Entertainment Ecosystems
Posted January 10th, 2013 @ 11:57am by Erik J. Barzeski
And yes, a bit of filler. 🙂
Posted January 10th, 2013 @ 11:57am by Erik J. Barzeski
And yes, a bit of filler. 🙂
Posted January 9th, 2013 @ 11:27am by Erik J. Barzeski
Here's a good article on gun control.
Fantasists and zealots can be found on both sides of the debate over guns in America. On the one hand, many gun-rights advocates reject even the most sensible restrictions on the sale of weapons to the public. On the other, proponents of stricter gun laws often seem unable to understand why a good person would ever want ready access to a loaded firearm. Between these two extremes we must find grounds for a rational discussion about the problem of gun violence.
And
Of course, it is important to think about the problem of gun violence in the context of other risks. For instance, it is estimated that 100,000 Americans die each year because doctors and nurses fail to wash their hands properly. Measured in bodies, therefore, the problem of hand washing in hospitals is worse than the problem of guns, even if we include accidents and suicides.
Really worth reading. Don't let the second quote scare you into thinking it's pro-gun. I think it will come across as well balanced.
Posted January 8th, 2013 @ 11:21am by Erik J. Barzeski
From John Gruber:
Old (non-retina) favicons are 16 × 16 px; a retina favicon is thus 32 × 32 px. The lazy way to support retina is to replace your old 16 px favicon.ico file with a 32 px file, and allow non-retina browsers to scale the image. The proper solution, however, is to create a single favicon.ico file containing two icon resources: one 16 × 16, the other 32 × 32. ICO files support other resolutions as well, but I see no practical utility in doing so.
Posted January 7th, 2013 @ 02:34pm by Erik J. Barzeski
I'd like to order a few (three or four?) small posters online. What's the best place to do so? 18 x 24" or so.
Five 18 x 24" color posters (mounted to foam boards) from the FedEx/Kinko's is $179.
Posted January 6th, 2013 @ 03:31pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Funny. But then again xkcd almost always is.
Posted January 5th, 2013 @ 03:29pm by Erik J. Barzeski
I still have no idea why anyone would want to run more than about ten miles or so, but this article about the 100-mile punishing Leadville Ultramarathon (and it's not punishing because it's 100 miles - that's the least of it!) is worth a read.
Posted January 4th, 2013 @ 03:24pm by Erik J. Barzeski
I wonder if he could sue.
Posted January 3rd, 2013 @ 01:23pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Posted January 2nd, 2013 @ 07:16pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Bah. I suppose I knew this was coming, I think I'd read about it, but dangit - it's one of the best Sci-Fi shows since the X-Files (and by that I mean the X-Files before that series turned to poo).
Posted January 1st, 2013 @ 07:14pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Is there any compelling reason to get a Wii U? Any "console maker" games?
Our Wii hasn't seen much action lately (like in a year or two), while the Kinect sees regular action, but it's also been overheating or something as it will freeze sometimes after boot-up, so it could also be considered an "updated replacement" that let us keep playing our existing Wii games. Rarely. 🙂
Posted December 31st, 2012 @ 10:44pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Does anyone know of a relatively easy way to watermark a multi-page PDF via PHP at the time of download?
I'll do my usual research, but if anyone knows of a quick way that works, I'd love to hear it. 🙂
Posted December 30th, 2012 @ 11:56pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Posted December 29th, 2012 @ 11:26am by Erik J. Barzeski
I'm working on a site for a tech-unsavvy friend, and I'd like to let him look at the site. Normally (as I do on my machines) I'd have the guy set the non-www. domain name in his hosts file to point to the new IP address, but he's unable to do that.
So what are my options? Again the domain.com is currently pointing elsewhere for everyone, but I have some spare domains I can use. I'm surely brain farting on how to use them, because I've set one up as an alias and that's not worked, and on the server side I've tried symlinking the public_html folder on one domain to the other.
Again, I'm surely brain farting, but why? What's the easiest way to point someone to a site that's pointed by all DNS elsewhere without actually moving the files and database to a new domain (which may break some of the links, particularly in a WordPress powered site)?
Posted December 28th, 2012 @ 01:00pm by Erik J. Barzeski
The APC Back-UPS RS 1500VA LCD that I got in July, 2008 (product page) has served me well. It's an 865 Watt, 1500 VA unit that gives me around 18 minutes or so of battery powered backup when it's new.
A few weeks ago we lost power, and my computer didn't last very long. When power came back I noticed the battery was behaving poorly, and due to its age, I bought a replacement from ATBatt.com.
I left the batteries to charge for over 16 hours (per the manual), and booted the computer to find this:
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Posted December 27th, 2012 @ 02:33pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Ugh, the modern world of forums is a real pain in the rear.
I'm looking to start a new (small) forum for disc golf technique and instruction.
XenForo (I use this elsewhere) hasn't seen an update since March. phpBB and MyBB are small and have hideous themes. Vanilla Forum charges a lot and their host-it-yourself version lacks a LOT of features. vBulletin and IPB are costly (which might be okay) but awfully large.
Seriously, what gives? What's a good, lightweight forum package with a reasonable feature set?