Splitters!

TV splitterI want to share a TV signal between the VCR and the shiny new media PC.

So I went along to Dick Smith and bought a coax splitter thingy, pictured.

But why on earth does it have a male connection on the input, and a female connection on the output? I know cables vary, but surely it should assume the opposite?

It looks like the other one they stock is the same.

As it is, to make this work I’m going to need to use gender bender adapter thingies on all three connections. That’s just silly.

(Or have I somehow got myself some kind of unique antenna cable setup?)

Windows 7 compatibility

Windows 7 compatibility settingsI’m quite impressed with Windows 7’s compatibility settings. They seem to have made it possible to use software which the official Upgrade Advisor says will require purchasing a later version, even without resorting to XP Mode, which being Virtual PC-based, would surely be a good deal slower. And of course some applications just work as-is.

Some of the old software I’ve tried so far.

Office 2003 — works fine as installed.

Pinnacle Studio 10 — install the software, then the 10.8 patch for Vista from Pinnacle. Set compatiblity to Windows Vista, and it works fine. (The Windows 7 Compatibility Center recommended paying for an upgrade on this. I wonder who provided Microsoft with those details??)

Auran Trainz 1.3 — install, then set compatibility to Windows XP.

Kahootz 3 — install, works fine.

As I get around to installing other stuff, I’ll update this post.

Midtown Madness 2 — seems to work okay, though it defaulted to the wrong audio output device. I’m not sure; it seemed to set the correct directory permissions on the Players directory (within the program files), which it didn’t used to do under WinXP. Or maybe my fiddling with it trying to get the sound working did it. Either way, it doesn’t seem to need the Compatibility setting set on.

Traffic Giant (Gold Edition) — worked okay except the title and cut-scene videos, which required setting compatibility to Windows XP. And the settings (eg graphics resolution) wouldn’t stick permanently without all users having write-access to the program directory.

The Movies (and Stunts and Effects expansion pack) — Apart from having to manually start the installation (the auto start just generated an error), and telling it not to install Media Player 9 or DirectX 9 (which seemed to cause another error), it seems to work okay.

Weird bug

Weirdest bug I’ve seen in a long long time. If I delete the star out of the following text:

Ubuntu is coming out with a Long Term Support version (3 years) real soon now. It’s got a few cycles to go before it’s released in April. I want it now, so I downloaded Lucid Lynx* alpha 3, and found some weirdness – which you’d expect in an alpha release.

WordPress says it doesn’t know what or who I’m talking about. “Post? What post?”

One character. Two days to make that reproducible.

Weird.

Launchpad.net: FAIL

Ubuntu is coming out with a Long Term Support version (3 years) real soon now. It’s got a few cycles to go before it’s released in April. I want it now, so
I downloaded Lucid Lynx* alpha 3, and found some weirdness – which you’d expect in an alpha release.

Launchpad.net is meant to be some kind of bug reporting thing for Ubuntu. It does everything it can to stop you reporting bugs. Everything. First of all, it takes a bazillion years to figure out what product you’re trying to report a bug for. Then once you’ve finally found it, there’s a link on the RHS for reporting the bug, which proceeds to tell you to stop bothering them with all these bug reports, try this method, try some other method, why don’t you do this instead. Oh, and by the way, if you hand craft a URL a little like this we’ll let you into the magical inner sanctum of people who care enough to have read all the way through vast swathes of text trying to figure out how a bug report can actually be filed.

Once you’ve made the magical incantations, the tool tries to distract you with other bugs that sound just like the one you’re filing, except for other products. If you’re clever enough to create a bug title that fools it, finally it lets you enter the details. Then, in a fit of pique, it says after you submit the bug:

Sorry, something just went wrong in Launchpad.

We’ve recorded what happened, and we’ll fix it as soon as possible.
Apologies for the inconvenience.

Trying again in a couple of minutes might work.

(Error ID: OOPS-1535F528)

Gagh! I’ll just hit the ‘back’ button and ZOMG! Fscking Ajax ate my bug report! How the freak am I meant to re-submit that, you *#$%&@$*%@#*!

They can go get stuffed. Worst. Bug reporting. Ever.

Gmail bug?

Anybody else seeing this Gmail Bug? The message preview on the Inbox list shows text from the first message in the thread, even if it’s since been deleted.

Which means when you go to open it, the text you get to read doesn’t match what was in the preview.

It seems to be particularly prevalent in email list discussions, where what I usually do is delete the threads as I read them (unless I have a good reason for keeping them).

