Recent Posts

576

Living Room / Re: A Funnier IE6 Story

« Last post by nudone on February 02, 2011, 07:25 AM »

I think for a long while their position was that they did hope it would just be a fad. Now they realise it isn't going away and really ought to buy a decent 56k modem to access it with.

577

Living Room / Re: 12x Gmail labs projects

« Last post by nudone on February 02, 2011, 06:47 AM »

Definitely worth devling around in the labs. There are more useful labs items than in the dotTech list (imho). Things that ought to be enabled by default.

I'm late to the party on this one, but I've recently been trying out the Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail. Plenty don't work with the current Gmail but there are some handy scrips that fill the gaps the labs don't fill - though, I suspect, they'll find their way into the labs eventually.

578

Living Room / Re: A Funnier IE6 Story

« Last post by nudone on February 02, 2011, 02:05 AM »

i've read reports before about how clueless the UK government is about the net - demanding that they keep IE6 just explains everything. maybe one day they'll consider the net important enough to read up about it. or, possibly, even use it.

579

Living Room / Re: Darwinism + geneticism + two-wheeled vehicles = ... awesomeness.

« Last post by nudone on January 28, 2011, 01:16 PM »

This reminds me of those old black-and-white movies you see of inventors rolling out their ridiculous-looking planes with about 20 wings that collapse as soon as the engine starts, set to jaunty music.

-timns (January 28, 2011, 01:13 PM)

that's pretty much what i was getting at. you should still make it. make it like that.

580

Living Room / Re: Darwinism + geneticism + two-wheeled vehicles = ... awesomeness.

« Last post by nudone on January 28, 2011, 01:13 PM »

It reminds me of watching those people that make their own (stupid) gliders and then throw the self of the end of piers. You hope that each one will get a bit further, or even fly, each time. But they always just flop right down into the sea.

edit:

maybe that would make a nice game: evolve your "cart", get it to race down a bumpy track and then at the end it fall of the track and you see how far it flies. well, not flies, just drops into oblivion.

581

Living Room / Re: Darwinism + geneticism + two-wheeled vehicles = ... awesomeness.

« Last post by nudone on January 28, 2011, 01:00 PM »

i think i've been staring at it for too long as it keeps making me laugh when some of the mutations do back-flips and things.

582

Living Room / Re: Darwinism + geneticism + two-wheeled vehicles = ... awesomeness.

« Last post by nudone on January 28, 2011, 11:56 AM »

lots of potential, and spin-offs. you should put it together Tim 

583

Living Room / Re: Darwinism + geneticism + two-wheeled vehicles = ... awesomeness.

« Last post by nudone on January 28, 2011, 10:26 AM »

ooh, i like this. but, i agree. the little beasts are being exterminated too quickly.

584

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by nudone on January 28, 2011, 03:46 AM »

if you want quick setup, nice (free) themes and aim to blog more than anything - then wordpress.

if you have your own html/css or unique theme that has never had a sniff at a cms - then i'd consider cms made simple.

cmsms is good for adding any number of "content" blocks wherever you want on the page. these can be blocks of text, blocks of html, blocks of php, blocks of smarty code, even blocks of other blocks (they probably don't refer to them as blocks). blocks can be static, blocks can be editable.

imagine just creating an html page in whatever editor you like. this is the same html page (or pages) you use with cmsms - you'll just have smarty tags dotted around here and there that bring the extra functions and content.

for the blogging, cmsms uses "news". again, these use blocks so they could look like anything and be anywhere.

it's not like a one click solution but it's very flexible and easy to see why things are doing what they are - because thing are wrapped up with smarty tags.

585

Developer's Corner / Re: Choosing a CMS

« Last post by nudone on January 28, 2011, 02:52 AM »

i've had to use CMS Made Simple a few times. after using Joomla!, i found it very easy to use. cmsms uses the Smarty tagging system (if that's the correct way to describe it), which is nice and freindly - no point though if you already know php.

cmsms has been the easiest to customise regarding html/css. essentially, you are just adding your smarty tags into the html you've created before evening thinking about what cms to use. but, again, if you are down with php - you don't need smarty.

if i was going for ready made templates and plugins, then i'd just go for wordpress. having said that, i'm working with wordpress at the moment and i've installed about 20 plugins to get it to the point of providing the same functionality as cmsms. which seems a bit odd now that i think about it as i was thinking that cmsms was quite simple (as its name suggests).

(also currently working on Joomla! and i hate it. because of what mouser has said, i never want to find myself using drupal.)

586

Living Room / Re: Sony v. Hotz: Sony Sends a Dangerous Message to Researchers -- and Its Customers

« Last post by nudone on January 26, 2011, 06:54 AM »

I know what you mean.

But rather than bury my head in the sand, I bury my head in the computer. If you keep away from anything that will scare you about the real world it's the best distraction there is.

My computer is my own little perfect world (almost). And I'm lazy and timid enough to just keep my focus on that. When the rioters reach my door then I'll be forced to go and join them. (Hopefully they won't cut off my power supply and broadband before that.)

587

Living Room / Re: Sony v. Hotz: Sony Sends a Dangerous Message to Researchers -- and Its Customers

« Last post by nudone on January 26, 2011, 05:32 AM »

May as well start planning to become a criminal mastermind, it seems everyone (here) in the UK is automatically a criminal by default - no point being a petty criminal. think big.

