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January 31, 2005
Heads down
After last night's high, it's time to get down to business. Separating out the style sheet was simplicity itself. Creating an include file for the sidebars and the footer worked fine. Installed the cut down template, css & includes on the server and everything came together as it should.
Now for the grind. Migrating all the existing pages across to the new template. This will take a couple of weeks, doing a few pages a night. At the same time a bit of housekeeping is in order, clearing out some deadwood and stale content.
A couple of tasks over the next night or so is to select a suitable image or two for the home page. Its important to get ones that set the right tone for the rest of the site. There's also a minor tweak needed to the left nav bar. The rollover effect causes a small undesirable ripple effect. Its only a pixel or two but it needs attention. Should be easy to sort.
Posted by weaver at 11:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 30, 2005
A web standards compliant page!
Today's the day (tonight at 11:40pm to be precise!) that I've achieved my first XHTML & CSS standards compliant page. This is a huge milestone in the rewrite of the site. The page, the new index page, will form the template for most of the other pages on the site once I've extracted the stylesheet to a CSS file and the sidebars to an include file.
Gosh the buzz I have is palpable. A real sense of achievement. If it wasn't so late, I'd be down the pub for a few beers. As it is, I'll have trouble sleeping tonight.
Posted by weaver at 11:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Coolest travel album
This has to be the coolest travel album in the world:
It makes extensive use of flash and you'll need a broadband connection to get the most out of it.
Posted by weaver at 02:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 29, 2005
Ignorance is bliss..
in an earlier entry, the lack of postings in the forums was commented on. An email was received today saying that an attempt to post to the forums resulted in several error messages. A quick check proved it to be the case. Resetting the access permissions and the problem has gone away.
How stupid have I been? Very! When I upgraded the web host package, the site was moved to a new server. I reset the permissions for every other application but forgot this one, perhaps because its not associated with the MYSQL database.
My forgetfulness has probably driven away some of the few visitors that come to the site. Grrhhh. Time to look forward.
Posted by weaver at 05:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 27, 2005
Petals around the rose
Here's a fine little puzzle for you to enjoy:
Posted by weaver at 06:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
Freeware utilities
46 Best Ever Freeware Utilities is a neat site that I found whilst browsing . 46 Best Ever is a selection of the best of the best freeware utilities. Whilst I can't personally vouch for every one, I was surprised to see that I already have the top 5 installed on my computer.
'Fill your boots....' as they say.
Posted by weaver at 11:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Which Font?
One of the fundamental decisions a web designer has to make is which font is best to get the across the site's message. There's a cracking little site, Usable Type, that helps in the decision making progress. Full of good, sensible advice, its now on my bookmark list.
Posted by weaver at 11:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 25, 2005
83 problems
Here's a neat little parable on modern life:
Posted by weaver at 07:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 24, 2005
Typing & spelling
Accuracy is not my strong point when it comes to typing. Spelling is also an area of weakness. Two of the biggest benefits to using MS Word are the spell checker and the auto-correct facility. Couldn't live without either.
So its really disappointing that Movable Type (used to produce these entries) supports neither. Using their entry page is a nightmare for me. Everything takes twice as long as it should.
MTClient is a plugin for MT that puts a feature rich editor on your desktop that links directly to MT. However, there's minimal install instructions (none!) and little help yet on the forums. Another hour wasted trying to get it configured. I can understand why the 24th January is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year.
Update: 8 minutes to midnight and MTClient is now configured and working. Its the little things that trip you up in life. Like using the correct username when trying to configure a client. doh... dullard!!!
Posted by weaver at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
Newsletter woes
One of the new years's resolutions is to migrate the old newsletters to the new format. The confident prediction that it would be a no brainer is proving to be a bit wide of the mark.
Over the past couple of days, 5 of the older newsletter have been added to the new format. Unfortunately a display bug is proving a bit elusive to track down. The headlines displayed when the full story is selected are incorrect. I know what I need to change to get it to work but not how to do it. Stretching the limits of my PHP knowledge here. Time to ask the professionals for help. The newsletter support forum is the next port of call.
