Stop seaching for that Welsh bint!

from the enough-already dept.

Ok, searches for a certain young Welsh pop singer are skewing my web stats, since her name represents a whopping 43.6% of the search-engine-related traffic to my website.

So stop now!

BloGTK patch submitted

BloGTK patch submitted

from the all-proud-of-myself dept.

I finished the font color selection code for BloGTK today, so I've wrapped it up in a patch file and submitted it to the author, Jay Reding. I've not put the Blogger Post Title code in yet, I want to see how amenable he is to accepting patches first. Nevertheless, I feel happy that I've managed to add some new functionality to an Open Source project and learned a little Python along the way.

[Update] For those of you that want this functionality without waiting for Jay to include it in the official tree, here's the patch and the update glade file. If you don't know how to apply the patch and glade file, I suggest you wait for Jay to include it in his next release.

[Listening to: The Brothers Brown - TLC Vs EMF - Unbelievable Scrubs]

BloGTK progress

BloGTK progress

from the glorious-Technicolor dept.

Brought the laptop with me today so did some hacking on BloGTK on the train and at lunchtime. The font colour selector dialog now has working OK/Cancel buttons (woo!) and code to capture the ColorChanged signal and turn the selected colour into it HTML colour code (more woo!). Just gotta stick the code in to insert the font colour tag in now. Annoyingly, the GTK+ libraries use the American spelling (color instead of colour), and I keep finding myself spelling it wrong outside this context now too!

Oh, and then I'll get the Blogger Title code working.

Also learned how to use diff to make the required patch file ready to send to Jay when I'm finished.

[Listening to: Go Home Productions - GHP Sixx Mixx (Live105) San Francisco]

Thomas the Pussycat Doll (or something....)

Thomas the Pussycat Doll (or something....)

from the doncha-wish-your-controller-was-fat-like-me dept.

This blending of Pussycat Dolls and Thomas the Tank Engine amused me. Hope it amuses you too!

[Warning!] Contains Not Safe For Work (NSFW) Lyrics - keep it headphones!

Let them have heat

Let them have heat

from the nice-and-toasty dept.

Got my heating fixed today after a couple of weeks of being absolutely freezing. After the guy had fixed the boiler (blocked Venturi valve apparently), I invested in a radiator key on my lunchbreak and bled out all the air trapped in my radiators. Amazing difference that makes, having all the radiators working properly - warmer house and less work for the system to do, so cheaper heating bills! Not only that, I've taught myself how to bleed radiators - not bad for a geek that is crap at DIY ;-)

[Listening to: freelance hellraiser - a stroke of genius]

BloGTK hacks

BloGTK hacks

from the code-wrangling dept.

Ignore me, I'm testing some code hacks I did to BloGTK!

[UPDATE] Nope, didn't work, back to drawing board.

[UPDATE 2] In case you wondered what I'm up to, I'm trying to add a couple of missing features into Jay Reding's BloGTK. Blogger supports post titles now, so I want to retrofit that back on. Also want to add a colour picker dialogue for setting the font colour. If nothing else, it gets me a little bit of Python experience. If all goes well, I'll add a few more features to try and bring it closer to w.bloggar levels of functionality

I hate iTunes

I hate iTunes

from the DRM-is-an-unnecessary-evil dept.

I bought an album from iTunes using the Mac at work. Normally I would have used SharpMusique for my iTunes purchases, but firstly, its support for Albums is broken and secondly, Apple have just changed their encryption scheme with the release of iTunes 6, rendering SharpMusique unusable again until DVD Jon breaks it open again (to this end, I've donated to his cause on PayPal)

So here I am, with some DRM-crippled music files that I can't play on the Mac (no speakers), can't transfer to my Windows machine that also has iTunes installed (machines on different subnets), can't burn to CD (Mac doesn't have a CD writer), can't convert the files to something more flexible (DRM prevents this).

If anyone has any bright ideas on how I can listen to the music I legally bought, I'd be pleased to hear 'em!

[UPDATE] I copied the .m4p files to my Windows box and double-clicked one to open it in iTunes. It asked me to authorize the machine (stupid DRM parlance), but let me play it. My next mission is to see if it will let me burn it to a CD, now that I have them on a machine with a CD Writer

[UPDATE 2] Ok, so its still DRM-encumbered, but I've now managed to get my album on to my iPod and be able to listen to it, which is all I ever wanted in the first place. I'm still averse to using iTunes now until JLJ weaves his magic again, but at least now my original purchase was not in vain and I have some new pod-fodder for the train home tonight

[Listening to: Transwave - Malaka Dance ]

Giant penguin holds up train

Giant penguin holds up train

from the we-apologise-for-any-inconvenience-caused dept.

A train driver caused delays on a German rail line after mistaking a giant toy penguin for a dead man in a tuxedo.

Passengers were left stranded in Neuwied after Udo Vergens pulled the emergency stop when he saw what he thought was a man lying face down and wearing a black and white tuxedo.

Officials who came to investigate found only a man-size soft toy penguin lying on the tracks.

A Neuwied police spokesman said: "We are at a loss to explain the presence of this very large penguin.

"We would think you would notice if you lost something like this."

All quiet on the blogging front....

All quiet on the blogging front....

from the no-news-is-good-news dept.

Been a while since my last update, so here's a quick run-down on news with me...

House sale is still on for the time being, with a first-time buyer the hot contender for seeing the deal through to completion. We've decided not to buy a house ourselves, instead going into rental for a year or so and coming back to the market later as first time buyers (or equivalent to) ourselves. Saves a whole lotta headaches that way

Recently returned from a short break in Paris with Alison. Had a great time, and no, we didn't see any riots or burning cars, despite what the media would have you believe. That was all in the outlying areas, not the main city centre.

Office moves suck. Thats all I'm saying on that one.

Lego Star Wars is game of the moment on my PS2. Its highly addictive.

[Listening to: GTR - Mistral (original mix) ]

Gravatar support

Gravatar support

from the Mini-Me dept.

Blog comments now have Gravatar support for those of you that have one.

[Listening to: Underfoot & Toki - Necrognomes (Gnome Vs. Gnome Vol. 5)]