mgthantzin.com/blog » tech

Reserved by Windows

mgthantzin — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:04:51 +0000

You can’t create a folder with following names on Windows.

PRN, AUX, CLOCK$, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9

Source: What is a Software Easter Egg?

Nokia’s Path

mgthantzin — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 02:41:54 +0000

Nokia must make a careful decision of what they are going to do next. Whatever decision they make will have impact on the mobile industry (as well as mobile apps industry).

Nokia/Microsoft Partnership

PNGGauntlet : PNG Optimization Tool

mgthantzin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:34:09 +0000

Recently, I need to take screenshots of several parts of PDF as images to be used on the Internet. I had to take it at 600dpi for some reason and the file size of each image was quite big. Those images merely contain an image and a couple of small paragraphs. Nothing much. I found this tool called PNGGauntlet – a PNG optimization tool. I’ve seen the reduction of file size by 90%. But, main point here is such size reduction is done but not at the expense of image quality. The images still look good at the same dimension.

PNGGauntlet

Unknown File Type

mgthantzin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:48:22 +0000

I’ve received a safe file of unknown file type. The only way I could determine its file type is to read file content. I’ve found this tool called TrIDNet. It’s a portable application which relies on file definitions (something like virus definition for anti-virus software) in XML format. A handful of those XML files are also available for download at the same site.

Quite a handy tool for some occasion.

Cross-page PostBack (PostBackURL) & OnClientClick

mgthantzin — Mon, 24 May 2010 07:46:54 +0000

If you use cross-page postback and javascript validation together, there is a chance that they can conflict. It is because user-defined validation can breaks the cross-page postback (which uses javascript as well to redirect to next page). Solution can be found here.

Google Prediction API

mgthantzin — Sun, 23 May 2010 04:15:04 +0000

The Prediction API enables access to Google’s machine learning algorithms to analyze your historic data and predict likely future outcomes. Read more

Google Font API

mgthantzin — Thu, 20 May 2010 05:48:55 +0000

I love typography. And, I’m quite disappointed with limited availability of beautiful fonts in Windows. (I admit that they introduced many better-looking fonts such as Segoe UI, Calbir and Cambria starting from Vista and Office 2010.) But, I just prefer Mac fonts like Lucida Grande or Helvetica.

And, when it comes to web typography, things could get worse. Only a small limited set of fonts are cross-platform. Thus, people start to talk about webfonts. Google announced this new project called Google Font API. I hope it is helpful while choosing best typography for our projects. Currently, only a few fonts are available yet. But, I believe it will grow bigger.

Google Font API

Advice on AntiVirus

mgthantzin — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:55:03 +0000

If you are not tech savvy, at least check this Wikipedia page before you install any antivirus program. Or, check at well-known tech blogs such as LifeHacker and DownloadSquad. Or, just get some advice from your techie pals.

PC Maintenance

mgthantzin — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:50:29 +0000

Do this at least once a week.

Clean your PC with CCleaner. Fix any registry errors as well.
Use a third-party defragment tool such as MyDefrag (formerly known as JKDefrag) or Auslogics Disk Defrag.

It will keep your system healthy.

iPad: Apple’s newest toy

mgthantzin — Fri, 07 May 2010 08:04:03 +0000

A couple of days back, my roommate brought back home iPad from work. It belongs to his company. And, his company bought it not for development but just for fun. And, each staff was bring it back home to play with it. I guess, that day was my friend’s turn.

It really was an awesome gadget. Unlike what other people might have said, it is not really a huge iPhone. And, yes, we did smile while playing with that device. Check out this interesting post about a family which was addicted to iPad. It’s not only us who smiled. :D