I'll keep you posted.
Posted by weaver at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2005
Look out, he's behind you.....
Its panto season again. Last night, we went to the village hall to see the local Am Dram's version of Cinderella. Two hours of riproaring mayhem at its best. We went with some friends who have 3 boys aged 4 to 10. The panto had something for everyone of all ages. This is village life at its finest.
Well done to the entire cast and support who put in hours of effort each year to produce this little gem of British tradition. The highlights of this years performance were the 'Pumpkin' (biggest cheer of the evening) and the ugly sisters, Sharon & Tracey, who were outstanding - they had the best lines and the most laugh out loud moments. The chorus, who provided superb support to the on-stage cast, were consistently good without being obtrusive, are worth an honourable mention. That's not to say the rest of the cast and supporting team did not do a fine job. They did and should be rightly proud of their collective achievement.
Finally a huge thank you to MAD for having the intiative, organisational skills, time, patience and drive to put the whole thing together.
Posted by weaver at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2005
Almost done
The past week has been spent working on a wedding web site for a work colleague. Apart from a few tweaks its now complete and ready to go. The groom certainly seems happy with the results.
The main web application that's been installed is Coppermine, a web based image gallery. This will be used to host all their wedding photographs. As a teaser, a few existing photos have been added.
A guestbook has also been configured to allow wedding guests and those that can't attend to leave their mark.
Finally, they have use of a diary to record their thoughts on the wedding. Wordpress has been used for this. All in all, a enjoyable exercise that should give the happy couple something to look back on with fondness over the next few years.
Posted by weaver at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2005
A Great Free Application....
...just got better. Picasa 2 is a photo organiser that is very useful if, like me, you have lots of images on your hard drive. It provides a really intuitive way of managing your images. Its a Google product and, like most of their stuff, is free.
They've just released version 2 and it really rocks!. The new version allows you to burn directly to CD, edit photos, create montages, write comments, send pictures using Gmail and send pictures directly to your blog (Blogger only, I think!).
If you're into Instant messaging, you can even integrate it with Hello! for even more fun.
Well done the Google Team.
Posted by weaver at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)
Blog Tee Shirt
A satirical tee shirt that describes this site. The fine print reads:
"She wanted to stop reading it- but she had nothing better to do! Produced by average people who seem to think their lives are interesting. Filmed in thrilling HTML-O-Scope with exciting new fonts!"
Posted by weaver at 12:32 AM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2005
A quirky hobby
One of my most relaxing and frustrating pastimes is the Daily Telegraph Cryptic Crossword. On and off I've been attempting it with varying degrees of success since I was about 16.
Every day, the Telegraph cryptic is a little bit of warped stability in an otherwise hectic world. Its something you pick up and put down five minutes later, meanwhile the word play swirls around your subconscious for the rest of the day. Even now, I rarely complete it in one sitting and, at least once a week, there's always one clue whose solution proves to be totally elusive.
Solving the cryptic gives a profound sense of satisfaction and if along the way there has been a 'light bulb' moment then so much the better. There are some clues that when solve, invoke a laugh out loud moment and are worth the price of the paper alone.
One of my most favourite clues is:
'HIJKLMNO' - 5 Letters
Over the years I've tried many other cryptics, even completing the Times on one memorable occasion, but I've always come back to the Telegraph. I had an enforced gap whilst sojourning in Northern Scotland for several years in the mid 80's and English papers were a rare commodity.
In the old days, Monday's cryptic was always relatively easy to solve whilst Tuesday's always contained a few quotes. Thursday's was inevitably a stinker. Each weekday had a distinctive flavour because, by and large, the Telegraph used the same compiler for a particular week day. The secret of success in those days lay in trying to get into the mind of the compiler.
