Williamo's Blog

July 30, 2008

Making XAMPP (Apache) work with IIS on Windows XP/Vista

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 2:35 pm
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Update: This application will help you track down which applications are using which ports on Windows – very helpful for debugging if the steps below don’t solve your problem, or if IIS is not the only application answering on port 80: http://winnetstat.zapto.org/

Also, if you don’t specifically need all the features of XAMPP, but would like to run PHP/MySQL applications through IIS, give Web Platform Installer a try. Through WPI, you can choose to install PHP directly within IIS (so that IIS can serve both ASP.NET and PHP applications on port 80, for example) and you can also have a ton of applications installed and configured automatically for you, such as Drupal, WordPress, and Moodle (among many others). However, if you are still looking to run XAMPP specifically, or just run an Apache instance along with IIS, check out the instructions below. Thanks for visiting!

(more…)

YouTube – Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 2:07 pm
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YouTube – Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

July 29, 2008

I-Mockery.com: KILL THE DOG FROM DUCK HUNT!

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 5:08 pm
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2008-07-29_171206

Good times. =)

http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/duckhunt/

YouTube – Fenslerfilm GI Joe PSA 25

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 2:01 pm
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YouTube – Fenslerfilm GI Joe PSA 25

words:irrational – Pick of the Week

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 9:45 am
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Woo-hoo! One of my photos was picked for the “Pick of the Week: Photo Edition”, thanks to A. Marques on Flickr! Here’s a screencap of the post; my photo is third from the left in the first row!

2008-07-29_092910

In case you’re interested, here’s my photo:

And here’s the “Pick of the Week” blog post at words:irrational (http://www.tzplanet.com/words)

July 28, 2008

Super Nintendo Emulator SE

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 2:25 pm
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Just found out about this today – I was always curious as to how they developed games for the Super Nintendo…

emuse2

Super Nintendo Emulator SE

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Super Nintendo Emulator SE was a Nintendo-sponsored game development system for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was designed by Intelligent Systems, and sold only to licensed Nintendo development houses.

Physical views

The device is in the form of a large, rectangular metal box, approximately 18 inches high, and 12 inches wide, and 13 inches deep. The box is painted grey, and bears the marking “Emulator SE” on the front in grey.

The device has two controller ports at the bottom that are standard Super Nintendo Controller ports. The rear of the device featured two 50-pin SCSI interface designed to connect to a PC running MS-DOS. One of these ports came with a terminator. The rear of the device also has a port labeled “Multi-Out”, which is identical to the Multi-out port on a normal Super Nintendo.

Below that, it has an 8 position DIP switch. Because there is no known copy of the documentation of this machine, the function of the switches is unknown. Although it is possible the switch is used to set the SCSI ID of the device.

The units bear five-digit serial numbers.

The device is rated to consume 40 watts of power at 120v, and bears a 1991 copyright date. It uses a standard PC Power Cable.

Wikipedia article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Nintendo_Emulator_SE

Some pictures here:
http://shiggsy.gbadev.org/unit.php?unit=22

More info here (from an owner of the system):
http://dforce3000.de/snes.html

Thomas Hawk: Top 10 Tips for Getting Attention on Flickr, All Fresh and New for 2008

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 1:01 pm
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Great article from Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection about how to get attention on Flickr:

“What is more pleasant than the benevolent notice other people take of us, what is more agreeable than their compassionate empathy? What inspires us more than addressing ears flushed with excitement, what captivates us more than exercising our own power of fascination? What is more thrilling than an entire hall of expectant eyes, what more overwhelming than applause surging up to us? What, lastly, equals the enchantment sparked off by the delighted attention we receive from those who profoundly delight ourselves? – Attention by other people is the most irresistible of drugs. To receive it outshines receiving any other kind of income. This is why glory surpasses power and why wealth is overshadowed by prominence.”
Caterina Fake, Co-founder of Flickr, 2005.

