uberlook launched

As I previously mentioned, I have been anticipating the launch of Uberlook for months and the day has come! I am pleased already with the service. The resources are growing and so far they look great. It seems as though überlook is going to do everything they have set out to do, and looking good doing it.

If you have not already clicked the above link then I will just have to repeat myself! Check it out now!

They state their goals in their blog that they want you to “enjoy” using the site. I have and I think everyone will. Its simple, fast, usable, the design is modern and fresh, and it really is a central resource web developers should know about. With a tag powered search they have made it easier to find the resources you want quickly and easily.

Also fully functional features like the tag cloud, popular tags, and advanced search show the work that was put into the site to make it work, and work for you.

[UPDATE: They now have a great looking favicon!, this section is from my original post]
There are a few things I want to see come soon. A favicon! I will only temporarily put a website on my elite list of “one click away” websites. For the moment I have had to construct my own. I do not believe that I have any graphical talent, in fact I used to colors found on their website! I do feel that it will keep me happy until they come out with their own or if any readers send me their versions.

A tiny note, their form text fields and textarea expand far beyond the limits of the page in Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7. I tracked down the problem and it appears to be that the textfields have a size attribute set to 30 (<input type=”text” size=”30″ … />) making them unusually large for whatever reason. I have a quick CSS clip that I may turn into a Greasemonkey script to correct the website’s single blemish. Here is the single line of code to give the textfields and textarea a sufficient, controlled width:

input[type^=text], textarea { width: 50%; }

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Game Night

Every so often my brothers and sister get together and decide to have a game night. No particular reason brings about this special occasion. Nothing is planned, especially not the game, and we almost always end in a fight, but the hour or two spent playing is memorable.

Tonight was such a night. My brother Mike and sister Megan came together to play The Top 10 Game. It just so happens there is a running joke that I am horrible at this game because my first time playing I had some pretty ridiculous answers. The most memorable being my response to “What can parents not make their teenager children do?” was “Buy Stock.” So after that joke gets passed around enough we will eventually start the game.

The game started off easy enough with “What were the top 10 search engines of 2002.” Needless to say I got the most points that round and eventually 4 of the 7 rounds. Notable questions being “Top 10 US States with toxic releases,” “Top 10 Cool Reasons to Vacation at the North Pole” (a Pen 10 where unique and valid answers get you points), and “Top 10 US metro areas with the longest commuter travel” to which we replied, “What is metro?” Quite a few laughs but a fairly straightforward 7 rounds. I would say the most interesting response to the North Pole topic was Megan’s “to find Tupac,” which somehow earned her a point, or Mike’s worthy “Aurora Borealis.” My imagination failed me on this one but I did gain a point with “to test your cell phone.”

Ending the game was not as easy as it might sound. Being the top scorer for more then half of the rounds didn’t quite give me the edge, as I landed in the Winner’s Circle at the same time as Mike. The rules declared a face-off, but they did so in a remarkable way. The rules state:

The player closest to the age of 10 rolls the die, sets the timer, reads the question, starts the timer and players write their answers.

To many of you this would sound reasonable, but to those who look closer find that it is a little ridiculousness. You see, the game states “Ages: 13+” on the box and in the rules. So why not just say the youngest player? Of course the aim was to continue the trend of “10s” that make the game what it is, but lets be honest here…

Winners Circle… Tie… Showdown… Roll… Top Ten… “Top 10 Most Endangered and Threatened Species.” Keyword in that topic is species. I jokingly said, what like “mammals?” as Mike jotted down “bald eagle” and the like. I even scribbled “farm animals” as my final choice. The end result was embarrassing, answers included “mammals,” “reptiles” and “amphibians.” Just too general for us. However I did squeak by, grabbing 2 points and winning the showdown and possibly my first game of Top 10 ever?

All in all it was a fun night. We had our laughs and actually did not end with a fight, which is rather noteworthy. Until next time, I am the Winner!

Joe P

Giveaway of the Day

One website that I have been visiting daily for the past month is Giveaway of the Day. Not your average free software website, instead they offer programs that normally cost $15 to $35 dollars absolutely free! The only catch is that you have to download and install the program in the 24 hour timespan, and you will have the full registered version, not a trial! As far as I know these programs are for Windows only.

Great idea all around, and the software isn’t that bad! I have found a number of useful programs for web development and image editing. It is always a pleasure to see what they will offer next, and the rating that programs receive, either a thumbs up or down from all the users who have downloaded the software that day.

In case you are browsing their website you may happen upon their freeware library, which launched late in December. I try to know what great free software exists and their library is not that bad.

Head on over and check them out. For those heavy RSS feed readers grab their RSS for a quick way look at what they offer each day. Give some software a try you will be impressed at the quality of most of the applications.

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