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San Francisco’s famous indiscriminate protester |
| September 18th, 2008 Uncategorized | |
Working in San Francisco’s Financial District is like no other place in the world. There are famous landmarks, good restaurants, and interesting people to see. Frank Chu is one of those people. On any given day you may spot him incoherently ranting out loud on a busy street corner. Trying to figure out what his signs mean and just what he’s trying to tell you can be surreal, yet try to speak to him normally and he’ll respond very normally. He’s an interesting charter to figure out. I’m still trying.
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Working in San Francisco’s Financial District is like no other place in the world. There are famous landmarks, good restaurants, and interesting people to see. Frank Chu is one of those people. On any given day you may spot him incoherently ranting out loud on a busy street corner. Trying to figure out what his signs mean and just what he’s trying to tell you can be surreal, yet try to speak to him normally and he’ll respond very normally. He’s an interesting charter to figure out. I’m still trying.
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PNG is better than GIF when working with gradient or anti-aliased images with transparent backgrounds |
| September 18th, 2008 Web Design | |
I’ve discovered that the PNG image format is the way to go when you’ve got an image with surrounding gradients or anti-aliased pixels and a background that requires transparency. Say you want to add a drop-shadow to an image with a non-solid background color (i.e. a picture as a background with multiple colors). The usual step is to create a transparent GIF file with the matte color set to the background color. This doesn’t work too well with varying background colors, especially background colors with high contrast to the matte color that’s been set for the image. Method 1 Background image: I used my foreground color as my matte color: Transparent logo image with matte color set to foreground color: Overlaying the transparent logo image over the background image. So, the solution is to use transparent PNG! The quality of the drop-shadow will still look relatively high (either equal to or better than GIF quality) and it doesn’t matter what the background is; the drop-shadow will always blend into the background. Method 2 Background image: Saving the transparent logo as in PNG format: Overlay the logo over the background, and viola! So, there’s no longer a need to define a matte color. Game, set, match…no more ugly glows around anti-aliased images. People ask me, “so what is this good for”? This technique has many uses on web sites but one general purpose to be able to skin your sites with different backgrounds without ever affecting the main elements of the page such as your logo or your navigation images. This saves you a lot of time in not having to update other images on your site as a result of having changed to a different background or theme. |
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I’ve discovered that the PNG image format is the way to go when you’ve got an image with surrounding gradients or anti-aliased pixels and a background that requires transparency. Say you want to add a drop-shadow to an image with a non-solid background color (i.e. a picture as a background with multiple colors). The usual step is to create a transparent GIF file with the matte color set to the background color. This doesn’t work too well with varying background colors, especially background colors with high contrast to the matte color that’s been set for the image.
Method 1
Background image:
I used my foreground color as my matte color:
Transparent logo image with matte color set to foreground color:
Overlaying the transparent logo image over the background image.
I set the matte color to the green grass color using the eyedropper tool, but as you can see the resulting overlay doesn’t look that great.
So, the solution is to use transparent PNG! The quality of the drop-shadow will still look relatively high (either equal to or better than GIF quality) and it doesn’t matter what the background is; the drop-shadow will always blend into the background.
Method 2
Background image:
Saving the transparent logo as in PNG format:
Overlay the logo over the background, and viola!
So, there’s no longer a need to define a matte color. Game, set, match…no more ugly glows around anti-aliased images.
People ask me, “so what is this good for”? This technique has many uses on web sites but one general purpose to be able to skin your sites with different backgrounds without ever affecting the main elements of the page such as your logo or your navigation images. This saves you a lot of time in not having to update other images on your site as a result of having changed to a different background or theme.
