1. Go to a web page...
2. Enter this code (one line) into your address bar...

javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0

3. Edit the text on the page.

... prank potential!

Even better...

javascript: var n = 0; var des = document.getElementsByTagName('h3'); for (var i=0;i<des.length;i++) { if (des[i].className=='UIIntentionalStory_Message') { if (i==n) { des[i].innerHTML = "<span style='font-weight:bold; color:#3b5998;'>SOMEONE'S NAME</span> CAN BE ATTACHED TO A COMMENT HERE."; } } }; void 0

Type THAT in (all one line), change the value of 'n' near the beginning to match the Facebook news feed item (start counting with 0) that you want to change, and then type the code that you want to appear. (Might take a few tries or some tweaking and test alerts to figure out exactly which value to give to 'n').

A guy stands over his tee shot for what seems an eternity: looking up, looking down, measuring the distance, figuring the wind direction and speed. Finally his exasperated partner says, "What's taking so long? Hit the damn ball!"

The guy answers, "My wife is up there watching me from the clubhouse. I want to make this a perfect shot."

"Forget it, man," says his partner. "You'll never hit her from here."

We received an email from marvel.com today asking about including our organization name on the side of a CG building in a scene in Iron Man 2 that involves a Stark-funded Expo at which 'bright and innovative' organizations are meeting from around the world. We're pushing it through some channels, and of course I've responded to the woman who (supposedly) sent it to ensure that it's not just a prank of some sort, but if it's legit, then this would be an interesting promotional opportunity.

(I doubt it's bogus since it's from marvel.com, doesn't have a different reply-to address, and doesn't include a bogus web link... but it could always just be a prank or hoax.)

But still... exciting for now.

Update

Good News: A real person at marvel responded and confirmed the legitimacy of it.

Bad News: It wouldn't surprise me if we nitpick the answer for so long they pass us over.

I haven't really had much to say lately. Running around a lot these days, it feels like. I've been working really hard on a couple of personal projects, namely a lot of Javascript goodies as well as a timeline/mapping application using Google Maps and Simile Timeline. I'm also preparing (read: bracing myself) for a Javascript workshop that I'll be teaching on Monday evenings for the next eight weeks, as well as working (well I need to get started) on a database project for the IEP office on campus. My social life has also gotten a fair bit more interesting over the last few weeks, which is certainly not a bad thing, but definitely a thing.

So yeah... not much to say.

I went to Athens, Georgia a couple of weeks ago to visit my brother, who was there for a conference. Well, I just got back from Athens, Ohio yesterday after spending a couple of days there for the "Spring <br />" Conference (ha... get it?) that they hold at Ohio University each year. While I've been a fan of this conference for a couple of years with respect to its affordability ($20 for students this year, and a whopping $65 for anyone else... and this includes breakfast, lunch and dinner) and the amount of information presented (five sessions plus an intro and a keynote), I have to say I was pretty disappointed with the quality of the talks this year. The conference itself was still organized well (no hassle with check-in, food was good, sessions started and stopped on time, etc), but the speakers really seemed less... well... qualified... than in previous years. The keynote was okay (talked about the state of the web: past, present and future), but the none of the other sessions were particularly informative. The CSS Tips and Tricks session we attended went about as far as to explain fluid three-column layouts (big whoop) and accomodating text magnification; the application testing session reviewed Selenium, which isn't new, and the presenter had a hard time getting it to work properly for several seemingly simple examples; we left the jQuery hands-on workshop early because we did about half of the tutorial ourselves and then got tired of waiting for the instructor to help everyone actually get the basic setup working on their computer; Eric Meyer couldn't be there in person to talk about how "Javascript Will Save Us All" because of a family emergency (certainly not his fault), and then proceeded to give a poor-audio remote talk about how cool it was that you could use Javascript to do all sorts of things that you probably shouldn't try to use Javascript for (like 3D graphics and desktop application development); and then... well... we just couldn't bear to walk into another session, so we just skipped the last slot altogether.

While I would normally (and still kind of) recommend this conference to beginners, I can no longer enthusiastically endorse it for competent developers. You're better off hitting a quite corner of Barnes and Noble with a laptop.

