Gordon's WebLog

InkLineGlobal scam

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:07:31 +0000

UPDATE. SEE END OF THIS POST.

Do not purchase software, particularly HELPMYPC, from this company as it secretly changes browser defaults.

I purchased this software, but decided it was not what I wanted. I un-installed it and obtained a refund.

Since then I have found that each time I start my browser the default home page has been changed to http://google.inklineglobal.com/google_isl.html

Manually changing this and then re-starting the browser ALWAYS changed the default page.

I contacted the software company about it but have received no reply.

After MUCH searching I found that the offender was in my Firefox profile folder. In that folder there is a file called user.js which is run each time the browser starts. In that file I found the references to inkline, and, after deleting them (3 of them) the problem went away.

BE WARNED.

UPDATE

I have finally received a message from the company detailing the action to be taken to remove this annoyance. Here is what they say (I haven’t actually tried this myself):-

Please apply the following steps to reset by your browser home page:

Step 1.) download and run this fix

http://inklineglobal.com/products/helpmypc/firefox_reset.exe

Step 2.) Open Mozilla Firefox, click on TOOLS on the menu bar at the top of the Firefox screen, then click on OPTIONS.

After clicking options you will see the Firefox Options dialogue box. Type the address of the webpage that you would like to use as your new homepage into the Home Page box and click the OK button.

If it is the webpage you are currently viewing, just click the Use Current Page button, then simply click on the OK button.

Double glazing scam

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:05:48 +0000

I have received a very worrying telephone call from a firm who told me that I must replace my double glazing as it is over 11 years old, otherwise I must pay a large amount of "green tax".

It appeared from the phone call that they were trying to persuade me that the Government had made a grant of £125,000 towards the work in my postcode area, and that they were also running a "scrappage" scheme to cover more of the cost involved.

When I told them that the double glazing is perfectly satisfactory I was told that if I refused to have it replaced then they would immediately email my local council who would then send me a large bill. In fact the person who rang got very nasty, accused me of not caring about the planet and that I would have to pay one way or another - either replace or pay up or be summonsed !

As a pensioner I was very upset by this phone call. I contacted my local council who confirmed that, to their knowledge, no such compulsory scheme to replace double glazing exists, nor are they in any scheme to "green tax" householders who do not replace ageing units.

BE WARNED.

Strictly Come Dancing 2009

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:40:49 +0000

The 2009 BBC series 7 of Strictly Come Dancing kicked off on September 18th. The 16 contestant's names and pictures can be viewed here.

Week 14 (The Final)

The Finalists. Chris Hollins and Ola Jordan (danced first) and Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe.
Each couple danced 4 times, including a head-to-head Lindy Hop
and a show dance. The judges put Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe top by only 4 points.
BUT the public vote won the title for Chris Hollins and and Ola Jordan.

The following is a list of the contestants who were eliminated week by week during the series.

Week 13 (Semi Final) Ali Bastian and Brian Fortuna
This was a complete travesty of justice with Ali & Brian being
by far the better dancers than Chris and Ola who went on to the final.
Obviously they received fewer public votes, despite scoring a perfect 40/40
in week 8 for the Viennese Waltz and a perfect 50/50 in the semi final
for the American Smooth !

Week 12 (Quarter Final) Laila Rouass and Anton du Beke

Week 11 Natalie Cassidy and Vincent Simone

Week 10 Ricky Groves and Erin Boag

Also in week 10 Jade Johnson and Ian Waite retired from the competition
following the injury Jade sustained prior to the week 9 show.

Week 9 Phil Tufnell and Katya Virshilas

Jade Johnson sustained injury prior to the week 9 show and was unable to dance.

Week 8 Craig Kelly and Flavia Cacace

Week 7 Zoe Lucker and James Jordan

Week 6 Jo Wood and Brendan Col

Week 5 Joe Calzaqhe and Kristina Rihanoff

Week 4 Lynda Bellingham and Darren Bennett

Week 3 Rav Wilding and Aliona Vilani

Week 2 Richard Dunwoody and Lilia Kopylova

Week 1 Martina Hingis & Matthew Cutler

Series contestants and their professional partners.

Ali Bastian and Brian Fortuna
Lynda Bellingham and Darren Bennett
Joe Calzaqhe and Kristina Rihanoff
Natalie Cassidy and Vincent Simone
Richard Dunwoody and Lilia Kopylova
Ricky Groves and Erin Boag
Martina Hingis and Matthew Cutler
Chris Hollins and Ola Jordan
Jade Johnson and Ian Waite
Craig Kelly and Flavia Cacace
Zoe Lucker and James Jordan
Laila Rouass and Anton du Beke
Phil Tufnell and Katya Virshilas
Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe
Rav Wilding and Aliona Vilani
Jo Wood and Brendan Cole

My Firefox 3 add-ons

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:23:43 +0100

Wonderful Firefox - THE most extensible browser available.

Here is an updated list of add-ons which I use on the new 3.5 version of Firefox. Last updated 8th July 2009.

