Archives for October 2007

Character counting plugin for Pidgin

October 31, 2007 by 70 Comments

Someone asked if there was a plugin for displaying the character count of the current message in a Pidgin chat window’s input widget, which would be useful when using Twitter via IM, to know if you’re going over the 140 character limit. I looked things over and came up with this simple plugin after about two hours of hacking … it places the current character count on the right-hand side of the GtkIMHtmlToolbar:

Screenshot of Pidgin 2.2.2 with the convcharcount plugin

I’m inclding the new plugin’s source as a diff/patch to the Pidgin source, and a pre-built DLL binary for Win32:

For those of you on Win32, just unzip the .zip file into your C:\Program Files\Pidgin\plugins directory. Then, go into your Buddy List window and select “Tools -> Plugins,” then click the checkbox next to “Conv. input chars count“.  That’s it!

Let me know what you think of the plugin. Thanks!

UPDATE: I’ve finally gotten around to spinning a Debian 4.0 etch .deb for i386. If you’re on Debian, give it a try.

UPDATE: I’ve also spun a Fedora 8 RPM for i386.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized 70 Comments

Still no FiOS in Butler, NJ

October 29, 2007 by 5 Comments

DSLreports.com Verizon FiOS map for Butler, NJ
(click for full-size image)

DSLreports.com offers a neat view showing “actual” Verizon FiOS coverage using Google Maps. The screenshot above shows Butler, NJ (07405), which I drew a big blue ring that shows a total lack of FiOS coverage within a 12 mile radius around Butler.

Come on, Verizon … hurry up and roll out FiOS in Butler! I’m waiting!

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Filed Under: Piss and moan (Rants) 5 Comments

del.icio.us/dossy links since October 22, 2007 at 09:00 AM

October 29, 2007 by Leave a Comment

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Amazon Omakase Links ad unit thinks I want sex toys

October 28, 2007 by 3 Comments

If you read my blog in a feed reader, you probably never see my blog’s display ads. But, a large majority of my blog’s traffic comes from search engine referrals (thanks, Google/Yahoo!/Microsoft, etc.), who generally do see the ads.

One of the ad types I use is Amazon’s Omakase Links (Omakase FAQ) in my 300×250 ad unit that’s inline in the blog entry. See the highlighted area in the screenshot below:

Amazon Omakase Links screenshot
(click on image for full-size)

According to Amazon, the Omakase Links ad unit “uniquely [combines] information on each site visitor’s taste, the site’s content, and historical trends to dynamically generate relevant ads that Amazon serves to your site.” In theory, this is great … serve more relevant product ads to a viewer in the hopes that you’ll see a higher click-through rate and more conversions, everyone wins, right?

Well, I was surprised this evening when I was posting a new blog entry. I generally double-check them after posting and normally don’t look at my own ads, but when the Omakase ad unit loaded I did a double-take. What are normally innocuous ads to product links that are pretty geeky, I was surprised when I saw the ad unit populated with sex toys:

Amazon Omakase Links with sex toys screenshot
(click on image for full-size)

Okay, so I have blogged about Amazon.com selling anal douche years ago, and about how they expanded their offering into a full “Sex & Sensuality products” section, but is this why sex toys are showing up in my Omakase Links ad unit?

Don’t get me wrong: I really don’t mind. If these are the products Amazon.com thinks will sell the best in this ad unit and I get some referral commission off those sales and someone out there gets happy in bed, everyone wins, right?!

So, if you visit my blog instead of reading it through a feed reader and you don’t block the ads, when an Amazon.com Omakase ad unit appears, what kind of products does it show you? Tell me in the comments below–it could be interesting to see the range of suggestions.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized 3 Comments

Server-Side JavaScript with jQuery and AOLserver at jQueryCamp07

October 27, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Dossy presenting at jQueryCamp07

Here are the slides for my presentation, Server-Side JavaScript with jQuery and AOLserver, that I gave at jQueryCamp07 today.

Title slide screenshot

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Filed Under: AOLserver, Geeking out, Open Source Leave a Comment

Overnight Website Challenge in New Jersey

October 26, 2007 by 3 Comments

A few days ago, Pete Prodoehl twittered about Sierra Bravo’s F1 Overnight Website Challenge that will take place on March 1st, 2008, in Minnesota.

I’ve had a similar idea that I’d been mulling over in my head, a kind of “Geek Corps” where geeks donate their time and volunteer to help people in need with technology–with a focus on local organizations, not overseas.

Are there enough web developers in New Jersey (or who would be willing to travel to NJ for a day) who are willing and able to donate their time for such a cause? Considering the trouble I’ve had finding geeks in Northern NJ, I really don’t know.

I’m sure there’s plenty of non-profit organizations who could use the help, but I don’t have a good idea of who they are or how to reach out to them. If you are part of or know of a non-profit that would benefit from participating in such a competition, in New Jersey, I’d appreciate it if you’d pass along a link to this blog entry to them.

