Monday, April 16, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
MS07-017 Security fix and Realtek Soundcard
With the release of MS07-017, there have been reports of Windows XP SP2 systems with Realtek audio cards experiencing the following symptoms:
When you start a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2, the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel may not start.
Additionally, you may receive the following error message:
Rthdcpl.exe - Illegal System DLL Relocation
The system DLL user32.dll was relocated in memory. The application will not run properly. The relocation occurred because the DLL C:\Windows\System32\Hhctrl.ocx occupied an address range reserved for Windows system DLLs. The vendor supplying the DLL should be contacted for a new DLL.
This problem occurs when the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel (Rthdcpl.exe) by Realtek Semiconductor Corporation is installed.
If you have experienced this issue, the fix is to apply http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935448 after application of both MS07-017 and MS07-008. This Hotfix is currently not available via WSUS/SUS and will require a manual install.
Ugh!
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Monday, April 02, 2007
Top 20 Historical Myths
Here are 20 of the most common historical myths, which have misled and misinformed people for years, decades, or centuries.
read more | digg story
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
PICTURES : Most Dangerous Roads in the World, Part 3
"Since our last installment in this highly popular series (Magnificient Tunnel Road, November 2006) we have received many tips and pictures of the roads that are no less intimidating, and in some cases just as dangerous."
read more | digg story
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Top 5 Impossible Structures
Here are some of the impossible structures, though they appear to be impossible for construction but they are made possible. These pictures have not been edited.
read more | digg story
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind
Much of what we don't understand about being human is simply in our heads. The brain is a befuddling organ, as are the very questions of life and death, consciousness, sleep, and much more. Here's a heads-up on what's known and what's not understood about your noggin.
read more | digg story
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
PICTURES: You think your job is bad??
Pictures that make you say I'm glad that is not my job!
read more | digg story
How thieves hack into an ATM -- slideshow
Full sequence taken from security camera, with explanation
read more | digg story
Monday, March 19, 2007
Ten Photos Taken at the Right Moment
Some lucky photographers often catch unexpected moments - sometimes appropriate, sometimes inappropriate, and often hysterical. Other times photographers catch moments just before something happens, or as it happens. Here's a collection of ten such photos...
read more | digg story
Sunday, March 18, 2007
PICTURES: Beautiful Air Scenes of Africa
Some of the most stunning pictures you might ever see!
read more | digg story
Thursday, March 15, 2007
How Pi Works
Pi is an extremely interesting number that is important to all sorts of mathematical calculations. Anytime you find yourself working with circles, arcs, pendulums (which swing through an arc), etc. you find Pi popping up. We have run into Pi when looking at gears, spherical helium balloons and pendulum clocks.
read more | digg story
The Longest Waves in the World (Pics + Video)
Twice a year, between the months of February and March, the Atlantic Ocean waters roll up the Amazon river, in Brazil, generating the longest wave on the Earth. The phenomenon, known as the Pororoca, is caused by the tides of the Atlantic Ocean which meet the mouth of the river. This tidal bore generates waves up to 12 feet high for over a half hour.
read more | digg story
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Top 30 Strangest Deaths in History
For example...Death by Drowning at Lifeguard Party and Death from Holding a pee in. Enjoy.
read more | digg story
Friday, March 09, 2007
MUST SEE Photo series: Extreme Things on Earth
This series of incredible photos include the largest seed on earth, the longest residential building, Largest Quicksand, Largest Flower / Parasite, Deepest Cave, Largest impact crater, Lowest Elevation, Windiest place, Highest Elevation, Hottest place, Wettest place, Smallest Park, Tallest water fall, Thickest Ice Sheet, and Most populated city
read more | digg story
Re-imaging History: Altered photos you thought were real
A picture is worth a thousand words, and Photoshop and similar tools have made it easier than ever to make those words fib. But while computers enable easier and better photo manipulation, it is hardly a new phenomenon. Here is a sampling of some of the more famous altered photographs from the last century.
read more | digg story
10 of the Most Awkward TV Interviews
Going all the way back to Barbara Walters in 1981, and as recently as last month, this list presents the most awkward interview moments of all time.
read more | digg story
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Nine Laws of Physics That Don't Apply in Hollywood
In general, Hollywood filmmakers follow the laws of physics because they have no other choice. It’s just when they cheat with special effects that we seem to forget how the world really works.
read more | digg story
Monday, March 05, 2007
Flickr Photo Pool of Yesterday's Full Lunar Eclipse
Photos of yesterday's lunar eclipse.
read more | digg story
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Amazing Skydiver Jumps Out Of Plane And Into Another
Watch as this skydiver jumps out of a plane and then catches up to another falling plane and gets in...
read more | digg story
We can identify "mystery faces" just 6 pixels wide!
