As of today I’m at 62% and less than $1,000 to go to make my Team in Training fundraising goal of $2,400 by the end of this month. Sales through my Amazon storefront have slowed down a bit. So I’m making this offer to my readers and Twitter followers: Donate at least $25 (My LLS page, [...]

As of today I’m at 62% and less than $1,000 to go to make my Team in Training fundraising goal of $2,400 by the end of this month. Sales through my Amazon storefront have slowed down a bit. So I’m making this offer to my readers and Twitter followers:

Donate at least $25 (My LLS page, or use the widget to the right) and you will receive a special gift from me. A real, tangible thing, not just a Thank-You email (though you’ll get one of those, too!). What is it? It’s a surprise, but I guarantee you’ll like it. Just make sure you include a mailing address in your donation.

Thanks again for your support and GO TEAM!

It’s way too late to back out now. I’ve already sent the first fundraising email (some of you may have received it, and some may even have already donated – thanks!) and I’m fully committed. Committed to what? To running my first half-marathon – the Avenue of the Giants on May 6 – as part [...]

It’s way too late to back out now. I’ve already sent the first fundraising email (some of you may have received it, and some may even have already donated – thanks!) and I’m fully committed.

Committed to what? To running my first half-marathon – the Avenue of the Giants on May 6 – as part of Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. Team in Training helps me train for my race and in return I am fundraising for LLS.

I hope to have as many of you as possible virtually cheering me on, and I’m asking you to help by making a donation to my fundraising campaign.

Please visit my Team in Training page to donate online quickly and securely plus learn more about my progress. You will receive a confirmation of your donation by email and I will be notified as soon as you make your donation. You can also see my progress in the handy widget on the right side of this page.

Each donation helps accelerate finding a cure for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Nearly 958,000 Americans are battling these blood cancers. I am hoping that my participation in Team In Training will help bring them hope and support.

On behalf of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, thank you very much for your support. I greatly appreciate your generosity.

I’ll post updates here as my training and fundraising progress and as I get closer to the actual race. And of course, I’ll post race-day photos.

Thanks again.

I can’t bear the webOS Gowalla app anymore. It’s big, bloated, slow and kills the Pre battery. And Gowalla has now said (on their support forums) that they’ve abandoned the webOS platform. I like Gowalla and I would like to continue using it, so I’m working on my first webOS app: a Gowalla client (using [...]

I can’t bear the webOS Gowalla app anymore. It’s big, bloated, slow and kills the Pre battery. And Gowalla has now said (on their support forums) that they’ve abandoned the webOS platform. I like Gowalla and I would like to continue using it, so I’m working on my first webOS app: a Gowalla client (using their public API) stripped down to its essentials. You’ll be able to log in, get a list of nearby spots and check in. That’s it. Oh, and I plan to add one feature that even the official app doesn’t support: saved or delayed checkins, for when you have GPS but no EVDO.

I’m calling my app GoSmalla. You may groan now.

This is not a true formal UML diagram; it’s really just the sketch of what I have in my head. Various lines don’t connect, but if you look at it as a rough flowchart you’ll see where I’m going with this.

GoSmalla: A conceptual sketch (click to embiggen)

We've donated $50 to the sea otter fund each year since it was added to the California state tax return. Please consider making a donation, however small. Everything helps. From the Monterey Bay Aquarium… > March 9, 2010>> Sea otters are remarkable animals but their struggling population > needs our help.>> Won't you please join [...]

We've donated $50 to the sea otter fund each year since it was added
to the California state tax return. Please consider making a donation,
however small. Everything helps.

