Internet Explorer - one less reason to use your mouse

This is such a dumb tip but I have to share it. Ever wondered how to navigate to a new page in Internet Explorer 7 without using your mouse to click in the navigation bar? I have seen people use it before and probably if I would have remembered, I would have used it a lot more. But today, I was doing a lot of URL typing and I started to get annoyed to I looked for the shortcut.

By hitting Ctrl - O (open command in IE), a small dialog box is opened with your cursor already placed in the navigation field ready to type in your URL. Type your URL and hit enter and the dialog is immediately closed and your currently opened browser is navigated to the new URL.

So simple and yet so useful!

Free speech - a step in the right direction

Finally, some good news in the free speech department. The Supreme Court ruled today that courts should "give the benefit of doubt to speech, not censorship" in the 2008 political campaign. This can only be good news for any group that is trying to get their message heard in an increasingly noisy atmosphere. You can view the article here:

http://www.nysun.com/article/57275

For years, all I've been hearing and seeing is the erosion of the Freedom of Speech that is so important to America's survival and history. From ridiculous nonsense around derogatory comments about someone's hair style to an ultra-sensitivity towards hate speech. I completely agree with the decision of the Supreme Court on this one. When in doubt, support the right to say what you want even if you don't agree with it.

Maybe this will provide the much needed forum for political interest groups to actually be heard in the wake of the horrible McCain/Feingold campaign finance legislation that is an affront to free speech.

Blogger: remove "Showing posts with label" section

I created some custom links that I placed as part of the header section for easy navigation between label categrories. When someone clicks one of these links, blogger sorts the content to only show content for that particular label. I've worked a lot on the overall design of the site and want a more seamless (non-blogger-esque) experience for readers.

It might seem picky but each time a list of labeled posts is shown, an annoying message is displayed to users such as "Showing posts with label XXXX". This also has a link to View all Posts. This message looks totally out of place on my newly designed template. The other annoying thing about this message is that it lets my readers know that they are still on a blogger site instead of a custom designed site.

So I did a lot of searching and I am dissappointed to report that I couldn't find an answer anywhere. So I went to "plan B". I looked at the source behind the HTML of the blogger page when that message was shown and I noticed that the section was called "status-msg-border". After a lot of playing around with the template, I figured it out. To remove the section completely, follow these steps:

• Login to Blogger
• Click on Template -> Edit HTML
• IMPORTANT! Back up your template before making any changes just in case you screw this up.
• Check the box to Expand Widget Templates
• Then use your browser's Find command (Control-F in Firefox and IE) and search for the words "status-msg-border"
• To be safe (just in case you want to ever show this section in the future, I just commented it out. You can either remove or comment it out. Here is the entire code to remove:

<b:includable id="'status-message'">  
<!-- remove the label show all posts stuff here -->
<!--
<b:if cond="'data:navMessage'">
<div class="'status-msg-wrap'">
<div class="'status-msg-body'">
<data:navmessage/>
</div>
<div class="'status-msg-border'">
<div class="'status-msg-bg'">
<div class="'status-msg-hidden'">
<data:navmessage/>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="'clear:">
</b:if>
-->
</b:includable>

Save your template and click a label. No message should appear now.

* NOTE: This code has been tested for Beta Blogger / New Blogger only. No guarantees on classic blogger.

Removing the Permalink section from Blogger comments footer

I battled with this for hours and the answer was so simple, I almost cancelled my blogger account. So here's the deal, by default at the bottom of every post page where the comments are shown, there is a section called "Permalink" that is listed just under the last comment on the page. I kept wondering what the purpose of this section was. It made no sense to me having experienced the concept of permalinking at hundreds of sites on the web before. I just assumed (bad idea) that it worked as a unique and permanent link to this post for future reference. Well...Yes and no. Yes it is a permanent link, but it is not meant for the general public. Instead, it is a link for other blogger users to use to link to my post to help build search optimization linking for better search ranking on sites like google. It turns out the Blogger's term for this section is "Back Links". Here is a quick description of what they are (http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42533).

After figuring this out, all I wanted to do was remove it as most of my readers are not blogger users and have no interest in this feature. I started searching google trying every phrase I could think of to get some useful results. I tried everything from "Blogger remove peramlink" to more complex terms like "Blogger remove comments footer Permalink Create a link". Nothing! Partially why I am writing this now is to solve this issue for future people.

Here's how to remove it:

• Login to your blogger account
• Navigate to Settings -> Comments
• Change the setting "Backlinks" from Show to Hide.
• Save Settings

That's it. Now go back to a blog post and look at the bottom of the comments. No more permalink section! If only someone else had written this first!

Third column in Blogger (rounders template)

I searched and searched on google and came up with a lot of dead-ends. I have been trying to add a third column to the left side of my other blogs for quite a few days. Then I came across this article by "Tips for New Bloggers" (http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/2007/05/three-columns-rounders-template.html) that worked PERFECTLY.

I highly recommend checking them out. Their tutorials are much more coherent and well organized than Blogging for dummies (whom I still like) but New Bloggers takes it to a higher level. There is not as much ad garbage on their pages either so they load faster and are easier to navigate. Check it out sometime:

http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/

If Ron Paul is crazy, why is he making so much sense?

