Potentate Matthew I

Chrome Application Shortcut

2011-12-18T13:51:00.003Z

So, long time no post! No-one reads this anyway, but just thought I'd store it here for history's sake!

Chrome has a rather useful option to make a weblink an application shortcut, which can be launched/selected from the TaskBar. This is highly useful for web-applications which function like the real thing (e.g. Grooveshark, Gmail).

My rather ill-executed attempt to install my free HDD

2009-02-12T01:46:00.003Z

Just taking a break from implementing my final year project, an Automated Student Attendance System, and relaxing by blogging! Anything to relieve the boredom!

As some of you may know from reading my Twitter, I got a free 250GB IDE HDD from my Dad. What you may not know is that my motherboard only has 1 IDE slot which are taken up by my optical drives. Luckily (I then thought) I have an IDE>SATA Converter which will do what it suggests it does. So I install that (after realising that it can be installed wrongly, despite the little notch) and happily boot up my system only to find that it runs an actual 10x slower! Now, file transfers usually average around 30MB/s. This converter was only giving me 3MB/s! Meaning that something that could've taken 6 minutes was taking an hour!

I realise about here that this is an extremely tedious blogpost. So I'll cut this extremely dull story short:

I sacrificed the use of my optical drives to enable me to use the extra hard drive while my PCI IDE Controller is on order from eBay
I then rejigged my drive layout using Acronis PartitionExpert

And now this blog has bored me more than my project. I'll write some better stuff later!

A long overdue update

2009-02-06T04:32:00.003Z

Hello there veritable plethora of Blogger readers and friends! (Yes I realise only about 2 people, if I'm lucky, will read this; but it stops me from getting bored at 04:34 as I'm too cold to be tired)

As you may have guessed, I'm cold and tired and blogging. "What's brought this on?", I don't hear anyone say. Well, I have signed up to Twitter and I noticed that you can add a Blogger widget! Ham-azing.

Too many things have happened since (feigns checking last post date since I've actually remembered it after previewing what damage the Twitter widget did) December 2007 to go over in detail, so I'll try and keep it short, snappy and interesting (my thesaurus skills are lacking tonight, but my interjection technique is bang on).

I'm getting a heap of stuff from my dad, including a 42" LCD HD Ready TV! Flippin' Nora!
I have dual monitors and an Xbox 360! Ownage!
I have uninstalled Vista and reverted back to XP! Relief!
I tried out Opera but found it uncompromisingly unintuitive and so went back to Firefox and Thunderbird after a brief email export/import scare! Good for me!
I'm looking forward to implementing the Automated Student Attendance System for my Final Year Project! Great!
I've formed and play (badly) in a 6-a-side football team! Healthy!
I still have World Domination aspirations! Doubleplusgood!

And, over the course of the 1 and a bit years, I have found many a program and extension which has helped me on my merry technological way. Here are a few of them now in fact!
CmdHere PowerToy for Windows XP
Link Shell Explorer Extension
"Open File Location" Explorer Extension
Process Explorer
QTAddressBar Explorer Extension
Speed Dial for Firefox
Ultramon
Unlocker Assistant
VistaVG Skin for XP

There's quite a few there. I'll go over them in subsequent posts, just to give me something to blog about. Fun times.

1000! And jovialities.

2007-12-18T05:08:00.000Z

Just randomly staying up, and thought I'd check out my blog, to see if there was anything new. Found out I had passed 1000 views! I feel cool and famous.

Joviality: http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s27potentatematt&v=26&r=9&vlr=11&pg=61&d=129

This has got to be the most random thing ever... Who on earth searches for "Matthew Hayward and Zippy" ?!?

Post over.

Junction Link Magic

2007-11-23T01:12:00.000Z

Junction Link Magic. What the heck does that mean?!

I didn't get it at first either. But now that I've used the program, it really is like magic, and has links/junctions to boot!

What this basically does is link one folder to another. What's the big deal with that? Well! It allows you to do some pretty nifty stuff like easily reroute your documents to another drive for example, whilst fooling the computer and programs into thinking it's still buried in C:\Documents and User Settings\[YOUR_NAME]\My Documents.