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From Selfless Act To Selfish Act |
| September 16th, 2008 Sports | |
Last night’s Monday Night Football game featured a heated rivalry between the Eagles and Cowboys at Texas Stadium in Dallas. It become a powerful offensive showdown before halftime as the Eagles captured a lead with the score at 30-24. However, the biggest news of the night for fantasy football owners is what didn’t happen. With a clear line to the endzone, receiver DeSean Jackson of the Eagles committed one of the biggest rookie bonehead moves since Plaxico Buress’ spiking of a live ball. Jackson celebrated to the endzone too soon a la Leon Lett and fumbled the ball away at the 1-yard line by letting go. The play was reviewed and luckily the Eagles were given the ball at the 1 with first and goal. Brian Westbrook took it in and I guess you can say it was football kharma because last year Westbrook intentionally prevented himself from reaching the endzone to guarantee an Eagles win over the Cowboys. These weird, comedic moments in NFL history in a way is what makes watching the game so entertaining. You never know what’s going to happen. Thank God for Tivo. |
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Last night’s Monday Night Football game featured a heated rivalry between the Eagles and Cowboys at Texas Stadium in Dallas. It become a powerful offensive showdown before halftime as the Eagles captured a lead with the score at 30-24. However, the biggest news of the night for fantasy football owners is what didn’t happen. With a clear line to the endzone, receiver DeSean Jackson of the Eagles committed one of the biggest rookie bonehead moves since Plaxico Buress’ spiking of a live ball. Jackson celebrated to the endzone too soon a la Leon Lett and fumbled the ball away at the 1-yard line by letting go. The play was reviewed and luckily the Eagles were given the ball at the 1 with first and goal. Brian Westbrook took it in and I guess you can say it was football kharma because last year Westbrook intentionally prevented himself from reaching the endzone to guarantee an Eagles win over the Cowboys. These weird, comedic moments in NFL history in a way is what makes watching the game so entertaining. You never know what’s going to happen. Thank God for Tivo.
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On the streets |
| September 9th, 2008 Uncategorized | |
Testing out Wordpress on iPhone. Ladies and gentlemen, Flashtut has gone mobile! Tune in next week when we officially welcome Flashtut to modern society.
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Testing out Wordpress on iPhone. Ladies and gentlemen, Flashtut has gone mobile! Tune in next week when we officially welcome Flashtut to modern society.
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Just An Observation |
| April 7th, 2008 Brilliant Observations, Gaming, Movies | |
I was looking at the new street kings movie poster today and it instantly reminded me of the box art for a video game called, The Club. It was one of those, ‘hey I’ve seen that style somewhere before!’ moments.
Street Kings opens this Friday, April 11th, and The Club has been out since February 19th. |
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I was looking at the new street kings movie poster today and it instantly reminded me of the box art for a video game called, The Club. It was one of those, ‘hey I’ve seen that style somewhere before!’ moments.
Street Kings opens this Friday, April 11th, and The Club has been out since February 19th.
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Fo’ Sho |
| December 27th, 2007 Sports, What's New? | |
what?!
…I changed my name to Dropped a Deuce from Dinkin’ Flicka after Deuce McAllister (my 3rd round pick) got injured for the season. |
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what?!
…I changed my name to Dropped a Deuce from Dinkin’ Flicka after Deuce McAllister (my 3rd round pick) got injured for the season.
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Brian Westbrook – Selfless Act Of The Week |
| December 17th, 2007 Sports | |
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This is why I love the game. In a sport where you have players begging to be thrown the ball and some only ‘playing when they want to’, Brian Westbrook plays for his team. Up 10-6 with a little over 2 minutes left in the game, Westbrook had a chance to walk into the endzone to put the Eagles up 17-6. Instead, he stops short and falls down at the 1 yard line. The Cowboys had no timeouts left in the game, so all the Eagles had to do was kneel every down after the 2 minute warning.
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My mad creation… I just got a hold of an 8800 GT! |
| December 14th, 2007 What's New? | |
So, I just bought this puppy online from newegg.com for $250 +tax. This should complete one of the pieces for the monster machine I’m building that I’m hoping will last me a little less than a decade (wishful thinking). The GeForce 8800 GT 512Mb card has gotten sparkling reviews from many sites for its power compared to others in its series, namely the 8800 GTS and GTX, which are almost double in price. |
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So, I just bought this puppy online from newegg.com for $250 +tax. This should complete one of the pieces for the monster machine I’m building that I’m hoping will last me a little less than a decade (wishful thinking). The GeForce 8800 GT 512Mb card has gotten sparkling reviews from many sites for its power compared to others in its series, namely the 8800 GTS and GTX, which are almost double in price.