I tried to replicate it by sending myself a few test messages, but Gmail didn’t join them together as a thread, and I don’t have time right now to try any harder.

Decimalization of eggs

A clear sign that the French have taken over.

I tried to find the Egg Farmers Free Range Eggs, 550g Pk 10 at Woolworths, but the site just doesn’t work, even with JavaScript turned all the way on. And how well does the Woolworths site worth without JavaScript? Not at all well. The blind can go f**k themselves.

A ten-pack of eggs.

I can’t figure out how this is making things better. We have six-packs, so that’s not it. Please, enlighten me.

Tables: MS Word vs CSS

Here’s why I like CSS.

Here’s a table created in Microsoft Word and pasted into a CMS:


<table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: medium none"><tbody><tr><td width="64" valign="top" style="border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: windowtext 2.25pt solid; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #4bacc6 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; border-left: #f0f0f0; width: 47.65pt; padding-top: 0cm; border-bottom: windowtext 2.25pt solid; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial"><strong><span style="color: white; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></strong></td><td width="170" valign="top" style="border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: windowtext 2.25pt solid; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #4bacc6 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; border-left: #f0f0f0; width: 127.85pt; padding-top: 0cm; border-bottom: windowtext 2.25pt solid; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial"><strong><span style="color: white; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Description</font></span></strong><strong><span style="color: white; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></strong></td><td width="335" valign="top" style="border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: windowtext 2.25pt solid; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #4bacc6 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; border-left: #f0f0f0; width: 250.95pt; padding-top: 0cm; border-bottom: windowtext 2.25pt solid; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial"><strong><span style="color: white; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></strong></td></tr><tr style="height: 36.85pt; page-break-inside: avoid"><td rowspan="7" width="64" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #4bacc6 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 47.65pt; padding-top: 0cm; height: 36.85pt; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; border: #f0f0f0"><strong><span style="color: white; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Benefits</font></span></strong></td><td width="170" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #d8d8d8 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 127.85pt; padding-top: 0cm; height: 36.85pt; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; border: #f0f0f0"><span style="font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)</font></span></td><td width="335" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #d8d8d8 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 250.95pt; padding-top: 0cm; height: 36.85pt; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; border: #f0f0f0"><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">No up-front hardware or software costs</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Significantly less work effort to set-up a B2B integration solution since it involves&nbsp;mostly configuration tasks rather than programming</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Free use of online development interface&nbsp;for developers&nbsp;</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Data processing rates for usage&nbsp;are world&rsquo;s best</span></p></td></tr><tr><td width="170" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 127.85pt; padding-top: 0cm; background-color: transparent; border: #f0f0f0"><span style="font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Best Return on Investment (ROI)</font></span></td><td width="335" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 250.95pt; padding-top: 0cm; background-color: transparent; border: #f0f0f0"><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">ROI achieved sooner due to low up-front and on-going costs </span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Optimizes work effort since tasks removed or simplified</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Higher ROI due to removal of costs</span></p></td></tr><tr><td width="170" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #d8d8d8 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 127.85pt; padding-top: 0cm; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; border: #f0f0f0"><span style="font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Speed of Delivery</font></span></td><td width="335" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #d8d8d8 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 250.95pt; padding-top: 0cm; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; border: #f0f0f0"><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Solutions delivered in days and weeks rather than months and years</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">No requirement to establish and maintain hardware and software</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Support for standards reduces need for specialists and training</span></p></td></tr><tr><td width="170" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 127.85pt; padding-top: 0cm; background-color: transparent; border: #f0f0f0"><span style="font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Control and Flexibility</font></span></td><td width="335" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 250.95pt; padding-top: 0cm; background-color: transparent; border: #f0f0f0"><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Developers have full control over tenancies, design data and administration</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Development can be done anywhere at anytime</span></p></td></tr><tr><td width="170" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #d8d8d8 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 127.85pt; padding-top: 0cm; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; border: #f0f0f0"><span style="font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Guaranteed Service </font></span></td><td width="335" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #d8d8d8 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 250.95pt; padding-top: 0cm; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; border: #f0f0f0"><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Secure and reliable infrastructure </span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Guaranteed service level</span></p><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Data-back-up and disaster recovery provided </span></td></tr><tr><td width="170" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 127.85pt; padding-top: 0cm; background-color: transparent; border: #f0f0f0"><span style="font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Market Leading Service</font></span></td><td width="335" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 250.95pt; padding-top: 0cm; background-color: transparent; border: #f0f0f0"><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Most advanced functionality</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">First remotely configurable Integration, BPM and BI service</span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Wide support for industry standards and customizations</span></p></td></tr><tr><td width="170" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #d8d8d8 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 127.85pt; padding-top: 0cm; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; border: #f0f0f0"><span style="font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Future Proof</font></span></td><td width="335" valign="top" style="padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #d8d8d8 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; width: 250.95pt; padding-top: 0cm; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; border: #f0f0f0"><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Quarterly releases ensure up-to-date functionality </span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Upgrades are our responsibility</span></p></td></tr><tr><td width="64" valign="top" style="border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; padding-left: 5.4pt; background: #4bacc6 0% 50%; padding-bottom: 0cm; border-left: #f0f0f0; width: 47.65pt; padding-top: 0cm; border-bottom: windowtext 2.25pt solid; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial"><strong><span style="color: white; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></strong></td><td width="170" valign="top" style="border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0cm; border-left: #f0f0f0; width: 127.85pt; padding-top: 0cm; border-bottom: windowtext 2.25pt solid; background-color: transparent"><span style="font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;"><font size="2">Expert Assistance</font></span></td><td width="335" valign="top" style="border-right: #f0f0f0; padding-right: 5.4pt; border-top: #f0f0f0; padding-left: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0cm; border-left: #f0f0f0; width: 250.95pt; padding-top: 0cm; border-bottom: windowtext 2.25pt solid; background-color: transparent"><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt" class="MsoBodyText"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: &#39;Calibri&#39;,&#39;sans-serif&#39;">Expertise and knowledge available for support, development, consulting and training</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>

