Captain Awesome's Weblog http://blog.awesomebox.net Not just another WordPress weblog - This one's better. Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:39:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Updated to WP 3.0 http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/06/updated-to-wp-3-0/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/06/updated-to-wp-3-0/#comments Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:39:34 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=274 Woot.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/06/updated-to-wp-3-0/feed/ 0 So I haven’t really been posting lately http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/03/so-i-havent-really-been-posting-lately/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/03/so-i-havent-really-been-posting-lately/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:31:46 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=272 Been busy with IRL stuff. Rest assured, I still exist.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/03/so-i-havent-really-been-posting-lately/feed/ 0 Happy day-after-valentines-day http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/happy-day-after-valentines-day/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/happy-day-after-valentines-day/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:13:19 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/happy-day-after-valentines-day/ Because I forgot to say it yesterday.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/happy-day-after-valentines-day/feed/ 0 Magic Mouse :) http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/magic-mouse/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/magic-mouse/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:17:37 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=268 Just got one yesterday. This thing's awesome. Firstly, shut up about ergonomics. I can NOT feel myself getting carpal tunnel on this thing. It's so slim, it's as if you're moving your hand around on the table with nothing underneath it.

One thing that should be mentioned, though. Momentum scrolling requires Snow Leopard, unless you're a l33t h4x0r like me :) . I have Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro, so no problems there, but on my G5, I only have Leopard, and need to edit a small file to enable momentum scrolling. Just enter this in a shell window:

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseMomentumScroll -bool yes

Then, open sysprefs and uncheck/recheck the "Scroll" checkbox in Mouse Preferences. Redo the command changing the last word to "no" to reverse.

Apple <3

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/magic-mouse/feed/ 0 Windows on a PPC Mac :) http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/windows-on-a-ppc-mac/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/windows-on-a-ppc-mac/#comments Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:33:35 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=261 I know I'm "late", but I came across this recently, and now I can do what I've only dreamed of before. Run Windows (or linux...) on my G5 tower Mac.

It's quite simple, really, it's just a matter of installing an Intel-emulating VM application called Q (yes, "Q"). Awesomesauce.

A picture of OS X's specs window (Showing PPC processor), and a picture of the Windows installer running in a window. Specs (Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5 with 2 GB DDR RAM)
]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/windows-on-a-ppc-mac/feed/ 0 Phones http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/phones/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/phones/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:42:45 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=257 Phones are beginning to piss me off to the point where I'm considering replacing my iPhone with an iPod touch or iPad (contract expires in July, damn). Today, I picked up my phone to see 14 missed calls, all from the same caller (dude at work), and an email containing the following text:

PICK UP UR PHONE!!!

First off, I do have a "Missed Calls" feature, and I can see that you've called. Phoning me more then once won't make me come any faster. If what you have to say is so fucking important (it wasn't that important), you could have just emailed it to me. Morons.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/phones/feed/ 4 Spam Killer http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/spam-killer/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/spam-killer/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:42:57 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=254 I came across this earlier today. It's a page that generates an infinite amount of random email addresses. By putting a link in your site's footer, any spam crawler that tries to harvest email addresses from your site will be in for a big surprise....

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/spam-killer/feed/ 0 Cleaning out useless crap files, found this. http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/cleaning-out-useless-crap-files-found-this/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/cleaning-out-useless-crap-files-found-this/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:06:29 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=252 I was cleaning shit out of all my computers, and came across an old prototype design for cmybb I made at the beginning of October. I posted it here for lulz.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/cleaning-out-useless-crap-files-found-this/feed/ 0 .co.cc is a joke. http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/co-cc-is-a-joke/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/co-cc-is-a-joke/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:28:15 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=250 I've noticed several people on the MyBB Forums have started boards with ".co.cc" domains. Not having heard of the TLD before, I decided to look it up.

General impression: Fucking full of themselves. They think they're a fucking domain registrar, when all they're doing is offering a bloody subdomain. Example, want to move a "domain" to another account? Let's read their "transfer" policy:

1. Submit a domain transfer order for the domain you wish to transfer.
2. Pay transfer fee. Once we have received the fee, we will do a Whois lookup for your domain.
3. Send us your identitycard, drivers license or passport showing the same infomations that was entered on your CO.CC account. To send these, upload the file(a scan or legible digital photo) or via fax(82)31-919-6150.
4. CO.CC approves the transfer
5. Transfers can take anywhere from 5 - 15 days, depending on how fast each step can be completed

I've transferred so much shit between Name.com accounts, I could do it with my eyes closed. It's instant and free. What is this?

