It’s been a while since I last looked at browser stats, but according to W3C, Firefox has superseded Internet Explorer, to become the most popular web browser since January 2009. This blog post claimed Firefox to be the most popular browser in Europe back in April 2009, leading me to question the reliability of the data, as compared to another recent source, Internet Explorer usage is roughly three times higher than that of Firefox. Something which seems more likely, as it’s still the default browser installed on Windows. Although, there is a distinct possibility that, in Europe at least, Internet Explorer will no longer be pre-installed onto Windows 7. Nonetheless, I can’t see that decision affecting most users, as OEM’s will likely continue to bundle the most renowned web browser with new machines, as I guess it’d be a task for the majority of consumers to get online at all without it.
W3C Puts Firefox Ahead of Internet Explorer
June 16, 2009
Windows 7 on the Samsung NC10
May 22, 2009
I’ve been running the release candidate on my, more than capable, desktop machine since it was released to the masses at the beginning of May. After hearing about how well it was performing across a range of machines; with differing specs, I was determined to get it on my Samsung NC10 netbook.
Despite it exceeding the minimum system requirements, I was still a little concerned about how well the 1.6GHz processor would cope. I need not have worried, it’s scaled brilliantly, even when running several apps. My only remaining concern was battery life, as there was seemingly no way to reduce the screen brightness through the Windows 7 power management. So, using an external DVD drive, I installed some software that came with the netbook to enable the brightness hot keys. Whilst it doesn’t seem to like booting up with the application to do this, at least it’s now possible to lower the brightness to make the most out of the battery life.
With two machines running Windows 7, and a third running Vista, I’ve found that they network better than ever before. I thought Vista was easy to network, but using Homegroup for the Windows 7 machines makes it so easy to print wirelessly from the netbook to the printer connected to my desktop.
Incidentally, it’s only been the printer software that caused any trouble in terms of compatibility. Compatibility mode didn’t work, as the installer itself was checking the version of Windows, as it didn’t match any of the versions it thought it could work with). Nonetheless, Windows resolved this easily using the plug and play feature, it recognised it correctly as a printer. I also love the way that the progress of file transfers appears on the taskbar, as well as the tweaked preview feature.
I’m not a fan of pinning things to the taskbar, but have since found an alternate way to reactivate quick launch (which I still find more effective than pinning stuff to the taskbar – as pinned items move around making the taskbar unorganised and messy). When I first blogged about my first impressions of the beta, I found it weird that Windows 7 no longer bundled its own photo viewer. Instead, you have to get it with a Windows Live Pack, which bundles other optional software, including Silverlight (a Flash alternative), Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer (which I’ve used for a long time to post to my blog), and Windows Movie Maker amongst others.
Windows 7 vs Seven Remix XP
April 27, 2009
It’s kinda ironic that today I learned Windows 7 Release Candidate will be get its public release on May 5th, as last night I found a mod that tarts Windows XP up to look like Windows 7. The pack includes an entire package that does a convincing job of transforming the ‘Fisher Price’ style OS that I’ve come to loathe; it includes login splash screens, cursors and sound effects. However I have a few reservations. Mainly, on my first install, it interfered with a number of DLL files which stopped other apps from launching. I removed it and reinstalled, this time without any of those DLLs (there’s an option to uncheck them in the easy to use installer). I still miss the search feature in the start menu (which I fixed using Google Desktop), the snipping tool (fixed with a rather funky app; PrtScr) and the general feel of Windows 7/Vista. The Seven Remix XP package is available to download from Deviant Art.
It’s kinda annoying that I’ve only just reformatted my desktop machine, but I’ll likely download the release candidate of Windows 7, probably installing it alongside Vista and Ubuntu, rather than the virtual machine I used for the beta. Might even see if it can cope with a netbook.
YouTube Audio Test
April 23, 2009
A little over a month ago, I blogged about how YouTube were to remove all music videos, this is done by an automated process known as audio content ID system. This system was designed by a third party company, Audible Magic, but how easy is it to trick?
As it turns out, it’s not to difficult, as an angry individual with too much time on their hands went about to prove with extensive testing. His results show that modifying the sound by as little as 5% can bypass the audio content ID system.
Thanks @Martyjw
Tenori-On
April 6, 2009
Whenever I read about the Yamaha Tenori-On or a stylophone, I imagined the horrible noises about to be conjured up by people who are convinced that what they’re doing with them is making music. However, a friend introduced me to Little Boots over this weekend, who along with vocals and piano uses a Tenori-On to make music.
Her cover of Bullet in the Gun, shows how she uses programmed beats on the Tenori On, as does Time to Pretend. She’s also got a few of her own songs, such as Meddle and Stuck on Repeat
Perhaps it’s because I’m a fan of electronic music that I don’t just consider this to sound like a polyphonic ringtone, but I love her music already.
