Youtube Javascript Popout Bookmarklet
By John | June 27, 2008
I’ve been looking around the web for something like this for a while, and i found a userscript using greasemonkey, but it turned out to suck.
I looked into it and found out that the same thing could be achieved using three lines of javascript as a bookmarklet.
The Code:
javascript:var a = document.getElementById("embed_code").value;
newWindow= window.open("", "myWindow", "status = 1, height = 354, width = 435, resizable = 0" );
newWindow.document.write(a);
Just create new bookmark in your browsers bookmark toolbar and copy and paste the code into the location field.
Then the next time you are at a youtube video page, hit the bookmark, and the video will be displayed by itself in a small sub window. Enjoy.
Topics: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
The transition - part 1
By John | April 17, 2008
I believe that we are witnessing the beginning of a massive societal transformation. One which will alter certain ideals that we have held to be fundamental, and even obvious, since the first days that we have had the abilities to reflect upon the human-created structures and relationships which we call civilization.
The dawn of the digital information age has brought with it a series of dramatic changes in many areas of human activity. These changes are in turn catalyzed by the rapid influx of new data generated by each new implementation and application of information technology. These changes, or should I say, this sprawling multi-tentacled monstrous change, is an ever growing, unrelenting, eternally hungry beast.
It has changed business models on industry-wide levels. It has redefined our understanding of communications and knowledge sharing abilities, and continues to penetrate further and deeper into anything we can define as a concept, and type into a text box.
There are too many paths to take when trying to speak about and understand the future that we are building. So I offer a glimpse of what I believe will be some of the most fundamentally life-changing. They each begin with a word that we, oh-so love to hear: Free.
The future, will bring, indeed it must bring:
- Free communication
- Free energy.
- Free food.
By “Free”, of course, i mean that there’s a catch.
Before explaining the ways that this idealistic utopia will come about, I must cite my various reasons and resources that have led me to come to this rather idealistic and utopian view of things. I will start from rather rudimentary causes.
I find that quite a bit of people have problems understanding subjects that are associated with having too much of a technical nature. Very few people have no aversion to conversations which actually require grasping complex subjects such as mathematics, physics, computers, or technology in general. It is not difficult understanding why. The modern educational system of the United States of America (where I live) does very little to promote true understanding and nurturing of scientific and intellectual growth in the individual. Sadly, it does even worse in the area of the arts. Overall, in my humble opinion, academic disciplines are presented, at best, as idealistic pursuits, worthy of only a surface glance, now and again, during the course of rote memorization and factual regurgitation. This sad truth is made manifest in the awful economic reality of the average teachers salary in Texas, one of the most productive states of the nation. For those of you who will not follow the link to the Texas Workforce Commission, the average teachers salary is $38,857.
Our culture is not technical. It is however Utilitarian. Roughly stated, utilitarianism decrees: “The greatest good for the greatest number”. Or in the context of technology: “If it works, and it somehow makes my life easier, better, or happier..I’ll use it!”
e.g.
- My car takes me places I couldn’t go on foot. I’ll drive it! (even though it destroys the planet, and economically enslaves both us, and underdeveloped nations.)
- My college degree will get me jobs I couldn’t get before! I’m gonna get that degree! (even though your college tuition is GROSSLY overpriced, colleges are more and more funded and controlled by corporations, you really don’t “learn” anything except how to cram and vomit up preprocessed information until the Masters and PhD levels of study, and seriously, half of the degrees our there are a joke!)
- A credit card! Buy now and pay later? Oh man! Where have you been all my life?! (lying in wait since the first day your social security number was created on your date of birth, tracking your every online interest and calculating your purchase patterns so that when that day arrives that you are 18 years old, you too will be pre-approved! That’s where.)
In short, there exists very little reflection upon the nature of our habits and actions, or upon their effects and consequences on the world. Ultimately, these effects are hidden, out of sight, and hence out of mind. I do not understand the relationship between myself and the melting of the polar ice caps caused by global warming, or between purchasing that 100 inch HDTV at the electronics store, and some guy slaving away in China trying to feed his family by working at a hazardous electronics factory where he’s exposed to toxic chemicals. But that does not mean these relationships do not exist. They are real. As real as ripples in a pond, as real as cellphones, radiowaves and dollar bills.
They are merely invisible to me. But they are there. There is a connection, between all things, and not just in the metaphysical, “we are all one” ,hari-krishna mumbo jumbo sense of the phrase. If only there was a way to make you see it, make you understand this connection……hmmmm…..
Very soon these connections will no longer be invisible.
Topics: Singularity, Technology | 2 Comments »