Best Screensaver in 14 Years! (free)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/11/26Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:21:49 GMTJohnny Castaway was released in the early 90's. Sure, there have been cool, zippy, zappy things to hit the screen during idle time since then, but they were nothing more than a novelty. For the longest time, "Blank Screen" seemed to be the best option. This year, I noticed someone's screen that appeared as though it had a herd of french fry deer grazing on desktop and it was curiously soothing... ahhh... It just so happens that the french fries were Slim Jims, and the deer were, of course, snapalopes. Unlike Johnny Castaway, the grazing snapalopes are aware you're watching them. They look up every once in a while to make sure you aren't too close. Wiggle the mouse or hit a key and whoosh, they bust!



If I had to choose one word to describe it, well, it would have to be serenitynow. Download for PC or Mac.

iced c]]>craig's microblog! (4:37 PM on a Friday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/11/23Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:37:02 GMTCoastal Contacts Reviewhttp://dec4.org/craig/2007/11/15Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:09:14 GMT
When I first purchased contacts here in 2003, I was intrigued by the prices (lower than 1800contacts.com) and the free pair of "gucci-like" sunglasses they sent with every order. Who doesn't want free shades? I do. I bet you do, as well. Anyway, they send reminders to re-order pretty frequently, so when I was running low on lenses I hit up the link in an e-mail from Coastal to easily reorder. Considering myself to be a smart shopper, I open up a few more Web browsers and check out competitor rates, and this time 1800Contacts was a bit cheaper, so I went to order from that vendor. That's when I found out about the strict exam proof required after a certain period of time that must be provided by all contact lens wearers ordering new lenses. I didn't feel the need for a new prescription. My lenses worked great, clearer than my glasses (which were fairly new). Why dish out another hundred bucks for an eye exam that I didn't want. Bummer.

After trying to place my order anyway, 1800Contacts said not without a new prescription, buddy. So I figured what the hell, let's head on back to Coastal Contacts and see if I can find some way to convince them to send me some contacts. Instead of the normal ordering process, I sent them an e-mail that basically said I'm having trouble re-ordering, along with a few bits of info about my previous orders and they responded quickly and processed my order. Woo, more sunglasses!

At this point, I'm hooked. They kept my business for a couple more years... until I ran across some weird pricing discrepancies.

Long story short, I had opened up my re-order form through one of the many reminder e-mails they had sent, minimized the browser (Firefox) and forgot about it for a few hours. When I went back to the computer, I didn't notice I had left the browser open, so I opened up a different browser (Internet Explorer) to go place my order. After adding my contacts to the shopping cart and reviewing my order, I noticed I already had the reorder form open in Firefox and brought that back up. What the... the two prices were different. The re-order form prices were higher than the fresh browser prices. So I figured I had clicked a link that automatically added the lenses at a certain price, so I removed them from the cart to flush out the prices and re-added them. Same freakin' higher price. Hmm, that just ain't right.

I was fed up. It became apparent that they expect a returning customer to pay whatever they'll charge (within reason), so they just upped the prices for people coming back in through the reorder e-mail links. This is when I closed out of all that mumbo jumbo, opened up 1800Contacts and placed my order there.

A couple years go by and now we're at present day. I thought I'd check out to see if they were still pulling the scam and yes, they are. For posterity's sake, I'm documenting here the differences in prices, and if you happen to be a loyal customer of Coastal Contacts, I'll include how to lower the cost of your re-ordered lenses by removing a certain cookie.

Here are the higher prices that show up through the re-order form:
bad price zoom
bad price
Here are the normal prices that show up in a separate browser:
good price zoom
good price
Here is the cookie at fault. It appears as though they attach it to your session as soon as you click through a re-order e-mail:
cookie

Note: I've masked most of the cookie value for privacy reasons.

As a Web developer by trade, I was able to modify the cookie JSESSIONID to contain the value from the new browser instance and hit refresh on the page and kapow, no more higher prices! If you don't have the ability to remove just one cookie, you'll have to clear all your browser cookies under the options menu. By clearing the fact that you're re-ordering, prices (at least for the contacts I was ordering) will drop. $8.68 in my case.

I've been curious ever since if other Web sites are practicing the same type of shady business. I'd guess there probably are some, but I sure hope they aren't ones that I frequent.