July 8, 2009

Adblock Plus 1.0.2
http://adblockplus.org/
Firefox 2.0 - 3.6a1pre
Ads were yesterday!
AI Roboform Toolbar for Firefox 6.9.95
http://www.roboform.com
Firefox 3.0 - 3.5.*
Allows the use of Roboform in Firefox.
All-in-One Sidebar 0.7.10
http://firefox.exxile.net/aios
Firefox 3.0 - 3.5.*
Sidebar control with award-winning user experience!
ansteymethodist Toolbar 2.0.5.3
http://www.conduit.com
Firefox 1.0 - 3.5.*
More than just a toolbar.
Back to Top 5.3.2
http://customsoftwareconsult.com/extensions
Firefox 2.0 - 3.5.*
Go to the top (or bottom) of a page
Blog This in Windows Live Writer 1.0.1
(Disabled, Incompatible)
Firefox 1.5 - 3.0.11
Adds a toolbar button to blog about pages and snippets in Windows Live Writer.
British English Dictionary 1.19
Firefox 2.0 - 3.6a1pre
ColorZilla 2.0.2
http://www.colorzilla.com/
Firefox 1.5 - 3.5.*
Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies
Evernote Web Clipper 3.0.0.51093
http://www.evernote.com/
Firefox 2.0 - 3.6a1pre
Provides a button and context menus to easily add a selection or an entire page to Evernote
Extension List Dumper 1.14.2
http://sogame.awardspace.com/
Firefox 1.5 - 3.5.*
Dumps a list of the installed extensions.
Fasterfox 3.0.4
(Disabled, Incompatible)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9037
Firefox 1.5 - 3.0.*
Performance and network tweaks for Firefox.
Firebug 1.4.0b5
http://www.getfirebug.com/
Firefox 3.5b4 - 3.5.*
Web Development Evolved.
FireFTP 1.0.5
http://fireftp.mozdev.org
Firefox 3.5 - 3.5.*
FTP Client for Mozilla Firefox.
Flagfox 3.3.13
http://flagfox.net/
Firefox 2.0 - 3.6a1pre
Displays a flag depicting the location of the current server
FootieFox 2.1.6
http://www.footiefox.com/
Firefox 1.5 - 3.5
Soccer scores, live and almost instantly.
Forecastfox 0.9.10.1
http://forecastfox.mozdev.org/
Firefox 2.0 - 3.5.*
Get international weather forecasts and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable extension.
History Submenus 1.33
Firefox 3.0a1 - 3.5.*
Adds submenus to History Menu for previous days' history.
HP Smart Web Printing 4.0
(Disabled, Incompatible)
http://www.hp.com/go/smartwebprinting
Firefox 2.0.0.0 - 3.0.11
Print what you want, how you want.
Java Console 6.0.02
Firefox 1.0 - 5.0+
Java Console 6.0.03
Firefox 1.0 - 5.0+
Java Console 6.0.13
Firefox 1.0 - 5.0+
JSView 2.0.5
http://forum.softwareblaze.com
Firefox 2.0 - 3.6a1pre
View the source code of external stylesheets and javascripts.
Juice 1.0.2
http://juiceapp.com
Firefox 3.0 - 3.5.*
Enhanced browser experience
Live IP Address 1.83
(Disabled, Incompatible)
http://www.intelcomms.net/
Firefox 1.0 - 3.1b2
Displays permanently your live IP address on Firefox's status bar.
MeasureIt 0.3.9
http://www.kevinfreitas.net/pro/extensions/
Firefox 1.0 - 3.5.*
Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.1
http://www.windowsclient.net/
Firefox 1.5 - 3.*.*
Adds ClickOnce support and the ability to report installed .NET Framework versions to the web server.
MultirowBookmarksToolbar 3.8
http://space.geocities.yahoo.co.jp/gl/alice0775
Firefox 3.0pre - 3.6a1pre
Multi Row Bookmarks Toolbar
Nightly Tester Tools 2.0.2
http://www.oxymoronical.com/web/firefox/nightly
Firefox 3.0b5 - 3.6a1pre
Useful tools for the nightly tester.
Page Info Button 0.1.3.4
http://www.wirble.de/pageinfo/
Firefox 1.5 - 3.5.*
Adds a button for "Page Info" to the toolbar and also restores the Ctrl-I shortcut.
Personal Menu 4.1.4
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/3895/
Firefox 1.5 - 3.6a1pre
Create your own menu and save more space.
Print/Print Preview 0.6
http://www.splintered.co.uk/
Firefox 1.5 - 3.5.*
Replace the default "Print" button with the Mozilla Suite style "Print/Print Preview" toolbar button/menu, with additional "Page setup" option. Adds new options to context menu as well.
QuickRestart 1.1.5
http://es.geocities.com/jucarlosa/quickaddons/
Firefox 1.5 - 3.5.*
Adds a "Restart Firefox" item to the "File" menu.
Read it Later 0.9946
http://readitlaterlist.com
Firefox 3.0b3 - 3.6a1pre
Save pages to read later, then bookmark.
Sage 1.4.2
http://sage.mozdev.org
Firefox 3.0b1 - 3.*
A lightweight RSS and Atom feed reader.
ScrapBook 1.3.3.9
http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/
Firefox 2.0 - 3.5
Helps you to save Web pages and organize the collection.
Site Launcher 1.5.0
http://www.donesmart.com/sitelauncher/
Firefox 3.0 - 3.6a1pre
Open websites using special keyboard shortcuts
StumbleUpon 3.29
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
Firefox 1.0 - 3.6a1pre
StumbleUpon Toolbar
Stylish 1.0.3
http://userstyles.org/
Firefox 3.0 - 3.6a1pre
Restyle the web with Stylish, a user styles manager.
Tab Clicking Options 0.6.9
(Disabled, Incompatible)
http://twanno.mozdev.org/
Firefox 1.0 - 3.0.*
Select actions for clicking events on a tab or the tabbar
Tab Mix Plus 0.3.7.3
(Disabled, Incompatible)
http://tmp.garyr.net
Firefox 2.0 - 3.1b2pre
Tab browsing with an added boost.
TotalToolbar 1.6
http://totaltoolbar.mozdev.org
Firefox 3.0.11 - 3.6pre
Customize and place multiple toolbars almost anywhere. Customize statusbar too.
Tunebite Firefox Surf and Catch Plugin 1.3.6900.0
(Disabled, Incompatible)
tunebite.com
Firefox 2.0.0.0 - 3.0.*
Surf & Catch support for Mozilla Firefox
Undo Closed Tabs Button 3.5.1
http://code.google.com/p/uctb/
Firefox 3.0.11 - 3.5.*
Add a toolbar and/or tab bar button to undo closed tabs
YSlow 2.0.0b3
(Disabled, Incompatible)
http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow
Firefox 2.0 - 3.0.*
Make your pages faster with Yahoo!s page performance tool

Technorati Tags: Firefox, Firefox 3, Firefox 3.5, extensions, add-ons

Strictly Come Dancing 2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:41:47 +0100

The 2008 season of the BBC Television program Strictly Come Dancing,
commencement date 20th September, Grand Final 20th December 2008.

Sixteen celebrities paired with sixteen professional dancers competed to take over the crown won by Mark Ramprakash & Karen Hardy in 2006 and Alesha Dixon & Matthew Cutler in 2007.

This immensely popular program, in its sixth series, was hosted by Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly
with the usual panel of expert judges, Craig Revel Horwood, Arlene Phillips, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli.

Each week one celebrity was eliminated as a result of the judge's marks and public phone-in.

ANALYSIS OF THE FINAL 2 PROGRAM'S SCORING

Semi Final judges points Rachel 3 Lisa 3 Tom 1
Public vote Rachel 2 Lisa 1 Tom 3
Total Rachel 5 Lisa 4 Tom 4

Final dance 1 Rachel 40 Lisa 40 Tom 35
Final dance 2 Rachel 39 LIsa 40 Tom 38
Points Rachel 2 Lisa 3 Tom 1
Plus last week's totals gives Rachel 7 Lisa 7 Tom 5
Giving points allocated Rachel 3 Lisa 3 Tom 1

The BBC were completely wrong in NOT having a dance off in the semi final
which would quite likely have meant that Tom would have been elimiated.

Despite Tom AGAIN being bottom of the leader board in the final, after the public vote
Lisa was eliminated - presumably because she received fewer votes than
the other two, and Tom went on to win the competition with a dance which
was a model of abandon and activity (Tom apearing to be
like a rag doll at times) against Rachel's
pure, technical dance.

Couples in the Grand Final

THE WINNERS
Tom Chambers & Camilla Dallerup.
Despite coming 3rd in the judges scoring,
behind Rachel (scored 79/80) and Lisa (scored 80/80),
and helped by popular voting rather than voting based on dance ability,
his final dance was a model of abandon and activity and finally won the day.

SECOND PLACE
Rachel Stevens & Vincent Simone.
Fantastic series for them, they scored the most maximum points
of all contestants and broke several Strictly records.
Certainly my favourites, and would have been worthy winners
if the BBC had not saved Tom and Camilla from elimination in the semi final.

THIRD PLACE
Lisa Snowdon & Brendan Cole.
Despite scoring 2 maximum 40's for their dances
(coming top of the leader board)
they were disappointingly
eliminated by the voting public.

The following is a list of the contestants who were eliminated week by week during the series.

Week number	Contestants eliminated
13 Semi Final	In a surprise, and wholly unprecedented move, the BBC decided that NOBODY would be eliminated at the semi final stage. Lisa, Rachel and Tom, together with their partners, will all dance in the Grand Final, viewers votes being carried over.
12 Quarter Final	Austin Healey & Erin Boag
11	Christine Bleakley & Matthew Cutler
10	John Sergeant & Kristina Rihanoff decided that to continue in the competition was impossible in view of the immense controversy surrounding them. THANK YOU BOTH FOR ENTERTAINING US. The couple eliminated under the normal competition rules was Jodie Kidd & Ian Waite
9	Cherie Lunghi & James Jordan
8	Heather Small & Brian Fortuna
7	Andrew Castle & Ola Jordan
6	Mark Foster & Hayley Holt
5 Mixed from now	Don Warrington & Lilia Kopylova
4 Ladies only	Jessie Wallace & Darren Bennett
3 Men only	Gary Rhodes & Karen Hardy
2 Ladies only	Gillian Taylforth & Anton Du Beke
1 Men only	Phil Daniels & Flavia Cacace

The contestants are as follows.

