Monthly Archives: October 2007

Security, a letterbox and a distraction

4

All in a single trip to Tesco. I look fairly reasonable these days. Gone is the shaved head, gone are the facial piercings, gone is most of the attitude I used to carry with me. So for the second week running being followed around Tesco by Security was annoying. Watched while checking out the video games, while in the toiletries section, watched as I deliberately went back through the store to see if I was being watched. Going to the tills and finding 1 security guy quite close, another a couple of lines away. Noticing too that the lady at the till caught the eye of the guard.
I accidentally bumped the guy unloading his stuff onto the conveyor. He turns around and says that there are a lot of letterboxes around today. I had no clue what he was on about as I briefly glanced around. He can tell that I’m lost, so he nods in a direction and says “black letterboxes”. I then see what the fool is on about – some ladies are wearing a niqab. (Apologies for the incorrect spelling). I started ignoring him – I have no place for garbage like that. His 2 kids ask him about these ladies. He tells them to never ever ever talk to them or touch them, that they are really wrong, that they’ll mess with their heads. Nice dad they don’t have.
Back at the car I have the boot open while loading stuff in. Because the wheelchair is in there I also have the side door open. 2 open doors, 1 trolley full of shopping. A girl – about 12 I think – comes through the cars on the other side of the carpark road.
“Hey mister, are yer gay?”
“What?”
“Are yer gay? Me mate says yer gay” and she points down the carpark behind me. She’s still walking toward me and has not stopped actually looking at me, even while pointing.
“No I’m not”
“Well he says yer gay so ya must be gay”. She’s still pointing and she walks right past me – again she never broke her stare at me. She sends a volley of abuse at me once safely past me.
I am totally certain that if I had turned and looked then part of the shopping would have been grabbed.

Tesco at Beaumont Leys – all the reasons you need to buy online.

Selling spam?

3

Google just nailed the PR of this site down to 4 because – and ONLY because – I have text link ads. I’ve said my bit before so I’ll not go on again. I knew it was coming.
Google do not like this because the space I sell on MY blog affects their results. They consider it irrelevant, not targeted. Okay.

One of the first anti-spam tools for WordPress was by Kitty. Essentially it said that if the spammer paid, their spam could stay. I doubt anyone paid, but hey, nice idea. I still have that code.

So – what would Google do if we allowed “text-spam-comment-ads” instead? It’s not like they can penalise for spam content in comments is it ? (Bye Bye Blogger!)

The sole consolation I have is that as a Firefox user with Adblock Plus, G-filter and CustomizeGoogle running I don’t see most ads. So much so that theirs stick out. I’m 6c off the $100 in adsense here so when that hits they will go too.

So Google, what next? You obviously think this is cracked (remember the craptacular nofollow which came about because of pagerank?) so who is the next victim?

Google is an advertising business first, last and everything in between.

Legal editor needs clue – send to Guardian Unlimited.

1

“Warning to abusive bloggers as judge tells site to reveal names” says the Guardian Unlimited.
Just one tiny problem – the article mentions 2 forums.
Forums are not blogs, forum posts are not blog posts, forum users are not bloggers.
I honestly thought the Guardian had more of a clue.

Court orders obliging websites to disclose the identity of users posting anonymous defamatory remarks began in 2001.

That may be true, but if we take this blog for instance I can reveal no more than you can see. Sure I have the email addresses but if you are really going to have a go at someone then you shouldn’t use your email. And even then it proves nothing because you can put anyone’s details there. There are a surprising amount that start comments@ blog@ wordpress@ and none are real. So as a blog owner who requires no registration – and therefore a verifiable address – for use I can’t see that I could be held accountable. I’m sure some lawyer somewhere would say that I am. “I” also being “us bloggers”.

But then abuse is the least of it – linking is illegal now.

Alonso.

2

If I could find enough words to fit around the mass of abuse then I’d post about the Stupid Spaniard. How the hell no-one has given Fernando Alonso a damn good slapping is beyond me, it really is. I disliked Schumacher but Alonso has taken this to a whole new level. I hope McLaren keep him but don’t let him drive – after all, he’d not want to take any secrets eh?

Random Gravatars

2

To create random gravatars for your comments so you have neither the default, empty spaces or the same one of your choice.

First get Matt’s script. I first used this when I wrote a couple of years ago how to get random headers on the blog and it’s come in handy again. Save that as it is.
Next go find your images and place them in a folder.
Put the script inside that folder.
Upload and link from your comments.php
Easy.