Or, if you're a partitioning kind of guy, or girl, and have run out of space on your system drive, the solution is easy! Just move everything to a fresh hard drive, then create a new junction/linking folder where the original Program Files was and point it at the fresh drive! All the old programs work fine and you don't have to keep selecting another drive when you install something new!

This program is well deserving of a Gold Star Award!

Just don't do crazy things like linking the System32 folder into the Recycle Bin...

I'm sure you can probably find many more uses for it, I'm just alerting you to its existence. Sorry for the unusually unhumorous post, I am quite tired

The Great Facebook Plague of '07

2007-11-18T02:47:00.000Z

Anyone who's anyone uses Facebook. And anyone who uses Facebook knows of the creeping, unrelenting plague that is slowly grinding down Facebook into a MySpace-like mush.

You all know what I talk about! What I fear! What I dread!

It's the epitome of evil, the example by which Satan is measured, the darkest of.. you get the picture. I'm talking Facebook Apps.

Well after spending a fair amount of time scrolling thru endless "Harry Potter Sorting Hat", "iLike" and "What Friends Character Am I?" apps, I eventually got a bit peeved. So off I went on a merry Google adventure and found myself some gems.

Gold Star Award!
Without further extraneous lexical intercommunication I give you:
Greasemonkey - install this before attempting to install the next ones

Facebook Profile Cleaner,
Minimize Display Facebook Requests
Remove Facebook Application Icons and last but not least
No Facebook Ads

Greasemonkey is a Firefox addon that allows custom code to be applied to webpages and needs to be installed before the user scripts.

Of course you'll need a proper browser like Firefox if you want to have a hope in hell of using this frankly Facebook-saving bit of code.

Bit of a short post I know, but it's quality and not quantity this time.

Update and a little Haiku

2007-11-13T16:29:00.000Z

I haven't updated this for a while, and for good reason! I haven't really been bothered ever since the hectic Haloscan activity. It was quite nice getting more than 1 hit a month. Anyway, an update on my current technological situation. Ahem...

The desktop which I was (and still am) quite proud of is still here! [shock horror, it hasn't been upgraded]. It's specs are as follows, in case you didn't get it from my previous Ode:

Asus P5B Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo e6600 2.4GHz OC to 2.7GHz
OCZ Platinum 2GB 667MHz Memory
BFG 8800GTX 768MB Nvidia GFX
300GB 7200rpm Internal HDD
Windows Vista Home Premium

Which is just about adequate for my needs. I've also recently bought a laptop to fulfil my dualscreen and mobile computing fetishes. It's an old HP Compaq n620c. The nice people I bought it from gave me a free upgrade, it was supposed to be a 933MHz Pentium, but they gave me a 1.3GHz one instead. Much happiness!

Gold Star Award! To go back to my dualscreen point, I found a very nifty program called Synergy2. It allows you to use a secondary computer as if it was another monitor of the primary computer. What this means is that I can play Bioshock on my desktop (Bioshock is teh orsm) and chat to random friends on MSN using the same keyboard and mouse! Pretty awesome stuff imho although it's not totally like dualscreen, in that you can't drag a window across to the other screen. That would require a massive amount of coding and would be a waste of resources, like having two browser windows open on the same page.

I found out a very annoying thing about Vista Home Premium, it won't let me Remote Desktop Connect to it. Very annoyed... Oh well! I'll get around it somehow.

Oh Windows Vista
You cost me the world and more
And yet you still crash

Ode to a desktop

2007-04-25T06:29:00.000+01:00

Farewell to my MacBook Pro
And a fond and joyful Hello
To my new Intel Core 2 Duo
With an 8800GTX
With 2GB Platinum OCZ
My computer is now teh sex

:)

Oh and it has Vista

Another most annoying thing about Windows

2007-01-15T00:14:00.000Z

One screenshot should do the trick

NO DAMN YOU!!! NO for the NTH TIME!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Damned inherrent, unfixable flawed focus stealing... I HATE IT WITH SEVERAL PASSIONS.

I apologise for the uselessness of this post, but I needed to vent.

Getting Haloscan to work in Blogger Beta

2006-11-08T05:27:00.000Z

NOTE: These instructions appear to have been broken when Blogger Beta un-Beta-rized. I have had 2 or 3 reports of people failing to successfully implement them, of course it may only be for one or two template layouts, but I'm not to know

So try the following but try and understand what you're doing at each stage rather than blindly following orders.

