Broken PO Window

Shattered window at the Los Feliz Station Post office.

Twas The Dark Knight Before Christmas (flash)

Batman stars in this new spin on "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (rated PG).

Santa Monica Pier Sign

Iconic archway sign at the Santa Monica Pier.

Old Chevy

Antique Chevrolet in Burbank, CA.

It's Christmas Time! (flash)

Gansta-ish Christmas rap (rated R).

Kid-less Christmas (flash)

Wishing a quiet, peaceful and debt-free holiday... with some dark humor (rated PG-13).

Reasonably Happy (flash)

Can Tim get the girl and be reasonably happy (rated PG-13)?

Cold Blooded Christmas (flash)

Reaction to Santa's arrival on Christmas (rated R).

Snow Blobes Are Fun (flash)

A fun/funny Snowglobe toy type thing (rated PG-13).

Stalking Santa (flash)

A man sets out on proving Santa exists (rated PG-13).

WQXR The Cool Breeze (flash)

Johnny B and The Cheese rockin away (rated R).

ASCII text and codes

Converting ASCII text to their numberical values is sometimes very useful, and online ASCII converters make it much simpler. There are some types of characters, like many output by the Upside Down Text generator, that are not on the ASCII list.

George Bush Singing 'Bloody Sunday' (flash)

Taken from various sources, an edit of the president's words (rated PG).

WGA Strike Cookies

Writers Guild of America strike sign cookies outside gate 2 of Warner Brothers in Burbank, CA.

Callout (flash)

Promo for EastCoast krumpers Buck event Dec 8 2007 (rated PG-13).

Fake Poinsettia

Fake poinsettia flower in Burbank, CA.

Wedding First Dance (flash)

A fun first dance at a wedding (rated PG-13).

Light Train

Light Train thing in Burbank,CA.

Daft Bodies - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (flash)

A very creative dance to the Daft Punk song (rated PG).

How Not to Use a Crane (flash)

An example of how not to get car out of the water (rated PG).

Dinosaur Comics: The Animated Series Ep. 1 (flash)

The Animated Series of the web comic (rated PG-13).

Dinosaur Alive (flash)

Living dinosaur in New Zealand (rated PG).

The Whitest Boy Alive 'Golden Cage' (flash)

Song with optical illusions (rated PG).

Ninja Parade (flash)

Ninja Parade slips through town unnoticed once again (rated PG).

Twigger's Holiday Ep 2 (flash)

Episode 2 of Twigger's Holiday, episodes 1, 3, 4 and 5 are also online (rated R).

Cirque Teaser

Cirque du Soleil sign in Hollywood, CA.

HuckChuckFacts (flash)

Quite possibly the funniest campaign ad I've ever seen (rated PG). Excellent example of crafting a message to compete for attention with a better funded opposition.

Leg Peeing (flash)

Whitest Kids U Know's deeply childish battle of pride (rated R).

Mr. T World of Warcraft Commercial (flash)

Mr. T talks about World of Warcraft and his character (rated PG).

Georgia Police Storm TV station

Opposition protesters in Georgia returned to the streets November 25 with a demand for the reopening of pro-opposition television and radio broadcaster Imedi

(from eurasianet.org). Opposition TV station IMEDI, whose web site (http://imedinews.ge/en) does not seem to be responding, was shut down by Georgian police in Tbilisi, Georgia. The last moments are on YouTube in a few different versions and also part can be seen with an english translation:

Santa

Santa Claus at Burbank Town Center.

Improv City IV (flash)

The fourth installment of the Improv City series which is "for serious improv initiates only" (rated PG-13).

Early Christmas

Christmas decorations for sale early (before Thanksgiving) in Burbank,
CA.

Bad Meat Sneak Preview (flash)

Clip from the upcoming comedy Bad Meat (rated R).

Baghdad’s Security Improves

The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer and down sharply from a recent peak of 59 in March, the American military says.

As a result, for the first time in nearly two years, people are moving with freedom around much of this city. In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark. In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish. Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army

(from The New York Times).

Mels Drive-In

Mels Drive-In in Hollywood, CA.

Not The Daily Show, With Some Writer

Biting commentary about producers and executives like Summer Redstone from a striking writer (rated PG-13).