At this point, I’d love to hear from anyone who is interested in a similar event as the Overnight Website Challenge, but in New Jersey. I would be especially grateful for any help in organizing such an event or spreading the word about it.

Filed Under: Geeking out 3 Comments

Alas, I’m still obese!

October 25, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Even though I’ve lost a net of 5 pounds since last year, I’m apparently still obese. Losing 5 pounds doesn’t seem like a lot, but sometime during the year I peaked at 215 pounds (!) … so making it all the way back down to 185 lbs feels great.

I also measured myself and it appears that I’m 5’4″, not 5’3″ like I thought. It’s not a big deal, but it makes a difference to these calculators, I guess.

It seems that I need to get down to 174 lbs in order to reduce my BMI to 29.9, which would put me at the top of the “overweight” category instead of in the “obese” category which starts at 30.0 and up. Getting down to 160 lbs would get me to a BMI of 27.5, right in the middle of the overweight range. To get into the optimal range, I’d have to get down to 145 lbs for a BMI of 24.9.

So, since I’ve managed to shed those 30 (!) pounds going from 215 down to 185, I think I can manage to lose another 15 to get down to 170. I’d like to try and do that by the summer of 2008. Then, maybe I’ll try for another 15 to get down to 155 in 2009.

I can’t even imagine what I’d look like–much less feel like–if I weighed 155 lbs again!

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Filed Under: Believe it, or not, Dossy, Dossy and more Dossy! Leave a Comment

Progress on nsjsapi running jQuery under AOLserver

October 24, 2007 by Leave a Comment

It’s not fully baked yet, but let me take a break from coding to … squee! You have no idea how excited I am right now.

Back in February, I blogged about nsjsapi, an AOLserver module that makes the SpiderMonkey JavaScript interpreter (written in C) available to Tcl. Then, in July, John Resig blogged about env.js, which he used to load jQuery under the Rhino JavaScript interpreter (written in Java). env.js is neat because it’s a JavaScript implementation of a basic browser and DOM environment which isn’t provided by either SpiderMonkey or Rhino.

However, env.js assumes its running under Rhino, or at least has all the java.* and javax.* and org.w3c.dom.* APIs available, so it doesn’t completely work under SpiderMonkey. So, I’ve set out to implement all those missing bits in JavaScript, in nsjsapi.js. (Yes, I know I’m crazy …)

After a few days of furious coding and much head-desking, I’ve gotten far enough that I can do this from an AOLserver control port:

nscp 1> set js [js create]
js0x88e0838
nscp 2> js load $js /home/dossy/htdocs/js/nsjsapi.js
undefined
nscp 3> js load $js /home/dossy/htdocs/js/env.js
undefined
nscp 4> js load $js /home/dossy/htdocs/js/jquery-1.2.1.js
undefined
nscp 5> js eval $js {jQuery.fn.toString = DOMNodeList.prototype.toString; true;}
true
nscp 6> js eval $js {window.location = 'test/index.html';}
undefined
nscp 7> js eval $js {$('body').html()}
<div><span id='foo'>This is a test.</span></div>
nscp 8> js eval $js {$('div').append('<span>Hello world!</span>')}
[ <div> ]
nscp 9> js eval $js {$('body').html()}
<div><span id='foo'>This is a test.</span><span>Hello world!</span></div>

I guess this doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment, but it’s a huge first step towards being able to do actual JS-based server-side web development under AOLserver.

I want to iron out a strange crash bug when the JS interp. is destroyed via [js destroy], and complete the file I/O stub that isn’t finished yet, then check in nsjsapi.js. I plan to get this done in time for my talk at jQueryCamp07 this weekend.

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Filed Under: AOLserver, Geeking out Leave a Comment

del.icio.us/dossy links since October 15, 2007 at 09:00 AM

October 22, 2007 by Leave a Comment

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The disaster which is my home office

October 18, 2007 by 2 Comments
The disaster which is my home office
The disaster which is my home office

Why did I just take a picture of this mess and post it? I’m not exactly proud of my setup, compared to other people’s swank chairs, multi-monitor setups, and so on. There’s nothing really noteworthy about the picture, really.

So, why post it, then? Well, I’m trying to motivate to clean this mess up, and this picture is going to serve as my “before” photo so I can see what kind of progress I’ve made. I’m realizing that I really downplay any progress I actually make when I set out on a task and that really feeds my sadness, anger and depression. Maybe having something tangible to measure against will help me get out of this hole I’ve dug myself into.

Okay, why not keep it to myself, then? Well, posting this publically makes me feel more accountable. Now, you all have seen it and those of you who are inclined to, can help me stay motivated to work on it.

This is an experiment. Hopefully a change in approach combined with the Wellbutrin XL I just started taking can help make a difference.

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Filed Under: Dossy, Dossy and more Dossy! 2 Comments
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