Thursday, July 05, 2007

Microscope

How to make your TV into a microscope for fifty bucks.

11 comments:

DreamingWolf said...

I have a suggestion, Eolake, which is OT. It concerns the hyperlinks in your blog. Anytime I click any hyperlink, it opens an appropriate webpage, which is as it should be, but... in that moment I am redirected away from YOUR one. And as I still want to continue reading your blog, I have to push that green arrow on my web-browser to get back to your blog again. Which can be a nuisance after a while and many hyperlinks followed. So, my suggestion is this (and many other bloggers can benefit from it): upon inserting a weblink into your text, please, insert this as well - just type target=_blank ... and it will open the website the link reffers to IN A NEW WINDOW or tab. Thus, your blog stays open, I can read the text on a newly opened site, and when I'm finished, I can return back to your site which is still there, open! :)

So, to be clear everybody knows what and how to do, here's an example: the link inserted looks normally like this <... www.whateversite.com/"> Now, following my suggestion, it will look like this:

<... www.whateversite.com/" target=_blank>

That is all. ENJOY!

DreamingWolf said...

For the sake of being able to publish my previous comment with suggested change in the hyperlink, I was forced to omit the appropriate opening signs of the hyperlink: a href= ... followed by http//... and I also omited the closing one, that goes "/a>".

Anonymous said...

To summarise, dreamingwolf suggests the following change:

<a href="http://www.site.com/">

<a href="http://www.site.com/" target=_blank>

Good advice. However, don't forget that in most browsers the user has control over this too. For example, on Safari, if you hold down the ctrl key while clicking, you can select "Open Link in New Window".

Another, easier way is to click using the right mouse button (instead of the left one, as we normally do). However, if you are using an Apple computer you need to have first acquired a two-button mouse, as the mouse Apple ships with their computers only has one button!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

On a Mac, simply command-click to open in a new window!

If you have tabs enabled, it will be a new tab, unless you use option-command.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I don't think Blogger has a future for the ...blank code, and I don't want to add it manually each time.

Anonymous said...

That is a great thing for exploring the everyday world of a child. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Man, how tiny are your children!?

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Anonymous said...

..."as the mouse Apple ships with their computers only has one button!"

Same with the mouse made for playing some PlayStation One RTS games. Which is even more off-topic! ;-)

I don't get it: the mice that ship with my cat when he's had a successful prowl all have TWO ears. And it looks ever so elegant that way! :-)

Nifty gadget, that TV microscope. Technology's sure made lots of things possible.
As a side bonus, you can plug it in your PC and screen-capture what you see in your microscope on the spot. (I hereby release this tip in the public domain. Distribute freely, but never charge money for it. ;-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Actually Apple mice now have two buttons and a two-axis scroll ball. (The "Mighty Mouse".)

The buttons are invisible, but they work perfectly.

Anonymous said...

Aha! So the Mighty Mouse comes as standard now?

The last Mac I bought still had a one-button mouse. But that was 2 years ago. Good to hear Jobs has finally given in on this one.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I think it's standard. It came with my Intel tower. (Mac Pro.)