Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Allah Sulu's Massive Tool's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, October 15th, 2009
8:46 am [allah_sulu]	Another YouTube Framing Technique ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
4:36 pm [allah_sulu]	Who Has The Button? This is a normal link: My Journal HTML: <a href="http://allah-sulu.livejournal.com/">My Journal</a> This is a button link: HTML: <form method="post" action="http://allah-sulu.livejournal.com/"><input value="My Journal" type="submit"></form> They both accomplish the same thing; but sometimes, if you're going for a particular effect, you might want to be able use a button instead of a regular link. (It's also possible to change the color and size of the button, change the size and format of the text, put graphics on it instead of or in addition to the text, and so on; but I'll address those techniques later.)   This is the URL you're linking to.   This is the text you want displayed. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
5:01 pm [allah_sulu]	[Update] Allah Sulu's Massive Tool version 3.5.5 There is a new version of Allah_Sulu's Massive Tool available, which can be downloaded either in Windows installer format (setup.exe etc.; good for first-time installers but may not work with Windows 9x/Me) or as a simple ZIP archive of files which can be extracted into your existing Massive Tool directory over the current files (in either event, make sure that you are not running the Massive Tool while you're trying to install/extract the update!) New changes include: I've removed a couple of minor superfluous controls on the HTML → "Anchor / Links…" screen and made it smarter. First of all, there's no longer a pull-down menu for selecting whether you're creating a normal hyperlink, an email link, or an anchor – the Massive Tool will figure that out for you.¹ Second, if you paste an URL (or email address) into the "URL/EMail" text box but leave the "Text" box empty, the Massive Tool will attempt to provide default text for certain recognized domains.² (Double-clicking on the empter "Text" box will fill it with the default text if any.) The Marquee function on the HTML → "Font / Format…" screen now has a Height or Width option, as applicable (height for vertical marquees, width for horizontal marquees), which is measured in pixels or percentage of the available area. See this post for more information. You can now paste an URL with an ".swf" extension into the "Image URL:" box on the HTML → "Images…" screen to have the Massive Tool generate the code described here. The only additional options which apply are the "Border", "Height", and "Width" settings. (The "Images" screen can now be increased in size, for previewing larger image/flash files.) Note that LJ is more permissive of these embeds in posts than in comments. Note also that you can paste YouTube URLs or embed codes into the "Image URL:" box and you'll get the simplified code discussed here, as well as the additional options discussed here. I found and fixed a minor bug on the LJ → "Post to LiveJournal…" screen. The "Disable Auto-Formatting" checkbox now works correctly. The LJ → "LJ User / Links…" screen now supports the title option in <lj user> tags, using the "text" field. Selecting a user name in your document and right-clicking on the "LJ User / Links" toolbar button will also invoke the title option if the name has been entered in mixed case. The "Embed Media…" option has been removed from the LJ menu (and the corresponding button has also been removed from the toolbar) since you can now simply paste the embed code from YouTube et al. directly into the Massive Tool. As I explained here, it's no longer necessary to have a special option to surround the embed code with <lj-embed> tags. (See above for using the "Images…" option for SWF files.) On the Window menu (and on the Toolbar) there is a "No Scripts" option which disables any <script> coding in the document. Useful if you're editing a document with scripts (and don't want them executing every time you hit a key and the Preview window is refreshed) or plugging a bunch of code from another site (via "Open URL" or just copy/pasting from "View Source") into the Tool to inspect it. ("No Scripts" also disables any <meta> tags in the editor.) You can set this value for a particular file on the File → "Properties…" screen, or set this value as the default for the Massive Tool on the Edit → "Preferences…" screen. I have continued to expand the features available in Table Information Template files (see the fourth and fifth bullet items in the last update). Along with the increase functionality of the TIT files, the "File" menu on the "Tables…" window will now remember the previous TIT files you've executed, for convenience when you use the same ones frequently. (Like the Previous Files and Previous Macros options, you can select how many Previous Tables files are saved on that menu on the Edit → "Preferences…" → "Program" tab. As always, there are new icons (including