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Last night I saw an article about how Macquarie University's website was hacked.
So I found a security website that had cached a copy of the hacked website, and I saved the HTML into an HTML file in NetBeans so I could re-create the web page to show others.
In the HTML that I saved, there was this reference to some image on the website...
I tried right-clicking on the image to save a local copy, but FireFox didn't allow me to do this.
What I would like to know is, "Is it possible that the URL above is to one of the Hackers servers, and thus maybe carried a dangerous payload that I could have somehow picked up while originally viewing the cached website on this intermediary website, or while viewing the page - and images - again from my local copy?!"
I am on a Mac, but nonetheless, I am sort of regretting doing what I did... :shifty:
P.S. Here is a partial screen-shot from the code I copied and placed into a local HTML file... (I did this mainly because the original was a few pages, and so there was no easy way to do a "screen-shot"...)
From what I can gather, ggpht.com is an image repository used by Picasa and the like. It can't be opened in a browser directly, chrome returns a 404.
The sub-domains lh6 lh5 lh4 etc appear to represent different world regions, according to some info I found. Anyway, bottom line is, I don't think it's a link to anything nasty.
Check for links to any other remote sites, especially in the javascript, if there is any. That's where any malicious stuff is likely to be.
As a footnote, and at the risk of being bombarded by protesting mac users, I don't think being on a mac offers any more protection against malicious code than being on a pc. Just an opinion, based on something I read a while back.
Glad to hear that!
BTW, why can't I right-click and save the two images on that website?
Yeah, that much I know.
I think Macs are safer, but that doesn't mean they are completely free of weaknesses or people who want to hack them.
Normally I am pretty careful about what I save, but I just found the hacking of that website so - in your face!! - that I wanted to keep a copy for myself and to show others how dumb companies and institutions can really be?!
Here's an example
If that is what they did, then is there an easy way around that?
I actually looked in the HTML, and pasted the URL to the photo, and it still wouldn't let me save the photo...
Just disable JS.
Duh! Okay, that did the trick.
Thank you!
(Now let's hope the links to those images and the images themselves are not malware?!)
As far as the image is concerned, I guess you could "save for web", which would probably strip out any nastiness in it ... although I doubt there's any issue with it.
I do find the turning off JS quite funny. I was asked to do a gallery site at one point, and the client was adamant that the pictures had to be protected by one of those JS scripts. She showed me an example site, and it took me less than a second to turn off JS and download the images. Her shoulders sank, and she never asked for this again. :lol:
A slightly more realistic approach to the problem is the one used by this site, for example (not one of mine :)). The first time you right-click, it brings up a copyright warning message, but once you've closed that, the normal right-click functions are restored.
A slightly more realistic approach to the problem is the one used by this site, for example (not one of mine :)). The first time you right-click, it brings up a copyright warning message, but once you've closed that, the normal right-click functions are restored.
I guess that's a better approach, although it doesn't seem people care much these days. Might be better to play on superstitions ... like—"You will be cursed and die in seething agony within the week ... Muahahahaha" sort of thing.
The most effective way I have found for protecting images from being copied via the context menu is to place a transparent image in front of them so that the transparent image is the one that gets copied instead of the real one. By the time they realise they got the wrong images at least some will not bother going back to steal the images a different way - such as by saving the entire page and then copying the images from there.
That's a clever idea. I guess it could easily be automated for a gallery site, too, as manually doing it for every image would be tedious.
One of several reasons why I haven't incorporated JavaScript into my website (as part of the base design)...
It should only eve be an enhancement, rather than a dependancy.
Similar to turning off javascript, wouldn't an underlying image be right-clck-saveable by turning off CSS?
Indeed, just as easy. If the image can be seen, it can be saved ... even if with a screen shot.
Or perhaps "right-clicking again will download a virus which will completely wipe and reformat your hard drive". :D[/ot]
Or perhaps "right-clicking again will download a virus which will completely wipe and reformat your hard drive". :D[/ot]
That's better, of course, because some people would actually believe it.
When I first allowed my router to broadcast a wireless signal, I changed its broadcast name to VirusPortal (or something like that) to dissuade others from trying to use it. In the end, it felt too mean, and I changed it, because I didn't want to freak innocent people who might get worried that their computer was in danger.[/ot]


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My Delight Cosmetics: the Beauty Brand That Believes All Women Are Beautiful
My Delight Cosmetics' models look a lot like the gals we see every day– because they are!
-Diana Denza
Ladies, have you ever admired an airbrushed model's flawlessly rosy cheeks and smoky eyelids only to feel dejected every time your gloss smeared all over your coffee mug? Don't worry: we're just as guilty of spending an extra half hour in front of the mirror trying to get the perfect clump free lashes (it never works).
But the truth is, no matter how hard we all try, nobody is perfect. Not even the models covering the ads in your favorite glossies look picture perfect without a little tool called Photoshop!
But now, My Delight Cosmetics, a new brand on the cosmetics scene, is stepping up to all that airbrushing by only using real women on its website. That's right: if you head over to the company's page, you'll find gals of every age, ethnicity, and size rocking My Delight Cosmetics' glosses and shadows.
"One of our biggest aims is to just use the faces of real women," Kim Jones, the product development manager for My Delight Cosmetics, told us. "That alone makes a huge statement. Many beauty and media companies are afraid to use real women because it messes with their message of aspirational beauty. You know, 'buy this product and look like Salma Hayek.' They think that if they get women to aspire to images that are anything but their own, that will help them sell products. By having the guts to show regular women on our site and in all of our ads, we hope that more companies will follow."
Read How to Look Gorgeous in Five Minutes or Less
And as part of the brand's commitment to natural beauty, it will run a "Real Women, Real Beauty" model search through December 31, 2011 that is open to all women out there –no experience required.
Not only does the brand hire ladies like us for its ads, it has also made an enormous effort to use only the best resources for our skin's health. You won't find any impossible-to-pronounce ingredients here: only natural, vegan materials are used in the making of these products.
"The My Delight Cosmetics concept was developed when the company owner experienced allergic reactions to chemicals found in several of her over-the-counter makeup products," Jones explained. "To avoid future allergic reactions, she began to search for natural cosmetics options. She found a few here and there, but some had strange ingredients or weren't vegan. She figured that she was among a growing population of women in search of natural vegan cosmetics, so she decided to satisfy the need by launching her own brand."
But don't think an extra swipe of mascara and blush will make you gorgeous –just look in the mirror, girl: you're already stunning!
"We offer our products as enhancements to a woman's natural beauty, not as cover ups," Jones said. "Until recently, I didn't know that it was a radical statement to say that all women actually possess their own natural beauty. I sincerely believe that."
Though My Delight Cosmetics already offers a host of beauty bag essentials, it plans to expand the line to include lip products for teenage girls and new gloss shades next year.
With a tube of mascara priced at $15, mineral foundation at $18, and lip glosses at $12, you can start stuffing those stockings with makeup that celebrates all of us!
Diana Denza is a regular contributor to BettyConfidential.

subset: commoncrawl


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SPECTACULAR lightning storms illuminated the night sky across north Essex this weekend.
Here are some of your photos of the storms.
Send your pictures to email@example.com.
Jonathan Dadds took this picture at 3am on Saturday, in the St Mary's area of Colchester.
Glen Hammer Hook got this shot over Abbey Fields on Friday night.
Will Papworth took this picture in Fingringhoe on Friday night.
Katherine Donnelly-Howson's picture from Fordham Heath on Friday night.
Sam Howgego took this great shot of the lightning over Jumbo on Saturday night.
Andy Lee's picture from Colchester on Friday night.
Louise Hinkin took this photo in Halstead on Friday.
Abbi Edwards's shot from Clacton, taken on Friday night.
Tony Cox took this picture in Chappel.


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SAINT LEO, Fla. - The Saint Leo women's soccer team begins its post-season quest for success tonight, beginning with the NCAA Division II women's soccer selection show airing at 7:30 p.m.
The Lions, who concluded their regular season campaign with a record of 15-1-1 before being bounced out of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament by Tampa on Friday, held onto the No. 1 spot in the South Region rankings last week. The Greeen and Gold will look to have the home field advantage thanks to their top regional ranking, but await the selection show for final word on the opening round pairings and locations.
To watch the selection show, visit the NCAA Selection Show page. All live selection shows will be found on the NCAA.com homepage and that sports' front page, as well.
Fans can follow the Lions' 2011 tournament run live at SaintLeoLions.com.


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A Little SpookyRebus brain teasers use words or letters in interesting orientations to represent common phrases.
What famous title is represented here?
close n1
close n2
close n3 <--
AnswerClose Encounters of the Third Kind.
They are close 'n' counters...
ie. n1, n2, n3 are 'n' counters - encounters. And the third one is selected - the third kind.
What Next?
See another brain teaser just like this one...
Or, just get a random brain teaser
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of
which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
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Print this issue
The MBA is proud to present the second annual Bench-Bar Symposium to take place at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston on Thursday, Oct. 11. Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall will deliver her Annual Address to the Legal Community at 2 p.m.
Panel discussions to focus on effective jury communication
Following the address, MBA President David W. White Jr. will moderate two panel discussions on jury communication. Each panel will feature four Superior Court judges and two attorneys. The first panel will focus on pre-trial issues, and the second will concentrate on jury instruction and post-trial contact with jurors.
Panelists include:
Hon. Peter W. Agnes Jr.
Hon. Carol S. Ball
Hon. Margaret R. Hinkle
Hon. Kenneth J. Fishman
Kathy Jo Cook, Esq., Keches & Mallen PC, Taunton
Kathleen M. O'Donnell, Esq., Marcotte Law Firm, Lowell
Andrew M. Perlman, Esq., Suffolk University Law School
Edward P. Ryan Jr., Esq., O'Connor & Ryan PC, Fitchburg
To reserve your space at this free event, R.S.V.P. to membership or call MBA Member Services at (617) 338-0530.


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about Once Upon a Time
Welcome to Storybrooke, a town filled with fairytale characters once cursed by the Evil Queen to live in our world—deprived of their memories and happy endings. Until Emma Swan came to town and changed everything. But even after returning everyone's memories, her mission was far from over. With the curse broken, Mr. Gold was free to bring magic to Storybrooke, and magic always comes with a price.


