I guess I’m biased to the “cool” part, but this is a mini-hack that’s got some very kick-ass potential. As outed by NeoWin back in May, it seems that the released version of MSN’s new Instant Message client (MSN-IM) has been opened up a bit and now allows users to add new tabs to the main IM window. What does this mean? If you run this RantsTab utility (now version 1.2) you can view the ten most recent Rants from this web site. Continue on to read the “fine print”…
Continue reading RantsTab (1.2) – A Mini-Hack That’s Cool
All posts by Randy
Pocket SharpMT?
Holy Shit!
One of the things that never seems to stop surprising me is how the Blogging world is inter-connected. Granted a tool like Technorati does help a good deal, but these connections seem to come of their own accord. Thing is that I’ve noticed an increase of traffic lately and I was curious to see where it was coming from – I attribute some of this new traffic to some particular blogs out there. One of them is Ensight, which is a group forum by fellow Technologists. The other is one that I recently discovered: ***Dave Does the Blog. ***Dave has completely blown me away by using SharpMT to help in a full 24-hour Blog-a-thon. I’m thrilled because not only has the code kept up with his heavy blogging but… well… it’s just fuckin’ cool! Sorry. Had a Geek-moment!
Update: Memoirs of an Italian Geek
Just a quick update. The review came back from the publisher and they suggested some updates and some changes. Consequently, there was another round of proofreading and editing done and the now final final final manuscript has been shuttled off to the publisher. More importantly, there’s a new website with that will handle the updates for this book – you’ll find it at http://www.rlsanti.com/.
ESPN Screws the Pooch
I hate Sunday Night Baseball. I know that ESPN has enough clout with MLB to negotiate at least one game a week for Sunday night ‘ball, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it… ESPN: You suck and you proved it tonight.
Continue reading ESPN Screws the Pooch
A Case of Bad Geek-karma
A little while ago I wondered if there was such a thing as bad Geek-karma and given certain experiences, I truly believe that it exists. Shortly after writing that bit, Kasia noted that her servers know when she’s on vacation; they wait until she’s gone before they end a long run of problem-free operation. Jeremy has noted that some of his servers only collapsed when he was at least 1000 miles away. It’s a proven fact: Bad Geek-karma exists and can hit without warning. My recent experiences with an iBook have been a first-hand reminder of how bad Geek-karma can screw up an otherwise perfectly good day.
Continue reading A Case of Bad Geek-karma
Home Alone… YES!
Needed a night away from everything, so I took one, even if it is a Saturday night. The Yankees won their game today. A week’s vacation is about to begin. I went out to lunch with my sister and my mom. Had the Jeep out in picture perfect summertime weather. I’m out of beer in the fridge, but I’ve still got some Diet Coke left. Went to a GeekFest this morning. Spent the night ensconced in the house and currently watching PCU on cable. *w00t*
Continue reading Home Alone… YES!
SharpMT – 1.2 Release
Announcing the official release of SharpMT 1.2! The 1.2 version adds two and half major features to SharpMT, and again, they’re from user feedback: support for MT’s text filters (I think, anyway!), customizable tags for Bold/Italics/Underline, and new behavior for the Add URL’s link box (that would be the half feature.) If you have been using 1.1 or earlier, please read the rest of this because there’s some important upgrade information – continue, on to download…
Product info: https://www.randyrants.com/sharpmt/
FAQ: https://www.randyrants.com/sharpmt/faq.htm
Continue reading SharpMT – 1.2 Release
Advice Required: Who Should I Be Mad At?
Someone deserves to take the blame for my latest round of stress that’s been caused by my medical care, but I don’t know who should catch the brunt of my angst. I’ve identified the possible offenders, easily enough: my battery of doctors, my insurance company, my local CVS, and my current company. While each one of these people, places, and things claim to care about my wellbeing, the combination of them has started to make me realize that there might be some wisdom in chucking it all for a good dose of Windex, the all-powerful cure all.
Continue reading Advice Required: Who Should I Be Mad At?
