20 Şubat 2013 Çarşamba

Google Approves Reponsive AdSense Ads Technique

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When AdSense launched about a decade ago, people mostly accessed websites from their desktop or laptop computers. Fast forward today and all sorts of devices – mobile phones, gaming consoles, ebook readers and even televisions – are being used to connect to the Internet. →

Web designers are therefore increasingly relying on a technique called Responsive Web Design where a single layout of the websites works across all devices, irrespective of the screen size or the resolution of the device.

Google AdSense ads are fixed-width but there’s a little workaround that can  make your Google ads responsive. The idea is that if a visitor is reading your web page on a large desktop screen, they are served the large 728×60 or 336×280 units while if another visitor is viewing the same page on a smaller mobile screen, you can dynamically serve the 200×200 (or similar) ad unit.

I shared the relevant JavaScript snippet last year and, since then, its been a topic of debate in several online forum threads. The primary concern among web publishers was (and still is) that Responsive Google Ads could be against Google AdSense policies since they require modification in the default JavaScript code.

WebSonic.nl, an AdSense publisher from Netherlands, contacted the Google AdSense team for a confirmation and here’s the official response (in Dutch):

AdSense-advertenties kunnen samen met uw inhoud worden aangepast aan verschillende schermgrootten met behulp van een eenvoudig JavaScript-fragment. Om te kunnen profiteren van responsief ontwerp, maakt u eerst meerdere advertentieformaten, bijvoorbeeld 728×90, 468×60 en 300×250. Vervolgens implementeert u een ‘if-else’-fragment zodat het juiste advertentieformaat wordt weergegeven op basis van het formaat van het apparaat van de gebruiker.

De voorbeeld website die u stuurt geeft al de juiste javascript code die u kunt gebruiken. Wel wil ik nog even benadrukken dat verdere verandering van de AdSense code niet is toegestaan. Ook mogen advertenties niet worden verborgen met CSS.

The rough English translation is:

AdSense Ads can be adapted to different screen sizes using a simple JavaScript snippet. To take advantage of responsive design, create multiple ad formats, such as 728×90, 468×60 and 300×250. Then you implement an “if-else’ fragment so that the right ad format is displayed based on the size of the device of the user.

The example website that you sent has the correct JavaScript code that you can use. Well I would like to emphasize that further change the AdSense code is not allowed. Advertisements may also not be hidden with CSS.

Thus you won’t violate any of the AdSense program policies for using responsive ads on your website. The JavaScript snippet isn’t modifying the AdSense code but is simply requesting a different ad unit based on the viewport width of the current visitor’s screen.


This story, Google Approves Reponsive AdSense Ads Technique, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 20/02/2013 under Google Adsense, Internet.

Get an Email Alert (with Picture) When Someone Tries to Log into your Computer

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You have a feeling that someone else used your computer (or at least made an attempt to login) while you were out for a quick coffee break. Maybe that colleague with whom you share the cubicle knows your password or he made a few guesses before finally giving up. →

How do you get notified when such an attempt is made to intrude into your computer?

Email alert with a webcam picture of the intruder.


This story, Get an Email Alert (with Picture) When Someone Tries to Log into your Computer, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 20/02/2013 under Security, Webcam, Internet.

1,000 Free Music Albums Up for Grabs at Flipkart

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Flyte, if you are new, is an online music store from Flipkart where you can download individual songs and music albums in MP3 format. The files are DRM-free meaning you can listen to your purchased music on any device without restrictions and using your favorite media player. →

It’s been a year since Flyte launched and, to celebrate, Flipkart is giving away 100 music albums per day, across various genres, for the next 10 days.

Download music albums in MP3 format from Flipkart for free for the next 10 days.

To get started, go to flyte.com, pick your favorite genre and hit that “green” download button to add a music album to your online MP3 library. You can buy /add the tracks in one go and download them anytime later.

The listed music albums will change daily until February 28 so do remember to check the site every single day.

There are no string attached to this offer – you neither have to make any purchases at Flipkart nor do you need to have any minimum balance in your Flipkart Wallet. All you need is an account at Flipkart and the music is all yours.

You can download music directly from the Flyte website and they also have discovery apps for Android and iOS devices. The only restriction is that you can download music only within the territory of India.


This story, 1,000 Free Music Albums Up for Grabs at Flipkart, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 20/02/2013 under Music, Offers, India.

