Random Bytes (WebLens Blog)

Ferrofluid Defies Physics

2008-08-04T17:45:00.007-07:00

This is WAY cool! I haven't blogged for a while, but I just had to share this! Ferrofluid is a liquid that becomes polarised in the presence of a magnetic field. Here's the technical definition, straight from Wikipedia: "Ferrofluids are composed of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid, usually an organic solvent or water. The particles are coated with a surfactant to prevent their agglomeration. Although the name may suggest otherwise, ferrofluids do not display...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Fractallicious Reborn

2008-04-01T07:57:00.008-07:00

Well, I finally did it! I'm out of the stock sites. As some of you know, I have been experimenting with selling my artwork online through half a dozen stock photography and microstock sites for a couple of years. While they were generating income, the experience has never been ideal. Uploading was time-consuming, especially with so many sites. It was frustrating to have certain sites reject an image for utterly arbitrary reasons, while others accepted the very same image. And I certainly didn't...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Striking Screenwriters Having an Impact

2008-01-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

OK, time to remind oneself I support the Hollywood writers' strike. (Grumble.) I do, I really do. (Grumble.) I'm not a huge TV watcher, but I'm really starting to miss this season's hot new drama — and my newest fave — Cane. The show is about the trials and tribulations of a rich and powerful Cuban-American family, and I was hooked from the very first episode. New episodes of Cane have been noticeably absent, along with those of most other intelligent, well-written shows, for several weeks now....

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Test Your Vocabulary and Help Others Too

2007-12-21T09:02:00.000-08:00

Came across a site a couple of days ago that, as a writer and avid Scrabbler, I couldn't resist. FreeRice lets you test your vocab skills and donate food to the hungry at the same time. Each word you get right is worth 20 grains of rice. You gradually work your way up the levels, with the top score around 50. I hovered between 44 and 47 most of the time, and quit when I hit 48. Can't believe how many words I've never heard of! Give it a try. Great fun.

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

The World's Chocolate Shops at Your Fingertips

2007-07-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here's one for chocophiles everywhere. Get your daily fix of the sweet treat with Chocomap. This new Canadian web site, sponsored by Ecole Chocolat, uses the Google Maps API to find chocolate shops throughout the world. Using the standard Google Maps interface, you can search geographically then zoom in on a location. Read brief descriptions of chocolate destinations or post your own review. There's lots of other useful information too, including recipes, chocolate e-cards, interviews with top...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

New Corbis Microstock Debuts

2007-06-28T10:26:00.001-07:00

The beta version of SnapVillage — Corbis' long-awaited foray into the microstock arena — debuted a few days ago. I've done quite well online with some of the other microstock sites, so I was curious about how the traditional stock photography giant might approach the business of microstock. They had, after all, been slow to acknowledge the seriousness of the mounting competition coming from this quarter. So far, I'm colossally unimpressed. I uploaded half a dozen images over a week ago, and as...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Google Overhauls Search Results Display

2007-05-18T12:03:00.001-07:00

Got an email yesterday from a friend, with a link to an article about recent changes over at Google. Seems the search giant has yet again tweaked its search functionality. Such news always alarms me, as I teach Internet search and this usually means extra work. This time, though, the change is a small one. According to CBC News, Google is combining its multiple search offerings (web, images, blogs, etc.) into a single "universal search". The change is only evident at Google.com (not the...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Monetize Your Blog with Job Listings

2007-05-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

SimplyHired.com's Job-a-Matic service allows any blog or web site owner to monetize a site with paid job listings. Target by industry and set your own pricing for listings you attract, and the company shares revenues with you 50/50. If your listings are on the skimpy side, Job-a-Matic "backfills" with relevant postings from SimplyHired.com's five million strong database of jobs. Click-throughs are rewarded with a 30/70% revenue split. You can target jobs by keyword or geographically, or both....

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

New Blogger Layout Conversion No Picnic

2007-05-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Whew! After hours of frustration, I have succeeded in moving this blog's template over into New Blogger. I did my best to maintain the same look and feel, but there are subtle differences. (You can see the old template by clicking on the thumbnail at left.) And what a learning curve it's been. Hopefully, the results will prove worth it. One of the major benefits of New Blogger (and certainly my primary motivation in upgrading to widgets view) is the new labels/categories feature, evidence of...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Microsoft's Sexy Search Avatar

2007-04-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Just stumbled across this site in my stats this morning, and I can't believe I've missed it up til now. Ms. Dewey is an attractive search assistant from Microsoft, of all places, meant as an experimental interface for MSN search. Played by actress Janina Gavankar, best known for her role as Papi in The L Word, Ms. Dewey debuted in October 2006. She flirts, pouts, and entertains while waiting for your search term, then produces standard MSN search results, annotated with amusing commentary. She...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

3 Column Widgets Compliant Blogger Template!

2007-04-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Success! In a previous post, I noted that the New Blogger supports my three-column template in "classic view," but rejects it in "widgets view." I am happy to report that I have solved the problem. After much experimentation, I now have a working three column version that you can open and edit in either HTML view or in "widgets" view. It was much more than just a bit of badly formed XML. The code that the new Blogger uses for its "widgets view" is a radical departure from the XML that the old...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

A Fix for Screwy Blogger Feed Dates

2007-04-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

After updating all 135+ of this blog's posts yesterday with the new Blogger's much-hyped "label" feature, I discovered, much to my annoyance, that Blogger's native feed now defaults to updated rather than published order — that is, feed contents are sorted by the date on which posts are modified not by when they were created! For New Blogger users, unfortunately, this means that every time you make the slightest change to a post, including fixing a typo or correcting a broken link, it will...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

3-Column Template Fix for New Blogger

2007-04-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

Update: Widgets version now available! See this post for details. With apologies for the long wait, I have finally gotten around to investigating why some people were having trouble bringing my 3-column template into the New Blogger's HTML editor. One of the reasons holding me back was my own reluctance to embrace anything new from Blogger, but I finally took the plunge this morning, and so far so good. It's also the first time I have posted in a couple of months due to a heavy workload....

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

IT Security Alert: Now PDFs Pose a Threat!

2007-01-04T12:58:00.000-08:00

Update: According to IT security types, certain versions of Internet Explorer are also vulnerable. They include: IE6, Adobe Reader 7 on XP SP1IE6, Adobe Reader 4 on XP SP2 I just received a very alarming alert from my daughter who works in IT security. According to a couple of posts that she forwarded to me, the long-trusted PDF document format can now be exploited for cross-site scripting purposes, meaning that any web site hosting PDF files can be used for perpetrating cyber...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Fractal Art: the Hidden Beauty in Numbers

2006-12-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

My passion for making fractal art has deepened, to the extent that friends and family are beginning to worry about me. Virtually every evening, around 8:00 p.m. — after spending all day on the computer — I fire up a fractal program, and don't seem to be able to extricate myself til midnight, or later. (At least it's weaned me off the TV!) I started out with Ultra Fractal, which I have blogged about here before. More recently, I began wading into the murky waters of a freeware program called...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Photo Duck Funnies Right On

2006-11-29T10:40:00.000-08:00

Saw a link yesterday in the Shutterstock discussion forums to a clever online comic strip about the trials and tribulations of daring to earn a living as a photographer. What the Duck is shutterbug Aaron Johnson's wry take on all things photographic. Johnson lets his readers name each strip through his blog's comments feature, and just reading the comments on some of the strips can be pretty entertaining. Check it out. Some of the strips are hilarious.

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Transparent PNG Generator

2006-11-24T11:02:00.000-08:00

A while back, I blogged about CSS transparency techniques, describing two methods for incorporating transparent elements into your design. You can also introduce transparency by using PNG format images. Unlike GIF images, which are either "on" or "off" in terms of opacity, PNG images support full alpha transparency. This means each pixel can display a subtle range of tones from 0 to 255. There are many ways to create transparent PNG images. If all you need is a plain transparent block to use...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Output Your Designs on Merchandise

2006-11-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

I mentioned a while ago that I was trying out some microstock photography sites as a sales venue for my fractal art images. I have been looking for novel ways to give these images as gifts, especially with the holiday season coming up. My Canon i9900 colour inkjet printer does a surprisingly good job of printing my fractals for use as greeting cards or as framed prints, but I've been looking for something a little more out of the ordinary. A couple weeks ago, I found the...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Disabling the Blogger Navbar

2006-11-08T12:47:00.000-08:00

Here's a great tip from reader Matt Mc. Matt commented in response to a post about customizing your Blogger template that he finds Blogger's default navbar annoying. Blogger doesn't let you disable this feature but Matt shared a short snipped of CSS that you can add to your template to suppress it. I tested it out and it works great, though I have re-enabled it on this blog, as I don't mind the navbar and its search feature could be useful to you. (For readers new to blogging, the navbar is...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Taking Your Password to the Grave

2006-11-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

My daughter works in IT security, and every now and then she forwards me an interesting link on some security-related topic. Most go right over my head — they abound in techspeak or are outside my realm of interest or expertise. A recent article she sent me, though, certainly got my attention. In Taking Passwords to the Grave, News.com's staff writer Elinor Mills probes the implications of failing to ensure that your loved ones have access to online passwords and other important digital...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Searching When You Don't Know What You're Looking For

2006-10-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

Searching the Net is not unlike detective work. More often than not, I find myself following a convoluted trail of clues, with success often requiring not so much ingenuity as sheer dogged determination. A few days ago, for example, I needed to reference a style of art for something I was working on. I could envision several images that I thought typified it. Art from the Soviet era. Larger than life portraits glorifying salt-of-the-earth peasants and stoic workers toiling toward a common...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Blogger Categories Redux

2006-10-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

Stumbled across yet another way to compensate for Blogger's annoying lack of categories functionality. This topic has been well covered here in the past, but in the interests of thoroughness, check out David Nicholson's Blogger categories hack. Me, I'm happy with my Labelr solution.

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Major Victory for Canadian Freelance Writers

2006-10-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for freelance writers in Canada. The long-awaited Supreme Court decision in the landmark Heather Robertson vs. Thomson Corp. dispute finally came down — in writers' favour. It's been a long time coming. Canadian freelancers have been waiting ten years since Robertson first launched her $100 million class action lawsuit on behalf of an estimated 10,000 Canadian freelance writers against Thomson newspapers for copyright infringement. Financed out of her own...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

Microstocks Shake Up the Stock Photography Market

2006-10-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

For some time now, I have been selling photos and artwork online through a new brand of stock photography site that is shaking up this highly traditional marketplace. At sites like Corbis and Getty — which have long dominated the industry — professional photographers sell their work for payments ranging into the hundreds of dollars per image. Now, an emerging army of micropayment stock photography sites is creating serious competition for the traditionals. Still a relatively new phenomenon,...

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.

100 Posts and Counting

2006-09-27T14:29:00.002-07:00

With publication of the previous article, Random Bytes reached the 100 post milestone — a feat that seemed inconceivable when I started this blog. It's hard to believe I've had that much to say. When I started blogging, I worried about finding things to write about. Today, the primary challenge lies in managing my favourites, which are bulging with links to sites and topics I hope to cover in this space. That, and finding time to post. Oh well. Onwards and upwards :-)

Excerpt only. For the full posting and related links, visit Random Bytes, the WebLens Blog.