Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-08-28T18:18:15+00:00+00:00

Setup Apache on Mac OS X for Multiple Sites

I have actually been working on this tip for quite a while but only today actually wrote it up. This shows you how to create a multi-site Apache 2 configuration on Mac OS X. This is great for testing as you can setup as many sites as you want.

Setup Apache 2 on Mac OS X to support Multiple Web Sites


Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-08-16T03:43:37+00:00+00:00

A Couple of Quick Atom Tips

I ran across a couple of quick tips today for the atom.io editor. I have been having trouble seeing the mouse pointer on my Mac wheen I use the Cobalt syntax theme. The mouse pointer stays black and sort of blends in. Turns out, if you use the Kobalt theme for your code, the mouse pointer turns white. Very helpful.

Also, the less-than-slash package adds the ability to automatically close HTML tags when you have open ones. A feature I really like.

And finally, I recently have been using the Seti UI theme. It really makes the editor look cool. Definitely worth checking out.


Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-08-12T03:46:45+00:00+00:00

Suicide Squad Quick Review

Rating (3/5)

Suicide Squad is a DC comics movie about coercing bad people into doing something good. You get a bunch of criminals, inject a bomb in their neck, and then make them do what you want. Probably the most highly promoted movie to come along in some time.

So thoughts. I think the movie is good, but not great. I will elaborate in a second. The acting was very good and the casting choices were excellent. All the actors really fit their roles well. Special effects are good and the action scenes didn't go on too long.

So what are the issues? There are a few.

To sum up, I think this could have been a great movie. But now it's just an example of a wasted opportunity, but what's left is still enjoyable.


Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-08-06T23:46:24+00:00+00:00

Brave Browser from the Folks that Brought you JavaScript

Brenden Eich, creator JavaScript and Mozilla alumni is creating a privacy focused browser called Brave. The idea is to provide a faster and better browsing experience. Also, Brave is looking to include a micropayment system to provide income to content creators.

Sounds great. This is a browser I am definitely gonna try out.


Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-07-20T03:24:47+00:00+00:00

A $49 Handheld Linux Machine PocketChip

PCWorld has this story on a $49 Linux hand held machine for just $49 each. This is a Raspberry PI like kick starter project. The web site make this thing look pretty interesting. I ordered one, so we will see.


Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-06-15T04:22:36+00:00+00:00

Warcraft Movie Quick Review

Rating(4/5)

Warcraft is a movie based on the game World of Warcraft (WOW). The story follows the lore contained in early versions of the game. The peaceful world of Azeroth is invaded by large green humanoid creatures called Orcs. The orcs arrive via magical means and immediately begin attacking human communities. With that as the backdrop, the movie explores the main characters involved in these events.

The portrayal of the orcs is quite good. The actors are able to convey a lot of emotion through all that CGI. In addition, they have a lot of really good dialog throughout the movie. And if you play the game for the Horde side I think you will really like this part of the movie. My only complaint would be the Orcs seem a little too tall, large. They aren't giants in the game, just more muscular.

My main complaint about the movie would be the geography of the fighting. It doesn't really make much sense. The humans seems to just ride outside the castle and then suddenly they are fighting orcs. It would have been better if the writers had simply selected a town as the base for the orcs. Then you could clearly see where the humans were attacking and where the orcs were defending.

From a game players perspective I was a little disappointed there weren't more WOW classes in the game. Basically, they just had the warrior class and a few mages. That was it. There is a lot more magical stuff in the game and I would have like to see that in the movie. Also, almost no dwarves or elves in the movie.

Overall a good movie worth seeing. I think most folks will be able to follow the story without playing the game. Hopefully there will be more movies because the back story for the game is really good.


Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-06-11T16:08:04+00:00+00:00

Opera Browser gets some Cool Stuff

Remember the Opera Browser? It used to be that odd little browser that was really fast, but was kinda weird. Well, the company has made a lot of improvements recently that make the browser worth another look. The changes include:

Why install an extra browser? Here is my use case. When do you need ad blocking the most? When you search of course. Because you have no idea where you will be sent. And a lot of these no name sites have the most browser slowing crap. So when I research something, I fire up Opera and search.

I can configure Chrome or Safari to let a few ads through on my favorite sites.

Opera is free. You should check it out.


Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-06-06T04:02:21+00:00+00:00

Blogging Again - Updates to Blog Software

Sorry for the 6 months off. The blog needed some work and I was busy with my real job. So I kind of fell out of practice.

Anyway, over the Memorial Day holiday, I took some time to start fixing things up. So here are the results. The main thing was to make fixes to the the CSS. The site didn't work right on iOS or Android. So I had to really dig in to figure things out. This is what I learned.

Anyway, the site should look much better on phones now. Enjoy!


Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-01-13T22:46:49+00:00+00:00

Cut, Copy, and Paste text from a Web Page to Clipboard

Want to make it easy to copy and paste some random piece of text to the clipboard? Well this can be accomplished using HTML with surprising ease. All you need to do is add a little JavaScript. Here are two examples, one with text box and one with a text area.

This trick can be used for any bit of text you want to copy to the clipboard a lot. Very useful for storing an e-mail address or user name that you need to copy and paste repeatedly.

Examples

These examples copy a command line for the Maven build tool.

Text Box Example

Source

<input onclick="this.select();" type='text' size="40" value='mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=com.example -DartifactId=app -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DinteractiveMode=false' />

Text Area Example

Source

<textarea cols="50" rows="4" onclick="this.select();">mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=com.example -DartifactId=app -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-quickstart -DinteractiveMode=false</textarea>

Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-01-11T01:34:38+00:00+00:00

Windows 10 Start Button Stops Working

Problem: For no apparent reason, the Windows 10 start button has stopped working. Clicking on the button does nothing. In addition, the Cortana search box may also be frozen.

In my case, I could right click the button. But a single click did nothing.

Solution: I found my answer on the British Telecom (bt.com) site. Option 2 worked for me. Just reinstalling all my apps seemed to do the trick.

It does make one wonder what makes this sort of thing happen. At least there is a fix!


Author:  MikeW     Date: 2016-01-05T04:58:32+00:00+00:00

Expanse TV Show

I wanted to give a quick shout out for "The Expanse" tv show on the SyFy channel. Basically it is a somewhat realistic space adventure sometime in the not too distant future. The human race has colonized Mars and the asteroid belt.

The show consists of three story threads.

  1. Ice miners from the belt. Their routine mining run turns into quite an adventure. (Really like this thread.)
  2. A detective from the belt searching for missing girl. (Like this thread a lot too.)
  3. Political happenings on Earth as the other stories take place. (This thread confuses me a bit. I am not sure what it going on.)

Anyway, a very well done show. Check it out if you get a chance.

  

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