Hero Inc.

Well, scratch another life moment off the list. I have now become, in some sense of the word, an internet celebrity. Sure this is going to go to my head for a moment, but I think it is cool nonetheless.

Basically what happened was an old comment by me was brought to attention again and the internet blew it up. While in college, I became enthralled by a site called Digg. Digg was designed as a social news site that allowed users to share and submit news stories in different categories. Users would then “digg” the stories which would move the stories to the front page and allow others to read and “digg” them as well. It allowed users to decide what was news instead of the sites that just reported on it. I didn’t really submit many stories back in the day, but I did do a lot of digging. One particular story was about the release of Firefox 2. Digg users have been known to post repeated stories or stories ahead of their actual time in an attempt to became “famous” for submitting the story. The Firefox 2 story was one such story. Under a comment for the story, the creator of Digg, Kevin Rose, made a comment that FF2 would be live in about 30 seconds. I responded with a comment that posting “future” stories was not why digg was created. Well, the fanboys did not like this one. I was instantly slammed for my comments for assaulting Kevin Rose and my comment quickly went to the triple digit negatives.

Fast forward to the present, apparently someone decided to bring my comment back to the masses by posting a screenshot of my comment and the outlash I received for it. Quickly the story was “dugg” by many users and my once triple digit negative comment became triple digit positive and Kevin Rose’s comment was pushed to the negatives (only for a short period of time, of course).

Right now the story about my comment is the 16th highest rated story of the past 7 days. The ultimate goal would be to hear the story discussed on the Digg weekly podcast, Diggnation, but I seriously don’t see that happening. At least I have another life goal crossed off the list.

Here’s the original story and here’s the new story that is receiving all of the attention. I am “buddylee415”.

Life Goal List

• Be a hero
• Appear in a video game
• Become an internet celebrity
• Have an Aston Martin
• …More to come…

While searching for the possibility of a Time Crisis game coming to the Wii (no such luck), I ran across a familiar name I had seen on the internet before. I suddenly found myself watching more videos of work performed by Johnny Lee.

If you have not heard of Johnny Lee, then you are not visiting the right sites or hanging out with the right Nintendo Wii users. Johnny Lee is a Ph D graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of Human-Computer Interaction Institute and has found many cool uses for the Nintendo wii remote at a relatively low cost.

His other work surrounding kinetic typography and foldable displays are amazing as well. I’m looking forward to each new youtube video he posts surrounding his work. It is very interesting to see at the new ways we will be able to use technology and the ability to use this technology currently for a reasonable price.

For those who have been around my site for sometime, you’ve known about my previous work creating my own CMS (Content Management System). I tried WordPress about 3 years ago and did not like it initially due to my limited knowledge of PHP and ability to change/modify functionality that it offered. However, I soon learned how much time I needed to truly build the CMS that would accomplish all of the tasks that I needed and I soon moved back to a happier WordPress time.

Well, after several months of WordPress usage, one minor detail has continued to grow on my nerves. WordPress can be setup to notify the author of the post of any comments that are made concerning the post. I had built this functionality into my own CMS but I stopped comments from being emailed if I made them. I mean, why would I want to read my own post comments? I only want to read those that others have left.

Since I had built this functionality before I knew it was possible. I just needed to take the time to find where I needed to make the change within WordPress. One night earlier this week, I finally took the time to find the file I needed to change and so far my change has worked. For those interested, here is what you need to do.

1. Find the “comment.php” file in your WordPress files. It is listed under the “wp-includes” folder.
2. Inside of this file you will need to find the “wp_new_comment” function. This is the function that inserts comments into the WordPress database. It also utilizes the PHP mail function to send mails to the author’s email address to notify of any new comments.
3. Within the function, you will find the following IF statement that needs to be altered:

   if(get_option('comments_notify') && $commentdata['comment_approved'] &&
     $post->post_author != $commentdata['user_ID'])
        wp_notify_postauthor($comment_ID, $commentdata['comment_type']);

   This statement is saying to notify the post author if certain conditions are met. This function is great but we need to alter it so that for a particular case we do not notify the author.

