Tips & Random Articles

After watching Jesse Schell's presentation on the future of gaming:

I'll summarize from memory in case you don't have time to watch it:

• Farm Ville, Guitar Hero, Wii, Wii Fit.. etc all made TONS of money. They seem to hit the gaming industry out of nowhere.
• They have one thing in common - they bring gaming to the real world.
• When technology gets better, more types of devices emerge. "all in one" is a fallacy.
• Companies are using points systems to get consumers to buy certain products.
• He says point systems *gaming* should be brought into all areas of reality.

So, this video in combined with my presentations on HTML5 has really got me thinking. What is the future of the web?

More Devices and Faster Internet

The two things we can count: more devices and faster internet. I'm sure iPad is just the start of new types of devices and innovation in that space. Google is gearing up to release 1GB internet, 100 times what most people have in their homes now.

So how are all these devices connected? The internet.

What is the language of the internet? HTML. (xml and json too for data transfer)

Interpreters

Web browsers are interpreters of this hodge-podge data format we have, HTML. Even CSS and JavaScript are interpreted. This is why web developers will never have perfect standards because everything is based on interpretation. Browsers can agree to interpret things in roughly the same ways, but the law of humanity combined with innovation mean nothing will be interpreted 100% the same.

New Interpretations of HTML

Take the video tag, for instance. The entire world's internet eyes and brain (browsers) have to now interpret a new piece of data, the video tag. A single browser could decide to interpret a "frog" tag, but that wouldn't serve us much good - so there will always be some commonality behind new tags and innovation. HTML will continue to add new pieces of data that will be interpreted in different ways. We will always have browser plugins and JavaScript to add new functionality to browsers before the browsers implement their own interpretations.

Apple did a smart move by open sourcing webkit. Now as more and more browsers use their rendering engine, apple (and whomever works on webkit) can set the standards, forcing other browsers to start implementing what they are. We've seen some of this taken place. HTML is a world where people basically make up new words and the whole world will eventually learn how to interpret that word.

The Brave New Internet

What I'm really looking forward to is 3D and sensor APIs.

Sensor APIs will detect if the device has a certain sensor, just like the geolocation API does now in HTML5, and then fall back if it doesn't have it. This will be great to be able to gather all new types of data through JavaScript. We could record audio and video natively or even detect air pollution levels if hardware devices start to have new types of sensors.

3D is certainly the area I'm most excited for. A world where today's games like Half Life 2 can download streaming into your web browser in real time. Gigabit internet will provide that ability. O3D and WebGL are starting to pave the way for 3D in the browser. And I fully intend to leverage browser's new 3D abilities when it comes out.

If you haven't seen it, check out Google's O3D beach demo. O3D is a plugin, but we know that plugins are trailblazers to new browser functionality.

Safari and Firefox are implementing WebGL and this can be seen in their nightly builds. Pay attention to the Learning WebGL blog to see what has been happening in the world of WebGL.

I can't wait to start using it. Web + 3D is the world I pictured and wanted to be a part of since back in 2001 when I went to DigiPen, Nintendo's school, for 3D Animation.

So come on, let's create a 3D web together!

Bloglines is a very popular online RSS reader, and it was down today.  Here is their website is down screen.
"Bloglines is down temporarily. We will be back shortly."

This is hilarious - you would think the circus is closed for the day, not the website is down that I go to 50+ times a day to read my RSS feeds.

My website has been updated with a, "Questions" section to fulfill a need I've had all along - to get questions about web development answered. The first question I'm asking is for a $5 reward to the best answer, "What is the Best Analytics Software?".

I've consantly been asking questions to people over Twitter, in IRC and instant messaging conversations. The responses and answers really need to be made public, because if I am asking the questions then other people are too.  

For four years, I've received these Blockbuster emails and have wanted to unsubscribe:

I click the "unsubscribe" link and then get the opt out screen. Very normal, but hold on for the twist in the story.