-iced c
Technorati Profile
]]>craig's microblog! (1:35 AM on a Tuesday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/11/13Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:35:54 GMTcraig's microblog! (1:34 AM on a Tuesday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/11/13Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:34:31 GMTcraig's microblog! (11:40 PM on a Monday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/11/5Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:40:01 GMTcraig's microblog! (11:12 AM on a Thursday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/10/11Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:12:04 GMTcraig's microblog! (8:28 PM on a Sunday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/10/7Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:28:51 GMT]]>easy html+js+css shieldhttp://dec4.org/craig/2007/10/6Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:37:33 GMT
unshielded site


shielded site


useful shielded site


this code represents a dark black shield at 70% opacity:
<div id="shield" style="position: fixed; top: 0px; left: 0px; filter: Alpha(Opacity=70); -moz-opacity: .7; opacity: .7; z-index: 3; width: 100%; height: 100%; background-color: #000000"></div>
if you add that html div element to your html body element, it will immediately shield anything below the z-index of 3 (if you haven't specified any z-indexes, it will shield everything). you can easily change opacity or color to fit your needs. you could also put anything you want to be on the shield inside those tags.

here is the basic javascript code for raising and lowering the shield (and the shielded element)


/* make sure your shield's inline style attribute contains: "display:none; z-index: -3px" (yes, negative) */

function raiseShield()
{
var shield = document.getElementById( 'shield' );
var elementInFrontOfShield = document.getElementById( 'elementInFrontOfShield' );

shield.style.display = ''; // show the shield
elementInFrontOfShield.style.display = ''; // show the element in front

shield.style.zIndex = -1 * shield.style.zIndex; // move the shield in front of everything but the shielded element
elementInFrontOfShield.style.zIndex = shield.style.zIndex + 1; // move the shielded element in front of the shield
}

function lowerShield()
{
var shield = document.getElementById( 'shield' );
var elementInFrontOfShield = document.getElementById( 'elementInFrontOfShield' );

shield.style.display = 'none'; // show the shield
elementInFrontOfShield.style.display = 'none'; // show the element in front

shield.style.zIndex = -1 * shield.style.zIndex; // move the shield in front of everything but the shielded element
elementInFrontOfShield.style.zIndex = shield.style.zIndex - 1; // move the shielded element in front of the shield
}


...and that's it! you can get crazy and insert a cool stretchable image into your shield div (e.g. <img src='cool_image.jpg' style='width: 100%; height: 100%' />), but i find the basic translucent black shield always looks classy and does the trick.]]>craig's microblog! (9:11 PM on a Saturday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/10/6Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:11:12 GMTcraig's microblog! (12:04 AM on a Saturday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/29Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:04:27 GMTcraig's microblog! (11:22 AM on a Thursday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/27Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:22:31 GMTcraig's microblog! (8:17 AM on a Thursday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/27Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:17:44 GMTcraig's microblog! (9:56 PM on a Sunday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/23Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:56:36 GMTcraig's microblog! (9:39 AM on a Monday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/17Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:39:11 GMTcraig's microblog! (9:16 PM on a Sunday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/16Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:16:20 GMTcraig's microblog! (12:49 PM on a Thursday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/13Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:49:30 GMTcraig's microblog! (1:40 PM on a Wednesday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/12Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:40:39 GMTcraig's microblog! (10:28 PM on a Saturday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/8Sat, 08 Sep 2007 22:28:46 GMTcraig's microblog! (1:15 AM on a Wednesday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/5Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:15:09 GMTcraig's microblog! (12:22 PM on a Tuesday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/4Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:22:12 GMTcraig's microblog! (10:59 PM on a Monday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/3Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:59:28 GMTcustomizing my web with greasemonkey and firefoxhttp://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/2Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:55:30 GMTgreasemonkey tool for enhancing web site functionality and presentation has been available for over 2 years and i haven't given it a whirl yet. well i did this weekend and it's pretty bitchin'. here are a few scripts i churned out:

iGoogle interface cleanup -- this script hides some of the non-essential fluff around the search box at the top of my google homepage, mostly so my theme will show through. i like it. before & after coming up.

iGoogle interface update

eBay typo search -- this script adds a button to the ebay homepage that will search a variety of common typos for items listed on ebay. listings with typos are difficult to find and often have fewer bids, resulting in a lower final price. here's a small example.

ebay typo search

tvguide.com page cleanup -- i use tvguide.com to quickly see what's playing on the tele, but most of the page is useless fluff. this script cuts off the fat and leaves the juicy meat behind. here's your before & after.

tvguide.com page cleanup

the idea of customizing web site presentation and functionality is freakin sweet, and i'll probably script up some additional useful page post-processes in the future.

if you're interested in running these on your computer, here's what it takes:

  1. get firefox here.

  2. get the greasemonkey add-in here.

  3. get my scripts here.

