This is a great picture I found on Flickr.com. This is an actual picture of the city of Chicago, but with a little patience and lots of help from Adobe Photoshop CS you can make the photograph look as if it were a paper model.
If you wish to give this a try Jon Block has given us a great tutorial at receding hairline dot co dot uk. The link gives a step by step tutorial on how to create these fake model photographs. There are also great tips on which pictures are best, such as those where you are looking down at the subject.
7/31/06
7/30/06
WindowShade X - customize window behavior for Mac OS X
Link-WindowsShadeX
On Unsanity's web site, they state that WindowShade X is a haxie that allows Mac users to customize their window sizing behavior. An exact quote from Unsanity's website states:
WindowShade X provides an exciting and useful way of organizing your work on Mac OS X. With this handy tool, you can assign the following actions to the minimize button and a double-click on the window title:
• Minimize the window to the Dock, like always;
• "Windowshade" the window into a tiny strip to quickly peek below or get it out of the way;
• Minimize-In-Place the window so it becomes really small so you can move it out of the way yet still see what is going on;
• Make the window transparent so you can continue working in it while seeing things under it;
• Hide the application quickly;
• Do nothing and ignore the action (sometimes it is quite useful as well).
These actions can be set on per-application basis so you can configure your workspace to be convenient for you - get more accomplished, and make it happen quicker!
I decided to try out this haxie as a 10 day demo which I eventually purchased. The haxie is definitely what Apple should integrate into their OS for its users. This is yet another APE haxie I think Apple should have integrated into OS X like older version of Mac OS instead of leaving it out. However, I feel they have thought its users should purchase a $10 license to use this with their Application Enhancer (APE) software (click on the hyperlinked haxie). The haxie comes with 5 tabs for customization, the WindowShadeX Splash window, Settings, Minimize-in-Place, Advanced, and the Exclude List tab. The WindowShade X Splash page allows you to Enable WindowShade in case their may be an issue on your Mac directly relatedI decided to try out this haxie as a 10 day demo to the haxie. Here is where you can also subscribe to the Unsanity.com mailing list. If you are unsure if you want to add yourself to their mailing list due to unwanted spam they place a disclaimer concerning your privacy -
"We keep the mailing list traffic very low and will never disclose your e-mail to third parties. After you click Subscribe, a confirmation letter will be sent to the e-mail address you have specified."
Lastly, it is on this tab you can register your license by inputting your e-mail you have used to purchase the haxie.
The settings tabs customizes the main setting for WindowShade X. This is where you can configure a default set of behaviors for all applications or create an individualized behavior for a certain application.
Of all the events, I use only 2 more often than the others. The first one is the Window Shade by double clicking on the title bar. Two quick clicks and I get a rolled up window showing only its title bar. Much the same as someone raising a movie screen.
The next event I use is the Minimize-In-Place event. The default is pressing the Control (^) key twice. I am having certain issues with my control key on my iBook keyboard so I created an additional event that does the same thing, but uses the Function 8 (F8) key.
The Make Transparent event is a nice feature when you want to quickly view what is below your active app without moving the active window out of the way or minimizing to the dock.
The Minimize-In-Place (MIP) tab allows you to essentially create thumbnails of your windows. As the picture above illustrates the small pictures of the miniaturized applications minimized to the right side of the screen instead of the dock, you can decrease that size or increase. Magnification may be turned on if the user wishes along with the desired level of transparency or opacity. Their are additional options on this tab, including fading or scaling MIP'd apps or displaying the application icon on MIP'd apps with a large or small icon.
The Advanced tab allows for additional options for
WindowShade X including playing sounds.
Alternatively, you can purchase the Xounds from Unsanity.com to bring back Appearance Sounds to your Mac creating audio feedback while navigating through your menus. You may also set the transparency opacity of windows and custom shading for windows (such as iTunes).
A nice feature I like on this tab is a preset Subtle customization for Window Shadows. I use the subtle shadows as I find it easier to view than with no shadows however, you may choose the Apple default.
The Exclude tab allows adding Applications that the user does not want to be affected by WindowShade X such as Activity Monitor.
I think this haxie is a great feature for all serious Mac users. It really helps uncluttering a desktop by giving you more options than just minimizing to the dock. There are certain apps you may not want to minimize to the dock but Window Shade and keep below your Apple Menu such as your web browser Safari, Firefox, Camino, or Shiira. No, I did not forget about Internet Explorer. I fyou are still using that wonderful piece of buggy software brought to you by the people who also brought you Microsoft Windows please do the following:
1) Go to your Applications folders
2) Locate Internet Explorer
3) Drag to your Trash
4) Empty your Trash
A Blog of an unfinished dream Pursuer
Link-Mmulibra
Mmulibra, posted a blog on Hellodeo I thought I should link to my own blog. The service is quite nifty and a great way to communicate with friends & family.