Let us use their "whois" feature. I did a "lookup" on google.co.cc for the hell of it.

Domain Name : google.co.cc
Registrar : CO.CC, INC.
Whois Server : co.cc
Referral URL : http://www.co.cc
Name Server : SERVER101.CO.CC

Updated Date : 06-Oct-2009
Creation Date : 06-Oct-2009
Expiration Date : 06-Oct-2014

Lol, registrar. This is just sad. Hilarious, though.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/co-cc-is-a-joke/feed/ 0 “SEO” http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/seo/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/seo/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:29:47 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=239 The term "SEO" is beginning to piss me off. A client's "SEO guy" recently suggested that my web developing skills are below par, because "I use <p> tags, which search engines don't highly rank. [....blah blah blah....] and it's best to put content in <h4> tags". Honestly? I asked him to source that, but I never did get a response. I suppose I just never knew that headings and paragraphs were the same thing.
Keywords for your searching convenience: SEO, web, PlayStation 3, condoms
]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/02/seo/feed/ 0 Which doctype SHOULD I use? (Or, HTML vs XHTML) http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/which-doctype-should-i-use-or-html-vs-xhtml/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/which-doctype-should-i-use-or-html-vs-xhtml/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:42:04 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=228 Any web designer should know what a doctype is, but the big question is, WHICH one? This is what I have heard bounced around the office (I work for idiots):

  • <!DOCTYPE html> isn't a real doctype
  • XHTML is the future and HTML is obsolete
  • The only difference between HTML and XHTML is the latter requires indenting

I'm not sure where that came from, but none of it is true. Allow me to correct it:

  • <!DOCTYPE html> is the real doctype for HTML5
  • HTML is not obsolete
  • The third one is too dumb for me to comment on

Now, on to HTML and XHTML. Right now, the difference isn't huge. XHTML is harder to validate, but it forces you to use cleaner code. However, nothing is stopping you from using said clean code in HTML. For example, HTML 4 and 5 will accept either <br> or <br />. The second one is a better choice, XHTML forces it.

In the future, maybe in ten years, XHTML will be the norm. The idea is to integrate HTML with XML (hence the "X"), and be able to include other markup languages such as MathML. XHTML has been around since 1999 (something like that), and it's made little progress since then, so, you decide what to think of that.

At this point, in January of 2010, I believe HTML5 is the best way to go. Why? It's moving quickly, the doctype isn't a pain in the ass to type (I still copy and paste XHTML's from W3Schools......), and it has some awesome tags. Just to make it the focal point of this blog entry:

Use this doctype: <!DOCTYPE html>

Yes, HTML5. Remember, being a newer standard, you CANNOT use old presentational tags such as <font>, <u>, and <center>, and, while valid, you shouldn't use tables for layout. Fun factoid: HTML was never intended to have these tags, they were added in HTML3 and this caused nightmares. They were removed again in HTML4.

If you aren't comfortable with current web standards, I recommend you use an HTML4 doctype. Here are the three to choose from:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
HTML4 Strict: Don't bother with this one, just use HTML5 (<!DOCTYPE html>).

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
HTML4 Loose/Trans: Allows use of presentational elements.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">
HTML4 Frameset: Allows use of presentational elements, and frames (Remember, SSI > Frames)

I hope this gives you some idea of which to use.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/which-doctype-should-i-use-or-html-vs-xhtml/feed/ 1 “Overview of the iPod’s hardware” http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/overview-of-the-ipods-hardware/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/overview-of-the-ipods-hardware/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:26:55 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=232 Whoops, I meant "iPad". In the streaming keynote on Apple's site, SJ slipped up and said "iPod" in place of "iPad" (around 00:29:35).

Come to think of it, "Slate" was a better name.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/overview-of-the-ipods-hardware/feed/ 0 iPad announced today http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/ipad-announced-today/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/ipad-announced-today/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:28:30 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=226 You probably already knew this, but I'm gonna say it anyway. THE APPLE TABLET IS RELEASED. Here's the video.

