the attendees will be given a sneak peek at the new Google OS. Read the article on CNet.
Gigabyte, a leading Taiwanese motherboard manufacturer, has just released a motherboard with 4 PCIe x16 slots that each support x8 bandwidth. The Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI-Quad Royal motherboard allows for an insane computer configuration with 4 Nvidia 78xx series video cards in SLI or scan link interface mode. This dramatically improves video performance, providing excellent quality and frames per second in the latest computer benchmarks and video games. These Taiwanese forums have several images of a test rig sporting 4 Nvidia 7800GTX video cards.
It’s amazing what kind of bandwidth Nvidia’s new CK804 chipset can provide to each of the PCIe slots. I’m not even sure if it’s worth it at this point. Regular two card SLI was a breakthrough at the time because it allowed gamers to purchase two budget video cards and have a decent gaming rig. But now with 4 SLI capable slots, a new level of insanity has been reached. Nvidia needs to bump up production now… Nvidia’s high end video solutions have always been hard to get to my recollection. If users are able to put 4 cards in their new rigs, there will be a much higher demand… especially for that 10% of gamers that want to have the absolute best gaming box out there. You can read the rest of the press release at VR-Zone.com.
I found a great write up on how to integrate PunBB forum software with the K2 WordPress theme that I am currently using. I am not too sure if this blog needs forums, but it is more of a proof-of-concept thing right now.
Google’s Video search engine is now active. Their flash video player is online and can play many videos in decent quality with excellent load time. Check out a clip of the BBC’s great car show, Top Gear.
I’ve recently acquired a WordPress.com “Golden Ticket.” WordPress.com is, to the best of my knowledge, the first free WordPress powered blogging solution. It is currently only a beta, open to a small number of users, but it is a great way to start blogging with the great WordPress software.
Rules & Directions:
I will give out my one invite to anyone I do not know personally that replies to this post with their proposition as to what they will do with it and what kind of blog they want to set up. The best reply gets the golden ticket! This giveaway ends Sunday, the 25th of September at midnight Eastern time. If there are no responses or no worthy replies, I will either extend the giveaway or put the Golden Ticket on eBay. The only thing I must ask of the winner is to link to this website on the blogroll.
WordPress.com is an easy and powerful way to start blogging.
Why Blog?
* Connect with an audience of dozens to millions.
* Stop sending mass emails to everyone.
* Archive your thoughts.
* Why the heck not?
Source: WordPress.com
EDIT: I am now aware that every WordPress.com invite gives that person one invite. So if everyone is willing to cooperate, I would be able to give everyone that replies a golden ticket. For example, I would send the invite to one person, who would set up an account, then send their one invite to the email address of the next person, which I provide to them.
Comment moderation is in use! If your post does not appear it is because I have not approved it yet. Don’t worry if it doesn’t show up by the deadline, WordPress tells me what time you posted the comment.
Through a Systm newsletter, I found out about an international web design festival called cre824. Essentially, it is your normal tech convention with lots of speeches and seminars alongside a 24 hour website development contest with many teams. On the website, I found out that the guys from Diggnation, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, will be there for a special edition Diggnation podcast. Also, Shaun Inman, the creator of the amazing Mint will be making an appearance. The festival is November 17th-20th in Chattanooga, TN. I emailed Amber Mac to see if she knew what day(s) Kevin and Alex would be attending, since I can’t find their email addresses anywhere online. Hopefully, I won’t have much school work then and will be able to attend since Chattanooga is less than 2 hours away and a 2 day base pass is $20 (compared to $600 for all of the seminars and award shows). Even if I won’t be able to get to see any seminars with the regular admission, a picture with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht (and perhaps Shaun Inman) will justify everything.
I’ve just finished up Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability and it’s a great read for anyone interested in tweaking their website to its fullest potential. Krug goes elaborates on the way web users will likely encounter certain elements on a website and what they will do about it. It gave me some good ideas on how to make my sites less cluttered, more appealing, and quickly give the first time user an idea of what the website is about.
Hurricane Rita has just been declared a category 5 hurricane and is headed for my hometown, Houston, TX. From what I’ve been tracking it should make landfall by Friday evening to Friday night. The residents of Galveston, TX were already ordered to evacuate and Houston had “voluntary evacuations” from the mayor. However, most people from Houston are evacuating as well. A lot of the phone lines in Texas are tied up. My sister and I were unable to get a hold of my parents or our other sister in Texas. I’m curious to see how this all unfolds.
