Download streamed video
Online video providers tend to stream the video to a javascript player, so making it extremely difficult to capture the video. This blog explains a method using Chrome to spoof the user agent string, pretending to be an iPad. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to work any more in the latest version of Chrome. So I tried installing a user agent spoofing plugin in Firefox. It seemed to work, but the video didn’t play, so I couldn’t find the url.
Read more →Concurrency, Threads, Semaphores and Mutexes
I have written several applications in both Java and C that involve running an audio thread in the background to read or write audio from or to the audio system while displaying the results and interacting with the user in the foreground. I have used lots of threads, but never a semaphore or mutex apart from the odd boolean variable. This issue is reminiscent of back in the day when you actually had or could get a circuit diagram of your computer and could understand it.
Read more →Upgrading WordPress
This site has the firewall set up so that the web server has no external access. This means that I can’t use the usual WordPress update mechanism to keep it up to date. I use FileZilla for maintaining the server, and I recently discovered you can use drag and drop to move stuff around remotely. So my easy WordPress upgrade method is: Download the latest zip file and unzip it. Rename the wordpress folder to something else, like wordpress-old.
Read more →Faggots and Peas with Onion Gravy
When I was a teenager the chippy at Preston, Weymouth, Dorset used to serve faggots and peas with gravy in those aluminium foil containers that take-away Chinese used to come in. Enough for 2. Ingredients 3-5 faggots Frozen or fresh peas Truly Evil Onion Gravy Method Start the gravy first as it takes a while to render the onions down. Once the onions are well done, put the faggots in a tin and place in a medium hot oven – 180° C, until they are starting to brown.
Read more →Truly Evil Onion Gravy
Black onion gravy to go with faggots, sausages or whatever takes your fancy. Ingredients 3 medium onions, sliced 1 tablespoon plain flour or cornmeal (polenta) 1/2 vegetable stock cube, crumbled Boiling water or cooking water from vegetables Vegetable oil Method Cover the bottom of a small pan with oil and place on medium heat. Put the onions in the pan and cook, stirring with a fork until reduced to brown/black sludge.
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