Being an IT person, the pictures this website brings don’t surprise me in the slightest. I see daily acts of stupidity but this stuff is a few notches higher! Rod Shelley, the page’s author, hints at working at Gateway (where are they now??) but I think the things here are visible whenever you mix computers with stupid users. [SHOW ME]

I found this utility today when I was looking for a different widget to display my tasks on the desktop. This small app (less than 500Kb download) displays any of your outlook panes (Calendar, Contacts, Inbox, Notes or Tasks) on your desktop in a slightly transparent version. Everything is fully adjustable from size, position & transparency, with the added advantage of automatically loading when windows starts. It only works from Outlook 2000 onwards, but then I don’t know anybody who still uses Outlook 97! The link takes you to the homepage, but when downloading I had problems until I found [this] alternative source. [SHOW ME]

Doing the job I do, sometimes I get people phoning me up saying they can’t open such-a-such file. Now there are a few obvious reasons why this could be - normally because the user doesn’t have the software installed on their PC to view the file. Maybe it’s because they have an older version of the software. There is also a classic problem, where someone has been emailed a link to the file, rather than the file itself.

However, in my experience, most of these problems can be sorted out with a file analyser. I recently had this problem (about half an hour ago) and what I really wanted to know was - is the file actually what the extension is, and if it was, I would be able to determine from that if the file was really corrupt.

I found a few file analysers. A DOS one I had used before “File Analyzer” and one I hadn’t, which has a horrible Windows 9x interface called “What Format” but both of these don’t appear to have been updated since 2002 - but are perfectly usable with the more common file types. I found a newer nagware analyser called “File Find for Windows” which says it can recognise 2,338 different types of files.

I had a pdf file which a user said they couldn’t open, so I fired it through all 3 programs. All 3 correctly identified it as a pdf file - and I even removed the extension to double check the programs weren’t cheating!! The upshot was that the file I wanted to check was definitely a pdf file, and it definitely was corrupt.. =)

I also tested a few other files (again after removing the extensions) and here are the results (red means a fail, whilst green means it was detected correctly):

Type: .ra (Realplayer audio file)
FA WhatFormat FileFind

Type: .psd (Photoshop Image)
FA WhatFormat FileFind

Type: .skr (PGP Private Keyring)
FA WhatFormat FileFind

Type: .ost (Outlook offline folders file)
FA WhatFormat FileFind

Type: .img (Atari ST ROM dump)
FA WhatFormat FileFind

Type: .pyc (Juice Plugins file)
FA WhatFormat FileFind

To be honest, the last two file types I really didn’t expect any of the programs to get (which was the case). It was, however, interesting that only FileFind got the ost file, which I think is mainly due to the age of the other two programs. Also that both WhatFormat and FileFind both got the PGP secring file, whilst FA didn’t, even though that file format has been around for a long time.

Every now and again I come across some design work that just makes me wish I could a) do it and b) had thought of it first. This collection of 30 websites shows us how things should be on the internet (but rarely is..) [SHOW ME]

Check out these innovative designs to make your office the coolest in the building… How do you convince the higher management to part with the cash though?.. Mention the “Conference Bike” and they’ll be sold.. [SHOW ME]

According to The Register, Toshiba are due to ship HD-DVD drives with their Satellite series of laptops in the Summer. The article doesn’t say if the drives are only initially being shipped with the Satellite Pro series.

Toshiba well known for their part in the creation of the HD-DVD standard have made this move at ever increasing interest & cost effectiveness of the technology. So how is the blu-ray format fairing amongst all this? Well you can buy a Blu-Ray drive NOW for your PC for £450+ but finding an HD-DVD drive was a little harder with websites detailing promises from Toshiba and NEC, without anything I could actually lay my hands on. I guess the war will rage for a little longer. [SHOW ME]

Students applying for places at Universities across the UK have been caught copying applications ideas for University places from the internet.

It appears that hundreds of people mentioned “burning a hole in their pyjamas at age 8″ due to a chemistry experiment. This is apparently available from a well known website used to help potential students in preparing their applications.

Of course this, in my mind, also highlights the pressure that students feel in getting a good University place. Students fearing that if they don’t get their first choice, their future life could be worse off probably feel that a plagiarised application will help. [SHOW ME]

I found this article via digg. It lists some of the crazier uses for engineering intellect - after all who would need a bra / shopping bag combination? Useful if you have a spare bra, maybe, but why not just carry a spare shopping bag? This question and many others like this are painfully left unanswered.

A few of them are pretty cool. Like the Drive-e-mocion (pictured above) that displays custom messages in your rear window. I’m sure it won’t be long before they’re banned, but in the meantime you could truly express yourself in LEDs to the driver behind! Good or bad, I’ll let you use your own imagination.. [SHOW ME]