Texas Governor Rick Perry had this to say
Homes and businesses can be rebuilt, lives cannot… Now is the time to leave.
I’ve been reading a web usability book, so you will notice many, small user-friendly website revisions as I try to improve this blog.
CNN reports that VW’s latest Bugatti venture, a 1,001HP W16 4 Turbo monster of a car has gone from drawing boards to reality. I have been tracking this car for several years now and it’s great to hear that this car is going production. I would love to see it at a car show eventually. However, it is going to cost about $1.24 Million each!
Each Bugatti Veyron 16.4 will cost an estimated $1.24 million, according to media reports. For that, buyers will get an all-wheel-drive two-seat sports car with a lightweight carbon-fiber body and 16-cylinder engine capable of producing 1,001 horsepower.
In 2003, according to Automotive News, the car still suffered from two major problems: The enormous engine tended to overheat and the car, capable of top a speed of well in excess of 200 miles per hour, was unstable at high speeds. Several reports have placed the car’s top speed at about 250 miles per hour. Source: CNN
September 19th is the official international talk like a pirate day.
You’ve read about it in Dave Barry’s column. Maybe you caught one of our radio or TV interviews. Or maybe you just stumbled on to our site while googling around for sites your mother probably wouldn’t approve of. Perhaps you’re one of the millions of people from South Africa to Australia, from New York to the Pacific Northwest, who party like pirates every September 19th..
However you got here, stick around an’ learn all about September 19 - International Talk Like A Pirate Day!
International Talk Like A Pirate Day is a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by two Americans, John Baur and Mark Summers, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like pirates. Here’s the wikipedia entry. Source: Digg
The Yahoo! Mail Beta was released earlier this week to a select group of users. The screenshots are proving very convincing that Yahoo! may have Google by the balls. It seems as though the interface, which requires no extra browser plugins to run, will make Thunderbird and Outlook users at home. You can read more about it on Alice Hill’s Real Tech News website.
Yahoo! Mail Beta is a web-based email application that combines the rich, responsive interface of a desktop program with the available-from-anywhere convenience of your existing Yahoo! Mail account. The tabs are there for you to read or compose on a message but still have the ability to get back to your inbox and other messages in case you need some information from your mailbox. It works using Dynamic HTML, XML and SOAP, technologies built right into the browser. You don’t need Java or any plug-ins at all. There’s no download and you can still access your account from anywhere.
I found a small article on MacVroom.com that shows a great way to give your new Nano a home. The mod involves stitching up a chamois used for cleaning LCDs allowing your Nano to slip right in.
If you’re interested in a premade case for your Nano, check out Speck Product’s line up of Nano cases.
There’s a great article on Time discussing how to get started in the ever popular blogging industry. It describes the basics of blogging and where to go if you want to get started.
Article on Time Online
My friend and neighbor from last year in Glenn Hall, Chris Morrell, invited me to come along to a track day at Road Atlanta, a race track about 45 miles out. His dad regularly attends these events with his modified Camaro Z-28. I jumped on the invitation and we set out at 7:30am this morning. It was amazing. There were 2 Ferrari’s (a 360 Spyder and a 360 Challenge), a Porsche GT2, a Dodge Viper, 3 Lotus Elises, tons of Corvette’s and a “SuperVette” that was just dominating, a few Subaru WRX STi’s, a modified 300ZX, a lightweight Honda del Sol that was extremely fast, an awesome Mazda Turbo RX-7, a Supra Turbo, and some special Panoz race cars. Continue Reading »
The Camino browser for Mac has reached 1.0 Alpha 1. You can get it here.
After my Calc3 quiz today, which I finished first in the class, I stopped by the registrar in Tech Tower to pick up a “Request For Change of Academic Major, Minor, Classification” form. I then went about campus attempting to get all of the signatures from my academic counselor from the Electrical Engineering building. I have yet to track down the advisor from the College of Computing that runs the CM program.
Update: This post is old. If you came here from a search engine in a quest to find more about the Computational Media program at Georgia Tech, feel free to email me.
I have been playing around with a feature in K2 which allows for me to create multiple CSS files for me to change the appearance of the blog and choose between styles. I have been hoping to modify it a bit and allow for users to view this blog to a style to their choosing, including different colors and header images.
A writer over at eWeek.com compares OS X to many other Unix based desktops and declares Mac the best.
It comes down to fundamentals. Linux desktops come from developers whose primary interest has always been building powerful tools that give the informed user almost limitless power over how his or her machine works. The key words here are “informed” and “power.”
