Slimm's Words: February 2007

Sunday 25 February 2007

Google Image Search returned to former usefulness

It seems that the people at Google may have been listening to that wide world of the web as I am pleased to notice that their image results now have the dimensions and other information displayed at all times. So now we have the dynamic layout and the information we need. Congratulations, Google.

I'm sure it was my post that sorted this problem out. No need to thank me.

P.S. The unnecessary two-click image size select combo box is still there though.

Friday 23 February 2007

People more talented than me: Kamiya Satoshi

The world has about six-and-a-half-billion people more talented than me.

One of them is Kamiya Satoshi who is a young origami genius. His work is showcased at folders.jp (the site is in Japanese but select Gallery from the box at the top left which has additional English titles for the models; some of the most amazing are 2005/Ryuzin 3.5, 2002/Ancient Dragon and 2002/Wizard) and his patterns for most of the models can be purchased.

Now remember Origami is the art of folding paper.

Now check out this YouTube-hosted video which showcases the man's top three models and shows him working on them.

Back on but also back in time

Internet connection was restored today and a further refund of £3.99 should be in my bank account in the middle of March (they never take three weeks to take money, of course, only to return it).

Disagreeably, though, my connection has gone back in time as far as speed is concerned. After a couple of hours use, Orange locked me to a 1mb broadband speed whereas before this two week period of disconnection and for the first couple of hours of this reconnection I had a broadband speed between 2 and 2.5mb (out of a potential 3.5mb).

I contacted Orange about this and got through straight away (which was terrific) and support operative Andrew told me he'd put through a speed increase request. He commented that the lower speed seems to have been necessary to get me back online and that I try reconnecting again in a couple of hours time to see if the request was successful.

You can see my new (lack of) speed measured here.

Well, we'll see if my service is restored to its former state.

Thursday 22 February 2007

Expert of the Week: Chris Lake, editor of e-consultancy.com

The number of experts quoted in the world of journalism is astonishing but the amount of insight these experts offer is depressingly low.

Toady sees a BBC news report asking What's the cost of e-mailing 1.8m people? That is the number of people that the UK government e-mailed in response to an online petition.

For the answer to this question, the BBC ask Chris Lake, editor of e-consultancy.com:

"Last week I had lunch with someone who sends out 180,000 [e-mails] a week as a newsletter, which cost him £600," he says. "That would make it £6,000, but it could be much less or much more."

So, what's the cost of e-mailing 1.8m people? £6,000. Or much less. Or much more.

Thank you Chris Lake. You are my Pointless Expert of the Week.

Sunday 18 February 2007

Spoke too soon...

Well, my internet connection only lasted a couple of days. It returned Thursday morning and disappeared Sunday afternoon.

I have the same problem as before, slow flashing @ light and "PPP Server Down" error message from the Wireless and Talk router.

It took a very long time to get through to technical support this time, nearly 20 minutes, and I needed to get a little irate with the representative before she assured me she would not go through all the same protocols I had the week before (line test this, line test that) and that it would be bubbled up to the fault service personnel and should be repaired within 48 hours. However, I will be very pleasantly stunned if things are back within 48 hours. Here's hoping.

It could be worse. I happen to live near enough a wireless hot spot to be able to connect to check email and make this post, for example.

Grandia II Windows XP PC movie problem

Just gone back to fun RPG Grandia II (Windows XP PC) with the intention of finishing it. I thought I was near the end but I've been playing for a further three days now (not all day, you realise; total playing time is now just under 25 hours). Looks like the end is in sight now, though, as Valmar has been revived and the Day of Darkness is in full swing.

Still, I get this problem where the movies show a black screen instead of video while the audio plays normally.

I wondered if it was my overriding of the 3D settings in the Nvidia Control Panel so that I can enable anti-aliasing on the game or perhaps it needed to be run in Compatibility Mode or perhaps it is my WindowBlinds that is causing trouble.

Whatever it is, this little tip seems to work. Load the "gmconfig" utility first, simply click OK to immediately exit and then load Grandia II. Movies work!

Saturday 17 February 2007

1 in 4 teenagers honest?

According this news article published on BBC.co.uk, "figures show one in four teenagers with access to the net view porn at least once a month."

So, does this mean that only 1 in 4 teenagers are honest?

Accidentally...

The same news article went on to quote another study which stated that "six in 10 children in the UK were regularly being exposed to porn, mostly as a result of viewing explicit websites accidentally."

This is, of course, complete rubbish. It is, in fact, quite difficult to get exposed to pornographic imagery using standard web search tools. Unless you click the little "Yes, I am over eighteen and I wanted to view potentially adult material" button. Which is not accidental.