Gaming the Benefits of Sight
March 31, 2009Whoever said that playing video games was bad for your eyes? It seems that they were wrong, as it’s been proven by a study undertaken by researchers at the University of Rochester that playing video games actually improves vision. This has the beneficial side effect of improving contrast sensitivity, something which helps people to drive better at night, and in conditions when visibility is poor.
I find this hard to believe though, as I have amblyopia (commonly known as lazy eye); whilst I can see out of both eyes, I struggle to read/focus with my left. I’ve also been a casual gamer for the last decade or so, and the vision in my left eye’s never gotten better as a result. Although the article also points out that it’s a case that is usually treatable in children, something which helped very little for me, despite numerous trips to eye hospitals and wearing glasses (and rather annoyingly even eye patches) as a child.
YouTube Killed the Radiostar?
March 9, 2009
News comes that music videos are to be blocked in the UK. Something that I find confirms once again that the record companies simply do not understand that people will pay for content, but need to have the ability to view/listen to it for free to find out whether they’ll like it. In other words, it actually benefits them in the long term. Even if people don’t buy the track, they’re more likely to see them play at a gig.
I find it hard to believe that services like Spotify is able to offer people the ability to play music for free, with limited advertising, yet the record companies are scared to allow people to share music videos on video sharing sites. It doesn’t stop at music videos though, as a vast amount of user generated content is often accompanied with copyrighted music. It’s something which has frustrated me for some time as I’ve received numerous copyright claims for the music used in my videos. I understand however, that it’s not YouTube’s fault, and to an extent help to keep user videos online by offering the ability to switch audio on videos.
However, I’ve noticed that they’re not all completely brain dead, as Universal have allowed their music to remain on the site on the condition that an advertisement is placed alongside the video; often with the option to buy the song via iTunes (as can be seen in the bottom right of the image above). Again, the latter provides an easy way for people who already like the music to go out and pay for it; an effect that the record companies seem to struggle to comprehend. How long before people move over to alternative services like Vimeo?
Thanks @Sambrears
Sharing Google Docs with the World
March 9, 2009
Google Docs is a cloud computing service that a growing number of people are using, particularly as its a convenient way to work on a constantly updated version of the document as you switch computers. It also offers functionality to share your documents for contacts to review as well as collaborate on the same document.
It’s the latter which has recently stirred up concern as a bug was revealed to affect a small number of users. According to the Tech Crunch, the ‘sharing was limited to people “with whom you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, had previously shared a document”’’. The flaw is supposedly limited to documents and presentations. Whilst I don’t tend to share documents, it highlights the potential vulnerability to privacy when storing documents in the ‘cloud’
Thanks @markyp
Zavvi Bouncing Back Online
March 3, 2009
Zavvi’s just about hanging in there, despite the majority of their UK stores either closing or switching to HMV/Head Entertainment, as they’ve launched a new website. Using this as good an excuse as any, they’ve also branched out into previously uncharted territories of perfume and lingerie. Since I know bugger all about the latter, I thought I’d compare it with online giants, Amazon and Play.com.
First I searched for Sennheiser, in the hope to compare prices, however my search had zero results; despite the stores selling earphones before they closed. Since it’s early days, I assume that the database mightn’t have been filled with all products as of yet though.
Next up, music, but alas there’s no option to download mp3s; a feature that most of their competition offer. So onto browsing their CDs, comparing the price of a random CD (The Ting Tings – We Started Nothing) shows that Amazon is the cheapest at £4.98, unfortunately just shy of the fiver you need for free delivery. But despite Zavvi’s introductory 10% off offer, Play is still cheaper at a respectable £5 with its standard free delivery.
Having said that, a few searches for other products across each site, brought up similar prices, and as ever it’s still best to shop around. If anything though, the online presence of Zavvi should aid the competition to ultimately drive down prices for customers.
Incidentally, they’re also jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, with their own Twitter account.
Librivox – Open Source Free Audiobooks
February 25, 2009
Having just finished listening to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I thought that I’d follow it up with @Jonprevans recommendation ‘The Machine Stops’; a short story which is just as prominent today, perhaps even moreso, as when it was written 100 years ago in 1909. It tells a story way ahead of its time, referring to technology we take advantage of today, like video chat. Interestingly though, despite being written at such a time it almost serves as a real life premonition of how we seemingly rely totally on ‘the machine’. It’s hard not to relate this to the mass panic amongst gMail users yesterday who couldn’t access their mail for a few hours.
As the story is now in the public domain, it’s accessible for free to read online. Services like Project Guttenberg offer a range as well as services like Scribd; which I recently used to read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. However, I found it listed on Librivox; a site devoted to recording public domain books as audiobooks through a method of crowd sourcing. Members of the community are able to read, and upload a chapter of a book. This offers a service that is much better than previous services which used synthetic computer voices recordings of public domain material. I still haven’t listened to Dracula, or Frankenstein which I downloaded as synthetic recordings last summer. However, both are featured on Librivox (although Frankenstein is still in the process of being recorded). You can download chapters as individual files, but Librivox also allows you to download them as part of podcasts, or be alerted when new chapters of a book have been added to the project.
