Chrome weather report

Hey. Cute. Snowflakes.

Puerto Rico Stats

What is the effect of your turn order on how well you fare in the game of Puerto Rico? It is too early to tell, but it looks like you should try to go first or last.

Google's tiny logo

How smart is Google?

Although the logos on Google's sites are images (and these have their own clever tricks, but that's another story), there is more magic to the logo than I thought.

I got a server error message the other day while doing some work with atom feeds. A bad query on my part returned some html along with usual http error codes and messages. I noticed that Google's logo can be generated using very common, safe HTML. I stuck it in a standalone file and came out to 423 bytes. And that is without trying to optimize the html. This is so small that you can stick your logo in Error messages as a tiny text stream with no problem.

The font is Times and the colors are basic. Brilliant.

Google

Here is the code that generates this logo.

<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td rowspan=3 width=1% nowrap>
<b><font face=times color=#0039b6 size=10>G</font><font face=times color=#c41200 size=10>o</font><font face=times color=#f3c518 size=10>o</font><font face=times color=#0039b6 size=10>g</font><font face=times color=#30a72f size=10>l</font><font face=times color=#c41200 size=10>e</font>  </b><td> </td></tr></table>

MyStery

Windows Internet Explorer

One or more ActiveX controls could not be displayed because either:

1) Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page, or
2) You have blocked a publisher of one of the controls.

As a result, the page may not display correctly.

How to get this message:

1. Create a document in MS Word (version is Office 2003).
2. Copy the contents.
3. Switch to Outlook and create a new message
4. Paste.

What's Internet Explorer doing getting involved here?

Incidentally, once you click "OK", which is the only thing you can do, the text is properly copied into the message body. Presumably the text I was trying to paste in represents some kind of security breach, but I don't have any further steps to take, and Outlook cheerfully sends the message without complaint.

Thanks for the heads up, Internet Explorer.

Confidence boost from Linksys

I recently upgraded the firmware on my Linksys WRT54G router to this version. I include the preview because I love this icon. So sleek and mysterious.


Well actually, first I downloaded the prominently displayed firmware upgrade. It turned out to be for a later version of the router, so I got this excellent message. It's more than an error message. It's a slap in the face. It's a raging, hopeless slogan for scrawling above the door of a bombed out hospital, perhaps. Continue.


No problem, really. It isn't as dire as it sounds. "Please check the bottom of your router to make sure you have the correct version," says the guide. Just dig a little bit on the Cisco site and find the firmware for your router version. It's in Home >> Support >> Technical Support >> Downloads.

Ah, that's better! Your reward is this sunny fanfare for the credulous.

Sleep soundly. Cisco is looking after the details.

Using "Create Event" action in Gmail

I am a fan of the integration of Gmail and Google Calendar, but one thing that isn't clearly explained is that you need to put event details in the subject line of your email. Even then the results can be unexpected. I did some light testing of various date strings. Here are some results.

Today is Sunday the 16th of November 2008. You have just learned of a screening of the film "Foo" in the evening and want to forward it to Eddy. Here are a few Subject: lines and their results.

Success
Subject: Foo Screening at 7pm
Subject: Foo Screening: Sunday Nov. 16 - 7pm
A Week Late
Foo Screening: Sunday at 7pm

Month Long Event
Foo Screening - Sunday, November 16 - 7:00pm
Watch out for hyphens in your date. In this case they indicate a date range. Google Calendar appears to have a default of one month for an unfinished date range. The end date is set to December 15 2008.


No Event Detected
Subject: Foo Screening - Sunday, November 16 - 7:00

Improvised Entertainment Device

Celebrate the kid's birthday in style. Get an old broom handle. Write I.E.D. on it with a magic marker. Blindfold the kid and let him unleash his explosive energy underneath this U.S. Army Humvee with troops inside. Is it an up-armoured model? There is only one way to find out.



I hate boing-boing.net because they beat me to it. They already made fun of this a year ago.