-craigger

]]>craig's microblog! (3:27 PM on a Sunday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/2Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:27:44 GMTcraig's microblog! (12:55 PM on a Sunday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/9/2Sun, 02 Sep 2007 12:55:35 GMTmicroblog, rss, elsewherehttp://dec4.org/craig/2007/8/29Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:49:10 GMT
well compadres, today is just a kick off a few new coo things happening here at dec4.

microblog
inspired by the twitterer's out there, i've decided to microblog. you probably thought that heap of sentences up above was pretty useless, but the point was that i don't always have the necessary momentum to blog on a regular basis. i am starting to like the idea of mini bloggies (<140 characters) that don't require purpose. like it or love it, i'll probably update those more than anything (x fingers).

rss 2.0 feed
i know.. the dec4 blog+microblog doesn't fit the universal blog template, but it now sports a shiny orange rss feed. use it or lose it. wait, wait. wait.. that's something else. just use it.

elsewhere
you tellin' me to beware? 'cause i'll tell you where to be. elsewhere.. on the web. you can't stay on dec4 for forever, so 'elsewhere on the web' will rotate some pages i frequent.

that's it. oh, i did shove in most of the blog posts i've written for posterity. bored on the weekend? read on.

peace out cub scout

craig]]>craig's microblog! (3:04 PM on a Tuesday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/8/28Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:04:22 GMTcraig's microblog! (10:23 PM on a Monday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/8/27Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:23:36 GMTcraig's microblog! (2:46 PM on a Monday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/8/27Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:46:36 GMTcraig's microblog! (11:32 PM on a Sunday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/8/26Sun, 26 Aug 2007 23:32:47 GMTcraig's microblog! (11:14 PM on a Sunday)http://dec4.org/craig/2007/8/26Sun, 26 Aug 2007 23:14:26 GMTcraig looks like...http://dec4.org/craig/2007/4/13Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:13:41 GMT
Craig looks like.....
Brad Pitt,
the worst James Bond ever,
he needs a good ironing and has zero Tottie-appeal (???),
a gangster with Dark hair,
a man who's been ten rounds with Mike Tyson,
a cross between James Woods and my testicles (good thing James Woods kicks ass).

- C]]>Untitledhttp://dec4.org/craig/2007/3/12Mon, 12 Mar 2007 02:09:09 GMTdoing something else. Splendid. You can pick up on the following three columns pretty quickly, but you'll soon realize that this site goes no deeper than here. That isn't to say it doesn't go beyond here; its just that my perspective of the traditional Web has changed over time and I don't plan to send you into the depths of yet another site. I'm tired of clicking around, paging back and forth to get anywhere. Bah. Anyway, I'm not a designer, I'm a developer. The end result of imagery and layout fit my desired outcome, yet there's still work to be done. Carry on, forewarned that all scripts, images, apps (behind the scenes), and styles are 100% custom Craig, and if they fail, then I'll take the blame (I only tested in FireFox 2 and a couple versions of IE). Click around and enjoy my last two weekends of fluff. Hasta luego.]]>run towards the light, boyhttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/10/18Tue, 18 Oct 2005 00:20:47 GMT
So, the point is that I don't think I interact with enough people to keep the blog-o-matic fresh with my daily musings. I don't think I even have daily musings. Too much school/work/relax time doesn't make for a very eventful day. Now if I worked at KFC or something, I'd be posting up the wazoo. Probably about how Pete wore the chicken bucket on his head all afternoon and finally put some family's 12 piece meal in it when the sweat bothered him too much as it was making his hair all wet.

That's it for now though.. no need to check back here for a while.. You might just catch some twist on a blog around here somewhere sometime somehow in the near or distant future.

Until then...]]>hey, that sounds prdy goodhttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/10/5Wed, 05 Oct 2005 01:21:22 GMT
It all goes back to my shoes when I was a youngin. If I recall correctly (and often, I do not), I never had a real good pair of shoes. I can't blame my parents for now wanting to dish out 80 bucks for the latest Nikes or Reeboks (rbk now?). The combination of cheap shoes and my strong ability and willingness to kick stuff meant that they'd be literally all tore up within a year. Thus, I never had the opportunity to realize what a good pair of shoes was like. I thought I would that one time when we went to Marden's and I got a pair of Nike's for like 10 bucks (well, my mom paid for them, I was young) that were about a size and a half too large, but obviously those were not very comfy. I had to work my ass off to get my toe to appear as if it were in the front of the shoe so she'd let me get them too. Many years later, when I had a job and money and a need for shoes, I picked up myself a pair of New Balance training shoes and I haven't gone back to el cheapos since. So, the moral is that sixteen years of wearing the pre-Martha K Mart (then Big K, now K Mart again?) shoes must have given me loads of character because I appreciate the shoes I have now every time I put them on.