some of these) and backgrounds, and modifications to the internal language used for coding macros. I've also included a new macro file, Embed MP3.rim, which can be used to embed an MP3 (via a Shockwave player) in your LiveJournal posts (but not comments!) An example of the the MP3 SWF embedder is below. (The reason why this is done in a macro rather than in the Massive Tool is that you cannot embed MP3 files directly into your posts or pages – you need to embed an MP3 player in your posts or pages, and the one I'm using here is not the only one, not necessarily the best one, not necessarily the one other people want to use, and may not even be the one I'm using a week from now if I find a better one.) ¹If the "URL/EMail" text box contains an at sign (@) and at least one period, but no slashes (either / or /) then the link is assumed to be an email link; if there is at least one period and/or at least one slash (either / or /) then the link is assumed to be a hyperlink; otherwise, it's an anchor. 99.999% of the time, it'll be a hyperlink (which was previously the default). ²For sites like Wikipedia and TVTropes, the default text for the link is the section name (the part of the URL after the last slash, converted into plaintext). For Google URLs, it'll be the name of the Google site ("Google" for standard search engine URLs, "Google Maps" for anything in the maps.google.com domain, etc.) Only a small number of domains are recognized so far, but I'll probably add more as I think of them. The ones listed herein are some of the ones I use often, so this will save me a step on many occasions. Oh, and the default text for an email address is the part to the left of the at sign (@). EDIT: The MP3 player does not appear to work when there is a space in the URL/filename. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
9:27 pm [allah_sulu]	More on SWF Embedding In a previous post, I gave you the code for embedding SWF files into your LiveJournal posts. (The next version of the Massive Tool will generate that code for you automatically – I wrote the subroutine¹ for that today.) However, I should point out that, even after LJ had to revamp their embedding rules, they still seem to have two completely different standards for which embeds are allowed in actual posts, and which embeds are allowed in comments. For example, the code below will work in a post (as this post demonstrates); but it will not work in a comment, as I plan to also demonstrate. <embed src="http://www.cesmes.fi/pallo.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" height="500" width="500"></embed> ¹We all live in a Delphi subroutine, a Delphi subroutine, a Delphi subroutine… (2 Comments |Comment on this)
2:25 pm [allah_sulu]	More YouTubery When you want to embed a YouTube video, this is the sort of code that YouTube will give you: <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KtBqIJaW1Ao&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KtBqIJaW1Ao&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> However, you only need to use part of that (the part which I highlighted) for embedding in LJ; the rest seems to be redundant. (Note that I am only talking about LJ here. The full code provided may be necessary for other sites. This may also be another new thing on LJ's part, and subject to change.) <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KtBqIJaW1Ao&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed> Normally, it really wouldn't make that much of big a deal either way; but if you're including an embedded video in a comment which you're posting in a community or someone else's journal, and you've also written text to go with it (an explanation, lyrics for the song in the video, etc.) then you may find yourself hitting the 4,300 character upper limit for the permissible size of a comment. In cases like that, it helps to know where you can trim some characters and code to get back under the limit. EDIT: Another way this is useful is that if you want to change the colors or other settings, you only have to change them once. (Comment on this)
Friday, September 18th, 2009
10:29 pm [allah_sulu]	Embedding a Shockwave Flash Object Let's say you have an SWF (Shockwave Flash) URL like this: http://tinyhack.ru/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/discDrop1.swf …and you want to embed it in LiveJournal (or some other site that allows you to embed). Here's the code you want to use: <embed src="http://tinyhack.ru/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/discDrop1.swf" width="400" height="300" quality="high" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed> Obviously, the part in red is the URL of the Shockwave Flash object you want to embed. Replace that with the URL of your choice. You may also want to adjust the width and height values. Assuming you did it right and your site accepts it (they don't all except embeds; even LJ didn't at first and has modified their standards for what is and isn't allowed on numerous occasions), the code above will give you the widget (it's a Pachinko game) below: Playing with this code, I embedded three different SWF files in my own journal here. EDIT: Any SWF file which autoplays, particularly with audio, always belongs under a ( cut tag. ) Q, do not click on this. (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
