Recently, I wrote about why my comics aggregator stopped supporting comic strips distributed by the King Features Syndicate. In a nutshell, King Features changed how their comics are distributed in a way that (a) makes it much harder for my aggregator to scrape them, and (b) makes it 100% clear that they don’t want people… Read More »
I recently bought a Bluetooth 4.0 USB adapter from BlueRigger, because I wanted to use a wireless headset on my desktop computer at home, and it doesn’t have Bluetooth built in. It didn’t quite work… I was able to listen to music just fine on my headset, but when I tried to switch it into… Read More »
The folks at the King Features Syndicate have always made their comics harder to aggregate than those of any of the other syndicates. I had implemented a convoluted workaround involving redirecting requests for images of their comics through the comics aggregator itself, where various special headers were inserted into the request to convince the King… Read More »
I have an HP LaserJet 500 color M551 printer, with which I am overall extremely happy. One of the neat features this printer supports is HP ePrint, which allows me to print files just by emailing them to an email address @hpeprint.com. Not only that, but I can link the printer directly through ePrint to… Read More »
Perhaps I just don’t grok the zen of Hacker News, but I just don’t get why the site doesn’t provide RSS feeds of comments on postings. I also don’t get why nobody has written something to provide this. Or, at least, if it has been written, I couldn’t find it (perhaps my Google mojo just isn’t… Read More »
UPDATE [2013-01-20]: The scripts weren’t reading the username and password from the config file properly. In fact, I had accidentally hard-coded my own Vonage username and password in this script. D’oh! Needless to say, I’ve changed my password, and the updated scripts below are fixed. Also, I updated the cron script to allow the usage… Read More »
I’ve added xkcd.com the comics aggregator. And there was much rejoicing. Alas, because of the architecture of the aggregator, I can’t easily serve up the alt text that Randall attaches to the strips. :-/ As always, feel free to show your appreciation. 🙂
I have just been informed by a member of Massachusetts Senator Will Brownsberger’s staff that he “will be co-sponsoring a piece of legislation that will, among other things, prevent employers from asking job applicants for their social networking passwords.” This issue has been raised in previous sessions of the Massachusetts legislature, but it has not… Read More »
By popular demand, I’ve added Mallard Fillmore, Prickly City, Broom Hilda, Calvin and Hobbes, Beetle Bailey, and The Born Loser to the comics aggregator. As always, feel free to show your appreciation. 🙂
I have written previously about the awful technological failures and terrible service I have received since transferring my domains to 1and1. There’s more to the story. Here’s today’s update… Executive summary In our last episode, I was trying to reconfigure my 1and1 domains to use DNS servers I set up myself. I was able to… Read More »