Category Archives: Work

XRAY – bookmarklets can be so much fun

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A blog entry by my friend Gareth prompted me to blog about this useful bookmarklet.

So you have the web developer toolbar, have solved all issues in Firefox, only to find IE doesn’t do the same.

What if you could click a bookmarked site, load a piece of javascript, then you simply click on any element on a page to display the element, id, class, hierarchy, positioning, border, margin and padding values in a pretty interface? Well sonny, with X-Ray (from http://westciv.com) you can!

X-Ray bookmarklet with h1 selected

The best bit is that it even works in IE, so you can troubleshoot any box model or double margin problems easily! It’s an excellent idea, and if I hadn’t already voted for jQuery, I would have voted for it in the innovation category of the .net magazine awards. Maybe you could vote in my stead!

Bubble 2.0??

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Bubble 2.0?

My friend and colleague sent me a link to this PC Mag article…

Oh dear! What I hope this does not mean is that I will keep working hard at developing my favascript, Flash, PHP ekcetera skills only to find that the job market is saturated with people fallen from grace in respective bust companies or that the purchasers and users of such online things are put off completely.

Personally I think that there will always be failures in any kind of business environment and t’internet is no different, however the current trend of jumping on the latest band wagon is dangerous and will add to “Bubble 2.0″. Creating the next social networking site, or the next video streaming site and investing everything into it is always going to be a big mistake – I just think that there would be less of an impact if the burst does happen if some people sat back and went “Actually they did it well enough and I won’t be able to compete.”

Of course there are the services that should be removed and destroyed – things like mySpace that is a total waste of time, space and effort. Bad code breeding bad designs, thousands of bands you’ve never heard of spamming you, hundreds of friends (I don’t think I have 1,00 friends anyway – nevermind that use myspace!), bored people bombarding you with pointless things (can be applied to facebook as well!) and owned by an evil (alledgedly) corporate giant.

Rant over.

New Phone

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HTC SPV E650

So I finally decided to upgrade my old SPV for a newer model. After some hold ups in the Orange shop on Oxford Street, I decided on a HTC SPV E650. With a nice slide out QWERTY keyboard, the latest Windows mobile (I think), Mobile office, Windows Media Player and random other programs it should do everything I need.

It seems really good so far – although I think it’ll be susceptible to breakage when I keep opening and closing the keyboard in my pocket (fidgeting I think it’s called).

Add it to the free (except for the repair cost) laptop I got from work, I’ll feel on the cutting edge of technology (yetstill be a few years behind).

Next thing to do is try and get a bigger micro SanDisk memory card for my phone, try the programs on my new phone, and find a power supply for my “new” laptop. Answers on a postcard if you know where to find a power supply for a HP Compaq Nx9010!

Flash Firefox bug, or bad design?

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Bleeding Flash has been a nightmare today.

Why can’t it ever be simple!! Today’s specific problem was that a trailer that worked fine standalone broke in either IE or Firefox, dependent on how I integrated it.

I’m sure it must be something withing the flash file (or possible withing some javascript, although I couldn’t see *anything* that could possibly affect it in my javascript).

The problem was that in firefox the flash movie would only play if you moved your mouse!!

“WHAT?!” I hear you yell!

After some investigation, I found that the embed method worked fine in Internet explorer, yet not in firefox, whereas the the flash satay method worked fine in firefox but not IE…

After a hell of a lot of experimenting I had to do just what I didn’t want to, and use conditional comments to determine which method to use. Bad idea, but the only way I could get round it… for now…

This is the code, line breaks marked >> (in case anyone knows an easier, tidier fix!):

<![if !IE]> <object type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” data=”swf/movie.swf” width=”320″ height=”240″> <param name=”movie” value=”swf/movie.swf” /> <param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” /> <param name=”allowScriptAcess” value=”sameDomain” /> <param name=”autostart” value=”true” /> <param name=”controller” value=”true” /> </object>
<![endif]>

<!–[if IE]>\r\n
<div id=”video”> <object
classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/ >>
shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0″ width=”320″ height=”240″ id=”trailer”> <param name=movie value=”swf/movie.swf”> <param name=quality value=high> <param name=bgcolor value=#000000> <embed src=”swf/movie.swf” quality=high bgcolor=#000000width=”320″ height=”240″ name=”trailer” align=”" type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”
pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”> </embed>
</object> </div>
<!enfif]–>

Monte Carlo

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Me as Baron SamediWell there we go.  Awesome weekend.  The trip started quite badly with the fact the Nia, Dan and I missed the first flight out, due to a few problems getting to the airport, thankfully we managed to get our flights changed (even though we were literally seconds away from missing that flight as well!) and a very relieved three people touched down at Nice airport  a couple hours later.

So then it began.  A few beers in the hotel bar later and people were getting in the mood for a party.  Now why do the French (Monaconians??) never have enough pint glasses??  Obviously it wouldn”t have been any good for us to be drinking half pints, so after getting tuxedos on, we went straight onto the champagne, of which a lot was consumed.  And the free wine was also thrown down in huge quantities.  We had the office videos, showcasing each office, with the Dublin masterpiece shining.  It really was a piece of artistic genius, which I will try to locate and link to.  Mind you the funniest (probably as we knew the participants well) was the London office spoof of "The Day Today".  After these the memories seem to desert me.  Last I remember was a midnight (ish) swim (the photos are supposedly about to surface).

Dan woke me up at about 8:15 (for the mandatory breakfast) and a fry up followed.  Plenty of orange juice, grapefruit juice, bacon, sausages and egg later we were ready to complete the team building.  The brief was create a piece of art with the theme energy.  We went for an day in the life of a Gyro member of staff preparing for a Bond party, which somehow involved me being half naked in most photos, or wearing Laura”s cocktail dress.  Apparently I make a great woman.  Anyway, we got the photos printed, and Damo set about promoting the display, which apparently worked, as we all won some Ferrari apparel later on!!

So the time came for a long Bond theme preparation.  After a long session of body paint I made quite a convincing Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder in Live and Let Die) I impressed, and although I didn”t win the costume competition (Barnaby did with his impressive scuba get up) I was told how good it was and that I should have won something.  Again free wine, a band and singers and chaos ensued.  Stage, red wine, and me wearing nothing but a bit of a sheet, body paint and a top hat is not a good combination.  There is a video.

Shit.

After another night of missing memories I woke bright and tried to get the remaining body paint off, feeling rough.  So the best cure was a fry up, washed down with a bottle of wine and a beer.  I was described as an "animal".  By one of the top blokes in the company.

Oops.