Hmm, apparently there are some people who don’t like combo boxes. While I agree that it can be at times confusing, I think the author of this combo box-bashing article is ignoring how damn useful combo boxes are, especially when combined with auto-completion. A combo box is ideally suited for when one is either selecting something that exists or entering a new value, uh… hence, combo box. Where the combo-box really shines is in list-filtering based on partial input. This is usually either by scrolling of the drop down, or by actual filtering of the drop down items (useful when the items aren’t alphabetically ordered). It’s even better with inline autocompletion. Forget how confusing it might be, it’s just damn useful, and none of the alternatives that the author suggests work are as suited.

I’m repeating myself, but that and cascading menus really should have been built into basic HTML forms. Did I mention how lame optgroup is? It can only include options (no multi-level cascades), and even Mozilla doesn’t support it properly (although it’d actually be nice to be able to choose how to style it).

Giving up on combobox for the night. I was trying to attach the combobox nodes I had constructed with appendChild, but I can’t seem to reference the container (or even the script node) from the function that I’m trying to do this from. If I can’t figure out anything I may just have to document.write it.

I’ve been pretty lackadaisical about the blog lately. Part of it has been being really busy and run down from work, and part of it has been from cutting time spent online to do some reorganization in my life. In any case, I’m hoping to get back in some regular schedules.

I’ve started working out after a long respite. In the year since I stopped, I’m surprisingly only 5lb’s heavier, but I know that it’s definitely badly offset from losing muscle mass. In any case, I’m breaking out the EatWatch again (if you’ve never seen this program before, it’s awesome, calculates moving averages on your weight).

I’ve also dusted out my old calorie counter and am retrofitting it. The first thing I figured I’d do was program a better DOM-based ComboBox. I’ve made some progress on it, but it’s a bit more challenging than I had expected. Not to mention, that my JS is rusty. Well, that’s half the fun, I suppose.

Speaking of web stuff, apparently there’s a Los Angeles Mozilla 1.0 party going on in LA (or road-tripping to norcal) on June 12th. Hmm, although DJ Shadow is going to be at the Mayan on the 12th I think…

On the ‘I want it now’ hardware front, details on the new Matrox card, Parhelia, have been leaking out over the weekend. NDA lifts today though, so now there are articles that won’t get pulled down the next day. Among the highlights:

• 10-bit RAMDACs w/ full gamma correction with 10-bit rendering for 2D, 3D, DVD, and video, as well as 10-bit ARGB rendering
• Dual integrated 400MHz RAMDACs
• Dual independent DVI outs
• TripleHead Desktop (3 displays, up to 3840x1024x32bpp)
• Dual overlays (yea!)
• Glyph Antialiasing
• All kinds of 3D goodies

I ordered a ridiculously huge TV last Friday, and it came in Thursday afternoon. It seems to mostly work. I’ve been spending a bit of time at the Home Theater SPot forums. I’ve also found the Service Manuals for my TV at a site, although I think I’m just going to pony up the cash for a calibrationist, as there are lots of possibly fragile, fiddly mechanical things that need to be done.

• Lens/Mirror Cleaning – apparently there’s usually prints or dust on that stuff. And one must be careful not to spill the liquid from the lens unit
• Mirror Shield Screen Restacking – the protective mirror shield on the TV causes mucho glare
• Lens Hood / lens-cavity Duvatyne – reduces interior reflection, improves black levels
• Lens Striping – to balance out the color temperature on the screen
• Grey scale tracking
• Picture adjustments for brightness, color, etc.
• 56-point convergence
• Geometry adjustments to correct bow, skew, and overscan problems
• Edge focus (electrostatic/mechanical)

I’ve done some minor adjustments, like the 9-point convergence and going through the basic Avia screens, but am definitely hoping to schedule a full calibration after the burn-in period.

