In random on
6 March 2009 with no comments
My last post was about a little Greasemonkey script that I wrote to keep my last.fm window open from accidental closings. I thought it would be cool if there was an extension that could handle this, so before building one, I browsed the Firefox extensions for one.
I found one that did everything my little script did and so much more: Tab Mix Plus.
All you have to do with this extension is right click and select ‘Protect this Tab’ and ‘Lock this Tab.’ The ‘Protect’ keeps you from closing the window, and the ‘Lock’ locks in the current URL, forcing links on that tab to open up in new tabs. Useful.
In code, music on
22 February 2009 tagged greasemonkey, javascript, last.fm with no comments
I love listening to last.fm’s similar artist radio stations. I constantly forget that the music I am listening to is coming from one of my Firefox tabs, and will accidentally close it from time to time, stopping whatever music is playing.
I decided to fix this for myself using a ridiculously short Greasemonkey script, using the window object’s “onbeforeunload” function to make sure I actually meant to close the tab/window.
Here it is for consumption. This is obviously not a work of genius or of any considerable effort, just a fix for my own absentmindedness.
Updated:
I added a little more functionality to the script. There is now a button that will show up in the top right corner that will let you turn off and on the close prompt so that you can browse the last.fm without getting the ‘Are you sure?’ prompt on every page load.
In photography on
26 January 2009 tagged nytimes, photo, politics with no comments
I’m no fan of Bush’s politics, but holy cow, what a character he turned out to be.
Errol Morris’ blog on NY Times’ website had a great post today where he interviewed the head of three major international photo services about the photos of Bush that captured the essence of the man. The insight they give into not only what made these photos great is fantastic, but also how the media help portray a man that, for better or worse, shaped current times.
After viewing these photos, tempered with a lot of hindsight, the magnitude of the presence of the man is really amplified. He is combination cartoon character, movie star, politician, cowboy, and villain.
UNITED STATES, UNITED NATIONS : The shadow of US President George W. Bush is seen while he addresses the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations in New York September 23, 2008. (Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse)
In books, music on
2 January 2009 tagged bon iver, thoreau, walden with 1 comment
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
I’m currently reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau, a gift from my wife, who knows me very well. Very few lines I’ve read resonate with me as much as these. Much in the same mood as these lines written over 150 years ago, my favorite album of 2008 and one of the most impactful albums ever for me was Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago,” which was a somber, but uplifting, account of a man alone in the woods, settling with past demons, and eventually coming to terms with himself, emerging from the woods a new creature.
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
