Tim Dupree - tdupree.com http://tdupree.com Posts about New Tech, Web Tech, Green Tech, and whatever else Tim Dupree has floating around in his head. Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:16:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Javascript Clouds Animation with Mootools http://tdupree.com/2011/03/03/javascript-clouds-animation-with-mootools/ http://tdupree.com/2011/03/03/javascript-clouds-animation-with-mootools/#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:14:48 +0000 Tim Dupree http://tdupree.com/?p=256 After creating a basic placeholder page for fromthecloudup.com, I decided it would be fun to make some clouds randomly float across the page since there isn’t anything else really exciting going on there. So I wrote some Javascript classes using Mootools and made myself a cloud generator :).

It consists of two clases, a main class called CloudGenerator that orchistrates everything and a Clouds class that governs individual clouds. It requires Mootools 1.3.1 Core & More. It’s pretty simple to get up and running.

You can download all of the source, plus a demo page complete with cloud graphic here: CloudGenerator-1.0.zip

You may view a demo here: Cloud Generator Demo

To get started, first you need to specify some CSS within the <head> tag of your page. Really the only necessary thing here is to specify the #sky element styles.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

<style type="text/css">
html, body {
    padding: 0px;
    margin: 0px;    
}
body {
    background-color: #CBEFFA;
}
#sky {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0px;
    left: 0px;
    width: 100%;
    height: 600px;
    overflow: hidden;   
}
</style>

Next, you will need to include a div named “sky” after your body tag in the HTML of your page.

1

<div id="sky"></div>

At the bottom of your page, just before the closing </body> tag, you will need to include the required Javascript files. Here you can see I include Mootools 1.3.1 Core and More in one file which I then compressed with the Google Closure Compiler. Next, I included an uncompressed and commented version of the Cloud Generator classes.

1
2

<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/mootools-1.3.1-complete-gc.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/cloudGenerator-1.0.js"></script>

After those files are included, you will need to write a snippet of Javascript to create your CloudGenerator and pass in any options you wish to define.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

<script type="text/javascript">
var weatherMachine;
window.addEvent('domready', function(){
    weatherMachine = new CloudGenerator({
        totalClouds: 8,
        cloudScales: [0.8, 0.6, 0.4, 0.2],
        cloudImg: "/images/png/cloud.png"
    });
 
});
</script>

The options for the CloudGenerator class are listed below (note that below are the defaults for each option).

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

// These are default options for the CloudGenerator class that can be modified
// when creating a new CloudGenerator instance
options: {
    totalClouds:  4,        // Total number of clouds on screen at a given time (int)
    minDuration: 10000,     // Minimum travel time for a cloud across the screen (milliseconds)
    maxDuration: 120000,    // Maximum tracel time for a cloud across the screen (milliseconds)
    checkInterval: 10000,   // The interval used to check if new clouds are needed (milliseconds)
    autoStart: true,        // Automatically starts the cloud generator by default (bool)
    sky: $("sky"),          // Default sky target resides in an element named "sky" (element)
    cloudImg: "cloud.png",  // Define default cloud image (path/url)
    cloudDirection: 0,      // 0 = left to right, 1 = right to left (int)
    cloudWidth: 573,        // Cloud width (px)
    cloudHeight: 262,       // Cloud height (px)
    cloudScales: [1, 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, 0.2],   // Define an array containing the sizes the cloud will be scaled to (%)
    maxAltitude: 600,       // This defines the vertical space you allow clouds to appear within the sky (px)
    cloudTransition: Fx.Transitions.linear  //Define the transition algorithm for the cloud movement
}

When you are all said and done, a basic page with the Cloud Generator installed should look like this:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>My Sweet Animated Clouds Page</title>
<style type="text/css">
html, body {
    padding: 0px;
    margin: 0px;    
}
body {
    background-color: #CBEFFA;
}
#sky {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0px;
    left: 0px;
    width: 100%;
    height: 600px;
    overflow: hidden;   
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="sky"></div>
 
