Patrick Tulskie

I won’t sit here and proclaim myself to be some god of Grease Monkey but I do know a thing or two about Java Script.  Basically, for those of you who are clueless as to what Grease Monkey is, it’s a plugin for Firefox that allows you to manipulate certain pages you visit using Java Script.  Now that we know what it is and have tons of ideas flowing through our heads, let’s just do something kinda cool.

Today we’re going to beat up on certain gallery pages that use images of the format “imageName.sized.jpg”.  What I mean by this is - we’re going to take the page (which is usually filled with junk) and replace everything with just the full size image and the caption.

Let’s get some assumptions out of the way:
You know SOME Java Script, the site you’re visiting also has the non-sized images in the same directory as the sized images, and you don’t care what else is on the web page.  We’re also assuming there is only one caption with no “id” and we only have a style class to work with.

Ok?  Ok.  Let’s go.

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Dawned on me the other day that this blog was kind of a pain in the eyes to read.  That’s what I get for not taking the time to make my own theme for Wordpress.

What I did was I made most of the fonts on the page black, but this had some negative affects in terms of not being able to read the text on some of the black spots on the page.  I’m working on it, I know.  Just want to let everyone know I’m aware.

One of the other things that was pretty annoying was the slow page load time when my twitter status is loading.  I handled that with some PHP to verify the URL of the page you’re looking at and I also moved the javascript to the very bottom of the site before the end of the body tag.  This makes sure that only pages where the twitter status is shown will actually load the javascript AND it also makes sure that the rest of the page loads in a timely manner so you don’t need to wait around for my status if you want to read something else.

Just some usability metrics that I had to handle and I thought I’d mention them.  I’ll be doing another article on the PHP used to handle the twitter status probably later on this week.

A screen name is something you use to communicate with friends and the internet at large. It is who you are when you sit down at the keys and get to spreading your word. Some people are more than comfortable to step away from this screen name and get out there into the real world. Afterall, that screen name has done nothing but chat on AIM, Yahoo Messenger, or something else along those lines. Sure it might have a few frags in Counter Strike, but unless you are playing competitively, no one really calls you by THAT name.

There are the other people that dwell on the internet and use it for socializing or a means of communication with people in the outside world. Social networking and building communities and websites with a “screen name” can draw away from what you have actually accomplished and steal away some of the recognition you deserve.

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One might ask themselves why they landed here. Why are they reading this? Well. Truth be told, I’m not entirely sure. It’s a good thing you did land here though because this place might just be the best place you’ve ever wound up on the internet. No I’m not being arrogant… I did say it “might” be.

I’m not entirely sure where I was going with that. Anyhow. This is just the customary first post on the blog, but I would encourage you to return soon. Add it to your RSS feeds. Just do it. I mean at the end of the day, it’s just another feed and you might learn a thing or two.

If you’re ever so slightly aware of my normal style then you know that I usually have an orange site. Well, now… I don’t. I decided to go with a green layout this time around and I guess it’s all part of the new change and trying to freshen up my image. Enjoy.