• Spotlight-like livesearch added at the Bitflux Blog; flossy. This and more DHTML bits and stuff that Gabe has been linking
• js does xmlrpc – hey, this looks a little familiar. A few more hours of coding and I’ll have something worth talking about…

I found myself today in need of a free Windows ISO burner sw package (to burn a Linux ISO of course). Here’s what I found:

• Cdrtools: Win32 Binaries (another option)
• Cdrecord GUIs:
  • CDR Tools Front End – has an installer
  • cdrtfe
  • Easy Burning – looks pretty nice
  • Cdrtools Frontend – all in German
  • burnatonce – ooh, loooks simple aand clean
• ISO Recorder Power Toy – currently not working w/ XPSP2

Debian on Dell Servers – how many times have I looked for a Debian install CD that has megaraid/aacraid and e1000/tg3 drivers built in? Here they are [keywords: Dell PowerEdge, IBM x330, x335, ethernet drivers, netinst boot CD]. Why oh why don’t the Debian kernels come with this pre-compiled? Every single Dell and IBM rackmount I’ve ever seen uses these.

• DOM Inspector – if you’re having problems w/ the DOM Inspector in Firefox 0.9, delete the chrome.rdf file and that should fix it (Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/chrome/ in OS X)
• venkman for firefox – <voice id=”zoidberg”>Hoo-ray!</voice>
• Learning the JavaScript debugger Venkman – lots of screen shots for the easily distracted, pretty thorough, but I just want to know how to decrease the font size
• Overpriced College Text Books, Meet Bit Torrent – wow, this would have saved me $150. I had to use the exact same Calculus book (all sorts of good stuff over at Assemble Me)
• The bookmarklet solution to the password problem – MD5 to the rescue?
• VW Mk3 Stock Keyless Entry Range Improvement – Page #1 – also, you can use your chin as an antenna. I tried it today, and it actually works.

I hit a minor roadblock trying to see how I could get an object reference from within an object. Tom Trenka whipped up a quick little function (which is so obvious after you see it 🙂

function getObjectString(obj, scope) {
  for (var p in scope) {
    if (scope[p] == obj) return p;
  }
  return null;
}

It’s messy and O(n), true, but unless you have a mess of variables, not too bad.

Jesse made a suggestion on how I could avoid needing the string completely by assigning an IFrame.onload, but there are race conditions (unless you use event attachment, see below), and also Mozilla was giving me crap (is it running the onload before the document is finished?)

It occurred to me that there are lots and lots of little JS snippets like Tom’s which are enormously useful helpers, but hard to keep track of. Perhaps they should all go in a little snippets library/repository or something…

• Preserving Scope in JavaScript – talks about the problem of losing scope on event and timeouts
• DHTML Central folloup discussion on Preserving Scope
• Javascript Closures – related, worth relinking
• Javascript 1.5 Reference: Function – all kinds of good stuff IE doesn’t support
• JavaScript 2.0 – see specifically, execution model

• TargetAlert – great Firefox plugin that will add little icons to non-HTML links

Instead of working on computer stuff, how about cars:

$400	Engine	ACT VR6/TDI/G60/B3-16V Heavy Duty Clutch Kit
<$100	Engine	Flywheel lightening, resurfacing (13-14lb)
$1200	Suspension	Koni or Bilstein PSS9 Coilover kit
$500	Lights	Hella Dual Round Smoked Headlight Kit

I’ve finally finished upgrading my system (I dropped in an ATI 9800 Pro [which detects as an XT and clocks accordingly] and an Athlon XP 3000+, but needed a beefier heatsink), and although my CPU is underclocked a bit (my old motherboard only goes to 12.5x multiplier, not 13x). My Doom 3 timedemos have gone from a rather anemic 20fps at 800×600 Low Quality to a respectable 45fps at 1024×768 High Quality.

That being said, I think I’m pretty much over this “installing my own hardware thing.” I think I realized this after I managed to pry off the old heat sink and as I was removing glue residue from the new one.

I’m not a huge fan of the MkV design, but the new GTI looks great (love the old school trim). Hmmm, probably $25K w/ DSG, hitting US shores Q3 2005.