Speed up Firefox

I found this neat article on "hack a day" that will speed up Firefox on broadband connections.

I haven't been able to notice a tremendous difference, but here's the text from the tip with some slight modifications by me:

1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows by double clicking on the entry:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Welcome to the world: Abigail Kalea Rymer

I want to welcome my daughter Abigail Kalea Rymer into the world. She was born Dec 15th, 2004 at 1:31am EST. She weighed 6lbs 8.4oz and measured 19.5 inches long.

Just as I figured...

Just as I figured. After the music industry lobbied so hard for the DMCA, made examples of poor teenagers who just wanted to listen to their favorite artists and sued them for thousands, guess what?!

Monday (12/6/2004) a survey of recording artists revealed that the internet has padded their pockets. 43% of the artists said that peer-to-peer networks actually helped promote their work!

Creativity should be free to express itself... viva la restistance!

Robojo Speaks

My friend Robert Jones just started a new blog. His rants are entertaining to say the least!

URL: Robojo Speaks

Neat remote hack

I just discovered a very neat hack I have to tell you about. With the help of a Griffin Total Remote you can record IR remote control signals as sound (wav file for example). Then plug the total remote into any audio playback gadget (mp3 player, iPod, PocketPC, etc) and control devices 100ft away! That's awesome!

I saw a video of someone on engadget.com using the device to record a TV-B-Gone device's signals and then save it into his iPod. Suddenly his iPod could turn off any TV in 100ft.

New pictures on shutterfly

We have some new albums available now on shutterfly:

Tate Lewis' birth 11.14.2004
Pumpkin Carving 10.24.2004
Baby Shower 10.02.2004

Friends New Additions

Our friends Scott & Melanie Lewis had their first child today. His name is Tate Lewis and you can see pictures of him on the Lewis's second new addition (their website):

http://www.nclewis.com/

Here is a picture I took from my phone cam:


Our baby is not far behind. Abigail Rymer is due Dec 21, 2004.

DHTML book coming soon

My friend Jason Cranford Teague's new book is being released very soon. It's going to the printers next week. Just so you know why I'm promoting it, it's because I wrote chapter 10 on databases. I'm excited to announce that this is my first time being published!

I know Jason has worked very hard on this book, and I can say that writing technical books is no easy task. I hope anyone who works in the web would consider this book for your bookshelf.

Thanks to Jason for giving me this opportunity.

Man kills himself over election results

I was horrified to read about a 25 year old man from the state of Georgia that killed himself over the weekend. He went up to the 9/11 ground zero site and took his own life because of the recent Bush re-election.

Article on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/07/ground.zero.suicide.ap/index.html

I have been very depressed about the recent elections myself, and I've been trying to learn how to deal with another 4 years under this crazy president. My only inspiration is that as Americans, we've lived under much worse times. My nephew just recently discovered in researching the family history that my ancestors were brought here in bondage as indentured servants. My point here is that no matter what setbacks we may face, whether they are enslavement, a bad economic policy, or even a bad war, we as Americans must find the strength to more forward and live a life that is something worthy of pride. So today and everyday going forward, we should stand tall, and be proud of who we are, and create a world for our children that is better than our own.

Intelligent people voted for Kerry?

I've read a lot of interesting things about this election on the web in the last few days, but this has got to be the best link sent to me yet:

http://attenuation.net/files/iq.htm

It seems that the states with the highest average IQs all voted for Kerry. Once the average state IQ falls below 99 they become definite Bush supporters. So really it's to the republican party's advantage to keep people stupid.

I found this image on Bushflash.com as well... I love it:

Dubya Wins!

Each time we elect a president, I like to try and think ahead a bit and see what things are likely to happen. Obviously, I'm no expert; this is just my gut feeling on the situation at hand. Now that I have this blog, I think this is the perfect place to express it.

My predictions for the next 4 years...

1. Debt Increase - The US National Debt which is currently $7.4 trillion will exceed $15 trillion. There appears to be no end in sight for the current 2 occupations (Iraq & Afghanistan). I can only guess that we will continue to spend at our current rate or higher.