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Topic: my mum- trouble with diagnosis by biopsy
Hello, I'm new to the site.
My mum was "diagnosed" with cc 3 weeks ago. She went to the doctor because she developed severe jaundice and she was immediately reffered to hospital for tests. Her bilirubin levels were 500 but she has recently had 2 metal stents put in by PTC method. That was a horible experience for her, but her bilirubin levels have now dropped to 240 and are still dropping and she is feeling much better for this, so all in all, the stents have so far been a success.
The doctors have said that they cannot operate on her tumour, due to it being located next to some major blood vessels. However, they propose to start chemo in order to shrink it or at leat keep it at bay. They can't start chemo yet due to the amount of weight she's lost and also due to the fact that her bilirubin levels are still too high, but they want to start it in the next few weeks.
The trouble is, when mum was having her stents put in, a biposy was taken by brush in order to obtain a definite diagnosis of cc and also to grade and stage it. However, the results from the diagnosis came back as undefinitive. The doctor has said that she is 99% sure that it is cc but that the only way of getting a proper diagnosis is by biopsy. At first, she said that they could probably just start chemo without having this "official" diagnosis, however mum's oncologist has said that she needs to have another biopsy by PTC in order to get a diagnosis before starting chemo.
We are all obviously worried about too much time passing before starting chemo, and mum is really dreading having another PTC procedure as she found it quite traumatic the first time.
Has anybody else had any trouble with obtaining a definitive diagnosis by biopsy?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks


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iTunes App Store: Padres Baseball FanMisery Index App for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
How could you possibly be miserable in San Diego ? Didn't think that was possible. But I guess if righty pitcher Simon Castro doesn't deliver the goods from the mound during his MLB debut that could be a bit of a downer. On the other hand, a bid for the World Series could make SD the sunniest place on earth . . .


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Hones Boost Part Capacity, Stroker Torque
Sunnen Products' all-electric HTA hones are designed to increase part capacity and stroker torque in applications such as bore resurfacing of hydraulic actuators, extruder barrels and die casting shot tubes, and manufacture of gas flow meter tubes.
Sunnen's all-electric HTA hones are designed to increase part capacity and stroker torque in applications such as bore resurfacing of hydraulic actuators and extruder barrels and die casting shot tubes. The honing system is available in two models: The HTA-2100 accommodates parts as long as 6.56 ft. (2.1 m), while the HTA-4100 accommodates parts as long as 13.12 ft. (4.1 m). Both models can handle parts weighing as much as 8,000 lbs (3,628.7 kg) with bore IDs measuring 2.5" to 21" (63.5 to 533 mm) and ODs measuring as much as 24" (610 mm). The hone can be custom-configured for parts as long as 65.6 ft. (20 m). A stroker drive gearbox increases stroker torque capability compared the previous model, and the width of the steel-impregnated polyurethane belt also has been increased from 0.9" to 1.9" (22 mm to 50 mm).
The honing system is suited for resurfacing and repair work in which light-duty, 0.030" (0.76 mm) stock removal is needed to oversize deeply scratched bores. An electronically controlled, 3-hp (2.24-kW) AC gear motor powers the spindle at 20 to 300 rpm, while the servo-driven stroking system features ranges in speed from 5 to 90 ft./min. (1.52 to 27.4 m/min.). The all-electric machine eliminates the noise, leaks, valve adjustments and performance variability common to hydraulic systems, the company says.
Also suited for flow-tube weld cleanup, the hone is ergonomically designed with a moveable operator station and a modular workholding system for rapid setups. It features a 55-gallon (208-L) coolant reservoir and paper-media coolant filtration unit for better coolant management. Set on casters for ease of maintenance, the coolant tank tucks under the machine frame to conserve floor space.
The honing system includes Siemens drives and PLC-control with touchscreen HMI for setting all machine parameters, including stroke reversal point, spindle/stroking speeds and crosshatch angle calculation. The control features a digital load meter to determine areas of bore tightness, with capability for dwelling the tool in multiple areas to correct part geometry. It also offers automatic tool tensioning, set through the PLC.
Related Suppliers
New Product
Swiss-Type Lathe with Eight-Station Backworking Unit Provides Flexibility
Technology Corrects Spindles Working Independently
Chip Breakers Suited for Both Rough Machining, Fine Finishing
CNC Enables Simultaneous Machining with Two Tools


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Gloss is red gold case-gloss guidelines is レッドゴールドベゼル-Silver Dial-red gold, Roman and bar index, 12: logo and 3 o'clock position to date and arms around the control to position 6 mm at intervals of width 7 stages buckle part of the possible and screw-logo, back cover logo and serial number
▼ specs
• Size
|Bank Transfer
|We accept Bank transfers. After receiving the order confirmation e-mail, please transfer your payment to the bank account specified in the e-mail.
*All payments are made in Japanese Yen. Please check with your bank for applicable exchange rates.
*If payment by bank transfer is not confirmed within the date indicated in the e-mail, your order will be automatically cancelled.
This product cannot be shipped to United States from the store.
Please contact the store for further information.


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Wet n Wild Color Icon Lipliner Reviews
Long lasting....I love these for their long lasting color. They go on dark but I just don't like how they're so firm. They tend to tug on my lips and sometimes leave behind broken tips. Never going to purchase again even though they last long, I don't enjoy having it tugging and pulling on my lips. — 4 years, 6 months agobeautypoet101 | 581 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 1 people said helpful
Reaction?I think I had an allergic reaction to these - they made my lips itch. I also found them to be a bit firm. — 5 years, 9 months agoTheLacqueredLady | 751 reviews
GreatI use that #666 lip liner and get tons of compliments on it. Stays on for a long time. Cheap price. Great stuff!! Just hate that number of the item. — 9 years, 3 months agomissheatherette | 438 reviews
Wet n Wild Crème Lip Liner PencilI have used this pencil in the color Brandy Wine, #666 for years and it has earned it's way into my train case staple section. For the price, you get a great lip liner that truly lasts and the price, it's fabulous! These pencils are a bargain, and they help stop lip color from bleeding. I freeze it for a few minutes before sharpening and it doesn't break. This particular color is great to use with any lip color. — 9 years agolesa5363 | 352 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 0 of 1 people said helpful
The best lip liner color ever!!!I've used #666 (Brandy Wine) since I started wearing makeup and I will never stop. This color works well on any skin tone, lasts long, and is cheap. What more can I ask for??? — 9 years, 6 months agodarkangel81 | 302 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 4 of 4 people said helpful
Once was....I used to LOVE this lip liner....before I found another product that actually would stay on. WW colors are wonderful, but it's too creamy and within minutes....it's gone. — 6 years, 8 months agoSwoldierGirl72 | 342 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 3 of 4 people said helpful
There's a reason it's on beauty top ten lists!Brandywine (666) is a fantastic as a neutral lip liner. It matches my natural lip color perfectly (most are glaringly obvious), doesn't feather and works well with any shade. It's so neutral it doesn't alter the color of my lipstick nor can anyone tell I am wearing a liner. For 99 cents it's hard not to love it. — 8 years agoradar626 | 326 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 3 people said helpful
Great drugstore itemThe cost is unheard of, and the standard #666 is basically as close as Mac's spice as you can find, in my opinion. The quality isn't outstanding, but if you have to splurge and scrimp, this could be a great substitute if you are on a beauty budget. — 9 years agobeautyguru_24_7 | 284 reviews
Bang for your buckI have this pencil in just about every color. My favorite is the 666. It is a "jazzed up' flesh tone that adds a matte "oomph" to your lips. I have one in every purse. If you put matte lipbalm on under it, you have a sexy, natural look without having to add anything else. As a base coat for lipstick, it gives the color something to grab onto without any dreaded lines of demarcation. All this for 99 cents. One caveat, I have highly pigmented lips. — 7 years, 5 months agocoinma | 175 reviews
Wet N Wild Color Icon Lip ColorThis is the best lip liner and color ever (Brandy Wine 666)! It is a beautiful natural color that can be intensified with heavier application. I use it not as just a liner but to color my lips. I first apply a balm to make my lips smooth and moist, and then roll the pencil sideways over my lips. Then I use my finger to smooth out the color. It makes m lips look full and sexy! And for 99 cents you cannot beat it! — 3 years, 10 months agoDeSadeAngel | 5 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 1 people said helpful
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My Reasons for Reporting This


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Chris Brown's Neck Tattoo Is NOT A Portrait of Rihanna
Or any other battered woman.
Chris Brown's recently-unveiled tattoo is nearly worthy of its own conspiracy theory. Since its debut, the singer's large neck adornment has spurred speculation that the tat could be depicting his former flame, Rihanna, and not in a good way. The seemingly bruised face of a woman on the side of Chris' neck has risen more than a few eyebrows, given his conviction three years ago for assaulting his then-girlfriend. The Women's Blog at The Guardian, for example, describes the tattoo as "sickening" and says that it "sends a terrible message".
Fortunately, Chris has cleared the air and confirmed that the tattoo does not represent Rihanna. The ink was inspired by a sugar skull — a symbol associated with the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration. He tweeted two hours ago, "I'm an artist and this is art. Dia de los Muertos."
Meanwhile, Rihanna has also got a new tattoo — a Goddess of Isis under her breasts in dedication to her grandmother.


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Stymied lineup saddles Ross with hard-luck loss
Righty fans nine, but Padres end first half on sour note
LOS ANGELES -- The confluence of two familiar storylines met on a sun-soaked Sunday at Dodger Stadium, reducing the Padres to repeat many of the same lines they have used over and over in the first three-plus months of the regular season.
Love that pitching, but about that offense …
It happened again Sunday, as the Padres finished the first half of the season with a resounding thud, as they were shut out 1-0 by the Dodgers for the second time in as many days, this time before a crowd of 47,131, who reveled with each passing out.
Pitcher Tyson Ross, who is headed to the All-Star Game, though he won't pitch because he got the start Sunday, limited the Dodgers (54-43) to one run on six hits over seven innings. He walked one and struck out nine. His ERA is 2.85 and the Padres have scored one or fewer runs for him this season nine times.
"He's an All-Star and he pitched like an All-Star all year," said Padres manager Bud Black. "… We're very proud of the way he's pitched. It takes time. Pitchers don't develop overnight. We're proud of him and what he's done."
The consecutive shutout losses to the first-place Dodgers were Nos. 13 and 14 for the Padres, who lead the Major Leagues in that dubious category. They head to baseball's four-day break with a streak of 21 consecutive innings without scoring a run.
The Padres (41-54) nearly broke that streak at the most opportune time; in the ninth inning and with Dodgers' closer Kenley Jansen on the mound.
With one out, Carlos Quentin walked and was replaced by Jace Peterson. Yasmani Grandal pounded a single to right field with Peterson alertly going to third base. Jansen recovered to strike out rookie Jake Goebbert before Black went to his bench for Seth Smith.
Smith, the team's best hitter in the first half, went down on strikes to end the game.
"We had an opportunity," Black said. "That's a tough one. We had an opportunity but couldn't get that big hit."
The Padres have been playing without several regular position players who are on the disabled list -- first baseman Yonder Alonso, second baseman Jedd Gyorko and shortstop Everth Cabrera. Black is hoping to get some of, if not all of those, players back in the second half to help the anemic offense.
Not that even a healthy lineup would have had much luck against Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu (10-5), who allowed two hits with 10 strikeouts over six scoreless innings.
"Obviously, very good today, again," said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly. "Today he was very sharp. I felt location-wise, his breaking ball was good. His curveball was good today. His slider that he's been working on was really good today."
Pitching, to be sure, ruled the day.
"I think these guys are tough," Mattingly said of the Padres. "The guy today, I thought he was filthy. And [Ian] Kennedy yesterday [eight scoreless] was really good. The guys were talking about [Ross'] slider. If you don't get it in the right spot, it's unhittable."
Ross surrendered his lone run in the sixth inning when he allowed a one-out single to Dee Gordon, who then swiped second base. After a walk to Carl Crawford, Yasiel Puig got enough of a slider, lining it into center field for the only run of the game.
"I got a little tired in the sixth and they capitalized on a couple of mistakes. The pitch to Puig was a slider that kind of backed up on me. He's a good hitter," Ross said.
Corey Brock is a reporter for MLB.com. Keep track of @FollowThePadres on Twitter. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Summer Skin and Hair Problems—Solved!
Veronica Webb , 46, model, TV personality
On training for the NYC Marathon in just eight weeks: "When I started, I could barely run three miles. After a month of the Jeff Galloway run-walk-run interval method—a free download for people with injuries or who are late to running—I could do 18 miles. Let me tell you, when you start to run 25 miles a week, you notice a tighter butt."
Celine Dion , 43, singer, performer, diva: star of epic Las Vegas show
On staying "as loose as possible" while performing up to six nights a week: "I start on the stationary bike. Then, I lie on my stomach on a massage table, pushing into my palms or elbows to tone my shoulder blades in order to hold my neck—which is very long—while I sing. My physiotherapist makes sure my spine is aligned and my shoulder blades aren't stuck together."
Body Treatments Then and Now


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Johnson Silver Minnow, 2-1/2"
- This item can only be shipped to U.S. addresses.
Works well in fresh and saltwater
Can be fished in heavy plant cover w/o snagging
Plated with silver or gold for a bright flash
Hand-soldered hook with a no-twist eye
One of the most versatile and successful lures ever made, the Johnson Silver Minnow can be trolled, jigged, or twitched along the bottom and works well in both fresh water and saltwater. This weedless lure can be fished in heavy plant cover without snagging. Thicker in the middle than at the edges, the Silver Minnow's 35° angle rocks the lure back and forth as you retrieve it, yet won't twist line.
Plated with silver or 24-carat gold, the minnow flashes brighter than any chrome or brass lure as it wobbles through the water. This is the go-to lure for anything from bass and northern pike to redfish and speckled trout. Hand-soldered hook with a no-twist eye.


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Weathered Wall Bookrack Large - Grey
- No Longer Available -
Our wall-mounted rack encourages reading by keeping books at eye level, and repurposes each book's cover art into a decorative display.
More Details & Dimensions +
Shown in grey.
Product Not Available
We're sorry. This product is no longer available
Please continue browsing.


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SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - Southfield police said a 33-year-old woman was shot to death early Sunday morning at Myst Lounge nightclub. Nicole Rigg's husband, Leon, says she may have been caught in the crossfire.
Police responded to the shooting around 2:15 a.m.
Sources said the victim was found shot in the head and taken to Beaumont Hospital, but pronounced dead.
Several patrons of the club were kicked out after a fight started inside. Police say some heard mentions of the patrons leaving to retrieve guns and return to the club.
A short while later gun shots were fired from the parking lot into the lounge.
The investigation continues. Anyone with information is asked to contact Southfield Police Department at 248-796-5500.
The Oakland County Medical Examiner says they are waiting on family to positively identify the 33-year-old woman.
Copyright 2013 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text: NACS has launched "We Care… About Your ID," a new program to help members develop preventative measures against ID fraud. The program was introduced during the NACS Show, which runs through Oct. 8 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. More than 22,000 attendees are expected at the event. Central to the security education


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Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp Receives RAISE Award from the National Stroke AssociationNovember 01 2013
Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center is proud to announce Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp received the Outstanding Group Raising Awareness in Stroke Excellence (RAISE) Award from the National Stroke Association.
The annual award recognizes those who are committed to raising stroke awareness on a local and national level. "It is an honor to be selected as the recipient of the RAISE Award out of more than 200 nominees," says Beth Malina, stroke program coordinator of the Saint Elizabeth Stroke Center. Malina has helped coordinate the Lincoln area camp since its inception three years ago.
The Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp was founded by John and Marylee Nunley. After John suffered from a stroke in September 2001, Marylee decided to start a camp that would help stroke survivors, caregiver, and family members enjoy two stress-free days of fun-filled activities. The first camp was held in September 2004 in Peoria, Illinois, and has now grown to 20 camps throughout the United States.
The Lincoln area camp takes place in the summer at the Carol Joy Holling Conference and Retreat Center in Ashland, Nebraska. During the camp, the stroke survivors and their caregivers participate in arts and crafts, camp songs, good food and company, bonfires, games, fishing, boating and hiking.
"With more than 7 million stroke survivors in the United States, the camp is very much needed," says Malina. "It is place for stroke survivors to go to feel normal again. To feel that they can do the things they once did before they suffered from a stroke."
The Lincoln area camp is sponsored by The Lincoln Stroke Partnership -- a collaboration among Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center, Bryan Health and Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital.
It is estimated that only 20 percent of people know the signs and symptoms of a stroke. And with a stroke, every minute counts. To learn more about stroke awareness and prevention, please visit www.saintelizabethonline.com/stroke-center.html.
For more information on the Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp, please visit www.strokecamp.org.
To learn more about the RAISE Award from the National Stroke Association, visit


