Speed Test

So... my internet sucks.  It isn't just that I don't like it, or I an greedy.  It really sucks.  It only just beats out having dial-up still.  I mean, DSL is nice, but this really doesn't do it for me.  At one point, maybe, but not anymore.  Just to prove my point, here are my results from Speedtest.net.

See what I mean?  This is in kilo bits per second too, which means you have to divide by 8 to get the actual Kilobytes per second.  This translates to less than 100 kilobytes per second.  Sad.  A sad, sad world.  However, not all hope is lost.  While I'm not in college yet, it turns out my school has a very nice internet connection, and they have not put up their "great firewall" yet, so I can still download many things, and torrent many more.  Check this out:

So you see, while you may have crappy internet at your house, elsewhere may be better for you.  Until my school gets their act together, I'm going to be torrenting like no tomorrow on their connection.  And when they block that, I will move onto http file transfers.  Teach them a lesson.

Google Chrome: The Search Engine Behemoth Strikes Again!

For a long time now, Google has been taking over the internet, capitalizing on it's popularity, and usability. From a search engine, it has evolved to include a map quest-esque direction and map service. They also have begun intruding upon the blogosphere by buying out the blogging service now called Blogger (which, as it happens, is the blog service that we use).

And now they're at it again.

Google has announced that they will be releasing their new web browser. Their have been a few myths flying around the past year or so about Google's web browser project, but it is official now.

Google Chrome will have many very neat features with it. One of these features will be a normal one for new browsers. Updated speed for javascript and other speed adjustments using what they call the "V8". The improved speed, according to Google, will help improve browsers for things that haven't even been created yet. So our future web applications are safe with Google Chrome.

Also, Chrome will use what is called "sandboxes" for the tabs. Basically this will allow each tab to run on an individual basis, helping protect against malware and one tab's crash from crashing another tab. Chrome will have another new feature called 'incognito'. Incognito is a privacy mode that means that your computer will not log or add history from any web window that you are in. You will be "invisible" when running incognito :).

Chrome will have several other awesome new features, but really what it comes down to is this: what does Chrome mean for the rest of the browsers? Mozilla Firefox has been gaining a large amount of popularity recently. How will Chrome affect them? What about good 'ole Internet Explorer (which if you're using, by the way, switch to Firefox already!) I for one am looking forward to playing around with Chrome when it releases. How about you? Do you like your current browser enough to forget about Chrome? Or is Chrome just another way for Google to take over the internet, little by little?

Firefox 3 adds "mailto:" hack

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who's ever had this problem. You're cruising the internet, looking for something. Even you're not quite sure what you were looking for anymore. But you come across a website, and there's a bloody error on the page. Maybe the flash is broken, or the words-on-background are so abysmally horrible they make you want to tear your eyes out. So you do what any good web surfer should do. You click the little "email the webmaster" link hovering around the bottom of the page.

You all know what comes next, I'm sure. You spend about 10 minutes waiting for Microsoft Outlook to pop open so you can type your message, spend 1 minute typing the message, 4 minutes trying to figure out how to send the message, 30 minutes figuring out why outlook keeps encountering a problem, and then you finally give up and copy/paste the address to gmail. And, of course, the whole time you were wondering "Now wouldn't this have been easier if I could just use my Gmail account in the first place?" Good news! Firefox will now let you do just that!

In order to make Firefox use gmail as the default mailto service is quite simple, and takes virtually no time at all. First, open up your Firefox browser and in the address bar type:
about:config

A screen will open up warning you that continuing could void your warranty. Click "I'll be careful, I promise". You won't be voiding your warranty this time 'round.

Next, in the 'filter' bar, type:
gecko.handlerservice
This will show a smaller list of choices to pick from. Double click the option:
gecko.handlerService.allowRegisterFromDifferentHost
When you double click on this, the boolean value will become 'true'. This is exactly what you want it to do, as it will allow you to access a different email service from a mailto link. Lastly, copy the following javascript code into your browser's address bar and hit enter (I would copy and paste the code- you don't want to accidentally put the wrong javascript in):
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto", "https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")

Now just click "add application" on the bar that appears below your address bar, and voila! The next time you click a mailto link, you can choose gmail, and if you tick the "remember my choice" box, then in the future Firefox will always use gmail.

Good bye outlook mailto nuisances!

Free Hosting - Adventure 1

So, I don't know about everyone else out there, but I like to have websites.  They are the door to the internet.  Sure, some may not go anywhere, but it is fun to say that "I have my own website," and not just, "I have myspace."  However, many people, like me, don't want to pay.  Perhaps we just don't have the money, or we don't want to make an initial investment... just yet.  So that puts us in a bad position.

Scavengers.

We must scowr the web for free hosting service - that work.  This is the beginning of many adventures that I have had while looking for a good, reliable webhosting service (free!)

My adventures actually began a long time ago, but those were the silly days.  The days of using the "common" free website hosters, such as freewebs.  However, it soon became evident that those people did not appreciate my using of HTML to code websites, so I left, looking for a better host.  And I came to one: Orgfree.

What made Orgfree good?  Well, it was free.  That was good.  And it offered the ability to just type in HTML code.  It also gave me a free MySQL database.  In fact, things were looking up!  But there were many things about it that ate me up.  First of all, it didn't really offer anything besides that.  It had a page that claimed to show how to install a tutorial, but after waiting many months, the tutorial never came.  The entire company seemed to be at a standstill, not wanting to move forwards.  And with the company not going anywhere, I wasn't going anywhere.  I needed more.  And that is what finally caused me to leave it.

Orgfree:  Pro's - Free, easy, HTML editing, PHP + MySQL
Con's - Resizes your browser window whenever you log in, wasn't up all the time, hard to get around, didn't have blogs/scripts.

End Verdict:  Don't go with it, there are just better things out there.

Hello World

Being a programming and a computer jockey myself, I always feel it is appropriate as a first post to say "hello" to the world, like I do in all my first programs.  I'm happy to be working with my friend on this blog, and will follow his lead.  My job is to help out, and give more life to a small blog.  Hopefully we can do a lot of fun things and have many people who will follow what we have to say, so we can share our knowledge.

Mike C

Hello everyone! I feel that I should probably introduce myself a little bit. Basically, I am a computer geek at heart. Always have been, always will be. At school I was one of those "special kids" who was in the advanced computing classes with, like, two other people. I have made some good friends over the course of my relatively short life who share the same passion for technology as I do, and so I have decided to help spread that passion to others.

I do a variety of work on computers, mainly having to do with programming. I use Java, VB, Python, C++, and Ruby depending on what I need. I am also a big fan of web design, and I do a bit of image design for forum signatures and websites in my spare time. More than just the software/programming side of technology, however, I love to build all things robotic and circuit-y. If it has wires, turns on, and has at least one blinking light, then I love it :).

I hope that I will be able to keep y'all entertained and interested in the wonderful world of technology with my articles and posts, and I hope that you all enjoy your stay at the Hack Hut.

**One last note - we are looking for contributors to the Hack Hut, so if you are interested, please let us know!

First post

Ok, so here is the first post in my blog. I'm just curious to see what's what in the world of blogging. After this post, I hope to be able to put up interesting, funny, and useful posts about lots of things, but concentrating on technology.