Oh, so this does apply to the sound stuff I was talkin about before. Similarly, I never owned a decent pair of headphones or speakers until recently. A few years ago my sister got me a pair of tiny, little Altec Lansing speakers with a decent woofer to compliment my compy. The sound quality was amazing.. I had never heard pc speakers produce such clear acoustics. They're a little worn now, but still kickin.

Last year, I decided to invest in a pair of new headphones to compliment my heavy work load. I went with a pair of Sony DJ cans that thumped out some heavy bass. This has to be one of the best investments I've made since the New Balances. They remove the world around you and let you focus on whatever it is you need to get done. They offer nothing less than pristine sound quality, to the extent that I could notice my inferior encoded MP3s vs. the higher quality ones.

Despite their awesomeness, there are three drawbacks to these bad boys. The first directly corresponds to their primary advantage -- specifically, it is that they block out all surroundings. Wearing them when other people are around kind of makes you feel like you're alienating them because even if the volume is low, you can't hear a damn thing outside your head. The second unfortunate area is the fact that you can only wear them for so long before they start to become uncomfortable. We're talkin a couple hours, but still it does provide limitations to your listening. Numero three is that it probably is not a good idea to wear a pair of cans that push out huge sound with a closed back for long periods of time in general. Until they have a cure for hearing loss, listening time must be limited to some extent.

That leaves us with my latest investment, a second pair of headphones to provide a mix of comfort, quality and awesomeness. Of course, I made this decision just before fin. aid. reneged $2500 from me :( Anywho, I did not want to replace my Sonys, just compliment them. People have more than one pair of shoes, more than one pair of pants, so what's stopping people from having more than one pair of headphones? Nothing! The truth is, I don't think I would've considered spending over 15 bucks for headphones a few years ago. Well the times have changed. After some extensive research involving lots of clicking and scrolling and no actual physical work, I found the pair that looked like what I needed. The Sennheiser px100 streetwear headphones. I have seen many positive reviews of the Sennheiser brand in the past, but those were always for the cans equivalent to my Sonys. The px100 are a lightweight, portable pair of headphones that are astounding to say the least. You can barely tell you are wearing them, and the sound comes through as clear as a bell. I have no idea where the bass is coming from in these things.. but it is there.
my Sonys
my Sennheisers
]]>so long, and thanks for all the fisheshttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/9/29Thu, 29 Sep 2005 00:03:20 GMT
As for now, I've temporarily had to resort to plan B. A plan so vile, so disgusting, so gut-wrenching and bloody that I mustn't describe it in detail here. To describe it would resemble that moment in Lilo & Stitch when Stitch rambled some of his native tongue and the robot puked his nuts and bolts out everywhere!!! I don't need e-mails about how people ruined their keyboards and monitors because they upchucked some internal hardware due to MY blog. No sir.

I've gathered some paper clips, a rubber band and an every-day pine cone, so I'm going to go see if I can find MacGuyver's e-mail address to see how to salvage what's left. It is my ONLY chance.

btw, I wrote this post pre-"today" but obviously it was tougher to post without a computer with which posting is possible.]]>school 2.0http://dec4.org/craig/2005/9/21Wed, 21 Sep 2005 00:14:37 GMT
CS 198 - Internship
Same as CS 298, CS 398, CS 498. I get a few credits for working... finally. You'd think this dribble I call code would pay off once in a while. And now it does. HA!

Math 300 - Undergraduate Math Seminar
or, more commonly referred to as Math Club! Call me dorkus if you want, but I get an upper division math credit, free food once a week, and to print up money for gambling day. I was also elected to be the treasurer. Maybe I can round up some mulah to send us to LV and work the system like the MIT mathlete's did back in the day. I have a feeling Curt could take 'em on, and I could be the guy who wears a fake beard and strolls around in a wheel chair!

Math 496 - Research
Fortunately there are still unsolved problems in mathematics, and I get to work on one of them. I was actually asked to work on this, which was surprising because usually I'm just asked to TA or grade or something by the school. I'm working on designing an algorithm to improve the current brute force method that is so inefficient for this problem that it only works for 12 cases out of infinity. Maybe if I get it figured out, I'll be a footnote upon a footnote someday.

Whew.. that's all. I'm grading for "Fundamentals of Computer Science II," which is kinda fun too. All those early CS students writing:

if ( result == bad )
    System.out.println("error! error! error! does not compute! error!!");


heh heh.. those were the days.
]]>sk00lhttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/9/5Mon, 05 Sep 2005 23:36:07 GMTI'm tired of everyone in the computing industry being ignorant post has been up long enough, so hopefully someone has gotten something from it; I know I did.

Well, I'm still a senior in college. Third year running. Fortunately, it's not nearly as bad as being a third year senior in high school. Didn't you love those guys with a full beard, moustache and 2 kids?

