I just saw for the first time an advert in a YouTube video. Notice the “Ads by Google“. The video in question is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sekLEG8xsOs .

Just stumbled upon this awesome Twitter Gadget for Gmail. It not only adds a status update widget on the side but also a full interface to twitter as part of Gmail. Really cool and the interface is much nicer than the Twitter web page IMHO. Screenshot below. The Gadget can be found at http://twittergadget.appspot.com

To install:

1.   In Settings –> Labs enable “Add any gadget by URL” from the list.

2.   In Settings –> Gadgets –> Add https://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml .

You could also enable “Navbar drag and drop” so you can move the gadget up and down if you want.

Twitter Gmail Widget

I copied my Mono mcs Git working copy from Linux to Windows for use with MSysGit only to find out that even after git reset –hard almost all files were being reported as modified by git status. It turns out it has to do with the file permissions (executable bit I think) and the inability of msysgit to apply them on Windows.

$ git diff class/Accessibility/makefile.build
diff --git a/class/Accessibility/makefile.build b/class/Accessibility/makefile
old mode 100755
new mode 100644

The fix is to make git ignore some file mode stuff via:

git config core.fileMode false

Another useful setting on Windows is:

git config core.autocrlf true

It was an exhausting three days moving out experience. Unfortunately unlike the Bachelors degree the Taught Masters one lasts a calendar year but the contracts of the student accommodation companies are only for an academic year. So I was lucky and found a room practically next door and had all the great fun of carrying all my belongings to the third floor. Two days of moving things, one day of unhuman back pain and cleaning and sorting out the old house and new room. The best part is when I went for a deserved coffee break in Planet Coffee on Newland Avenue and as I reached the bar got asked “The usual?” (which is Double Espresso a.k.a. “coffee” in most countries, Cake, Diet Coke). Don’t I feel like James Bond now?

In my scenario I have one Wireless connection for my Internet and one LAN connection to a small private network of my own with my NAS, PS3 and TV and I want to have them both at the same time. It was a major pain to get this setup working on Windows. When I had both connections enabled my Internet wasn’t working because Windows was routing through the LAN connection even though the Wireless connection had a higher priority set in Network Connections –> Advanced menu –> Advanced settings.

The solution is to go into the Properties of each connection (right click on it) –> select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) –> click Properties -> click Advanced –> uncheck Automatic metric in the bottom and set a number between 1 and 9999 where the smaller the number the higher the connection priority. I have set my Wireless Internet connection to 1 and my LAN connection to 9999 and that works.

I hope this post will save someone else’s precious time in the future.

Traveled with Z. to Manchester on Sunday to vote in the Bulgarian elections and met up with some friends from school. Two relatively funny shots came out of that…

Are you talking to me? (Me on the left and Lt. Horatio Caine from CSI Miami on the right)

Computer Geek in an Art Gallery

I am tinkering with ASP.NET MVC and jQuery and making my first baby steps in a whole new horrible world of web development. I found out that the JavaScript IntelliSense in Visual Studio 2008 is broken out of the box. The error is:

Warning    2    Error updating JScript IntelliSense: jquery-1.3.2.js:
   Object doesn't support this property or method @ 2173:1

The fix for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 by Microsoft can be found here:

KB958502 – JScript Editor support for “-vsdoc.js” IntelliSense doc. files

After being a happy customer of NatWest (UK bank) for 4  years I think I’ve finally had enough.

Years ago when I came to the UK to do my BSc degree and Bulgaria was not yet a member of the EU it was a major pain to open a UK bank account. I talked to staff from Barclays, HSBC and NatWest. From all those 3 major banks only NatWest had reasonable conditions all the others had crazy stuff like depositing a lot of money and not being able to use them for 2 years or so. Today that’s no longer the case.

I’ve had good customer experience and they’ve always been polite and done what I’ve requested without wasting my time. E.g changing all my addresses (including Credit Card’s) they did in 5 minutes.

1. Bad things started happen about an year, year and a half ago about the time when Firefox 3.0 was released. Their ugly online banking system even today doesn’t support Firefox 3.0+. So my only choice was to use Opera on Linux.

2. One of my debit cards expired last month and I didn’t get a replacement at all. I had to waste time contacting the bank only to be told that if I haven’t received the card then it’s was sent to my old address (changed about one year ago) and that if I have changed my address in the last year they always send the new cards to the old address. WTF?

3. Last  years I switched to online statements. All good and green alright. However this month I badly needed official printed statements with my name and address on them as a proof of funds for post-study work permit. I went personally to the bank and requested they send me the printed statements. They said “No problem it will take 10 work days max, but usually only takes 2-3 days.“. 15 work days later with the statements not yet arrived I went again to my branch and asked what’s going on. “Sir, there is no record that you have requested the statements.” WHAT? And apparently it turns out there isn’t a single document they can provide me with that has my name and address on it. E.g. they can print my transaction history but it doesn’t have those details so it can’t be used as an official document. I needed those statements for next week god damn it. Requested them again and surprise surprise after 15 days I still haven’t received my statements and even if I do it’s already too late.

Screw you NatWest! I am switching banks the moment I get some free time…

Today was an amazing sunny day without even a single cloud in the sky. After so many depressing gray and rainy days I absolutely enjoyed drinking my coffee outside and then having a walk in the quite nice Pearson Park (in Hull).

I really wanted to take some photos so I grabbed my camera before going to the park. Unfortunately it just doesn’t work walking around thinking “I wanna take a shot of something, I wanna take a shot of something”. Inspiration and spontaneity are required. I took a couple of photos but those two were lacking so I just gave up and enjoyed just walking around.

Here is the only one that I liked. It’s nothing special but I like the dark green.

Trees in Pearson Park in Hull

Mono Victory Roar

Could also be interpreted as “Shit, the water is freezing.”

Some more photos from Cromer, UK: