Brain Farts v2.0

Busy Busy Busy

Had some free time today now that I'm done working on all the new forum themes. Updated MT all the way from 3.17 to 3.20. I know what you're thinking, such a big upgrade. A pitty there's not an actual sarcasm tag for marking up text that can make it really jump out at you. I'm not exactly sure what 3.20 brings to the table, something about importing styles for dummies, but I'm rather anal about having the latest and greatest. Before you ask, no. I'm not gonna go through all that trouble to update the forums from 6.7.0 to 6.7.3. Please don't be offended when I say this but you guys aren't worth that amount of time. After updating MT I busied myself with applying the old design theme to the new code. Brain Farts is now officially back online. Over the next few days I will be tweaking the code to get it Just Right�. If you're interested in seeing the forum themes now available to you in your forum profile just continue reading.

P.S. Go Astros!!!!!!!!!!

]]> CAUTION!!! : The below links are to PDF images.

Default
Majestic
Mayhem
Trindel
Nova

Woohoo!!!

Well hot damn. The update went and killed my old custom made CSS style. Now I'll have to spend some time transposing from the old 2.0 code to the new 3.0 code. What that means in a nutshell is I'll get to it when I get to it. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe even next year.

Testing

1..2..3..

Just Upgraded To 3.17

And making sure it's all still working.

Some days...

Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in. This constant bullshit does grate on me folks. But I've put up with it for 5 years now, what's a few more gonna matter? Not like I could possibly have anything better to do with my time then play daddy to a bunch of moaning teeny boppers. Oh well, at least I have WoW to escape to.

My Liking For CSS Continues

I wasn't kidding when I said how handy CSS is in an earlier post. This time I went and totally re-worked the forums. The entire layout and design is now handled by CSS. If you were around for my Brain Farts 2.0 entry then you already know I don't give a shit if your browser doesn't support CSS. When I'm finally happy with the appearance and done tinkering with the design I'll post an image so you'll know if your browser is rendering it properly or not. If not then you need to upgrade to a modern, standards compliant browser already. Now, with a CSS based design it does open the door to allowing forum users to select their own style. But that would entail even more work getting graphics to match each and every style if we were to do that. And since the forums share the same basic color scheme as the rest of the site I would never allow it anyway. The use of CSS also opens up more customization options for the look of the forums themselves.(For example the new quote blocks and brushed metal textures.) As I've said before, if you don't utilize CSS then you should begin doing so. It may be a bitch to switch over but once you do it is SO worth it. Stay tuned to see what is next on the design block.

Please leave any comments and suggestions you might have below. I'm particularly interested in hearing what you think of the new changes and any critiques you might have to make it better.

Update: Here is the pic for how the forums should render.

I Can Do That

So I decided to have a link to my blog on the main page. It should help those one or two passerby's that I'm not able to spam to death with the actual link or email. Helps to own the site and everything. It will also allow those in the clan who are curious to see what The Ruler of all That Is mAc� is up to on the off chance I post about clan matters. You never know...

Proudly presenting Brain Farts version 2.0.

Welcome to the new and improved version of Brain Farts. It is my utmost hope that you enjoy the spiffeh new look and find some of the new features useful.(I give no guarantees on the content, though.) If this is your first time here, or just plain forget what the old site looked like, you must see this example in order to fully understand how much it has changed. Ever since I started clan-mac.com three years ago I have always had an active hand in how it looks and functions. No matter who the web-guru was at the time or which team I had assembled to put it all together, nothing went on the site unless I approved of it. In every iteration that the main site went through I have always been proud of the work invested and the people who put forth their personal time. If you've been here since the start you can easily assume that I've only gotten prouder over time. The single thing I've been proudest of all is the forum section of the site. This area alone entails an unfathomable amount of pain staking troubleshooting just to get it all to look just right.(In fact, parts of it still don't.) Since the forums are so extensive you must be very meticulous when it comes to the color palette you select. Put simply, that's the difference between looking tacky and looking professional.

