Also, the occasional issue that would cause a video not to load has been fixed, and a graphical indicator is now shown instead of just a black rectangle while the video is loading.

Hopefully the extension will update itself automatically for most users, but if it doesn’t you can download the updated extension manually.

Update 1.2.5 The issue with the new YouTube video URLs has been fixed.

This extension removes the need to use flash on YouTube by converting all videos to their HTML5 video tag equivalents. It also has the added benefits of decreased CPU usage compared to flash, and the removal of in-video ads.

Before installing, be sure to enable extensions. Download the extension

Update: A few of you have asked why this is better than the YouTube HTML5 beta, and the reason is very simple: YouTube will only display an HTML5 player for videos without advertising in them, so videos from Vevo or many other popular sources will still use flash. As a side note, this extension will not function if you are a member of the HTML5 beta, as the page formats are completely different.

Also, many people have been asking about viewing HD video with this extension, and I’m happy to announce that this is already possible, I just failed to mention it before. Simply go to Preferences -> Extensions -> YouTube5 and you will be able to select your desired video format (360p, 720p, or 1080p). If your selected format is not available, the next largest will be used.

FaceBlock

FaceBlock will remove the sidebar ads on the Facebook homepage, as well as the ads on user profiles.

To install, you will first need to enable extensions, since for some reason they are disabled by default.

1. Go to Preferences -> Advanced and enable the develop menu.
2. Close preferences and then click on Develop -> Enable Extensions.
3. Download FaceBlock.

Goodbye ads!

Update 1.1: I’ve added rules to block ads in several other areas of the site. Hopefully Safari’s automatic update system actually works since I haven’t been able to test it. If anyone could let me know if the update shows up automatically I’d appreciate it!

I stumbled across this type rendering on Sunday, and then attempted to get a program for generating them (aptly named buddha) compiled so I could try rendering these fractals myself. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it compile, so I followed the typical programmer paradigm: If it doesn’t work, rewrite it yourself. So yesterday (when I should have been doing homework) I wrote my own program in C for generating these fractals. I’m still not entirely certain I’m doing it correctly, my images tend to be rather dark and have to be auto-leveled in photoshop before they look very good. Nevertheless, I’m pretty happy with some of the results so far.

This next render was performed at super high resolution (4800×3600). It took about a half hour to complete, and the full image is 10mb to download, but its totally worth it.

At full zoom, you begin to see patterns like thousands of snow flakes near the center of the fractal, and at the edges it resembles nebulae and fledgling stars.

I can’t look at these images without my mind being drawn towards God. That something so stunningly beautiful could be generated from such a simple mathematical algorithm is awe inspiring. I have to remind myself that math doesn’t have to work this way, and that Someone had to design it with the intention that we would someday discover this incredible phenomenon, and be stopped dead in wonder.

For the majority of the procedure, see the post Blocking Facebook Ads. The only thing that will differ in blocking the corners is to add this line to the userContent.css file:

`.UIRoundedImage_Corners { display: none !important; }`

If you prefer not to block the ads on Facebook, you can leave out what the other post says to place in the userContent.css file. Once you tell your browser to use this file as explained in the Blocking Facebook Ads post and restart your browser, the rounded corners on profile pictures and such will be banished forever.

Firefox users: Firefox works rather differently than Safari and Internet Explorer when creating a usercontent.css file. You must first locate your profiles folder using information from this article. Then open the “chrome” folder, and create a file called “userContent.css” (capitalization is important). Edit this file and add the line above, then save it and restart Firefox.

I’m now on fall break, after about 8 weeks of classes at the Colorado School of Mines, and so far it has been incredibly awesome, but its incredibly crazy, and sometimes difficult.

Orientation week was a breeze, and with the number of barbecues, games, activities, and parties, it seemed more like summer camp then college. The start of class made everything get more down to business, but for the first week or two classes were easy, with minimal homework and easy or nonexistent labs. My first exam – chemistry – came on only my 3rd week of classes, which was a bit soon for my tastes but I did very well on it nonetheless. In the following weeks I’ve had tests in calculus, economics, and earth science (my only real classes excluding PE and freshman seminar).

Even though homework and studying take up a lot of time, I’ve definitely found myself spending the majority of my time in innumerable non-academic pursuits, from rock climbing and Parkour to intramural ultimate frisbee and Bible studies. Probably my favorite out of all these activities is rock climbing, particularly due to the massive indoor wall in the Mines rec center. I also went on my first actual outdoor climb on rock last thursday, which was awesome, even though we didn’t get down from the cliff until after dark when it was already about 45°. College definitely does tend to encourage actions that might seem to lack common sense, such as climbing Mt. Bierstadt overnight (I summited around 1:30 am, and didn’t get back to campus until 5).

