bloggie blog

I’ve created a bookmarklet to switch from IMDb to IMDb Pro more easily. If you subscribe to IMDb Pro, do this.

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/"};

Hey there, kids. I just switched from one server to another. It’s a faster, better server from the same company I’ve been with for years now, Joyent, formerly Textdrive, and they say it’s a good way to reduce spammers from using me to spam. (Apologies for participating unwittingly in advertising Viagra.)

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.

If you look on IMDb, you won’t find information on an important character that recurs on early episodes of United States of Tara, your favorite show about DID and clever writing. I’m bothering with this because I’m watching the show. I’m a fan. Well, I sometimes like it, sometimes not. (Are we really supposed to believe this is Kansas?) But Toni Colette is buh-rilliant, so that keeps me watching no matter what happens. Plus there’s my long-standing crush on Rosemarie DeWitt to consider.

Trying to figure out who’s who amongst our guest stars was a little tough, so here’s what I finally figured out by watching the end credits: Tiffany, the woman that hires Tara to paint a mural, is played by Jessica St. Clair. As of today, that’s just not on IMDb anywhere.

The other day, I quickly ordered a few items from drugstore.com and the message I got the next day saying my order had shipped told me that the items got sent to my parents’ house. Which kind of worried me because (1) I don’t know how they got that address and (2) did I order anything that might raise an eyebrow? A very quick check told me that there were no worries regarding (2), and a phone call to their 800 number ensured I’d get my items. But still!

Have I ever sent to my parents’ address before? I have from Amazon or others, I’m sure, but I checked my drugstore.com orders and that address didn’t come up. Furthermore, they had lost my current home address — and I just ordered from them two months ago. So, maybe I should be worried about their servers and privacy issues and stuff? And if they didn’t have my current address, why did my credit card company let them process the charge? Man oh man.

Anybody else have technical problems with drugstore.com lately?