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The rarely updated blog of Joel Dixon
Viewing blogs posted in January, 2005
Saturday, January 29, 2005
A Good (?) Idea
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 29/01/2005 17:57:00Updated by Joel Dixon at 19/08/2007 11:17:49
When trying to cut an image from paint I was squinting my eyes to see where my hairline cursor was sitting. I've used Hypersnap-DX to take screen captures for a while now - and it includes an integrated zoom window.
While doing my cut from paint, I was thinking that it'd be good to have the same kind of zoom window available with a keyboard shortcut. I know that Microsoft has their Magnifier (press Win-U), but it only provides a small window on the top of the current monitor. I'd like a way to zoom with my secondary monitor (I'm on a dual monitor setup) when I press a keyboard shortcut.
I was thinking that this might be something I have to make myself, until I remembered a product called UltraMon that provides these kinds of utilities. I had a quick look at their site and couldn't find it. Then I remembered the reason that I never bought UltraMon - my videocard came with software that provided all of UltraMon's functionality.
Sure enough - after a quick look through the nView Desktop software I found exactly what I was looking for. Now, when I press Ctrl-F12 the secondary monitor changes to a 10x Zoom window. The window also swaps monitors when my mouse does. See snapshop below (the right half is the zoomed window, and my mouse is somewhere in the top left of the first monitor. And yes, I'm currently listening to Live - I absolutely love "We Deal in Dreams").
I love finding things that I didn't know I had!
# Posted in the Technical section and tagged as: Software
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Monday, January 24, 2005
Andre Agassi is hawt
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 24/01/2005 22:18:00Sure, he was a bit of a rebel early in his career - but I was too young then. All that I've seen of Andre Agassi is great tennis, and a very likeable personality. He'd also be a sexy man, if I was that way inclined. I can't wait for his match against Federer!
# Posted in the General section
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No longer vacant
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 24/01/2005 16:51:00Man, I've been really busy lately, but it should be slowing down now. I've just had my engagement party on Saturday night! Belinda and I have been going out for just under 8 years now, and I finally popped the question to her last December.
Belinda did an excellent job organising most of the engagement party, and I did a good job at drinking the Jamesons
The night was excellent, and it ran very smoothly. It was good catching up with a lot of people I hadn't seen for a while, although I didn't have enough time to see each one for as long as I'd like.
Now we've just gotta plan a wedding. Shouldn't be too difficult ...
# Posted in the General section
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Thursday, January 20, 2005
Draw some shapes - WOW!
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 20/01/2005 11:52:00For the last 2 years I've been on the same project, providing support for an existing system. While I have made small / medium changes to the system, most of my time is spent dealing with problems to do with business logic.
As a result, I've decided to download JBuilder and stuff around with some math based programming.
I'm going to make a program that allows you to draw shapes (furniture) so that you can move them around and design a room. I've finished the drawing of shapes part - and thought I'd put it up here (I'll also post the source code when I get back home).
Click here for Shape Drawing Applet. It's very crappy at the moment, but it works and provides some basic options. When I tested that it was uploaded properly, I had already found one small bug - see if you can find it.
Let me know if there are any features / options that would make this program better (I'm already adding colour for the next version).
# Posted in the Technical section and tagged as: Java
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Saturday, January 15, 2005
Deck Dogz
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 15/01/2005 01:09:00As it way my birthday today (the 24th of such occasions), my girlfriend took me to see Deck Dogz. The story revolves around 3 teenage "Deck Dogz" (skateboarders) trying to get to a skate tournament that will be hosted by Tony Hawk. The kids hope that by showing Tony a Nose-slide underflip to darkslide, they'll be sponsered and taken from their crummy neighbourhood. Getting to the competition is quite a trial with parents, the police and drug pushers trying to stop them.
I had never actually seen a preview for this film - but I had heard there was an Aussie skate film with Tony Hawk appearing, so I thought I'd give it a go. It turns out the film is really just a kids skating movie (al biet with drug and sexual references), and I found myself waiting for the "drama" to finish and the skating to begin. Even if I had have known it was a kids movie, I probably still would have gone (as I love watching great skateboarding - from Tony Hawk, or preferably Rodney Mullen).
