:skyecade online

Wow, good for them.

Reddit is a social news site similar to digg, and apparently they were acquired this morning by the same company that owns Wired, Condé Nast.

Reddit is a Boston-based company that was founded by 2 guys in 2005, and has expanded since then to a whopping 4 employees. Reddit was funded by Paul Graham’s YCombinator, which is a venture capitalist firm that specializes in “funding early stage startups”.

Congratulations guys!

     

Filed under: Web 2.0, Cyberculture, News, Internet
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I am now officially cross posting from skyecade.net to my Vox account. Rejoice! Gone are the days of my empty Vox blog.

I also wanted to cross post to a Livejournal blog, mostly because I really like the LJ community. Alas, the Livejournal Crossposter plug-in doesn’t work for me. I believe it has to do with Godaddy not allowing outgoing socket connections.

<rant>
Here’s the thing about Godaddy; I’ve never really had a major problem with them and my site is up 99.99999% of the time, but they leave very little room to grow. This is the third time I’ve tried to add some kind of functionality to my site and got slapped in the face with, “uhh, Godaddy doesn’t allow that”. I guess you get what you pay for.
</rant>

That’s okay though, I’m just happy that my Vox account will be revived. By the way, if any of you out there are interested in blogging but don’t where to begin, I would highly recommend checking out vox.com. It’s extremely user friendly, it’s free, and the community is really cool.

     

Filed under: Software, Web 2.0, Cyberculture, Internet
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Sister can you hear me now
The ringing in your ears
I’m down on the ground
My luck’s been dry for years
I’m lost in the dark
And I feel like a dinosaur
Broken face and broken hands
I’m a broken man
I’ve hit the wall
I’m about to fall
But I’m closing in on it
I feel so weak
On a losing streak
Watch my taillights fade to black
I read a thing about this girl
She was a hermit in her world
Her story was much like mine
She could be my valentine
And although we’ve never met
I won’t forget her yet
She cut herself off from her past
Now she’s alone at last
I feel so sick
Lost love’s last licks
But I’m closing down on it
I feel so weak
On a losing streak
Watch my taillights fade to black
Lost my life in cheap wine
Now it’s quiet time
Cappy Dick nor Jesus Christ
Could not help my fate
But I’m underneath a gun
I’m singing about my past
Had myself a wonderful thing
But I could not make it last
I’ve hit the wall
I’m about to fall
But I’m closing in on it
I feel so small
Underneath it all
Watch my taillights fade to black

Yeah, I’ve been on a huge Buffalo Tom kick lately. It has to be the weather. We used to see them a lot this time of year all over Boston and Providence. Ahh, the good ol’ days. I’ll have to see if they’re playing again sometime soon.

     

Filed under: Music, Random Bits
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Okay, I sucked it up and made a myspace account this week. Check it out. I’m not gonna lie to ya, I felt really dirty doing it. Myspace could be the ugliest, cheesiest website on the net today, and yet, about an hour into creating my special little place, I actually started to have fun. I designed my own skin, I got to pick my own theme music,… it’s pretty addicting.

As of the time of this writing I only have one friend. Well, one friend not including that psycho Tom. He really freaks me out. Anyways, I spammed like 30 people that I know tonight, begging asking them to be my friend. Hopefully they’ll accept my request soon so I won’t look like such a loser!

Myspace is the third most visited website on the net in the United States. THIRD! Out of billions of websites! That blows my mind. Yahoo and and Google are numbers 1 and 2 respectively. So I figured, if one wants to have a presence on the net, then one should really have a presence on myspace, no matter how dirty that one feels.

     

Filed under: Web 2.0, Cyberculture, Internet
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Internet Explorer 7 has been out for about a week now and my head is already spinning. For those of you who are not using this <sarcasm>fabulous</sarcasm> piece of software and can’t see the horrible mess my website has become, have a look for yourself. Isn’t it fantastic?. As you can see, the lists in the right sidebar are stepping left and overlapping the content. Yes, I’ve been using the beta for quite some time now, and yes, I’ve known about this irritating little bug for a couple of months, but I kept telling myself that Microsoft would never release a browser with such obvious shortcomings. Guess what…

This site uses a lot of CSS and is written in xhtml (transitional), both of which comply with w3c standards. Validate them yourselves if you wish. BUT WAIT! Before you do, I should mention that though the site code complies with w3c standards, some of the content may not always validate properly, e.g., when embedding videos from Youtube. So to validate this site, click on this to leave the front page and then click on the two buttons below.

   &   

Needless to say, the site renders perfectly when using Firefox, Opera, Netscape, Safari, Konqueror, and even older versions of Internet Explorer. Grrrr. I’m so disappointed. I was really looking forward to this release.

So what now? I could block all IE7 users from my site. That’s just mean. Not to mention that in about one months time IE7 is going to be included in Microsoft’s automatic updates - which in turn, means that the majority of Window’s user’s will be upgrading to IE7. That’s a little under 50% of my visitors. Yeah, I thought that was a crazy statistic too. That obviously means that about half of the people that visit this site are using something other than Internet Explorer. Although, I’ve always assumed that people who read and/or write blogs were more likely to use an alternative browser to Internet Explorer, but I never would have guessed 50%. My faith in humanity has just doubled.

Maybe I should just wait for Microsoft to fix this problem for me. (you may now take a moment to laugh). Done?

No, I think my only viable option here is to find a CSS expert who can write me an IE7 hack of some type. If it’s even possible. I really don’t want to do a complete site redesign just because one stupid company that can’t play nice with the rest of the kids in the yard.

To help clarify my last statement:

• kids = web standards
• yard = the internet
• stupid = Microsoft

Alright, I don’t think Microsoft is stupid. In fact, I think can be down right brilliant at times. So why, then, can’t they get something as simple as this correct? Why, oh why.

Anyways, I don’t plan on doing anything drastic for a while. Maybe Bill Gates is a frequent reader of my site and will be appalled with what he sees and go back to Redmond and personally fix the problem himself. Thanks Bill! I owe you one.

Enough blabbering. What is the moral of this story ladies and gentlemen? For the love of god, download Firefox.

<!- - end IE7 hack - ->

     

Filed under: Microsoft, Software, Design / Development, Internet
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The fire blazed away
The kitchen porch was all that remained
And I’m out here alone - beat up and pissed
Until this very day
That old hotel rang back in fuzzy time
And I was ravaged to the bone
Your voice got smaller ’til I realized
It was gone

I listened to Buffalo Tom this morning for the first time in like a year. I almost forgot how much I love this band, especially in autumn. I’m not sure why so much in autumn. I think it’s because I like everything better in autumn.

According to their website, they are working on their 7th studio album. I thought the band had broken up years ago. It’s good to be wrong from time to time.

     

Filed under: Music, Random Bits
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I’m one of the lucky ones. You see, I have a severe case of gaming A.D.D. Others, however, are not so lucky. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

I played World of Warcraft for over a year. Night after night I would play with my friends, exploring the vast lands of Azeroth with thousands of other players. It was really fun and I still consider it one of my best gaming experiences of all time. Unfortunately, for me, that fun came to an abrupt end. Once your character hits level 60, the game switches gears drastically. For those of you who are unfamiliar with MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing game), let me bring you up to date. All new characters start at level one. As you progress through the game, your character gains levels. The higher your level, the more powerful you are. Most games of this type have a level cap. World of Warcraft’s level cap is 60.

So what then? At level 60 you really only have 3 options.

1. Roll a new character and go through the leveling process again. My A.D.D. won’t allow that. It was fun the first time, it would be tedious the second time. Or the third time. Or the fourth time.
2. PvP (Player vs Player) This is where you pit your skills against other live players. At present, there are 3 fighting arenas called Battlegrounds, each with their own objectives. This is fun for a while, but in order for you to increase your standings (rank), you would have to commit an obscene amount of time to the game. The higher your rank, the better gear you get and at level 60, the only thing that matters is gear. That brings us to number 3.
3. Endgame instances. This is where you get together with 40 of your closest friends and try to tackle various dungeons. These dungeons (also called instances) have to be completed in a certain order. In order to attempt AQ40, you need to complete Black Wing Lair. In order to attempt Black Wing Lair, you need to complete Molten Core. And so on, and so on. A guild could spend months on one dungeon, doing the same thing over and over again, night after night. Not just to beat the dungeon, but to equip 40 people with enough gear to be able to beat the next dungeon. And why would you want to beat the next dungeon? To get really cool gear. For me, the tedium out ways the fun. Gaming A.D.D.

This is just my perspective on the game. Seven million people play (or have played) this game, so Blizzard is doing something right. And at $15.00 a month, they are pulling in some good loot too. Pun intended.

There is a serious problem with these types of games though. They take people out of reality and put them into a fantasy world where they can be whoever and whatever they want. That’s really the point of any such game, to allow oneself to temporarily escape reality. But they did such a great job of creating a fantasy world that people sometimes lose site that’s it’s actually just a game. For those of you who’ve never played such a game, you must have a hard time believing this, but it’s true.

This isn’t a problem exclusive to World of Warcraft. In fact, it’s not even a new problem. Back before WoW was even conceived, there were games like Everquest and Ultima which posed the same problems. Why be a nobody in the real world when you can be a god in a virtual world. For some, the lure is too great.

I actually had no intention of writing this much. What provoked this written commentary was a blog entry that I read yesterday called A View from the Top, which was written by a former World of Warcraft player. It explained how the game almost ruined his life and why he eventually quit the game altogether. I thought it was a fairly intriguing post. What I found more intriguing were the 700+ comments that were left in response to the post. If you have the time, I would highly recommend checking this out. At the very least, you’ll get an interesting cross section of the World of Warcraft community. That’s interesting enough in itself.

I just want to mention a couple of things before I finish. Though there is an obvious problem with the way that some people latch on to these types of games, the majority of people who play MMORPGs are in it just to have a good time. It’s very similar, in my eyes, to alcoholism. I know a lot of people who drink (myself included), but that doesn’t mean they’re alcoholics. Like everything else, when something is used in excess, It has the potential to be harmful, whether mentally or physically.

And lastly, I actually like the World of Warcraft. I don’t want this post to be interpreted as a WoW bash session. I’ve met dozens of great people while playing this game and have had hours of fun doing it. I truly think it is one of the greatest games ever created. But like I said, I have gaming A.D.D. — and for me, sitting in Molten Core night after night for hours on end, is about as stimulating as watching reruns of the Golden Girls.

     

Filed under: Software, Cyberculture, Gaming
3 Comments

I have to say, Tracksy.com is a pretty slick website. I heard about it on an episode of commandN and they had had nothing but good things to say about it. At first glance, it seems to be very similar to Google Analytics in that they both offer free web statistics for you website (or multiple websites) and have a huge variety of reports that you can generate for your viewing pleasure. In fact the two sites almost compliment each other. Google’s site may be a little more robust than tracksy’s, but tracky’s interface is much more user friendly.

Installation is a breeze. When you sign up with Tracksy (or Google for that matter), they will generate a little javascript snippet that you place in the html of your website. It’s literally cut, paste, done. I’m currently running both on all my sites.

Here is a list of some of tracky’s user generated reports and features that they offer:

• Exclusion Cookies
• Exclude Selective I.P. Addresses
• Invisible or Visible Counter
• Detailed, Real-Time Reports
• Recent Visitor List
• Traffic Reports
• Traffic Per URL
• Traffic Per Year
• Traffic Per Month
• Traffic Per Weekday
• Traffic Per Day
• Traffic Per Hour
• New vs. Returning
• Referrers
• Referring Sites
• Search Engines
• Search Engine Keywords
• Visitor Computers
• Browser
• Operating System
• Language
• Screen Size
• Screen Color Depth
• Internet Service Provider
• Connection Speed
• Visitor Locations
• Country
• Region
• City
• Visits
• Pages Viewed
• Visits Per Month

Not bad for a free service. Give it a try and if you don’t like it, it’s as simple as deleting the javascript from your website. It can’t get much easier than that.

     

Filed under: Productivity, Reviews, Design / Development, Internet
2 Comments

I’m not a big South Park fan, but this is soooo funny. Especially if you play WoW. Channa sent me a link to this a couple of days ago. THANKS CHANNA!

Enjoy.

