Dylan Greene dot com

Thanks to Cameron Reilly for pointing us to the film geek heaven Aint it Cool News' latest find: a supposed review of preview of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. There's no real spoilers that you couldn't figure out from the trailers, but the author seems daaaamn excited. Read his review here.

If that's not enough Star Wars to get you excited, Atom Films is hosting a contest for best Star Wars Fan Film. From an article on Slashdot:

Three of the best entries are:

Sith Apprentice - Darth Vader and other baddies duke it out to be the Emperor's new lackey in this parody of 'The Apprentice' - very funny, and the sequence with Darth Vader's "talent" has to be seen to be believed

Tiny Toys - Where a woman must defend herself from a pint-sized army of Star Wars toys. Almost a Kill Bill parody at times... amusing; and

One Season More - a completely CGI rendition of one of the songs from the "Star Wars Musical" that's been floating around the web for a few years - some amazing animation

Episode III will be in theaters around the world on May 19, 2005.

Update:

Thanks to TNL, I now have an account and 100 invites to give away.

My 360 page: http://360.yahoo.com/dylangreene

Leave a comment here if you'd like an invite.

Original Message:

I don't have any Yahoo 360 invites to give away just yet, but while you are waiting, I suggest checking out dhteumeuleu.com the witness some of the coolest interactive DHTML demos I've ever seen. I strongly recommend you visit using Internet Explorer since Firefox is unable to render some of his coolest effects. All of the demos include access to his elegantly simplistic source code. Flash and Java were not used for any of the demos.

One of my favorite demos is a DHTML PowerPoint-like slide show built as a ZUI (zooming user interface) - each slide zooms into view while the next slide approaches from the distance.

Meanwhile, Yahoo 360 mini-reviews have appeared from Steve Rubel and Tristan Louis, and some info from well-known Yahoo bloggers Russell Beattie and Jeremy Zawodny have good things to say.

So.... is Yahoo 360 what started the XBOX 360 rumor? That would be pretty funny.

I get a lot of email. Over 1000 messages a day. Most of that is spam.

I've tried many different spam-fighting solutions, and selected my favorite... CloudMark SafetyBar.

Instead of using algorithms that try to guess what spam mail looks like, it uses it's vast network of users to tell it what is spam. If enough people flag an email as spam, it's spam for everybody. If enough people say it's not spam, then it's not spam. Pretty simple.

1. It's integrated into Outlook and Outlook Express. I prefer Outlook 2003.
2. Simple UI. On the rare case it misses an email, just press the "Block Spam" button and it goes away.
3. Low CPU usage. Some programs will practically freeze your computer as they examine each email.

The current version has some problems that others I tried didn't solve either. It doesn't block empty emails, and it sometimes misses emails that just contain a graphic.

I recommend giving CloudMark SafetyBar a try, they let you use it for a month for free.

• Screenshots and how it works.
• Download For Outlook and Outlook Express.
• Info for Exchange.
• Support Forums.

For reading blogs I use IntraVnews, which sucks new RSS feed content into folders in Outlook. The two programs work great together in that they do not interferer with each another, but some day I might want my RSS feeds to be spam checked as well, and that doesn't seem possible yet.

Code Camp is a free full-day session of no-fluff training and workshops from top people in the community. It's paid for by Microsoft, but community-run. The Code Camp Manifesto gives all the details.

The next Code Camp is in Reston, May 7th - a Saturday.

There's going to be 5 tracks, but they haven't announced what the tracks will be - it depends on what people request or volunteer to present. Since MS is paying for it, sessions will be .net/longhorn/smartclient related. All sessions are targeted for developers.

It's community-run, so there won't be the usual Microsoft banter (and arrogance) we often see when they do the presentations. Many of the presenters are also popular bloggers.

These always sell out fast, so if you interested I'd sign up now. I've signed up. You can't beat the price (free) for a full day of learning new technologies.

After a disappointing run with Google AdSense, I've decided to try it again.

Google selects the ads to show on your site based on what it think are most appropriate for the site. This means a site about coffee should have lots of coffee-related ads.

This works great most of the time, but Google AdSense decided the most appropriate ads for my site all had to relate to a certain Dylan musician, even though I never write about him.