<!-- Cue the Javascript -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/mootools-1.3.1-complete-gc.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/cloudGenerator-1.0.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var weatherMachine;
window.addEvent('domready', function(){
    weatherMachine = new CloudGenerator({
        totalClouds: 8,
        cloudScales: [0.8, 0.6, 0.4, 0.2],
        cloudImg: "/images/png/cloud.png"
    });
});
</script>
</body>
</html>

Have a look at the CloudGenerator and Cloud classes below to get a better understanding of how they work and how to use them.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187

var CloudGenerator = new Class({
    // Implement the Events and Options utility classes
    Implements: [Events, Options],
 
    // Initialize our defualt values for the class options passed in
    options: {
        totalClouds:  4,        // Total number of clouds on screen at a given time (int)
        minDuration: 10000,     // Minimum travel time for a cloud across the screen (milliseconds)
        maxDuration: 120000,    // Maximum tracel time for a cloud across the screen (milliseconds)
        checkInterval: 10000,   // The interval used to check if new clouds are needed (milliseconds)
        autoStart: true,        // Automatically starts the cloud generator by default (bool)
        sky: $("sky"),          // Default sky target resides in an element named "sky" (element)
        cloudImg: "cloud.png",  // Define default cloud image (path/url)
        cloudDirection: 0,      // 0 = left to right, 1 = right to left (int)
        cloudWidth: 573,        // Cloud width (px)
        cloudHeight: 262,       // Cloud height (px)
        cloudScales: [1, 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, 0.2],   // Define an array containing the sizes the cloud will be scaled to (%)
        maxAltitude: 600,       // This defines the vertical space you allow clouds to appear within the sky (px)
        cloudTransition: Fx.Transitions.linear  //Define the transition algorithm for the cloud movement
    },
 
    cloudCheck: null,           // Initialize the vairable to hold the setInterval declaration
    cloudsInSky: 0,             // Keep track of number of clouds in sky
    cloudSky: null,             // A reference to the cloudSky generated and injected into the sky element
 
 
    // Our constructor for the CloudGenerator class
    // It takes in the options passed to it and uses the implemented Options
    // utility class to modify any defualt options in our options object
    initialize: function(options){
        // Modify any defaults with the passed in options
        this.setOptions(options);
 
        // Create Cloud Sky
        this.cloudSky = new Element('div', {
            id: 'cloudSky',
            src: this.options.cloudImg,
            styles: {
                position: 'absolute',
                width: (sky.getDimensions().x + (2*this.options.cloudWidth)),
                left: -this.options.cloudWidth  
            }
        });
 
        // Place the cloud container within the sky
        // This lets us ensure that the clouds can smoothly enter and exit the 
        // boundaries of the sky element
        sky.grab(this.cloudSky);
 
        // autostat the cloud generator by default
        if(this.options.autoStart){
            this.startGenerator();
        }
    },
 
    // Check if there are less than the max number of clouds in the sky
    // If there is room, deploy another cloud, if not, do nothing
    deploy: function(){
        var cloudScale = (Math.floor(Math.random()*this.options.cloudScales.length));
        cloudScale = this.options.cloudScales[cloudScale];
 
        var cloudDuration = Math.floor(Math.random() * (this.options.maxDuration + 1 - this.options.minDuration)) 
                            + this.options.minDuration;
 
        var cloudAltitude = Math.floor(Math.random() * (this.options.maxAltitude - (cloudScale * this.options.cloudHeight)));
 
        if(this.cloudsInSky < this.options.totalClouds && !this.cloudsFull){
            this.cloudsInSky++;
            new Cloud({
                width: Math.floor(this.options.cloudWidth * cloudScale),
                height: Math.floor(this.options.cloudHeight * cloudScale),
                altitude: cloudAltitude,
                duration: cloudDuration,
                direction: this.options.cloudDirection,
                cloudImg: this.options.cloudImg,
                cloudTransition: this.options.cloudTransition,
                onComplete: function(){
                    this.removeCloud();
                }.bind(this)
            });
        }
    },
 