     

Filed under: TV / Video, Random Bits
1 Comment

I was going to blog from the ship, but I decided against it due to the hefty price tag. Even without blogging I managed to rack up $50 in internet charges. Blah!

The cruise was a blast and Bermuda was absolutely gorgeous. There’s more than just beauty there though, it’s an extremely fascinating country. Did you know that Bermuda has the highest per capita income in the world? Over 50% higher than that of the U.S.A. It shows too. Middle school kids were walking around with laptops and PDA’s. But enough about that.

The food on the cruise was incredible. I seriously gained 5 pounds last week. Gourmet breakfast, gourmet lunches, and gourmet dinners everyday. If you wanted to skip the restaurant scene, they also offered buffets on the top deck three times a day. On the back of the boat they had a 24 hour grill that served hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, pizza, and fries. The fries were fabulous; and they were even better at 3 in the morning. I’m not sure why. They had a chocolate buffet Friday night from 11:00 to midnight. I’m not a chocoholic by any means, but this set up would have impressed anyone. And of course there was 24 hour room service which we took full advantage of. So, in short, the food was great! The drinks were even better. We were drinking Bloody Marys, Dirty Bananas, Coco Locos, all kinds of foo foo drinks and more buckets of beer than could fit in our state room. Koj and I drank cognac and smoked Cubans on the back deck. That was great.

The first day in Bermuda we all hit the beach at Tobacco Bay. Tobacco Bay has this cool little cove, complete with its very own tiki bar. While we were in Bermuda the weather was close to perfect. On the way back to Boston we ended up hitting the tail end of a storm which kind of kicked the crap out of us. But let’s get back to the good weather. Tobacco Bay was really nice. As I’m sure you’d expect, the water was crystal clear and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Tropical fish were swimming all around us. That was pretty cool and yet, sort of freaky.

Meg and I broke off from the group every now and then and explored the Island. We had lunch in St. George on Tuesday and lunch in Hamilton on Thursday. Both cities are really unique. St. George, where our ship was docked, is a very quaint little city, whereas Hamilton, the capitol of Bermuda, was more of a conventional city. That didn’t take away from its charm, though.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was horseback riding. Meg and I went on an hour and a half guided tour of southern Bermuda all on horseback. My horse kicked ass. He was 1/3 Clydesdale, 1/3 Black Stallion, and 1/3 dragon. They say he was untameable. They say he killed men for fun. He was so fierce that they had to blind fold him so he wouldn’t kill me on site. Behold, the fiercest horse ever to set foot in Bermuda:

His name is Buddy. I think that’s somehow short for The Almighty Horse of Destruction. We bonded. He was much better than Meg’s stupid horse TJ. Who the hell names a horse TJ? But that’s neither here nor there. I enjoyed it so much that I think I’m going to look into horseback riding around here. I might even buy cowboy hat.

TJ,…please!

Wednesday was the wedding. The whole reason for going on the cruise. For me, it was by far the best day of the trip. The actual wedding was beautiful. The wedding dinner was fantastic. And the wedding reception was…. a bit fuzzy.

Koji and Michelle got married at the Grotto Resort which overlooks the ocean. It really was picture perfect. After the ceremony, we went back to the ship for dinner. I’m not exaggerating when I say I had the best piece of steak I’ve ever tasted in my life. I eat a lot of steak mind you. There was an open bar in the disco from 8:00 to 10:00. You’ll have to read about the rest of the night on another blog because I don’t really remember the details. I heard it was fun though.

Koji just emailed me and said that they’re already planning another cruise for next year, this time to the Caribbean. Sign me up! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, cruises are worth every penny. If you ever have a chance to go on one, I would highly recommend it. I plan on taking an Alaskan cruise sometime before I die And I’ll definitely be doing a geek cruise in the foreseeable future. But for now it’s back to reality. I already miss everyone I went on the cruise with. There’s something about being isolated in the middle of the Atlantic that really brings people together. Or maybe it was the booze. But seriously, we couldn’t have gone with a better group of people. I uploaded over 350 pictures of the cruise, Bermuda, and the wedding to my flickr account. You can check them out here. Enjoy.

TOO THE DISCO!!!

     

Filed under: Life, Mind, Body, Soul
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