A Random Pattern

What do you think? A new look for me?

Generate your own Web 2.0 label here, and join the clueless throng of internet devotees in celebrating and mocking something you don’t quite understand…

If you don’t get the joke, don’t worry. Most of the people who do get it don’t realize the joke they’re laughing at is on them. If that’s too meta for you, just skip this whole post. Or you can reference the word I made up and it’s definition:

dis-coordinated: unharmonious clumbsiness

Quick list:

-Fix sidebar to look like old sidebar, or like posts.  That is, white boxed instead of transparent.

-Get rotating header or Admin panel options to change header picture working.

That’s all I got.  Edits to come, I have no doubt. 

I’m surprised I haven’t seen more about this on the internet – maybe I missed it. Anyways, this is funny and disturbing at the same time. Have Samuel Jackson call someone you know. Enjoy. And don’t worry, you get to preview before you send it.

There’s been a good amount of unreasonableness over Mac OS security the last year or two. Here’s how it looks to me:

Mac “attack”: Look, another security hole / trojan / blatant problem! Macs aren’t Invincible!

Mac “defender”: No one ever said Macs are invincible, but your security hole / trojan / blatant problem actually isn’t. Here’s the reasons. Blah blah blah.
Mac “attack”: I was attacked by Mac zealots, but the basic point is that Macs aren’t invincible and you should practice ‘safe computing’. (Oh, and the details on that problem I mentioned are that it’s actually not a problem, but blah blah blah.)
Mac “defender”: @#)*$U@#%&U@

Throughout the discourse, a healthy set of mindless parrots (bloggers) and trolls give each side adequate cause to go off the tracks into ranting, and inevitably some on each side do so.

Anyways, the point is to bring you to this story on the latest Mac security brouhaha. Daring Fireball provides some really good technical reporting on the subject of Apple, though unfortunately the writing is sprinkled with “colorful” references (swearing, people, it’s never professional or necessary). Anyways, John Gruber has done an excellent job laying out the sequence of events and finding the culprits in the latest “security crisis”.

Honestly, I was surprised to not have found an intelligent write-up on this before now. John clearly identifies the terms that have been bandied about in confusion, and provides all the context and links necessary to make sense of the mess that the initial story caused. Shame, once again, on someone trying to implicate OS X in a security scandal purely to enhance their reputation. I hope their reputation suffers the damage it deserves, as shoddy journalism should always be exposed and discouraged.
For those that may already be composing flaming replies: I already know the Mac is not invincible. If your comment is sufficiently bone-headed, I will delete it.

If you’re interested in the new Apple OS that will be out next spring, check out ThinkSecret.com.  They’ve got a good write-up and several pictures identifying what’s changed so far.  Don’t spout your disappointment in the comments, because I’m fairly confident that we’re going to see a lot more in the final product.

This is a test, this is only a test. You can ignore this post.

In fact, please do ignore this whole thing. Skip ahead to the next post. More unnecessary text to test some more display type things.

So here’s some more text.

Testing complete, and Applets

Not only was it successful, but I’ve discovered Applets! Now I’m blogging, through Remote Desktop, from a button on my taskbar (bar across bottom of desktop), without any difficulty. Very nice – I really like this tool, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for.

I’ve also got a funny screenshot for you. I just grabbed this off my desktop and dragged it into my post, so we’ll see how well it uploads to Blogger.

Take a look at the last line of the description. Although monkey-bubble is a decent game, in the vein (though not nearly as good as) Snood, the description by the open-source authors displays one of the weaknesses of most linux geeks.

testing, testing, 1 2 3

test from Ubuntu using a “blog entry poster” application for Gnome. This is kind of cool, though I’m not sure how useful it will be. Depends on how well it works, I guess.

This is a simple example, but it’s really cool once you figure out what’s going on. I hope to see more of these!

First, how this guide will work. I’ve hidden all except the most gentle of hints, so anything you can read right now is safe and won’t spoil your “success” feeling. Then, I provide a few hints for every puzzle, finally practically giving you the answer. Give it a day if you’re stuck, then come back to it. This isn’t the best made puzzle ever, so there will be some guessing necessary, but nothing’s very far out there. The answer is always (somewhat) obvious, so no arcane puzzling knowledge or torturous logic paths are necessary.

Start with 1: Move your mouse over the 1.

On 2? Stuck? You can actually manually type in a web address, did you know that? Or you can change the current one just a bit, and see if there’s a page with that name?
More for 2: Go back to page 1, and look at the address. Now go forward to page 2. Look at the address. What would the address for 3 look like?

3: what did you do to get here? Do the same thing, only look at the information on the page first.

more for 3: How does the symbol in the middle of the page correspond to 3? What would be 4 then?

Still need more? Look up “Roman number”.

4: Really, just repeat the last sets of instructions. What comes after four?

5: Ok, this is where the puzzle starts to vary a little bit from the formula of the last several. Give it a try.

5 again: Count the o’s. Now how do you get to 6?

6: This is your first stretch. How does that number equal 6? Being a computer would help you understand this….

6 not-so-subtle hint: We’re not in the decimal system anymore, Toto.

6, one more hint: Try wikipedia. try google. Put in the number you know and the number you don’t. Find out how they are related.

7: Tricky one – if you’re from U.S., it’s not what you first think. Do a google search.

7 more detailed hint: Ok, search for both the clue and the number (7 and sept).

7 TMI: try learning a different language. At least until you can count to eight…

8: Hopefully you’re getting the hang of it. Here’s another new one, but nothing too difficult.

8 actual hint: How does the clue equal eight?

8: ok, get a mirror. Or pretend you’re from a country that reads right-to-left. Unless you are, in which case you probably didn’t need this hint.

9: Oh, fun! Where’d your clue go? If you are reading this, you already know how to solve 9.

9: C’mon, you can find it! Did you look for it? Use your mouse..

10: 2 ways to tackle this one. Try selecting your missing clue, or look at source code. Source code’s really the better way, because you’ll need it later on anyways. Go to “View” “Source Code” in the menu.

More to follow…..

Clues for 11-20 will be posted later this week, followed by clues all the way through 30. Hang in there!