We are sitting on the sofa at home at the moment discussing our holiday plans for the year and I got a song in my head that I started humming. Remembering the adverts on TV where you hold your phone up to a speaker and it tells you the song, I thought there must be one that you can hum to and it’ll find the song. So I did a quick google and found Midomi, I hummed the song (and I can’t really sing or even hum very well) and sure enough…it found the exact song, 2 results came back and it was the second! We’re both amazed by how well it worked.
Read more on Find Music by Humming – it really works! #midomi…
I recently posted an article about using BINARY(16) for storing MD5’s as unique identifiers instead of simple integer ID’s (usually auto increment); in that article I touched on one of the benefits, reducing JOIN’s, but there are other reasons for doing it too, so I thought I’d post an article discussing purely the reasons behind using BINARY(16).
Read more on MySQL and Binary(16) – The Reasons/Benefits/Drawbacks (#mysql)…
Over the past few months at work, we’ve seen our database grown from silly big to really silly big, it’s still a way to go to get to the size of the big boys such as Facebook etc. but it’s still a database stored in MySQL that most day-to-day PHP programmers would avoid like a midget cannibal.
Read more on MySQL – Binary(16) and scalability…
On Tuesday night we went to see Avatar at the IMAX in Bradford’s National Museum of Film and Photography. I had semi high expectations for the film but had heard some bad press so how good it would be was left wide open. someone suggested we go to see it at the IMAX as it is vastly better, so that’s what we did.
Read more on Avatar is a must see film – at IMAX in 3D…
It seems like it’s taken a long time for someone in the States to get up and do it, but someone seems to finally be ready to stand up in court and challenge the legality of banning same-sex marriage on a nationwide scale. The result of this trial should finally end the confusion the USA has had in it’s divided states. If it is voted unconstitutional to ban the marriage of two people of the same sex, any state that currently denies it will no longer be able to, effectively ending one of the biggest remaining prejudices in the States; this is, of course, if it is then argued and taken to the Supreme Court for one final showdown. If it’s voted constitutional, then my partner will be glad he’s in the UK now and doesn’t have to deal with a country that thinks it’s OK to treat people that way.
Read more on Federal Court to determine constitutional legality of gay marriage…
We’ve all seen the movies where interactive displays are done on transparent glass, well Samsung, using OLED (organic light emitting diodes) have finally created one for us all to gawp over. Details are scarce, but it shows that yet another sci-fi idea is becoming mainstream reality. For now, here’s a video of the display, courtesy of Engadget.
Read more on Transparent Laptop? Samsung’s new 14 inch OLED display…
I’ve not watched much Celebrity Big Brother this time around, as usual it’s become extremely over the top and feels almost scripted (as in the housemates, obviously BB has a script!) One thing they have done this time around though is actually get a couple of people who can actually be classed as celebrities. I know, I know, they’re not switch on the TV and they’ll be on a TV show or film right now, but they’re people who’s names you recognise, I think most notably (until this weekend) was Basshunter, even people who find his music terrible know the name.
Read more on What a line up – and now Ivana Trump! Celebrity Big Brother…
NASA uploaded an image today of Great Britain from space as of 11:50 UTC today, it’s a truly remarkable picture showing just how much it has snowed here. For anyone not from the UK, snow like this has not hit Britain for over 30 years, hence all the hoo-haa about. It looks beautiful though, although weirdly sci-fi in nature. I must admit, as cold as I am on my way to work on the morning, I still love the fact everything is white, and it’s that perfect powder snow too, if I lived near mountains, it would be great for snowboarding!
Read more on Snowy Britain – NASA Terra image…
Yes, that’s right, we’re getting an extra bank holiday in 2012 (I know, a little bit of a wait still) as a result of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The bank holiday will be on the 5th of June and the Whitsun bank Holiday will be moved to the 4th of June to give a nice long 4 day weekend; I’m sure the parents will be pleased!
Read more on New Bank Holiday coming up (hopefully permanent)…
Well, it was good while it was getting better, now we’re back to square one again, I’m talking about airport security of course. After the attempted plane bombing attempt on Christmas Day, security has now been upped at international US airports again for any incoming flights deemed to be from “terror-prone” countries. The new rules came into effect today as Barack Obama has been under pressure to visibly improve security.
Read more on US Toughens up on incoming planes from “terror-prone” countries…
