I've had some real fun playing with Yahoo's Query Tool

Following something mentioned by an old colleague I thought I'd see how easy it would be to combine YQL and Google Maps. Here's the result, it's rough around the edges, but it really has been a good number of years since I last looked at this type of technology. It jolly good fun.

http://www.hairy-spider.com/docs/YQL-GMAP-Mashup.html

So the first post is simply a repost of something I've done else where, I can now stick this on here. It's simply a monopoly simulation written for students who wished to find the most frequented spot on a monopoly board.

On a side note and thinking about a more simple scenario, if you are playing snakes and ladders and there's a ladder on square 6 on the board, what the probability of going up this ladder?

Think again if you're sticking with 1/6.

I've just been reading a book with words like solipsism. What the hell does that mean?

Obviously I had to pick up the dictionary and scan through until I found what the word meant. However, I didn't - I admit it: I'm too lazy to do that so I still don't know what solipsism means. It sounds great, but to me, totally meaningless. The reason why I didn't do it was because there were too many steps involved: Put the book down, Find the dictionary, pick it up, find the right page, read the description, put the dictionary back, pick up the book, find the page, re-read the sentence.

Argh! It's a nightmare. I was then thinking how much easier it would be reading books on the web, it's simple to look up definitions. Then I realised it was just as hard. Wouldn't it be nice to have an easy way to lookup a definition, what I'd like to do is to highlight a word, and press a key.

Well now I can do this. Try it out on this page, highlight a word and press the d key. There is a problem with Mozilla browsers, as I can't find any way to position to the dictionary definition by the selected text. In IE there isn't a problem.

In theory this could be incorporated on any web page just by including this script containing all the code

I would need to change the paths so that they reference this site, but that could be done.

The definitions come from www.dict.org and the code to get it from there can be viewed in the javascript files.

Here's a section of random text for you to play with:

I never spend much time in school but I taught ladies plenty. It's true I hire my body out for pay, hey hey. I've gotten burned over Cheryl Tiegs, blown up for Raquel Welch. But when I end up in the hay it's only hay, hey hey. I might jump an open drawbridge, or Tarzan from a vine. 'Cause I'm the unknown stuntman that makes Eastwood look so fine.

One for all and all for one, Muskehounds are always ready. One for all and all for one, helping everybody. One for all and all for one, it's a pretty story. Sharing everything with fun, that's the way to be. One for all and all for one, Muskehounds are always ready. One for all and all for one, helping everybody. One for all and all for one, can sound pretty corny. If you've got a problem chum, think how it could be.

Top Cat! The most effectual Top Cat! Who's intellectual close friends get to call him T.C., providing it's with dignity. Top Cat! The indisputable leader of the gang. He's the boss, he's a pip, he's the championship. He's the most tip top, Top Cat.

80 days around the world, we'll find a pot of gold just sitting where the rainbow's ending. Time - we'll fight against the time, and we'll fly on the white wings of the wind. 80 days around the world, no we won't say a word before the ship is really back. Round, round, all around the world. Round, all around the world. Round, all around the world. Round, all around the world.

Hong Kong Phooey, number one super guy. Hong Kong Phooey, quicker than the human eye. He's got style, a groovy style, and a car that just won't stop. When the going gets tough, he's really rough, with a Hong Kong Phooey chop (Hi-Ya!). Hong Kong Phooey, number one super guy. Hong Kong Phooey, quicker than the human eye. Hong Kong Phooey, he's fan-riffic!

I think this maybe a repost. If not then I apologise or holding this to myself.

It's a bookmarklet to enable you to quickly unhide hidden input elements. Some web developers think that hiding sensitive text in a hidden field is safe. This may help to enlighten them.

Show Hidden Inputs

To use right click the link and choose add to favourites or bookmark this link, then when you are on a page where you want to quickly view the hidden fields, click the "Show Hidden Inputs" bookmark.

I've created a new menu extension for Internet Explorer. This one allows you to view the cookies which you have for the website you are currently visiting and also allows you to modify the values of those cookies.

You can download the zip file containing the menu extension and the installer file Also part of this file is Document Examiner and a few other IE extensions.

Usual disclaimers apply.

I remember back in the good old days when all I seemed to do was to debug VB applications, the most useful feature was the immediate window. So I thought, what would be great is a similar feature for IE . So I set to writing Immediate Window For IE.

My first approach took me along the lines of popping up a new window to contain the textbox that would execute and report the commands. However, the access denied problem which I experienced with Document Examiner popped up it's secure concious head. After doing some digging the document.domain property is blank for a menu extension. I'd have thought that this should be the same as the domain property of the window.opener but clearly not.

Anyway, I managed to solve the problem by inserting the html at the end of the body of the window.opener.

So here it is: Immediate Window For IE

To install the extension, extract the contents of the file somewhere, right-click the .inf file and choose install. Restart IE and then from a right-click choose the Immediate Window option.

You are able to query and set various properties using this tool, placing a ? (question mark) before the command will write out the return value of the expression on the following line. See this screen shot for a visual example (opens new window)