I blogged about this trip back when we did it but for some reason didn't mention Hoover Dam at all. In fact, visiting the dam (driving across it) was one of the highlights of the trip. Now, the highway follows the new bypass bridge, but at the time the bridge wasn't done–it hadn't even met [...]

I blogged about this trip back when we did it but for some reason didn't mention Hoover Dam at all.

In fact, visiting the dam (driving across it) was one of the highlights of the trip. Now, the highway follows the new bypass bridge, but at the time the bridge wasn't done–it hadn't even met in the middle. We took the walking tour inside the dam and through the generator room and I got some really amazing pictures. Check out the album on Picasaweb:

Hoover Dam, January 1, 2009

After a few months (sorry!) of downtime, my SFGate-NoComments Greasemonkey script is back up at Userscripts. I realize the previous sentence makes very little sense to anyone but me, so I’ll expand it: After a few months (sorry!) of downtime You saw my to-do list(s), right? SFGate-NoComments The “comments” sections in SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle’s [...]

After a few months (sorry!) of downtime, my SFGate-NoComments Greasemonkey script is back up at Userscripts.

I realize the previous sentence makes very little sense to anyone but me, so I’ll expand it:

After a few months (sorry!) of downtime

You saw my to-do list(s), right?

SFGate-NoComments

The “comments” sections in SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle’s Web site) articles are disgusting, horrible, rude, homophobic (?!), racist and in every other way awful. I wanted a way to read stories on SFGate without even having to force myself not to look at the comments section.

Greasemonkey script

Greasemonkey is a mechanism by which arbitrary code can be injected into Web pages during load or after they are completely loaded. It’s available for almost every modern browser*. Some common uses for Greasemonkey scripts are adjusting font sizes and colors on pages where the Web developer apparently worked on a 30″ inch screen and has 20/10 uncorrected vision and the color sense of a three year old, removing page elements and otherwise enhancing usability of Web pages.

Userscripts

Userscripts.org is an online repository of thousands of user-submitted Greasemonkey scripts. I placed my script there when I first wrote it early this year.

How does it work, you ask? Pretty simple in concept, a real hair-tearer in execution. Using Greasemonkey scripts’ ability to access the structural elements of a Web page, and knowing (from examining the page source code) how comments sections are named and placed, my code goes through the DOM looking for specific items. When it finds them, it makes them disappear. This was made more difficult by the fact that SFGate is now using a third-party comments solution which loads after most of the rest of the page has already finished loading, so I had to make my code wait until the page, including comments, had fully loaded before executing. The result is that the comments links and sections do show for a second before disappearing, but I find that acceptable considering the outcome.

This was an interesting challenge for me and as usual, it was impossible until it became easy. I would be willing to look at extending or duplicating it for other sites with similarly offensive comments sections. Let me know in the comments below if you’re interested. Yes, I realize the irony.

*Greasemonkey for:

• Safari/Mac: Greasekit** or NinjaKit. I haven’t tried NinjaKit yet.
• Opera: Enable user scripts and point it to the directory where you’ve downloaded your scripts.
• Chrome: Native support, just click “Install” from Userscripts pages.
• IE: See links here. I haven’t tried any of these because I use IE only under extreme duress.

**Use this version of GreaseKit if you are on OS X Leopard. The current posted version was compiled for Snow Leopard.

The webOS 1.4.5 update finally hit Sprint today. My heavily patched and customized Pre needs a little bit of preparation before accepting the update. Here’s my .plan: Update the Saved Package List in Preware Save all profiles in Save/Restore EPR (Emergency Patch Recovery, which despite the name is not just for emergencies but a quick [...]