Add the Auto-Sweep Feature of Outlook to Gmail

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Outlook has an interesting Auto-Sweep feature that automatically deletes older email messages from specific senders after a certain period of time. The Trash and the Spam folders in Gmail too have a similar auto-purge property and any mail in these folders that is older than 30 days is automatically deleted. →

Get rid of unwanted and older email messages with auto-purge in Gmail.

Gmail Auto Purge – Delete Old Mails Automatically

Auto-purging can help keep your mailbox lean and tidy.

For instance, if you have created a rule in Gmail that archives all your newsletter subscriptions to a particular label, these unwanted messages will live forever until you manually purge them. With auto-purging enabled, the older mails of a label are automatically removed from your mailbox.

How to Enable Auto-Purging in Gmail

You can’t enable auto-purging in Gmail for any particular label but there’s a simple Google Script that will bring this missing functionality to your Gmail. The script will basically monitor messages belonging to a particular folder /label in Gmail and purge those that have exceed the retention time.

Here’s how you can get auto-purge to work inside your Gmail:

  1. Open Google Script and choose File -> Make a copy to copy it into your Google Drive.
  2. Set the value of GMAIL_LABEL to the label that you wish to auto-purge and PURGE_AFTER are the number of days for which you to retain a message in Gmail.
  3. Go to Run -> Initialize and grant the necessary permissions. This is your personal script and nobody else will ever have access to your data.
  4. Go to Run -> Install to install the auto-purge script.

That’s it. Exit the Google Script and it will continuously monitor that particular Gmail label in the background. If you need to disable auto-purging later, just open the same script in your Google Drive and choose Run -> Uninstall.


This story, Add the Auto-Sweep Feature of Outlook to Gmail, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 30/01/2013 under GMail, Internet.

E' tempo di mostrare i miei lavori

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Da quanto eh?
Dalla release della traduzione di Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix ho smesso di svelare i miei più grandi lavori, ma credo che è tempo di mostrare qualcosa per ricevere vostre opinioni e commenti.
Subito dopo KH2 Final Mix ho cominciato a lavorare a KH1 Final Mix. Ho individuato come il gioco gestisce i testi e i font ed ho sviluppato le basi per visualizzare (quindi né estrarre né modificare) i testi del gioco. Questi sono inseriti nelle mappe e non in file singoli come KH2. Questo rende molto più complessa l'operazione di traduzione, dato che ogni mappa ha multiple copie di testi e necessito di individuare l'intero formato della mappa per poter spostare, allargare o diminuire le stringhe. Inoltre mi sono trovato in difficoltà nel ricompattare l'archivio KINGDOM.IMG, quindi ho deciso di lasciar perdere. Devo essere sincero, ci ho sbattuto per qualche settimana, ma non volevo cimentarmi nuovamente in ideogrammi e test anche perché l'inizio dell'Università ha tolto molto del mio tempo (questo è un annuncio ufficiale per il quale decido di non prendere i lavori per KH1FM). Ho continuato a fare ricerche su KH2FM per trovare il modo di non usare font riadattati e per coincidenza ho trovato un flag che permette di fare lo swap dei tasti O ed X, di abilitare il supporto ai salvataggi della versione americana (peccato che il caricamento fallisce), prova che il motore di gioco è basato sulla versione US. Ho continuato a lavorare a spezzoni su OpenKH, un engine che doveva permettere il caricamento di personaggi, mappe ed animazioni che però ho abbandonato per mancanza di conoscenze. Ho comunque una copia del progetto salvata in un server SVN privato, così se qualcuno un giorno ci vorrà mettere mani potrà farlo, a patto che mi contatti di persona (via mail possibilmente). Subito dopo ripescai un vecchio editor che sviluppai per Sonic 2. Vidi il codice, ciò che avevo combinato... Dopo 5 minuti mi dissi "spazzatura", così cancellai tutto e decisi di riscriverlo da zero. In pochi mesi sono riuscito a sviluppare un editor abbastanza potente che supportasse non solo la mappatura e l'editing dei  livelli, ma anche la visualizzazione dei rings, l'editor delle animazioni per palette e qualche piccolo inizio sull'effetto distorsione dello sfondo. Successivamente ho studiato un po di DirectX ed ho cominciato a creare la base per un engine di Sonic the Hedgehog, ma mi sono scontrato su molti problemi e limitazioni dovute all'impossibilità di gestire le palette con le nuove schede video. Ho provato a fare il rendering dei livelli ma con un risultato abbastanza scadente:

Ho continuato a lavorarci sopra parallelamente ad un progetto dove sono stato invitato chiamato Sonic 1 HD. Nonostante le grosse limitazioni ho continuato a lavorarci e ad implementare collisioni ed animazioni con risultati più che accettabili. Nel frattempo però ho scoperto l'esistenza di un nuovo titolo della Sega: Sonic CD. Affascinato da come il gioco si mostra su pc e smartphone, ho deciso di dare un'occhiata a come è stato realizzato. Sono riuscito ad estrarre tutti i dati e a fare qualche modifica, a scoprire bug e limitazioni che mi sono servite a capire come avrei dovuto realizzare meglio il mio motore di gioco. Mi sono alleato con un amico per portare Metal Sonic come personaggio giocabile ed ogni tanto, mentre lui costruisce la spritesheet, io implemento le animazioni e collisioni:Non ancora contento del lavoro, ho cominciato a smanettare nel codice e a riuscire ad aumentare la risoluzione orizzontale, ottenendo risultati stupefacenti ma anche bug abbastanza imbarazzanti (eventi e boss mal scriptati):Ho cominciato a giocare a Lunar Silver Star Harmony per PSP e visto che il gioco è in inglese ho provato a tradurre qualche dialogo e qualche menu, con la conseguenza dello sviluppo di un estrattore e riassemblatore di file del gioco che rilascerò a breve.Recentemente ho anche cominciato ad esplorare la parte tecnica di uno dei giochi che più mi ha appassionato: Castlevania Order of Ecclesia. Sono riuscito a sviluppare un programmino che mi visualizza le prime mappe di Ecclesia, anche se con i colori non precisi e fedeli. Sono anche in grado di caricare ogni tipo di sprite o blocchi grafici dei livelli, ma con l'assenza delle palette:Ho anche avuto il piacere di comprare la PS Vita e di acquistare qualche titolo che mi è stato dato in omaggio grazie al pre-order della console. La console è fantastica ed è ricca di potenza e fantasia nei controlli di input, ma come giochi la vedo ancora un po magra. Rimasto anche molto deluso dai pochi titoli PSP disponibili, dalla promessa non mantenuta del tutto per la connessione remota e l'iterazione tra PSV e PS3 e dall'assenza dei classici PSOne. Inoltre era stato detto ad una vecchia conferenza che la PSV sarebbe stata abbastanza potente da farci girare i classici PS2 e addirittura i titoli PS3 riadattati, ma fin'ora né si è visto né è stato annunciato niente, staremo a vedere. Il famoso PS Suite, SDK che permetterebbe la programmazione del dispositivo in linguaggio C# era stato annunciato ma dopo quel giorno nessuno ne ha parlato più, cosa che mi ha deluso molto dato che non vedevo l'ora di mettere le mani su un po di codice.All'Università, inoltre, è cominciato anche il secondo semestre e il nostro nuovo Professore ci ha dato come traccia d'esame la creazione di un videogame da consegnare entro Luglio. Niente di troppo impegnativo, ma soltanto l'idea mi sprona ancora di più a scrivere codice e a pensare a nuove soluzioni. Il tempo è poco e sembra non bastare mai, anche perché ho molte idee e progetti che vorrei realizzare o continuare. Con l'inizio dell'Università il tempo si è dimezzato più del doppio, ma grazie a ciò ho conosciuto un nuovo e fantastico mondo che mi accompagnerà per i prossimi 3 anni!Vedrò d'ora in poi di scrivere nel mio blog con più frequenza, magari questo mi spronerà ancora di più nella creazione di nuova roba :P.

19 Şubat 2013 Salı

Irish noir: Declan Burke's Slaughter's Hound

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Lately I've been reading books by authors who write novels in pairs or trilogies rather than open-ended series, which seems a relatively recent phenomenon in the crime fiction world. In several cases, the switch from one series or trilogy to another is also a shift in style or genre. For just one example, Carlo Lucarelli's DeLuca series (historical police procedurals) is quite different from his Grazia Negro books (serial killer stories), and different still from his Coliandro stories (which are comic, parodies of the police procedural). All of these series seem to be closed, without further installments (though there is one Grazia Negro book that hasn't been translated, Lupo Mannaro or Werewolf).

