Of course, once I got home I immediately upgraded my iPhone 3G to the latest 3.0 firmware. After the interminable download, sync and install process, I got my first glimpse at the new front page. Almost immediately, I noticed that I not only had a battery icon, but also the percentage of battery power remaining!

My first thought was that it was a new feature of the OS. I was pleased, but not completely surprised, because I had a bit of a secret. You see, once upon a time I used a jailbreak on my phone. It was a heady time for me, running two apps simultaneously, recording video with Qik, and most importantly using a hack that turns the battery icon to a percentage view. And, once I decided to un-jailbreak, all my various interface hacks and other things vanished, except for that surreptitious little battery percentage toggle.

We have had our web experience controlled by the sites we visit for so long that for a lot of us, the web browser defaults no longer even come in to play when controlling what the text on a web page looks like, except in the case where we want to override whatever choice the site we are visiting has made.

This isn’t a rant. I actually think, by and large, that this is a good thing. CSS (or Cascading Style Sheets) allows precise control over the overall look of web sites, and when you are trying to walk that line between clean and detailed, CSS can be the razor that keeps your site from looking too busy or too cluttered. There are many precise tweaks that can enhance the presentability of a site, like the vertical spacing between lines of text.

I haven’t been doing much writing recently.

Anywhere.

After an extremely fun couple of months writing for ReadWriteWeb (thanks again for making that possible, Richard! Your team is absolutely the best folks to work with!) I found a full-time job working for CyberSource, working on the operations/support piece for a new product they (we) are developing for electronic payment processing. Sounds boring, doesn’t it?

Ciudad de les artes y ciencias (via .Rohan)

Ciudad de les artes y ciencias (via .Rohan)

arena (via jody9)

One, but it's the best TV I could find.

Read more comments by Phil Glockner

See, IMO it is worse to offer insurance that is severely limited than no insurance. I spent 8 months dumping over $400/month into the quasi-coverage insurance I had while I was a contractor, and they manged reject close to 80% of the claims I submitted. I would have been better off just keeping the cash.

Read more comments by Phil Glockner

Mine is http://user.gdgt.com/eng1ne

Read more comments by Phil Glockner

Hacking the sleep-wake cycle and more

Tags: behavior reference

Posted by: scribkin

Tags: health money reference

Posted by: scribkin

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Basically, the Chrome browser is based on WebKit. There are some webkit internal font setting options for font family, font size, etc.Using text editor to open "Documents and Settings\User_Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Preferences"You will find the "webkit": {  "webprefs": { in the file. Those settings are for WebKit.In my setting example:   "webkit": {      "webprefs": {         "default_fixed_font_size": 11,         "default_font_size": 12,         "fixed_font_family": "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono",         "minimum_font_size": 12,         "minimum_logical_font_siz": 12,         "sansserif_font_family": "Times New Roman",         "serif_font_family": "Arial",         "standard_font_is_serif": false,         "text_areas_are_resizable": true      }   }The minimum_font_size and minimum_logical_font_size prevent Chrome to use very small font size for display.Remember to close Chrome first before you edit the file, or the file you saved will be overwritten by Chome after exiting.

Tags: no_tag

Posted by: scribkin

eng1ne added the feed Blind Five Year Old

eng1ne added the feed Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO

eng1ne added the feed Bootstrap Austin Blog

Yesterday Twitter confirmed they would start suspending accounts that commonly game the system by rapidly following and unfollowing users in short periods of time.

Wolfram Alpha, a new "computational knowledge engine" based on the work of Stephen Wolfram. Some have dubbed Alpha a "Google killer," but, in reality, is very different from the standard search engines that we are all familiar with today.

If you consider yourself a geek, or aspire to the honor of geekhood, here's an essential checklist of must-have geek skills.

We're sure by now you've heard about the upcoming extensions that will soon arrive in Google's Chrome browser. Already we've seen a handful of these become available, including AdSweep, a PageRank checker, Cleeki, and, as of yesterday, a new bookmarking extension from Delicious. However, if you've been running the standard Chrome install (or even the public beta), new features like this are just out of reach.

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FriendFeed, the multi-network activity aggregator co-founded by Gmail creator Paul Buchheit, announced today that it has entered the crowded field of real time search. FriendFeed was already the best way to learn what early adopter social media users were saying about any topic across blogs, Twitter, delicious and other diverse social media sites. If FriendFeed wants to step it up to the next level and challenge business-class conversation trackers, we believe there are four steps the company needs to take.

We think that would make a whole lot of sense. In fact we think that if real time search were turned into a business tool it could challenge social media monitoring services like Radian6, Scout Labs and Sysomos. Here's what we think needs to happen in order for that to become a possibility.

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Building a home in the desert is certainly a test of green building innovation — because in a climate where resources are limited, how do you build to ensure comfort and longevity? Architect Lloyd Russell offers a beautiful solution with his Austin Residence near Palm Springs, California. Besides its construction out of recycled materials, Russell gave serious consideration to the mechanics of passive ventilation the home during the hot summer months. He was also sensitive to the culture of the surrounding California desert when developing the home’s look-and-feel, creating a contemporary home reminiscent of an old West outpost that captures the essence of desert living.

Read the rest of California Desert Home Uses Passive Ventilation Techniques