126 blog posts categorised Technology
Extracting files from Tatung Einstein disk images
Kevin Edwards got hold of some 3" disks containing source code to various old commercial games and once they were imaged with a high quality process (a Kryoflux) it was time to write some tooling to get the files out of the corresponding DSK file.
A quick primer on floppy disks
I've always been fascinated by floppy disks from the crazy stories of Steve Wozniak designing the Disk II controller using a handful of logic chips and carefully-timed software to the amazing tricks to create - and break - copy protection recently popularised by 4am.
Mac OS System 9 on Windows
I'm often digging into old bitmap font and UX design out of curiosity - and someday hope to revive a lot of these fonts in more modern formats using a pipeline similar to that for ZX Origins so we can get all the usable fonts, screenshots etc. out of them.
Notes from my Spectrum +3 manual
I've recently been working on a full HTML5 conversion of the Sinclair Spectrum +3 manual with full canvas-drawn screenshots and diagrams for smooth scaling/high res displays as well as some close font matching and layout as well as cross-reference links all over the place.
DDR4 memory information in Linux
If you've built a PC desktop in the last few years, you've probably been exposed to the confusing array of DDR4 information when it comes to buying RAM.
What it comes down to is not all RAM is created equal. Once you get past pin size and memory capacity, you'll have to filter down by speed. Speed isn't a simple one-figure number - you may see a rated speed like 2400MHz, but you may also see another bunch of numbers like 16-16-16-39 indicating the necessary clock cycles to perform certain types of memory operations.
Revisiting my BBC Micro - display, speech & more
It's been a while since I blogged about Revitalizing my BBC Micro. In that time, I've performed a few upgrades readers might find interesting.
As useful as the tiny Amstrad CRT was, I wanted something bigger, brighter, and sharper. LCD is terrible for retro systems with blurry scaling attempting to draw images designed to take advantage of CRTs. Emulator authors spend significant effort trying to mimic CRT effects for an authentic retro feel - but the best option is to use a CRT.
Monitoring URLs for free with Google Cloud Monitor
As somebody who runs a few sites, I like to keep an eye on them and make sure they’re up and responding correctly.
Notes on Edward Tufte’s Presenting Data and Information
Here are my notes from today’s event by renowned statistician Edward Tufte – author of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and Envisaging Information primarily for my own reference but perhaps of interest to others.
Quality of SSL protection for US financial institutions
Troy Hunt put together a list of top Australian banks and their SSL rating using the Qualys SSL Server Test that reveals the somewhat depressing state of SSL security of various banks down-under.
Make Home & End keys behave like Windows on Mac OS X
I’ve been using Mac OS X daily since 2001 when I purchased my Titanium PowerBook. I still can’t get used the Home and End key behaviour.
Revitalizing a BBC Micro
My "Beeb" is in good condition and works well, but the case screws have long since disappeared (a common theme in my collection), and it needed a good clean. These older mechanical keyboards attract dust and dirt...
What to do before your iTunes Match subscription expires
At $25 a year the iTunes Match service can be a little tough to swallow given all it does is synchronize your music across iTunes especially when other file-sharing services are cheaper and more general purpose (OneDrive, Mega, DropBox etc).
Setup an Ubuntu server at Digital Ocean
Virtual machines are called Droplets at Digital Ocean so hit Create then:
A case for my MacBook Pro: Snugg wallet case review
I did it. Earlier this year I caved and purchased a MacBook Pro 15″ Retina after being Mac-less for a few months despite some reservations about the lack of upgrade options.
Windows media keys on a regular keyboard
Many full-size Windows keyboards come with extra buttons some of which are of questionable value but the volume and music controls are useful especially if you’re a programmer that likes to listen to music all day.
Working at Microsoft
What's it like working at Microsoft? Well, like all places there's good and bad and Microsoft is so large no two teams are quite alike...
Acer Aspire S7 review – two months in
Given my new focus on Windows 8 apps and the loss of my MacBook Pro I was in the market for a Windows 8 laptop.