Talk with Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock speaks about film: montages, juxtaposition, orchestration, cutting and more (rated PG-13).

Clinton Admits Planting Questions

She called on a young woman. As a young person, said the well-spoken Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, I'm worried about the long-term effects of global warming. How does your plan combat climate change?

Well, you should be worried, Clinton replied. You know, I find as I travel around Iowa that it's usually young people that ask me about global warming.

There's a good reason for that, too. The question was a plant, totally rigged in advance, like a late-night infomercial. Just before the public forum a Clinton staffer had chosen the young woman, a student at Grinnell College, and asked her to ask that specific question. To watch a video of the staged question and the pefectly-formatted response, click here

(from Los Angeles Times).

Women In Art (flash)

500 years of female portraits in Western Art (rated PG).

I Am A Building (flash)

Mike and Mike have the strangest lunch ever (rated PG-13).

Feed Validator

If you are doing something that requires you to raw code a feed, either RSS or atom, feedvalidator.org can check your work. It validates quickly, and provides useful tips on how to fix your feed if it's broken.

Robots.txt Validator

To affect what automated visitors see when they visit your website, you can use a robots.txt file. You'll need to be able to create a file at the root level of your web site. You can use a standard text editor to make you robots.txt file (e.g., TextEdit, Notepad, etc.).

You may want to check the syntax of your live robots.txt file, the one on your site now, using a robots.txt validator. Robots.txt validtors can be very useful to verify you've set your robots.txt file up to do what you really want it to do. It helps reduce human error, especially as the file gets larger.

Remember that while web robots (search engine spiders and such) often do obey the instructions they find in robots.txt files, a robots.txt file is not a security measure. Robots.txt files are your suggestions about what machines should and should not access, they won't control who or what can access anything on your web site. To actually restrict access to your site (or just certain directories) you can often set up authentication, authorization and access control using a .htaccess file.

Bird of Paradise (flower)

Bird of Paradise in Burbank, CA.

Space Station Tour

A virtual tour of the International Space Station (rated PG).

Morphable Model Faces

3D modifiable faces based on single still pictures (rated PG).

ASL-ish Karaoke

Sign language interpretation of the song 'Torn' (rated PG).

WGA Galaxy

Slightly funny examination of what a world without writers would be like (rated PG).

Tim O. (flash)

Actor-Writer Tim O'Malley attempts to laugh at his past, his alcoholism, drug addiction and recovery (rated R).

Top Gear: Ariel Atom (flash)

The Ariel Atom is a fourwheeled car that drive fast and stably (rated PG-13).

Cheating Color

In a web page design, cheating colors is a way to make colors appear to be the same, when in fact they are different. Depending on context (e.g., background, surroundings, etc.) a color may _appear_ different when in fact it is the same as another area on a web page.

For instance, a light color on a light background may look slightly lighter when it is a small area (e.g., small text) than it does in a large area (e.g., header text). Making the smaller area actually darker, can make the two different areas appear to be the same color.

Similarly, but in reverse, a dark color on a dark background may look better if lightened in small areas relative to bigger areas.

Spin (flash)

If a DJ could change the world, or if God were a DJ (rated PG-13).

Robot Attack Insurance (flash)

Saturday Night Live's "Robot Attack" commercial. Robots attack old people and steal their medicine for fuel (rated PG-13).

Magic Trick (flash)

Barry and Stuart do a series of magic tricks (rated PG).

Monday Morning Sky Show

In the heavens Monday morning, two planets, two space ships, the moon and an exploding comet promise quite a show.

Driving under Influience [sic] (flash)

Funny field sobriety test shot from police car (rated PG).

Data Lost After Internet Crash (flash)

Fake news report about the crash of the internet (rated PG-13).

iPhone Costume (flash)

iPhone Halloween costumes that are pretty impressive (rated PG). Music is Satisfaction by Benny Benassi & The Biz.

Scary Mary

'Mary Poppins' trailer recut as horrow movie (rated PG-13).

Horror Friends (flash)

Horror movie villians as friends, a parody of the sitcom (rated PG-13).

Hammer King (flash)

Hammer King is an apt description (rated PG).

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch giving a condensed version of his Last Lecture on Oprah; he is a professor, is dying, and is very inspirational (rated PG).

