Hack the Planet

Sent To Vox From Google Reader

nobody@vox.com(enSue) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:51:33 -0700

Two days ago, Google finally incorporated a highly desired feature -- well, a feature I've been coveting for some time -- into Google Reader: the ability to send links of an article the user is reading in the feed reader to the social networking website of their choosing. Since then, Google Reader has slowly been adding web services to their Send To list, which can be selected from the Settings page. Unfortunately, Vox is not on that list. Fortunately, I've figured out how to add Vox to the mix.

How to add Vox to Google Reader's Send To list:

1. In Google Reader, go to: Settings > Send To

2. Click on "Create a custom link" near the bottom of the page.

3. Type (or copy/paste) the following into the applicable fields:

Name: Vox
URL: http://www.vox.com/submit?uri=${url}&title=${title}
Icon URL: http://static.vox.com/.shared:v42.27:vox:en/images/favicon.ico

Add Vox to Google Reader Send To

4. Click Save.

Google Reader Send To Vox

Clicking on the Vox link from the Send To menu will open a new browser window or tab featuring the familiar VoxThis page.

Side note: You can use the VoxThis bookmarklet to add images from the web to your blog, bypassing the 2-step process of saving them to your computer first, then uploading them to Vox.

Other Social Networks:

As of today (8-15-2009), Google Reader's Send To list includes Blogger, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, FriendFeed, Instapaper, MySpace, Ping.fm, Posterous, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and Twitter. Additionally, the Google Operating System blog has provided instructions on how to add Google Bookmarks and AddToAny to the Send To list.

Update 8-16-2009: Instructions for adding LiveJournal to Google Reader's Send To list is now available, courtesy of Jordan Running.

Update 8-19-2009: Lifehacker now features an extensive list of services to add to Google Reader's Send To list.

Update 8-31-2009: MakeUseOf also has instructions on how to add even more services to Send To.

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A Call for Alpha Testers for My Vox Export Tool

nobody@vox.com(Ross) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:50:22 -0700

EDIT: Thanks for all the volunteers - I think I'm set on the alpha testing crew (who I will be contacting as soon as I can get the front-end tied to the back-end and make sure it's not going to break when you type in your vox address). If you missed your chance to volunteer for testing - don't fret; I don't think the testing process will take all that long and I'll be opening it up for general consumption just as soon as I possibly can.

Okay, I'm not actually quite ready for alpha testers just yet, but soon I will be initializing the alpha version of the Vox export tool to those willing to help me test it out prior to making a formal release to the masses. I wanted to get names of people interested in helping now, so that as soon as I'm ready I can contact you individually and get you started on the testing process. Please read below and if you are interested in alpha testing the tool, please email me at VoxPorter@gmail.com . I NEED A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS from each alpha tester so I can be in communication about updates, bug fixes, and requests for more information if I'm trying to figure out what went wrong in your setup. I will NOT be communicating this through Vox comments or PMs, so if you're not willing to email me, please don't volunteer.

Testers should:

Be willing to try out the tool (possibly multiple times if bugfixes are required)

Be able/willing to import the resulting file into a WordPress blog (instructions may be provided if you don't know how) (free WordPress blogs can be created at WordPress.com, or you can set one up on your own server if you know how)

Be able/willing to review the resulting blog for problems/errors in the import process (i.e. checking to make sure content imported properly, blog post titles, dates, and tags appear correct, etc)

and most importantly:

Be able/willing to inform me of any problems you experience or notice, as well as provide comments/questions about using the export tool, the process as a whole, and any specific areas you think need improvement. You won't need to be available to run the tool the same day I send you notification, but please only volunteer if you think you can support the testing in a timely manner (i.e. within about a week of getting a notification for testing).

Again, if you are interested in alpha testing the tool, please email me at VoxPorter@gmail.com . I'll select testers based on my current needs and the number who volunteer.