How good are humans at identifying faces? Amazingly good, even with only a few sparse pixels' worth of information. Very cool, and very cool pics.
read more | digg story
13 things that scientists can't explain
13 things that do not make sense. Includes the placebo effect, dark matter, the wow signal and other mysteries that scientists have yet to explain.
read more | digg story
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Top 10 Worst Marketing Gaffes, Flops, and Disasters
10) McDonald's: "I'd Hit It" 9) New Coke 8) Honda's Asimo Falls Down Stairs: "Any third-grader with a circuitry board can make a dancing robot, but only Honda can make one that walks up stairs and falls on its space skull. For now, ED-209 must remain but a dream."
read more | digg story
Near realtime free satellite images of the Earth
The MODIS satellites gaze back at the Earth constantly circling and snapping high res images of our world. You can see what they've been up to for the last couple days and download high res versions that are in the commons and ready for you to use for whatever you like.
read more | digg story
See How Easily You Can Create HDR Photos (Ultimate guide)
Collection of HDR photography tutorials and techniques with some amazing examples.
read more | digg story
Monday, February 26, 2007
PICTURES: World's Wildest Intersections
Western drivers are understandably confounded and rightfully annoyed, when faced with such traffic-routing masterpieces as these
read more | digg story
Sunday, February 25, 2007
101 Amazing Earth Facts
We live on a sphere of extremes and oddities. In fact it's not really a sphere, but it is a wild planet, mottled with deadly volcanoes, rattled by killer earthquakes, drenched in disastrous deluges. But do you know which were the worst?
read more | digg story
Saturday, February 24, 2007
How to Live 25 Hours a Day: 61 Time-saving Tips
The average person spends less than 7 hours of their day productively. The remaining time is typically wasted, leaving you overwhelmed and stressed. Here is a comprehensive list of tips and tricks to help you manage your time more effectively.
read more | digg story
Friday, February 23, 2007
PICTURES: Construction of the World's Highest Bridge
The Millau bridge over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains is more than 300m (984ft) high - taller even than the Eiffel Tower. With its concrete and steel pillars soaring high above the morning fog in the Tarn Valley, the construction makes a spectacular sight.
read more | digg story
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Anti-Virus, Malware and Hijack Information
What to use ? Up to you, but there is lots of information out there as well as loads of free tools and online scanners. Read on...
Start with the Anti-Virus Software Review and then check out AV Comparatives for independent comparatives of Anti-Virus software. CyberNet also has an interesting list of comparisons and ratings.
Super Antispyware has a free version as has Active Virus Shield. Spybot Search and Destroy is another freebie (or donation-ware, anyway).
Need help with malware removal ? Try Geeks To Go or Wilders Security for lots of good information.
Of course some products posing as Anti-spyware are rogues - check the Spyware Warrior for more information on these.
Looking for an online scanner ? Try...
1. Panda ActiveScan
2. Kapersky Online Scanner
3. Trojan Scan
4. Virus Total
5. Jotti's Malware Scan
Going heavier into HijackThis ? Help is at hand at HijackThis Quick Start
and Bleeping Computer also have a guide and tutorial on using HijackThis to remove Browser Hijackers & Spyware.
And just to conclude with, here's a neat little security baseline overview from Windows Secrets.
Be careful out there!
APOLLO ON STEROIDS: Behind the Scenes with NASA's New Moon Ship
With the iconic Space Shuttle nearing retirement, the pressure is on NASA to design a new manned vehicle — one that will deliver us safely to the lunar surface by 2020 before building a lasting lunar base. From ensuring safe launch to getting the vehicle back on the ground, here's a look at the toughest challenges facing the spacecraft's engineers
read more | digg story
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The Most Annoying Things About Windows Vista
There's lots to like in the newest version of Windows. Vista's look is stunning, the OS should be more secure, and finding things is often easier. But Windows wouldn't be Windows without those aspects, big and small, that just drive you nuts with frustration. Here's our list of Vista features that just make us wonder, "What were they thinking?"
read more | digg story
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
PICTURE incredible satellite image of Mt. Etna vocanic eruption plume.
You can see how the plume traveled accross the atmosphere.
read more | digg story
Monday, February 19, 2007
PICTURES: Pictures of the World's Weirdest Accidents!
Here are various pictures, from various car accidents, that are just plain weird cool none the less.
read more | digg story
George Orwell: 12 Writing Tips
George expressed a strong dislike of totalitarian governments in his work, but he was also passionate defender of good writing. Thus, you may want to hear some of George’s writing tips.
read more | digg story
Saturday, February 17, 2007
HOWTO drop an egg four stories without breaking
A video showing how to safely drop an egg from 4 stories or more without breaking.
read more | digg story
Paraglider sucked up to 30,000 feet - and survives!
A German paraglider survived lightning, melon-sized hail, minus 50-degree temperatures and oxygen deprivation after a storm system sucked her to an altitude higher than Mount Everest.
read more | digg story
If You're Alive in 20 years, you may be able to Live Forever
Human Immortality: A Scientific Reality? From the moment of birth, we begin the battle against death -- against the inevitable. Statistics say that a newborn child can expect to live an average of 76 years. But averages may not be what they use to be
read more | digg story
Friday, February 16, 2007
D-Weather Australian Weather Monitoring
D-Weather is your personal Australian weather monitoring utility for weather conditions in Australia ! It automatically retrieves the current conditions, daily outlook, detailed forecast, international forecast, and weather warnings for Australia. D-Weather also provides you with access to rain radars, satellite images and MSL Charts. Also included is support for SAPI (Microsoft Speech Engine), which will allow D-Weather to read the weather to you!
read more
Also...Black Stump Weather
How to Ace Your Job Interview: 88 Surefire Tips and Tricks
Job interviews can be highly awkward, stressful, and subjective. Here is a comprehensive resource to ensure you impress the interviewer (and avoid all the common pitfalls). Looking for work? You and thousands of others. What can you offer that they can't? Well, hopefully you know that or will learn as you search. Your job search is a project in itself, with various stages. Here are some tips to get you to your goal of a great first job.
read more | digg story
AMAZING What the hell happened photos
Collection of WTF photos -- busses, planes and trains in strange configurations.
read more | digg story
Friday, February 02, 2007
Daylight Savings
I love Daylight Savings- wish we could just move all the clocks forward (at least) an hour permanently. I hate mornings, so I couldn't care less if it was dark until 9am.