A Blog of an unfinished dream Pursuer
7/29/06
Moyes jumped at Howard chance
Link-Yanks-Abroad
This seemed like something I should email to my blog. I have watched Howard during his tenure at ManUtd. Sir Alex was quite brutal in taking his #1 shirt and giving it to Van Der Sar just for the soft goals he allowed into the net costing the team their chances at the 2004 Champions League.
Hopefully, becoming goalkeeper #1 for Everton will help Howard enhace his skills and outpace Keller to become the firsthand pick for the USA Mens National Team in 2010.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Email Alert - Yanks Abroad <emailalert@yanks-abroad.com >
Date: 28 Jul 2006 17:15:37 -0000
Subject: Moyes jumped at Howard chance
To: plrbr533@gmail.com
MOYES JUMPED AT HOWARD CHANCE
Everton manager David Moyes has revealed that he worked very quickly to land Tim Howard when the netminder became available from Manchester United this summer.
Read the full story by following the link below:
http://www.yanks-abroad.com/content.php?mode=news&id=002000
--
Joshua Gonzalez
http://softlytroddendreams.blogspot.com
Fedora Core 5 on a Gateway 200 Part II
This is a technical resource for installing Fedora Core 5 on a Gateway 200STM with the Gateway Laptop MD-200STM Port Replicator.
The installation of Fedora Core was successful with only the LCD display could not display the Linux default kernel resolution. See the "Additional files" section for the kickstart, install files, and the lspci files.
There are two issues that were encountered:
1 - Display Mode - does not like Linux default kernel resolution of 720x400
2 - Sleep Mode - will not wakeup
Display Mode
The issue with the video driver is the default LCD display for Linux kernel of 720x400 with a vsync of 70. We needed to connect the laptop to an external monitor via the Port Replicator's analog port and edit the grub file located in the /etc/grub.conf file. The important edit needed was for the VESA video modes in Linux. We change the grub.conf VESA code to vga=0x305 for a resolution of 1024x768 on 256 Colors. For further information on the VESA modes for Linux see below under the "Additional files" section for a snippet on "Optimizing Text-Mode Video" from linux-mag.com.
In order to rectify this issue the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file was edited to display the highest resolution within the GUI of 1024x768 within the "Screen" section of the file. For the Monitor section we changed the VertRefresh from 40.0 - 70.0 to 40.0 - 60.0. This does not change the refresh rate within the GUI but for the boot loader.
We also edited the init tab file and switch to using runlevel 3 (full multiuser mode) in the /etc/inittab.
Sleep Mode
It seems that this may be an issue with certain Gateway Laptop models just as a friend of mine who is using a Gateway MX6128 also has the same issue. Click on the link.
7/28/06
Zidane Headbutt Materazzi rodopia
Link-BBC
Zidane Headbutt Materazzi rodopia
The Infamous ZiZu Materazzi Headbutt.
Look how hard ZiZu headbutts Materazzi that he flips like a coin in the wind.
The Mark Twain House & Museum
from http://www.marktwainhouse.org/:
"Step back to the Gilded Age during guided tours of the 19-room, Tiffany-decorated mansion where Mark Twain raised his family and worked from 1874 to 1891. During this incredibly productive period, Twain created such classics as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."
I visited the Mark Twain House in Hartford CT on May 28th. It was a Sunday and was in CT for the USA Mens National Team vs. the Latvia Mens National Team Intl Soccer game at the Rentschler Field Stadium in East Hartford, CT. The house is a spectacular build of picturesque gothic style in an era where every rich family built a Victorian styled home. Some of the houses on Farmington Avenue show the contrast between Samuel Clemens' home and theirs (homes such as the Harriet Beecher Stowe house located a block away from Mark Twains').
For information on the HBS house click here. 
The tour shows your the entire house with the exceptions of the kitchen (separate 15 minute tour) and the basement (still being remodeled). The house is obviously compartmentalized so that not one party may know the goings on in the other room. Of the best rooms was Clemens' study located in the top floor. This is where he wrote the best novels we have come to enjoy (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court). The study had a small desk, a pool table, and a balcony. When Clemens wrote you could hardly see anything as he smoked cigars and the smoke just billowed in the room.