I bemoaned the day when the Telegraph started using automation to compile the daily cryptic and took away a lot of the compiler's art. They still use humans to write the clues but a lot of quirkiness was sacrificed in the name of progress. Software generated cryptics lack the all essential personal touch.
The cryptic also appears to be very much an English thing. Other nations have crosswords but rarely have I seen something as fiendish as the crosswords that inhabit the quality dailies in this country.
For years, one of the worst kept secrets amongst Telegraph crossword addicts lay in the first couple of clues for the smaller, quick crossword. Correctly solved it revealed a phrase, often so warped, that it took several attempts a reading out loud to decipher. Alas, the meddlesome crossword editor now italicises the relevant clues to guide the solver. the final Straw will be when they move the crossword from the back page as they did with the weather reports a few years ago.
Posted by weaver at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)
Can I have my ball back?
This BBC item is a lovely little local story that just tickled me. It appeals to my sense of humour in a sort of light, inconsequential way.
Posted by weaver at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2005
Frustration
Tonight, spent a frustrating couple of hours trying to configure a laptop with wireless access. HP Compaq nx9510. Wonderful screen. First of all it has an onboard 11b card. Just press the button and go. Nope!
Ok, it doesn't see my wireless network. It shouldn't as its encrypted. Right, set the encryption. Not a chance . Doesn't support WPA, only WEP. No problem , I have a spare PCMCIA card that supports WPA. Stick that in, configure it and bob's your uncle. Fat chance.
Error message - Incompatible Driver Version. Uninstall - Reinstall. Dig out the user guide - nada! Go online to solve the problem - best searching finds nothing useable. Try BT's 50p a minute helpline. No, its HP's fault. Surf the newsgroups. Aargghh - nothing doing.
Some days, I should stay at work. I could lower the encryption on the home network. Reluctant to do it for obvious reasons. Mmmmmmmh. What's the next step. Have a few of glasses of red. Starting to feel much more relaxed.
Posted by weaver at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2005
Reading Material - CSS
In an attempt to master Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) and as a prelude to making the community site web standards compliant, I'm working my way through 2 wonderful books.
The first is Designing Web Standards by Jefferey Zeldman. The book helps to demystify some of the fog surrounding CSS and has given me the confidence to try and build my CSS skills.
The second book is by Eric Meyer and is entitled Eric Meyer on CSS. The book consists of 13 worked projects which build on different CSS techniques and areas. Its fascinating working through the examples and being able to see instant results. Currently, I've reached the sixth project so just about half way through. Definitely not enough hours in the day!
I bought both books through amazon.co.uk but as I don't yet have an associates account, you'll have to find them for yourself if your interested.
Posted by weaver at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)
Random quote.
Ok, there's not going to be a quote of the day. Its too contrived and I don't stumble over a good one every day. So what I'll do is, when I find a quote that makes me smile, I'll post it here.
I found this one, this evening..
"Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity."
Unknown
If you feel the need for a daily fix, then try this site: The Quotations Page
Posted by weaver at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)
Comment spam
Checking my email tonight, I find 8 new comments for this blog. Hey , excellent, I'm getting noticed. Perhaps some of them might even be constructive.
Hmm. Nope, not a chance. Its all comment spam. The content for all 8 is downright disgusting and, in all 8 cases, identical but for the sender's email address and IP address. These are all different.
The fact that I turned on comment moderation after the first attack means that the blog hasn't been infected, but I still have to go through all the comments and delete them. What a waste of time.
If the attacks continue, I'll have 3 options;
a. turn off comments completely, which I don't want to do or
b. move to a different blogging tool such as wordpress, but there's no guarantee that the same thing won't happen there or
c. stop blogging, which means that they 've won. again, I'm not keen on this option.
For now its a case of sitting on my hands and waiting to see if the problem becomes unmanageable.
Posted by weaver at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)
January 09, 2005
Today's quote
"Every generation thinks it has the answers, and every generation is humbled by nature"
Phillip Lubin, author
Posted by weaver at 06:33 PM | Comments (0)
January 08, 2005
Quote of the day
I'm toying with the idea of including a Quote of the Day. I'll probably try it for a few days to see how it goes.