ORIGINAL POST:

http://logicalphilosopher.blogspot.com/2006/09/getting-haloscan-to-work-in-beta.html

Deserves most of the credit for my working solution. The solution above is a bit buggy in that it doesn't handle single and multipost comments very well.

Which is where I come in.

Here is what you need to do to get Haloscan happily accepting 3000 character comments from your adoring blog-readers. WITH TRACKBACK. w00t.

NOTE: Due to HTML constraints and the Planck Constant, the HTML code isn't provided with indentation, so feel free to indent as much as you feel necessary. I would also advise you to use an external tool such as Notepad2, GEdit or Smultron (depending on your OS) when editing and finding stuff

Sign in to Blogger Beta
Goto Dashboard > Your Blog > Template > Edit HTML
Select the Expand Widget Templates marker
Find:
```
<b:includable id='comments' var='post'>
```
and delete everything after that tag and up to the next
```
</b:includable>
```
but keep those two mentioned tags. This will have the effect of stopping Blogger comments appearing. Make sure you don't overshoot otherwise you'll wreck your Template

Delete:

<b:include data='post' name='comments'/>

Delete:

<dl class='comments-block' id='comments-block'>
<b:loop values='data:post.backlinks' var='backlink'>
<div class='collapsed-backlink backlink-control'>
<dt class='comment-title'>
<span class='backlink-toggle-zippy'> </span>
<a expr:href='data:backlink.url' rel='nofollow'><data:backlink.title/></a>
<b:include data='backlink' name='backlinkDeleteIcon'/>
</dt>
<dd class='comment-body collapseable'>
<data:backlink.snippet/>
</dd>
<dd class='comment-footer collapseable'>
<span class='comment-author'><data:post.authorLabel/> <data:backlink.author/></span>
<span class='comment-timestamp'><data:post.timestampLabel/> <data:backlink.timestamp/></span>
</dd>
</div>
</b:loop>
</dl>

Delete:

<span class='post-comment-link'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>1 <data:top.commentLabel/>
<b:else/><data:post.numComments/> <data:top.commentLabelPlural/>
</b:if>
</a>
</b:if>
</b:if>
</span>

Find:

<div id='main-wrapper'>
<b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='no'>
<b:widget id='Blog1' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'>
<b:includable id='postQuickEdit' var='post'>
<b:if cond='data:post.editUrl'>
<span expr:class='item-control " + data:post.adminClass'>
<a expr:href='data:post.editUrl' title='Edit Post'>
<span class='quick-edit-icon'>
</span>
</a>
</span>
</b:if>
</b:includable>

And paste

<a name='comments'/>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<script src='http://www.haloscan.com/load/XXXX' type='text/javascript'>
</script>
<a expr:href='javascript:HaloScan(" + "\"" + data:post.id + "\"" + ");' target='_self'>
<script type='text/javascript'>postCount('<data:post.id/>');
</script>
</a>
<a expr:href='"javascript:HaloScanTB(" + "\"" + data:post.id + "\"" + ");"' target='_self'>
<script type='text/javascript'>postCountTB('<data:post.id/>');
</script>
</a>
</b:if>

before the </b:includable> but after the </b:if>.
Replace XXXX with your Haloscan username

!!!OPTIONAL!!! Only if you have previously tried hacking it with the top link, delete:

<span class='post-comment-link' >
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item" '>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<script src='http://www.haloscan.com/load/XXXX' type='text/javascript'>
</script>
<a expr:href='"javascript:HaloScan(" + "\"" + data:post.id + "\"" + ");"' target='_self'>
<script type='text/javascript'>postCount('<data:post.id/>');</script></a>
</a>
</b:if>
</b:if>
</span>

!!!OPTIONAL!!! Have fun with your Haloscan comments

Linux, OS X and Windows Woes

2006-11-01T22:45:00.000Z

This is another dig at OS X, I don't set out to rubbish OS X, but it just needs doing; like washing dirty clothes or cleaning your teeth.

Windows occupies approximately 1.8GB of harddrive space after patching, which is a fair big amount. Just think, 1.8x10^9. 1 800 000 000 Bytes.

