internet

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Best Web Junk (June 7)

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This is a bit late, but I'm in the basement for the next few days. There may possibly be a post from Indy but I wouldn't count on it. when I return I'll regale you all with full details. Auditory Illusions - via Digg

I know a while back I declared the Rickroll to be lame and over, but this is pretty clever

Apparently a new term to replace "jumped the shark" when dealing with movies, "nuked the fridge." I'm not sure I totally buy in.

Who's worth more - rich people vs. rich dead people

The TSA is checking you out now

I don't know if this is real, but if it is, it's amazing. If it's fake it's still really cool. - via Myextralife

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iC3b5JnSIE]

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Best Web Junk (May 30)

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I know this post is a couple of days early.  I'm in the basement til Saturday.  So enjoy the best of the web this week, and I'll post about my adventures on Monday. How Google really places map markers - via Digg

Find the Lizard - Here's the answer key - via Digg I wasn't sure it was there at first. But it is. And once you cheat, you can find it right away

Bacon Salt "Because everything should taste like bacon" - via @hangry

This video makes me certain that there is a God.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsOeLcUARw]

Uggh...

For the last few months I have been bothered that I couldn't get a media player object to work on our church's media page except for in IE. And I've been kicking around the idea of a site redesign. Therefore...

I have spent the last three hours trying to get the scripts on this O'Reilly page to work with the sermons.  I can't code JavaScript at all, so I hoped that I could just copy the scripts and make them work.  Let it suffice to say that I never got close.

So, I gave up. I just put in a flash based player.  I guess it works, but there is no volume control and I don't think you can skip ahead until it has completely buffered, but it should work on virtually every computer.

My concern is the "chipmunk effect" that some computers apparently experience.  Try out one of the files and let me know if you have any issues. Also I'll accept any help or feedback anyone wants to give.

<update> Apparently i should have just read the site i got the player from.  It explained the chipmunk problem.  It has to do with the bitrate I encode at. I've been encoding at 48kbps. (No need to go higher for just voice and I can save bandwidth.) I'll need to change it</update>

The Coolest Thing I've Seen In A Long Time

is Woopra. If you don't manage a website then this is rather useless to you. but for those of you managing a website the things it offers in analytics are downright amazing. woopra screenshotIt tells you all the things that you can get with your regular stats. But it does so much more. The desktop client allows you to see currently who is on the site. You can tag particular users. (Although I have only tagged myself to know what percentage of visitors I am to my own site.) It shows you search terms, browser, OS, and screen resolution, it shows you the length of stay on the site and what pages were loaded. How many average sites were visited. Even more impressive, you can chat with visitors to your site while they are there. (A little popup appears on the page) I cannot think of anything I would want to know that it doesn't tell me.

Woopra screenshotIt is truly amazing. And at least now, while it is in beta, it is completely free. I hope it stays that way.

I would compare it to Google Earth. You know how when you first saw Google earth it was mesmerizing and you could waste half a day on it. Same thing here. And I only get 20 hits a day on my sites.

My only complaint is that it doesn't work with wordpress.com so I can't use it for this blog. It does work with .org sites and seriously, it is incredible. Wordpress.com give us woopra as a plugin!

In case i haven't been clear, Woopra rocks, use it on your site.

Finished...I hope

I think, after a couple of hours work this morning, I finally finished the website for Drop Tine & Spurs Outfitters. Feel free to visit and point out any corrections that still need to be made.

Also, thanks for your help from this post.

I think my next project will be to either cleanup or redesign the church website. Feel free to vote here. should it be a redesign, (probably still a sidebar navigation) or just clean it up so it looks right on IE and Opera? I'm leaning toward a redesign. I've leaned so much about web design since I built it, that it won't take much work to improve.

Also, follow me on twitter. I'll try to pass along interesting stuff when I see it.