2:05 pm [allah_sulu]	The <Marquee> Command In a discussion with evilgrins on the usages of the <marquee> command, I came up with this example: STAR WARS Episode IX A New Prince Now, this is a story all about how My life got flipped-turned upside down And I'd like to take a minute Just sit right there I'll tell you how I became the prince Of the planet Bel Air In Coruscent City born and raised On the playground was where I spent most of my days Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school When a couple of Sith Who were up to no good Startin making trouble in my neighborhood I got in one little fight and my mom got scared She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air' I whistled for a ship and when it came near The license plate said "Fresh" and it had dice in the mirror If anything I can say this ship is rare But I thought 'Now forget it – Yo homes to Bel Air' I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later' I looked at my kingdom I was finally there To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air Here's the code. Note that the <table> command is there simply to provide a (non-scrolling) starfield background and width; everything else is handled within the <marquee> command. I had to add the height to the <marquee> manually; that should be included as an entry field (in both "px" and "%" units) on the appropriate screen on the next update of the Massive Tool. <table background="http://DammitJa.net/lj/bg/bg_098.gif" width="640"><tr><td><marquee direction="up" scrolldelay="85" scrollamount="2" height="320" style="text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps; color: #FFFF00; font-size: 125%;"><big>STAR WARS<br>Episode IX<br>A New Prince</big><p>Now, this is a story all about how<br>My life got flipped-turned upside down<br>And I'd like to take a minute<br>Just sit right there<br>I'll tell you how I became the prince<br>Of the planet Bel Air<p>In Coruscent City born and raised<br>On the playground was where I spent most of my days<br>Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool<br>And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school<br>When a couple of Sith<br>Who were up to no good<br>Startin making trouble in my neighborhood<br>I got in one little fight and my mom got scared<br>She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'<p>I whistled for a ship and when it came near<br>The license plate said "Fresh" and it had dice in the mirror<br>If anything I can say this ship is rare<br>But I thought 'Now forget it&nbsp;– Yo homes to Bel Air'<p>I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8<br>And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later'<br>I looked at my kingdom<br>I was finally there<br>To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air</marquee></td></tr></table> Other comments on the usage of the marquee command are in the original post. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 28th, 2009
2:38 pm [allah_sulu]	That's Kind Of Cool The very first hit for "Massive Tool" on Google is this community. < http://www.google.com/#q="massive+tool" > Many of the other hits are … pretty much what you'd expect. But my Massive Tool is #1! (Comment on this)
Monday, August 24th, 2009
10:10 pm [allah_sulu]	4chan /lj/ Icons ( Memes Ahoy! ) (Comment on this)
Friday, August 21st, 2009
8:55 am [allah_sulu]	Wallpaper Backgrounds For Videos <table cellspacing="32" background="http://DammitJa.net/lj/bg/skulltile2cw.jpg"><tr><td><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hCHv-k-0nOE&amp;hl=en&amp;showsearch=0&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x222222&amp;color2=0x000000&amp;hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hCHv-k-0nOE&amp;hl=en&amp;showsearch=0&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x222222&amp;color2=0x000000&amp;hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></td></tr></table>   This is the embed code from YouTube or wherever. All you have to do is paste it into your post, and then paste the other code segments before and after it.   This is the size of the border. "10" is the size of the normal YouTube border, but in this case I increased it to "32" so that you could see the skulls and crossbones.   This is the URL of the background image to be used as the border. You can use any image, but either tileable ones (or custom frames the proper size to fit around the video) work best. You can find my collection of backgrounds here. EDIT: You probably want to make sure that you don't already have the YouTube borders enabled before you do this. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
