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Friday Ferret Blogging

2008-01-11T22:03:00Z

We are really going to miss emma. We got emma last spring, as a play mate for gus. Unfourtunetly, gus didn't want a friend, and absolutly hated emma. After months of trying to find a way for them to get along, last weekend, we gave emma up. The good news is she seems very happy in her new home. Within 24 hours of dropping her off, she was sleeping with her new best friend, weasel
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Jimmy Carter (Onion.com)

2008-01-11T21:13:00Z

With the holiday madness and all, I have been neglecting my blog. I have a few posts I am working on and should have up soon. In the mean time, you should read the Jimmy Carter article on onion. He is almost as angry as Zed Shaw.

...I'm wondering if you can help me get something straight. Maybe you can help me understand one fucking thing right now, America, and explain to me what in the Christ is going on here. 'Cause, unless I'm missing something, this country is in the middle of a motherfucking shitstorm, and I have no fucking idea what you're gonna do to get out of it.

Friday Ferret Blogging

2007-09-28T18:09:00Z

I see you Gus. Sneaky, but cute as always

My next movie inspiration "Locust: Attack of the Giant Killer Grasshopper"

2007-09-28T07:17:00Z

My father retired to Central America a few years ago. I've had this image for some time and just had to share. It's like something out of a horror flick. You can almost imaging that thing sneaking up on it next victim, fueled by it's insatiable appetite, ready to kill....
(cue jaws theme)

$2 multitouch using a plasitc bag, water, and an isight camera

2007-09-26T16:19:00Z

Ok, this is super fricking cool. I have a few web cam's lying around. Maybe I can find some time to build something like that myself...That and the other 50 projects I want to work on =(

from medallia blog

I guess most of the people reading this will have seen some of the multi-touch demos by Jeff Han, Apple and Tactiva. I wanted to play around with some ideas that required a multi-touch pad, but there aren't any devices available (Tactiva aren't shipping...)

Long story short, I made a simple one from a plastic bag, some dye and a camera:

Friday Ferret Blogging - Music Video Edition

2007-09-14T23:28:00Z

Emma rages against the machine after her bath.

Music by rage against the machine

Adobe Labs Releases Flash Player 9 Beta with HD support

2007-09-14T22:33:00Z

If only this worked on my iPhone.

Adobe Labs features prerelease versions of the Flash Player 9 Update software. The beta is an opportunity for developers and consumers to test and provide early feedback to Adobe on new features, enhancements, and compatibility with previously authored content.

This update, codenamed “Moviestar,” includes new features, enhancements and bug fixes for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux versions of Flash Player 9, including:

Support for H.264 video and HE-AAC audio codecs (new Aug. 21).

Multi-core support for vector rendering.

Full screen mode with hardware scaling.

Flash Player cache for common platform components, such as the Flex framework.

Support for Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) in the Windows plug-in.

Important: All users should uninstall any currently installed Flash Player before installing the beta.

Styling File Inputs with CSS and the DOM

2007-09-12T17:58:00Z

Here is a nice little way to style those ugly file inputs:

File inputs (<input type="file" />) are the bane of beautiful form design. No rendering engine provides the granular control over their presentation designers desire. This simple, three-part progressive enhancement provides the markup, CSS, and JavaScript to address the long-standing irritation.

Fix SWFUpload error "A script in this moving is causing Adobe Flash Player 9 to run slowly"

2007-09-11T19:57:00Z

Recently, I have been integrating SWFUpload, a flash tool for uploading multiple files, into a rails application. This is a great open source solution, similar to the new flickr photo upload tool, for uploading multiple files. I was using it to upload photos to a photo sharing system. The problem was that if the upload took more then 60 seconds I kept getting this annoying error:

A script in this moving is causing Adobe Flash Player 9 to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer may become unresponsive. Do you want to abort the script?

The documentation tells you to use this windows program to fix the problem.

