Richard Lennox
- found a bug in Firefox - doubt it'll get fixed though!
- How Big is Social Media in the UK? [VIDEO] http://bit.ly/aIYgrs
- "Technical Issues" on the BBC homepage - something you don't see everyday!
Archive for April, 2007
Tales from Brunton Park, anyone?
Living in Edinburgh, there is one thing I especially miss about Carlisle. Spending Saturday afternoons standing on the terraces at Brunton Park, shouting myself hoarse in encouragement and frustration at Carlisle United. Those regular visitors to this blog may have noticed that Carlisle United's homepage has been removed form my Frequently Accessed Sites. The main reason for this is that I don't want to pay for the premium content (and cannot really afford to), even though I could listen to every game through it, hence why I cannot get the Radio Cumbria commentary streamed over the web anymore!
As a blogger, I tend to read a lot of other peoples blogs and have as yet been unable to find one in particular
Carlisle United: the games, the stories, the truth from the terraces.
100 million IPods but one big design mistake.
This week sees the sale of the Apple IPod reach over 100,000,000. Yes that is 100 million. To be honest my IPod is not a statement or fashion accessory, it is a tool I use day in day out. It helps me relax and concentrate at the same time. Well, the music does that but the IPod brings it into my everyday life. Even my "bulky" 30GB Video is thin and usable, supplying me with all my music to choose from in one fell swoop.
But there are some people who rely on technology for survival, but their technology is not as aesthetically pleasing as my IPod, nor as easy to use. On her own blog Amy Tenderich has written an Open Letter to Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) asking him to address this. I will let her tell you how it is.
I believe in good technology design and, while not afflicted by any such conditions, I support her letter. Good technology and good design should not be restricted to those things that make a pile of money or that are iconic gadgets. Good design, should be applied to all technology but especially to those things that are essential. This post may be better entitled 100 million IPods but 100 million design mistakes!
Manchester United turn on the style
I think I have just seen the most impressive and devastating European football performance, in a long long time. Right from the impressive finish of Michael Carrick's first goal, Manchester United ripped the heart and soul out of Roma. They were lightningly fast, confident and had the poise of a ballet company. It was a masterclass in one touch football, that was breathtaking. The quality second to none. A performance like this against one of the top teams in Italian football, lays down the gauntlet to the rest of the semi-finalists!
Anyone want to comment?
While there are still relatively few visitors to this site, I am really pleased, yet surprised, at the current unique visitors statistics. This blog constitutes my random musings on a variety of items and that some people are reading and interested in them is very interesting. It is funny though, I rarely know who my audience is. I know certain details thanks to employing Google Analytics as my web statistics tracker, mainly just things like location (based on your IP address) and the browser, OS you are using to read this site.
To try and move this forward, I have now implemented a "Blogroll" [see my original post
GoodBye Virgin Media DNS, Hello Open DNS
I have said goodbye to Virgin Media and its DNS service and welcomed Open DNS. DNS [Domain Name System] is used every time you browse the Internet. You enter the human readable (well understandable anyway!) address of a website into your browser and the DNS, translates the into the IP address (4 group numbers) that is the physical location of the websites server. Take this site for example: you have likely reached it by typing "www.richardlennox.net" into your browser address bar, DNS translates this into the server's IP address, 85.13.219.74, to which you are then directed. This makes the Internet much more usable for you and I, as we can simply type in the human readable name and the DNS does the work of locating its address.
Normally and properly your Internet Service Provider (in my case Virgin Media) does all this for you in the background and the service is generally great but Open DNS offers a much better service (and its still free!). Open DNS claims "to make your Internet blazing fast, block phishing sites and correct your typos on the fly". While DNS does add a slight overhead to your Internet connection, the claim of making it faster I cannot prove and am a bit skeptical about, but the other two are the reasons I switched.
Beatboxing flute inspector gadget
Having got my computer back to being good for my entertainment look what I picked up off the YouTube: Top Favourites feed today:
This guy seems to do a few when I search YouTube for "beatboxing flute" and therefore I will subscribe to his feed ! Great!
Wordpress Successfully Upgraded
As none of you will have noticed, there have been a few periods of downtime last night into this morning! This is because I have been upgrading the underlying Wordpress installation to the latest and most secure 2.1.3. This is a significant upgrade from the 2.0 version although not a major update. Thankfully it has gone relatively smoothly, with only minor modifications required.
I have also taken the opportunity to upgrade some of the underlying CSS and HTML of the theme. This won't mean any visible changes, it simply cleans things up a little in the code. Let me know if you come across any issues…Thanks!