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Christmas Comes Early For Me |
| December 10th, 2007 What's New? | |
I just bought an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
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I just bought an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
So, in between Christmas shopping for others this weekend I decided that my computer needed upgrading from its circa-2003 self. I spent a few hours over the weekend looking for deals perusing DealNews, GotApex, and FatWallet and finally found my replacement box. I’m about 700 bucks poorer but came out of my shopping experience with a computer that should last me about another 4 years or so…I figure that’s a good investment.
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HAHA! I get the same draft spot as last year |
| August 11th, 2007 Sports | |
This is our Frisco Fantasy Football League draft order lottery… My team name this year: Dinkin’ Flicka! |
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This is our Frisco Fantasy Football League draft order lottery…
My team name this year: Dinkin’ Flicka!
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Roma week due (week 2) |
| July 10th, 2007 What's New? | |
So we’re on the second week in Rome and I think we’ve seen pretty much everything. We’ve explored every piazza and and every historical landmark we know of. It’s been great but I’m ready to move on to different sights. I’ve added pics to flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/webslinger/ |
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So we’re on the second week in Rome and I think we’ve seen pretty much everything. We’ve explored every piazza and and every historical landmark we know of. It’s been great but I’m ready to move on to different sights.
I’ve added pics to flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/webslinger/
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Desitination Wedding in Italy |
| June 6th, 2007 Brilliant Observations, CSS, Web Design, What's New? | |
So, Leanne and I are just weeks away from our departure to Italy for our destination wedding in the Amalfi Coast. We’re both feeling a plethora of emotions from excitement, stress, nervousness, and most of all anticipation as the day draws nearer. |
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So, Leanne and I are just weeks away from our departure to Italy for our destination wedding in the Amalfi Coast. We’re both feeling a plethora of emotions from excitement, stress, nervousness, and most of all anticipation as the day draws nearer.
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AK-47 Posterized |
| May 11th, 2007 Sports | |
Andre Kirilenko gets a facial from Baron Davis (Utah vs. Golden State – Game 3). This one deserves the thizz face…oooooh. |
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Andre Kirilenko gets a facial from Baron Davis (Utah vs. Golden State – Game 3). This one deserves the thizz face…oooooh.
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Nike Barbershop 1992 |
| April 26th, 2007 Sports | |
Here’s an old commercial I was able to dig up with CDub and Spree at the barbershop, clowning Barkley’s facial… |
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Here’s an old commercial I was able to dig up with CDub and Spree at the barbershop, clowning Barkley’s facial…
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We Believe! |
| April 25th, 2007 Sports | |
Aww yeah! Round 1 Western Conference Finals…GS 1 – Mavs 0
Their chances of going all the way aren’t great, but I believe in the playoffs anything can happen. They’ve got nothing to lose, so they’re going to lay it all out with some great moments. In the meanwhile, I’ll enjoy every chance I get to watch them in the spotlight. It’s time for JRich, B-Dizzle, Monta, Jackson and the rest of the ballers to shine! |
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Aww yeah! Round 1 Western Conference Finals…GS 1 – Mavs 0
Their chances of going all the way aren’t great, but I believe in the playoffs anything can happen. They’ve got nothing to lose, so they’re going to lay it all out with some great moments. In the meanwhile, I’ll enjoy every chance I get to watch them in the spotlight.
It’s time for JRich, B-Dizzle, Monta, Jackson and the rest of the ballers to shine!