Using your Xbox Kinect as a webcam for Skype on Windows
Thanks should go to ScottOrange on the MSDN forums however it’s along thread that has lots of pieces to pick out and try.
Build a great Windows 8 developer & gaming desktop for $900-$1500
With Windows 8 right around the corner it’s time to build a new desktop PC that will scream for both development and gaming.
Having set a personal budget of around $1500 I started the arduous process that every DIY PC builder has gone through… researching parts and playing with specifications until it feels just right.
My one-year check-in with my Windows Phone 7
It’s been almost a year since I bit the Windows Phone 7 bullet and put my iPhone 3G away. As a long-time Mac fan (our house is nothing but Macs) I wasn’t sure I’d last…
Three weeks with Windows Phone 7 – a Mac users perspective
It’s been a few weeks since I took up Microsoft’s employee offer of a free Windows Phone 7 (when you renew a 2 year contract) and combined it with AT&T’s offer of buy-one-get-one-free for my wife.
Six great new features at Xbox.com
It’s been quite a while since xbox.com had a major update and today sees the launch of the new version with a clean new look and a whole host of new features that our teams here at LIVE engagement have been working on.
MacBook Pro 256GB SSD upgrade experience
I wanted an SSD for some time and finally caved in. Armed with credit card, screwdriver and trusty MacBook Pro I fitted a sweet SSD and decided to document the experience.
MacBook Pro two year check-in
It’s been an interesting couple of years with nothing but a maxed-out MacBook Pro 17″ as my only home machine.
Five steps to blog (re)design
For some time I’ve wanted to refresh the design here at damieng.com which evolved out of the Redoable theme with my own tweaks to colors, typography, images and background until it was almost my own.
First impressions of Snow Leopard
I came home from work today to find my family pack upgrade version of Snow Leopard. It’s been a few hours, so here are impressions so far.
Disappointing new MacBook Pros
Like many other MacBook Pro owners I’ve been waiting for the October 14th event with some excitement. The highlights include:
MobileMe up and down at me.com
Me.com was up, briefly, just long enough for me to grab my usual handle and get the confirmation message in fact.
What I would like to see in Snow Leopard
The word is out that Snow Leopard will be about trimming down Leopard – likely Apple’s effort to switch to lower-capacity solid-storage such as found in the MacBook Air and perhaps future iPhones and maybe a tablet.
Apple Store Vancouver opens tomorrow
Apple are opening an Apple Store here in Vancouver, BC tomorrow at 10:00am.
Boot Camp 2.1, VMware Fusion 1.1.2 and MacBook Pro firmware
Apple have released [Boot Camp 2.1](https://www.apple.com/bootcamp) which finally includes official 64-bit support on Vista and support for Windows XP Service Pack 3.
WordPress 2.5 notes from the field
It’s been a few weeks since I upgraded to WordPress 2.5 and whilst the upgrade went well it hasn’t been all plain sailing.
Four Windows apps for home-sick Mac users
Delicious Library is a DVD, game and book organization tool I’ve been using since my PowerBook G4 and a 2.0 version has been dangling from Wil Shipley’s mouth longer than I care to remember.
Windows users however will find Libra a very interesting clone and it features some of the same great features such as bar-code scanning via a web cam, tracking loans, a rendered virtual shelf and fast queries.
Calendar spam, the next nuisance?
Tomorrow morning at 5am where I can enjoy an advanced fee scam! I’ve had these in email format before but never in my calendar…
Windows 2008 Server on my MacBook Pro
A troublesome disk (a story for another time) has forced me to reinstall my MacBook Pro and review my Windows partition.
Facebook’s bizarre search algorithm
I’ve been having some problems trying to locate friends on Facebook and now I know why.
Access AIM and ICQ via Google Chat
Google just added support for AIM to Google Chat so you can just enter your login details and chat right away from your Gmail or Google Apps for Domains account as if they were Google Chat users.
Microsoft opens Office binary file format specifications
Microsoft have released the binary file format specifications to their Office suite (the XML ones are already published) under their Open Specification Promise.
What being open means to Apple & Microsoft
Former Apple engineer Jens Alfke believes Apple’s external image has been polished until featureless. The restrictive staff blogging policies, the veil of secrecy around future plans and a carefully orchestrated three-person spokes-team of Jobs, Schiller and Ive lead to a very impersonal closed business.
It certainly wasn’t always this way. The original Mac team appeared in Rolling Stone magazine with credit in about boxes, a practice that was continued at NeXT but abolished by Mac OS X Beta. Jobs makes regular comparisons between engineers and artists and touted individual thinking in the Think Different campaign and artists like recognition with signatures on art and credits on film.
What’s in your laptop bag?
Since my new laptop arrived I’ve been fine tuning my accessories in search of the developer-on-the-move setup. Here is my current contents complete with shameless Amazon Affiliate product links where applicable ;-)
Mac freebies for Christmas
Spaces is new in Leopard bringing virtual desktops to the masses. Leopard gives you a number of ways to switch between spaces including a menu-item drop down and configurable keyboard shortcuts.
To move a window to another space you drag it to the edge of the screen and wait a moment but curiously you can’t use this great technique without a window to switch!
One week with a MacBook Pro 17″
It has been one week since I picked up my new MacBook Pro 17″ to replace my aging first-generation 15″ model.
When SQL Server replication eats disk space
Part of my job involves revising our SQL Server architecture. My plan includes the addition of a read-only reporting SQL pair for non-critical inquiries and reports. This allows the heavy and unpredictable load from reporting away from from the primary SQL pair responsible for critical operations (shipping orders).
How dangerous is HTML injection?
A few years ago I believed that HTML and SQL injection vulnerabilities were headed for extinction. Thanks to object-relational mapping tools SQL injection continues to die but HTML and script injection vulnerabilities are as popular as ever.
More free Mac software picks
Wake up every morning to your iTunes playlist without the danger of an app launching it and having a problem/update pending that prevents you getting to work on time.
Alarm Clock 2 also includes Timers (great for a quick 20 minute power nap) and Stopwatches alongside the normal one-off or regular scheduled alarm that will bring both you and your machine out of sleep ready for that early-morning email check.
Windows Experience Index on MacBook Pro 2GHz compared
I just got the opportunity to try out the latest version of VMware and thought I’d do a quick Windows Experience Index on Boot Camp, Parallels and VMware to see what the performance is like before my new MacBook Pro 17″ arrives (hopefully on Friday!)
More Silk Icons – Silk Companion #1
FamFamFam produces a great set of 1,000+ free silky-smooth 16×16 pixel icons called Silk Icons. You can never have too much of a good thing.
Show Package Contents in Mac OS X
Bundles are a concept in Mac OS X whereby a specially named folder becomes what appears to casual users to simply be a file that can be copied as usual and often launched by double-clicking on it.
SQL Server replication blocking on cleanup job
For some time my primary workplace has been having a problem with SQL Server replication delaying for several minutes at a time which is surprising given the 12GB of RAM and quad processor hardware behind it.
MacBook Pro 17″ 2.6GHz ordered
Since moving house I have been using my MacBook Pro 15″ 2.0GHz at home, for contracting and even for the odd diagnostics and organization in the office.
Freeing up disk space on Mac OS X
Space was a little tight (5GB) after my upgrade to Leopard and so I went on the hunt to free up space and ended up freeing almost 20GB of my 100GB disk – enough to let me set-up a new 20GB Boot Camp partition that will host Vista and take over from my XP Pro Parallels image with any luck.
Mac OS X Leopard – my story so far
I couldn’t pick up a copy in the USA as the Seattle store was closed for remodeling and when they said October 26th, they meant at 5pm and not 9am, go figure! Thankfully IQ in Guernsey had them in-stock when I arrived back home Saturday.