Seems to me like it's getting way too complex though trying to align all the times everywhere. Historically only parts of Australia have observed DST at various times but is it what the people want? Western Australia made a snap decision this October to implement DST in early December (thanks for the computer chaos!!) after not participating previously - they even have their own Political Party.
Now I hear that the USA is moving DST forward this year by three weeks - more chaos! Microsoft have dedicated an extensive resource to the topic as well - all I can see is headaches and abuse from customers whose appointments are an hour out of whack. Israel have an even more complex problem as it is tied to moving religious festivals.
For more info on DST look on Time and Date - the Black Stump Time page also has more references.
Just turn 'em forward an hour everywhere at the same time and leave 'em, I say! Who cares about the curtains fading in Queensland....
Enjoy the Sunshine!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Google Reader
For my RSS feeds I used Bloglines for quite a while but I switched over to Google Reader some time back now. I still like Bloglines neatness and compactness but I like the integration of Google Reader with other Google things I use. It also has some pretty good features in it's own right too, of course.
One particularly neat feature (for someone like me who runs a directory web-site featuring new sites regularly) is a really easy way to highlight more sites of interest than I would normally have time to do. Using Google Reader it's just plain simple to tag and share an item of note - I've integrated this into the Black Stump What's New page - you'll see it positioned just below this weeks new sites. Click on the Read More link for another page with (not surprisingly) more information about each post. You can go directly to each post also if you wish.
I hope this is of value to you - I know I'm a bit of a Google tragic (although I still use Yahoo Mail in preference to Google Mail for general use) - I just think they're pretty damn good at most of what they do!
Happy Surfing!
(note I've also put the link to the Google Reader sites in the side bar of this blog so you don't have to go via The Black Stump site if you don't want to - it's just there on the right)
...and, uh, oh yeah, there's an RSS feed available too....here
Friday, January 12, 2007
Get Smart
Managed to get hold of the DVD Set of the entire series of Get Smart. I loved this show when I watched it in the sixties and seventies but it's been a while. This series was really big in Australia and most kids my school knew most of the dialog. (after all, the episodes got repeated to death in afternoon TV slot but got butchered to death). I'm really looking to forward to watching them in sequence and in entirety!
What puzzles me (would you believe it?) is they have only been released via the Time Life website and they'll only ship to USA addresses. What the....!! Lucky I have some friends in the good old USofA to send it down under! But, don't despair fellow Aussies - it appears that it will be available in Australia in February via Time Life Australia - pricing and box configuration unknown but supposedly the same content as released in the US.
This set is superb. Yeah, talk about the corny (but o-so-funny) dialog and the often repeated (but highly anticipated) lines and jokes. Don Adams and Barbara Feldon are even better than I remembered. And let's not forget The Chief. The DVD set has been re-mastered and looks sensational on wide screen TV. Sadly, Don Adams passed away in 2005, but "#99" lives on and gives a lot of the intro commentaries to the episodes on the DVD set.
Brilliant. Yup, I've concluded this is my favourite TV show of all time. I'm up to Episode 20 already, I have 118 to go...would you believe it ?
...and Loving it! (sorry about that, Chief!)
Sunday, January 07, 2007
VHS to DVD
Surprisingly easy these days and, happily to report, all my VHS tapes going back to 1987 were still OK - I'm sure they left a bit of dust and residue behind but it all looked Ok when played back on DVD. The end result is a new library of home DVDs (and a backup copy) and the original VHS tapes which I've now packed away with the Master DVDs and stored in a constant temperature environment.
What did I need to do the job ? Not a computer, that's for sure! I experimented in the past with Video Capture boards and Studio software but it takes waaaay too long to render bulk amounts of tapes. At the start of this exercise I briefly flirted again with this stuff but still, no thanks.
Moved on to a combo VHS/DVD recorder - a Panasonic ES35V to be precise - as the name suggests it has both functions in the same box - incredibly, this machine could not do the job for me. I say incredibly because I'm thinking its probably one of main reasons anyone would buy this type of machine - but you can't edit the tapes as you copy them! What a load of hooey. Now, I'm not suggesting anything wrong with Panasonic here, folks. I've been using Panasonic VCRs from when they first came out (was it in 1979?) and they've always worked extremely reliably - anyway, the lack of the edit feature was a major downer but probably "mea culpa" for not researching this up front - don't assume...
Bit the bullet and bought a dedicated DVD recorder - this time a Panasonic DMR-EH55 attached to an existing SJ400 Panasonic VCR - could have used the ES35V but my wife already stole that for her use elsewhere in the house. The EH55 has 160GB which is ample storage space (bit more than 640K anyway).
After cabling machines together (easy) play video in VCR, hit record on DVD and edit away. I finished up loading all the tapes on the DVD recorder (they're all still on it), carved them up a bit further and hi-speed copied them onto 8x or 16x DVDs. You just need to get everything in the sequence you want and copy as close to (but under) 2 hours worth of viewing. 2 hours is the limit if you want roughly the same quality on a standard (non Dual layer) DVD.
Quality is good and because of the hi-speed transfer I was able to make a backup copy very quickly as well.
Just do it before it's too late. The Black Stump Guides page has few more good sites for tips on Digital editing. See also the DVD section.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
2006 Lists and Rankings - Does nothing happen on December 31?
The world seems to have gone mad this year with list and rankings of just about everything - some of the yearly "review and recap" sites I've been listing on the BlackStump News page for the last 6 or 7 years. But now, too many! So I'm going to list them here instead.
Here goes...
ResourceShelf Archive for Year End Wrap-Ups
TIME Person of the Year
Top Movies (U.S.) of 2006 & Year End Motion Picture Box Office Reports (International)
Another List of Lists
Year in Review 2006 Quizzes
The Panda Software virus yearbook 2006
Top American TV Moments of 2006
50 best Defense Tech posts of 2006
BoingBoing's most-trafficked posts of 2006 (and all time)
Worst Vlogs of 2006
Search Bloggers On Their Most Popular Posts & Stats For 2006
The 10 Best Books of 2006
Billboard 2006 Year in Music
Top Search Terms Of The Year (Google, AOL, Yahoo, Lycos, MSN)
Ask.com Top Searches of 2006
I'm sure there'll be many more (after all, it's only December 30 - does nothing ever happen on December 31???)
To finish this thread here's another list of lists from Bob Drudge at Refdesk
Happy 2007!
Pete
PS ...and for those interested in the Bushfires...some still burn, although many were doused when we had a wonderfully cold and wet Christmas. But the season is still young and we have another 3-4 months of severe fire alert weather.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Zoho Wiki, Bushfires and Warnie
I wrote about Zoho some time back in June and again in October.
Worth mentioning them again, not only because they produce excellent - and mostly free - goodies, but they just launched their latest offering, a Wiki. Free, of course!
An update on the Bushfires - they continue unabated - over two weeks now and some 750,000 hectares burnt out. Look in the previous couple of posts for the sites to look at for up-to-date info. And another hot one today, 35C.
Still no rain, and moving to Level 3 water restrictions in Melbourne on January 1 (which basically means water can be used outside for only 8 hours per week and no lawns watered etc). Some sports are shutting down mid-season as grounds are too hard and dry and cricket pitches can't be watered.
Speaking on cricket, it must be noted that Australia just won The Ashes back from England - "the" most important cricket trophy worldwide - and the bad news today that Aussie Legends Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath are retiring. Bummer!
Keep 'em spinning Warnie!
Friday, December 15, 2006
Bushfires still raging in Victoria
Well, here we are a week later, the fires are still burning and not much rain in sight.
The NASA Earth Observatory has some photos from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.
Keep on hoping!
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Bushfires continued
The mercury hit 38C yesterday and peaked at a bit above 42C in Melbourne today - the fires are still burning.
Here's another site from the Department of Sustainability and Environment showing the Statewide Fire Situation map.
And here is Today's Fire Update.
Here is an historic Bushfires Photo Gallery and a few photos of the current fires.
The weather is cooler tomorrow, 20C, but will it rain ??
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Bush Fires in Victoria
* Photo courtesy Skynews
Some of you will know that I live in Nillumbik Shire which is a semi-rural area in the city of Melbourne, state of Victoria in Australia.
Melbourne is generally well known for its skittish weather as it is situated at the southern end of mainland Australia (hence, winds from the desert/outback north are damn hot and winds from the icy Antarctic south are damn cold) and wind changes bring huge variations in weather conditions. One of most common jokes is that if you don't like the weather, then just wait half an hour!
Anyway, we in Melbourne (and Victoria, and lots of Australia) are in the grips of probably one of the worst droughts in history. Bad enough are the growing water restrictions due to the falling water storage levels, but right now it's the bush fires which are the major concern. Huge fires are already burning and today its predicted to hit 37C in Melbourne and higher in country areas.
The Country Fire Authority site has a lot of information and a summary page of current fires. You can also keep up to date via Google News.
Unfortunately (in this context), summer has just commenced and what we are currently experiencing may occasionally have happened in the past towards the end of summer every couple of years - what lies ahead over the next 3-4 months has the potential to be quite horrific. Ugly.
Good luck everyone, be prepared!
Friday, December 01, 2006
Photosynth Technology Preview
This one might worth a peek - something new from the Microsoft Labs - Photosynth. It's a technology preview which they reckon is a few steps short of a beta - so...up to you if you think it's worth the effort!
As they say it's a...
"...taste of the newest - and, we hope, most exciting - way to view photos on a computer. Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next.
In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor."
Have Fun!
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Trawling around for New Sites
Been trawling around the RSS feeds with Google Reader - a lot of new sites I find go directly into the Black Stump directory but there are too many reasonable sites out there for me to add. So here's a selection of sites that didn't quite get there but are certainly worthy of a peek...
The BigBands Database
Internet Resources in Music
Photos: The best of Google Earth
Collarity Search
Space Audio
Cheat Sheet Round-Up: Ajax, CSS, LaTeX, Ruby
Google Earth and Geography Awareness Week 2006
Browser Wars: Internet Explorer 7
Dorkbot ...people doing strange things with electricity
Monster of the Milky Way
and finally for now...
101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived
Have Fun!
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Inventions YouTube and PodMailer
Lots of news lately about YouTube and its purchase by Google. Seems like a lot of people are worried by this. As a matter of coincidence (?), YouTube has been named by Time as the best invention of 2006.
Another interesting site you may like to check out, but not about inventions per-se, is the cutely named Cocktail Party Physics which is well worth a wander thru.
To round off this little ramble is a neat little app, PodMailer, which allows you to share files by e-mail - regardless of their size - without clogging your inbox.
In case you didn't know, the Black Stump also has a list of invention related sites for your perusal.
Happy Inventing!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Flying and Invisibility
Having flown in and out of Hong Kong many times in the past, I just loved this little entry in the Humour Cafe. I recall the first time I flew into Kaitak and saw people seemingly only a few metres away working at desks in buildings! Some fantastic photos there and the new airport and landing is nothing by comparison. Just the view of Hong Kong Island as you landed was super spectacular.
Couple of other articles recently about invisibility. This one appeared in the New York Times and there is another article from Discover about "How to Build an Invisibility Cloak" - hmmm, what's next? The human Teleport ? Been waiting for that ever since I latched onto the BBC series Blake's 7 many moons ago. Gotta save a load of jetlag!
Stay well!
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
No Vegemite for You!
The US has banned good old Vegemite ??? I don't like the stuff personally but it's a bit of an Aussie institution - Ok, you lot can keep your McDonalds and KFC within your own borders!
Vegemite is banned because it contains folate which is Ok to put on your cereal but, no no no, not on your toast, brother.
They have to be kidding...everyone knows this stuff is great for fixing holes in asphalt!
Saturday, October 21, 2006
More New Sites
Here are a few extra new sites I've stumbled across recently...no theme, just a random ramble!
2.0 Websites
A Boat Show on the Internet
Ainu-English Word List
Anousheh Ansari Space Blog
Death Education
Atomic Bomb: Decision
Become Shopping
NIST-F1 Cesium Fountain Clock
Charlie Chan
Top 10 College Pranks
Planet Audio Australia
The 1421 Myth Exposed
Cruise Critic
Enjoy!
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Software - Eudora Zoho Google Virtual PC
Seems like a whole raft of neat software announcements have been made lately - the first was the announcement of Google Docs & Spreadsheets which is a combo job of the Google Spreadsheet and (the ex) Writely. I still find the Google Spreadsheet a bit rudimentary but it has got better over time - if only they'd support a nice red colour for negative values I could almost use it.
Next was Zoho which I mentioned back in June. Looks like Zoho Single Sign On is On - take a look-see, you won't be disappointed with the range of options and things to fiddle with!
Next I read about the news from Qualcomm about Eudora - I'm a huge Eudora fan, have used it since day dot and now it appears it's going Open Source and Free of Charge sometime in 2007. Here's the FAQ.
Lastly, one of software technologies I'm interested in from a big computing point of view, but haven't really embraced personally as yet, is Virtualisation. Microsoft have just announced the Virtual PC 2007 Beta Program which I might take a peek at sometime - it also comes with Vista support now as both host and guest.
Happy Downloading!
Monday, October 02, 2006
HTML Validation and Flash EMBED tag
EMBED, Google video and html validation......a trail littered with one-way streets and dead-ends...
I decided to give Google Video a go on my site. All pretty easy - just view a video in Google Video and click on the "embed html" button and there's your code. Just insert that into your webpage and you're all done....or so I thought!
First problem - I ran the W3C HTML validator and, of course, it bombed out on the EMBED statement. Ok, off to Google and run a search on embed and html validation - up pops a couple of likely looking sites - the first by J.J.SOLARI details a way to include the EMBED into the HTML 4.01 Transitional DTD - must have been having a bad hair day, but I couldn't get the damn thing to work for me - gave up, rationalised my decision by saying I didn't want to butcher the standard anyway.
Ok, back to Google again....
This time I find a forum which basically says "don't use EMBED, use OBJECT instead and your page will validate nicely". Yup, I did, and yup, it did. But...now Firefox downloads the goddam video whether the user wants to run it or not - and I couldn't find any way to stop that happening. So, I don't want to annoy the 11% of my visitors who use Firefox by artificially loading (unwanted) videos and bumping up their transfer rates...so back to the drawing board yet again.
I gave up trying to Validate via W3C - I use CSE HTML Validator across my site before running the W3C validator anyway, so any page with video on it will be validated with that. A small concession to "purity" but I can sleep at night knowing my pages are valid but I'm also not ticking people off! I also had to include the following metatag to keep the validator happy with the generated EMBED code:
meta content="text/css" equiv="Content-Style-Type"
Oh well, what's a few more lost hours lost spent gnashing and cursing at the keyboard!
Happy EMBEDding!
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Free Spyware and Antivirus Programs
Featuring two sites today, Grisoft.com and Grc.com.
Grisoft.com features both free anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. Not much else to say - go for it.
The GRC site features many tools and utilities that are really useful as well. In particular, check out Shields Up! and the Freeware page which has loads of goodies.