Apple iPad

It looks amazing (Mind you, I'm a sucker for shiny things made by Apple). From what I can tell, here's what separates it from the iPod touch:

  • Larger screen (Just under 10 inches)
  • "iBook" store, which allows you to purchase and read eBooks
  • Allows you to add wallpaper to the home screen
  • Sexier aluminum backside
  • More visual effects. Ie, you can reverse-pinch photo albums to "peek" under them.

Verdict: I have an iPhone, but still, DO WANT.

Boxxy: DO WANT

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/ipad-announced-today/feed/ 0 Tips for a successful web design http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/tips-for-a-successful-web-design/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/tips-for-a-successful-web-design/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:15:32 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=222 I was bored, so I thought I'd put this together for whoever may read it. Here are some quick pointers for all you other web designers out there.

  1. Never use Flash. Reasons:
    • Not everyone has it.
    • Google can't index it.
    • Inaccessible. Screen readers can't read it. (Meaning, blind or VI'd people can't see it)
    • URLs don't change throughout. If you want to link to a subpage, tough.
    • People may have a hard time navigating, because scrollbars, buttons, and such do not match the browser-provided ones.
    • Most people overdo it. You have to sit through 15 seconds of animation just to change pages.
    • "Loading..........."
    • If you want to use Google Analytics, you really can't.
    • General crappiness. It makes you look unprofessional having a bunch of Flash shit in your portfolio.
  2. If you want to use images to replace text, do it properly. Say you want to make an image heading, put the same text in H1 tags inside the div, then add "#divname h1 { display: none; }" to your CSS. We mainly do this for accessibility (screen readers), search engines, and text-based or WAP browsers.
  3. Know the difference between block elements, and inline elements. Never have a <div> inside an <a>, for example. Search engines have a hard time with this.
  4. Never use <UPPERCASE> tags. It's more work to use the shift key, and it's improper. Just don't do it.
  5. Know the difference between <b>/<i> and <strong>/<em>. The former two should really be done in CSS because they have no meaning (and I believe that text and layout should be kept separate). The latter two do have meaning. Screen readers put emphasis on them, and text browsers brighten then.
  6. Do not use any sounds whatsoever. We don't need a "click" noise every time we hover over something.....
  7. If you're going to use experimental CSS tags such as border-radius, make sure the site doesn't look like shit without them, because IE doesn't support them at all yet.
  8. Every image should have an alt tag that thoroughly describes it. For search engines, and screen readers.
  9. In CSS, try to use "em" instead of "px". Since em's are relative to font size (1em = the length of an "m"), zooming in your page won't cause destruction. You can of course use decimal and negative values.
  10. Splash pages. Don't use them.
  11. Disable CSS styles and make sure your site still looks legible. This is usually the best way to make sure your site's accessible.
  12. Never use frames. If you want to have a universal header or footer, use Apache's SSI, or PHP includes.
  13. No line of text should be wider then about 600px wide. The reason we read newspapers in columns is because our eyes prefer to read that way. Would you read a book where the lines of text spanned both pages?
  14. Don't underline text that isn't a link.

Irony:

I came across this site, ProblemWebsites. It documents websites and things wrong with them. Unfortunately, it breaks a good percentage of my rules, and is extremely ugly. Let us have a look at the first few lines of source code, shall we?

