Like most people who uses computers every day I can type with both hands without looking at the keyboard.
This I learnt from a DOS typing program. Today someone showed me a free fun typing program in flash on the internet called TypeRacer.
You type a paragraph and it shows you the number of words per second. However the best part is you can compete against multiple friends (or random people) at the same time and the typing progress of each player is shown as a car race.
Some good fun.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
BBC's clown of fire
Error 500 - Internal Error when I try to access the BBC's website.
It is just me or is the clown in the BBC's errror page disturbing?
Looks to me like a psycho clown just started a fire. All that is missing is the background music to Prodigy's "I am the Firestarter".
I'm the trouble starter, punkin' instigator
I'm the fear addicted, and danger illustrated
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm the bitch you hated, filth infactuated - yeeeaaaah
I'm the pain you tasted, fell intoxicated
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm the self inflicted, mind detonator - yeah
I'm the one infected, twisted animator
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
It is just me or is the clown in the BBC's errror page disturbing?
Looks to me like a psycho clown just started a fire. All that is missing is the background music to Prodigy's "I am the Firestarter".
I'm the trouble starter, punkin' instigator
I'm the fear addicted, and danger illustrated
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm the bitch you hated, filth infactuated - yeeeaaaah
I'm the pain you tasted, fell intoxicated
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm the self inflicted, mind detonator - yeah
I'm the one infected, twisted animator
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Gina Carano look a like found
Toothless is Gina Carano's lookalike?
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Might sound far fetched but How to rain your dragon's Toothless does look similar to Gina Carano.
Both are the lead characters in a movie. B
oth kick ass.
Both don't speak in their movies. Toothless can't speak because well he is a dragon. Gina Carano's real voice is not used but is dubbed in her movie Haywire.
Time to upgrade to Visual Studio 2010
Visual Studio 2010 Version differences
Microsoft, one step closer towards turning developers into architects.
Modeling tools design functionality such as sequence diagrams do not come with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate by default so download the Visualization and Modeling Feature Pack.
VS2010 is very extensible make so check out the Visual Studio Gallery for useful tools Microsoft and the development community creates.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
AC Ryan Playon DVR
Picked up an AC Ryan PlayonDVR PV76120 media player and 1Tb from Esquire so I can watch my movie and video collection directly on a TV.
The media player component works well and played all the video formats I threw at it. During testing comparing with my PC for some movies the background music & sounds were louder than speech and for one large 5Gb blueray mkv rip I tested the background video was flashing . Possibly due to how the videos was encoded but otherwise I am happy with the media player.
As with all of the popular media players the device supports Yet Another Movie Jukebox software which allows you to scan your media collections for information like: year, language, fps, audio & video codecs and fetches information and photos from sites like imdb and generates the indexes in HTML format that you can view while using the jukebox mode in the media player.
Connectivity options are a strong point with USB, ESata, Cat5 and WiFi (optional) supported. Connection to television is through RCA or HDMI.
What make the PlayOn DVR different compared to the PlayOn HD is that it can also play and record digital television signals and comes with a basic antenna with a magnetic foot if you don't have one for input.
South Africa has only analog TV but there is a Sentech test digital transmission for the SABC channels in my area using DVB-T the standard the device supports.
During testing I was surprised how good the quality was when I used the little antenna indoors. Huge difference compared to analog TV with bunny ears.
Basic recording and scheduling works as expected. However that is only for digital channels where you can watch one channel and record another.
Satellite/DSTV device can be recorded but you have to use the PlayonDVR AV-IN for this purpose meaning you can't watch another channel while recording.
The drive wanted a separate partition for timeshifting on first use and you can only select between the range of 1 Gb and 4Gb depending how many minutes you want the time shift period to support.
Unfortunately only very specific internet features are supported.
These are :
From the PlayOnDVR website you can download the source code all models including the 76120 but as of yet haven't found a active community modifying the source code.