Since I'm spending a good deal of time on my coursework lately, it's really all I have to talk about.

Forestry 220 - Technical Writing
The tech writing course for all students is tacked onto the Forestry Department's course offerings. God only knows why, but that's just the way it is. Basically, it means that I'm in a class loaded with students from random majors and we all get to enjoy examples about fire fighting and trees and that kind of crap.

Computer Science 441 - Advanced Programming - Theory & Practice
Oh, this one's a doozy. Apparently I haven't taken the right pre-req's for this class, but Dr. Henry gave me the o-kay to stay in it. The funny part is that we are suppose to have "an excellent understanding of programming and different languages" prior to taking the course. Upon talking to some of my fellow classmates, apparently some of them can't read C code, and some can't distinguish between C and C++. Well damn, maybe I should be grading for this class or something. I'm not complaining though.

Math 311 / 317 - Ordinary Differential Equations / Lab
Oooo, more calculus. Figures. After Complex Variables last semester, I'm not quite so worried about figuring out what to do in my math classes. The prof's pretty cool, and the lab grade is dependent on showing up and hitting some keys into MATLAB. I can hit keys. Sometimes I hit a lot of them at once and the computer stops responding and starts beeping. That's when I feel I've outsmarted the machines. In fact, if a Terminator ever comes back in time to kill you before the future, just hit a bunch of keys on him or her wherever you can find them and you'll be golden.

Ok.. think I'm going a little off topic there.

So that's what I've been up to lately. A lot of work-work too (as opposed to school-work), which is why I haven't posted in a while I think. We got the University web site up, www.umt.edu. Send some comments in to get rid of the "river" background if you are as opposed to it as I am. I am pretty happy with the rest of it though.

One thing I found to be quite funny, is that not long after we released our new site, we were contacted by the local newspaper, The Missoulian to remove all links from our site referencing theirs or we would be sued. I guess that's not too funny, but apparently they sent the same letter to Google :) Hah, good luck with that one buddies.]]>stupid computinghttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/8/23Tue, 23 Aug 2005 00:29:52 GMTnot an if loop, it is an if statement.

byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte, etc. you do not have 512 kilobytes of ram. figure it out.

bit vs. byte. your 1.5 Mbps (megabits per second) dsl or cable modem does not download 1.5 megabytes per second. duh. if you cannot figure it out, call them megs.

do not refer to your hard drive as memory. regardless of the correctness of this, which it is, it is not kosher. i just got another 160 gigabytes of memory. slaps hand. no.

do not refer to your processor as memory. similar to above. bad you. unless you start talking about cache and such, then you should be ok.

do not refer to the Web as the Internet. you're making the rest of us look bad.

if you are just starting, throw away your first few web sites. i know you are proud; hell, i'm proud of you. but maybe you can just burn them to a cd and bury them in the yard or something, or if you do decide to keep them on the web, make sure they are not for something commercial.

omg. if you take one thing away from this, never, ever, ever, EVER refer to / as a backslash. if you are religious, think of it is a sin. if you are not religious, pretend you are for a second and realize that you've just committed a sin and just lost all credibility with me, your colleagues, your parents and your cat too.

allow me to reiterate, / is a forwardslash, and \\ is a backslash.

if i dictate something for you to be typing, and say "forwardslash forwardslash" and you type \\\\, then you have just made my LIST.

another sure-fire way to make my LIST is to say h t t p colon backslash backslash. *sigh*

learn the basics of acronyms. HTTP, FTP, SFTP, SSH, PHP, etc., etc., so on and so forth. it does not take much effort and goes a long way.

do not waste people's time by arguing linux vs. microsoft, apache vs. iis, php vs. .net, emacs vs. vi. use whatever the hell you like and don't push your politics on me buddy.

do not compare languages in a general context. c++ is not better than java, and java is not better than c++. you can argue about specific projects though.

do not argue about internet explorer vs. firefox vs. netscape vs. your crappy aol browser. if you haven't noticed, they all have issues.

a custom machine is in general no better than a dell. a dell is in general no better than a custom machine. they'll both be outdated soon enough either way. everything is better than an hp.

]]>Innovation [salsa]http://dec4.org/craig/2005/8/17Wed, 17 Aug 2005 03:04:11 GMT
As I was trying to get some salsa onto some chiplings (those chip crums in the bottom of the bag), my hand returned from the jar all sauced up. It happens every time. You know the feeling.. the jar get's about 1/3 down and you try to be oh-so-careful not to let your fingers hit the sides of the jar, and the worst part is that it only gets more difficult as you continue to eat. And it's not like it's avoidable without a decent amount of work (pouring into separate containers, holding the jar at an angle so the sauce reaches the top, etc.), so why does eating salsa have to be such a chore?

