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.

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.

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.

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!

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.