All posts by Ryan Cullen

Youtube and embedding correctly

Web Design

For some reason when you select the embed option in Youtube the code they provide includes <embed> tags. However these are big no-no’s in HTML. Youtube also have empty <param> tags, which should really end with />. On top of that I’ve still yet to work out why Youtube insist on having the video at 425×355 pixels, when clearly the resolution is only 320 pixels wide. Thus creating a rather blocky video as it is badly upscaled. So instead here is the “easy” way to embed Youtube videos.

Take your original code from Youtube:
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yVjzd320gew&hl=en"></param>
<param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yVjzd320gew&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

take note of what is in bold (red) and replace with:
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/yVjzd320gew&hl=en" width="320" height="267"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yVjzd320gew&hl=en" /><param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /></object>

making sure that the bold bits in the original are in the new bit of code.

Hopefully no errors on a HTML validator now

Code tweaked from this post.

(Edit 05/12/09, you might also want to replace any &s with &amp)

Cadbury’s and Sony Adverts

Other

Both Cadbury and Sony use the same people to come up with their recent ads. Out of the most recent six, three are great, one is good, one is ok, and one is crap.

Balls

This was the first Sony advert, set in San Francisco with the bouncy balls falling down the hill. It falls into my great catergory, very original, music was perfect (who didn’t get the Jose Gonzalez album) and it brought back images of childhood.

Paint

The second Sony ad falls into the OK category, it felt too fake and if it wasn’t for the behind the scenes video I would have never believed that they actually used real paint. I’m guessing the big problem was using a Scottish tower block, it didn’t have that American polish that the others have.

Play-doh™

Another one of my great ads, very colourful, the soundtrack fits right in and if I had a chance I would have purchased one of the rabbits or fly out to NY.

Foam City

Set in Miami, the latest Sony Ad falls into the good category, it calm, peaceful and very impressive, just lacks the omph from the previous ad.

Gorilla

This advert for Cadbury was clever. The first time you see it with the close-ups you’re not sure what’s going on and then the pan out for the drumming scene works really well. Not 100% certain about Phil Collins, but hey it still features in my great catergory, just leaving one advert…

Trucks

… which is the worst of the lot. I just don’t like it. We have different coloured trucks racing, now if they related them to different variations of Dairy Milk (green for mint, orange for orange) then it might have worked. Also they felt the need to start the ad with the glass and a half logo, giving away what the product was before you’ve even seen the first 10 seconds.

I hope to do more advert blogging, because for some reason I like watching them, just depends whether I get around to doing it.

Fake German Number Plates

Other

Some of my regular readers might realise that I have a thing about number plates. Something that caught my eye was the top image. At the time I was looking for a 725, however foreign plates can’t be counted. However it looked very much like a British plate, just styled as a German one. So once I got home I used wikipedia to double check.
Wiki says that plates are in the format of 1-3 letters for the place, then stickers to show the emission test and vehicle safety test, then 1-2 random letters, and then 1-4 random numbers (maximum number of characters is 8). So clearly the plate on the left is actually a GB plate just designed to look like a German one (example at the bottom).
I’ve now seen two in this format, so I’m guessing someone is producing them for homesick Germans. But as with other styled number plates unless they are in the offical typeface with the correct spacing they are illegal to drive with and will fail an MOT.
Fake German Plate Real German Plate

Brown does a funny U-turn

Labour

Texture like sunAccording to the BBC Brown defends ‘U-turn’ on 10p tax. Yet looking at the article and listening to what he has said I can’t see a U-turn.
I can see some distant promises to give old people some extra cash at winter, and some young people a bit more via the minimum wage (notice not actually via the government) and some more tax credits to those without children.
However here’s the problem, at the moment to get Working Tax Credits you need be earning less than £13,000 as a single person over 26, or £18,000 (combined income) as a couple over 26.
Meaning a married couple earning £9,000 each get NO tax credits, yet get hit with a 10% tax increase on their income.
Gordon Brown (who last time I checked was no longer the Chancellor) is still screwing over those on low incomes.
I get paid next Monday and for the first time my actuall wage will be less than last month, something that I never believed would happen with a Labour Government (well at least while my income was nowhere near the 40% rate).

Darling: I can’t rewrite Budget – Liar!

Labour

Pants on Fire Alistair Darling today suggested that he couldn’t rewrite the budget. Almost trying to put the blame for the tax rise on one Gordon Brown. However he LIES!!!!!! On the 12th March 2008 he read out his first budget. It would have been possible for him in this one to either re-introduce the 10p tax band, or alternatively put up the tax free threshold so that no one was worse off. However the Labour Party seem to be a bit thick and didn’t realise that this was such a big issue that they would have ministers almost resigning, yet over a year ago I was already pointing out that low income earners would be worse off.
I expect that most of the shouting is to do with the local elections and that once May 1st is over you won’t see Darling making any attempt to help anyone out.

VW Vans Newark

Other

On Lincs FM at the moment there is a radio advert for Volkswagen Vans in Newark. At the end of the ad they say find us by searching for VW Vans Newark on the web. Yet doing this doesn’t result in any expected websites like www.vw-vans-newark.co.uk or similar. Instead at the moment the top result is a Shop Locally (Yellow Pagesish) website.
So if you are looking for them, I can’t seem to find a local website, just this national one.
Altenatively you could go old skool by visiting them in person at:
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, 2 Northern Rd, Newark, Nottinghamshire, NG24 2ET (T: 01636 704484).

Mario Kart Wii

Other

Mario-Kart
Are you a LibDemBlogger? Do you have Mario Kart Wii? Are you online?
Fancy sharing your friends codes in the comments so we can have a battle royale?
If so leave your Mario Kart Wii Friend Code in the comments. Don’t worry both sides need to add each other before they become friends, so make sure that you add everyone you want to be friends with.

My code is: 4425 1593 1549

Great Northern Terrace – Very well done!

Lincoln, , ,

One of the things I noticed about Lincoln compared to Hemel Hempstead is the way in which the tip is organised.
In Hemel (Herts County Council) you had big skips with metal stairs. The staff were always unfriendly and looked aghast as you started filling their bins in case you might actually give them some work to do.
Where as Lincoln (Lincolnshire County Council) it’s in one big loop. You can pull over, drop off, drive forward a bit, empty some more and as it’s ramped there are no stairs. They have collections for Glass, Plastic, Paper, Clothes, Cardboard, Tetrapak, Oil, Batteries, Garden, Electrical, Rubble plus others which I’ve yet to spot. As soon as you stop a member of staff is willing to help get stuff out of the car, sort it into the correct containers or point you in the right direction and because of this they are able to hit 75%+ on recycling what arrives every month.