Here's today's...
"The one function TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were."
David Brinkley - US TV news announcer
What do you think?
Posted by weaver at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Retrofuture
I found this priceless gem on the web today. Its all in Italian but don't let that put you off. Click the pagina link to the bottom of each page to move to the next one.
It's full of absolutely brillaint images of the way the future was envisaged 50 years ago. Much of this formed the basis of the oodles of sci-fi I read as a kid. Absolutely fascinating. I wish there were more hours in a day to be able to dig out these nuggets on the web.
Posted by weaver at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
A bit of a blow last night.....
I'm a heavy sleeper so didn't hear much last night night but my other half did.......something dragging at the side of the house, amongst loads of other 'wierd' noises that kept her up most of the night. I was oblivious to it all.
Surveying the damage this morning, a few things had shifted in the garden. The summer BBQ was spread over the garden, most of the garden furniture was strewn around, with a couple of bowed fence panels and one that had made a bid for freedom but ran out of steam halfway across the lawn.
The strange noise turned out to be one of the wheelie bins that decided to explore the garden path behind the kitchen. It had dragged itself a good 10 feet before toppling over....
It could have been a lot worse - just seen the news footage of Carlisle - and then I remember Indonesia which kinda puts last night's blow into perspective.
Posted by weaver at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
New Years Resolutions
The advent of the New Year is traditionally a time for taking stock , reflecting on things past and stiffening resolve for completing plans.
The MACLA site is in need of an overhaul. Its grown way beyond its original concept. Over the past 6 months , I've made some changes (upgrading the web host, removed almost all of the advertising based scripts, improved navigation and user interaction, started to reorganise the many photos on the site, started this blog), but there is much to tackle in the new year.
For 2005, in no particular order, I plan to:
- Make the MACLA site standards compliant. I'm currently working my way through a couple of books that have inspired me to master cascading style sheets. Once I've achieved this then I can work on the code that drives the MACLA Site.
- Redesign the MACLA front page to better reflect how the site is used and to shed some light on the darker recesses of the site.
- Replace or retire the MACLA Forum. Last year, I migrated away from a heavily ad infested forum to a minimalist based one that was easy to maintain. Unfortunately, its proved unpopular with only one post in 3 months. Time for a rethink.
- Migrate the old newsletters to the new format. Bit of a no-brainer so long as I remember to keep the links updated.
- Seek new ways to get the community more involved. Not sure how to go about this. Ownership is an issue but the biggest hurdle is people's perceptions. Am considering giving presentations to activity groups such as the WI & Over 60's.
- Complete, in a reasonable time frame, new & existing projects. Outstanding at the moment are a photo-essay on Nocton farms in the 1950s and the expansion of the census database.
- Revisit the events diary. Its one of the most popular pages on the site, yet almost nobody adds their own events and some months it looks very sparse.
So, enough talking about New Year's resolutions, lets try and make some progress with them...
Posted by weaver at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
January 06, 2005
Christmas Quiz Answers
The answers to the 2004 MACLA Christmas quiz are:
Part 1.
1. Silent Night
2. Let It Snow
3. Ding Dong! Merrily On High
4. The Christmas Song or Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
5. Hark The Herald Angels Sing
6. Do They Know its Christmas? (Band Aid)
7. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
8. Winter Wonderland
9. Rocking Around The Christmas Tree
10. Once In Royal David's City
Part 2
11. Yes, everyone has the 4th July in their calendar!
12. 1, the day he was born!
13. 12, all have at least 28 days in them
14. 6, 3 per side
15. No, because he’s already dead!
16. 70 or What!
17. 2, the ones you’ve taken away!
18. 60 mins! Take one pill, 30 mins later the next and 30 mins after that the third – ergo 60 or 61 mins
19. 9, obvious really
20. 0! Noah took the animals on the ark.
