After getting cable for the first time since 1992, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t have a 30 second commercial skip button on the Motorola remote. After some internet searching, I found these instructions:
1) Press the “Cable” button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
2) Press and hold the “Setup” button until the “Cable” button blinks twice.
3) Type in the code 994. The “Cable” button will blink twice
4) Press (do not hold) the “Setup” button
5) Type in the code 00173 (for 30 second Skip)
6) Press whatever button you want to map the skip
I replaced the mute button, since I never run into a need to mute it (I just hit pause instead, since I have a DVR.)
Looks like there were some problems with the RSS feed for a while. If in doubt, subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/Northlander. I’ll update the feedburner URL if I ever move my actual feed.
With all the talk of change in today’s campaigns, it seems prudent that I make some change of my own. I finally moved the site to my beefy VPS, and gave it a new design to boot!
I’m calling this the (con)temporary design. It’s new, it’s different, and it’s much more conducive to the type of posts that I’ve been backlogging for a while. It’s also temporary.
Why would I do a design and only leave it up for a few months? The answer is simple: it was an experiment. This site takes advantage of some advanced code that only works in a couple browsers. It degrades nicely in Firefox and Internet Explorer, so you may not even notice that Safari users get to see some extra cool typography.
For those of you in the Missoula, Montana area, the monthly Missoula Web Discussion Group meets tonight. The meeting is held the second Tuesday of every month at 6PM at Sean Kelly’s Pub.
The other day I moved my Windows Media Center onto my second monitor (a projector), and forgot about it. After closing Media Center, removing the projector to bring it to my new apartment, I found I couldn’t find Media Center again. It was lost off screen, with no way to get it back (or so I thought).
Thanks to some creative search terms and a resulting forum thread, I found out the solution. In Windows, you can right click an item in your task bar and choose move… the catch is that you have to hit an arrow, then you can drag it around. Problem solved.
When I went into my local print shop to ask them if they could do a letterpress project for me, they asked me what it was. I wish I had this great news segment about letterpress printing to show them a month ago. Anyone who is interested in classic design will enjoy this video, and perhaps be able to relate to it.
My old home of Minneapolis just had a disaster. The major interstate bridge I 35-W just crashed into the water. The Star Tribune has much more info than CNN or the New York Times.
I came across an utterly inspiring article about what skills make up a good teacher. Dan takes the methods of calculus to break apart essential skills, helping us to learn about what aspects affect our teaching, and that we can systematically improve them to create a greater whole.
Just last Friday I gave a presentation to the admissions staff at my university about search engine optimization, and of course I outlined the ever popular Miserable Failure Google Bomb, only to read this weekend that Google announced that it changed its algorithm to remove the common ones. I had to send out an email of retraction of that information, but I am glad Google has improved its search once more.
As far as I can tell, the extent of the algorithm change is minimal, and only affects true Google Bomb search queries. Linked text keywords are still an important aspect of setting up your site for proper placement in search engines.
While reading the Straight Dope, I ran across this neat little tidbit:
“..of the 161,000 people who wrote to the DMA (The service that keeps a do not mail list) last year, 116,000 wanted more junk mail. They were sent a booklet entitled “How To Get More Interesting Mail” (as God is my witness, I am not making this up), which tells you various key catalogs that you can send for to guarantee you’ll be deluged with stuff.”
