Brendoman's Random Bits of Stuff

This blog has moved

2012-04-27T08:45:00.001-07:00

This blog is now located at http://brendobits.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://brendobits.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Hello Again

2007-01-12T00:46:00.000-08:00

I just now realized my ftp settings were jacked so I fixed them. I'm bummed how you can't take advantage of some of the cooler new Blogger features if you ftp to your own server. You have to have your own domain name that you aren't doing anything else with in order to not use blogspot but use the cool new stuff. And even then you are still using Blogspot, just with your own domain name. Ah well. This is all still pretty neat, a world of difference from back when we started up on Blogger and Blogger Pro.

New Blogger, Google Reader

2006-12-30T13:45:00.000-08:00

So there's a new Blogger and it looks pretty good. Some of the features look like they are only available to blogspot users though. Like I've said before, Blogger will always have a place in my heart because it's where it all began for us. I'm also messing around with shared items for Google Reader. Check out the little box on the sidebar. Neat-o.

Blogger is Nice

2005-06-18T16:44:00.000-07:00

I really like this interface. I still love b2e the most, but for a free hosted service this is very nice. The WYSIWYG interface is clean and I dig the keyboard shortcuts. I just italicized that with a shortcut. And check out this font change to Verdana. Now I don't know what to change it back to. There it is. This is tiny. I can't seem to get image uploading to work. That's odd.

That's neat. Once I get my camera phone tomorrow I'll try setting up a MoBlog on Blogger. It looks like they have some good features. Then I can have a side blog on the main page that has my MoBlog pictures. All right, enough of this.

Whew!

2005-06-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

I finally updated the ftp settings to publish to the new server. I'm just testing to see if this works. There really is no reason for the existence of this blog, but I like it anyway.

More B.S.

2005-01-05T05:57:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! News - Jennifer Garner Ill With Viral Infection

Yet another WTF. This is not news. This trivializes our society. This is not a top story. Jennifer Garner has a viral infection. I'm sorry for her, but what the heck is wrong with us? People are dying. Every single day. Gah.

Front Page News. Right......

2005-01-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! News - DiCaprio Donates to UNICEF for Relief

See, this is when I get pissed off about the Media and Celebrity Culture. This shouldn't even be a news item. Millions of people have donated money to the relief efforts. But let's make a big deal out of it when Leonardo DiCaprio pitches in. WTF? Seriously.

Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect

2004-12-29T04:57:00.000-08:00

Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect

Great interview with Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent. If it wasn't for BT, I couldn't get my Simpsons fix here in China. There are plenty of great legal uses for BT, Podcasting being the first one I can think of.

Underrated Games of 2004

2004-12-29T04:52:00.000-08:00

Wired News: The Best Games You Haven't Played

You mean there were other games released besides Half-Life 2, Doom 3, GTA, and Halo 2? I still haven't tried out Bejeweled 2. I'm afraid I'll become glued to my chair like I did when I tried out the previous installment. I'm not surprised to see Katamari Damacy on the list since Luis raves about it every chance he can get.

2004-12-28T21:09:00.000-08:00

I'm trying out Google AdSense on the blog. Maybe we can make some $$ for Project Better Host. I don't know.

l33t

2004-12-26T13:52:00.000-08:00

Oh man, I am such a nerd. I just got done hitting up my old pals at JMZ using ircII, a command line IRC client. It was ghetto, but suprisingly powerful. I'm actually looking forward to doing it again. I'm also really looking forward to being able to post on my real blog soon.

The Mother Lode

2004-12-26T09:46:00.000-08:00

102 Free Games from 1UP.COM

Oh man, this is so awesome. This is a depository of 102 games that are free to download. These aren't just silly Flash time wasters, these are full blown games. I'm already enjoying Maniac Mansion Deluxe. I have so many things to choose from next!

We Didn't Think He'd Show!

2004-12-25T09:53:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! News - John Mayer Barred From School Ceremony

Poor John Mayer. I guess he can't run through the halls of his high school like he thought he could. But seriously, that sort of sucks, being given an award and then not being alowed to attend the presentation ceremony because the people didn't think you'd take their award seriously. Ah, the perils of fame.

Wow....

2004-12-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

So this blog is actually working again. It wasn't publishing for awhile so I gave up. Then I forgot about it. Then a couple days ago my site became borked. Then I remembered I had installed a BlogThis! extension for Firefox. Then I tried it out again. And here we are. The Blogger interface has keyboard shortcuts now. That's pretty freaking nice.

