Thursday: November 19, 2009
- GLM gets some hardware upgrades, and there was much rejoicing.
It's certainly been a fun couple of days around here what with all of these recent server issues and 'SERVICE UNAVAILABLE' alerts. But my dear readers, I have some wonderful news. I am pleased to announce (to those of you who can actually who can see this post - DNS has not fully propagated, if you're reading this - congratulations!) that GLM has undergone some significant hardware boosts.
So, what are you looking at exactly? NOTHING. Nothing at all. Well, nothing that you can actually see on the surface that is. The backend code, structure, database and all of the fun magic (aka magical tiny lemmings) that go into making GLM work have been ported over to modern hardware and completely streamlined to make use of said modern hardware. The end result is a much faster and more responsive GeekLikeMe for you all to enjoy. Now if you'll excuse me - it's back to work on some new features and weekdaily link posting. Stay tuned!
Saturday: November 7, 2009
- Server Issues and GLM Updates.
Well, as you can see we've been having some server troubles as of late. I'm still trying to work out these issues as to avoid any further downtime. So in the meantime, if you happen to see a message that says 'SERVICE UNAVAILABLE' just know somewhere behind the scenes tiny lemmings are furiously trying to get the site back up and running.
I guess I can also take this post as an opportunity to give you all a GLM state of the union. The redesign from June turned out to be a mild success as GLM has enjoyed a small boost in general web traffic more so than we used to get before. The big news is that I'm hoping to have several new features incorporated into the site before the year is out. Some of them relate to user-generated content (you might be able to guess where thats going) while some of the updates pertain to brand new features (no, I'm not telling what they are).
So that's about it in a nutshell. Oh, I encourage everyone to use the 'Discuss' feature on every post - this place just seems to be too quiet. Help me liven it up with a little idle chatter. Cheers!
Monday: June 15, 2009
- GeekLikeMe 4.0
Welcome to the latest incarnation of GeekLikeMe.net. Things look a little bit different around here, eh? Poke around and have a look at some of the new features - some of which aren't really new in the sense that what was here previously was old. New things include: individual commenting capabilities on individual posts (you can comment on anything that is posted now - ie daily grind, photoblogs, comics etc), better rss feeds, tags, weekdaily link thumbnails, quick comment posting from the front pages, categories, archives, comment badges, and etc etc etc. That's a lot to start off with - and as always more stuff is in the works. I'll be fixing bugs for most of this week until things are sorted out. Leave a comment or two here to let me know if you a) love/hate the new site b) find a bug c) you have an opinion on both options a and b.
Update: for those who asked, regular posting resumes tomorrow.
Monday: April 21, 2008
- GeekLikeMe on your iPhone.
I've updated GeekLikeMe to display better on an iPhone for my fellow Mac nerdites out there. This version removes all content of the normal site and just shows the weekdaily links (this seems to be what everybody wants these days anyways).
Want to make an iPhone version of your own website? Here are some quick tips. First and most importantly, you need to check if your visitor/user happens to be on an iPhone to begin with. This requires that you check the user agent string accordingly. Being that I code in a Windows world I am going to show how to do this check in two lines of code via ASP:
httpagent = request.servervariables
('http_user_agent')
if instr(httpagent,'iPhone') > 0 then iPhone= 'Yes'See? Not hard at all. Then just modify your code accordingly to fit that condition. Yes, I'm sure there are much more efficient ways of checking the http user agent string but for a quick five minute update / verbose post - who really cares.
Special thanks to Tom of Optical Poptitude (which is an awesome blog that everyone should read daily) for giving me a heads up that this site was displaying not all that well on an iPhone.
Update: latest version of GLM breaks this post every way from Sunday. Will fix some point down the road.
Wednesday: April 16, 2008
- Annoying Corporate Email Issue of the Day.
So I get an email that goes like this:
Dear Vincent,
I phoned you and left a voicemail regarding this issue. Please listen to it and email me back.
Thanks so muchLet's analyze this for a second; this is an email alerting me that a message has been left on an entirely different medium of communication. Doesn't this negate using the original mode of communication entirely? Why not bother to just take a second and type the issue in that very same email that that was used incorrectly to begin with?
For a list of other things about corporate email that bug me refer back to this now ancient verbose post:
The seven deadly sins of corporate email.
Saturday: December 1, 2007
- A new verbose post? Really?
A semi-quick little update as to why I haven't posted much of anything to this section in recent weeks months. It can all be summed up pretty quickly actually. I moved, and I'm still on the hunt for a new place call my own. Combine that with other factors like work projects, adjusting to our new temporary residence, holidays, interest rates, the position of Venus in the third house (ok that was really dumb), etc etc. Basically, there a host of other reasons that would just bore you. But never fear dear readers, things are looking up.
I just recently purchased a brand new MacBook (daily grind readers already know this). But what's so special about this purchase? The fact that I can now run Windows on a Mac, that's what! I previously owned a PowerBook G4 (still do, it's just not getting much use anymore). Trouble was (and still is), by day I work in a Windows world as an ASP, ASP.net programmer / web developer. Having a PowerPC Mac just doesn't allow to run the kind of software I need to do any kind of work in my free time while say, commuting home from work or watching television (I like to multitask). And yes, I've heard of Mono, and no it couldn't work for what I need to do for job related tasks.
