Category: blogs

A New Home

10/10/2005 /
Home Sweet Home

Hello! Welcome to my new domain. After troubles with my other host I decided to move. I have just finished migrating my blog, comments and theme to this new server, which is all hosted under my domain name caperet.com. Now I have a couple of issues : redirecting traffic from the old site is no problem (a 301 redirect from the old server), but all the links that point to this blog are now being lost in terms of blog tools like Technorati and TTLB. I think I have TTLB sorted, as I have linked this new address to the old one, so the link at the bottom of the sidebar should update OK. I still haven’t looked at ways to sort out Technorati yet, but since I didn’t “claim” my old address so I don’t think there’s much I can do :-(.

If you link here, I would appreciate that you update to use the new domain www.caperet.com. Normal posting will be resumed shortly once I get my email sorted and explain to you why “caperet” is important (or not). Guess if you like, I’d love to see if any of you can work it out. There is a hint here somewhere that displays randomly; it’s pure chance as to whether you see it or not.

Blog Down Over Weekend

10/10/2005 /

The server hosting this blog was working very slowly and/or not at all over the weekend. Most of the time requests were coming up as a blank page. Initially I thought there was a problem with the configuration, and I upgraded to WordPress 1.5.2 (Strayhorn) without success. However, this morning things were back to normal so I assume that my upgrade in fact worked OK.

My theory is that a site on the server (since it’s a shared server) was making the server go into overdrive due to a bad configuration or hosting some movie file or something, and my pages were timing out. No error messages, just a long wait and then nothing. This spurred me to buying a paid hosting package on a shared server which is a little better managed, with my own domain name. I hope this will work better than my current package which is free space bundled with my ISP ADSL connection.

So this blog will soon be moving to a new home. I should be able to make sure that all links on blogrolls and such are all redirected automatically. Thanks to all of you who managed to post even when the blog was down : I think in fact that those in western US timezones actually hit the blog when the European server was actually responding OK because it was the middle of the night here.

Watch this space, the new domain should be live over the course of this week!

Being Interesting

27/9/2005 /

The dames over at I talk too much review blogs. I stood up to be counted and sent this site address over to find out what they might think. My new layout came out OK, but the rest just wasn’t up to scratch.

The layout of this page is neat and easy to navigate, but it seems to match the content in that it’s just not interesting enough to keep a Dame begging for more. The title is “Let’s Have It” and I feel as if I’ve had nothing.

I think some of the review had a certain bias against the techie leanings of some of the posts. It has given me impetus to start improving other things which I’ve been meaning to do for a while now : adding a decent image into the header, and generally improving visuals.

As for writing more interesting posts, well I will have to think a bit more on that one…

Incremental Improvement

21/9/2005 /
When Tara Met Blog, before and after

I was chatting the other day with the owner of this site : When Tara Met Blog. I mentioned that the sidebar wasn’t particularly easy to read because the background of cocktail glasses with red liquid inside tended to obscure the black text and links. Since Tara told me that she didn’t have full control of all content on the pages due to the hosting platform she’s on, I didn’t know exactly what to suggest apart from getting rid of the background. Doing that would of course change the whole look and feel of the page.

Which got me to thinking about a single class change in the CSS file to give a slightly transparent background to the sidebar, in order to render it more legible without detracting from the style of the site. This is a simple, incremental improvement to the site. Instead of a redesign – why change everything all the time – a simple update to a couple of CSS classes can make a big difference to a blog.

So how do you achieve a transparent background for a block (DIV) in your page, without using a PNG file? Here’s how :

.myClass {
background-color: #fff;
filter:alpha(opacity=70);
-moz-opacity:0.7;
opacity: 0.7;
}

There are 3 declarations to cover different browsers.

# IE -> filter:alpha(opacity=50);
# Mozilla (version 1.6 and below inc. Firefox) -> -moz-opacity:0.5;
# CSS3 standard -> opacity: 0.5;

This code was all gleaned from Ove Klykken’s eponymous site. Tara made the changes and links to me in this post. Thanks Tara!

If you would like me to suggest an incremental improvement for your blog, using just a CSS class change or a very small change in your code, I’d be happy to have a look. Reply to this post or leave a question in the “Ask me a Question” section.

Don’t Miss the Pages ->

16/9/2005 /

There are a couple of pages in my sidebar over to the right that I’m hoping to develop.

First of all, the Jokes Database : lots of funny jokes in a number of categories. Have a read through and let me know if you have any better ones. A lot of people pass through here without seeing them. I’ve lost blog battles (over on Blog Explosion) against joke sites, but I have hundreds of jokes available here. In the footer, there’s a random one-liner. In the database aside from the one-liners there are over a hundred longer jokes.

Secondly, a new addition : ask me a question. I recently finished this layout template for WordPress, and I work in web design. If you have a question about the technical side of blogging, or you’re just curious… then go ahead and ask me a question.

Digital Rights Management. Right?

14/9/2005 /
DRM versus iPod. myMusic, myPod. iTry, iFail.

Sarah in Tampa, a blogger and sysadmin for a small business, probably knows enough about technology to live happily with her PC. When it came to getting some Madonna tunes she purchased from buy.com onto her iPod she was bitten by misguided DRM technology which is there ostensibly to prevent copyright violation. She had to input licences (which she owned) track by track then burn the tracks to a CD, before ripping the CD back to the PC – losing the DRM in the process – in order to have digital copies which could be transferred to her iPod. Why should legal owners of works have to jump through hoops to use them the way they want?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation are strong advocates of open source, common formats, and unrestricted digital media. Quoting from their paper on the subject of DRM :

DRM delivers no public value but exacts a punishing public cost. It is so harmful to the interests of developed countries that there are widespread revolts against DRM underway in the US and Canada, in Europe and in Asia.

As you will see, the answer to “Which DRM will spur the most development in my nation?” is “None at all.”

Their conclusion :

The iTunes Music Store manages to make millions of dollars selling music that can be downloaded for free (just as Evian makes billions selling water that can be garnered for free from the kitchen tap) by offering a superior, competitive product.

Sarah in Tampa, it would have been quicker for you to download those tracks for free (albeit illegally) in order to transfer them to your iPod. Congratulations for being part of what must be a minority in my opinion: tech-savvy enough to work around the situation. What happens when you don’t know how to exercise your right to listen to the music you own on the gadget you want? My bet is that most people probably just fire up their peer-to-peer filesharing software. Delicious irony.

Sunday Moment

11/9/2005 /
Driving at Dusk

Driving around Paris. Initially, a very scary experience because if you’ve driven in England you’re not prepared. Traffic lights are not opposite the junction, but right next to it. Road signs point out places that are close by : rarely road names or places further away that you actually want to get to. Inside Paris itself, it’s tough to find places if you’re not used to it. Lots of motorbikes and scooters around, lots of one-way systems.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s quite nice. A wonderful city. I took a trip through the 19th and the 10th arrondissements (districts) around the Gare du Nord. Stopped to have a cup of tea with friends, came back past the Canal St Martin and the Canal St Denis. At some points along the canals there’s no barrier. You could close your eyes and veer to the right straight into the water. Close to the Porte de la Villette, I took a little dogleg route along the Canal St Denis to avoid a one way system before joining the periphérique. At a traffic light, a couple laughing jumped on a Vespa and drove in front of me. The light went green, they swayed a bit – they were still giggling – and then headed off with that familiar exhaust sound. A picture of happiness on a Vespa, I thought of my wife and smiled. I was on my way home.