Photo	Contestant details
	Cherie Lunghi Leading lady of stage and screen, Cherie Lunghi has appeared in practically every popular drama or series going: from Casualty and Cutting It to Hotel Babylon; Cherie has also starred in Waking the Dead, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Secret Diary of a Callgirl and The Manageress, where she played the first woman in Britain to ever become manager of a professional soccer team. Cherie first burst into the public consciousness as Guinevere in the acclaimed film, Excalibur. She also appeared in Oliver Twist, The Mission alongside Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons and Jack and Sarah with Richard E. Grant. James Jordan James is a Latin American specialist. He is married to and dances professionally with Ola. They both joined the Strictly team in series four. They have been dancing together for six years and turned professional in 2003. Since then they have been Closed British finalists in 2005, UK Open Rising Star finalists and British Open Rising Star Professional Latin runners-up in 2006.
	Andrew Castle Swapping the courts for the dance floor, former British number one tennis player Andrew has been a breakfast presenter on GMTV on ITV1 since 2000. A member of the BBC tennis team, covering Wimbledon and all the major tennis tournaments, Andrew has been lead commentator on all Men's Singles Finals since 2003 working alongside John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors, and Tim Henman. He was also a member of the UK's Olympic teams in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. Ola Jordan Polish born, Ola is a Latin American specialist and, with her husband James, is taking part in Strictly for the third time. Ola and James have been dancing together for eight years, and professionally for the last five years.
	Christine Bleakley Christine's career did not begin in front of the camera. In actual fact she trained as a floor manager in television in her native Northern Ireland. She quickly climbed the TV production ladder, emerging as a solo presenter on BBC Northern Ireland for such shows as Skyhigh and First Stop. Her big break in the UK came when the producer of The One Show called her up and asked if she would step into then presenter Myleene Klass's shoes as she had unexpectedly gone into labour. She's since been made co-presenter with Adrian Chiles. Matthew Cutler Matthew is a Latin American dance specialist and has claimed the title of UK Closed Professional Latin Champion in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2005. Last year was Matthew's best, winning the show with Alesha Dixon. "Winning Strictly Come Dancing last year was like a dream come true for me," he chimed, "Alesha was amazing, she had the rare balance of dedication, fun and talent. The whole experience was mad, exciting, exhausting - I loved it!"
	Austin Healey Strictly Come Dancing has had its fair share of colourful contestants and former rugby union ace Austin Healey certainly continues this tradition. While his all-round talent and international and domestic triumphs made him a regular fixture of the sports pages, Austin has also created headlines with his views on team mates, rugby rivals and club managers. On the pitch he achieved international recognition at an early age - he played for England under 21s in 1992, aged just 19 and was an integral member of the Leicester team that dominated the sport from 1998 to 2002. Erin Boag Erin is a strong, vivacious Kiwi, who specialises in ballroom dancing. Her professional dance partner is fellow Strictly dancer Anton Du Beke. She has made it to the final of the show in previous series, with partners Julian Clary and Colin Jackson, last year she danced with Willie Thorne. Erin was The 2003 IDTA Classic Champion.
	Gillian Taylforth Gillian is the Queen of the Soaps, with more than 20 years starring in Britain's most popular TV shows including playing the role of Kathy Mitchell in EastEnders, as Jackie Pascoe-Webb in ITV1's Footballers' Wives, and more recently as Sgt. Nikki Wright in ITV1's The Bill. Gillian's main reason for taking part is because she is a huge fan of the show and loves dancing and keeping fit. She also feels that she's been working so hard at acting recently, that it was about time she had a bit of fun. Anton Du Beke Anton is a typical English gentleman, but is well known for his naughty sense of humour! Anton specialises in ballroom dancing and dances professionally with Erin Boag. Together, Anton and Erin won the IDTA Classic in England in 2003. Anton has appeared in Strictly since series one when he came third with Lesley Garrett.
	Don Warrington Don's most famous for playing the role of Philip Smith in the sitcom Rising Damp. He has also appeared in the crime drama C.A.T.S. Eyes, New Street Law, Manchild and Dr Who. Don has always wanted to learn how to dance, believing it's a wonderful skill to acquire. He'd especially like to learn some of the more 'classic' ballroom dances. Lilia Kopylova Lilia is gentle and softly spoken, but below the surface lies a cheeky Russian minx. Her speciality is Latin American and together with her partner and husband Darren Bennett, also appearing in Strictly, they are ranked the number one Latin American couple in Britain. Lilia won the third series of Strictly with Darren Gough.
	Heather Small Heather Small is a pop singer best known for fronting M People. The 1990s saw the Manchester dance act notch up twenty Top 20 hits, the highest of which, Moving On Up got to No.2 in 1993. Outside of M People, Heather appeared on the 1997 Children In Need song Perfect Day, alongside such pop legends as David Bowie, Bono, Elton John and Boyzone - to name just four. Brian Fortuna Brian started dancing when he was four years old at his Mother's dance studio in New Jersey and has since danced in and hosted hundreds of shows. He was born and raised in Philadelphia and is now based in Los Angeles. Both of his parents have held nationally ranked titles in Ballroom and Latin. He specialises in wheelchair Ballroom and Latin dancing and has coached and choreographed the award winning salsa team 'Ritmo Latino'. This is Brian's first appearance on Strictly, although he has taken part in the American version on the show, 'Dancing with the Stars'.
	Gary Rhodes As one of Britain's most foremost TV chefs, Gary Rhodes is no stranger to heat (or patterned trousers), which will hopefully stand him in good stead on the Strictly dance floor. Gary has been a chef for over 30 years, having run several Michelin-star restaurants, made guest appearances on numerous cooking shows, and presented his own shows Rhodes Around Britain and Gary's Perfect Christmas. He was awarded an OBE in 2007. Karen Hardy Karen danced into first place with her partner Mark Ramprakash in series four. Before her retirement from the competitive world of dance in March 1999, Karen's successful partnership with Bryan Watson saw them both crowned as undefeated champions in many national and international competitions.
	Jessie Wallace As EastEnders' own Kat Slater, Jessie Wallace is no stranger to spectacle. Her talent and a run of searing storylines has earned her a string of awards from Best Actress to Sexiest Female. Since leaving Albert Square in 2005, Jessie has appeared in BBC One's A Class Apart, BBC Four's Miss Marie Lloyd - Queen of The Music Hall and ITV1's Wild At Heart. Jessie has also been keeping up appearances on the stage, making her West End debut in Rent Remixed in 2007. Darren Bennett Darren is a down to earth, cheeky guy who loves his Northern roots. Darren and his partner and wife Lilia Kopylova, also appearing in Strictly, are currently ranked the number one British Latin American couple. Last year, Darren partnered with Letitia Dean and together they reached the quarter final. Although they were both struck down by illness in one particularly hard week, Letitia's confidence and talent grew throughout the competition.
	John Sergeant John Sergeant is one of Britain's most popular and respected broadcasters and authors. His award-winning career as a political journalist has been as lengthy as it has been successful and seen him interview heavyweight luminaries such as Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and John Major. In recent years John has become as famous for his appearances on comedy shows such as Have I Got News For You, QI, and Room 101. Kristina Rihanoff Kristina was born in Siberia and fell in love with music and dance at a young age. When she was six years old, she began to study ballet. She has been trained in Latin and Standard styles, as well as Rhythm and Theatre Arts. It is the Latin harmonies that truly stir her passions.
	Jodie Kidd Supermodel Jodie Kidd is one of Britain's most successful and loved models. Her international modelling career has seen her grace the covers of Elle Magazine in an astounding five countries, British Vogue, The Face and Tatler. As well as being a successful cover model she has also taken to the catwalk for the world's greatest designers, including Jasper Conran, Julien McDonald and Chanel amongst many others. Ian Waite Ian's speciality is Latin American and he made it to the European Professional Latin Championships finals in 2003. This will be Ian's fifth series of Strictly, after grabbing second place with Denise Lewis in series two and third place with Zoe Ball in series three. Ian dances professionally with fellow Strictly dancer, Camilla Dallerup.
	Mark Foster Mark Foster is arguably the most successful swimmer Britain has ever produced. Six times a World Champion, his bulging trophy cabinet holds 10 European Champion medals and two Commonwealth Champion medals. He has also broken eight world records in his career. August 2008 saw Mark compete in his fifth Olympic games - recognising this feat, Mark was voted by his team-mates as the Team GB member who would carry the British flag at the Olympic Opening ceremony. Hayley Holt Hailing from Auckland, Hayley joins the Strictly roster for the first time this year. She started ballroom and latin dancing at the age of seven, and her accolades include New Zealand Professional Ballroom Champion. Hayley thinks it's hard to remember that Ballroom and Latin dancing are such a foreign concept for the celebrities: "I try not to hit them with too much information straight away."
	Lisa Snowdon Television presenter, model, pin-up and all round girl next door, Lisa Snowdon has firmly established herself as more than just a pretty face. As well as being one of the UK's top models, Lisa has also carved out a successful career in television. Lisa is a host and judge on Living TV's Britain's Next Top Model, and she also starred in this year's Celebrity Apprentice on BBC One for Sports Relief, and presented on BBC Two's Through the Keyhole, alongside Sir David Frost. Brendan Cole Brendan Cole returns for his sixth Strictly Come Dancing competition. Brendan moved to London from his native new Zealand when he was 18 to seek a career in dance, financing himself with a number of jobs, including being a warehouseman and a builder. Brendan specialises in Latin American dancing, during his career he has been both Asian Pacific Latin America Champion and New Zealand Latin American Champion. He won the first series of Strictly with partner Natasha Kaplinsky.
	Phil Daniels Some know Phil Daniels best as Jimmy in the cult film Quadrophenia, the Britpop generation knows him as the voice on Blur's Parklife, and a new breed of EastEnders fans know him simply as Kevin Wicks. Phil isn't just a multi-talented actor, it turns out he's a sporting all-rounder too. This year he even did the London Marathon. On a slightly more bizarre note, Phil is a trained knife-thrower, and once practised his skills on Jonathan Ross! Flavia Cacace Italian-born Flavia first joined Strictly in series four and was last year's runner up with partner Matt De Angelo. Flavia and her professional partner Vincent Simone have appeared as Argentine Tango specialists on Strictly Dance Fever and Strictly Come Dancing.
	Rachel Stevens As a UK pop star, Rachel formed an integral seventh of successful pop group S Club 7. During their tenure, the pop act racked up 11 Top 40 hits, including chart toppers Reach, Don't Stop Movin' and Have You Ever. The band called it a day in 2002, and Rachel branched out as a solo singer a year later, scoring several Top 10 hits, before hanging up her sparkly gloves in 2005. Rachel can also count being an FHM magazine favourite and the first woman to appear in a campaign to raise awareness of testicular cancer among her achievements. Vincent Simone Italian Vincent Simone comes from a dancing family; both his parents are professional Ballroom and Latin teachers. He joined Strictly in series four, dancing with Louisa Lytton. Vincent and his partner Flavia, who is also appearing in Strictly, have been dancing together for 11 years. They have won numerous championships including UK Professional Ten Dance, UK Professional Showdance, UK Argentine and World Argentine Tango Show.
	Tom Chambers Tom Chambers sets millions of hearts aflutter on a weekly basis with his portrayal of registrar lady-killer Sam Strachan in BBC One's Holby City. His heartthrob status is only likely to increase once female Strictly viewers get to see him in his sequins! Tom is a huge fan of dancing, and one of his ambitions is to make and appear in a Singing in the Rain-esque British movie. He thinks there's no better way to prepare for such a goal than to compete on Strictly. Camilla Dallerup Camilla is a blonde, Danish beauty with huge charisma who specialises in Latin American dancing. During her career she has been both Asian Pacific Latin American Champion and New Zealand Latin American Champion. Her professional dance partner is Ian Waite, who also appears in Strictly. Camilla reunited with former partner and fellow Strictly dancer Brendan Cole in 2007 to represent the UK in the first Eurovision Dance Contest.

Courtesy BBC

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, BBCc, Strictly Come Dancing, Cherie Lunghi, James Jordan, Andrew Castle, Ola Jordan, Christine Bleakley, Matthew Cutler, Austin Healey, Erin Boag, Gillian Taylforth, Anton Du Beke, Don Warrington, Lilia Kopylova, Heather Small, Brian Fortuna, Gary Rhodes, Karen Hardy, Jessie Wallace, Darren Bennett, John Sergeant, Kristina Rihanoff, Jodie Kidd, Ian Waite, Mark Foster, Hayley Holt, Lisa Snowdon, Brendan Cole, Phil Daniels, Flavia Cacace, Rachel Stevens, Vincent Simone, Tom ChambersCamilla Dallerup

Two alternative search engines

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:05:04 +0100

Of course most of us use Google, Yahoo or MSN for searching the Internet, but there ARE other search engines available, 2 of which I have been trying out recently.

Addictomatic

From the Addictomatic web site :- "This isn’t a traditional search engine. It’s not designed to help you find answers about some error message or the cheapest flight to Aruba. Addictomatic helps you see what’s going on now on a given topic."

This is certainly a search engine with a difference as it is an aggregator. Entering a search term starts a search of up to 24 sources of information and then displays panels of links to web pages, one panel per source. If you don't a particular sours panel then it may be deleted.

At first I thought this was just a pretty gimmick, but id does work very nicely, and it is certainly addictive.

Give it a try at addictomatic.com or have a look at their descriptive blog page here .

Searchme

Now this search engine has a REALLY pretty display, very similar to minimized applications in Windows Vista.

Go to http://www.searchme.com/ and enter a search term and you may then browse through the various panels which each display one web page. Best of all you can generate a "stack" of page by dragging the panels onto the "stack" icon at the top of the page. Clicking on any panel opens it in a normal browser window. You can also make it available as one of your search engines if you use Firefox.

It's absolutely fantastic, and very useful for storing stacks of pages that you visit regularly.

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, addictomatic, searchme, search, engine, search engines, firefox

Useful web site tools

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:10:51 +0100

Website Grader

Have you ever wondered just how your web site compares with others, its social popularity, its inward links, its readability level and other technical factors ? Well, wonder no more. Website Grader will give you an immense amount of information on many aspects of your site. It is very easy to use, and the results are available within a very short time in the form of a report which includes many useful hints and tips and an overall score out of 100.

When I used this tool on my Church web site it gave a score of 58 i.e. it "scores" better than 58% of other web sites in its effectiveness calculated over 50 variables. The report also states that the site is within the top 8.92% of sites. Further, there are over 33,000 subscribers to its RSS feed. Doing a report on this blog gives an even higher score of 62, and it is in the top 1.82% of blogs tracked by Technorati.

Give it a try. The report may enable you to get a higher ranking.

IE NetRenderer

Yes, we all know that Internet Explorer in its various versions can cause some web pages to display incorrectly. Here is a tool that will render any web page in various IE versions. It is very quick and give a good idea as to whether all is OK with the page. Give it a try. It could save hours of frustration.

YSlow

If you use the Firefox browser then there is a delightful add-on called YSlow which will enables you to analyze many aspects of your site (performance, statistics and component summary), and it also gives an idea of what elements on a page are causing slow download times. NOTE. It must be used in connection with the Firebug add-on.

Site-Perf

Site-Perf is another useful tool which measures the time taken to load various compenents on a web page. This is particularly useful in relation to images, as these are notorious at slowing doen page loads, particularly if they are not optimized for the web.

