cscomp.co.uk

Website Design

Clive — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:14:29 +0000

I’ve visited my own site a few times tonight, making various blog posts and I also took some time to have a look around. I’m the first to admit it is in need of a face lift. I made a start on a new look a while back, I got as far as changing the template for the blog with the intention of updating the rest of the website at a later date, I think that date is soon. I’m going to make it a priority to update my site and bring it in to the 21st century. I think I’ll continue and carry the blog theme right through the site. I seem to remember putting a template together for the home page, so I just need to alter it slightly for the rest of the sections of website. I also intend to fully CSS the whole site, I’ve read plenty of articles and books about the subject so it’s about time I put it all to good use.

I also intend on using some Javascript and even some Ajax to help improve the user experience. As part of the redesign and rewrite of my website I’m sure there will be some other projects that come to light. One that jumps out is a search facility, if you say it quickly it doesn’t sound too big, but when you start to think about spidering the site etc, it soon starts to grow in size. It’s something that needs doing and I could then use the technology at work as well

Windows Vista - Making Progress

Clive — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:00:50 +0000

At last I’ve started to make progress with Windows Vista, I’ve managed to get Apache, PHP and MySQL installed and configured. I’ve still got a few things to install, but I’m getting there! I created a new directory C:\Programs and installed PHP and MySQL within their own directories within it. It stops Windows Vista moaning saying you don’t have permission to save a file there!

The Woman In Black

Clive — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:13:02 +0000

Last weekend I took Clare to the big smoke that is London to see the west end show ‘The Woman in Black‘ at the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden. We dropepd the dogs off at the kennels at 9am then came home got changed and set off down the M1 to Hemel Hempstead. Traffic was on our side and we made it to Neil and Kelly’s (our friends) place in 2 1/2 hours. We ahd a spot of lunch at theirs before getting changed and heading off the train station. We arrived in Covent Garden in plenty of time and went and got a drink in the bar that is Punch and Judy. We sat down and had a good natter, catching up as it had been a while since we last saw Neil and Kelly. Time soon flew by and it was time to head to the theatre. The Fortune Theatre is a fairly old place and a little run down, something a lick of paint and a few spare pound would cure. It is small, but the atmosphere was good. Whilst sitting down waiting for the show to start, Kelly informed us there was only 2 people in the show. It came as quite a surprise to me and at that moment I didn’t think the show would be very good, how wrong was I? The show started and before I knew it, an hour had passed and the interval was upon us. What can I say other than what a great first half to the show.

We stood up and made our way to the toilets. The gents were on the small side, so small infact my mate Neil had to stand with his head at an angle whilst using the urinal - not a plesant position to pee in! From the loo we headed to the bar and got a glass of red wine all round before making our way back to our seats. The second half soon started and once again finished in what seemed next to no time. Dispite there only be two actors, well three if you include the woman that palys the ghost, but doesn’t say anything, it was a very good show.

It was mine and Clare’s first trip to the theatre and I must admit we both injoyed it greatly. Clare has already told me she wants to see Dirty Dancing - guess I’d best start saving my pennies.

After the show we headed on over to the Meza Restaurant in Soho and had a very lovely Tapas meal. We got a last minute deal whch resulted in us choosing 5 Tapas each from a menu of about 15 all of which came with a glass of wine and dessert. The food was fantastic, the wine was ok and we ended up ordering another bottle of it and Clare was tempted to a very expensive cocktail. All in all we had a fantastic day.

Sunday was spent having a little lye in before getting up and having a bite of breakfast before heading off to see my parents in Watford for lunch before having to travel back up the M1 in time to pick the dogs up from kennels and then to be hoem ready for Ash coming home from his dads.

Still fighting with Windows Vista

Clive — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:24:55 +0000

It is now just over a week since I got my hands on Windows Vista and I’m still fighting to install things on it. It started off well, I managed to install AVG AntiVirus without any problems, then came Apache, again no problems what so ever. Next on the list was PHP from Zend, and this is where the problems started, it crashed out with out an error. After some investigation I tried disabling User Access Control, this resulted in PHP installing without a problem - yippie! I thought my prays had been answered and that all the other programsI had to install would go on with no problems, alas I was wrong! I downloaded MySQL and tried installing that and yes you guessed it, it failed to install correctly.

Tonight is going to be spent trawling the web trying to find a solution to install MySQL on Windows Vista Business edition. If I can’t find an answer I will be install Window XP on my laptop and doing away with Windows Vista, as I’m really started to hate it now!

