Incognito browsing mode for Firefox on Mac OS X

April 28, 2009 – 12:59 pm

Regarding the recent re-purposing of this blog: I guess that if I have tech-related stuff, this is still the best place to post it!

Windows users currently have a nice browsing feature in Google Chrome and IE8 called incognito mode, which means that any sites you access in a special session/window are not added to the browser history and cookies are deleted after the session is closed, etc. Fortunately, Mac OS X users can set up an incognito mode using Firefox 3.0 with the help of two launcher applications I wrote and some instructions based off two posts on Shantanu’s Technophilic Musings which are included in the download.

FFIncognito Launchers

Download the FFIncognito launchers.

It’s pretty simple as long as Firefox is installed in the Applications folder, but I have written instructions on how to modify the launchers if it is installed somewhere else.

Hope this is a helpful solution until either Firefox 3.1 stable (which will have an easy-to-access incognito mode) or Chrome are released for Mac OS X.


By Eliot | Posted in Hacks, Mac, Tips, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Album Review: Self-Titled by adcBicycle

March 10, 2009 – 7:44 am

I’ve come up with a new purpose for this blog: sharing cool stuff with you! Rantbox is now Rainbox. I’m kicking off this new chapter with an album review. Enjoy!

In 2006, a Canadian producer who goes by the moniker of adcBicycle released his debut album. Over the course of the album, he explores rich textures of sound and composes them into a cohesive, musical whole. Stitched together from hundreds of samples, this concept album flows smoothly from beginning to end of its sonic journey.

adcBicycle’s sound is difficult to describe: It probably lies somewhere between post rock and soundscape art. Tracks are created out of recorded instruments, synthesized tones, and all manner of other rhythmic samples. An uncommon kind of Native American chanting underlies the first two tracks, melding with a bassline that morphs into a digital horn section. The attention to detail is astounding: samples are sliced, built up layer upon layer, and arranged meticulously. Snippets of conversations and dialogue drift in and out, often giving the tracks their names.

With all these diverse elements, adcBicycle manages to maintain a unity that not only holds each track together, but holds the entire album together as a whole. It is a true concept album; the ending elements of one track become the beginning elements of the next.

The first five tracks of this incredible album are available for free as a standalone EP released by the Kikapu netlablel. The full 13-track LP released by Noisefactory Records sold out of its first pressing, but is available on many digital download services including iTunes and Amazon MP3.

A note on the past and future of adcBicycle: The excellent “Best of 2005” collection – of all tracks he produced up to 2005 – is available for free.

Check out Firefights, The Egg, Just Stop, and Boys Choir. His new album - all remixes of tracks from his unreleased Album 2, has been released. Get it free or buy the CD at 12rec.

By Eliot | Posted in Reviews, Music | Comments (0)

And so…

June 5, 2008 – 1:47 pm

… my plans to become a technologist blogger no longer appeal to me. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this blog (words, custom skin, and technical semantics) but I find I am way more attatched to my personal blog.

I’ll have to think about what future purpose I want this blog to serve, if any.

By Eliot | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

This is a demo of my K2 skin for Sandbox

August 8, 2007 – 3:56 pm

It’s mostly done but I’m working on a few tweaks and function hacks to make the site behave more like K2.

Based heavily on the work done by Trevor Turk.

I’m using a modified version of this theme in a client website and I’ll probably come up with more variations in the future.

By Eliot | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Gearing up for the iPhone release

June 29, 2007 – 8:56 am

No word yet from Apple about the retail job (I’m assuming I didn’t get it,) but I’m interested to see what developments are occurring today as the iPhone nears release.

Apple has published some tutorial videos detailing how to operate the iPhone.

iTunes 7.3 was just released, and includes an iPhone preference panel:

iPhone preferences in iTunes

Apple has also evidently constructed a web-based news feed reader for the iPhone, at http://reader.mac.com/. (Via Daring Fireball.)

Currently, visitors to that address will receive a pretty error message stating “This Application Is Viewable Only On iPhone.” However, I found that if I changed the user agent (UA) string sent by my browser to anything including the word “iPhone”, it displays a different message:

If you'd like to view an RSS feed, just enter the feed URL directly into Safari's address bar.

