Categorical

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 ~ Comments Off

So I’ve upgraded to WordPress 1.2.2. Pretty smooth. I bet you never even noticed. Right?

Anyway, part of my redesign thoughts include making better use of some of the WordPress features. I’m still not overly bothered about using their comment feature, especially as HaloScan will be getting some new features in the New Year. However the category feature intrigues me, mainly because it’s a completely new thing to remember when posting. No categories in Blogger so it was pretty much a case of typing up my usual nonsense and pressing Post.

Ideally what I need is to be prompted to choose a category or two, every time I post. Alas the WordPress Plugins Database doesn’t have anything like that. I wonder how hard it would be to code one? Hmm a little holiday project maybe.

Mind you I’ll be working on a Wiki for HaloScan, as well as a little site redesign so I’d better not promise too much. After all I’ve got three bottles of Southern Comfort to get through. And all that food… crap movies on TV. Oh yes I’ll be busy busy busy.

UPDATE: Ohh and need to get trackbacks working properly – I’m getting emails saying that people have pinged a post but no way to see WHO has!

2005

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 ~ 1 comment so far

Looking ahead (yes already) I’ll be tweaking the design here again. It’s all a bit cluttered so I’ll be removing some bits and bobs I think – or moving them somewhere else.

Anyway, I’ve got a few ideas, mainly centred around adding a few graphical touches (nothing much, I like the fact the site loads quite quickly), and generally making it look a bit cleaner. Yes I know it’s pretty minimal at the moment, but I think I need to define the different parts a bit better. Thinking cap on!

What say you though? Do you use the blogroll? The archives? The search box? If I delete one thing here that would really piss you off, what would it be?

Or, what is missing? (Archives WILL make a return in the redesign, promise!)

UPDATE: Here’s a sneak peek of what may, or may not, be in store for you next year.

Gig this

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 ~ Comments Off

Suggested t-shirt from last night’s gig:

I AM NOT A CORRIDOR

Cos that’s just annoying, ain’t it? When it’s ALWAYS you that people are pushing past.

4×4

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 ~ Comments Off

Not sure exactly what is was but I caught the end of some ‘environmental’ segment on BBC News this morning. A family had undertaken several pledges to try and improve their energy use, they’d lagged pipes, insulated the loft, realised that turning off electrical appliances would save them money, even installed a few solar panels to help with the heating costs. Aside from the last item nothing particularly ground-breaking really.

I should pause at this point and tell you that the family in question were living, I deduced, somewhere in the South East of England, a London suburb most probably (from the house style and accent if you must know, not hugely reliable).

Their final pledge was to investigate an alternative source of fuel for their car. The lady of the house informed us that, whilst she had written to Range Rover, they unfortunately did not have plans to offer an LPG (gas*) conversion kit.

That’s for the Range Rover. In the suburbs.

P.S. If anyone saw the full piece please feel free to correct me.

Joe’s Head

Monday, December 20, 2004 ~ Comments Off

Carling Academy, Kings of Leon, ears still ringing.

Great gig from a very good rock band. The band was as tight as the lead singers trousers (which I’m pretty sure were painted on) and they paced the set perfectly. Similarly to Faithless, I wasn’t as taken with their second album – in comparison with their first that is – so it was a pleasant surprise to find that I had a few pauses where I realised that the song I was enjoying so much was from that self same second album.

From start to finish they were spot on. Loud, racuous and the epitomy of a good rock gig. Their songs are much harder live and all in all I’m a lot more impressed than I thought I would be.

Madness

Monday, December 20, 2004 ~ Comments Off

“I like driving in my car,
It’s not quite a Jaguar.”

So they sang. But I bet they could drive one if they’d had one. It’s similar to the fact that newspapers are made of paper, and we all know how paper is made. Not sure I could make it but I know the theory. Same as driving a car. Couldn’t build one, but know how it works.

Alas one of the key influences in the ‘simplification’ of sites like Blogger is that there are more and more people who have a blog but don’t have the faintest idea how it worked. Now I know that’s kind of the point, or at least it’s the reason Blogger is so successful but what is really beginning to bug me is that people won’t take the time to learn the basics before ripping out the gearbox, and trying to replace the driveshaft.

/rant

Priorities

Monday, December 20, 2004 ~ Comments Off

I subscribe to the langalist. It’s a very useful PC email newsletter by Fred Langa which offers lots of practical advice on PC maintenance, smart programs (not COOL programs but ones that are useful and you’ll use more than once), and a good variety of articles on various PC related topics. He’s saved my bacon on several occasions so I’d recomment subscribing (it’s free). Today’s newsletter includes an article on end of year maintenance.

This is the bit that most people, including myself, fail. Backups for example, when did you last do one? I can’t recall when, but I know it’s over three or four months ago, which got me thinking.

If, god forbid, my entire PC including both hard drives, failed spectacularly and nothing was recoverable, what would I miss?

I have about 60GB of music, most of which only requires re-ripping the CD. All those programs I’ve downloaded can be re-downloaded, as can all those visual styles, wallpapers and such like. In fact bar a few personal documents (which ARE backed up on my pen drive) there is only one large folder that I would miss. My photos.

In a digital age, there is no film backup, and the originals are all stored on my hard drive. I DID burn a couple of DVDs as backup a while back, but I’ve added to them since then, and I really like some of them. So one of my tasks in the week between Christmas and New Year, a week I have OFF work (joy, bliss, rapture!) is to burn some up-to-date DVDs.

But therein lies another issue – how long do DVDs last before they start to degrade? It’s a worry indeed.

Ultimately though, I know that if I DID lose everything, whilst it would be major blow, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. It’s all about priorities you see. It’s the same principle that governs the fact that I’ve yet to buy Louise presents. A few months ago we booked tickets to Spain in January. We decided then that that would be our Christmas present, and we’d only get each other a few things. The priority for us is being together at Christmas. That’s why I always look forward to Christmas.

OK, that’s enough mushy stuff for now.