Somnium Nexus Site Up

Now that University Physics is over I have to start working again on my SN Project. However, I wanted to make a decient site for it first, other then the one that I had made at school. Googlepages is not perfect, but it will do the job. Probally the cleanest CSS that I have writen yet. Check it out here SN Project. There is a link for the latest build, though that was about a year ago, however it still works. Just remember it is a Mac only pre alpha, so no guarantee on stability and safety. ^_^

Expect more updates on the SN Project in the future, as it is going to be my Senior Project this year.

UPDATE: Brian gave me some constructive critisim on the art, so I added a more worn feel. Also played with the styling a bit, works in FF3 now, see previous post for the fix.

100% Height Divs

It is rare that I need to have a div fill the whole height of the window, but in my SN Project Website I thought that this would look rather nice, the problem is that if you just put "height: 100%; " in the css it does not work. This is because all parent divs must also have 100% height set, which makes sense after you finally are told this fact. So in order for you to have a 100% height div, you must first set the html and body to 100% then all other parent divs as well. See example below...

html, body
{
   height: 100%;
}

div.content...
{
   height: 100%;
   min-height: 600px; /* I like 600 you can use any number */

}

UPDATE: You should also set a min height for your content divs, this will allow the page to stop only being 100% height and get smaller and scroll when the page size is reduced below that number.

Also, it makes the process a lot simpler to only use cascading inclosing divs, avoid any buggy fancy positioning, because this may break things. I am happy with the results, and to my supprise it worked with no issues in Saffari, Camino/FFox and IE 7.

Happy SysAdmin Day

It's the 9th annual Sysadmin day today!

To quote gizmodo... "You know... sysadmins? The people without whom your entire computing network would come crashing down in flaming ruins? According to the System Administrator Appreciation Day website, "on this special international day" you should "give your System Administrator something that shows that you truly appreciate their hard work and dedication."

So go find your system administrator and give them a big thanks and a pile of cash, or a high five and some Mountain Dew if you are too cheap.

Check out the official site here.

iPod Touch 2.0 & Jailbreak

Well the 2.0 firmware has been out for a while now, however I was holding off getting it till the iPhone Dev Team finished their new Jail break tool. As of last night that is finaly available, and I quickly grabed it after seeing comments of not too many people with trouble. Sadly this was not the case for me, I finaly got it working, but it took a bit (aka 3hours) of poking.

UPDATE* There is a newer version out, that hopefully has fixed the problems I had.

NOTE: As with all hack, you assume responsibly if something goes wrong and bricks your touch!

First off grab the 2.0 firmware from apple, yes there are other less costly ways, but I can't help you with that. Then grab the pwnage tool (link above). The firmware will take a while to download, so go get a snack... Ok when that is finished run the tool, it will ask you to click the device, then it will find the firmware you downloaded from apple, other wise it will complain and require you to find it. Then it will build a custom firmware for you to install, yes you will need to restore it again later when it is finished. This also take a few minutes, but has a cool pagkaging animation. Please note that you can stop it from putting the pineapple logo through the expert options, which I did because I like the apple logo better.

Here is where i started to have problems, had my touch pluged in, and the next screen finaly shows up with a failed DFU restore, I go back to the site and low and behold...
"Update 3: If you get Error 1600 from iTunes (or if you see in your log a failure to prepare x12220000_4_Recovery.ipsw), try: mkdir ~/Library/iTunes/”Device Support” ; if that directory already exists, remove any files in it. Then re-run PwnageTool. "
So I add that directory, but still no luck, finaly I figured out that I was in restore mode, not DFU mode, the diffrence being that you hold down the home button on restart to go into restore, but for DFU you hold both power and home till it shut off, then keep holding home till the screen goes black, but iTunes will still pop up a message saying you have done restore, that is the key piece of infommation that was missing. Finaly I ran the tool again and this time instead of saying failed it led me through the DFU steps, though I was already in that mode, then told me to used the custom firmware, that was placed on the desktop, to restore the iPod through itunes. You [option] click restore and locate the custom firmware on the desktop, and let it take its time restoring the jailbroken firmware.

Also as a hint, if you are getting a 1600 error with the custom firmware, try redoing the pwnage tool, but this time use expert mode and actualy click the firmware located in ~/Library/iTunes/iPod Software Updates.