Every time I've tried to subscribe over the last four years, I've received this, "System Unavailable" page.

I have tried to contact Blockbuster before, with no response. So I decided to take it to the FTC to file a complaint against Blockbuster for violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.

I hope the feds can put some pressure on them to get their unsubscribe working.

My favorite drink in the world (at the moment) is a carmel macchiato from Starbucks. Since I'm consulting from home these days, I thought it would be a great idea to make my own carmel macchiatos. So I picked up what I needed:

• Starbucks Barista Espresso Machine off craigslist for $150
• Carmel sauce, espresso grounds, vanilla syrup for about $15
• Double insulated cup for chilled drinks for about $13.

After a couple screwed up drinks, I finally got the right combination of espresso, milk and vanilla syrup.  I can make it without leaving my house and it tastes just the same, if not better since I control the proportions.

Web devleopment from home just got even better thanks to you, Mr. Starbucks Barista Espresso Machine!

Note on June 27th, 2008: Rammi asked for my recipe, so here it how I make it - adjust to your liking:
~1 tbsp of vanilla flavoring syrup
8-10 oz of milk
2 shots of espresso
carmel sauce

Drizzle carmel sauce in the bottom of the cup. Pour in ice, milk and vanilla flavoring. Make 2 shots of espresso, emptying the espresso grounds and fill it up with new grounds for each shot.  Drizzzle more carmel on the top of the drink after you add the espresso.

After being asked many times if I use Twitter, I finally decided to pony-up and join. You can follow me on Twitter as 1Marc.

Impression of Twitter

I never understood Twitter when it first came out. My first (ignorant) impression was that it would be for emo kids - much like how blogging started out. However, it turns out that Twitter can be great for your professional life. You can follow other like-minded people, and you will find they post links and ideas that are interesting to you. You can also participate in conversations going on in the industry.

TwitterFox allows me to keep up on Twitter updates from Firefox, which is nice.

Searching the Twitter Landscape

A Twitter search engine called Summize allows you to peruse through peoples' tweets (twitter updates). This is great if you want to track opinions on a certain topic or product. The first thing I searched for was, "datepicker". To my surprise, I found a lot of flattering comments about my datepicker and was quite pleased.

See you on Twitter (1Marc).

This is geek abundance.

Not only did I receive 30+ energy drinks, I just received Adobe CS3 Master Collection and Adobe CS3 Web Premium from inside Adobe for minimal cost. For anyone who doesn't know, that is 4,000+ dollars worth of software - Master Collection is Adobe's entire line of software. I never pirate software and don't agree with it. I believe you will be blessed for doing things legit and paying the people who work hard to make it.

I thought of a way to optimize images and reduce http requests: dynamically stacking images together into a, 'sprite'.

Because it would be painful to stitch the images together and write the CSS rules, this would have to be done dynamically with a server side language. CSS sprites are not a new theory, but dynamic sprites are. I would love for the day that PHP generates nicely written CSS classes for me to use. If no one else creates this, I will - in time.

Each http request (test here) takes on average 80-100ms per http request. If you have 40 images and compress them into 3 images, you would save 37 http requests, or at least 2 seconds of load time!

The limitations:

• Different image types need to be grouped together (gif, png, jpg, etc).
• Images that need to be copied (right click, save as...) should not be part of a sprite.
• Images that repeat in both directions can't be turned into a sprite.

I've been sharing this theory with others in hopes that someone will care enough to build it (I don't have time right at the moment). Recently I shared my theory with Pamela Fox (Google Maps) and she said she would try it out on Google docs. I am excited to see if anything becomes of that. Otherwise, it will remain a theory until someone builds it - and if no one else, I'll build it when I get time.

