Let me know what you think

Posted via email from kbrower’s posterous

I am also excited about recipe coupons and restaurant gift certificates, two very very similar new sites that make it easier to find restaurant coupons near you.

All these sites are works in progress, so let me know if anything is not working as expected.

Posted via email from kbrower’s posterous

This data is awesome. I thought it was interesting that for queries where my website ranks number one, the click through rate is 75-80%.

Posted via email from kbrower’s posterous

Unfortunately, there is is no linux version yet and the Lifehacker instructions did not work for me.

Luckily I have virtualbox installed an the Windows kindle reader installed perfectly under XP. Unfortunately you can't search within the book, which makes my copy of The Flavor Bible<img src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=krisssoccersi-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0316118400″ width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> a lot less useful.

Posted via email from kbrower’s posterous

Posted via email from kbrower’s posterous

The new side project is recipe puppy, a ingredient based recipe search engine. This idea has been done before, but I wanted something better so I went out and made it. I got a lot of great feedback on reddit and there is definitely a lot of work left to do. If only I had more free time.

Update: Laptop has been returned by a very honest cab driver. This post had nothing to do with helping me find it. Faith in humanity +100.

I still have a whole list of things to work on, but I want to get people using the site and giving feedback.

To navigate on ChemSink, just search for the reactant or product you are interested in. If there associated reactions, they will appear on the page. To see an example compound that has reactions where it is a product and reactions where it is a reactant, go here. Please send me feedback!

According to an email from the college no one was allowed to bring any signs, but they did hand out some signs that looked like they were brought from home. Mine said UNITY. I tried to make a makeshift sign from the heart with the ballpoint pen I had in my pocket, but to no avail. I would be interested in knowing the reasoning for not allowing people from bringing their own signs. It seems a little silly.

Check out these two feeds:
Reddit stories organized the by date and time they reach 500 points(not including any stories about reddit.com)
Reddit stories organized by the time they reach 100 points

[Show as slideshow]

Here are some large panoramas as well.

[Show as slideshow]

Once I got everything installed I got to dig into some actionscript 3.0. What an improvement over the previous version of actionscript I used! Everything is object oriented and flex builder allows easy for all of the objects that you might want to use. Type checking is there if you choose to assign types to your variables. Some of the cooler things that I came across were the iterators and the event handling. The only hiccup was trying to import Kongregate’s library(Kongregate is a great way to get feedback and to implement High Scores easily). I had to add this to the “additional compiler arguments” under in the project properties:

-include-libraries “/path/to/KongregateAPI.swc”

Anyway check out the magnetized avoider game I made.

Some things that were helpful in making this really simple game were the moving circle AS3 class, obfuscating high scores to prevent cheaters, and realizing that Event.MOUSE_LEAVE is not infallible and you should check the x and y coordinates of the mouse.

Check it out

Update: It was on TV again! Also Terri’s consumer blog mentioned that my website was in Consumer Report’s Shop smart January ‘08 magazine(page 23).

I wanted to post about google’s cool spreadsheet feature, but I am out of time. Here is an example spreadsheet I made.

<?php

/////////////////////////////////////////////
// These are the variables you need to change
/////////////////////////////////////////////

// your app api key
$appapikey = ‘changeme’;
// your app secret
$appsecret = ‘changeme’;
// your callback url
$appcallbackurl = ‘http://website.tld/’;
// your facebook url of this page
$inviteurl = ‘http://app.facebook.com/app/invite.php’;

/////////////////////////////////////////////
// This is the beginning of the section which includes and set up the php5 rest lib
/////////////////////////////////////////////

require_once ‘facebook.php’;

$facebook = new Facebook($appapikey, $appsecret);
$user = $facebook->require_login();

//catch the exception that gets thrown if the cookie has an invalid session_key in it
try {
if (!$facebook->api_client->users_isAppAdded()) {
$facebook->redirect($facebook->get_add_url());
}
} catch (Exception $ex) {
//this will clear cookies for your application and redirect them to a login prompt
$facebook->set_user(null, null);
$facebook->redirect($appcallbackurl);
}

