Mike's Pick

Car-Economy.com: The Free Vehicle Mileage Log

2009-11-23T22:26:00.002+02:00

Car-Economy.com is a free vehicle log that I use to track my car mileage. I was using a standard notepad to log my fuel economy and fill ups. At some point I wanted to data capture all my manual logs into Excel or something like that and see if my fuel economy got worse or better depending on what I did. I eventually came up with an idea to make a web app, so Car-Economy was born.

It has the following features:

Access from a mobile phone.
Fuel economy, distance and cost graphs.
Work in miles or kilometers.
Work in gallons or litres.
Track multiple cars.
Its free.

I'll be adding some more features as time goes on, but until then please sign up for free and tell me what you think.

Resetting DotNetNuke After Uploading a Broken Skin

2009-05-29T12:49:00.006+02:00

Today, after uploading a Skin file to DotNetNuke, it threw this exception when rendering the Home page:

DotNetNuke Error: - Version 04.09.02

An error has occurred.
DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.PageLoadException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at DotNetNuke.Common.Globals.CreateValidID(String strID) at DotNetNuke.UI.Skins.Controls.Styles.AddStyleSheet() at DotNetNuke.UI.Skins.Controls.Styles.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

I couldn't get back to Admin>Skins to reset the skin, so I had to find a way to reset the skin without the Admin interface.
I reset DotNetNuke to the default skin by deleting the folder under /Portals/0/Skins/. From there I could explode the 'nuke again.

Brian's bedroom up

2007-12-03T15:58:00.000+02:00

If you get some time, go and check out Brian's bedroom. He's going be posting a whole bunch of articles on getting running with Ubuntu Studio.

Web 2.0 gradients for GIMP

2007-09-06T09:44:00.000+02:00

Thanks to BitBox for this one. Some sweet preset gradients for making sleek looking logos.

Get them from here:
http://gimp-tutorials.net/30-Ultimate-Web-20+Layer-Styles-for+-Gimp

Creating a Web 2.0 logo in GIMP

2007-08-08T08:51:00.000+02:00

Instead of working today, I decided to revamp the iChurch logo using the GIMP. It came out alright so I decided to create a short tutorial on how I did it. That didn't work so I made a really long one.

Here's what it looked like originally:

and here's the final product:

Setting up the text path

First start with a same size as the original image. I use the FreeType filter (found under Filters>Text>FreeType...) rather than the standard Text tool. The FreeType filter gives you much more control over the spacing and size of your text.

Firstly, we'll create the word "Church". I used Verdana for its clean look, and moved the letter spacing to -160 in order to bring the letters closer together. Spacing can make a world of difference. Play around to get what you need.

Make sure that you tick the "Create Bezier Outline" checkbox so that we can use the selection over and over.

Click OK and you'll see the newly created path (if you can't see it, go to the Paths tab on the Layer, Channels & Paths dock and make it visible.)

Filling the church

Create a new layer (Layer > New Layer ... ).

Create a selection from the path.

Select the gradient tool and choose a dark colour and a light colour. I chose dark blue to light blue. Create a linear gradient from top to bottom, with the lighter colour at the bottom.

Next, we'll create an inner shadow. First create a new layer. Select the PaintBrush tool and choose the Circle Fuzzy (03) brush. Choose black as the foreground colour.

Making sure that you still have the selection, go to the paths tab on the Layers, Channels and Paths dock and right-click on the Church path. Select Stroke Path from the menu.

Choose "Stoke path with a paint tool" and make sure that the PaintBrush is selected.

The result should look like this:

Now, add a new layer and get the selection from the path again. Create a white-to-transparent linear gradient from the bottom of the text that just covers the lighter blue shade.

Set the Mode on the new layer to Overlay and move it below the Inner shadow layer.

Bringing in the bling

Now we'll add the token glass finish that everyone loves so much. First select the Paths tool from the toolbox:

Create yourself a wavey path over the text by clicking and dragging the Path tool. Make sure that you leave space above the text. When you're done, hold CTRL and click on the first point to close the path.