It doesn't! Not with the new sals-o-matic compresserific super fantastic salsa jar (patent pending)!!

The idea is a jar made of compressible plastic. It is based on reverse flexy straw technology, which if you recall, works as follows:

Grasp the straw ends with both hands.
Pull on one end.
Notice the little crinkles come uncrinkled and the straw elongates.

Hopefully you see where this is going. By harnessing the reverse flexy straw technology, one can create a jar "unflexed" or decompressed in its initial state, which can be easily and quickly compressed as necessary, just like a flexy straw! I have prepared a rough draft sketch of what this jar might look like below.

Super Fantastic Salsa Jar
Patent pending

After a bit of consideration, this idea would also benefit the makers of Pringles, and other such products where one's hand often gets stuck in the container.

Thank you and good night.

Patent pending.]]>Gogglehttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/8/14Sun, 14 Aug 2005 00:32:28 GMT


I think the multi-color lenses let you see the new Star Wars movie in 3D too, and real-life in 4D, which was handy the last time I checked.

What else... Product Reviews!!!

What sounds better than a yummy bag of Steak & Worcestershire Sauce chips? Nothing, absolutely nothing. UNFORTUNATELY, the chip behind the seasoning is a flimsy piece of paper. No good at all. I know you're all thinking " Ah...'Steakie' ", but it just didn't do it for me.

Crummy Worcestershire sauce chips
Beware

Jess suggested that we have some fish sticks the other night, and my first thought was about the damn "tar tar" sauce (if you say it as two separate words it is significantly more fun). I've learned to live without a few luxury items of the East Coast, but not my Cain's Tartar Sauce. If you've tried the Kraft stuff, you know what I'm talking about. It tastes like expired mayo with crappy 3rd rate pickle in it. Ugh. So during this little blog break, I decided to do a web search on Cain's tartar sauce and I only got 58 matches (with google). And they were weird matches. Here're some excerpts:

"if God tells you to go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, you take along the tartar sauce."
"The winner will get a jar of tartar sauce. (No, seriously)"
"A big ol' jar of Cain's Tartar Sauce will be headed your way, Karan."
"A home without television is like a slice of chocolate cake without tartar sauce."
"I'd like to jump in the Amazon river, naked, with tartar sauce spread on me..."
"And On the Eighth Day, God Created Tartar Sauce."

Coincidentally, it looks like I found the six worst web sites on the Internet. That's a relief.

Oh, so the moral of the story was we ended up with some tar tar sauce called Skippers, and it was pretty good (in a fancy sort of way), but no Cain's.

Have your pets spayed or neutered.]]>Back Behind the Wheelhttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/8/11Thu, 11 Aug 2005 01:55:28 GMT
I did luck out though, as I was able to get a doctor to let me know more exactly what was up (hence the aforementioned tendon damage) and how to fix it. Long story short - I've several days to weeks of recovery time ahead of me, so fruit baskets are welcome.

Poor Ankles
I circled the trouble spot and put in a dramatization of my face. The actual tendon is one which runs behind the ankle bone.

Fortunately, I can still ride my bike to and fro with the small condition of pre-wrapping both ankles (which takes me like a half hour to do for some reason) and suckin' down some ibuprofen. And constant on-off icing. Well you get the point..

That's the news with me, and after my unexpected week-long trip to Maine, I'm finally catching up on the work that needs doing and of course back behind the wheel of this thing. So I'll see what I can do about keeping up on some posts and tossing up a few flickr pictures every now & then on my flickr page.

Seabiscuit out!]]>New Features!http://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/29Fri, 29 Jul 2005 21:04:16 GMT
On another note... thanks to viewers like you, I was able to pick up a pair of New Balance 485s. They are very comfortable and sturdy.

My New Bs
My right shoe. full size

]]>That's "Uncie Craig" to you, pal!http://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/26Tue, 26 Jul 2005 21:51:34 GMT
my new niece
full size]]>The Forgotten SNLhttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/19Tue, 19 Jul 2005 21:58:44 GMTforgotten SNL skits?

