Todd's Blog

I just stumbled on a very cool thing.

Google just turned 10 years old, and one of the things they did to celebrate is to bring back their very first search index from 2001 — and they let you run searches using it!

The site even uses the early Google logo.

When you bring up search results, they have an option to view the page from the Internet Archive, so you can see what the page looked like way back in 2001!

Here's a link: http://www.google.com/search2001.html

Try typing "lottery post" as the search query.  Not only can you see a very old version of Lottery Post, but if you skip down a few entries you can see an early version of BigGameLottery.com — the former version of USA Mega.

What a cool walk down memory lane!

One of the really neat things is that Lottery Post and USA Mega (BigGameLottery.com) are just as old as Google.  These sites have been around a long time, and have come a long way, just like Google.

Edit: If you type "lottery post" as the search term, you will actually see two entries for Lottery Post — the second being the Rules page.  If you click the Rules page link (the archive link, not the main link), you not only get to see how simple the rules were back then, but you also get treated to the first [ugly] version of the LP logo.

Lesotho mine yields one of world's largest diamonds

Miners in the southern African kingdom of Lesotho have found one of the world's largest diamonds, a near-flawless white gem weighing nearly 500 carats, mining group Gem Diamonds said on Sunday.

The diamond was discovered in the Letseng Mine on September 8, the company said in a statement. It has been analyzed by experts in Antwerp and found to weigh 478 carats, with very few inclusions and of outstanding color and clarity.

"It has the potential to yield one of the largest flawless D color round polished diamonds in history," the company said.

Letseng is one of the most productive mines in history -- four of the world's 20 largest rough diamonds have been found at the mine, including the three largest found this century.

Before it is cut into gems it is hard to value the diamond, but a spokesman for Gem Diamonds said a similar weight stone with lesser-quality color and clarity had recently sold for $12 million (around 5.5 million pounds).

"Preliminary examination of this remarkable diamond indicates that it will yield a record breaking polished stone of the very best color and clarity," Clifford Elphick, the chief executive of Gem Diamonds, said in a statement.

The minister for natural resources in Lesotho, an impoverished mountain kingdom in eastern South Africa, praised the productivity of the mine, one of the highest in the world at more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet).

"Once again Letseng has proved its ability to produce extraordinary diamonds and continues to place Lesotho at the forefront of diamond producing countries," Monyane Moleleki said in a statement.

Letseng is 70 percent owned by Gem Diamonds and 30 percent owned by the government of Lesotho.

The world's largest diamond is the Cullinan, discovered in South Africa in 1905. It weighed more than 3,100 carats before it was cut into more than one hundred separate gems, many of which are part of the British crown jewels.

Source

Wow, Chevy's new Volt electric car, coming out as a 2010 model (so I guess next summer or fall), looks fantastic!

Check out the site: http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar/

The video is really clever and fun to watch.

The car itself looks really nice, which is such a refreshing change.  I am tired of the ugly designs chosen by the Japanese automakers for their electric cars.  Why do they have to make electric cars ugly?  To hold back demand?

The Volt is designed to plug into a regular household outlet (nice!) and will go for 40 miles without a drop of gas.

The web link above has more info — check it out!

For those who have installed Google's new "Chrome" (I really don't like that name) Web browser, there is already the first update available, but you may not be aware of it.

I have read about a major security flaw in the browser lately, so I was surprised when I did not see the browser "update itself" at some point.

I just happened to be poking around in the interface and noticed a small message at the bottom of the "About" window stating that an update was available.

So if you have Google Chrome, here's how to get the update:

1. Click the button in the upper-right corner with the "wrench" symbol on it.
2. Select "About Google Chrome" from the menu.
3. At the bottom of the About window (to the left of the OK button) you will see a message that either states that the browser is up-to-date, or that an update is available.
4. If an update is available, click the message to install it, and then (as it instructs) close all instances of the Chrome browser that you have open.  (After they are all closed you can re-open them.)

I've been using IE8 exclusively for the past couple of days, and I'm really happy with the product Microsoft has put together!

Importantly (for me at least), Lottery Post has been designed to work well with IE8, so you can using IE8 right now with great success at Lottery Post.

In fact, the experience at Lottery Post using IE8 is decidedly better than using IE7.  There are only a few minor display glitches, and you'd have too look very hard to find them. 

Performance of JavaScript seems a little better than IE7, but the main performance boost seems to be in the page load-times.  Pages definitely seem to come up quicker and render much quicker, which makes the whole experience better.

The text editor is working very well in IE8 too, which is a pleasant surprise.

