Thursday 11 May 2006
Browser Crapness
I am aware that this site doesn't look quite right in any browser - but it's less not quite right in Internet Exploder 6. (I did try to get it to work with the first release of IE7 but gave up totally.) In Firefox, the margins are weird, and in Opera the 'sidelines' section is half-way across the page. But while it's all more or less readable, I'm going to have to give up before my brain does.
It looks fine to me (I'm using Mozilla Forefox)...or, at least, it did until I tried to leave a comment - had to scroll down for miles to find the comments box. Otherwise, though, looks good.
See you at the opera tomorrow, gorgeous. xx
Hey, Dan! You keep running from me! I'm glad your site is up and running again. I'm on IE 5.2 (ancient), and this site is working nicely. No trouble, here. :) Miss you, y'know... :)
Looks fine to me and I'm on the latest Firefox. Have fun at the opera, kids.
Tuesday 25 April 2006
I'm assuming it's wooden
I don't like spam emails any more than the next guy, but I just got one from "Plank Q. Presumtiousness", which I think is probably one of the best names ever.
Saturday 23 April 2005
Want Want Want
I want one of Elwood "Woody" Norris' Silent Sound Systems.
I'm not so keen on his other recent invention, though.
Mmm-hmmm. First you need to get a washer/dryer, microwave, fridge/freezer, bed, sofas, etc - then we'll talk about the Silent Sound System... (Luv you!) x
Thursday 21 April 2005
You wait ages ...
... and then three come along at once.
Having bitched about the US-centric attitude of Google Local, Google Maps and Google Mobile, along come Google Local UK (in Cahoots with Yell), Google Maps UK and Google SMS, which all do what they say on the tin.
Now, if only they could put those pesky tube stations in the right places...! Have you tried printing out one of the maps yet, then? ;) x
Friday 1 April 2005
Gulp!
Whilst everyone thought that the extra gigabyte for GMail users was an April Fools Gag, there was a less subtle yet funnier one lurking on Google. Either that, or someone hasn't been using their 20% time for core activities.
...*g*
I saw the link to this on majorgeeks.com. :) Funny.
Saturday 5 March 2005
Suggestiveness
One of the things I like about Google is that they allow their staff 20% of their time to work on any project (within the company) they care to nominate. This can be existing projects, or new ideas of their own.
Hence a number of great innovations, like Google Suggest which sits quietly in Beta. Unlike other current Beta products which are US centric (Travel Information, Maps and SMS) this one can be used by everyone!
That's generous, but at my company I get spend around 20% of the working day hiding in a toilet cubicle with my gameboy. Nobody's complained yet, so I guess it's OK with them.
oooo... interesting!! :)
*waves* Hi!
Monday 28 February 2005
Haves and Have Nots
If I was being vaguely big-headed, I would say that I perform a reasonable public service for friends and relatives, acting as an unpaid unofficial IT support helpdesk, providing dubious untested advice and often causing more problems than I solve. Of course, then there are friends who act in that role for me, except that they more often than not get the right answer first time. John Naughton in the business section of the Observer identifies a new digital divide; those who have access to free IT support like that described above, and those who don't. And he's right in saying that it is a considerable business opportunity.
Mate, it'll be a cold day in hell before I know more about I.T. than you do! It's all bluff, see...
Oh crap - does this mean you've worked out that the only reason I'm going out with you is that you always fix my mum's PC? x
Thursday 10 February 2005
Phishing for a phix
Much hand-wringing, wailing and gnashing of teeth at the revelation of a security flaw in Mozilla, Firefox et. al.
Actually, it's a security flaw enabled by the dappy gits who introduced the concept of International characters in domain names.
Which in effect means that you could click on a link that appears in your address bar as "paypal.com" but which in fact is linking you to www.xn--pypal-4ve.com.
The good news is that according to Netcraft you can fix this by turning off international character support ...
... in Firefox and Mozilla by setting 'network.enableIDN' to false in the browser's configuration (enter about:config in the address bar to access the configuration functions)
Fixes are on their way. This isn't a problem in Internet Explorer unless you install the plugin which enables you to use international character support.
Tuesday 1 February 2005
ME or EU
A mildly humourous discussion (once you've got past the usual Microvangelists vs. Linuxlovers spats) on the Guardian Online Blog about potential names for the EU Version of Windows. (Microsoft's original attempt, overturned for obvious reasons, was "Windows XP Reduced Media Edition".)
My favourite from the list so far is "Shorthorn".
Thursday 6 January 2005
Dis Content
And while we're on the subject of overbearing corporate monoliths, may I add Vodafone to that pot. This evening, stuck up north with only a 56K GPRS connection to entertain me, I was idly surfing around and stumbled (via Vic) across crank.net, a harmless enough catalogue of the web's obsessives. I was most keen to visit the Star-Esseenia Temple of Ascension Mastery, which is apparently a full service 11:11 Ashtar Command Ascension Center sponsored by the Angels of Light, the Ascended Masters and the Ashtar Command for the purpose of facilitating accelerated mental, emotional and spiritual growth for Earth based Lightworkers dedicated to the Ascension path. Which sounds like it's right up my street.
Not according to the all knowing masters at my telecommunications provider, who have, unbidden, decided that it is not suitable for my viewing.
Unless, of course, they know that it's all really true, but are, like, trying to keep it from us.
Thursday 6 January 2005
Sucked (in) by Gates, again
Warning. Geekspeak ahead.
Being a slave to Microsoft, I'm always very aware of spyware infecting my computers. Up until now, I've relied on Lavasoft's AdAware, which has been mostly OK, but they had an annoying habit of releasing new versions and not updating the definition files in the old versions, without actually telling you.
Anyway. Microsoft have now released their own software to block spyware; and it has a number of other useful functions, including user-friendly ways of controlling what programs your PC starts up when you switch on. Annoyingly, so far, it seems very good.
One small foible; for some reason, (and being a cynic I can think of one at least), it treats the excellent Google Desktop Search Engine as a browser hijack, and recommends most strongly that you remove it.
I also noticed today that hotmail.co.uk addresses are now available, so I've detached my existing address from Passport. Which I should never have associated in the first place. Now the spam damage is done. Anyway. "dustbinman (the at sign) hotmail (fullstop) co (fullstop) uk" is the place to find me now on MSN Messenger or email. Unless you have my other address, in which case stick with that one.
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