You might be able to locate some of the transcripts at: http://snltranscripts.jt.org.]]>what thehttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/18Mon, 18 Jul 2005 15:59:08 GMTBootleg Radio? And More!http://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/17Sun, 17 Jul 2005 22:19:06 GMThttp://69.41.170.148:8400/listen.pls .. so I'm not sure if it is a bootleg radio station of some sort or not, but until it gets shut down or they get commercials, I'll tune in every once in a while. If you're looking for some other net radio, I highly suggest this other station that Dave showed me: http://www.theedge1039.com

I started running for the first time in over a year yesterday. The Gods must have been happy, since the sun was blocked by clouds and the wind seemed to be on my back the whole time. Two miles was all, but it was a good, steady pace. I did two more miles today. I'll probably keep up the two milers for another week or so, until my legs get adjusted the strain again. My goal is to be doing 4-6 mi/day by the end of summer, and depending on my school schedule in the fall, 6-8mi/day in the winter. The only forseeable problem is that my shoes are old and worn and I'll have to get some new ones pretty soon : ( Don't worry, you can help me while increasing your karma by clicking

[donate button removed ;) i got my shoes]

Every donation receives a personalized email thank you letter, and donations of $10 or more get a Hardee's coupon via mail. I would also like to thank the people who made the Google Pedometer for letting me track out my miles before heading out to the streets. I might play around with that idea of theirs and make a webapp to track my daily mileage/etc. Seems useful. If you are a runner and want in, lemme know and maybe I'll actually do it!
]]>The Ruthttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/15Fri, 15 Jul 2005 22:32:16 GMTHectór de la Cruz has been having trouble pulling off some sort of win when I go to these local minor league baseball games. I was convinced we were due when I heard our competition was a team called the Owlz (yes, spelled with a z). Sounds like a group of late-nite sys-admins decided to step out of the dark for a while and take their fantasy baseball one step further and start a team. Well the Owlz had the Osprey hitting F1 the whole night. And that's about all they hit.

Oh, but remember the 'ol Hardee's Hitter? (If you don't.. quick reminder - if he gets a hit, the crowd gets a Hardee's gift). Believe it or not, Rusty got a hit. Well, it was a bunt. And he only made it to the base because the catcher threw it and the 1st-baseman dropped it. Maybe you had to be there.. they probably didn't even give out the 2 4 1 coupons at game end anyway.

There were two interesting haps that night though.

ONE: Look for yo in the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records Extended Edition. No, not for my old scam for longest continuous time awake, but for being part of The World's largest, longest playing group of kazooers. Wooo. My kazoo was green.

TWO: I had my first radar-recorded pitching speed taken during the game. Actually I spent a good amount of time at the pitching booth spending my two bucks and impressing the ladies. 57 MPH. I figure I'll give it a whirl or two each time to see if I can improve my speed some. I haven't thrown a baseball in atleast 7 years, so I was pretty happy about it. I was above the mid/median/mean/mode speed that the kids and adults around were getting, so that was bueno. Here is an artist's rendition of me pitching if I were in a Gatorade commercial in my vest, black hat and Tevas.

crd in gatorade commercial

]]>Last call ...http://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/13Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:04:59 GMT
crd rendition of preserves
Above - Actual preserve jars, aged to perfection, digitally enhanced by yours truly for full flavor.


We can hardly keep up with demand. The phones are ringing off their hooks and the jars are just rolling off the shelves like hotcakes. You can even put them on hotcakes. We did. Still not convinced? You could also put them on..

Flapjacks
Pancakes
Griddle Cakes
Batter Cakes
Johnny Cakes

Now's the best part.

This $4.00 value is not going to cost you $4.00.
It isn't going to cost you $3.00,
not $2.00,
not $1.00,
not 50¢,
not even 10¢!
That's right, you get this amazing $4.00 value for $0.00. Order now and get an amazing surprise gift. It could be a magazine from 2004, or a handful of bottlecaps, or anything!!!

$24.95 s & h.]]>Open Recipe Bloghttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/12Tue, 12 Jul 2005 08:33:28 GMTBAM!#) millionaires and companies like McDonalds billionaires. But even Emeril's recipes and Micky D's Recipes are out there.. Maybe I'm getting off topic a little...

Anyway, I'm starting an Open Recipe Blog (maybe ORB for short).. for my amigos, amigas, gringos, El Toritos and everyone to share the deliciousness that is our lives. This way, everyone can access them, all the time.

So if you're stuck on dinner ideas, make like clickwork over to the Links section on the RHS of this page and hit up the Open Recipe Blog [update 8/28/2007: blog no longer exists].]]>Stuffed Mushroomshttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/12Tue, 12 Jul 2005 00:26:15 GMTyour culinary expertise.

Freakin' Sweet Stuffed Musrooms]]>Drink Moxie!http://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/11Mon, 11 Jul 2005 23:38:02 GMT
Moxie Cans

Myth: Moxie tastes bitter like dirt.
Fact: Moxie is delicious and tastes better than a 5 pound bag of sugar. The unique taste is what makes this drink such a pleasure to consume.

