Daily DIY

If you’re at all familiar with Strunk and White, you know that excessive use of adverbs - words that end in -ly - isn’t a sign of strong writing. All of us writers struggle with sentence-weakening generally’s and relatively’s at times, but now there’s a Greasemonkey script that highlights adverbial transgressions on the web automatically. (Whoops!)

Once it’s installed, The Ly Detector Greasemonkey script takes a yellow highlighter to adverbs, like obviously and previously to help web writers stay on their non-adverbial toes. The Ly Detector’s great for bloggers who are trying to improve their skills with the quill - or just those who want to make fun of them. After the jump, the script download, and some more details of how this works.

The Ly Detector Greasemonkey script

Version: 0.2
Released: February 28, 2007
Last updated: February 28, 2007
Author: Gina Trapani
License: GNU Public License

What it does: Highlights adverbs that appear in the text of a web page, as shown:

Installation: Requires Firefox and the Greasemonkey extension to run. Click on the The Ly Detector User Script to install.

Known Issues: Not all words that end in -ly are adverbs, like family, apply, and only. I’ve excluded some words (like those) from the highlighting function, but I’m sure there are dozens more. If you see the script highlighting a non-adverb, let me know in the comments.

By default this script is enabled on Lifehacker, Gizmodo and Gawker. To enable it for your web site, use the Greasemonkey preferences pane to customize the URL list it’s enabled on, as shown:

Disclaimer and caveats: Not all adverbs are bad all the time. This tool is for entertainment purposes only. I personally am a deeply-flawed writer (see?) who makes dozens of mistakes on this very site every day, so I’m in no position to preach good writing habits. This script is as much for me as it is for you.

Backstory: The Ly Detector sound familiar to you? That’s because I published it in bookmarklet form on my now-defunct personal site back in 2004 BG (Before Greasemonkey). If you don’t want to go the Greasemonkey route, drag and drop this bookmarklet link to your toolbar:
[The Ly Detector]

Warning, tho: the bookmarklet version does not exclude any non-adverb -ly words, like family and apply.

Changelog:

• Version 0.2: Fixed bug; Added early, probably, reply to exclusions.
• Version 0.1: Released.

Bug reports and feature requests: I wrote this user script in a few short hours, so it’s bound to have some holes and bugs. Leave a comment here if you’ve got any feature requests or bug reports, cheers and jeers. — Gina Trapani

If you’re at all familiar with Strunk and White, you know that excessive use of adverbs - words that end in -ly - isn’t a sign of strong writing. All of us writers struggle with sentence-weakening generally’s and relatively’s at times, but now there’s a Greasemonkey script that highlights adverbial transgressions on the web automatically. (Whoops!)

Once it’s installed, The Ly Detector Greasemonkey script takes a yellow highligher to adverbs, like obviously and previously to help web writers stay on their non-adverbial toes. The Ly Detector’s great for bloggers who are trying to improve their skills with the quill - or just those who want to make fun of them. After the jump, the script download, and some more details of how this works.

The Ly Detector Greasemonkey script

Version: 0.1
Released: February 28, 2007
Last updated: February 28, 2007
Author: Gina Trapani
License: GNU Public License

What it does: Highlights adverbs that appear in the text of a web page, as shown:

Installation: Requires Firefox and the Greasemonkey extension to run. Click on the The Ly Detector User Script to install.

Known Issues: Not all words that end in -ly are adverbs, like family, apply, and only. I’ve excluded some words (like those) from the highlighting function, but I’m sure there are dozens more. If you see the script highlighting a non-adverb, let me know in the comments.

By default this script is enabled on Lifehacker, Gizmodo and Gawker. To enable it for your web site, use the Greasemonkey preferences pane to customize the URL list it’s enabled on, as shown:

Disclaimer and caveats: Not all adverbs are bad all the time. This tool is for entertainment purposes only. I personally am a deeply-flawed writer (see?) who makes dozens of mistakes on this very site every day, so I’m in no position to preach good writing habits. This script is as much for me as it is for you.

Backstory: The Ly Detector sound familiar to you? That’s because I published it in bookmarklet form on my now-defunct personal site back in 2004 BG (Before Greasemonkey). If you don’t want to go the Greasemonkey route, drag and drop this bookmarklet link to your toolbar: [The Ly Detector]
Warning, tho: the bookmarklet version does not exclude any non-adverb -ly words, like family and apply.

Bug reports and feature requests: I wrote this user script in a few short hours, so it’s bound to have some holes and bugs. Leave a comment here if you’ve got any feature requests or bug reports, cheers and jeers. — Gina Trapani

 
I have never seen this demonstration before. Water running through two small open cans into a larger metal collection container wired together to create 10,000 to 15,000 volts. Is it an accumulation of static electricity? If someone knows what is happening I would love to hear about it!
Via: Zedomax

Despite claims that you need a pretty high-end PC to run Vista well, J2s site came up with a system that runs Vista with Aero Glass enabled for only $538 (not counting the price of Vista itself).

From looking at the parts list, he uses some pretty decent—but not spectacular parts—and actually manages to get 2GB of RAM in there. It’s not going to win any speed races, but this thing costs less than a PS3. – Jason Chen

How to Build an inexpensive Vista PC (Aero Enabled) [JJMelo]

Despite claims that you need a pretty high-end PC to run Vista well, J2s site came up with a system that runs Vista with Aero Glass enabled for only $538 (not counting the price of Vista itself).

From looking at the parts list, he uses some pretty decent—but not spectacular parts—and actually manages to get 2GB of RAM in there. It’s not going to win any speed races, but this thing costs less than a PS3. – Jason Chen

How to Build an inexpensive Vista PC (Aero Enabled) [JJMelo]

Just released an update to the previously-posted About This Site Bookmarks Firefox extension, which now has support for highlighted text, as well as page title, URL, and domain variables.

In a nutshell, About This Site has evolved into a variable-enabled bookmark tool; using it you can replace 2 dozen popular bookmarklets including GmailThis and post to del.icio.us. If you’ve already got About This Site installed, run the update from Firefox Add-ons area. (Updating users: be sure to hit the “Reset to default bookmarks” button to load up the updated list.) Do add any feedback or bug reports to the original post comment thread. Have fun cleaning out your bookmarklet folder! — Gina Trapani

Two weeks ago I published a tutorial on how to aggregate all the feeds you generate at different places all over the web into one master feed. As an example, I merged my Lifehacker posts, del.icio.us bookmarks and Flickr photos, and bemoaned the fact that there is no easy way to edit each headline title to include the source. Happily, Pipes-lovin’ reader Michele was able to do just that.

Using the Regex module, she was able to add the blog name, “Flickr photo” and “del.icio.us” to the beginning of each title, so you can easily see where each item’s coming from. Here’s my new and improved Gina around the web pipe. Feel free to clone and edit your own using it as a starting point. Thanks, Michele!

A flash drive that can install an operating system is one of the most useful tools for any computer repair monkey (I should know, that occupation took many years away from me). Like its older counterpart, Vista also has the ability to be installed via a USB flash drive, with a little work on your part. Kurt Shintaku wrote a surprisingly small tutorial on how to do so. I plan on creating a Vista-installing USB flash drive simply as a back-up. I really just need to take more care of my CDs, but this is easier, kind of. Hit the link below to see the three, fairly simple steps, to accomplishing this task. –Travis Hudson

HOWTO: Install Windows Vista from a high speed USB 2.0 Flash Drive [Via Gadgetizer]

A flash drive that can install an operating system is one of the most useful tools for any computer repair monkey (I should know, that occupation took many years away from me). Like its older counterpart, Vista also has the ability to be installed via a USB flash drive, with a little work on your part. Kurt Shintaku wrote a surprisingly small tutorial on how to do so. I plan on creating a Vista-installing USB flash drive simply as a back-up. I really just need to take more care of my CDs, but this is easier, kind of. Hit the link below to see the three, fairly simple steps, to accomplishing this task. –Travis Hudson

HOWTO: Install Windows Vista from a high speed USB 2.0 Flash Drive [Via Gadgetizer]

Got a dusty computer room? Don’t clean, just purchase a USB mask.

“The USB Mask looks essentially like it has a pair of PC case fans on either side that are powered by the black USB cord that comes out of the front of the mask. From the photos, it also appears you’re supposed to […]