Declan Burke has just published Slaughter's Hound, the sequel (and seemingly final installment) to his first book, Eightball Boogie. These two books, featuring not-exactly detective Harry Rigby, are hard-boiled noir, in the tradition of Chandler and Ross MacDonald, but with a contemporary relentlessness and literary references that might remind a reader of a more recent noir writer, Ken Bruen. Burke's other pair of novels, The Big O and Crime Always Pays, are lighter, more in a comic or farcical but still noir tone, closer to Elmore Leonard than Jim Thompson. Neither series resembles Burke's brilliant stand-alone metafiction, Absolute Zero Cool.

Burke's literary references are not intrusive or artificial, but integral to his first-person narrator's character and to the story, and range from Joyce, Beckett, and Yeats to Bukowsky and William Gaddis (who is particularly relevant to one aspect of the overall story, dealing with forgery). One reference is closely related to the dark violence of the story, an image and an act that suggest two grotesque passages in Bataille's Story of the Eye and Kosinski's Painted Bird, though neither writer is mentioned. Neither the literary asides nor the overarching paen to an obscure Irish rock band, Rollerskate Skinny (who I confess I thought Burke had made up until I did a web search) slow down the inexorable downward spiral of Harry's life.

Harry is recently released from incarceration in a mental facility, to which he was confined after killing his brother at the end of Eightball Boogie. A roommate there is the son of a wealthy family right out of Ross MacDonald or even Chinatown, and part of the pleasure of the novel is Rigby's narrative exploration of the intricacies of this spectacularly dysfunctional family. The current Irish financial collapse is also a factor, as it plays out on the bars, alleys, and docks of Sligo, on Ireland's northwest.

Rigby's is an entertaining voice to spend time with, which relieves some of the pain in his story, though in the final section, the pain takes precedence, though there is an almost joyful resignation that echoes the passages repeatedly drawn from Rollerskate Skinny's repertoire. It's a dark journey, but rewarding for an intrepid reader.

Arnaldur's new Iclandic noir

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I had some doubts about Arnaldur Indridason's Black Skies when I ordered it, because it is centered on Sigurdur Óli, the least likable or interesting of the cops in the circle around Erlendur, his usual central character. Erlendur has left on a mysterious trip to the area in which he grew up (and where he lost his brother as a child), and the previous book in the series, Outrage (which focuses on Elinborg, the other running character) and Black Skies occur at the same time, with occasional overlaps as the two detectives consult with one another (and worry about Erlendur's extended absence.

I had (as it turned out, well placed) confidence in Arnaldur as a writer, though, and indeed Black Skies is very interesting. As the book explores Sigurdur Óli's life and character he first grows even less likable (without making the story less interesting). He can be a bit impulsive, and in his private life, self-destructive, traits that are given some context. He's also an unrepentant political conservative, going back to his school years (when he edited a conservative literary journal). He's also a bit of a fop, and his taste in clothes in addition to his character overlap just a bit with one of the great characters if Scandinavian crime fiction, Gunvald Larsson (of the Sjöwall/Wahlöö books). Sigurdur Óli is, though, less vocal and violent.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Black Skies is the use of overlapping plots. It's a common strategy to start off with a crime, then shift to another crime that eventually gives way to or becomes connected to that initial scene. Arnaldur plays with that theme here, setting up a gruesome scene that only very gradually comes into focus, while Sigurdur Óli concentrates on other things: primarily a mess he gets into when doing a favor for a friend. When he goes to a couple's apartment (after the friend begs him to scare them into giving up a blackmail attempt) he finds the woman in the couple almost dead, and runs into the assailant. To say more would be spoiling things. The blackmail plot, though, leads in very interesting directions before coming to a surprising conclusion.

One of the interesting directions is an investigation of the Icelandic banking practices that will (not long after the timeframe of the novel) lead to the crash of the country's economy (the book is set just before, but was written just after, the crisis). The ominous shadows of the crash loom over the book.

But the story is not an economic tract: it's aim is both broader, in terms of the society, and narrower, in terms of its vivid portrait of the detective and the numerous characters involved in the story's various threads. Though I'm particularly attracted to Erlendur throughout the series, and though the book focusing on Elinborg was very good, I think perhaps Black Skies is one of Arnaldur's best books (high praise indeed).