Fibble.org

At Long Last

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:30:02 -0800

It's been quite a while, but I've finally updated DisableTextAds to fix IntelliTxt blocking and add support for several new networks. You can grab the new script here or head over to UserScripts.org to install it. GreaseMonkey required, of course.

To those asking for support for GreaseMonkey-like frameworks in other browsers: I hear you. I've considered updating the script to block all the modern networks as my first priority; now that that's done, I'll start porting.

Oh, one other thing: I've put the code up on GitHub. Send me a pull request if you start hacking.

Seriously. Don't Vote.

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:52:19 -0800

Bright, funny, and vaguely relevant. Have you registered yet?

Posted by email from Grant's Prehumous Posterous

Meme(me)

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:52:32 -0800

From John:

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

Posted by email from Grant's Prehumous Posterous

Mark at dinner last night

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:35:04 -0800

Note the pajama top. Mark insisted on wearing it because it had 'Naaams' (airplanes) on it.

Posted by email from Grant's Prehumous Posterous

Mark vs. The Fountain

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:11:15 -0800

Mark playing in a fountain at University Village. I'm not sure who won, but it was a spirited effort from both sides.

Posted by email from Grant's Prehumous Posterous

Hiatus over (sorta)

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:55:13 -0800

Okay, so I'm terrible at adding new content to my blog. I'm so rarely at a desk able to type up new entries that blogging becomes something I have to do in my in-between moments, and I haven't found a blogging engine thus far that allows me to work effectively from a BlackBerry. I've been Twittering quite a bit more, as there's a decent twitter client for the BB (I refuse to pony up for an SMS plan just to twitter, especially when decent native clients abound), but Twitter's a far cry from blogging: no pictures, no music, no real formatting. It's pure stream of consciousness for the most part, though that might also be related to the audience as much as the format.

And now I'm going on vacation for a week to lovely Lake Tahoe, CA for the 4th of July holiday - why would I choose to post now, since I'm just going to let things go dark for yet another week? Well, because I'm trying something new. See, there's a middle ground between blogging and twittering - it's called tumblelogging micro-blogging, as created (I believe) by Tumblr. Tumblelogging lets the blog engine do most of the work and expects short, simple text or multimedia content as input. Perfect for my typical style of information sharing. However, Given my heavy reliance on a BlackBerry as a primary means of communication, I've elected to try out micro-blogging over at newcomer Posterous instead. They allow email input and simply Do The Right Thing with whatever's attached to the emails - photos, music, video or simple links.

I'll continue to post here about technical matters - modem scripts, GreaseMonkey scripts and various Ruby on Rails topics. In short, this blog will become more of a public, technical platform and less about personal stuff. The fun, short stuff will live over at Posterous instead - you can check out the new hotness here. Of course my notion of fun frequently involves technical arcana, so don't be too surprised to see some stuff bleed over.

Updated Modem Scripts for OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:09:23 -0800

If you're a rabid early adopter like me, you've probably already installed Leopard and discovered that the original modem script doesn't work with the new OS. However, it's unlikely you then repackaged all of the modem scripts (BlackBerry 8100,8700 and 8800) into the new modem script format and made them available for download. If you did, why didn't you let me know?! You would have saved me a half-hour's worth of work. Sheesh, some people.

At any rate, if you're on Leopard and jonesing for a Bluetooth modem fix, here's what you do:

Download the new scripts. One download for all phone models!
Unzip that file into Macintosh HD:Library:Modem Scripts. The same location th old script lived. If successful, you should see a new directory named BlackBerry.ccl there.
Pair your phone as usual - when asked for the phone's Vendor and Model, choose 'Research in Motion' and whatever model of phone you have. I'm not a mind reader, you know.
The username, password and phone number fields should be filled in with the same values as before; namely, whatever is appropriate for your carrier. Check the forums if you're not sure.

That's it! I'd like to make an installer for this to make it even more seamless, but for now this should get you going. As always, let me know if you run into problems and I'll try to help.

The one in which Mark falls violently asleep

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:17:40 -0800

Okay, Mel pointed out that this blog has been remarkably Mark for some time now. So, without further ado:

We now return you to our regularly scheduled tech geekery.

This guy has the best hobby ever.

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:35:50 -0800

What does he do with his spare time? Freak crowds of people out. Frankly, given the current state of affairs, I'm surprised he isn't in Gitmo already.

T-Mobile Forces my Hand

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:40:29 -0800

Well, big T, you've had a good run. Sensible pricing, good customer service, the works. But unfortunately for you, two big mistakes are driving me into the arms of another carrier.

First off, your 3G story is abysmal. Why, oh why didn't someone read the fine print when you shelled out all that money for spectrum earlier this year? By the time you're able to roll out 3G across the country, we'll all be using WiMax's successor. Via a brain implant. While piloting our rocket cars.

