The Heaven Guestbook
May 9 (13 days ago),
Who will be the first one to sign it?
http://www.heavenguestbook.com/
http://www.heavenguestbook.com/
The Hunger Games Showtimes Cineplex Odeon Niagara Falls
3/24/12,
Nikki wants to see The Hunger Games today so I called up the Niagara Square Cinema for show times, and apparently we can choose from oh I don't know... 800 showings today. I'm sure we can find one that's not packed.
Meridian Credit Union - The debit card executioners
3/17/12,
Went to the Welland Meridian drive-thru ATM today to take out money before going to the Farmers' Market, and somehow forgot to take my card back. I only realized 3 hours later that it's missing.
I don't bank with them but my bank is a part of The Exchange Network so any ATM that's also a part of the network--such as Meridian Credit Union--will not charge me banking fees if I withdraw from their machines.
After I noticed that the card was missing, I called them up about it and the girl on the phone said that she cannot return the card to me as it is their policy that since it's not one of their cards, they must destroy it right away. (Btw, if someone has a link to this policy, I'd like to read about it...)
I asked her to at least confirm that she did see my card, to which she replied she did, and it has been destroyed.
What?? I now had no choice but to call up my bank and request a new card, which will be couriered to me within the next week or so. I don't carry cash on me so this is a little bit of an inconvenience.
Let this be a lesson to all who do drive-thru ATM banking:
MAKE SURE TO TAKE YOUR CARD BACK!
I don't bank with them but my bank is a part of The Exchange Network so any ATM that's also a part of the network--such as Meridian Credit Union--will not charge me banking fees if I withdraw from their machines.
After I noticed that the card was missing, I called them up about it and the girl on the phone said that she cannot return the card to me as it is their policy that since it's not one of their cards, they must destroy it right away. (Btw, if someone has a link to this policy, I'd like to read about it...)
I asked her to at least confirm that she did see my card, to which she replied she did, and it has been destroyed.
What?? I now had no choice but to call up my bank and request a new card, which will be couriered to me within the next week or so. I don't carry cash on me so this is a little bit of an inconvenience.
Let this be a lesson to all who do drive-thru ATM banking:
MAKE SURE TO TAKE YOUR CARD BACK!
Games for the weekend
3/10/12,
Some new games to kill time this weekend: Colour Blaster, Drift Runners 2, English Pub Pool, Gibbets 2, Goodgame Cafe, Rise of Atlantis and The Jewel Chest.
Enjoy! I know I will!
Enjoy! I know I will!
jQuery disable Enter Key on text inputs
3/08/12,
A simple jQuery script to disable the enter key on text inputs which helps avoid accidental form submissions.
$("input:text").keypress(function (evt) {
var charCode = evt.charCode || evt.keyCode;
if (charCode == 13) return false;
});
Dreamhost Hacked?
3/06/12,
Today I noticed that every PHP file in every Dreamhost site I administer has this garbled php script prepended to it:
http://pastebin.com/jBwB7yHU
Which, if you decode it, looks like this: http://pastebin.com/Fb6fx9x4
As it turns out, it's not just me...
Update: Here's a possible fix by Dan Hill.
Update 7-Mar-12: The ruby script in Dan Hill's post isn't very effective, but you should still use his examples of closing down world-writable directories: (run this from your home directory)
In one of his comments, however, there's a very simple and effective line of code that'll go through all php files recursively and remove the infected code: (run this from your home directory)
This will create .php.bak of every infected file. If you want to get rid of those, try this:
http://pastebin.com/jBwB7yHU
Which, if you decode it, looks like this: http://pastebin.com/Fb6fx9x4
As it turns out, it's not just me...
Update: Here's a possible fix by Dan Hill.
Update 7-Mar-12: The ruby script in Dan Hill's post isn't very effective, but you should still use his examples of closing down world-writable directories: (run this from your home directory)
find . -type d -perm -o=w -print -exec chmod 770 {} \;In one of his comments, however, there's a very simple and effective line of code that'll go through all php files recursively and remove the infected code: (run this from your home directory)
for f in `find . -name "*.php"`; do perl -p -i.bak -e 's/<\?php \/\*\*\/ eval\(base64_decode\(\"[^\"]+"\)\);\?>//' $f; doneThis will create .php.bak of every infected file. If you want to get rid of those, try this:
find . -iname "*.php.bak" -print -exec rm -rf {} \;
Casio GW7900B-1
2/16/12,

