My new monitor has arrived already! It is installed and working fine, and all I can say is WOW - That is a big screen... The higher horizontal resolution makes one hell of a difference in applications like Dreamweaver and Photoshop - you can have the tool panels open and still have enough space to work... The text is just as readable as on the previous monitor, if anything slightly more so as it seems to be just a little bigger.
The height adjustment also makes a big difference to working with this screen, I no longer feel so 'hunched over' and can lean back in the chair whilst still reading the screen.
All in all - a most excellent new toy!
Now.... If only I knew someone who could make use of a slightly used 17" Eizo L565 monitor
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Time for a new toy...
One of the aims for this year (2007) is to change out my PC, but firstly I want to change my existing 17" monitor for a larger widescreen model, as this would account for a significant percentage of the new PC price.
Well, today I have ordered my replacment monitor. It's a Black Phillips 20 Widescreen LCD (200WX7EB) which runs at a native resolution of 1680x1050. This gives me an extra 400 pixels on the width, whilst maintaining almost the same vertical screen height/resolution.
It has been ordered from Dabs Direct, taking advantage of the newly introduced BT Employee discount, for the grand total of £235 inc VAT. I paid an extra £5 for next day evening delivery, so it should arrive Wednesday 10th
Well, today I have ordered my replacment monitor. It's a Black Phillips 20 Widescreen LCD (200WX7EB) which runs at a native resolution of 1680x1050. This gives me an extra 400 pixels on the width, whilst maintaining almost the same vertical screen height/resolution.
It has been ordered from Dabs Direct, taking advantage of the newly introduced BT Employee discount, for the grand total of £235 inc VAT. I paid an extra £5 for next day evening delivery, so it should arrive Wednesday 10th
Friday, January 05, 2007
A Good Days Work
Today was the last day of my leave - Back to work on Monday - and I decided it was about time I actually sat down and worked out how to improve on my initial - rather simple - PHP scripting.
On the Rockbox-Themes site, there is a facility to upload new themes to a temp location on the server. This sends me an e-mail and I upload to the correct page after verification. The code to do this was quite limited in it's functionality and did not enforce any of the rules that were stated in the text of the page.
As a result I have got somewhat fed up of renaming files, converting RAR to ZIP, JPG and BMP to PNG etc., hence the effort today.
Some two hours later and I think I now have an upload script that should eliminate both the Spam attemps and people failing to follow a few simple guidelines. If you want to see the finished (for now!) code point your browser at http://www.rockbox-themes.org/uploader.txt
Overall, I am really very pleased with the success of the website, in December it reached over 22,000 hits, after stalling at around 16,000 per month since August, but so far this year the average is in the region of 1,100 hits per day!
On the Rockbox-Themes site, there is a facility to upload new themes to a temp location on the server. This sends me an e-mail and I upload to the correct page after verification. The code to do this was quite limited in it's functionality and did not enforce any of the rules that were stated in the text of the page.
As a result I have got somewhat fed up of renaming files, converting RAR to ZIP, JPG and BMP to PNG etc., hence the effort today.
Some two hours later and I think I now have an upload script that should eliminate both the Spam attemps and people failing to follow a few simple guidelines. If you want to see the finished (for now!) code point your browser at http://www.rockbox-themes.org/uploader.txt
Overall, I am really very pleased with the success of the website, in December it reached over 22,000 hits, after stalling at around 16,000 per month since August, but so far this year the average is in the region of 1,100 hits per day!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
A Grand Day Out
We had a day out yesterday, and just for a change, we thought it would be a good idea to go to a shopping centre!
So at 09:30 yesterday morning we set off for 'Cheshire Oaks' The weather was a bit on the damp and windy side, but even though it's not a 'mall' there are enough covered walkways to ensure that even bad weather is not a problem.
We did spend quite a bit of cash, as the sales reductions on some already quite impressive prices was hard to resist - especially for Amy who still had some Xmas money to spend. I was very tempted into purchasing a 'RD-85DT' 160 GB HDD/DVD Recorder from the Toshiba outlet - £229 but eventually decided to leave it until, either a) Get new TV, or b) Existing DVD player packs up. Hopefully neither of those will happen too soon!
After leaving there we headed just a little North and visited some friends (Peter & Carol) in Knowsley for a hour, before finally arriving home again at 21:30 with an average fuel consumption figure of 49.5 MPG - good to see the new engine is finally starting to loosen up.
So at 09:30 yesterday morning we set off for 'Cheshire Oaks' The weather was a bit on the damp and windy side, but even though it's not a 'mall' there are enough covered walkways to ensure that even bad weather is not a problem.
We did spend quite a bit of cash, as the sales reductions on some already quite impressive prices was hard to resist - especially for Amy who still had some Xmas money to spend. I was very tempted into purchasing a 'RD-85DT' 160 GB HDD/DVD Recorder from the Toshiba outlet - £229 but eventually decided to leave it until, either a) Get new TV, or b) Existing DVD player packs up. Hopefully neither of those will happen too soon!
After leaving there we headed just a little North and visited some friends (Peter & Carol) in Knowsley for a hour, before finally arriving home again at 21:30 with an average fuel consumption figure of 49.5 MPG - good to see the new engine is finally starting to loosen up.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year
To my loyal and regular readers, have a very happy new year... yes, both of you.
Personally, I am glad the festive period is all over bar the shouting, and I can go back to a normal routine of enjoying my days off from work, between period of looking forward to having another couple of days off!
Now as soon as all the bloody fireworks stop going off, I am off to bed... hehehe Grumpy old man or what!
So what do we have to look forward to this year?
Amanda's 15th Wedding Anniversary (I was there too, but its always the girls anniversary!)
Alex turning 9
Amy turning 14
Amanda Turning 41
Me turning 46
Manchester United back where they belong - Premier League Champions....
Hmmm, that's about it - Ah well, it's all gone quiet ouside, so I am off to bed!
Personally, I am glad the festive period is all over bar the shouting, and I can go back to a normal routine of enjoying my days off from work, between period of looking forward to having another couple of days off!
Now as soon as all the bloody fireworks stop going off, I am off to bed... hehehe Grumpy old man or what!
So what do we have to look forward to this year?
Amanda's 15th Wedding Anniversary (I was there too, but its always the girls anniversary!)
Alex turning 9
Amy turning 14
Amanda Turning 41
Me turning 46
Manchester United back where they belong - Premier League Champions....
Hmmm, that's about it - Ah well, it's all gone quiet ouside, so I am off to bed!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
How common is your name
Check out NameBrain and see just how original were your parents being when they named you?
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Photoshop CS3 - Beta
Yesterday, Adobe announced a public beta of Photoshop CS3 , you will however, need a valid keycode for CS2 to be able to run it for more than 2 days...
EDIT: Deleting "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\AMT\application.sif" removes the 2 day limit!!
On the same day, Lynda.com have released a free preview showing some of the major new features. Best-selling author and Photoshop guru Deke McClelland has teamed up with lynda.com to create the first professionally produced instructional training on every new feature in Photoshop CS3.
Access this free preview training online at http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=327
EDIT: Deleting "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\AMT\application.sif" removes the 2 day limit!!
On the same day, Lynda.com have released a free preview showing some of the major new features. Best-selling author and Photoshop guru Deke McClelland has teamed up with lynda.com to create the first professionally produced instructional training on every new feature in Photoshop CS3.
Access this free preview training online at http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=327
Friday, December 15, 2006
Stopping the Form Spammers!
Some time ago I set up http://www.rockbox-themes.org to host themes created, by users, for use in the Rockbox alternative firmware program. As part of that site, I created an upload page to allow users to send their work directly to my inbox. However I seem to be attracting quite a lot of junk/spam thro' this route.
One solution may be to introduce a 'Captcha' graphic, you know the sort of thing - enter the following code to proceed (from a distorted image). Seems that this can be implemented quite easily, using code from here:
http://www.white-hat-web-design.co.uk/articles/php-captcha.php
One solution may be to introduce a 'Captcha' graphic, you know the sort of thing - enter the following code to proceed (from a distorted image). Seems that this can be implemented quite easily, using code from here:
http://www.white-hat-web-design.co.uk/articles/php-captcha.php
A Totally Bizarre Site
Daily Monster
This guy seems to make an ink stain on a piece of paper every day, and then proceeds to draw around and with the ink blob to produce some truly amazing and totally bizarre pictures...
Definitely one to check out every now and then.
This guy seems to make an ink stain on a piece of paper every day, and then proceeds to draw around and with the ink blob to produce some truly amazing and totally bizarre pictures...
Definitely one to check out every now and then.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
A Young Lady
The Biological clock has started ticking, and our new Teenager, is now also officially a young lady.
This is also the first time I have used the e-mail publishing feature, where you can send an e-mail to a 'Secret' address and it appears here!!
This is also the first time I have used the e-mail publishing feature, where you can send an e-mail to a 'Secret' address and it appears here!!
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Nice Evening...
Last night I was in Chester with two friends from work.
We were attending a 'tech transfer' for a new server product from STRATUS on Tuesday, but arrived on Monday night to avoid an early morning start. We eat out at a rather nice Italian restaurant 'Piccolino' (32 Pepper Row, Chester).
The Pollo Valdostana was very nice, but the Tiramisu was really quite special... The waitress was excellent, the atmosphere was really nice and I would recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to visit.
verdict: Not cheep, but still well worth the money
We were attending a 'tech transfer' for a new server product from STRATUS on Tuesday, but arrived on Monday night to avoid an early morning start. We eat out at a rather nice Italian restaurant 'Piccolino' (32 Pepper Row, Chester).
The Pollo Valdostana was very nice, but the Tiramisu was really quite special... The waitress was excellent, the atmosphere was really nice and I would recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to visit.
verdict: Not cheep, but still well worth the money
Sunday, December 10, 2006
New 'Look and Feel' for the blog
New Title, far more representative of the actual content, new colour scheme, Labels for each posting - still the same crap author tho' I'm afraid ...
Boy, am I tired
Tonight, I am working a 12 hour night shift at work, covering for one of the guys who wanted to attend the staff Xmas 'do'... It's currently just a little short of 5AM, and it's still almost 3 hours till home time! I have been awake for about 22 hours now, and am really starting to flag. Mind you , the overtime will be usefull, just after Christmas...
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Amy's Birthday Party Pictures
Online at http://photoalbum.rockbox-themes.org
All pictures taken by Amy (Except the few with Amy in them) - I take no responsibility for the camera work!!
All pictures taken by Amy (Except the few with Amy in them) - I take no responsibility for the camera work!!
Monday, December 04, 2006
Can't Leave Alex out...
even tho' it's not his birthday, it seemed only fair to take his picture too... so I present Alex - Aged 8 1/2
As before, click on the image to view the 170 KB larger version
As before, click on the image to view the 170 KB larger version
Amanda's 40th Birthday Portrait
With the success of Amy's birthday Picture I decided I had to do something similar to mark Amanda's landmark birthday too...
As before, click on the image to view the 210 KB larger version
As before, click on the image to view the 210 KB larger version
Long Gap in the Blog...
Well, since the end of October, I have been a bit lacking in the Blogging department... What has been happening ?
OK, This week is obviously Amy's 13th Birthday - so quite a major event. We took her and a few friends to TGI Fridays yesterday as an alternative to a party. Much fun and merryment was had by all present, and the staff were fantastic. May take a day or two for my hearing to return to normal though... 5 (almost) teen girls in one car makes a Motorhead concert seem quite tame in the volume stakes...
Last Week, that was Amanda's 40th Birthday - another milestone event. On that occasion we took 18 guests to the 'Himely House Country Club' for a meal on the Monday night. Again, a good night was had by all - it turned out to be a late night for the kids (11pm on a school night is not really reccomended), but they coped well, and enjoyed it.
A few days before that, we were at Symphony Hall, Birmingham to see Katherine Jenkins in concert (again), and once again she was fantastic. Her 'guest' tenor was an Iclandic fellow named "Gardar Cortes", and he was quite spectacular in his own right - and thats from someone who does not really like Tenors!!
The 'BBC Good Food Show" was also a recent event - waaaay too much money was spent on that day! Including £20 for a small(ish) bottle of 12 year old, oak matured, Balsamic Vinegar!!
Finally, I got around to putting some pictures from Deb's wedding into an album. If I get time later I will try and sort out the Birthday Pictures for Amy and Amanda...
OK, enough time on the computer for this morning... I have two days off, and I really need to spend some time in the Gym - I have managed to put on about 4 pounds recently... That really has to go!
OK, This week is obviously Amy's 13th Birthday - so quite a major event. We took her and a few friends to TGI Fridays yesterday as an alternative to a party. Much fun and merryment was had by all present, and the staff were fantastic. May take a day or two for my hearing to return to normal though... 5 (almost) teen girls in one car makes a Motorhead concert seem quite tame in the volume stakes...
Last Week, that was Amanda's 40th Birthday - another milestone event. On that occasion we took 18 guests to the 'Himely House Country Club' for a meal on the Monday night. Again, a good night was had by all - it turned out to be a late night for the kids (11pm on a school night is not really reccomended), but they coped well, and enjoyed it.
A few days before that, we were at Symphony Hall, Birmingham to see Katherine Jenkins in concert (again), and once again she was fantastic. Her 'guest' tenor was an Iclandic fellow named "Gardar Cortes", and he was quite spectacular in his own right - and thats from someone who does not really like Tenors!!
The 'BBC Good Food Show" was also a recent event - waaaay too much money was spent on that day! Including £20 for a small(ish) bottle of 12 year old, oak matured, Balsamic Vinegar!!
Finally, I got around to putting some pictures from Deb's wedding into an album. If I get time later I will try and sort out the Birthday Pictures for Amy and Amanda...
OK, enough time on the computer for this morning... I have two days off, and I really need to spend some time in the Gym - I have managed to put on about 4 pounds recently... That really has to go!
Amy's 13th Birthday Portrait
Following on from the picture I took last year for Amy's 12th Birthday,
I have this year taken one for her 13th!!
Clicking on the thumbnail above, will load a larger version of the image (179 KB)
I am rather pleased with this photo, and have ordered a couple of 8x10 enlargments for the garnd parents
I have this year taken one for her 13th!!
Clicking on the thumbnail above, will load a larger version of the image (179 KB)
I am rather pleased with this photo, and have ordered a couple of 8x10 enlargments for the garnd parents
Friday, December 01, 2006
Which browsers are using my website?
| Rank | Browser | Hits | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Firefox 2.0 | 1525 | 31.47% |
| 2 | Firefox 1.5 | 1105 | 22.80% |
| 3 | Internet Explorer 6.0 | 1047 | 21.61% |
| 4 | Internet Explorer 7.0 | 374 | 7.72% |
| 5 | Opera 9.0 | 246 | 5.08% |
So a good showing by the new boys, FF2, IE7 & Opera 9
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