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Well folks, a new month has come around! it's time to announce our next Member of the Month!
This month, we congratulate deathshadow60 (aka Jason Knight) as the SitePoint Forums' Member of the Month.
Now, if you've followed any of Jason's contributions to the forums, you'll know what a character he is: on the one hand, providing amazing help to those who need assistance with their code, while on the other hand, often having a somewhat—how shall I say it—colorful manner. Jason is to the Court of Code what Judge Judy is to the Court of Law. However, for all his outspoken and sometimes confronting ways, Jason is an incredibly helpful member of the forums, often going out of his way to rewrite people's code for them—offering better service than you'd be likely to get from many a professional web designer.
So for this reason, we decided to use this opportunity to get to know him better and thank him for the help he has provided around the place.
Here is an interview we conducted with Judge Jason recently. (Because it's rather long, some titles have been added.)
Username and Games
Question: You have an interesting username—one that you've used elsewhere on the web. What led you to choosing that name? Is it taken from a computer game?
Jason: From an Anime I watched back in 1982—"My Youth in Arcadia". It was the name of Captain Harlock's original starship. I've actually used that name online all the way back to then over Fidonet, Genie, Compuserve—Yes, I'm THAT Deathshadow (some of you old-timers may remember me on Genie).
Question: You obviously have an abiding interest in computer games—not just in playing them, but in creating them yourself. So what is your interest in games, and what are some of your favorite ones?
Jason: I like games that tell a story—started out with the old text adventures. First computer game I ever played was Raaka-Tu for the TRS-80 Model 1. Nowadays, with all the obsession on graphics, the story is often "lost"—though there are some real gems. "The Witcher", "Dragon Age", and "Mass Effect" come to mind.
My all-time favorite game series is "Thief"—or should I say the first two … The third one was complete unplayable trash, and the upcoming "Thiaf" (THI4F?!?) looks to be a total disaster, doing everything the fans complained about in 3 … but that's what you get when everything is dumbed down now for console gamers. PC gaming is dying a slow death—they want to blame pirates for it. BULLCOOKIES; it's that many of the big name games aren't even WORTH money anymore.
The road to web development
Question: On your website you mention that you are a retired software engineer, with two and a half decades' experience in electronics, software development and graphic arts, among other things. What is your background in computing, and how did you come to be involved in the area of web development?
Jason: Well, I've been using computers for a decade more than that, and spent most of my time with computers in the 80s and 90s writing database software (using DiBol, Clipper, Paradox). When the Internet started to gain traction, I started playing with Netscape Composer ( * hangs head in shame * ) and almost immediately realized the markup it made was redundant garbage. Since I already had two decades of programming under my belt—a decade of that working professionally—I recognized very early on that WYSIWYGS are complete trash.
I didn't really get serious about web development until after a bit of a medical incident where my diabetic seizures were misdiagnosed as neurological, so they doped me into a vegetable on anti-depressants and anti-epileptics—much of which contributed to my health problems today. When I finally got off the wrong meds, my life was in the toilet, and I needed a way to get myself working enough to supplement my disability until the lawsuit was settled—after a two year gap in employment thanks to those meds and my prior employer being … ME.
I started out dipping into my savings to get a 5mpbs symmetric connect and doing simple hosting out of my apartment … but didn't do more than dabble in web development itself. It wasn't until an acquaintance who had turned his fan website into the official page for the miniatures game "BattleTech" (a game I've played since the mid 80s) asked me to help get the site usable and cost-effective that I really dug into web design.
When I took over as head admin of classicbattletech.com in 2002, the site's home page had been built in this horrible WYSIWYG called "HotMetal" (the home page was in excess of a megabyte through the use of images AND sloppy code). It was 200k of markup on a page that has less than 1k of plaintext! Remember, we're talking 2002—decidedly still when most people were on dial-up.
Cleaning that up taught me a lot more about HTML/CSS—and as a rookie, I made my share of mistakes. I built my first rewrite in DHTML, which gutted the size of the pages, but of course was an accessibility /FAIL/. As someone who knew programming in other languages, I thought Dynamic Drive was the hottest thing since Jessica Alba … when truth is, using JavaScript in that manner is more akin to Bea Arthur.
It went through almost yearly incarnations the first four years. We kept getting kicked off hosts for excessive bandwidth use, and it wasn't until I finally found a hosting provider that had dedicated servers our budget could afford that things started to turn around. Then the relaunch—with the appearance matching the newly launched sourcebooks—is where the first signs of my "modern" approach to coding began to show.
Though the five- or six-year-old site code running there currently is disastrous by my standards of today, which is why a rewrite is in the works once they pony up the resources to cover the expense. You can look what's there now and see all sorts of rookie mistakes that I need to go back through and fix … SOON. I've got a prototype template, but it's also getting a more secure back end code.
If you think I'm harsh on other people's work, you should hear what I say about my own … but we all had to start somewhere.
From there I got a bunch of state agencies and local businesses as clients, as well as a few that Dan passed on to me as being outside his scope. (He was strictly front-end; I'm jack of all trades.)
On Forum posting and Dan Schulz
Question: You spend a lot of time answering questions in the forums. What brought you here, and what keeps you here? What motivates you to write such long answers, and virtually to rebuild whole sites for people?
Jason: I was actually introduced to SitePoint by Dan Schulz … and in a lot of ways his willingness to help people with no expectation of monetary gain mirrored my own view on things. If I can spend an hour or two a day helping other people, I will. That's just who I am, always have been.
As to "long answers", I often find short posts annoying, since they rarely explain things well enough. The more you explain, the better the odds are people will understand. I also have this weird problem that really short posts on forums often end up invisible to me—don't know why, but it happens.
The rebuilds really aren't that much work. I realize a lot of people think of markup and CSS as a day or even week long project, when, for most layouts people have, it really shouldn't take more than 5 minutes for the HTML, 15 minutes for the CSS, maybe another 15 minutes of screwing around with IE if the layout is doing something stupid you are probably better off not having on the page in the first place; then 10-20 minutes of playing with the images you hang on that layout. Again, if I can set aside an hour to help someone or show them a better way of doing things, I'll do it. It's just how I'm wired.
If you look at my posting history, you'll notice it looks like I post around the clock. I'm willing to bet, if you graphed it, the graph would be flat. This is because, amongst my many health issues, I have non-24 sleep wake syndrome. My body REFUSES to accept that a day is 24 hours long; for me, it's 26 hours. If I try to maintain a 24 hour day I get the equivalent of jet lag, followed by insomnia, followed by blackouts. It's just part of why I'm on doctor's orders now not to work, and why I have difficulty committing to any projects that have a fixed deadline—though the medication induced parkinsonism, thanks to quackery, is much more of an issue.
Question: You clearly gained a lot from your association with Dan Schulz—an honored member of these forums who sadly passed away in 2009. What did you learn from him, and what is his lasting legacy from your point of view?
Jason: My history with Dan is an interesting one. We met through that Miniatures game I mentioned earlier—BattleTech. He was struggling to put together a "faction" page for "House Marik" using Dreamweaver and hosting on Geocities at the time (2002ish)—a double whammy for /FAIL/. I helped him clean up his DW code, got him to stop using DW, and gave him cheap hosting on the server I was running out of my apartment at the time.
I helped him as much as I did because I saw a lot of potential. I taught him the basics of code efficiency and good coding practices. He came back at me three years later showing me HTML that made me feel like a rank amateur. The apprentice had become the master. I'm the one who introduced him to clean, minimalist code and good coding practices; he's the one who introduced me to Semantic Markup and the concept of "Separation of Presentation from Content". I went to him whenever I had a semantics question; he came to me whenever he had something that needed a complex CSS solution and things like image recombination and optimization.
The stuff we did together—he ghost-wrote much of mine, I ghost-wrote much of his … We both were wired to just help others, which made us more than able to work well together.
When he passed, we were working on a website about semantic markup and modern coding practices—and taking a dump all over HTML 5 as pointless bloat. Unfortunately, I think he was the driving force behind that project as it's languished on the back burner since his passing.
I kind of weep for his legacy though. He often told me he felt like Sisyphus so far as good HTML was concerned … and a lot of things done "in his memory"—like the memorial page—do more to piss on his ashes than they do to remember what he was about. There's also the personal behind the scenes stuff that I really shouldn't go into detail on, that make pages like that one outright offensive.
On Accessibility
Question: A few times you've mentioned that you have somewhat impaired vision. Has this contributed to your interest in accessibility? What are your thoughts on the state of accessibility on the web, and how important a topic is this? (There was a temptation to write this question in light gray, 9px font, but we resisted!)
Jason: I am legally blind—that doesn't mean I can't see. With my glasses I can see everything inside 10 feet clear as a bell, and I could tell you to within a yard how far away a car is a quarter mile down the road. I just can't read street signs more than 15 feet away.
As such, my vision does not effect my computer use—BUT, I've been using the large fonts/120 dpi setting in windows since it was released for the IBM 8514 on Windows 3.0. Back before we had font-smoothing technology, it was the best solution to jaggies. Instead of running a 14" display at 800x600, you ran it at 1024x768 with large fonts on. The text ends up the same size, but with a higher pixel density.
Even on a 24" display at a reasonable one yard viewing distance, 1920x1200 makes the text too small: you could only use it if your head is plastered 12" from the display—which I've watched people do.
Because I like that setting, I've been aware of its effect on web pages longer than most. Hell, most people have never even heard the term "system metric". Even some web browser coders (like the jokers making Webkit) think (and I quote) "All browsers think pages are 96dpi"—a laughable statement at best, pathetic at worst.
The thing about accessibility is that if you cut through all the nonsense, it's remarkably simple if you are practicing semantic markup. Same goes for SEO. On the non-visual side, semantic markup is the beginning and end of the story—PERIOD!!! Visually, is it really that hard to say "try to use %/EM for everything? When you are FORCED to use px, due to an image interaction, consider 12px minimum size and 14px or larger the ideal. Don't use serif fonts on screen: those are for print. Don't design crappy fixed width layouts, and don't use color contrasts that are illegible. Is that really so hard?!?
It's even more pathetic when you say that to people and they answer Yes, or disagree with the very notions of any of it. But, of course, the majority of developers out there continue to sleaze out pages any old way—hence why so much of the web is still in transition from 1997 to 1998.
New web technologies and advice for developers
Question: You are quite outspoken on a lot of current developments on the web, such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript libraries like jQuery, microformats and the like—whether because they are being used prematurely or because they are just bad technology. What do you see as the future of the web, and what do you have against these new technologies? Do they offer anything useful? How do you think the web could be better served?
Jason: Much of it is indeed just bad technologies setting things back a decade and undoing all the progress of STRICT. HTML 5 in particular appears to me to be HTML 3.2 with a lip service doctype. It's absurdly loose on allowable code—just mix and match any styles you want. But worse are the new tags, 98% or so of which are either pointless or redundant.
HTML 4 strict deprecated a lot of tags—not because they were "presentational", but because they were redundant to other tags. MENU and DIR, for example, were dropped in favor of UL. EMBED was rejected from being officially adopted, and the APPLET tag and BGSOUND attribute were dropped in favor of OBJECT. Even IMG was supposed to be on the chopping block (and probably would have gone the way of the dodo if IE hadn't dragged its feet on making object work right). The idea was to make it modular, so that as new and better file formats are introduced, they could be added and removed to all browsers using plugins.
But now, of course, plugins are evil and each browser maker gets to embed their favorite pet codec into the browser code—bloating out the code when it's not in use and preventing you from using the VIDEO or AUDIO tags in codecs the users browser doesn't support; or worse, having to store your data in four or five different formats.
VIDEO and AUDIO are redundant to OBJECT—and don't give me that lame "it's too hard to code it for one tag" nonsense you get out of the Mozilla devs. Is a SWITCH/CASE, BTREE condition or even run-length test really so hard by mime-type? Of course, what can one expect from browser coders whose alpha-blending engine makes background-gradient unusable. LOVE that 100% of once CPU core just trying to scroll a page with a CSS3 gradient, or the two second mouse-over delay if you try to use text-shadow on hovers.
Others are just pointless bloat and goofy "gee ain't it neat" bling (see 90% of what jQuery is used for). It's even more pathetic when you see sites relying on multiple libraries with 200 or 300k of scripting for a couple of goofy animations that would be 2k of scripting without the libraries or shouldn't even be wasting the users' time on the page in the first place!
It's kind of sad: much of the jQuery and other frameworks' nonsense not only bloats out pages for nothing—not only throwing accessibility completely in the trash, but they're the modern equivalent to auto-playing midi music, animated gif backgrounds, comic-sans for everything, framesets, splash pages, and the dozen other 90s idiocies we all laugh at today.
Question: What is your advice for budding developers who want to do the right thing on the web?
Jason: The biggest thing to remember is you are building a page to deliver content to the user. As such, anything that gets in the way of that—stupid animations, giant banners pushing content clear off the screen, illegible fonts, non-scaleable fonts, pages measuring the megabytes in size—just don't do it!
CONTENT FIRST: it should be a rally cry.
I also say keep your sizes in mind. I'm in the process of revising my "style guide" and "page guidelines"—something I suggest all coders develop and follow. Outline not just how you are going to format your code, but also set limits. I have this formula I always fall back on (newly revised to cover some changes to what goes into HEAD):
5k + 1.5 * content size + 200 bytes per content "object".
Content size being just the plain text version of the page with no tags, an "object" being all the things object was supposed to replace (object, embed, applet, image). So, for example, if you have 6k of plain text and five content images (as opposed to presentational images, which don't belong in the HTML!) there is little good excuse for the HTML of that page to be more than 15k. If you exceed that estimate by more than 50%, it is likely your HTML is total useless bloated pointless rubbish.
I also highly suggest setting realistic size limits for pages (HTML+CSS+IMAGES+SCRIPTS). As a rule, the past six years I've set 70k as my ideal total size for a page, with 140k the upper limit. I am considering increasing my target size to reflect the bandwidth increases to a whopping 80/160.
It's not just worrying about people with lesser bandwidth that page size affects either; it's also about hosting costs. A page that's only 100k can serve ten times as many people as a megabyte sized page. It's also about the number of files; more separate files takes longer to download, so learn techniques like sprite optimizations.
And if anyone tells you to use IE conditionals for CSS, they are packing you so full of sand you could change your name to Sahara.
'Cruel to be kind'
Question: You clearly have a love of clean, semantic code, free of unnecessary bloat; and you passionately champion this cause in these forums. However, you know that your often brusque manner sometimes offends people. You've said a number of times that your aim is not to offend but to educate; yet a message can often be lost in the delivery. So have you considered softening your tone for the sake of the message? And do you carry the same manner into other facets of your life, or is thus just your 'online personality'?
Jason: I still don't get where people even get upset with my comments. Patton said it better than I ever could:
When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can't run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn't fight it's way out of a piss-soaked paper bag.
As for the types of comments I make, sometimes I just, by God, get carried away with my own eloquence.
My manner of speech is entirely consistent with the speech patterns I am used to dealing with in business. Something sucks, you say it sucks, you say why it sucks, and preferably you do so before it's unleashed on a customer; and if the customer is making unrealistic demands, or doing things that go against your knowledge of the subject, you ask them "What the blazes did you even hire me for then?"
Though a lot of times I just suspect the "employee" mentality: keep your head down, don't ever say anything negative, doing as little work as possible to collect that paycheck at the end of the week—basically the people who will end up doing work for someone else their entire life. I've been pretty much on my own since age 14; I've owned my own successful business, and even now on doctor's orders, I can't just sit here doing nothing.
It's like the people I've talked to online who think Simon Cowell or Gordon Ramsey are pompous asses—when frankly, they behave like every successful businessman I've ever known. Gordon in particular has that no-nonsense, brass tacks attitude which is the difference between failure and success. And if nothing else, meaningless, facetious platitudes that slap the rose coloured glasses on people's heads to lead them down the garden path does nothing to help anyone!
On computers and OSes
Question: You've expressed—how to put it delicately—a certain disrespect for Mac computers. You've also mentioned that you primarily use Windows. The forums' resident cat wanted to know when you are "going to get a real OS?"* What do you have against Macs? And why do you (of all people) tolerate Windows? [* Editorial note: the 'real OS' was Linux, but that wasn't made clear by Ralph's phrasing of the question.]
Jason: I think what annoys Mac users the most is that when I ran my own whitebox shop, I was the shop's certified Mac tech, and I've owned G3s and G4s, and I've got a Atom 330 powered hackintosh (sitting in a Apple IIe+ case) out in the garage. So I know exactly where to stick the knife and twist.
On the hardware front, they are some of the most rinky cheap poorly designed stuff on the market. I cannot fathom how people can use the words "Quality" and "Apple" in the same sentence—without words like "lack therein" or "not"! The artform over function design cripples the usefulness of their hardware. Especially since Apple wouldn't know cooling if it stripped naked, painted itself purple and hopped up on a table to sing "Oh look at what a big cooling fan I am".
On the software side, I have fewer unkind words. I still say apple has the BEST installation/removal of software of any OS and its true native support for ASIO is great on the audio-front … but it's based on such an old BSD that 20 year old vulnerabilites are STILL unpatched. There's a reason OSX has been first to fall at the past four PWN2OWN competitions. In terms of security, they have been sleazing by on obscurity and at the code level are a billion times more vulnerable than unpatched versions of XP from a decade ago.
And that's before we talk the lack of ability to customize the user interface, how if you do go in and force the fonts larger it breaks half the applications, how cute toys like Expose and the dock are useless for true multitasking control.
It's not a matter of tolerating Windows: it's the only OS that does what I want done in a desktop OS! To be brutally frank, Windows7 blows OSX out of the water. It also helps that I can customize anything—part of why I use Opera as well … built in ability to truly customize. I want my taskbar in portrait on my right 1024x1280 pivot display using half the screen width, I just DO IT. Drag, drag, lock... DONE. I want larger fonts, Windows has had that support built in since Window 3.0. I can stil get a MEANINGFUL file tree out of Win7 speeding up things, it's easy enough to add or remove "open in ___" to context menus, context menus are actually useful.
On hobbies and music
Question: You mention on your website that your hobbies include saxophone, electronic wind instruments, carving and drawing. Would you like to tell us anything about these hobbies, and how you find time for them?
Jason: Well, I have a lot more time now that I'm retired, even with the "maintenance" I have to do because of my health. I'm biking 20 miles a day, and have become something of a local bike guru, doing simple repairs and upgrades out of my garage.
I practice the EWI (electronic wind instrument) two hours every night, (right before I read my required two pages of php.net that I read every night). Every other weekend (more often if the mood strikes me) I go busking (street performing) dragging my EWI, a netbook and my Roland Cube Street downtown. The EWI USB I have requires a computer, and the netbook gives me about four hours battery time. The Cube Street is a fairly powerful battery powered amp that gives me about 9 hours per charge. On average, I don't do too badly either: I usually play for two or three hours at a local square, taking in around $80 on a slow weekend and around the holidays pulling in $300 or more. I actually took in over a grand in two hours back in November on Black Friday.
I even made a website about the EWI, Home - EWI USB. Sometime I should get a friend to videotape me so I can put a video online.
My art I don't work on as much as I'd like, but it's something fun to do as a distraction. If you are working on a code problem or mechanical problem, sometimes you hit up against a wall and can't think of the solution. Get up, go do something else you enjoy—my drawing and my carving miniatures is that distraction.
For those of you interested, I've got some pics up on my Opera blog of stuff I'v drawn, designed in 3d, and miniatures I've carved and others I've just painted: http://my.opera.com/deathshadow/albums/
Though it's funny … back end coding can often be frustrating and hit up against obstacles. My coming here and doing rewrites is also a fun distraction. HTML and CSS for layout is simple and easy once you know a few tricks and understand semantics. For me, those are fun distractions from the slightly less fun PHP/SQL.
I should probably just open up a PSD-to-code conversion service, since it barely takes me an hour for most layouts to do it. I just hate working from PSDs in the first place, as drawing some goofy picture before you have the markup of actual content is putting the cart before the horse. Content should dictate the layout, not the other way around!
Question: What sorts of music do you like to listen to? Likewise, do you have any favorite books? What are you listening to and reading at the moment?
Jason: Anything with a hard driving beat I'll listen to. In school I was a metalhead. No soft-glam rock like Def Leppard and Bon Jovi for me: I was listening to Motorhead, Biohazard, Posessed …
But I also come from a family of musicians. On my mother's side of the family, everyone plays guitar and accordion; on my father's side, my grandmother was a classically trained jazz and opera singer. As a saxophonist, I have a love of jazz, though my tastes run more towards the fusion from the likes of Steps Ahead or St. Germain than the classical "Swing" type stuff. Blues and Texas Rock are also in my blood, since my favorite band is "Omar and the Howlers".
I also have a weakness for novelty music—bands like In Extremo, for example, which do middle ages songs in dead languages with a mix of period and modern instruments as metal tunes. Also Hayseed Dixie, performing rock and metal as Bluegrass (started out as a AC/DC cover band), and MC Hawkings for some excellent Nerdcore Rap.
I have no tolerance for whiney annoying—what a music teacher I once had called "non-committal" music. When the vocalist cannot sing, and you have nothing but twinkly little noises in the background leaving the musician in me waiting for the song to actually start, that's bad. In that way, 99% of today's pop is meaningless garbage; but that's pop for you in a land where most of the population is stone cold tone-deaf. To give you a simple comparison: I like Lisa Kelly, and I have no use for Celine. I like CCR, I have no use for the Eagles. I like PUSA, I have no use for Green Day. I like Dead Milkmen, I have no use for Depeche Mode.
New projects in the offing
Question: It's the privilege of the Member of the Month to promote a website, good cause or any other pet interests. So fire away if there's anything you'd like us to know about.
Jason: Well, I've started writing new games for DOS, with the original IBM 5150 as my minimum target system. It's just a fun challenge to try to work inside such limited hardware. I'm writing these games using an undocumented CGA mode that tricks 80x25 text mode into behaving as a 160x100 16 color mode—which works out well for porting many games from other platforms like the Atari 800, since its PMODE 4 was 160x96 … and I'd rather have the full color palette than be restricted to the 4 colors the cga's normal 320x200 graphics mode is limited to.
The first game is a Pac Man ripoff. It runs DOS native, but will NOT work in a windows command line window due to the unusual graphics mode. It does however run flawlessly under dosbox, the included readme.html giving the recommended instructions. The best sound for it is actually the old CM/S (precursor to the soundblaster before they added adlib support) or Tandy/PCJr sound … though the PC speaker isn't as bad as other games. (It's still bad!)
Unlike most of the old games that use said video mode, it also is not tied to the CGA hardware and should work on pretty much any EGA or VGA card. On some it works perfectly, some cards need the /SAFE command line switch which isn't perfect, but is at least guaranteed to run. (It all hinges on the capabilities of the CRTC chip used in the card.)
My blog entries about it are here: Jason Knight - Deathshadow's Madness - Posts tagged by "paku".
RGB Classic Games has put a copy online using a java version of DosBox: RGB Classic Games - Play Paku Paku Online
I'm in the process of writing a second game that's going to be a mashup of the old DOS "moonbugs" with the TRS-80 Model 1's "Defense Command". Still hammering out a lot of details on that. So far I have the base engine and the sprites; it's just a matter of enemy AI and player movement controls.
Also, I'm still plucking away at my CMS that when complete will be released to the public, though I'm still trying to figure out how I want to license it. Right now I'm working on user account management for it. I'm dotting every t and crossing every i when it comes to security on it, building it in PDO with prepared queries stored in an array. The use of the indexed query arrays means that you can just rewrite the queries as needed for each possible SQL target. Keeping said queries private and locked inside my PDO object extension, and rewriting PDO:: prepare/query/exec to only work with the array locks things down pretty tight.
No idea when that will be finished, though. It's done when it's done.
As a teaser, I do have a screencap of its current status: http://www.cutcodedown.com/images/paladinCMS.png
Doesn't look like much yet, but there's a LOT going on under the hood. When/if I finish it, I plan to plug all the content Dan and I had been working on together into it to launch "cutCodeDown" properly.
A preview of some of that content can be found here: Index of /tutorials
Ralph: Well, Jason, thanks for participating in this really interesting interview, and thanks again for helping out in the forums. Best of luck with those projects!
OK everyone, it's your turn to offer your congratulations to Jason on his award.
Congratulations Jason
Whew, quite a read. Both in depth and interest.
Odd to see "Tandy", I thought I was about the only one to have ever messed with it. It was back when my "Color Computer" became too limited that my interest in writing code and working with OS-s started (way back before VB got the V).
You certainly keep yourself busy having fun, it's a good thing when one enjoys their work and work at their enjoyments.
Congratulations! :tup:
Hahahaha, awesome. Did you ever think this day would come, Crusty? Lawlz.
...and congrats, even if you do stick with that lesser OS
One of the best interviews we've had lately.
Jason, remember the old DOS game Starflight? My personal favorite!
Outspoken as usual Jason but a very interesting read.
Good Interview Ralph
Congrats Jason
The Coco was my THIRD TRS-80, I got one about a year after my old man upped us from a Model 1 to a Model III.
I recently picked up a STACK of them and have been upgrading them as far as they'll go and selling them off, keeping one for myself.
Jason Knight - Blast from the past
The one I'm keeping for myself -- Rev. NC board, coco 2 full size keyboard.
[url=http://www.cutcodedown.com/cocoProject/images/finalCoco1.jpg][img]http://www.cutcodedown.com/cocoProject/images/finalCoco1_thumb.jpg[/img]Click for larger view 1024x768 142k
I've also got a Tandy 1000 collection going -- also cleaning 'em up and turning 'em around -- keeping one for myself. The ones I have are all the same form factor as the coco; The HX and EX models. They've made a great testbed for not only the T1K platform, but the PC Jr. since the two machines have a lot of similarities (basically same enhanced video and audio).
Ah, keyboards you can actually pound on and not worry about breaking some plastic layer underneath...
Someone should make a laptop with like a real keyboard attached. I keep breaking mine.
I'd love to see a laptop that used Cherry Switches -- or even better buckling springs like my Model M.
Oh gawd I grew up on that!! (the model M on an IBM 486Clone machine) Yes, I want that, on my laptop.
Though in school I got used to the even heavier pounding of the IBM electric typewriters. Those were so... satisfying. Great for writing rants.
When I was at school years ago it was Acorn Archimedes computers that were used. I had a A3010, which never had a hard drive so it got a little tedious playing some games where you had to swap disks everytime you changed level in some games.
Disk? Bah! Spoiled whippersnapper! Tape was the only way to go
Congrats DS! (I cut my computer teeth on the Coco II, so that image was almost nostalgic...)
Rookie... Tape? Hah... I entered code eight bits at a time using toggle switches and a momentary button.
My first computer was a home build Cosmac Elf. I couldn't even afford the eight segment LED's so I had it output the values in binary with eight LED's instead of hex.
Was real fun hand-assembling my code into machine language on graph paper then entering it bit at a time. Probably why today code like this:
procedure buffer_copySourceDest8x8(x,y:byte); assembler;
mov ah,y
xor al,al
shr ax,1 { =y*128 }
mov bx,ax
shr ax,1
shr ax,1 { =y*32 }
add bx,ax { 32+128 = 160 }
shr bx,1 { =y*80! }
mov al,x
xor ah,ah
shr ax,1
add bx,ax { bx now holds starting offset }
les di,destBuffer
mov dx,ds
lds si,sourceBuffer
add di,bx
add si,bx
mov bx,$004C
mov cx,8
add si,bx
add di,bx
loop @loop
mov ds,dx
Seems easy to me.
All I had was an abacus and 2 sticks to rub together
Luxury! We lived in the middle of the road, in a box, with only stones to … nah, forget it.
Funny you should say that, my very first computer was a ZX Spectrum.


