Richard Lennox
- @mirajavora nice!
- Evolving the role of a Sys Admin: http://t.co/Iyo0kK09
- Deep fried ear - Glasgow's new delicacy! http://t.co/VH61MD19
Archive for the ‘WWW’ Category
Web Entertainment
I have been meaning to write a little about my "Web Entertainment" set up for a while. In fact since long before my issues with the computer, which set everything back and found me re-installing everything. Well, not exactly everything, some of what I use for entertainment is completely web based and does not require any downloads.
There are maybe two streams of what I call Web Entertainment: Audio and Video. I guess a third is my reading materials which is a collection of articles, blogs and other stuff that kind of fit into this category.
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.
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.
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!
System Rebuild
I have spent the last couple of days rebuilding my machine. Reports of internal organ failure were slightly premature, it was more like a life threatening internal bleed than complete internal organ failure! My rebuild consisted of 3 components:
- Format the HDD.
- Clean reinstall of Windows.
- RE-install all my applications and data.
Luckily I have my Netgear Storage Central (little box connected to my home network that adds hdd storage to the network!) that still has a backup of the majority of my important data. I didn't have too much to lose just my time.
I was impressed with the support I got over the phone from the supplier of my machine, pcoption.co.uk. We had a chat and decided that while it may have been the hardware, there was no reason not to try a clean install of Windows (steps 1 + 2 above). If that goes ok, then maybe it was a corrupt Windows installation. Luckily this seems to [touch wood or forehead here!] have been the case as over the last couple of days the Windows installation has appeared stable. I am still a little nervous about it but am assured that any problems will be covered by the warranty!!
Next on my list will be an upgrade of this WordPress installation, scheduled for Monday!