+ Cookie management in the web browser Opera 7.51 should be simplified. There needs to be a clickable button called “Clear Cookies”, or a setting that one can click to “clear cookies on exit”. - in lieu of that there is Opera 4 File Explorer, written by Josef W. Segur. A simple little app. to view and maintain Opera’s Cache, Cookies, Global History, and Visited Links.

+Your Brain Usage Profile:
[link via: More than doughnuts]

Auditory : 17%
Visual : 82%
Left : 50%
Right : 50%

Kent, you exhibit balanced hemispheric dominance and a strong visual preference. It is the intensity of your sensory preference which may more determine your learning style.

The balance of left- and right-hemisphere usage is very helpful to a highly visual learner. You absorb your environment, selecting out details and simultaneously embedding them in a context, an overall perspective which adds nuances of meaning. Given the prodigious rate that you input information, you naturally utilize the services of both hemispheres more or less equally.

You are active and searching, which produces energy. Because you can process multiple inputs comfortably, you do not experience the indecision of a person with mixed sensory preference. You are able to focus on more than one aspect of a situation and push for resolution.

You can tolerate ambiguity, which is good, since you will experience a lot of it due to your input style. While a part of you will always seek completion, the other part will accept the process as it is. You may occasionally get impatient with yourself. You will always be able to work through problems in a logical sequence or given order, but you will have other options available to you as well.

You may find that you have insufficient time to reflect on your experiences and thus lose a sense of meaning, not appreciating your “inner being” as much as you might otherwise.

Many people would envy your combination of characteristics. Constantly seeking stimulation, you are artistic without needing to be “odd,” an active learner and yet reasonably logical and disciplined.

Yesterday I found an article in The New Yorker on why creative people stop producing work very interesting. It seemed sadly comforting because I’ve pretty much stopped producing work too… [via: Arts & Letters Daily]

What’s ‘white tea’? White tea has incredible anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties, much more so that green tea. According to Milton Schiffenbauer, Ph.D., a microbiologist and professor in the Department of Biology at Pace University’s Dyson College of Arts & Science, green tea stimulates the immune system to fight disease, white tea destroys the organisms that cause disease. — intrigued, I found out what white teas are, and then searched for a decaf version. Found something better. According to Lauren, an ‘expert’ on the subject of tea for About.com, there’s a technique called ’second infusion’ which will remove 90 to 95% of the caffeine. Merely steep the tea for 45 seconds, discard the brew. Then brew again as normal.

+ I just can’t stop thinking that PSPad editor is the shit, so I wont. PSPad is the shit, and it’s freeware!! Amazing. Such a perfect editor. A ‘robust’ (I keep seeing that term used in reviews. sounds good. what the hell.) solution to edit just about anything. With syntax highlighting for Plain Text, HTML, CSS, PHP, Pascal, Java, C++, JScript, VBScript, MySQL, MS-Dos, Perl…etc. Has all the simple features like word wrapping, line numbers and a spellchecker (you have to install it yourself, but that’s easy). It has a fully functioning integrated FTP, and an internal web browser that can integrate with Apache webserver. It works for MD5 checksums, and even has a full powered Hex editor, Uh. Is there anything else? Right, it is set up to create and work with projects. Can plugin TopStyle’s CSS Editor, and no doubt has scads of features I have yet to discover. — it’s freeware! — I think I’ll replace Notepad in XP with this. I currently have EditPlus as my Notepad replacement, but it’s not free.

+ It’s a fairly simple hack to replace Notepad with something more useful. My instructions are not elegant, but they’ll work. Click your Start button >> Right click the My Computer icon >>select Properties >>select System Restore >> check ‘Turn Off System Restore’ and click ‘Apply’ >> Open Explorer >>browse to C:\Program Files\PSPad (or whichever editor you choose) >> Create a copy of the PSpad.exe file (or whichever .exe starts your program). >> Rename the ‘copy of’ file to ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ >> Copy the new ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ file. >> Browse to C:\WINDOWS\system32 >> Paste ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ >> Browse to C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache >> Paste ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ >> Rename ‘Notepad.exe’ to ‘Notepadbak.exe’. >> Rename ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ to ‘Notepad.exe’ >> Browse to C:\WINDOWS\system32 >> Rename ‘Notepad.ex’ to ‘Notepadbak.exe’. >> Rename ‘Notepad_replacement.exe’ to ‘Notepad.exe’ >> Start >> Right click My Computer >> Properties >> System Restore >>un- check (remove the ‘X’ mark) ‘Turn Off System Restore’ and click ‘Apply’ click ‘OK’. Now whenever you click anything that requires Notepad to open it will open your replacement program instead. — if for any reason you wish to restore Notepad just use ‘Notepadbak.exe’. It is your original file.
**If you cannot see the folder ‘dllcache’: In File Explorer click ‘Tools’ >> ‘Folder Options’ >> ‘View’ >> Check ‘Show hidden file types’ and uncheck ‘Hidden extensions for known file types’ and uncheck ‘Hide protected operating sytem files’.

