Standard Mischief

… I give it two mutant thumbs up.

I’ve been playing with favicons, you know, the little pictures that some websites have near their url on your browser. I had a yellow dot, but I didn’t particularly like it. I at least need to change the background to clear from the present white.

I read that some browsers will accept a gif as a favorite icon, but you need to use code in your html header to tell it where to go look for it. The other thing you can do is rename say example.gif to favicon.ico and just stick it in your root folder. That’s what I have done here, but if you have been here before, you will likely have to clear your browser cache and reload the page. I got the new, temporary icon, and I’ll insert it fullsize below.

(REMOVED, it got annoying. See it at Wikipedia) —> I got it here, and it’s not too annoying shrunk down to 16×16 pixels.

Earlier, an animated gif “proof of concept” that I nixed.

It’s extra bonus annoying as a favicon.ico

Good old ugly “little yellow dot”.

If you see something like this up there in the url box, you would need to clear your browser cache and reload the page to participate in the experiment.

This is mostly a test to see if an animated gif will work, and it works just fine on my Firefox 1.0.7 installed over MEPIS live CD (hd install). but what about your system? Could you leave me a little feedback? Something like ?Lynx on a Knoppix live CD, no support built in? or “MS windows 3.1 with Netscape 1.0, it’s broken” would be great. Thanks.

Update 2005-10-1: I’m done playing around, 16k gif icon removed.

Some Reports of N.O. Violence Exaggerated Washington Post

Reports of Post-Katrina Mayhem May Have Been Overblown - Los Angeles Times

Well, either we weren’t getting the truth beforehand, or we aren’t getting the truth now. Which is it? Can we really trust you News people? What’s up with this?

First Michael Brown resigns, now Eddy Compass resigns after having an injunction slapped on him after seizing guns illegally, and now this comes out. At least we can’t blame Dan Rather this time.

Update 2005-10-02 - I found a good article via BlogSnow…er…BlogsNow

“…Er, no. The facts they put in front of us were wrong, and they didn’t talk truth to power. They talked to goofs in power, like New Orleans’ Mayor Nagin and Police Chief Compass, and uncritically fell for every nutso yarn they were peddled. The media swallowed more bilge than if they’d been lying down with their mouths open as the levee collapsed. Ten thousand dead! Widespread rape and murder! A 7-year-old gang-raped and then throat-slashed! It was great stuff — and none of it happened. No gang-raped 7-year-olds. None…”

Media deserve blame for New Orleans debacle

Via Say Uncle:

Two good links to the restraining order NRA won in New Orleans, and how they seem to be keeping it under wraps.

I understand that the Court is away from their usual chambers, and being flooded out, I understand why they don’t have it publicly accessible. But hey, I’m the NRA too, or at least that’s the slogan. I’ll call the NRA as soon as I find my lifer card, and ask them to email me a copy. They did it on my behalf, right?

Publicola:

…but unfortunately there’s a “Not For Publication” disclaimer at the beginning of the thing…

…Another odd thing is the NRA seems to not want the restraining order published. I’m hoping their reasoning for this is less childish than simply not wanting it known they didn’t act alone in this, but I simply cannot fathom why such a document would be kept under wraps despite the results being gloated over…

A very good post. Worth reading.

Also Triggerfinger makes a few good points too:

In order to figure out what’s going on, it’s useful to summarize and paraphrase the confusing statements in the injunction:

1. Nagin states he has neither ordered the seizure of lawfully-possessed firearms from law-abiding citizens, nor delegated the authority to do so.
2. Compass acknowledges that he was not delegated the authority to do so from Nagin, and any alleged statements from him to that effect do not represent the policy of Nagin personally or the City of New Orleans.
3. Nagin and Compass deny that any seizures occurred.
4. Nagin and Compass deny that it is the policy or practice to seize firearms from law-abiding citizens, either officially or unofficially.

So, can we figure out what is going on by finding a version of events that is consistent with this statement and with the news reports we have seen?

Heh, I saw the videos. This ought to be good.

Update! - Leader of New Orleans Police Resigns via Say Uncle. The AP news say nothing about any guns, siezure, or lawsuits, like it didn’t happen. Glad we have fair and balanced news coverage keeping us filled in with all the details.

… but I still think it’s pretty cool.

Well, Hurricane Rita has made landfall and while all the suffering and destruction is in the news, I’m a normal, sane everyday person. The rest of the year, I’m a… um… backpacker who also likes to target shoot and occasionally fish. Every time there is a some kind of disaster, for some reason, I feel the urge to check the backpacking gear. This time found me down to one cigarette lighter for the stove. I prefer the mini bic lighters, as they are the smallest and lightest out there.

When I stopped into the local Kwik-E-Mart they were all out, so I picked up one of whatever was near the counter. I didn’t really look at it and I forgot the price, probably under $2

My finger is an extra inch away

As you can see in the picture when I finally took a look at it, I realized how perfect a lighter it was. I am forever slightly burning my fingertips lighting the butane stove (here, a MSR SuperFly). Not badly, it’s just one of those uncomfortable things you live with while you get your chance to roam the outdoors. But I think someone really put some extra thought into this lighter. Perhaps it was meant to light pipes or something, as your fingers stay further away than is normally the case.

The Bic - getting ready to burn my finger

It’s called a “Gibson slide lighter” (PDF), and good luck finding it. I just think it’s a fluke that it just happened to be in the same store as I was. Patent #6655953. The UPC code number is 6 47150 20316 7 (first and last digit being type and checksum). Just in case you are a, um, backpacker friendly retailer.

…While Gibson?s cost-per-unit is a bit higher than other lighters on the market, product superiority offers customers an immediate return on investment. The company crafts only a few new designs at a time, allowing for unsurpassed attention to detail and packaging second to none…. -Homepage

Just for the record, I haven’t seem any indication of what the rate is on my “return on investment”.

Years ago I remember using my Leatherman to rip apart the little child proof thingie that you had to click in each time you wanted to flick your bic. Child resistant lighters have been improved so they are more adult friendly, which could also be described as being less adult annoying. This lighter seems to rely on adult strength as the child resistant feature, either that, or it’s feature free. Fortunately, I don’t have any kids around to try that out.

The other cool feature is this transparent window on one side. Instantly, you can tell if the reason why the lighter does not light might be because it’s out of fuel.

It failed the dunk test, but that’s not a big deal, because every other disposable lighter has also. The dunk test is preformed by filling a sink with water and dunking the lighter completely underwater for a moment. (Yes, I do stuff like that all the time, why?) Pull the lighter out and do anything reasonable to get the water out (shaking it, blowing on it, whatever). Now try to light it. Now put an extra lighter in your gear, somewhere in a zip-lock bag. Add a pack of waterproofed matches too.

The last feature, I didn’t even notice until I had gone back and bought three more. Looking at the bottom, this lighter is refillable. Furthermore, when that little plastic thingie is moved over to expose the filler port the lighter is locked and prevented from firing its piezo igniter. I think this it to prevent those improved idiots from trying to refill the lighter and light a M-80 at the same time. Nowadays I suppose you just have to design for that.