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Showing posts from May, 2010

Google Geo-location Dodgy IMO

As my pal @davidpye notes, Google Chrome now has geo-positioning on my laptop. Not just any old rough guess based on my IP address, but on the button within metres positioning. (Try it out - visit Google Maps in Chrome and click the little circle under the compass). So, how does this work? Triangulation of WiFi signals, I hear you (probably) shout - only there ARE no WiFi signals around me out here in the countryside - only MINE. The combined hardware surrounding me has no ability to geo-locate - all that Chrome has is my IP address and 1 wifi name. Related service, Skyhook say : "This involves analyzing the Wi-Fi access points around you and your computer's IP address, and sending this information to a Google server to then be translated into a location... WPS determines location based on Skyhook's massive worldwide database of known Wi-Fi access points. " The only technical explanation I can figure out - and correct me if I'm wrong - is that my wi-fi network has

KlikFlow jQuery Plugin

There are several jQuery sliders / carousels out there, but none did what I wanted, which was basically to take a really simply block of HTML and turn it into a really nicely animated, automatic slider with a simple bit of jQuery, such as: $(document).ready(function(){ $("#mySlides").jKlikFlow({ width: "638px", height: "223px", easing: "easeOutBack", prev: "#jFlowPrev", next: "#jFlowNext", duration: 1000, pauseBetweenSlides: 2500, auto: true }); }); So here it is: KlikFlow jQuery Slider plug-in demo | source code This is my first attempt at a jQuery plug-in (I thought it about time I put something back into the open source community) so your feedback is appreciated.

What Sucks About Apple Computers

Let me first come clean - I am a Macophile. Since switching for Music Production purposes some 4/5 years ago I very quickly got to the point where my PC only gets switched on for testing and gaming purposes. As a techie and musician OSX is unbeatable - like comparing a MiniMoog to a Casiotone. However, Apple-philes are somewhat inclined to gloss over (or not even see!?!) the sub-standard points that are inevitably part of any system. So here's my honest appraisal of the bad bits for anyone struggling to find someone willing to dob them in: 1. Finder. Finder is Mac OSX's Explorer and it sucks. This is by far the Mac's biggest achilles heel. Why is it SO bad? There's no tree view. This means no little plusses to quick dig deep into a menu structure then go back out to another level - or keeping two folders open in the same window to DRAG and DROP quickly between them. It gets confusing in there, and it's so difficult to traverse back It doesn't remember where you