Hestekor (flash)

Singing horse-type things; click them to hear (rated PG).

Animator vs Animation 2 (flash)

A battle between the animator and the animated, creator and creation (rated PG).

Food Crime?

Sign for IHOP's Carrot Cake Pancakes in Hollywood.

The Wand (flash)

A story about a magic wand that makes all your wishes come true (rated PG-13).

CSS Cheat Sheet

A handy cheat sheet for CSS that will print out on one page (on most systems).

Brains parody of Shoes (flash)

Living Dead Girlz and Holy Zoo parody 'Shoes' (rated R).

Monty Python Airplane Pilots (flash)

Bored pilots scare their passengers (rated PG-13).

Skybridge

Skybridge at Los Angeles Center Studios.

Santa's Pad

Santa's digs at Burbank Town Center in Burbank, CA.

BJ Mastercard Parody (flash)

Ah, first date jitters/boldness (rated R).

$2 multitouch

Colored water 'multitouch tablet' for computer input (rated PG).

Icon War (flash)

Windows desktop icons have a war (rated PG-13).

Nice and Free CSS Templates

If you're in a hurry to make a site, these templates can save you time.

3.14 Apple Pi (flash)

Bo Burnham is back with his own style of hip hop wizardry (rated R).

The Landlord (flash)

A scary landlord; at least you'd never have to pay rent (rated R).

President Clinton Last Days in Office (flash)

This leaves me speechless. It's funny (rated PG).

Alanis Morissette 'My Humps' (flash)

Alanis Morissette sends up 'My Humps' by the Black Eyed Peas (rated PG-13).

Japanese Tetris (flash)

It's sort of like tetris, with people (rated PG).

glumbert - Japanese Tetris

Macaw

Macaw perched on a chair in Venice, CA.

Waverlympics (flash)

Proposed Olympic event: 30 seconds, one suitcase, two men; one gets in, and out, of the suitcase (rated PG).

Funny Ninja (flash)

Funny ninja skit with fun puppet -like actors in black (rated PG).

Hyperactive - Lasse Gjertsen (flash)

"Drumsolo" using only a camcorder, his mouth and editing (rated PG).

Codename: Grouchy (flash)

A secret agent who wants more time... to sleep (rated PG-13).

Wanna Buy a Ghost? (flash)

A man buys a ghost on the black market in NYC (rated PG-13).

Kitchen Diaries

Beardyman, amazing beatboxer, shows how to make a nice music recipe (rated PG).

Google Sitemap Validation Tool

Might be good for checking if your Google sitemap is written properly. It's basically an XML validator, with a more focused purpose.

Amateur - Lasse Gjertsen (flash)

Amazing editor (and director) Lasse Gjertsen, who can't play drums or piano, edits himself playing drums and piano, taking his hyperactive editing style a step further (rated PG).

Swing Man Gloating (flash)

Matt mocks his coworkers after beating down two gangsters in this scene (rated R).

Giovanni Sollima Daydream (flash)

Music video for the italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima (rated PG-13).

Ahmanson Theatre

Ahmanson Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

Laser Cats 2 (flash)

The SNL digital short about cats that shoot lasers out of their mouths (rated PG).

Johnny Rockets Grade 'B' Health

The grade 'B' Public Health food inspection certificate at Johnny
Rockets in Burbank Town Center in Burbank, CA.

Daughters

"They" have his daughter (rated R).

Landmine Near Miss

Good driving can save your life (rated R).

FCU with Bill Murray (flash)

The Fact Checking Unit at a magazine checks the facts (rated PG-13).

Fortune Cookie Fortune

Fortune cookie fortune that "a messenger will soon bring good tidings" at Panda Express in Burbank, CA.

One Semester of Spanish Love Song (flash)

The One Semester of Spanish Love Song is even funnier if you know a little Spanish... about a semester's worth should do (rated PG).

Scarlet Rose for Miss Horrorfest 2007 (flash)

A surprising entry for Miss Horrorfest 2007 (rated R).

Bo Fo' Sho' (flash)

A funny rap by Bo Burnham (rated R).

Gower Gulch

The unique strip mall at Sunset and Gower.

Stunt Squirrel (flash)

A squirrel runs an obstacle course and robs a vending machine (rated PG).