Secondly, you broke my ability to reliably use my Pearl as a modem. T-Mobile's latest BlackBerry firmware has the wonderful property of requiring me to pull the battery from the phone before each attempt to connect. I realize bluetooth tethering for Mac users isn't exactly priority number one over there at Big Pink T headquarters, but someone needs to at least test these things before they roll out the door. I've even offered! I'll state it publicly here: T-Mobile, I will test your BlackBerry firmware for tether capability for free. Just send me a firmware image.

Thus yesterday found me where I swore I'd never go again: inside a Sprint store. See, the new BlackBerry 8830 has both EV-DO (which, for those who still use their phone primarily to call people, is 3G data - faster than my first cable modem) and a SIM slot for those times I travel overseas. I can even use prepaid SIMs from other countries in the thing. And the tethering? Works like a champ. Currently the speed isn't full 3G, as most of the scripts I've found artificially limit the speed. Needless to say, I'm working on it.

I have a month to decide if I'll actually be leaving the big T, but so far things aren't looking good for them. Yes, it's more money (though it wouldn't be if I could've signed up for one of them fancy SERO plans), but if I can actually do what I need to do, at reasonable speeds, without needing a new battery cover for my phone every month, then it's worth it.

Movable Type 4.0 - More Movable Than Ever

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:01:06 -0800

Being the brave early adopter I am, I jumped at the chance to install Movable Type's latest version here on Fibble. My impressions so far:

The install procedure was more painful than it had to be. Despite installing in a fresh directory, I had problems with default templates being missing.
Akismet still isn't part of the default anti-spam package - why is this? The built in logic does a decent job, but the collaborative filtering provided by Akismet is far and away a better solution.
The new authoring engine is quite nice. I keep finding small niceties as I need them; for example, the bottom of the text area I'm typing in has a grab handle that allows me to resize it as necessary.
The meta-soup of tags, keywords and categories hasn't been unified yet. I realize people have probably created their own ontologies by now, but Melissa's tag cloud is empty because she always uses categories - every heard of a category cloud? 'Cos I haven't.
The new templates are lovely, and well-organized. I'm looking forward to building a new site or two based on MT as a lightweight CMS thanks to the new page templates.
Comment handling still seems to have some issues. The 'Report as Spam' link in emails I receive from MT is as likely to take me to an error page as it is to work properly.

Clearly SixApart has their work cut out for them, but I'm still pretty happy overall. Kudos to the MT team for the release.

Dear iMobimac:

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:26:17 -0800

Please stop trying to advertise on my blog. I've removed the comment in question (posted by one 'iMobimac_Guru', from a Brazilian IP address no less) and will do the same to any other obviously commercial comments. Feel free to contact me directly if you'd like ad space on Fibble.org, but the price just went up. Way up.

As a side note, I'm not opposed to iMobimac - there are models of BlackBerry out there who won't be able to connect any other way. But if you own a bluetooth-capable BlackBerry that can be upgraded to OS 4.2.1 or later, you're wasting your money by buying someone's software to accomplish what you can do yourself for free, with very little effort.

Dreamhost outage

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:27:25 -0800

Dreamhost had an extended outage over the last twenty four hours - there's a good chance any mail I received between 7PM PST yesterday and now is lost. So if you sent me something important, please re-send.

Various and Sundry

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:20:55 -0800

Wow, it's been a while. Here's what's going on:

Mark's now six months old! Time flies. He's huge and adorable. Check out the gallery for new photos, including our first hiking trip in our new backpack carrier! (Okay, it was only to the local park, but hey. Plus, bonus photos of his first time in a real swing!)
SpotDJ now has a Facebook app! Check it out and let me know what you think. I'm having a lot of fun using it as a personal jukebox during the day.
I've upgraded my BlackBerry Pearl to the latest OS from T-Mobile, and now I'm unable to tether it to my Mac successfully - after one successful connect, it won't reconnect until I pull the battery to reset it. Cingular users have been reporting this for ages, but I couldn't reproduce it until now. Here's hoping there's a simple solution.
DisableTextAds has been updated - I was contacted by the developers of the Lingospot inline ad system. They actually provided me with a simple hook for disabling their ads. Kudos to them for giving users the chance to opt out.

RailsConf Day 1

Fri, 18 May 2007 20:13:59 -0800

I'm sitting in the main ballroom listening to Ze Frank deliver a spectacular keynote on the acceleration of the human experience, his fear of flying and everything in between. He's a fantastic speaker and I'm having a bit of trouble breathing, so forgive me if this comes out a bit strangled.

Today's been great - the sessions have been a mixed bag, but I've met some incredibly bright people and put some faces to the names in the IRC channels I frequent. Despite a crowd of around sixteen hundred attendees, there's still a great deal of hackish energy in the air - I've already used one Rails app developed in the lobby over the last six hours.

Not sure what we're doing tonight, but I'm hoping we'll get a chance to try out one of Portland's famed brewpubs. I understand Lucky Bar is the local Rubyist hangout - looks fun.