If you’re one of the unlucky ones that haven’t gotten an invitation to Google+, well, this is your lucky day. I’ve already given out over 270 of them since yesterday, but I still have quite a few invites left. I promise that the only thing I will use your email address for is to send you a Google+ invitation. No spam, or any other BS like other sites. I just want you all to get a chance to try it, and hopefully get away from that FB site.

If you want a Google+ invite, leave me a message on my Contact Form, and I’ll send one out to you.

Once you get it, return the favor by going to my Home Page, and click on the +1 and Like buttons on the right, and/or even click on the Tweet button and let other folks know where to get a Google+ invite. If you can, pay it forward. You should get some invites of your very own when you sign up. Be kind and share.

Much appreciated, and happy Google+ing. =)

-Trystian

Today, Roku announced the release of their Roku 2 media streamer. In addition to playing videos, audio, and pictures, they’ve added gaming to this 4th generation device. Currently, you can only play Angry Birds, but there are plans to add other games such as Namco’s Pac-Man Championship Edition.

Like the previous Roku, there will be three models. Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, and Roku 2 XS. The prices will be $59.99, $79.99, and $99.99, respectively.

There will be many more channels available in the Roku 2, compared to the previous iteration, as well as the long awaited subtitle support.

These things are tiny and very unobtrusive. They only weigh 3oz, and measure 3.3×3.3×0.9 inches, so even if you are limited on space, I’m sure you can find a place for it. Just remember, if you are using wireless, be careful about placement. You don’t want to place it somewhere that will interrupt the Wi-Fi signal.

Speaking of wireless, all three models include built-in wireless (Wi-Fi b/g/n), and have WEP, WPA, and WPA2 support. For those of you that prefer a wired connection, the XS model is the only one of the three that has a 10/100 Base-T Ethernet connection.

If you decide to get the Roku 2 XS model, you’ll be thrilled to learn that it comes with a Bluetooth 6-axis motion sensing game remote, which includes a free edition of Angry Birds, as well as a USB port for playing music, videos and photos.

Don’t bother looking for an on/off switch, sadly there isn’t one. But drawing only about 2 Watts when streaming HD video, who needs to shut it off? Plus, if left plugged-in, the box will update itself automatically.

All three models will play 480i (composite), 480p (HDMI), and 720p (HDMI), but only the XD and XS models will display full 1080p (HDMI). 16:9 anamorphic and 4:3 standard are supported on all of them, including a MicroSD slot for additional storage. They also added 5.1 surround sound (passthrough) over HDMI for all you audiophiles.

You can buy them directly through their website (www.roku.com), or you can pick one up at your local Best Buy.

		Size or Time
Dimensions	Description	(gif/jpg)	(flash)	Image Examples
Google Ads
120×240	Vertical Banner	50k	50k
120×600	Skyscraper	50k	50k
125×125	Button	50k	50k
160×600	Wide Skyscraper	50k	50k
180×150	Small Rectangle	50k	50k
200×200	Small Square	50k	50k
234×60	Half Banner	50k	50k
250×250	Square	50k	50k
300×250	Medium Rectangle	50k	50k
336×280	Large Rectangle	50k	50k
468×60	Banner	50k	50k
728×90	Leaderboard	50k	50k
IAB Rectangles and Banners and Buttons
88×31	Micro Bar	10k	30s
120×90	Button 1	20k	30s
120×60	Button 2	20k	30s
120×240	Vertical Banner	30k	30s
125×125	Square Button	30k	30s
234×60	Half Banner	30k	30s
468×60	Full Banner	40k	30s
728×90	Leaderboard	40k	30s
IAB Rectangles and Pop-Ups/Pop-Unders
180×150	Rectangle	40k	30s
240×400	Verticle Rectangle	40k	30s
250×250	Square Pop-Up	40k	30s
300×100	3:1 Rectangle	40k	30s
300×250	Medium Rectangle	40k	30s
336×280	Large Rectangle	40k	30s
720×300	Pop-Under	40k	30s
IAB Rectangles and Skyscrapers
120×600	Skyscraper	40k	30s
160×600	Wide Skyscraper	40k	30s
300×600	Half Page Ad	40k	30s
IAB Universal Ad Package
160×600	Wide Skyscraper	20k	30k
180×150	Small Rectangle	15k	20k
300×250	Medium Rectangle	20k	30k
728×90	Leadboard	20k	30k
Feed Banner/Icon
91×17	Feed Icon

You are free to use these images as placeholders in your own templates, but please don’t link directly to them here. To save an individual image, just right-click on the icon and select “save link as…” in Firefox, or “save target as…” in Internet Explorer. I’ve also put together two zipped image packs for your convenience. Each pack contains either the white or black banner images.

• White/Light Banner Image Pack
• Black/Dark Banner Image pack

I hope someone finds this information useful.

-Trystian

Digitally Imported and Sky.fm has the best and most diverse music on the net. Even the most finicky audiophiles would be hard pressed to find a channel they didn’t appreciate with their available selection. Digitally Imported has over 24 varieties of electronic music, while Sky.fm has jazz, top-40, country, classical, rock, 70s, 80s, oldies, indie, and a whole lot more.

Below is a little application I wrote to access all of their free streams. Take your pick, there’s plenty to choose from. Just select the station from the dropdown box, then click on the type of stream you prefer…

If the quality of the free streams isn’t good enough for your sensitive ears, they offer premium CD quality streams for about $4.95/month.

Nope, I’m not getting paid to say that, I just wanted to give back what I can, since I’ve been a regular listener for the last few years.

PS: javascript is required in order to use the channel player.

Enjoy,
-Trystian

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to revamp all my websites, including this one. After a couple days of contemplation, I decided to use WordPress as the publishing platform powering the site. I’ve built client sites using it in the past, and figured it was robust enough for my own needs.

The only problem was that I wanted to make the look and feel of it unique, so that meant learning the templating system that WordPress uses. Easier said than done, but I muddled my way through it in two days. Of course it would have been easier to learn if the WordPress Codex was (more) organized. Needless to say, I haven’t mastered it yet, so expect some parts of the site to be “less than fully operational”, at least for the next couple weeks.

I created all the custom graphics for this site in six hours or so, and took another day to test everything on my test server before launching. So far, I’ve tested it on Firefox 2, IE 6, and and IE 7. I’m setting up a virtual test environment using Virtualbox so I can check it with other browsers and operating systems as I modify the template later on.

If you find any errors, or have any problems, please let me know.

-Trystian