Why did nobody explain it like this when I was learning C?
(via Patrick)
Author Archives: daniel
High quality in Youtube
You've probably heard this already, but you may be able to tell Youtube to display higher quality video by adding &fmt=22 onto the URL… that is, if higher-quality video was uploaded by the content creator.
MS Small Basic
Just another baby BASIC variant in an apparently crowded market: Microsoft Small Basic. It includes Turtle graphics!
Layer changes
I just got the complete Young Ones new DVD release. Great to see these episodes again (and unlike previous DVDs, uncut).
But unbelievably, they put the disc 1 layer change in the stupidest spot ever. Rather than put it between episodes, or even at a quiet spot within an episode, they put it in the middle of a song (Dexys Midnight Runners singing “Jackie Wilson Said”).
Idiots!
Haven't checked yet where the disc 2 layer change is. The disc 2 layer change is at the start of a song in Time.
CBM BASIC V2
I’ve previously highlighted BBC BASIC for Windows.
Now there’s Commodore BASIC for Windows, Linux and Mac.
Lost in translation
News that council workers in Wales sent an email request to their translation officer to translate the English “No entry for heavy goods vehicles”… what they got in reply was an Out Of Office reply in Welsh, but not realising, they printed that on the sign.
So the Welsh part of the sign reads: “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.”
Youtube RSS feeds
It's not widely publicised, but Youtube publishes RSS feeds so you can track the latest uploaded videos from your favourite users.
They take the form: http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/USER/uploads
Quite handy at times.
Acrobat rant
I knew there was a reason I'm an Acrobat luddite. What moron decided the toolbar options most frequently sought in a hurry, rotate page, should be removed from the default toolbars in Acrobat Reader 8? (The corporate PCs just got upgraded from 7 to 8. I haven't tried 9 yet.)
To get the Rotate back: View / Toolbars / More Tools. Scroll down the window to the options for the Page Display Toolbar and turn on Rotate Clockwise and Rotate Anti Counter-Clockwise.
Now, can someone explain to me how Acrobat has bloated so much over the years?
And WTF was the deal with version 7.05?!
Retro computer quiz
Try this: retro computer quiz.
I got 6 out of 10. It was mostly the unrecognisable late-80s/early-90s consoles that let me down.
No, I don't want to upgrade Media Player
How to tell Windows Media Player to STFU and stop prompting you to download the latest version. (Thanks Barry)
Or I guess you could switch to using another player, such as VLC.
McCain vs Obama.com
johnmccain.com and barackobama.com are both registered with GoDaddy, but McCain appears to have registered through GoDaddy India via Domains By Proxy… (Why does his campaign need to use Domains By Proxy, which is designed for anonymous domain registration? Maybe they just love outsourcing?)
JohnMcCain.com has been around since 1998; BarackObama.com since 2000.
McCain uses IIS running on Linux (?). Obama uses PWS running on Linux.
And the running mates? joebiden.com has been around since 1998; sarahpalin.com is not owned by the campaign, but is registered through the same proxy company as McCain.
Sarah runs Linux with Frontpage extensions (yeuch!); Biden’s running Apache.
AU online music bargain
With Bigpond Music now selling DRM-free MP3s, and their range increasing every week, they’re fast becoming my etailer of choice for music downloads.
Right now (and I don’t know how long it’ll last) they’ve got a 25% discount offer on music vouchers brought from Safeway/Woolworths, and possibly other retailers.
So tracks that normally cost $1.69 (the same as Apple’s iTunes in Australia) now effectively cost about $1.27, and an album about $12.37. Vouchers appear to be valid for about a year and a half.
You can browse the web site before paying to see if they have what you want. Admittedly, they don’t have as wide a range (even in their older format WMA) as iTunes.