Blue Eyed Paul

Nice One, Scholes! (With Video Of The Goal)

Paul — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:01:28 +0000

The magic of Paul Scholes won Man Utd a match which has sent them to the Champions League Final for the first time in nine years. A match which is set to be an exciting all English affair as United will face either Liverpool or Chelsea (this will be decided tomorrow - 30/04/2008).

Although Barcelona largely dominated the match, Manchester United’s defending was excellent and it was on that 14th minute Paul Scholes made an amazing 25 yard curving drive. The match winner and a spectacular one too. For all of Barcelona’s endeavour, they could not muster up one the outstanding Paul Scoles did: a goal. United deserved to win the match. Barcelona may want to claim differently, but if they can’t finish then they don’t deserve it. Their attacking players could learn something by watching Scholesy.

Here’s the video of his magnificent goal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHSGTBcJIHE&rel=0

Internet Explorer on Linux

Paul — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:08:39 +0000

One of the biggest pains when designing a website is ensuring cross-browser compatibility. When it comes to HTML this is not too much of a problem, however javascript and CSS are. The layout in one browser may look completely different in another. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is not very CSS compliant, so it is always a good idea to test a design in as many websites as possible.

However, this is not always so easy if a web browser, in particular Internet Explorer, is unavailable for the operating system you use, which is the case for users of Linux, BSD and any other non-Windows OS.

Fortunately, though, for Linux users there is a solution:

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I Really Didn’t Want To Do It Again

Paul — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:08:29 +0000

… but I ended up neglecting my blog again.

A new project is on the horizon. After a lot of experimentation with drupal, I finally found what works for my forthcoming site. Drupal has a wide range of modules available, some with similar functionality, but sometimes just the “one” which fits perfectly. I highly recommend it as a content management system (really it is a framework for content management systems). It’s straightforward to install, configure and has awesome modules such as Content Construction Kit which allows the construction of custom content types. It really helps to make drupal even more capable, especially when porting a website (especially a custom-scripted one) to it.

I also finally found a graphic designer - no only one who’s good but is also reliable. She also has the ability to understand the requirements, a website idea and produce exactly what’s needed. This does not always happen when hiring a third party to produce work. I’ve got her producing a few images for the website. I also have one script left to finish writing and then of course the obligatory testing, so I aim to launch on 29 February.

Intelligence To Be Axed?

Paul — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:10:50 +0000

Is Canadian TV show Intelligence going to be axed? A post on The Tyee certainly seems to suggest so. It would be a shame if CBC did axe it as it is a quality show. The acting is great, the storyline is one of the best I’ve come across and it all combines to keep you impatient for the next episode.

For those of you not in the know, Intelligence is a Vancouver-based crime drama about an Organised Crime boss (Jimmy Reardon - played by Ian Tracey) turned informant for the Organised Crime Unit (OCU) - specifically a CI for Vancouver OCU Directory Mary Spalding (played by Klea Scott). Some of you may think of The Sopranos when watching it, but for sure it’s better. Like The Sopranos, there’s a strip club, but throw in a biker gang out to take Jimmy’s business, an OCU assistant director gunning for Maria’s job, major weed deals, a brother who can get out of control and a crazy ex-wife… you’ve got a hit show full of twists and turns.

The show is also in that cool Canadian style (in the same way Trailer Park Boys is too) which only helps to put it head and shoulders above similar American shows. A bit less action (it’s not a negative though) and a bit more story than American offerings too, so it definitely has longevity.

If you haven’t checked it out yet then for sure you should - you won’t be disappointed.

EDIT: There was a petition but it was closed down… a new one has been started up, so if you like the show and want to see a third season then sign the Save CBC’s Intelligence Petition.