A favor for me

I have a vast army of over 5 regular readers on this blog. So I would like to ask you to do some work for me please visit this site that I am building for my aunt & uncle. If you have a moral objection or are offended by the idea of hunting, don't visit.

http://DTSoutfitters.com

and look at it closely. Let me know about formatting issues, spelling errors, broken links. I need people to use different browsers, (although I have used the Opera browser, b/c I know no one else uses it) particularly safari for my Mac readers. Also, read it. I need to know if it suffers from doesn't-make-senseness

Here's stuff I already know is messed up

- The logo in the header is just a placeholder. the final (which will be similar) is coming in a few days and will be actually transparent rather than looking like it's showing through static

- The who are we page is incomplete

- I have another question or two to answer on the faq

- No sitemap (it's coming)

I am not a real web designer, I am self taught and don't have anyone else to do the proofreading and testing so I would appreciate your help. I will accept any general criticism, or commentary.

Also I am curious, do y'all think the colors on the site need to match the logo colors exactly, or does it look okay as is? it is a simple fix to make it match. Also, if they should match should I change the logo to match the site or vice versa? (in other words, which green and orange do you like better?)

You can send me an email or just comment here in the comments

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Why the Internet is Great

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This will probably be an occasional post I make about why the internet is really useful. Today it is about overcoming geographical bounds.

Those of you who know me (I suppose you are the only ones reading this) know that I am a Kentucky boy living in the heart of ACC country. Although I didn’t graduate from there, I spent 4 years at UK. So needless to say, a day like this could be very depressing for me. When I turn on my local Raycom Sports affiliate, this is what is on my TV.

ACC tournament

I want to be watching the SEC tournament, not the stupid ACC tournament. (I hate every single team in the ACC tourney!)

Here’s the part about why the internet rules. Thanks to sports.yahoo.com, and my reasonably quick broadband connection from Time Warner, (I hate my Time Warner DVR, but the broadband is reliable and quick.) I am able to watch the SEC tourney streaming over the web. It’s even commercial free. (Unless you count the Raycom bug that never goes away, or all the brought to you by's, or the ads plastered all over the Georgia Dome.) If I am not downloading anything I can watch at the 700k setting and it has quite a reasonable picture. Good enough that I can stream it to my TV and be quite satisfied. Check it out.

SEC Tourney

My only complaint is the unspeakably horrible music that Raycom plays during the commercial breaks. I don’t know how people got by before broadband internet, I guess they had to read the newspaper or be satisfied to watch highlights on sportscenter or college gamenight.

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RS Wha...?

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This is day 2 and post 2 But if I am realistic, I know that if I manage to keep a regular blog, it won’t be daily. So how are you, my reader to know that I have a new post up? You could visit every single day. That would look good on my stat counter, and would probably be good for my ego. But the much better answer is - via RSS.

If you don’t know what RSS is or if you do but aren’t using it you are missing out on half of the internet. RSS is what allows podcasts to work and it the quickest way to view a plethora of sites every day. (I read 30, not counting my podcasts) RSS stands for really simple syndication and it basically lets you know when blogs, podcasts, and websites are updated. It allows you to read them without actually visiting them in your browser It works much like e-mail with a headline (subject) and a preview pane that lets you read the body of the post. I prefer to get my feeds via my e-mail program. As a service to you, I’ll recommend a few excellent programs or services to help you read feeds.

I use Thunderbird as both my e-mail client and RSS reader If you are a yahoo mail user, the new format has an RSS section Gmail has a feed section (but I really don’t like it) a much better option is reader.google.com If you use Microsoft Outlook, then try News Gator which works as a plugin For Firefox users, (hopefully all of you) there are many extensions, none that I really love, but Wizz seems well supported and good

If anyone else has a suggestion they particularly love, leave it in the comment section.

I’ll end this post with the feed address of several of my favorite blogs and sites, there are no podcasts in this list

SBC related blogs

Sports related Blogs

Comedy

My Friends

Shopping

InterfaceLIFT (Cool desktop backgrounds)