A Series of Tubes

I just had the idea to check out this page in IE (6), and I must say…it looks like crap. For one thing, the .png files don’t work. They aren’t transparent. For another thing, where’s my sidebar?! Oh yeah, that’s right. Down at the bottom where I wanted it. Wait- Oh that’s right, it’s not supposed to be at the bottom. IT’S A FRIGGEN SIDEBAR.
The Internet Explorer Homepage.
The way that banner should look.

Update: While the page looks better in IE 7, most of the sidebar is still at the bottom. Congratulations on getting png transparency working, Microsoft! Also, the Opera-style page zoom is cool, but you can’t remove the menu bar from a Windows app. It’s a tradition that doesn’t need to be broken.

Bush was right? Yeah, not so much. The Right Band was wrong.

Ok I know I’m usually “GO FIREFOX” and the like, but lately I just don’t know. Firefox has been going downhill for me since 1.5 was officially released. Since then, I’ve had to create 3 new accounts on account of the current one failing. First, Firefox simply wouldn’t open, and when it did it refused to load pages, and menus were entirely black, no text.

So I started a new account. That account worked fine until it started problems with updates. When I clicked a link from any app. other than Firefox, it would load a blank page with the green update logo up in the corner. When I clicked this, it said that there were no updates and returned me to the blank page with the update logo. By manually opening Firefox, it ran the updater and reported that there were no updates, then dropped me at the ‘Firefox is updated, don’t worry cuz u’ll never see this page again’ page, which is obviously bull since I saw that page every time I opened Firefox. So I tried disabling updates, which only made it worse because then I would always get a blank page with the update logo, but when I clicked it it said “updates have been disabled” and the menus wouldn’t work.

So I started a new account. This one has been working well until today. I load up firefox, and lo and behold: my theme and extensions are not there. I opened the menus to check, and they were still there; but none of them were actually doing anything. I’m typing this on a default Firefox. No extensions, no theme.

I must say, Firefox has let me down too many times, and I’m actually considering switching browsers. Does anyone know how to fix the problem I’m currently having in Firefox, or does any one have a suggestion for another browser? I have Opera, Mozilla, Netscape, AOL *shudder* (which I can’t use anyway), and the evil blue e. Don’t worry, I’m not switching to IE. I don’t like Firefox but I don’t intend on killing my computer. And don’t tell me about IE 7, because its worse than 6. No menu bar. No thanks.
</rant>

Update: I followed Kevin’s advice, and now Firefox works perfectly! Thanks, Kevin! 🙂

The ELC Anemone (which is also my trademark symbol) has gone through many stages.

First, it was a simple 3DS render:

(Click the images to enlarge)
No effects, no ray tracing.

Next came the simplistic render that was my header for so long:

I faded the edges with The Gimp to make it blend well with my blog, and I guess there’s some basic material on it.

Then there was the faux cell-shaded anemone:

I liked this one, but the varying line width annoyed me, plus I wanted something that looked a bit more professional.

I got that with the next variation, which has been my logo in many places.

This, of course, is the official ELC Anemone. It is the current logo for ELC, and is also my avatar in many places. It was only used in the header here briefly, because its size made it off-center.

The ELC Anemone was replaced by the newest anemone, the CLC Anemone:

This baby took a while to make, and it uses ray tracing and radosity. It’s inside a large sphere with red and orange splotches inside to create the explosion thing behind it. I really love the way it came out. It’s the logo for Completely Leet Chat, the next version of ELC.

Now, I leave you with the current image being used as the header here. It has an alpha channel, which makes the bg slightly transparent. Cool!

If you want to help Cyan bring back Uru Live then please post this on your blogs, as your friends and family to post it on their blogs…even if they have no intention of playing or even like the game, because through them it could spread to someone who does want to play.

Remember to have the advert link to http://plasma.cyanworlds.com/

This is a way to spread the word about one of the best games in existence, a game that was shut down before it was given a chance to grow. A grass roots advertising effort to get the word out about Uru Live.