The support forum for the device is very quiet and firmware updates only fix bugs so in does not compare that well in this regards to media player only devices like the Medi8or.
After updating the firmware to v8.3.2.r3582 I saw no no extra functionality or visual changes.
So in summation if you are looking for a media player and recorder combo the PlayonDVR is decent and probably the only the device on the market that combines a media player,TV,DVR & basic internet functionality making it a cool gadget.
However keep in mind in future the first manufacturer that combines a media player, DVR and an opensource product that allows you to make full use of the internet will shake up this market. Embedding the open source operating system Android or ChromeOS with media player/DVR devices is definitely the future and will happen. The question is just when. Up until then I need a media player v1 so I am happy with my PlayOn DVR.
The media player component works well and played all the video formats I threw at it. During testing comparing with my PC for some movies the background music & sounds were louder than speech and for one large 5Gb blueray mkv rip I tested the background video was flashing . Possibly due to how the videos was encoded but otherwise I am happy with the media player.
As with all of the popular media players the device supports Yet Another Movie Jukebox software which allows you to scan your media collections for information like: year, language, fps, audio & video codecs and fetches information and photos from sites like imdb and generates the indexes in HTML format that you can view while using the jukebox mode in the media player.
Connectivity options are a strong point with USB, ESata, Cat5 and WiFi (optional) supported. Connection to television is through RCA or HDMI.
What make the PlayOn DVR different compared to the PlayOn HD is that it can also play and record digital television signals and comes with a basic antenna with a magnetic foot if you don't have one for input.
South Africa has only analog TV but there is a Sentech test digital transmission for the SABC channels in my area using DVB-T the standard the device supports.
During testing I was surprised how good the quality was when I used the little antenna indoors. Huge difference compared to analog TV with bunny ears.
Basic recording and scheduling works as expected. However that is only for digital channels where you can watch one channel and record another.
Satellite/DSTV device can be recorded but you have to use the PlayonDVR AV-IN for this purpose meaning you can't watch another channel while recording.
The drive wanted a separate partition for timeshifting on first use and you can only select between the range of 1 Gb and 4Gb depending how many minutes you want the time shift period to support.
Unfortunately only very specific internet features are supported.
These are :
- Add and view your own RSS feed
- View Picasa and Flickr RSS.
- Add & listen to internet radio channels
- Bittorent
From the PlayOnDVR website you can download the source code all models including the 76120 but as of yet haven't found a active community modifying the source code.
The support forum for the device is very quiet and firmware updates only fix bugs so in does not compare that well in this regards to media player only devices like the Medi8or.
After updating the firmware to v8.3.2.r3582 I saw no no extra functionality or visual changes.
So in summation if you are looking for a media player and recorder combo the PlayonDVR is decent and probably the only the device on the market that combines a media player,TV,DVR & basic internet functionality making it a cool gadget.
However keep in mind in future the first manufacturer that combines a media player, DVR and an opensource product that allows you to make full use of the internet will shake up this market. Embedding the open source operating system Android or ChromeOS with media player/DVR devices is definitely the future and will happen. The question is just when. Up until then I need a media player v1 so I am happy with my PlayOn DVR.
Use google charts - Dynamic world map
Google charts can dynamically generate charts based on data. Using it you can create a front end, pass the data as parameters to a google url to generate your charts.
One example is world maps. An example of implementing this can be found on this site.
I used it to generate an image of all the countries I have worked and lived in.
Google uses their own dynamic charts (Pie charts, world map) in the google blogger stats section. Colours on the map to indicate weight.
One example is world maps. An example of implementing this can be found on this site.
I used it to generate an image of all the countries I have worked and lived in.
Google uses their own dynamic charts (Pie charts, world map) in the google blogger stats section. Colours on the map to indicate weight.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
zaozzie's new blog
This is my personal blog and contain on all the stuff on the internet, software development & movies I think other people will find useful, interesting or unique.
zaozzie(at)gmail.com.
zaozzie(at)gmail.com.
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