bookmark_borderReturn of the Shorts

Anyone know of an EASY way to import a load of links into del.icio.us?

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Flickr Uploader is fab, I’m slowly moving my photos to Flickr and may yet need to sign up for a Pro account. The more I look at it the better it gets (unlike my photos…).

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I have a few outstanding tasks for Scottish Blogs (all being constrained by my lack of PHP skills), which I’m hoping to tackle this weekend, yet I’m getting the urge to redesign here again. I think it needs to be … less. Not sure. Still thinking. Apathy will probably win out.

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The only disadvantage of having a coffee maker in the office is my occasional habit of letting my coffee go cold. Ick.

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I’ll leave this trilogy of posts here this weekend. I expect some answers and comments by Monday!

Have a good weekend y’all, y’hear.

bookmark_borderFlow increasing

I’m slowly remembering how to do this thing called ‘blog’.

Next up, a question: Anyone know of a small (light on resources) PHP web server I can run on my home machine (XP Pro), for testing purposes only.. it’s a real pain to have to make changes to a PHP script, upload it, refresh the page, change the PHP, upload, refresh… etc etc..

You see I’m determined to launch the Scottish Blogs website. It’s almost there. Almost. But not quite. I just need to figure out a couple more things and it’ll be ready. Sort of… ach, it’s as near as dammit, and I can add more code to it later.

bookmark_borderWhat are you doing?

I’ll be working tomorrow, trudging to work whilst the majority of the country … don’t. I hope you all have something planned or you will be making a mockery of the fact that I’m in work and you’re not. It’s your duty to do something!

Sigh.

I’m distracting myself at the moment, NBA is on in the background, but I should really be working on Scottish Blogs. Progress has been zero as I’m increasingly struggling with PHP and I’m considering buying an off-the-shelf ‘member site’ package and customising that to help out. Mind you it’s the last thing I want to spend any money on as it’s, essentially, a hobby site. I’ve kind of lost the excitment of doing it to be honest, but I’ll keep pegging away.

One thing I DO want to spend money on is a new car. We still owe a few thousand on the current car, but I reckon that the trade-in would offset that. We’ll be getting something smaller as we don’t travel far anymore and the car’s main use is getting Louise to work, a 15 minute journey at most. Not sure what though. We’ve had Renault’s for a few years, but it may be time for a change.

So, what to buy? I fancy the new Mini but it’s a bit pricey when new, not mad keen on the Clio, the new Fiesta might be an option… not sure to be honest.

Ideally I’d like something top of the range but that’s not gonna happen – one of our reasons for changing is to try and save a little money. Guess I need to pick up a copy of Auto Express this week.

bookmark_borderSo…. emmm… hi…

Still stuck for some reason, maybe there is too much going on.

Work is getting hectic and veering from the normal everyday work to discussions of a bigger nature about processes and business analysis and … etc etc. But then it’s always been like that, well it has for me anyway, and to be honest I’m quite glad that it’s headed back to that state – shows that things are picking up. Ohh I forgot. “I don’t blog about work”. Moving on then…

I want to write about abortion, prompted by Green Fairy. I want to write about smoking bans in Scotland, prompted by Peter. I want to write more about the redesign (and continue it), prompted by Scrivs at White Space.

But I won’t. Can’t. What? Ohhh go on then. I’ll keep it brief.

Abortion – I believe in the woman’s right to choose.
Smoking – I believe a ban is a good thing. I like air.
Redesign – I WILL implement a style sheet switcher and allow both bigger fonts and a more minimal site design.

There. I did it. Composed a blog post from nothing. Ain’t I clever.

I’m off to bugger about with Scottish Blogs – if you hear a muffled scream that involves PHP code don’t worry, it’s just me.

bookmark_borderAlready?

Zip whoosh clang kerplunk

The past couple of days and nights have been a bit of a blur as I bury my head in a. work and b. Scottish Blogs.

Work is work, and we don’t talk about that here in any depth so I’ll just say PPFFFFTTTTTT!!!!! and be done with it.

Scottish Blogs is almost there… and then not quite. Two steps forward, one back at the moment, but I’m enjoying getting my hands all mucky with PHP. Ohh and the domain has now been transferred, after all my ranting it was pretty simple.. but could’ve been a lot easier.

Ohh and whilst I remember, thanks to everyone for their hosting suggestions. I’m already sold on 123-reg.co.uk for handling domain names (cheaper than simply.com by 50p!!) and will either head to 34sp.com or Hosting Unlimited for hosting but I’ll decide on that later.

Now, roll on payday and I’ll reveal the .com, .co.uk, .net decision.

Right, I’m off for a Guinness. Sláinte!

bookmark_borderHosts

[insert stream of vitriol]

I had/have four domain names managed by my current host. I’ve cancelled two of them recently as they were just a bit of silly fun (if you want monkeybombing.com or galactictossmonkeys.com they will be available soon), the other two are for this site and scottishblogs.co.uk. I also use the same company to host the content for both of these sites.

I’ve managed (well I was very generously offered) some server space and decided to move the Scottish Blogs site there. So, I thought to myself, I’ll just get the domain name pointed at my new host (this consists of changing something called a nameserver, at the moment scottishblogs.co.uk will be pointing at nameserverABC, I want to change it to point at nameserverXYZ – the nameserver then processes requests for the domain name and points them at the actual files that make up the site… still with me?). Sounds simple enough – change ABC for XYZ – yes?

Seemingly, and I’ve yet to get an answer to WHY, my current host can’t change nameservers for .co.uk domains. Arsebuckets.

So I’ve signed up with 123-reg.co.uk and cancelled the contract for Scottish Blogs. If the following means nothing to you let me summarise.

I own the domain name scottishblogs.co.uk. If I want to change it I should be able to. Nominet agree, my host 1&1 don’t. I’ve written to both parties to get more information about this, and I will be hitting the forums soon.

I’m majorly pissed off about this. I’ve been happy enough with 1&1 but now want nothing more to do with them, I’ve had several emails and phone calls with their support staff who have been rude, and completely useless. Yes, there prices and packages are very good but if they don’t have the support to back it up then I’ve no choice but to look elsewhere, and if they can’t even manage to change a nameserver… well it looks like I’m looking for a new host for this site.

Any suggestions? 123-reg.co.uk offer a hosting package which I’m considering. All I need is PHP support, and a couple of email addresses, space and bandwidth aren’t too much of an issue.