Using Outlook 2003, I was annoyed that it wasn't allowing me to receive JS (JavaScript) files. So naturally I googled it and after a while found the answer:

1. Close Outlook.
2. Open the Registry Editor.
3. If you using Office XP/2002, expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Office\ 10.0\ Outlook\ Security

   If you using Office 2003, expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Office\ 11.0\ Outlook\ Security

4. Create a new string value by selecting New and then String Value from the Edit menu.
5. Name the new value Level1Remove.
6. Double-click the new Level1Remove to edit it, and enter the filename extensions you'd like to stop Outlook from blocking. Extensions should be typed in lower case, without the dots (.), and separated by semicolons (;). For example, type

   js;mdb;vbs

   to allow .js, .mdb, and .vbs attachments, respectfully.
7. Click Ok and then close the Registry Editor when you're done.
8. The next time you restart Outlook, you'll now be able to open previously-blocked attachments. (If an attachment is still blocked, you likely got the filename extension wrong.)

Reference: Force Outlook to allow EXE and MDB file attachments.

Thank you Annoyances.org!

Check out if your office is setup correctly for your health (prevent wrist strain, back pain, etc). Don't hurt yourself by having your keyboard, mouse and keyboard in the wrong positions. Take a few minutes and adjust your office for proper office ergonomics.

Designers, developers, project managers. Writers and editors. Information architects and usability specialists. People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Who are we? Where do we live? What are our titles, our skills, our educational backgrounds? Where and with whom do we work? What do we earn? What do we value?

If you get a moment, take the A List Apart Web Design Survey.

I had a coworker who at 8AM I would see him sipping on Mt Dew. Wow, I thought. Does he drink that every morning? So it turns out that is what his daily breakfast was. After snickering for a while because it reminded me of college, he let me ask him a few questions. No, I'm not a health-nut but I think a lot of developers can relate with this.

What does your breakfast normally consist of?

A can of soda - usually Mountain Dew - and either a Nutri-Grain Strawberry bar or Nature's Valley Granola bar, Honey and Oats.

Do you always have a Bar for breakfast, or is it sometime just a can of pop?

Usually both. Except on the weekends. Then I usually just have coffee - with cream and sugar - and maybe a bowl of cereal.

What does your lunch usually consist of?

Don't usually eat anything. Drink soda throughout the course of the day, maybe a snack size bag of Fritos or Cheese Popcorn. Boy, I'm a horrible eater.

How many cans of pop do you drink in a day?

2-3

Do you eat supper? And what does that look like?

Yep. Depends on what I've got going on. If I'm just going home, nothing spectacular. Mac and Cheese. Spaghetti. I like pasta. Never could do that Atkins thing. Soup and Sandwich. Usually something easy - it's hard to cook something big for just one person. Waiting for summer to start BBQ'ing.

How long have you been eating this way?

Eating this way - ever since I moved out of my parent's house...

Do you ever get fast food or eat out?

Eat fast food - yes. maybe once a week. Arby's or McDonald's. Jimmy Johns and Chipotle - but there aren't either of those two by my new house, so not very often anymore. Eat out, usually on the weekends maybe two times a month.

Do you ever intend to change your eating habits?

I'd like to change them, sure. I find it tough to buy fresh fruits and vegetables and things, though. I abhor going to the grocery store so I try to go only once a month or every two weeks or so. So I can buy enough fresh food to eat for two days - which is great - but then things start to spoil. So I end up buying more of the pre-processed packaged foods to cook in the microwave. But I do eat healthy for a day or two after I go shopping.

So there you have it, the guy has lived off of mt dew and whatever is around for 10+ years. I know I can relate. I guess the best thing to do is just accept who you are and make small decisions that make you feel better throughout your day.

For instance, instead of coffee I started drinking Green tea. I love it now and barely drink any coffee. I started making big sandwhiches, check this one out:

I guess eating can be fun, and good food does make you feel better. That being said, I just ate some cheesy bacon fries at a chicago-style food place. Oh well, I will just buy some fruit drinks tomorrow.

