Harrison Blackwood » Web

Chrome web browser 9.0.597.16 dev

Harrison — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:49:08 +0000

I have been using the Chrome web browser from Google on a Mac for some time. Since version 3.xxx. Also, I have been using the dev version since ver 4 or 5. Now Google chrome is 9.0.597.16 dev. Still working ok for me. When version 9 first came out I had a few, very few, browser freezes. This was easily fixed by reloading page or restarting Chrome, especially from a session of long-term usage with multiple tabs or windows open. With version 9.0.597.16 dev the past freezes are gone. All of my 5 plugins work ok.

I went to Google Chrome from Apple Safari initially just to tryout something new. Although, I still like Safari, Chrome is faster. I like the tab orientation, on the top. I really like and have grown accustom to having search combined with the url address field.

52 books for 2011

Harrison — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 07:00:36 +0000

Awhile ago I came across a blog about reading 52 books in 52 weeks. “52 Books in 52 Weeks” is a great idea. This is an achievable goal. This can be very motivating to read more books instead of watch TV.

So my own goal will be my first 2011 resolution. Read at least 52 books in 2011.

Time for a new theme

Harrison — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 07:28:38 +0000

Well, its about time for a new theme. After updating to WordPress 3.0.2 my old theme just wasn’t working. I had been using the K2 theme for years. Current nightly version r1144. The K2 theme has an excellent layout and was ahead of the curve when it came to layout design structure. But times change.
Initially, I think I will try to use the new default theme TwentyTen. I like the Footer widget ability. Although I have grown accustom to having 2 right hand sidebars. I have never really liked lefthand sidebars. Since most people read left to right, the left sidebar would be the first thing the eye sees. I want people to see the main content first and not the sidebar has they pan left to right. I feel no left sidebar provides for better flow and readability, especially when you visit a blog multiple times.

Google Chrome vs Apple Safari

Harrison — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:37:03 +0000

I have switched to Google’s Chrome 6.0.453.1 dev as my main web browser of choice from Apple’s Safari 5.0 (6533.16). Safari has been acting up more often recently. It will hang or freeze at seemingly random times. Facebook games do not work well with Safari any more. Getting the spinning beach ball too often with Safari 5 has made the decision for me. Firefox has always been too slow for me, with or without extensions. Safari has been twice as fast as Firefox.

Importing my Safari settings into Chrome was simple and fast. In Chrome tabs are located on the top of the window versus below the bookmark bar in Safari. There are other subtle differences that will be easy to adjust to as time goes by.

EDIT: Chrome imported all bookmarks from Safari but without my folder organization. Import order was as if folders did not exist, not alphabetically. This will make it easier to re-establish some kind of organization. Using six extensions with Chrome does seem to slow initial launch down a few seconds until google reader and gmail indications load, still not a decision to use deal breaker.

BOINC participation update

Harrison — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:27:44 +0000

Finally, got my original 3 projects that I have been running for a while above 95% ranking.

SETI@home
Rosetta@home
Einstein@home

I added 3 more projects a few weeks ago. Mainly due to a lot of down time on my other projects from maintenance issues. I added:

Malariacontrol.net
ABC@home
SZTAKI Desktop Grid

These projects are running on 4 different computers that I own. Two of the computers are older and are dedicated to only running BOINC.

Facebook account back

Harrison — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:53:46 +0000

My Facebook account was re-enabled Monday 8/04/08, 3 days after being disabled on a Friday. I did send an initial reply to their 1st email explaining what I have been doing and my thoughts on the possible cause, apologizing for any misunderstandings.

Since I am no power user and have well below the max of apps and friends, I find myself a bit apprehensive from doing much communication on or using Facebook. I do not want my meager actions to be deemed spam.

I do understand Facebook’s position in trying to limit spam and any other action that harms their community, but whatever algorithm or automated method they use to watch and track misuse needs to be improved in order to prevent the small causal user from surprise headaches.