At my school, there is a beacon. We call it The Beacon of Hope. It consists of 3 traffic cones (2 orange, 1 black) in a sandwich formation, placed on the highest point on the jungle gym. I am a keeper of the beacon, along with a few of my friends. It is our solemn duty to tend to the Beacon, and ensure it is always in its proper place.

You will obey the Beacon.

ROFL! Typing ‘gofirefox’ (no quotes) into Firefox brings you to the closest match- an Opera Browser community member’s page called gofirefox. That’s funny. 😛

Ok I’m bugged about my friend’s computer again, so I’m posting again. Yesterday he bought a $90 WD 250gb hard drive (which really pissed him off, because when it was installed it said that it was 233.88gb, not 250gb), and called me before purchasing to make sure he was buying the right kind. He was really worried when I told him to get an IDE drive and the box said eIDE on it, but I figured “Hey, it’s still IDE,” and told him to buy it.

*Insert trip to see V for Vendetta a school day here*

So then I go over to his house to help him install it (3:30).
We get the computer unplugged and shut down (3:45).
Computer is open (3:50).
We realize that his computer only has one hard drive rack (3:55).
-Begin Failure-
Ok, we can improvise. There are extra removable media racks that the drive would fit in (4:10).
We have unplugged the current hard drive, the 9-in-1 media reader, the dvd burner (read: the dvd burner), and basically anything else blocking our way to this empty rack, except for this huge cluster of power cables that seems to be soldered onto the mobo. Oh well, we can work around it (4:25).
After struggling to fit the drive in, we decide to remove the 9-in-1 media reader (4:30).
We fail (4:35).
We replace the reader and ponder what to do next (4:37).
We ponder (4:45).
*Bing!* Idea strikes (5:10).
Idea also fails (5:10).
Ok enough of that. To put it simply, we end up just plugging everything back in and placing (/dropping) the hard drive on the floor of the computer case, plugged in and stuff. We boot ‘er up, and it doesn’t recognize the drive. It also won’t open the dvd burner, so I assume we set the master/slave jumpers wrong. We opened the box again, and set them all right. This time *WHAM* the drive works! =D So we set it to partition it (/:Y, isnt that cool?), and I leave to return to my dwelling.

A few hours later, my friend calls. His dvd burner still won’t open. Dammit, the thing we forgot to check! So I’m going back there tomorrow to check that out…

In between these escapades, I attempted to uninstall ZoneAlarm a few times, and experimented with alt+f4 😛

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Alienware, maker of l33t gaming computers (and all-nVidea, thank god), has recently been bought by Dell. This move by Dell is to get closer to the gaming community, and ultimately AMD themselves. Pitiful. They acquire one of the l33test companies in the world to escape Intel. You signed up with them, you can go down with them too.

I’m at my friend‘s house, trying to help him install Maya 7. I figured this would be easy, just open the setup.exe on the disc and install.
Well, I was wrong. Very wrong. There are a few complications here. First of all, my friend has 3 virtual drives, all called basically the same thing as his DVD drive, meaning it took a while to even find the setup.exe file. Then, his firewall. ZoneAlarm or something. It seems like every time Maya tries to install another file, I get a popup that says ‘ZoneAlarm has detected a program doing something you might want to look at’, which stalls the installer and waits for me to click ‘allow’. If this weren’t annoying enough, I’ve waited through at least 5 loading bars, which all say ‘Please wait while I install Maya 7.0’. WHAT IS IT DOING THAT REQUIRES A FREAKING 15 MINUTE LONG INSTALLER?!?!?!?!

Update: Man, this is a sight for sore eyes:

Update: While I’m on the topic of this dude’s computer, may I mention that apart from a few awesome programs like 3ds and maya (whose legality are questionable), his computer sucks. It didn’t come with MSPaint, Calculator, or Sound Recorder. It refuses to install service pack 2 (or any updates, for that matter…). He’s looking to upgrade it, but I’m thinking that he should back up the files he needs to a DVD and scrap it.