4. I modified my statement to be based on the email address since that is unique to an individual. Here is the changeI needed to make:

   if(get_option('comments_notify') && $commentdata['comment_approved'] &&
     $post->post_author != $commentdata['user_ID'] &&
     $commentdata['comment_author_email'] != 'username@myemail.com')
        wp_notify_postauthor($comment_ID, $commentdata['comment_type']);

   I basically added the extra condition that if everything else is right for emailing the author about the post that the system should make sure the commenter’s email address does not equal a certain value. For those that might try it on my site, the email address above is not the one I used on the code change for Hero Inc. I just wanted to provide an example here.

That’s it. That’s all that needed to change for the emails to stop when I posted comments on my own posts. When I made this coding change, I also modified a few other sections of my site that were bugging me as well. Namely the comments section was changed from the design perspective. I have hated for a long time how the comments were displayed using an ordered list of numbers.

Let me know if you do or do not like the latest comment design changes. Man, it was nice to code for “fun” again.

Today I bid farewell to A Penguin and Me. I’m not departing Linux from my home PC. I’m just parting ways with my separate website. I was finding that I was having less time to post specifically about Linux on A Penguin and Me. My original intent was to have others post along side of me, but alas, that did not happen either. Therefore, with my friend’s (Will) passing advice, I decided to hang up A Penguin and Me.

I still plan to post about my adventures with Linux, but all of the posts will appear on this website and not A Penguin and Me. All traffic directed to that site will be forwarded to the Linux category page of Hero Inc. I’ve already moved over all posts from APAM. It was fun while it lasted. Mainly fun because I really liked that WordPress theme.

Now I feel much better about myself. Wouldn’t you?

22

Note: My ultimate goal was to see this movie in IMAX due to Christopher Nolan filming parts of the movie with an IMAX camera. These images were to be more visually stunning when compared to the normal movies that are translated to the IMAX screen. However, the “great” people at the Mall of GA Regal IMAX did not seem to plan well for the numerous screenings that were scheduled for the IMAX and how this might affect the IMAX blub that could overheat and break. The AJC has a good short story about it. I still got to see it on a regular screen but I will update this post later when I finally get to see the movie as it was intended.

In the simplest of terms, The Dark Knight is perfect. I have seen many movies in my lifetime and I’ve seen many that have been hyped by the media and myself prior to seeing them. All of the hyped movies have never ever lived up to the hype until the Dark Knight. I really don’t want to write this review for the simple fact that I could write “perfect” and walk away knowing that I got it right. I’ll still take some time to point out a few non-spoilerish items.

First, the reviews you have heard do not lie about Heath Ledger. I tried and tried and tried during this movie to find Heath but was only able to find him for all of 2 seconds in a scene where the Joker was wearing no makeup. Other than that I only saw the Joker, a sadistic, chaos happy murderer/thief. Heath’s performance was great for a superhero movie and even better for a general movie. He was lost in the role and brought to life one of the most eccentric characters I have seen since Hannibal Lector or Bill The Butcher (Gangs of New York). He will make you laugh at things you know are not funny and you should not be laughing if you were told the same thing if you were outside of the theatre. As for Oscar nods, I feel he deserves one. Should he win? Well, that is the best performance I have seen all year. I will most certainly make the time this year to look at all nominees and then judge again. I don’t want him to win just because he died early. He should receive it only if he deserves it.

The plot/dialog is even better than I imagined. All of the characters were perfectly captured and given adequate time to be furthered in the story. The film may clock in little over 2 hours and 30 minutes but you would never know it since you are sucked into the story. The action makes you jump and cheer while the characters can make you love/hate the world we have without heroes.

When the film ended, I knew there was nothing after the credits, but I didn’t want to move from my seat. I wanted them to start it over so I could watch it again and again. Heck, I’d go right now if someone offered it to me. I believe when everything is said and done, The Dark Knight will be the number 2 all time box office movie (you just can’t beat the teen sensation of Titantic).

I will state that this movie is NOT for younger viewers. I felt disturbed at times and I know kids would be far worse. Batman Begins might have been ok for kids, but The Dark Knight is just too….well….dark.

On my normal rating skill, The Dark Knight would receive the following rating.

[Rating: 5/5]

However, every now and then you see a movie that breaks the rating system and you must design a new one specifically for the movie. Therefore, The Dark Knight would/should receive the following.