A couple of years ago I wrote a post called Top 10 Tips for Getting Attention on Flickr that proved fairly popular. A lot has changed at Flickr in the past 2 years though and how imagery is rated and ranked on the site has also changed. That said, I thought I’d write a fresher updated post on the top 10 ways, presently, to get attention on Flickr.

Back in 2006 when I wrote my original article on how to achieve popularity on Flickr my photostream had been viewed almost 400,000 times. According to a Flickr stats page that’s been added since that time, the view count for my pages on Flickr now stands at 9,953,328. It should pass 10 million sometime this week. I’m averaging about 14,000 page views a day on Flickr.

Some of how one gets attention on Flickr has remained the same since 2006. Other stuff has changed.

(list continued at Top 10 Tips for Getting Attention on Flickr, All Fresh and New for 2008)

July 24, 2008

Vigeland Park (Sculpture Park)

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 5:52 pm
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Great site I found via Wikipedia about some wonderful sculptures in Oslo, Norway:

vigeland6

Translated from Dutch…kinda:

Many people say that Oslo but an ugly city. The port may be a strange mix of architectural styles and at first sight, not particularly, but if you look beyond your nose long, then there are indeed very beautiful currants in the pap to be found. Pak daarom de tram naar het westen van Oslo en probeer de toeristenbussen te omzeilen terwijl je het Vigeland Park inloopt. Pak therefore the tram to the west of Oslo and try to circumvent the tourist while the Vigeland Park inloopt.

Het Vigeland park is gewoon één van de mooiste parken van Europa. The Vigeland park is just one of the most beautiful parks of Europe. Een park dat zich door de beelden van Vigeland zonder meer met andere parken als Hyde Park (Londen), Regents Park (Londen), het Vondelpark (Amsterdam), het Maria Luisa park (Sevilla) en Parc Guelle (Barcelona) kan meten. A park that by the images of Vigeland well with other parks as Hyde Park (London), Regents Park (London), the Vondelpark (Amsterdam), the Maria Luisa park (Sevilla) and Parc Guell (Barcelona) can be measured. Het park bezit naast een fraaie layout welgeteld 192 sculpturen met daarin meer dan 600 figuren. The park owns next to a beautiful layout just 192 sculptures with more than 600 objects. Het thema leven en dood word in eindeloze cirkels neergezet in levensgrote beelden van baby’s, kinderen vrouwen, mannen, bejaarden en ook doden. The theme is life and death in endless circles in what life images of babies, children, women, men, elderly and even deaths.

Here’s the article, via Google Translator:

And the original article, in Dutch:

Also, here’s the Holy Taco article that made me look this up in the first place:

And, of course, a sculpture of a man throwing/kicking babies in the air:

Cool Browser Tricks: Safari 3.1x

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 3:21 pm
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Not that this is particularly hidden, but has anyone else found this yet? Cool stuff!

1) You can open a page you’re looking at in one of your alternative browsers (obviously, this screenshot was taken with Safari for Windows)

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2) You can also change your User Agent on the fly to see how differently pages render under each User Agent. Nice!

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Very helpful for testing/debugging! You can find the setting to turn on the Developer menu in the Preferences, here:

2008-07-24_152346

And of course, here’s the link to download Safari for Windows (or Mac):

http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Mirror’s Edge (EA Games)

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 3:06 pm
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newsletter_61

Cute chick, cool looking game. Thought it was worth a post. ;-)

http://www.mirrorsedge.com/

Photojojo: Photojojo’s Favorite Flickr Add-ons and Mashups

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 2:53 pm
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Awesome article from Photojojo about Flickr tools. Some of these I’ve used personally in the past, but some (like SmartSetr) are welcome new additions that should save a lot of time and energy. Nice!

We loooove Flickr. We want to marry Flickr.

What’s funny about our infatuation, though, is that it involves quite a few other people.

No, no, not like that. We’re talking about the clever developers who have transformed Flickr into the dynamic and lovable photo site that it is. Their creamy vanilla tools and bavarian dark chocolate add-ons are the frosting on the Flickr (cup)cake.