Apple’s Boot Camp beyond the expiry date
Stories about Apple’s Boot Camp and the looming expiration of the 1.x beta versions to coincide with the release of Mac OS X Leopard and Boot Camp 2.0 are abound.
Silk companion #1 preview (more Silk icons)
The Silk icon pack available from FamFamFam (also known as Mark Jones) is an excellent pack of free 16×16 pixel icons.
Pixelmator for Mac released
One of the things I love about Apple is the way they enhance Mac OS X with great features for other developers to leverage. Built-in spell-checking, incredibly rich edit controls, development environment and the recent Core frameworks are such additions. Core Image allows applications access to real-time hardware-accelerated graphic effects and is used within some of Apple’s own apps for various effects.
In search of the perfect keyboard
I started programming at 12 and have been fortunate to carve out a successful career in something I love to do. People find it strange when I talk with passion about IDEs, fonts, color schemes, mice and keyboards.
iPod refresh and ring-tones
New colors. Zzzz.
iPod nano really is just a smaller version of the iPod now, full video and games (Vortex and two others included plus others available to buy) on a full metal stubby device that has a large 200ppi 2.0″ display. Now available in $149 4GB and $199 8GB models. Yummy.
Notes on the move to WordPress
The change to WordPress from Subtext went without major hitch. This was great considering I was tweaking the design and articles right up to going on holiday (I wouldn’t do this in a professional environment but my blog is a sandpit for such dare-devil risk taking ;-)
New iMac available only with glossy display
When I use a computer I want to view my email, pages and work and not watch a light-show of what’s going on behind me. Glossy displays are therefore rather unappealing and Apple’s latest iMac update has me suitably worried.
Great free system tools for Mac OS X
Deeper takes you further that System Preferences and provides access to a number of extra options such as Finders graphical effects, layout, spacing and menus, as well as some extra options for Dashboard, Dock, Expose, Login and more.
As an extra cool treat you can also select a screen-saver to be your desktop background just to show off how smooth, slick and system-deep the transparency, scaling and hardware acceleration go in OS X.
Windows Mobile 6 on the HTC TyTN with a Mac
It’s been a while coming but HTC have announced Windows Mobile 6 for the TyTN (Hermes, Dopod 838Pro, iMate JASJAM , SoftBank X01HT).
Importing BlogML into WordPress
I’ve been trying to get my content out of Subtext and into WordPress – a process that shouldn’t be difficult however Subtext only supports the blog-independent BlogML format and whilst WordPress supports a number of import formats BlogML isn’t one of them. For export WordPress only supports it’s own WordPress WXR format although the BlogML guys have an exporter available.
Hidden menu options on the Mac
Apple tends to hide away unusual functionality in order to keep the user interface easy to use.
More free gems for the Mac
It must be that time again already… here we go!
So you believe Apple is more expensive than Dell…
Apple are often accused of being more expensive and that Dell are much cheaper.
My windows 64-bit experiences
Windows XP 64-bit has been on the market for some time and both Intel and AMD’s current processors are 64-bit. Even cheap office Dell boxes are coming equipped with the 64-bit Core 2 Duo. (This is the x64/x86-64/EM64T/AMD64 architecture which comprises of 64-bit extensions on top of the existing x86 32-bit architecture and not to be confused with Intel’s IA64 Itanium stuff or DEC’s Alpha 64)
PlayStation 3 launch disaster?
I’ve known for a little while now I wasn’t going to bother with the PS3 unless some truly unique titles come up and the price subsequently drops so buying one at launch was a no-no for me but once I found out only two of my friends were getting them (and I have a lot of geeky friends) I knew Sony were in trouble.
Apple’s next enclosure material?
Olivier wonders about Apple’s next enclosure material and that got me pondering. Jobs has already utilized:
Google Apps Premier Edition announced
I’ve been a user of Google Apps for your domain for some time – primarily to let me use the great Gmail interface for my own mail domains (thanks to the domain alias feature they introduced last month).