text:
A project such as painting is a simple way to help boost your home's value. Angie's List asked highly rated painting contractors to weigh in on interior painting.
- Colors: Simply thinking about what color would look best on a wall isn't enough to ensure a positive paint job. Choosing the right color involves looking at an interior space with a very critical eye. Look through color catalogues and paint samples.
- Finish: Once you've picked the perfect color, you still have to decide on what type of paint you want for the space. Whether you're looking for an elegant, refined finish or a material that will wipe clean after an impromptu mural from your little one, there are paint types to suite every situation.
- Flat-finish: Good for covering up mistakes, and is therefore ideal for large areas like walls.
- Satin finish: Has more luster and is more durable, so it is ideal for high-traffic areas like hallway walls.
- Semi-gloss finish: More durable, shiny and water resistant, making it ideal for areas like bathrooms.
- Gloss finish: The most durable and water resistant, but it also is the most likely to show brush strokes. Glossy finish is usually more appropriate for surfaces like trim and door frames that take a lot of abuse.
- Prep work: Before you start to paint, it's important to properly prepare the walls for painting. Fix any imperfection to ensure your painting job holds up well.
Painting is one home improvement task many homeowners can do and do well. However, there are several reasons that it might be a good idea to hire a professional interior painter – experience, tools and responsibility.
Angie's List Tips: Hiring a painter
- Experience: How long has the contractor been in business? This trade can have high turnover. Make sure you hire someone who has been operating for two years or longer. Also, do they keep up on the latest products and techniques?
- Employees vs. subs: Does the contractor have employees? If so, are they direct employees, meaning they receive a paycheck from the contractor, or are they considered subcontractors? If they are direct employees, the contractor's workers' compensation and general liability insurance policies should cover them. If they are subcontractors, they should have their own insurance policies. Either way, the contractor should give you a copy of proof of insurance both for their business and any subcontractors, if necessary.
- Licensing: Does the painting contractor have a state-issued license, general liability insurance and workers' compensation insurance? It is absolutely critical that the contractor has all necessary insurance and licenses. A reputable, licensed and insured contractor will have all the proper documents. Remember, it protects them and any workers they may have on site, as well as you and your home.
- Prep work: What kind of preparation work does the contractor do? A cheaper job will skimp on the prep work to cut corners. A good painting contractor will take the time to do everything that should be done, what they have stated they will do and what you both agreed would be done. The workmanship will show in the end, good or bad.
- Call references: Can your contractor provide them? Call references and ask questions about how the company worked, communicated and addressed the homeowners' needs.
- Get a formal estimate: Make sure the contractor puts the scope of the project, materials they will use and amount of prep work in a written contract, not on the back of business card or a haphazardly drawn-up dollar figure on a piece of paper. A professional painting contractor provides their clients with written contracts and specifications.
- Is there a guarantee? Besides the guarantee offered on the products by the paint manufacturers, most reputable painting contractors will offer a warranty on the application/preparation process. Get it in writing.
- Cost: There are many factors to consider when getting an estimate such as number of coats, square footage, prep work, etc. Get three bids and compare apples to apples.
- Contract: Review contract details before signing on the dotted line. A good contract will include the type of finishes and colors as well as the number of coats and the pricing for additional coats. Quality products are key so be sure your contractor is using what you want.
Copyright 2014 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
Embedthis Appweb is a fast, little embedded Web server. It is unmatched in efficiency and serves pages at native speed, using an event-driven, non-blocking core to serve multiple requests using minimal resources. It has integrated caching and the ESP "C" Web framework. Without compromising performance, it has extensive security controls and a rigorous security sandbox that helps protect the server and mitigate denial-of-service attacks. It is one of the most widely deployed embedded Web servers and is used in networking equipment, telephony, mobile devices, industrial control, and consumer and office equipment, and in high-performance Web services.
Stendhal is a multiplayer online adventure game (MMORPG) developed using the Arianne game development system. It features a rich and expanding world in which you can explore towns, buildings, plains, caves, and dungeons. You will meet NPCs and acquire tasks and quests for valuable experience and cold hard cash. Your character will develop and grow, and with each new level up become stronger and better. With the money you acquire, you can buy new items and improve your armour and weapons. You can also roam the world in search of evil monsters (and kill them).
Fotoxx navigates an image collection using a thumbnail browser to choose images to view or edit. Edit functions include brightness, contrast, color, gamma, white balance, tone mapping, red eyes, sharpen, blur, noise suppression, smart erase, trim (crop), resize, rotate, add text, bend/warp, many art effects, HDR, HDF, stack, and panorama. Edit functions use movable curves and sliders. Feedback is live using the whole image. RAW files can be edited and saved with deep color. Areas or objects can be selected using freehand draw, follow edge, and tone matching. Selections can be edited in place with adjustable blending. They can also be cut and pasted into other images. Any metadata can be edited, reported, and searched (filenames, tags, dates, geotags, comments, captions, ratings, etc.). Collections (arbitrary subsets) can be defined and viewed. Batch functions are available for rename, resize/export, RAW conversion, and more.
Eric is a full featured Python and Ruby editor and IDE, written in Python. It is based on the cross platform Qt GUI toolkit, integrating the highly flexible Scintilla editor control. It is designed to be usable as an everyday quick and dirty editor as well as being usable as a professional project management tool, integrating many advanced features that Python offers the professional coder. Eric includes a plug-in system, which allows easy extension of the IDE functionality with plug-ins downloadable from the net. Current stable versions are Eric4 based on Qt4 and Python 2 and Eric5 based on Python 3 and Qt4.
The Parted Magic OS employs core programs from GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease, while featuring other useful programs including Partition Image, TestDisk, fdisk, sfdisk, dd, and ddrescue and an excellent set of documentation to benefit the user. An extensive collection of fileystem tools are also included, and the following filesystems are supported: ext2, ext3, ext4, FAT16, FAT32, HFS, HFS+, JFS, Linux-swap, NTFS, ReiserRS, reiser4, and XFS. It loads completely to system memory and requires at least 256MB of RAM to operate.
Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware is a full-featured, Web-based, multilingual, tightly integrated, all-in-one wiki, CMS, and groupware. Tiki can be used to create all kinds of Web applications, sites, portals, knowledge bases, intranets, and extranets. Tiki offers a very large number of features "out-of-the-box". It is highly configurable and modular. All features are optional and administered via a Web-based interface. Major features include a robust wiki engine, news articles, discussion forums, newsletters, blogs, file and image galleries, bug and issue trackers, a link directory, polls/surveys and quizzes, FAQs, a banner management system, calendar, maps, mobile access, RSS feeds, a category system, tags, an advanced themeing engine (Smarty), spreadsheet, live support, shoutbox, inter-user messaging, menu generator, advanced permission system for users and groups, internal search engine, external authentication support, and more. It was formerly named TikiWiki.
Recoll is a personal full text desktop search tool based on Xapian. It provides an easy to use, feature-rich, easy administration interface with a Qt-based GUI. Text, HTML, PDF, PostScript, MS Word, OpenOffice, Wordperfect, KWord, Abiword, maildir, and mailbox mail folder formats are supported, along with their compressed versions and quite a few others. Powerful query facilities are provided. Multiple character sets are supported, and internal processing and storage uses Unicode UTF-8. Stemming is performed at query time and the stemming language can be switched after indexing.
A Web resource optimizer for Java.
A Wordpress plugin that lets users draw using basic options.