But, as of now, the section of the site I'm now proudest of is my very own part of it. The single, underlying reason why it holds that position is because I designed the look myself. With the exception of a graphic whipped up by my dear friend Carbon and an image ripped from the forums, which was in turn ripped from Apple, I did the coding and layout myself working from the default style. During the process of re-doing the look and feel of my weblog I ended up teaching myself CSS. If you are a web designer and do not know or utilize CSS then I highly recommend you do. This language makes site layout simple and easy, browser of choice be damned. Throughout the never-ending ordeal of revamping the main site I always knew it wasn't an easy thing and always made sure that those working on it felt appreciated. It is only now that I fully understand the labor of love it was for those who have helped out in the past and continue to support the site. At this point I must give out mad props to all those that have ever worked on clan-mac.com.(In no particular order: TonyTheMad, Death, Kaboom, Cube, Tarth, Jazz and anyone else I might have forgotten over time .) Take a bow guys, you deserve it, wherever you are.

Now, just because I'm currently gleaming over the new design doesn't mean it couldn't be better. In the future, who knows where it or the rest of the site could go. And, since I am proud of my handiwork I do ask that all those stopping by leave their thoughts and/or critiques in the comments area. Until next gassy exodus, good afternoon, good evening and good night.

When You're Having Fun and All That...

Since it's been roughly five months since my last post I'll go through a quick list of notable things that have happened in that time period. Starting with the month of March:

1. Found a job.(Game Teching at Jillian's of Houston)
2. Opened a new bank account so I could pay bills myself, again.
3. The iTunes Music Store, I might make an entry about that.
4. Apple talked about Panther and announced the G5s.(So who has yet to stop drooling?)
5. Safari went final and iChat went beta.
6. I re-activated my XM radio. I can't emphasize enough how you have to get one of these systems to really enjoy radio while on the road.
7. Bought Jazz's iSight that he had gotten for free at WWDC.
8. Went on a shopping spree last Thursday and picked up a new 15GB iPod, a bunch of DVDs of which some I already had, two games that I already had, two CDs that I already had and bought a new chair(Actually went over a hundred bucks this time.).

Now you may be asking yourself why I would buy something that I already had in my possession. I'll just say that there's multiple ways of having something without really owning it. *SUBTLE HINT* There's even an interesting story behind my shopping spree. Thursday was one of my days off from work and the day before I had planned out what I would buy and from where. My initial plans were to drive into downtown and stop at the Galleria.(Where the Apple Store is.) While there I would buy a new pair of slacks for work, pick up an iPod, look around for a good office chair, get a copy of SimCity 4, WC3:TFT and Master of Orion 3. After the 40 minutes it took me to get to the Galleria I walk into the Apple Store and prepare to whip out the wallet. What actually happens is I find only a copy WC3:TFT and when I ask an employee if they have Simcity 4 he says no. I accept the bad news and walk over to the checkout counter with my copy and ask the clerk if they even had Master of Orion 3. He tells me they carried it for a little while but not anymore. As politely as I can I tell him that the selection of software they carry is shitty and lacking. During this time I mention that I had asked another employee if they had SC4k in yet, he promptly turns around and points right to it on the counter behind him. You can pretty much guess the look on my face at this point.(More on this later.) I tell him thanks for his assistance, put the copy of WC3exp back on the shelf and walk out without even bothering to ask for an iPod. Once I get back to my car I drive across the street to CompUSA, which isn't a simple or quick thing to do with traffic the way it is on Westheimer. I make a bee line straight for the corner of the store devoted to Apple. Upon completing the ritual walk around I arrive at the software section to find only Master of Orion 3. The department only had one iPod on display and it was of the older model. I quickly find someone to help me and as it turns out he knows what he's doing. I ask him where the iPods are and he takes me right to the center of the store where they are locked away. He gets out the model I ask for and carries it with him up until check out for security reasons.(Not like my fat ass could make a run for it anyways. :P) I of course then ask him if they had recieved SimCity 4 for the Mac yet and he tells me no and that they wouldn't for a few more days since it had just been released. I simply nod and inform him that the Apple Store did have it, he simply goes 'hmmph' and says nothing. (I so should have bought it while I was over there.) When we walked up front to check to see if they had it in stock I saw the display for the WC3 expansion. I shuffle over to the checkout stand and leave with my two games and my brand new iPod. Three down, three to go. I then skip over to Best Buy to look at their selections of office furniture. The one chair I end up chosing is in stock but all the boxes are beat up. So, I ask the getleman helping me to see if they have it in stock at the Best Buy by my house; they do and he even makes sure the boxes are in good shape. Satisfied I decide to wander over to the movies and music section just to browse. I end up buying 10 DVDs and 2 CDs. Back in the car I fight rush hour traffic and head for the Best Buy close to home. I get the chair and decide to call it a day. All in all the trip took 4 hours and I never did get that pair of slacks or copy of SC4 like I had planned. The chair I bought is made by Lane and boy is it comfortable. It goes without saying how much my new iPod rocks.