This is still 10 times smaller in magnitude than OS X which occupies more than 18GB with alot of program patches not installed. I say this because it ran out of room when I tried to patch it up from the Apple Software Update.

18 000 000 000 Bytes

This is even after deleting the iWork '06 Trial (I spend £1600 to get a half decent laptop, and they give me TRIAL SOFTWARE) which weighs in at 2.6GB from memory; and then they tell me that Windows is bloated.

Where on MIDGARD does all this space get gobbled up?! It can't be all the pretty graphics, though I'm sure they have a part to play, it can't be the applications since they're all a bit small and crap anyway. Which leads me to believe that it's just bucketloads of device drivers, ready to accept the most obscure bit of hardware imaginable. I don't like the fact that space is being taken up by drivers for hardware I don't and never will own. They should make it Linux where it gets stuff as and when it's needed or chosen to install.

This is the main reason why I don't have a dual boot MacBook Pro anymore, since it renders the Windows partition almost useless for installing any amount of games on.

So I thought, "I know! I'll be a right smart-arse and install Ubuntu besides Windows!". How I wish it was as easy as it's supposed to be. I had a working Windows installation with free partitions ready to put Ubuntu Linux and the swap drive partition onto, so I then booted into the Ubuntu Linux CD. After it had loaded it came up that the partition was just 93GB of free space with the 200MB EFI Boot Drive. Obviously this wasn't right so I quit without making any changes (or so I thought) and found that Ubuntu had wiped my MBR so that Windows was now unbootable.

I was pretty annoyed. To say the least.

So then I thought, "I know! I'll be a right know-it-all and partition it with Linux and leave it unformatted but still partitioned so that Windows can read it!". So after partitioning I quit the installer and then booted into the Windows install Predictably for me, Windows didn't recognize the partitions. Overall I've had to reinstall Windows for the 3th time that night. T'was a terrible night, especially waiting for OS X to read and copy its two DVDs (!?!?!?!?) worth of junk so that I could program in something vaguely Linux-like. 20 or so gigabytes is much too high a price to pay just to program in a poofy GUI.

So to summarize, here is the nightmare I went thru:

Install attempt 1
- Had a working Windows install, repartitioned using Partition Magic (which usually works for me) to get some free partitions
- Rebooted into the Ubuntu installation, it didn't recognize the partitions so I quit
- Came back to a blinking DOS cursor. FUN
Install attempt 2
- Reinstalled Windows with some free partitions ready for Linux and got it all nice and shiny, (ie drivers installed and Media Center Skin put into place)
- Rebooted into the Ubuntu installation, it didn't recognize the partitions so I quit
- Came back to a blinking DOS cursor. FUN AGAIN
Install attempt 3
- Reinstalled OSX with a big partition ready for Windows
- Read half a book (CS Lewis' Mere Christianity for the curious)
- Tried to patch OS X, it ran out of harddrive space even though it had a generous 18GB for it
- Got thoroughly disgusted and just quit OS X, this actually was fun
Install attempt 4
- Reinstalled Windows and took up the entire partition
- So now basically I'm back to pre Install attempt 1. What an amazing use of a whole evening. I had a lot of fun

Oh, and BootCamp will expire when OS X Tabby comes out. >_<. Apple really knows how to screw the public.

Auf Wiedersehen OS X

2006-10-28T04:50:00.000+01:00

Good riddance more like

I'm sure you will have noticed the numerous recent posts about my irritations with Apple's OS X, and it's come to a crashing crescendo of doom and destruction.

I am typing at 04:46 somewhere in Staffordshire, at the prestigious CentraLAN 14 Lan Gaming event. It would be a tonne (imperial not metric) of fun if it wasn't for the VAST amount of space that OS X took up. Despite accounting for 30GB of music, 5GB of applications and 15GB of system, there was still a missing 10-20GB of space that was taken up by forces as yet still unknown.

So, I attempted to repartition the drive to give a new install of Windows (this hurts me alot, because I had got Windows just right; it's never been just right before and so I was reluctant to start again) the maximum that FAT32 could make good use of (32GB). I ran into trouble right away. I tried using the BootCamp wizard, no dice. I tried using the diskutil resizeVolume command in the Terminal, no ball. I almost tried using the Install Disks to repartition them, but then I noticed it would only do it destructively. These methods complained that there wasn't enough free space to allocate another 32GB partition, which there wasn't. It's just that I couldn't figure out where it had all gone...

