Monthly Archives: July 2008

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

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!

Continue reading

YouTube – Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

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.

words:irrational – Pick of the Week

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)

Super Nintendo Emulator SE

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

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)

Vigeland Park (Sculpture Park)

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:

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

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)

JIRA: Linking to local file under Firefox

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)

ICK! Color Profile FAIL!

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!

Post-Config

Post-Config

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

Pre-Config

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

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

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

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

WebUrbanist: Abandoned Cities, Places and Property

Great article from WebUrbanist about abandoned places and websites related to these abandonments…

amazing-abandonments

What is it about abandoned places, frozen in time, that makes them seem more real than any other representation of history we encounter? From individual structures to entire communities, abandonments large and small inspire the imagination and tell us things about the past in a visceral way. Capturing moments in time, deserted cities, towns, buildings and other abandoned property can be powerfully evocative. Many people break laws, trespass on private property and risk life and limb to explore and photograph abandoned places.

(continue reading at: Abandoned Cities, Places and Property | WebUrbanist)

The Simple Dollar: 100 Things to Do During a Money Free Weekend

This is excellent advice, and good fun, at that! About a year ago, I offered up the idea of the money-free weekend:

For the last few months, my wife and I have been doing something every other weekend or so that we call a “money free” weekend, in an effort to live more frugally. It’s actually quite fun – here’s how we do it. We are not allowed to spend any money on anything, no matter what. In other words, we can’t make a run to the store to buy food, we can’t spend money on any sort of entertainment, and so on. Since we often do our grocery shopping on Saturdays, on a “money free” weekend, we delay it to Monday or Tuesday. We can use our utilities, but no extra expenses on these utilities. No renting movies on cable, no text messages that aren’t already covered by our cell phone plan, and so on.

I followed this up with fifteen things to do during such a weekend, fifteen more things to do, and fifteen deeply fulfilling things to do during such a weekend. Since then, lots of people have sent me ideas for activities for money-free weekends, plus we’ve uncovered a bunch of our own. At the same time, many readers have asked for a master list of all of these ideas. So, here we go – one hundred fun ways to spend a money free weekend. The list below includes the first forty-five (with duplicates removed), plus about sixty new ones. Print this off and use it as a checklist or a thumbnail guide for your own money-free weekend. Please note that everyone’s interests are different – you probably won’t find everything on this list fun and neither will someone else, but the two lists won’t overlap (I can think of countless things other people find fun that I find utterly dreadful). Anyway, here goes! (continued at The Simple Dollar)

Flickr Blog: Woman gets struck by lightning.

Because you insisted, here’s the unedited screaming version. I also added video from a minute before the lightning struck so you can get an idea of how hard it was raining. From what i understand, it went through my left hand holding the camera, crossed my back and exited out of my right hand holding onto the metal railing. No entry or exit wounds, just a really good zap!

Seriously. Wow. Here’s the original post:

http://blog.flickr.net/en/2008/07/10/lightning-through-my-camera/

(Unfortunately, WordPress hasn’t caught on to Flickr’s video posting yet, so you’ll have to click the link to see the video. =P)

Juche Girl

If you know me, or have read my blog in the past, you’re probably familiar with my fascination with North Korea (DPRK) and everything related to it. So, when I found the “Juche Girl” blog (http://juchegirl.blogspot.com/) today, I was ecstatic. Here’s a sample post from her blog:

Pervert Bush

I cry very much today because of Bush. Today my brother show me video of Bush who fly inside Germany country with his plane and make vicious sex attack from behind on poor downtrodden woman victim of US imperialism and now I’m scared Bush will fly into our home tonight and rape my mother TT.TT I hate Bush!
I hate Bush. Bush is such liar and pervert. I hope his plane fall out of the sky and he dies with face folded. >_<

And another…

Evil Bush strike more but Dear Leader is best


Bush oppress the poor downtrodden people of the world for his own sick twisting pleasure. My brother who is very smart show me picture of Bush who pick up handicap people in wheelchair and toss them on the ground for laughing like maniac with the vampire Cheney. >.<
Dear Leader never do that. Dear Leader make the handicap walk and the blind see. Dear Leader is always full of loving care for the people.
Once Dear Leader went for giving guidance to handicap hospital with one room full of people who had lost an arm or leg in accidents of construction sites building the great powerfull prosperous country. Dear Leader distributed arms and legs to who needed arms and legs and when Dear Leader had finished distributing arms and legs all the people who had missing arms and legs did not miss one arm or leg no longer! Bush can’t do that but Dear Leader can.

Wow. Just wow. I love it.

For those of you who have no idea what this is all about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche

…And the blog itself can be found here:

http://juchegirl.blogspot.com/

Burlington Cold War City

I’ve always been fascinated by urban exploration and abandoned/decommissioned buildings and structures (as evidenced by my category Fascinations\Urban Spelunking), so this article definitely piqued my interest:

burlington_bunker_600

If you thought The Greenbrier bunker was impressive wait till you see what the UK kept hidden under a small town in the UK.

A 35 acre subterranean Cold War City that lies 1000 feet beneath Corsham. Built in the late 50s this massive city complex was designed by Government personnel in the event of a nuclear strike. A former Bath stone quarry the city, code named Burlington, was to be the site of the main Emergency Government War Headquarters – the hub of the Country’s alternative seat of power outside London.
Over a kilometre in length, and boasting over 60 miles of roads. Blast proof and completely self-sufficient the secret underground site could accommodate up to 6,000 people, in complete isolation from the outside world, for up to three months.
An underground lake and treatment plant could provide all the drinking water needed whilst 12 huge tanks could store the fuel required to keep the four massive generators, in the underground power station, running for up to three months. And unlike most urban cities, above ground, the air within the complex could also be kept at a constant humidity and heated to around 20 degrees. The city was also equipped with the second largest telephone exchange in Britain, a BBC studio from which the PM could address the nation and an internal Lamson Tube system that could relay messages, using compressed air, throughout the complex.
Below are some photos of the unused facilities. It was maintained in working order until the late 1980′s until it was cut back to a staff of 4 and then decommissioned in December 2005.

The article quoted above can be found here:

And more information from the BBC can be found here: