Recently, I have been thinking about tweaking the site design around here. One of the things I have been looking at is fonts. A while ago, Christian Montoya advocated adding Windows Vista fonts to website style sheets. Since I now use Vista on a daily basis on my main machine, I wanted to test out the six new “C” fonts to see how they looked on the site. So here we go (RSS readers, come along to the site and join in the fun!):
Calibri
Cambria
Candara
Consolas
Constantia
Corbel
Windows Vista users and users of other operating systems who have installed the Microsoft fonts should see them being used above. Other users will see browser default fonts, although they will be of the same type (serif vs. sans-serif etc.)
Some of you may have noticed some funny things going around here and maybe some downtime. Hopefully, though, it’s the last you’ll be seeing of that and also of the general slowness that has been plaguing the site for the last few months.
I’ve moved hosting providers from Media Temple to Slicehost. It’s more of an upgrade than anything else, since now I have a VPS which I can configure however I like. I’ve installed the web server and FTP server myself and have moved my email hosting to Google Apps which means I don’t have to waste time setting up a mail server.
What this means is that there should be much more flexibility in what I can do here. I’m in the middle of installing ASP.net support, which will hopefully be followed by JSP support (I’m learning Java at the moment so I want to experiment a little) and WebDAV, which will allow me to share my calendars across systems without using an external service. What this means for the public side of things is that there should be much more creativity across the site with new apps. I’ve even installed Ruby support ever since I saw a Flickr search system crafted in less than five minutes!
It’s the next part in my hosting saga - next stop will probably be in a few year’s time when I get some more money. I’ll hopefully be able to move to a dedicated or co-hosted system which will allow me even more flexibility in terms of bandwidth, storage and memory allocation and allow me to run lots of websites and other services.
This is the first year that I’ve posted up my new year’s resolutions for everybody to see, so I guess it’s made me think more about what they should be. This year, being the always fair Libra, I’ve decided on three resolutions, one of which will help me, another which will help others and one which will help both.
My first resolution is to get rid of my shyness. I’ve been shy ever since I can remember and it certainly hasn’t benefited me in any way! My resolution is to get out there and get chatting to many more people and get to know them better.
My second resolution is to keep smiling! I’ve always been a positive person (my glass is always half full!) but there’s always room for improvement. It’ll also help break the ice much easier.
My third resolution is to always greet people by name. It may seem like a small thing but just saying hello is not enough. Greeting people by name makes them much happier to see you and gives them a good impression which is exactly what I want to do.
All my resolutions may seem a little soppy and emotional, but I think that if I stick to them, everything will be much better. I also have one more resolution which I’m going to keep quiet about until the time comes to see how I’ve done in 12 months’ time. If I keep it then you’ll know all about it soon!
Ever since finishing my first year of university, I have been hard at work earning some money to pay my rent and bills for next year. As a direct result of this, I have neglected my websites and blogs for quite a while, first because I was revising for exams, then because I was doing my exams, then because I was just lazy, and finally because I was working. Now, I have a couple of weeks before I have to return to the hectic university life for my second year as well as my new part-time job and volunteering.
I have just finished creating a website for a client and that means I have some free time. I’ve used some of this to assemble my computer from scratch. I’m still installing software onto it before I move all my documents over and start working on it. I thought that this move to a new PC would be a good time to take care of my websites as well as some more fundamental things.
My first priority was to cull my hundreds of daily emails, most of which are spam and the rest of which are rarely useful. So I unsubscribed from loads of mailing lists that I no longer followed, including the W3C HTML Working Group. I also got rid of a lot of my RSS subscriptions. These should buy me some more time!
Now, onto the websites. wackomenace is probably going to get my largest overhaul. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but I have some rough plans. The Metablog will stay on Movable Type along with my Reppery blog, both of which will hopefully be updated much more frequently now that I have some more time.
Finally, I’m going to give oogyNetworks a complete overhaul. I have a few ideas for web scripts and products that would be quite good to market under the oogyNetworks brand, and so I’m going to create a nice website which will host these products once I get around to actually creating them!
Yesterday, I wrote about my updates to vCardMaker. Today, I’m going to tell you about all the headaches that Internet Explorer 6 has caused me throughout this update, and about some of the problems I hadn’t spotted earlier on.