Home Movies

2004-12-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

HOME MOVIES: I want this DVD. I wonder if I can get it here in China. This blog wasn't working for awhile, so I'm seeing if it will. The brendoman.com backend is totally borked right now thanks to the PW folks. Gah.

Someone Got To Natalie Portman

2004-07-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

On her flip flop over posing nude:

"Consistency is way over-rated. It's much better to flow with the times and the context and see how things change and how you feel."

Bah. I value consistency.

Testing New Interface

2004-07-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

I'm testing the new WYSIWYG interface in Blogger. It looks pretty darn cool.

Text formatting is a breeze and there are new keyboard shortcuts. So yeah, it's cool.

Bad Day

2004-07-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! News - Man jailed after shooting his testicles

A British man who accidentally shot himself in the testicles after drinking 15 pints of beer has been jailed for five years for possessing an illegal firearm, a court spokesman says."

So not only did this guy shoot himself in the testicles, but he had to go to jail for five years. On the other hand, any idiot who jams a sawed-off shotgun into the front of his pants probably has it coming.

FYI

2004-07-09T01:36:00.000-07:00

DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 90-103

In case you needed it, here's how not to die in a manure pit. Apparently they are extremely dangerous.

Slate Article on Firefox

2004-06-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

Are the Browser Wars Back? - How Mozilla's Firefox trumps Internet Explorer. By Paul Boutin:

Scob didn't get me, but it was enough to make me ditch Explorer in favor of the much less vulnerable Firefox browser. Firefox is built and distributed free by the Mozilla Organization, a small nonprofit corporation spun off last year from the fast-fading remnants of Netscape, which was absorbed by AOL in 1999. Firefox development and testing are mostly done by about a dozen Mozilla employees, plus a few dozen others at companies like IBM, Sun, and Red Hat. I've been using it for a week now, and I've all but forgotten about Explorer.

Firefox is getting more mainstream attention every day thanks to IE's vulnerabilities and such. Maybe the tide really is turning. I think it's still going to take a lot more for the average joe user to make the switch. About 90% of brendoman.com's traffic comes from IE users. That's saying a lot since all the people I know that hit the site use Firefox or some other IE alternative. We'll see what happens.

The Latest on Episode 3

2004-06-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon! - Latest News: "The official 'Star Wars' website reports that the round of additional photography for Star Wars: Episode III has been scheduled and will be primarily blue and greenscreen shooting."

I made a rash vow that I wouldn't give Lucas another cent of my money. As of right now, I plan on sticking to that. The only way I would give him anything is if he put the real original films on DVD. Just say no to the crap that's being released in September. Maybe I'm being a little too harsh. We'll see.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I'm on vacation and I'm also a little drained.

Force Fields?!?!

2004-06-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Force field for tanks - Engadget - www.engadget.com

First torture beams, now force fields. I'm afraid to find out what's next. Oh yeah, I know. Robots driving tanks that have force fields and are equipped with torture beams. We're all going to die.

Scary Stuff

2004-06-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

sacbee.com -- News -- Invisible beam tops list of nonlethal weapons

Test subjects can't see the invisible beam from the Pentagon's new, Star Trek-like weapon, but no one has withstood the pain it produces for more than three seconds.

People who volunteered to stand in front of the directed energy beam say they felt as if they were on fire. When they stepped aside, the pain disappeared instantly.

That's a little freaky. Maybe it's just me.

This is amazing

2004-06-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

junkmachine.com - old school cool.

Best. Mod. Ever.

Dave Winer's RSS Blog

2004-05-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

This is cool. A blog about RSS for non techies.

RSS is...

1. A format.

2. Content management tools that generate feeds in the format.

3. Aggregators and readers that subscribe to the feeds.

4. Search engines and utilities that crunch the information and ideas.

5. Services from technology companies like Microsoft and Apple.

6. Authoritative publications like the BBC, The New York Times, CNET, InfoWorld, PC World, Time, Wired, Salon, Yahoo, Reuters -- that distribute news and opinion in RSS.

7. Many thousands of weblogs covering virtually every aspect of life on this planet.

8. A vast and growing community of thinkers, writers, educators, public servants, and technologists.

That's a great way to put it.