Tech

Tech-focused ramblings. Computers, blogs, and whatever else fits.

More archive tweaks

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I spent some time this morning doing some more tweaking, trying to get the archives into a more useable and user-friendly format. The current layout has a calendar for the current month displayed, with any day that I’ve made a post as a clickable link that will take you to that day’s posts in the archive files. Underneath the calendar are links to the monthly archive pages dating back to Nov. 2000. The ‘full archives’ link underneath that links to a page listing every post I’ve made, split up into categories in a table. On that page, the header for each table will take you to the full category archive (these pages can be huge, though), and the individual post links will take you directly to each post on its own.

Hopefully this will make digging through my archives a bit easier (in case there’s anyone here quite crazy enough to bother).

No more splash page

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I just nuked the splash page for my site, so now this page should be the first thing you see. I’d been tossing it over in my head for a while, as it really didn’t serve a purpose other than making it just a little harder to get to the actual content of my site. Then, today I came across Web Pages That Suck, and it opens with a splash page that goes into detail on why splash pages shouldn’t be used. So…mine’s gone.

Just imagine — now you can get to the random babble that I put up here that much faster!

Cross-platform 3.0

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I got this e-mail today regarding my comments on OmniWeb in my browser compatibility chart:

From: Andreas Varga <xxx@xxxxxx.xxx>
Date: Wed Feb 27, 2002 03:12:09 PM US/Pacific
To: djwudi@yahoo.com
Subject: browser compatibility

Hi…

Just wanted to let you know that you should revise your opinion about OmniWeb. The latest sneaky peek versions have much improved CSS support. The attached screenshot shows your page using the latest sneaky peek version 49 released today. While it’s not perfect, you’ll surely agree that it’s a huge step forward.

Regards,
Andreas

Well, he was right. OmniWeb is making great strides forward, and I’m now looking forward to the next public release. Thanks Andreas, and the compatibility chart has been updated.

New blog name

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I just stumbled across a nifty quote on the web, and it inspired me to change the title of my blog. I’d been just calling it the ‘Wudiblog’ for lack of a better idea. However, I’ve just retitled it to be ‘The Long Letter’. Here’s the quote that inspired the switch:

Please excuse such a long letter — I didn’t have time to write a short one.

— Pascal

As someone who, like my dad, has a tendency to say in 50 words what can be said in 5, I thought it was fairly fitting. This won’t really change anything major around the site in any way, no address changes or such. Just something I wanted to do.

How much of a nerd are you?

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Casey sent me a link to a nerd test on the Archie McFee website. This thing gives some really interesting results, as it turns out.

Casey’s score:

Score: 840
Rating: 179.88%
400 extra points for running Linux

So, I got curious — Mac OS X is a UNIX-based system — would the test be able to factor that in? Yes and no, apparently. I took the test twice — the first time using Internet Explorer:

Score: 128
Rating: 27.41%
25 extra points for using a Mac

The second time I took the test, I put in the exact same answers, only this time I used links, a text-based command-line browser:

Score: 1140
Rating: 244.12%
(No extra points noted)

Interesting, huh? Apparently browsing the web from the command line is pretty nerdy….

Copy-proof CD’s not so copy-proof?

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I just thought this was interesting. I found a thread on the HTF today (which has since been deleted) — apparently the new ‘copy proof’ CD’s can be copied with some old software. The copies may actually be better than the original CD’s, too! Here’s the info:

disclaimer: I’m posting this so others can make back-up copies of cds they legally own.

I picked up More Fast and the Furious mainly to see if I could crack the copy-proof measures the labels feel they must take. I first tried to playing it in my computer and dvd player to make sure it was copy-proof, and it was, it wouldn’t play in either. I then tried ripping the cd with Adaptec, and Exact Audio Copy (EAC), and each one errored out. I next tried ripping the cd with EAC’s error correction mode, and even this didn’t work, I was starting to believe these cds were copy-proof.

I decided to then try an old (from 1997) cd copier I had laying around, NTI (Newtech Infosystems) Cd-maker. It was so old I had to download a patch to get disc-at-once burning. Surprisingly it worked perfectly, even copying the cd-rom portion of the disc. It may even have applied some error correction to the copy I made because I was able to copy, and rip the “copy” in anything I tried after that.

So spread the word, copy-proof cds are anything but. I wonder, would it be ethical to now get my guaranteed refund? Only kidding.