Taps' Vox

No More Vox

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 22:02:36 -0400

I want to use Vox. I really do. But Vox won't work on Firefox when I have my adblock turned on. So even this obituary must be written in Internet Exploder.

I do have a new blog - and I'd love some visitors. Check out agoodspectator.blogspot.com. It has an RSS feed, and an embedded widget with my link blog from Google Reader. All in all, much more dynamic and interesting content than Vox would allow me to post.

I love the community-centric neighbourhoods on Vox, but I love adblock, Firefox and Google Reader more.

In the words of Rocco, from the Boondock Saints - "I'll catchya on tha flipside..."

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First Day of Spring

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:38:19 -0400

I don't care what the weather says, today is the first day of Spring.

My reasoning?

It SMELLS like Spring.
I drove across the township with my windows down.
All the songs my iPod chose were great.
All the girls looked pretty.

Enough blogging, time to play outside!

Oh, and I have a new blog that I'm trying to update regularly. If you're interested, visit: agoodspectator.blogspot.com

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iPod Nano --> Car Audio

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:49:12 -0500

After listening to an interview with Sir Dyson (the vacuum cleaner guy) on The Hour, I felt compelled to MAKE something. This is unusual, because I'm so very, completely unskilled, but I was definitely inspired to CREATE.

I'm quite pleased with the results.

Introducing the Low-Tech iPod Nano dock for car audio.

Starting from the left-side picture, you can see that the basic dock is made from an alligator clip with a bolt/nut combo for a "stem". The iPod (through it's ugly and ill-fitted case) sits on the stem by a small 'd'-ring on the back side. The cable then runs from the aux port on my stereo to the data clip for the iPod.

All in all, the setup it pretty sweet. It's easy to change songs, the whole show is stable, the display is even clear thanks to some trimming of the cover-flap. I used some scissors to give me access to the iPod controls and still leave a sun-screen.

I'm quite proud of this. Simple, but something I found engaging and rewarding. The photos were taken on my camera phone while I was out getting coffee.

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Net Neutrality

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:23:10 -0500

Net Neutrality is something I think is incredibly important. However, it's a hard concept to explain. This video does a nice job putting neutrality into perspective. It is an easy-entry into the debate around the freedom of the internet. Please watch it, re-post it and leave whatever comment you feel is important.

Save the Internet | Rock the Vote

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Black River Paddle Co.

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:28:57 -0500

My friend Chris has started his own business. Black River Paddle Company is going to sell quality, handmade canoe paddles. His website is pretty slick and his paddles are gorgeous.

I love the fact that he's rooted his company name in a sense of place. The Black River runs beside Chris' family farm, and his paddles are a reflection of his childhood experiences on the river.

He's not taking orders just yet, but I'm definitely going to replace my current paddle with a Black River Paddle.

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Funny PSA Video

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:46:49 -0500

Former NBA Star Tim Hardaway made awful, hateful comments on a radio show last week.

As a response, George Takei (Star Trek's "Sulu") made a PSA Video. It is hilarious.

Jimmy Kimmel Tim Hardaway and George Takei answer to Tim

I feel some sympathy for Tim Hardaway. I believe that homophobia (like racism) is an attitude we're taught, not something we're created with. Mr. Hardaway's comments, therefore, are born out of ignorance. The punishment dished out by Mr. Takei is just perfect.

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Flash Mobs

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 12:11:53 -0500

Love the Flash Mobs.

I need 100 friends to conduct this very serious social experiment.

100 vs 1

Actually, I'm very interested in this stuff. Social norms, conformity, influence, mob mentality...it's all pretty interesting stuff.

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ESPN Agrees With Me

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:07:55 -0500

Today I found out that ESPN, that big sports company in the sky, agrees with me. ESPN now allows readers to comment on every story on their website (even the "wire" stories...associated press, Reuters, et al.). It's called ESPN Conversations.

I love it. The news stories become conversations. They take on life and meaning as we (the public) add our two cents.

If you forgot my "vision for the web", here's a link to the original post.

I love the "reply" feature for news stories. Now it's just a matter of time before e-mail and RSS seamlessly integrate.

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Yahoo Pipes

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 12:15:20 -0500

I admit, at first Yahoo Pipes seemed interesting. But it also seemed useless.

However, I've put together 3 pipes of my own, and I like the process.

Yahoo Pipes allows you (or me) to manipulate RSS feed results. So far, I've only used it to troubleshoot. That it, I use it to fix things I don't like about my current feeds.

Here they are. Feel free to use these pipes for yourself. You can also change them to suit your purpose, though you'll need a YahooID.

This one filters Fark results. I now get nothing about Florida, photoshop contests, etc.
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/plu9Yha92xGB_motdrq02Q/run?_render=rss

This one filters my Reuters News results. Reuters was sending me 5 or 6 copies of every feed item. This stops that problem.
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/xOtfRBG92xGsKmWSIBeTaQ/run?_render=rss

This does the same "remove duplicates" for Toronto Raptors News.
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/yiip_RG92xGoen2xFG_cUw/run?_render=rss

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Nokia 6275i

nobody@vox.com(Adam Brown) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:02:33 -0500

I got a new cell phone today. My contract expired and I renewed with Bell Mobility here in Ontario.

Why Bell? Well, why not? Rogers gets no reception outside of Toronto and Telus' rate plans looked pretty brutal. Bell offered me a poor selection of phones, but I found one I'm excited about.

The Nokia 6275i is pretty, slim and has a 2.0 MP digital camera that works nicely. The phone is supposed to do many other wonderful things, but Bell has crippled it's capabilities to try to make me spend money on their ringtones and other crap.

I will likely post again about my workarounds for all the "limits", but I now have a working version of both the Opera Mini Browser and Google Reader. Each had some special challenges, but I feel good having figured it all out. Expect some fancy pictures soon.

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