I will say that I'm somewhat annoyed that I'm sure many of the speakers make 6 figures in their line of work.

I went to the doctor today and he told me I have a small infection in my left eye (which explains the discomfort I've had in the last week or three off and on with contacts). I've needed a better pair of backup glasses for a long time, and wandering around in my 10 year old pair of glasses with a particularly under-corrected left eye prescription is probably exactly what I deserve for procrastinating. Anyway, so I ordered a nice new pair of Nike bendable/unbreakable/whatever glasses with nice lightweight lenses, and since there's a buy one/get one free sale, I just went ahead and got a nice pair of (Polo? - ha, I forget now) sunglasses that would have otherwise been almost $450 without the special. While I generally prefer contacts because rain doesn't bother them and I can do things like swim with goggles and stuff like that, I think that I might start wearing glasses more often now that I'll have some decent glasses.

I'm not much of a gardener, landscaper or home maintenance type at all. Fortunately I've got a neighbor with an ex-wife who also lives around our neighborhood, and both of them enjoy working outside and are not only willing to show me how to improve my yard, but even eager to finally trim back bushes and stuff that the previous owner hadn't been maintaining. So today he weed-wacked a lot of my back yard, and she trimmed all of the bushes around his side of my house. They also pulled up a couple of bushes that were dying or crowding other nicer plants. I feel like all I did was trail after her and take loads of brush down to a burn pile in the wheelbarrow. But apparently they enjoy it enough that it's worth it to them to contribute to my yard work. I plan to make it up by helping them with cleanup after some of their projects, as well as helping him tile in an area on the other side of his house (because I'd benefit from seeing how he does it anyway).

So the 'work outside a couple of hours on a regular basis' portion of my workout routine is off to a good start. I'll be buying a little mulch on the way home from work each afternoon next week and filling in the ugly areas around my house now that she's trimmed away so much of it. I'll also be planting some flowers in some trays in front of my master bedroom window, which I think should look quite a bit better than the weeds that have grown in the meantime.

The big project that's going to cost a bit more is either getting concrete poured to extend my patio area in the back OR just killing the weeds, dumping a bunch of gravel, and then adding pavers myself. But I definitely need to get rid of a lot of grassy, weedy areas that are nothing but a nuisance and are taking away from space that could be used for a larger patio for hosting guests. My neighbor seems to have done pretty well laying down gravel, then pouring dry cement mix on it, and then placing pavers and hosing them down to make the cement wet, set and stick the pavers down. This also avoids weeds. So I think I might see if he'll help me with some of that. But the patio is something I can work on a little later on after I pretty up the plants, clean out my back garden some more, get all that brush taken away, and possibly build up some retaining wall around the flood areas at the bottom of the hill behind my house... all of which is a more immediate concern.

We're thinking of guiding the flooding through my back yard like a river by building up some retaining wall. When I factor in the money I'm making from SLIS for the workshop I'm teaching, I can afford to put about $3k into this without going back into credit card debt, so that's the plan for now: spend as little as possible on prettying up plant beds, spend maybe $1000-1500 on some retaining wall and dirt at the bottom of the hill, and them maybe another $500-1000 on improving my back patio area. But I have a feeling that making these improvements will bump the value of the house up quite a bit, especially if I go to the effort to grout my vinyl tile at some point. (It's not necesssary, but it makes it sturdier and gives it a more 'realistic' look... it's also relatively cheap to do and just a matter of spending the dozens of hours it takes to grout in all the grooves and wipe up the residue.)

All I'm seeing to the right when I get on now is some hot girl telling me I'm fat. Damn it. Well, last night I replaced that emotional burn with some physical... did 100 sit-ups/crunches, 50 push-ups, and a several sets of bicep curls (12x25, 10x30, 8x35, 6x40, 12x20). Unfortunately it was after drinking a little, and I felt a little sick right after. But hey, if I'll do it tipsy, I should be capable of doing it 100% sober, right? Anyway, today I'll get some exercise out in my yard, too. I'm going to mow my lawn and do a little weed-pulling and maybe pot a couple plants!

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