Now comes the super sneaky bit. In the Path tab of the Layers, Channels and Paths dialog, select the first text path and create a selection from it (right-click and select Path to Selection. Then right-click the new wavey path and select Intersect with Selection.

It should look like this:

Create a new layer and select a White-to-transparent linear gradient. Apply the gradient to the selection with the white at the top. Make sure that you end the gradient a fair distance below the selection so that the edge of the selection is sharp. Set the Opacity of the layer to 75%.

Create another layer and create another White-to-transparent gradient inside the selection. This time end the gradient a third of the way down the selection.

Deselect everything (Select > None) and create yet another layer. Select the dark blue colour again and go to the Paths dialog. Right-click the 'Church' path and choose Stroke Path....

In the Stroke Path dialog, choose Stroke Line, 1.0 px and Solid.

Using the same technique I created the 'i' in red. I used orange for the lighter part of the red gradient because a lighter reddish pink looks far less vibrant.

Finishing touches

Soft shadow

Hide the white background layer by clicking the eye in the Layer dialog. Select Copy Visible from the Edit menu, and then Paste (also in the Edit).

In the Layers dialog, there'll be a new layer called 'Floating Selection'. Right-click on it and select new Layer. (This creates the pasted layer as a new layer. If you select Anchor Layer, it pastes the copied layer into the current layer. This frustrated me to no end when I started using GIMP).

Go to Script-Fu > Shadow > Drop-shadow. Set the Blur radius to 9 and the Opacity to 37. Click OK and wait for your shadow to be cast.

If you want, you can select the Move tool and move the shadow layer around until you are happy with how it looks. You can also adjust the Opacity of the shadow by adjusting the layer's Opacity.

Reflection

Select the Layer that you pasted to create the soft shadow from. Flip it vertically by going to Layer > Transform > Flip Vertically.

Select the Move tool and move the layer to a couple of pixels below the original text.

Right-click on the layer and select "Add Layer Mask...".

Choose the default "White (full opacity)" option when asked what you want to initialize the mask to. Right-click on the Layer and select "Show Layer Mask". Make sure that "Edit Layer Mask" is still selected.

Select the gradient tool and make a White-to-Black linear gradient over the layer mask with the white at the top.

Right-click the layer and unselect "Show Layer Mask" and "Edit Layer Mask"

And that's it.

Gavin Hood to direct Wolverine

2007-07-20T10:59:00.000+02:00

Wow, couldn't believe this when I saw it. According to Ain't It Cool News, South African director Gavin Hood (yes, the one who directed Tsotsi) will be directing the new Wolverine movie. Man, that's just fantastic. I've always been a fan of Gavin, even from way back when he was still acting in South African TV series. The film's set to come out in late 2008 and will have Hugh Jackman in his (and only his) role as Wolverine (shink). I can't wait.

Here's the AICN link:
WOLVERINE gets an interesting director...

What makes a great (RSS) feed?

2007-07-04T13:40:00.001+02:00

Hi guys, my name's Mike and I am mildly addicted to RSS. OK, OK, I am HUGELY addicted to RSS. I'll agree that I was slow on the uptake, but lately I can't get away from it. The number of feeds I subscribe to is truly staggering.

Not all feeds are equal, however. Some are great, some are down-right frustrating.While I was contemplating an RSS-direct-brain interface, I came up with a list of tips to make up that fantastic feed.

Empty items are right out

The same goes for only having the title in the feed. The main reason I subscribe to a site's feeds is so that I don't have to visit the site. If I felt like to go to the site everyday I wouldn't have subscribed in the first place.

Include the full article if its not too big. Generally, if its not split into multiple pages on the site (or should be), you can include the whole thing. Otherwise have a good summary: enough to tell the reader what its about. They can decide whether to read more or not. Ain't It Cool's feed is a great example of this. One-liners are completely unacceptable.

If you're doing it just to get hits on your site counter - don't. Channel your feed through feedburner.com and keep track of your subscribers that way. Feedburner has a fantastic set of tools for tracking your subscribers (which has just gotten better) and will even allow your readers to subscribe via email

One item is just not on

Multiple items or nothing. There's nothing more irritating than knowing that you missed a couple of feeds. Especially with comic feeds. The best part of my Mondays is reading the feeds I missed on the weekend. You never know how often your subscribers are checking so always include the last few feeds for them to catch up on.

