Category: Weblog

  • RIP Marlon Fish

    Sadly when i got back from my holiday, my beloved Marlon fish had passed away. He looked to be slowing down and getting a bit poorly before we went away and despite leaving him a feeding block so he had enough food for the week and fresh water – he just couldn’t handle being away from his family for a whole week.

    Here he is with his old friend Bob when they were both younger. He was a great fish, and was with us for nearly 2 years! He was never the same after bob died and suffored from depression and an eating disorder until his death the other day.

    He is now at rest with Bob in the back garden, at peace and back with his best friend.

    RIP my brother!

  • Why i like twitter

    Ive had accounts on most of the top social networking sites just because they were there i suppose. I never really got on with the myspace interface, and the flashing backgrounds and 4 different songs starting at one time started to piss me off a bit. Facebook is a excellent way of finding people you have lost touch with, and sharing what you and your friends do at the weekend.  But i just see facebook as a way of sharing things we are doing with thousands of people. A marketing tool so to speak. Plus i get so annoyed having to block applications, deny gifts, and cancel all the other crap everyone sends me!

    Then along came twitter.

    Initially i had no idea what the hell use it could ever be. It was so simple, and i really saw no benefit to anyone. Then i started following a few people. I added people that made software i had bought, and i started receiving up-to-date info about the next release of that software. I added Jimmy Carr and found a funny one liner popping up every now and then. I added some people who do similar work to me, and the things they were talking about were relevant to what i do every day.

    I suddenly found myself hooked to this on the pulse news being sent to a tab in my browser.

    Then i didn’t have access to my pc for a day, and when i got back to work i had totally forgotten all about it. Once i remembered i went back on and started to notice it was quite inconvenient having to check that tab every time i wanted to see if anything had been said.

    So i looked for an app to help me keep updated. I noticed a friend of mines posts were from something called twitterfox, DING, it hit me. What an idiot. I have everything else plugged into my browser, and i hadn’t even thought to look for a firefox extension! Thanks stu!

    Now i get instantly notified of any tweets and im finding it more and more useful each day.

    I also like how they have left it VERY simple, and they have left everything else you might be able to use twitter for up to everyone else.

    Ive noticed LOADS of sites that use twitter in different ways. Finding hot talked about topics, integrating pictures even finding specific people to follow in an attempt at getting them to return the favor for use in advertising etc.

    I heard that google are looking to buy twitter, too. T hat should be interesting.

    Peace out, im now going to bed – and then going on holiday.

    Adios!

  • Ever lost a window off your screen in xp?

    When im in the office i use an extra monitor as well as my laptop screen, and i have my different windows on different monitors doing their bitniss.

    If – for example – i have my firefox browser open on my extra monitor, and i have clicked a browse button to add a picture to a blog post or something, my laptop will remember which monitor the dialog window was open on when i clicked OK, and ALWAYS open it on that monitor unless you move it, and click OK on another window.

    I got home tonight and i wanted to test our youtube style modified car video site (maxxd.tv) as i have recently updated the software. I clicked browse to select a test vid, and the window opened on the monitor that wasnt there!

    I do have it disabled in my display settings, it just seems to not understand what’s going off. Ive had the problem before and i just left that particular job until i was next using that screen.

    However tonight i wanted to resolve the issue, instead of sweeping it under the carpet.

    So i did some googling and found mostly a bunch of shite from people who obviously don’t know what the hell they are talking about, and amongst the shite was something that looked a bit more techie orientated, so i clicked and BINGO.

    Heres the solution!

    1. Hold down Alt + Spacebar
    2. Press the M key
    3. Use the arrow keys to relocate the window
    4. Press the Enter key when you have the Window in the desired location.

    Its simply the keyboard alternative to right clicking on the title bar of the window and selecting move. It never dawned on me to do that, as i wasn’t aware i could control the movement of the windows with the keyboard.

    I thought i would share it, as like i said most of the stuff i found on google was crap, so at least there will be two decent results when people are searching.

    Cheers Kevin!

  • Long Exposure Photos

    I got a new camera for xmas off Gemma, and i love it. I have taken it to a show and it works WELL, plus i have pissed around with it taking photos of everything so i can try and figure out how to use it properly. Its not a SLR camera, but it does have a lot of more advanced features to allow me to take photos with a long exposure setting..

    Not bad considering i was stood outside, in the freezing cold and with no tripod! Its the first time i have played around with the exposure settings, i still dont understand them totally but im getting there!