2. More tax cuts for the rich - If it wasn't already a sweet enough deal for those who make $1mil+/yr, it's going to get better. Who will pay? Those of us who make $250k or less a year. Our day-to-day expenses (gas, food, clothing, etc) will continue to go up, our salaries will stay flat or go down, and we might get 1-3% shaved off our tax bill which Bush will say is a tax cut for the middle class (whoo hooo), but we will experience a net decrease in spending power. My only advice is to suddenly find a job paying $1mil+. Good luck, because 5-10% of you will probably lose your job to outsourcing.

3. Another Occupation - Dubya will get bored with Iraq and Afghanistan and decide to invade another "Evil Doer" nation. This of course will increase point #1 above (the national debt), but also some how or another improve his approval rating. Everyone seems to love a good war against "evil."

4. Education fallout - The no child left behind act has been his claim to fame as far as education goes, however it's not really working. Charlotte alone has lost over $10mil in federal funded programs for at-risk kids. Bush just says that it's working, and everyone seems to believe him. Soon enough the truth will come out that it's a failing program and by then it's already too late for our youth. Luckily, we will have the military for them to join since we will be in dire need of bodies to help with point #3 above (the new occupation). You could probably send your child to private school (and get a tax break for it in the next couple years [another prediction]) if you could only afford it. However because of point #2 above, you will find it harder and harder to come up with additional money. Your only choices are to find a high paying job, increase your personal debt or suffer through failing public schools.

5. Increase in Crime - Fewer available jobs paying less money only means more crime. It's not rocket science.

Sorry for all the negativity, but I just don't see the next 4 years as very bright. We'll check back in 4 years to see how close I come.

Tax break for offshoring tech jobs

It seems George Bush has given a major tax cut (from 35% to 5.25%) for those tech companies who are using offshoring for "research and development." uh huh...

"Bush Signs Tech Tax Break" on internetnews.com

Blogshares?

I accidentally discovered this game called BlogShares. It basically puts values on various blogs and people buy and sell the blogs like stocks. I was googling someone and the #1 hit was a link to his blog from BlogShares. I just happened to search for my blog, and sure enough:

zhunzi.blogspot.com

In fact, several of my friends blogs were listed!

New Vodaphone V602 sees through clothes :)

The new Vodaphone V602 has been having problems in Japan. It seems it can be adapted with a ~US$180 night vision device and be used to see through clothing. Finally tech has caught up with every guy's fantasy....

Article on The Times Online
Article on Podgadget
Article on Engadget

Key chain TV remote control

For some reason, I can see the amount of tape on the front of public TVs increasing...

CNN Link: Key chain remote control turns off TVs

This guy has invented a keychain that will turn on or off about any TV. Perfect for wrecking havoc in your favorite sports bar.

Canadian Tech Hero

I discovered this article about a Canadian guy named Andrew Greig who has a sweet home setup. He's running VoIP that travels with him on his PDA, MythTV with tons of recorded shows. And best of all, he shares all of this and internet bandwith with his neighbors. They all use VoIP thru his VoIP PBX, and are able to watch both live and recorded shows through his MythTV server setup. It's a must read for any geek.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040930.html

Thank you Mr. Cheney

Thank you for pointing me to 2 great websites:

Factcheck.com (aka www.GeorgeSoros.com)

Factcheck.org

Pitcairn Island

I am always curious about islands that nobody has heard of. Sometimes I will look at my world map, and just find an island, and then do some research on it to try and figure out if anyone lives there and if they do, what is their life like.

Today I was reading CNN and there was a big scandal brewing on the little Pitcairn Island. I became very curiuos about this island, and the people who lived there. I decided to check on CIA World Factbook first (one of my favorite places to read actually). It peaked my interest even more, so I decided to Google it.

In any case, I encourage everyone to read a little about it. Seems like a very interesting lifestyle choice that these people make to live here. It's definitely a life much simplier than the busy stress inducing world of big city life.

Nokia 6820 and Debates

I got a new Nokia 6820 today. I love it. You'll notice I now have a moblog on the side nav.

Don't forget to watch the debates tonight!

How do you step on your own hand?

I ran into some more interesting information about copyright recently and thought I'd pass it along.

The government finds out it's hard to speak when you have duct tape on your mouth:
Pentagon Censors Gov't Openness Videotape

I also found an interesting organization that is working towards releasing creative works under a license specified by its creator. The organization is called Creative Commons.

Electoral Vote Predictor

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004: Kerry 249 Bush 232

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

Personalized stamp

I just found a site that lets you order personalized stamps. They look pretty neat!

http://photo.stamps.com/

Fundrace.org

Just a quick entry to promote a neat site I've been watching for a few months. My friend Jason turned me on to this site.

www.fundrace.org

They have some really neat maps of where political contributions are coming from.