Finaly I had it all up and running however there are still a few things I am missing from the pre 2.0 days.
Update... Everything I wanted is now back and available in 2.0!


Things Fixed or Updated...

• Winterboard gives you themes again... Avoid Customize 2.0 it has too many issues right now


• BossPrefs has fixed the Mobile Safari download plugin.


• More apps are avalable between the App Store and Cydia now.


• I have grown to like Cydia now that it has had some tme to grow, will not be switching to installer 4


• The 5 icon dock is back, and works with icon dragging!

The root password is still alpine, so it is a good idea to change it. Terminal or ssh...

login root
password: alpine
passwd root
new password: *****
confirm new password: *****

So my oppinion, the app store is worth updating for, especially as more and more is added. I was happy that I no longer need to install email, maps...etc seprate, which saves me time and iTunes now syncs email and bookmarks, (Is this new? It is to me! Maybe I missed it in the last itunes update). Terminal, makeitmine and OpenSSH are already ported and ready to go, and AIM and VNC now are in the app store so I am all set with that. The remote app is also very cool! Even Cydia has grown on me as they have updated it, I don't think I can live without the changes list now, so I do not plan on updating to Installer 4, unless there is something I can only get on it. Also WInterboard is final out, and blows away Customize 2.0 in simpliciy and ease of use when applying themes on the 2.0 fw. I have my theme back now so I am very happy. If you have not updated yor iPod Touch or iPhone yet, now is the perfect time to do so.

Dad's Flash Series

I love finding awesome things online just by random coincidence. Today I stumbled upon Dad's Home and Dad's at work, both featuring a grinning guy in business casual attire that goes on a "friendly" rampage at home and then at work. The home one was goofy, especial the bizarre end, however the at work one had me laughing so hard that tears where coming out! I still crack up when he leaps and spins in the air then lands in a rolling chair that speeds away after exploding. This has to be the funniest animation I have seen is a great while. I have added the youtube versions below, however the original flash version are better in quality.

Map of visiting IPs

Ever interested in new cool webbased tools, I stumbled across Webmaps from ipligence. It is a free service that maps visitor's country/region based on IP. So you can get a view of where people are from that are looking at your site. I added it just below my ads on the left, so you can see what it does. The setup was painless, you enter a website and email address and it spits out the code to use. I will be interested in seeing roughly where people are from who read my blog, I am getting over 100 hits per week, so I know it is not just my friends.

ASP Email

I have never had such a hard time finding the correct way to create an online form that email the contents. Apparently there are several way to do email, but at least on the server that I have access to non of them work. Apparently there was/is a old way of doing email objects with CDONTS, however Microsoft has replaced that with CDOSYS, sadly most of the guides online to doing email forms with asp use the older CDONTS way, which on the server I have access to does absolutely nothing...

SO after looking through many guides I finally found a correct (in the fact that it works) way of doing ASP based email.

     Set oCdoMail = Server.CreateObject("CDO.Message")
     Set oCdoConf = Server.CreateObject("CDO.Configuration")
   
     sConfURL = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/"
   
     with oCdoConf
      .Fields.Item(sConfURL & "sendusing") = 2
      .Fields.Item(sConfURL & "smtpserver") = "localhost"
      .Fields.Item(sConfURL & "smtpserverport") = 25
      .Fields.Update
     end with
   
     with oCdoMail
      .From = "your server"
      .To = "email to send to"
      .Subject = "Subject line"
      .HTMLBody = "Body of email"
      .Configuration = oCdoConf
      .Send
     end with
   
     Set oCdoConf = Nothing
     Set oCdoMail = Nothing

I do warn you that this works for me, and should... (and I take should lightly) work for you, however I feel that it is worth warning on that fact that depending on how your server is set up, who knows how ASP will function.

Multi Line ASP

I had been searching for a way to use multi line strings in ASP, because having it run for two pages across is just bad programing style, and so it string = string & new content over and over. Of course I finally found the solution, and once again ASP is like Fortran 95 in the fact that you can use &_ to continue onto another line, as reference you just use & in fortran. It still confuses me why Microsoft thought it would be a wonderful idea to ignore almost every other major programing language and not end lines in semicolons. But then again they always tend to create their own eccentric standards as they go, a luxury of having such a huge control of the market I assume.