SWF ScriptLimits Injector (SWFSLI) is a Win32 console (command line) application that can modify/remove/add 'ScriptLimits' tag to a SWF file. Flash MX 2004 (Flash 7) will not add this tag to exported SWF files. In Flex, you can specify the values like <mx:Application scriptTimeLimit="nnnnn" />>. Default values in Flex are 60 seconds and 1000 recursions.

Trouble is, no matter what options I used, this tool never fixed the problem.
Reading through the SWFUplad forums , I found this post

I was able to get this issue resolved by downloading Flash 8, adding a dummy movie file, and calling the SWFUpload constructor from the movie onEnterFrame event. (I also had to change the name of the SWFObject in the ActionScript to oSWFUpload.

Some guy hacked SWFUload, and his patched version works like a champ! You can download his version from
http://www.santokudesign.com/swfupload/SWFUpload.zip
The first time I tried to download this file, I got a 403 error, so here is a mirrored download in case the link goes down again.

If you are looking for a way to upload large numbers of files at once, this really is a GREAT tool.

Cheney: Saddam not worth was not very many deaths

2007-08-18T01:50:00Z

In this interview from April 15th, 1994, which originally aired on C-Span, Dick "fuck yourself or I'll shoot ya in the face" / "Last Throes " Cheney reveals the reasons why invading Baghdad and toppling Saddam Hussein wouldn't be a great idea. He also asserts that

"not very many" American soldiers' lives were worth losing to take out Saddam during the Gulf War.

Video of and interview with Vice President Cheney in 1994 saying that invading Iraq would create a quagmire. In this interview from April 15th, 1994, Dick Cheney reveals the reasons why invading Baghdad and toppling Saddam Hussein wouldn't be a great idea. He also stipulates that "not very many" American soldiers' lives were worth losing to take out Saddam during the Gulf War.

The only word out of Cheney's mouth anyone should believe is duck

We have Armageddon

2007-08-10T07:25:00Z

Mad Money host Jim Cramer makes a passionate plea to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to consider cutting interest rates and, in turn, help the market and the people who are losing their jobs on Wall Street.

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"THEY HAVE NO IDEA!! NO IDEA!"
Can you smell that? Smells like fear in the investment community.

Life and Music

2007-08-06T13:40:00Z

From coldhardflash.com

Trey Parker, one of the creators of South Park, was raised in Colorado, where his father attempted to teach him Buddhism. Now, years later, Parker and his animation pal Matt Stone have brought to life the teachings of Alan Watts, the comparative religion expert and philosopher. Under the FurryCarlos Productions banner, the two tapped South Park animators Chris Brion and Todd Benson to keyframe three of Watts' recordings, which can be viewed below.

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There are more videos here
I have a number of alan Watts mp3's. I have no Idea where I got them anymore, but they definitely worth a google.

More bad news on the housing market

2007-08-03T19:59:00Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. plans to close most operations on Friday and said nearly 7,000 employees will lose their jobs as the lender becomes one of the biggest casualties of the U.S. housing downturn. Experts said it is likely the Melville, New York-based company will have to seek bankruptcy protection, and no later than Monday. In a statement, American Home on Thursday night confirmed earlier reports that it was ceasing most operations. The company said its employee base will be reduced to about 750 workers, down from the 7,409 it reported at the end of last year. The terminations are effective Friday.

While living in San Diego, I can't tell you how may people I spoke with whom thought the housing market was never going to go down. I still can't believe how many people were in denial, dispite crummy condo conversions selling for $650,000+. Now, with annual returns down 7% year over year in San Diego, the chickens are coming home to roost.
We are no where near the bottom here folk, and this is going to have painful impact on the broad market. Can you say "recession"... I knew that you could.

Friday Ferret Blogging

2007-08-03T10:45:00Z

Why do ferrets love feet?

Friday Ferret Blogging.

2007-07-27T07:00:00Z

This is Emily, our newest family member: