div.alert[id=message] {
display: none;
}

(Version and updating are not as automated as they should be. Maybe that will happen in the next version? And then maybe I’ll get it published in the Gallery?)

This Extension does one simple thing: it loads the IMDb Pro version of all IMDb pages. It’s just a beta version, but it’s simple and it’s free. Let me know if you like it, and what additional features you’d like to see.

Please note: this is no good to somebody who doesn’t have an IMDb Pro account!

Anybody else seeing this? I’m assuming it’s a bug, but maybe they’re now adhering more strictly to previously overlooked standards? There’s no mention on the interwebs of this bug that I can see….

This bookmarklet, as before, does two things: 1. It will take you to a specific IMDb Pro page if you click on it when you’re not on IMDb. The default is in the box below; if you prefer to visit a specific IMDb page instead, like yours, enter it below first. 2. If you’re looking at a regular IMDb page when you click on this bookmarklet, you’ll be whisked to the IMDb Pro version of that page.

So, enter your favorite “home” URL above, then drag this link to your bookmarks bar, and you’re good to go: [IMDb Pro].

I am primarily a Safari user, but this bookmarklet appears to work in Chrome, too. Firefox is being persnickety, however, and I’m working on getting a version that works in that browser.

I use a service called Campaign Monitor. For myself or for work I’ve done for others, I’ve also used in the past Vertical Response, Dadamail and a couple of others. They all have strengths and weaknesses, but I simply like Campaign Monitor more. It is not free, but I don’t pay very much, and you can try it out for free. Whether you use them or not, I recommend using a service instead of doing it yourself!

The other service I use is called “me.” Meaning, I design my own website and my own email, and I design my email to more or less look like my website. Of course, all email services provide templates, but I prefer to roll my own. Designing email is tricky, and I see a lot of über-bad email design out there. (One common mistake is sending email that looks great for certain recipients but looks like garbage or like absolutely nothing for other recipients.) I’m good at design that looks good for all recipients. If you admire my email updates, Campaign Monitor and I are both available to work for you.

But if you trust the links, and if you want to bypass that intermediate business on any one Facebook page, just click this bookmarklet first and you will be good to go: [Trust].

This bookmarklet by default will take you to IMDb Pro’s home page if you click on it when you’re not on IMDb. If you prefer instead to visit a specific IMDb page, like yours, enter it in the box below first. Whether you enter a URL below or not, if you’re looking at a regular IMDb page when you click on this bookmarklet, you’ll be whisked to the Pro version of that page.

So, enter your favorite “home” URL above, then drag this link to your bookmarks bar, and you’re good to go: [IMDb Pro].

The first time you use Actors Access, it’s good to see the message at the top of each breakdown that begins with, “SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS ALWAYS SUBMIT ASAP!!! Submitting within the first day….” But that large message gets old fast! That message just gets in the way after a while. Here’s some CSS you can use to tell Safari to hide the message:

div.alert[id=message] {
display: none;
}

I’ve modified my online copy of overcome.css to include this plus the previous IMDb Pro fix. Download and enjoy! (Need help on this? Just leave a comment.)

Now, if anybody can figure out how to do this on Safari iPhone, too, please let me know!

I offer herein a quick fix to the printing problem, at least in Safari / Mac OS X. (Other browsers should have similar solutions for the savvy web user.)

Create a file named something.css and store it on your hard drive wherever you want. I call mine “overcome.css” and put in a my Documents folder. Edit this file with a plain-text editor. Do not use Word. Put this text, this CSS code, into that file, then save it and close it:

@media print {
#nav-wrapper { display: none; }
}

(Alternate solution if plain-text editing is beyond your computer routine: download overcome.css.)

Now in Safari, go to Safari > Preferences > Advanced. Where it says Style Sheet, select the file you just created or downloaded. That’s it! See the difference below, where I offer a side-by-side comparison of the first printed page of my IMDb Pro page. Quick review: Better. Way better. IMDb should hire me.