Last week I ordered a Casio GW7900B-1 off eBay. I got it a few days later (here is my photo of it), I've been wearing it all week and I gotta say, it's a pretty comfortable watch. It has a lot of features, as you will read on the Casio site linked above. What I like best about it is the atomic timekeeping, because I'm a nut about my watches being accurate. I also like the rugged look and feel, as I've been known to bang my watches around a bit and this one seems like it will take a beating. Anyway, you can find a bunch of reviews about it Google so I'll just say I like it a lot.
P.S.: Some people say it's hard to read in low light, I don't find that to be true. They also say the alarm isn't loud enough... It's plenty loud!
Bugs, beware!
1/26/12,
Final e-test?
1/18/12,
The Mazda hit the 400,000km mark not too long ago, and we were pretty excited for that milestone. Then this past week we had to take it to do an emissions inspection which it failed on two separate occasions. We thought it was the end of the road for the poor car for a brief moment. Then my dad replaced the catalytic converter last night, like he did two years ago and the car passed the inspection today with flying colours. Thank you dad! It just might make it to 500,000km now, which I didn't think was a realistic milestone a few years ago. And who knows, maybe in 2 years if the car is still running and the body hasn't rusted over completely yet, we can change the catalytic converter make it pass another e-test, and give it 2 more years of life! I won't hold my breath though.
Socially Awkceptable
1/09/12,
Made up a new phrase today: Socially Awkceptable - Socially awkward, yet still accepted, because so is everyone/everything else. Thanks social media!
Relative time in Coldfusion
1/04/12,
Here's a quick Coldfusion function to turn a date stamp into a relative time stamp (like Facebook has their dates showing as "2 seconds ago", for example). I use this at work, but I use its PHP equivalent on my log here.
http://pastebot.net/paste/PgyTNPDPx5x/
Usage:
http://pastebot.net/paste/PgyTNPDPx5x/
Usage:
<cfoutput>#RelativeTime('2012-01-04 16:09')#</cfoutput>
Accessing tumblr custom URL sites with Cogeco
12/28/11,
So for the past few weeks I haven't been able to get to either Casey's blog or Alex's blog from home. Turns out Alex can't get to his own site from work either.. What's in common? Our internet provider is Cogeco. There are other people experiencing the same issue.
What I figure is that someone put up a spam tumblr blog somewhere with a custom URL, and Cogeco banned tumblr's custom IP 72.32.231.8.. I emailed them about it almost a week ago and even though they didn't respond, based on that forum post it looks like they've been looking into the issue.
I suppose I will just wait patiently until they figure it out.
Update 14-Jan-12: It seems that they fixed it, at long last!
What I figure is that someone put up a spam tumblr blog somewhere with a custom URL, and Cogeco banned tumblr's custom IP 72.32.231.8.. I emailed them about it almost a week ago and even though they didn't respond, based on that forum post it looks like they've been looking into the issue.
I suppose I will just wait patiently until they figure it out.
Update 14-Jan-12: It seems that they fixed it, at long last!
BestBuy Waiting Room
12/20/11,
Casey and snow
12/18/11,
Track a package
12/15/11,
I know you can go to each of these sites individually, but I like less clicks...
http://www.miklos.ca/track
http://www.miklos.ca/track
MySQL dump with wildcard table name matching
11/24/11,
This is a great reference to achieve it:
http://codeinthehole.com/archives/37-mysqldump-with-wildcard-table-matching.html
http://codeinthehole.com/archives/37-mysqldump-with-wildcard-table-matching.html
Irina Werning - Back to the future 2
11/17/11,
400,000
11/15/11,
Timex T2M933
11/11/11,