21. A butcher weighs meat!
22. 12! Like in a dozen stamps
How did you do? The second part required you to read the questions very carefully. Most people fail to do so. They see what they expect to see. I've not met anyone yet who managed to get more than 6/12 in the second part.
If you are still reading this and attempted the quiz, let me know how you got on and what you thought of the quiz by adding a comment below. Thanks.
Happy New Year
Posted by weaver at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)
The January Sales - Best Deal
Recently, I've been looking for a decent printer to replace my aging Canon BJC 4000. Its served me well over the past 5 years but the quality of the print is poor in comparison with modern variants.
Now that the house is wi-fi'd, a budget B&W laser seems attractive. I had been looking at the Samsung ML1510, priced about £80 - £100, but kept putting off the decision.
Yesterday, I was in the Lincoln Branch of PC World and they had the ML1510 on special offer for a few pence under £50. A bargain. I couldn't find any ML1510 boxes on the shelves but wait, there were stacks of ML1520s - same basic model with better memory and improved processor.
A quite chat with a sales rep confirmed the ML1520 at the same price as the ML1510. I parted with my cash there and then but not before he tried to sell me an additional toner cartridge at £65 ('The one in the box is only a quarter full'), a USB printer cable at £16 and an extended warranty at £10/year. No thanks!
Took the printer home, had it installed and working with 10 mins, no problems, really happy with the print quality and speed. As its a budget model, it doesn't do duplex (back to back) and lacks a network card.
BTW, a check on the internet found replacement toner cartridges at £44 + delivery - roughly the same price as the printer
Posted by weaver at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)
Top 5 Web Apps of 2004
Here are my top 5 web apps of 2004:
Firefox - Matured in 2004 and now my browser of choice
Movable Type - a feature rich blogging application
GMail - raised the bar significantly for web hosted email
Flickr - for publishing digital images
del.icio.us - collections of links, a wonderful idea
Firefox has to be the tops, although not strictly a web application. Its extensibility, and tabbed browsing has made it a firm favourite.
For blogging, I tried several packages last year before settling on Movable Type. Since then I've discovered Wordpress, a much simpler blogging tool that is easier to configure than MT
GMail caused a lot of controversy in 2004 and getting hold of an invite was not easy but it changed the face of web based mail for the better.
Flickr is pretty much a blogging tool for digital images. I've recently signed up for an account and posted my firstimages.
Finally, del.icio.us is such a neat idea, grouping links together in a sort of social way that I expect to see much more made of this type of web app in 2005. I like the idea of 43 things but have only just discovered it.
Of course the one thing that made all this possible in 2004 was the advent of Broadband into rural villages. I could never go back to dial up..urgh.. So top marks this year to BT and the guys behind the Broadband for Metheringham Campaign.
Posted by weaver at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2005
43 things.........
I've found this little gem, just kicked off a few days ago and starting to generate some interest. I've experienced some server downtime today but I'm sure it'll be sorted.
The basic concept is that you list the things you want to do with your life. You can choose to share them with other people, let the world see them and tick off your progress. If you're unsure as the sort of things you want to do, then use this site for inspiration.
Why 43 things? Why not, its as good a number as any.
Posted by weaver at 11:48 PM | Comments (0)
I'm Back.....
A Happy New Year to you all. I've been away visiting family and friends over the christmas and new year period. An excellent, relaxing time but the suddenness of the South East Asia disaster caught us all unawares.
The biggest piece of news in 2004 that has rightly awoken the Nation's conscience is the naural disaster in South East Asia. The shocking immediacy with which the news is flashed around the world, the scale of the disaster, the randomness, the suffering of the the survivors, the slow but accelerating relief effort.
There has been so much written about this, so much coverage, that I would feel inadequate trying to add anything.
Our thoughts are with the families who have suffered a loss or are waiting to hear about thir loved ones. Give generously to the relief effort.
Posted by weaver at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)