microUgly.com

Why does a LCD monitor with DVI input require sharpening?

I purchased a new 22" Samsung 226BW monitor based on a strong recommendation by PC Authority.  The other day I noticed a bit of discolouration around fringes of a drawing I was working on.  The effect disappeared and I'm not sure what the cause was - it possibly wasn't an issue with the monitor - but before before it corrected itself I dug though the monitor settings and found a "Sharpening" option.

By default the setting is at 60%. Increasing the value creates ghastly halos around objects as you would expect.  Setting the sharpening to 0 turns the picture into a blur so strong you can no longer read text.

As someone who is quite anal about picture quality, the existence of the sharpening setting on my monitor is bugging me to no end.  Why does a digital image, transmitted over digital cabling to a digital monitor need a sharpening setting that will only serve to deteriorate what would otherwise be a pixel-perfect image?  More so, when would you ever want to blur your video image!?  This setting makes me think there is something wrong with the monitor for it to need it.

CSS Positioning Explained

I'm embarrased to say that despite messing around with web design for years, I've never fully understood CSS positioning - specifically the use of absolute positioning and the idea of a containing block.

You see, when an absolute positioned block is given a percentage width, it's width is calculated based on the width of the containing block.  This gets confusing when you realise the containing block is not the same as the parent block.  Versions of Internet Explorer prior to 7, and even Opera prior to version 9, calculated the width of an absolute positioned object based on the width of the parent block instead of the containing block.

So what is a containing block?  Very quickly, it's the first ancestor block (i.e. parent, grand-parent, etc.) whose position is set to relative.  If no ancestor blocks have a relative position then the width is proportional to the width of the browser window.

To get an intimate understanding of CSS positioning and absolute position, in terms that are easy to understand, refer to Web Design 101: Positioning.

Vista Ultimate Dreamscene not suitable for ultimate PC's

I recently bought a new PC, with some reasonable specs, and a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit OEM to compliment it (for reference, when buying Vista OEM, you are licensed for either 64-bit or 32-bit - you are not licensed for either as you are with retail versions of Vista).

I won't lie, in addition to support for more RAM, my main interest in Vista was an OS that had fresh new feeling with lots of eye-candy.  And with that in mind I promptly downloaded the Vista Ultimate exclusive, Dreamscene - which, for those who don't know, allows you to use high-resolution videos as a wallpaper.

Now first off, this feature really isn't that sweet.  It looks nice, but it's hardly a programming marvel worthy of exclusive availability to Vista Ultimate users only.  It's really not worth a pinch of crap so I don't see why Microsoft can give it to all Vista users.  Windows users can already get the effect now with the free, and highly recommended, VLC media player.

But that's not why I'm posting this blog.  I'm posting this blog because my PC is too good, too powerful, too ULTIMATE, for this Vista Ultimate only feature.  You see, I have two video cards in my PC so I can run three monitors.  When I attempt to run Dreamscene, Windows get on its hands and knees in front of me and chants, "I'm not worthy.  I'm not worthy"--the application won't work on a PC with more than one video card.

Ultimate version of Windows, my arse.  An Ultimate operating system would have descent support for multiple monitors.  I was running dual monitors on Windows 95 and from a users perspective nothing has changed between now and then.  You still need to use something like UltraMon to really enjoy a multiple monitor set-up.

For reference there is nothing that I know of that can make Dreamscene work with multiple video cards.

The Windows Vista shell still sucks

MS really have struggled to improve their shell in any significant and useful way over the past generations.

Granted the new start menu is a good effort but still feels clumsy to use.  The new search box in the start menu means I never search through folders looking for shortcuts.  But if you have Vista installed on a slower PC or your using a prior version of Windows then install Launchy, it's faster and nicer.

The sidebar may tickle the fancy of some, but I quickly lost interest in it and ended up turning it off.  Most novice PC users don't even know what to do with it.

Other than that, I think the Windows Vista shell is functionally boring.

Flip 3D is prettier than MacOS's Expose, but it's not useful and as a result I only use Flip 3D to show off Vistas live previews and fancy rendering capabilities to my peers.

The thumbnail-ing with Alt+tab is rather useless as it's currently implemented.  The thumbnails are too small to easily identify each running application.  TaskSwitcherXP is far superior.  TaskSwitchXP takes advantage of the fact that for the most part, it's still easier to identify an application by it's icon.  Having multiple of the same icon is when a preview is most useful, and the preview provided by TaskSwitchXP is large enough to tell the difference between two running copies of PuTTY.

Vista's ability to display windows thumbnails as a tooltip on the task bar is also not that great when you can get this same functionality with VisualTaskTips for XP.  VisualTaskTips produce thumbnails that are again larger and therefore more useful.  And whilst Vista displays live previews of you application, who cares - live previews doesn't make it more useful.

So what else could have Microsoft done with Vista?  Well the idea that applications should be displayed on the taskbar in the order they were opened just doesn't make sense.  This is something that should have been changed back when Windows 98 was released.  Why can't we move them around into a more logical order?  Microsoft couldn't think of this, but fortunately someone else did and created Taskbar Shuffle.