Oops, I Geeked It Again
I’ve often wondered if there was such a thing as bad Geek-karma and I’m nearly 100% certain that there is. I mean all Geeks have had the days where we’ve attempted to upgrade a PC and there’s just one problem after another. You go to add a new DVD drive to your PC and once you get the cover off you realize that there’s a problem with the cable. Then a jumper is missing. Then you discover the BIOS has to be flashed a new version, so you need to put it all back together to do that, only to find out that you don’t have a driver for the new drive. After that you spend the next four hours on web sites trying to read Korean, Tagalog, Japanese and Chinese because you only have the drive manufacturer’s name and they don’t have a US web site. At some point during the driver search, the hard drive collapses and you need to reinstall Windows. What else could this be but bad Geek-karma? And while this particular example is rare to occur these days – Windows automatically supports almost every DVD drive made after 2001 – the premise still stands even if the particular parts are different. I should know because I had two old typos reversed this week and I attribute the creation of both typos to bad Geek-karma.
Continue reading Oops, I Geeked It Again
News Flash!
Had to share two bits of information, however off-topic they may seem: “Ozzy Says He Now Believes Pot Leads To Other Addictions.” This from MTV.com, Ozzy has opted to weigh in on the use of pot. While I can see both sides of this particular argument, I do find it rather comical that, well, this is Ozzy! He was also quoted as saying, “One thing leads to another. Coffee leads to Red Bull, Red Bull leads to crank.” Guess I should switch to decaf? Anyway, the boy obviously has a platform – he could run for the presidency in ’04, provided he gets a translator to speak to Congress for him… maybe Sharon can help.
The other bit of news is to celebrate the expulsion of another stupid person from my day. Well, at least the possibility of it, as I saw that “McDonald’s tests self-ordering kiosks.” It seems that McD’s is in the process of testing these self-ordering terminals because they believe it will help out with order speed and accuracy. After all, most mortals use ATM machines these days, so we should at least be qualified enough to feed ourselves – at least that’s what McD’s is hoping of the mass populous. I’m thrilled because this removes the possibility of encountering another buffoon in my day-to-day life, even if I do eat at McD’s like once a month. Stop and Shop have some registers that are self-service and it’s great… as F. Gump once said, “You know – one less thing” to worry about.
Local Business
So over the weekend I was at the local Hooters for some wings and beer. OK, more for beer than wings, but their wings were killer this weekend. And fine, so we have more than one Hooters in the area, but that doesn’t matter. And yes, there’s more to the place than just tits and ass. Yes, the waitresses are fine attractions for the restaurant, to be sure, but there’s something a lot of people miss when talking about Hooters: the service.
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Warning: Contents May Be Flammable
I’m in a state of complete disbelief! I live in a country that requires that all disposable cups – designed for hot liquids – come with a “Warning: Contents May Be Hot” because of a idiotic lawsuit. You remember the one, right? Woman pours coffee on her lap and sues McDonald’s because she ‘didn’t know it was hot’. So now all “hot cups” come with the warning. I’m also unlucky enough to live in state that has ridiculous laws about certain things, most noticeably with regards to liquor sales: we can’t buy from a liquor from a store after 8pm Mon-Sat and not at all on Sunday. And yet, for reasons that no one can explain, it is now legal to buy fireworks here.
Continue reading Warning: Contents May Be Flammable
FeedDemon, RSS Reader
To those of you that are RSS/Blog fanatics, this will interest you. I’ve known about RSS feed readers for a long while, but I usually don’t use them. There’s been a few different RSS readers that I’ve seen and up to now SharpReader has been the best I’ve seen. I say “up to now” because there’s a new player making it’s way onto the scene – FeedDemon – and it’s a one of a kind.
Continue reading FeedDemon, RSS Reader
Rant: The Indirect Whiner
Here’s an oddity: a Rant about Geeks. More specifically about some of my would-be users. Let me preface this by saying two things: first, the majority of my users have been not only great sources of new features for my products, but they are also pretty understanding when one of my applications occasionally hiccups – the people are great to work with. Next, let me also say that at least 65% of all software problems occur between a monitor and a computer chair: I’m a firm believer that most errors in software come from users. There two things at odds? Not really. Let me explain…
Continue reading Rant: The Indirect Whiner