Technorati Tags: Firefox, Firebug, Yslow, Website Grader, Grader, Site-Perf, IE NetRenderer, IE, Internet Explorer

Integrated calendar for Thunderbird

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:25:50 +0100

In this posting I detailed the Mozilla programs Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird.

Since then Firefox version 3 has been release, and a new integrated calendar and task list for Thunderbird call Lightning - it runs as an addon. This is much better than Sunbird which does not integrate with Thunderbird.

If you are using Sunbird, the Reminderfox extension for Thunderbird, or any other program than can export data to an ics file then you can import them into Lightning very easily.

Altogether a great addition to the Mozilla range.

The Lightning home page is situated here .

NOTE. If you want some great Thunderbird (and Firefox) addons which are NOT on the Mozilla site see this site. I particularly like the one which enables changing the quote and reply format. Do check it out.

Technorati Tags: Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Lightning, Calendar

I'd do anything

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:07:33 +0100

On Saturday 29th March 2008 the televised hunt for a new Nancy to play in the West End production of Oliver began on BBC.

The show entails aspiring Nancy's, chosen from thousands of entrants, facing the cameras in a live show. After the show the public voted by telephone, and on the following Sunday the two Nancy's with the lowest number of votes to endure a sing-off and then a final decision by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.

At the same time, 12 young lads, again chosen from many aplicants, compete for three places as Oliver in the same show, although each week one is chosen to go forward to the semi final stage.

The three Olivers chosen on week 9 from the shortlist of 8 were
Gwion, Laurence and Harry.
All three will become part of the show cast,
taking turns to play Oliver. Well done lads.

The nation's choice for Nancy was Jodie.

Strangely enough the producer of "Oliver", when asked whether he was pleased said "I am very pleased for Jodie".

Somewhat of a back handed compliment, obviously he would have preferred Jessie.

Week	Lowest Nancy's	Eliminated	Saved	Oliver chosen
10. 31st May 2008 The final - second part		Jessie	Jodie
10. 31st May 2008 The final - first part		Samantha
9. 24th/25th May 2008 The semi final	Rachel and Samantha	Rachel	Samantha
8. 17th/18th May 2008	Niamh & Rachel	Niamh	Rachel	Johnny
7. 10th/11th May 2008	Ashley and Niamh	Ashley	Niamh	Laurence
6. 3rd/4th May 2008	Sarah and Rachel	Sarah	Rachel	Harry
5. 26th/27th April 2008	Keisha and Niamh	Keisha	Niamh	Alexander
4. 19th/20th April 2008	Ashley and Francesca	Francesca	Ashley	Kwayedza
3. 12th/13th April 2008	Keisha and Tara	Tara	Keisha	Arthur
2. 5th/6th April 2008	Cleo and Keisha	Cleo	Keisha	Chester
1. 29th/30th March 2008	Amy and Francesca	Francesca	Amy	Gwion

Technorati Tags: gbtamc.co.uk, Oliver, Nancy, BBC, Webber, West End

Dancing on ice 2008

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:49:54 +0000

Week 10. The Grand Final. Each of the finalists, Chris Fountain, Suzanne Shaw and Zaraah Abrahams were asked to dance the "flying" routine followed by their favourite routine form the series. Although Chris and Zaraah did very well, Suzanne was awarded 2 perfect scores of 30/30 for her dances.

After the break the viewers voted Chris and Suzanne into the skate off, where they each interpreted "Bolero". After another tense wait

Suzanne Shaw

was revealed as the champion of the series.

Well done to all of the contestants, and congratulations to Suzann on becoming a very worthy champion.

On Sunday 13th January the 2008 edition of ITV's Dancing on ice program saw 12 celebrities taking to the ice in the first knockout competition program.

The original 12 celebrities were Tim Vincent, TV presenter and actor, Sarah Greene, also TV presenter and actress, Chris Fountain, actor, Aggie MacKenzie, TV presenter, Greg Rusedski, retired tennis player, Suzanne Shaw, TV personality, Steve Backley, retired athlete, Linda Lusadi, Emmerdale star and former Page 3 favourite, Michael Underwood, presenter, Samantha Mumba, Singer and actress, Gareth Gates, singer, and finally Natalie Pinkham, TV & radio presenter.

Each celebrity dances with a professional partner, and are awarded scores by 5 judges. When all have danced, telephone lines are opened and the general public's votes added to the judges. The 2 celebrities with the lowest total scores then dance again, and the judges made a final decision as to who should be eliminated from the competition.

Unfortunately it appears that, as with many of these phone-in programs, the viewers seem to vote for their favourite personality, rather than the best dancers. Thus Greg Rusedski remains in the competition after week 7, causing other, better, dancers to be eliminated. Such a shame.

Results of the weekly competition.

24/01/2008. Michael Underwood unfortunately broke his ankle whilst training and had to withdraw from the competition.
Zaraah Abrahams, actress and standby skater, replaced him from week 3.

Week	Lowest celebrities	Saved	Eliminated
1. 13th January 2008	Samantha Mumba & Sarah Greene	Samantha Mumba	Sarah Greene
2. 20th January 2008	Tim Vincent & Natalie Pinkham	Tim Vincent	Natalie Pinkham
3. 27th January 2008	Samantha Mumba (with a damaged hamstring) & Steve Backley	Steve Backley	Samantha Mumba
4. 3rd February 2008	Steve Backley & Aggie MacKenzie	Steve Backley	Aggie MacKenzie
5. 10th February 2008	Tim Vincent & Steve Backley	Steve Backley	Tim Vincent
6. 17th February 2008	Zaraah Abrahams & Steve Backley	Zaraah Abrahams	Steve Backley
7. 24th February 2008	Zaraah Abrahams & Linda Lusadi	Zaraah Abrahams	Linda Lusadi
8. 2nd March 2008	Zaraah Abrahams & Greg Rusedski	Zaraah Abrahams	Greg Rusedski
9. 9th March 2008 Semi Final	Gareth Gates & Zaraah Abrahams	Zaraah Abrahams	Gareth Gates

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, ice, dancing, ITV, celebrities, Tim Vincent, Sarah Greene, Chris Fountain, Aggie MacKenzie, Greg Rusedski, Suzanne Shaw, Steve Backley, Linda Lusadi, Michael Underwood, Samantha Mumba, Gareth Gates, Natalie Pinkham, Zaraah Abrahams

Strictly Come Dancing 2007

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 10:55:48 +0000

GRAND FINAL UPDATE SATURDAY 22nd DECEMBER

THE FINALISTS. ALESHA DIXON & MATTHEW CUTLER

AND MATT DI ANGELO & FLAVIA CACACE

THE WINNERS. ALESHA DIXON & MATTHEW CUTLER

At the end of a 12 program series, and after a magnificent dancing competition in which each couple danced no less that 5 dances, Alesha Dixon & Matthew Cutler were crowned Strictly Come Dancing Champions of 2007.

During the Final, the couples danced twice, and the judges awarded marks, with only a difference of 2 points separating. Both couples received 3 perfect 10 scores for their first dances - Alesha by then having received a total of 19 perfect scores during the whole competition. The bothn couples danced to a tune selected by the judges.

And so to the results show where each couple danced a Viennese Waltz followed by a show dance. Matt did brilliantly in the show dance, even showing off a one-handed lift - what confidence Flavia must have in Matt, but Alesha finally stole the show in the last dance, and, with Matthew, was later crowned champion.

Well done to both couples but especially to Alesha, Matthew, Matt and Flavia.

The series was probably the best yet, and it was also great to see all 14 celebrities taking part again together with their respective partners.

Well done to all of the celebrities and to the BBC for a magnificent series of shows. Now we look forward to next year.

The 2007 season of the BBC Television program Strictly Come Dancing kicked off on Saturday 6th October.

Fourteen celebrities paired with fourteen professional dancers will compete over the next few weeks to take over the crown won by Mark Ramprakash and Karen Hardy.