At this point I thought, why not just start afresh. I now almost hate OS X, why not try and dump it now. I had really nothing to lose since my Windows installation was up in smoke (along with CSS and numerous other games (like Transport Tycoon)) since I had used the BootCamp wizard to restore the partition back to one big HFS+ partition.

So off I went on my merry way, unknowing whether I'd be able to install ONLY Windows on the beast (my laptop, not Satan). Windows installed fine onto the big partition (of course after a quick NTFS format) and is now running. Sorry I didn't graciously build up to the climax then BOOM unleash it all at once in all of it's magnificent awe-inspiring jaw-dropping mediocrity. But that's just life.

I now have buckets of space available to Windows and don't need to worry about some bloatware taking up all my valuable gaming space. Of course this means I won't be able to program in a Linux/Unix environment, but I'm sure I'll be able to figure something out.

So. In a nutshell. It IS possible to only install Windows on a Mac (a MacBook Pro anyway) answering my previous wondering from a post lost in the dark clutches of lore.

Eddie will be either sad, or apathetic. Damn fanboy... =P

Apologies if this post is slightly disjointed, I had 4 hours sleep last night, and it is now 20 hours since I fell out of bed. Wish me all the luck in the world that I actually manage to stay awake past the 24h mark. I've never been able to accomplish it before.

W00t!!! GAME-AGE!!!

MWAHAHAHAHAHA. Ha. Ahem.

OS X Annoyances

2006-10-24T23:31:00.000+01:00

Hello happy campers!

I've not posted for a fair bit, mostly because I have actually done stuff worthwhile! I jest I have no meaningful life outside of my computer...

Anyway I just felt the need to tell you of my battles with the evil that is the Apple OS X "operating system". Pfeh. I have managed to fix some of the stupid GUI "features" of OS X but alas not all of it is salvagable, due to OS X's high degree of uncustomizability and unintuitiveness (are those even words?)...

I will label this list with four headings: FIXED, HALF FIXED, WORKAROUND and :'(.

iTunes looks as ugly as sin - FIXED
- Using a program called Aqua4iTunes I have reskinned iTunes back to its former Aqua glory, rather than looking like some ugly thing from Linux
I couldn't control iTunes from keystrokes - FIXED
- Using a preference pane called SizzlingKeys
Enter doesn't run or open selected file/program/folder in the Finder - FIXED
- By typing:
```
defaults write com.apple.finder NSUserKeyEquivalents '{ "Open" = "\U000a"; }'
killall Finder
```
  Into the Terminal
I cannot disable mouse acceleration without shelling out for a $20 program - HALF FIXED
- Installed Microsoft's Intellimouse software to give me a more responsive mouse. It still has acceleration but at least it's not a direct transition from snail to cheetah acceleration, more like a tugboat with a turbo
I cannot get Terminal commands to edit source files - HALF FIXED
- Made a file called .bash_login in my home directory which binds the following aliases upon each login:
```
alias tedit='/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit'
alias sedit='/Applications/Smultron.app/Contents/MacOS/Smultron'
```
  I also installed the mentioned program Smultron which is better than TextEdit since it has line numbers and syntax highlighting
- It's half fixed because it opens up a new instance of Smultron or TextEdit instead of loading it into a previously open one
- I also changed the icon of Smultron, because the strawberry looks cack, to an icon by Joerie Mortalmansheimlichfurhrerstadt.
Due to the Open "fix" I can no longer rename files with a keystroke - WORKAROUND
- I can rename files the boring click and wait method or "mv" from in the Terminal
Installing GEdit on OS X was a dead loss - WORKAROUND
- I now use Smultron and TextEdit for all my programming needs, no idea how to get rid of the reams of Linux crap now installed into my OS X installation. I guess that's the price you pay for trying to make OS X vaguely usable
I cannot completely uninstall OS X and replace it with Windows and Linux - :'(
- I would love to. OS X seriously sucks and needs several kicks up the rear end to be anywhere near as professional as XP or as customizable as Linux
Closing the laptop lid still sleeps the computer despite using SleepLess - :'(
- I hate this, especially when I have wireless internet and it stops an unresumable download because Apple can't take their self-righteous fingers out of each others' assorted orifices

Oh, and also I have moved my Dock to the top left, since it looks better there and is a more efficient use of screen real estate, since it's widescreen and most programs tend to look more comfortable in a 4:3 setting rather than the luxurious 16:9 or even 16:10 settings.