Compared to the way Firefox 3 acted at this stage in its development, IE8 is much more bug-free, from my testing.  The product feels like a Release Candidate, rather than a beta.  Again, much better than Firefox when it was in the beta stage.

The download is free for anyone.  It is easy to uninstall if it doesn't work out for you.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/

I'm sure Gold and Platinum members have been cursing their computer screens every time that warning message about "String can't be converted to Boolean" appears just before the text editor comes on the screen.

I know I have — for the last week now!

The good news is that I have finally found and fixed the bug.

Just to find the stupid thing, let alone fix it, did not happen until today.  Several times over the past week I thought I had found and fixed it, only to see it reappear again.  Grrrrr....

This morning I finally narrowed the problem down to the Image Manager, which is why only Gold and Platinum members ever saw the error. 

(Image Manager is only available to premium members.  It is software that allows members to upload images to the Lottery Post server, manage them in folders you create, edit them, and post them on the forums, in the blogs, as an avatar, and anywhere else you can post an image.)

After narrowing down the component causing the problem, I traced all the data being sent to a web browser from that component, and eventually found the exact piece of code that was triggering the error.

Then I spent a few hours wrestling with the code trying to work around the problem, and even at one point purchased the latest version of the Image Manager software, hoping it have the bug fixed.

No dice.

The authentication — the part that verifies that the person using the software is indeed a premium member — just would not work without giving the error.

So in order to fix it, I completely re-wrote the authentication module from scratch, and that is what finally fixed the problem fr good.

Despite the tremendous difficulty and heartache this kind of thing causes, there is almost always a silver lining.

In this case, the good news is that the new authentication module I wrote is much more reliable that the module that came packaged with the software, and nobody should ever run into the error caused when your browser "times out" and displays an error message in the Image Manager window. 

(That error would happen if you opened the editor, didn't move from that page for about 20 minutes, and then attempted to open Image Manager.)

Now I have to catch up on all the things that I have put off while trying to fix this thing!  (I apologize if I have been slow to get back to anyone, but now you know what I've been doing.)

I think that "world record" thing is pretty dumb.  I guess if they're trying to make themselves look important it will be all smiles, but really, who cares?

If you want the Firefox 3 browser without all the fanfare, here's the direct link:

http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&os=win&%20lang=en-US

Note: this is the official 3.0 release, not a beta or release candidate.

Important: Don't forget, if you only want to use Firefox as a secondary browser — not your primary web browser — you must un-check the checkbox during install that states "Use Firefox as my default web browser".

Just about everyone has received forwarded e-mails with catchy little sayings, or has seen them on peoples' blogs.

Did you ever wonder to yourself, "Who makes up those sayings?"

I always wondered that myself, until today, when suddenly this phrase just popped into my head, out of the blue.

I thought I should quickly blog it before I forgot.

So here is my original thought of the day!

If you do things the right way
If you persevere
You will usually get
What you want

If you avoid hard work
If you take short cuts
You will usually get
What you deserve

Concentrate on each sentence for a bit...

"To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did."

"When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better."

"The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'"

Amazon is having a huge sale on Blu-Ray discs — 50% off more than 100 titles.  Not too shabby!

The sale ends June 9.

Sorry if this seems a bit spammy.  Because I'm an Amazon.com Associate, I get notices of big sales, and this one seems perfect for anyone who recently bought a Blu-Ray player and is looking to build a library of decent movies.

Click this link to go to the Blu-Ray 50% off sale

Continuing where my last blog left off, another great choice for people looking for an alternative web browser is Apple's Safari web browser.

The latest version, 3.1.1, was recently released, and continues to be among the fastest web browsers available.  This release rivals Firefox 3 in terms of performance.  It's fast.

For example, when typing a new forum post using Safari, click the Preview button and see how fast the popup window animates open.  Both Safari and Firefox do it very quickly.

Safari is one of four web browsers I test when developing new features at Lottery Post, so if you decide to use Safari, it will be compatible with Lottery Post.

The download page for Safari is: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

A few tips for installation:

• Forget about installing the Bonjour service.  Un-check the checkbox for Bonjour in the installation wizard.  It just adds unnecessary overhead to your PC.
• I always turn off the Apple update service, because it's a little intrusive for my likes.  It can also be un-checked during installation.
• One thing that bugs me is when a browser's default configuration is to hide the tab bar.  I like to see the tabs, even if there is only one tab open.  To make this happen on Safari, click the Show Tab Bar option in the View menu when you open the browser.  (I'm not sure why Apple did not make this an option in the Preferences window.)

Safari probably supports more of the upcoming HTML/CSS features of any browser out there, making it an interesting choice.

It also has a very different look than regular Windows, so that will be either a really big plus or negative, depending on how you like the look.

