New Theme
by Marcus on March 29, 2010
I’ve been using the old theme for a couple of years, and in that time I’ve changed the code a lot, and recently my changes have started breaking plugins, and I have no idea what the cause is. Today I was looking for a nice movie rating plugin, I found an amazing one, but once again it looked broken. So I finally decided to look for a new theme. I’m pretty satisfied with this one, although it probably won’t be the final one.
The movie rating plugin can be seen in action on the “I Watch” page.
Bad Design: Paper Napkin Dispenser
by Marcus on March 24, 2010
I’m finding it kind of funny to write about examples of bad design, so here we are again. This is another example I stumbled upon at school.
A paper napkin dispenser, looks fine and easy to use, right? Well, this dispenser is kind of a dummy, and if you pull the napkins, the dispenser doesn’t always pull new napkins down for the next person, and this suddenly reveals a new control:
A button saying “PUSH”. So, the engineers and designers at “Tork” were faced with the problem of their dispenser not dispensing new napkins, but instead of fixing the dispenser, they just added another control. Basically, the “PUSH” button just pushes a new napkin down. Dumb.
Heartbreaking and touching movie moments from my childhood
by Marcus on March 9, 2010
This is gonna be spoiler-filled, and hopefully very, very sad if you were a child in the nineties.
This is one of those scenes that are just kind of bland today. I loved this movie as a kid and still do, it actually holds up pretty good. It’s a decent Norwegian/American pirate movie, and in this scene Håkon leaves his family to work on a boat for two years. Disney apparently re-shot all Norwegian scenes in English for the international version (which I own), and the Norwegian version is only available in Norway. Meh.
Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
Come on! :’D (go to 5:45 for epic Disney moment)
You knew this was coming. This still gets me going, let’s hope Disney’s resurrection of their old animation style also gives us back the old-school, honest stories.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
This seems so ridiculous and cheesy now, but I cried like a baby when I saw this. Remember, I must’ve been like 12 and James Bond was the coolest guy around (we had the entire collection on VHS).
This scene gave me the idea to write this entry. Still a very touching scene.
That’s all I could come up with for now. Do you have other suggestions?
Hvorfor DR’s streaming ikke retfærdiggør medielicens
by Marcus on February 27, 2010
This is going to be in Danish.
Inden DR’s medielicens kunne danske borgere se DR’s programmer gratis (og lovligt) vha. en tuner i deres pc. Dette satte Brian Mikkelsen en stopper for i 2006, da han fremlagde et medieudspil, der lagde op til, at alle apparater, der kunne gengive lyd og billedprogrammer, skulle gøres licenspligtige. Dette blev bl.a. gjort for at fremtidssikre licensbegrebet, da planen var, at en væsentlig del af licensmidlerne fremover skulle bruges til at gøre indhold tilgængeligt over internettet. Medielicensen forpligtede dog ikke DR til at udvide deres serverkapacitet, og det lider vi nu, små fire år senere, under, hvilket jeg ville give et eksempel på i dette indlæg.
En lang række af DR’s programmer kan rigtig nok streames på dr.dk, men kvaliteten er så ringe, at det på ingen måde kan betale sig. Lad os tage et kig på “Det Nye Talkshow”. Streamer man programmet i såkaldt “høj kvalitet”, får man følgende:
“Det Nye Talkshow” streamet i “høj kvalitet”.
Ikke nok med at kvaliteten er skræmmende lav (478 x 359 pixels), så har DR sjovt nok også valgt at ændre formatforholdet til 4:3 ved at indsætte sorte bjælker (letterboxing), hvilket medfører at videoen set i fuld skærm på en widescreen-monitor vil være centreret med sorte bjælker hele vejen rundt. Det er ren dovenskab.
Jeg valgte tilfældigvis også at hente et afsnit af programmet via iTunes, hvor det også er tilgængeligt. Her er det downloadede resultat sjovt nok anderledes:
“Det Nye Talkshow” hentet fra iTunes. (Tryk for at se billede i fuld størrelse.)
Her er kvaliteten sjovt nok betydeligt bedre med en opløsning på 640 x 360 og det oprindelige formatforhold er bibeholdt. Én ting er at lægge en lavkvalitets-version op til streaming, en anden er samtidig at tilbyde en langt bedre version andetsteds uden at nævne det på programmets hjemmeside. Uanset er begge udgaver af så lav kvalitet, at medielicensen er en farce.
DR’s hykleri stopper dog ikke her. På hjemmesiden for DR’s HD-kanal står følgende:
“DR’s HD-kanal samsendes/streames ikke på dr.dk, da den desvære ikke kan udsendes på nettet i ægte HD-kvalitet.”
Hvilket naturligvis er klart, hvis man bruger licenspengene på Emmy-fester i stedet for nye servere.
Bad Design: Door Lock
by Marcus on February 19, 2010
A neat example of focusing too much on aesthetics instead of usability.