Today’s Mac desktop comes from decades of a different design philosophy, where ease of use is all.
Google has just released a new search engine tool, this time for specifically searching blogs, an area of the online market that Yahoo! is quickly pioneering. Google Blog Search is still in its Beta and search results look a little wierd to me, with everything spaced out quite a bit.
Google’s tool is designed to find listings beyond those published through its own Blogger.com service by searching blogs that publish feeds via RSS or Atom. The feeds are checked frequently for new content, Google said on its website.
You can read ArsTechnica’s take on the new tool here.
I read this article on ArsTechnica a few days ago but just now thought about posting it. They take the new iPod Nano through a crazy string of stress tests from dropping it out of a car going 50mph to running over it with a car.
What does it take to destroy an iPod nano, and what’s inside this tiny package? We wanted to answer both questions and strangely enough answering the first allowed us to answer the second. We could take our turns at purposely rendering the iPod nano broken, and then when it had endured more damage than it could handle we’d end its misery with a respectful autopsy. Now, we know that destroying the iPod nano makes some (strange) grown men want to cry. Rest assured, you can still buy one yourself, and the local priest said all iPod nanos go to heaven.
I’ve recently discovered and been interested in taking up a major in Computational Media rather than what I am currently in, Computer Engineering. From the computer engineering classes I’ve taken thus far I am finding a hard time picking up anything I really enjoy in this major. I’ve always liked tinkering with electronics and will continue to do so, but I think I would enjoy a major and career in CM. To the best of my knowledge CM is graphic/web design. I have also been tinkering around with websites and photoshop, etc, since I was young as well. I won’t be able to take any courses for a new major until next semester so I’ve got time to decide. I’m trying to find out what kinds of careers are viable for a college graduate in a Computational Media major.
This is how the gatech website describes a CM major…
A joint offering between the College of Computing and the School of Literature Communication and Culture, the Bachelor of Science in
Computational Media (CM) recognizes the significant role of computing
in communication and expression. The curriculum provides the CM
major a thorough understanding of the technology, history, and
application of the computer as a medium in business, education and
entertainment.
My favorite piece of cd/dvd burning software will soon be updated. Nero has a statement on their website regarding the release of Nero 7 Ultra Edition sometime this October. Even though Nero doesn’t run on a Mac, I use religiously on my PCs. I am particularly interested in what Nero 7 Express will look like as well as what extra features they could possibly cram into it.
Sorry for the downtime today folks. Apparently there was a major power outage in Los Angeles, where my hosting company, MediaTemple, is located. However, they seemed to have recovered quickly. To my knowledge the power outage was roughly 3 hours starting around 4 PM. However, I am not certain as to whether (mt) used any power backups.
Update (9/13): MediaTemple has posted a statement about the causes of the power outage.
I stopped by the Apple store in Lenox Mall today to look at Nano’s. Surprisingly they were in full stock so I purchased a white 4GB one. I snapped some pics… enjoy!
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Someone has discovered a way to alter the image files that control the appearance of the iTunes 5 user interface. You can read the article here.
If you wanna change the color or try to mod it further you can by finding the iTunes.rsrc file inside the iTunes.app. This file should be in the base resource folder in iTunes. Anyway open the file with an application like Resorcerer and when the file is open under the Types column go to PICT which of course is the picture resources. When selected slide down to resource ID 1025 and from there its pretty easy to see which files are associated with the UI in iTunes. I used Photoshop and the Hue adjuster to make my ID 1025 and ID 1026 green and the ID 1027 and ID 1028 blue.
This Japanese website shows many pictures of the disassembly of Apple’s new iPod Nano. The Nano boasts a 1.5″ color lcd screen and 2 & 4GB of flash memory all in a 0.27″ thin package.
After getting rid of some initial server setup issues, I was able to get Shaun Inman’s amazing stats monitoring web application, Mint. It lets me keep a keen eye on my visitors, what time they visited, what pages were browsed, what browser resolution they are running, what web browser they use, as well as inform me of other vital information.
Mint’s tag line is that I will be able to find out what my visitors browse most often, so that I can expand that content as well as hone in to what they want. Mint was released but a few days ago. I purchased a site license for this domain but was unable to install it since I was then serving this website locally on my Mac Mini.
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Mozilla just released the first beta of its next version of Firefox. Enjoy!
I have just switched over to (mt)’s server so please be patient for the next few days until I can restore all the databases, etc. I am also coping with a hard drive failure, so I might have to start from scratch if a few of my backups don’t work.
