My vlog thoughts of course beginning with Microsoft Mouse Mischief SDK. So, here’s the thought: someone at Microsoft probably some underpaid intern — who was probably trying very hard to keep their job after the summer ended – if you’re listening Microsoft don’t let them stay…let them go…yeah.
They decided to invent a technology where you could take a set of young students — like, elementary school level — and give a classroom of students each their own wireless mouse and then set up a projector. On the projector, have a shared environment where all these students — like, 20+ students – with their wireless mice could interact on-screen.
Some goofball thought, “hey, it’s a good idea to get already over-sugared, overly-hyper kids to share a computer screen with mice.” ADD is going to kick in very soon here. There’s going to be a lot of kids, a lot of mouse pointers going all over the screen.
I would try this software by-the-way, but, in Microsoft’s infinite wisdom that is about the size of a small pumpkin seed. They only made this available for 32-bit versions of office. The world has run on 64bit for some time. Microsoft sells their OS, primarily now in 64bit. And, mouse mischief runs only on 32bit. It’s kinda a nice way of kicking the public school system for having old tech, but, eh…
So, you got ADD kids, you got classroom focus — or lack of classroom focus — and you can thank Microsoft for it. Well, they’ve made this entire thing free; because, let’s be honest, no one in their right mind would pay for it. But if you want it, you can go grab it.
Mouse mischief is a free download for Office 2007 and 2010, full versions or trials or betas…if you’re still cheap. And, you can grab that sucker if you run 32bit office or are using their on-the-run installation they provided for beta testers and you can try it out yourself.
There’s also this very, very awkward video that accompanies mouse mischief that talks about how Microsoft is taking the world into the future…by, distracting small children.  But, yeah, go watch that and comment about it in the comments here. Video responses welcome!
I personally take issue with “challenges” like this; because they can give the wrong impression that our Salvation is works based. It’s not. And, we shouldn’t be focusing on that, or bribing folks with the far-off chance of some prize for living a Christian lifestyle.
We’re already given a wonderful challenge:
“1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” –Heb 12:1,2.
And our gift? Oh, it’s much better than an iPad Our gift is eternal life.
So, I’d encourage the folks who are running this “competition/lottery” to re-prioritize a little; and those folks who are participating and spreading this to ignore the iPad, ignore the “challenge”; and instead work on taking on the full armor of God as already outlined in God’s Word.
It’s a MUCH better “challenge”, with better life-long rewards than any social-savvy Facebook group could ever think up.
If you are a vector artist looking for a small project, Podhurl Inc may have something right up your alley:
Podhurl Inc. is seeking a talented vector artist to design game elements in the style of several popular card games. Â The artist would need to create a unified, modern style and produce vector resources as outlined below in both small and large form factors.company.podhurl.net, RFQ: Cohesive vector design of card game elements [vector artist], Jun 2010
Bids are open now; and lowest price is not the factor we’ll be looking at most, but, quality for the price. Â So, please submit your offers.
Add another module has been recently updated with another new time-saving feature; you can now display “Add another” tabs on certain node types.  I’m also taking the time to think of what else can be done to make the usual node creation workflow easier for end users.
I’ll be looking for suggestions on how to improve the UI and workflow of node submissions and add another module as focus turns to version 2.x.  2.x will released for Drupal 6.x and 7.x in the next month; and will move the workflow settings to the content type edit pages, rather than a separate settings page.  The 7.x version will also include a “Save and Add another” button, somewhat similar to submit again, and include integration with node clone.
Recently after reading Valve’s blog post on how engie updates in Team Fortress 2 hadn’t been going as planned; I started thinking about what I, as the stereotypical Engineer class player, would like to see happen to my class.  One of the biggest annoyances to me personally is that there are common places in every map where, well, you basically need a sentry gun.  On 2fort, that’s going to be right outside the re-spawn looking at the courtyard.  Once that is built you can build another in the “sink room” directly under re-spawn; but, overall you can get by with just one simple sentry in that choke point.
The problem is, as an engie, there is no real “reward” to move up your equipment or to be on the front lines providing support. Â When I play other classes, I always find myself wishing there was a dispenser /right there/; but, there never is. Â Where is the dispenser? Â Oh, it’s by the re-spawn at that choke point, where it’s /totally useless/ except to block the occasional scout with a bonk trying to run down the spiral.
So, what kind of tools would a “battle engie” need?