The phrase "regularly exposed to porn" also raises an eyebrow. While unlikely, I'll accept that it may be possible to get a titillating eyeful by accident. But you cannot have a regular accident. Perhaps the Britney Spears remix has become a mantra for teenagers participating in such surveys: "Oops!... I Did It Again."

Wisdom from above

How far-reaching is the wisdom recorded in the Bible? It never ceases to amaze me just how perfect the counsel contained therein is.

Jehovah God could almost have had this thought written with Google and Yahoo et al in mind.

Amos 5:14

Search for what is good, and not what is bad.

Google Image Search takes another step backwards

Google Image Search has, for me, the most useful results of all the image search engines.

Some time ago it made it's functionality slightly worse with a combo box to select which size of image you wanted. This required two clicks (one to open the box, one to select) to select your size as opposed to the previous one click to select a link which was always displayed.

Recently, the functionality of the page was essentially removed altogether when all metadata was hidden from view. Now, instead of using your eyes to scan the page looking for the picture of the size you want, you have to use your mouse. The information regarding the picture dimensions are only displayed when the mouse is hovered over the picture.

The reasons for this change are fairly clear. Along with the mouse-over behaviour, the image results are formatted more cleverly allowing for more result per page on, for example, widescreen or large browser windows. Also, the results page looks very clean. This is because there is no information on it.

Google offers no preferences to adjust this behaviour.

However, this change can be undone by disabling Javascript for the images.google.com domain. A side benefit of this is that it also removes the combo box size selector and replaces them with much handier links. The disadvantage is a fixed number of results per line and page.

For me, I prefer to use my eyes to scan a page, not a mouse.

With Javascript:

Without Javascript:

Friday 16 February 2007

Slimm Stopwatch 2

Slimm Stopwatch is a little stopwatch utility that automatically shrinks to the task bar when you start (or continue) the timer. While in the task bar it continues to show you the elapsed time. When you click the task bar to restore the window, the timer stops.

I use it for timing public talks I deliver. I write the talk in Word and then need to practice it but I found all other stopwatch utilities always managed to be or feel in the way. So I wrote this. Version 1 was written in Visual Basic and had a less streamlined interface though the actual minimising to the task bar upon start and stopping upon restore idea was the same.

This is a pre-release of the utility as I haven't yet got around to making a nice page for it on my website or deciding how to upload it to Upload.com.

Here is a Flash animation demonstrating what it does. The animation was created using Swish 2. The animation isn't yet quite finished as it doesn't have a way of stopping the sound effects but I will get around to doing that soon.

To install:

Ensure you have installed .NET Framework 2.0. It can probably be installed by accessing your Windows Update or you can follow this download link: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable

Download and install Slimm Stopwatch: Direct download link

This release:

Features

Utility recoded in C# .NET using just system graphics so it is fully skinnable by WindowsBlinds and visual styles.

Support:
This is a pre-release version with no official support facilities but if you do have an idea, comment or bug report feel free to add it as a comment to this post. Thanks.

Apparently, one week is good

On the very day I posted that my projector seems to be okay (it has now gone up to 100 hour lamp life without problem) my internet connection died. Grief!

I have a Wanadoo branded Inventel wireless router under the Wireless and Talk brand (now operated by Orange). The error was "PPP server down". After six days and five phone calls, my connection is now restored.

However, a friend of mine told me he once had his (not Orange) internet connection disappear for over a month and there are a few other horror stories on the web about Orange technical support.

So I am glad to report that my problem was resolved within this reasonable time frame. It expired on a Thursday afternoon (when we had all that snow). I reported it on a Friday. It was restored about 2am the following Thursday.

Of the five times I called, I was only waiting for a very long time (about two-thirds of an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm"!) on one of them and you are informed that you are to be in for a long wait ahead of time. The other times were answered within a couple of minutes, once within about five minutes (again, a 'we are very busy' message was delivered first) and once instantly.

I ended up making sure I phoned during normal-ish working hours as I seemed to get northern English- or Scottish-accented support personnel and they consistently had access to the technical services required. When calling at more exotic times (I am a late-night person), I tended to get strongly Indian-accented support personnel whose access to the relevant technical services needed seemed to be much more erratic.

Upon calling today to process my refund, I was also pleased that they said they will arrange a refund of £9.99 which is double what I was expecting. I pay £19.99 a month and the service was out for nearly a week and so I would have been expecting a refund of about £5. The extra will comfortably pay for the charges on their 0870 technical support number (7 pence a minute).

So, overall, not too bad as far as speed and service and, providing they process it as stated over the phone, I am very happy with the refund. Yay!