Oh, and FYI, the current planned Alpha version of the VoxPorter (name still in flux) tool includes the following:

Export all publicly viewable blog posts from a user's blog to a WXR .xml file (WordPress import file)

Importing this file into a WordPress blog will import blog titles, posting dates/times, content, and tags from posts to the new blog (note: links and media [pictures, music, videos] will still link to their current Vox enclosures for now)

Select whether trackback pings and comments will be globally enabled or disabled on all imported posts

Future improvements planned once this version is tested and available in a steady-state form:

Option to also export post comments (would show up under each blog post, just like they do on Vox)

Automatic splitting of WXR file on the fly into 2 MB sections for blogs with massive archives

Secondary tool to allow you to quickly and easily download your entire uploaded photos library for use on your new blog

Secondary tool to allow you to quickly and easily see what other social media services your Vox neighbors use (along with links to their individual accounts) so even if you decide not to stick with Vox, you can still stay in contact with your 'hood through other apps or sites

Other improvements possible but less likely (given the time I have to work on this):

Converting Vox links to your blog posts on the fly so they link to other posts in your new blog

Converting to other blog formats besides Wordpress (Blogger, MovableType, etc)

Automatic widget/banner creation that you can post on your Vox blog to point people to your new blog location

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State of the Vox Export Tool

nobody@vox.com(Ross) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:39:53 -0700

Note: The post below is extremely geeky and probably not interesting to anyone except those who would like to follow along with the progress of HOW I'm implementing a Vox export tool. If you're just interested in hearing when I'm done with it, this is not the post for you - that'll come soon.

I'm more laying this out for my own thought processes than in any sort of attempt to educate on how the export tool is going to finally work. The good news is I have a tentatively working solution that will theoretically import a full Vox blog onto a self-hosted Wordpress installation. The bad news is that the solution in mind will NOT work for (free-hosted) Wordpress.com installations, so I'm still trying to figure out an alternative for those. Preferably one that does not involve someone having to find a friend with access to a self-hosted version to do an intermediate conversion for them.

After countless hours (days? weeks?) of half-assed research online, here's a summary of what I've come up with regarding exporting from Vox (VoxPorting? Anyone got a better name for the eventual tool I'll be posting?)

Blogging services SUCK at normalizing on an export standard. Every single one of them is different. Likewise, almost all of them try to trap you into their service by only allowing you to import their export types and/or only export a type that will be incompatible with other services. This means people have to get crafty if they want to jump from one platform to another, especially if they do it more than once.
The big contenders for free (hosted) blogging services out there seem to be (in no particular order): Vox, LiveJournal, Blogger, and Wordpress (hosted on Wordpress.com). Yes, MySpace and its clones exist, and no, I'm not going to even try to get content over on to them.
Additionally, you've got Wordpress (self-hosted) and MovableType (self-hosted) which are free, but require you to host them somewhere.
Paid services exist (TypePad, etc.) but since they require you to front money, I'm not focusing on trying to export to them.
That being said, looking at the free services, I've found the following:

I'm not looking to import into Vox, since that's obviously contrary to the whole point of a Vox export tool. I believe there are easier ways to migrate content from one Vox account to another than exporting/importing. That being said, if you're just trying to back up your Vox blog, you can either use BlogBackupOnline (to back up online only) or Simon Wistow's VoxSlurp (to back up to an .mbox file) - more on these in another post.
Apparently exporting to a file to import to LiveJournal is out, as LJ doesn't even appear to be able to import its own export files. Unless you're planning to repost every individual post on LJ, probably not an option. I'm not even considering this at the moment.
Blogger only imports "Blogger export files". There are solutions out there that seem to use Blogger APIs to get around this limitation, but this looks like A LOT of work. I looked at what the Blogger export files look like and don't know that I can forge one to duplicate a Vox account onto a Blogger blog. Holding this out as a last resort option, especially as there seems to be an alternative (see a couple bullets down, below).
Wordpress (self-hosted or on Wordpress.com) seem to be the most likely choices. I've had success importing an RSS feed from Vox to a self-hosted Wordpress blog. It would be fairly trivial to expand this to create a custom RSS .xml file to encompass a full Vox blog, and import that into a new Wordpress blog. HOWEVER, Wordpress.com blogs (free-hosted) do NOT have the "import from RSS" as one of their options (for some bizarre reason, they don't offer this??) Instead:
Wordpress.com imports from Wordpress export files, called WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS). Both self-hosted and free-hosted solutions export to WXR files, and both can import from the other (I believe). Furthermore, once you've got a WXR file, you can use a solution to convert this into a Blogger-compatible format to import to Blogger! Sounds like the winner, if I can figure out how to properly create a WXR file from a Vox blog. Except documentation on the WXR format seems to be pretty much non-existant, so the only way to figure it out is to analyze an existing blog's export file, the Wordpress import code, and experiment. Not the ideal way to make sure I'm doing it correctly, and definitely a way that's going to take more time to get to complete.

