tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-380303102009-06-26T21:07:24.029ZGadgets, programming tidbits or even the bits of technology that makes you gleam with psychotic, yet nerdy laughter. Well... I'll try.Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-66085260559175503222009-06-26T21:03:00.003Z2009-06-26T21:07:24.038Z

It's nice to see the Press taking a much more keen interest in technology and gadgets. So I wasn't that much surprised when the Metro covered the launch of Microsoft Bling. Currently in beta Microsoft is obviously renewing their competition against Google. I've also noticed that Microsoft has recently removed the Live search with Bling on their MSN page.But after using it, why do I get the

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-42740827720800897462009-06-22T09:53:00.008Z2009-06-26T21:02:42.815Z

One of the most popular uses of Javascript is when it comes to validating user input on a form. The most hateful way, though, is by not using onsubmit. A number of times I come across code where someone uses an image in place of the submit button and uses the onclick event which will validate then submit the form. Yeauch! Very bad practice!The first thing to do with the form is place the

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-21455815188930157552009-06-10T16:02:00.002Z2009-06-10T16:05:27.409Z

This is my first ever attempt at creating a "skin" to use in the Firefox extension - Personas for Firefox.Check out the link belowPersonas for Firefox | YellowDream

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-55407348566799174222009-04-20T19:23:00.005Z2009-04-20T19:29:24.391Z

Sounds harsh I know, but I mean it. Bah. Microsoft's latest and shiniest browser is out there, yet it still makes me cringe and want to smash my computer to bits with a sledge hammer.Microsoft's approach to having a standard's browser is commendable, yet many websites won't work, without applying certain hacks, one of which turns it to IE 7. Sometimes there's a ghost opening new tabs for me.For

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-4060304870495474412009-03-10T21:07:00.002Z2009-03-10T21:19:35.065Z

OK. It does sound like a bit of a spoiler, but there I was trying to design my kitchen as I'm completely renovating my home. The problem: my mum's idea of a plan.The solution: Sweet Home 3D. Yes, this free program (which is similar to Google Sketchup) allows you to draw plans of your house or individual rooms on a two-dimensional plan and virtualise it on a three-dimensional plan.You can place

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-37063369083508698572009-02-08T10:37:00.003Z2009-02-08T10:47:18.424Z

You may remember, I previously mentioned Blender in reference to making 3D images and stuff. Well, the institute has released (around December last year, I think) an open source game to demonstrate their (and the software's) capabilities. This game is called Yo Frankie! as is released under the Creative Common license.Any budding game developer can freely download all the code and sprites, to

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-90963462509506829732009-02-03T16:50:00.003Z2009-02-03T18:06:55.813Z

Unbelievable. This article (here) tells us how the Swiss Police identified a marijuana plantation which led to high profile arrests through Google Earth.

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-91692897684168509892009-02-03T15:26:00.011Z2009-02-03T16:07:35.076Z

I was just asked by my colleague how to turn 20080101 (in a file provided by a client) to 01/01/2008 (to be used in our system) in Excel where the cell is presented as text. We can easily recognise the date, but computers are not so intelligent to put up with these variations of how we operate.There are a number of ways, but mine relies on certain assumptions, that numbers below 10 are

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-61625202250035113662009-02-03T15:02:00.004Z2009-02-03T15:12:38.291Z

Aaargghh! I just hate it. While IE8 is still in Beta, Microsoft still has not addressed the problem that some websites (or applications) appear as a blank page, even though they appear correctly in IE7 and other browsers.Microsoft's excuse is that the engine has be re-written from the ground up. But it's not excusable when those sites are standards compliant. Anyway, at the start they did

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-69352709499291370342009-02-03T09:42:00.005Z2009-02-03T10:27:26.958Z

OK. Not really, but I'm sure certain techy people will have a field day when that happens. However, their web browser's (Internet Explorer) market share has been constantly falling like nobody's business lately.Some believe that the catalyst for this is when IE appeared in the news for a severe security flaw, which is pretty much the time frame for when (the ever popular) Google released it's

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-48669938658291454642009-02-02T10:02:00.003Z2009-02-03T20:11:48.206Z

For those who cannot afford to shellout for Photoshop and, thus, benefit from its photomerge feature Microsoft has saved the day with a free alternative.It's been a while since I looked at the Microsoft Research site, so it came as a surprise to see that they have released Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE). It really is a neat package and can export your image in various formats (TIF, JPEG,

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-59639609184385580842009-01-23T14:06:00.002Z2009-01-23T14:13:57.674Z

"Yeah, why not?"... "Erm...."Now you hit that stumbling block. You can't think of just any password, it has to be secure. So instead of racking your brains and ending up with a headache, why don't you download a random password generator. Useful for people, like myself, who create systems that require predefined users and passwords.One tool that tops my list is PC Tools Password Utilities.

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-27066242577921547732008-12-18T18:08:00.002Z2008-12-18T18:13:24.040Z

Have you ever noticed those nice pictures with the smooth round corners?  Have you ever contemplated how it's done?Now without the power of Photoshop this is possible with  RoundPic.com.All you have to do is upload your image and specify the corners and the size of the rounding (with other options).  The image is then preview on the web page waiting for you to download it.  And that's it.  In

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-63202829515051877492008-12-04T16:08:00.007Z2008-12-04T18:17:40.630Z

I know, I know. There's a lot of tools out there to help with editing XML and XSL files and a whole lot of other mess.While creating an XML-based web site system in my current role, I wanted to be able to just test my XSL before plugging it in to my code in case it started causing any difficulties. Basically, all I need was a transformation tool that works like in Altova XMLSpy.I couldn't find

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-33307908800630818032008-12-04T10:36:00.005Z2008-12-04T10:55:38.146Z

As everyone would have gathered by now is that I am an open source freak. By the way I'm proud of it.Given this, I have been keenly following an app called Songbird for a while now. It is a cross-platform music player and library, which can handle playback of most music formats (think iTunes). Conveniently enough it is based on the technology that Firefox utilises (Mozilla-based software),

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-59949059855402640382008-11-13T13:00:00.003Z2008-11-13T13:05:57.251Z

While parents and teachers moan and groan of the disadvantes of using the internet, I for one continue to identify the advantages.One distinct advantage is SayNoTo0870.com, which allows you to find alternative numbers for premium rate numbers. You are charged for premium rate numbers on a land line phone and it is not included with the free minutes of your mobile phone.Using this website, I have

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-35310187391874670342008-10-12T11:40:00.004Z2008-10-12T12:01:35.459Z

...for studentsOK. A lot of people knocking off Microsoft and looking at open source software mainly because of their high prices.I'm not too sure when Microsoft started off this move. But, for some time now they have made a selection of their software freely available for students. This is available as Microsoft DreamSpark.Getting hold of the software will involve a process of verifying you

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-40493326960271085132008-10-03T16:43:00.003Z2008-10-03T16:49:48.975Z

The open source image editor GIMP has reached a milestone release of version 2.6, with the Windows installer now available.This major release includes improvements on the user interface, tools and plugins. There are also some under the hood changes.Some of the new features are:The toolbox menubar has been removed and merged with the image window menubar.It is now possible to pan beyond the

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-10627998583012754852008-10-03T16:02:00.004Z2008-10-12T12:09:27.665Z

Nokia has recently announced the launch of the XpressMusic 5800 music, and is anticipated by them to be their largest release this year.The phone (dubbed 'the Tube') is released alongside Nokia's "Comes with Music" unlimited music download service and uses a Symbian S60 operating system. Slick indeed.Just like the iPhone and the Samsung Omnia it is touch screen with the screen size being 3.2".

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-67578146831654154902008-10-03T15:37:00.002Z2008-10-03T15:45:57.047Z

In a bold move, which has not been confirmed by Steven Ballmer, Microsoft is working on bringing Zune to Windows Mobile to compete with Apple's iPhone.In the not too distant future we may be looking at a Zune style media player as opposed to the mobile version of Windows Media Player. This may also see the introduction of Windows Mobile devices with a face lift to give a look and feel of the

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-61882947123146777772008-10-03T14:47:00.003Z2008-10-03T16:01:59.797Z

Having released SoftMaker Office 2008, the makers are making the 2006 version available free of charge to Windows and Linux users. However a small omission is SoftMaker Presentations, the alternative for Microsoft PowerPoint.This move provides users with another alternative for Microsoft, contending with OpenOffice.org by being able to work directly with Office2007 files.Linux users are also

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-8160570567356067542008-10-01T12:40:00.002Z2008-10-01T13:40:54.207Z

In preparation for the next release of Microsoft's RIA, Silverlight 2 has been rolled off from Beta into the first Release Candidate.Silverlight 2 Release Candidate 0 Developer Runtime edition has been made available since last Thursday. The browser plugin is still in Beta, though.Based on the .NET Framework, Silverlight is intended to be an alternative to Flex for those developing web-based

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-52004344618990571342008-09-25T14:08:00.008Z2008-09-26T12:11:57.730Z

Ever since Sun MicroSystems released the code to StarOffice, it kicked up a storm in the open source world and we saw the birth of OpenOffice (OOo). It is not about being open source, but this broke down the barriers of sharing documents and collaboration.Microsoft upped the ante with the recognition of collaboration for business and release a free service - Microsoft Office Live Workspace -

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-83410129871223133432008-09-03T11:41:00.002Z2008-09-03T11:50:22.742Z

Google has recently upped the ante for its presence on the web.  With the recent beta of Google Chrome, Google is contending against Mozilla Firefox and Micorosoft Internet Explorer.To quote from Google, it is intended to be a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.After trying out the beta, I see that this goal is very

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38030310.post-39187989631814399082008-08-15T19:10:00.003Z2008-08-15T20:15:21.010Z

While Adobe Reader is common for reading PDF the popular (and powerful) file format for sharing files over the Internet, it is not the only one. After every version it slowed down my system, got slower and started taking up alot of resources.Instead of wasting time in looking at ways to speed up the reader, I took into my own hands to find alternatives. Here's what I found:Sumatra PDF - A open

Shahid Onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03006107786014205307noreply@blogger.com0