I hope some of you come away from this post feeling rejuvenated and enlightened. Because I certainly have.

Exposé on Windows

2006-09-21T00:06:00.000+01:00

It brings me great excitement to announce that I have found a program that emulates the OS X Exposé function on Windows! Now this will mean nothing to ALL Windows users, and probably some Mac users too who don't know its name.

Gold Star Award!
Basically Exposé is a cool window organizing application that runs natively in OS X. To view a demo, navigate to Apple Exposé.

I have found this application an absolute heavensend due to its ease of use and sheer neato factor when you see all the windows swoosh about into a nice little arrangement, enabling you to see what you have open.

But F9, F10 and F11 only go so far. In OS X I reconfigured the left and right navigate buttons on the mouse to reveal all windows and reveal active application windows respectively. Obviously I couldn't do without this function in Windows. As sheer luck, fortune and fate would have it, I previously had downloaded a program to allow me to pause, play, skip and previous play iTunes when iTunes was not selected (very useful when Counterstriking or C&Cing). As I said above I reconfigured the mouse in OS X, so I've done the same in Windows!

Here are the links to the two AWESOMEFUL programs that have allowed me to become the smuggest Windows on a Mac user EVER.

www.autohotkey.com - The program to remap keys/ buttons to do almost any function
www.reflexvision.net - Exposé for Windows, called Reflex Vision

And here is my AutoHotKey.ini file

; IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT GETTING STARTED: Lines that start with a
; semicolon, such as this one, are comments.  They are not executed.

; This script is a .INI file because it is a special script that is
; automatically launched when you run the program directly. By contrast,
; text files that end in .ahk are associated with the program, which
; means that they can be launched simply by double-clicking them.
; You can have as many .ahk files as you want, located in any folder.
; You can also run more than one .ahk file simultaneously and each will
; get its own tray icon.

; Please read the QUICK-START TUTORIAL near the top of the help file.
; It explains how to perform common automation tasks such as sending
; keystrokes and mouse clicks.  It also explains how to use hotkeys.

; Note: From now on whenever you run AutoHotkey directly, this script
; will be loaded.  So feel free to customize it to suit your needs.

;Remap Left and Right Mouse Navigate to F9,F10
XBUTTON1::F9
XBUTTON2::F10

; iTunes Anywhere
; AutoHotkey Version: 1.x
; Language:       English
; Platform:       Win9x/NT
; Author:        Polyphenol 
;
; Script Function:
;   Control iTunes from anywhere with hotkeys
;

#NoTrayIcon
#SingleInstance force
DetectHiddenWindows, on

#\::
IfWinNotExist, ahk_class iTunes
{
Run %ProgramFiles%\iTunes\iTunes.exe  ;launch program
return
}

IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes ; toggle minimize/restore
{
IfWinNotActive ; restores window
WinActivate
Else
WinMinimize ; minimizes windows
return
}

#SPACE::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, {SPACE}  ; play/pause toggle
return

#LEFT::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, {LEFT}  ; previous
return

#RIGHT::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, {RIGHT}  ; next
return

#F3::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, ^!{DOWN}  ; mute
return

#F4::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, ^{DOWN}  ; vol down
return

#F5::
IfWinExist, ahk_class iTunes
ControlSend, ahk_parent, ^{UP}  ; vol up
return

;endofscript

I am pleased and/or smug. Also I award a Gold Star to Increment Software AND AutoHotKey for making me such a pleased and/or smug geek.

Useful stuff for Windows on a Mac

2006-09-06T16:56:00.000+01:00

Windows on a Mac is most weird. Heresy/blasphemy/anathema even.

But to make the experience as OSX/nigh on perfection as possible, here are some programs I have "obtained".