One added benefit to doing a WXR file - if I set it up properly, I could actually scrape the Vox blog posts for comments, and forge new comments to be imported along with the blog posts - this way, not only would you be importing your hard work to a new blog, you'd be carrying along the comments (which oftentimes are as informative/entertaining as the original post!) Currently the plan is to do the first pass with just blog posts, and then once I get that up and running, consider devising the import w/ comments. The big problem is my approach to getting the content off the Vox blog will vary tremendously depending on whether or not I'm capturing comments - if I am, I have to do the much more tedious (and much slower) page-scraping, as opposed to taking advantage of the Vox RSS feeds that I would be using for the other non-comment method. I'm not sure I'd want to commit to doing a page-scrape for every Vox export - I currently am doing that for my Picture and MP3 backup tool and it takes a bit of time - this would be even worse, given that some people have thousands of posts on Vox.

Movable Type also seems to be able to import WXR files. Definitely looks like WXR is the way to go, and then provide that file to the user for their use in importing to Wordpress or MT (directly) or Blogger (via the converter).

Since I know you CAN import to a self-hosted Wordpress blog from Vox and then export that right back out to a WXR, the cynical part of me says I should post this solution and then people who self-host can go ahead and import, and people that don't can find someone to do it for them. Heck, I might even go ahead and do this as an intermediate step to the final soltuion. But in the end, I don't want to create half a solution and have most of the users have to fend for themselves. People shouldn't be penalized just because they signed up for a free blog on Vox and now want to have a free blog somewhere else instead.

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A Different (But Still Undesirable) Kind of Downsizing

nobody@vox.com(Ross) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:31:46 -0700

Reversal of Evolutionary Downsizing - Royal Society

http://www.verysh...

Fifteen years ago, scientists discovered that heavy fishing can create “fishing-induced evolution” — the more big fish we pluck out of the sea, the smaller the adult size of each successive generation. But according to a new study led by SUNY Stonybrook fishery biologist David Conover, the proces...

I've always had a fascination for news and studies regarding the theories of evolution and natural selection. Heck, I even intentionally went out and bought a copy of Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle because I was interested in reading of the accounts that led up to Darwin's initial publication of his theory. So when I read Very Short List's summary of the Royal Society's article on the "Reversal of Evolutionary Downsizing Caused by Selective Harvest of Large Fish", I was hooked immediately (no pun intended).

Although I don't have the funds to sign up to read the whole article, the summary VSL provides is quite interesting:

Fifteen years ago, scientists discovered that heavy fishing can create “fishing-induced evolution” — the more big fish we pluck out of the sea, the smaller the adult size of each successive generation. But according to a new study led by SUNY Stonybrook fishery biologist David Conover, the process is reversible.
Conover worked with ten generations of captive silversides. For the first five generations, he removed the biggest fish to simulate overfishing; as expected, this removal of “big-fish” genes reduced the average size of the adults in each subsequent generation. For the next five generations, Conover removed fish randomly to see whether the adults would start to rebound to their former size. They did, but nature made up for just half of the size reduction that Conover’s simulated overfishing had caused. Conover does expect the fish to return to full size but estimates that it’ll take another five generations — in other words, the recovery takes twice as long as the injury.

Although this pattern of behavior is probably not limited to fish or even animals in general, it does bring up the issue that the recovery from injury can ONLY occur once the outside influence is removed from the environment, and only if it is removed before irreparable damage is caused. I'm worried that for some of our ecosystems, we won't realize we've reached the point of no return until after it's too late.

As seen with the devastating loss of cod stock in Newfoundland in the 1990s, the impacts are more than just environmental: the eradication of a species or ecosystem can mean the loss of jobs for thousands of individuals. And just like the species our collective actions damn to extinction, these jobs may never return, either. It's up to all of us to do our part - at a minimum, please get (or stay) informed and make smart choices as consumers to help influence how others treat the world around us. It may sound trite, but future generations WILL thank you for your efforts.