Tuesday 13 February 2007

Slimm GB-PVR Version 1.5.2599.6174 beta released

To install:

Ensure you have installed .NET Framework 2.0. It can probably be installed by accessing your Windows Update or you can follow this download link: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable

Download and install SlimmGBPVR: Direct download link

For all details regarding current version, please see documentation which is installed alongside the utility and is available in the GBPVR start menu group.

This release:

Features

Play random recording added to Recordings menu.

Coding

Setup executable now does not contain the redundant 9707 suffix which was used to indicate that this version of Slimm GBPVR is designed for use for versions of GBPVR of 0.97.07 or higher.

Startup entry now does not contain the /wait command-line argument.

Support:

You can post support queries on the Slimm GB-PVR forum hosted at GB-PVR.com.

Sunday 11 February 2007

Is poor customer service necessary?

It's probably been clear that I have been largely unhappy with Superfi Coventry's customer service. Superfi Coventry were consistently polite but were always passing the buck to Panasonic, their Nottingham headquarters or Superfi policy. Martin at Superfi Head Office, on the other hand, was active in resolving the situation and I felt confident in his desire to get the matter expedited. From my first contact with him, it took two weeks to receive a replacement projector in my hands. For comparison, within two weeks of returning the projector to Superfi Coventry, they had simply sent it to Nottingham Head Office but without any details of its provenance or even that it needed to be replaced because it was faulty (none of my emails were forwarded and mention of a fault was made on the appropriate paperwork).

Things going wrong, especially new technology items (and the Panasonic AX100 is not just a minor evolution, indeed, it's new size may shock owners of former models), is a circumstance that must happen with reasonable regularity. While there is natural disappointment at an item you have purchased being faulty it is how that situation is dealt with by the retailer that determines the quality of the customer's experience.

So what would have made me happy? I shall propose such a solution and leave it to you to determine whether it is unreasonable or financially undesirable from Superfi Coventry's point of view.

This is an overview of what happened:

December 1st: I ordered the projector.

December 8th: I received the projector.

December 16th: I reported the fault but told Superfi I would be placing the projector into Normal for fifty hours to see if that sorted it.

January 5th: I requested a replacement on January 5th, 28 days after receiving it.

January 8th: Superfi Coventry responded by saying they could not arrange a replacement because it was now more than 28 days since I had received it and Panasonic don't furnish replacements after 28 days. An interesting note here is that this is the only time in all my email correspondence with Superfi that they replied on a different day to when they received the email.

January 9th: I returned the projector to Superfi Coventry. They say that it will take about two weeks to be sorted.

January 10th: Superfi Coventry send the projector to Superfi Nottingham for processing but do not supply the email provenance and do not make it clear that a refund / replacement / repair is being waited for. The fault description on the repair job card says in its entirety: "see notes can you please call panosonic as they are aware of fault" [sic].

January 19th: I request an update from Superfi Coventry and they get in touch with Superfi Head Office and inform me that the projector is still sitting there awaiting collection by Panasonic. When asked to chase it, they suggest I call Superfi Head Office direct and give me the appropriate name and number. I call Superfi Head Office and he sounds genuinely surprised when I tell him it is faulty, that it has been faulty for nearly six weeks now and that I am waiting for a repair / replacement.

January 22nd: Superfi Head Office call me (a most pleasant surprise) to tell me that Panasonic have now picked up the projector and should be authorising a replacement. He'll call me when they confirm.

January 26th: Superfi Head Office call me and let me know Panasonic have authorised a replacement and that it will be at Superfi Coventry with their next delivery. Panasonic items arrive there on a Thursday.

February 1st: Superfi Head Office call me and let me know that the projector is at Superfi Coventry ready for collection. I make arrangements and collect it.

What I wanted to happen:

January 5th: I request a replacement projector. Superfi Coventry respond in their usual timely manner after making appropriate arrangements and tell me they'll call when it arrives and I can bring my faulty projector in and swap it for the replacement at the same time. This is especially nice because they know of my severely limiting health (I have told them about it on several of my emails) and that travelling to Superfi means making special arrangements and extra physical effort and pain.

Preferably January 8th or, acceptably, January 15th: Superfi Coventry call me to let me know that the replacement has arrived. I make arrangements and take the faulty one in and return home with a new one.

In general, I wanted Superfi Coventry to do the chasing. I wanted to leave this matter in their hands and for them to contact me when the situation was resolved.

I was happy when this was the circumstance with Superfi Head Office. It instilled confidence and a feeling that a satisfactory resolution was something they were actively working towards on my behalf.

Am I being unreasonable?

68 and all's well.

68 hours on the replacement Pansonic AX100 lamp time and no brightness fluctuation or flickering. The 68th hour was the time when the problem started to occur on the previous projector. Here's hoping that is an end to the situation.