Bootcamp - Contains the needed Boot agent and Windows drivers to get the whole thing going
InputRemapper - enables most of the keys on the keyboard; FN, Volume, Eject, Brightness being the more important ones
MacDrive - allows read and write operations on a Mac formatted drive; very useful if you want to have your iTunes on Windows if they're on the Mac partition. I would advise searching on torrent sites for it, but I would get my blog closed down, so I will not
Microsoft Intellipoint 5.5 - puts a cool onscreen volume control when the volume is changed with the keyboard
"Royale" Media Center skin for Windows XP makes Windows XP look a lot prettier with no need for bloatware such as StyleXP or WindowBlinds

Obviously there are the vital programs such as Firefox and MSN but they don't really need to be added to this list.

Gold Star Award!s have been awarded to InputRemapper and the Intellipoint programs because they OWN.

MacBook Pro Annoyances

2006-09-06T16:37:00.000+01:00

I have quite a few annoyances with this that I feel I have to vent. Sorry to anyone who doesn't have a MacBook Pro, but if you have one you'll know where I'm coming from, and if you're thinking of getting one read through these before doing it.

Hardware

No delete key, (in OSX FN+Backspace is delete); how inconvenient is that?!
There is a processor idle whine, which my sister's computer suffers from, it drives me mental which is why I play music quite loudly to cover it up
There is no card reader, but this is solved by Bluetooth
There are only 2 USB ports
There is no S-Video out
The screen doesn't go very far back and as such is quite difficult to use on my lap
The bottom is hot enough to fry two eggs and maybe half a rasher of bacon

OSX Mode

In OSX it is impossible to close the lid without making the laptop go to sleep; unless you pay a few dollars for a program called SleepLess. The annoying reminder windows turned out to be more annoying than the sleep problem
Enter doesn't run the selected file, it renames the file
I can't write to NTFS partitions
I seemed to have filled my HDD even though I only have 33GB of music. Where has the rest of the space gone?!?
I don't know all the ins and outs, nooks and crannies, and all relevant caveats of the OS to be completely confident and to fix weird happenings

Windows Mode

Unstable
The keyboard backlight doesn't work
Windows Live Messenger is highly unstable on it
Starcraft won't install on it (but runs in OSX anyway)
Had to remap one of the Keypad Enter Key to Delete to get a delete key. CTRL ALT DEL is indispensible in Windows

Don't get me wrong, I love my MacBook Pro; but the above problems prevent it from being perfect.

MySpace emmigration. Blogspot immigration.

2006-09-06T14:04:00.000+01:00

I have finally given up with the MySpace blogs, since they were a bit poop. Hopefully this BlogSpot malarky will yield better view results!

I will probably copy and paste my blogs over to here, since I'm pernickity like that. Also I may create another profile to store my religious ramblings on. Ooo! I am quite excited (I hate the word pumped) about the whole project.

I like bracket interjections.

I have converted to the dark side!!!

2006-08-05T21:00:00.000+01:00

I have got a replacement for the hunk-o-junk that was the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo A1667G Athlon 4000+ Mobile laptop.

What's more is that the shop (Micro Anvika) gave me the full amount of what I originally paid for the laptop, even though it was purple (yes I spray painted it), broken and memory-less (they couldn't trade in the unbranded 2GBytes of memory I bought for the laptop)! I think they deserve a Gold Star Award! for this! A Gold Star Award! is a highly sought after award which I have just made up now and will keep track of all the people/companies/pizzas I award it to.

It is a brand new Apple MacBook Pro 2GHz!!! It comes in a really nice case too! Better than the massov case that FSC and every other PC manufacturer supply. So overall it cost an extra £600 when the £999 for the old laptop was taken off the list price. Yes it's VERY expensive but then you're paying for quality.

I am actually quite nervous about the whole business. Edd is telling me "I told you so" meaning that everyone who wants to use their computer will eventually get an Apple Mac.

Time will tell whether I miss using M$ Windows.

My laptop is dead. AGAIN.

2006-08-02T17:30:00.000+01:00

My laptop has decided to die. Again. For the third time. With the same problem. I think I demanded too much from the poor thing.

What I did, seemed to me to be quite acceptable and I thought that the laptop could handle it without frying its graphics card.