While there are many, many Flickr mashups out there, we’ve scoured through hundreds to bring you our favorite useful and fun ones.

Without further ado…

Photojojo’s Fave Flickr Add-ons and Mashups

p.s. Did we miss one you like? Tell us about it!

(via Photojojo’s Favorite Flickr Add-ons and Mashups)

July 23, 2008

JIRA: Linking to local file under Firefox

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 5:22 pm
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Very helpful article from Atlassian…

Wiki markup allows you to links to files on the network / server with the format:

[file:///c:/temp/foo.txt]

This works fine under Internet Explorer, but Firefox and Mozilla block links to local files for security purposes. If you are happy with the risk of linking to local content, you can override the security policy and also enable linking in Firefox

The instructions for this can be found at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Links_to_local_pages_don’t_work and you may also want to check out the other network preferences.

Please note that you need to use full URL syntax for your link (from http://kb.mozillazine.org)

You also need to use proper URI syntax for local file references. It is not proper to enter an operating-system-specific path, such as c:\subdir\file.ext without converting it to a URI, which in this case would be file:///c:/subdir/file.ext. In general, a file path is converted to a URI by adding the scheme identifier file:, then three forward slashes (representing an empty authority or host segment), then the path with all backslashes converted to forward slashes.

(via confluence.atlassian.com)

The Register: Ubuntu man challenges open source to out-pretty Apple

Filed under: Uncategorized — willwm @ 4:10 pm
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Great article from The Register…

Billionaire, cosmonaut and founder of the fast-growing Ubuntu Linux distro Mark Shuttleworth dreams impossible dreams.

No, not a return to the stars. He believes in something that’s far harder for mortal open source engineers to achieve.

That dream? To produce a desktop more beautiful to ordinary users than legions of Apple programmers supping on the milk of chief exec Steve Jobs’ alleged brilliance are capable of producing. That includes a desktop not funded by a clutter of annoying banner or Flash-based ads, but paid for by subscription-based services.

Now you’re done dreaming, go home and code for the victory.

In a Tuesday evening O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) keynote, Shuttleworth called on delegates to make a concerted effort not just to catch Apple but to overtake the company in the quality of the desktop experience they deliver users.

(continued here: Ubuntu man challenges open source to out-pretty Apple)

ICK! Color Profile FAIL!

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 3:40 pm
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Update: Here’s the link to the Samsung 225BW driver and color profile:
Samsung 225BW Driver

ICK! Color Profile FAIL

I’ve been having ridiculous problems with the color profiles on my Samsung SyncMaster 225BW. I’m pretty sure that it’s not Samsung’s fault, since the monitor is by far the best I’ve ever had, but any color-profile aware application ends up looking like crap (see screenshot above, or this blog post).

Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to get the original CD/software for the monitor if you’ve lost it, but it seems that the best workaround for this is to remove the existing (faulty) color profile and replace it with a working color profile, such as one from Adobe:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/iccprofiles/icc_eula_win_end.html

To do this:

  1. Download the Adobe ICC Windows Color Profile from this link:
    http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/iccprofiles/icc_eula_win_end.html
  2. Unzip the archive and navigate to the folder “RGB Profiles”
  3. Right click on “AdobeRGB1998.icc” and choose “Install Profile”
  4. To ensure that the profile is enabled, right click on the desktop, choose “Properties”, click the “Settings” tab, then the “Advanced…” button.
  5. Once in the Advanced Properties, click the “Color Management” tab.
  6. Remove any existing profile by clicking remove, then click “Add…” and choose “AdobeRGB1998.icc” from the folder displayed and click “Add”
  7. Click “Set as Default”, OK, then OK again to close the window.
  8. Then restart Windows.

For reference, your color profile dialog should look like this:

2008-07-23_154156

Hope this helps!

Rotten Tomatoes: Inside Pixar

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 1:43 pm
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Wouldn’t you love to have a cube/office like this?

rtuk_feature_pixar_19

The animation department which, as we visit, is already hard at work on Toy Story 3, Up, and a handful of other Pixar projects, is a hive of self-expression; this employee, for example, is working out of a garden shed.

(continued at Rotten Tomatoes)

July 22, 2008

Post-Config

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 11:36 pm
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Post-Config

In relation to this post: Flickr: Firefox 3 is now Color Managed, here’s the post-change screenshot.

Pre-Config

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 11:35 pm
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Pre-Config

In relation to this post: Flickr: Firefox 3 is now Color Managed, here’s the pre-change screenshot.

Flickr: Firefox 3 is now Color Managed

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 11:06 pm
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This post to the Canon EF 28-135 IS group on Flickr is incredibly helpful:

noeltykay is a group administrator noeltykay Pro User says:

  1. Type about:config in Firefox 3’s address bar and press Return. The configuration settings will appear.
  2. In the Filter field, type gfx. The list of settings will shorten to show just those related to graphics, ie gfx.
  3. If the Value for gfx.color_management.enabled is False, double-click anywhere on that line to toggle the setting to True.
  4. Quit and relaunch Firefox 3 and you’re in business. You can confirm that colour management is working by viewing the photos on this page. If all four quadrants of the first photo are a seamless match, then colour management in your copy of Firefox is up and running.

(thread here: Color Management PSA: Firefox 3 is now Color Managed.)

Update: In case you missed it, here’s the color profile test page:
http://www.color.org/version4html.xalter

dPS: How to Win Friends and Influence People – A Guide to Commenting on Other People’s Photos

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 9:26 pm
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Great post about how to effectively comment on Flickr photos. (I’ll admit, I’m guilty of the two-word-comment myself, so this is good advice for me, personally.)

One of the ten things I hate about Flickr is people who don’t know how to comment on photos. In a recent post to my blog, I lamented the number of comments I receive on my photos which consist of only one or two words: “Frankly, I don’t care if you think my photo’s “Awesome!”, I care even less if you think it’s a “Cool photo”. I’ve put a lot of work into it, I’d genuinely like to know what you think of it and why. If you’re going to comment, why not take the extra 30 seconds, engage your brain, and say something insightful.”

In the lively discussion that followed, it occurred to me that these commenters may not just be lazy. Some said they don’t feel confident enough, or have enough knowledge to feel worthy of making a comment. Others said they have a hard time expressing their feelings. And some simply don’t know what to say. I want to help fix that.

Even though a discussion about Flickr prompted this guide, and the examples I use are all from Flickr, it applies equally well to any online photography or art community, where people comment on the works uploaded by others.

(continued at digital Photography School)

PhotoChallenge.org » July Challenge

Filed under: Fascinations — willwm @ 5:25 pm
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I’ve been working on this myself lately. Very cool challenge, and very cool website. =)

So it’s been a month since we finished the April and May Challenges, back-to-back. I kinda felt bored with my photography in June. Not only did I not get much done, I didn’t get out and shoot very much.

Now, I know that I need to take a break from the monthly challenges, occasionally. Every other month is the best pattern. I get a month to rest and develop the next exciting challenge, then off we go! Shooting all month long then becomes exciting and fun. Seeing what you’re all doing only challenges me even more. So far we’ve shot daily challenges and weekly challenges. We’ve even done one in the middle. I’d say that I actually prefer the daily challenges. It gets me out and shooting on a regular basis. Making the effort every day isn’t really that hard. When we’ve shot weekly, I find that I procrastinate until the end of the week, and I come up with lower quality work.

So, we’re going to shoot daily, again. Don’t like it? Too bad! (he, he)

For July, I want you to go out there and shoot all the lighting fixtures that you can find. Shoot desk lamps and floor lamps. Shoot street lights and head lights. Shoot flood lamps and brake lights.

PhotoChallenge.org » July Challenge

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