That lot should keep you busy for another week!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
September 20 - Lying Camera
Someone once told the camera never lied - and like most people, I don't like most photos that are taken of me....and make up your own mind what that means.
Two sites that may be of interest - check the HP Slimming Photo camera ! Hey, way to diet folks!
...and here's a whole bunch more lying photos!
Gotta fly and get me a HP R967...cya
Friday, September 15, 2006
September 15 - Mixture
Thrill-riders? ... the Segway to my latest blog entries is Segway Stumbles in Europe and Glitch Leads to Segway Recall. Ooh-ah, expensive way to possibly hurt yourself!
Be careful ! - Phishing exploit sort of via Google.
Would you believe it ? Finally Get Smart is almost here!
..and Pirate Pete sez talk like him on September 19! Yohoho...
Avast me hearties!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
September 6 - Word
Be on the lookout for nasty Word documents in the next few days. Here is an FAQ on this issue.
More info in these sites:
Trojan.Mdropper.Q
Trojan.Mdropper.Q / Email Attachment Practices
Security Focus
Secunia
Happy Blocking!
Sunday, September 03, 2006
September 3 - Phoneboxes and Skating
Phones these days can just about do everything except slice bread - but for a blast from the past check out the Payphone Project. Still some good old payphones around - I like the one from the Bay of Islands in New Zealand -looks like Dr Who could step right out!
Lots of more interesting sights in the gallery.
For something different check out the inline skating Speed World Championships being held in Anyang, Korea this week. Exciting stuff and little bit of danger too - Aussie Andy Finster crashes in his first race breaking both wrists, getting 8 stitches and a dislocated finger to boot ! All that training, just to do that.
Happy skating!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
August 29 - Still Ugly
Wow, we must be sooo Ugly! - have fought our way right back up the chart to Number 1 position after dropping out of the Top 20 momentarily. Like I said before, happy being ugly!
One of the sites I like to use these days is Bloglines. I mentioned a while ago that I'm a big advocate and user of Web Watcher but Bloglines is a great complement to this for watching your favourite RSS feeds - in fact, I find Bloglines easier to use when "watching" sites like ResourceShelf which gets updated a lot and sometimes hard to track all the changes.
ResourceShelf is a terrific site, by the way, to find out about lots of new things and happenings on the Net. A couple of other good sites for finding new things are the Librarians' Internet Index and the Scout Report.
Happy Surfing!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
August 22 Site Advisor
Hi Folks,
Two sites worth taking a peek at today - the first is the McAfee Site Advisor which some of you might find useful. SiteAdvisor is a downloadable tool that works with the browser to help you stay a bit safer whilst browsing. (and I'd appreciate if anyone felt the inclination to rate the Black Stump site, but that's entirely up to you, of course).
The second site is a bit of a fun site (at least I'm taking it that way!) - the Hot or Not Designs site is rating all sorts of sites (sights?) from hot to ugly. I'm pleased to say the Black Stump site has featured quite high on the list (well, Ok, in the ugly section!) - but I can tell you I'm Ok with that as the site is designed for information help and quality resources not to look like every other blogsite out there. And yes, I know it's a bit of an anachronism from the 90's, but there you go!
Happy being Ugly!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
August 14 Sites
Oh well, the feedback was a bit light on !!
Here's a random selection of a few more new sites I fell over this week.....
Wildcam Grizzlies ...world's largest gathering of brown bears in Alaska
An Inconvenient Truth ...Climate
The Infamous AOL Data and NYT Locates One AOL Searcher
The BBC News Styleguide ...pip pip
Caddy Map ...next round of golf??
How to Present to Investors
Yodel Anecdotal ...a look inside Yahoo!
The List of Proverbs
Star of Bethlehem
Games, Simulations and Quizzes
Happy Linking!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
August 7 Wimps?
Hmmm, well the broken arm needed to be "reset" - don't like to think too much about the word "reset" or "re-align" for that matter in this context - ouch...and they say we might be A Nation of Wimps ? Well, maybe, but if you ask my kids, I don't think they'd agree just at the moment. Three hospital visits in 10 days is way, way too often for me!
Onto matters more useful and interesting....a couple of neat sites for finding out stuff - the first being DNS Stuff - quite a tidy lot of tools. Take a look, you'll be glad you did.
Second site is Karen's Powertools. I use a number of these little freebie programs of which the Replicator is the best - it is a very easy way to backup my *really* important files from one hard drive to another each day. Also take a look at the Whois and URL Discombobulator as well which I also use regularly (but there are a lot more, and sure to be something of interest for you).
Now, a request - what do you you want to see here ? Any feedback ?
Take it easy!
August 2 Mix
Well, the hospital saga continued this week with another child in hospital having his appendix removed - been a week and a half!
Might have to get around the fire and have a game of Monopoly - I see times have moved in Monopoly and new versions can be played with a credit card!!
If any of you have websites, you should probably read Matt Cutts blog. Obviously very Google oriented, but well worth the effort. He's addressed a whole bunch of new questions on video this time around. Interesting!
And, to finish with today, here's information and a newsletter on interactive television when you get bored of playing Monopoly (or max out your credit card!)
Happy playing!
Friday, July 28, 2006
July 29 Hospital
Ok, well I've moved on from the big birthday celebrations into enjoying a week off from my main place of toil (not the Black Stump). Enjoying, momentarily...