text:
Excerpt from Mr. Adnan Oktar's Live Conversation on A9 TV dated January 7th, 2012
ADNAN OKTAR: "My question is; is donating our organs after we die a sin? Or is it not?" Why should it be a sin? You would be doing a very good deed. How nice this is, a person will be seeing [thanks to you]. Oh, what a nice thing this is. How nice.
But they sometimes take organs while the person is still alive my brother, that is weird, that is not acceptable. The man is still alive yet some of them say; "well, let us take his organs!" Well that is like a horror film. That is not acceptable. The person should be brain dead. His brain should completely fail, he should be brain dead. Is that understood? If one's brain is thus gone, then it is okay, that means that person is really dead. The body might have twitches, there might be a movement in the body but the brain should clearly be dead. Or sometimes the brain is terminally damaged , may Allah forbid, completely gone, etc. That is okay then, that person is then technically dead. Then that is acceptable. You can then harvest his liver and transplant it to another person, you can get his eyes and transplant them, how nice that is, you can get the heart and transplant it to another person. You would be doing a great deed. How nice. If you leave those organs there they would all be decomposed in the soil anyway, instead of being decomposed they would go to another person, what is wrong in that?
Ms. CEYLAN: Master, once the father of one of our friends was in a coma. They have consulted you as to how they should act because the hospital wanted to take off his plug [to the life-support]. And you have said "no."
ADNAN OKTAR: A lady friend of mine came to me saying; "Master, all my family gave their consents to take off my father's plug to the life-support in America. They all have signed the consent papers. They are waiting for my signature. If I sign too, they will take off his plug." I said "No way! How can one's plug to the life-support devices be taken off? You would be committing a murder, may Allah forbid. Why should the plug be taken off? His brain is still alive. His liver or internal organs might fail. That is okay. So what if they did? His brain is alive!" I didn't approve. And after 15 days, the man got better. He came back to Turkey and he was on his feet, masha'Allah. Had I said "yes" he would have died there, may Allah forbid.


