Archive for May 2007

• 32 Comments
• May 31, 2007

WordPress tips and tricks – functions.php

Functions.php is a little known wordpress template file. Not many themes take advantage of it but , used properly, it can be incredibly powerful. The file can be used as a way to add your own functions to wordpress themes (hence the name). One of the common misconceptions, at least based upon my experience with a past wordpress tips and tricks post, is that editing functions.php involves changing core wordpress files - meaning there will be issues when you upgrade [...]

• 2 Comments
• May 23, 2007

Binary Moon search results

A couple of weeks ago I installed a plugin that tracks what people search for on my site. I wanted to see what people were interested in and, more importantly, what they were searching for that I don't actually talk about here. Unsurprisingly Harry Potter (or Harry, or Potter) was the number 1 thing people are looking for here, but there were quite a few unexpected search queries. A disturbing number of people are searching for sex, or sex based [...]

• 0 Comments
• May 23, 2007

Miniclip interview

I'm pretty sure that my friends and family think I spend all day at work surfing the web and playing with toys, so I thought I would point everyone to this recent interview with my boss, Rob Small. Most of Miniclip’s gamers are regulars, coming back several times a month. The challenge, with more than 100 million visits a month, is to keep coming up with new games. That’s why Small fills the office with kids’ toys; it helps the [...]

• 3 Comments
• May 22, 2007

More Hugs Please

Found this the other day and thought it was great. Recently the amount of violence around the world seems to be increasing dramatically. What the world needs is more hugs - if you agree then you should join in with the Free Hugs Campaign. Everyone has problems and for sure mine haven't compared. But to see someone who was once frowning, smile even for a moment, is worth it every time. For those interested I found it at TrentAdams.com

• 2 Comments
• May 20, 2007

Batman: The Dark Knight – viral advertising

Pronet Advertising have made a write up for the recent set of viral advertising for the new Batman movie (the good Christopher Nolan ones). I am rather looking forward to the film, partly because I enjoyed the first one, Batman Begins, and partly because pretty much anything Nolan touches become great. The viral advertising they used for this film is very cool. It combines teaser posters, with film world advertising (Vote Dent) adding in some preview images (the Joker and [...]

• 8 Comments
• May 16, 2007

Spiderman 3 Review

I love the Spiderman movies. I've seen all three at the cinema, and own the first two on DVD - I am officially a fan. So, last weekend, I went with my girlfriend to watch the latest in the series and thought it was very cool indeed. There are spoilers ahead so keep away if you're worried about that sort of thing. Spiderman 3 follows on where the second left off, with Harry Osbourne upset at Peter Parker for killing [...]

• 1 Comments
• May 12, 2007

Mona Lisa drawn in Microsoft Paint

The title says all that needs to be said. But obviously I will say some more stuff anyway MS Paint was my first taste of computer art, I like to think I was quite good as well but the things being done in this video are far beyond anything I had ever considered before. I'm very, very impressed. The detail is phenomenal, and the way the different tools are used so well is great. I would really like to see [...]

• 7 Comments
• May 11, 2007

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

This is rather late now but I really wanted to say something. I mentioned before that I had seen the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film (actually called TMNT) and I'm pleased to say it was absolutely great. I went to see the film on a weekday, and it was mostly younger children in the audience. I went with my girlfriend who very kindly puts up with my childish tendencies. I loved the film but she was very clearly bored [...]

• 4 Comments
• May 10, 2007

Lego Johnny 5

Daniele Benedettelli has taken a whole stack of Lego Mindstorms (an advanced type of Lego) and used them to build Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit. I really enjoyed the film when I was little and seeing the robot brought to life now is very cool. I really want some Lego Mindstorms as well, but it's so expensive that I can't justify buying any at the moment. Maybe I will get some one day. After finding Johnny 5 I [...]

• 4 Comments
• May 8, 2007

New Google Updates (Analytics, Reader, Adsense, and Checkout)

I'm sure I remember reading something like this at the start of the year (I'm making the quote up). We (Google) are now going to stop releasing stacks of new stuff, and instead focus on improving what we have It's not a genuine quote but over the last few weeks Google have unveiled a bunch of new features for their various pieces of software so I thought I would mention a few of my favorites. Google Analytics Google Analytics is [...]

• 3 Comments
• May 8, 2007

A lesson learned

Today, during my lunch break at work, I thought I would tweak a few things on the site. I edited the style sheets from the editor, hit save and my entire design got destroyed. Somehow I had managed to replace my main site styles with my print stylesheet (do a print preview and you will see how it looks). The silly thing is I noticed the styles weren't identical when I was editing them, but I didn't think to check. [...]

• 1 Comments
• May 6, 2007

Grandtheft Auto stunts

I was recently introduced to the world of Grand Theft Auto stunts so here are a couple of videos to introduce and entertain you as well. Some of the tricks they do are amazing. It's pretty obvious that these stunts are not done first time, and that it takes many hours of practice, and many many attempts before perfecting each trick. One thing I am really amazed at is the speed, and the distance that they manage - my knowledge [...]