Toby Lyte

Adjusting padding in cells in Microsoft Word tables to add white space

2014-02-19T09:06:00.000+00:00

A default table inserted into a Microsoft Word document doesn't have very much white space around the individual cells.

There is very little white space above and below the text in each cell.

To change this, highlight the whole table, right click on it and select table properties.
In this dialog box select Options in the bottom right hand corner.

In the new dialog box that is displayed you can now adjust the cell padding.

By changing the top and bottom margins to 0.15 cm the table is now more aesthetically pleasing.

CD and DVD Label Design Software for Ubuntu Linux

2009-06-15T21:08:00.002+01:00

I've recently needed to print out some circular CD labels. I purchased the blank labels from Tesco and they come branded as PressIt. After a bit of Googling I found this article titled Three applications for making disk labels. I settled for glabels which I installed in Ubuntu by opening a terminal and executing the following:

sudo aptitude install glabels

Jslint rhino and custom global options

2009-06-11T21:46:00.003+01:00

Jslint is a tool developed by Douglas Crockford which analyses javascript and reports problems with syntax and ensures code quality. Here are my instructions that will enable you to use jslint from the command line with rhino. The problem that I ran into was that I didn't want to have to add the /*jslint eqeqeq:true */ to each of the 400+ files in our pr0ject. By using the following technique it means default options can be supplied to jslint on a global basis.

Download these files

Concatenate them together and save as a new file fulljslintrhino.js

Download Rhino

Extract js.jar

Put fulljslintrhino.js and js.jar in the same directory.

Providing that your java installation has been added to the path it should now be possible to execute the following

java -jar js.jar fulljslintrhino.js YourFileToBeTested.js

To customise the options you need to edit the fulljslintrhino.js file and find the section that you pasted in from rhino.js. Edit the section that looks like this: -


   if (!JSLINT(input, {bitwise: true, eqeqeq: true, immed: true,
           newcap: true, nomen: true, onevar: true, plusplus: true,
           regexp: true, rhino: true, undef: true, white: true})) {

Free Image Resizer

2006-07-04T21:35:00.000+01:00

"I have used the handy Windows XP power tool, Image Resizer ( http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp ), for a long time on my laptop. It's much more convenient and faster than opening PaintShopPro or one of the other giant photo programs I have for other, more intense image processing.

I recently bought a new desktop and downloaded Image Resizer, but when I'd right-click on a photo, the resize option didn't show up. I found this fix online:

If Image Resizer doesn't work, go to the command prompt and type in:
REGSVR32 SHIMGVW.DLL

After doing the above, Image Resizer now works like a charm!"

SEO Backlink Analyser Tool

2006-01-30T16:49:00.000+00:00

Whilst reading the Opportunity Wales Blog the other day I discovered a very useful tool at seobook.com This Back Link analyser is free (as in beer) and shows what other links point to a website together with the anchor text. It's really useful and well worth downloading. You will need to get a Google API Key to get the full use out of the program, again these are free so it's just a case of signing up for one.

Ubuntu on IBM Thinkpad 390X Garbled Sound

2006-01-25T22:14:00.000+00:00

I have recently installed Ubuntu on my IBM Thinkpad 390 and it all worked perfectly with the exception of sound. I tried loads of different things to no avail. Different drivers, different audio players. It wasn't silent just garbled, when playing music it was garbled in time to the beat.

After doing a bit more googling I discovered that I needed to disable the PCI power management in the BIOS. Fortunately this was all it took to solve the problem and now sound plays perfectly.

I am really impressed by Ubuntu so far. The only thing that would prevent me from completely moving over to it is that I need access to Internet explorer in my role as a web developer. As much as I would only like to develop sites for Firefox unfortunately for the moment the masses still use firefox.

Adding Delicious Daily Links to Blogger

2005-12-20T10:49:00.000+00:00

After reading a very interesting article on how to increase traffic to your blog by Steve Rubel I really wanted to get point 2 working.

Adding Del.ici.ous Daily Links to Blogger

There's a good article on how to do it for typepad here in the comments there are instructions on how to do it for blogger.

Step 1 - Go to your delicious account.

Step 2 - Click on the link on the upper right that says Settings

Step 3 - In the right column, under Experimental (and I stress experimental), click on the link that says "daily blog posting"

Step 4 - You get a set of fields that look like this:

job_name
Daily Delicious Post (or whatever you want)

out_name
Your Blogger username.

out_pass
Your Blogger password.

out_url
Your blogspot url

out_time
Hour in GMT that you want to have this post.

out_blog_id
Your Blogger blog ID. See how to find yours here

out_cat_id
This doesn’t work in Blogger. Put any number here.

Click “Submit Query”. You should be setup to post daily to your blog.

Essential house keeping in Ubuntu

2005-12-19T22:40:00.000+00:00

When I was looking for instructions on how to install gnucash in Ubuntu 5.10 I found Essential house keeping in Ubuntu. A really useful start to getting all the useful programs installed.

