Blogging: New blog design v5?

February 24th, 2009 by Richy C. No comments »

Well, this at least the 4th major redesign this blog has had (previous ones being: January 2005, August 2003, June 2003) and it’s the one I’ve spent least amount of time on, but looks the nicest in my opinion.

I’m using a combination of TheBuckMaker’s Aerodrome theme with the WPTouch iPhone theme providing the iPhone theming (with the compatibility being checked by using the How to emulate iPhone (Change user agent) in Safari and Firefox tips for testing on the desktop). I’m also utilising the Twitter for WordPress plugin to pull my @rchiswell twitter feed and SEO No Duplicate for search engine canonical links. I’m also using the WordPress plugins WP-PageNavi, Trackback Validator, Sociable and Chris Black’s digg widget.

Hopefully, not only has it provided easier access to the rest of my online presence, but it has also made the site a lot easier on the eye and helps you access the information you came here for quicker and easier (although feel free to read any of my ramblings which takes your fancy).

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Posted in Net: Blogging

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Fun: Two plus Two does equal Five

February 24th, 2009 by Richy C. No comments »

Via Science for SEO comes proof that 2 + 2 = 5. What is this magical proof? Well, it’s simple and something you can try at home:

  1. Get two pieces of rope or string
  2. Put two knots in each piece of string
  3. You now have 2 knots and 2 knots
  4. Tie those pieces of string together
  5. How many knots have you now got?

I didn’t say it was good!

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Posted in Net: Fun

Techy: Create an iPhone Ringtone from your own MP3

February 22nd, 2009 by Richy C. 1 comment »

As you may be aware, I’ve given in to the “white side” and just switched from a Nokia 6230i to a brand new Apple iPhone 8Gb Black from o2 (whilst being disappointed that I wasn’t able to get a discount after being with them 17months on current contract and over 6 years in total). Anyway, one of the first things I wanted to do was copy over my ringtone, but Kool Katy said she didn’t think it was possible to make your own ring-tone on the iPhone without paying via iTunes…

I then found this guide to creating free iPhone ringtones with iTunes 8 which states:

  1. Right click on the song you are going to make into a ringtone and select “Get Info.”
  2. Go to the “Options” tab and go down to the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” check boxes. Check both boxes and input the time you want your ringtone to start/stop. The ringtone has to be 30 seconds or less. Click “OK” when you’re done.
  3. Right click on your newly “clipped” song and select “Create AAC Version”. Or directly click the “Advanced” tab on the main menu of iTunes 8 and select “Create AAC Version” from the drop-down list. The song will be re-encoded using the start and stop times specified.
    Note: If your menu item does not read “Create AAC Version” and reads “Create MP3 Version” or some other format, please go to ”iTunes -> Edit -> Preferences -> General”, click “Import settings” and change “Import using” to “AAC Encoder”
  4. After the song is done encoding, navigate to your iTunes Music folder, locate your song, and drag it to your desktop. After the song is on your desktop go back to iTunes and delete the clipped version from you iTunes library (It won’t delete it from your desktop, it will only remove it from iTunes).
  5. Go back the song on your desktop and right click on your song and choose “Properties”. Go to the name and extension section and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (or you can just change the extension right from your desktop).
  6. After the extension is changed simply double click on the file to add it to your iTunes library under the ringtones section. Sync your phone with iTunes and you’re done!

Basically – iPhone ringtones need to be 30 seconds or less, less than 3Mb in size (which should be easy with a 30 second limit) and have an .m4r filetype.

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Posted in Life: Work and Techy

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PHP: Getting individual packages on Zend Framework

February 22nd, 2009 by Richy C. 1 comment »

@binarykitten (on Twitter) had the question I officially give up.. how the hell do you download only 1 component of the Zend Framework? I’ve been looking all over the site and I told her that I wasn’t aware of a method, that there were potential dependencies and to maybe try asking @calevans. He responded with the link http://epic.codeutopia.net/pack/ which appears to be a packager for the PHP Zend Framework versions 1.6 and 1.7 developed by Jani Hartikainen (@jhartikainen).

So, yes, it is possible to (unofficially) download parts of the Zend Framework and not have to worry about dependences.

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Posted in Net: Techy: PHP

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RISC OS: Paul Vigay found dead

February 21st, 2009 by Richy C. 1 comment »

I don’t normally make postings like this, but I feel I have got to pass on the news to any old ex-RISC OS users (or any current ones) who haven’t heard the sad news yet.

Paul Vigay, ex-Micronet 800 editor, researcher on Signs, general crop-circle expert, founder of Orpheus Internet, UFO expert, founder of Digital Phenomena, founder of RISC OS.org, general privacy expert, all around helpful good chap, and last, but not least, husband to Louie, has been unfortunately found dead at the age of 44 in Southsea in Hampshire and will be missed by a large number of people (including myself) who have been in contact with him one way or another. The death is not being reported as suspicious (BBC News).

Other articles: Drobe, Comp.sys.acorn.misc, Iconbar, Book of Condolence

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Posted in Life: News Commentary, Life: Work and Techy

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