Gavin News

Why Computer Science is Awesome!

That’s a video from a “theory” computer science course – a type of course that all computer science students have to go through (at the University of Illinois, they are the _73 courses – 173, 373, and 473). There are some lucky students who find these courses fun and interesting, but most students find them extremely challenging. The topics that are covered in these classes are, however, the basis of computer science (or computational science, which is separate but similar), as this video is explains really well.

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BIS – Issue with Blackberry Tour

As a new Blackberry user, I was not aware of the BIS, the Blackberry Internet Service, when I set up my Blackberry for the first time. Basically, the BIS allows you to manage your email accounts that are used on the Blackberry, like the Display name for sent email, and the annoying “Sent from my Blackberry” signature.

To get to the BIS interface for your carrier, just search “[carrier] BIS” in Google. For example, search “Verizon BIS” to get to https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=vzw

If you set up your email on your device, however, you probably get this message:

Your account is not accessible via HTML browser. Please use your device to access BlackBerry Internet Service.

I struggled with this error for a bit, until I found these two resources. The second one shows how to enable your account to use the BIS. Note, however, that the “Create User Name” option is now in the Menu (click the menu button once you’re in the Email Settings) on the Blackberry Tour. Once you set this up you should be good to go for your BIS account.

Your account is not accessible via HTML browser. Please use your device to access BlackBerry Internet Service.

How to change the login mode for a BlackBerry Internet Service 2.4 account

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Public Service Message: ../index.htm

One of my pet peeves is when people post links or URLs in prominent locations (posters, advertisements, etc) with the “/index.htm” or “/default.php” or “/default.aspx” or any of the derivatives of these. Please people – with very few exceptions, URLs with default.htm or index.htm or things like those do not have to have those parts of the URL!

For example, the NCHS of the CDC website can be accessed at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/Default.htm or at the much better looking URL http://www.cdc.gov/nchs.

Just some helpful advice. Please take these annoying little parts off of web addresses so that it looks cleaner. Thank you.

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Building a Backyard Screen

What is better than watching a movie in your backyard on a nice warm summer evening … on a huge screen!

We’re approaching the two year anniversary of when Doug, Nathan, Joe, Kelsey, and I built a huge backyard screen for the showing of High School Musical 2 on August 17, 2007. Check out the movie below, see the article on Lifehacker, and get ready for another showing on the huge screen sometime this summer.

Lifehacker: Build Your Own Outdoor Movie Theater

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Dual-Monitors Full Screen Flash

UPDATE: These instructions only work on older versions (10.0.22.87) of the Flash Player – there is an updated, easier solution here (via Lifehacker).

If you have two monitors like I do, you may like to have full-screen flash videos playing in your second monitor. There is a problem, though, that as soon as you click in a different window, the Flash goes to non-full screen. In other words, you can’t browse and have full screen flash on your second monitor.

There is a fix for this “security feature,” though. (Disclaimer: Adobe claims that this feature of auto-minimizing is integral to computer security, so proceed with caution)

1. Make sure you have Flash player version 10.0.22.87 (you can see this version information here).
2. Open NPSWF32.dll (probably located at c:\Windows\system32\Macromed\flash\npswf32.dll) in a hex editor.
3. Go to address 0×136340 and change byte 74 to EB.

I have tried this, and it works great. Original source here.

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