Author: Olly

  • Stupid 123 Reg Web Forwarding FAIL

    We use 123 reg for our domains as we have so many and they are the cheapest UK based domain name registrar! However the saying “you get what you pay for” really comes into play as the control panel and general support you get from them is dogshit.

    I wrote a very popular post back in 2008 about their domain name auto renewal shambles – now, its the web forwarding that is gonna take a beating.

    I have a customer who has collected a few domains along their business life, and only one of them is active – so he wanted to (in a search engine friendly way) redirect all his spare domain names to his main site so they were not wasted. Initially, its quite confusing as the control panel will let you set the forwarder and appear like its all set up and working even if the nameservers of the domain are set externally – so the 123 reg forwarding isnt even being factored into the equasion at this point.

    After finally reading some instructions (im a man, i dont do instructions) i realised you needed to reset the nameservers to 123-reg’s nameservers, so that the local settings would take effect. I did this, and left it a few days so DNS could properly do its thing – checked them all this morning, and they are resolve to a 123reg page – none of them forward.

    Ok – now im starting to get pissed off.

    I re-checked all domains, all nameservers were reset and all were set to forward to the main website – so what was the problem?

    I figured the best thing to do would be to properly read the instructions (im a man, when forced to read instructions i skim read) and noticed a little line in it that had until now evaded my sight…

    Don't nobody read stuff that small...

    So wait…

    I have to reset nameservers, create the redirect, THEN edit the DNS and add in some IP address?

    Would you like to make things any more confusing? I mean im OK editing DNS I do it a lot, but if my mum wanted to forward a domain she would be up shit creek – not good, 123reg!

    I’ve since gone in and edited this IP address – but if you are having problems like I did, then make sure you actually read everything as, despite it being totally retarded – there are guides to help you through the shambles.

  • I said she had to ask this time… And she did!

    Whilst we have been adventuring around Amsterdam, Gemma Beans has popped the question (on my actual birthday) so we are now officially engaged again!

    image

    I’m a happy chappy as things are back on track now and we can continue with the plans we had before – although they are slightly altered Now! We have both grown up so much in the last 6 months and now talk about everything again just like we used to. I think we will always be slightly different people but that doesn’t mean we can’t be happy – and that’s the only thing that matters!

    We’re off now to enjoy new years here in Dam – here’s to an amazing 2013!

  • An actual android tablet that is awesome – nexus 10 review

    Ok, it seems i was a little too hasty when it came to my last post about my new android tablet as shortly after I posted it, it stopped charging and became totally useless. I had tried to source a cheap android tablet and I had failed.

    So I thought sod it, and bought a Nexus 10 on launch day – I haven’t looked back.

    The first issue I had with the previous tablet, was that the battery (when it actually worked) lasted about 3 hours at most and to be honest that’s just not long enough! When using a tablet you want to be able to enjoy a days worth of whatever it is you are doing at least – which I’m pleased to announce is the first ‘plus one’ for the nexus as the battery life is amazing!

    So far I haven’t run out of battery in a single day no matter how much I use it, even during lazy Sundays where we watch Storage Wars or something equally as cool alllllllll day!

    The other and quite possibly the most important difference between the two tablets is quite simply the usability. The cheap tablet lagged a lot, was slow to respond and just didn’t do what you wanted it to do. The nexus 10 opens stuff immediately when you tap it, the keyboard is large enough to get a full on speed type going off (when twinned with SwiftKey of course!) so you can fully use it as a replacement for a laptop or net book or whatever, unless of course you want to do full on video editing or make a vector logo or something – although I’m sure it won’t be long before you can do everything via a tablet.

    The build quality of both tablets was good as I think that’s the one element the Chinese spent a fair bit of time on, however the nexus is still better overall. When you are holding it, it feels comfortable and you are confident its not going to fall out your hands.

    To summarise, and you can just tell the nexus device is one that had a fair bit of quality control to ensure its stable, and reliable a d actually usable – after owning it for a few weeks I have completely removed the need for paper in my work life, and spend hours using the tablet for checking ebay, Web browsing and everything else you do on your laptop.

    The only bad points I can raise is that all torrent apps force close the device but then I think that is the same on most tablets and Google Chrome crashes it every now a days then too…

    That’s the one app that shouldn’t really! It is a Google tablet after all!

    Also this whole blog post was written with ease on my nexus 10 with SwiftKey!

  • WordPress NextGEN Gallery Shortcodes

    WordPress NextGEN Gallery Shortcodes

    Whenever we build a website using WordPress and the client requests a gallery – we always use NextGEN.

    I can’t fault them for the features it offers, its a fantastic bit of kit – but when it actually comes to the shortcodes to get it to display stuff – NextGEN fail big time.

    So I google it every time, sometimes finding what I want – but most of the time having to piece it together from examples people have put on forums.

    Today,I found a blog that lists many of the Shortcodes – so I thought I’d repeat them so they are easier for people to find! – Thanks InfoPint!

    List of Short Codes for NextGEN Gallery

    Short codes are the piece of text which you add along with you text on your blog post or sidebars. Short codes can also be added inside the theme templates.

    For a slideshow :[ slideshow id=x w=width h=height ]
    For a album : [ album id=x template=extend] or [ album id=x template=compact ]
    For a gallery : [  nggallery id=x ]
    For a single picture : [ singlepic id=x w=width h=height mode=web20|watermark float=left|right ]
    For a image browser : [ imagebrowse r id=x ]
    To show image sorted by tags :[ nggtags gallery=mytag,wordpress,…  ]
    To show tag albums : [ nggtags album=mytag,wordpress,…  ]

    Create Special Effects using Short Codes  in the template files

    Short codes can be called from any theme template files, using  do_shortcode template tag   from the template files. Here are some examples

    <?php echo do_shortcode(’[ slideshow id=2 ]); ?>

    You can use this technique to create special flash headers with rotating images or create a showcase effect like here www.StyleHaute.com

    Display Gallery view

    http://nextgen-gallery.com/templates/galleryview/

    [ nggallery id=1 template=galleryview images=0 ]

    Useful Links for NextGEN Gallery

    http://nextgen-gallery.com/custom-fields/

    http://wordpress.org/support/topic/294912

    http://www.visser.com.au/blog/list-of-wordpress-plugins-addons-for-nextgen-gallery/

    http://speckyboy.com/2008/10/23/10-powerful-shoppingecommerce-plugin-solutions-for-wordpress/

    http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/css-decorative-gallery/

    If you can think of any more shortcodes – or if NextGEN include any more in future releases then please comment.