First day, I come down with a goddam virus - Ok, it's just a sore throat, headache, feeling lazy, all the usual crap - I'll live, I guess. Two days later....rude interruption - school calls "Your son has dislocated or broken his wrist"...bah, humbug, off the the Casualty department of the nearest hospital for the rest of the day. Eleven hours, waiting, x-rays, waiting, discussions, waiting, surgery, recovery, waiting....eventually go home around 3am, leaving my son in hospital at least overnight, possibly longer. Turns out he made (or someone helped him make) a big mess of his Radius bone and now has plaster from fingers to shoulder.
Of course, the football season at school and with his local club have just completed and finals are just about to start - no, no, no, not for him - 6 weeks minimum, no sport. Happiness, all round...
The Black Stump has Medical and First Aid pages with loads of information if you care to look this, or other medical ailments, up.
Can someone remind me this time next year that birthdays are cancelled from now on?
Happy Medicals!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
July 24 Birthday
Sorry about the lack of posts lately but I've been a little distracted with a milestone birthday and, well, celebrating it!
Lots of things happened on my birthday through history and I share the date with Alexander Dumas and Amelia Earhart to name just two. One day they might be as famous as me...
If you want to know what happened on your birthday, or other dates in history, there are a few sites to check out like the History Channel or Famous Birthdays or Any Day in History or maybe Those Were the Days
Don't forget to check the Daily Fun page on The Black Stump for various "of the day/week" type sites!
Happy Surfing!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
July 18 Weird
A few sites I run across are rather odd. I post quite a few of them on the Bizarro page but I find more than I can post on that page! Either there are just a lot of odd posters out there or I just happen to gravitate to and across them...
For example...
Ink Blot Tests with Faces in them
Extreme Pumpkins
How long will I live?
Destination Day
Nostradamus Fulfilled
The Excuse-O-Mat
Error Wear
Restroom Ratings
Taos Hum
Moggy Silly Sleeping Pose Olympics
Happy Weirdness!
Friday, July 14, 2006
July 14 Tools Part 3
People often ask me where I find the sites I list on The Black Stump and the answer is "all over the place". Mainly online, but I also scan newspapers for anything interesting as well just to get something a bit different.
Online site scanning is made fairly easy these days with a Software tool called WebSite-Watcher - basically you list the sites you want to monitor and the frequency and it really does the rest. It can watch all or only parts of sites, it highlights all the changes and it's very flexible and highly configurable - it's a great time saver for me.
With a site like The Black Stump where all the sites are personally selected (no auto submissions here!), the link quality is very important. Not just the quality and appropriateness of the content, but the link itself must be valid. Now, with a site of just over 20,000 links it's a rather difficult (in fact, impossible) task to keep everything in order at any point in time so I depend on two link checking tools - LinkBot and Xenu. I don't think LinkBot exists any more but the last version still works OK, but these days I prefer to use Xenu anyway. Xenu works pretty quickly and has some nice little features enabling you to quickly check "down" sites in the Google cache and in the Wayback Machine.
To get back to the opening question about where I find the sites, that's the subject for another day - most of the sites I scan are listed on the Black Stump, most probably in the Cool Sights page. There are probably 20-25 of the sites there which I monitor fairly closely.
Happy Linking!
Monday, July 10, 2006
July 10 Encarta
Quick post today...
A two-hour free pass to the content of Encarta is available. Just follow the instructions contained in the link....
An extract follows...
How to get your free pass
Your Microsoft Encarta free pass is available from any Encartalink on MSN Search.
For example:
Above the search box, click Encarta, or click the arrow next to the Searchbutton, and then click Encarta.
Click any Encartalink on your results page within an hour of running your search.
Click an Encartadirect answer link. Direct answers are identified by this symbol .
When your two-hour free pass expires, you can return to MSN Search, run another search or click an Encartalink. Your two-hour free pass is instantly renewable whenever you click an Encartalink from MSN Search.
Encarta Free Pass Details
Happy Researching!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
July 9 Picasa
Finally found some time to check out Picasa and I gotta say it's impressive and its also free. Doesn't get any better than that!
Picasa is photo management software allowing you to organise, edit, and share your photos and it's amazingly simple to use. It scans your PC for grahics files and collates and sorts them into visual albums organised by date and/or the folder name.
You can have it scan your entire system and find loads of things you forgot you had, or you can limit the scanning to directories of your choice. For me, I just used it to scan the "My Pictures" folder. It manages to automatically keep track of changes in the "watched" folders and reflects those updates within the Picasa view. Magic!
I'm also experimenting with Picasa Web Albums which is a neat way of publishing your photos on the Web. I was impressed by the simplicity and ease of use of the software.
Picasa also has a load of powerful editing features and they all seemed pretty intuitive to me.
If you want to store or edit digital photos and/or publish and share them on the Web (easily!), give Picasa a try.
Free, Easy and Useful..what else would you want ?
Happy Editing!
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
July 4 Bus
Was sitting in YAM (yet another meeting) in the office listening to those who like to be heard and it struck me how often over the years I've heard the expression "If X got hit by a bus tomorrow, what....".
Is it just an IT thing ? It seems to be a euphemism in the IT industry for "you better do what I'm saying (now!), 'cos if something one in a trillion happens tomorrow, you'll be in trouble...." (except, of course, if was YOU that got hit by the bus, then you wouldn't really give a rats, would you ??).
