Have you got an idea for a windows phone app, or do you want to code one?
Well, theres a service that matches up those with the ideas with those with the ability to code them.
YouTube extends length of videos to 15 minutes
30
Jul
Yesterday, YouTube announced that it was extending the allowed length of video that users can upload from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.
Couple of things to note from the official announcement. Firstly, if you have had a video rejected because it was too long, you need to go and delete it and upload it again.
Secondly, if you take advantage of your ’15 minutes of fame’, you may want to tag you video with “yt15minutes”. If you do by 4th August, YouTube will pick a few for a spotlight on thier homepage.
Heres a link to the official announcement http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/07/upload-limit-increases-to-15-minutes.html
Knitted Daleks
08
Jul
Ok, So I’ve seen Snow Daleks before, but never a knitted one. Just in case you happen to be an MVP in Knitting, heres a link to the instructions.
http://www.entropyhouse.com/penwiper/who/extermaknit.html
Extermiknitt!
Windows Phone 7 Marketplace in action
22
Jun
I was following the Windows Phone session about Marketplace at TechEd earlier. It was a really interesting session. I thought ‘I’ll have to get a video of that to watch again’
The Code Fairy was obviously listening because Lo and Behold! MobileTechWorld have put the video on their site – Nice!
You can watch the video here
http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010/06/16/watch-the-windows-phone-7-marketplace-in-action/
iPhone goes swimming, gets baked
10
Jun
Now, I know accidents do happen, but today at the office, one of the girls brought an iPhone up to the Technical department because it wasn’t working. Apparently it had ‘got wet’. Further probing discovered that it had been dropped in the toilet.
Puzzled at how a lady to manage to do this, and with trepidation as to the answer, I asked. Turns out she had balanced her handbag on the cistern, turned round to wash her hands, the bag fell and the phone came out. Needless to say it didn’t work anymore.
Ok, so I can sort of understand – so far. But the next things she did was check with the big G on the Internet. Apparently it suggested placing the iPhone in a warm place to dry out.
Her selection of ‘a warm place’ was inside a fan assisted oven, with it switched on, at 50 degrees, for four hours.
When tried after this ordeal, it would only work ‘while on charge’ and not off the charger. The tech guy who got given this put it on charge – but left it on charge for an hour or so. Guess what it worked.
Amazing! The things people do.
Happy Birthday Bing!
05
Jun
Bing has reached its first birthday! Happy birthday Bing! According to reports, Bing has gained quite a bit of credibility. Read more about its gains here.
Heres to the next year of gains…
The art of Swimming taught
02
Jun
I was down in Ilfracombe over the bank holiday, and ventured down through the tunnels in the cliff onto a private beach, once reserved for Victorian Gentlemen, with the Ladies bathing area in the next cove. On the walls of the tunnels and on the path down from the cliff to the beach, there’s a really nice lookout area. In fact they hold weddings here. In the picture of that area below, you can make out a sign (I’ve subtlety added a red arrow pointing at it 
) Seems I was famous for teaching swimming
Media Center User Group Meeting in Birmingham
02
Jun
A heads up from Ian Dixon at The Digital Lifestyle. There’s a Media Center User Group meeting in Birmingham on June 12th.
As well as some great Media Center and Windows Home Server content, there’s a load of prizes up for grabs as well.
Entrance is free, and there’s even muffins on arrival.
I’ve already booked my place, Hope to see you there!
You can reserve your place and find more details can be found here
Please install this dodgy software – NOT!
28
May
Just got call from a company, claiming it was calling on behalf of Microsoft. Apparently Microsoft noticed that I was getting a number of viruses and asked them to call me to resolve.
They wanted me to go to a link and download some software so they could fix it remotely.
Now, as it happens, I have an old laptop, that has got a crappy screen and a bust case, so its going to go to the tip.. so I thought I’d play along for a while.
I fire the laptop up and they directed me to a URL [I’m not going to publish it here, in case crawlers try and link to it!], but it basically opened a picture that looked like this (Its poor quality as the only way I had of capturing it quickly was to use my phones camera)
Blue screen of death? Inside a browser, as a bitmap? I guess a lot of people must fall for this though.
They explained to me this was an example of what they had been passed from Microsoft, and could I click on a link below the picture to install some software so they could fix it.
The link looks very Microsofty (microsoft.com was a parameter in the querystring). IE8 complains that the link and the text aren’t the same though.
I didn’t follow the link, I’m not that daft, but did proceed to ask questions about who they were.
They said they were a company called ONLINE PC, calling fro INDIA, and the the guys name was ALEX. I’m sure those details change regularly though.
I asked them for a contact number, and at that point, they hung up.
I’ve heard of this a few times recently, which is why I played along a little. My next door neighbour had a similar call last week, and just hung up on them. My Brother-in-law also received a call and followed the instructions, but got suspicious part way through the download of the software and turned the pc off. (I’ve checked out his pc as best I can and all seems ok).
I don’t believe for 1 second that Microsoft would call a customer like this, and certainly not without you calling them and obtaining a reference number first.
I’ll pass what details I have to Microsoft, but watch out.
UPDATE: 2nd June 2010
Microsoft say they have received 200+ calls regarding this or similar issues. Make sure you protect yourself from people using the Microsoft name fraudulently, by reading about Microsoft Online Safety at http://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/phishing/Msname.aspx
Google allows end users to opt out of Analytics reporting
26
May
Google has announced that end users will be allowed to download a plug-in for their browsers to stop sites using Google analytics from tracking what they do and where they go. Google has suggested that the initial take-up of this option will mean around a 10% loss of traffic being reported. If you use the Analytics service, and you see a drop in activity, It may be because of this plug in, and not because of a drop in visits.
Personally, I think this number will get much higher as the knowledge of this plug-in permeates the Internet. You may need to start thinking of how much reliance and importance you place on the data you get from this service.
Here’s a link to Googles official announcement, http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-analytics-more-choice-for-users.html