[Rating:20/20]

Hellboy II has one fatal flaw that will make it a box office bust and I must start out my review by stating what it is.  Pure and simple, it is the fact that The Dark Knight opens on Friday, July 18th giving Hellboy only one week before the real dark hero walks away with more money than Bruce wayne ever thought he would see.

Hellboy II raises the bar many times over the previous movie.  I remember going to see the first Hellboy with low expectations and enjoyed every minute of it.  It incorporated a great mix of humor and action.  When I went to see Hellboy II, I had a little bit higher expectations but I was worried Hollywood would try to sellout and not give the second movie the justice it deserves.  Man was I wrong.  Hellboy II is probably on the same level with Iron Man and will measured against TDK at the end of this week.  Hellboy II keeps the humor and action but ups the ante as well as throwing in new characters, better effects, and a love story.

This movie is led by two great artists, Ron Perlman and Guillermo del Toro.  Perlman gets even better as Hellboy as the character struggles to fit in with the human world once the secret is out that a devil boy does exist.  He even tries to shrug off those that see his skills as inadequate while also imparting great relationship advice to a few of his friends.  Guillermo’s eye for the dark and creative is simply amazing.  The creatures he creates are spectacular look at while also allowing the characters to seem human.

The two best scenes of this movie are the Hellboy/Dr. Phil style moment with Abe and few brews as well as the fight between Red and his new boss.  You might find yourself falling on the floor laughing and as well you should.  However, please forgive the “new” direction for Jeffrey Tambor’s character.  They do make him look more like a bumbling idiot than he was in the first film.  Oh well, it works for him in some ways.

As a side note, it never hurts to see a movie with a friend who brings a cell phone jammer along for the ride.  It doesn’t stop the chomping on food and talking but it does limit the most annoying part of seeing movies today, cell phone chatter.

[Rating: 4.5/5]

On Tuesday July 8th, Batman: Gotham Knight was released on DVD as a tie-in between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.  You can think think of it as another anime Matrix concept, but better.

Gotham Knight tells six different stories of Batman’s journey into becoming the Dark Knight.  It is directed and drawn by some of the best anime directors and artists.  I’ve never been a big fan of anime art, but some of these stories look really good and work well for the stories being told.

The first story is probably the weakest of the 6, but the thought behind it works quite well as four kids describe Batman as everything from a shadow to a human bat.  After the first story, the remaining 5 pick up with great storytelling.  It reminds me of the Batman Animated Series (probably due to some of the same writers).  My only complaint would be that the DVD is short and each story leaves you wanting more.

The DVD is not a necessity before watching the Dark Knight (this Friday), but it is nice to see some of the moments that will not be described fully in the Dark Knight.  If you have the chance to check it out before you see TDK, it’s worth it.

[Rating: 4/5]

Struggling to keep track of little projects? Need a handy way to keep to-do lists? Enjoy keeping information handy as you search online? Well, all of these questions may not need to be answered yes for you to enjoy BasKet Note Pads.

According to the BasKet site, BasKet helps you:

• Easily take all sort of notes
• Collect research results and share them
• Centralize your project data and reuse it
• Quickly organize your thoughts in idea boxes
• Keep track of your information in a smart way
• Make intelligent To Do lists
• And a lot more…

BasKet is a program that many Windows users will find similar to Microsoft’s OneNote. I had not used OneNote prior to my BasKet experience, which is probably a plus. I didn’t think I would find this application helpful at first, but I’ve soon found it to be great for keeping me focused on different things I have in front of me. I often set myself up for multiple mini projects that I easily lose track of my progress. I create To-Do lists on the fly, track the progress (or lack there of) of my sites and what updates are next, save research for upcoming purchases (computers, tickets, comic books, etc.). It’s pretty lightweight and easily runs in the background so you can bring it up at any point to add new information in some form.

After trying BasKet, I downloaded OneNote for my work computer. I found OneNote, like most Microsoft products, to not be able to handle on the fly, quick creations as well as BasKet did. A product like BasKet or OneNote should be fast, convenient and better than keeping a pad of paper and pencil helpful to record information. BasKet, to me, accomplishes just that. Now if I could have a mobile version that would sync to the desktop version, I’d be set for life with this product.

When you first start with BasKet, I highly recommend the Tour section of their site. The handy download offered there will quickly start you on your path to “getting things done” the BasKet way.