I do not own much Sampson equipment, but this sure did catch my eye.
Continue reading →
It is looking like I will be hitting the iPhone dev scene come November. I preparation I am exploring app needs. I think that the first app (needing to be simple) will be the sacrifice app.
Here’s how it works:
Select from a long list of animals, sea life, and insects to sacrifice for any and all pagan needs. Computer crashing, try sacrificing a goat! Your car got towed, that calls for 2 chickens!
There are so many conventional needs for an app that allows you to sacrifice at will. Some of the features include:
- Ability to sacrifice multiple animals
- Schedule sacrifices as calendar appointments, reoccurring events, or a specific series
- Choose your deity(s) or have the app select one at random for you
- “In Honor Of” field allows you to target your sacrificial power towards a the noun of your choice
- Full reporting on your sacrifices to help you understand effectiveness
Posted in Apple
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Tagged app, iPhone
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I am finally retiring my main work keyboard. I have had this one in use for about 10 years. I know I was using this keyboard in 2000, before that I am not sure.
In the interim I changed keyboards many times. They never lasted more than a few months before they were smoked. Once the new keys were fried I would go back to “my old friend”.
As a result, I am very used to both the ergonomic layout as well as the quirky arrow keys and home/delete/pg up-down/insert layout. Any other keyboard is near impossible to use.
If you look closely at the picture you will see Velcro stuck to certain keys and some keys melted on the corner or in patterns (look around “wer” and “123456″). This was to help me find my way around while gaming (EQ1 was a big hit).

It is hard to say goodbye, but I found the exact same keyboard for $12 at Action Computers. Very happy. So life goes on.
As most any tech person using Windows will testify, Apple users can get rather annoying. The persistent claim of “Apple s don’t get viruses” is of course false.
The whole “get an Apple and you are safe” is also false.
The fact of the matter is simple – with Apple having an approximate 10% of the market your chance (via dry statistics) is reduced by 90%. Loose numbers but the point should be made.
In an article from PC World they are beginning to discuss the possibility of mobile botnets and mobile centric viruses.
There have already been instances of “text viruses” and these are NOT on the decline.
So what about the great equalizer?
Success.
With the near unstoppable dominance of the iPhone in the mobile market the iPhone is the prime candidate for malwear.
Ever put virus protection on your phone? That is going to take a hefty chunk of your CPU once required.
Let’s compound the iPhone malwear potential by the fact that there are so many people on the Apple iPhone SDK. With this great number you are increasing the amount of malicious people in the pool.
With the possible exception of the Andriod OS, the Apple operating system is very accessible. Almost to accessible.
Will this haunt us? I think so. Is Apple going to have to act? For sure.
So what can I do?
Well, nothing. We are at the mercy of the “owner” companies. This position of “dumb user” is compounded greatly by the (tragic) practices of the mobile providers who regulate the functions to a degree unseen in any other realm of technology.
Cross your fingers on this one, but that probably will not help. The cross-hairs are on the iPhone.
Posted in Mobile
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Tagged Apple, iPhone, Mobile
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Just had a fun conversation with our local (kick ass) coffee shop about solicitations in the business and on the porch. About a year ago I finally snapped and wrote the end-all-be-all of STFU for solicitations. Continue reading →
Just a passing note on these new additions. Here is your link: Continue reading →
Our local Blockbuster is turning into a Noodles & Co. To paraphrase a recent statement from Blockbuster executives:
Even if we cleaned up our poor running company we would not last more than a few years
Or something like that…
The bottom line is simple. Blockbuster is getting phased out and the business model lacked the core agility necessary to survive.
Who could have possibly predicted this internet thing would stick?
So what is rising?
Waves (plug-in) rentals!
If that does not make any sense to you move along. If “Waves plug-in” does strike a familiar chord read on.
Continue reading →
Before I drop $100 for a dev account I wanted to outline my need and see if anything comes through the wire.
App Description:
Provide reasonably accurate BPM calculations based on file size, bit depth, and type.
