last.fm update fixes annoying 'bug'

Eystein — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:15:42 +0000

I’m using last.fm fairly much, and like having the little last.fm app running in the background, which means the only visible sign of it on my desktop is tucked away in the menu bar.

But somewhere along the way an update forced me to having the audioscrobbler icon down in my dock. If you’re anal like me about what belongs and doesn’t belong in the dock you’d find this extremely annoying. I tried Dock Dodger, but it failed miserably. Probably something wrong with me. So I avoided using it, and/or tried to avoid getting annoyed about it while waiting for a new update which would hopefully bring the option to choose away showing the icon in the dock. And my patience worked! As you see from the screenshot under, the little checkbox is back and ready to be unchecked. Joy and bliss.

Interestingly this whole on/off thing with Last.fm has made me increase my use of last.fm, so perhaps the whole thing was a diabolical plan in order to increase traffic?

Font rasterization in Windows XP

Eystein — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:22:46 +0000

If you are on Windows XP¹ and have upgraded to Internet Explorer 7, you know, the Internet with glossy buttons, you’ve perhaps noticed that the text looks a slightly smoother then before? That is because in IE7 Windows’ ClearType is enabled by default. You can do this systemwide if you like it. And if you for some unknown reason to mankind prefer IE6 you should do yourself a favor and follow these settings.

Click “Start” and open the Controlpanel.
Doubleclick the Display icon to open the Display settings panel
Select the Appearance tab
Then select the “Effects…” button
Make sure the checkbox next to “Use the following method for font smoothning…” is checked ²
Select “ClearType” from the dropdown
…and click OK, and then enable or ok again

That’s it. You’re done. Now your eyes will thank you for making it less stressfull looking at the screen all day.

If you want to know more check out Wikipedias entry on font rasterization.

None of this applyes to Windows Vista, as it is enabled by default. But feel free to correct me.
My version of Windows XP is in Norwegian, so my translations are likely to be somewhat off from a English version.

That Norwegian Guy » settings

last.fm update fixes annoying 'bug'

Font rasterization in Windows XP