<HTML>
<!--This file created 6/17/08 9:06 PM by Claris Home Page version 3.0-->
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Problem Websites--What&#146;s wrong with sites &amp; how they can do better</TITLE>
<META NAME=GENERATOR CONTENT="Claris Home Page 3.0">
<X-CLARIS-WINDOW TOP=52 BOTTOM=886 LEFT=144 RIGHT=1361>
<X-CLARIS-REMOTESAVE SERVER="problemwebsites.com" USER=visitus DIR="problemwebsites.com/" FILE="">
<X-CLARIS-TAGVIEW MODE=minimal>
<link rel=stylesheet type=text/css href=/parts/css.css>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<P><TABLE BORDER=0 BGCOLOR="#FFE6DC" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=5 WIDTH="100%" style="border-bottom:3px solid black">
<TR>
<TD ROWSPAN=2 WIDTH=150>
<P><A HREF="/"><IMG SRC="/parts/logo.gif" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=110 X-CLARIS-USEIMAGEWIDTH X-CLARIS-USEIMAGEHEIGHT BORDER=0 ALIGN=bottom></A></P>
</TD>
<TD ROWSPAN=2 style="font:48px Tahoma,'Arial Black','Trebuchet MS',Arial,Impact" id=static>
<P><A HREF="/"><B>Problem<BR>
Websites</B></A><FONT COLOR="#990000"><B>!</B></FONT></P>
</TD>
<HTML>
<!--This file created 6/17/08 9:06 PM by Claris Home Page version 3.0-->
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Problem Websites--What&#146;s wrong with sites &amp; how they can do better</TITLE>
<META NAME=GENERATOR CONTENT="Claris Home Page 3.0">
<X-CLARIS-WINDOW TOP=52 BOTTOM=886 LEFT=144 RIGHT=1361>
<X-CLARIS-REMOTESAVE SERVER="problemwebsites.com" USER=visitus DIR="problemwebsites.com/" FILE="">
<X-CLARIS-TAGVIEW MODE=minimal>
<link rel=stylesheet type=text/css href=/parts/css.css>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<P><TABLE BORDER=0 BGCOLOR="#FFE6DC" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=5 WIDTH="100%" style="border-bottom:3px solid black">
<TR>
<TD ROWSPAN=2 WIDTH=150>
<P><A HREF="/"><IMG SRC="/parts/logo.gif" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=110 X-CLARIS-USEIMAGEWIDTH X-CLARIS-USEIMAGEHEIGHT BORDER=0 ALIGN=bottom></A></P>
</TD>
<TD ROWSPAN=2 style="font:48px Tahoma,'Arial Black','Trebuchet MS',Arial,Impact" id=static>
<P><A HREF="/"><B>Problem<BR>
Websites</B></A><FONT COLOR="#990000"><B>!</B></FONT></P>

What the hell is all this "X-CLARIS" bullshit? At first I thought the design of the site was parody, but this is just failure. Tables? Seriously?

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/tips-for-a-successful-web-design/feed/ 0 http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/219/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/219/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:07:54 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=219

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/219/feed/ 0 Dreamhost loves bashing people http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/dreamhost-loves-bashing-people/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/dreamhost-loves-bashing-people/#comments Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:43:28 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=215 I love Dreamhost :)

DreamHost

From the TOS:

Pursuant to this policy, the poorly-written WordPress plugin "All in One SEO Pack" is expressly prohibited on DreamHost shared hosting servers.

From the "Partner Offers" section of the panel:

...(and didn't want to turn our web panel into a veritable Dell desktop, cluttered with 3rd-party junk) we've pretty much always turned them down.

Some may call this unprofessional, but I love humor (and Dell sucks)

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/dreamhost-loves-bashing-people/feed/ 0 New search engine could move web far ahead http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/new-search-engine-could-move-web-far-ahead/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/new-search-engine-could-move-web-far-ahead/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:14:55 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=213 I came across something interesting today. Apparently a few fine fellows at Stanford University are developing a new web search engine called "Google!"

New Google Logo

Instead of guessing site URLs and having to rely on advertising for traffic, we can now just type search terms and go! This is pretty fucking awesome.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2010/01/new-search-engine-could-move-web-far-ahead/feed/ 0 Merry Christmas, bitches. http://blog.awesomebox.net/2009/12/merry-christmas-bitches/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2009/12/merry-christmas-bitches/#comments Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:00:35 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=208 Blah, blah, blah, something about holiday cheer. Merry Christmas!

This was actually written a week ago. Post-dated entries for the win.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2009/12/merry-christmas-bitches/feed/ 0 Leaving tomorrow http://blog.awesomebox.net/2009/12/leaving-tomorrow/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2009/12/leaving-tomorrow/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:29:58 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=206 Going to my parents house for two weeks to see family. I may be online occasionally if I can steal neighbours Wi-Fi or go to an interwebz cafe.

If I don't get a chance to go online, I have written some post-dated entries that will appear while I'm gone.

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2009/12/leaving-tomorrow/feed/ 0 WordPress 2.9 released. http://blog.awesomebox.net/2009/12/wordpress-2-9-released/ http://blog.awesomebox.net/2009/12/wordpress-2-9-released/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:54:23 +0000 Captain Awesome http://blog.awesomebox.net/?p=204 I should probably update sometime *yawn*

]]> http://blog.awesomebox.net/2009/12/wordpress-2-9-released/feed/ 0