    // Decrement cloudsInSky variable
    removeCloud: function(){
        if(this.cloudsInSky > 0){
            this.cloudsInSky--;
            console.log("cloud removed");
        }
    },
 
    // Stop the cloudGenerator
    stopGenerator: function(){
        clearInterval(this.cloudCheck);
        return "generator stopped";
    },
 
    // Start the cloudGenerator
    startGenerator: function(){
        this.deploy();
        this.cloudCheck = this.deploy.periodical(this.options.checkInterval, this);
    }
 
});
 
 
var Cloud = new Class({
    // Implement the Events and Options utility classes
    Implements: [Events, Options],
 
    cloudId: "",    // hold a reference to this cloud's DOM id property
 
    options: {
        duration: 4000,         // Duration of the clouds movement across the sky (milliseconds)
        direction: 0,           // Direction of the clouds movement, 0 = left to right and vice versa (int)
        altitude: 200,          // Altitude of the cloud in the sky
        width: 573,             // Width of the cloud (px)
        height: 262,            // Height of the cloud (px)
        cloudImg: "cloud.png",  // Cloud image (path/url)
        sky: $("cloudSky"),     // CloudSky element that the cloud will be injected into (element)
        cloudTransition: Fx.Transitions.linear  //Define the transition algorithm for the cloud movement
    },
 
    initialize: function(options){
        // modify any defaults with the passed in options
        this.setOptions(options);
 
        // create and animate the cloud element
        this.createCloud();
    },
 
    createCloud: function(){
        this.cloudId = 'cloud-' + (new Date().getTime());
 
        // determine if cloud will be moving left to right or right to left
        // the position cloud offscreen to begin movement
        var cloudStyle = { 
            position: 'absolute',
            top: this.options.altitude,
            width: this.options.width,
            height: this.options.height 
        };
 
        var skyPosition = 'upperRight'; // Move the cloud to the right, ignore the 'upper'
        var cloudEdge = 'upperLeft';    // Align the edge of the cloud to the edg edge of the sky
 
        // Determine the direction of the cloud and set styles and positions
        if(this.options.direction === 0){
            cloudStyle.left = (0 - this.options.width);
        }
        else {
            cloudStyle.right = (0 - this.options.width);
            skyPosition = 'upperLeft';
            cloudEdge = 'upperRight';
        }
 
        // Create the image element for the cloud
        var cloud = new Element('img', {
            id: this.cloudId,
            src: this.options.cloudImg,
            styles: cloudStyle
        });
 
        // Add the cloud image element to the cloudSky div
        sky.grab(cloud);
 
        // Move the cloud across the sky
        new Fx.Move(cloud, {
            relativeTo: this.options.sky,
            position: skyPosition,
            edge: cloudEdge,
            offset: {x: 0, y: this.options.altitude}, 
            duration: this.options.duration,
            transition: this.options.cloudTransition,
            onComplete: function(){
                this.complete();
            }.bind(this)
        }).start();
 
    },
 
    complete: function(){
        $(this.cloudId).destroy();  // Remove the cloud element from the DOM
        this.fireEvent('complete'); // fire the onComplete event, this is picked up
                                    // by the CloudGenerator class
    }
});
]]> http://tdupree.com/2011/03/03/javascript-clouds-animation-with-mootools/feed/ 8 From The Cloud Up http://tdupree.com/2011/02/27/from-the-cloud-up/ http://tdupree.com/2011/02/27/from-the-cloud-up/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:47:33 +0000 Tim Dupree http://tdupree.com/?p=143 I have been wanting, for some time now, to create a website that will teach visitors how to create a web application completely from start to finish. From no server and no domain name, to a complete site running on a vps/cloud based hosting provider complete with CDN, DNS management, S3 file hosting, etc. In addition to the administrative tasks of getting a site up and running (domains, server, cdn, dns, etc.), I would like the teach visitors how to create a database driven site complete from server-side to client-side (including front-end high performance best practices and SEO).

I plan on teaching visitors to implement their web apps using an open source stack consisting of Linux (Ubuntu Server Edition), Nginx (webserver), MySQL (database), and PHP (server side programming/scripting language). I may add tutorials for additional languages and web servers after completing the first run through the aforementioned stack.