There have also been some interesting rumors surfacing about performance increases on the EDGE network. (again, via Daring Fireball.)

Personally, I’m not waiting in line to get one, although I would like to go in to the Apple Store in a few days to see if they have a display model to play with. Honestly, as cool and futuristic as the iPhone is, I don’t think I can justify spending that much on a 1st-generation gadget plus contract. I’ll look again once my 3rd generation iPod, outdated cell phone, or hand-me-down Treo 600p (with no phone service) break down.

By Eliot | Posted in Mac, Tech, Work | Comments (0)

June 11, 2007 – 7:34 am

Testing posts without titles.

By Eliot | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Hello world!

June 11, 2007 – 7:26 am

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

By Eliot | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Growing pains

June 5, 2007 – 7:26 am

A note about the technical weirdness going on with my website:

I upgraded this blog to the most recent Wordpress release yesterday and it broke a few things. Notably, it broke the theme I use, K2. The patch I added to fix the main page wound up breaking my news feed, but I’ve updated to the latest development version of K2 and things seem to be working again. However, most of my sidebar modules are gone, so bear with me while I work on a fix. The upcoming release of K2 will hopefully address this issue. In the meantime, please let me know if you notice anything that’s not working properly.

I am also getting ready to replace my web server with a much newer machine (the new one started as a Windows XP box, whereas my current server came with Windows 98!) I have installed Debian “Etch”, the latest stable release, and it is already up and running Apache. I’m not quite ready to make the switch, but I will start working on a mirror of this server. This should eventually mean an overall speedup of the site and database-backed applications like this blog, although I think it will be mainly noticeable in the various developer services I run on this box for Project Aqua and my own use.

Aside: I used to post this kind of stuff on my old blog without hesitation, but now that this blog is syndicated to Random Shapes and has an audience of slightly more than two people, I don’t want to bore you with technical details that you probably don’t care about. Please let me know if I should post info on server updates elsewhere. :)

By Eliot | Posted in Tech, Tidbits, Random | Comments (2)

And summer begins.

June 4, 2007 – 3:20 am

My first year of college is finally over. What a relief!

The past few weeks have been crazy and I’ve been taking a little time to decompress. Cramming on overdue papers during finals week is not fun. I’m hoping this will serve as enough motivation to kick my study habits into higher gear for next semester.

As for the summer, it’s shaping up to be as interesting as I had hoped. Seeing as how last summer’s plans for ‘a road trip’ and ‘chillaxing’ basically translated into watching a lot of TV, I’ve made an effort to give myself some more strucutre this time around.

I just applied for a summer job in retail at the Apple Store. Some of my friends are working there as well, and it will be great if I get accepted. I’m also gonna work on some required general education classes at community college- needless to say, the unit price is cheaper than Chapman tutition.

In addition, there are several intriguing internship prospects cropping up here in the bay, LA, and possibly New York. And there looks to be plenty of freelance work available for the company that Nate and I are starting (the business arm of Catman do Films, I suppose.) We already have some videography and editing jobs lined up for clients of Addison Olian, and I’m doing some stuff on the side as well. Hopefully we can get our name out there a little bit, and start building a reputation for the quality of our work.

Now that finals are over, I’ll try to update here more frequently. Especially on the progress of our business.

Peace!

(By the way, the iTunes DRM-free store has arrived. Check out iTunes Plus.)

By Eliot | Posted in Tech, Mac, Music, Work, Life, Film | Comments (0)

Randomness and Networking

April 23, 2007 – 10:13 am

Good news! I have applied and been accepted into the Random Shapes Blog Network, a blogging community full of intelligent and classy young folks. Welcome, people from Random Shapes!

Right now I’m pretty swamped with schoolwork as there are only a few short weeks until finals. However, I’ve been thinking of a few interesting things to write about, including a series on what Mac wisdom I’ve gained, as well as how my efforts go the next few months at getting internships and/or starting a small media production and consulting business with Nate.

I think it’s going to be an interesting summer.

By Eliot | Posted in Work, Tech, Life, Ideas, Film, Random | Comments (0)