The acting was quite poor, the plot a little too far fetched to go along with, and the cutaway visuals of the boy's thoughts were a little too distracting. There were a few laughs to be had though, and I'm happy they knew how to display skating footage, because it was the movie's saving grace.
All in all - I'd say 2 out of 5.
# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Movies
Comments (3) | Add Comment
Sunday, January 09, 2005
I like to watch
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 09/01/2005 14:33:00I picked this up from another blog:
When you search for "ViewerFrame?Mode=" in the URL of a webpage - you'll get a list of webcams that are accessible from the 'net. Here's a Google Link.
I'd suggest you skip straight to page 10 of the results - because the first few pages have been giving me unconnectable errors (probably because of the amount of people trying to view the cams). Some require passwords - and some just don't respond, but there are a few gems to be found. Here's a couple that I found in the short time I was browsing:
Japanese Laundromat (2 angles)
http://miyakonojyo.aa1.netvolante.jp/ViewerFrame?Mode=Motion &Language=1
http://takao.aa1.netvolante.jp/ViewerFrame?Mode=Motion&L anguage=1
Intelligent Transport System's Reception Area
http://hangercam.me.calpoly.edu/ViewerFrame?Mode=Motion
Some guy's Computer
http://130.102.102.252/ViewerFrame?Mode=Motion&Language= 0
A radio station
http://163.136.136.17:8181/ViewerFrame?Mode=Refresh
# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Web
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Microsoft AntiSpyware
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 09/01/2005 13:58:00Microsoft has recently released their AntiSpyware software, which is basically a product of their acquisition of Giant Software.
I gave it a quick go - and it looks really good. Setup was easy, and it downloaded the latest signature files in no time. I was a little surprised when it finished though - it said I had no Spyware:
I guess I practice safe-computing? Another neat feature that I didn't know it had - you can get it to erase the history of some common programs etc:
I'm going to keep the real-time protection running - and see how it goes.
# Posted in the Technical section and tagged as: Software
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Software I use
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 04/01/2005 22:22:00In case anyone's interested - here's a list of the Software / Utilities I use for my various home projects:
Firefox - My favourite browser.
Opera - I use this browser (along with IE) to test my websites. It would probably be my browser of choice if it wasn't for Firefox.
Total Commander - A split screen file manager for Windows. Having two directories side-by-side to easily copy / move makes a lot of sense when you start using it.
IrfanView - A very easy-to-use and powerful Image viewer / editor. Converting files is a breeze.
UltraEdit - I was using TextPad for my MDI (Multi Document Interface) needs for a while - but it got too annoying. We use UltraEdit at work, and it worked well in most instances, so I purchased it for home.
GetRight - The download manager I currently use - though I don't use it that frequently (dial-up).
Quintessential Player - I bought MusicMatch Jukebox ages ago - until they required extra money to upgrade (I hate that), so I switched to QCD. Works very well in my experience - and it's freeware!
# Posted in the Technical section and tagged as: Software, Web
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Monday, January 03, 2005
What a waste
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 03/01/2005 03:24:00Apparantly we had a blackout this afternoon while I was watching The Incredibles.
Damn! My linux box was up to around 110 days of uptime, something I would have never been able to achieve on my Windows PC. My highest before this point was around 20 or so days.
Current uptime: 1 hour 56 minutes.
Guess you've got to start somewhere!
# Posted in the Technical section
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The Incredibles
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 03/01/2005 02:32:00I always spend a lot of money on movies in December, and this year was no different. I just came back from The Incredibles, the latest from Pixar Animation Studios - and their first to get a PG rating.
As the rating implied - this film was a little more mature than other Pixar movies. As it was mainly an action film, the extra violence assisted the story, and it was all very smoothly done considering it's an animated feature. While watching the gadgets and skills of the superheroes throughout the movie - the word "Cool" entered my mind on more than one occasion.
Voice acting was brilliant - Samuel L. Jackson was great as the suave Frozone, Holly Hunter's Southern accent made Mrs. Incredible's character likeable and an exceptional bad-guy performance was provided by Jason Lee.
I must say I was a little disappointed that this film wasn't as funny as the earlier Pixar stuff. I guess that would make sense as it was more of an Action film than a Family Film / Comedy. I also felt that it moved a little slowly through the first half - perhaps it took me a little time to get into it.
All in all I give it a 3.5 out of 5, a definite recommendation for kiddies.
# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Movies
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