random pin generation

Automatical random PIN generation has been all the more common now, especially in mobile applications. There is a very good utility around by Stephen Ostermiller, that lets you generate random sequences of arbitrary length and arbitrary alphabets. You can download the latest Ostermiller Utils from http://ostermiller.org/utils/ostermillerutils_1_06_00.jar and then use it directly from command line (java -classpath utils.jar com.Ostermiller.util.RandPass), or more commonly through your Java application:

String pass = new RandPass(new char[]{'A','B','C'}).getPass(8)

happy tree friends

The Happy Tree Friends are cute little cartoon animals that get themselves into dire situations, always ending up in mayhem. Created by Kenn Navarro and Rhode Montijo, their short horrible stories can be watched on www.happytreefriends.com or on G4 videogame tv. Unbelievably insane and funny. Highly recommended to comic lovers.

despair inc.

This is only one of the many demotivators, pictures with a funny, pessimistic and subversive tagline that can be found in Despair Inc.. There's loads of demotivators that you can also buy as calendars, posters and even mugs including: "IDIOCY: Never understimate the power of stupid people in large groups", "BLAME: The secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures." or "DREAMS: Dreams are like rainbows. Only idiots chase them.". Even the site itself is full of witticisms, e.g. Where did you hear about us? (leave blank if answer is "the voices".). Dr E.L. Kresten the founder of Despair Inc., the man who registered the :-( emoticon, has released a highly acclaimed book The Art of Demotivation. Definitely worth reading.

web developer plugin

Web Developer plugin by Chris Pederick for Firefox just got better. Released on December 31, 2005 version 1.0 is fully compatible with Firefox 1.5 and brings a host of new goodies. Here are some that I found very handy:

• Positioning information by means of a ruler and line guides.
• Ability to edit the source.
• Outline of all images, including background.
• View document size.
• Added viewport options so that you always know what fits in 800x600, 1024x768 etc.

If you work with Firefox, Flock or Mozilla and you still haven't heard of it, go get it now!