One suggestion would be an actual warning well displayed on the users home page and an email message. Both could be sent more than once. First maybe 3 to 4 days in advance of disabling action as a warning. Then a second more threatening message 24 hours before action is taken.

Another way to get the message across could be a login re-direction to make sure of positive communication. When I tried to login after my account was disabled the login failed stating my account has been disabled by an administrator. This is where Facebook could try some kind of communication before taking extreme action. If the user fails to communicate to Facebook after a short warning period then Facebook should disable an account.

I did not see any warning message before my account was disabled. If it existed then it was not well placed or attention getting enough. All I got was a warning email:

Our systems indicate that you’ve been misusing certain features on the site. This email serves as a warning. Misuse of Facebook’s features or violating Facebook’s terms of use may result in your account being disabled . Thanks in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

If you have any questions, please contact warning@facebook.com from your login email address.

The Facebook Team

15 minutes later my account was disabled. Not much of a warning. I do believe that my posting of a duplicate message to the forums of the Zombies, Vampires, Werewolf, and Slayer apps probably caused the issue. Although by observation many others did the same thing and continue to do so. I assume the solution is obviously not to copy and paste the same message but to write a different message each time. What a pain since the purpose of the post is only to provide links and basic level info of my monsters.

Ultimately, a learning experience for me to be careful and not be lazy when writing.

Facebook account disabled

Harrison — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:12:34 +0000

My Facebook account was disabled yesterday with no warning. All I have been doing recently is playing a monster game and posting links to the monster types forum for fighting and feeding. Which it turns out was too many duplicate forum posts – I assume.

I did receive a warning email from Facebook after my account was disabled. I replied explaining my situation and received an acknowledgment. I hope this is resolved soon.

This is frustrating due to the fact that there was no real warning and I have no access to my account info. I feel cut off, similar to when I lose access to my email or website, etc.

Has anyone else had this problem? What is the turn around time for a response?

Facebook Zombie fighting app

Harrison — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:18:42 +0000

Please Fight Me! or Feed Me!
LVL 7 – all monsters as of this post
only 1 in army. re-feed from history next day (if not full).

FAMOLINK
http://famolink.de/?id=11713041&m=15

DIRECT
Slayer L7
http://apps.facebook.com/slayers/side-nav.php?zombie_id=11713041
Werewolf L7
http://apps.facebook.com/werewolves/side-nav.php?zombie_id=11713041
Vampire L7
http://apps.facebook.com/vampires/side-nav.php?zombie_id=11713041
Zombie L7
http://apps.facebook.com/zombies/side-nav.php?zombie_id=11713041

Thanks!

Facebook Zombie app

Harrison — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:39:35 +0000

If you are on Facebook and use the Zombie app use the link below to FIGHT or FEED.
At the date of this post I have a Level 4: Zombie, Slayer, Vampire, Werewolf

Famolink

Cross species fights are worth more points.
Thanks.

Weird Netflix plugin behavior

Harrison — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:40:26 +0000

I have been using the netflix 3.1 plugin by Albert Banks to display my Netflix@home movies in my sidebar. I had the plugin set to display an image with link. Last month a problem developed. The image displayed was wrong for the top 3 movies @home and the same image was displayed in all 3 slots. Initially the links were still pointed to the correct movie, but later changed to the displayed image. Screen shots below.

On my About page the image display for @home and in queue both showed the wrong movie duplicated in all 3 slots. The movie displayed was not in my queue or at home.

Later the above displayed titles reversed themselves. About 48 hours later the display was back to normal showing the correct titles with links.

This problem has happened twice that I know of. Not a big deal. But since I rent mainly TV series, the displayed image shown is a generic “image not available” from Netflix for almost all of the TV series selections. This defeats the purpose of having an imaged displayed, so I have changed to text w/link only.

Strange thing is I have a netflix app on my Facebook page that does correctly show all images for selected titles.