Easter eggs

Easter eggs are hidden gems inside movies, DVDs, software and websites.

Have you ever made any?

I created a couple of Easter eggs three years ago on the Factory Reset wiki. This wiki has user created instructions for resetting a number of devices back to their factory settings and is a good resource if you need to get your device back.

http://factory-reset.com/wiki/Earth
http://factory-reset.com/wiki/Universe

Learning to Code

I'm proud of my 10 year old son who has completed the JavaScript Fundamentals Track on Codecademy as part of Code Year.

He has also completed 99% of the Web Fundamentals Track, 36% of the Python Track and 11% of the JQuery Track.

I am lagging behind him with only 86% of the JavaScript Fundamentals Track complete and none of the other topics started yet.

Universe Sandbox

I stumbled upon this amazing universe simulator software the other day - Universe Sandbox. Some especially cool features include 3D viewing and fictional orbits like the Death Star around Endor.

Looking for games and 3D stuff...

I'm doing some consulting with Yetkin Telesystems and for one project I'm trying to find PC multi-controller games that would be suitable for playing in 3D on big screens.

Most of the console gaming machines are designed for sharing around a TV so two player games on these platforms are available. However, the average home game player is not likely to have the sort of money yet for 3D screens so the consoles don't have stereoscopic technology.

With the P in PC meaning "personal" finding two or more player games is not easy. But PCs are good for running 3D displays. A PC with the right nVidia graphics cards, drivers and software can convert 2D into different 3D (anaglyph, interlaced, shutter glasses etc) technologies.

Please comment if you know of any suitable games for this project. I'm also interested in any 3D movie or image production gadgets.

My FireFox Gadgets

A while ago I changed to FireFox as my primary browser.

I have Safari, Opera, IE7 and others installed for checking web design. I use SlimBrowser for online banking because some of the banks I use insist on reformatting the browser window to their design or using those annoying click-on-this-jumping-around-numeric-keypad-to-enter-your-pin and SlimBrowser somehow bypasses these annoyances.

The great thing about FireFox is the customization ability that it gives. As a web developer, I find the ColorZilla, Firebug and Web Developer extensions are very useful. I have information in the status bar so I can always keep up to date with the current weather from Forecastfox, the song that is currently playing in my media players with FoxyTunes, the time in places I know people with FoxClocks and the balance of my earnings with Adsense Notifier. I also use the sidebar for language translation tools (I have shortcuts opening in the sidebar for a couple of dictionary websites using their mobile interfaces), Calculator and del.icio.us Bookmarks.

I've customized the menu with gadgets for posting to the various Web 2.0 sites I use such as blogs, Squidoo lenses and my bookmarks.

Here's a list of the FireFox gadgets that I currently use:

Extensions (enabled: 36, disabled: 0):

• Adsense Notifier 0.9.4
• Aging Tabs 0.5.2
• Autofill Forms 0.7.0.3
• Cache View 1.61
• Calculator 1.1.9
• ColorZilla 1.0
• del.icio.us Bookmarks 1.5.44
• DOM Inspector 1.8.1.9
• DT Whois 1.4
• Firebug 1.05
• Forecastfox 0.9.6
• FoxClocks 2.2.23
• FoxFon 0.1.2214
• FoxLingo 2.1.4
• FoxyTunes 2.9.5
• Free Download Manager plugin 1.3
• Go Up 1.0
• InfoLister 0.9f.2
• Java Console 6.0.03
• Java Console 6.0
• Java Console 6.0.02
• Java Console 6.0.01
• LinkedIn Companion for Firefox 3.0.1
• ScribeFire 1.4.2
• Select Search 2.0
• Session Manager 0.6.1.5
• Sozlook 1.6
• Squidoo 2.0.2
• StumbleUpon 3.12
• Tabbrowser Preferences 1.3.1.1
• Talkback 2.0.0.9
• TYPO3 Backend 0.4
• United States English Dictionary 2.0.0.6
• User Agent Switcher 0.6.10
• Web Developer 1.1.4
• YSlow 0.8.0

Plugins (15):

• ActiveTouch General Plugin Container
• Adobe Acrobat
• Google Updater
• iTunes Application Detector
• Java(TM) Platform SE 6 U3
• Microsoft Office 2003
• Microsoft® DRM
• Mozilla Default Plug-in
• QuickTime Plug-in 7.2
• RealJukebox NS Plugin
• RealPlayer Version Plugin
• RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)
• Shockwave Flash
• Shockwave for Director
• Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library

This list was generated with the InfoLister extension and this blog entry was published with ScribeFire.

Browsershots

Have you wondered what your website looks like in other browsers? Try http://browsershots.org/ - a free service using distributed computers to take screenshots of your website.

Google Analytics Improved

We're using a gadget from Google called Analytics to monitor statistics of visitors to this blog. Most of our visitors so far are from Asia (probably me). Google is currently upgrading Analytics and the new version looks great.

Seriously Kule Color Tools

A cool colour pallete gadget from Adobe.