Firefox Extensions For Webdevelopers

Paul — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:28:04 +0000

As a webdeveloper, albeit a hobbyist one, I’ve found Firefox standards-compliance to be a valuable asset when writing HTML, CSS and javascript. Adding a few extensions makes Firefox even more useful to a webdeveloper/webmaster. My three favourite extensions are:

Firebug - a great way for analysing a page and all the parts that make it up; javascript, images, CSS, HTML, page load times, file sizes and even edit a page in real-time. It will even find errors in your code. It’s absolutely essential, even for the webmaster who outsource their webdevelopment so they can analyse pages and determine if there are too many "hits" per page (e.g. 10 javascript files and 60 images, when it could be a lot less) which will cause slow loading speed or to easily change the colour of a page themselves and see in real time how it will look.

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Google Pack Updated

Paul — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:14:12 +0000

Google’s desktop software set, Google Pack, has been updated to be even more useful. It now includes Norton Security Scan which provides basic but adequate protection, especially when combined with Spyware Doctor (which protects against spyware and adware). Yes - I am a Linux user but I also have a laptop running Windows XP Home and a girlfriend, so some protection is definitely required.

Google Pack has become pretty extensive and perhaps an essential collection of software to install for any PC user now; it saves time by bringing together many great pieces of software. The software included is now:
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Fun Lovin’ Criminals - Big Night Out

Paul — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 21:38:03 +0000

"Bight Night Out" is one of The Fun Lovin’ Criminals finest tunes - at least for the boys. This lyrical genius was on their second album, 100% Columbian, released in 1998 which was a few years after their ground breaking début album, Come Find Yourself. The 90s truly was a great era for music. However, I digress - I had always wanted to watch the video to "Big Night Out" and now I have; I found it earlier this evening while searching Youtube.com and yes it was as good as I expected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5oqK3HX598&rel=0

Typical Fun Lovin’ Criminals - talented lyrics, great music and an amusing video to go along with it.

Hopefully, a new album will be released shortly (check the difontaine.net forum - it’s just rumour, sadly, so it’s only a hopefully…) and also Clubbing To Death should hit the big screens by the end of the year, a film starring Huey and Frank. The story line sounds interesting (it’s about clubs and gangsters) and it’s an British film, too, so it’s bound to be good.

Adsense Ad Management Simplified

Paul — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:33:43 +0000

Recently, Google announced there would be a new system of ad unit management for publishers and now finally it is here - well, not every publisher will see it just yet as it is currently in "roll out" phase. If you have not seen the changes to the new ad management within your Google Adsense account yet, don’t worry as you’re sure to shortly.

What does the new Ad Management system mean for publishers? To start off with, managing the colours, borders and channels is done simply and quickly through your Google Adsense account without having to modify Adsense code on your site. (Although you’ll need to allow changes up to 10 minutes to take effect.) Additionally, there is less code to be placed on pages ergo less chance of messing breaking the code (plus slightly quicker page load times).

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The Bidvertiser Experiment: Failed

Paul — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:15:41 +0000

Sadly, my experiment with Bidvertiser failed. I’ve removed it and won’t be bringing Adsense back for now either. Currently, I have other projects I’m working on which are far more important. I like Bidvertiser’s reporting and control over advert appearance, I just think my blog was not the right place for it. For now, I’ll stick with just Kontera as this seems to work well on a blog.

Hopefully, my pages will now be more readable and load quicker for my visitors.

PHP: Check For An Empty Value In An Array

Paul — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:25:22 +0000

Recently, I need to check for an empty value in an array. While empty() is good for checking a specific value it does not allow the checking of a whole array. I didn’t want to do multiple if statements/empty checks and also empty was not always accurate, i.e. if a variable has a value of 0 (zero) then empty considers it empty - but for my purposes this was not empty. How to solve this problem?

Well, I decide to create my own function. It’s a fairly simple one - returns FALSE if no empty array item is detected, otherwise TRUE if one is. For my purposes, I did not need to know in the check which one specifically is empty as the error message for individual items would always be reported by another function (it was for a HTML form, so the error is displayed next to each field based upon a conditional check for that specific field).

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