New Laptop - Installing software on Windows Vista

Clive — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:24:05 +0000

Well it is Thursday morning and my laptop eventually turned up yesterday afternoon after so confusion between the company suppling it and the courier company. They should have delivered it Monday, but for some reason the company suppling it didn’t dispatch, so I arranged for it to be delivered on Wednesday. However I got home on Tuesday to find a card on the floor from the courier company saying they tried to deliver a parcel, but no one was in. A quick phone call later and it was arranged for them to deliver it on Wendesday as planned.

I got my hands on the laptop top just gone 3pm yesterday, I connected it up and switched it on and then say there for an hour waiting for Windows Vista to install. Once that was complete I then spent another hour waiting for some recovery disks to be created, should I ever feel the need to re-install it. After dinner I set about installing my much needed software

Windows updates (All 94MB of them)
Anti Virus software
Apache
PHP
MySQL
iTunes

I got asfar as installing PHP and then ran in to problems, for some reason the PHP install routine failed, although it did complete. At this point it was quite late so decided to call it a night. I’m sure I’ll pick it up again tonight and try again. It’s got to be something simple.

People at work that have used Windows Vista are mixed in their opinions on it, some love it some hate it. From what little time I have been playing with it, I quite like it. The widgets are a useful feature although one big problem for me with one of the them, the RSS reader - you can’t configure it to read RSS feeds you want it to read. It will only read the Microsoft ones. I did a quick look on the interweb last night for another one that could be configured, but fell short. I’m sure there is one somewhere it’s just a matter of finding it. I like the new look to the Windows interface, although Clare didn’t. She didn’t like the way the windows and alerts popped up, she said it would do her head (or was it eyes?) in. Each to their own I guess!

I’ll write more once I’ve used it more!

Waiting for a delivery

Clive — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:47:10 +0000

It’s Monday morning and I’m working from home waiting for a new laptop to turn up. It’s an insurance replacement for my old one that couldn’t be repaired after Clare knocked it off the coffee table. Typical of the courier company though, they can’t give me a time it will be delivered other than to say it will be here between 8am and 5:30pm. Luckily for me work are ok me working from home and even better that at last my broadband connection seems to now be stable after it being all over the place for nearly 2 months now!

This evening will spent installing all the software I use on my new laptop, I can see it being a late one!

Long Time No Blog

Clive — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:37:16 +0000

It’s already the 9th January 2008 and I haven’t made a single entry in my blog this year. In fact I haven’t made an entry in my blog for ages. Things have been all over the place recently, what with Christmas and New Year and my broadband connection coming to a stand still - I’m still at a crawl but it is better than it was. I’ve also managed to well and truly break my laptop, but at least I managed to get the hard drive out of it and save the data - phew!

I seem to have been busy doing nothing for months now, and I thought it about time I did something about it! I’ve just configured my PC so that I can finally get on and rewrite Clare’s website for her, something I have started a few times and never finished. Fingers crossed I’ll have some brand new and funky up for her some time soon

I also have a few other projects I want to do and hopefully some of them will make it in to both Clare’s new site and mine. I started revamping mine a while ago, I got as far as installing a new blog and a new template for it and the site, and that is where it finished. I need to finish revamping my site and that includes porting all my old blog entries over and adding some new up to date content.

Back at work

Clive — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:13:41 +0000

It’s Tuesday morning, just gone 8am and I am here at work writing this blog entry. Yesterday flew by what with it being my first day back at work after having a week off and boy were there some things to catch up on. We are planning on setting live a new look to our website in a few days time and there are a few bugs to iron before go live. After that will be all the changes that need making to the site ready for the xmas rush - it’s all go go go!

End of a week off

Clive — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:36:20 +0000

It’s Friday afternoon, which means my week off work has nearly come to an end. I took the week off as we had three of our 4 dogs castrated and we were told they need 10 days of not jumping about. You try telling that 2 six month old puppies.

I’ve spent the week both sat on the couch reading and sat at the computer researching various bits and pieces that will not only aid me in my hobby of website writing but also at work. I’ve just spent a few minutes installing some new blog software on my site and I’m currently in the middle of configuring it the way I want.

I must admit I have neglected to post many blog entris recently, but I’m hoping now that I have installed some new software it will inspire me to write some more

New Job

Clive — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 10:27:03 +0000

It is Monday morning and I have completed my fisrt week at my new job. I thoroughly enjoyed and the week flew by. Having done my first week I am now off work for 2 weeks due to the new bathroom being installed [biggrin]