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If you use Windows XP and haven't updated since last October, please read this.

nobody@vox.com(patapete) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:20:34 -0700

Ivysgrandkid's post reminded me about the upcoming Conficker exploit coming on Wednesday, April 1st, so if you're using a Windows XP machine (SP2) and haven't updated since last October, you might want to run an auto-update from Microsoft to Windows SP3. Mac users, you're all safe, so no worries. My machine is updated so I don't expect any problems here but I might install a firewall just in case.

The virus has shown up on the other side of the globe, but so far it's been pretty quiet and no one knows what the virus does yet. Many researchers have speculated it to be just another large bot-net trying to take over .gov and .edu infected PCs.

But fear not; those of you who already up-to-date with your regular monthly Windows updates, you should be okay.

For more help and articles on this, please refer to the links below.

The Eight Things You Need to Know About 'Conficker' - PCMag.com

New method for detecting Conficker discovered, debuted
Taming Conficker, The Easy Way - Doxpara Research

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How to Use Audacity to Speed Up Audiobooks and Podcasts

nobody@vox.com(Ross) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:27:34 -0800

Note: This is the second post of a two-part series. Part one explained the benefits of changing the tempo of your spoken-word audio (audiobooks and podcasts) to listen to more content in less time. This post will explain how to use Audacity to change the tempo of your audio files.

Audacity is a free, open-source audio file editor, and yet is one of the most powerful tools out there for recording and editing audio. The software itself has too many features and options for me to really go into in detail in a single post, so I'll focus only on one specific feature that relates to this series of posts - the "Change Tempo" feature.

All of the below assume you've already downloaded and installed Audacity. Although there is a way to change the tempo of a single file in the version 1.2.6, this is unwieldy and requires a lot of user interaction. For the method I describe below, you MUST have the latest Beta version (currently 1.3.6 as of this post).

Install LAME (if necessary)
Although you may have installed Audacity, you may not have installed the LAME codec, which comes separately from Audacity (due to licensing restrictions). Audacity has instructions on how to install this codec here - once you've got this installed, you'll be able to export audio files to new .mp3 files. Optionally, you may choose to set up your file characteristics for the .mp3 exports (see next section).

Set Up MP3 Export Options (optional)
Export options can only be configured when you are exporting a file. Once you set them up, that configuration will remain until you change it, so it is worth setting up your export options the first time, and then you can leave them as-is from then on.

1) To be able to export a file, you first have to have a file loaded. You can open a file from somewhere on your computer using the File->Open option, or just drag and drop to the window. Choose a short file (less than 5 minutes) for your first configuration to save time.

2) Once the file is open, use the File->Export menu option to bring up the export dialog. From the "Save As" drop-down menu, choose "MP3 Files" option. Then click the "Options" button to get the configuration dialog. This will let you choose details like bit-rate, stereo/mono, etc for your audio files. Most spoken word audio does fine at 64 kbps, but you can bump that up to 128 kbps if you prefer. Remember, the higher the bit-rate, the larger the resulting files will be.

3) Click OK, and export the file to a temporary location (like your desktop). Once you've done this, the settings you've chosen will be used for all mp3 exports from then on, unless you go back and change it again. You can now delete the file you exported to your desktop.

Export Menu Option

Export Dialog Box

Set up Chains
Batching processing in Audacity is done by "Applying a chain". A chain is simply a set of instructions (much like an Audacity-specific script) that you want Audacity to perform on the files you select. In this case, the chain consists of the following actions:

1) Import a file into Audacity
2) Change the tempo by X%
3) Export to a new .mp3 file

When applying a chain in Audacity, importing the file is done by default. The rest, however, need to be set up in a chain. A chain only needs to be created once, and then can be used any number of times.

You can manually set up chains via the "Edit Chains" menu option under the File menu, or you can simply copy pre-written files into the Audacity data folder and the software will make them available for use automatically. I've pre-created 10 tempo-change chain scripts for you and located them in this .zip file here. Just download to your computer and extract to the Audacity data folder to make them available to use. The folder, on Windows, is usually located at:

C:\Documents and Settings\[your windows profile name here]\Application Data\Audacity\Chains

These files are called "SpeedUp_10_Percent" through "SpeedUp_100_Percent" - each changes the tempo by a corresponding percentage. To get an idea of scale:

10% increase means you listen in 91% of the time
40% increase means you listen in 70% of the time
50% increase means you listen in 66% (2/3) of the time
100% increase means you listen in 50% of the time

I personally like the 40% tempo increase - it makes it quick enough that I save time (about 1 hour for every 4 of original audio), but still slow enough that I can catch everything that is said. However, your mileage will vary, and you'll want to experiment with different rates for different podcasts until you find the speeds you like. Now that you have the chains available, you just need to apply a specific chain to some files in order to get your sped-up audio ready to listen to!