We got me one of these watches from Walmart last night. It's pretty nice looking! Nikki remarked "It's so small compared to your Luminox!" - which it is, but I don't mind this for everyday wear at the office. I set it against the atomic clock last night, and this morning it's still keeping exact time. That's more than I could say about the older Timex watches in my collection.
Update 15-Nov-11: The watch was returned after I found out about Timex Originals! Wow...
Water Resistance
10/19/11,
I own many watches, all with different water resistance levels. Here's a handy reference table I found on the interweb which should make it a bit more clear as to what all the markings mean.
NO DECLARATION
This model is NOT water resistant. Any water contact should be avoided.
WATER RESIST
This model is resistant to minor and accidental splashes. Greater water contact should be avoided.
WATER RESISTANT 30M (3 ATM / 100 Feet) *
Showering, accidental splashes, short swimming or car washing - it is resistant against perspiration, water vapor or rain drops. Tested for water resistance up to 3 ATM, and must be able to survive 30 minutes under water at a depth of 1 m (3 feet) followed by 90 seconds under a pressure corresponding to 30 meters.
WATER RESISTANT 50M (5 ATM / 160 Feet) *
Showering, accidental splashes, short swimming, car washing, parachuting, hang gliding and skiing - it is resistant against perspiration, water vapor, rain drops. Tested for water resistance up to 5 ATM corresponding to 50 meters
WATER RESISTANT 100M (10 ATM / 300 Feet) *
Swimming, snorkeling, mountain climbing, parachuting, hang gliding, skiing and all kinds of sports challenges. Tested for water resistance up to 10 ATM corresponding to 100 m
WATER RESISTANT 200M (20 ATM / 660 Feet) *
Free diving without scuba gear, and all kinds of water sports. Tested for water resistance up to 20 ATM corresponding to 200 m
WATER RESISTANT 300M (30 ATM / 1000 Feet) *
Scuba diving to a depth of 30 meters, for 2 hours. Tested for water resistance up to 30 ATM corresponding to 300 m
WATER RESISTANT 500M (50 ATM / 1650 Feet) *
Protected for scuba diving to a depth of 50 meters. Tested for water resistance up to 50 ATM corresponding to 500 m
* The metres value does not relate to a diving depth but to the air pressure used in the course of the water resistance test. (DIN 8310, ISO 2281, NIHS 91-10)
NO DECLARATION
This model is NOT water resistant. Any water contact should be avoided.
WATER RESIST
This model is resistant to minor and accidental splashes. Greater water contact should be avoided.
WATER RESISTANT 30M (3 ATM / 100 Feet) *
Showering, accidental splashes, short swimming or car washing - it is resistant against perspiration, water vapor or rain drops. Tested for water resistance up to 3 ATM, and must be able to survive 30 minutes under water at a depth of 1 m (3 feet) followed by 90 seconds under a pressure corresponding to 30 meters.
WATER RESISTANT 50M (5 ATM / 160 Feet) *
Showering, accidental splashes, short swimming, car washing, parachuting, hang gliding and skiing - it is resistant against perspiration, water vapor, rain drops. Tested for water resistance up to 5 ATM corresponding to 50 meters
WATER RESISTANT 100M (10 ATM / 300 Feet) *
Swimming, snorkeling, mountain climbing, parachuting, hang gliding, skiing and all kinds of sports challenges. Tested for water resistance up to 10 ATM corresponding to 100 m
WATER RESISTANT 200M (20 ATM / 660 Feet) *
Free diving without scuba gear, and all kinds of water sports. Tested for water resistance up to 20 ATM corresponding to 200 m
WATER RESISTANT 300M (30 ATM / 1000 Feet) *
Scuba diving to a depth of 30 meters, for 2 hours. Tested for water resistance up to 30 ATM corresponding to 300 m
WATER RESISTANT 500M (50 ATM / 1650 Feet) *
Protected for scuba diving to a depth of 50 meters. Tested for water resistance up to 50 ATM corresponding to 500 m
* The metres value does not relate to a diving depth but to the air pressure used in the course of the water resistance test. (DIN 8310, ISO 2281, NIHS 91-10)
2011 hipster
10/13/11,
Why have I not made this connection before?
Logitech Harmony 700
10/08/11,
Steve Jobs
10/07/11,

Image credit: Jonathan Mak
Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American computer entrepreneur and innovator. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer.via Wikipedia
Fido Casting Call
10/06/11,
We entered Casey to be the next Fido dog. Click "Vote" and they will donate $1 to Canada Dog Guides.
http://www.fidocastingcall.ca/dogs/70
http://www.fidocastingcall.ca/dogs/70
Margin Auto in Internet Explorer
10/04/11,
The css property
I did not know this until today.
margin:auto works in IE as long as you specify a full and proper doctype, for example:<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
I did not know this until today.
World Peace (the guy)
9/16/11,
Ron Artest, L.A. Lakers, officially changed his name to "World Peace". He is my hero today.
We've lived to see World Peace...
Changing my name was meant to inspire and bring youth together all around the world," World Peace said in a statement released after the hearing. "After this short delay, my tickets have been paid and I'm glad that it is now official.via cp24.com
We've lived to see World Peace...
Pogo pencil
9/15/11,
I found a washer on my desk (probably from my chair) and placed it on the end of the pencil I had nearby. Found it to be a perfect fit...

It reminded me of something but I couldn't figure out what... then finally I remembered... Pogo ball! Remember these things?

It reminded me of something but I couldn't figure out what... then finally I remembered... Pogo ball! Remember these things?





