What follows is a mixed bag of discoveries made while at work over the past month or so.
WMP GUI Toolkit
I’m not sure what GUI toolkit the latest version of Windows Media Player 11 is using but I was extremely disappointed when I discovered the following recently:
In case you don’t see it, the only way to discern whether WMP11 is the front-most application window is by looking at the task bar. Most of the controls in this UI have a mouse over effect, these too are activated even when the application is not front-most. I’m not yet sure whether this is a good thing? Certainly I expect it of the window management controls (minimise, maximise and close) but the playback controls?
I don’t want to be a Windows basher so I’ll leave it at disappointment that this wasn’t noticed and fixed. I hope this is not also true for Vista…
Of SSH and Tunnels
I can get a VNC connection to my work box from anywhere in the world (with internet). Yay!
I’m using ssh tunelling which is no way near as arcane as you’d assume, especially if you have the relevant ports open on your firewall. Windows Firewall prevented me from being connected the first time I tried. I’m not too angry at this because I’m pleased that i)Windows (as of XP) ships with a firewall and that ii) it seems to work quite well!
Not a Windows Guy
I’m sure that this post makes it entirely transparent that I only use Windows at work. My tunnel to work is opened by an OpenSSH client and utilised by Chicken of the VNC (on OS X).