Happy 4th of July

Well it is here again, the happy time of the year that we the people of the United States celebrate our independence by eating a grilled meal outdoors and watching people blow up explosives (aka fireworks), or at least that is what I and my family will be doing. I am happy to live in a state that allows fireworks, but for people in states that are a bit more restrictive (I am looking at you New York and Massachusetts) you will have to settle for this awesome screen-saver instead. For mac, but there is a linux and windows port as well. Skyrocket is one of the best fireworks screen-savers I have seen, plus you can control the show with the 1-0 keys, and shoot off the mega fireworks with the [ ] keys. Enjoy both the real and virtual fireworks today!

Blog > 1000 hits!

Well I have now hit over 1000 views of my blog since I put the google ad-sense banner on my blog!
It is funny, I am not really making money with the ads, but I love the fact that it tracks hit counts.

Sandy Neck

Sand neck is hands down my favorite beach on the cape. I can sum up why with two words, "sand bars". This is at low tide, high tide is never as fun, but that goes for every ocean beach. There is no other beach in my opinion on the cape that has better swimming conditions. You can walk a good hundred feet out and still be able to stand on the sand below. The waves are not big, but they are always fun to ride into shore by just floating. The one downside is that the water is always a bit colder, but that has never been a big deterrent.

If you are not swimming you can walk for miles and miles. While walking I have always found the best sea creatures at sandy neck, from big crabs to my favorite starfish. Near the shore there are areas of small rock that hide all sorts of creatures, which is one of the main reasons that I am so enamored with starfish. The sand is also really good for building, and it never fails that I end up helping my younger cousins build a huge dam to hold back the water flowing out from the sand bars with the tide.

The fun does not stop at night, you are allowed to drive out and build a bon fire on the further parts of the beach. Summer would not be complete with out smores on the beach.

If you spend some time on the cape during the summer you must check out sandy neck, you do not know what you are missing!

ASP Stock Ticker

Another little ASP script that I had to whip up was a stock ticker. I had searched around for a free javascript version, however they where either way to complicated and ad ridden to use, or they just did not work. So like most situation call for I just gave up on that idea and whipped up my own version.

It is very simple, it just pulls the CVS data on the stock from yahoo finance and prints out a table row, that way I can use single calls in a table row, and just make a new row and call for each different stock. Also I have an up and down arrow image, but you can make your own. This should be a good starter for people looking for a simple stock ticker. I am using an asp include to call the whole page for code simplification, but you can just drop the code in a page and it will work.

<%
 function getQuote(name,location)
  strURL = location
  Set objXMLHTTP = Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
  objXMLHTTP.open "GET",strUrl, false
  objXMLHTTP.send
  ProcessUrl = objXMLHTTP.ResponseText
  Set objXMLHTTP = Nothing
  Set objXMLHTTP = Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
  
  dim quote
  quote = Array()

  ' Split the string at the comma characters and add each field to a ListBox
  quote = Split(ProcessUrl, ",")
  
  if quote(4) >= 0 then
   Response.Write "<td>" & name & "</td><td><img src='images/up.gif'></td><td><font color='green'>" & quote(1) & "</font></td><td><font color='green'>" & quote(4) & "</font></td>"
  else
   Response.Write "<td>" & name & "</td><td><img src='images/down.gif'></td><td><font color='red'>" & quote(1) & "</font></td><td><font color='red'>" & quote(4) & "</font></td>"
  end if
 end function
%>

<center>
<h3>Stock Ticker</h3>
<table width="190" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1">
 <tr>
  <% getQuote "Dow", "http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=%5EDJI&f=sl1d1t1c1ohgv&e=.csv" %>
 </tr>
 <tr>
  <% getQuote "Nasdaq", "http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=%5EIXIC&f=sl1d1t1c1ohgv&e=.csv" %>
 </tr>
 <tr>
  <% getQuote "S&P 500", "http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=%5EGSPC&f=sl1d1t1c1ohgv&e=.csv" %>
 </tr>
 <tr>
  <% getQuote "10Yr Bond(%)", "http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=%5ETNX&f=sl1d1t1c1ohgv&e=.csv" %>
 </tr>
</table>
</center>