9:26 pm [allah_sulu]	I Must Have Missed This Announcement (If There Was One) Apparently, it's no longer necessary to enclose embedded YouTube videos in those special <lj-embed> tags. I made the mistake of forgetting them, and LiveJournal still embedded the video into my post just fine (it added the <lj-embed> tags for me). So, if you want to embed videos in LJ now (directly or through a client like the Massive Tool) you need only paste the embed code into your document and let LJ do the rest. Well, unless you want to change the border/control colors or other parameters. <object width="500" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M-WF0PVi2FA&hl=en&hd=1&showsearch=0&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xddeeff&color2=0x88ccff&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M-WF0PVi2FA&hl=en&hd=1&showsearch=0&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xddeeff&color2=0x88ccff&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"></embed></object> EDIT: As you can see, now that LJ has made whatever modifications they made, you no longer get a couple of blank lines underneath the embedded video (which made for messy formatting). (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
5:29 pm [allah_sulu]	A Couple More YouTube Tricks After writing this article, I started paying more attention to the components that make up the YouTube embed code. So, after some experimentation, here are a couple more hints derived by Yours Truly. First of all, YouTube gives you nine different options for border/control bar colors, all of which are simply a darker and lighter version of the same color (dark green and light green, dark blue and light blue, etc.) However, you can specify any two colors you want, and YouTube will use those for the border (if you've enabled it) and the control bar – you just have to specify them in hexadecimal. For the example below, I chose a shade of red for the first color and a shade of blue for the second color. You can see in the code below where those colors are defined. If you want to choose a couple of colors that have some special significance to the movie you're playing, or if you just have a color scheme you like (perhaps you'd like the video borders to fit the colors used in your LiveJournal scheme?), then this is the way to do it. YouTube also gives you only a limited number of choices for the dimensions of the video. If you want to choose a different size, for whatever reason, here's how you do it. First of all, for a standard letterbox-formatted video, like the one below, the ratio of the width to the height should be 4:3.¹ The video below will be presented at a resolution of 640x480, for example. However, if you look at the actual dimensions specified below (highlit in yellow), you'll see that the numbers used are larger. That's because you have to add 25 to the height, to provide room for the control bar, and then add an additional 20 to both the height and width if you have borders enabled (see the parts of the code highlit in green). By the way, I remember seeing the video below when it was broadcast on TV for the very first time back in the 80s.² I've looked for it a few times on YouTube, but this is the first time I've found it. Watch it now, before they pull it down tomorrow for copyright infringement or something. <lj-embed><object width="660" height="525"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bBS6r2qkU90&hl=en&hd=1&showsearch=0&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xcc0066&color2=0x3300cc&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bBS6r2qkU90&hl=en&hd=1&showsearch=0&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xcc0066&color2=0x3300cc&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="660" height="525"></embed></object></lj-embed> ¹If the video you're embedding is in widescreen, then the ratio of the width to the height should be 16:9. The additional values required for the control bar and borders remain the same. ²Yes, I'm old. EDIT: If you want the border around the video to be a single solid color, rather than two colors fading back and forth into each other, then all you have to do is set color1 and color2 to the same color, like so: <lj-embed><object width="660" height="525"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bBS6r2qkU90&hl=en&hd=1&showsearch=0&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x00aaff&color2=0x00aaff&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bBS6r2qkU90&hl=en&hd=1&showsearch=0&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x00aaff&color2=0x00aaff&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="660" height="525"></embed></object></lj-embed> EDIT: Of course, with a little extra gratuitous HTML wrapped around the video, you can create effects like this. (Comment on this)
Monday, July 20th, 2009