Here’s one I made earlier.
Download this folder, unzip.
It contains all the images I’m using here right now (127 of them) and the script
Upload to your site
Open comments.php and change the gravatar code to
<img src="< ?php gravatar("", 80 , "http://your-domain/your-folder/ctar.php"); ?/>
After saving the changes your comments should now have the same images that I am using. Once you see it working all you need to do is change the images in that folder.
If you want a long example, click the link in the top right to the “What makes you happy” post.

If you want to batch resize, I recommend ImageBadger on Windows.
If you want to batch rename – again on Windows – 1-4a Rename is excellent.

And should you want to keep the images in the download for some reason, not a problem.
Of course you don’t need to use all 127. Delete all but a couple. It’s there for testing. (It’s an 850kb folder to upload so deleting a few will speed things up).

An improvement would be to check for an author url and link the gravatar to that and if there is no author url to then link to a default of the blog owner’s choice.. The latter is easy – wrap the code above in a href – but the ‘if’ bit throws me. Plugin territory probably.

Little Pictures

11

I liked the idea of gravatars when they came out – mine was until recently an image of my right hand with the implant – but then for some reason it sort of dropped off the planet for me. No idea why. But now they are back (not that they left) and back in a better way. Like favicons though I like gravatars.

Unlike the amazingly boring and uninspirational M (I will change it later) that adorns the address bar here some favicons are little works of art. Completely constrained yet people can create wonderful images which can convey so much. Like gravatars. It surprises me at wordpress.com just how many people have their faces on their avatar there (but then it surprises me just how many people look at their stats too) but also the diversity. There’s a sticky thread just for testing avatars and while many are images taken from the web, images that are part of images taken from the web (looking at them now faces seem to figure higher than I thought. Maybe it’s a “I am a person not just a blog” thing going on) but there are some which look deliberately created. Created because nothing else fits, nothing else conveys the meaning they want to get across. And that’s really cool – especially to a person like me who has all the talent of a brick when it comes to art.

I tried to bring them into my comments at some point in the past but gave up with the styling for some reason or other. But I can and I probably will. There’s a support angle here though. There is a plugin at the gravatar site. and although it mentions WordPress 1.2 (I loved that version!) it probably still works. No doubt an uptodate version will appear. Anyway, there are many themes out there that have no gravatar code in their comments.php file and that means there are some issues ahead.
The gravatar help mentions the ‘Comments Loop’. The word ‘Loop’ used to throw people at the wordpress.org forums and although comment loops are probably fairly uniform it’s still a code insert. While there may be some hooks in the default themes – because hooks are good according to those that code – that will not do anything for existing users. So people will be going to forums saying ‘Loop?’ Soon after they will return saying things like “They overlap” “It broke the layout” “But I want them on the right/left/top/bottom?” “Instead of the author name” “drop shadow” and others too. The gravatar code does not specify anything in the way of placement, and neither should it. But people want their placement. And that’s where the fun starts. It’s adding a significant chunk of something that needs it’s own div, margins and all that other styling stuff. Forums will get busy and probably unavoidably so.
It’s not just a WordPress thing. It’s all the platforms – unless code is there waiting then code needs inserting and CSS writing. As gravatars become more popular then more people will ask “How?” and when someone asks, someone needs to answer (I know all about that bit). Maybe theme authors will produce something, not that they have to, but I can imagine they will be asked. The forums might keep known solutions. Again it’s not just the wordpress.org forums but others too. Possibly theme authors start to code this in by default and have the choices in the CSS – who knows.
None of this is bad, it’s just the effect that happens when something new comes along that lots of people want. And regardless of who actually bought it all the above would still apply.

And there are still some really good little pictures.

18 Oct edit:
Favicon now the same as my gravatar which is the same as my wordpress.com avatar.
Gravatars added. The gravatar is in a class which floats left and has a right margin of 10px.
The time/date is followed by br clear=”all”
The Author name is followed a br because I couldn’t be bothered to try any other way.

Council red tape.

1

This isn’t about anything but bureacracy.

Like millions of others we do not own our own home and given we were working as nurses those salaries couldn’t get close to affording one around here if we were still there. So we rent. Not a problem except Jacq needs a downstairs toilet. We become reliant to a huge degree on what are laughingly called ‘social services’ and ‘councils’ as Jacq has ‘unmet needs’.