The changes to the way Explorer displays folder paths is very nice but will probably confuse novice users.  Surely they could have included split views by now so we can more easily copy files between two locations - File Manager from Windows 3 days allowed this and it still hasn't returned.

Multiple-monitor support is pathetic in Vista.  We still can't set different wallpapers for different monitors, or have it span multiple monitors.  We can't make a single window maximise across more than one monitor.  We can't make the Start bar expand across more than one monitor.  We can't do anything we couldn't already do in Windows 95.

It seems to me there is more they could yet still do - ideas that have yet to be implemented by other developers.  One I would like to see is the ability to dim inactive windows.  There is very little visual difference between an active and inactive window which makes it easy to start typing in the wrong one.  This is also true for XP.  The ability to dim an inactive windows would ensure it is extremely clear which is the active window.  There are some programs out there that attempt to do this, but none work well.

I think Vistas shell is uninspired and unnecessarily restrictive.  We shouldn't have to rely on other software to get some basic and useful functions for the Windows shell anymore.

A call to Samsung digital TV owners in Brisbane

If you live in Brisbane and own a Samsung TV with a built in digital tuner, can you get SBS digital?

I own two Samsung TV's (one 40" and one 32") both with built-in HD digital tuners.  Since moving to Brisbane I've found that neither is able to tune in SBS.  This isn't a reception issue since I currently have the TV's in two separate houses in two different suburbs.  One house has three other digital tuners in it that all get SBS.  Both TV's get all other stations.  I can also confirm that where I previously lived in Central Queensland I got SBS on these TV's with no difficulty.

I contacted Samsung about the issue where, after being on hold for 30 minutes, they blew me off, telling me it's not an issue with the TV before I even got to explain the situation in full.  He couldn't explain why two of Samsung's TV's could get all stations but SBS, yet was quite forceful that it wasn't Samsung's fault.

I also rang a Samsung service centre who had never heard of the issue but willing to entertain that it could definitely be an issue with the TV.  I also spoke to someone at SBS who was very polite but suggested if there was a compatibility issue between the SBS signal and Samsung TV's he would be flooded with calls.  SBS is going to call me in a week after I get a service guy to look at the TV's since I have no other option.

The guy from SBS believes if an issue existed between the signal and Samsung TV's then he would be flooded with calls.  He might be right, but I think that most people won't care if they don't get SBS; only a fraction of the popular will own a widescreen Samsung with built in digital tuner; only a fraction of Australians live in Brisbane; and therefore, potentially, neither SBS nor Samsung would hear any complaints.

I've seen firmware updates for PVR's that could not get a particular station in certain regions, so I don't see why Samsung tuners are invulnerable to the same sort of issue.  So I would really like to here from anyone who can confirm if they can or cannot get SBS on their Samsung Digital TV tuner in Brisbane.

Ospell - Opera spell checker

Since Firefox 2 and it's unique inline spell checking feature Opera users have been screaming for the same functionality.  Ignorant Opera users will argue that Opera already has spell check with the use of  GNU Aspell and has had it for years.  But the installation of Aspell is clumsy - too clumsy for the average user - and using it is also clumsy.

Thankfully Sombria identified a practical solution for Opera users and developed OSpell.

OSpell is a Javascript application that installs by saving two files into your user Javascript folder that Opera will load automatically.  The script adds a button to selected textareas that you can click to quickly spell check the textarea.  It's not as quick and simple of Firefox's method, but it's close and good enough for me.  If you're an Opera user, OSpell is a must have.

Where's the recall on Guitar Hero III?

It's not new news that Guitar Hero III on Wii only has mono sound.  But I really feel the media and consumers aren't playing this up enough as I would have expected a product recall by now.

Granted, most people never noticed that the game didn't have Dolby Prologic II surround sound as advertised but that's beside the point.  I've had DVD's I own recalled for less. 

I'm finding this frustrating because I desperately wanted this game but I'm not prepared to pay for a faulty product. And with neither the media nor consumers making much of fuss I'm concerned the issue will never be properly addressed.

Next Gen Consoles = Violence

New Zealand Police Superintendent Connects Youth Violence With Next-Gen Consoles

Superintendent Bill Harrison, National Manager of Police Youth Services in New Zealand, said that while youth crime is in decline overall, the incidence of violent crimes among young people has jumped over the past two or three years, a period which corresponds with the release and rise in popularity of systems like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The Simpsons

Ever notice the correlation between the decline in spiralgraph and the increase in gang violence? 

Auto-positioning of figures

A few months ago A List Apart posted a really nice article on how to use a javascript function to automatically position figures (images with captions) on a web page.

I thought it was really interesting because displaying figures on a webpage is something I have yet to standardise on and the article has given me a good basis.

The article also drew my attention to Microformats which is an organisation formed to create a set of standards for using HTML. I can appreciate how conveinent it would be to have the same information on different site use the same HTML code, not to mention it will help define consistency between my own projects.

A proposal on Microformats discussion for class names on figures was particularly interesting to me.  I look forward to applying many of these ideas into my own CSS framework. 

Graph your listening habits

It's always fun finding new sites that do interesting things.  LastGraph will query yours (or anyones) last.fm profile and provide a visual representation of your listening habits.

Here's mine for a period last year:

I was a hardcore random listener in October :)