| VirusTotal ~ Continuing to nerd out from last week, maybe you have received a suspicious file in your email and are worried about whether your antivirus program is up to the challenge? Upload it here then for testing by 32 different virus scanners and in nearly 20 different languages already. That ought to set your mind at rest… |
| VPN Comparison ~ Possibly, this goes over your head. What even is a VPN? The Vietnam People’s Navy? The IATA code for Iceland’s Vopnafjörður Airport, perhaps? A Very Pleasant Neighbour, or a Vacuous Psychopathic Narcissist? Actually, in real terms heading forwards, it does not stand for any of these. If you spend much time on the Internet, you’ll come to understand why… |
| Wayback Machine ~ I don’t know why this site hasn’t had a recommendation before. It is a unique and valuable reference for those using the Internet regularly. The Wayback Machine crawls the World Wide Web, taking snapshots of what it finds and archiving these for posterity. It’s a massive undertaking and vast educational resource. I found my own work dating back to 1999… |
| Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool ~ For many folk with disabilities, the Internet continues to fall short of expectations. Run any webpage through this tool and spot the tweaks in design and functionality that make such a difference once you are aware of them. My links page for instance contains one error and seven warnings. Lots of sites are far worse and need focus in future… |
| Web Developer Tools ~ A deceptively simple front-end to this creatively named domain, belies the complex nature of the tools that are inside. But, if you are not a professional or even amateur web developer, you most likely won’t be interested. Still, I have made good use of the UTF-8 and Base64 encoders and decoders, plus the Punycode IDM domain name converter, too… |
| Web Safe Colors ~ Animated GIFs have been around since 1987, so they have always been a feature of the World Wide Web since the earliest browsers able to display graphics. They persist, despite being limited to a palette of 256 colours. Purists might argue that to avoid huge files and the horrors of dithering, you should stick with the 216 “web-safe” colours from the old days. |
| Website Down ~ Another free online service that helps you figure out, whether you favourite website might have a problem, or if there is some issue with your internet connection or involving your service provider instead. You can bookmark the answer and easily check in future, since the status of each site updates whenever you revisit that page… |
| Websites Hosted on Windows NT4 ~ I am sorry to say you read correctly. Not the recently deceased Windows XP, or even its precursor Windows 2000, there are 50,000 websites in the world hosted on Windows NT 4.0 at the time of writing (2014). This OS was released in 1996 and had its last major update in 2001. Australia Post’s bill payment service is a leading exponent… |
| What Watch ~ I am always pleased to come across new astrology software, especially when it also happens to be free. Finding What Watch was a great experience, since I was impressed by the small modularised download, the customizable interface and the chance to plot Black Moon Lilith, Quaoar and Sedna on each chart directly too. |
| Who Still Uses Windows XP? ~ This follows Microsoft’s recent and repeated announcements, regarding support for their venerable Windows XP ending on April 8, 2014. In practice it didn’t quite, but this can only be around the corner. These guys analysed their web logs to discover who still uses this operating system, across the US anyhow. Ohio, you are totally doomed… |
| Windows 8 ~ In a tradition dating back to Windows XP, where my comments saw criticism initially but were proven unassailable over time, here are the final release (RTM) details for the forthcoming Windows 8 operating system that most will be seeing in October. 12:47 (PDT): July 25, 2012: Redmond, Washington, USA. Run along now, children… |
| Windows
Vista ~ Live at the Windows Vista launch event, it’s 4:54pm
and Bill Gates is walking on stage. Got that everybody? I make it 16:54
EST, 29 January 2007, in New York City. This gives Moon opposition Pluto
and void of course, plus Saturn in the first house opposition Mercury.
Looks like Vista is suck, as they say in Bulgaria… |
| Windows XP ~ With the lame lacklustre launch of
Microsoft’s latest Windows operating system, Version 6 and named Vista,
passing by almost unnoticed at least by me, I thought you might like to
contrast this feature written on the launch of Windows 5.1 or XP, when
it was clear from the astrological outset, this was going to be a
winner. |
| World’s First Web Site ~ The world’s very first website went live on August 6, 1991. It was hosted on a NeXT computer at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research based in the suburbs of Geneva, on the border between Switzerland and France. Early versions were subject to change, but this stable offering from 1992 is now online again in the interests of posterity… |
| WorldWide Telescope ~ Okay, this is from Microsoft and it looks great. The application is still under development and there are glitches with the site, plus I haven’t personally tried the download that weighs in at just under 21 MB. But if you’re a fan of the banging trance videos you'll find on YouTube, this may well be your baby, that’s for sure… |
| Worst Botnet Countries ~ Much of the email spam you receive is not specifically aimed at you. It is sent by botnets: vast automated networks of infected machines. Spamhaus keep an eye on those countries where these proliferate. Still, their findings won’t come as a surprise, to anybody dealing regularly with these issues. There are almost two million bots in China, for example. |
