idl3mind.net

www.drsoft.com has a brief post on how to create a simple progress bar with just a little PHP and CSS.

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After reading a VMware blog post a few days ago that mentioned Windows Live Writer, I thought I’d see what it was about. First of all, generally, I do not use M$ Live products. No Windows Live Messenger, etc. I do have a Windows Live ID, but it’s purely for use with XBOX LIVE.

My initial impressions are that I like it.

It hooks into Windows Live Spaces of course, SharePoint, Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, and more. The setup was very easy. First, I downloaded the app here: http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/. Then, I unselected all the options in the install wizard except for Writer. After that, the wizard asked for my blog URL, blog username and blog password. You can have multiple blog accounts, too. During a new blog setup, it asks to post a test blog post to download your theme so that when you edit a new post, you cans see how it will look in your blog before you publish. Examples below:

I bought an IOGEAR GHDMIAS4 4 Port Automatic HDMI Switch on Newegg.com last week to connect my Playstation 3, Xbox360 and TiVo Series3 HD to my television. My 2005 TV has only one HDMI port.

I’ve been walking around to the back of the TV for over a year plugging and unplugging my three HDMI devices. I’ve been doing this because I’ve read review after review about a variety of HDMI switches that are not able to send a 1080 signal (whether 1080p or 1080i) to the TV from the Playstation 3.

After reading this Macworld review, I decided to give it a shot. With Newegg.com’s 30-return policy, I figured I had nothing to lose. I attached the HDMI switch to my devices. I’ve been fooling around w/ the switch for a while now, and I have to say I’m very pleased with it.

IOGEAR GHDMIAS4 4 Port Automatic HDMI Switch product page

Granted, this is a Rogers unboxing (I’m on AT&T), but it still confirms that the new BlackBerry Bold is a beautiful device. It also confirms that I’m getting a Bold and not an iPhone 3G. Sorry, Uncle Steve.

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I’ve been using OpenDNS at home and at work since the service was first offered. At home, I was just using OpenDNS for DNS lookups, that’s all. At work, I setup our M$ Domain Controllers to forward DNS requests to OpenDNS, again for DNS lookups only.

In May 2007, OpenDNS announced their filtering controls, I immediately went to their site, created an account, and setup my external IP networks (currently five of them at work, soon to be six). Granted at the time, it was implicit domain blocking only, but it was something. Prior to May ‘07, I was using a Linux server and BIND with a huge list of domains that I blocked by pointing to 127.0.0.1. It was a dirty solution, but it worked. Most of the domains I had in BIND were Adware sites I pulled from the hosts file changes that Spybot S&D added to the Windows hosts file. The OpenDNS domain blocking was a solution to my dirty fix. While I like having Linux on my network, the OpenDNS domain blocking sort of did away with my daily workarounds trying to block/unblock domains.

In June/August 2007, OpenDNS added category blocking with domain whitelisting. Oh, sweet day! I was able to block entire categories of internet content, for free! Again, for free!

Now back to the point of this post… Some people would like this kind of filtering for their children to keep them from viewing pornographic content or to avoid internet predators. I had never really thought about using OpenDNS as a parental filter before because I do not have children. NetNanny and other parental filtering software charges per computer. Now that homes have more than one computer, that could get expensive; paying for filtering year after year. If you have more than one computer in your home, you would need to setup the OpenDNS servers on your cable/DSL router (Apple AirPort, Linksys, D-Link, etc.), but you only need to setup the OpenDNS client software on one computer (preferably one the parents use).

Check out the Howtogeek article about how to set up parental filtering for free using OpenDNS.

Howtogeek via Lifehacker

Even if you don’t have children, you could still take advantage of OpenDNS’s Phishing and Adware blocking. It’s the setup I’m using at home.

I just thought this was a bit ironic that MacDailyNews reports about “Netflix suffers biggest outage ever” and there is a big honkin’ ad in the center of the article for Apple TV and iTunes Store rentals.

Original article

It seems like an obvious move: Apple’s little pink 8GB iPod nano ($199) comes out in time for Valentine’s Day, and perhaps before most pink second-gen nanos have kicked the bucket. But there’s a problem: if you’re trying to impress your lady friend by buying her a nano that contributes money to some worthy cause, you’re going to have to stick with the (PRODUCT) RED one, which fights against AIDS and tuberculosis in Africa and around the world. As pink as this nano is, there’s no mention of an accompanying breast-cancer charity benefit, in an industry where pink gadgets usually mean precisely that. Let’s get it going, Apple! [Apple]
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Just another justification that DRM does not and will not work! EVER! I hope Sony learns a lesson from this. Hopefully, they will lose millions of dollars in revenue. Its not a good thing to screw your customers or their computers.

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This is a little old, but interesting still since the old FBSD site was looking a little dated.

A new website has been launched. We hope you find the new design easier to navigate. The site was implemented by Emily Boyd as part of Google’s Summer of Code program. A copy of the old site for comparison purposes is archived here. Please post your comments and suggestions about the new site to the freebsd-www@FreeBSD.org list.

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Apple does it again, all in one week too!

First off, they release the new iPod nano, a new tiny version of the iPod. Available in a 2GB and 4GB model, the iPod nano can store up to 500 songs or 1000 songs respectively.

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