Faces in Places (blog)

As the name Faces in Places implies, it's pictures of objects that seem to have faces on them.

Comma Separated Value (CSV) Files with PHP

Comma Separated Values File Format can be used within a PHP. This can be useful to manipulate data that already exists in .csv files, or to easily create a datafile with either a program (like Excel) or by hand. Here are some more resources about PHP and the CSV File Format:

• About the file format
• PHP class to read and write CSV data properly
• CSV to XML Converter

Crocker Did What? (flash)

An actress expresses concerns about non-actor Chris Crocker getting a TV show (rated R).

'John Hancock' Set

Over turned cement truck embedded in Hollywood Blvd. for the film 'John Hancock' in Hollywood.

The Paley Center for Media

The lobby in Beverly Hills.

$100 to Early iPhone Buyers

I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week

(from Steve Jobs' Open Letter To All iPhone Customers).

Update: They went live and are no longer online now.

Silly Billboard

A billboard in Hollywood that was probably put up so people like me would put it on blogs like this.

Elegante Creations

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. In Burbank Town Center, Burbank, CA.

Unix Timestamp Converter

An online tool to covert a date and time into a Unix Timestamp (time measured in the number of seconds since the Unix Epoch [January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT]).

Raleigh Studios Manhattan Beach

The main gate of Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach, CA.

Picture Car Lot

Picture cars in their lot at Los Angeles Center Studios.

Los Angeles Center Studios

Office tower at Los Angeles Center Studios in downtown LA. It has appeared in numerous films and TV shows (e.g., Numbers).

Cumulus Clouds

Cumulus clouds over the Verdugo mountains in Burbank, CA.

Elephant Column

Elephant column at Hollywood and Highland in Hollywood.

DGA Building

Directors Guild of America building on Sunset in West Hollywood, CA.

Criminal Minds

'Criminal Minds' staging area in Burbank, CA.

Google Analytics for Tracking Campaigns

If you'd like to track what marketing campaigns are leading to what kind of visitors, Google Analytics can do this well. After you install Google Analytics code on your site, using Google's URL Builder Tool to tag links you put in web and email campaigns (i.e., not the links within your site), will allow you to track a visitor from the source of the visit.

Basically, by tagging links that you put in CPC or email campaigns, Analytics will not only tell you which campaign a visitor came from, but it can also follow what they do once they're on your site (by setting up goals in Analytics).

This way you can know not only what campaigns are getting you visitors, but what campaigns lead visitors to do what you want them to do on your site (e.g., buy something from you).

You can even track file downloads, track outbound links and track what visitors subscribe to your feed.

LisaNova does 300 (flash)

Brilliantly silly take on 300 (rated PG-13).

Police in Burbank

Burbank's finest at work.

Scooby Doo Balloon

Scooby Doo balloon in Barneys in West Hollywood,CA.

Handsy MacGrabsalot (flash)

Two people, two burgers, Heinz ketchup for one (rated PG).

Homer Simpson

Homer Simpson eating a dounut on a poster in Burbank, CA.

Underdog at El Capitan

Underdog marque in Hollywood, CA.

Opposite Day (flash)

Funny alternative to casual Friday (rated PG-13).

Lions vs Buffalo vs Crocodile (flash)

Amazing footage of a watering hole battle at Kruger National Park (rated PG-13, for animal violence).

Wicked Balloons

New York Skyline

Off-topic: New York city skyline; the Statue of Liberty and downtown.

Harry Potter Book Line NYC

Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime in Hollywood.

Bumblebee

Bumblebee from the Transformers movie in Hollywood.

iPhone Line

IPhone line in Burbank, CA.

NBC Entrance

NBC entrance.

Idiot Actor Syndrome

A mockumentary about one man's struggle with IAS (Idiot Actor Syndrome) and his recovery at the Actor's Institute for Quality Control.

AmVets Vehicles

Vehicles at AmVets Post 2.

Residuals

Residuals wall at Residuals in Studio City, CA.

Disney's Star

Walt Disney's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Wasabi Pockets (flash)

A fake ad for food (rates PG-13).

What's It Gonna Be (flash)

Mike and Yoshito get funky fresh (rated R, for language, themes).

