Use large background images in Blogger

So I've been having fun setting up my new blog page and I came across a problem. The background image I wanted to use simply didn't look much good if I compressed it down to the 300KB that blogger limits you too. So here's how to get around it.

1. Host your image somewhere else. I chose Google Drive

2. Get a direct link to the image. In the case of Google Drive I simply needed to set the sharing permission to be "Anyone with a link" and then the URL takes the form of http://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=ID where ID is simply the file ID. You'll see it in the URL of the page when you open the file in Google Drive. Its long and has lots of letters and numbers in it and its usually at the end or near the end of the URL

3. Edit the HTML of your template using Bloggers HTML editor

4. Up near the top look for some code like this.
<Variable name="body.background" description="Body Background" type="background"
       color="$(body.background.color)" default="#111111 url(//themes.googleusercontent.com/image?id=1OACCYOE0-eoTRTfsBuX1NMN9nz599ufI1Jh0CggPFA_sK80AGkIr8pLtYRpNUKPmwtEa) repeat-x fixed top center" value="$(color) url(http://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B5_ZrqX_KXcOb0Zoc1Rxay1DZ1k) repeat fixed top left"/>

5. All you need to do now is replace the URL at the end inside the brackets with the one you generated in step 3.

6. Hey Presto now you can make your background image as nuts as you like. Just remember if you make it too big it will take a long time to load especially on mobile devices.

Scary time flashing the FrSky Taranis

So I just purchased my self the amazing new FrSky Taranis and have been having a fantastic time learning about the great open source OS OpenTX that it uses. One of the big advantages of this open source firmware is that you can always flash the latest and greatest updates when ever you want to and if you're like me, you might even have visions of grandeur about improving the code your self. So the first thing I did was set about flashing my new Taranis.

Well here's today's hot tip. Be careful! Right so you already knew that. It turns out that the Taranis and in particular its flashing utility DFU-util has some serious incompatibilities with both windows 7, 8 and 8.1 (what I was using) and according to some of what I've read, certain USB chip sets and seemingly USB 3. I managed to brick mine but flashing it from windows 8.1. But do not fret, this story has a happy ending. I installed all the drives etc. on my windows 2008 R2 Server and managed to flash it back to life. So my advice if you've found this post after frantically Googling "bricked taranis" there is hope. Just flashing it again from an older version of Windows and you should be OK.