Book: The Art of the Start
I’ve just finished reading Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start and I must say I’m quite impressed.
For the last two years I’ve been working for at a start-up on an interesting product. We’ve got the core of our ‘magic sauce’ working just great but now I’m relying on business people to make it happen and I should probably have some idea of what that involves and how I can help.
True cost of the iPhone
So you like the iPhone and think you’ll buy one?
Apple Macworld misfires
So the Apple TV and iPhone are finally announced and visually impressive with a very refined user interface – but some of the technical specifications aren’t quite there.
Remote denial of present (DoP) attack via Amazon wishlist
I placed eleven items this year into my Amazon wish-list for my family and girlfriend to pick from and all were quickly purchased.
Parallels Desktop 3036 beta build out
Parallels have released a beta build of their excellent virtual machine for the Mac and it’s loaded with cool new features. Once out of beta it will be a free upgrade to existing owners.
Office ribbon – patenting look and feel?
The ribbon is in effect a tabbed tool bar with large context-aware icons that show you more interactively what will happen when you use them and put the various options and selections right in there. It’s a concept I find that works very well indeed although some reviewers have been less enthusiastic.
LushOS cursors
Many many moons ago I created myself a set of animated mouse cursors that I could use day-in, day-out.
They were designed to be easily clear on any background and just catch the attention of the eye when needed without being visibly distracting when not. They achieve this using a gently pulsing white outline.
Heat, fan, power and battery monitoring on the Mac
coconutBattery lets you see how much of a charge your battery currently has, how much it can still hold and how this compares to when it was manufactured. It’ll also show you how many times you battery has been charged.
SlimBatteryMonitor is a replacement for the Apple battery indicator in the menu bar with something more compact.
Microsoft withdraws Sysinternals source code
Anyone involved in support or development on Windows platforms has almost certainly come across the excellent tools from Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell, collectively known as SysInternals (free tools) and Winternals (pay tools).
Vista: no pretty picture for me
The Microsoft blogosphere is full of posts announcing the release of Windows Vista to manufacturing.
It’s done – the code is finalized and any bugs and fixes will have to wait for Microsoft Update to deliver.
Reinstalling Windows XP on a 750GB monster
My first ever hard-disk was a whopping 2GB when 340MB was considered high-end. £800 meant it was a steal – an end-of-line trade-only offer…
One small step for web standards, one giant download for automatic update
Internet Explorer 7 has just offered to install itself on my machine helpfully already downloaded, all 14.8MB, by Windows Automatic Update.
Icon and task-bar tools for Windows
A few things bug me about the Windows user interface and as I currently have no inclination to head over to Vista I thought it was about time I dug around and found some tools to address the job.
Switching from Boot Camp to Parallels
A few weeks ago I managed to screw up my Windows XP installation on my MacBook using some low-level tools and driver related stuff.
Stupid defaults: Internet Explorer 7
Some people just love shipping applications with the stupidest possible default settings.
Office shortcuts for accented characters on Windows
Many years ago I came across, by accident, a way of entering foreign accented characters into Microsoft Office applications by way of a standard non-accented UK/US keyboard.
Google Reader – contender for the online aggregator throne?
I wrote a while back about how Rojo’s upgrade was a disaster and that it had led me to look for alternatives.
Rojo – how not to publish updates to your site
Rojo has been my favorite on-line reader for a while despite the annoyances and quirks but this weekends ‘upgrade’ got me wondering how incompetent the team behind it is and what exactly Six Apart have purchased.
Inside Apple Software Update for Windows
I was wondering whether Apple Software Update might search for and upgrade the various Boot Camp supplied tools and possibly drivers.
Apple’s Showtime and the disappointing iTV
Today’s Apple Showtime event showed some great products, and some disappointing ones.
Supplementing Boot Camp 1.1
This article is now out of date. Check Apple’s Boot Camp page for up-to-date information.