Myth: Moxie "flavors" are good variations of the Moxie beverage.
Fact: "Flavored" Moxie is NOT Moxie. Don't believe the mythbuster? Look at the ingredients list for "Moxie" Cherry Cola: carbonated water, sugar and/or fructose, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavor, and caffeine. Notice that neither Moxie nor Gentian Root Extracts are listed. In other words, not only is it not a derivative of Moxie, it does not even contain the main ingredient of Moxie. Plus they can't even figure out if it is sugar, fructose, or both in the drink.

Myth: Moxie is not as good as the mainstream beverages Coke or Pepsi.
Fact: Moxie is much better in all aspects.

If you haven't tried some Moxie lately, pick some up at a local store (and if that is not possible, shop around for some online). Just make sure you're getting the original Moxie, as seen above!

Now, for your reading pleasure, a Moxie article from the NY Times.

Update: Some Moxie location tips! Everyone say "Thank you, Joey!"]]>RGBhttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/11Mon, 11 Jul 2005 01:38:07 GMT
Anytime I see red, green, and blue simultaneously, I get all excited. You get a new photo to see. Everyone wins. This one was taken though a dusty window, but came out better than I'd hoped. I refrained from any doctoring, and let the original red, green, blue, dark, and light come through. Not an amazing journal-style shot, just nice to see colors and shades like these sometimes.]]>Cooooooooolhttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/11Mon, 11 Jul 2005 01:16:31 GMTthis.
That is just not cool. No pun intended. Oh, yeah I probably did intend some pun. Anyway, $268 for a special slider-style A/C unit? I could get a used Subaru Justy for that kind of money. Maybe two.

Here are the modifications that were required to make this work. I guess first and foremost, if your window does not open up at least 18 5/8", then you're outta luck, because the world needs constants like that and Pi and everything on the Wendy's dollar menu. After you've determined the length of your window opening is a-okay, go ahead and pick up a cheap A/C unit (or a free one if you happen to have good or awesome friends and relatives). Also, while you are out, make sure to grab about 20+ ft. strong rope, some duct tape (if you don't have this already, I doubt you could handle this project, or any other project for that matter. In fact, go hang your head in shame for a while), and about 20 sq. ft. clear plastic sheeting (indoor/outdoor). Less the A/C, this stuff shouldn't run you over 10 bucks.

As for the rest of it, well I think I'll let the pictures do the explaining...

AC installed
Here it is in the raw

Notice where the plastic sheeting and duct tape come into place, sealing up the open window area. Then comes in the rope. This particular rope was originally purchased at a marine supply store, and is pretty damn strong to say the least. You'll want to cleanly secure it around the unit (through any steel holes/cleats you can find), and pull it taut around something solid (in this case it was a desk leg). Tie up your favorite no-slip knots/hitches on each end (we used Two Half Hitches for each tie, thanks Roper, whoever you are). And, Presto! Voila!! Freakin Sweet!!!

AC installed + pretty
Here it is all prettied up.

Bows.]]>Step 2http://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/7Thu, 07 Jul 2005 10:35:04 GMTOh for Twohttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/4Mon, 04 Jul 2005 17:04:38 GMTStupid Hardee's Coupon

Come on! I was even planning to stop by on the way home to use it, but nooo, it is only valid a handful of hours each day. Well, I'll try not to be too bitter, the game was quite exciting. You can see from this action shot that we might have actually won if:

  • The 3rd baseman wasn't checking out some girl in the opposing team's dugout

  • The left fielder would stop walking toward the sun light.

  • The shortstop didn't keep looking to make sure his shoes were tied

  • The umpire also didn't keep looking to make sure HIS shoes were tied


Exciting Baseball Action Shot

All excitement considered, I'd go again. Stupid Hardee's coupon.

]]>Strawberries!http://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/4Mon, 04 Jul 2005 16:10:06 GMTJack LaLanne Juicer : ( After a bit of shopping around for a decent price on that juicer, I decided to make preserves!

Strawberry Preserves]]>July 1 '05http://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/2Sat, 02 Jul 2005 13:21:19 GMTcasorati - think fast!, that is. Although a post yesterday would have been more appropriate, I was just too busy moving in.. i had to use damn pliers to get my frosty beverage open (see below). You will be able to read about the moving stuff a bit later.

with plyers

Getting back on topic.. as with most blogs you will probably find an assortment of daily stuff going on here, and hopefully my life can be as entertaining as it is to me, to you. Maybe moreso. I plan to also post my innovations on here (maybe not in the blog, but you can read about them in the blog if you like). I'm always up for a good comment, suggestion or idea, so drop a line whenever you can.

crd
]]>Zoom zoom zoomhttp://dec4.org/craig/2005/7/2Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:29:36 GMTcraig rsshttp://www.dec4.orgrss feedFri, 30 Jul 2010 12:53:23 GMTen-us