Archive for December, 2009
Gmail – Merge Contacts
Dec 15th
Finally, merge all duplicate contacts with one button. I just tried this out and it found and merged several contacts, and now I don’t need to do it manually “later” since this one-click and review option was so easy!
How? Go to Gmail > Contacts and look for the “Find Duplicates” button. Press it and follow the directions, and visit the original Gmail blog post (link above) for more detail.
Learn more about merging contacts.
MORE GMAIL
More Gmail Storage
More Gmail Security Tips
Hide Gmail Labels With No New Messages
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Fighting Tips (in the Favela)
Dec 11th
Favela: Head to the LZ to the South of the market
LISTEN TO THE ENEMY
During this mission, as in many of COD: MW2 missions it pays to listen to the enemy. First off, listen to your enemy. Even with a moderately priced ($15-$30) set of stereo headsets you can get a pretty good idea of where your enemy is – above you, below you, behind you, or to either side – you get the idea. Also listen to WHAT they say, even though you may not know the language. Many of the IMPORTANT words are similar in English. Here are some, though the spelling may be off…
covertura = cover
grenata = grenade
MOVEMENT
This area of the favela has a LOT of chickens jumping around in their cages that will make it harder to determine what to shoot. The first time in I killed as many chickens as people – partly because I started shooting them in an effort to get rid of their “ambient movement” so I’d be able to recognize threats, the gun-toting Brazialians.
Watch for shadows to give away your enemy, especially shadows from above. Shadows can be an important tip-off, but before you go attacking a shadow make sure you know its an enemy and not one of your own – friendly fire isn’t friendly!
MOVEMENT ROUTES & ENEMY INTELLIGENCE
The favela has lots of different paths to move through if you look. I tend to look straight down the middle and sometimes miss flanking routes, side alleys, paths around stands and paths through stands and buildings. Keep an eye open for alternate paths, especially in areas where enemy resistance is strong.
Be sure that you remember the people of the favela knows its paths well and take advantage of the fact that most places have 2 areas and rooms of approach, if not more. Its difficult ot get your back safely up against a wall there.
In this particular area there are 4 pieces of enemy intelligence. There is a lot of “visual noise” in the favela because its a city area – things laying around like clothing, boxes, pots, pans, cans, bottles, cages, baskets, LP gas tanks etc. Keep an eye out for enemy intelligence (open laptops).
COD4: Modern Warfare 2 – Doorway/Opening glitch
Dec 11th
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a great game (more later) but having completed it once, and playing through it again tonight I have to complain about “sticky places”. If you’ve logged enough time on the game then you’ve surely gotten stuck running through a doorway or other opening where you should be able to move, but instead get stuck.
Assassin’s Creed 2 has a similar glitch in which Ezio will suddenly look down as if on top of something when, in fact, he’s standing in a doorway or other surface. In COD: MW2 the issue is openings (doors, wall openings, and the like) and it can be a little frustrating when you are running full tilt and get “stuck” – boom, dead.
Great game, and admittedly this is a minor glitch that is not “everywhere” and its not “every” doorway, either.
PHP Local Time – Your timezone
Dec 11th
UPDATE: Better code. Creds for this updated code to my buddy Seth Furchgott who did the googling and grabbed the following from PHP.net, much better than what I originally posted below.
<?php
date_default_timezone_set(‘America/New_York’);
echo date(‘g:i A’);?>
Documentation for timezones:
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php (get time zones here by Continent…and Ocean)
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/timezones.america.php (US timezones)
OLD PHP TIME POSTS (newer PHP timezone post): After a comment from a visitor I re-checked my code, did some testing and added the echo statement with formatted time, and improved the comments about how to check for the correct value of $offset. Also, note I have not used this code for a year yet so I do not know if daylight savings has been taken into account.
PHP code to get time in YOUR timezone…
<?php
$mydatetime = time ();
$offset= 0; // offset in # of hours from desired location
// check the time displayed using $offset = 0 and adjust
// the offset accordingly
$mydatetime = $mydatetime + ($offset * 60 * 60);
echo date (“g:i A”, $mydatetime);?>
Check the PHP Time manual page for formatting the time.
Comments/feedback are invited.