"Whew" this has been a long and kind of random post. That being said, I will leave you with a random picture of the vending machine not wanting to give me animal crackers. Honestly, how does two big bags of animal crackers get stuck in a vending machine? It is actually kind of amazing...

The company I work for RMG Connect earned the title of Webby Honoree for the Marines.com website.

"It is my pleasure to inform you that Marines.com has been selected as an Official Honoree for the Government category in The 11th Annual Webby Awards."

My work is mostly on Ford and United Healthcare, but good job to RMG and it feels good to work with talented people.

Note on June, 23, 2008: I now use Firefox Extension, "Delicious Bookmarks" in tandum with the below

Do your bookmarks look like this?

I came up with a way of organizing my overgrown bookmark list. First, I create category folders on my "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" (Firefox). Then I move the bookmarks into a category and name them something that I can remember.

That looks better! Then, I added one more layer of categories.

Ahhh... I can breathe again! Nice and organized bookmarks!

How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords raises some great questions about internet security. I remember the day when people didn't run anti-virus on their computers which allowed someone to hack your computer in a matter of a few minutes. People learned very quickly that they need to install some form of anti-virus so they don't open back doors and lose all of their important information.

Today, I believe we are in the same era in the area of logins and online identities. We can login into our insurance policies, bank accounts, social sites, etc. Places where if we let access of a predator in it could potentially mean devastation to credit as well as personal lives. In the coming years people will realize that they actually need to have numbers and characters in their passwords. Hackers are getting smarter, not dumber.

"...people just don't care about all this until it's too late and they've learned a very hard lesson."

Buckle your seatbelt, keep all valuables out of your car, shred your documents, don't give out personal info online and now learn to use strong passwords. I am going to take my own advice now and start changing my passwords to something crazy. Maybe it will be fun?

Have you ever thought about what is under your keyboard keys? Yuk! Make your keyboard as good as new with the How To Clean Your Keyboard - A Step By Step Guide.

In short, here is how to clean your keyboard:

• Vacuum the keyboard.
• Take a flat-head screwdriver and pop off the keys one by one. (Don't forget to take a picture of where the keys so you know how to put them back on)
• Use a toothpick and slightly damp cue tip to clean the keyboard. (Eww!)
• Soak the very dirty keys in water.
• Make sure everything is dry and assemble your keyboard.
• Revel in your shiny, clean keyboard!

Photo is Stefan Didak's Home Office

This office is amazing. Although it looks like overkill, adding more monitor real estate can drastically increase productivity.

• More information up at one time.
• Lower the amount of times that you minimize and expand windows.
• Multitasking is much easier.

Apple didn't think it was a good idea to be minimizing and expanding windows all day either. This is why they developed expose.

Expose allows you to see all of your windows laid in front of you so you can choose the appropriate one. This is so much better than searching through your taskbar to find the right window.

Overall, it solved some inefficiencies and frustrations when I switch to duel monitors in 2001. It is a great investment I will never go back to one monitor. Unless, of course I have a Mac laptop.

This is a smart kid. I think he should get extra credit but the teacher wouldn't understand. It reminds me of when I was in school programming on my TI-83 calculator during all of my classes.

Geek Humor - I will not throw paper airplanes in class

I checked my analytics today to see what browsers people are using to view my site. Most of you are all tech-savvy Fire Fox users, but I was surprised to find out that over 60% of my IE visitors are using Internet Explorer 6!

I did some research and found out that you can run IE6 and IE7 on the same machine! UPDATE: I found out that you can run IE3 IE4.01 IE5 IE5.5 and IE6 on the same computer.

Just download their virtual machine and run the IE6 image. Its slick! Then attach the IE specific style sheet with the following code.

HTML:

<!--[if IE 6]>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://marcgrabanski.com/css/ie6.css"/>
<![endif]-->

Fix your IE6 bugs in the new IE6 style sheet. Problem solved!

The following video displays very nicely that you should not be using IE6 and switch to FireFox 2.