Archive for December, 2006

While in Georgia visiting relatives, my family took a trip to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (as we do every time we visit relatives in Georgia). I had my camera with me, and a new photo set is the result. The main feature of the refuge, at least for my family, is the 4-mile auto tour that the public can take. We always try to see how many alligators we can spot (we saw 0 the first day and 5 the second), and we greatly enjoy the bird watching (the number of birds that can be seen at the refuge boggles the mind). Keep in mind that all of the animals at the refuge are wild; it’s not a zoo!

The best thing about the refuge is that every trip is unique. On one particular visit years ago we spotted a feral hog, something we haven’t seen again (though feral hogs do apparently live at the refuge). Another memorable trip was only a few years ago, when we ran into a cluster of between 100 and 150 alligators, all of whom were fighting over a school of fish who were just spawning. I truly wish I had had a camera at that particular time; the sight was truly incredible and something I will never forget.

If you ever happen to be in the Savannah area, I highly recommend a trip to the refuge. It’s a great, relaxing, and (yes) educational time.

A new build of Firefox is now available, so make sure you update. There are tons of fixes and improvements in this release; watered down release notes are also available.

Nearly two years ago, Born Geek opened its doors for the first time. Roughly six months later, Year of the Code Monkey did the same. The plan in those good ol’ days was simple: Born Geek was to be my primary web presence, while this blog was to be a fun side project. Somewhere along the way, the roles got reversed. This website has received way more loving than its older sister, and it’s starting to show. Time for a change? You bet.

I am in the process of moving Born Geek to the Movable Type platform, and I hope to complete the shift in the next two weeks. There are a total of 106 pages to be migrated (103 of which are static HTML), though not every one of those pages is coming along for the ride; all of the news archives will be tossed and I may also remove the Firefox 1.0 toolbar tutorial. In this vein, an overall site simplification scheme is planned. Step one will be to migrate to the new platform and go live. Step two will focus on simplifying each page, condensing the copy on each considerably. Once I’m finished, the site should both look and feel better.

I just recently picked up the Knights of the Nine downloadable content collection for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. In fact, it has sucked me back into the Oblivion world, so most of my free time is now spent questing with a brand new character (a Breton I named Tristram). Included in the collection is the brand new Knights of the Nine quest line, which supposedly adds an additional 9 to 10 hours of game play. Also included are a number of add-ons that were previously only available for purchase online: the Wizard’s Tower, Vile Lair, Thieves Den, Mehrunes’ Razor, Horse Armor pack, The Orrery, and a collection of spell tomes (my favorite add-on so far). I was lucky enough to pick it up for only $9.95 at Circuit City (the same day I wrecked my car), but it normally retails at $19.95. If you’re a fan of Oblivion (and who’s not?), I highly recommend the collection. So far, it’s been a blast.

No programming tips here tonight. Just a few great stories I’ve recently found:

First Look at Firefox 3.0

Lots of love coming in 3.0. I simply cannot wait.

Mozilla Thunderbird 2 Beta 1

Firefox’s little brother is moving forward.

Clinton in Action

This man is super great.

DS Buttons

A very cool marketing idea. I heart my DS too.

Amazon Sales From Recommendations: 35%

Can you believe that 35% of sales come from the recommender? I’m shocked.

If the list above looks a little funny, do a browser refresh; I’ve updated the site style sheet to make this type of list a little nicer to look at.

I had the great fortune of being rear-ended tonight while coming home from work. What a wonderful Christmas present, delivered early for my enjoyment! I wanted more than anything to spend the next several days dealing with insurance, collision shops, and going without a car. Whee!

I recently stumbled upon what might be the greatest Firefox extension of all time: Firebug. This extension is aimed squarely at web developers and includes a number of mind-blowing features. And I mean mind blowing. Before reading any further, take a look at this short screencast of Firebug in action. Just make sure that you hold on to your socks.

How did I survive this long without this tool? And why haven’t we had something like this all along? Firebug single-handedly obsoletes the DOM Inspector extension that ships with Firefox, and nearly obsoletes the mighty fine Web Developer extension that I have relied on for so long. I can now view exactly what my CSS is doing. I can peruse through my page’s DOM without opening up the DOM Inspector and switching between windows. I can even edit the CSS and HTML for a page in real time; no reloading necessary! Want to watch your AJAX code in action? Firebug makes it easy.

This tool feels so incredibly polished, and the user interface is so streamlined, that I barely even notice that I have it installed. And it weighs in at an extraordinarily small 288 KB (as of this writing). I cannot say enough good things about this extension; just download it and give it a try. You will not be disappointed.