November 11th, 2008 SkyHorse
Ever wondered how your web site looks like under Epiphany 2.22 running on FreeBSD 7.0? Ok a bit too obscure, how about on FireFox 3.0.3 under the now ubiquitous Ubuntu 8.04 without installing neither of them? Browsershots.org can help.
This free service produces screen shots of any web site URL as it is rendered using a multitude of operating systems and browser combinations, from the common Windows IE7 to the Dillo 0.8 on FreeBSD which only one nerd in a bunker knows about.
Check it out at http://www.browsershots.org
Tags:
Web DesignRelated posts:
Posted in Programming, Web Design | No Comments »
November 11th, 2008 SkyHorse
Very neat trick I found out recently is that if you omit the protocol from an HTML src tag it will use the same protocol as the current URL, which is ideal if you need to have one universal HTML tag that works with both HTTP and HTTPS without having to use JavaScript tricks to detect the protocol.
This is great to use with ad server tracking pixels for example, or any other images:
Standard HTML code:
<img src="http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif">
Relative protocol version:
<img src="//www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif">
A few important details:
- The browser will use the same protocol for the image call as the base URL where the tag is on, akin to a relative-path URL. This means e-mail clients and the sorts (like file explorers) will not be able to use this (as there is no base URL)
- Tested on IE6 + 7, FF2 + 3 and Safari 2 + 3.
- Syntax is part of the HTML spec since 1995, just not widely used (don’t know why)
Tags:
online-advertising,
Web DesignRelated posts:
Posted in Computing, online media | 1 Comment »
October 19th, 2008 SkyHorse
Let’s be honest, the glamour and sophistication of jetting around the world only subsided during the early days of commercial aviation, when pilots were Adonis-like creatures and stewardesses were admired for nothing more than their glamour. Nowadays with the number of passenger reaching 70 million a year at Heathrow alone you are more likely than ever to encounter all those travel annoyances ranging from screaming toddlers to lost bags and overcrowded airplanes.
Unless you’re a frequent flyer, and a observant one at that, you will probably never realise that most of these are easily avoidable, or at least minimised, if you don’t follow the crowd and smarten up your travel decisions. Here are some tips I have found helpful to make flying a hassle-free and comfortable experience:
1) Booking your flight
Always check price comparison sites, such as skyscanner.net, Opodo and eBookers. They will often provide features you don’t always find with the operators such as multi-stop trips and different airports in the same city.
Airport: The rule of thumb is to pick the small airports, as they have much smaller security queues and you can often take less than 10 minutes from check-in to boarding gates.
Weekday: Go against the crowd, if you can. Saturdays are usually a great day to fly back from holidays. Tuesday to Thursday tend to be the best for flying out of central hubs, such as London.
Time of day: mid-day is usually less busy than morning or evening.
2) Travel light. I mean really light. If you have more than a medium size case/rucksack and a laptop bag then you are not travelling light. Sometimes rucksacks are given special care (for example from London Stansted, where you have to drop them at a separate “oversized” bags area) and therefore may be less prone to being lost. Wear clean, neat socks as you may be asked to take of your shoes for security. Don’t wear belts with large buckles. Try to take all your loose items (iPod, passport, change, phone, wallet, cards, etc) in you jacket or handbag, as you will have to do this at security anyway. If you only travel with a handbag (clever!) then remember to carry small travel-style toiletries, or buy some at the airport shops after security.
3) Checking in and choosing your seat: Online, online, online. If you can’t, then try to be at the airport as early as possible so you can choose your seat. If you are with a budget airline then it’s actually better to be there late and let everyone else in first. If you get in later you can look around for better seats and avoid children, large groups travelling together and drunk football fans.
If you have children yourself then do everyone a favour and seat at the front of the plane and board using the airline’s priority boarding, this will save you and everyone else waiting.
I spent way too many awful flights with children screaming behind me and kicking my seat until I learned they cannot travel on the emergency row seats, so I always sit in the row in front of these if I spot children checking in for my flight. If you’re sure there aren’t any then the emergency row will do just fine, as long as you don’t need your laptop.