I've also upgraded my blog software and am adding some new features. You'll notice them as time passes.

Safari v56 Overview

And still falling comfortably within my timetable for new builds...build 56. Build date: January 31st. Yea yea, STABLE, blah, blah. The most noticeable change with this one is the Page Load time out being switched from 30 to 60 seconds. The amount of bug fixes with this one is simply astounding compared to the past few. HyperCells STILL fail on the forums. If any Safari users would like to be able to use HyperCells again then please send feedback on this bug. I'm not sure if it's just me so far but right-clicking single words no longer brings up a contextual menu all the time. If you somehow get a hold of this build please let me know in the comments area if you have the same behavior. I, of course, will not be giving it out so don't ask. As always the change notes are included. Come on Apple, let's start seeing some new features!

]]> Build 56 Release Notes:

Summary of things that have been fixed in Build 56: (if you wrote the original bug, you will be asked to verify that it has been fixed.... If you submitted a duplicate bug, you will not receive anything from AppleSeed.)

"go back" buttons that use "history.go(-1)" doesn't work (verizonwireless.com is an example))
3xx redirects with zero content-length and keep-alive are hanging
add copy in contextual menu for selected text
AppleScript: nil-dereference in KHTMLPart::begin running this simple script
Inlines clear too many floats
Arrow cursor should change to link cursor after click of link in non-frontmost window
Assertion failure cancelling "Add Bookmark" or deleting newly-created bookmarks
Assertion failure in renderflow
Back took me to an old cached page
Bullets overlapping text on weather.com
can not log in to Netscape mail with default cookie policy
Can't drill down multiple levels of categories when selling on ebay if first item in list is chosen
can't search on japanese string at yahoo.co.jp
Can't use ebay & half.com
Change 30 second loader timeout to 60 seconds like Mac MSIE
change throttle for plug-in null events to 50 frames per second (when frontmost)
choose another member name on .Mac signup not working as expected
Cookie problem with ebay.de
crash in _recursiveStopLoading when canceling a download in progress (cancel button or quit)
crash in khtml renderflow on hyatt's blog
crash in renderarena when CSS generates content and deletes ist after
Crash on disabling JavaScript and reloading livepage.apple.com
crash reentering WebBaseNetscapePluginView removeTrackingRect closing window
crash viewing www.nextthing.org
crash with full-size plugins in frame or iframe
cursor changes during text selection when we cross links
cursor changes to I-beam after dragging image
cursor does not track when switching from panels to safari windows
cursor is still link cursor after moving it off ad
cursor shape does not track after double-click to activate a window
cut and delete commands should not trigger auto-complete
division by zero error in khtml::RenderImage::calcReplacedWidth
Double-clicking "about:blank" subresource in Activity window crashes
Downloading many items quickly can cause future page loads to fail
Drag image when dragging text should be the actual text
Drag slide-back sometimes happens twice
empty tag doesn't render a bullet in Safari
failed assertion `!attached()' at silkair.net
Find submenu should use ellipses instead of three dots
Fix quirks vs. strict mode determination (add almost-strict mode for inline box model))
frame content repeatedly requested
hang at time zone page after clicking on map at www.time.gov
hang in khtml::RenderObject::isTableCell accessing xbench.com
iframe contents don't show up when height and width attributes are not specified
Implement "simple retry" when Safari fails to validate a certifcate
incorporate CFNetwork loader improvements from Jeremy
JavaScript Error reported at www.hotmail.com after first time
link files don't retain name when dragged to bookmark window
mac.com homepage editing - selection and clicking with mouse don't work
navigating to a .xml, then away, then back causes display problems
nil-dereference in KJS::DOMNode::getValueProperty at www.babyage.com
nil-dereference in RenderTableRow::detach shortly after visiting www.alltheweb.com
No filename correction when downloading images via drag & drop
no mouseup event comes through after text snippet drag
no top image map at ebay, caused by referrer returning null instead of empty string
non-ASCII characters are garbled when submitting forms after you use the encoding menu
non-reproducible nil-dereference in HTMLFrameElementImpl::updateForNewURL at macfixit
onchange handler not firing on mac.com webmail
Partially selected links show extra underlining when dragged
Plain text pages have odd right-click menu
populate new window's search field if search started with cmd-return
recursion leading to stack overflow after triple-clicking on text
Shift-click on Add Bookmark button should add it to the menu silently
Surrogate pairs aren't correctly accounted for in line breaks
text break locator leak leads to giant (2.04 GB) VSIZE idling at livepage
Text drag image sometimes doesn't include last selected text node
(text dragging not working on middle column of content at w3.org
Text drags appear to be accepted by the bookmarks bar
Text in the "Google" field should be placed in the find pasteboard
There's no tooltip for the Home icon
Two consecutive white spaces followed by a 2-byte character causes a corrupted line
www.aircanada.ca page constantly reloads

