More Google changes 06/29/11 9:39amPosted by Michael / Categories: Everything Else
More Google changes

This morning, the top bar turned a dark shade of gray — 45/45/45 RGB. I guess they decided it needed some contrast, since generally Google user interfaces are light and airy. Nothing wrong with that, though. I notice that the bar shows up in all main Google features except Gmail, at least so far. I’d be surprised if they left it off of Gmail, though. It’s probably just a matter of time.

I wonder if this same idea will be applied across the board to other Google products like Scholar. It seems a little spotty for them to apply the update to only selected products, and not all of them. But I give it a week at most for everything to be updated.

I conquered the Red Ring of Death 06/27/11 8:16pmPosted by Michael / Categories: Technology
I conquered the Red Ring of Death

I kept intending to blog about this, but I never had the time until now. Jeesh, summer sounded so relaxed and lazy, but I’m definitely finding myself with less free time than I thought.

So, onto the topic of discussion. I got an xbox, and I didn’t buy it. And, I didn’t steal it either. Nope — instead, my friend gave me his Red Ring’d 360 after he got the new slim one. He was aiming to chuck it, and my DIY instincts gave me the split-second motivation I needed to intercept that sucka’ before it hit the landfill. More

Oops 06/21/11 5:06pmPosted by Michael / Categories: Everything Else

Just realized that michael@lensflarevideos goes to nowhere. If you had tried to email this between about a month or two ago and now, it bounced. Sorry if this confused you! It is now fixed.

The New Era of Comment Spam 06/11/11 9:07amPosted by Michael / Categories: Web Design + Development
The New Era of Comment Spam

I remember back when spam was a bunch of advertising links, or gibberish. It still is today, to an extent, but there is now a new type. How do you tell if the following is spam?

Looks like you are an expert in this field, good post and keep up the good work, my friend recommended me it.

This is the essence of these new spam posts — they read perfectly well, but then you realize that they are not in any way related to the article topic. And then, the poster’s website URL sets off your spam alarm. And they put product names and “get free ___” as their name. The simple blogger would be led to believe that he or she must spend hours manually deleting spam, since it takes a human brain to figure out if the comment really is legitimate and related to the topic. More