Wanna play chess?

I just called back an old friend with whom I used to play mail games in the arcanum bbs times and I thought it would be nice to recover those mail matches (and to improve a bit my chess skills that can't be worse).

If anybody wants to play a chess game with me, just drop a comment, mail me or make the first move either here or here using game[AT]rsc112[DOT]tk as my address.

[Escuchando: Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2 - UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY (5:18)]

It seems I chose a bad day to install Haloscan
Blogger seems to have reacted to the problems their previous comment system had and has changed it. Now you don't need to open a couple of pages to post a new comment and you can read both the original post and the comments other users have made on the same page you are going to write yours.

I've been trying it a bit and it is fast and, if that's not enough, good looking.

I'll keep Haloscan comment system anyways so you can choose.

[Escuchando: hot for teacher - van halen - 101Greatest Guitar Solos (4:44)]

And Babel is one store higher
It's almost half a year since promised, but I'm glad to announce you the Spanish version of this weblog.

I will touch both templates soon, probably before the end of February, and I will also be porting the old translated posts to the bitácora gradually.

[Escuchando: el club de las primeras esposas - - el club de las primeras esposas - (1:29:04)]

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Do I need to add anything?

I'll keep the blogger comment feature to backup Haloscan when they are one or two months old to avoid deletion.

Recycling the disposable

I bet some of you have thought that those plastic/paper disposable cameras you bought that time you forgot your camera made really sharp photographs. You'll be glad to know that you can recycle them for further uses.

Take a look at Camera Hacker.

[Escuchando: jesus doesn't want me for a su - Nirvana - With the Lights Out (3:31)]

Video tutorials
Have you ever felt stupid after watching one of those video tutorials that explain things in a way that seems so easy that it renders impossible for you to do the same?

Well, here's a video of a Japanese Taiwanese girl showing how to fold a t-shirt in less than a second. I had to repeat it four times before I folded it in the right way, but I think I'm gonna use this method from now on.

Via: moonlee.org

Edit: Here's another video that shows how to fold t-shirts and shirts step by step.

[Escuchando: Al Culo De Una Lombriz - Marea - 28000 Punaladas (3:47)]

IceRocket Bookmarklets
So you want to integrate IceRocket Search to your weblog or site? Then you can use these bookmarklets.
Place the link wherever you want in your site and whenever you click it, a tiny popup will open asking you to introduce your search term and the results page will open.

Do you want to add a button search to any browser? Then grab the button of your choice to the bookmark toolbar/sidebar.

Give them a try, they are all at my IceRocket plugins for Opera page.


IceRocket Web SearchBookmarklet


IceRocket Weblog SearchBookmarklet


IceRocket Mobile Phone Pics SearchBookmarklet


IceRocket Friend SearchBookmarklet


IceRocket Image SearchBookmarklet


IceRocket News SearchBookmarklet


IceRocket Multi Media Search Bookmarklet


Enjoy!

[Escuchando: Another Brick In The Wall (Par - Korn - Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (7:09)]

IceRocket and Opera

Following the tracks of the IceRocket QuickSearch plugins I made for Firefox some days ago, I have made some plugins and a Search Tab Panel for Opera/Netscape.

So if you are one of the 8% visitors that browse this weblog with Opera and want to integrate IceRocket Search to your browser, then go here and add the search pannel or install the plugin.

I have submitted the search plugins to the Opera Search Plugin Manager so you can also install the IceRocket Search Field or the IceRocket Custom Button Search from there.

The IceRocket Search sidebar can also be installed from Opera's panel site.

[Escuchando: Hardware Bus Security in Embed - Dan Matthews - The Fifth HOPE (1:00:28)]

Student Suspended Over Suspected Use of PHP

One day people will use their brain before applying stupid rules.

Topeka, KS - High school sophomore Brett Tyson was suspended today after teachers learned he may be using PHP.

"A teacher overheard him say that he was using PHP, and as part of our Zero-Tolerance policy against drug use, he was immediately suspended. No questions asked," said Principal Clyde Thurlow. "We're not quite sure what PHP is, but we suspect it may be a derivative of PCP, or maybe a new designer drug like GHB."
Parents are frightened by the discovery of this new menace in their children's school, and are demanding the school do something. "We heard that he found out about PHP at school on the internet. There may even be a PHP web ring operating on school grounds," said irate parent Carol Blessing. "School is supposed to be teaching our kids how to read and write. Not about dangerous drugs like PHP."