The program series is hosted by Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly with the usual panel of expert judges, Craig Revel Horwood, Arlene Phillips, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli.

And just a reminder of last year's winners, Mark Ramprakash and Karen Hardy.

Each week one celebrity is eliminated as a result of the judge's maks and public phone-in. The following is a list of the contestants eliminated by week.

Week number	Contestants eliminated
12 The Final	Matt Di Angelo & Flavia Cacace
11 Semi final	Gethin Jones & Camilla Dallerup
10	Letitia Dean & Darren Bennett
9	Kenny Logan & Ola Jordan
9	Kelly Brook & Brendan Cole withdrew from the competition following the sudden death of Kelly's father.
8	John Barnes & Nicole Cutler
7	Kate Garraway & Anton Du Beke
6	Penny Lancaster-Stewart & Ian Waite
5	Dominic Littlewood & Lilia Kopylova
4	Gabby Logan & James Jordan
3	Willie Thorne & Erin Boag
2	Stephanie Beacham & Vincent Simone
1	Brian Capron & Karen Hardy

The contestants are as follows.

Photo	Eliminated week	Contestant details
		Alesha Dixon Alesha is best known as one third of the late-nineties R & B girl band, Mis-Teeq, who topped the charts with numerous singles including Scandalous and One Night Stand. Alesha is now a popular TV personality, guest hosting shows such as CD:UK, and this year presented ITV2's coverage of the Brit Awards. She has also appeared as a guest judge on Comic Relief Does Fame Academy and Channel 4's reality TV show Musicool. Alesha will begin filming for her first film, Milestones, in March next year alongside Alex Kingston (ER) and Brian Cox (X-Men). Matthew Cutler Matthew is a Latin American dance specialist and has claimed the title of UK Closed Professional Latin Champion in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2005. He was married to, and danced with, Nicole Cutler (Strictly series two) before they split in 2003. But in July 2006, Nicole and Matthew returned to the floor as dance partners.
	1	Brian Capron Brian's acting career has spanned over 35 years, but he is best known for his role as serial killer Richard Hillman in ITV1'sCoronation Street. He has also appeared as Ozias Harding in Where the Heart Is and starred in the West End as the narrator in the musical The Rocky Horror Show. In 2003 Brian won 'Best Actor', 'Best Exit' and 'Villain of the Year' at the British Soap Awards. The same year he was also nominated for the 'Most Popular Actor' at the National Television Awards. Karen Hardy Karen is the current reigning champion of Strictly Come Dancing after dancing into first place with her partner Mark Ramprakash in series four. She is one of the most highly regarded women in dancing today. Before her retirement from the competitive world of dance in March 1999, Karen's successful partnership with Bryan Watson saw them as undefeated United Kingdom, International, British National, World Masters, Open Italian, Yankie Classic, London Open and Osaka World Trophy Champions of Latin American dance.
	5	Dominic Littlewood Dominic worked in the new and used car business in Essex until his cheeky and charismatic personality caught the eyes of TV producers who gave him his first TV appearance on Channel 4's Faking It, teaching a vicar how to be a car salesman. He has presented To Buy or Not to Buy (BBC One), How I Made My Property Fortune (BBC Two) and Beat the Burglar (BBC One). More recently he helped members of the public to get good deals from salespeople in BBC One's Don't Get Done, Get Dom. He can currently be seen weekdays at 7pm as a reporter on BBC One's The One Show. Lilia Kopylova Lilia is gentle and softly spoken, but below the surface lies a cheeky Russian minx. Her speciality is Latin American and together with her partner and husband Darren Bennett, also appearing in Strictly, they are ranked the number one Latin American couple in Britain. Lilia won the third series of Strictly with Darren Gough and was runner-up partnering Matt Dawson last year.
	4	Gabby Logan Gabby lives and breathes sport. A one-time international gymnast, Gabby is now a BBC Sports presenter on TV and radio. The daughter of former Wales international football player and manager Terry Yorath, she is married to former Scotland international rugby player and fellow Strictly contestant Kenny Logan. Gabby and Kenny are very competitive, so this should be interesting! Gabby presents BBC One's Inside Sport, and the Gabby Logan show on BBC Radio 5 Live. She also writes regularly for The Times newspaper. James Jordan James is a Latin American specialist. He is married to and dances professionally with Ola. They both joined the Strictly team in series four. They have been dancing together for six years and turned professional in 2003. Since then they have been Closed British finalists in 2005, UK Open Rising Star finalists and British Open Rising Star Professional Latin runners-up in 2006.
	Semi final	Gethin Jones Gethin is a presenter on Blue Peter. Some of his varied highlights include flying with the Red Arrows, being attacked by an alligator in Louisiana and fighting as a Samurai Warrior in Japan. Before joining Blue Peter, he started his presenting career on children's programmes for Welsh television channel S4C. Camilla Dallerup Camilla is a blonde, Danish beauty with huge charisma who specialises in Latin American dancing. She is Asian Pacific Latin American Champion and New Zealand Latin American Champion. Her professional dance partner is Ian Waite, who also appears in Strictly. Camilla reunited with former partner and fellow Strictly dancer Brendan Cole this year to represent the UK in the first Eurovision Dance Contest.
	8	John Barnes Footballing legend John Barnes earned 79 England caps during the late 80s and early 90s. John has racked up an impressive 752 appearances for four clubs scoring 562 goals, he later went on to be Head Coach for Celtic. John is now highly in demand as a TV football match analyst and studio guest. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of his contribution to the game. Nicole Cutler Fun-loving South African Nicole is a Latin American specialist. After splitting up with dance partner and ex-husband, Matthew Cutler, in 2003, Nicole partnered Robin Sewell from June 2005 to June 2006, when they were runners up in the closed British Championships and ranked second in England. Nicole joined the Strictly team in series four when she danced with Nicholas Owen.
	7	Kate Garraway Kate is a presenter on GMTV, joining the team in September 2000. Her career started in BBC Radio as a reporter. She later moved to work as a production journalist and reporter with Central Television News, Meridian, BBC News 24 and Sky. Kate has made numerous TV appearances, including BBC Two's Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Have I Got News for You? This year Kate became a quiz master grilling contestants for the BBC quiz show The People's Quiz. Anton Du Beke Anton is a typical English gentleman, but is well known for his naughty sense of humour! Anton specialises in ballroom dancing and dances professionally with Erin Boag. Together, Anton and Erin won the IDTA Classic in England in 2003. Anton has appeared in Strictly since series one when he came third with Lesley Garrett.
	W i t h d r e w w k 9	Kelly Brook Kelly is a model, actress and TV presenter. She first hit our screens in 1999 when she was chosen to present The Big Breakfast alongside Johnny Vaughan. She later co-hosted reality TV show Celebrity Love Island. Kelly spends a lot of time in the USA, where she has acted in many TV shows and feature films, from playing Victoria Hardwick in Smallville to lead roles in House of 9 with Dennis Hopper, Absolon with Christopher Lambert, Three with Billy Zane and Fishtales where she plays a mermaid. She has also starred in a Miss Marple drama for ITV and this year she was a guest star in BBC Television drama Hotel Babylon. Brendan Cole Brendan Cole returns for his fifth Strictly Come Dancing competition. Brendan moved to London from his native new Zealand when he was 18 to seek a career in dance, financing himself with a number of jobs including being a warehouseman and a builder. Brendan specialises in Latin American dancing, is Asian Pacific Latin America Champion and New Zealand Latin American Champion. He won the first series of Strictly with partner Natasha Kaplinsky.
	9	Kenny Logan Kenny is a Rugby Union footballer who played wing for Scotland and London Scottish. Kenny gained his first cap for Scotland against Australia in 1992 aged 20. Having won 70 caps over 13 years, he retired from international rugby union after the 2003 World Cup. Kenny is married to sports presenter and fellow Strictly contestant Gabby Logan. They have two children. Ola Jordan Polish born, Aleksandra (Ola) is a Latin American specialist and, with her husband James, is taking part in Strictly for the second time. Ola and James have been dancing together for seven years, professionally for the last four years. James is dancing with Kenny's wife Gabby, which means for the first time ever on Strictly, we have two married couples competing against each other.
	10	Letitia Dean Letitia is best known as Sharon Watts in the popular BBC soap EastEnders. One of the original cast members, Letitia was only 17 years old when the show began in 1985, and left for the final time in 2006. Letitia was presented with the coveted award for outstanding achievement at the 2005 Inside Soap Awards, as homage to her work in EastEnders. Letitia has also starred in numerous theatre and television productions including The Hello Girls, Casualty and Doctors; police drama The Bill, Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, Channel 4 sitcom Drop The Dead Donkey and the 1995 film England, My England. Darren Bennett Darren is a down to earth, cheeky guy who loves his Northern roots. Darren and his partner and wife Lilia Kopylova, also appearing in Strictly, are currently ranked the number one British Latin American couple. Darren won series two of the show with Jill Halfpenny, but went out in the fourth week of series three with partner Gloria Hunniford. Last year, dancing with Emma Bunton, he made it to third place.
	The FInal	Matt Di Angelo Matt is best known as Deano Wicks in EastEnders. He was a student at the Sylvia Young Theatre School and started his career with modelling and TV commercial roles. Matt's other TV appearances include roles in I Dream, Sunday morning kids TV show Smile, Harbour Lights and Telling Lies where he played Derek. In 2006 Matt was nominated for the 'Sexiest Male' at the British Soap Awards. Flavia Cacace Italian-born Flavia first joined Strictly in series four, when she danced with Jimmy Tarbuck, who sadly had to drop out of the contest for health reasons. Flavia and her professional partner Vincent Simone have appeared as Argentine Tango specialists on Strictly Dance Fever and Strictly Come Dancing.
	6	Penny Lancaster-Stewart Penny is a freelance photographer, model and actress. After finding success as a model Penny trained to be a photographer, undertaking numerous fashion and beauty assignments for newspapers and magazines. During 2005 Penny made her highly successful West End debut in Tonight's The Night. This was followed by a television role playing opposite Neil Morrissey in Elixir Man. Penny is married to rock star Rod Stewart and they have a son, Alistair. Ian Waite Ian's speciality is Latin American and he made it to the European Professional Latin Championships finals in 2003. This will be Ian's fourth series of Strictly, after grabbing second place with Denise Lewis in series two, third place with Zoe Ball in series three and being knocked out in the second week of series four with his partner Mica Paris. Ian dances professionally with fellow Strictly dancer, Camilla Dallerup.
	2	Stephanie Beacham Stephanie Beacham trained at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) before beginning a prolific career in acting in television, film and theatre. She has starred alongside Ava Gardner and Marlon Brando. She played the iconic Sable Colby in the popular 80s soaps Dynasty and The Colbys. She more recently starred in popular ITV prison drama Bad Girls and played the part of 'Felicity Wentworth' in the feature film Love and Other Disasters alongside Brittany Murphy, Gwyneth Paltrow and Orlando Bloom. Vincent Simone Italian Vincent Simone comes from a dancing family; both his parents are professional Ballroom and Latin teachers. He joined Strictly in series four, dancing with Louisa Lytton. Vincent and his partner Flavia, who is also appearing in Strictly, have been dancing together for 11 years. They have won numerous championships including UK Professional Ten Dance, UK Professional Showdance, UK Argentine and World Argentine Tango Show.
	3	Willie Thorne Willie Thorne is a former professional snooker player, commentator and the current World Seniors Snooker Champion. He has had a very successful career, gaining a total of 14 tournament victories worldwide. Willie is famously the World Record holder for the highest number of 147 breaks in the history of snooker (a staggering 190) earning him the nickname "Mr Maximum". Erin Boag Erin is a strong, vivacious Kiwi, who specialises in ballroom dancing. Her professional dance partner is fellow Strictly dancer Anton Du Beke. She has made it to the final of the show in previous series, with partners Julian Clary and Colin Jackson, last year she danced with Peter Schmeichel. Erin was The 2003 IDTA Classic Champion.

X Factor 2007

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 09:56:09 +0000

Leon Jackson wins X Factor 2007 out of a total of 150,000 hopefuls.

In the final show brother and sister group "Same Difference" lost out on the final selection, and, although Rhydian undoubtably performed the best, he missed out and the big prize.

It does seem to me that the final result depended more on personal choice and popularity than on singing ability. The same goes, to a large extent, to "Strictly Come Dancing". Rhydian was certainly the best performer of the series, and I thought that Leon lacked charisma, but there it is. Leon won on the night.

It will be interesting to see how his first record does over the Christmas period, and to chart his future.

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, X Factor, Leon Jackson, Rhydian, Same Differenct, television

FTP programs

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:21:56 +0100

So, you've got a web site. Now how do you post your web pages ?

I always prepare my pages on my local computer and then transfer them to my web site using FTP (file transfer program).

There are several very good FTP programs around, some you pay for, some are free. Some are stand alone, some link to browsers. Here I shall discuss 3 programs which I have used.

CuteFTP from Globalscape is available HERE. It is a very good, stand alone, professional program, but you do really need to purchase a licence to get the full benefit.

FileZilla is available HERE and is a free, open source, stand alone program. There is also a plugin version which links to the Maxthon browser (extremely good and thoroughly recommended) and this plugin is available HERE. The plugin displays a button on the Maxthon toolbar which launches the program.

FireFTP is a Firefox extension, available HERE ,which again, like FileZilla, displays a button on the browser's toolbar which launches the program.

Basically all 3 programs work in a similar manner. Once logged into your site as administrator you can displa a tree of your local computer together with the tree of your web site. Web pages and other files can bu uploaded from your computer to your site, or vice versa.

Why not try them out ?

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, CuteFtp, FileZilla, FireFTP, ftp programs

StyleSwitcher

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:48:44 +0100

So, what is StyleSwitcher ?

It is a system that can be implemented on a web age so that the visitor can choose a different style to the default set up by the WebMaster.

Using a default (coffee coloured) and a grey version of my stylesheet I use it to allow visitors to choose between these two different colours for my web pages at my church web site

Now I believe that there are several different ways that this can be implemented and offered to visitors. Here is one that I find very good and is available from DynamicDrive.

First of all it is necessary to download a small JavaScript file available from DynamicDrive, and upload it to the root folder of your web site.

Next place the following code in the head of your web pages (or template), below your LINK stylesheet tags.

Also there is also a nice little tweak so that when the page is first displayed the current style used is highlighted.

Add the following script underneath the one above.
<script type="text/javascript"> window.onload=function(){ var formref=document.getElementById("switchform") indicateSelected(formref.choice) } </script>

Now for the fun and games of actually coding the pages.

Underneath your default style sheet something like
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="default.css" media="screen" />
add another entry for each of the alternate stylesheets like this.
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" title="colour_grey" href="grey.css" />
You will see that this is maked ALTERNATE STYLESHEET.

Right, that sets up the stylesheets, now to allow the visitor to choose a style.

I use it in the right hand sidebar of my web site and the coding is as follows.

Switch styles<br />
<form id="switchform"> <input type="radio" name="choice" value="none" onClick="chooseStyle(this.value, 60)" />Default style<br />
<input type="radio" name="choice" value="colour_grey" onClick="chooseStyle(this.value, 60)" />Grey style<br />
<:/form>

What this does is to put up a small form with two radio buttons which, when clicked, will effect a change to use the selected stylesheet, i.e the default or a grey colour.

There are other ways to implement this, see here for more details.

HAVE FUN, and do visit my church web site and try it out for yourself!