Although I can't get behind Ron's characterization of why the terrorists attack, I am really liking almost everything else he is saying. It really strikes a chord. I love his straight-talk. I am SO SICK of the rhetoric in politics. When was the last time Bush spoke without a script? I mean it sounds robotic. I don't believe a word he says. I don't think Bush is the bad guy that everyone else thinks he is. Rather, I think he is more the fumbling idiot. A nice Texan homebody who bumbled into the presidency because of his contacts, powerful friends, and family. He is the "Manchurian candidate".

But forget about Bush for a second, he is a disaster in terms of PR and policy. Ron Paul really speaks his mind and when he says something, whether I agree with it or not, I believe what he says and I can tell he really thought it through. He is more of a libertarian than republican. Freedom, founding fathers, and limited government with a strong defense is his policy.

Here is a small exerpt from a debate last month. See for yourself.



I know, I know... Ron Paul! Are you kidding? He is SO radical! Well, that is only because we have been so used to business as usual in politics that Ron seems out in left field. Go back and read the Federalist Papers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Papers) and it is eerie how similar Ron's views sound to those founding fathers.

Blogger customization

If you are looking for free tools, tips, and tricks to customize almost every aspect of your Blogger.com blog, look no further than BetaBlogger (http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/). This site is filled with tutorials, samples, and how-to's to get your blog looking exactly the way you want. It's amazing how much you can do to customize your personal blog.

There are tips on here as simple as adding an image to your title bar to more complex things like building your entire site template (colors, fonts, borders, backgrounds) from scratch. Want to add an automatic footer message or script to the footer of each post? They have it here: http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/2007/01/customize-post-footer.html

There is another site I came across with less content but I like the formatting and writing better. You can find a lot of good details on the new blogger features and some great widgets to add to your page for free (http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/).

I will be spending the next couple of weeks trying different things to see what I can get working. Blogger is a powerful tool and I am interested to see how far I can get in customizing the site and adding unsupported features. Keep you posted...

Book: Mouse Guard - Fall 1152

I picked this up on a whim at the local comic shop. It caught my eye because it just looked like something different. It was hardcover, great cover art, and when I picked it up and flipped through, the art inside was great! Without knowing anything about it, I read it in one sitting and I am pleased to report that it was a wonderful read.

The story follows 3 mice who are guardians of hidden mice cities. They are sent on a secret mission to defend their capital city against predators and an even worse threat, treason.


I read this in one night and then I realized that the kids would really love this story too so we spent the next week reading a chapter a night together. They were totally into it. The art is absolutely beautiful! The story isn't too hard for a 5 year old. Clean, exciting, and has a little depth to it. Something like "The Little's" if you remember that old series with pictures.

This comes highly recommended if you are looking for something new to read for yourself or the kids or both.

http://www.amazon.com/Mouse-Guard-One-Fall-1152/dp/1932386572/ref=sr_1_1/105-6316444-1691628?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182305029&sr=8-1

Review: Fantastic 4 - Rise of the Silver Surfer

2 & 1/2 - PG (Average, clean family film)

What can I say? Its better than the first but that ain't saying much. The best I can say is that the kids and I had fun for the 89 minutes we spent together in the theatre. It certainly isn't boring and it does keep the story moving.



What's good about it?

• Michael Chiklis (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004821/) as "The Thing". Does a great job of getting The Thing right in terms of character and personality. Some of the dialog he has to work with is weak and the suit still looks horrible to me (looks nothing like rock).


• Chris Evans (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0262635/) as "The Human Torche aka: Johnny Storm". Lots of fun. Has the best lines of the movie. A bit over the top but makes it fun and the only one who really looks comfortable on screen doing his thing. BTW: The flame effects look great.


• Silver Surfer. AMAZING! The effects were the highlight of the film. Even made the lame parts better. Bravo to the effects team. It single handedly carried the film in many places. In fact, I would say that these effects alone are worth seeing it in the theatre.

What's bad about it?

• Ioan Gruffudd (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0344435/) as "Mr. Fantastic". He is hardly. Doesn't act like the leader, his stretching effects look terrible and there is just no charisma. The guy is a good actor, maybe he was mis-cast.


• Jessica Alba. I don't find her particulary attractive and her acting is so terrible that is probably a big part of my disinterest. She was absolutely horrible and her died blonde hair is distracting. Looks so out of place on her.


• Julian McMahon (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0573037/) as "Doctor Doom". I don't know this guy's other work but this is freakin' horrible!!! He was so pitiful as the evil villian. Made his first movie look amazing in comparison. He fell flat on his face in this one.


• Too Short - 89 minutes! Come on.


• Ridiculous story. Guy that flies on a silver surfboard around the cosmos? Ludicrous but fun.


• Galactus. Why does he have to be a cloud? Didn't they know EVERY fan was going to freak out about that? Why build in that kind of hate?

All in all, a good time for summer movie. I did not hate it and that is something to be said because I had pretty low expectations. I still don't think Tim Story is that great of a director but improvement I will give him.