• Geek Out! - Uncategorical Weirdness

    425-390-8105 Is Probably the ANTI Do Not Call Database

    I received a call at work from a Renton WA number, and immediatly after got a spam text message. When I called the Renton number back, it was a voicemail saying “Welcome to the Do Not Call database. If you would like to be added to the database, enter your 10-digit phone number.” Note, no “Federal,” no mention of a US governmental entity. So I assume that it was actually an opt-in database for phone spammers, based on a bit of Googling around as seen below. One commenter remarked that it’s probably “out of country” spammers using some kind of…

  • Geek Out! - The Never-Ending Bloga - Uncategorical Weirdness

    Not so Simple: Simple Facebook Connect « WordPress Plugins

    I finally got Simple Facebook Connect working between the St Nick’s webpage and the Facebook page, mostly. It was both simple and not simple: Facebook had changed the look of their Apps page, and there is more than one Apps page. So one “how to install this app” tutorial I tried to follow was visually outdated, but a text update had been added at the bottom. The plugin developer had not bothered to remove screenshots on an old blog post on his site, but added a terse update noting that the instructions in the plugin readme.txt file and on the…

  • Blogs Wot I Read - Geek Out! - Twitter

    Kevin Fox Makes Offer To Google They Shouldn’t Refuse

    They really should take him up on this. Also, I have surrendered; I don’t welcome our Google Plus overlords, but I’ll let them in the house on a hot day and listen politely. And I like the clean “if you like this, please share” icons in Kevin’s post, so will implement that here and at Holy Moly. And so I put my resources where my mouth is. As the former lead designer for Google Reader, I offer my services to Google, rejoining for a three month contract in order to restore and enhance the utility of Google Reader, while keeping…

  • Geek Out! - Twitter

    Hivemind: #Sharebros, Assemble! Build Us A Big Damn RSS Reader #OccupyGoogleReader

    Yes, I had to throw in the Despicable Me! and Firefly references. It’s late, and I’m in GReader withdrawal. I used to scroll GReader constantly. I probably shared too much (there is no overshare in Google Reader, but if there is, I did it). I missed the chance to meet 2 (TWO) of my sharebros in Colorado and now I’ve lost connection with a very small number of interesting people, including several Muslim gentlemen who shared all kinds of interesting tech gadget stories, plus incredible food articles and recipe sites during Ramadan. I’ll miss those guys, though I didn’t interact…

  • Geek Out!

    Fixed my “Press This Reloaded” Plugin Myself, Thank You

    For some time now, I’ve been unable to blog easily from my iPhone because the “Press This” plug in stopped working well – I suspected it was because of all the extra crap Google Reader adds with the “$UTM” tracking codes to the URL. I’d also noticed that the “Press This Reloaded” plugin worked okay, except that the link it added was only “complete” (including the title of the page linked, the a href HTML tags) if I happened to select some text to quote. It turns out that’s the way Scribu, the plugin developer wrote it. He was assuming…

  • Geek Out!

    Steve Jobs Day: This Video Will Make You Cry

    Passed along by Mashable, a video that’s worth watching today. “I made this song using only sounds from Apple products and Steve’s 2005 Stanford commencement speech. Every instrument, including drums, has been sampled from a Mac product, tuned by ear, and replayed in the context of the song.” via Steve Jobs Day: This Video Will Make You Cry.

  • Geek Out! - Hot Off The Presses

    Which Came First: Running Chicken Nebula Or Fried Egg Yellow Hypergiant Star?

    First came the “Running Chicken” nebula, and now comes a cosmic “Fried Egg.” A European telescope has captured the best image yet of one of the rarest classes of stars in our universe, and astronomers playfully point out that the cosmic scene resembles an egg white around a yolky center. via Fried egg nebula: European telescope captures image of monster star [VIDEO] – CSMonitor.com.

  • All Things Interesting - Geek Out!

    The Attack of … Space Squirrel!

    Lots to blog in small, short bursts… we’re back from vacation and it’s been several days already, and the blog-kage is starting to give. David is out of town on business, and was a little bummed that he had to leave on Monday after we only arrived home on Sunday evening. He hasn’t even seen Rileycat yet; we boarded the cat at the vet for the trip and I couldn’t pick him up until after work on Monday, several hours after David left again from O’Hare. If you don’t have a headset, microphone or speakers, you can still use Skype…