September 2003 Archives

For all you long distance labu labu (lovers) , as the Japanese say, surf on over to skype.com and download a copy of skype, voice over IP phone software.

You need:
the software which only runs on Win platforms. Sorry Robin.
Speakers and microphone or a headset
Internet. Dial up is fine.
Someone who has the program to talk with.

The sound quality is pretty good. Better than my oft dropped cel phone (where's that headset anyhow...). It may take a bit of tweaking the headset and mic levels before it sounds good. My mic, a cheapie labtec I picked up at Fry's three years ago, sounded pretty decent off the bat. James' headset had to be adjusted for a few minutes.

Cost- headset/microphone cost. Program and Calls are free. You do need internet access. But what are you doing reading this if you don't have internet access?

Pros- FREE calls. That means US - Australia, CA-NY, NY-WA.
Simple Installation. Really.
Voice Quality is good
Can speak at the same time without getting too garbled like earlier generations of voice over IP.
Should work in houses with meager cell phone reception.

Cons- Stuck in one spot chained to computer. Sorry, unless you're going with some fancy bluetooth/wireless headset, your stuck to your system. Those of you with wireless networks and notebooks, though, well, now you have a 5 lb phone.
Have to move around your headset boom mic a bit until it sounds right.
Lack of privacy if you have speakers instead of headset. You could always plug in a set of headphones, though.

Have fun chatting!

Surf on over to fuzzystingray.com/blog and read the new communal board! Better yet, pipe up and apply for an account by emailing Robin or me.

And then it felt like Christmas. Went to IKEA and got my new desk today. I've been looking for a corner desk for my office for some time. My new Galant desk in birch suits the bill quite well. The desk quality is pretty good, especially for IKEA, where you sometimes get what you pay for. $25 stand = $2.50 worth in materials. The only problems I have with this desk is that perhaps the surface is a tad too soft for someone who isn't careful with their furniture. You can write on it without putting dents in it but drop something and you'll see a dink. In my hopes to have a giganto desk, I bought an extension leaf for this desk. However, this didn't work out because the extension is too big for my existing office space which I share with my dad.

LinksMentioned automating the links mentioned section

Brad Choate: Post recent links

check out the amazon links. If you mouseover, you get a pop-up like the winamp ones, but if you click the link, and not the amazon mouseover, you go to the site I specified. So, for example, mousing over the Clie link gives the amazon.com clie. However, if you click on it, you get cliesource :) You can find it on silverberry's website
Now I just have to populate all this info...

Tada- check out the winamp list to the left! It only works with ID3 tags, which I take to mean doesn't work with CD's... But anyhow. You get an idea! float your cursor over and take a looksie at the nifty popups!
And yeah, this took a while, mostly because you have to paste here, paste there, make sure you didn't leave accidental spaces in, install several plugins, and etc. I'm still working on the removepings plugin, which so far, doesn't seem to be working. Gr. Anyhow. I guess I could apply this to books and etc!
:)

Somehow I can't find a specific library book which is overdue, but I guess that isn't such a surprise. I know I saw it a few days ago...

Virtual Venus: Winamp Hoverable Playlist

Tada! This is where I got the instructions and code. Thank you Kristine!

Went to the new East Palo Alto IKEA today and wandered. It was nice and empty so we could browse and sit without bumping into other people. And of course, I saw several things that I want but don't have room for. I did buy some plain garmet bags for items in my closet and a pack of plastic chopsticks that will be making their way to various points across the country just because, well, I had to get something from IKEA that wasn't too heavy to mail. All in all, I wish I could reorganize my room with some IKEA organization ideas. They have the neatest showroom examples.

I got this new uni pen from Maido and it is extra comfortable. It goes squish squish squish and delights me so much, I couldn't resist buying it for $8.25!
Look for some more pictures inside

Making Blogs More Than Just What's for Dinner (TechNews.com)
Uhmmm. To this phenomenon, I say, I'm job hunting for a position that will keep me in paperbacks and AA batteries. Does that count as a business post'?

Blogger bucks premium-services trend | CNET News.com

While I've been trying to get this thing configged and closer to looking uber cool like this I'm just highly tempted to save my time and snag his, then reverse engineer it a bit.

Uggah. It took me long enough to figure out how to change the links at the bottom, much less make them pop up all cool and such. What has me stumped is why there is a line break missing.

All these pretty sites out there... And some much info to jam into my head. I doubt that I'll have a reworked site by next week, but we'll see. I really do like all the nifty features sean willson has and the .. Okay fine.

I'll come clean. I really wanted a song playing module so you could see all my odd music. really. I know. how conceited. Plus this platform was interesting. It's much less "out of box" operable than geeklog. But geeklog is more collaborative than movable type. If you had the inclination to write layouts for geeklog, I'm sure you could have gotten around to something great. However, because mt uses css, and evidently some talented artsy people know css well, mt sites can be really nice eye candy.

Check out kadyellebee.com and look at her playlist. It is just tooo cool. And you can do this with books, too. You'd be able to see what I was reading, in my wishlist, etc.

In any case, I've resolved to resolve my procrastination issues by going to bed early. Yes, that way I can attempt to get up early tomorrow and get a move on. Someone smack me up 'side the head and call me bad names. The panic siren isn't broken, but it seems to come with a snooze bar.

So I decided to give Movable Type a whirl to see what the big deal is. Don't worry, your favored geeklog is still being maintained at visit.freecia.com/geeklog. But seeing as I happen to like to host my own content instead of letting someone else run away with it all, I thought I'd give this a try. Installation, if you're able to ftp and telnet in, isn't too bad. If you're not good with "web stuff" then you can have someone install it for you. All in all, what do you guys think?

This layout is a bit... eh. unenticing, but it is a nice clean interface :)