The ads weren't getting many clicks because they didn't relate to why people where here.

Instead of fighting that battle I made changes to where I put the ads and how many ads I show.

I made the ads more visible and put them in a place that they could get clicked on by accident. By accident? Yeah, that's normally not good, but that's part of making money with ads on the web. You have to keep your click % up, otherwise your ads become worthless. By showing more ads, I hope there to be some non-musician related ads.

If you're thinking about putting ads on your site you should try my Google Ads Tester. It'll show you what ads you might see on your site, or any site you want to try.

WebmasterWorld.com also has a great Google AdSense forum where web masters are shareing their experiences and giving suggestions for how to get more money with Google Ads.

I've registered for Gnomedex 5.

Why?

I want to bounce an idea off people. A concept that won't fit in a blog entry.

And I want to share this concept with a small crowd of visionaries with the experience and expertise to know what to do with the idea, or for them to tear it apart so I know what I need to bring back to the drawing board. They will be at Gnomdex.

What's my idea?

Now that blogging is practically everywhere, we are going to face a new problem. Too many blogs.

I predict we will see a blogging implosion from it's own popularity.

There are too may blogs to read, and the less popular ones are going fade away, leaving us with the blog equivalent of newspapers.

Choice is good, but we don't really need dozens of online book stores, auction sites, or pet food stores, and we don't really need dozens of blogs about the same mp3 players, digital cameras, and right-wing conspiracies. Rather than weed out the less-popular, I think I have an idea that will keep everybody who wants to blog interested in blogging, and won't require us to read a Scoble-riffic 1000 blogs to keep up with the topics we're interested in.

I have an idea, and I look forward the sharing it at Gnomdex, and I'm looking forward to hearing everybody else's ideas.

BTW, thanks to Steve Rubel and Brad Wilson for the heads up. And I plan on posting the idea here too, but I'm still trying to decide if I should have the idea looked over by a patent-lawyer-type-of-person first. (Not so that I can lock it up, but so that I can make sure nobody else can.)

I just want to give some praise to Timothy Macrina and his company, QuickMortgageLoan.com. Together they are graciously hosting all of the web sites I run, such as DylanGreene.com, TeacherReviews.com, and Anoopa.net.

Tim has been an awesome host, always there when I need him and always keeping me informed on server upgrades, reboots, network changes, and the like. He constantly impresses me with new the technologies he learns in order to keep our sites running smoothly and, of course, to be on the leading edge. For the fun of learning new skills and the satisfaction of doing things his way, Tim, like me, created his own blogging tool, and his is as impressive as the professionally built ones out there.

Tim doesn't make any money from hosting my sites, Instead, he offered to do it to tap my knowledge. I hope I've been helpful these past few years because the projects he's done to keep our sites online, fast, secure, and easy to maintain have simply been awesome. Beyond all of this, Tim has been a great friend, even though we haven't had the luxury of meeting in person yet.

To Tim Macrina and everybody at QuickMortgageLoan.com - Thank You!

On Friday Anoopa's story was told on Atlanta FOX 5 News. I haven't seen it yet, but I hear it was good. Over 100 messages for Anoopa have been posted on Anoopa.net, many from people that have never met Anoopa but wish they had.

Anoopa's heart, liver, pancreas, and both kidneys are all now helping the lives of others. More about that, memorial services, and a charity in memory of Anoopa are all on Anoopa's web site.

We'll miss you.

She was 24 and loved by many.

Amy and I will continue to update her web site with memories and photos: http://www.anoopa.net/

Lots of stories ontroubles within theFirefox development community:

• From ForgetFoo: Firefox in Trouble?
• From TheServerSide.NET: Firefox is Heading Toward Trouble
• From Slashdot: Problems with the Firefox Development Process
• From a Firefox Developer: The Firefox review deficit

Similar newsfor the Mozilla suite from which Firefox is derived:

• From ActiveNetwork: Mozilla Suite is dead
• From MozillaNews: No Mozilla Suite 1.8 Final - Seamonkey's Fate Unclear
• From Slashdot: Mozilla Foundation in More Development Trouble

I'm not going to predict an early death of Firefox as some have, but this could hurt the open source community and reputation. One of the most popular and widely used open source projects has trouble securing developers andkeeping them interested.What needs to be done to prevent this fate from happening to other promising open source projects? Will Eclipse face this problem, or will IBM's backing prevent it? Will Google or AOL become the IBM of Firefox, or do they not care sincefewer browsersequals less development&qa for their web sites?

