Start an embedded YouTube video at a certain timestamp

Updated May 2014
You can add a start parameter to the embed code that YouTube generates for you.

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Iq0XJCJ1Srw?rel=0&amp;start=56" width="560"></iframe>

Updated Apr 2013
https://yousufrafi.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/start-a-youtube-video-at-a-certain-timestamp/



From 2011
From https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/start-youtube-video-minutes-seconds/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tMuSVVljg8#t=17m08s

The “#t=17m08s” takes you to 17 minutes and 8 seconds in a video.

Embedded code.

<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/8tMuSVVljg8&hl=en_US&start=1028"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/8tMuSVVljg8&hl=en_US&start=1028" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

See here for the example working.

This guide gives some other good pointers, "The default (and recommended) embed size is 480x385 for a 4:3 video and 640x385 for 16:9 content."

Here is an example of using 640x385 for 4:3 video.

Easy and Free Screen Sharing

I have used other screen sharing software before.  Join.Me is easy and secure.

Who ever wants to share their screen goes to Join.Me and clicks share.  A program is downloaded.  I don't think it requires admin permission to install.  A little window at the top appears with three numbers separated by dashes.

To view the screen the sharer tells the viewer these numbers.  The viewer types it into the join box and you are done.

Key words: remote screen sharing

Reducing Sleeping Dragons

A few weeks ago I added a column to a SQL table DateCreated.  I wanted to track when the records were getting created.  I provided a value for the existing columns and then made it not nullable and provided getdate() as its default.  I have done this quite often in the past and in the other frameworks I was in it never was a problem.

This time it was.  I had made other changes to the database the project used.  I updated the edmx file for the data access layer so it would refresh my object model for my code.  I did not pay close enough attention to the fact that it now added code to account for the new DateCreated column.

Yesterday we got an error.  When looking at the SQL trace I saw that Entity Framework was passing in a '0001-01-01 00:00:00' for the date value because the code giving the values was not providing it a value.  I was counting on the app (including the data layer) to not provide a value.  The database definition would provide getdate().

Entity Framework did only half the job that needed doing.  The presentation layer, or service layer or business layer should have been updated to provide a value if the data layer gets updated with the DateCreated column.


I am glad that we are getting away from using ORM solutions.  We are instead relying on lightweight utilities to create a data layer using only ADO.NET.  My colleague, Sam started this with LOEF.  He is now developing NOEF (No Entity Framwork perhaps with a better name).  This will reduce the sleeping dragons we have to deal with.

OpenDNS Internet Filtering

We have been using OpenDNS for several months to protect our home computer network from pornography.  We had been using BSecure but it did not have an easy way to protect our whole network, and it sometimes caused problems on the computers we installed it on.  OpenDNS can be configured on your router and so there is no need to install or configure anything on any device connected to your router.

See a previous post for more info.

The Way Things Go + The Case Against Teaching

Change Firefox awesome bar search engine

I have gotten used to just typing in whatever in the Google Chrome omnibar to search.  I also use Firefox, and the awesome bar does not work the same by default.  Change Firefox awesome bar search engine at cnet shows how to change it.

- Go to "about:config" in firefox
- Double click on the keyword.URL setting.  Save the setting in case you want to go back.  Mine was "http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q="
- Change it to the value you want I changed mine to "http://www.google.com/search?q="

That changed it so it uses the vanilla settings of Google.

UPDATE 2011-01-12: This does not seem to work any more.

Visual Studio Formatting Settings

Here is a list of formatting settings that I like in Visual Studio.

View White Space
Edit -> Advanced -> View White Space
This allow me to see if I have tabs or spaces.

Also Edit -> Advanced -> Untabify Selected Lines

Place open brace on new line for functions and control blocks
In Visual Studio, click Tools -> Options. In the Options dialog on the left pane select Text editor -> JScript -> Formatting
See here for a picture.