To date, I have had the following problems:
- Opacity of objects
- Fixed positioning
- Positioning within a
float
- The background of
fieldset legends
- The overall size of text when using keywords for size
- Width attributes
- Disabled items in
select boxes
select boxes showing through divs placed on top of them- Non-support of the
onclick event on objects inside a select box
Phew!
Also, I hadn’t noticed that Internet Explorer 6 doesn’t support the onclick event on select boxes, so Internet Explorer users wouldn’t have been able to enter data in optional sections of the form that are hidden as default. Sorry! I’ll get that one fixed as soon as possible.
To date, vCardMaker has been one of the most popular features on this site, as shown by my site’s statistics. However, conversely, it’s also been the least-updated tool on the site - the last time it was updated must have been close to a year ago.
The script was starting to creak behind-the-scenes and an attempt by me long ago to split off the interface and mate it with a third-party back-end proved unsuccessful. Everything got left to rot. It must have been the gradual drop in popularity that prompted me to resume work on it, coupled with the general lack of having things to do at the moment.
Up to now, I’ve done quite a bit of work on it, dedicating the best part of two days to back-end work. However, the interface hasn’t escaped lightly. Just some of the features that I suspect will be popular include collapsible sections, more meaningful field labels, large text boxes and improved support for Internet Explorer 6 (trust me, it hasn’t been easy!)
I have also AJAXified the whole interface with an overlay that displays the resulting vCard and any error messages. I debugged the PHP back-end and removed a lot of errors as well as porting the whole thing to PHP 5. Finally, I’ve added the ability to get your vCard emailed to you. I also tried (unsuccessfully) to bring back the download option - it’s been a problem ever since I introduced it - but I’m not giving up on it just yet.
There are still a few Internet Explorer quirks to sort out and the download option to fix, and then it’s onto the new vCardMaker Wizard (presents a simple interface with only the important fields) and the vCardMaker API to allow third-party scripts to access vCardMaker and make their own vCards. I’m also planning to start using cookies to allow users to store their favourite configuration of collapsed sections and options.
Wow! My experience of my first Imagine Cup entry has been one I’ll never forget, and not just for some of the good reasons. Through one problem or another, our team members have been scratching their heads trying to figure out cryptic errors and getting around restrictions. I’m not even talking about the problem that none of us know ASP.net, and that only one person knows C#.
The funniest bit must have been when I found a solution to a problem we’d been having, but it was in Visual Basic rather than C#. That meant having to translate one to the other without knowing either of the languages.
Then came the problems with uploading the database. The university didn’t allow incoming or outgoing connections to do with SQL servers, so we had to use an intricate balance of remote logins, email and sheer brute-force coding to get around these problems.
The final straw came when the whole thing didn’t work. We all went to sleep and the next day, lo-and-behold, it had magically come to life. I don’t what happened or how it happened, but taking into consideration the number of years we must have lost off our lives due to the stress we’ve been under, it was a welcome miracle!
Now let’s see what Microsoft makes of our application.
My Google Summer of Code application got rejected today - I’m actually pleased since I don’t think I would have been able to give it my all anyway.
The Imagine Cup competition entry, on the other hand, got accepted and I’m now working towards the next deadline with my teammates. I’m concentrating on the front-end since that’s what I like the most.
The Mozilla Public Suffix List is also coming together well, with the first version of the site uploaded a couple of days ago and a little bit of ongoing work still to do.
Finally, the university radio station website is on time, and it’ll hopefully be released sometime in the summer term (i.e. within a month).
In my last post, I wrote about all the work I have to do. Well, here’s an update for a couple of things I wrote back then.
My Google Summer of Code application is coming along well, and I hope it’ll be ranked soon. I’m also waiting for an answer for the Imagine Cup, and in the meantime, I’m designing the two sites I wrote about.
Unfortunately, my guidebook job didn’t go through, so now it seems I’ll be concentrating more on the Summer of Code project, or getting another job if that falls through as well.
I’ve also decided to play more of a passive role in the W3C HTML WG, which will give me more time to complete my assignments for university and get ready for exams!
UPDATE: I’ve decided not to apply for the teaching scheme since it would clash with both my exams and student ambassador job, so that’s one large thing out of the way (it would have been more than 15 days). In its place, I’ve applied for a Google Summer of Code project for my summer holidays to keep me busy. I’m a workaholic, I really am!
As of late, I’ve been completed immersed in my work, both in the form of university coursework and volunteering and extra work that I have been doing.