2001-05-07, 03:14:07AM, f/2.6, 1/60s:

Just when I think I’ve plumbed the depths of my time wasting, I discover that Marvel happens to have all the Ultimate Spider-Man issues online on their dotComics site. Sure there are annoying interstitials, but it’s free… Of course, if they started opening up their full library and forgot the cheezy flash (just let me pan and zoom the whole page thank you very much), I would gladly pay a subscription for this…

I’ve been pretty busy recently between work and offline stuff. In an attempt to try to reorganize my time, the blog will probably be suffering a bit.

Recently, I’ve been looking at some photo-related stuff. That D60 sure is tempting…

• Robert E. Barrett’s Exposure Calculator – with a 35mm f/2.0 lens, at 1000ISO, one should be able to shoot at least 1/30s exposures…
• toollinks: calculators, simulators and programs related to photography
• photo.net Lens Tutorial
• Lens reviews: DC Lens Tester, photodo lens grading, PhotographyREVIEW.com
• EF 50mm f/1.8 II vs EF 50mm f/1.4 USM comparison
• Digital vs Film – resolution comparison, the rest is a great read as well
• Luminous Landscape: D60 vs Medium Format, Digital Camera Image Quality
• Extension tubes as cheap macro, more on that subject, flashguns
• D60 and diffraction
• Canon Digital Photography, Canon EOS-D30, D60, 1D Forum
• robgalbraith.com D30/D60 forum
• fredmiranda.com Canon Digital SLR forum
• 1D, D60, D30 Comparison

You deserve a month off.

Of the 19 theaters which will be showing Attack of the Clones with digital projection equipment, four are conveniently located in Southern California:

• AMC Media Center 6 Burbank, California
• Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21 Megaplex Irvine, California
• El Capitan Theatre Los Angeles, California
• Loews Century Plaza Los Angeles, California

The Mozilla mail process should be separate from the browser, it’s so annoying when a lockup or crash in one brings down the other.

Things I learned recently:

• Recall is useless w/ tabbed browsing
• You do not want your socket to dry out after your wisdom teeth get pulled. It is very very painful. Did I mention it was painful?
• A mediciny tasting mouth is better than a pus tasting one.

Power Steer – an article about the beef industry in the US is one of the most fascinating articles that I’ve read recently. The article covers the inter-relationships of the environmental and biological consequences tied to the economic realities of the industry (and market demand). Some especially interesting tidbits: Hormones pellets are implanted which cost about $1.50, but add 40-50lbs to a steer at slaughter for a return of at least $25. While there are human health implications, because margins are so low, no one can afford to pass on this while the competition does it. Because of the use of corn as cheap feed, which uses petroleum based fertilizers, a 1,250lb steer will have consumed almost 300 gallons of oil in his lifetime. This same corn wreaks havoc on the bovine digestive and immune systems, forcing the constant use of large amounts of antibiotics (yay superbugs). To make things worse, the feed diet raises the normally neutral pH in the bovine stomachs, which has led to development of strains of E Coli, like E Coli 0157 which can survive our stomach acids. While it has been discovered that switching a cow’s diet from corn to hay in the days before slaughter can reduce the population of E Coli 0157 in its manure by as much as 70%, it’s considered economically infeasible by the cattle industry. To neutralize the feedlot manure, rather than making “impractical” changes such as altering the diet, or keeping the cows from living in their feces or slowing down the line-speeds at modern-day meatpacking plants (390 heads/hr), the carcasses are “cold paseurized” – that is, irradiated, steamed and sprayed with antimicrobial solution. At the end of the day, over the past 20 years, the return on each feedlot cow averages $3/head.

The whole situation is deeply disturbing, even for a person who doesn’t have objections to the actual killing and eating of the animal (like me). One has got to wonder, though if the time has passed that any amount of journalism or coverage can raise enough awareness in the public to (see: The Jungle). Really, while economics is cited as the major factor in all these decisions being made, this line of development simply isn’t sustainable and makes absolutely no sense once the full costs (long-term environmental and health expenses issues, oil dependence and related infrastructure, etc.) are figured in. Why aren’t these “hidden costs” accounted for? Something is fundamentally broken with such a short-sighted economic model.