With a little CSS coding (held in an external file), it has become this:


<table class="featuretable">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td class="ftop"></td>
      <td class="ftop">Description</td>
      <td class="ftop"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fside">Benefits</td>
      <td class="fd0">Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)</td>
      <td class="fd0">No up-front hardware or software
costs<br>
Significantly less work effort to set-up a B2B integration solution
since it involves mostly configuration tasks rather than programming<br>
Free use of online development interface for developers <br>
Data processing rates for usage are world’s best</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fside"></td>
      <td class="fd1">Best Return on Investment (ROI)</td>
      <td class="fd1">ROI achieved sooner due to low
up-front and on-going costs<br>
Optimizes work effort since tasks removed or simplified<br>
Higher ROI due to removal of costs</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fside"></td>
      <td class="fd0">Speed of Delivery</td>
      <td class="fd0">Solutions delivered in days and
weeks rather than months and years<br>
No requirement to establish and maintain hardware and software<br>
Support for standards reduces need for specialists and training</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fside"></td>
      <td class="fd1">Control and Flexibility</td>
      <td class="fd1">Developers have full control over
tenancies, design data and administration<br>
Development can be done anywhere at anytime</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fside"></td>
      <td class="fd0">Guaranteed Service</td>
      <td class="fd0">Secure and reliable infrastructure<br>
Guaranteed service level<br>
Data-back-up and disaster recovery provided</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fside"></td>
      <td class="fd1">Market Leading Service</td>
      <td class="fd1">Most advanced functionality<br>
First remotely configurable Integration, BPM and BI service<br>
Wide support for industry standards and customizations</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fside"></td>
      <td class="fd0">Future Proof</td>
      <td class="fd0">Quarterly releases ensure up-to-date
functionality<br>
Upgrades are our responsibility</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="fside"></td>
      <td class="fd0">Expert Assistance</td>
      <td class="fd0">Expertise and knowledge available
for support, development, consulting and training</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Old version: 12250 bytes.

New version: 2490 bytes + 605 bytes of CSS. And much more maintainable, and it’ll be easier to change the table styles later.

OK, the new looks slightly different to the old (this was on purpose to enlarge the fonts a bit), but jeez.

The buzz on Google Buzz

On Google Buzz (posted on Google Buzz):

Daniel Bowen – So this is Google Buzz, eh? Is it going to be as useful and popular as Google Wave? Or Google Orkut?

Anthony Malloy – Problem is that while you can bring stuff in to your Buzz feed you can’t push stuff out to Facebook – and I think that would be the killer for most people.

Daniel Bowen – Yep. Unless it has unique functionality (like Google Docs) or interoperability (like GMail) or it’s got to reach critical mass before it’s worthwhile.

Daniel Bowen – OK so I found the Connect Sites stuff. Which makes it look a little like Friendfeed (another service I’ve dabbled with then deserted). But you’re right Tony, it’s Facebook where the critical mass of people is, and Buzz doesn’t (yet) talk to that.