I know that I have a knack of applying for every single job that comes my way with the intention of getting more experience, gaining some money to pay for my student life and maybe even enjoying the experience.
However, this does mean that I have very little relaxing time these days. In between coursework, I am a student ambassador for the university doing open days once a week, and I’m also helping to redesign the university radio station’s website as well as helping out with Mozilla’s Public Suffix List and participating in this year’s Microsoft Imagine Cup.
I am also planning to take part in a university teaching scheme during the summer term, do a two-day long open day and attend the Summer Ball as well as maybe even doing my first year exams and passing them! If that wasn’t enough, I’ve also applied to work as a ticket and guidebook seller during the summer.
As you can see, it’s starting to look pretty packed at the moment. Hopefully, though, this situation will only last for a few more months. I’ve planned ahead for next year, and this time I’ve decided in advance what I’m going to be doing. I’ll be rejecting anything that isn’t on my list in order to keep things under control, unlike what it is now.
The teaching scheme is only for the summer, as is the summer job and the Summer Ball. The Imagine Cup and radio station website will end at the end of this year, which just leaves the student ambassador job (which I want to carry on because I enjoy it) and also the Mozilla Public Suffix List volunteering job (which will become much less of a workload once the scheme is opened). At that time, I’ll be able to concentrate more on my university work as well as other extra-curricular things like my DMOZ editorship and membership of the HTML Working Group at the W3C.
It’s going to get packed again…
Mobile phones are big business, as Apple’s recent iPhone launch shows. However, the real business comes not only from normal phone calls and text messages, but by linking phones to the other major technological invention of the 20th century: the Internet. WAP and other mobile to web technologies allow users to view and interact with web pages, but this type of communication is now moving even further with the integration of Windows Live Messenger and Skype.
These two services have been supporting mobile phones for a little while, but it’s only now that they are beginning to be fully utilised. Windows Live Messenger allows users to set up the software to allow others to send text messages to the user’s mobile phone. This is a great way to keep in touch while on the move without a laptop or web connection, even if it costs 20p to receive each message.
Skype, on the other hand, allows users to redirect calls to the mobile phones when they are not answered on Skype. This is good as a backup service in case you are already chatting on Skype or have not logged in, and it also means that you can answer Skype calls when you are on the move.
I have now configured these two services for myself to test them out and see how well they actually work in real life.
This is mainly a post to clear up a couple of remaining bits and pieces.
The main thing is that I’ve now uploaded my entries for the IBM Student Mainframe Contest complete with questions to the university section so that everybody can see what I did. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to complete part 3 (it was really really difficult!) but everything is there anyway.
Also, a bit of disappointing news: neither wackomenace nor readingblog made it into the 9rules network this time around - it’s a second defeat for wackomenace and the first time for readingblog. On well, third time lucky!
It seems that I’ve been giving wackomenace the cold shoulder for a few months now with very little in the way of posts or updates while I’ve been wound up in university work and business. It’s true; I have been paying more attention to wackomenace’s sister blog - readingblog - but it’s time for that to stop now.
Having had a look at the blogs of some other university students, it’s clear that most are using them for personal posts rather than general university stuff, like readingblog. So, I’ve decided that rather than letting wackomenace rot in a little corner like I’ve been doing, I’m going to write more posts here, shifting the blog ever so slightly to be more personal and university based (like it wasn’t already, just not officially).
What does this mean for you? Well, it does mean more regular and longer posts here, with some actual interesting content rather than small irregular snippets. Of course, readingblog will still be live and kicking hosting more general university news as well as a new student blogging system, the first part of which I’ll be unveiling soon (this is the large project I was hinting at in my previous post). If you’re a University of Reading student, keep your eyes firmly on readingblog for a notice soon on participating in a survey about the student blogging system and the chance to win three great prizes!
As the number of days to the new year get fewer and fewer, now is the time to get some festive and new year work done on the site.
The biggest new thing is the updating of the university section. I’ve uploaded all of my practical programming work from the start of term until now, with both source code and binary (compiled) versions. The compiled versions should run on any version of Windows, while the source code is portable enough to be compiled on most systems.
I’ve also gone through all of my sites and updated the copyright notices for 2007. While doing this, I also noticed a couple of old things which I removed as well as fixing the ICRA ratings since they change formats so often these days.
Of course, now that I have some time on my hands, I’m going to start working on some of the points on the about page as well as another quite large project which you’ll hear about here soon…
They may be a little late, but it’s always better late than never! I’ve only just started finding time to do stuff after arriving back from university over a week ago. I had a raging cold which didn’t want to go away and a pile of paperwork to sort through. I assure you though that I haven’t forgotten any of my online obligations!
I hope you like all the Christmas ornaments I’ve put up here, and there will surely be many presents under this (virtual) Christmas tree as I work had to get some new stuff up here. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year :)
Those of you who’ve been using vCardMaker may have noticed that there has been little in the way of updates for many months. This is mainly because I’m at university, and most of my time is taken up with working and partying :)
However, my Christmas holidays are fast approaching and I’m going to use the opportunity to apply lots of very significant updates to the service. Many of these updates are features that I’d like to see in the service myself, as well as requests from users and a few new things I’ve thought up.
You’ll have to wait to find out what many of them are, but don’t worry. The wait isn’t long!
You might have noticed that there has been a little downtime over the past couple of days as well as a few broken pages.
The main reason behind this is that I migrated all my sites over to Media Temple’s new Grid-Server system. Since this involves a change of IP address, database URLs and software versions, there were a few changes that i had to make, including updating some configurations, changing all my DNS entries (and waiting for them to propagate) and tweaking some of my scripts and .htaccess files.
Hopefully everything should now be working, and the site should be faster as well.
OK, so I wasn’t successful in getting wackomenace listed in 9rules the first time…I submitted the site again on 25th October in the 5th round along with my new university blog.
Let’s hope they both get in this time around, otherwise it’ll be yet more waiting until the next round :)
It’s not quite 1st October where I am, but I can see that my automatic date style script has decided that it’s time to unveil the Pink for October theme on wackomenace.
Pink for October is a campaign to get webmasters to dress their sites in pink for the month of October to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
As you can see, the site looks quite pretty, don’t you think?
You might have noticed that I’m not posting here as often as I used to (then again, I didn’t really post that often anyway).
The reason is that I’ve started a new collaborative blog called readingblog, documenting my time at the University of Reading. Right now, I’m the only person posting there, but I have some plans to make it into a collaborative blog with guest posters to give a more complete overview of university life, as well as acting as a noticeboard for local events.
Check it out and see what you think of it. As always, any comments are appreciated!
I’ll be departing for university on 1st October (not too long to go now!) and so I might be a little quiet here for a few weeks until I settle in and find out what’s going on…
In the meantime, I’ve absolved myself of a lot of things in connection with this website - I’ve updated the writings page as well as my CV, about me page, portfolio and tools. I haven’t got much else to do here until I go, which means more time for packing (yay!) The only major thing is to get the Pink for October design finished and set up. I’ve also written a script to automate the task of switching the site to the new style and back at the correct time, and I’ve also included the Annual CSS Naked Day in this schedule to finish it off.
No more complaining of no work being done over here!
For the entire month of October, sites will Go Pink to raise awareness about Breast Cancer and raise money.
wackomenace will also go pink for the entire month of October. It’s a great opportunity to support a good cause as well as allowing me to tweak the design a little and see what happens when my site wears its pink dress instead of its black suit :)
5thirtyone and Natalie Jost as well as many others are going Pink for October, so why don’t you too?
Hot on the heels of the “website as a graph” application is the web2dna art project, which takes a website and renders its source code in a DNA-style graphic.
Martin Belam’s hit it right on the head with his article “Do boys even take A Levels these days?”. As well as commenting on the omission of boys from most of the national and local media, however, he also comments on the delusional beliefs of some people (who get far more airtime than their opponents) that A Levels are somehow getting easier. As I commented on his blog:
I think you’ve got this one spot on - I got my A Level results this year, and I was amazed to see that the media still keeps bringing out the old “everything’s getting easier these days” argument every year without fail.
God forbid that any students might actually perform better because of better teaching methods or good old brains. No, it must always be the exams that are getting easier, not the students that are getting better.
It’s ironic that not one person who comes out to criticise exams for being too easy has actually sat one himself in the past 30 years. How would he know if they were getting easier?
Oh, and on the subject of only girls taking A Levels these days, maybe boys aren’t half as interesting on results day :)
Now let’s see some of these people come out and actually sit a modern A Level exam, and then we’ll compare their results with ones of today’s students. I’m sure that’ll shut them up.
I’ve just found out that I’ve got into the University of Reading to start this September on Computer Science!
Woohoo!
I found Slice of Sites the other day while browsing on magnolia, and at the time, there was a slice of a site with no guesses. As soon as I saw the slice, though, I got the site and I was 99% sure. I submitted a guess and woohoo - it came out right! I think I’ll take part in this more often!
It’s commonly known that there are many famous people all over the world who know nothing about the web. Most of them don’t have a website. Most of these haven’t even reserved any domain names to protect them against squatters. All you need are details of the past one year’s worth of WIPO rulings regarding domain names to see how widespread this is.
Now, I can’t say that I’m famous by any stretch of the imagination (even if I’d like to think I am!), but there’s one thing that I haven’t forgotten to do: reserve my name on the web. Derek Punsalan blogged about reserving his name on the web, and that gave me an idea. Many web designers and even some well known bloggers have their very own business cards. It’s what they hand out when at conferences and gatherings, and its design is what sets them apart from the crowd.
That’s something I like.
Continue reading "Ego" »
“How a Computer Works” is a presentation that I co-authored with a couple of my school friends to present to ICT students at my school.
It has served well for the amount of time it has been available (I don’t remember exactly how long that is). However, with the advent of Edexcel’s new DiDA qualification, I think it’s high time for me to review the presentation as it stands and improve it to meet the need of today’s students. Over the next day or so I’ll be reading the specifications for the new qualification and applying them to the presentation. I’ll also be releasing it in some new formats for even greater usability.
Until then, please contact me if you’ve used the presentation and you have any comments or suggestions. If not, then all you have to do is to look forward!
I can’t quite work out why, but this is my current favourite photo.
Maybe it’s because of the sheer randomness of it, or maybe it’s her expression :)
If you’re a student or you care about students going to university, you may be interested in showing your support for Coalition 2010, a group set up to encourage the government not to remove the £3000 maximum cap on university top-up fees. After all, how can the government set itself a target of 50% of students going to university when fees are increasing all the time?
If you want to read deeper into the matter, then you can also read Early Day Motion 1397, proposed by Ian Gibson MP.
According to YouGov, I have more than one brain. Of course, I have known of my superior intellect for a long time, but more than one brain? ;) If it couldn’t get any worse (or maybe better!), they all have the same degree of sexiness. Apparently. Don’t believe me? Have a look at this:
Click on the image above for a larger version showing the website.
UPDATE: (24th July 2006) I got an email from YouGov today, and I’m pasting it here so that you can see it in full.
Hi Ruben,
Thanks for your email.
Unfortunately there was a power cut in the central London area which caused technical problems with our computers (and therefore, our surveys). Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced.
Kind regards,
Louise Nilsson
Panel Support
YouGov plc
I still don’t understand how a power cut can lead to brain sexiness :)
macZOT’s MysteryZOT 5 has been revealed. The mystery applications in the $5 bundle were PHPStudio, CastLife, AppZapper, Soulver and World of Where. This now means that I have extra licenses for CastLife and Soulver that I’m not going to use. If anybody has any use for these, please contact me and I’ll see what we can work out :)
It seems like I just can’t finish updating all the web software I rely on to run my websites… In the past week, I’ve had to update two Mint installations, WordPress and Movable Type to their respective newest versions.
Hopefully, the update-a-thon’s finished for now…
I spent a good while yesterday wading through all of my bookmarked favourite blogs and adding their feeds to my reader. It was surprising just how few feeds I was keeping up with on a regular basis, and I throught it was high time I got a good grip on things and kept up. I now have more than enough to keep me occupied for a good 15 minutes a day, which is about the amount of time I’m willing to spend going through them. Some people have commented in the past about the inability to keep up with information overload, but as long as you keep the list sensible and always make sure you only read what matters then you should be just fine :)
What does your website look like when you render it as a graph? Here’s wackomenace:
I’ve been seeing more and more of those Text Link Ads everywhere and I wondered what all the fuss was about. They sell small text ads on your site, split the revenue 50-50, and deposit earnings directly into your PayPal account, so it seemed like a win-win situation. I signed up and it was all done in a matter of a few minutes. I’ve placed the code on my site, so all I have to do now is sit back and see what they can do for me :)
In other news, my 9rules membership application wasn’t successful. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been blogging seriously for that long. Oh well, there’s always next time…
In a few months time, I’ll be packing my bags and heading off to university to study Computer Science. For this, I need a computer and some textbooks. Unfortunately, these things cost a lot of money - money that I just don’t have at this moment in time. Now I hate having to beg for money (it makes me feel very bad), but maybe some of the readers of this blog can help.
I’m not asking anyone to just reach into their pockets willy-nilly and hand over some dough. No, I want to work for the money :) If you have anything internet related that needs doing, whether it is to do with domain names, hosting, web design or even if you live in London and you need some help with your computer, please consider calling on me. You’ll get first class service and you’ll also be helping out a student in need! Please contact me for more details. Thanks!
Ahh so i’ve been rejected from Google’s Summer of Code 2006. I then found out via Gerv Markham that according to him, Mozilla made some mistakes when setting up the list of approved projects around which applications could be submitted for the Summer of Code. Looking back at my application, I can see that the project that I chose was obviously too small, and so I hope that next time, a little more thought is given to the projects listed on the page so that students can be sure that the listed ones qualify. I’m not going to go around blaming others as I can’t say that my application was perfect (in fact, it was far from it as this was my first time), but maybe other people had good applications but were turned down for choosing an “approved” project which was deemed to be unacceptable.
Welcome to the fourth (and last) installment of the Webguide. In this installment, I’ll go into detail about the DNS service for my websites and how they work with other services.
Continue reading "Webguide part 4" »
The master list of websites accepted into the 9rules network is going to be released to the public next week. My fingers are crossed that wackomenace makes it into the network. I look forward to being a part of a great blogging network along with a whole host of much more prominent bloggers, if I make it in.
Let’s hope so!
Welcome to the third installment of the Webguide. In this installment, I’ll go into detail about the host for my websites and how they work with other services.
Continue reading "Webguide part 3" »
Welcome to the second installment of the Webguide. In this installment, I’ll go into detail about the registrars for my websites and how they work with other services.
Continue reading "Webguide part 2" »
Well, I’ve submitted this site to 9rules and I can only wait and hope that it gets included in the network (fingers crossed)!
In other news, the second installment of the Webguide will be coming your way tomorrow, in which I will go into deeper details about the first of the four main service providers I use - registrars - and how I integrate them with each other.
Just a quick note about recommendations: at various points during the Webguide series, I will make some recommendations for services, companies and software to use. These will be based solely on my previous experiences and not on whether or not I get money for referring others to them. These recommendations are just that - you don’t have to stick with them at all. You may be able to do some more research and come up with other companies.
Welcome to the first installment of the Webguide. In this installment, I’ll go through the services that I use and provide an explanation of each one. I’m aiming this guide at all people from novices to experts, so if you know all about registrars, hosts, DNS and SSL, then you can skip this installment. Don’t worry through - I’ll start getting deeper in the next installment.
Continue reading "Webguide part 1" »
A few weeks (or maybe it was months?) ago, I posted an answer to an oft-asked question on my about page: “How did you set up the site, and what do you need to do it?” Well, my friends, the time has come for me to reveal to you all just how this mini-empire works in practise.
Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be writing articles on the Metablog detailing every aspect of the services and software products which keep this site going. I don’t know how exactly it will be useful to everyone, but if it inspires some people to give DIY websites a go, then that’ll be a job well done for me! I’ve always liked doing things myself and integrating services from different providers to get exactly what I want, and that’s what I’ll explain in these articles.
The first installment will be coming up in one or two days, where I’ll outline the services and software I use before going into more detail. Look out all web authors!
I’ve now fixed up the Metablog feed, which I guess has been broken for a wee while due to some jiggery-pokery that I was doing with the server… I’ve also synched it so that it displays the same number of entries as are on the website. Everything should be well now!
Now I know this isn’t strictly to do with web stuff, but who wants a blog that is too strict on things like this?
Lots of people in the United Kingdom use Teletext for information, but the maze of pages can be confusing. I’ve been keeping a personal record of the page numbers for the five main television channel Teletext services and their titles for a while now. I believe that I have put this online before, but I took it down for some reason. Well, never fear, it’s back at the same address, and this time I won’t be taking it down!
Teletext Services guide
Google’s Summer of Code 2006 closed its doors to new applicants yesterday, and I’ve submitted two applications for open source projects to do over the summer.
The Summer of Code, which also ran last year, is a Google sponsored event which pays developers to help out with open source software projects by clearing bug-fixing backlogs, coding new features or even evangelising.
Continue reading "Google Summer of Code 2006" »
I’ve done a little bit of work on the ol’ Metablog today and come up with the following for your reading pleasure:
- Full time and date with every entry
- Extended entries
- Tags (like categories) + archives
- More acronym definitions
- Redesigned code entries
Small things I know but I hope they help!
Hello and welcome to the new wackomenace! Of course, it’s time for the May 1st Reboot 2006. The design you’re looking at right now is wackomenace version 6. Here are some new things that I’ve included for your viewing pleasure:
- Excerpts on mans pages on the right hand sidebar
- A whole new lot of accesskeys and a legend for them all
- A new accessibility statement
- Nice shiny new wackomenace feeds (accessible from the footer)
- Revamped pages, including the portfolio (which itself has some new content coming soon!)
I will also be posting in the coming months about both this site’s redesign and some new projects that are taking up my time right now…
A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I was dabbling in blogging again after a long hiatus. I deleted my last blog because there was nothing of value in it and I felt that I was just wasting my time on it. Now, I’ve decided to take the Metablog on for good and keep on going with it.
In part, this decision has been influenced by my new subject matter - the web and webmasters. Things like Web 2.0 (that much-hated phrase) and AJAX are affecting webmasters these days, and not just the ones in control of large sites. Even those with small sites are starting to have a look at new technologies, and this is where I am aiming the Metablog. In particular, browser features, bugs and webmaster experiences will have a sizeable piece of the blog.
Continue reading "9rules and posting" »
While working on wackomenace 6, I have also written a few scripts to help me add very nice new features to the site. Now, I’ve decided to release many of the scripts I use on the site to allow anyone else to make good use of them!
All my scripts are tools are located at tools.wackomenace.co.uk. I’ve split the page into tools and scripts to help distinguish between what you can use online (tools) and what you can download (scripts).
Continue reading "New tools" »
Well talk it about being a little while, more like a month to me! Anyway, the special thing to do with the site is that this year, I will be participating in the May 1st Reboot. Basically, everyone who participates in the event has to develop a completely new site design and release it on May 1st. It’s an initiative to promote creativity as well as refreshing designs every year to stop sites from becoming stale. I started the new wackomenace design (which will become version 6 when it’s released) a few days ago and it’s coming along very nicely. I might provide a sneak peak at it in a few days time when the bulk of it is finished. This is not only a redesign but also a chance to add lots of new features. I’ll be blogging about these in due course. Until then, enjoy the layout as it is now, and make sure to look out for some small updates to keep you lot going until the day!
I’ve been updating the site here and there between homework and coursework assignments. They are mostly small updates that you might not see, but they are nevertheless important. I’m preparing for something special with this site that I’ll blog about a little later ;)
I’ve been working on the site on and off for the past few weeks. I’ve managed to cut down the average page size a lot by trimming the headers, removing a lot of unnecessary stuff and leaving only what’s needed. Why not have a look for yourself?
I have the week off so I decided to work a little bit on the site, and I am pleased to present wackomenace version 5.5! I got rid of the small box and made the site into proper long pages, complete with a very nice header, footer and variable top bar. How’s that for a day’s work? ;)
A while ago, I was wondering whether to start updating my site design. I thought to myself: the current design is quite small, and maybe it’s time I got around to trying a liquid design which fills the whole page.
I started working on wackomenace v6 with an orange and black theme. However, after a few days, I started getting bored of the design and the effort I was having to put in to get everything to line up and work.
I thought to myself: this isn’t that good after all. So I reverted the design back to v5.2, the little red box one, which I quite like.
Maybe it’s time I get up to something more productive? Nah…
Welcome to the Metablog! The Metablog is my new blog; a second go at blogging for those of you who remember my first blog, which I scrapped a while ago as I didn’t really see it as going anywhere or providing any useful information.
Why Metablog? Well, this blog is actually a blog about itself, and the web in general. However, the Metablog won’t be tied just to my site. I’ll also use it to blog about the direction that the web is taking generally, web services, Web 2.0, AJAX, JavaScript, PHP, other web technologies, as well as posting tutorials and how-tos related to maintaining a website.
I hope that you’ll enjoy the Metablog for many years to come, as I use it to document the web’s advances and the quest of webmasters to keep up with constantly advancing web technologies.
As a little topping to this starter (so to speak), I have just switched the whole wackomenace site over to XHTML 1.0 Strict, taking the opportunity to validate every single page and correct some long-standing errors, including many on the about page.