I think it is important for a web developer, regardless of being server-side or front-end centric, to understand the entire process of creating and launching a site. This knowledge gives one a better understanding of how various decisions can impact performance, maintainability, and scalability of a site.

I have never come across a site or set of tutorials that really encompasses the entire lifecycle of creating a web app from start to finish, so this will be my contribution for those who want to gain an understanding of complete web application development (rather than seeing a web app from a single viewpoint of sys-admin/server-side programmer/front-end programmer/designer).

A couple weeks ago I settled on a domain name I was happy with, fromthecloudup.com. A little play on words, since we will be starting our foundation in the cloud :) I decided to throw a little splash page together for fun until I have time to design and launch something more substantial. I used Adobe Fireworks to create the cloud and title text.

Check it out: fromthecloudup.com

]]> http://tdupree.com/2011/02/27/from-the-cloud-up/feed/ 1 Got my Chrome OS powered Cr-48 Today http://tdupree.com/2010/12/09/got-my-chrome-os-powered-cr-48-today/ http://tdupree.com/2010/12/09/got-my-chrome-os-powered-cr-48-today/#comments Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:39:10 +0000 Tim Dupree http://tdupree.com/?p=123 I applied for the pilot program to test out the new Google Chrome OS and got my prototype laptop this morning, less than 48 hours later! It came in an awesome box with a guinea pig about to get on an exercise wheel connected to a jet engine :) The instructions card that came with it had some fun copy too, even the FCC Notice. Check it out!

Cr-48 Packaging

Cr-48 Side View

Cr-48 Controls

Cr-48 Get on the web

]]> http://tdupree.com/2010/12/09/got-my-chrome-os-powered-cr-48-today/feed/ 5 Amazon CloudFront Just Got Cooler http://tdupree.com/2010/11/08/amazon-cloudfront-just-got-cooler/ http://tdupree.com/2010/11/08/amazon-cloudfront-just-got-cooler/#comments Tue, 09 Nov 2010 03:54:45 +0000 Tim Dupree http://tdupree.com/?p=119 Today Amazon rolled out support for custom origins with their CloudFront CDN. Before this, you could only serve content through CloudFront that was stored on S3. Now, you can specify a custom origin server (the source that CloudFront initially goes to for a requested asset) to serve out files through CloudFront.

This is awesome news because it means that you can provide dynamic resources that have a long cache time and do not change often. Additionally, it looks like this may open up some new ways to more intelligently serve gzipped files to users (currently a pain to do with the S3 implementation). I look forward to playing around with this to see how I can make better use of my CloudFront CDN.

Check out the official post by Amazon here.

]]> http://tdupree.com/2010/11/08/amazon-cloudfront-just-got-cooler/feed/ 0 A Simple MooTools Menu http://tdupree.com/2010/08/13/a-simple-mootools-menu/ http://tdupree.com/2010/08/13/a-simple-mootools-menu/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:17:31 +0000 Tim Dupree http://tdupree.com/?p=83 Using the handy MooTools JavaScript framework (and its terrific Fx classes) I made the simple expanding menu you see to the left of this post. It worked great until I tested it in IE and found that the JS engine is so slow that it was doing some wacky things in the animation.

I wanted to keep the markup as clean as I could but I ended up fixing the IE problem by wrapping the menu text in <span> tags and then doing a little extra styling of those spans with css.

The menu works in IE7&8, as well as Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

If you are interested in the JS, HTML and CSS behind the menu, check out the code below. It’s in a shell from jsFiddle.net, a great site for messing around with JS frameworks.

]]> http://tdupree.com/2010/08/13/a-simple-mootools-menu/feed/ 0 Getting Started with HTML Emails http://tdupree.com/2010/08/10/getting-started-with-html-emails/ http://tdupree.com/2010/08/10/getting-started-with-html-emails/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:36:51 +0000 Tim Dupree http://tdupree.com/?p=66 I recently needed to create some HTML emails.  I knew that email clients were pretty restrictive when it comes to the html and css they allow, but I was a bit surprised at how bad the landscape really is.

