Historic myopia and MSIE

I keep forgetting how bad it is.

This is Andrew Pollock.

it wasn't me! No, this is not Andrew Pollock on drugs, this is him on MSIE. PNG is an open standard, and therefore inherently evil according to Microsoft’s internal and unofficial Q’ballah, so apparently the thing to do is not support it properly.

No tabs.

Searching requires laboriously visiting a search engine by hand, instead of thumping in text and letting the browser soft it out.

Bookmarks are a menu item and a dialog box, not “I want this «click» URL in this «release» menu”.

The autoscroll is clumsy and replaces the ever-so-handy middle-click paste-to-go-here facility, as well as the click-to-open-in-new-thingie facility.

No dictionary.

No HTML facilities.

No adblocker.

The popup blocker only blocks useful popups, like SourceForge downloads.

(For Konqueror users) no fish:// or any other interesting protocols.

The progress bar tells gross and offensive lies. For example, it shows progress in the absence of a network cable.

/ME will be packing his copy of TheOpenCD in future.

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

Plantagenet Penguinista

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