I spent some time a while back setting up a layer for the layar reality browser. This particular layer connects to the drupal installation for heremag.ca to display locations of businesses and other things in our directory. Below is a rough video demonstration of the layer in action. If you are in Hamilton and want to test it out for yourself download the layar reality browser on your iPhone 3GS or Android phone and find the heremag layer in the local section. I'll be improving this layer in the coming weeks/months to include event data.

Heremag Layar Demo from Tyler McIntyre on Vimeo.

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If you're at all interested in some of the new features of CSS3 this page will be a quick way for you to experiment without writing a line of code. Now you can test out rounded corners, shadows, gradients and more... all without your expensive photo editor. With all the improvements in CSS and even HTML5 I'm really looking forward to the next few years in web development.

CSS3 Please

So for now I have scrapped the original #monsterattack script for now, it's something I'll probably come back to in a day or two. It looks like I'll have to look at a couple technical issues. I really like the idea of having something search for a tag, parse it and send a message. I'll get back to it eventually.

Instead I've created something quick with a little help from this post. I made a few changes like limiting the amount of text a person can add to 50 characters and creating a second text box for a username. After filling in both boxes you click send and the user gets a very special message from the MonsterAttack account.

I realize there are a few things that need to be fixed with this page because the spamming possibilities are endless but for now she's good.

MonsterAttack your friends
Follow @monsterattack

I spent last night sitting on my couch trying to create a fun little twitter bot but I'm not completely done yet. The basic idea is someone tweets "summon #monsterattack @twitteruser" and the bot selects it's target. Right now it just selects it's first target so your tweet has to be at the top of the list to be selected.

The code is a modified version of what the Hak5 Guys were working on a couple weeks ago. I've taken that same basic code and tweaked it a little bit and instead of something happening on a screen it's parsing the string and sending a message from @monsterattack to the victim.

The next step is to set up a cron job on my server to access the page every minute or two but I'm running into a couple issues. I'll be sure to update whenever it is completely up and running.

It has been difficult to find straightforward information about the Net Neutrality issue in Canada, this video has been the best that I've seen so far. Judging by the way the Telcos run their mobile networks I'm sure they would love to nail down the rest of the net just to fatten their wallets.

After you watch the video take a moment and send a quick message to the CRTC, it will only take a minute of your time. Here is the link: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/crtc_submission

Last night my phone was buzzing like crazy, I was receiving SMS messages from twitter and a short time later my phone was quiet again. Canada has been without SMS service from twitter for about two months now because of high prices from Canadian providers.

There are services that try to get around the SMS problem but I haven't had much luck with them as a decent backup. Tweet by mail sends the messages to my phone as email which Rogers handles in the most ridiculous way. Once I recieve a message I have to confirm that I want to read it by sending a reply with the word "read". This adds a whole other step to the process and possibly an extra 10 cents or whatever Rogers is charging these days. Twe2 was the second and most recent service that I tried and although it delivers the messages as SMS they are often delayed and messages take hours to be delivered. I must also say that the message delay from twe2 could have something to do with Rogers and not their service so I'd be interested to know if others had more success with the service.

I think the best solution right now is just to wait and hope that SMS will be enabled soon in Canada. Twitter has changed a lot in the last two months, I have seen a lot more friends join up and it's a very different place for me socially. I'll be very interested to see what happens when SMS is eventually enabled.

Follow @hamburgers

Update Feb 20 3:58PM:

Twitter has updated their blog, SMS has been enabled for Bell customers. Crossing my fingers in hopes that Rogers comes next....

Remember back when I was a kid, maybe you were one at that time too in which case you would also remember. We used to have to buy these plastic boxes filled with magnetic tape to listen to our music in what we called tape decks. Well other people want to cash in on your nostalgia and eco friendly heart with a new concept MP3 player.

The NVDRS tape is an MP3 player in the shape of those old fashioned tapes. By winding the wheel you're charging that sucker up. The device would come in 3 different storage sizes, and even those are retro; 30min, 60min and 90min. It seems like a fun concept but you won't see me exchanging my iPod for one of these but I think it could make sharing music with friends more fun.

My only concern is with the middle image at the bottom of this post. Is the tape going to be really big or are that dudes hands just freakishly small?

It's a shame that Stacey and I didn't find this dress before we got married. This could have been the perfect addition to our wedding attire. Gold Lame jacket and a hamburger dress, sounds very sexy.... OK maybe not. The dress was made by Joy Kampia and is created from Assorted Fibers, nylon, crocheted and sewn.

So if you're into food related clothing items you may want to check out Joy's site. I see a sundae dress in your future.

Via Craft Zine and Geekologie

Steel City Music is podcasting again! We have done quite a bit of work to get back to where we were before the big server crash of 08. This week we re-launched our podcasting section with a new episode of Steel City Music Scene. The format for Scene will be changing a bit, it'll be a more talk based show with guests every week and it'll be a bit shorter.

We are also launching three new podcasts. The first is the Jelly Report which is the short and tiny version of his regular Saturday show. I have also started my own that will show up every Thursday called Howlin' Mad. I'll be playing a half hour of the best and craziest rock tunes I can find. The third new podcast launches later today with Gunner called Gunnercast. This show will feature interviews with local musicians and more, all taken from his Friday show on C101.

Check out all the podcasts on www.steelcitymusic.ca, we will be adding more as time goes on. If you're interested in joining in on the fun send me an email with your idea and we'll see what we can work out.

It's been such a long time but I'm slowly rebuilding. Here I am, it feels like it's been so long but I think that's because it has been. Where have I gone? What have I done? There was Vegas, there was a wedding, there were some server failures and there was all kinds of other stuff. I'm sure we'll talk about it all sometime. Success and failure here I come again.

www.twitter.com/hamburgers