text:
SOME of the finest rock bands from Malvern and beyond will be performing on the common at Link Top on Saturday, June 21, in aid of Acorns Children's Hospice.
Midsummer Mappfest is the latest venture from fundraiser Andy Mapp, who has been supporting the hospice for several years.
Mr Mapp started out modestly with small parties in his Bank Street home, but the scale of the events escalated last year, when he held two festivals in the Re-Con music venue in the town centre.
Now he's hoping for fine weather at the weekend so that the event recaptures the vibe of free festivals held on the common during the 1980s, the memories of which inspired him.
The festival has two stages, with 16 bands playing from noon to 10pm. Headlining are Slack Granny and the line-up includes Ronin, Black Russian, Dogs of Santorini, Sam Eden and many more performers.
Mr Mapp said: "The festival is a true coming-together of the community with local and national businesses all participating to raise money for Acorns.
"Malvern Hill Conservators have given permission to hold it on Link Top common, the same venue for the old free festivals 30 years ago."
He has also secured the services of G4S, which recently opened up a children's home in the town. The company will be providing a security team to ensure a safe environment for, and has also donated £150 to the hospice.
"I'm very grateful to G4S for this kind gesture, to the Conservators for permission to use the common, and to all the performers and everyone else who is contributing to the festival."
There will also be bouncy castles, a barbecue, vegetarian food stalls, a fully licensed bar, children's rides, tombolas and raffles.
Mr Mapp said: "This is a true free festival with not one penny going out for expenses, thanks to the generosity of the people of Malvern. Entry is free, but I would urge festival-goers to give generously in support of the hospice."


text:
Today is the official opening of the life-saving helipad on the roof of St George's Hospital in Tooting.
Special guests are set to attend the event along with key members of the hospital, ambulance and building staff to discuss the impact the helipad will have on patient care and treatment.
Staff celebrated by forming a giant 'H'
Planning for the helipad began in 2010, a year after St George's was designated a major trauma centre, and building was finished in March 2014.
It cost £5m to build with a £1m donation from the Helicopter Emergency Landing Pad (HELP) Appeal.
It is the first London helipad south of the Thames and will routinely receive patients from the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance as well as the London Air Ambulance and possibly further afield if required.
Keep checking our website for updates.
St George's Hospital in Tooting


text:
Broadway's Adam Jacobs to Join Fulmore Middle School at Play Room Theater, 1/19
Fulmore Middle School's girls choir is getting the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall this weekend as well as participate in a Believe NYC event with Broadway favorite, Adam Jacobs. Because of financial woes, the school's choir director, Yvette Carroll, raised enough funds to give 33 students an all-expenses paid New York City trip of a lifetime.
Believe NYC is a non-profit that specializes in educational performances and workshops for performing arts students. When we heard of Ms. Carroll's story, we thought it necessary to include Believe NYC in their trip. Their event is this Saturday, January 19th at 10AM at The Play Room Theater in mid-town.
Through the tenacity of Fulmore Middle School choir director, Yvette Carroll, this January, thirty-three lucky students from Austin, Texas will have the opportunity of a lifetime, performing at Carnegie Hall. And thanks to the hard work and "dream big" attitude of Ms. Carroll, their New York City experience will be all-expenses paid. Despite whatever financial or personal problems students may face, Ms. Carroll has made it her mission to ensure that each one has the opportunity to experience everything music has to offer.
After hearing Ms. Carroll's story, Believe NYC, a company that provides educational events for performing arts students, decided that Carnegie Hall wasn't quite enough. Thanks to a wonderful collaboration between Believe NYC and Educational Travel Adventures, an educational touring company, these student will have the very "this only happens in New York" opportunity to meet and work with a Broadway actor, Broadway favorite, Adam Jacobs.
They will begin the experience by seeing a performance of From Main Street to 42nd Street, a musical that chronicles one young woman's journey from California to New York City in pursuit of her dream. The performance is followed by a musical theater workshop and a Q&A session with Adam Jacobs, who has been on Broadway in The Lion King and Les Miserables.
The Believe NYC program focuses on the hard work and dedication that it takes to pursue a dream, highlighting the tough moments and low points that have happened along the way and the dreams that the performers are still pursuing (dreaming doesn't stop, even after a Broadway debut).
Adam Jacobs and Believe NYC founder, Jacque Carnahan, met each other while on the first national tour of Cinderella and both have experienced many successes and not-so-great moments since then, but have kept pursuing their dreams in spite of it all. Believe NYC offers inspiration and real life stories of never giving up - Adam auditioned for The Lion King for 8 years before finally getting cast!
Much like Ms. Carroll, Believe NYC has made it their mission to provide experiences and opportunities for performing arts students to realize their dreams are achievable, providing scholarships to college-bound students who qualify. Believe NYC and Educational Travel Adventures will continue to foster these "dream big" trips to New York with groups around the country - whether they have a Ms. Carroll or not.
To learn more about Believe NYC, please click here.