Details:
Example (not real math here) 245.98 kb file in stereo @ 16bit in .wav format = 95.78 bpm.
I am totally aware that this type of math is not totally stable, but preliminary calculations on the files are coming through just fine.
If you know of this app OR want to colaborate on building it contact me (commets are fine!).
Purpose: If you use Ableton you will appreciate this need.
Simple Snippet to find instance of a text string in all tables of WordPress
In looking for this script I assembled a simple snippet to do the work for me suspecting I will need to do this again. This could make a good plugiin for admins and web people – hmm…
The script – reasonably well commented, Intended to be used on the site root assuming that the WP install is also on the site root. If this is not the case, change the require on the top of the script. Not tested on multi-site WP yet.
<?php
// datamafia.com the wordpress ninja
// This script rolls through the WP DB and finds all fo the tables
// For each table found every column is extracted
// then in each column we perform 3 MYSQL like searches in the style of :
// "%target word or phrase%"
// "%target word or phrase"
// "target word or phrase%"
// The output is then printed to screen with a noticeable text flag and in bold
// ### THE ONE USER FONGIURATION ###
$target_text = 'and'; // set this to the string you want to find
// ### END USER CONFIGURATION ###
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false); // no theme-o-la
require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/wp-load.php'); // get the WP coex in the scroipt
global $wpdb; // for use in function / etc
$sql = "SHOW TABLES FROM ".DB_NAME.";"; //tables
$result = $wpdb->get_results($sql);
echo '<p>Results for text `'.$target_text.'` in '.DB_NAME.'</p>'; // WTF you are doing
foreach($result as $row){
$obj1 = 'Tables_in_'.DB_NAME;
$sql2 = "show columns from `".$row->$obj1."`;";
$result2 = $wpdb->get_results($sql2);
foreach($result2 as $row2){
$sql3 = "select count(*) as dacount from `".DB_NAME."`.`".$row->$obj1."` where ".$row2->Field." like '%$target_text%' or ".$row2->Field." like '$target_text%' or ".$row2->Field." like '%$target_text'; ";
$result3 = $wpdb->get_results($sql3);
$strong = $strong2 = null;
if($result3[0]->dacount/*)>0*/){ // triggered for results
$strong = '<br /><br /><strong>BOOM!----------------------------------------------<br />';
$strong2 = '</strong><br /><br />';
}
echo $strong.
"Table: ".$row->$obj1."<br />"
. " COL: ".$row2->Field
. '<br /> count : ('.$result3[0]->dacount.')'.$strong2.'<br />';
}
}
?>
Enjoy!
Release : Finally Listed on WordPress.org
My Dash Note plugin (a little Saturday afternoon scripting) is finally live on WordPress.org here. The biggest hurdle was getting in line with the dev and marketplace guidelines for WordPress. With that done migration for more work to the WP site is in line.
My local supprt page for this plug-in is here. Thanks for your support and drop mad stars on my script
Demistifying Search Engine Experts
With each passing year I fear Search Engine “Experts” more and more. I rank them as modern snake oil sales*, at best. Typically a project brings in an “Expert” who has the personality of gum stuck to my shoe and siphons money from my employers riding on the results of others and contributing little.
* Large enterprise SEO not withstanding. I am talking about the various fly-by-night SEO companies who come in using destructive methods to get fast results at the expense of the small business.
In this post I want to discuss how search engines work and why I advocate against using SEO “experts” until a site is live for 6-12 months minimum with a rich collection of valid content.
Assumption : You have a web programmer and coder like me who will write solid code, coach the staff, and encourage good work.
Meta Tags & Description :
Truth : Not too valuable. Estimated at 5% of overall ranking calculation
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Apple OSX
I use a Mac.
The OS(X) is just a nightmare with only a few exceptions.
This is not one of the exceptions.
The Problem: In learning C++ (C Plus Plus) and want to compile and execute some simple programs – math and text manipulation mostly.
(more…)