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, style, switch, stylesheet, styleswitcher

New Maxthon v2 browser

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 11:40:20 +0100

In this post I described a great new browser called Maxthon.

Well, now a new version 2 is available from http://www.maxthon.com/. Version 2 is now much improved and the following is just a short list of what's available.

It's QUICK !

Easy configuration wizard.
Tabbed browsing with undo closed tab feature.
Mouse gestures to aid navigation.
SuperSmart Acceleration.
Magic fill for forms.
Feed Reader.
Assign aliases to web pages and open them by typing the alias in the address bar.
Add Windows utilities such as notepad to your toolbar.
Full add and pop up blocking.
Web sniffer.
SuperDrag&Drop. Highlight text, drag it and Yahoo will do a search.
Screen capture with full control over what is copied.
Clean private data.
Add a skin.
Multi language.
Full support and forum.

And much, much more.

Thoroughly recommended.

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, maxthon, browser

Screen capture

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:53:13 +0100

We all need to take a screen dump or copy a selection from a web page at some time, don't we ?

I know I do, frequently, and I have come across two really great ways to capture a screen, or part of a screen.

UPDATE The new version 2 of the Maxthon browser (see this post and the Maxton web site similar manner to Screengrab.

First of all, I recommend these programs because they both work as add-ons in Firefox - the greatest browser around.

Screengrab sits as an icon in the status bar until required Clicking the icon enables saving the complete page or frame, the visible portion or a selection. In addition these three options may be copied rather than saved, so that the resulting image may be pasted into a graphics program.

Screengrab does just what it claims, and does it very well.

Snagit also runs as a Firefox add-on, but in addition there is a full all singing all dancing version.

The free add-on sits in its own toolbar, the full program runs as an application under Windows. Like Screengrab it enables copying of the complete page, a region or just text. The result may be saved to disk, sent by mail or simply copied to the clipboard for further processing. If the option is taken to save to disk the result opens in Snagits own graphic program for further processing before saving. Not Photoshop, but a very good attempt at providing elementary editing.

The full version has additional facilities, and includes full page copying including the preservation of links, scrolling window to PDF, time delay, an object, images only, text only and also the facility to record a screen video. Of course to get these extra facilities means that the program must be purchased, but at only US Dollars 39.95 for a single license it is money well spent.

I can thoroughly recommend both of these.

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, screen capture, capture, screengrab, snagit, firefox add-ons, firefox, add-ons

Snazzy borders

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:10:36 +0100

Now for something just a little bit different. I have long admired some of the css styling visible on the Internet, and have now come across a really superb way of making text stand out from the surrounding page.

Originated by Stu Nicholls of CSSPlay it really is great. Some simple css formatting produces a really nice rounded corner outline with a colored title block and normal text. Here is my own interpretation.

Copyright information. Stu Nicholls states that you may use this method on your web site without seeking his permission. However, a link back to CSSPlay would be appreciated.

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, snazzy borders, snazzy, borders

Show/hide details on web pages

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:57:03 +0100

It's always nice to include lots of text containing keywords on a web page. But it is so easy to overdo the amount of text. Indeed, it can be very offputting to a visitor.

Is there a way to include text such that the veiwer can elect to read it or not ? YES THERE IS ! And I found it at the HTMLcenter web site.

It's all rather easy actually. First of all yopu need a small amount of JavaScript programming, which should be put in the <head> section of your web page. Here is the code.

Right, having sorted that out you need to code your HTML in a special way as follows. By the way, this example code is taken from my Agatha Christie web site where you can see it in operation on the home page and also on each novel summary page. Do have a look and then return to this posting.

<p><a href="javascript:show_hide('foobar');">Show/hide Agatha Christie's biography<'/a><br /><br /></p><div style="display: none; text-align: justify;" id="foobar"><p>Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (Lady Mallowan) DBE is known throughout the world as the Queen of crime.......</div>

You will see that the coding is in several parts. A call to the JavaScript routine, the link text I wanted to display on the page, a <div> with various formatting commandes to hold my text, and the text itself.

As you will see from my example page(s) the effect is great.

HAVE FUN !

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, show/hide, layers

Post-it notes on web pages

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:57:34 +0100

Post-it notes are in every day use on desktops (including monitor desktops) and are a useful reminder of important details needing action. Well. How about post-it notes on a web page ? Why, you ask ? Well, they are a very good way of temporarily displaying information without having to clutter up the page on a permanent basis.

I have searched for a long time for a simple way of implementing post-it notes on web pages, and finally found a rather nice solution by Benjamin Keen.

If you open the home page of this blog you will see at the top just underneath the yellow box a link "About this site..." If you click this link a post-it note will open. Clicking the note will close it.

This solution uses a JavaScript file together with special formatting of the HTML code. This link contains all the information you need (I suggest you inspect the source code) together with a download link to the JavaScript file.

To assist you here is a summary.

NOTE that all postits on a single page MUST have unique ID's such as postit1, postit2 etc

First of all you will need to download the JavaScript file and upload it to your web server. Then you will need to add <script type="text/javascript" src='postit.js'></script> to the <head> section of your web page. I would also suggest that you add <style type='text/css'> #postit1 { display: none; } to the <head> section to make absolutely sure that the postit (or a list of postits separated by commas) do not display when the page loads.

Right. Now we are in a position to add out postit. The example contained on my home page consists of the following HTML code.

REM this is the call to the JavaScript file
<div id="postit1" onclick="return showPostit(this.id)">

REM This puts a nice bar header at the top and then comes the actual text (which can include hyperlinks
<div style="background-color: #336699; padding: 2px; color: white">About this site...</div>

REM Now the actual text of the postit, which may include hyperlinks
<br>This site contains just a few of my random thoughts on computers, software, the web, and much, much more. <br><br> It is updated on an occasional basis, and I have an RSS feed available. <br><br> This RSS feed will keep you informed of all new postings. <br><br> To access the feed, simply copy <a href="http://www.gbtamc.co.uk/blog/rss.xml">THIS LINK</a> into your feed reader. <br><br> <b>Click this panel to close...</b><br><br></div>

REM and finally the actual link that appears on the web page
<br><a href="#" onclick="showPostit('postit1')" style="width: 300px;">About this site...</a>

Of course you can adjust the colour of the header bar to suit your web page design.

HAVE FUN !

Technorati Tags: gbtamc, postit, post-it, postits, post-its, postit notes, post-it notes

Tooltips on web pages

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:37:44 +0100

Tooltips on web pages ? Whatever would I use those for ? Well, they are a very good way of temporarily displaying information without it cluttering up the page on a permanent basis. But how on earth would I do it ? Recently I was browsing the CSSplay web site, and I came across a very simple, elegant way. However, as with most of the CSSplay examples, there is very little in the way of explanation as to how to implement it, merely an example page (which is situated here). So here is a little bit of help on how to produce tolltips using purely CSS.

First of all a little example. Place your mouse over this linkThis is the tooltip.. Voila. A lovely little tooltip that disappears when the mouse moves away. So what is needed to work this little piece of magic ? First of all a simple style sheet in the <HEAD> section of your web page or your default CSS file if you prefer. The code for this follows. Simply copy and paste the following purple text.

How to display the tooltip ? Here is the HTML code that I used in the above example. Place your mouse over <a class="tooltip" href="#">this link<b>This is the tooltip.</b></a>.

Right. Now here is a little variation which make the box of the tooltip a little bit more appealing. We shall use a small "carat" graphic (available HERE - click the link, download and upload to your web server, changing the CSS URL to point to it) and a couple of changes to the HTML code. AFTER the <b> add <em></em>. I know this appears to be a little strange but yes, you do put these two tags together with NOTHING in between ! See this example. Place your mouse over this linkThis is another tooltip. Note the top "carat" graphic..

HAVE FUN !

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