text:
Visible Energy UFO Power Center Smart Power Strip Reviewby Ganesh T S on 10/26/2012 8:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- Home Automation
- Wi-Fi
- Visible Energy
35 Comments
Back to Article
OCedHrt - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkIt does look like it would fit then? Reply
ssddaydream - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkI actually would enjoy having a device like this if it were in the common surge suppressor form factor. I think the lamp-like UFO appearance detracts from the product. I usually mount stuff like this behind the desk where it is still accessible, but out of view. I'm sure I could find a way to get this thing mounted and tucked away, but it takes up valuable extra space needlessly. Reply
ZETAPIERRE - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkWe have one made that is WiFi. It has only a duplex receptacle, but each half is individually controlled. It too uses 16A relays, the same type. We use them to collect power information and to control equipment at work. We power the compressors, printers, solderbench, etc... We also have a control in the system tray that allows employees to turn on the equipment. If they forget to turn it off, it goes off under a timer. It's software, so you can make it do anything, even send out emails. Reply
Flunk - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link"There is no way to change the HTTP access port. This might be useful in the case where the user cooks up a custom script to control / query the unit, but wants to use it from an external network. It is possible to set up port forwarding to access the unit via the default HTTP port. However, in the case that this port already forwards to another machine in the local network, the user has no way to access the UFO over the Internet without modifying the HTTP port of the other machine."
A lot of routers, even cheap ones, support routing with different external and internal ports. E.G. mapping port 3333 to port 80 on 192.168.1.1 so this isn't that big of a deal. Reply
IKeelU - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkSo many of my power cables are longer than they need to be (for my needs), so setting up my home theater or adding a new component always involves some form of cable management to ensure I don't have spaghetti back there. This design, while a bit cumbersome, would alleviate that. Reply
nathanddrews - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkThis is odd for an eco-driven device. Why would I want to buy something that consumes that much power on its own (WiFi/bulb) in order to monitor and regulate power? Seems counterintuitive, but I suppose there are many people that don't have wired connections in their homes (sad). The option would be nice. The fact that it is completely fugly as a lamp is also confusing. That last bit is subjective, I realize...
Looking foward to future revisions, though! I'd love to have a wired rackmount version for my server rack, my home theater, and then conventional looking power strips for other power-hungry areas (washer/dryer, office devices, other entertainment areas, powertools in workshop, etc.). Reply
NeBlackCat - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link+1 for rackmount version
As an eco fascist I'd be tempted to have my house electrics rewired from the standard multiple "multidrop" circuits, to a single star configuration where every power outlet/device goes to a UFO port.
The things I could then do... Reply
DanNeely - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkThe reason most outlets are wired in a multiloop fashion is to minimize copper use. Replacing an N outlet loop with N outlets wired in a star pattern will use approximately N times more copper.
After being convicted by the court in eco Nuremberg for wasteful use of resources extracted by destructive mining you wouldn't be able to do much beyond pushing up daisies. Reply
taltamir - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkBy law, businesses must be wired in a star configuration rather than multidrop.
Multidrop is used because its cheaper, but its less safe as multiple outlets share a single line. Reply
ironargonaut - Sunday, November 04, 2012 - linkIn what country? I can overload a single 20A receptacle by creating a short just as easy as a 10 receptacles on the same loop. The only thing that matters is you keep the breaker small enough to trip before the wire insulation fails. I.E. don't use 14guage wire with a 20A breaker...etc.
Technically all homes/businesses use a star config as you have multiple breakers, but you also have multiple lights/outlets per breaker. Or am I defining "star" config differently then you? Reply
Mr Perfect - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkI'd like to see what Anandtech can find in the way of hardwired rackmountable options too.
We've been looking for such a device, and so far all we've got is a non-rackable device that doesn't seem to be designed to work as part of a system. There are three of them so far with plans for more, but they can't tie back to a central server for management, each unit needs to be addressed individually through a web interface. Does anyone know of hardwired, rackmountable PDUs that can be centrally controlled? Reply
ganeshts - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkThis one is 'rackmountable' in the sense that it can be vertically mounted along side rail:
No power measurement / energy management features, though. Reply
Mr Perfect - Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - linkThanks. They've got a couple interesting things. Our devices are PoE, so maybe just getting their rackmountable PoE PDU/injector would work better then putting the existing PoE injectors on a separate PDU. Reply
Rick83 - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkLooks to me like this is a brilliant use case for PoE.
That way at least you only have one wasteful transformer in your home, and it can also feed your phone, attached switches, APs and other small light/switch-gadgets and sensors.
PoE should be obligatory for any IP-based home automation system. Reply
Mr Perfect - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkIt could work, but would be kind of limited. PoE can deliver 25.5 watts of power, so if the UFO uses 2.2 watts all by itself, you've only got about 23 watts to power your devices. Also, the PoE delivers as DC. You'd either need to throw in a DC to AC converter, or just make it a USB charger. Reply
taltamir - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkWhat is a PoE? Reply
ganeshts - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkPoE = Power Over Ethernet
PoE makes sense for non-Wi-Fi IP cameras and other such devices. Not sure it makes sense for this type of product. Reply
ZETAPIERRE - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkPoE would be an RJ45 cable. Since this plugs into an AC outlet already, there's no need to bring power via the Ethernet cable. WiFi eliminates the need for the Ethernet cable. Reply
ZETAPIERRE - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkWe have units that do the same thing with hardwired Ethernet. The problem I found is that I don't have Ethernet near every outlet, like behind the refrigerator. So, we re-designed ours to use WiFi and now we can place them everywhere. We can also use them to control the lights in the house during Xmas, they can all go on and off at the same time. Reply
Shadowmaster625 - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkThis is an absolute disgrace. There is no way this is worth $130, that is just pure madness. I built my own relay board that takes usb power from my tv and controls a relay to power my home theater receiver. So when my pc goes to sleep, my tv goes to sleep with it, and since its usb port shuts off, it turns off the receiver too. Simple $5 solution.
I bought a serial (RS232) AC current sensor off ebay for $13 and built my own power usage logger. I've used it to profile my pc's. Yet another <$20 solution. Taking some overpriced gimmick and slapping wifi on it is just blasphemy. Reply
DukeN - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkHow dare these capitalists make a profit after paying for materials, assembly, hardware and software developers! Reply
ganeshts - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkI don't want to come across as 'defending' the product, but the fact is that this is cheapest solution for the set of functions that it delivers. Have you taken a look at the Watts Up? Pro .NET solution which delivers similar functionality (electrical parameters measurement / network switching / cloud back-end) on one socket for almost double the cost?
The solution that you put in requires plenty of work to make it 'Internet' enabled, and it is not a generic solution. What about energy history? There are plenty of features and the components needed to achieve those add up.
Btw, where are you getting a good relay (rated for 15A) for less than $5? When I looked up the Schrack relay being used in the UFO, I found that each of them costs $6 by itself [ http://www.newark.com/te-connectivity-schrack/rt31... ]. 4 relays makes it ~$25 by itself.
I stand by my concluding remarks: The UFO Power Center presents unbeatable value for the $130 MSRP / ~$115 Amazon selling price. Reply
ZETAPIERRE - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkThere's a big difference between hacking circuits together for a single use and creating a product that meets safety agency and provides ease of use. We too started with just a relay and worked our way up to a nice product.
The price of this product is quite reasonable. We only have 2 relays, but still have a micro and WiFi. Ours will be around $99 once it goes to market. Reply
jgarcows - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link"It is possible to set up port forwarding to access the unit via the default HTTP port. However, in the case that this port already forwards to another machine in the local network, the user has no way to access the UFO over the Internet without modifying the HTTP port of the other machine."
There are many ways to get around this: forward a different port to the UFO, use a sub-domin to choose where which machine to forward the port to, have the machine currently receiving HTTP traffic check the request and forward appropriate requests to the UFO, etc... Reply
cserwin - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkWow, the manufacturer really needs to be commended for using 16A switches on all outlets.
It makes sense that they limited the device to 15A overall - as I understand it that is the limit of common household outlets in the United States. If they permitted higher draws, it would likely trip circuit breakers or fuses.
A lesser manufacturer would have designated 1 outlet as 'up to 10A' and the rest as 1.25A or some such nonsense. Reply
ZETAPIERRE - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkWell, one is almost forced to use 16A relays in this application. Since there is no front end fuse, one needs to rely on the circuit breaker. So, that means that the traces on the board and the relay contacts need to survive long enough during a dead short for the circuit breaker to trip.
My concern is if they plug this into, say a kitchen outlet that is at 20A.
We do the same, each relay is rated for 16A, but we set the whole unit to 15A because of the one pigtail going to an outlet. Reply
danjw - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkTo solve the issue of the wall warts not seating properly, you can use a power strip saver. Usually these are just about 1' long extension cords. Then the warts can sit in the base and not have a problem. I use them on my power strips to deal with blocked sockets. That said, they really need a smaller design that will fit in better. I am a function first, form second kind of guy, but this still puts me off. Reply
Henk Poley - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkSeems like a nice match with the DIY Kyoto Wattson :: http://www.diykyoto.com/uk/wattson Reply
CharonPDX - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkThis review has nothing to do with iOS. Did you really feel it necessary to bring up your slam on iOS in it? A simple "I had no iOS devices to test with" would have sufficed. Better would be to have a friend who has an iOS device come over and test it for you, or let you borrow their device to test with.
I can understand making an iOS comment on an iOS review, or even an Android system review; but not this. Reply
Tomislav R - Saturday, October 27, 2012 - link+1 Reply
Tros - Friday, October 26, 2012 - linkI don't see how choosing a 16A relay for each socket is "playing it safe". Maybe a >21A relay would be considered "playing it safe" (for the small-uninformed-population running a MIG-welder from a wall-socket).
A 15A relay would mean that the manufacturer has to do some additional QA to handle the statistics in which relays actually fall short of that rating (and consequently, that 15A rating which is the basic standard for wall outlets here in the U.S.).
This is playing it according to specification. Reply
jb510 - Sunday, October 28, 2012 - linkIs it possible to remotely tell it to power cycle a device? ...and specifically the wifi router it's relying on for control? Just to be painfully clear manually turning that plug back on after turning it off would be impossible since there'd be no wifi at that moment, so im wondering if you can just send a single command to power cycle a outlet off and back on? Reply
ganeshts - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkPower cycle is not possible with the current firmware, and I would also advise against using one of the outlets for the Wi-Fi router itself. For such purposes, PDUs from Digital Loggers can be used because some of the outlets in their devices are left unswitched (i.e, they are on all the time as long as the PDU gets power) / they offer power cycle functionality. Reply
rangerdavid - Sunday, October 28, 2012 - link"I am actually doing a bit of disservice to the unit by not reviewing the iOS app, as I have never been a fan of (nor do I ever plan on being one) Apple's restrictive ecosystem."
Who gives a ---- about this - review the app, or don't. The app is the app. Don't penalize it for being available on an iOS device just because you don't like Apple's "restrictive ecosystem." So restrictive that 200,000+ apps just appeared out of thin air?
I'd say this is a cheap shot and lame excuse not to post a page about the app.
Otherwise, this is a great article. I'm just calling you on this one issue. So there. Reply
valkator - Thursday, November 01, 2012 - linkSweet, I can hook up all my devices to this unit and it can be my dogs water bowl. :)
^ Joke Reply