This tutorial was done by Mark Valenzuela of New Ice Media.

While we still dig the idea of what Disqus does, it is about time for us to reevaluate the necessity of it.  To be honest, it was installed in an attempt to gain conversation.  When conversation did not happen, it didn’t bother me that no one was talking, but it felt like we put this big honking new engine in a car that nobody wanted to drive too fast.

This was the case until Disqus added a new feature, social media reactions. I saw it as a chance to ditch the plugin we were using to import Friendfeed comments and the like, but the update has not quite made it to our humble little home.  On another blog which I felt needed a different approach, Backtype Connect is installed.  Since that does function correctly, it is possible we will be using it in the future.

Also, lately I have been on a kick to seriously clean the code up on every WordPress blog I can get my mitts on. In each instance Disqus is installed,  validation is more difficult. This might not be an issue if I knew Javascript, but I don’t yet so there is another compelling reason to let the platform go. Maybe it is time to pare down a bit.

Random Time Lords podcast.

Me and Steven Perez discuss things that are going on.

Check it out.

Also don’t forget about the comic.

Google Wave
It looks awesome, but a bunch of the features already exist with a combination of services (mostly Friendfeed).

Bing
Microsoft’s “new” search engine. The name will probably work better than the Live branding.

Facebook Usernames
In a move that makes it look like the last horse in the Preakness, Facebook will offer custom URLs.

Verified Accounts
Twitter just launched verified accounts. So now you know if that is really the celebrity you are drooling over for no apparent reason. I wonder how long it takes the bad guys to fake it.

DTV Transition
Also on the agenda, the belated DTV changeover. I will just be happy to not see the messages scroll on the local stations anymore.

Project Natal
Could be full of win. No controller required gaming.

WordPress 2.8 is Out

There is a gif of NPH dancing with Elmo

New Element!

For some reason Web 2.0 is the millionth word. It is two words, but I guess that does not matter.

Back to whatever you were doing.

Sure there are plenty of posts out there on the internet covering this same topic.  For some reason there are still not enough sources.  So here is one more.

Favicon = is a small graphic that is associated with a page or Web site. (short for favorite icon, sometimes understood as favorites icon), also known as a website icon, shortcut icon, url icon, or bookmark icon).

1. Get an image

To get that happy little 16 x 16 square associated with your site, you first need an image (16 pixels by 16 pixels of course).  Bear with me and pretend it is a picture of a cake.  So get your cake picture ready in your favorite image editor and save it as a .ico file.   If you cannot do that it is not so bad, you can just save it as a gif, png, or jpg but there may be a few browsers out there that don’t like those options.  There are plenty of favicon generators available so dive into the pool if you need to.  In the example it will just be called cakefavicon, but you can name it whatever you want.

2. Put it somewhere

The second thing you need is somewhere to put the icon. If you host your own site this is not likely to be a problem, but some free hosts might be a wee bit upset about letting you upload a .ico file. This is why the standard was relaxed to include the other formats. So if you run into trouble when you upload the image, then try the next image format on the list.  Make sure wherever you decide to put the image, that you save the full link. You will need this for the last bit.

3. Tell the site what to do with it

This is the fun part.  You need to find the header of the site and add 1 line of information. The hardest part of this step can sometimes be the header since some sites use a CMS and some do not. In both cases this line of information needs to be placed somewhere after

<head>

and somewhere before

</head>.

This is the line of information that tells the site what to do with the image:

<link rel=”SHORTCUT ICON” href=”http://www.example.com/cakefavicon.ico” />

After you place that in the header (substituting the words in bold for the real address of the image) save and enjoy the favicon. In some cases you may need to clear your cache to see the image appear.

Bonus:

For WordPress users there is a plugin called MaxBlogPress Favicon which appears to just have a bunch of icons and just lets you pick one without having to get your hands dirty with image editing and code.

Tech related:

Backward Compatible

Slice of Life:

One-Liners (Since this post, this has either been taken down or moved.)

Girls With Slingshots

The Outer Circle

Shortpacked!

Action:

Looking For Group

Girlyyy

Random:

Least I Could Do

Diesel Sweeties

Little Gamers

Bad Gods

Qwantz – Dinosaur Comics

Toothpaste for Dinner

Alternate Conversations

Minimalism Sucks

In this brave new world of instant gratification, it is understandable that some want to take advantage of immediate updates. In an instant message/chat situation where it is just you and a few other people, instant is great. When there is a larger number of people involved it just turns into scrolling colors after a while.

Don’t get me wrong, I personally love a good river of information. But more often than not that same river freaks out the average Joe. The most current example of this was the recent Friendfeed redesign. While the new look is only on the beta site, I showed a few friends of mine the look and they all but ran away screaming.

One of the reasons many people have cited for not joining FF in the first place has been the flood of information. Unfortunately for the regular guy, the new interface helps the flood rise. Now while the obvious solution to most current users is just to pause the feed, quite a few folks who already use the service still have a problem with the initial tsunami of information.

Sure average person off the street will not immediately be following hundreds or thousands of people, but it is doubtful that they would jump on a service that they have to immediately turn down to use.  Most users want the interface to be easy and something they can grasp quickly, hence the popularity of Twitter.

While I can completely understand the reasons why certain changes have been implemented, expanding the user base might become a bit more tricky with the new model.

But it is a beta so who knows?

