Phil Benwell - Internet Student

What Next?

Phil Benwell — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:05:03 +0000

Well this blog has pretty much died hasn’t it?

Thinks have been strange over the last few months, lots going on off the web and at work. I’ve also been looking to start a project that you can read about over at All Ninja, it basically involves chopping up an old games console and making it into a portable. Sounds good but me with a soldering ion and glue gun? I feel a trip the the hospital coming on.

Since completing the CIW 520 exam I have also been meaning to get stuck into the 525 material but I hit a stone wall when I got to chapter two - Internet Law, blah blah…..

Guess this is just a “Hi, I’m still alive”, if you stop buy leave a comment.

File Extension Help

Phil Benwell — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:02:06 +0000

If you’ve ever found yourself staring at file type you just don’t recognize or know what to do with, then the File Extension Library might be able to help.

Have you ever been sat looking at a ctt file and wondering what the hell it was? Whether it was safe to delete or should you keep it? Now you can find out that the file in question is a Windows Live Messenger file, usually associated with contacts.

So whether it is a ctt file or you find yourself with a DJVU file (a raster image file), then you know to head on over to the file-extension-library.

Computeach - CIW 520 Passed

Phil Benwell — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:26:09 +0000

Well, last week I was in Dudley at the Computeach Centre completing the final part of my 520 Website Designer.

I took the test on Friday after a few days cramming and passed the exam with 81%. Not too shabby but still feel I could have done better. The next stage the 525, looks at E-Commerce so hopefully when ths is out of the way, the workings of a shopping cart should be well in my grasp.

Talking of shopping carts, has anyone else seen “Shopping Cart Hero” its a very addictive flash game, check it out here:
http://www.hiddenninjagames.com/flash-arcade-game.php?gameid=219&gamename=Shopping%20Cart%20Hero

Its been a while!

Phil Benwell — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:02:11 +0000

Its been a while since I’ve had time to blog here. I’ll put another update on soon. I just wanted to ask one question really,

Whats in a domain name?

I’ve been looking at ways to earn from domain names online and there seem to be some do’s and don’t, so here are some domains I am looking into getting:

AdminHunt.com
GreatestWhite.com
MyInternetSite.org
CheeseAndMe.net
DaffyRabbit.com
HomeBlogNews.info

What would you expect to see on them, and what are your other first impressions?

I am not a good student

Phil Benwell — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:49:19 +0000

Well in the last 2 weeks of Uni I have managed to attend 1 session. Last Monday I attended the Elements of Computing class where we discussed some old operating systems and how they worked and some of the basic features they had, we also carried out a practical task of creating a bat file in MS DOS. All of this was great and I really enjoyed it but by the time Thursday rolled around I was in need to some time off so took the time to go home after work and spent it with the family.

Over the weekend I found out that the gig I was going to was on Monday (not Tuesday like I thought), so I missed Mondays session this week as I was in Manchester at a Kanye West concert. This Thursday I will really have to get to Uni as I haven’t been to the Photoshop class for 2 weeks. Which also means that my Photoshop blog hasn’t been updated. In fact a lot of my blogs haven’t been updated recently so I will have to try and make sure I visit each one this week.

I blame it all on Christmas shopping, lol.

Link Love To Start Soon

Phil Benwell — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:03:52 +0000

Since the hosting issue forced me to re-install wordpress the “top commentators” plug in didn’t get re-installed. I’ve only just realised this and have decided to start giving some love back to the commentors.

I have installed a nice plug in that keeps a track of who is commenting on what in the back end of wordpress and on a monthly basis will provide links back to the top guys.

So over to you, what links would you like? A month in the blogroll, a reference in a link love post? Or a banner/125 ad for a month?

Photoshop Week 4

Phil Benwell — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:12:27 +0000

Last night was another Photoshop class, we looked at Selecting for the 2nd week as it is an essential part of using photoshop for a variety of things. Last night we looked at the “Lasso” tool and variations as well as recapping the magic wand, marquee tools and basic layers. We were also introduced to layer masks and also a few more helpful tips.

I’ll be adding some more tutorials and tips based on selecting to the Photoshop Blog later today and over the weekend.

First assignment of the year

Phil Benwell — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:53:27 +0000

Its been a couple of weeks coming but we have been set our first assignment of the year for the module “Elements of Computing.” What makes this different from previous assignments is that we have a choice of which subject we pick and then we have to write a 1600 word essay to hand in before Christmas. The topics we can choose from are:

• What are the current big issues in motherboard design? How are AMD and Intel responding to them, and to the design initiatives of one another?

• What is the significance of Intel’s Core 2 Duo architecture? Why did Intel promote it heavily to lay audiences (eg through prime time TV, full page spreads in broad¬sheet magazines, London Underground and other large format poster displays)?

• What issues have driven the evolution of operating systems, from the nineteen sixties to the present?

I think I am really heading towards either of the first 2 options as I would rather look at something more current rather than looking back as far as the sixties. I’m going to have a look around on the web first for helpful content before making my final decision but I want to make a start asap and not leave this one til the last minute.

Wish me luck.

First payment from Google

Phil Benwell — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:40:12 +0000

Last week I managed to cash my first cheque from Google for my earnings through adsense. It was only for £53 ($120ish), but that is good enough a start for me. I have had this site up since February 2008 so it is 8 months old. With a bit of luck the adsense will pick up and I should have another cheque for a similar amount once the site hits 1 year old.

The goal of £100 per year of automatic earnings is a good one for me as it pays for my reseller hosting which allows me to host this and 9 other sites. It means anything else I do on those sites runs cost free, which I really like the sound of.

I remembered to take a photo of the cheque before depositing at the bank so will try and post that up here as my first ever one (of hopefully many).

Thats it for today.

Strange weeks at Uni

Phil Benwell — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:11:43 +0000

This week and next are going to be a little strange at Uni, this week we had a class on Monday as normal but no Photoshop class on Thursday, then next week vice versa.

This is due to next week being a reading week, so we should have really had a free week. Our photoshop tutor however cannot make the class this Thursday so we are having a week off this week instead.

Elements of Computing on Monday was interesting - we looked at the different types of RAM and also had a closer look at the make up of a Processor. I never know that the chip was only a small part of the square and the rest was for connection and cooling.

We are also going to be set our first assignment of the semester in the next couple of days. It will be a written piece of around 2000 words so I hope I can get this out out of the way pretty soon after receiving it, the problem being that we have not covered all the required content as yet in class. I hate it when they do that.

Anyway, a day off Thursday should give me more time to get the Photoshop Blog up and running.