Bad dates

Check that your feed only pops up as new when they've changed. Feed readers use the date fields on each item to determine whether its new or not so check that you're creating them properly. Some feeds are particularly bad and show up as new or unread every time you reload them. Continually marking them read is about as fun as continually biting a rhino. Eventually your readers will get irritated and ditch your feed altogether.

Authenticate only as a last resort

Most feed readers don't support the HTTP authentication that some sites use to protect their feeds. Basecamp is one such site. Unless your feed is really secret then stay away from this authentication method.

Head's up

Put your feeds in your page's HTML block. Doing this makes browsers aware of feeds on your page. For each feed place this line between the and tags on your page.
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="FeedTitle" href="URLtoFeed" />

Here's an example:
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SmashingMagazine" />

Running Windows XP apps seamlessly in Ubuntu

2007-07-04T10:04:00.001+02:00

Now this is interesting, although its probably not the first attempt at doing this. VentureCake's article shows you how to run a Windows XP Professional virtual machine in Ubuntu, and run the applications seamlessly on your Gnome desktop. Look I haven't tried it, but it looks pretty impressive.

A bigger screenshot would have really helped, but it was enough to see that Internet Exploiter 7 was now polluting their Gnome desktop. I'll have to test it to see what the performance is like, but I'm not holding thumbs. It is virtualisation after all.

VentureCake » Blog Archive » 10 minutes to run every Windows app on your Ubuntu desktop

60+ Web page designs

2007-07-04T09:25:00.001+02:00

Here's another great article from SmashingMagazine.com. You'll find a lot of great looking websites to get some design ideas from. I've already got some ideas for my new Mike's pick. Some of them are just beautiful.

Inspiration Package: 60+ Usable & Elegant Designs

Dvolver MovieMaker

2007-06-25T12:16:00.001+02:00

Here's a nice little flash app to make your own movies. Look - the plots aren't the greatest, but you can easy make a fun project in seconds. Afterwards you can include the link in your own webpage as well as email it to a friend (although I'm still waiting for it to arrive).

Here's my next box office hit:

and here's the link:
http://www.dvolver.com/live/moviemaker.html

Mike's Pic: Storms River Mouth

2007-06-20T11:12:00.001+02:00

Another honeymoon photo. This one was taken on a boat trip into Storms river mouth, South Africa.

35 Designers x 5 Questions

2007-06-20T10:21:00.000+02:00

I'm always on the look out for great web design and CSS tips. There's no lack of either on the web. I usually stumble over dozens of them - all claiming to be the best thing since sliced images - and they soon become very bland. Here's one that stuck out for me.

Smashing Magazine (which does look like a rather smashing magazine) asked 35 web designers five design related questions. The answers are a wealth of knowledge. The amount of knowledge in the invisible college of web design is staggering, and quite disconcerting to new web designers. The best shortcuts, tips and of course IE bug workarounds are divulged openly. It's a great place to touch up your design skills and add a couple tricks to your toolbox.

Great Icon Tutorial

2007-06-07T18:40:00.000+02:00

Ah, the anatomy of an icon. Luckily this sneaky little webpage squirmed through the web filter at work. Yes - that's right in this tutorial you get to see naked icons, built from the canvas up. There are no holds barred - its a great tutorial for all front end developers, graphic designers and all sorts of icon admirers. Great stuff. Great tut.

http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2004/08/23/anatomy.html

Photosynth - Unbelievable

2007-06-07T15:35:00.000+02:00

Wow. It looks like Microsoft have some serious surprises coming up. Photosynth is one of them. By means of some dude's (although we're sure he's been outsourced from a foreign planet) absolutely brilliant research, Photosynth stitches together public domain photo's to build 3D models of real life places. The results are incredible and only a real demonstration can do the software justice. Check out the TED video here

20 bananas. Definitely.