Last Saturday evening my friend Anoopa Sharma was in a serious car accident, hit head on in Birmingham, Alabama. She is currently in serious condition, but improving. She is chemically paralyzed so that liquid can be drained from her brain and lungs. Brain damage is possible, and she may need to learn to walk or talk again.

I met Anoopa through her Duke classmate and close friend Amy Moulton. This weekend Amy and I created a special web site in tribute to Anoopa:

• http://www.Anoopa.net

We will be using the site to update friends and family up-to-date with her condition. Friends and family are using the site to share photos, stores, well-wishes, and prayers.

We miss you Anoopa!

Lots of rumors about the next XBOX floating around. Not even the real name is known yet, but here you go:

From Gamespy:

CPU - Xenon's CPU has three 3.0 GHz PowerPC cores. Each core is capable of two instructions per cycle and has an L1 cache with 32 KB for data and 32 KB for instructions. The three cores share 1 MB of L2 cache. Alpha 2 developer kits currently have two cores instead of three.

GPU - Xenon's GPU is a generation beyond the ATI X800. Its clock speed is 500 MHz and it supports Shader 3.0. Developers are currently working with an alpha 2 GPU. Beta GPU units are expected by May and the final GPU is slated for a summer release. The final GPU will be more powerful than anything on the market today; in game terms, it would handle a game like Half-Life 2 with ease.

System Memory - Xenon will have 256 MB of system RAM. Keep in mind that this number should not be equated to typical PC RAM. The Xbox has 64 MB of system RAM and is a very capable machine.

Optical Drive - As many have speculated, Xenon will not use Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Games will come on dual-layer DVD-9 discs. While the media is the same as that of the current Xbox, the usable space on each disc is up to 7 GB. The drive is slated to run at 12X.

Memory Units - Xenon will use 64 MB to 1,024 MB memory cards. 8 MB is reserved for system use, leaving a 56 MB to 1,016 MB for user data.

Hard Drive - As many have speculated, Xenon's hard drive is optional. 2 GB of the drive will be used as game cache. The final drive size is still being determined.

Camera - Xenon will have a USB 2.0 camera. It's capable of 1.2 megapixel still shots and VGA video. Photos can be used in-game and for gamer profiles. The camera can also be used for video chat. It's unknown if the Xenon camera will allow for EyeToy-like gameplay. Developers are currently using a simulated camera driver.

Sound Chip - Xenon does not have an audio chip in the traditional sense. Decompression is handled by hardware, while the rest of the chores are handled by software. DirectSound3D has been dropped

More details according to Gamespy:

• GameSpy Part One page 1
• GameSpy Part One page 2
• GameSpy Part Two page 1
• GameSpy Part Two page 2

Sounds cool... I'm looking forward to the real announcement which may be at E3 this year. In the meanwhile, look for real information on blogs such as MajorNelson.com. The Major is the Director of Programming for XBOX Live.

How strange Microsoft has become. Chris Wilson, lead program manager for the web platform in Internet Explorer, has blogged requesting feedback on IE's standards support.

What's next, tab support in IE?

I've gone a while without blogging. Part of it is that blogging has finally become mainstream. Blogging is in the news. It's joked about on the Daily Show. And my dad complains about my lack of new entries. All this means that blogging is no longer cutting edge, and therefore I'm not as interested in it anymore.

My next project?

I haven't decided yet. I've played around hacking some .net code on the Smartphone. It seems to have great untapped potential. And there's more money to be made than just selling ring tones.

I also have some ideas how to improve blogging. Just because I don't write doesn't mean I'm not reading. I'm reading 157 blogs now, via their RSS feeds, using intraVnews. I add a feed about once a week, and remove a stale one about oncea month. I read about 1000 entries a day. Tonight it took me an hour, from midnight till 1am. It doesn't scale. The idea I have fixes this problem. I've submitted the concept to Microsoft Research in the hopes I will be able to share it at the Social Computing Symposium 2005.

Oh, and I'll still be blogging. Just maybe not every day.