Apply Chains to Speed Up Audio

Now that you've got the chains all set up, you can do the processing on the audio files:

1) From the File menu, choose "Apply Chain" and select one of the "SpeedUp_X_Percent" chains. Click the "Apply to files" button. This will bring up a dialog box asking which files you want to speed up.

2) Navigate to where your files are stored. Select the files you want to speed up. You can select more than one file to speed up in one batch in the same way you select multiple files through your operating system (e.g. hold down the control key for Windows, Command key for the Mac, etc). The chain will be applied to each file in turn, so you'll end up with all the files sped up by the same amount when you're done.

3) When you click the "Open" button on the dialog, Audacity will begin processing the files, one at a time. If you watch the progress bars, you will see Audacity import a file, speed it up, and then export the file, then repeat the process with the next file. Each file that is exported is saved in a folder called "Cleaned" that is located in the same directory as the original file location. It will have the same name and ID3 tag information as the original file.

NOTE: Audacity creates some very large temporary files while processing. These files only get deleted after you close the program down. This means you COULD run out of disk space if you try to apply a chain to too many files at once - I recommend applying the chain to about 2-3 hours worth of audio at a time (the number of files will vary depending on their length). After that, close Audacity (say "no" to saving the temporary or project files when prompted) and re-open and repeat the Apply Chain process with a new batch of files.

That's pretty much all there is to it. At this point, if you know the file is in good shape, you can delete the originals and load the new files into your audio player or library. If you want to reprocess the file at another speed, be aware that Audacity will overwrite the file in the "cleaned" directory if you apply a chain to a file with the same name. To avoid this problem, either rename the original file prior to reprocessing, or rename (or move) the file in the "cleaned" directory.

I usually set up files to process in the background while I'm doing other things. For me, this is definitely a worthwhile effort. I invest about 20 minutes time in the file manipulation over the course of an afternoon of Audacity processing, thereby saving about 6 hours worth of listening time for every 24 hours of podcasts and audiobooks I listen to. If you can stomach speeding up the audio even more, you can get even bigger time savings. Pretty soon you won't ever want to listen to spoken word audio at the normal rate, ever again!

NaBloPoMo 2008!

[NaBloPoMo 2008 - #24.2/30]

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How to Listen to More Podcasts in Less Time

nobody@vox.com(Ross) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:12:52 -0800

Note: This is the first post of a two-part series. Part two will provide specific instructions on how to use Audacity to listen to more podcasts in less time and will be available on Monday, November 24th.

If you're listening to a lot of audiobooks or spoken-word podcasts, here's an easy way to get through more audio in less time: speed up the tempo* of your files (AKA time-compression). For example, using time-compression, I can listen to audio in about 3/4 of the time it would normally take. This means I save 6 hours of listening time for every 24 hours of audiobooks or podcasts that I listen to!

*It's important to note here that I'm talking about changing tempo, but not changing pitch. If you just indiscriminately speed up your audio, you'll get something that sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks are narrating your piece. If you just speed up the tempo, you'll get something that sounds like the lawyer-talk fine-print at the end of radio advertisements (although you don't have to speed it up to the point of incomprehensibility, as they do). It's also important to note that this won't really do justice to music, so you probably do not want to apply any of the following tips to any music podcasts you have.

Why speed up your audio?

Besides the obvious point that you can listen to more audio in the same listening period, some studies [link to MS Word document] show that time-compression can even improve comprehension for listeners, who find that they are less distracted when the audio is faster-paced (giving their minds less time to wander between important points in the audio). Of course, some subjects find their comprehension suffers when listening to time-compressed audio, so your mileage may vary.

How to do time-compression:

You can either do time-compression on the fly (in your music player), or speed up your audio before you listen to it. The option you choose is dependent on what hardware you have and how much you want your audio compressed.

