Archive for Websites

Photo Backup

A few weeks ago I decided that it would be a good idea to backup all my photos. Currently I have over 4000 photos, which amounts to 6 GB. So the question was what was the best method? This task went on the todo list and I pondered the best way to go about this. [...]

WordPress 2.7.1

WordPress 2.7.1 was released yesterday. One of the new features in WordPress 2.7 was an easier upgrade method. If all works correctly you just click the ‘Upgrade’ button and it does all the work for you. The feature worked, for me, as advertised and within a minute the upgrade was complete. I really approve of [...]

WordPress 2.7

I updated WordPress the other day. This blog is now running on WordPress 2.7. I am really liking the new admin look and feel. Also, about a month ago I changed theme on this site. This was mainly to change the prominence of the elements displaying integration with other websites. If you spot any problems [...]

WordPress 2.6.1 and Chicago

WordPress 2.6.1 has been released. Upgrade went smoothly and everything seems fine – if you do notice a problem with the site then let me know. I got back from nine days in Chicago on Wednesday. While there there was an impressive thunderstorm. I’ll post more about my Chicago trip at some stage.

New Server and WordPress 2.6

WordPress 2.6 has been released. I have upgraded this blog – a rather quick and easy process. Also, I have moved server recently. Hopefully everything is up and working correctly. If not let me know. The move was fairly painless – just a little while spent working out where all the setting were kept.

Keeping Hands Out of the Cookie Jar

The new version of WordPress adds additional protection for cookies. It is very much worth adding the config option mentioned, since it helps protect against problems where a database have already been compromised. Hot on the heels of WordPress 2.5.0 is the security update – WP 2.5.1. Rumours that I have as many draft posts [...]

Git and GitHub

Geir mentions that GitHub is live and that ‘Git is conquering the world‘. At this point I feel rather smug. I keep a repository of my own files on one of my machines. When I set up this repository, several years ago, I picked Subversion. However, recently the repository server has been offline and, so, [...]

WordPress 2.5

The new version (2.5) of WordPress came out recently. Upgrading this blog went smoothly. The most noticeable change is the redesign to the admin section. It is certainly a big improvement on the old.

New Flickr Features

I have been using Flickr to host my orienteering photos for a couple of years. Every now and then the Flickr team rolls out a new feature – collections and maps being two past examples. This month they have added two great features: stats and photo editing. You need to be a pro member to [...]

Internet and Web Maps

A while back I posted about the Web Trend Map 2007 Version 2.0. Since then I have seen a few more interesting web/internet maps: e.maps – This site has a selection of web maps. I particularly like the World Web Map, which is a world map based but with the countries replaced with internet sites. [...]

Sensible Messages

I order regularly from a number of online shops. Today I decided to order some items from Lush, as I will not be going near one of their stores for a while. I’ve ordered from Lush online before, but it seems that they have a new online store. This new store required me to register [...]

Comments on the new British Orienteering Website

Earlier this week saw the launch of a new website for British Orienteering. For reasons concerned with membership renewal the site has gone live before it is finished, which means that some features are missing or not fully working. First comment is that this is a big improvement on the old site – it looks [...]

WordPress 2.3

The new version of WordPress, the software used for this blog, was released yesterday. I took the plunge and updated straight away. Everything seems to be up and fine, but if any of you notice a problem then let me know. However, on upgrade I noticed a jump in database queries on page load – [...]

User Signup

Recently I decided that it would be useful to use a task manager. Several of my colleagues are using Remember the Milk and I decided to join them, since then we can share tasks when needed. I was really impressed with the signup process. It makes sensible use of technology to tell the user whether [...]

Google Learns to Count from 100 to 1000

Google announced this week that Google Reader now has search functionality. I have yet to fully try out the new feature, but the few quick searches I did yesterday worked well. Also in the announcement was that the unread feed count will now go up to 1000, rather than the old value of 100. Before, [...]

Training Log

For several years now I have been keeping an orienteering/training log. This is something I programmed myself, as a project to learn php/mysql. I keep thinking about moving to a different system – Attackpoint or Nopesport for instance – but then remember how much info I have already and decide not to. Over the last [...]

Laptop, Trouble, and Scotland

It seems that my laptop is 15 years old. Or rather the family of laptops it is from. I am fairly impressed with the IBM Thinkpad range. Caught on camera – and found on Facebook: It seems that the University of Oxford is using Facebook photos to catch people breaking the exam celebration rules. That [...]

Web Trend Map 2007 Version 2.0

While browsing the blog world I saw some links to the Web Trend Map 2007 Version 2.0. This is a rather cool tube-system like map of the ‘200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective.‘ I did a quick check through the map and found only a few [...]

Ten Years of Blogging and OpenID Delegation

The Wall Street Journal reminds us that ‘It’s been 10 years since the blog was born.‘ I have been blogging for just over half of that time – my LiveJournal is five years old. Recently I have been reading more about OpenID. While doing so I found OpenID Delegate WordPress Plugin, which allows me to [...]

Two Billion

I, like a lot of people, use Akismet to help block spam on my blog. Yesterday they announced that they had blocked two billion spam comments. While the work the people at Akismet do is fantastic there is something depressing in realising that 94% of the comments made to Akismet protected blogged are spam.

New Orleans

The plan, mentioned in my last post, was to update from New Orleans. However, a combination of poor hotel internet and lack of time meant that I completely failed to do this. My main reason for going to New Orleans was to attend Phoenix Rising, though meeting lots of friends came a close second. During [...]

Colourblindness and Websites

When designing and creating websites it is important to consider ease of use for those visiting the site. For the average person this is fine, but trying to imagine how a website looks to a colourblind individual is not easy. Now, however, there is a web tool which applies filters to your site, so you [...]

Consultation on BBC’s On-demand Services

The BBC is consulting over its’ proposed on-demand services. You can give your feedback here (not sure if that is UK only or not). Of particular note are questions: 3) This concerns how long users will be able to store the content on their machine. I do not see how this suggestion can be feasibly [...]

Web design

I have been making web sites (again). Each time I end up doing this I remember why finding a good designer is important. I can chuck a pile of data/information back at a user, but making it look good really does require someone who knows what they are doing. For one of the sites I [...]