Mike's Pic: The Nice Side of Knysna

2007-06-05T15:45:00.000+02:00

Well, here it is: the first of the honeymoon photo's. This one I took using the panorama feature on my W800. Its situated in Knysna, South Africa. We were sitting on the pier on the eastern Head. The sunset enhances the beauty of the area and it makes you wonder how beautiful the area was before the town exploded into an overcrowded, overpriced vacation spot. Knysna may have been this beautiful once, but those days are long gone and it'll only get worse. Building is going on all over the show. I really like how the picture came out, but Knysna's not getting any of my bananas anytime soon.

A Walk Inside the Creation Museum

2007-05-28T18:17:00.000+02:00

I found this interesting link on my Digg RSS feed. There has been a lot of talk about the Creation Museum going on in all sorts of places on the 'net. Some are fiercely against it - there was quite a stir to protest against it. On the other hand its backed extensively by the Young Earth Creationists, especially by AnswersInGenesis.org - who I am not very fond of at all.

Whatever your stance, here is a walkthrough the unfinished museum. Take a look around and make up your own mind. I find it quite fascinating, even if it does use a bit of a "we're right and you're hopelessly wrong" tactic in its teaching.

The link again if you missed it:
http://studentweb.eku.edu/zachary_lynn/museum/index.html

Calvinist/Arminian debate

2007-05-22T15:23:00.000+02:00

I can't actually think of a more tired, more pointless debate than this. I've been looking in to both sides quite heavily and what a struggle its been. I have never felt more demoralized in my entire Christian walk.

In my opinion, its just another doctrine war for theologists - the difference is minimal in your Christian everyday life. No matter which side of the fence you're standing on, you'll still go out and try to help others to find God.

Here are Mike's one point of Calvinism and Arminianism. Sticking to tradition, I've given them the easy-to-remember acronyms H and S (sorry, I couldn't find any 1 letter flowers).

Mike's 1 point of Calvinism:

Hit or Miss
You're either born going to Heaven or Hell. God decides who does and who doesn't.

Mike's 1 point of Arminianism:

Sick
Everyone is sick (and going to Hell). However, if you go to the doctor (God), in his mercy he can decide to make you better and allow you into Heaven.

I'm a Married Man

2007-05-16T14:38:00.001+02:00

For those of you who don't know me personally and have been wondering where I've been - I got married on the 27 April and have been away on honeymoon. To the event I've set up a web album that had the original presentation that I was suppose to show at the reception... plus a few new ones from the wedding and the honeymoon. The (full-size) web-album can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/stringhandler.
Enjoy it.

Mike's Pic: Down on De Korte

2007-04-16T17:21:00.000+02:00

Location: De Korte street, JHB

More Online Writing Tips ...

2007-04-16T17:16:00.000+02:00

I posted a note about writing for online content a while back. At the time I couldn't find any articles specifically for Web and online writing. Here's a nice site that I found stumbling.

http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/

Hovind's updated timeline

2007-04-03T17:59:00.000+02:00

'Tis a dark night out tonight

2007-03-28T12:23:00.000+02:00

This dark and gloomy site met me on my way home yesterday. I think the colours were what caught my eyes, brightly set against the ominous clouds. There was something surreal about the scene.

How it should have ended ...

2007-03-27T17:37:00.000+02:00

I've got to thank the crazy for this one. The guys from How it should have ended just seem to have the same sense of humour that we do. They've taken all of the best movies (and Borat) and changed the endings, just like the title says. For honesty like that I'm going to have to add an extra banana.

My favourite has to be the Superman ending. Maybe that's because I'm a big Batman fan from back in the day.

This one is a 9 banana-er for sure.

Just another nice pic

2007-03-26T17:34:00.000+02:00

Its been hard to blog lately. I haven't been surfing as much lately. Probably the main reason is that I've moved out into my own place - and alas, I had to leave behind the ADSL line. In addition, web filters at work put a huge obstacle in the way of my StumbleUpon addiction. Hopefully I'll get back into it soon, but for now here's another pic I took on the way home. I'm really starting to enjoy this photography thing ...

Sunset over Mandela Bridge

2007-03-17T14:52:00.000+02:00

I took this photo on the way home from work the other day. Its just using the built in camera on my W800 . Another great view of the beautiful South Africa.