UPDATE: It turns out that Safari users will benefit from one other CSS change, due to poor cross-browser issues with the new IMDb Pro look. Add this to overcome.css in order to avoid the weird thing that happens where the page shifts down 21 pixels just as it finishes rendering. I’ve altered the download file accordingly.

#nav-wrapper #navbar { margin: 0 !important; }

Again, IMDb should hire me.

(Please leave a comment if you find it useful, or if you find an error.)

Today I would like to take a moment to applaud AT&T on this front. Here in LA, some of the wealthiest neighborhoods have the worst AT&T coverage. I’m talking about the Hollywood hills, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Man, do I admire the Socialist-Commie-Pinko-Democrat-Bleeding-Hearts at AT&T who brazenly do not cater to their richest constituents.

AT&T, you looked at the only neighborhoods in town that could afford iPhones, and you told them to suck it. You go, AT&T!

However, I use a lot of data. Twice the amount needed to qualify for the $15/month savings that I’d hoped for. And since the new plans are capped, maybe it’s not worth giving up unlimited for any cap in order to save $5/month. The included graph shows my data plan usage from AT&T’s wireless account page. I’m at 400 MB/month pretty consistently. What’s your usage?

Embracing change, I switched the DNS servers on our Time Capsule settings from Time Warner Cable’s default values to the settings over at OpenDNS. The internets have gotten peppier with every one of the above changes. Upgrading your RAM or your OS will probably cost most of you money, but you can all upgrade to OpenDNS for free … and I highly recommend you give it a shot!

Just be sure to write down your current settings so you can reverse them if it doesn’t make things peppier for you. (Sidebar: If you say it in French, a peppier might be the guy that walks around fancy restaurants to grind some pepper on your soupe or salade.)

Drag this link [Pro] to your bookmark bar. This link will now switch you to the IMDb Pro version of any IMDb page, or it will take you to the IMDb Pro home page if you click on it when not on regular IMDb.

Now, you may be saying that this is useless because every regular IMDb page has a link to its IMDb Pro version. Yes, but with this bookmarklet, you can click on one reliable place, a place that doesn’t scroll, a place whose horizontal location is not dependent on the length of an actor’s or agency’s name, and a place not blocked by very invasive ads that IMDb sometimes puts up! It was the invasive Flash ads for Alice in Wonderland that drove me to develop this. If you use Safari, you can also use a keyboard shortcut to the first 10 bookmarks in your bookmark bar. Speedy!

I find this handy. Leave a comment if you find it handy, too!

P.S. If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts of this bookmarklet, here is its Javascript code:

h=location.href;
w=h.indexOf("http://www.imdb.com");
p=h.indexOf("http://pro.imdb.com");
if(w==0){window.location=h.replace("www","pro")}
else if(p==-1){window.location="http://pro.imdb.com/"};

I have had something blocking my vision for a while now. It’s half wonderful, half garbage, and it’s called my inbox. My email inboxes (are we all plural on that front nowadays?) are often full, but as of today, they are blissfully empty. It’s a new thing for a new year. So if you emailed me during 2009 and I didn’t respond, please accept my deepest apology and write back, because I ain’t looking back in my old messages unless I suddenly remember there’s money in there for me. Money or peacock feathers.

It’s even better when multiple people play with your carolers. A friend squealed, “I love it!” after just a few seconds of setup between iPhones.

That was a few days ago. This morning she texted me: “I’m having serious iCaroler withdrawl!” Enough said — worth 99¢ right there!

I spent a few hours trying to make sure everything is right, but shoot me an email if you see anything not working here on kevinashworth.com, k? Thanks.

The tricky part for most users is this one requirement: Have a server somewhere that runs PHP and that can send you email. If you have access to such a server, here’s an easy solution I call Mappie Map. It’s kind of like iPhoneSender, but you don’t have to type in an email address every time you use it.

