THE
MAGNIFIER
by TV Smith
22/02/05
Many streaming radio
stations on the Internet broadcast
the song title and artist info along with
the music. Whether streamed via Winamp, Media
Player, Real Player or YM Radio; the smallish
information bar is obviously designed for
users sitting in front of the computer screen.
What
if you like listening to your favourite
station away the computer, like me? I usually turn up the Altec Lansing and enjoy
the music lounging on the sofa, lazing on the floor or while doing something else
at another corner of the room.
When a long forgotten or interesting new
song plays, curiosity would force me back to the PC just to glance at the player's
tiny title bar. It can be a real pain, if you are at the opposite end and interesting
numbers keep popping up. Worse; when you scramble back, the display changes. I
was about to dust off my binoculars one night when it occurred to me that there
is a simpler and more elegant solution. MS Windows all along has a built-in screen
magnifier for users with low vision. By anchoring the pointer at the title bar,
I can now identify a vaguely familiar or eclectic song from bed. For
the uninitiated, you can bring up the useful magnifier by going to All Programs
> Accessories > Accessibility > Magnifier. Set the magnification level
to 6 and that portion of the screen where your mouse pointer is resting will be
magnified and displayed on a separate window on top. At this setting, even the
minuscule text on Winamp is visible from 30 feet on a 19'' monitor. Your mileage
may vary and it is not quite the application it was originally intended for. Let
me know if it works for you. It works great for lazy me, though.
Other
than media players, I imagine you may use it for remote viewing of:G-Mail
Notifier's alerts.
IM messages or alerts.
Google News' refreshed headlines.
PPS
headers or RSS feeds.
Or any other constantly updated visual information.
© 2005 TV
SMITH
Link to this article: http://www.tvsmith.net.my/duasen/220205_magnifier.html
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