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CSS Hack Info |
| April 11th, 2007 CSS | |
Backslash & Asterisk hacks:
IE 5 recognizes and applies styles that begin with a backslash in the attribute
Using an asterisk before the cascade applies the style in IE only
Selector hack:
…works for FF but not IE. These hacks can be helpful in some instances when you need to adjust elements of a browser between IE and FF, so that they match. A lot of times I find I need to use these hacks for precise positioning or scaling of blocks since the two browsers don’t seem to interpret styles exactly the same way. I blame Microsoft! |
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Backslash & Asterisk hacks:
IE 6 recognizes and applies styles that are misspelled with a backslash in the attribute
div#myDiv {
he\ight: 73px;
wi\dth: 84px;
col\or: #000;
}
IE 5 recognizes and applies styles that begin with a backslash in the attribute
div#myDiv {
\height: 73px;
\width: 84px;
\color: #000;
}
Using an asterisk before the cascade applies the style in IE only
div#myDiv {
/* This gets applied to all browsers */
}* html div#myDiv {
/* This gets applied only in IE */
}
Selector hack:
Firefox and other CSS compliant browsers recognize the > selector. Of course IE doesn’t. So…
div#myDiv {
/* This gets applied to all browsers */
}* > html div#myDiv {
/* This gets applied to only CSS compliant browsers */
}
…works for FF but not IE.
These hacks can be helpful in some instances when you need to adjust elements of a browser between IE and FF, so that they match. A lot of times I find I need to use these hacks for precise positioning or scaling of blocks since the two browsers don’t seem to interpret styles exactly the same way. I blame Microsoft!
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Geraldo 1 – O’Reilly 0 |
| April 8th, 2007 What's New? | |
Happy Easter! I love the closing credits to this vid, “We watch FOX so you don’t have to.” This is an interesting and very heated debate between Gerlado Rivera and Bill O’Reilly on immigration reform and a drunk driving case of an illegal immigrant killing teenagers in Virginia. |
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Happy Easter!
I love the closing credits to this vid, “We watch FOX so you don’t have to.” This is an interesting and very heated debate between Gerlado Rivera and Bill O’Reilly on immigration reform and a drunk driving case of an illegal immigrant killing teenagers in Virginia.
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Valentines at Googe? |
| February 14th, 2007 What's New? | |
I guess even the best can slip up when “L”ove is in the air…
Happy Valentines Day! |
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I guess even the best can slip up when “L”ove is in the air…
Happy Valentines Day!
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Review: The Pursuit of Happyness |
| January 17th, 2007 Inspiration, Movies | |
I finally got to see The Pursuit of Happyness about a month ago at Century 22 Winchester, and after leaving the movie, I felt a bit inspired. Will Smith did an excellent job portraying Chris Gardner, a salesman in the early 80’s in San Francisco who sold a product (bone density scanners) that many people didn’t need. The difficulty he had in selling the scanners made it hard to make ends meet to support his wife, played by Thandie Newton, and his son, played by his real-life son, Jaden Smith. His wife eventually leaves him and he’s left to take care of his young son, while he takes on a Dean Witter internship for a chance to become a stock broker, while limited in funds. Although he has some money, it easily disappears when he has to take into account daycare, bills, parking tickets, taxes, back taxes, and shoes. The movie has some flaws, but they could be easily overlooked as Will Smith’s performance takes spotlight. It’s probably his best performance to date. |
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I finally got to see The Pursuit of Happyness about a month ago at Century 22 Winchester, and after leaving the movie, I felt a bit inspired. Will Smith did an excellent job portraying Chris Gardner, a salesman in the early 80’s in San Francisco who sold a product (bone density scanners) that many people didn’t need. The difficulty he had in selling the scanners made it hard to make ends meet to support his wife, played by Thandie Newton, and his son, played by his real-life son, Jaden Smith. His wife eventually leaves him and he’s left to take care of his young son, while he takes on a Dean Witter internship for a chance to become a stock broker, while limited in funds. Although he has some money, it easily disappears when he has to take into account daycare, bills, parking tickets, taxes, back taxes, and shoes. The movie has some flaws, but they could be easily overlooked as Will Smith’s performance takes spotlight. It’s probably his best performance to date.
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Web-based integrated chat client |
| January 10th, 2007 What's New? | |
This is an awesome chat client that intergrates all my contacts from Y!, AIM, and MSN. I usually use trillian, but this is perfect when I’m on a machine where I can’t download any IM clients… |
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This is an awesome chat client that intergrates all my contacts from Y!, AIM, and MSN. I usually use trillian, but this is perfect when I’m on a machine where I can’t download any IM clients…