The people at Mines are absolutely insane, but in a good way. I doubt that anywhere outside of may be MIT or Caltech will you find people who make more jokes about calculus (“your Δbeard is low”), chemistry, or physics, or who will try to identify the kind of rock on the side of the road while driving to a retreat (“Are those batholiths igneous or metamorphic, since they appear to be foliated?”). One consequence of this general atmosphere is that if you ever called a “nerd” at Mines relative to the general student body, you are really in trouble

In a nutshell, college is crazy, the people are nuts, finding time to do homework is nearly impossible, but I love it. Now if only the food were better…

Two weeks ago I was gone for a week up at our church camp, Camp Elim for a Servant Leader Training week, which is essentially a work/prep week for volunteering as staff there during the summer. Everyone split up into teams for the week and rotated through various jobs at the camp (maintenance, kitchen, dining room, cleaning, etc.) along with learning how to run the various activities the campers can participate in (obstacle course, canoeing, archery…). I’ve worked as staff there for two years, and I went to most of the training week last year, so not much of it was new to me, but I still had a blast making friends, working, and hanging out.

The next week I went to the CHEC conference on Wednesday and Thursday to help set up and make sure registration was working fine, which it did, causing me to rapidly become very bored. So I left Thursday evening (and then got food poisoning Friday from the food they gave to volunteers, but lets not get into that)

The past week and next week I’m not really doing anything besides trying to finish up the last bit of school and work on some software projects. The week after next week (the 29th) I’ll be heading up to Summit (a kind of worldview/leadership/college prep camp) for a two week session. After that I’ll be working as a counselor at Camp Elim for a week, then going on a week long backpacking trip with them up around Leadville, followed by another week of either counseling or maintenance at camp. Then our family is leaving on vacation up to Oregon to see some of my mom’s old friends, and once we get back I have about two days before heading up to new student orientation at the Colorado School of Mines, and then class starts.

Basically, starting in two weeks I’ll be gone solid the entire summer until I start college. So I suppose you could say I’ll be pretty busy

If you’re be willing, I’d be very grateful if you would pray that I wouldn’t get sick or completely exhausted, as my downtime is virtually nil

So that’s my summer, what does yours look like?

Enough with analogizing. In a nutshell, life is confusing, and oftentimes feels more like a game of whack-a-mole than a race to the finish.

Before I kill anyone with this overly philosophical post, I will end it with a quote I read yesterday that may hold the key to some of the chaos.

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Updated x2: Updated for the new Facebook, and now blocks the sponsor ads on the homepage as well.

Updated x3: Blocks new sponsor ads in the sidebar.

I just received a request from a friend on Facebook to join a group petitioning that the stupid x-rated ads it shows be removed. Nice as it would be if Facebook would do this, realistically, I highly doubt they ever will. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you still have to look at them.

A few months ago I became so fed up with these ads, that I wrote some CSS rules that will work in any browser to block these ads. If you don’t know what CSS is, don’t worry, it doesn’t matter, just follow the steps below and the Facebook ads will be banished forever.

Note: These steps are only necessary if you are using a browser other than Firefox. If you are using Firefox, simply install Adblock Plus and you’re done. For those using Internet Explorer or Safari, read on.

1. Open a new text file in Notepad, Texmate, or a similar program and past the following line into it:

   #ssponsor, .footer_ad, .banner_ad, .social_ad, .ad_capsule, .sidebar_ads, .adcolumn, .admarket_ad, .sidebar_item.sponsor, .emu_sponsor, .home_sponsor, .UIHomeBox_Sponsored { display: none !important; }

2. Save the file to your user directory or My Documents folder, and call it ‘usercontent.css’.

   Note: If you are using TextEdit on a Mac, you will need to go to the Format menu and click “Make Plain Text” before you save the file. Otherwise, you will not be able to save it as a .css file.

3. Depending on what browser you are using, this step will vary.

For Internet Explorer users:
Go to Tools->Internet Options, the click on Accessibility down at the bottom right. Then under User Stylesheet check the box ‘Format documents using my stylesheet’, and then click browse. Locate and select the ‘usercontent.css’ file you saved earlier. Hit Open, then Ok, and Ok again, and you’re done. Once you reload Facebook, the ads should be gone.

For Safari users:
Go to Safari->Preferences->Advanced, and select ‘Other’ from the Stylesheet dropdown near the bottom. Browse to where you saved the ‘usercontent.css’ file, select it, click Choose, and you’re done. Once you reload Facebook, the ads should be gone.

Enjoy an ad-less Facebook!