“Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.”

On a similar note, since I was just building a new website, I will once again beg y’all to STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER. Please? Pretty please? Sugar… top? Use ANYTHING else. Chrome, Firefox or Safari would make fine choices and all are MUCH better than IE.

If only I could bill M$ for the time required to code around their buggy, crappy products.

IP Address:
/^((25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|[0-9])\.){3}(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|[0-9])$/

Mac Address:

/^[0-9a-fA-F]{2}:[0-9a-fA-F]{2}:[0-9a-fA-F]{2}:[0-9a-fA-F]{2}:[0-9a-fA-F]{2}:[0-9a-fA-F]{2}$/

RFC Compliant Email Address:
([^\\x00-\\x20\\x22\\x28\\x29\\x2c\\x2e\\x3a-\\x3c\\x3e\\x40\\x5b-\\x5d\\x7f-\\xff]+|\\x22([^\\x0d\\x22\\x5c\\x80-\\xff]|\\x5c[\\x00-\\x7f])*\\x22)(\\x2e([^\\x00-\\x20\\x22\\x28\\x29\\x2c\\x2e\\x3a-\\x3c\\x3e\\x40\\x5b-\\x5d\\x7f-\\xff]+|\\x22([^\\x0d\\x22\\x5c\\x80-\\xff]|\\x5c\\x00-\\x7f)*\\x22))*\\x40([^\\x00-\\x20\\x22\\x28\\x29\\x2c\\x2e\\x3a-\\x3c\\x3e\\x40\\x5b-\\x5d\\x7f-\\xff]+|\\x5b([^\\x0d\\x5b-\\x5d\\x80-\\xff]|\\x5c[\\x00-\\x7f])*\\x5d)(\\x2e([^\\x00-\\x20\\x22\\x28\\x29\\x2c\\x2e\\x3a-\\x3c\\x3e\\x40\\x5b-\\x5d\\x7f-\\xff]+|\\x5b([^\\x0d\\x5b-\\x5d\\x80-\\xff]|\\x5c[\\x00-\\x7f])*\\x5d))*

SSN:
^(?!000)([0-6]\d{2}|7([0-6]\d|7[012]))([ -]?)(?!00)\d\d\3(?!0000)\d{4}$

US phone with or without parentheses
^\([0-9]{3}\)\s?[0-9]{3}(-|\s)?[0-9]{4}$|^[0-9]{3}-?[0-9]{3}-?[0-9]{4}$

ISO Date (19th to 21st century only)
^((18|19|20)\d\d)-(0[1-9]|1[012])-(0[1-9]|1[0-9]|2[0-9]|3[01])$

Misc:
^[A-Z]+ # starts with at least one capital letter
\s? # followed by an optional space
\d+ # followed by one or more digits /x
^\d+ # starts with one or more digits
\. # followed by a single decimal /x
\d+ # starts with one or more digits
\s # and a space /x
Thesis # starts with "Thesis" .+ # with one or more characters of any kind
\d{4} # then four numbers - year
\s+ # separated by at least one space
[A-Z]+ # from one or more capital letters
\d+ # followed by one or more numbers /xi # case ignored here in case we run into THESIS or thesis
\d+ # starts with one or more digits
\- # connected with a dash
\d+ # to one or more following digits /x
\d+ # starts with one or more digits
# followed by a space
[A-Z]* #followed by zero or more capital letters
\d+ # followed by one or more digits /x


Yahoo limps along and stays afloat because they have folks over there making pretty good decisions on what to do. They have their bases covered: search; mail; chat; news; calendar; groups; etc…. Yahoo’s problem is they totally suck at execution. Everything they’ve built or revamped in the last few years has sucked big time. They are fragile and teetering on their own demise.

Now along comes Microsoft with their secret-bunkers full of cash, looking to buy themselves some online big-boy pants. Luckily (and by luckily, I mean unfortunately), they suck at both decisions and execution, and they have proven they understand the internets about as well as George Bush understands… well… seemingly anything. Slightly long story, slightly longer… when Microsoft starts making and executing decisions for Yahoo, Yahoo will die.

Of course everyone gets it… this deal makes a TON of sense for Microsoft, especially if they were competent. Which they are not. So while we’ll have a ton of marginally interesting stories, detailing the changes (and ensuing failures) Microsoft will be making to Yahoo. And allowing folks the opportunity to pick apart each decision ad nauseum. We will all yawn and click for the sports page.

Final score, Google: Win; Microsoft: Not-Win.

1. Choose an audio or video file and open it in QuickTime Player (mp3s, wav, aif, mov, mp4, etc…)
2. In QuickTime, choose cmd-k (Mac) or ctrl-k (PC) to open the A/V Controls (or from the Windows menu)
3. Adjust the speed and/or pitch to your liking

If you don’t already have QuickTime, you can download it for free for your Mac or PC from Apple’s website. In addition, QuickTime Pro ($30 upgrade) allows you to easily set in and out points, loop edit files and more.

Also, if you have Windows Media files, download and install the free Flip4Mac’s WMP Plugin for QuickTime which then allows QuickTime to playback and slow down WMP files. And if you want to be able to open almost anything (AVI, DIVX, FLV, etc…), install Parian too!

To fix this, download the file, open it in a respectable graphic program (eg. Graphic Converter) and change modes from CYMK to RGB. Save the file, upload and you should be home free.

Now if you allow anyone to comment on you blog without being registered, you are clearly desperate for friends and should welcome these spammers with open arms (because you already are). If not and you’re still getting spam, then you need to turn off Trackbacks (Pings). Trackbacks are a nice little invention that was meant to enable communication between blogs. The premise is nice but the only folks that use it are spammers… so turn ‘em off. Here’s a little checklist:

1. Log into your WordPress Admin
2. Under Options/General check the box Users must be registered and logged in to comment
3. Under Options/Discussion, uncheck the option Allow link notifications from other Weblogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.)

Okay, unfortunately, this will only protect your future posts… any existing post with pings enabled will still be targets. So you’ll need to either edit each post by hand and uncheck the “Allow Pings” (under Discussion section) or, if you’ve got access to your database, you can change them all with a single command. Now, before you do this or any edit on your database, make a backup of it! That said, here’s the command you’ll need to run (probably in phpmyadmin) to turn off pings on all of your posts:

UPDATE `posts` SET `ping_status` = 'closed';

Hope this helps and good luck.

The Garmin i5 might be the best $340 I’ve ever spent… It came set up and ready to go right out of the box. I’ve since used it to navigate just about everywhere, actually going out of my way to stump it… and every time, it gets me home. The little lady clearly and eloquently reveals the correct route, in a lovely British accent (hell yeah… on purpose ;) ), just in the nick of time… seemingly every time. She’s very understanding and patient with me. She never yells or tires of coming up with an alternate route when I wander… no, she seems to understand me and like me… just the way I am.

I can’t tell you how liberating this is! So to all my directionally dysfunctional brethren, I implore you… buy one of these and be lost no more!