The Moorings: Riverside Holiday Cottage on the Norfolk Broads

2005-12-16T12:57:00.000+00:00

I am going to meet up with mates this weekend in Norfolk. Fortunately I am going to get to stay in the norfolk broads is a really nice cottage.

Computer Geek / Nerd Quiz

2005-09-28T09:05:00.000+01:00

My computer geek score is greater than 80% of all people in the world! How do you compare? Click here to find out!

Sentry Gun

2005-09-23T12:37:00.000+01:00

How We Built the Quintessential Sentry Gun The idea of this project was to create a fully-automated sentry gun, capable of picking out a human target and accurately tracking and shooting him or her in the heart. Really, the idea was to find a cool robotics project for the summer while I was working at an advertising agency, and I'd only ever seen sentry guns in movies (like Congo) and video games (Half-Life 1, Half-Life 2, Team Fortress Classic).

Migrate from Pegasus Mail to Thunderbird

2005-09-16T09:54:00.000+01:00

I finally took the plunge and migrated my mail from Pegasus to Thunderbird.

Unfortunately this was not as straightforward as I had hoped. However I did find a relatively simple solution.

Go through your mail and delete any messages that have large attachments. This will speed up the process greatly.
Copy all your message folders (*.PMM) to a machine that is running *nix. Messages are located by default at C:\PMAIL\MAIL\yourusername\
Download the following file pmail2mbox.c and then compile it.
gcc pmail2mbox.c -o pmail2mbox
Place the result pmail2mbox file in the same folder as the PMM files.
Change to that directory then run the following command.
for mailbox in `ls *.PMM`; do ./pmail2mbox -s $mailbox; done
This will convert all the mailboxes into mbox format.
All you need to do now is copy the resulting files into the Thunderbird mail directory. e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\4zhmyze7.default\Mail\Local Folders

Fire up thunderbird and all your new messages will be displayed. There's a little bit of tweaking to be done, like copying the copiestoself messages into the sent folder.

You'll need to migrate your signature as well. Create a text file in c:\program files\thunderbird\ that contains your signature. Select Tools -> Account Settings -> the name of the account on that screen you can then point to your signature file.

Matchbox 20 Sounds Like Del Amitri

2005-09-14T12:07:00.000+01:00

My colleague recieved his copy of the latest Matchbox 20 album today. One of the tracks "If You're Gone" sounds just like Del Amitri's "Always the Last to know".

Unusual Vegetables

2005-09-12T12:08:00.000+01:00

I went to visit my parents this weekend and my mother served up some interesting vegetables. Romanesco

and Purple Cauliflower

Slashdot | Balmer Vows to Kill Google

2005-09-09T06:50:00.000+01:00

I read this article on Slashdot and it brought a smile to my face.

An anonymous reader writes "Probably due to the Microsoft suit against Google over human resources, some very heated exchanges have turned up in some court documents. Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer has apparently vowed to kill Internet search leader Google, according to documents filed in the increasingly bitter battle between the rivals." From the article: "At some point in the conversation, Mr. Ballmer said: 'Just tell me it's not Google,'' Lucovosky said in his statement. Lucovosky replied that he was joining Google. 'At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office,' Lucovosky recounted, adding that Ballmer then launched into a tirade about Google CEO Eric Schmidt. 'I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google.' Schmidt previously worked for Sun Microsystems and was the CEO of Novell."

@Wales PR Marketing Masterclass

2005-09-07T12:25:00.000+01:00

Last night I went to a very interesting marketing masterclass. It was organised by the @Wales WDA funded group.

The 4 speakers were all very informative, entertaining and spoke very well. The buffet was lovely chinese food, spring rolls, seaweed etc.

Matthew Yeomans - customCommunication.co.uk

His company helps businesses set up their own blogs. The company has more a role in advising of content and why they should get blogs rather than actually providing them.
He points his customers in the direction of suitable solutions for their requirements. As most of his talk was about blogs and their effectiveness there wasn't really anything we weren't already aware of.

The main point of his talk was that blogs give everyone an online, and thus available to the world, voice. Because blogs can be updated quickly and easily via a webbrowser it makes this much easier.

I went up to him at the end to ask him what RSS reader he uses as his job is reading RSS news feeds. bloglines was the answer, web based so that he can read anywhere.

Sion Barry - Business Editor - Western Mail
Very interesting and some extremely helpful suggestions!
126K readers of western mail. 46 business pages per week.

