Google Mail and Spam

<![CDATA[Well I've been using my Google Mail account for about a week and I have to say the spam filter is really good. A couple of hours after putting my email address on the blog I was getting spam and all but two messages have been correctly marked. More importantly, none of the messages marked have spam have been wrong.

There is one slightly entertaining fact. When I read the spam messages I still get Google ads related to the content. I thought perhaps they’d treat the spam folder as a special case. Although I guess it does make sense – I read a dodgy email with “Looking for the best value in discount software?” and get a nice Google ad offering me genuine Microsoft Office for £235.

Gmail, email, webmail, spam]]>

Yet another XML based AJAX toolkit

<![CDATA[Jitsu is another AJAX toolkit. Like Backbase and Atlas it supports an XML based declaritive format that is parsed by JavaScript and converted into real HTML.

This one is open source and free.

Jitsu, ECMAScript, XHTML, Atlas, Backbase]]>

More free broadband from Orange

<![CDATA[Now Orange (new owners of Wanadoo) are offering free broadband. It’s essentially the same setup as TalkTalk but more expensive and with a more limited service. If you have a £30 a month mobile contract with Orange you get free broadband with 2GB transfer a month. Although that isn’t as good as £20.99 a month and 40GB that TalkTalk give you, you do still get the £30 a month mobile phone contract so it could still be better for many people.

OF course the advert should be banned for the same reason the TalkTalk advert was banned in theory. Or more correctly, the TalkTalk one should be unbanned…

But only 2GB a month?

TalkTalk, Wanadoo, broadband, ADSL, Internet]]>

Making money as an arms dealer

<![CDATA[After picking up a cheap blueprint (a DRMed copy of course) I am now an arms manufacturer and dealer in EVE Online.

I read that making money from selling self-manufactured items was difficult without Production Efficiency skill of 5 and I’m managing with 3. Although I’m not buying all the raw materials though. I buy the Tritanium which I needs loads of and mine the Nocxium myself. I think if I had to pay for the Nocxium then I’d be screwed…

And remember to get your free 14 day EVE Online trial.

EVE Online, EVE]]>

Web access to MCE

<![CDATA[One of the coolest features (well reasonably cool but practical) features of Windows Media Center is the ability to go to MSN TV and remotely set programs to record. Unfortunately it's not available in the UK (in fact I don't think it's available outside of North America).

There is a less than ideal workaround though. You can run Media Center through remote access. You can't play videos but the interface works well enough to set programs to record.

I'm assuming it will be available in other countries eventually…

MCE, Media Center, DVR, PVR, remote access]]>

ASP.NET Atlas really is like Backbase

<![CDATA[It turns out that ASP.NET might not suck after all. Atlas for ASP.NET is a toolkit for doing AJAXy stuff.

Well in fact it is quite a bit more than that. It has many features of the Google Web Toolkit (except in ASP.NET instead of Java) including serializing server side objects for use client side use.

Interesting it also has a lot in common with Backbase. It allows you to embed some nifty XML to define a user interface which is then interpreted by the Javascript to render real (X)HTML.

The final irony is that it’s pretty much free. Since it’s .NET, to really use it you need Visual Studio, but the Atlas part itself is free and should be perfectly usable with the Express version of the Visual Studio projects.

ASP, ASP.NET, AJAX, Javascript, XHTML, HTML, .NET, dotNet]]>

DRM is everywhere – even in EVE

<![CDATA[Considering the attention that Digital Rights Management is getting these days I found it funny that DRM is actually present within EVE Online.

To build things in EVE you use blueprints. There are originals which can make any number of items and copies which are licensed and only make a certain amount. Certain blueprints are very rare and this way the players controlling them can keep them rare…

MMORPGs, digital rights, copyright]]>

Crack Craig Charles

<![CDATA[Apparently Craig Charles was filmed smocking crack in a taxi. The most annoying aspect is the tabloids used headlines referring to him as a Coronation Street star. Surely some clever Red Dwarf pun wouldn’t have been that difficult to come up with…

drugs, Lister, cocaine, News]]>

EVE Online theme

<![CDATA[Since I joined the EVE Online affiliate scheme I figured I'd create one of my mini-themes for EVE. It has to be my favourite so far 😀

The important part of the theme is the flash banner (it only appears on the actual post pages). Clicking this takes you to a free 14 day trial so you can try EVE out. Warning, it can become addictive very quickly!

EVE, EVE Online, MMORPG]]>

Using MCE to make video DVDs

<![CDATA[Whether Windows Media Center can create video DVDs (that is DVDs that will play in a normal DVD player and not just a computer (or certain "posh" ones)) is a little hit and miss, mainly because of the complicated OEM nature of MCE.

If you buy a media center PC from a shop you’re probably okay. If you buy the OEM version of MCE and install it yourself you’re probably out of luck. You see MCE can’t do it by itself, it requires an extra piece of software called “Sonic” something. If you buy the normal OEM version of MCE you don’t get it – you have to buy the three pack which contains an “extras” disk.

If you do buy the Sonic software separately (available from Sonic.com) it does work fine – albeit apparently not from the MCE interface. There is the distinct possibility I did something wrong so I’ll keep fiddling with it.

MCE, Media Center, Windows, DVD, Sonic, MyDVD]]>