Pretty much throw out any best practice for coding html and pretend you are back in the 90′s.  Here are some general tips and tricks I learned this week about HTML emails.

  1. Inline your CSS. Forget about embedding your css styles at the top (or as separate resources).  Most email clients strip out the HTML and BODY tags so you have to embed your styles below the body tag, and even then most clients ignore that.  You are better off just inlining your CSS.
  2. Fancy CSS won’t work.  Time to go old school.  Check out this guide to css support for some insights on what CSS is supported in the various email clients.
  3. No DIVs, Tables all the way baby.  This is painful.  It feels dirty and wrong, but you are going to need to use tables to structure your emails.
  4. No background images.  Support for background images is pretty spotty, so you are better off not using it. This means either make your design less fancy or slice up your design and piece it all back together using tables.
  5. Static file references. Make sure any image references are static and pointing to the proper files on your server. Common sense.
  6. img {display: block;}.  Seeing weird gaps in your beautiful html email where images should be fitting tightly together? Make sure you add style=”display: block;” to your images.

Some additional reading:

]]> http://tdupree.com/2010/08/10/getting-started-with-html-emails/feed/ 0 DD-WRT on A0 A3 Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH http://tdupree.com/2010/07/16/dd-wrt-on-a0-a3-buffalo-wzr-hp-g300nh/ http://tdupree.com/2010/07/16/dd-wrt-on-a0-a3-buffalo-wzr-hp-g300nh/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:04:54 +0000 Tim Dupree http://tdupree.com/?p=49 I ordered the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH wireless router on Newegg last weekend.  It has some really nice specs and my old router was getting a bit wonky.  The new Buffalo router is replacing a Lynksys WRT54G2 v1 which seemed to have some incompatibility with the Intel wireless cards in 3 out of the 4 laptops that are usually in my home.

For the past couple years I have only bought routers whose firmware can be changed to run DD-WRT (a Linux based open source firmware for routers).  The Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH is a great router for DD-WRT, but there are/were some problems surrounding a particular version that was manufactured in Japan.  These can be spotted by looking for the letters “A0 A3″ on the router near the serial number.  It seems that for a while that particular version was not playing nice with DD-WRT.

After some research it seemed that I would still be able to get DD-WRT on the Japanese version (if thats what i received) so I decided to take my chances and order it (since you don’t know what version you will get until you have it in your hands).

I ended up receiving the “A0 A3″ Japanese version of the  Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH.  But no worries.  It seems that they have fixed what ever problems were plaguing the firmware update and now its possible to put DD-WRT on the Japanese models.

To install DD-WRT on a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH with the “A0 A3″ Japanese version number on it, just follow these easy steps:

  1. Go to the DD-WRT router database and lookup “WZR-HP-G300NH”.  Then download the firmware labeled “Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH: Special File for initial flashing”.  The filename is “buffalo_to_ddwrt_webflash-MULTI.bin”.  http://dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database
  2. Log into your stock WZR-HP-G300NH router at http://192.168.11.1 and go to the page where you can update the firmware online “Admin Config->Update”.  Click the button to browse for a firmware file and upload your DD-WRT image “buffalo_to_ddwrt_webflash-MULTI.bin”.  Then click the button to upgrade the firmware.  Your DD-WRT firmware will upload and then you  will see a progress bar going for a while while the new firmware is installed.
  3. After the installation completes, go to 192.168.1.1 to log into your new DD-WRT firmware (It will ask you to put in a new username and password).  If everything checks out fine and your new DD-WRT firmware is running, then head over to the router and perform a Hard Reset (30/30/30 reset) on it.  This is important to do after installing or upgrading the firmware to reset the NVRAM and make sure its all clean and ready to go.  http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Hard_reset_or_30/30/30
  4. After the Hard reset, log back into the router at 192.168.1.1.  It will ask you to put in a new username and password again, as a Hard Reset erases any settings you previously had.
  5. You should now be up and running with DD-WRT on a Japanese A0 A3 Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH wireless router!

