Information
 

Screen Resolution Top

What the heck is screen resolution?

The display on your computer screen is made up of tiny squares of colour called pixels. The word "pixel" is an abbreviation of "pictures (pix, for short) element." The pixel is the smallest piece of any picture displayed on your computer monitor screen. High resolution refers to a display that has lots of pixels and is usually a higher quality picture, suitable for printing. Images designed to be shown on web pages are usually of somewhat lower resolution so that they load into your browser more quickly.

Modern monitors have the ability to show the pixels of an image in various sizes. The smaller the pixels your monitor displays, the higher the quality of pictures you'll see and the more pixels you'll be able to see at once and therefore the less scrolling you'll be doing as you view a web page.

If your screen resolution is set to 800 by 600, for instance, you're actually seeing 800 pixels across the width of the screen and 600 pixels from top to bottom.

Generally, if you have a larger monitor, you can more easily see the display set at a higher resolution.

Why do some web sites say to view at one resolution or another?

Web site designers use various screen resolutions themselves. Ideally, they'd like you to be able to see the web site they've created in the way they intended it to be seen. if your screen resolution isn't high enough, you may be missing portions of the web pages on the site, including menu items. If your resolution is too high, the site may seem unbalanced or be hard to navigate.

Because monitor sizes and screen resolutions vary, many webmasters now offer the courtesy of letting their visitors know the ideal resolution with which to view that site.

You, of course, have the option of ignoring that information and viewing the site at your own screen resolution of choice, but you are at least then aware that you may be missing information offered to you or seeing things displayed in a way that may not be as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

Why would I want to change my screen resolution?
 
Changing to a higher screen resolution can be greatly beneficial if you spend any amount of time on the World Wide Web. Not only will you find you don't have to scroll nearly as much as you browse web pages, you'll be able to see much more of every web page at one time and view pictures and text in their intended layout. Any screen resolution you use will allow you to view content on web pages that have been designed at that resolution or at any lower resolution.

Almost all web pages are now being designed for viewing either at 800 x 600 or at 1024 x 768, with nearly 60% being designed for 1024x768. With the progress of monitors in mind I have designed this website to be viewed at either 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 1024 (which is the native resolution of 17" and bigger flat panel monitors).
You will not be able to view everything at 800 x 600

You may not be happier with a higher resolution if you have:

•  extremely bad eyesight
•  a very small monitor
•  a very old monitor
•  any combination of the above

A higher screen resolution makes icons and other items appear somewhat smaller. While it may take a little "getting used to", you'll quickly grow accustomed to this.

What's my screen resolution set to right now?

How do I change my monitor's screen resolution?

If you are in Windows, right-click on any area of your desktop where there is no icon. A menu will come up. Click on "Properties", then click "Settings". You should see your screen resolution displayed there.

Downloading MP3 Files Top

There are a number of MP3 files on this website. I have in all cases compressed them to a reasonable size. You can obtain the duration of track and the size of the file by hovering over the icon.

There is always a trade off between download speed and quality, however some of the mixed tracks can be up to 1hr long so if you only have dial up access (56K) you should be aware that these will take up to 3hrs to download; single tracks will only take about 5mins.

However I suspect that most people will now have at least 512k broadband access so you should be able to listen to these tracks simply by clicking on them, which will set the track streaming (within 15 seconds) at a speed that your access should be able to keep up with.

If you do not have broadband or cable you should right click on the icon or link and click 'save file' or 'save target' to your hard drive so that you can play the track back from there

MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) is a standard technology and format for compression a sound sequence into a very small file (about one-twelfth the size of the original file) while preserving the original level of sound quality when it is played. MP3 files (identified with the file name suffix of ".mp3") are available for downloading from a number of Web site. Many Windows XP users will find that they have a player built into their operating system. Otherwise, you can download a player from one of several popular MP3 sites. MP3 files are usually download-and-play files rather than streaming sound files that you link-and-listen-to with RealPlayer and similar products (However, streaming MP3 is possible.) Winamp (PC), MacAmp (Mac), and mpeg123 (UNIX) are popular MP3 players, but there are many others. To create an MP3 file, you use a program called a ripper to get a selection from a CD onto your hard disk and another program called an encoder to convert the selection to an MP3 file. Most people, however, simply download MP3s from someone else and play them.

Digital audio is typically created by taking 16 binary digit samples a second of the analog signal. Since this signal is typically spread out over a spectrum of 44.1 thousand cycles per second (kHz), this means that one second of CD quality sound requires 1.4 million bits of data. Using their knowledge of how people actually perceive sound, the developers of MP3 devised a compression algorithm that reduces data about sound that most listeners can not perceive. MP3 is currently the most powerful algorithm in a series of audio encoding standards developed under the sponsorship of the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and formalized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Viewing Video Clips Top

There are a number of video clips on this website. I have in all cases compressed them to a reasonable size. You can obtain the duration of clip and the size of the file by hovering over the icon.

There is always a trade off between download speed and quality so I have tried to make sure that even with dial-up access (56K) you should not have to wait more than 15mins to download the majority of the files on this site. However some of the files, such as the full comedy episodes, will take hours to down load with a dial-up access.

Having said that, I suspect that most people will now have at least 512k broadband access so you should be able to view these clips simply by clicking on them, which will set the video streaming (within 15 - 30 seconds) at a speed that your access should be able to keep up with.

If you do not have broadband or cable you should right click on the icon or link and click 'save file' or 'save target' to your hard drive so that you can play the clip back from there.

If you find that you are only receiving sound and no picture it is likely that you do not have the codec installed that I am using. I therefore suggest you click here to download the latest version of Windows Media Player (11) which will have the latest codecs. Please remember to choose the one that matches your operating system.

RSS - 'Real Simple Syndication' Top

What is RSS?

In a world heaving under the weight of billions of web pages, keeping up to date with the information you want can be a drag. Wouldn't it be better to have the latest news and features delivered directly to you, rather than clicking from site to site? Well now you can, thanks to a very clever service, RSS.

There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but the majority plump for 'Really Simple Syndication'. Put plainly, it allows you to identify the content you like and have it delivered directly to you. It takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by showing you the very latest information that you are interested in.

Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity and many others, including the Guardian, New York Times and CNN do provide it.

How do I start using RSS feeds?

In general, the first thing you need is something called a news reader. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.

Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. For example, if you would like the latest BBC News Entertainment stories, simply visit the Entertainment section and you will notice an orange RSS button on the left hand side.

If you would like the latest BBC News World video stories, visit the World section of the BBC News player and click on the RSS button at the bottom of the World section.

If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader.

Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have functionality which automatically picks up RSS feeds for you.

There is a range of different news readers available and new versions are appearing all the time.

Different news readers work on different operating systems, so you will need to take this into account when you make your choice.

Online Presence Top

'Chuggaboom' is the Anthill Mob's trusty car ....... it is also my 'Online presence'.

There are thousands of sites that require user identification, and the most difficult things is to maintain consistency in that identification. From eBay to Xbox Live, from YouTube to Gamespot, I have managed to maintain the same identity, which conveniently continues the theme started when I chose the name for my website back in 2002. The fact that I have managed to obtain the same user id on all sites is amazing, particularly when you think that there are over 2 million registered gamertags on Xbox Live and even more registered users on eBay and YouTube.

So if you see Chuggaboom in a game online or buying something from you on eBay, it's a pretty safe bet that it's me.

   chuggaboom@theanthillmob.com   or
   andrew@theanthillmob.com