588

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple Photo Resizer - Please Give Feedback

« Last post by nudone on January 26, 2011, 05:22 AM »

I don't think it's a bad thing just to stick at 80% and leave it at that.

If you think it's worth making it more complicated, the range you've said sounds fine. Is there any chance of making it give you a "live" preview of the quality before the image is saved?

If I was going to add anything to the compression values I might add 95%. I just find that when I'm saving out various images for web use, I'll start with a .png (perfect quality) then compare it with several jpeg compressions. I might get away with using as much as 50% compression on the (very) rare occasion, very often I'll find 90% is too much and resort to 95% simply because it will give a result that is almost indistinguishable from the original .png but without the file size. Nothing surprising there, of course, that's just my view on 95% - you get a near perfect image BUT you have reduced the file "weight" a bit - which can't be bad.

Having said all that, you are reducing the dimensions of the image too so my 95% example may be of little relevance.

Providing drag and drop functions may be more handy really (if it doesn't do that already).

edit: just tested it - it does do drag and drop. excellent.

589

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple Photo Resizer - Please Give Feedback

« Last post by nudone on January 26, 2011, 04:52 AM »

I think this type of image works fine for the compression you've set. I can see very tiny artifacts introduced into the face and shirt on image A - but that's because I know what to look for when doing these types of comparison.

But, the point is, without being able to do such a comparison I would be perfectly happy with image A - the difference is insignificant anyway.

I think for the general purpose the program will be used for it's worth that amount of compression. If people were trying to reduce images that contained more solid blocks of colour and hard edges then 80% is a bit too much, more like 90 or even 95 would be about right - but, again, that's not really the intended audience and use.

590

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple Photo Resizer - Please Give Feedback

« Last post by nudone on January 24, 2011, 01:54 AM »

sounds like a good idea for a complete range of programs/tools.

you'll need an equally super simple/obvious website to store them at. make it a point that anything requiring "instruction" or "explanation" is too much. every tool is 100% intuitive and takes about 5 seconds to realise what it does.

your website could be the place to go for every google simple how-to search. (and then google would buy you out - or just imitate your idea.)

591

General Software Discussion / Re: Simple Photo Resizer - Please Give Feedback

« Last post by nudone on January 24, 2011, 01:34 AM »

maybe a "crop" feature. or is that going too far?

592

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is System Restore not placed the proper place?

« Last post by nudone on January 24, 2011, 01:31 AM »

are there really machines out there that deliberatly don't respond to F8 on boot-up?

this sounds more like a hardware issue. could it be a usb keyboard not being detected during the boot process (something disabled in the bios maybe).

other than that, there really ought to be an easier way to restore - it wouldn't kill microsoft to make the "help" system extremely obvioius during boot-up. (or does it, maybe i've just become blind to it.)

593

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by nudone on January 23, 2011, 04:32 AM »

Pretty sure I've had this done to a couple of my searches; can't remember what service I was using though.

Now, I'll just try the domain in the address bar to see if anything comes up, then move on to checking with Godaddy.

594

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: That NANY badge

« Last post by nudone on January 21, 2011, 10:59 AM »

You need to keep staring at it a little longer. When your eyes look like this -_- then all will be revealed (in your dreams that is).

595

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: That NANY badge

« Last post by nudone on January 21, 2011, 09:10 AM »

how about this one instead.

it's a special magic icon that will display all the NANY information you wish to see. only DC members that truly believe in Cody will be able to see it; it might take a while for it to appear so don't be concerned if you have to stare at this post for several minutes.

focus your eyes here -->  <-- and wait for the magic to appear.

596

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: That NANY badge

« Last post by nudone on January 21, 2011, 07:06 AM »

Thank you.

You will be glad to know that the "pegs" icon is version 2. The first icon used "pegs" each with an area of 1 pixel by 1 pixel. This new improved version has pegs with an over generous 2 x 2 pixel area.

I always say it's worth going that extra pixel, erm, i mean extra mile, for those that appreciate it.

597

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: That NANY badge

« Last post by nudone on January 21, 2011, 04:27 AM »

just another idea. display the number (whatever it may mean) using "pegs"...

598

Timns Apps / Re: Auspex Suggestions

« Last post by nudone on January 21, 2011, 01:40 AM »

That rings a bell; reminds me of something eye Sauron TV.

-cranioscopical (January 20, 2011, 09:22 PM)

classic.

599

Living Room / Re: Miss America Hates Wikileaks, Might Be An Idiot =D

« Last post by nudone on January 21, 2011, 01:37 AM »

this appears to be xkcd's response:

http://xkcd.com/850/

600

Living Room / Re: How to Get the Most Out of Your Laptop with Linux

« Last post by nudone on January 19, 2011, 07:03 AM »

I've an old Gericom Laptop (Pentium 4) with a Nvidia graphics card inside and a pcmia wi-fi card. Ubuntu doesn't seem to like the hardware BUT Linux Mint works fine.

So, Mint is worth a look too.

(Maybe I've not tried hard enough with Ubuntu to find the right drivers.)