Window is better than aisle, just don’t use the toilet. If you arrive late and can’t choose a seat then watch out for rows of seats all taken, they usually indicate a group travelling together and you don’t want to be near those.
Take a book, a magazine or something to distract you. I usually have books on my iPhone, they do the trick just fine.
4) Take-off and landing: Chill out. Don’t open laptop/ipod/iphone until after take off. They will ask you to close them/turn them off, so you’re wasting your time.
After taking off is a great time to change the time setting on your phone / watch for your new time zone.
After landing please don’t do what everyone else does, that is, get up straight away and look for their overhead bags. It makes me laugh every time to see people rushing to get up and get their bags and then waiting for 10 minutes standing up. People: it only takes 5 seconds to get your bag, there’s no hurry.
5) Getting your bags: Do you see that area just next to the conveyor belt where everyone is standing? Don’t be there. Airport designers have tried to guide people away from this area by delimiting it with a grey/green marking on the floor, but obviously it doesn’t work. If everyone stands next to the belt then it makes life hard for everyone. Just stand away, watch and when you see your bag then go and get it. Make sure you push people out of the way and if they inquire just tell them to freaking wait for their bags a few feet back.
Tags:
TravelRelated posts:
Posted in Personal | No Comments »
October 8th, 2008 SkyHorse
After US congress put a halt to ISP-based tracking while they try to figure out where the “creepy factor” line is, NebudAd suspended it’s activities, Front Porch was forced to shut off the behavioural tracking part of their system and the latest to throw in the towel is now Adzilla who have put up on their home page “We have stepped out for a little…”.
With an opt-in model being tried out in the UK by Phorm starting last week, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is not dead yet, but it has definitely taken a step back.
Or forward, depending where you stand on the privacy concern fence.
Tags:
behavioural-targeting,
deep packet inspection,
frontporch,
nebuad,
online media,
online-advertising,
phormRelated posts:
Posted in online media | No Comments »
September 11th, 2008 SkyHorse
The v-moda vibe duo
It happened again, of course. The Ferrari of the headphones predictably crashed after 5 weeks of regular use, a new record even for them. This being the 3rd pair of v-moda headphones that stopped working I wrote a polite little message along with my request for warranty forms saying I did not want another pair but a full refund.
The reply was both expected (”no we do not give refunds”) and surprising, as they accepted there was a design flaw in the vibe DUO model and actually re-engineered the jack area in a 45 degree angle (it was straight originally) and since then they had to problems with them.
Here’s their original reply:
Unfortunatley our refund policy only covers headphones that are purchased directly from our website within 30 days. Due to a large number of defective DUOS, we re-designed the plug near the jack and have not had problems since. Here is some more info:
As we take our customers’ feedback very seriously, we wanted to let you know about new features that will improve the durability of our earphones.
We recently identified the plug of our Vibe Duo headphones as a point that has caused a higher-than-acceptable return rate by V-MODA’s strict quality control standards. In light of this discovery we have completely reengineered our plug to a sleek, durable design that has proven to withstand the rigorous wear presented by daily use. Using a 45-degree flexible design, the reengineered plug allows an optimal range of motion while maintaining a sturdy metallic core fused to a 24-carat gold-plated plug.
This new plug will be incorporated into all VIBE and VIBE Duo products and will be available soon at shop.V-MODA.com. The updated products will remain compatible with the Apple iPhone, the iPod, an array of smartphones and all other portable music players.
We firmly stand behind V-MODA’s One-Year Premier Warranty on all of our products. If you are experiencing problems with a V-MODA product, please consult our warranty page for detailed instructions on our warranty program. Should you need to contact us, please visit our contact page or email us at support@v-moda.com. Our customer service team is here to promptly serve you with any questions you have regarding our products.
Thanks for being a part of the V-MODA culture.
Rock on,
I guess I will give them *one* last chance and will be posting my broken set this week… another £5 and 4 weeks wait…
Tags:
apple,
headphones,
iphone,
v-modaRelated posts:
Posted in Hardware | 3 Comments »