Discussing the Coming War With Iraq

I have an interesting thread going on the Clan mAc forums over the issues surrounding the reasons for war with Iraq. You might wanna check it out and even add your own input.

My Thoughts Exactly

I discovered a nice little blurb titled "Why the Mozilla Broswer Sucks" over at this guys blog. Fascinating read if you ask me!

Safari v54 Overview

Well looky here, build 54, exactly as I said. The date on this build is January 23rd, comfortably within my stated time table for new builds. This build is also STABLE. The release notes on this one are lot more extensive than the last one. Probably the most noticeable changes are the Apple tabs no longer being off center and the content on VersionTracker no longer overlapping. The HyperCells are still acting up, damn! I guess Dave still needs to work on his CSS support. So far I have discovered no new features, nor have any been documented. These builds seem to be concentrated on bug fixes and standards support, as they should be. I can only guess at the staggering amount of feedback Apple has assuredly gotten with this thing. As before, I'll copy the release notes later in the post. And incase anyone has forgotten: I will not distribute this copy to anyone who asks so don't even bother. Ta ta.

]]> Build 54 Release Notes:

Known Issues: ( Do not submit another bug)

Computer hangs downloading very large files
Mouse Wheel will not scroll the main document when you are over [i]frame
Find on Page does not work for some framset pages

Summary of things that have been fixed in Build 54: (if you wrote the original bug, you will be asked to verify that it has been fixed.... If you submitted a duplicate bug, you will not receive anything from AppleSeed.)

Auto-completion irritation when deleting characters
Command-return should open location field URL in new window
Crash dragging URL from address bar into toolbar folder
Javascript Error reported at www.hotmail.com
Should be able to drag out text clippings
Text overlapping at earthlink.net homepage because of nested tables
Too much space around some links at www.yahoo.co.jp are out of place
Ugly alignment problem at top of http://www.macworld.com/
"localhost" part of link is lost with relative links
.tgz file displayed in browser window instead of being downloaded
Apple.com tabs off center
Absolute positoned blocks should not grow to accommodate vertical overflow
Table width distribution algorithm is wrong
Assert when autocompleting
Autocomplete should not ruin selection when typing in the middle of a url
back/forward page cache should allow pages with JS timers
back/forward page cache should allow pages with plugins
Blog articles vanish on stylesheet switch
Blogger.com window closes after update is posted
Bookmarks Toolbar menus handle double click strangely
Can drag an empty selection
Clicking mail link a 2nd time opens a new window instead of showing existing one
Clicking mail link to redirected URL a 2nd time opens a new window instead of showing existing one
Content in right hand column overlaps main content at versiontracker.com/macosx
Crash in KJS::WindowFunc::tryCall leaving www.smogcheck.org
Crash in MIMETypeForFile when a large QT movie is dragged over window
Crash in NSOutlineView auto-collapse while quitting Safari
Crash in QObject::eventFilterObject() tabbing to text area in form at livejournal
Depending on the width of the window, Korean characters are dropped out if sight
DHTML menus at http://49ers.com/ don't go away
Double-clicking on bookmarks view button changes mode twice, Double-clicking same Activity window subresource twice opens two windows
Double-clicking same html file twice opens two windows
Double-clicking top-level item in Activity window opens new window
ER: provide cmd-return to open google searches in a new window
Extension changed from tgz to txt when downloaded with Safari
Failed assertion in HTMLFrameSetElementImpl::attach on page with frameset inside frameset
https pages should not be cached
I-beam cursor behavior different between web view and text view
Images that specify width but not height should keep aspect ratio (example at thegods.org.uk
Japanese characters drawn one-per-line instead of across the page
Javascript problem writing iframe at cycleworld.com
Korean text not wrapping
Many non-reproducible crashers in ContextImp::mark / ScopeChain::mark
Memory trasher at robinlionheart.com
Missing content at debka.com after iframe is written using document.write
Non-reproducible nil-dereference in HTMLGenericFormElementImpl at firstdirect.com
onchange handler not firing on mac.com webmail
Option-Return should not insert carriage return into location field or search field