Here is what I did:

Attach a secondary monitor (nothing too stressful yet)
Put MSN, Firefox etc. onto the secondary monitor (childs play up to now)
Open up ShiftWindow (alarm bells will begin ringing for those who know what this does)
Open up Counterstrike Source (uh oh)
Configure ShiftWindow to run Counterstrike Source in a window, covering the whole of the laptop primary monitor (this program is amazing; because normally if CSS is run in a window and you click on anything on the secondary monitor, then it minimizes even there is no need to; this program stops this VERY annoying problem)
Play Counterstrike Source, and when dead answer the weirdos who decide to talk to me on MSN and check mail

Now obviously all this was too much for the inadequate cooling available to the laptop, and as such it bluescreened a couple of times then refused to POST.

So now I am in the predicament of deciding whether to get it repaired again just for the same thing to happen, or get some sort of replacement.

Firefox 2 - IE7 0

2006-07-19T08:00:00.000+01:00

Well, IE7 has made up it's previous failings by rendering my latest profile adjustment. The problem of IE7 (and IE6 it turns out) was that it didn't like the page being semi transparent (translucent, or almost opaque if you will). I did not know this but Vickie pointed out that she liked my profile better without the translucent effect. It also runs faster without it. So everybody (excepting my dad, who is suffering alot from a tooth repair gone horribly wrong) wins (also not England FC, but that's old news and I don't care that much).

I have added a custom mp3 player!!! Within it's own box!!! Sorry Cat Zap but my profile obviously has priority over yours, but I will get around to adding your own mp3 player in due course... Marvel at my lack of useful things to, copious amounts of free time but above all my creative, genius-like mastery of the HTML markup language.

Credits for this astounding technological achievement go to:

www.bugmenot.com - for providing me with a usable filelodge account
www.filelodge.com - for hosting the mp3s
www.profiletweaks.com - for providing the mp3 player which thee see-eth

Humans which made these recent editions to my profile an actuality include:

Firefox 1 - IE7 -1

2006-07-11T08:00:00.000+01:00

Just found out recently my meticulously designed MySpace looks absolutely abysmal in IE7. To the point that IE7 seems to delete some of my content .

Firefox

IE7

Be warned! Be very warned!

USE FIREFOX!

DeviantArt

2006-07-10T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hey Kiddies

Following severe coaxing from my bored creative half of my brain, I eventually gave in and created a Deviant Art profile.

For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a website to get free art from. I use it mainly for wallpapers, which is exactly what I have submitted there.

Here's the direct link to my submission, feel free to comment there (if you can, dont know if they allow guest comments) or on my profile.

Btw. You click the picture to make it bigger, I didn't submit a 300x188 picture as my masterpiece...

Enjoy!

Dead Lappie

2006-05-18T15:11:00.000+01:00

Stupid expensive waste of space. It's gone and well and truly broken this time. Even the great Dr Fix-It, can't. I was happily playing Counterstrike Source, when suddenly it shut down. So naturally I turned it back on, only to find that when it got into windows, it just switched off again. I tried everything that I could think of and everything the internet could suggest to find out the cause. Nothing.

In case you're wondering what I've tried, or thought about trying but have been unable to so far, since I'm currently at a friend's, here's a list...

All the various Safe Modes - almost always a good call
Restore Last Known Good Settings - when the above fails
System Recovery Console - never actually had to use before
USB Flashdrive Boot - tried to reflash the BIOS back up to the latest version
Network Boot - briefly looked into it, but I needed a degree in Linux Networking Geekery to be bothered
Reinstall - crashed in setup (wtf??!?!) - at this point I am starting to get a little worried, but console myself with the fact that the CD I used was mentioned friend's (Eddie) dodgy all in one Windows copy
Shouting at mentioned laptop
Switching it on and off repeatedly in the vain hope it might work again

Bearing in mind that I have an up-to-date-recommended-by-various-geek-computer-magazines virus protection I have no idea what it could be. Looks like another return to Fujitsu Siemens support (who btw are a bunch of overcharging, retail box stealing, opportunistic cowboys; they couldn't even reassemble my laptop properly, LOOK)

stupid n00bs (stupid doesn't quite cut it)

huzzah for Imageshack!!!

Pestilence, famine and death upon Fujitsu!!!

Also rains of fire, sulfur and dead animals upon their sister company, Siemens; who have a retarded name anyway; damn germans...