My new sweet little MacBook, which is both lighter and smaller than ye old fifteen inch PowerBook G4 of yore, is a great little machine. Plus, now I can get back to coding my nerdy ASP and SQL stuff whenever I want to. So basically, things should start happening around here soon. I'm cooking up some potential new features and designs as well as working on other projects that have been sorely neglected.
What's in the pipeline? Well, I really should get back to making some new comics for this site- another sorely neglected section of this site. There is also a project that was supposed to be included in this last iteration of GeekLikeMe that didn't make the final cut. It's going to be spun into it's own little project to see how it fares in the big wide world of web. More on that later when I have something more, uh, well coded to show.
One last note, going on a much needed vacation next week so links will be sparse. My superfluous linking skills will be back on schedule when I return.
Tuesday: October 9, 2007
- McDonald's customers are a dedicated people.
'I'm sorry sir, we're not selling four piece packs of Chicken McNuggets at this location anymore.'
The man then became irate, demanding why this particular Manhattan McDonald's location did not sell his particularly favorite item. He was so mad that he began cursing out the woman behind the counter who had a distinct 'what the fuck' look in her eyes.
'But it's still up on your menu up there,' he pointed to the large legible line where the four piece item he wanted was clearly labeled. 'I want four piece McNuggets!'
'I understand, but as of today we're not selling them anymore.' replied the cashier.
More obscenities flew, people started to stare. 'This is bullshit, I want my four piece. Why can I not have my four piece. I see you making them right there. Just give me a box of four and charge them to me.' Followed by obscenity, obscenity, something I couldn't quite make out and another obscenity.
Right then the cashier decided to alert the irate customer of an astonishing fact.
'We still have the six piece McNuggets sir.'
'Are they fried the same way? Do they taste the same?' the man questioned.
'Yes sir, there's just two more nuggets than the four piece.''Alright then, I take one of them.' he replied calmly.
I love people.
Thursday: October 4, 2007
- It's a flesh wound.
I don't know why but talking skeletons seem to make me laugh over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Silence!
Monday: September 10, 2007
- Give your iPhone a touch of the new iPod Touch.
Like that slick Leopard-ish style dock found in the new iPod Touch? Want to add it to your beloved iPhone? Well, now you can.
First things first, you need to grab Installer.app and get it running on your iPhone. A lot of people consider this a 'hack', but in all honesty hacking should not be this easy. This app is an absolute must if you are an iPhone owner. Installing it is an absolute breeze and it will give your iPhone many, many additional options to add more fun and productivity to your mobile life. To get started, just install the disk image and plug in your iPhone to get going. The application takes care of the rest. Install the Community Sources plugin and then make sure your list of applications is up to date (hit the refresh button on the bottom right hand corner).
Once you have that up and running install DockSwap from the list of applications. DockSwap enables you to change the image thats resting behind the bottom dock of your iPhone - it's just a PNG file. While there are already a handful of background images to use (that is of course if you install the DockSwap extra images app), there's nothing that really takes a crack at emulating the iPod Touch dock. To accomplish this, I decided to make my own background in Photoshop. It's not a true representation of the iPod Touch, this is what I could come up with just by eyeballing and testing out the image multiple times. If you have a better PNG file please post a link in the comments section of this article.
Download the above file to your desktop. Now comes the tricky part, we're going to have to get this file onto the iPhone for use with DockSwap. Actually, I take that back. This isn't really all that tricky. First you'll need to install a couple more applications from the Installer.app program. The ones you will need are BSD Subsystem and OpenSSH. The steps are pretty well outlined over at Gizmodo, except we will not be uploading Nintendo ROM files.
In summary, grab a copy of CyberDuck. Get the IP address of your iPhone (you'll need to be connected via WiFi to do this by the way). You can get this information by clicking on Settings > Wi-Fi. Then click the blue arrow to the right of your network. Write down the IP address and populate that for the Server field in CyberDuck. As for a username and password use 'root' and 'dottie'. Upload the touch.png file to the Library/DockSwap folder on your iPhone. Last step is to just fire up your iPhone, launch DockSwap, choose the new touch image and your good to go.
When all is said and done you will have successfully given your iPhone a little bit of the iPod Touch.
Update: There is a new update in Installer.app for DockSwap images. There are now multiple options for emulating the iPod Touch dock as well as some brand new options. Pretty much makes the whole process above ten times easier. Happy skinning.
Thursday: August 30, 2007
- Five demotivational tactics to keep your blog stagnant.
Are you a blogger? Do you have something to say? Below is a handy list that will outline how to keep your blog boring, uninteresting, and certainly not entertaining. Refer to it before hitting the submit button for new posts.
- Voice
When writing a blog post keep in mind that nobody cares what you have to say. You are not important. Stop crying.
- Originality
While you may think your post is fresh and original, chances are that someone has already posted the same blog post about that particular topic you wanted to write about. Give up.
- Writing skills
Your blog writing is probably not as good as that other blogger, and less funny too. The truth hurts.
- Design
Get a generic blog template that looks like everyone else (plus one for polka dots). This way people who happen to visit someone else's site will mistake it for yours.
- Circulation
Don't update your blog, ever. And certainly don't keep an RSS feed of your scribblings either. You don't need the traffic, but you probably aren't getting traffic anyway.
Note: writing a blog post about demotivational methods is a healthy way to keep your blog fresh and exciting.
- Voice