The Tele-reverser
First of all, I’d like to see the ability for engies to be able to swap out their teleporters for a sapper-like device that if placed on an enemy teleporter “takes over” them, and reverses their direction, allowing your team to go directly into the enemy base much easier. Â The change would occur over a timespan similar to a zapper, and the enemy engie wouldn’t be able to destroy the teleports while in the other engies control, however, he could bang on them with his wrench to destroy the device, then go though the teleporter to kill the opposing engineer.
The engie with the “tele-reverser” couldn’t build his own teleporters, but, could take over one pair of an enimies; and then they would appear as if they were his own, they would transfer at the same level they were before, and if they were less than three the engie would be able to upgrade it was if it were his own.
The medi-sentry
The medi-sentry is a level one sentry that can’t be upgraded past level one that instead of shooting bullets, shoot syringes, much like the syringe gun of the medic, with one major difference, these darts heal friendly players (and, sadly disguised spies) that need health and do small damage to unfriendlies. Â This would most likely be placed in active choke-points. Â It will prioritize the most injured friendly players (such as those displaying red in their health meters) before enemies tho.
Radar
Perhaps the most complex concept to pull off; and due to the nature of the advantage probably would replace all other buildings.  An engie who builds a radar would give his entire team the ability to see units within a certain range of the  radar, and, perhaps the ability to see through walls covered by the radars scope.  The radar would be relatively short range and give off a distinctive “ping” sound if you’re close to it.
I’ve a hypothesis to explain Chrome’s recent and sudden surge of usage share the last couple months. Let me first say that almost every time I ever ask what web browser someone uses, the answer I get is Google. After I explain that Google is a search engine, not a web browser they usually tell me that they have no idea. I later find out that they are either using Internet Explorer or Firefox. Enter Microsoft’s new browser ballot into the equation. Instead of just saying “Chrome,” Google’s web browser says “Google” and then says “chrome” in smaller letter. People are asked what web browser they want so they think, I want to search with Google of course so they choose Chrome. If this is the case, it might be a problem that should be addressed.
Perhaps user ignorance on what a browser actually is will give Google a major boost. Â Because, admittedly, even my own father reference to Internet Explorer as “my internet”.
We might finally get more people off of IE, FINALLY.
It might seem like a minor thing, but it isn’t.
Microsoft has been fined billions over browser choice (or lack thereof) in Windows, and the solution that finally satisfied EU regulators was a browser choice screen, which would let users choose a web browser rather then having Internet Explorerinstalled as the default.
Now, Microsoft has posted images of what the browser choice screen will probably look like.
Here’s how it will work: The user will be presented with five major browsers, randomly ordered. He will also be able to choose several additional browsers, which are also randomly ordered. Once you install a browser, you’ll get a shortcut of that browser on your desktop, while Internet Explorer will be unpinned from the taskbar.
Since Windows 7 has been available on the European market for quite a while now, one may ask why (and how) is this happening so late? Since Microsoft needed some time to implement the browser choice solution, it will now use Windows Update to provide the browser choice screen to European users who are using Internet Explorer as their default browser. Better late than never, huh?
More precisely, testing of the browser choice screen begins next week in the UK, Belgium and France, where users will be able to download the software update from Windows Update if they like. A phased rollout of the update will happen across Europe starting with March 1.
Another question I recently answered on Aardvark, thought it would be useful to more folks as well.
Where can i get the Nexus One in Canada and will it work on Fido?
The first thing to note is you can’t get Nexus One’s that easily if you’re in Canada, since, the Google store that sells the unlocked phones doesn’t like to sell to Canadians. Â But, if you have a friend in the US… or a proxy and a US mail drop, you can get one. Â Once you get an unlocked Nexus One, you can activate it with Rogers or Fido using the directions provided over here.
I have a very very big collection of music in iTunes. I want to move to Linux but I don’t know if the players can handle 200,000+ files as efficiently as iTunes. Help?
The answer, is rather simple.  Songbird is probably the closest thing you`ll have on Linux to iTunes (and, IMHO, MUCH better than iTunes); you can even try it on Windows first to see if you`ll like it.  The only downside is your tracks MUST be DRM free to move them away from iTunes.
Usually you can remove the DRM from iTunes music by burning it to a CD, and then ripping it back off the CD into a freed file format.
Robin Monks is an avid open source contributor, with a special focus on Drupal and the open web. He has worked for various Drupal development shops including Prometheus Labor Communications and CivicSpace.
Robin is currently president of the Podhurl Inc. development shop, which provides services to achieve rich online experiences.
@AmyStephen My personal bet on Drupal 7 is somewhere around May, 2011...But, IMHO it isn't usable until all major modules work on 7 as well. [RobinMonks]
Our gift is eternal life.
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