• Geek Out! - The Never-Ending Bloga

    FINALLY! Fixed CNN.com videos problem on iPhone iOS

    I had whitelisted CNN.com on the Adblock Plus app, but the videos and their unskippable, long pre roll ads refused to play. Had to watch on the CNN app all year, but sometimes it was damned inconvenient. Tonight, I disabled Adblock Plus, played a video (with ad) on CNN.com, re-enabled ABP, made sure CNN.com was on the whitelist, and now the videos and damn ads play like they should. It just needed an app restart, I guess. Add a website to the whitelist | Adblock Plus Add websites that you trust and want to support to your Adblock Plus whitelist.…

  • Geek Out! - Hot Off The Presses - The Never-Ending Bloga

    Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By

    A horrible thing happened Friday night. My iPhone went for an unexpected swim. There was a scream of horror, right after the most awful kerplunk sound ever. I fished it out and turned it off as quickly as I could, but I wasn’t quick enough. David had pounded upstairs to see what was the matter, and quickly found a container of rice we still had – we stopped cooking rice for dinner quite a while ago. Into the rice it went and I waited, phoneless, for 2 days. I blame a phone commercial that shows someone dropping their phone in…

  • Books - Geek Out!

    You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station: Chris Hadfield: 9780316379649: Amazon.com: Books

    This looks amazing: Divided by continent, YOU ARE HERE represents one (idealized) orbit of the ISS. This planetary photo tour — surprising, playful, thought-provoking, and visually delightful — is also punctuated with fun, fascinating commentary on life in zero gravity. Via Amazon:You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station

  • Geek Out! - Music - Radio

    The End And The Beginning of My Virtual Life

    My iPhone died today. I’m not sure why, but it couldn’t have been good when the speaker dock I’d been using started making more squawky noises than usual – sometimes with shocklingly loud humming and buzzing that came through the speakers. It somehow managed to charge the phone where my older docks did not, but it was never a happy marriage, and David had remarked that it was unshielded, so there’d always be interference. So he’d already found a little wireless speaker called “Mini Jambox” that would be my Hannumas present, and he’s getting a GoPro. But the iPhone? It’s…

  • Geek Out! - SciFi/Fantasy - Uncategorical Weirdness

    My Husband The Action Figure. Complete With Redshirt And Tricorder

    My friend Ellen in Germany saw a recent story about getting 3D printed action figures on her blog recently (see Creativ Zeit) However, my brother-in-law Mitch and I had already conspired together to produce this masterpiece: This came about because Mitch found a website that with a few photos could generate a Star Trek action figure of your choice with your head or the head of a loved one on it. He also found a website that could generate .OBJ files, which can be opened in Blender. So I told David I was working on a weird “art project” for…

  • Geek Out! - Movies - SciFi/Fantasy

    Nerds Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Roman Numerals To Identify Star Trek Movies

    My husband David and I were watching a cable rerun of one of the original-cast Star Trek movies last night, because we are nerds and thus we have no life. The official title of this movie is something long and involved: Star Trek (Insert Roman Numeral Here): The Search For Spock. At least in our house, the official name of this movie is actually “Star Trek: You Klingon Bastard, You Killed My Son. You Klingon Bastard, You Killed My Son. YOU KLINGON BASTARD, YOU KILLED MY SON.” It takes place on the Genesis planet, immediately after the events in the…

  • Geek Out!

    Still No Amazon Affiliates Love For Illinois

    As a resident of Illinois, I can’t participate in the Amazon Affiliates program due to a law passed in the state awhile back that was supposed to protect brick-and-mortar businesses from online businesses that didn’t charge Illinois tax. I thought maybe that might have changed since there had been some stories about the law being ruled unconstitutional, but not according to this newly updated boilerplate from the Amazon Affiliates page. I still get their emails, I just have to keep hoping this will change someday. In addition, if at any time following your enrollment in the Program you become a…

  • Clan: McTiVo - Geek Out!

    Gobekli Tepe: Amazing 11,000-year-old site predates Stonehenge by thousands of years

    I’m watching an H2 program called Civilization Lost, covering little-known sites that hint at entire civilizations that have been lost to history, the segment on the Turkish site Gobekli Tepe was striking to me. The History 2 channel seems to be slightly more “woo-woo ancient aliens!1!” than the regular History channel. Also covered: Varna, Tel Hamoukar, the Minoan culture, and others. Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had…

  • Episcopal - Geek Out! - Home Improvement - Music

    Happy Easter! I’m Off To Sing The Hallelujah Chorus

    It’s that time of year again – I’m singing at the Easter Vigil tonight at St Nicholas, and we’re doing the Hallelujah Chorus tonight and tomorrow. Much like in 2007, in fact, but we’re much more experienced now, and the freshening we’ve felt with Father Manny beginning his tenure has been a LOT of fun! I’m also the web and social media boffin for St Nick’s so I do the website, Twitter, Facebook, and whatever else that’s internet-y. So I’m always interested to know how people find St Nick’s. I’m also on the Welcome Committee, just  so that all makes…

  • Geek Out!

    Google Reader Sharing Still Crippled

    I’m still pissed off about the Share feature of Google Reader being ruined, and it’s weeks and weeks or months and months since I did any blogging of stuff I ran across in the Internets tubes. Somebody at the Google Reader user forum, in a thread entitled “I HATE the new format” came up with a possible solution: share your old Shares page to Google Plus (ugh) and use tags to add items to it. However, it was dependent on another site, which has since shut down (and I suspect Google of being evil). Farther down in the thread, someone…