1. Create a file in the html root directory of your server and name it iphone.php.

2. Edit iphone.php with this text (replacing YOUREMAIL with your actual email):

< ?php
function mystrip($s) {
	$s = trim($s);
	$s = str_replace("\xA0",' ',$s);
	$s = preg_replace('/\s+/','+',$s);
	return $s;
}
$to = "YOUREMAIL";
$address = $_REQUEST["address"];
echo $address . "<br />";
$subject = "Map: " . $address;
$address = mystrip($address);
$message = "http://maps.google.com/?q=" . $address;
$from = "Mappie Map YOUREMAIL";
$headers = "From: $from";
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
echo $address;
?>

3. Drag this link [Mappie Map] to your Safari bookmark bar.

4. Right-click the Mappie Map link in your Safari bookmark bar and select “Edit Address.” Replace YOURSERVER with the URL of your server root, such as www.FirstnameLastname.com.

5. You’re good to go! Click on the Mappie Map bookmark link after highlighting an address in your web page, a new window pops up showing the sent info which you must close manually, and you’ll soon get a message from Mappie Map. Just tap on its contents, and the address will now appear in your iPhone’s Maps app without you having to type it in.

I find this real real handy. Leave a comment if you find it handy, too!

Anyway, over the last couple of months, lots of industry people have started Tweeting all the time. And it’s useful information for people new to LA. So I follow. But it’s dangerous. I think I have mis-Tweeted, and I think I crossed the personal-business divide. Damn, and damn. But I’m not the only one who is confused! Consider two Tweets from today:

@DanielleCasting: crashing an audition is possibly the worst thing you can do to yourself.. even if your agent tells you to give it a try..don’t do it!!!

@TalentAgentLA: RT @agentCESD So many actors have a magical best friend who is “slightly less attractive” but “gets out more than I do.” Voila, a crash!

Two talent agents encourage actors to crash auditions, but one casting director says never do it, no matter the aforementioned encouragement from your agent. Talk about confusing! Who are you going to believe? The answer might be this: Don’t crash Danielle’s auditions, and crash other auditions very selectively. But it can be confusing, this Twitterverse of ours. Next step for me is not to crash selectively, but to try to make amends for crossing the personal-business divide. Hmm. Tweet me your best ideas!

The photo is from my recent trip to Arches National Park, where we were mesmerized by this iridescent cloud as we stood under one of the “windows.” The icons are from Quicken, Entourage, Excel and Yahoo Mail! as a Fluid app. The only trouble with this lovely setup: the dock is too huge, but I had to magnify it for the screenshot. Enjoy! Now back to our regular dock size.

Requirements:
0. Want to get a street address to your iPhone more easily.
1. Use Safari or Firefox on your computer at home. (IE is untested.)
2. Have a server somewhere that runs PHP and can send you email.

Basically, if you have access to a server, here’s an easy solution I call Mappie Map. It’s kind of like iPhoneSender, but you don’t have to type something every time you use it.

First, create a script file on your server and name it iphone.php:

< ?php
function mystrip($s) {
	$s = trim($s);
	$s = str_replace("\xA0",' ',$s);
	$s = preg_replace('/\s+/','+',$s);
	return $s;
}
$to = "YOUREMAIL";
$address = $_REQUEST["address"];
echo $address . "<br />";
$subject = "Map: " . $address;
$address = mystrip($address);
$message = "http://maps.google.com/?q=" . $address;
$from = "Mappie Map YOUREMAIL";
$headers = "From: $from";
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
echo $address;
?>

Then drag this link [Mappie Map] to your Safari bookmark bar and click on it after highlighting an address in your web page.

Of course, you’ll have to edit the bookmark first, with your server name; you’ll have to edit the other script with your email info, too. Once it’s running, click on the bookmarklet, a new window pops up showing the sent info which you must close manually, and you’ll soon get a message from Mappie Map. Just tap on its contents, and the address will now appear in your iPhone’s Maps app without you having to type it in. I find this real real handy. Leave a comment if you find it handy, too!