4:16 pm [allah_sulu]	[Update] Allah Sulu's Massive Tool version 3.5.4 There is a new version of Allah_Sulu's Massive Tool available, which can be downloaded either in Windows installer format (setup.exe etc.; good for first-time installers but may not work with Windows 9x/Me) or as a simple ZIP archive of files which can be extracted into your existing Massive Tool directory over the current files (in either event, make sure that you are not running the Massive Tool while you're trying to install/extract the update!) New changes include: The button on the right side of the "Tags" line on the "Post to LiveJournal…" screen (from the LJ menu) will no longer reset the tags you've already chosen if you go back in to make changes to the list of tags you've already chosen. You can now re-open the "Select LJ Tags" window to make additions/subtractions to the list you've already selected. (Of course, changing the journal/community selection will still clear the "Tags" input.) I have finally implemented "Custom…" (friends group filters) as an option for post security on the "Post to LiveJournal…" screen. If you have a username selected and password entered, but no community selected, then when you select "Custom…" on the "Show To" pulldown menu, it will enable the "Groups" input (which works similarly to the "Tags" function – click on the button to select which filters you do and do not wish to apply). Of course, this requires you to have already provided the Massive Tool with a list of your journal's friend group filters (see option below). Note also that you cannot post to communities in "Custom…" or "Private" mode; if you have either of those options selected (or if you select "Custom…" without selecting any filters) the Massive Tool will default to "Friends/Members Only". The "Update Icons/Tags" button on the "Post to LiveJournal…" screen now reads "Update Icons/Tags/Groups", as it now has the capability to go into your LJ account and retrieve the current list of friends groups (for "Custom…" security, see item above) as well as the current list of avatars and tags. You must have a journal selected and a password entered in order to use this function (LJ will not divulge your list of filters without your password). Previously, for avatars and tags, a password was not required (although, without a password, you did not necessarily get the full list of tags; only the tags that were used for public entries). I also fixed a couple of minor bugs which I'd never encountered before, in little-used parts of the Tool – one of them in the code for loading and saving Table templates. I've also added a new table template to the Tool files. Open the "Tables…" screen on the HTML menu, then select "Open…" from the File menu. If you open Successories.TIT, you'll get a template for posting captioned pictures in the "motivational poster" format, as seen in communities like successoriesfun. (This will also demonstrate a new "Mad-Libs"-esque feature of Table Information Template files, prompting the user to enter certain values upon opening. This is a whole new feature of the TIT files, which has much potential.) This image was made using the Successories.TIT template, sinply by pasting in the picture URL (found on Google) and text (provided by SethCohen). It's possible to tweak the lettering (font, size, color) and/or the border around the picture just by modifying the HTML, but that image was made by leaving all of the defaults intact. Total time required to create – under a minute. It's also possible to open/execute Table Information Templates from File → "Open File…" on the Main Menu. Select "All Files" in the "Files of Type" pulldown menu. I also made some modifications and expansions to the Wikipedia and BBCode compatibility features, since I've edited a few TVtropes entries in the Tool recently. There's a new option available on the "Document" tab of the "Preferences…" screen (accessed from the Edit menu). Previously, the Massive Tool displayed all numeric colors (that is, all colors which are not referred to by name, such as "red" or "lightyellow") in hexadecimal; that is to say, this color      was referred to as "#00AAFF". That's the more classic, popular way of doing it (at least in my opinion); but many sites are now going with a decimal format, in which the aforementioned color would be referred to as "rgb(0,170,255)". The two formats are completely interchangeable, and (for whatever reason), sometime this year LiveJournal started converting all hexadecimal codes into the decimal format. So even if you put "#00AAFF" in the code for your post, LJ will render it as "rgb(0,170,255)" when anybody reads your post. I have no idea why they feel it necessary to do this conversion, but they do. Anyway, by using the "Numeric Color Format" setting on the "Document" tab, you can select which format the Massive Tool renders colors into (for those of you who are more comfortable with decimal than hexadecimal, for instance, and find it easier to read or tweak the decimal values). Changing this setting will only change the format of subsequent color operations; it will not change the format of color codes already in your document. As per usual, there are several new icons and backgrounds. Also, if you load Commands.RIM (as described in the second to last bullet-point here), you'll find a couple of new FORTH aliases; including LJ-Latest (which will give you the 250 or so most recently posted pictures to LiveJournal) and YouTubeParams (which I run after pasting in the YouTube embedding code, to add a couple of additional parameters). I've also expanded the handling of integers in the built-in FORTH language from 32-bit (the "LongInt" type) to 64-bit (the "Int64" type) for the conversion and processing of larger numbers, as discussed here. (I increased the precision of real number handling from "double" to "extended" as well.) (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 18th, 2009