Unfortunately, the one thing the platform does lack is a very large stash of themes. This fact could hinder many from using it considering most of the themes that are available favor minimalist designs. While this is not an issue for the current adopters, I can see why others are reluctant. In an effort to add to the development of the project, I decided to take a shot at adapting some themes and came across these 7 sources of wisdom.

1. Habari Fun

Andrew Rickmann has thrown together a great guide to convert Wordpress themes over to Habari, based on his port of the Dilectio theme.

2.WP Fun – Theming Habari vs WordPress

There is also a tutorial available for theming at Andrew’s other site. He has created a few themes for Habari and he gives a good headstart to the folks that need one.

3. Habari Project Theme Functions

This page on the Habari Wiki lists common theme functions and how to use them.

4. Habari Available Themes

Not only just a list of themes created for the platform, but also a portal to a list of developers that have already gone through the process of creating a theme.

5 & 6 Mark Mail & Google Groups for Habari Themes

Message boards used by the Habari community. Still looks active and there are some code examples in the posts.

7. Habari Room in Friendfeed

Pulls in resources from blogs and microblogging sites Twitter and Identica. Most of the good stuff flows through this room and the admins are open to adding new sources they come across.

A little while back the folks at Mashable teamed up the Disqus guys and UberVU to amp up the Disqus commenting system. The goal of Disqus and UberVU was for the blogger to get the discussion back at the blogs and not just spread out over the social media sites. It was a lovely idea and Mashable was a great place to test out the new system.

Called Social Media Reactions, anyone using Disqus can now soak some of the conversation back up into their arena. I already have it running here, but Mashable gets wayyyyyy more traffic and you might want to check it out there since the service is on a limited rollout at the moment.

In 1995, there was a lovely little system called the Sega Genesis. As kids we huddled around it and our television screens to delve into the fantasy worlds of Sonic the Hedgehog and Mortal Kombat. One of the stand out games turned out to be a too often forgotten Comix Zone.

Sure the gameplay is ridiculously dated by our standards. Sure the game came out after most of the consoles user base was angry enough to move onto something else. But the game was built on the double whammy of geek, it was a video game about a comic artist stuck in a comic book which functioned kind of like Kung Fu.

The game was sort of short, but you only got one life to make it through the panels. The concept was more interesting than the gameplay itself, but if you are a fan of single button linear games it is not too bad. Personally, I just like to get to the one villain who says “Your kung fu is good.” The story centered around comic artist Sketch Turner who was sucked into his own creation during a lightning storm. Unfortunately for Sketch, the villian in his book was granted partial access to the real world by the incident.

Video of  gameplay:

In case you missed it, the game is available on the Wii via the Virtual Console.

It seems like an odd move to ban dating on a social site, but it is a good move to try and avoid lawsuits. The big gaping whole in the plan comes from the fact that the ban techncally only applies to opposite sex dating.  Same sex relationships (likely no matter the age of the participants) have a loophole.

Normally this would be funny but slightly discriminatory at the same time,  instead it is just stupid.  With the low birth rates of the user base, it would be a great idea to encourage dating. But going through the social service and deleting any dating groups is not helping the situation.  It is great that they do not want to end up like Myspace, but this is probably not the right way to go about it.

Fast forward two weeks after Quake Live became an open beta, I figured it was safe to hop in and get a little bit of fragging done. Being more of a console gamer, I still have a PS2 Quake III Arena around somewhere. It is just a shame that I lack skills no matter whether I play it or its free QLB counterpart. Thanks to the aforementioned skill matching system, this has not been an issue since I started playing.

After completing the standard fill out this form and confirmation number setup process, the user is invited to download a small bit of software and reload the browser (IE7,8 or Firefox 2,3 Windows XP or Vista only right now). Once this is done, the player can select an avatar from the list of familiar Quake characters and change some settings like the crosshair and railgun color schemes.

The aspect of setup which I find most appealing is your first match is with an AI dubbed Crash who is designed to assess your skill level in a match you play while the bulk of the game is downloaded. Crash appeared to have done a good job of finding my skill level since the couple of matches I have played have not been completely one-sided. When you login to QLB after that inital match, you have an option to practice or to just jump into matches currently happening. The matches are setup to load the ones best suited to you first, with green checkmarks notifying you that its right up your alley and arrows up or down

The one downside I have experienced playing the game was that there was occasional lag, but since I am using somewhat dated equipment it may be just me. It looked a bit better than the Q3A I played on my PS2 and there are lots of people waiting to play Team Deathmatch 24/7.

Here is a user made video of the training mode with Crash:

Tons of people wanted cool spy gadgets to carry around thanks to James Bond. You coveted all the seemingly normal household items that did extraordinary things. Now is the perfect opportunity to invest in a Spy Pen/Cam. You can covertly get the dirt on whoever in a time of concern, if you want to.

We do not want to condone illegal behavior, but there are plenty of legal reasons to carry a DVR in your pocket. Fortunately, this pen is really easy on the eyes. With 4GB of storage, this pen also comes with a slew of good points.

Dimension:150mm*15mm*15mm

Real time recording in AVI video format

Color video with voice lets you clearly see who’s there & hear what they say.

Place it up high or conceal it down low. With built-in rechargeable battery so there’s no long cord for you to hide.

Internal memory: 4GB

Playback video on PC

The website which offers it includes a handy video on how to reset it:

via

Not only do you need help, you also need to get in touch with the creators of these robot overlords in training…

via

TS and TJ is now here