The new campaign ad

I thought it might be interesting to write a bit about the future of political campaign ads. I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 a few weeks ago. Then of course I went and rented Bowling for Columbine and Roger and Me.

Michael Moore is a genius. He has taken the concept of Reality TV and put an activist's spin on it. I love it. In a world were most candidates pay for expensive advertising slots, the future of political advertising may change into a model where we (the voters) actually go to the movie theater and pay to watch such advertising. Only the future will tell, but the thought of it is provoking!

I think if Michael Moore were running for president, I would vote for him after paying to seeing his 3 movies! Come to think of it... maybe that is that how Reagan and Schwarzenegger fell into place so easily? After all, Arnold was famous for quoting his movies during his campaign!

Quick hit: new .NET blog

A buddy of mine is starting a .NET blog. If you're interested, check it out:

http://www.spinnetblog.blogspot.com/

Cheap MP3s Revisited

In seaching on the legality of AllofMP3.com I found a few good links:

Interview with Vadim Mamotin (CIO of AllofMP3.com)

Russian Music Site Declared Illegal in Australia

Interview with Roman Bahanets, assistant to the lawyer of ROMS

Section of a FAQ about whether AllofMP3.com is legal in your country
Overall, this is a good FAQ, but this one particular section was quite interesting.

Mozilla

Yet another hole in IE was found today. My god people, download Firefox. I've been using it for a few months and absolutely love it!

The Future of Information

We are starting on the trail of the information age. There are so many things that are changing the way we think about, deal with, and absorb information.

There are those who want information to be free, and for it to be a team building experience. The open source movement is a great example of this. It reminds me of Star Trek. Everyone seems to be working towards some greater cause, yet their modus operandi isn't to become rich in the process. It's simply to create a better world for those who come after us.

There are those who are strong believers in copyright, and are fighting for extensions to copyright law, the DMCA, the Pirate Act, and I'm sure many more licensing and protection measures for the information they produce.

It is my belief that information wants to be free. Often you will see me saying "Information should be free, viva la resistance!" Maybe I'm naive, but I have a very hard time understanding copyright and ownership of information. Where does it begin, where does it end? If you read my blog, and talk about an idea I expressed here, do I own that thought that you just stole from my blog? I THINK NOT! This is how humans work. We communicate to share information. If we weren't meant to freely share information, we would not have the gift of communication, or we'd have some sort of metering system built into our physiology to measure how much energy you must transfer to me in order for me to speak to you.

Recently there was an article posted on ZD's News titled "Are developers stealing code?" This is getting crazy! That link I just created to ZD News... Well, not only did I read the article and stole the idea which fueled this article, but I also stole the concept of a hyperlink from the w3.org site, and created a link to it. I can't deal with this madness! Before long, I'll be paying royalties to my previous employers in order to mention their name and the work I did there on my resume.

Where does information begin? American Heritage Dictionary defines information, as it relates to computer science, as "Processed, stored, or transmitted data." So that seems that I'm advocating that all things processed, stored or transmitted should be free? Well yes! The data should be free. I can understand if you want to charge me for the service of transmittal, but the actual data itself should be free. I think the Russians at allofmp3 understand this. Hopefully American's will catch up. After all, we did specially engineer a pen to work in space while our comrads across the way just used a pencil instead.

Vive la resistance & sink the Pirate act in it's tracks

Cheap MP3s? iTunes & Walmart: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid!

There seems to be a lot of raving lately about the Russian music site that is offering all sorts of high quality MP3 downloads at $.01-.02 per megabyte. YES, you read that right! For a while there was some concern that they may just be building up information for a big fraud attack, but now they're accepting paypal payments, so the only information you're giving up is your email address.

How is this legal you may ask? As far as I understand, it's completely legal within the confines of Russian law. How that affects us here in the US in using the site, I'm not sure. It seems like a gray area of international law that I'm not qualified to answer.

Bush...

http://www.rototillerman.com/Politics/BushAds/Seriously.mpg

Amen sista!

Vacations

Vacations are very important. Don't forget to use all your vacation time each year and change the american standard of living!

http://iwantmyvacation.com/

First Post

This is the first posting to my up and coming blog.