Although, I think I can remember in the olden days (when I was a kid...), mothers always used to say "make sure you have clean undies without any holes, in case you get hit by a bus" - what the ?? Hey, Mum, just gimme the clean undies and we'll be sweet!
But, why a bus ? What if you got hit by a train ? or a tram ? Would that be Ok ? Just avoid those evil buses , I guess!
Anyway, all this reminds me of one my favourite sites on the Internet and that's the Urban Legends - well worth a wander through but, be careful, you might get stuck in there for days!
I'm off to do my laundry, just in case....
Monday, June 26, 2006
June 26 Dumb
Having returned from the land of Chocolate, I finally found time to reflect on something DUMB I did just before I left....backed one of my cars into the other in my own driveway...naturally the bigger car (with the towbar) was quite Ok...the smaller was not, having had a nice, neat towbar-shaped hole punched through its front...and, the creme de la creme of this situation? Neither car is insured against the other because I own them both !! Bah...may as well have thrown $1200 in the street!
Well, I guess I have a few mates out there like these Dumb Criminals and Dumb Crooks. The Law is an ass and does not escape dumb scrutiny - just check out some of the evidence at Dumb Laws out there.
......and finally, here's DumbFind..which actually doesn't appear dumb at all to me, but maybe I'm missing something ??? (maybe I'm just dumb enough not to get it?)
All criticism accepted!
Phooey...
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
June 20 Football
Well, I find myself in downtown Lausanne Switzerland for the second time in a month - working again, but thankfully the weather is much better this time around (high 20's) and, of course, it's World Cup Football (still soccer to me) fever time.
Lots of coverage on the Net at the FIFA site and Yahoo also cover the situation in a similar vein. Historical information is available at the BBC.
Naturally, being an Australian, I'm keen to see how the Socceroos are performing - the Football Australia and the Age sites cover the Aussie scene well.
Australians are very keen sports people and we even excel at Robot Dogs Soccer !!!
Well, good luck to the Socceroos, and here's hoping for a good result against Croatia, but for me, I'm also looking forward to the Aussie summer where we can get back those Ashes from the Poms!
Go Aussie!
Thursday, June 15, 2006
June 16 Rainyday
A rainy day, maybe a day for (big) downloads to while away the time and use up all your excess bandwidth ?
Microsoft has released a beta version of Windows Vista Ultimate which clocks the scales at a mere 3.5 Gb !! This release is available in three languages (English, German, and Japanese) and in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. According to good old MS when you register for the Customer Preview Program you will receive the Beta 2 release plus Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1) — the next major pre-release of Windows Vista — when it is available later this year. So ....up to you - Windows Vista Beta
Maybe you'd like to fiddle with photos instead and catch up on the millions of digital images you've poked away on that hard drive ? Google has released Picasa Web Albums and you can sign up and wait for an invite - you'll need a Gmail account to do this.
If that's all too hard, just play a game of Sudoku instead !
By the way, Microsoft announced a whole bunch of security updates yesterday.
Till next time...
Monday, June 12, 2006
June 12 Tools Part 2
Continuing the Tools thread - today the Text Editor and FTP.
As far as developing my sites, I've always used Multi Edit. Originally, they used to have a fairly function rich free/demo version which did most things I wanted in a text editor. They still have the freebie version, which is now called MeLite which is probably only free for thirty days, though.
Anyway, I also fiddled marginally with FrontPage and people have recommended DreamWeaver to me, but I've always stuck with coding things myself and MultiEdit. I guess I prefer to control what I do and I'm not a big WYSIWYG fan. MultiEdit is still a terrific text editor, probably a bit costly now, but I'm in system doing the upgrade thing from time to time so the expense isn't too bad.
As far as FTP is concerned, I've used CuteFTP forever, probably since when it first hit the market (a long time ago). It's just so simple to use and it does everything I need, so I've never seen any reason to change. Like most things, it's probably added a load of new "features" over time so it's probably more bloated than it used to be (and more than it needs to be for me), but I still only use the most basic functions (like drag and drop a file to send it to a server).
I recently heard about a freeware program called WinSCP which is supposedly Ok, but I've not yet had the inclination to try it. Also used WS-FTP way back but didn't like it at the time (can't remember why) although a lot of people use it, so I presume it must be Ok.
Anyway, thats it for now.
Take it easy!
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
June 7 RIP
Office RIP ?
Coming soon...Google Spreadsheet
Already there...Zoho
Already there...Writely
Where's Powerpoint ?
Happy Days!
Sunday, June 04, 2006
June 5 Overflow
Nine new links to check out...the Black Stump overflow....
1. The Web Riddle
2. Anxiety Disorders
3. History of Money
4. Stolen Jewelry Website
5. About Belly Dancing
6. Jesper's Blog ...security
7. Brain Maps
8. Leonardo's Last Supper
9. Magic Gallery ...vintage magic posters
Happy Linking
Thursday, June 01, 2006
June 2 Maps
I know Google Maps have been around a while and, of course, there are many other Map and Atlas sites around.
It seems that maps (and satellite images) of most of Australia are now available on Google which you can check out at the Google Maps site. Just to help you a bit, I created a couple of pages for Melbourne and Sydney. Its easy enough to scroll around, but I'll try and add a few new direct links to major cities soon.
Happy travelling!