"Release Candidates" (RC) are the final step before a company releases an official software product.  It signifies that all the features (or nearly all) that will be in the final product are in the RC.  It's like a trial release, to see if major bugs crop up before the official release.

So that's why it's exciting to see Firefox 3 RC1 has just been released.  It means that it's fairly safe for anyone to download and use, although everyone does so wih the understanding that there may be some small glitches here and there, and that they'll need to upgrade to the "real thing" when it's eventually released.

Everything looks great, and this browser continues to be the fastest I've ever used.  This thing rocks.

• Announcement here
• Release notes here
• Downloads here

One word of caution:  Mozilla has tried to sneak a fast one in on the installation process, and will make Firefox your system default web browser unless you're careful. 

When you get to the installation step below, be sure to un-check the box indicated if you don't want Firefox 3 to be the default web browser on your computer.  For example, if IE7 is your primary web browser, and you want to keep it that way, be sure to un-check the box.

Now that Toshiba has [sadly] pulled the plug on HD-DVD, I faced the obvious conclusion that I would be forced to get a Blu-ray player if I wanted to continue to enjoy movies in hi-def.

The awful truth about Blu-ray is that it was released to the public before the "good" features were baked in.

For example, picture-in-picture and Internet-based content.  Those features, which were part of the HD-DVD standard for a long time, and built into all the players, was not even a part of the Blu-ray spec until "version 2.0".

Worse, people who bought Blu-ray players from the time it was released until the present cannot even upgrade their players to the new spec, so they will have to purchase a completely new player if they want to do everything the format is capable of.

That is, unless they purchased the player I'm recommending: a PlayStation 3 ("PS3").

That's right, a video game console is the very best Blu-ray player you can buy.

Any PS3 is entirely upgradeable to whatever features Sony comes out with, because inside the unit is a fairly high-powered computer with something called a "cell processor".  So when you buy a PS3 and plug it in for the first time, the first thing it does is "dial home" to Sony (via built-in Ethernet network connection and/or Wi-Fi) and download the latest firmware upgrades.

After the initial download, you have a Blu-ray player with all the features that exist, and those features are available to you before any of the dedicated players with those same features even hit the market.

As far as ease of use is concerned, the PS3 is awesome.  The menu system is a cinch to navigate, and works exactly like Windows Media Center. You use the 4-way navigation control to move left and right to get to the major category you want (like Setup, Video, Games, Music, etc.), and then move up and down within the category to select the function you want within that category.

All the navigation is done on-screen.  There are no front-panel controls or indicators (other than a Power light), so there is no confusion about how to control the thing.  Also, you can operate the PS3 with a regular remote control (for an extra $24), so it operates just like any regular DVD player.

(Incidentally, the remote control uses a Bluetooth connection, so you don't even need to point it at the unit to operate it.)

The performance of the PS3 is equally great.  Movies load much quicker than any other hi-def player I've seen whether it's HD-DVD or Blu-ray.  (Movies take longer to load for HD, because internally it's more akin to loading a computer program than it is to just reading a movie file from the disc, as it is with standard DVD.)

Movies play with no jitters, stutters, or glitches (at least the ones I've tried).  It gives you a very confident feeling that anything will play perfectly, and that's something I could not say about any other hi-def player.

Again, I believe that feeling of power comes from the over-powered cell processor at the heart of the system.  Stand-alone players just do not have that kind of horsepower.

I picked up one game for the PS3, mainly so I could see what it's like to play a hi-definition game in 1080p on a 100" movie screen with 7.1 surround sound.  So I bought Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

It's hard to find words for something so ridiculously cool.  The game is so realistic it can be hard to play, because you just want to stand back and admire its beauty.

I love the replay feature, which lets you watch the race you just played, from the point of view of "cameras" placed all over the place, panning, zoom, and swooping artistically around, as you watch yourself trying to control the car, and driving into walls (hysterically, with the crowd trying to get out of your way).

This is not a topic about games, so I'll just leave it at that.  For Blu-ray, you now have my firm recommendation.  The PS3 is a great way to "future-proof" your investment, while providing an incredibly solid and easy-to-use playback experience.

Mozilla released beta 5 of their new browser, and everything continues to look good.

The performance is just as great, if not better, than before.

Looks like they've improved some of the graphics, for example in the Options window all the icons have been updated.

I just love the drop-down for the Address (URL) line, which not only shows the URLs last typed/visited, but also shows the title of the page.  It makes finding a previous site so much easier.

Even though it looks very good, as always you should exercise caution when installing a beta browser, and know that it is technically still in test mode, and not guaranteed to work properly in all situations.