How to Tame That Ass

So you've decided to join the ranks of thousands of other eDonkey users, congrats. Or if you're just having trouble getting the damn thing to download anything then this article is also for you. With my config file and simple instructions you should be well on your way to sucking down oodles of warez.(Who are we kidding, not like eDonkey is used for anything else.) First, you should start off with a fresh install of the mldonkey client. The current version as of this writing is 2.02 and that's the only version I guarantee these settings work with. If you already have downloads going then hold onto your temp folder and files.ini file. Once you've done that you can download my config file, with accompanying Read Me, here. I recommend using either TextEdit or BBEdit to edit the enclosed file. The instructions in the Read Me are quite clear so I don't need to repeat them here. One thing you must know is that for mldonkey to work at all in this configuration you must have ports 3939 and 12814 open. I switched the standard eDonkey port from the usual 4661 and 4662 incase your ISP has blocked off those ports in order to curb the use of eDonkey. Port 12814 is required because DirrectConnect is activated in my config.(It helps greatly with finding the files you want to download.) With everything in place and edited as instructed just turn mldonkey on. I do caution that it might take a while for these changes to take effect and propagate throughout the network. Normally my client starts downloading at least one file instantly, connects to 4-5 servers on average and normally reaches decent download speeds. I hope you get the same results as myself. Until next post...

Safari v52 Overview

I'll just start by saying this build is STABLE. This build is no worse than the last two and is marginally better. In the change log it mentions fixing the pop-up resizing problem but I'm not seeing it.(Looks like I'll still be using that Resize bookmarklet.) At least new windows no longer go behind the Dock. If you follow Dave Hyatt's weblog then you'll know of some of the other fixes that go into each new build in more detail. If you're in clan mAc and use Safari then I'm sad to report that it still fucks up on the HyperCells in the forums. Using Find on certain pages is still iffy. In my opinion the Find feature needs to be beefed up anyway. The browser I'm comparing Safari to is my old default browser, OmniWeb. Since I don't care much for Chimera I'm not gonna be disappointed if tabs never make it into the final.(Though I hear Dave has said they will be.) So far none of the Bug Reports I have sent in have been addressed. Of course, this is just a point 1 increment in the build number so we shouldn't be expecting a lot. The creation date on build 52 is January 16th. At this rate we can expect a new build every 3-4 days.(Thus it stands a good chance that build 54 is almost ready to go.) As I said earlier this build is stable and is just fine for daily use. I'll copy/paste the actual release notes in the second section of this post. Just to make it clear: I will not distribute this copy to anyone who asks so don't even bother. ;)

]]> Build 52 Release Notes:

Known Issues: ( Do not submit another bug)

Computer hangs downloading very large files
Mouse Wheel will not scroll the main document when you are over [i]frame
Find on Page does not work for some framset pages
Javascript error reported at www.hotmail.com
Activating app doesn't open browser window if download window is open

Summary of things that have been fixed in Build 52: (if you wrote the original bug, you will be asked to verify that it has been fixed.... If you submitted a duplicate bug, you will not receive anything from AppleSeed.)

New full-screen-size window is created under the Dock
Browser window saved on 2nd monitor reopens on main monitor
Change copyright date in About boxes for both app and source files
Creating a bookmark folder should be cmd+SHIFT+N instead of cmd+OPTION+N
Downloads should not use filenames that start with "." or contain "/"
ER: remember source window size
Favorites bar redraws mouse movements if menu dropped
Filenames constantly change in UI when reloading multiple downloads
Hang trying to load spiny.com/software
Installed plugins page (and other built-in pages accessed from menu) should use new window
Mouseover feedback over non-mapped part of image map claims link to current page
New windows should be placed in a visually appealing and useful position
Preformatted text is missing much whitespace on XML page
Pressing the back button goes back two levels at allmusic.com
Google layout sometimes left-justified rather than center-aligned
Should place new windows at position of last manually positioned window
Showing status bar or favorites bar can push window off the screen
XML page rendered without formatting/XML rendered as text/plain first time it loads