Bizarreon

Python Project

2009-12-08T19:22:37Z

Whilst picking up a new language – Python, I decided to whip up a basic paint like tool using PyGame. As you can see above it looks basic, You can click and drag to draw, and right click to remove. If a key is pressed, the image is stored in a text file with ‘pixels’ represented with a specific symbol.

The grid cell size can be changed along with colours, the code is not too advanced however it is slightly messy, if your new to python or an existing user check it out and see what you can do with it.

Downloads
Source ( .tar.gz )
Source ( .zip )

40th Anniversary Sesame Street

2009-12-10T17:11:46Z

We all love Googles-doodles on the homepage, some with meaning and some without – however this one caught my I today, whilst growing up I would sit in front of the television watching it for hours. This image below of the cookie monster has become quite popular amongst diggers today however when I reached the homepage I found a second image of Bert and Ernie.

( All images belong to Google and respective owners )

You Digg Me?

2009-11-01T19:47:30Z

With the ever increasing amount of websites and blog’s launched each day, thousands of people join the race to become popular and make a name for themselves online, potentially generating funds on their ad-filled websites. With websites such as Digg, Slashdot and Reddit proving user submitted news, everyone has a chance to show the world their content, however what makes these sites brilliant is that we don’t see the useless junk, we only see what people like across the web.

Most site owners dream of having there site on the front page of one of these major websites, and instead of focusing on producing high quality content they just throw shabby work around and try there hardest to get people to like it. To me, if the content is good enough, people will vote for it regardless, and recently when browsing the web I stumbled upon a site called youdigg.me.

The idea of this site goes entirely against what I believe in, it works in a way similar to the old ad-sense scams. You create an account and digg each article that pops up, in return you receive credit that can be used towards a campaign for one of your own articles.

I personally want to put a stop to this website, I use Digg to find funny,useful and informative news from around the web – I don’t want digg to end up full of dead end websites full of ad’s.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!

Subconscious Shortcuts

2009-12-10T17:04:06Z

We all use computers, and most of us use hundreds of different shortcuts without even realising we are doing it, from browsing the Internet to escaping from a crashed Windows machine. In this article I have chosen my favourite and most used keyboard shortcuts that you probably use everyday without realising.

Esc

The Escape key, I find myself commonly using this whilst instant messaging. With a lack of screen space I generally Esc out of my conversations whilst I’m not chatting.

Alt + Tab

With my busy schedule Alt+Tab allows me to switch between Facebook and Pidgin in an instant – To my surprise I quite often see people look at me strangely when I do this combination.

Alt + Drag

This ones for the Linux users out there, when moving my windows around it can be a pain having to click the top of the window and drag it into place – with Alt + Drag I can click anywhere in a window and move it about. I found myself doing this a lot when using Fluxbox.

Scroll Wheel

This one isn’t a keyboard shortcut however possibly the best invention since sliced bread, in the days before scroll wheels you would actually have to move the mouse and either drag the scrollbar or press the down button – in our modern society the scroll wheel is God.

Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V

Copy and Paste! With a world full of information, we are sharing more than ever. With the practical copy and paste shortcuts ( Windows Style ) we can move information round in an instant. These two shortcuts we all use and probably never think about it!

Alt + F4

When your boss comes in and your on Digg – Alt+F4 comes to the rescue closing the window in an instant. A frequently used shortcut across most operating systems that always seems to come of use.

Ctr + Alt + Del

Back in the day, this was one of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts, well I suppose it had to be really – when a windows system crashed this was your only way out! I still commonly use this when working on windows machines to bring up the task manager.

Ctrl + R

I’ve used the refresh shortcut through many browsers for years, I’ve only recently stopped using it as much due to websites adopting AJAX and various other methods allowing me to sit there staring at irrelevant pages as they reload for me! I still however find myself using Ctrl +R across many websites.

Ctrl + T

This is a more recent shortcut used for creating new tabs in many web browsers, tabs have not been around long however I found myself adopting this shortcut in an instant, I love tabs!

Can you think of any more commonly used shortcuts? Leave a comment below!