12:45 pm [allah_sulu]	LJ News According to news, LiveJournal is adding a new "notes" feature (for paid accounts) that you can access (among other places) "when you hover the mouse over the userhead icon". Obviously, that function only works for "real" LJ links (of the <lj user="allah_sulu"> variety), and not for the customized links created through the Massive Tool or the Reference Page. (This has always been the case for LJ's "hover menu" options.) However, for those of you who are using standard LJ user links, I've just noticed that at some point they've added a new option to the LJ user syntax: <lj user="allah_sulu" title="Arthur"> gives you Arthur. LJ has finally implemented one of the big things that led me to create the Massive Tool in the first place: the ability to show actual names or nicknames in place of LJ journal names in user links. Let's see how long it takes before they offer alternate graphics for the "userhead icon"… (Comment on this)
Monday, July 13th, 2009
9:08 pm [allah_sulu]	More Fun With Browsers If you're viewing this using Internet Explorer, than the text in the box below should be in English. If you're using just about any other browser, you'll most likely see several rows of gibberish hiragana characters. First, these posts (from 2005!) explain how I coded an English sentence using an HTML Ordered List. That's standard HTML, and will work in every browser – ordered lists are normally enumerated with numbers, letters (upper or lower case), or Roman numerals (ditto). However, later on (but still in 2005), I added new options for HTML lists, including the ability to specify any image to be used as the bullet points in an Unordered List. I also added CSS options for "Expanded Ordered Sets", which include Greek characters, Hebrew characters, Japanese characters, and so forth. However, Internet Explorer didn't support those options back in 2005 and IE 8 still doesn't support them now. That means that if I construct a list, with a message in the text labels, and then overlay that with the CSS code for hiragana characters, Firefox and its friends will show the hiragana characters just as instructed… but IE won't recognize the hiragana CSS code, and will default back to the normal alphabet. Not really very useful (although I was having fun in another community by making an ordered list which some people saw enumerated with Roman numerals and other people saw enumerated in lowercase Greek); but interesting, nonetheless. Below is the code used to generate the above list, with a table around it for a border. Highlighted in orange is the standard HTML option to create an alphabetic ordered list; highlighted in green is the CSS code to override the alphabetic characters with hiragana (which IE ignores). The values highlighted in blue were calculated by the Massive Tool (again, as seen in this old post) in order to generate the desired English words; a side effect of this style of coding is that, even if someone looks at your raw HTML code, they still won't see the message which is concealed under the hiragana. (View this post in Internet Explorer, or copy and paste the code below into the Massive Tool, to see the English translation.) <table border="1"><tr><td><br><ol type="A" style="list-style-type: hiragana; margin-left: 1in"><li value="357181">&nbsp;</li><li value="62977">&nbsp;</li><li value="253">&nbsp;</li><li value="7523452">&nbsp;</li><li value="355544">&nbsp;</li><li value="9845412">&nbsp;</li><li value="239">&nbsp;</li></ol></td></tr></table> Unfortunately, I cannot do this in reverse, concealing a message in an ordered list so that only Firefox users can read it, since none of those CSS expanded list types use the normal Roman alphabet. That would require a different trick. EDIT: It's possible that, due to the LJ style used in displaying your friends page, that you see a series of numbers in the box above. If that is the case, click here to view the post by itself, and the message should be clear. That's just (yet another) case of LJ playing silly buggers with HTML/CSS codes, and rendering the same code inconsistently on different pages and/or under different styles. EDIT II – EDIT HARDER: Apparently, the way to correct that issue mentioned in the previous EDIT (which was spotted by thetaet, BTW; I shake my fist at her LJ style) is to include the style-specifying code (both types) on each and every line of the list. <li value="9845412">     becomes… <li type="A" style="list-style-type: hiragana;" value="9845412">     …and so on. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
