Vanity Foul

Vanity Foul
Dedicated to the wanderings of an egotistical mind.

Friday April 15, 2005

NewsFlash! Winer Invents MT-Blacklist

At least that is what it looks like to me. Also very much like the ReferrerSpam filter that we have on Roller (and just about everybody else has). I don't see how Dave views this as innovative, unless I'm missing something.
( Apr 15 2005, 10:29:02 AM ) Technology Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/newsflash_winer_invents_mt_blacklist

Thursday April 14, 2005

Disabling GreaseMonkey Considered Harmful

Now that the GreaseMonkey bug has bitten I checked out Mark Pilgrim's How to Disable Greasemonkey:

To prevent Greasemonkey user scripts from executing on your web site, put this line within the HEAD of every page (IE users view source to see it):
<script type="text/javascript"> window.addEventListener = null; </script>

I can see how this is quite effective. However, most of the fancy Javascript articles I've been reading about lately depend on window.addEventListener, so if you take Mark's suggestion you preclude the more advanced Javascript techniques. Not necessarily a danger for publishers, but I thought I should point out the obvious.
( Apr 14 2005, 12:07:55 PM ) Technology Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/diabling_greasemonkey_is_harmful

Wednesday April 13, 2005

My toy Greasemonkey script

I get really annoyed with sites that publish good articles in printer-UNfriendly formats. Many of the EarthWeb sites fall into this category. Recently i wanted to print an article from JavaBoutique (I like to read articles on the bus), but I find all the ads and extra crap distracting. So I took a stab at writing a GreaseMonkey script to make it more printer-friendly. I was only partially successful, as the HTML there is completely non-semantic and there is little use of CSS classes or identifiers for which I could script against. This ended up being a nasty bit of hacking to try and un-render nested tables and other assorted ugliness.

I've already spent too much time on this, but if you'd like to use it (or improve it, please please please) you're welcome to try my script. Note: My script is a modification of the Boing Boing Butler created by Julien Couvreur (which is based on Mark Pilgrim's Butler).

Update: I've posted improvements.
( Apr 13 2005, 03:02:53 PM ) Technology Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/my_toy_greasemonkey_script

Friday April 08, 2005

Cookie Monster is a poor role model

Perhaps by now you've heard that Cookie Monster is changing his ways. Really, what kid takes C!M seriously; "hey, Cookie Monster stuffs his face with cookies, I will too". I grew up without Sesame Street (meaning I didn't watch it, though it was available) and I still stuffed my face with cookies whenever the opportunity presented itself!

Next they'll have Big Bird get a personal trainer, because he is rather wide at the hips you know.
( Apr 08 2005, 09:47:50 AM ) News Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/cookie_monster_is_a_poor

Thursday April 07, 2005

LYKFIP You, like, ya know, fucking, like, figure it out, ya know?
( Apr 07 2005, 02:54:48 PM ) Humor? Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/lykfip

Friday April 01, 2005

Introducing: Multilogue

So if a monologue is one person talking, and dialogue is two people talking, what's a multilogue? [What's Your Brand Mantra?]

I like it!
( Apr 01 2005, 02:30:54 PM ) Technology Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/introducing_multilogue

Monday March 28, 2005

on cybersquatting and trademark violation

Last night I stayed up far too late reading the interesting case of a wrongly-accused cybersquatter (that is to say, he was not squatting). Warning: about halfway through the case I started skimming, and it still took me over 3 hours to read.

This case is of particular interest to me because several years ago I set up a "convenience" site for a local paper. They are well known by an abbreviated name, but had never registered a domain name under that alias. So I registered it and provided a link to the official site. I provided a paragraph at the top explaining that it was not the official site followed by the link.

Where I erred was in providing weather information, games, and even a link to that paper's competition (further down the page). In any case, when I received the inevitable cease-and-desist I did so. I knew I was on weak ground, and cancelled my ownership of the domain name. I even suggested to the paper's attorney that they should recommend their client purchase the domain once the registration cleared. They never did, and now I see it belongs to a real-estate company in New York (not local).

Idiots.

Thanks go to Boing Boing for pointing out the case, and check out Seth Godin's take.
( Mar 28 2005, 08:36:24 AM ) Politics Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/on_cybersquatting_and_trademark_violation

Friday March 18, 2005

gu·ru (goo' roo, goo roo')

n. [Unix] An expert. Implies not only wizard skill but also a history of being a knowledge resource for others.[Dictionary.com]

Mike West is my javascript hero. Seriously, this guy displays some wicked javascript chops and creates something useable:

( Mar 18 2005, 10:33:50 PM ) Technology Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/gu_ru_goo_roo_goo

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