Ask me a Question

If you would like to ask me a question about anything technical, just comment on this page. I have spent many years coding HTML and CSS, and I also know a bit of PHP, ASP and PERL. I designed the layout for this blog and recently I’m fully XHTML compatible with valid CSS.

So, if you have a problem with your blog or website, leave a comment. I might be able to help.

You could also just be itching to ask me about something. Why not, I’ll try to answer any question you put to me.

18 Comments

  1. Fruey, I’m having headaches just getting xanga to answer the help emails I’ve sent to get two questions answered. The will not answer.
    I need to know the RSS feed to my site so I can give it to the aggregators I want to be included in .
    I also need to know how to download onto my hard drive so I can archive. I know I saw this was spoken of at one time on the blog home page (or somewhere) but can’t find it in the help topics. I have a Premium site that I pay money for, not a free one.

    the url for my site is http://www.xanga.com/praise117
    Thanks for anything you can do. I am planning a move and archiving would help.
    Paula

  2. Simon

    22/9/2005 at 7:57 pm

    Hi Paula,

    First of all, it appears that Xanga does allow you to download your archives as you are a premium member:

    From Xanga: Downloadable Archives

    We’ve been amazed at the time and effort Xanga members put into their Weblogs – a lot of Xanga members end up with hundreds of posts stored on our servers! To make sure that you have a safe copy of all your work, we’ve created downloadable weblog archives for all Premium Members. You can download a complete copy of your weblog and store it on your own hard drive for safe keeping!

    The format that this archive is in, and how to convert it to a new format, is not something I can tell since I’m not a Xanga premium member.

    It does not look like Xanga offers RSS feeds, but I found a tip here : so this is your RSS URL!

    http://www.xanga.com/rss.aspx?user=praise117

  3. Thank you for this. Where did you find the information about the downloadable archives? I will act on the rss url immediately. I really appreciate your technical assistance. pg

  4. Simon

    22/9/2005 at 10:15 pm

    Hi Paula,

    You’re welcome to the help, glad I could find something useful for you!

    Here is the link on Xanga where I found the information on the archives. It doesn’t say where you can do this download though. Have a good look around, see if you can’t find it.

    -Fruey

  5. Who will win the World Cup in Germany next year ?

  6. Simon

    7/12/2005 at 9:52 am

    Well Fella, you asked almost two months ago. I’ve been thinking about the question ever since.

    However the draw is on Friday, and seedings are out :

    1. Brazil (64)
    2. England (51)
    3. Spain (50)
    4. Germany (48)
    5. Mexico (47)
    6. France (46)
    7. Argentina (44)
    8. Italy (44)

    Strange but true, England are second seed. The seedings are based on past performance in the previous 2 world cups and the last 3 years world rankings. So maybe England could win it, who knows?

    I’m waiting for the draw to happen before making final predictions. It’s important to know who is likely to play who at which stage to answer this question fully.

    -Fruey

  7. Hello again Fruey, the nice sidebar CSS coding that you so thoughtfully provided me with that blurs the images on the side seems to have shifted a little bit, any suggestions? thank you for your hlep and advice.

  8. Simon

    4/2/2006 at 9:33 pm

    Hi Tara,

    Those Glam ads are causing the sidebar to look wrong : because they’re too wide for the sidebar. You’ll need to increase the width of the sidebar in your CSS coding, or move the ads somewhere else…

    Let me know if you need the code to widen the sidebar.

    -Fruey

  9. Thanks for getting back to me Fruey. I figured it was the Glam adds. Where in the CSS codingcan I increase my side bar to be just a bit wider?

    thank you for your help once again.

    ~Tara

  10. I think I it Fruey, I kept playing with the deminsions not sure which controlled the side bar and the main entries but eventually it worked out. Thanks for the suggestion and help!

  11. Simon

    4/3/2006 at 10:37 am

    Hi Tara,

    Glad that you found out how to control the width of your sidebar!

    -Fruey

  12. fella,

    i’m finally warming up to this online life. Been thinking about a blog of my own for a while but I’m inherently lazy (nad with 2 kids – find so little time!)

    Whats the easiest way for me to have something like yours? Do you white label your site?

    joost

  13. fruey

    17/2/2009 at 11:11 am

    Joost,

    The easiest way to set up a blog is to hop over to wordpress.com and sign up for a free blog including hosting. I started off blogging because my ISP provided a free solution. When I’d got things off the ground a bit, I then migrated to a full WordPress install on my own hosting space which I pay a little bit for (not much though).

    The theme I made myself, but loads of themes are available for free download if you don’t have the time or the inclination to come up with your own scheme. I could of course white label this blog but it would be the same as getting your own WordPress install somewhere unless you particularly like this theme :-).

    Take it easy,

    -Fella

  14. Hi, I tracked your blog from a post elsewhere where you stated you can do several English accents and was wondering would you be interested in doing some voice acting work via email, let me know if its of interest, my budget is limited however the work is minimal if you are confident to do it, many thanks

  15. fruey

    18/5/2011 at 9:15 am

    I will get in touch via email.

    -Simon

  16. Hi,

    In the article “Troubleshooting WordPress Canonical” you have mentioned “I even went so far as to set up a .htaccess file to rewrite URLs from ?JOKEID=123 to /joke/123/ where 123 would be the actual number the joke is referenced as in the database.”
    May I have the liberty to ask you what is .htaccess for the rewrite URL’s from ?JOKEID=123 to /joke/123/ that you have written?

    Thanks and Regards

    Atul

  17. fruey

    28/11/2012 at 2:57 pm

    Hi Atul,

    I don’t have a copy of the rules any more, and it took me a while to come up with the right recipe.

    I would have been something like

    RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^JOKEID=([0-9]*)$
    RewriteRule ^/joke-database/your-joke/$ http://www.caperet.com/joke/%1/ [R=302,L]

    Also I had to rewrite it back, and WordPress did get a bit confused. Wish I still had the original recipe, would have been like this

    RewriteRule ^/joke/([0-9]*)/$ http://www.caperet.com/joke-database/your-joke/?%1 [R=302,NC,L]

    Try here for more info on rewriting: http://www.simonecarletti.com/blog/2009/01/apache-rewriterule-and-query-string/

  18. Mario Rocha

    9/8/2021 at 7:09 pm

    Saw your video singing Erasure – Ship of Fools. Do you have the piano sheet for that? Thanks!

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