/////////////////////////////////////////////
// These are the variables may want to change
/////////////////////////////////////////////
// The title of your Invite message
$title = ‘You have been invited’;
// The body of your Invite message
$text = ‘<fb:name uid=”‘.$user.’” firstnameonly=”true” /> invited you to join this app. <fb:pronoun uid=”‘.$user.’” /> wants you to join.<fb:req-choice url=”‘.$facebook->get_add_url().’” label=”Add it” />’;
// The logo associated with your invite message
$logo = ‘http://website.com/logo.gif’;
// Success message for when invites succeeded
$iworked = ‘<fb:success><fb:message>Your invitations have been sent</fb:message></fb:success>’;
// Error message for when all invites have been used
$ierror = ‘<fb:error><fb:message>You are out of invites, try again tomorrow</fb:message></fb:error>’;

/////////////////////////////////////////////
// This is the beginning of the section that processes the invites
/////////////////////////////////////////////
if ($_POST['ids']) {
// Invite the friends that were selected.
$friends = array();
foreach ($_POST['ids'] as $value) {
if (count($friends) < 10) {
$friends[count($friends)] = $value;
}
}
$tail = ‘&canvas’;
$url = $facebook->api_client->notifications_sendRequest($friends, $title, $text, $logo, true);

if(!$url){
// If the maximum number of invites has been reached
$facebook->redirect($inviteurl.”?i=1″);
exit;
}else{
$facebook->redirect($url.$tail);
exit;
}
}

if ($_GET['sent'] == 1) {
// Display a message letting the user know invitations have been successfully sent.
echo $iworked;
}

if($i==”1″){
// Error message for when all invites have been used
echo $ierror;
}

/////////////////////////////////////////////
// This is the beginning of the actual invite form
/////////////////////////////////////////////
echo ‘<div style=”margin:20px”>
<h2>Invite some Friends</h2>
<form action=”‘.$inviteurl.’” method=”post”><fb:multi-friend-input width=”350px” border_color=”#8496ba” /><input type=”submit” value=”Invite” /></form>
</div>’;

?>

On Digg people dutifully mark the spam as spam and digg up his article. He gets a few diggs, but unfortunately everyone who dugg his article is just a normal person. What he really needed was a digg from a power users that help get most of the submissions upgraded to the front page. Instead of reaching thousands of people, his page is lost below the spam with a few diggs and a few hits. People can sort the new section by total diggs, but there are pages in pages of bot/spammer dugg crap. What he really should have done was waited until he saw one of the top users digging up new submissions and then submitted it.(ugh) The second option is to just submit to reddit, wait til it reaches the front page, then realize he is also on digg’s front page.

When he submits to reddit he has a better shot. The one obstacle is the intial mod up/down. As long as a bot isn’t modding down all new submissions except the bots submissions, chances are he will get enough users to read his article to make sure his site stays in the positives. As long as his site stays above 0 it will appear in the new section. Luckily more people like his article than dislike it and it makes a slow climb. His article only gets upmodded to about 15, but a good number of people see it and he is happy. At least reddit gave Henry a chance.

Neither site does it perfectly but reddit does submissions far better.

In the last few weeks I have submitted a few things to reddit and digg. The submissions to digg got a few diggs at best and very little traffic in every case(less than 5). The submissions to reddit were varied. One submission was upmodded to 15 and recieved about 100 unique visitors. One stayed at 1 and recieved 100 visitors. One was downmodded to 0 but still recieved 15 visitors.

“Its alkaloid poison, batrachotoxin, prevents nerves from transmitting impulses, leaving the muscles in an inactive state of contraction. This can lead to heart failure or fibrillation. It also lasts long after the frog has left the area; chickens and dogs have died from contact with a paper towel on which a frog had walked.[citation needed] One wild adult terribilis (meaning, ‘the terrible’) has enough poison to kill up to 100 adult humans, or up to 20,000 mice [1]. However, this poison is lost in captive-bred and raised frogs due to a lack of certain items in its diet, currently unknown, although new research has hinted that a beetle from the family Melyridae may be the key ingredient responsible for the frog’s lethal poison.” (source)

