Tag: Web

My Maths Are > Last.fm’s Maths

Being the Last.fm scrobble freak that I am, I used my web based stats page to check my scrobble count and started clicking through my friends’ stats.

I eventually came across one that caught my attention.

He’s been a member since 2007 and has scrobbled 1 song..and he is a paying subscriber. I thought to myself, what a waste of money! …so I clicked on his Last.fm page. 😛

You’ll have to open these images to see the details, but basically what you’ll see is that my math skills are apparently either ridiculously awesome or Last.fm’s are very poor.

Play counts are based on the total number of tracks scrobbled divided by the length of the membership in days. This seems obvious enough doesn’t it? Well, my calculations show that 1 song in 1180 days is somewhere around 0.000847 plays per day…which is far from the 12,920 plays per day that Last.fm seems to think.

Am I wrong in thinking that this is just really poor programming to make such inaccurate calculations?

In case you’re wondering, the “589 more plays needed” tidbit means that if he had (by the end of the day) 590 plays in total that his average daily play count would be 0.5…which Last.fm rounds up to 1 per day. 😉

Even considering the account had been reset, should they not be able to correctly calculate track plays? Maybe their servers are just having a few hiccups, but either way I thought it was funny enough for a post.

Also, if you don’t understand the joke in the title then you’re really missing out on an old clip about Maths! You should take a quick moment to have your daily laugh.

Demonstration of HTML5 WebM Live Streaming!

If you haven’t seen the new <video> feature that allows people to easily embed video into web pages without the need for third party plugins such as flash then you’re behind the times! Keep up!

If you’re not using a capable browser while viewing this post then you won’t see much (read: nothing special). The web is slowly evolving and minimizing the "drug like addiction" to Adobe’s infamously unstable Flash player which is used for various popular web content including YouTube videos and time wasting Flash games.

One super cool example of WebM, which is the video technology behind HTML5 video, comes from SkyNews and should appear below if you’re using a browser worth your time using. I recommend Opera! 😉

WebM is a video container which allows for a very simple method of embedding video on a web page that will eventually be adopted by all major web browsers. The video above displays an example of live streaming WebM video and goes to show that the new video tag is very powerful and useful!

I’ve been looking forward to HTML5 video for some time now and am happy to see such neat and useful demonstrations pop-up across the Internet to set such great examples!

The next major step that I’m waiting for is for Google to officially replace flash videos on YouTube and Google Videos with new HTML5 WebM videos. Popular video sites such as YouTube and Vimeo have recently shown off demos of the new video format, but neither have made the leap from flash content to relying on the browser. Depending on how long it takes for other web browsers to adopt and perfect support for this feature, it could be a long wait.

Features such as fullscreen mode have yet to make it into Opera’s web browser, but will certainly be added in a not too distant release. Hopefully sooner than later.

Thanks to a friend in IRC for bringing this to my attention (windsong@irc.opera.com).

WTF Should I Watch?

Just for laughs I threw together this quick page that gives you a new movie or show suggestion in a humorous way each time you load the page.

Screenshot of the WTFSIW page in action..

The idea for this type of site is not my own and was inspired by site like What The F*** Should I Make For Dinner, F***ing Movie Reviews, The F***ing Weather and others.

The page works off of three very short files and the code is minimal, so if anyone’s wanting to make something similar just let me know if you’re curious about my implementation of this.

Hopefully you find this both useful as well as funny! Comments, retweets and other shares are always appreciated!

Opera 9.5 Release Candidate 1

Today Jon von Tetzchner, Opera CEO, has officially release Opera 9.5 RC1 to the world. It has been two years since Opera 9 was first released, so you can image the progress and improvements that have been made since then!

The version numbering may be a bit confusing, but we all might as well consider Opera 9 and Opera 9.5 to be two completely different versions..like Opera 8 vs. Opera 9.

Opera 9.5 has introduced a number of new features and stability improvements since Opera 9 and has even improved compatibility between websites that used to simply not work in Opera.

New features that you will find and fall in love with in Opera 9.5 include Speed Dial, Opera Link, Quick Find, Dragonfly, EV (Extended Validation) and new sportier and improved skin!

Speed Dial


Get to your favorite Web sites with just one click! Speed Dial is a set of visual bookmarks you see when you open a new tab. To add a new page, simply click on an empty Speed Dial.

Opera Link


Access your favorite Web sites everywhere! Opera Link syncs your bookmarks and Speed Dial between your computers and mobile phone. Log in with your Opera username, and your data will always be accessible.

Quick Find


Have you ever forgot the page where you found that great article or that perfect gift? Opera remembers the actual content of the Web pages you visit. In the address bar, just type one word you remember, and Opera finds the page for you immediately.

Dragonfly


Opera 9.5 features a new version of Opera Dragonfly, the upcoming Opera developer tools. Opera Dragonfly makes developing using Opera easier than ever, both on your computer and mobile phone.

EV (Extended Validation)


Not all Web pages are what they say they are. In Opera 9.5, Fraud Protection is enabled by default, detecting and warning you about fraudulent Web sites automatically. Support for Extended Validation certificates (EV) provides added assurance and trust for secure Web sites.

Opera 9.5 Skin


To top things off with, Opera has introduced a new default skin for the browser that is designed to make your life easier and make the browser look more mainstream.

I’ve covered some of the changes made to the skin and layout in another post, but the main things that changed were the placement of the New Tab button, the Home button has returned by default and the coloration of the icons and tool bars have changed.

Now it’s time to, as Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said, continue to support Opera by turning the whisper into a shout!

Go check out Opera 9.5 RC1 now!