1:15 pm [allah_sulu]	Update Your Firefox (If Applicable)! A new version of Firefox (v3.5) has just been released. Some highlights include: Support for the @font-face feature which, as I mentioned here, is already available in Internet Explorer and Safari. Rather than relying on the fonts which the user has installed on their system, which may not be the same as the ones installed on yours (especially if you want to use a specific but uncommon font); you can now provide an URL for the font you want used (I know people who use Rocky Horror or Star Trek fonts on their pages, for instance) and it will be loaded and used for displaying that page (or parts thereof). I haven't done any experimenting with this feature (yet). Firefox now supports a text shadow effect. Internet Explorer already supported a different version of the shadow effect. (Depending upon which version of which browser you are currently using, you may see either "Firefox" or "Internet Explorer" with a blue shadow in this sentence.) By combining the two different coding formats (as I already do with Image Opacity), I can create a shadow effect that should be visible to both browsers! There are other CSS effects as well for Internet Explorer and Firefox, with some overlap. I mostly ignored these when they only worked on one or the other, but not both, browsers; but now that it's possible to achieve some of these effects on IE and Firefox (with Safari and the others already onboard or on the way), you may see some of these features creeping into future versions of the Massive Tool. (Firefox 3.5 also includes a number of other updates, such as a Private Browsing mode; but these aren't really relevant to the Massive Tool so I won't be discussing them here.) Only one of my add-ons, CustomizeGoogle, is not compatible with the new Firefox. EDIT: Correction to the above – for whatever reason, LiveJournal removed the IE shadow code from my post. The shadows aren't there when I open this page in IE; and when I view the page source, the IE code is simply not there. This is far from the first time I've noticed LJ deleting certain types of code in certain contexts (all CSS on your profile page and several types of CSS from your comments, for instance), but I have no idea why these particular codes are being stripped from posts… especially when it's only the IE versions of the code that are affected, in this case (and in the case of image opacity codes in comments). EDIT: Here is another method of shadowing on Internet Explorer which appears to work on LJ, but doesn't look as good.). EDIT: And now the other ones are suddenly working again, even though I didn't touch them. Grumble grumble grumble... (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 29th, 2009
7:51 am [allah_sulu]	Tips For Embedding YouTube Videos 10 Youtube URL Tricks You Should Know About has a number of things you might find useful when embedding YouTube videos into LJ posts. For the video below, I added the settings highlighted in yellow to the embed code; they tell YouTube to use the high quality version of the video (if one exists) and to de-activate the search box and related videos that pop up whenever your mouse passes over the video. (I'm making a macro command to stick those parameters into YouTube videos for me.) Other tricks on that site allow you to specify where in the video you want it to start playing (so you can jump over the boring parts and just show the good bits) and how to make a video loop or autoplay – which is NOT something you should ever do for videos on LJ, unless they're under a cut (and possibly bearing a warning). Nobody wants to check their friends page and have several videos all start playing at once (especially if they're at work). The bits of code highlit in blue are the ones you need to add to YouTube's embed code in order for LJ to embed it (unless you have LJ's update page or the Massive Tool handle that for you). <lj-embed><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2a4gyJsY0mc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&hd=1&showsearch=0&rel=0&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2a4gyJsY0mc&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&hd=1&showsearch=0&rel=0&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></lj-embed> (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 12th, 2009