Submit Your Feed to MySpace News

Since MySpace is big, their news pages may be a way to open up any of your syndicated content to a new audience. You can submit your suggestions for inclusion.

Wildfire

Griffith Park wildfire.

Dreamworks Studio Gate

Dreamworks in Glendale, CA.

Weinermobile

Oscar Meyer wiener mobile in Hollywood, CA.

Color Palette Generator

This tool makes a color palette out of any image on the web. It can be very useful if you're trying to match a web site to an image you are using on the site.

The Landlord (flash)

A twistedly funny Will Farrell video (rated PG-13, for language).

Marie Calender's

Marie Calender's on Wilshre in Los Angeles, CA.

Huge Emmy

Huge Emmy in North Hollywood, CA.

AB split test in PHP

If you have a web site, and you run ads on it, you probably want to make the most money you can. This means testing out different sizes, layouts, colors, and even types of ad to see which ones make the most money. One of the easiest ways to find the most profitable ad, is to run a split test.

An AB split test runs one ad, the "A" ad, part of the time, and shows a second, the "B" ad, the other part of the time. After they've each been displayed many times, the results of the two different ads can be compared. Then, replace the less profitable ad with a new format/color/etc. and run the test again. This way you'll refine the ads over time, and always be lookng to improve your revenue.

If you host your site somewhere that supports PHP, you can set up an AB split test using this code:

<?php
if (rand(1, 100) > 50) { // display this 50% of the time
echo "A ad's code is here";
}
else { // display this the other 50% of the time
echo "B ad's code is here";
}
?>

You can change the code to display each ad whatever percentage of the time you choose. Just change the last number in this line:

if (rand(1, 100) > 50)

For example, using the number 80 (instead of 50) displays ad A %20 of the time, and the other 80% of the time, the B ad is displayed.

Note: If your ad code has a quote characters in it, you must escape them by putting a backslash \ before the quote character so php will not see them as the end of the echo string.

In Domestic Intelligence Gathering, the FBI Is Definitely on the Case

Terrorism is not about stopping plots. We can stop plots, and do, with our partners in foreign security services, at CIA, at Homeland Security, with state and local police, and with Americans who help. But terrorists will plot again if we defend against only their schemes and fail to stop the terrorists themselves. So our focus is on what to do about terrorists once we draw an intelligence picture of who they are and what they are up to. When intelligence groups use their unique tools to stop terrorists overseas, they disrupt unilaterally and sometimes with foreign partners, often using those partners' law enforcement tools to take terrorists off the streets. But the end of their often brilliant intelligence operations is disruption: stopping people so they cannot plot again.

We operate within the U.S., and we have a different set of tools. But we have the same end as they do: disruption. Once we fully understand a cell, we can either let it run, which we often do, or take it down. When we take it down, we use tools that reflect American laws, used in ways that reflect American values. We penetrate cells to develop a sufficient understanding of who they are so we can limit the prospects of surprise. And once we have that understanding, we do what our partners do: We disrupt that cell using the tools at our disposal. Any security service around the world—MI5, CIA, Shin Bet—operates using this model

(from The Wall Street Journal, via fbi.gov).

Hollywood and the War on Terror

Any agency [the FBI] with a record of battling gangsters, communists and dirty pols can show up as good guys in my work anytime. And never mind just their record. Since 9/11 - chastened by blunders from within and above - the FBI has reinvented itself as a thin gray line against Islamic terrorism. Pulling 16-hour days, volunteering for repeated tours of duty at FBI outposts in the Middle East, constantly aware that their failures will be remembered when their successes are forgotten, the G-people are clearly heroes

(from Los Angeles Times).

Coffee'd Up: American Idol (flash)

In this episode of "Coffee'd Up," Jeff ruminates on American Idol (rated PG).

How To Make Your .doc Into a .rtf

Converting a Microsoft Word Document file (.doc) to Rich Text Format file (.rtf) allows you to share it with other people while keeping your formating intact. You don't need to worry what version of which word processor they have because almost all word processors, and many other programs, can open, edit and resave RTF files. Unlike PDF's, one does not need another program to edit an RTF file and resave it.

Rabbit House

Peter Rabbit house at Burbank Town Center in Burbank, CA.