Extras:

The reset button for the router (needed when doing the Hard Reset) is found on the bottom of the router.

Reset Button on Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH

If you need the manual for the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH, you can grab it here: Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH Manual

]]> http://tdupree.com/2010/07/16/dd-wrt-on-a0-a3-buffalo-wzr-hp-g300nh/feed/ 2 Google Chrome Developer Tools http://tdupree.com/2010/04/15/google-chrome-developer-tools/ http://tdupree.com/2010/04/15/google-chrome-developer-tools/#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:41:34 +0000 Tim Dupree http://www.tdupree.com/?p=44 The Google Chrome web browser is extremely fast and has pretty much become my primary browser. It has some developer tools baked into the browser similar to the Firebug addon for Firefox.  I still tend to gravitate to using Firebug for heavy duty stuff, but the tools in Chrome are good enough that I find myself breaking out Firefox less and less for Firebug. If you are feeling geeky, or want access to some of the newest developer tools for Chrome/Webkit, you can run with the Dev Channel build. It is the most cutting edge build of Chrome, so you always get the new stuff before everyone else (but it can be unstable every now and then).
Here are some handy web dev extensions for Chrome:
Google Speed Tracer:
Web Developer Toolbar (a port of the popular toolbar for Firefox):
Pendule (similar to Web Developer Toolbar):
Chrome SEO:
Click the image below to see some examples of using the Chrome Developer Tools:
Chrome Developer Tools
]]> http://tdupree.com/2010/04/15/google-chrome-developer-tools/feed/ 1 Remove GRUB from an external USB drive http://tdupree.com/2010/04/04/remove-grub-from-an-external-usb-drive/ http://tdupree.com/2010/04/04/remove-grub-from-an-external-usb-drive/#comments Mon, 05 Apr 2010 04:31:56 +0000 Tim Dupree http://www.tdupree.com/?p=43 Need to remove the GRUB boot loader from an external usb drive connected to a Windows machine? This is how I did it.

I had a hard drive that was set up to dual boot Linux and Windows XP. The windows XP install had ceased working for some reason so I decided to wipe the drive and do a clean install.  Since this was an old laptop of mine that my father-in-law was using, I figured I would also wipe the linux partition, that I had played with long ago, and get rid of the dual boot option.

I removed the drive from the laptop, and hooked it up using a simple SATA/IDE to USB cable.  My main desktop is running windows 7 and I just used the built in “Disk Management” app to delete all of the partitions on the laptop hard drive and reformat the drive.  Unfortunately this did not remove the GRUB boot loader or fix the Master Boot Record. When I put the newly formatted drive in the laptop and booted, GRUB would appear and give me ERROR 21.

Finally to remove the GRUB boot loader from the drive and fix the MBR (Master Boot Record), I had to install a program called Partition Wizard.  It turns out the Home Edition is free and it works great for partitioning, formatting, and wiping hard drives. The best part, it can rewrite and fix the MBR on hard drives, even external hard drives connected via usb. Problem solved, and now I have a clean and tidy hard drive to install a fresh OS on.

]]> http://tdupree.com/2010/04/04/remove-grub-from-an-external-usb-drive/feed/ 2 digg AdBlocker now in Google Chrome Extensions Gallery http://tdupree.com/2010/02/03/digg-adblocker-now-in-google-chrome-extensions-gallery/ http://tdupree.com/2010/02/03/digg-adblocker-now-in-google-chrome-extensions-gallery/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:14:27 +0000 Tim Dupree http://www.tdupree.com/?p=42 I have taken my digg AdBlocker script I originally made for greasemonkey and have made it available for Google Chrome users.

Install the digg AdBlocker extension for Google Chrome here:

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gclmekogkkggoehdimnceffmboanpibn

Check out the source here:

http://tdupree.com/chrome/digg_adblocker/chrome_digg_adblocker_source.zip

]]> http://tdupree.com/2010/02/03/digg-adblocker-now-in-google-chrome-extensions-gallery/feed/ 0