Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Keep Flash Videos in Full Screen on Dual Monitors [Annoyances]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/I9_0UfCz0QQ/keep-flash-videos-in-full-screen-on-dual-monitors

Flash videos, like those on Hulu or YouTube, don't stay full screen if you click outside the video—say, if you're doing work on a second monitor. Kind of annoying, right? A quick system file swap, however, fixes this problem easily.

Photo by Steve Lacey.

Many dual monitor enthusiasts love to watch movies or television shows on their second monitor, but if those are web-based videos, Flash has to rain on our parade. Sure you can make the Hulu video go full screen on your second monitor, but as soon as you try to work on your other monitor, Flash will lose its full-screen view. Thankfully, blogger/browser patcher d.i.z. has made a one byte change to the Flash plug-in that will keep videos running full screen, even if you click outside them—and he's made it available for download (sadly, this tweak only works on Windows machines).

All you need to do is grab d.i.z.'s modified npswf32.dll file and replace the one located in C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\ or C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\ folder on Windows 7 64-bit (though we recommend you backup the original file just in case). After a restart of your browser, all your Flash videos should exhibit the new behavior (i.e., you should be able to multi-task without losing full-screen playback). You can still exit full screen mode by hitting the escape key or using the Flash player's full screen button, of course.

Watch fullscreen flash while working on another screen [via MakeUseOf]

Your Next Google Search Is Going to Freak You Out [Google]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/rahgCvW6AXM/your-next-google-search-is-going-to-freak-you-out

The next time you Google something, if the search results seem a little too good, a little too personal, it's because they are.

While Google's always delivered customized search results to people logged into their Google account—that is, search results tailored to you, based on your web history (yes, even outside of Google, like Gizmodo), past searches and previous results you've clicked on—it's now going to be doing that for everybody. Even if you're not logged in, you're going to get personalized results and yes, more targeted ads, based on past searches, tracked by an anonymous cookie that stays on your computer for 180 days. (BTW, it's not like Google's just started keeping track of your searches, it's just now Google's using that info more directly, that's all.)

You can turn it off here, though I'm guessing that won't turn off the dirty feeling you've got right now.

[Google via Bits]

Friday, December 04, 2009

I'm so PassÃ© That I Don't Know 95% of These Social Networking Sites [Timeline]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/jmVqqQDG8t0/im-so-passe-that-i-dont-know-95-of-these-social-networking-sites

I met my first serious girlfriend after my first divorce—yes, there are more of both—through a proto-Facebook created at Google. It was 2004, and it's name was Orkut. But social networks go back to 1995.

Click to zoom in

It all started with Classmates.com, which apparently has 50,000,000 users now. On the top of the pyramid is Facebook and its 300 million users, followed by MySpace's 263 million. In the middle you have a huge constellation of sites, most of which I just can't recognize. Trombi? Vampirefreaks? Bigadda? Cafemom? Geni? Itsmy? Qzone? Xanga?

Please, stop saying words. [Focus—Thanks David Keyes]

Intel's High-End Larrabee Graphics Card Won't Be Released Anytime Soon [Intel]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/UgeMxEk0P4Y/intels-high+end-larrabee-graphics-card-wont-be-released-anytime-soon

Intel just told us that its first Larrabee graphics card isn't ever coming out "as standalone discrete product," because they're behind where they'd hoped to be in development, meaning you won't be shoving one inside of your PC anytime soon.

And you have to figure that's pretty far behind, since the Larrabee launch timeframe was 2009/2010. The only way you'll be able to touch Larrabee now is as a development platform for graphics engines or high-performance computing, in order to develop for future Intel products.

Intel says they're going to announce new plans for discrete cards some time in 2010—mayyybe CES, where we talked to former Intel Chairman Craig Barrett about Larrabee last year? But, more likely at the Intel Developer Forum later in the year. [Intel]

Android 2.1-equipped Motorola Sholes tablet spied in China as XT701?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/android-2-1-equiped-motorola-sholes-tablet-spied-in-china-as-xt7/

No sooner do we get brief corner glimpses of the supposed Motorola Sholes tablet do we get tipped off to this writeup from Androidin.net which has a number of pictures of an eerily similar keyboard-less handset with a 3.7-inch screen, Android 2.1, FM radio, and interestingly enough, only a 5 megapixel camera -- last we heard it was going to be 8. Also debatable is a HDMI port, since the image that would show it is a tad too blurry. Otherwise, it seems to be about in line with what we expected, and it also seems destined for China Unicom as the XT701 (analogous to China Mobile's Motorola Android device). Now how about a few dashes of hope we'll see this stateside, eh Moto? Two more shots after the break.

[Thanks, yee]

Continue reading Android 2.1-equipped Motorola Sholes tablet spied in China as XT701?

Android 2.1-equipped Motorola Sholes tablet spied in China as XT701? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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