just some little links and thoughts that are not worthy of a proper post.
For a long time now, web developers have been moaning about the lack of support for transparent png graphics in that old warhorse, Internet Explorer 6- I have personally tended to stay away from using transparent pngs for this very reason, but now a fix has been developed, which actually makes IE6 behave like a standards-compliant browser and solves this problem. It says on the Wordpress.org site ‘Code is Poetry’, and this is certainly poetry- 3 lines of code to change your web-designing life!
Get it here: http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/
I have been telling people for a long time that Symantec’s Norton Antivirus is pretty much a virus itself- based on my experience fixing PCs for the last 10 years or so, I have seen it gradually go from a pretty low-key effective antivirus program to a kind of monster, wrapping its slimy arms around the user’s PC and moaning ‘Please don’t let me go, I’m here to protect you!!’, all the while dripping its slime into every crevice of the system and slowing it to a crawl, even on the newest machines, constantly scaring people with its ‘alerts’ and generally being the bully you asked to protect you but later regretted it.
This is not to mention the problems it causes with its ‘Internet Security’ variant- cutting off access to the internet or local network completely on its own whim, and combined with the Windows Vista security features making troubleshooting network or internet problems almost impossible for someone without two or three spare hours and the patience of a monk who has been meditating in the Himalayas for the last 20 years. When someone else is paying for your time this is lucrative but ultimately too stressful to be worth it.
Anyway I could rant on and on about this (I won’t even mention the troubles caused by uninstalling it, or at least trying to) but I’ve discovered that someone else got there first.
Another good anti-NAV article is here.
Every time I want to install Windows Live Messenger on a client’s computer, I am amazed by the ridiculous badness of their installer; you have to wait while it checks your whole PC for other Microsoft programs before it even starts downloading the Messenger itself. The install operation has never taken less than 20 minutes for me, and that was on a good day, with a fast connection and a new laptop. The slowest must have been getting on for an hour, with the client paying me and getting more and more frustrated that a simple instant messenger could be such a palava to install. I had to concur.
When will Microsoft realise that people just want things to be simple and if they wanted Windows Live Writer, Mail or any of the other bloatware they keep coming out with, then they would just download that and install it on its own. I installed both Yahoo Messenger and Picasa on the same laptop in less than half the time it has so far taken to install Windows Live Messenger.
Also it’s the presumption of Microsoft that you will willingly allow their software to scan your whole computer before you get their IM client- it really smacks of ‘all your base are belong to us’. This is why I use Ubuntu as my main OS and only go onto Windows when strictly necessary.
While I type this, the Live Messenger installer has been stuck on 99% downloaded for the last 10 minutes… total install time so far, over 20 minutes… roll on the revolution and make posts like this a thing of the past.
11 April 2006
BARCELONA — El Bulli, the haute cuisine eaterie run by chefFerran Adriá, has been voted the best restaurant in the world again.
An international jury, selected by the British magazine Restaurant, said El Bulli was the best place to eat on the planet for the second time.’
this is interesting to me because my sister went there the other night, via a combination of incredible good luck, and said it truly was amazing- 50 courses, more or less, some only a teaspoon-full. She said she had half-expected it to be very pretentious cooking which only looked impressive but was fairly inedible, but in fact she said that their first emphasis was on making things taste great, and the fancy presentation came second, which was nice to hear. Plus, she said the staff were very friendly and not snooty like you might expect from ‘the best restaurant in the world’. So there ya go, Ferran Adrià, another recommendation- can you move me up the waiting list a bit now? 
‘Douglas Adams: ‘To be frank, it sometimes seems that the American idea of freedom has more to do with my freedom to do what I want than your freedom to do what you want. I think that in Europe we’re probably better at understanding how to balance those competing claims, though not a lot!’
brilliant as always, Douglas Adams, RIP
I just found this:
New Web Check-In Service – Check’N’Go
Commencing in March 2006, passengers will be able check-in on-line free of charge from the comfort of their own home or office. Web check-in can be used by all passengers holding an EU passport and when travelling with hand luggage ONLY. Passengers can web check-in from 72 hours up to 4 hours prior to flight departure on www.ryanair.com. Passengers using web check-in will also be priority boarded first onto the aircraft. Using web check-in saves time at the airport, by avoiding check-in and boarding gate queues.’
this is basically the new baggage regulations from Ryanair, which may well be followed by the other cheap airlines- making it very attractive to customers to only carry one bag onto the plane (of course this suits Ryanair as they can do their very quick turnaround more easily with less checked-in luggage).
By co-incidence (or synchronicity) I also saw on Lifehacker this site: One Bag
I’ve always tried to travel light but it’s easy to forget the useful stuff and bring something you’re never going to use. A friend of mine once went on holiday and brought a tin of baked beans and a baseball bat, but no underwear… (ok we were about 15 at the time).
‘…In addition, when a customer wants to change companies, they will be able to do so freely under these new rules.
The change is designed to stop companies making it difficult for phone and ADSL line customers to switch firms.
Companies signing up clients then making it hard for them to get outof contracts has been a persistent problem in Spain for years.’
Yes, I hear this all the time- the telecommunications situation in Spain is dire, and Telefónica seem to be the worst culprits.
I have now done this and posted a few test pictures onto Flickr- which should be visible in the small Flickr Gallery on this page. I was also lucky enough to get some quite nice pics of skydivers in the sunset, so even if the geotagging doesn’t interest you, the pictures may.
Flickr2map is a very slick, very easy to use free service.
Tag your Flickr photos with GPS co-ordinates.
Link Geotagged Flickr photos to Google Earth and Google Maps.
Technorati Tags : flickr, gps, geotag, geotagging, map
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