In response to parental demands the school has reconfigured its internet WatchDog software to block access to all internet sites mentioning PHP. Officials say this should prevent any other students from falling prey like Brett Tyson did. They have also stepped up locker searches and brought in drug sniffing dogs.

Interviews with students suggested that PHP use is wide spread around the school, but is particularly concentrated in the geeky nerd population. When contacted by BBspot.com, Brett Tyson said, "I don't know what the hell is going on dude, but this suspension gives me more time for fraggin'. Yee haw!"

PHP is a hypertext preprocessor, which sounds very dangerous. It is believed that many users started by using Perl and moved on to the more powerful PHP. For more information on how to recognize if your child may be using PHP visit php.net.

Via: Frandt

[Escuchando: Tell Me Baby - Ray Charles - Kissing Her Now (2:37)]

The World as far as I know it



No, the NODs are not losing the battle against GDI (forgive me this retro Command & Conquer comment). This World map show all the countries I've visited. So I only know 20 countries (a tiny 8% of the total).

It makes me think in my next trip, where should I go. Sugestions are welcome and, if the travel from Spain is cheap, encouraged.

Click on the map to create your own travel map.

Via: Micah World

[Escuchando: Dream On - Aerosmith - You Gotta Move (4:40)]

IceRocket search plugins for Firefox updated
It no longer submits double queries. I have also writen a few more plugins for the rest of the search services Icerocket provides.

The complete plugin list is:

- IceRocket Web Search plugin
- IceRocket Multimedia Search Plugin
- IceRocket Image Search Plugin
- IceRocket News Search Plugin
- IceRocket Weblog Search Plugin
- IceRocket People Search Plugin

You can install them here:


One tip for all of you who haven't used IceRocket MultiMedia search. Search some song or artist and you'll see why I consider it the best multimedia search engine on the net right now.

[Escuchando: Animal Instinct (Live In Stock - The Cranberries - Stars (Ltd.Edition) - CD2 (0:-1)]

IceRocket places a link to my Firefox plugin on their site

In a matter of minutes after published IceRocket has linked to the firefox plugin. If they are as eficient with all their tasks I guess they are going to go really far with this project.

Keep an eye on this search engine as it seems to be a fast growing project and they appear to be very motivated. This can make the SE battle a bit more interesting as it won't be just a fight between Google and the new MSN search.

[Escuchando: burn - matchbook romance (stories & alibis) 08 - (4:19)]

Better than Google? Add IceRocket quicksearch to Mozilla Firefox

At least I think so. Not only it's extremely fast loading, has several search tabs (web, blogs, news, phone cam pics, images, multimedia, people), and displays as many results as Google, but it adds three features that make you save time when performing a search.


- Each search result comes with it's own snapshot, something that can give you a slight overview of the website.


- It's 'Quick View' feature allows you to browse the page while you are still in the search engine page. This a really clever idea as it allow you to check the rest of the results while the site loads if it's a heavy one. It's expandable, so we really have two different quick view links.

- It has a link to the Internet Archive so you can see how the information has changed in the site along the years.

The multimedia search is astonishing and so is the email a search, which allows you to submit searches to xxxx@icerocket.com (xxxx stands for search=web search, news=news search, pics=picture search) by sending a blank email with the query string as subject. The system responds almost inmediately sending you the answers to your mailbox. Others tried to do something similar, but sms cost money.

I have met lots of people who also love this browser but, as most of them are Mozilla Firefox users, they tend to have Google as main search engine because it's already implemented in Firefox quicksearch box while Icerocket isn't.

As I couldn't find the plugin at Mozdev site, I decided to write my own. It works flawlessly so I have already sent it to Mozdev and I hope it'll get listed there soon. Until then you can install it from my personal webspace:


Icerocket Extension for Mozilla Firefox

[Escuchando: I wanna be your dog - Sid Vicious - Vive le Rock Live (5:30)]

Wishlist
First of all sorry for not updating the blog as often as I should, but my neck ache and exams don't let me stay too much time in front of the computer.

Well, I just post this to shake the dust of the weblog, but if any of you want you can send me one of the things listed here:

My Amazon wishlist

If you are stuck in a book store and don't remember which book I wanted then you can check it with your phone via WAP enabled Amazon wishlist

It'll be updated everytime I find something interesting.

[Escuchando: Ode To My Family (Live In Stoc - The Cranberries - Stars (Ltd.Edition) - CD2 (4:25)]