Displacement
Activities that I am currently using to put off doing any writing:
1. Finishing Half-Life 2 Episode 2 (which was great and I’ll tell you all about it soon)
2. Designing a new theme for the blog (and actually getting somewhere too)
3. Work.
Ah well. Maybe I’ll do some tonight.
Now, questions:
1. Can anyone recommend a freeware ADSL download monitor?
2. Does anyone know how to display text in a font on a webpage that the reader may not necessarily have. (PHP solutions involving graphics generated on the fly are also acceptable)
3. What should I include in the blog design in terms of functionality?
1) Ummm… no, sorry.
2) My site uses Moderate Design’s Dynamic Text Replacement - http://www.stewartspeak.com/projects/dtr/
3) I think you should include the scribomatic widget
Andy
Comment by Andy Coughlan — November 29, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
Answers:
1: No. What’s an ADSL download monitor?
2: Also no. Why would you want to do that?
3: You’d probably want to stay away from fonts that most people don’t have, for a start. What’s wrong with Helvetica anyway?
Comment by Matt — November 29, 2007 @ 9:08 pm
Andy - cheers. It’s on my list already!
Matt:
1. It measures how much is being downloaded and (I hope) what programs are downloading stuff.
2. Design, Matthew, design.
Comment by Tom — November 29, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
okay, this is what all that sounds like to me:
WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWFTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWFTWFTWFTWFT
WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWFTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWFTWFTWFTWFT
WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWFTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWFTWFTWFTWFT
WTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWFTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWFTWFTWF
TWFTWTFWTFWTFWFTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWTFWFTWFTWFTWFT
??????????????????????????????????????????????????
Comment by Lucy — November 29, 2007 @ 9:34 pm
I got the Orange Box on the day of release, finished Portal on Saturday and finished Half-Life 2.2 on Sunday! Strangely enough, I haven’t even opened Team Fortress 2 yet. Half-life 2.2 was more awesomey goodness, but it was Portal that really blew me away. What a mind-bender.
Comment by Destructor — November 29, 2007 @ 10:24 pm
Absolutely. It was epic and totally fantastic. Team Fortress 2 is also very, very good. I’ll send you my Steam ID.
Incidentally - did you realise who was did the voice for the rebel soldiers?
Comment by Tom — November 29, 2007 @ 10:38 pm
1. No. Worried you’ve got angry Greeks in your computer trying to open the gates?
2. The only thing I’d rely on for all clients would be to put the text in an image. If you decide to make a PHP widget for it I’ve got a couple of old scripts that might make a worthwhile start point (do you remember my SWG skill box script?).
3. Make an RSS feed for comments. Or perhaps you have one, in which case you need to stop it being quite so well hidden.
Comment by QE — November 30, 2007 @ 1:04 am
Cheers QE. The RSS Feeds will be considerably more obvious next time around and may even be accompanied by little RSS graphics.
The ADSL monitor is partly that but it’s also because I’m interested to see how much bandwidth is being used when the machine is idle but, obviously, still connected to the tubes. If it also comes with an analysis of what programs are using then I’d also be interested to see how much TF2 and it’s ilk are using too.
Basically, it all comes down to BT telling me that it was my responsibility to monitor my usage to make sure I don’t go over my allowance which is a post in itself but as I’m switching providers, is not something I’m too worried about.
Comment by Tom — November 30, 2007 @ 11:14 am
Apologies for the absence…
Since this has come up, and Lucy has written WTF over and over, I won’t feel like such a fool asking this…
What’s an RSS feed and how does it work? Does it mean I can find out what replies are going on direct to my inbox without having to relook at the page itself?
As to ADSL monitors, I’ve got a feeling something of that ilk came with my broadband package… but I’m not sure! Computer illiteracy, you better hope it’s not contagious… my black hole of knowledge might start absorbing your knowledge!
Comment by Jon Peacey — November 30, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
Don’t worry Jon, I think you’re already using them as you currently use Google Reader to view updates on blogs. (I’m not stalking you - site stats show that’s where you came from). The updates are (typically) provided by an RSS. It’s also possible to get an RSS feed for comments on a blog as well (although whether or not Blogspot provides them I don’t know) This means in theory that you could plug the comments RSS feed into Google Reader and see all the updated comments.
RSS stands for Really Simply Syndication. Although in my experience it’s not actually that simple.
Comment by Tom — November 30, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
Aha! I am indeed using Google Reader… you, Sir, are psychic! LOL! I’ve just put the URL into the Reader and ‘Lo’ it did work. Which has left me rather smug at my perspicacity… alright, that’s putting things a little strongly… but I was quite pleased.
Thanks for clearing that up. This is one of many techno-things that, to be honest, I’ve been too embarassed to ask. I come from that moment in time, *cough* years ago, when some schools were getting computer rooms (everybody else’s) and some were holding out because it was a fad (mine) so I didn’t get any tuition (or even helpful hints) and by the time I got to University it was assumed that everybody from my generation knew all about the things!
What site-stat-type thing do you use? I’m using Google Analytics but I’m not sure it’s a world-beater and I’ve been wondering if I can do better. (And I really want to know who my reader in Wotton-Under-Edge is!)
Yesterday I made some hilariously bad and ill-starred attempts to embed html in the blog… how I laughed…
Comment by Jon Peacey — December 1, 2007 @ 1:28 pm
I generally use StatCounter which is fine but only shows you the last 100 visitors unless you’re prepared to pay. I do have Google Analytics too but find it a bit cumbersome and unwieldy - although I’ve never made a concerted effort to really work out the minutiae of it.
Never be embarassed to ask though. I do all the time and I’m a freelance software developer by day. Most of the time people start talking technical to me and I just give them a blank look.
Comment by Tom — December 1, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
As I am overcoming my embarassment then I have a couple of spare questions…
On the blogger comments boxes people can put in bold, italics, etc.: I’ve tried but it doesn’t seem to work, I don’t seem to be able to close the tag… how do people do it?
How do you put ’strike through’ in a blog posting?
And lastly, how do you put in a link (such as you did for StatCounter) in a comment box either here or on Blogger comments?
Thank you kindly!
Comment by Jon Peacey — December 1, 2007 @ 7:34 pm