“Electric eel have three abdominal pairs of organs that produce electricity. They are the Main Organ, the Hunter’s Organ, and the Sachs’ Organ. These organs take up 4/5 of its body. Only the front 1/5 contains the vital organs.[citation needed] These organs are made of electrocytes lined up in series. The electrocytes are lined up so the current flows through them and produces an electrical charge. When the eel locates its prey, the brain sends a signal through the nervous system to the electric cells. This opens the ion channel, allowing positively-charged sodium to flow through, reversing the charges momentarily. By doing that it creates electricity, and fires it at its prey. The electric eel generates its characteristic electrical pulse in a manner similar to a battery, in which stacked plates produce an electrical charge. In the electric eel, some 5,000 to 6,000 stacked electroplaques are capable of producing a shock at up to 500 volts and 1 ampere of current (500 watts). The organs give the electric eel the ability to generate two types of electric organ discharges (EODs), low voltage and high voltage. The shock is deadly for an adult human and a large electric eel can shock a horse to death.” (source)

There were 351 known alligator attacks from 1948 - 2005 in Florida of which 16 were fatal. (source)

“The 2004 edition of the Guinness World Records lists the cassowary as the world’s most dangerous bird. Normally cassowaries are very shy but when disturbed can lash out dangerously with their powerful legs. During World War II American and Australian troops stationed in New Guinea were warned to steer clear of the birds. They are capable of inflicting fatal injuries to an adult human. Usually, attacks are the result of provocation. Wounded or cornered birds are particularly dangerous. Cassowaries, deftly using their surroundings to conceal their movements, have been known to out-flank organized groups of human predators. Cassowaries are considered to be one of the most dangerous animals to keep in zoos, based on the frequency and severity of injuries incurred by zookeepers.” (source)

“There were about 52 recorded deaths due to black bears between 1900 and 2003 and about 50 deaths due to brown bears and about 5 due to polar bears in the same period. The most recent data is the most reliable and complete, but does not necessarily include all of the fatal attacks that have occurred in North America.” (source)

“The bright colours and patterns of cone snails have led inquisitive people to pick them up and hold them in their hand for a while. This is not a safe thing to do, because the snail may fire its harpoon in self-defense. The “sting” of many of the smaller cone species is no worse than that of a bee or hornet sting, but in the case of a few of the larger tropical species, handling the snail can have tragic consequences. About 30 human deaths have been recorded from cone snail envenomation. One species, the Geography cone, Conus geographus, is also known colloquially as the “cigarette snail,” in the belief that the victim will have only enough time to smoke a cigarette before perishing. Especially in the case of these larger species of cone snail, the harpoon can penetrate gloves or even wetsuits.” (source)

“In the United States from 1980 through 1995, a total of 1318 deaths were attributed to lightning, (average: 82 deaths per year {range: 53-100 deaths}). Of the 1318 persons who died, 1125 (85%) were male, and 896 (68%) were aged 15-44 years. The annual death rate from lightning was highest among persons aged 15-19 years (6 deaths per 10,000,000 population; crude rate: 3 per 10,000,000). The greatest number of deaths attributable to lightning occurred in Florida and Texas (145 and 91, respectively), but New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas, and Mississippi had the highest rates (10.0, 9.0, 9.0, and 9.0, respectively).” (source)

“Contact with the leaves or twigs causes the hollow silica-tipped hairs to penetrate the skin. The sting causes a painful stinging sensation which can last for days or even months and the injured area becomes covered with small red spots joining together to form a red, swollen mass. The sting is known to have killed one human, and it can also kill dogs and horses.” (source)

From 1990 to 2006 there have been 936 shark attacks worldwide of which 98 have been fatal. That is 58.5 attacks a year and 6.125 fatal attacks a year.(source)

“Chironex fleckeri appear to avoid human beings when they are close to them and so can be said to avoid stinging humans. Their sting is incredibly powerful and extensive stings can be rapidly fatal. The sting produces excruciating pain accompanied by an intense burning sensation (one victim famously described the pain as “like having a bucket of fire poured over you”[citation needed]), and the venom has multiple effects attacking the nervous system, heart and skin at the same time. While an appreciable amount of venom (about ten feet or three metres of tentacle) needs to be delivered in order to have a fatal effect on an adult human, the potently neurotoxic venom is extremely quick to act. Fatalities have been observed as little as four minutes after envenomation, notably quicker than any snake, insect or spider and prompting its description as the world’s deadliest venomous animal. Although an antivenom exists, treating a patient in time can be difficult or impossible.”(source)

For some more information you might want to check out the following links:

• Organisms that are dangerous to Humans
• Death due to Animal Attakcs