To make a press release stand out it needs to fulfil the following

new (if it happened 5 months ago it's not news, new is anything since the last publication)

relevant (if it's for a welsh newspaper it help if an element of something welsh is in there)

of interest (go to be newsworthy, will the readers be interested)

Main things to think of when writing a price release

start with the important bits to get the journalist interested

avoid jargon, even journalists for techincal publications might not understand jargon

use full names and titles e.g. John Jones Managing Director of Tin Bashers Ltd rather than "Mr Jones said...." Mr Jones could be the cleaner

Short sentences

Quotes are helpful

Background info at the end. Also known as editors notes. Can include technologies
used described in laymans terms, company history, turnover

After writing and submitting a press release what happens next.

Press release is published in paper. It is very likely to have been edited. The journalists know the style of writing that their readers like.

OR Contact by journalist for more information, important to have someone prepped to take these type of calls

OR Nothing! If a larger story has come in at the last minute your press release may well get bumped. If its not relevant etc.
It's reasonable to ring up and ask for feedback and tips on how to improve the press
release.

- Pictures can help but must be of a style relevant to the publication
They have to be interesting, it is worth getting a proffessional photographer in to take a good shot. If sending photos it's important to include captions.

Basheera Khan - Editor - pingwales.com

Pingwales is a welsh IT news web based publication. The only one in Wales.

A website should be a useful tool for all visitors. From the perspecitve of a journalist it should have
- named contacts and photos. This removes the faceless organisation look from the site.

Who - who are we, CV's of directors or key employees

What - what do we do

Why - why are we doing it, other than pure commercial reasons

When - any events coming up

Where - where are we based, where are our products used

How - how does it work, brief explanation without giving away too many techincal
secrets

So what? - what makes it different from others

Have a media kit area of the site that contains things like

reference material, white papers, surveys etc

news updated regularly, all press releases etc

bits and bobs, anything interesting e.g. office in australia, boss is windsurf champion

Rich Media Content, if explaining how it works takes too many words and a flash movie would be better do it. The journalist can put it into words.

If this information shouldn't be visible by all add a login area and allow journalists to register. If they register we know they're serious and also collect the useful contact details of journalists.

Mailshot regularly, include journalists on any mailshots of updates to your system. Allow for people to sign up for mailshots. Offer news via rss, mailshot and sms in addition to being on the site. Variety encourages more people.

Games. Nothing like games on the site to get people on there and staying there for a
while.

Keep reminding the press, it's an ongoing process not a one off press release.

Michael Nutley - Editor - New Media Age www.nma.co.uk

Trade publication. Different from newspapers.
Content has to be Relevant!
Build a relationship with Journalists, feature editors, other editors etc If you are on familiar terms with the person who is responsible for your sector then they are more likely to get it published or at least explain why not.

The letters page is a good way to get publicity, many magazines get so few letters that they will publish all that are sent in. If you have something insightful, slightly controversial to say then it might be worth writing a letter to the editor.

No Jargon. Even techincal publications may not know all the jargon.

Ensure that all press releases are sent via email. The subject line should not be flowery marketing speak but something to get the attention of the recipient.

The Slog Blog

2005-08-25T09:01:00.000+01:00

Rob is off on his cycling tour of Europe on Friday. Keep updated on how his tour is going by visiting The Slog Blog: From the Blog: "Here is the plan:

26th August - fly from London to Bonn/Cologne
23rd September - fly from Venice to London

What happens inbetween, I guess, will be documented on this blog."

w00kie's Transparent Screens slideshow on Flickr

2005-08-11T21:18:00.000+01:00

This is really neat. Check out w00kie's Transparent Screens slideshow on Flickr

eazyweb news

2005-08-11T08:58:00.000+01:00

I have added an rss feed for eazyweb news at work.

SUDDEN IMPACT !, From AMMOMAN.COM

2005-08-10T07:41:00.000+01:00

SUDDEN IMPACT !, From AMMOMAN.COM: " .444 Marlin against 0.33 Coke. The picture was made at the 8th January 1998 for the German arm journal (DWJ).

Compared to all pictures above.. this one is the most amazing."

Building a Balancing Scooter

2005-08-10T07:39:00.000+01:00

Building a Balancing Scooter: "There is one very important difference between what can be built as an experiment and the commercial Segway: The commercial one has a lot of safety features, redundancy and fool-proofing. Mine has none whatsoever"

Bill Stockton's Satirium Satire Humor Parody Satirical Headlines | Photo Gallery of George Bush's Fondness for Bald Heads

2005-08-09T18:13:00.000+01:00

Photo Gallery of George Bush's Fondness for Bald Heads

Spiral man

2005-08-05T20:23:00.000+01:00

Spiral Man

Radio Conversation of US Naval ship

2005-08-03T07:17:00.000+01:00

Radio Conversation of US Naval ship

Cenqua: The Commentator // time commenting should be time coding

2005-08-01T18:47:00.000+01:00

Cenqua: The Commentator

When a star footballer makes an winning play, he doesn't stop to explain it to the team beforehand. He makes the move. Scores the points. Gets on with the game. No time for talk.

Think about it for a moment:
You are that star footballer.