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Hi, how are you? I’m Trey, and I make websites from scratch here in Austin, Texas. Currently, I’m working on an education startup and my F8-winning Facebook application, Extended Info. Philosophy and good music keep me going. Learn more »

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How to fix a recent Adblock bug in Facebook profiles

Thursday, May 21st, 2009, 9:17 pm PDT

When you’re looking at profiles on Facebook, is there a giant gap in the center (the left side of the right column)? If so, it’s probably due to their latest CSS update, which the Adblock Plus subscription list has not yet adjusted for. Odds are it will be fixed really soon, but until then, here’s a hack to fix it: ∞

  • The hard way:
    1. Go to the chrome directory in your Firefox profile directory. If you’re not sure where that is, it’s probably easiest to find it by:
      1. Windows users, go to Windows Run (type the Windows key + r) and then enter:
        %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
        Mac users, open:
        ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/
        Linux users, open:
        ~/.mozilla/firefox/
      2. Then, open the directory that has “default” on the end of it. (Odds are there will only be one).
      3. Then, open the “chrome” directory.
    2. Create a file called userContent.css
    3. In Notepad, edit that file to have just this in it: .profile .right_column_container .profile_sidebar_ads { height: 1px; }
    4. Save the file and restart Firefox
  • The easy way:
    1. Save this userContent.css fix file to the directory found in step 1 of the hard way above. If you already have a userContent.css file there, you’ll need to append the contents of it.
You’re probably familiar with the idea of somebody’s negative thoughts affecting their health. This week, New Scientist is covering the ‘nocebo’ effect (2,249 words), which sometimes gets so bad as to kill a person. Seriously, that’s pretty extreme — thinking that you’re going to die can get so bad as to actually kill you. In fact, it’s hypothesized that it’s responsible for people dying of curses. Once you accept that you’re cursed, the nocebo effect takes it from there. It seems like we should be educating the terminally ill on the magnitude of this condition. via Reddit ∞

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech is even better when it is auto-tuned (2m 37s). ∞ via Jacob Morse

Skin impression from Ariana Page RussellAriana Page Russell’s “Skin Two” is a collection of photographs where she draws patterns in her skin. It looks really painful, but as she explains, it’s just because she has dermatographia, “a condition in which one’s immune system exhibits hypersensitivity, via skin, that releases excessive amounts of histamine, causing capillaries to dilate and welts to appear (lasting about thirty minutes) when the skin’s surface is lightly scratched.” Apparently, it’s painless. via Chloe Rote ∞
I wish I was right handed. Several recent studies have shown that moving your eyes left and right for thirty seconds improves memory in a rote memorization test (659 words). Unfortunately, this only works for people with right-handed dominance. The hypothesis is that it increases communication between the hemispheres, which is already high in people who do not exhibit right-handed dominance. via Hacker News ∞
DeepLeap is a really addictive word game. It doesn’t come with instructions (at least not yet while it’s unfinished), but it’s pretty easy to pick up — just try to form a word from the letters on the screen. Hopefully it stays super fast and clean, and knowing that it was created by John Resig, it probably will. via @davemcclure ∞

At least one Southwest Airlines attendant is making flights memorable (2m 22s): ∞ via Brittany Bohnet

The podcasts and videos from SXSWi 2009 have already begun pouring in. Get ‘em before they’re technologically irrelevant. ∞

Pollan on politics. Pollan on business?

Monday, March 9th, 2009, 6:19 pm PDT

Book cover for Michael Pollan - In Defense of FoodMichael Pollan, who recently authored “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” (a book I’d definitely recommend reading if you want an informational book without relying on speculative experimental findings) wrote an open letter last October to then President-Elect Obama: An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief (8,253 words). It’s rich with both food and food policy information, and argues pretty convincingly that solving food problems will alleviate problems across many other political categories.

As an author, he is already doing a great job helping lots of people find healthy diets, but I’ve got to wonder what would happen if he tried opening a line of grocery stores. I’d imagine the stores would compete with Whole Foods, but probably would have even stricter selections, where all food would be local, and even more, if not all, would be organic. He could assure suppliers follow the guidelines he discusses, and hold indoors weekly farmers markets. Maybe it’s just that writing is his best way of spreading the word, hopefully inspiring people to make the right choices themselves, but damn, a Pollan grocery store would be convenient. ∞ via Chloe Rote

The economy is starting to remind me of the boiling frog story. And I don’t know if we’re already boiled. ∞

Louis CK knows what it’s like to be broke (4m 51s). ∞ via Chris Javadi

Safari hard-coded compliance for ACID3

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009, 10:17 pm PST

Never forget changeset 31322, the one where the Safari team committed a change to hard-code compliance for the ACID3 test. As the commit description says: “Make the Ahem font antialias correctly on Acid3.” (Okay, admittedly this is an oversimplification of the issue. Investigate if you’re interested in the less extreme details.) ∞

After twenty years, The Simpsons has for the first time updated its main title sequence (2m 01s), which accompanies its first episode for HDTV. ∞ via The Huffington Post

Who knew that chickens have remarkably stable heads (1m 42s)? Not me; I didn’t grow up on no farm. ∞ via legatissimo.info

The problem with many of the findings in psychology is that they are often motivated by sociocultural norms, and that psychology as a “science” is used to justify/perpetuate these norms. Such methodology starts with a conclusion and works backward to find evidence in favor of it. Done correctly, this might lead to conclusive findings, but it most often is done erroneously, overlooking the biases in choosing which parts of the story are told in coming to the conclusion. “Addicted to Love” (1,634 words) explains how the science behind addiction (sex and porn addiction, mainly, but also addiction in general) is similarly complicated. As the author points out, when an idea becomes accepted by the mainstream, it can be oversimplified and misused to justify what are actually just problems of character in individuals. via reddit ∞
YouTube’s “annotations” feature adds a new element of interactivity to the videos. Much like those Choose Your Own Adventure books from your childhood, a group called Chad, Matt, & Rob have created a pretty involved adventure called The Time Machine. via UX Magazine ∞

Do you think you know the best way to stop a rumor? Would you go the “no comment” route? Psychologists studying the sociodynamics of rumors have found that acknowledging and expanding upon rumors are the best way to stop them (2,060 words) (what one calls “stealing thunder”). They also give a little insight on the necessity and practicality of rumors, which can provide useful information about superiors. Or, at least that’s what I’ve heard on the interwebs. A favorite quote:

McAndrew’s work, much of which focuses on our obsession with celebrity culture, suggests our brains aren’t terribly adept at distinguishing people who are “actually” important from people who simply receive a lot of attention. ∞

The New York Times describes the psychosocial effects of the increasingly connected, mobile, digital era in “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy” (5,216 words). It’s a long, worthy read that covers the rise of social utilities and microblogging in the context of personal psychology. Danah Boyd summarizes one of the effects of having weak, digital-based relationships pretty well: “They can observe you, but it’s not the same as knowing you.” ∞
The winner of a coin design competition by the Dutch Ministry of Finance is a beautiful, thoughtful coin completely designed with free software. It concentrates on information design and typography, which in English means that it’d make a perfect gift for me some day. ;) ∞