8:39 am [allah_sulu]	A Couple of Useful Links, and a Wry Comment I read this webcomic this morning, and the commentary underneath is written in Morse Code. I was going to whip up a macro in the Massive Tool to translate it for me, but then sanity returned and I remembered that there are already sites on the internet which will translate to and from Morse Code for you. So, I'm posting this here for my own future reference, and also for the rest of you in case any of you are suddenly struck by a surprise attack of Morse Code in your own daily lives. Another link I found recently is the Generator of Sparkly Text. It comes with a couple of dozen sparkly backgrounds (and dancing bacon) and will generate HTML code for you to use those backgrounds (along with a few other text effects, like RAINBOW TEXT). Just about all of these options (except for the RAINBOW TEXT) are available in the Massive Tool; but you might find this site useful if you're unable/unwilling to use the Tool (if you're on someone else's computer and/or on a non-Windows computer and/or just don't like using the Massive Tool application, only the web site-based functions) or want to sample a different set of backgrounds than the ones I've created/collected. Some of you may recall that I've made comments here and in my own journal about the changes they've been making to the network and the internet connectivity here at my workplace. This is why I added the proxy settings option to the Tool, for instance. Well, part of the changes are firewall/filtering software that block certain sites and images for a variety of reasons (albeit inconsistently – some of the images they block on the randompictures community are perfectly work-safe; and some of the ones that they don't block aren't). Anyway, amusingly enough, among the images which they block (because they're categorized as "advertisement-pop-ups", of all things) are the standard LJ journal icons: . Good thing I don't use those in my posts. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 8th, 2009
5:30 pm [allah_sulu]	Massive Tool - The Movie Previously, I mentioned that I was using draggable code within the Massive Tool to create quick and dirty animation. I created an image for the background, and then created several movable elements for positioning over it in various orders and combinations, and then created animation stop-motion-style. In other words, move things into place, do a screen capture, move things again, do another screen capture, lather, rinse, repeat. When you're done, string all of the screen captures together and then crop to just the portion of the screen containing the animation you want. This was the result, part of a ten minute long music video which provided the backdrop for a performance at a Rocky Horror convention which parodied certain elements of the fandom. (The performance went over well with the audience, even though some of them were also targets of the parody.)   I wanted to simulate a Windows desktop, where the user was reading several Usenet posts each in their own window. The image above to the left was the background I used for the desktop, and all of the posts consisted of the image to the right with different blocks of text superimposed over them. I dragged the posts, one at a time, onto (or off of, depending on the scene) the desktop, capturing frames for the animation as I went along. To see an example of what this process looked like, go to this sample page and slide the posts around the screen. If you load that page into any HTML or text editor (including Windows Notepad or, of course, the Massive Tool) you can easily change the text within the document images, and use copy/paste to make as many more as you want. If you're in a Rocky Horror cast and you wanted to make your own simulated Windows session for a video, you can very easily do so with this file (and you have my permission to use the code and images included therein, as long as I'm credited). You may wonder why I did this in the Massive Tool, rather than in my specialized DragShow program. That's because the DragShow program, at the time, could only use images or strings of formatted text as draggable items, not the blocks of HTML code required to combine an image with text on it. I have subsequently added the ability to input blocks of HTML code into DragShow to use as draggable items; the latest version of DragShow can be downloaded by right-clicking on this link. Once you've downloaded the new version of DragShow, right-click here to download the above sample draggable desktop as an editable DragShow file. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
6:46 pm [allah_sulu]	A Little Trick   <span style="background:url(http://DammitJa.net/lj/bg/sparkle.gif);">This is the code to create sparkly text.</span> Lots of people use this code, or code similar to this, in order to post in their journals with "sparkly" text. (Or with some other background effect graphic.) It's pretty well-known and easy to use, even for people who don't have a lot of HTML knowledge (or a Massive Tool). However, that code works by employing a CSS style="" tag; and as I've commented many times before, style="" tags are automatically removed from the bio you post on your profile page. Well, if you really want to have sparkly text or some other background graphic on your profile page under the text,¹ you can accomplish it by using <table> code, like so: <table background=http://DammitJa.net/lj/bg/sparkle.gif><tr><td>This is alternate code to create sparkly text.</td></tr></table> ¹This post was inspired by this profile. (5 Comments |Comment on this)