Jon Rascher's Old Blog

The Blog Is Dead, but It’s Not Forgotten

Jon — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:33:15 +0000

The 39 months that have elapsed since my last post should make it clear that this blog is rather dead. I think I’ll leave this site up for now (for posterity, I suppose), but I won’t be posting any new content here. However, I have started blogging again. Check out Jonathan Rascher’s new Web site for some more recent content.

Yes, I Am Still Alive

Jon — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:20:37 +0000

HD DVD Cracks and Digg Censorship

Jon — Wed, 02 May 2007 03:07:18 +0000

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

What do those numbers mean?

They mean that HD DVD encryption has recently been cracked. That’s right, a valid AACS processing key has finally been found. Using this key, all current HD DVD movies can be decrypted.

However, things aren’t all this good. The administrators of the popular social-networking/news site Digg has tried their best to prevent discussion about it. They’ve removed stories about the crack, prevented highly-dugg stories from reaching the front page, and even banned many users who’ve commented about it.

So, if you hate DRM and censorship, spread these numbers everywhere, especially on Digg!

Hidden Feature: The Flickr Sidebar Widget Supports Zooomr

Jon — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 23:54:34 +0000

I’ve known about WordPress.com’s Flickr widget for quite a while, but I’m a hardcore Zooomr user, so I wasn’t too impressed with it.

Well, I was thinking it would be cool if it supported Zooomr too, so went to my dashboard and sent a quick feedback message. Less than a half hour later (did I mention that I love the support here?) I got a response from Mark saying that it already worked with Zooomr. I copy-and-pasted my photo feed URL into the widget options, and, sure enough, it does work!

I did a little searching, and apparently Hogg discovered this way back in December. Maybe the developers should make it clearer that the widget supports sites other that Flickr.

PS: I know this is basically a photoblog, so I guess having my photostream in the sidebar is kind of redundant. I’ll probably remove the widget soon, but I still wanted to share this little tip with anyone who’s interested.

Sometimes There Just Aren’t Words

Jon — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 03:18:55 +0000

… Hosted on Zooomr

Rusty Windmill

Jon — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:14:31 +0000

Rusty Windmill Hosted on Zooomr

Gnomic Buddies

Jon — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:25:07 +0000

My mom adopted this little guy a few days ago. He’s standing guard outside the front door right now. (Trust me, you really don’t want to get a gnome angry, or there will be bloodshed. )

Gnomic Gardener Hosted on Zooomr

His friend the Santa gnome is standing a few feet away. It may be the wrong season for him, but who cares?

Gnome Bearing Gifts Hosted on Zooomr

Two Days Until Zooomr Mark III Is Here!

Jon — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:18:38 +0000

As of this morning, Zooomr is down. That stinks, but there’s a very good reason for it. The Mark III rollout has finally begun! Zooomr was good before, but the new features sound totally awesome. (The only thing I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for is an easy print-making tool.)

Major kudos go out to Kristopher and Thomas.

Update (04/17/2007): OK, looking back, this post seems kind of stupid. It’s been a month, and Mark III still isn’t here yet. Oh well. At least the Zooomr crew seems to improved page load times a bit.

I Hate Snowplows

Jon — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:55:46 +0000

I know they perform a vital public service, but still, I really hate them sometimes.

A little backstory. It snowed quite a bit today. My mom and I spent about an hour cleaning the driveway off before it could turn to ice. Less then ten minutes later, a snowplow came flying by. Not only did it coat the top half of the driveway in nasty, dirty snow, it also destroyed the mailbox. (Not that it was really unexpected, this happens once or twice every winter.)

I went to move the pieces off the driveway, but I took some photos first. I’m seriously considering printing them out and mailing them to the county government.

Snowplow Carnage Hosted on Zooomr

The mailbox post. This part always seems to survive the season intact.

The door for the newspaper holder.

The newspaper holder.

The mailbox itself. Oh, the poor little thing. It never had a chance.

Snow + Dogs = Fun

Jon — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:22:21 +0000

Meet Barclay, my rough collie. We’ve gotten a good few inches of snow, and he’s really enjoying it. Getting him to come in the house and eat his breakfast was quite a chore. It’s days like today that make me wish I had his furry coat.

Catching Snow Flurries Hosted on Zooomr