Some of Google’s stuff is brilliant, but given on this they are so far behind Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook, I’m finding it hard to believe that this will achieve any great success.

MySchool: so wrong

Background: The Australian federal government has finally pushed out a web site publishing performance metrics for all schools throughout Australia. There has been much brouhaha regarding this. For some reason, the go-live wasn’t a quiet one, but a very loud, flick-on-the-switch big-bang go live.

Naturally, the website asploded.

Any website that’s going to be hit by 1% of the Australian population the moment it goes live is going to blow up unless there are some cluey, experienced people behind it. Clever, inexperienced people, or experienced idiots with a large budget might stand a chance if things got progressively worse over time, but turn it on and hammer it on day one? MySchool.edu.au does not have cluey, experienced people behind it. There are various signs.

For a start, what is it with the TLD? .edu.au seems fine, but what’s wrong with a redirect from .gov.au given they were the folks running around promoting it? It’s not like myschool is an education institution.

Then you get there. Guess what? It won’t work without JavaScript. At all. Because typing in a string and hitting enter demands the availability of JavaScript. Using <form> is so 2000s. Get with the new decade! It’s so vital to the site that users must not be allowed in if they don’t have JavaScript. Screw the blind! They’ve only got one school to go to anyway.

And the site is slow, amazing slow. But I guess if you’ve got to download all that JavaScript to enter that string, of course it’s going to be slow. Switching to a different set of data? Couldn’t download that and just do a hide/show, no you’ve got to do some kinda AJAX-y postback crap for a massive round-trip delay; if you were dealing with rapidly changing data, that might almost make sense; every year this website will get data updates, so no: this makes no sense. I clicked on it, and a long time later, something happened to the web page. In the meantime, I went off to get a drink. Alternatively, you could just show a table for each year, and skip the damn JavaScript altogether. Why there’s even a backend is beyond me, this whole thing could be served perfectly well – and mind-numbingly quickly – from static pages.

And for the purpose it’s intended for: parents picking a school for their kids. Can you compare schools? No. Open them up in different browser tabs, if you have a tabbed browser (remember: the blind can go take a flying leap). Good thing the site is chocked full of JavaScript. And the JavaScript is used for handy things like map-based locating of schools, and – oh, hang on, no it’s not. There’s no Google-maps mash-up. Good thing the site is chocked full of JavaScript.

Clearly, the entire site has been an exercise in some programmer somewhere bolstering their resume rather than giving the client something appropriate. Either that, or a manager was in charge of the feature spec, and demanded all the latest buzzwords that they had heard but didn’t understand. I’m betting it took more than a year to build. Feel free to speculate.

I’m also willing to bet the price on this site was more than the $50,000 it should have cost (one person, three months). I’m imagining about two or three orders of magnitude more. I’m figuring the servers required for this aren’t running in some guy’s bedroom, even though that would be about all that’s required for such a simple dataset that’s presented in such a straightforward way.

Must try harder.

iPad thoughts

Some thoughts on the iPad.

It looks like a giant iPhone. Having no lid to cover up the screen seems odd.

Some are ripping into its faults, including no iBook feature outside the USA (at least initially), no camera, no USB port, no memory card reader, no Flash support, no multitasking. Yikes.

But I do love the comments about the screen being bigger than an iPod/iPhone, like this is some revelation nobody thought of before.

“A larger screen means that games can be more immersive, as well as allowing for higher detail and bigger animations,” said Peters.

A bigger screen! Amazing!

You mean… just like every other notebook or desktop computer out there?

But hey, it does look pretty nice. I bet lots of people buy them.

I bet it could be almost as successful as the Apple Newton. *grin*

Microsoft Laser Mouse 7000 Recharging Problems

I love Microsoft hardware, regardless of what you think of their operating systems it’s hard to argue they make good mice and keyboards. I bought a new mouse yesterday – a Microsoft Laser Mouse 7000 and left it to charge up overnight but this morning I found it hadn’t. The charge light was flashing red, instead of pulsing green (recharging) or solid green (recharged).

A search shows that this model has problems with its supplied battery. I tried the quick fix for the Microsoft laser mouse not recharging, putting a folded piece of paper on top of the battery to make it press on the battery detector, but this didn’t work for me. A new battery, somewhat thicker than the one supplied by Microsoft gave an initial green glow before it too started flashing red.

If you want to know what battery works with the mouse try an Energiser Rechargeable 900mAh. It has a slightly longer positive terminal and slightly larger girth. The mouse is now recharging fine.