Apr 10 09

Ah, I remember the days of Firefox and the web developer plug-in where resizing one's browser window to common screen resolutions was something taken for granted. Ever since moving to Safari I have greatly missed this feature when developing websites. Instead I have had to rely on the old "that looks about 1024 pixels wide" method.

Well, all that changed when I decided to code an AppleScript to get around this issue. A swift press of ctrl+alt+cmd+r (or your choice of shortcut) and I can resize Safari accurately.

More...

Tags: Downloads, Mac
Mar 31 09

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3624/3400565699_0d945a28d0_m.jpgWell it's finally out and it came so quickly. After months of thinking it would never happen I found news that Skype would be available only yesterday. Yesterdays news said it would be available today and yesterdays news was right! So this morning I checked my iPhone and saw Skype was available from the App Store. I couldn't wait to test it.

Update: The crashing has been fixed and only affected jailbroken iPhones. The problem was not Skype and was remedied by upgrading the Mobile Substrate packed via Cydia. More...

Tags: Reviews
Mar 27 09

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3563/3389370873_343f56d82f_m.jpgToday I went to church in Birmingham; the Apple store. Whilst there I worshipped the cult of Apple by purchasing the new Apple In-Ear Headphones. I have had my eye on these every since they came to my attention a couple of months ago. Dual driver headphones for £54 and what's more, mic and controls for iPhone. Sounds too good to be true right? More...

Tags: Reviews
Mar 18 09

What's the problem?


Ever since I moved from Linux to OS X Eclipse I have become a little too fussy with the presentation of desktop applications. Eclipse is certainly the ugliest OS X app I own. What a shame this is as its one I spend much time looking at. In fact I jumped ship to Coda for a while for its lovely interface, however, Coda is not Eclipse and Eclipse is the best PHP editor I have used. I just had to go back to it.

Can it be fixed?


Hm... sort of. I have spent a few hours customising it so it's somewhat presentable now. Given it a new syntax highlighting theme that's based on tango colours, hidden the toolbar, got rid of the blue styled tabs, given it a minimalist interface and removed the default ridiculously small interface font.

http://img.skitch.com/20090318-dmdfajqibdh55mhkxskp68a9ec.preview.jpg


Is there any hope?


I'm running an Eclipse 3.5 built that runs on the Cocoa SWT port which put simply it's built with the same stuff that nice looking OS X apps are built with. So why doesn't it look nice yet? Well I'm guessing, hoping that part will come later? Certainly porting SWT to Cocoa is a step in the right direction.

Tags: Thoughts
Mar 16 09

I don't watch a lot of TV, maybe 1 to 2 hours a week of pre-recorded TV. Well, a reason to watch TV (at least for me) has recently arrived! It's the BBC's Japan Season. I believe it started on the 14th of March but there are still some good things left to watch. Unfortunately I have a feeling this wont appear on BBC iPlayer so I'll have to record it.

Tags: Japan, News
Mar 12 09

Recently, I have seen lots of advertisements around my university for the national student survey which I have no intention of taking. I can't quite understand why in my last year but a few months left I would want to complain about my university, I have plenty to say but its too late in the day to say it to be of any benefit for me.

Anyhow, I was just phoned by the student survey by a chirpy sounding girl who asked if I wanted to take the survey. I told her I was too busy, she wanted to phone back at a more convenient time. I told her I didn't want to answer any survey questions. She said if you want us to stop calling you you will have to answer some questions. Huh?! Blackmail now with the threat of forever being pestered by a telesurvey person. Scary but I wasn't budging. I replied with a firm "no" and bid her farewell.

On the National Student Survey Website there is a link on the bottom right allowing you to opt out from various forms of pestering as I believe is required by law. Hopefully I wont be disturbed again.

If like me you are a student who couldn't care less about fuelling some company who is making money from statistics collected by wasting your time I recommend you opt-out too.

Tags: Thoughts