So. We ask for a downstairs toilet. The Occupational Therapist says that will not serve J’s needs forever so no, we cannot have one. She says that we need an extension on the back of the house which can have a bedroom, bathroom, toilet etc. Here is what happens:

  1. We have to complete detailed financial accounts. This will entail an Accountant’s report as well
  2. The council consider this.
  3. The council say they will do the work if we contribute £XXX. Last time we enquired about a downstairs toilet they wanted £18000. Up front.
  4. We tell them we cannot get a loan (true) but that if they let us pay them back that would not be a problem (also true). Councils don’t do loans. So this stage comes to nothing.
  5. Next stage. We have to complete detailed financial accounts. This will entail an Accountant’s report as well
  6. Another part of the council consider this.
  7. They will again come up with a figure but hopefully less. They also ask up front.
  8. IF we can meet that, then they give the go-ahead for plans.
  9. Once plans are set, we enter the next stage.
  10. We have to complete detailed financial accounts. This will entail an Accountant’s report as well
  11. They meet to agree the plans and give the final go-ahead
  12. I am told that following this “things might happen”

But:

  • if the neighbour disagrees at the end (shared party wall) it all stops dead.
  • if a building survey finds a fault, it all stops dead. (note how these happen at the end?)
  • if at any time anywhere between a finance report being done and a meeting to consider our financial circumstances change then that stage is reset. (I asked about exchange rates, and yes, that could affect this bizarrely)
  • if the landlord has any objections (which he won’t know til he sees the plans) it stops.
  • if an estate agent says that the extension could actually harm the house value (which in this case it could) then obviously it would stop.

Also, if this happened then we would be taken off the housing waiting list because J’s needs were being met – even though it’s privately rented and liable at any time. Even if the landlord agrees to terms his life events would take precedence.
The above is not about us not wanting to pay – we would if they would let us. It is strange that councils can play the money markets but not give loans to the people they are meant to serve.
Accountant’s reports are not cheap.
So all that process, which takes time, energy and too many people and far too many rules, has to be gone through because the occupational therapist says we need an extension on the back of the house.
It’s like they put every obstacle in the way because they don’t want to spend any money.
All we asked for was a downstairs toilet. We don’t want the extension. But we can’t have what we would like, we have to have what they say. Of course we don’t ‘have to’ anything but it seems beyond stupid that what would cost less and take 2 days and is wanted is overruled in favour of something way more expensive which is not wanted and subject to many variables.

Councils. Nonsense.

So.. RR7

Reply

Love it.
Music. I’ve not really noticed which either means it’s not so good, it fits perfectly or I’m concentrating too much. I think it’s the latter but the former is probably true too.
Graphics. The PS3 is part of my master plan to get a bigger better TV so they can only improve. I love the helicopters, planes taking off and various other touches that have distracted me enough to wobble.
Structure. It’s not quite as linear as others in the series but there is much repetition built-in (see below).
Controls. Fast, faster, look behind. There is probably a brake but I (a) have no idea which button it is (b) have no intention of finding out and (c) it’s Ridge Racer – no need for brakes.

The gameplay is exactly what I expected. I have played Micro Machines through to Gran Turismo and while realism is the selling point of things like GT, Forza, Colin McRae the fact is that while these games demand a level of attention so does RR. In Forza you need to get the right line, adjust speed and turn, hit the apex, stay on the right line and accelerate correctly around a hairpin. It’s exactly the same in RR – only heaps more fun. It might look like there is less skill but it’s a different skill. In all previous RR incarnations there has been the Devil cars which take some awesome driving to beat and I look forward to finding the ones hidden in here.
The repetition is no bad thing. I prefer the dynamic cars so I can sling them around so trying to drive a mild car is very different experience and one I don’t like as much but to completely complete the game I have to. And even so, it’s 3 laps at less than 2 mins a per lap so the amount of my life lost to the game isn’t so great. The shorts bursts in playing are also suited to a few mins away from work to chill.

One thing I am really looking forward to trying to beat are lap times from others online. I will try and beat my own times anyway – get a great start, right line on every segment, drift at the right time and absolutely not if not needed, only just miss the sides of the track, accelerate at the right time, no fishtailing, use nitros in the perfect position – so with the added challenge of real people to play against it should keep me busy for a long time.

Theft in Kalamazoo continues

5

I blogged this last week because the owner of that site was stealing other people’s content. Reminder of the whois:

Registrant:
Nicholas Weinberg
8548 old oak circle
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49009
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: IDEAHUSTLE.COM
Created on: 12-Jun-06
Expires on: 12-Jun-08
Last Updated on: 12-Jun-07

and I was happy because the host Liquidxhost.com closed the site because I sent a dmca notice their way.
Well.. it’s back. I think what the site owner said was “Okay, so I’ll not steal content from those blogs, I’ll steal it from everything about paintball.” Which is what he is doing – it’s a Paintball Directory.
In the header:
“content=”Copyright (c) 2006 by IdeaHustle.com. All rights reserved!”

It’s still theft, his host is still abetting it (wouldn’t you watch a previously dmca’d site?) and even though he protested that the site is not his it is still in his name. This time I get your pub-ID – I was daft not to last time.