The webOS 1.4.5 update finally hit Sprint today. My heavily patched and customized Pre needs a little bit of preparation before accepting the update. Here’s my .plan:

1. Update the Saved Package List in Preware
2. Save all profiles in Save/Restore
3. EPR (Emergency Patch Recovery, which despite the name is not just for emergencies but a quick way to cleanly remove all patches)
4. Palm profile backup
5. Download and install the OS update
6. Install Preware
7. EFF (Emergency fstab Fixer, again not just for emergencies but in this case fixes a bug in the new OS)
8. Restore Preware profile in Save/Restore
9. Reinstall from the Saved Package List in Preware
10. Restore remaining profiles in Save/Restore

There will be a few reboots in there, between steps 3-4, 5-6, probably 7-8 and definitely after 9. Step 4 is done and I’m downloading the update now. I’ll update this post later if there are any hangups but I doubt there will be.

…last night. We tried a new restaurant in Palo Alto called Baklava and were seated at the bar (which was fine and way better than a 20-minute wait for a table). The bartender had been a little bored (she told us) until three or four parties were seated there all of a sudden–and then she [...]

…last night. We tried a new restaurant in Palo Alto called Baklava and were seated at the bar (which was fine and way better than a 20-minute wait for a table). The bartender had been a little bored (she told us) until three or four parties were seated there all of a sudden–and then she was hopping. Despite juggling several parties' drink, appetizer and entree orders, everyone got what they ordered and right quick, too. She was pleasant and fun, and made the dining experience memorable. So I thanked her, tipped well (of course) and also mentioned how pleased we were to the restaurant manager on our way out.



Baklava, 445 Emerson Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301

So much for the daily updates. I have been taking an awful lot of pictures and video (with my Flip mini) but various events have conspired to either prevent or discourage me from actually posting. Fireworks followed lighting of the Olympic cauldron at Canada Place. We attended Ladies Moguls on Saturday and Mens Moguls on [...]

So much for the daily updates. I have been taking an awful lot of pictures and video (with my Flip mini) but various events have conspired to either prevent or discourage me from actually posting.

Fireworks followed lighting of the Olympic cauldron at Canada Place.

We attended Ladies Moguls on Saturday and Mens Moguls on Sunday at Cypress Mountain. There’s more to say about Cypress Mountain but I’m not going to go into it here because it’ll only raise my blood pressure. Do a Google News search for “Cypress Mountain” and you’ll get the gist.

Canadian Moguls star Jennifer Heil prepares for her silver-medal winning run.

We’re persevering, though, and have replaced most of the canceled tickets with other events in town. Mostly hockey. We’ll be seeing a lot of hockey, both Womens and Mens. Speaking of which, why are the skiing events for women called “Ladies” but the hockey events are called “Womens”?

Face-off near the end of Womens USA vs. Russia hockey at UBC Thunderbird Arena.

The aspect of this trip that’s making all the ticketing troubles fade away is the restaurant and bar scene here in Vancouver. The Gastown area, where we’re staying, is almost nothing but pubs, restaurants, bars, etc for several blocks in every direction.

View Larger Map

Not to mention many, many more places in the downtown area and other neighborhoods. We’ve been here six days, have been to a minimum of two different places per day (no repeats) and there’s no end in sight. At some point I’ll list them all here; I have saved all the receipts both for reference and to apply for GST refund when we get home.

The lights of Gastown as viewed from near the Gassy Jack statue.

There’s plenty to do outside of eating, drinking and the occasional Olympic event, of course. VANOC has set up two “LiveCity” locations, one very close to us in the downtown area and one a bit further away in Yaletown. We found ourselves near the Yaletown location on Tuesday night and stuck around for a while to watch some event coverage, medal ceremonies and a musical act. One of the songs they played might be familiar to longtime Disneyland fans…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3txwe0oH_54]

Today is an off day, with no events scheduled (or canceled…) so we’re doing some more exploring. Vancouver is much like San Francisco in that it’s very walkable, but unlike San Francisco the hills are merely “hills” and not “nearly vertical summits”. Public transit is free to visitors during the Games and we’ve used that a few times, but are mostly walking from place to place.

I’ll continue adding pictures to this photo album every couple of days, and do blog updates when I can. You might be interested in following my Twitter feed at least for the duration; most of what ends up in blog posts is Tweeted live as it happens.