Page 54 of full list of posts


PCPlus 271: Binary heaps

I write a monthly column for PCPlus, a computer news-views-n-reviews magazine in the UK (actually there are 13 issues a year — there's an Xmas issue as well — so it's a bit more than monthly). The column is called Theory Workshop and appears in the back of every issue. When I signed up, my editor and the magazine were gracious enough to allow me to reprint the articles here after say a year or so. After all, the PDFs do appear on each issue's DVD after a few months. When I buy the current issue, I'll publish the article from the issue a year ago. Since I've now got August's issue (and have had it for a couple of weeks), here's August 2008's article. […]

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PCPlus 270: An introduction to diffs

I write a monthly column for PCPlus, a computer news-views-n-reviews magazine in the UK (actually there are 13 issues a year — there's an Xmas issue as well — so it's a bit more than monthly). The column is called Theory Workshop and appears in the back of every issue. When I signed up, my editor and the magazine were gracious enough to allow me to reprint the articles here after say a year or so. After all, the PDFs do appear on each issue's DVD after a couple of months. When I buy the current issue, I'll publish the article from the issue a year ago. Since I've now got July's issue, here's July 2008's article. […]

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Party Shuffle Friday

Haven't done one of these for a long while, a Party Shuffle Friday, so I refreshed the iTunes DJ a few times to come up with this selection of 10 tracks. Maybe I can entice my party crowd back. […]

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Converting data from Passwords Plus to SplashID

In the post I wrote a couple of weeks ago on SplashID, I mentioned that I'd converted my data from Passwords Plus using CSV files. At the time I only mentioned the format of the VID files for SplashID, but didn't provide any information on how to do the conversion. You will require Excel, or any program that can open a CSV file in a spreadsheet-like form. […]

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Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go USB device

Every now and then, I find myself somewhere with no free WiFi or Internet connection of any sort, and yet I'd like to connect or do some research online. The most obvious place is on a plane, but, funnily enough, I'm not really bothered about it in that situation. I'm quite happy to sit back and read a book, or watch a TV show on my iPod Touch. […]

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Importing password data into SplashID

Way back when, so long ago I can't remember, I bought a product called Passwords Plus from DataViz. The product is an application for storing passwords, PINs, and the like, and supported Palm devices as well as providing a Windows desktop application. At the time I had a Sony CliĆ© NR70V, which I carried everywhere with me, and so the app made sense. […]

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Fun with scanning old photos

HeadshotAge16-smallDespite getting a sheet-fed scanner, I still use my flat-bed scanner to scan, mainly photos. The last couple of times we've been home, Mum has given us some old photos. Well, not necessarily given, but lent so that I could scan them and, if needed, print better ones. […]

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Fujitsu ScanSnap S300

Fujistu ScanSnap S300About three months ago, as I was trying to gather documentation for my taxes to take along to my accountant, something finally snapped. I had all these invoices and statements and papers in a big old folder, and I was flipping through them, trying to find documents relevant to my taxes. In the closet in my office there's a bunch of other folders for previous years too. Ditto, the basement (oh, heck, I really need to sort it all out down there). It's a big mess. […]

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Regular hexagons in Adobe Illustrator

Last night, I had to draw a regular hexagon in Adobe Illustrator, Now, I remember from my school days how to draw one with a compass and ruler (draw a circle with the compasses, and then select a point on the circumference and mark off radii with the compasses, going round the circle; you'll mark off six intersections and then connect them with straight lines: voilà!), but I don't have any compasses in Illustrator. […]

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PCPlus 269: Drawing binary trees

I write a monthly column for PCPlus, a computer news-views-n-reviews magazine in the UK (actually there are 13 issues a year — there's an Xmas issue as well — so it's a bit more than monthly). The column is called Theory Workshop and appears in the back of every issue. When I signed up, my editor and the magazine were gracious enough to allow me to reprint the articles here after say a year or so. After all, the PDFs do appear on each issue's DVD after a couple of months. When I buy the current issue, I'll publish the article from the issue a year ago. Since I've just bought the issue for June 2009, here's June 2008's article. […]

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