Hot Deals
/This is an interesting site if you are after bargains.
Powerdown Power
/First I must declare a vested interest here. David has promised to buy me a vest if I mention his software.
Actually no. In the old days only my mother bought my vests. Now number one wife does it.
But I work with David, which is how come I can recommend things he makes. Like Powerdown. You can get it here. It turns your computer off when you aren't using it. And makes it come back on quickly when you need it again. It is particularly interesting for large companies, who might have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of machines which they would like to make greener.
Powerdown also provides a way of controlling the power characteristics of large networks of computers from a single point, properly integrating with corporate systems to make things easy to manage.
Well worth a try.
Good Search Tool
/The heck with Yahoo. I reckon Microsoft should buy Clusty.
VAX T Shirt
/Saw this T-shirt today. I really, really want one:
For some reason known only to Primark they've used a system diagram which includes PDP and VAX computers and all kinds of things that I used to manage (RD54 disks anyone) as the logo. I sooo want one of these in XL. I just hope they are not only kids sizes (and that you can still get them).
Update on 2008-04-29 08:41 by Rob
Ha. Managed to get one. I happened to be up town early today (getting a copy of a certain video game now in its fourth incarnation) and so I nipped into Primark and found they still had some. In fact, bearing in mind they were only three pounds each, I got two.
PageFlakes and flakey Maps
/I've found this rather nice custom homepage maker:
It lets you make your own home page with customised content (yes, I know there are loads of these but this one is quite nice). I've only found one snag so far. It figures out where you are and then offers up a list of events in your region, added to a map so you can find them easily.
I just hope everyone can swim.....
Basic Instructions is Very Funny
/I'm quite proud of myself. I've actually found a really funny comic web site that number one son hasn't heard of.
WiFi For Your Camera
/This is a very cute device. If your camera uses SD cards it gives you a very neat way of getting your pictures into your computer, with no wires.
Gadget Review
/Zoe sent me this. I find it rather funny.
Unleash the Silliness
/I've finally got around to launching verysillygames properly. The new site has downloads, an FAQ and all sorts. I'd love to know what you all think, and if you have any ideas for content let me know.
Head Tracking using the Wii Remote
/This is amazing. I'm soo going to build one...
Dealing with Bandwidth Thieves
/Ian sent me this link about what to do if you suspect the neighbours are stealing your home WIFI.
http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html
Brilliant stuff.
A Couple of Good Links
/Thanks to number one son for this one:
http://www.sharebrained.com/chronulator/
I'm very tempted to get one and build it. I've got a picture frame that would fit it a treat.
And thanks to the Geoffmeister for this one:
http://www.kloonigames.com/crayon/
Looks great fun.
Microsoft Feels Your Pain
/I first saw this some time ago. I'm very pleased to find that it has made it onto YouTube:
Live Writer Goes Live
/It looks like Live Writer (the thing that I'm using to write this blog) has finally gone, er, live. It was in beta for ages, and the "Help About" screen in my version still says Beta, but now it looks much more like a finished product. All the nice features are still there, along with the plugin structure (which seems to have sprouted a bunch of extra plugins - but nothing as nice as my Flickr Inkifier of course).
If you write blogs and want a lovely place to work, you should take a look here:
Unconscious Activity
/
Learn how to do this....
I've just been sent a question about an article that I seem to have published. I sent it over to the OpenNET people and they put it out in August this year. It is all about Image Processing in C# on a mobile device. If you want to take a look, get the code and get the articles, take a look here:
Orchid Power
/The orchids in the kitchen have gone mad. Each Sunday we listen to, but don't understand, the local gardening program, and a recurring theme is how hard orchids are to grow. We just leave ours on the kitchen window sill and wait.
Which seems to work quite well..
Get Paint .NET
/I've been messing around with images and for some time I've been using a free program called "The Gimp" which can do useful things like layers and transparency. It can probably do lots of other tasks too, but it is such a pain to figure out how it works that I will never know.
For some time I've been looking for a decent free graphics editor which doesn't make me tear my hair out, and luckily I seem to have found one. Paint .NET started life as student project and now is a very well specified graphics editor which is great to use. It has a bunch of artistic effects as well as those features that I need to create images for the XNA games.
If you are after a good program to work with images, take a look here.
Untamed Workforce
/Microsoft has put up quite a funny spoof web site to showcase mobile working:
http://www.untamedworkforce.org/
It is quite neat, but the links drop you onto the Windows Mobile web site, which kind of gives the game away.
However, I was very pleased to find that the best of these sites (in my opinion) is still live. If you've not seen "Escape from Yesterworld" before, it is quite a treat. I especially like the videos:
