It’s like a plague – the number of sites that have the Snap Preview plugin installed showing previews of links seems to be growing. i thought I was the only one that thought they were annoying, distracting and a total pain in the arse. Like blink all over again.
However a solution comes from Daring Fireball. The second question on the Snap FAQ page shows you how to disable the plugin via cookies. It works! Bliss.
I’m hoping the DNS propagation has worked for everyone now and you should be seeing the site at it’s new home. I’m pleased with the increased speed and the new flexibility. There’s a few other things I’ve installed on the domain which are also working well – wish I’d made the jump sooner. I’m also moving more to using web apps and making my data available on the dektop, laptop and at work. Anywhere in fact. It will take a while but I’m slowly getting there.
WordPress 2.1 is also a nice if not very interesting upgrade. Auto saving of posts, resizing of text area, some small changes to admin areas are the most immediate changes. Oh – and the login page from Shuttle. Considering it’s a year in development that’s not much return. There’s a lot under the hood although not much documentation on release detailing where the changes are. Still…it’s free and still an impressive blogging tool. There’s a nod to CMS with the ability to set a page as the front page and blog posts elsewhere and a slightly easier image/file uploader and management but Joomla is a far better tool if CMS is your thing.
What is interesting is Habari. It’s a new blogging platform that’s way to early in development to use in anger. However the people behind it are some of the bigger names in the WordPress support/plugin/theme arena. What interested me is that they are pledging to follow a more cutting edge than WordPress which means it is potentially more difficult to setup and your mileage is very dependant on your webhost. Click here to read more on Habari. If your feeling bold and interested in following the development the code is available via SVN on the Google code site. I managed to get it kind off working although there is a lot of development happening on it so it should improve quite quickly. If you’ve ever wanted to get involve in an open source project from a coding or community point of view then this is the perfect time to get involved.
Just out and installed with ease. Login page looking nice – not sure on other changes under the hood.
It’s three years since we moved to the new house (which I still call ‘the new house’) – things couldn’t have gone better and this weekend saw us move into year four. However the moving home of this post isn’t off the physical variety – I’m thinking of moving hosts.
I’ve been with 34sp for a long time now and while I can’t complain about support or uptime there are a few things I’m looking for that they can’t provide due to their size. In fact I commend them for being open and honest in their support forums about why they won’t grow too quickly or oversell.
So – the hunt is on for a new host. I have a number of options that I’ll investigate over the next few days. If there is some downtime soon it will be due to swapping hosts…or my new provider not being as good as I hoped!
I’ve installed a couple of new WordPress plugins that are very useful so I thought it was worth sharing the goodies.
The first one is best applied to WordPress 2.0.5 and above and is called Clutter Free. It’s role in life is to allow an author to disable unused components of the create post screen in WordPress, so giving a faster loading and clutter free page. Works a treat and gets rid of a lot of unused functionality…for me at least.
Second is Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form v.2.0WP. Certainly a mouthful but is saving me from more spam, this time via the old comment form I used to employ. Over the last few days I’d received over 200 comments via the Contact form linked to at the top of the site. It was making it difficult to pull out good comment from spam. This new plugin seems to have done the trick and since implementing last night has seen two good comments succeed in reaching me and 25 spam comments being removed. Joy. Hopefully others can get mileage out of them too.
Not been in the mood to post recently. Combination of work (including trip to Bristol), a stinking cold (blame rests with Easyjet) and then a migraine yesterday means I’ve not had the inclination to write anything. This means I’ve made no comments on the PS3 slip (I think it’s good news to be honest) nor on Blair and New Labour or on Saints Row being more enjoyable than GTA.
The only blessing from the last week is that it’s over and tomorrow night is showtime. That 24-inch iMac is so so tempting that I may make the plunge tomorrow. I had pretty much settled on getting a Macbook Pro but I don’t need that type of power on the go. So it may be an iMac now and the gorgeousness that is 1920*1200 pixels with a Macbook early next year. Oh – and a new iPod. For once I’d love the spoof to turn out to be true.
Anyway, enjoy the show for those watching online – no doubt I’ll post with some news in the next few days.
Almost forgot…Lord of the Rings:Return of the King looked amazing in HD on Sky at the weekend. Quality of the picture was superb and looked so much better than DVD. The Proms and the live football have also been great. Sky even managed to get a decent firmware upgrade out which has fixed quite a few of the bugs. Only grumble is lack of disk space makes keeping films etc an issue, especially now that the original Star Wars movies will be broadcast in HD before Christmas. Might have to perform a sneaky disk upgrade before then.
Updated to new version of Flock which is based on the latest and greatest Firefox 1.5.0.6. Working well and this time I also sorted my bookmarks out removing redundant or easy to Google links and reducing their number by half – used Gordon’s post as a guide.
This cleanup has lead to making Flock my default browser – it really is that good and can’t be more highly recomended as it does everything that Firefox does but more. I also found a solution to getting my back button working in Flock:
Hi,
Just wanted to add that I recently purchased a Logitech MX610, and likewise the default mapped “back and forward” buttons (via Logitech’s SetPoint) do not work.
Temporarily, to get the “back” button to work, I mapped it to keystroke ‘BACKSPACE’.
Thanks,
Phil..
reply
Blogged with Flock
I’ve a lot to get through today although the oppressive heat has now gone – thank goodness. I like good weather but the last few days (especially overnight) were uncomfortable to say the least. Anyway…these should help me through the day.
Yum.
I caught the tail end of BBC Breakfast this morning and they were discussing blogs. What are they, why do people do it, how it’s a fad with the average blog lasting four weeks and then the ultimate comparison – it reminds the presenter of CB radio a few years ago. While I thought the piece was biased towards the technically ignorant (non geeks) it did get me thinking – why do I do it?
It’s certainly not because I think I’m a journalist – far from it, although the fact that many sites think blogs are replacing news agency’s has got the traditional news sites in a bit of a tizzy. BBC themselves are running a survey on blogs and journalism that is showing just under a quarter believe that blogging is journalism. BBC nail their colours to the mast stating the findings of another survey cut through ‘blog hype’. The hype is really from mainstream media so it’s good to see them dismiss their own reports. While I’ve drifted onto this, an example of two cracking sites that have highlighted issues on the middle east crisis that I would have missed if it hadn’t been for blogs. Firstly, Kottke posted an image from the Independent that summed up world opinion in an instant (reposted below).
Secondly, this site has been keeping a Google Earth kmz file up to date with positions of all the atrocities in the current crisis alongside media cuttings of what happened.
Anyway – back on topic. I don’t blog to get readers either (just as well). I am interested in people who do visit and where they came from (thank you Mint) but I’m not motivated by how many 100’s visit, employing search engine optimisation techniques or indeed getting loads of good page rankings and then adopting some Google ad’s – just not me.
The first reason I started was down to having a ‘can I do a blog’ niggle. It lasted a while before I eventually got up and running. I eased into geek ramblings and non personal postings as it was easier and to this day the blog is still very impersonal. I also had a feeling of giving something back. I’ve learned so much from reading other blogs whether it be personal experiences, tech opinions or just ramblings that make my day a little easier to get through and from time to time I might offer something that someone might gain from.
The second reason was to have some sort of journal that I could look back on. It’s not turned out the way I wanted but I do have around three years worth of postings, links and comments that I do occasionally look back on. Ideally it would have been more personal and also had some work related ramblings but that isn’t worth the hassle it could potentially cause.
There have been downsides. A feeling of ‘I have to post’ has got me a few times as well as ‘time to shut this down’. I’ve also received a few nasty comments especially during this years World Cup…the English really do have a problem with people not supporting them especially Joe who’s worthy contribution was ‘Die you Scottish Prick’. Nice. I do edit crap like that out of my blog as I just don’t want to read that again in a few years time.
All those are outweighed by the genuine people who do frequent, the occasional really nice comments and mails that are left, the invites to closed beta’s (Diigo being the latest and also one of the more impressive apps I’ve used recently. Turbo charged bookmarking and social commenting and if you want an invite I do have some at my disposal – full write up soon.) and the ability to keep in touch with real world friends through postings, pictures and comments. Nice. It’s also fun…usually. So it’s two fingers to those who sneer at blogs in general – this is one that won’t be disappearing.
Neither will blogging disappear. A blog allows a person to become their own media mogul, linking to anyone in the world (if they choose to) and allowing anyone worldwide to read their posts. Who would have thought years ago that from your own home you could post real time news, have people easily find the content, have discussions raging that are in your control, easily link to your own photo’s of the story, allow people to listen to your own podcast and broadcast video even if it is only through a webcam. Empowerment is a wonderful gift. In the right hands it can have a massive impact. In the wrong it can be dreadful. Instead visit 9rules to see some of the better blogs available for your consumption and see what empowerment really can deliver.
The reason I hardly ever post on internet forums are other people’s ego’s. A quick wander through avforums highlights this – a massive amount of people who think they know everything and who are willing to force their view on the world, sometimes too forcefully, sometimes inaccurately. At the same time I really appreciate reading other peoples views and opinions as they can be more helpful than magazine reviews which I still suspect can be bought for a price.
This can happen on blogs too. Take a trip over to Binary Bonsai and you’ll see a messy rant between the owner and Paul Thurrott over Vista and some images. Nasty and over the top – for a guy to rant about theft in respect of a Vista screenshot and then to see some windows fanboys jump on the bandwagon highlights some of the issues I see in forums. Ego’s.
I just wish that people who post frequently and strongly would think about their response if they were speaking to the person in a room or in a group of like minded others – would they be that rude? Would they rant? Maybe they would but I really do doubt it. Maybe forums and commenting systems need a ego setting that checks for ranting, highlights the issues and doesn’t allow you to post for 30 minutes….a cooling off ego system.