By far and wide this is a house we all should see and experienced the crazy wackiness of a great American writer.
Cheers.
7/27/06
Mighty Mouse- custom cursors for Mac OS X
Link-MightyMouse
On Unsanity's web site, they state that Mighty Mouse is a haxie that allows Mac users to change their cursors on the fly. An exact quote from Unsanity's website states:
Mighty Mouse allows you to customize your cursors with style - and it does so on the fly, without modifying any system files! Moreover, it allows you to customize all kinds of cursors available in the system - Arrow, I-Beam, Alias, Copy, Move and the Wait cursor. You can animate any cursor and import pre-made ones available at our website. Edit the cursors with the simplicity of copy-paste and drag-and-drop, then hit Apply, and you got it!
With Mighty Mouse, you can:
• Animate any of the system cursors (including the Arrow cursor);
• Use cursors of any size - smaller or larger than the default ones;
• Magnify your existing cursors for easier accessibility;
• Download and import cursors made by other users;
• Create your own cursors and share them with others;
• Instantly import cursors created for Windows XP.
I decided to try out this haxie as a 10 day demo which I eventually purchased. The user can surf to ResExcellence.com or WinCustomize.com for either cursor sets or individual icons such as arrows, wait cursors and others. The haxie is definitely what Apple should integrate into their OS for its users. However, I feel they have thought its users should purchase a $10 license to use this with their Application Enhancer (APE) software (click on the hyperlinked haxie).
The haxie allows you to import and export your own cursor sets. This a great method that allows you to combine certain icons from setA and certain icons from setB cursor sets. The interface allows you to test the cursor sets. You may not like the way the I-Beam reacts on an open document, or maybe the wait icon behaves way to much like a Mac Beach Ball gone mad. It also has a Restore Defaults buttons so you may return to the original OS X cursor set. The wait cursor animation, when highlighted, activates a speed slider so that the user can control the animation, otherwise it may be a good wait icon but it is so fast it is totally annoying. One last thing I like about the Mighty Mouse haxie is the cursor scaling slider. I use a 1.0x magnification although it can be lowered to 0.6x or raised to 5.0x magnification. This is a great tool for the seeing impaired who may wish to have their cursor larger to aid them in using their cursor.
In my humble opinion, this little haxie has behaved wonderfully and is an Unsanity must have for all Mac geeks.
MightyMouse_icon.jpg
MightyMouse_iface.jpg
7/26/06
Eye of God & the Astronomers Urban Legend
Link-Eye_of_God
A friend of mine sent me an email on the Eye of God picture taken form the Hubble Space Telescope from NASA. It is quite a beautiful picture of the Helix Nebula, a planetary nebula created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star.
Catching some search queries from Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=eye%20of%20god) with the search query of eye of god I found quite a few great results including one from urbanlegends.about.com & snopes.com.
I copied a snippet from the snopes.com Google search result. [http://www.snopes.com/photos/space/eyeofgod.asp]
I copied a snippet from the urbanlegends.about.com Google search result. [http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_eye_of_god.htm]
This is one of the great Urban Legends Chain letters where people actually believe NASA will name this the Eye of God. It does look like an eye but it really is what our Sun may look like when it reaches its end life cycle. It is beautiful but quite eerie. The picture was featured on NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day in May of 2003.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030510.html
Fedora Core on a Gateway 200STM
This weekend Gabe Gall and I installed Fedora Core 5 on my Gateway 200STM laptop.
The installation of Fedora Core was successful with only the LCD display could not display the Linux default kernel resolution. See the "Additional files" section for the kickstart, install files, and the lspci files.
There are two issues that were encountered:
1 - Display Mode - does not like Linux default kernel resolution of 720x400
2 - Sleep Mode - will not wakeup
We managed to fix the first issue of the display which I am writing a technical resource for others to know about if they decide to load FC5 on their GW200.
I now have a further non-related issue with my laptop while recompiling the kernel: I have bad blocks that are causing kernel not to recompile.
7/24/06
Treading Softly
Link-Libria
In Equilibrium, the movie, Patridge is the first that clearly sees how wrong Libria is. His dreams are being trodden by the new society and shows a form of rebellion by not taking Prozium. As he begins to feel he starts to realize how beautiful the smallest insignificances make life the joy it is. As he reads William Butler Yeats he finds himself feeling and not caring if anyone finds out he is a sense offender.
I thought it would be a good idea to start my first blog entry with Yeats' poem as it really opens up what really matters in this life: our softly trodden dreams.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams
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