Fast Typing

This person broke a fast typing record for a mobile device by typing the sentence in 21 seconds. I managed to type it 41.106 seconds, with cold hands and no practice on a Palm Pre.

Via Some Contrast.

Categories: News    Internet & Computers    

Tags: Typing, Test, Mobile, Phone

Comments: 0 so far

Friends

According to http://www.friendshipstats.com I have 166 friends, 46 more than average. 75% are male, 25% are female. 44 are single, 32 are dating or married.

If I contracted a deadly variant of flu, I would likely infect 10 people, 1 of whom would die. When I share something on Facebook, it is typically viewed by 17 people. If I died today, an estimated 383 people would try to attend my funeral.

Based on my Facebook profile, I have a 90% probability of getting married. I am likely to earn US$3.6 million and have 2.2 children over my lifetime.

Calculate your own stats at http://www.friendshipstats.com

Categories: Internet & Computers    

Tags: Facebook, Application, Internet

Comments: 0 so far

HDR Field

As much as I hate HDR, I had to play with it with my new lens(es).

Here is one of the better resulting images. Unfortunately, all photos were taken handheld as I forgot my tripod at home, so they had to be aligned using software. Also, the noise was removed using Photoshop, rather than a "real" noise removal software, so the pictures are not the cleanest.

Categories: Internet & Computers    Photography    

Tags: HDR, Photoshop, Photography, Field, Farm

Comments: 2 so far

Solver (A Calculator)

My brother was looking for a calculator that would solve the equation y = x^x (y = x^x) for his calculus course. He wanted to solve for x, when given a y value. Unfortunately, he couldn't find either a solver or an analytical equation to solve this equation on the Internet (and you thought everything was available no the Internets. To solve this problem, he decided to write one in Java.

Incidentally our grandfather was interested in such a solver, as well, so I decided to port the calculator from Java to PHP. This way, the calculator becomes more universal, because it's accessible from any computer and any browser as long as it's connected to the Internets. Porting to PHP was simple, because Java and PHP are very similar in syntax and grammar.

In any case here is the calculator. It has been tested to work on IE5 through 8, Opera, Safari and Firefox.

Categories: Internet & Computers    

Tags: Solver, Maths, Mathematics, Equation, PHP, Programming, Computers, y=x^x, y = x ^ x, y = x^x, x^x

Comments: 0 so far

Rogers Search

Unfortunately, since the summer of 2008, Rogers (our Internet service provider) hijacks browser search results, thereby rendering one of Firefox's most useful features completely worthless.

Normally, when you type an URL into the Firefox location bar that cannot be found, the browser automatically redirects you to Google search results. Alternatively, if you type a keyword into the search bar - like 'Facebook' - the browser redirects you to the first Google result, using the I'm Lucky feature.

The idea behind Rogers' service is to help users who mistype a URL. For example, if you type www.abifhasan.com, instead of www.abidhasan.com, Rogers directs you to a (supposedly) useful page which lists search results from Yahoo.

While the idea behind the page is good (for example it is useful on non-Firefox browsers where you would see an ugly 'Page Not Found' error if the URL is not found), there are many reasons why I abhor the service.

First, the search page is an eyesore to look at - it has no colors, no pictures, and terrible design. Secondly, it is filled with advertisements. Lastly, there is no easy way to turn the service off. This is what the search page looks like:

LARGER VERSION
The green stuff is all ADVERTISEMENTS and the blue stuff is CONTENT.
So without scrolling, the page is useless!

As I said above, it's an eyesore and is completely useless. Initially, I had tried to turn off this feature, and when that failed I proceeded to use adblocking software to make it more useful.

For the most part, though, it didn't bother me until this week, because I was living in Hamilton for the school year. Hamilton uses Cogeco, which is not affiliated with Rogers (that doesn't mean that Cogeco is without problems). However, when I moved back this week, this problem cropped up again.

Therefore, I wrote up a little Greasemonkey script to solve this problem!

Download the script called EFF ROGERS.

The script only runs when you enter an URL that leads to the Rogers page. So if you get to the Rogers search page, the script will kick in. If you entered a URL (like abifhasan.com), the script will redirect you to a Google search of abifhasan. If you enter a keyword (like abidhasan, it will redirect you to the first Google result (namely the Wikipedia article on Abid Hasan).

Note that the Greasemonkey Firefox extension is required to run it. Also note that Opera and Safari may be able to use this script also, though I haven't tried.

ENJOY!

Categories: Rants and Opinions    Omnoratus    Internet & Computers    

Tags: Rogers, Yahoo, Internet, Hijacking, Web Terrorism, Greasemonkey, Programming, Javascript

Comments: 0 so far