1. On-the-fly compression:

Some hardware music players like the iPod have the ability to speed up the tempo of audio on-the-fly. The iPod specifically can increase the tempo up to 120% of the normal speed, which would cut 10 minutes off of every hour of listening you do. As a benefit, on-the-fly compression means you can toggle it on/off at will, so you can revert back to normal speed if things get moving too fast, and speed things up again when you're ready. Some other hardware players also have this feature built in - check your user's manual to see if your player can speed up your audio.
Some software music players also can do on-the-fly compression. Quicktime (even the free version) is an example that allows you to do realtime compression, anywhere from 0.5 x normal speed to 3 x normal speed (spoken audio is probably intelligible up to about 1.5 x normal speed). As an added benefit, this technique should work for both audio and video on Quicktime.

2. Pre-processed compression:

As the name implies, by doing your time-compression in pre-processing, you're creating a new audio file to listen to at some later point in time. The benefit to this method is you can create an audio file that is at the custom speed you want to listen to, and then play it anywhere. However, because you will have created a new file, you won't be able to speed up or slow down the file once it is created (unless you combine this with an on-the-fly method listed above).
There are a number of programs available to time-compress audio files. My favorite among these is Audacity, the open-source audio editor program. Please go here for step-by-step instructions on how to use Audacity to time-compress your audio files. Other programs I have heard of and/or tried include Amazing Slow Downer and AV MP3 player morpher - both of these do the trick, but are not my tool of choice.

Tips/Tricks for getting the most out of time-compression:

It's a good idea to always preview your file before you compress it. That way you can fine tune how much you will compress the audio to ensure you're not going to speed up the audio past the point where you can understand it.
Start with a minimal time-compression and work your way up to a faster speed. You'll soon find a speed you're comfortable with, and you'll start to hate listening to regular-speed audio because it seems to drag!
If you're looking to change a lot of different audio files, look for a method that allows for batch operations, so you can transform multiple files without having to manually change each one. AV MP3 player morpher has this ability by default, but I prefer the beta version of Audacity, which also lets you do a batch conversion very easily. I'll have a whole post on how to do this in Audacity next week, in part two of this post.
If you're really handy around a computer, you can always join multiple files together into one big .mp3 file, prior to time-compression. This would be handy, for example, with audiobooks or serialized podcasts that have chapters. Again, you can use Audacity to join files, or a program intended for this kind of activity, like MP3 Splitter & Joiner.

NaBloPoMo 2008!

[NaBloPoMo 2008 = #20/30]

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Whatcha playin?

nobody@vox.com(patapete) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:02:54 -0800

Simply amazing...

Been playing this game non-stop for nearly 2 hours now, and I can't put it down! This is going to be my addiction for a while, probably lasting the entire week, I think. Ah...so many fond memories of Earthbound keep swelling up...

Scrambling around and trying to figure out how to play this game was quite the challenge, but now that it's finally in front of me, it's sooooooooo worth it!! Big props to the guys over at fobby.net for jumping the hurdles and hacking the Japanese GBA rom for all of us eager fans here in the states. Too bad Nintendo didn't port it over, but after a few hours of playing (and browsing this particular site) I can kind of see why.

I'm considering doing a small playthrough journal for the game. It'd be hard to start over (since I'm this far), but if anyone's interested, I don't mind starting over. But what do you think, voice-over or none? Comments? And if anyone has any good recommendations on video recording software, send me a message!

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How Can I Improve Vox?

nobody@vox.com(Ross) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:23:50 -0700

I've been remiss in posting here on Vox lately, mostly because work has been kicking my butt during the day and dealing with sick kids has been kicking my butt at night. In my spare time though, I've been toying with a couple programming ideas for things I can do to help improve the Vox experience - specifically, areas where I think Vox itself is lacking in the functionality I'd want to see (such as exporting and backups). Obviously, I can't do much to change the framework/backend of the program, but I might be able to make some changes to the UI (through Greasemonkey scripts) or to third-party interaction (through other programming languages).

I'd like your opinion, too. If you don't mind, click on some options in the poll below and let me know what you think I should be focusing my meager time & efforts on over the next few weeks:

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How to Get Rid of Blind Spots (No Optometrist Required)

nobody@vox.com(Ross) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:29:06 -0700

Blind Spots

Since the dawn of time (or at least since we've had rear- and side-view mirrors on automobiles), our parents and our parents' parents have been instructing us on where to point our side-view mirrors. And along with this instruction comes the dire warnings of the perilous danger of the Evil Blind Spots^TM that exist when you're behind the wheel.