+ I haven’t posted what new music I’m loving in a while. Here’s a few of my current favorites:

+ Fingerprint recognition technology is no longer a reliable means of identification. A Japanese cryptographer defeated fingerprint recognition devices with some clever, but not incredibly difficult technology. He took finger prints off a glass, manipulated them through a few stages, and ended up with gelatin prints that foiled fingerprint recognition equipment about 80% of the time. ( The Register) - I suspect this will have some effect in the legal world as well.

+ Don’t miss the house music station Deep Mix Moscow. They are, I think, one of the most cutting edge, and most passionate about house music, internet radio stations. Most other’s seem to be just going through the motions, playing tired old unchallenging house. This staion reminds me of what it was like, the vibrancy of the house scene in the late 90’s. Makes me want to believe that house can once again reflect a subculture on an adventure of discovering new music and passionate for new experiences. - it may be that I’m just getting over a stomach flu…could be that I’m still a bit dazed. - just looked through my old Pitas archive to find the last time I posted about Deep Mix Moscow. It was October, 2002. Warning!! That giantkicks layout displays horribly in Opera. Looks fine in IE and Firefox (and Mozilla I imagine).

+ Just received an e-mail from Adnan of Sensory Impact inviting me to have a look at his new site. “Its a weblog for design enthusiasts.” Nice, is my thought. Adnan has built a nice looking site with a good amount and variety of stylish content. His search button is surrounded by a slick looking rounded cornered box that I recently saw how to do in CSS - sorry no link for that just now - One of his posts, I’ll be following up on later today, is on a Wired story about an artist named Kurtz who uses bacteria and DNA to create his art. - oooh, and he’s even under investigation by the FBI for his wife’s death…yup, gotta check that out for sure…oh, and there’s lot’s of nice stuff there too.
update: wouldn’t you know it. My intuition connected Sensory Impact with Adnan of Adnan.org, but I brushed it off. Just mentioned to him the similar names. He e-mailed back that he is the very same guy. Funny. We used to reciprocal link each other back three or four years ago. Just goes to show I aught to go through my old site templates and revitalize some old links.

There is a clear demand from customers for products that work together based on widely used standards. But Glushko contends that the standards process is stacked to favor large tech companies, which can control and ultimately benefit most from specifications that are ratified as industry standards.

+ From the article You call that a standard?, by Martin LaMonica (c|net news).

+ A simple tweak for Explorer in XP will organize folders of music files by the ‘date modified’. That means music files are organized by the date they were put in a folder, or, if you share music, the date the file downloaded to your computer. XP’s explorer is the only Windows version that comes with this setting enabled for other file types, but not for music files. It’s can be very challenging to keep music files organized with a huge folder full of poorly titled tracks. This tweak makes it a little easier to narrow down which music files go where by grouping music files by their ‘date modified’. >> Open your music folder >> Set the ‘View’ to ‘details’ >> Right click the bar of columns: ‘Name | Size |Type’ >> Select ‘Date Modified’ >> Right click inside the Explorer window >> Select ‘Arrange Icons By Modified’ — you can also tweak the columns bar to display in a custom order, and remove colums if you don’t need them >> Right click the bar of columns >> Select ‘More’ (it’s the last option in the list).

The seas are being overwhealmed by plastics (Wired News).

Chalabi: What Really Happened
Robert Dreyfuss
June 03, 2004

Was the United States set up by Chalabi? Was Chalabi set up by Iran? Some answers and more questions about the scandal surrounding Chalabi and our leaders who trusted him.

+ [link via: Cursor]