From the Monterey Bay Aquarium…

> March 9, 2010
>
> Sea otters are remarkable animals but their struggling population
> needs our help.
>
> Won't you please join me in making a contribution to help sea otters
> when you file your California state income tax form this year?
>
> You need only watch Kit, our three-month old pup and newest addition
> to our sea otter exhibit, to feel inspired to protect the oceans and
> ocean wildlife.
>
> We will never know how Kit became separated from her mother, but we
> do know that females of prime breeding age are dying in record
> numbers. That's why the California Sea Otter Fund is so important–
> it supports critical research needed to help these animals survive.
>
> Your contribution is urgently needed. Last year, the fund fell
> $13,000 short of the $250,000 minimum target. We must meet the
> minimum this year to keep it on the tax form.
>
> Please take action for sea otters when you file your income taxes
> this year.
>
> In 25 years of helping sick and stranded sea otters, we've learned a
> lot but there is much more to do. Please also consider making a tax-
> deductible donation to the Aquarium to support our work on behalf of
> California's sea otters and advance our mission to inspire
> conservation of the oceans.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Julie Packard
> Executive Director
> Monterey Bay Aquarium
>
>
> *****************************************************************
>
> Did You Know?
> Four years ago, a young boy visiting our sea otter exhibit learned
> about the threats facing sea otters and felt compelled to do
> something. He enlisted help from his dad, who happened to be
> California Assembly member Dave Jones. Jones co-authored a bill that
> allowed people to make a voluntary contribution to sea otter
> research when they file their state income taxes, and the California
> Sea Otter Fund was created.
>
> *****************************************************************
>
> The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a non-profit institution. Our mission
> is to inspire conservation of the oceans.
>
> View our Privacy Policy:
> http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/sg/sg_policies.asp
>
> We welcome your thoughts and comments.
> (Send your e-mail to: aquarium@mbayaq.org.)
>
>
>
> Monterey Bay Aquarium | 886 Cannery Row | Monterey, CA 93940 | US

The “comments” section under every SFGate.com article is a cesspool (I’m not the first person to say this but I can’t immediately find where it was said first) filled with hate, bigotry, trolling and various evil. Sure, you don’t -have- to click through to the comments but SFGate helpfully shows the three highest-rated comments below [...]

The “comments” section under every SFGate.com article is a cesspool (I’m not the first person to say this but I can’t immediately find where it was said first) filled with hate, bigotry, trolling and various evil. Sure, you don’t -have- to click through to the comments but SFGate helpfully shows the three highest-rated comments below each article–and the worst, and most prolific, commenters have hacking scripts that artificially inflate their comments’ ratings. Here’s another view on SFGate’s comment section: link.

Feeling that “out of sight, out of mind” is a good policy, my first UserScript hides several DIVs associated with comments on SFGate article pages. Here’s the source:

// ==UserScript==// @name SFGate-NoComments// @namespace http://www.userscripts.org// @description Hide comments on SFGate.com articles// @version 0.2// @include http://www.sfgate.com/*// @copyright 2010+, Andrew Rich (http://www.project-insomnia.com)// @license (CC) Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/// ==/UserScript==

var commentsDiv = document.getElementById('commentspage');commentsDiv.style.display = 'none';var commentslinksSpan = document.getElementById('commentslinks');commentslinksSpan.style.display = 'none';var commentBoxWrapperDiv = document.getElementById('articlePageCommentBoxWrapper');commentBoxWrapperDiv.style.display = 'none';var recCommentsDiv = document.getElementById('sfgate_recommended_comments');recCommentsDiv.style.display = 'none';var commentsListDiv = document.getElementById('commentslist');commentsListDiv.style.display = 'none';var commentsContainerDivAttrs = document.getElementById('Comments_Container_viewall').attributes;commentsContainerDivAttrs.getNamedItem('class').value = '';var commentsContainerDiv = document.getElementById('Comments_Container_viewall');commentsContainerDiv.style.visibility = 'hidden';

I hope this is useful to you and thank you for reading. You can install it easily from the UserScripts.org link above. Tested in Safari 4.0.4 (5531.21.10) with GreaseKit 1.7 on Mac OS X 10.5.8 Build 9L30. Should work in other UserScript-supporting browsers (Firefox, Opera, Chrome “Dev Channel”) without issue.