Judging by the number of folks I see out on the road who attempt to imitate that scene from The Exorcist when they're changing lanes, whoever taught you to drive also instructed you that the only sure-fire way to avoid slamming into a nearby car when changing lanes is to quickly peer around the driver's headrest like a myopic owl before crossing the dotted line.

What if I told you there was a better way to avoid that heart-stopping situation where you realize you've just plotted your car on a collision course with the car in your blind spot? One that doesn't involve buying the SkyMall "bigger is better" mirror and definitely doesn't involve risking whiplash every time you want to change lanes?

You'd probably be as skeptical as I was, the first time I heard about the alternative I'm about to share with you. But seeing is believing (pun intended), and if you try out this hack for a little bit, I'll bet you'll be visiting your chiropractor only half as often as you do right now.

The big secret is the placement of the side-view mirrors. Typically, we all tend to point our side-view mirrors so we can see the back corners of our car. But if you think about it, there's actually very little point in watching the back corner of your car. Why should you? It's not like it ever moves! Why not point your mirrors somewhere that actually adds some value to your field of vision?

By moving the side mirrors farther out, you can line up all three of your mirrors so they have minimal overlap, and you can see EVERYTHING behind you AND beside you! Here's how you do it:

Step 1. Set up your rear-view mirror the way you normally would. You need to be able to see out the rear window of your car. So take down that bobblehead doll collection if it's impeding your view.

Rear View Mirror

Step 2. Sitting in the driver's seat, lean your head all the way to the left so it touches the driver's window. From THAT position, set your driver's side-view mirror so you can see the back corner of the car. You WON'T be able to see your back corner of your car when you sit back up straight.

Step 3. Lean the same distance towards the passenger's window as you did in Step 2 (but the other way). Adjust your passenger-side mirror the same way.

Now here's what you'll see now that you've broken the taboo of taking your mirrors off the rear corners of your car:

Left Side View

When a car comes up behind you, you'll see it square-on in your rear-view mirror. But as it passes you on the left, you'll see it move to the left side of your rear-view mirror, and as its headlight disappears from the rear-view mirror, it'll simultaneously show up in your left-side mirror.

Right Side View

Similar behavior occurs when a car passes you on the right. At every point from directly behind you to just behind your driver-/passenger-side windows, you'll be able to have the car in view in one of your mirrors.

No More Blind Spots!

So what's the catch, you may ask? There are a few drawbacks, but only one lasting one.

1. Your side view mirrors are no longer showing you the rear corners of your car. This could throw you off BIG TIME if you are in the habit of using your mirrors to help guide you in backing up. This drawback never goes away, so if you just CAN'T figure out how to back up without using your mirrors to help you, might be out of luck.

2. You MUST use your rear-view mirror now. You have to rely on it to see what's behind you, as your side-view mirrors now show you what's going on in the lanes next to you. If you don't have a rear-view mirror or can't rely on it, again you might be out of luck.

3. This new approach may take some adjustment to get the right setup with your mirrors the first time you try this out. Rather than wait until you're in rush-hour traffic to fine-tune your mirror angles, try pulling up next to a line of parked cars (preferably with nobody waiting behind you) and slowly pull forward until the car next to you should be in a position to be seen in both mirrors. Adjust the mirrors until you've got the view right, and then go practice in light traffic until you feel comfortable with the new approach.

4. Someone using your car may be completely bewildered at first. Technically, they're always supposed to adjust the mirrors to suit them before they get on the road, but you may want to remind them before they back your car into a telephone pole when they try to rely on your mirrors for help.

It's also important to note that this does NOT absolve you of a need to look out the driver-/passenger-side windows when you're changing lanes. But now you need only look directly left/right from the direction you're heading, rather than craning your head to look almost-behind-you to see if there's a car in your blind spot.

Happy motoring! Send me a note if you try this out and let me know how it works for you. I love it and will never go back to the "tried-and-true" approach of purposefully creating blind spots in my field of vision.

Illustrations and general concept shamelessly re-purposed from the much less verbose instructions on the Car Talk website.

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