Category: learning curve

jif

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Ever since I found out that Nutella, the delicious chocolate hazelNUT spread is actually pronounced NEWtella, I’ve been waiting for the pronunciation rug to be pulled from under me again. And it seems that me patience has paid off, because now it has happened.

It came in a short interview with a man called Steve Wilhite in the New York Times. Steve’s claim to fame is that he devised a compressed image format back in 1987 that is still widely used today.

After a bit of history:

Mr. Wilhite, then working at CompuServe (the nation’s first major online service) knew the company wanted to display things like color weather maps. Because he had an interest in compression technologies, Mr. Wilhite thought he could help.

And some present day stuff:

Since retiring in 2001, Mr. Wilhite has led a quieter existence than his creation. He goes on RV trips. He built a house in the country with a lot of lawn to mow. He dabbles in color photography and Java programming. He uses e-mail and Facebook to keep up with family.

They casually drop this bombshell:

He is proud of the GIF, but remains annoyed that there is still any debate over the pronunciation of the format.

“The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations,” Mr. Wilhite said. “They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.”

I’m sorry? You what what?

26 years on from devising an image format, you decide to let that little gem slip? I’ve been using gifs… jifs… bah, whatever… since 1992 and now you want me to suddenly change the way I say it. How on earth am I supposed to do that?

And why “jif”?
I’m well aware that Giraffes have set a precedent for the use of a soft ‘G’, but the term ‘gif’ is – as any fule kno – an acronym for ‘Graphics Interchange Format’. That’s “Graphics”, not “Jraffics”. So while you’re confusing the geanpant off us (not literally, I hasten to add), why not change the way we say the other two-thirds as well?

May I respectfully suggest: “j-ee-ef”?
Actually, may I respectfully suggest that shove your idea where the sun don’t shine and stop trying to alter history just because you came up with a novel, much loved and much used way of sharing pictures?

To borrow your explanation from above:

“The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is “gif”, pronounced ‘gif’.”

End of story.

Pop science via Popular Science

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Ah, mad scientists! Dontcha just love them?

Some say that one local blogging microbiologist used to perform basic scientific experiments in his bedroom cupboards aged 11. All I know is that I never pulled a Blu-ray burning laser from its rightful home and mounted it inside a hollowed out flashlight, before shooting it at 100 sacrificial balloons.

Fortunately, this guy has pulled a Blu-ray burning laser from its rightful home and mounted it inside a hollowed out flashlight, before shooting it at 100 sacrificial balloons. And he caught their demise with a video camera, thus:

He even makes them come back to life again (but not really, it’s just the film played backwards).

At this point, the audience is split two ways. There’s the half which is going: “That’s SOOOOO cool! I wonder what else he can do with his laser?!?!” and there’s the other half who are going: “That’s SOOOOO scary! I wonder what else he’s going to do with his laser?!?!”.

Either way, let’s hope it involves puppies.

Link via Popular Science.

Little tablets. Why?

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I had my first hands on experience with an Apple iPad mini yesterday. Cute little thing, neat and tidy too (as you might expect), but I’m still struggling to get my head around why anyone would want to have a mini tablet. Each to their own of course, and my own isn’t Apple, wherever it can be avoided. But Android has its fair share of these mini tablets too and they leave me equally mystified.

Why would you want a device which looks like your phone, is ever so slightly bigger than your phone, but doesn’t make phone calls?

My phone is great, I love it, but the only place it falls down is that the screen isn’t big enough to do “some stuff” on – well, do some stuff easily anyway. Stuff like spreadsheets, documents and the like. Looking at pictures in detail as well. You’d just rather see more bits at the same time.

Of course, these mini-tablets are bigger than my phone. But they’re not very much bigger and it’s still awkward to do these things.
It’s at this point that I don’t get it. Why not just go for a 10 inch screen instead of a 7 or 8 inch one? Yes, it’s bigger and heavier – “more cumbersome” if you want to use negative flowery language – but it’s not like your iPad mini fits in your pocket anyway, is it? Unless you have really big pockets, in which case normal rules obviously don’t apply to you anyway.

The benefits of the larger screen far outweigh its cumbersomeitude. It’s more practical, it’s more versatile, it’s just… better.

I am sure that my “not getting it” will prompt a flurry of indignant cries of “you don’t get it”, and they’d be right. Because I don’t get it. So won’t somebody please explain the vast array of benefits of the mini tablet?
It probably won’t sway me, but it might help me understand why this is such a fast growing market at the moment.

I do hope it’s not just that usual Apple thing of being cool over being functional. That would be terrible.

Had it

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As summer breathes its final breath and dies its final death, barely hanging on here in the Cape with a measly high of 28°C expected today, the bad news is that we still have a mosquito problem. Specifically in my bedroom last night. This is the downside of Cape Town summer for me and I will consider it a GoodThing™ when the cold comes and kills off the last of those little bastards.

It could be worse though.

Worse because right on our doorstep, a child is dying from malaria every minute. We’re lucky that SA is pretty much a malaria-free country, but every year, malaria kills 650,000 – mostly pregnant women and children under five – which is a huge, huge number, especially since malaria is a disease that is both preventable and treatable.
I’ve actually had malaria: thankfully, I didn’t die from it. But even then, it’s a wholly unpleasant and debilitating disease. It’s not something you want, even when you know it’s going to get treated.

Tomorrow – April 25th 2013 –  is World Malaria Day and one way you can help out is by buying a bracelet from Relate Bracelets, a social enterprise which has partnered with United Against Malaria Bracelet for R30.

UAM1

Fairly funky, I reckon, although I freely admit to not being a huge bracelet expert. I’m going to get my daughter one because she’ll love it and I’m going to get my son one, because he has that kind of surfer boy look when it’s sunny and the mozzies are out.
Funds sold from this bracelet go to The Global Fund, which distributes nets (I need this), indoor sprays and provides access to medication.

You can get your bracelet at selected Game and Tiger’s Eye curio stores (Indaba and Out of Africa) or if you are agoraphobic, online through Digital Mall.

Do your bit, get a bracelet and make a difference.

Youtube videos not playing on Chrome – Solved

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I’ve been having a few issues with Youtube videos not playing in my Google Chrome browser. Instead, I just get a black screen and misery. I could, however, get those same videos to play on Internet Explorer.

This situation was beginning to irk me, so I did some rudimentary exploration around my Chrome place and found out that it was a Flash player plugin conflict which was causing the problem.

Having found that out, this is how I solved it.

  • Check your plugins by typing chrome://plugins/ into the URL bar.
  • Look for the Adobe Flash Player plugin. You may see that it says (2 files) after the plugin name. Therein lies your problem:

plugin

  • I found that the easiest way around this was to Disable one of those files.
  • To do that, look to the top right hand corner of the plugins tab and click the little + Details link.
  • This will open up the individual files each of which will have a Disable link.
  • Choose one to disable and… er… disable it. It will become greyed out.
  • Restart your Chrome browser and test by looking at a page with a Youtube video on it.
    Like this one, for example.

And there you go. Please leave thanks, comments and cold, hard cash in the comments section below.

Happy Youtubing.