Boot Camp, for those that don’t already know, is a set of tools and drivers for getting Windows XP up on your Mac. The various components are:
The HTC TyTN smartphone reviewed
For some time now I’ve been on the lookout to replace my aging Sony Ericsson P900 with something just as powerful but better equipped. With a keyboard high on my wish-list too the choice kept coming down to Danger’s Sidekick II, the Blackberry or the iMate K-Jam.
MacBook Pro whine fix in 3 hours
It’s been an odd couple of weeks for my MacBook Pro 15″.
Apple releases Boot Camp 1.1
This article is now out of date. Check Apple’s Boot Camp page for up-to-date information.
Apple have released Boot Camp 1.1 which, at a whopping 202MB, adds:
Disappointing Apple WWDC announcements
The Rumor mills were overflowing with ideas of what Apple might show at this year’s WWDC and so I like many other interested parties sat down through the hour long presentation albeit via a delayed stream.
Keeping an eye on the MacBook/Pro temperature
As most people know these things run quite warm but at last two applications are available for getting hold of those elusive CPU temperature figures.
MacBook Pro the ultimate developer machine?
I’ve been using my MacBook Pro now for about a month and think it’s the ultimate developer machine. You really are spoiled for choice and everything you might want is at your fingertips.
Firefox cool extensions: Sync, del.icio.us & microformats
These Firefox extensions just keep getting more innovative and useful. Here’s the latest additions to my ever-growing Firefox arsenal.
Hardware hacking the MacBook movement sensor
Developers keep finding new and unexpected uses for hardware and software – seemingly never more so than on the Mac and OS X.
Apple MacBook released – cheaper than comparable Dell
Apple have released their MacBook to compete on the low-end with similar PC laptops. I thought I’d compare it to a very similar Dell offering by using the Apple and Dell web sites…
Dell get pushy with insurance/extended warranties
We’ve all experienced the pushy salesman trying to get us to buy insurance/extended warranties when buying goods in stores but now it seems Dell are taking this to the extreme.
Mac software picks – Parallels, Gmail+Growl, Uno & TheftSensor
Another round-up of the best Mac OS X software I can find.
From Blogger to SubText – Export psuedo BlogML from Blogger
Getting my blog out of Blogger.com and into Subtext was not as easy as I’d hoped…
Apple introduces 17″ MacBook Pro
Apple have announced the 17″ MacBook Pro at their US Store that should be shipping within the next 7-10 days (early May).
Great Windows, Firefox and Web finds
Getting a new machine often spurs me to go out and find some new tools and utilities. Here’s some recent finds:
What are the unknown devices in XP on the MacBook Pro?
This article was written when Boot Camp had limited device driver support and is now therefore out of date.
Apple’s Boot Camp provides the majority of drivers required including the elusive ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 driver however there are a few devices without official drivers. These are;
Fixing MacBook Pro keyboard annoyances under Windows
This article was written when Boot Camp had limited device driver support and is now therefore out of date.
There are a few annoyances with the MacBook Pro keyboard when in use under Windows XP via Boot Camp. The lack of back lighting and the swapped WindowsWindowsAltAlt keys I can’t help with but the getting the Fn key operational, replacing Alt GrAlt Gr and switching misplaced symbols I can.
MacBook Pro round-up
Just a few quickies regarding my favorite laptop…
Life with Windows & Boot Camp on the MacBook Pro…
The performance is quite amazing.
World of Warcraft runs nicely under Windows giving an acceptable 20 fps at 1440×900 24-bit color 24-bit depth 1xmultisample1440×900 24-bit color 24-bit depth 1xmultisample with everything turned up high or on. Dropping down the anisotropic to mid-point and turning off the full-screen glow effect and smooth shading bumps that up to 30 fps.
Apple’s Boot Camp and my new MacBook Pro
Apple announced their Boot Camp technology – basically a set of drivers for Windows XP, a wizard to help resize your existing disk partition and the necessary magic to load XP from the EFI BIOS.
Gloomy long-term future for Apple?
Steve Jobs’ vision and leadership has turned Apple around from a great-promise but minimal market share in the computer business into a media and fashion darling envied by the likes of Sony, Dell and Microsoft.
Mac Mini Intel isn’t my digital life
This week Apple unveiled their new Mac Mini powered by the Intel Core Duo processor and using Intel’s core graphics, effectively giving it a significant boost whilst still retaining the attractive £400 price point.
Google nuggets
As a frequent user of many of Google’s various services I continually find myself finding new tips and tricks for getting the most out of them. Here are a few to share;
Why I haven’t yet ordered a MacBook Pro
My aging Dell 8100 is struggling with the recent demands of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 mostly due to the fact it only supports 512MB RAM. Paging is bad enough on a desktop but on a laptop with slower drives and battery drain…
What next for Mac OS X?
Well obviously the hot item for the next major release of Mac OS X will be Intel compatibility but I’m hoping they’ll get a chance to squeeze some new features in too. Here what I’d like to see next:
Apple announcements and a little fumbling
Apple have announced the fifth generation of iPod. Improvements include better battery life, a thinner enclose, better screen and now in both black and white.
But not everything is peachy. Gone is the FireWire support, the remote socket and there is still no sign of Bluetooth. Quite how you are supposed to switch tracks without pulling your iPod out your pocket I’m not sure.
Dell 2405FPW monitor review
Having now spent the best part of a month beneath the shadow of Dell’s 24″ wide-screen LCD behemoth, the 2405FPW, I thought a mini-review might be in order.
iTunes 5, iPod Nano & audio-book pricing
Apple hosted a media event yesterday, here’s my usual opinionated commentary.
More iPod fillers and Mac apps
Check out podiobooks who have put up a number of free audio-books from various authors. Neil Gaiman has managed to get the first chapter of his new Anansi Boys book read by Lenny Henry up too.
Fluid is a screen saver that gives you, well fluid visual effects. It has a whole bunch of preset effects and a mixing desk to mix up your own. Works okay on my PowerBook but ideally needs something more powerful! Mac Mini owners need not apply.
Google tracking outbound links from searches
I’ve never realized but Google use your browser in such a way it tells them which link you followed out from the search results. Searching for “damieng” for example will show my home page as the first result. The browser window will show https://damieng.com but click on it with JavaScript enabled and instead you’ll go somewhere like;
Hardware upgrades, part 2
Okay, so the memory was sorted which left me with two things I wanted doing. The parts this time were from UK supplier Overclock, not to be confused with Overclockers from the previous posting. Both suppliers delivered very quickly and automatically took off the VAT for me, one of the perks of living in Guernsey but one that is all to often eroded by inflated shipping costs, neither of which these two suppliers can be accused of :)
Hardware upgrades, part 1
I recently performed a few upgrades to keep my PC up-to-speed and thought I’d share a few tips.
Firefox for power users, part 2
Here are a few more useful bits and pieces to improve you browsing experience if you’re a Firefox user.
Firefox for power users
If you’ve been using Firefox for a while you might like to look at some of these tips and tricks to get more from your web browser. If you’re not using Firefox to find out what all the hoopla is about.
Phishing with IDN’s
Currently “hot news” is the fact that Firefox, Mozilla and Safari browsers have been demonstrated as susceptible to a new form of phishing attack.
The future of Mac Mini
I’m sure you’ve read all about Apple's latest Mac Mini, a stripped-down machine for those wanting to try Mac OS X (according to Steve Jobs in his recent keynote). It also appears to be a good way to get mum-and-dad off your back with it’s practically non-existent rate of viruses and spyware. It even makes a reasonable server being that it comes with Apache, a firewall and can share your Internet connection – even wirelessly.
Visual Styles and themes in Windows XP
One of the less-touted features of Windows XP is it’s ability to theme the user interface. Not to be confused with Windows 98 Plus pack’s themes, this support includes ‘Visual Styles’ which allows the actual appearance of the windows, buttons and various controls to take on a whole new look providing the application has been marked as being compatible with themes using a manifest.