Ok, so I've been tweaking my website more and more again recently.
This week's updates brings monetisation to my website in the form of adverts. Google approved my request for adverts on my site, so it now brings in money for me (according to Google's predictions ~£123 a month[!], which covers my site costs and more).
I'm also marketing my site better, and will in the next few months be using tools to improve the outlook of my site.
I've also brought back my calendar. My previous calendar was created by One.com, and while it was useful, it was a nuisance trying to update it because I had to go onto my email account to update it. So I decided to build my own. It comes with it's own update system as part of my own content management system (CMS) called BlackCat.
Just a little bit more about the adverts. Currently they reside only on my desktop site. I intend to keep it that way. I aim to keep the tablet and mobile websites free from ads because of the space limitations of both devices.
I will in the future be improving BlackCat and adding a blogging mechanism to it. The only reason I have not done this yet is because of the fact that I still love WordPress. For now BlackCat remains a part of my website, but in the next few months to years I will release it for free on to the web where it will feature four major features:
- Calendar
- Themes
- Blog
- Page creation
In the next few days Microsoft will rebrand SkyDrive under the name OneDrive due to a claim by BSkyB that this is a breach of their trademark. The new is catchy and it's quite nice, but it will take time for people to adjust just as it took people a while to adjust from Windows Live Folders, and then I think SkyDrive folders(?) or something. There have just been too many to remember.
It's a bit like MSN Hotmail, sorry Windows Live, sorry Outlook. The constant change makes it difficult to talk to others about. I still occasionally refer to my email provider as simply 'Hotmail' or sometimes 'Windows Live' and very occasionally just 'MSN', but really, it is now Outlook. Outlook is a good name for it and it feels so much better than what it was like back in 2003 when I first used it on my 24K or 56K dial-up modem (everything had to be that way, otherwise it would take hours to load[!]).
Microsoft have a terrible problem with rebranding. Windows 8 has this problem with things like Xbox Music which was previously Zune music from what I remember. In some sense, I don't really know what an Xbox is. What actually does the word Xbox mean now? Is it a brand of different things? Is it a program or is it the hardware? I call on Microsoft to describe it.
Microsoft's bad marketing plans are probably one of the reasons I steer quite clear of their recent products, and if they keep going this way, constantly rebranding things, I will not be able to come back.
It's been speculated for sometime that a new Mac Mini is next on the line up for Apple. Well, once again, the Belgian store computerstore.com has placed on their site a new Mac Mini, featuring Iris graphics.
The picture below shows that the CPU and RAM have yet to be placed here but the Iris graphics definitely sounds like a new feature. From this, we can assume it to be Haswell powered and not a future generation of Intel CPU that is going to take us by surprise in April.
The lack of a new Mac Mini is frustrating
Now my blog is up and running on my new host and new database.
Here is where the initial problems occurred:
Firstly, I wanted to remove the prefix of my blog tables as they were going to be placed in their own database rather than just having prefixes. The way I did it was to move each table into the new database and rename each of them without the prefix. Then I downloaded that whole database (using phpMyAdmin, not WordPress). Next I changed wp-config.php such that it had no prefix and pointed to my new database. I dropped (deleted) the database and created a fresh new one with the same name. I then took the whole database SQL commands to Notepad (thank you Notepad!!!) and removed all instances of the old prefix. To finish off, I then used the Import feature to import all of the SQL commands into my new database. And that's all there is to it!
All my tables are now divided up into databases for each, therefore there is less of a security risk (I have a set of users, each user manages a certain database and has no access to others).
The other thing about this multiple database idea is the neatness and organisation. I'm really happy to have changed hosts and later I will post about what's really nice with this new hosting package.
I really do adore writing and as some of you may know, I used to even love English the most at Secondary School before I decided to ditch it for Computing.
But some things still hack me off even more than people who don't know why their Windows Taskbar is at the right hand side instead of the bottom. I've now decided to start making blog entries on things that people consistently get wrong when writing.
Today's post is on the difference between the two words lightening and lightning. They are very distinct words that are one character different. I noticed this twice in the past two days and it's just something I cannot get out of my head. One place I now notice this problem all the time is when people are referring to Apple's Lightning connector. So here's the difference:
Lightning
That is lightning without the extra e is the form of electrical discharge that we see when warm and cold air mix (or something like that). Notice the single e.
Lightening
This is when you turn a lap on and the room begins to lighten up. Another example could be take 10 potatoes out of a bag, this is lightening the bag.
There. There may be more of these posts in the future because I get annoyed.
If you are not familiar with Mac OS X Terminal commands, then you may be unaware of the flexibility it gives you.
For a start, one of my favourite things to do is to change the way the Dock works. I'm going to show you two different yet really cool things you can do with the Mac Dock.
Add a separator to the Dock
This is a real nifty trick that helps separate icons on the Dock so that there is a better structure. I'm still surprised that Apple does not include an easy way to use this feature in the Apple Menu.
So here are the Terminal commands:
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'
killall Dock
Lock the Dock
To me locking the Dock on Mac OS is a necessary feature. This again is completed via the Terminal. This can be achieved using the following commands:
defaults write com.apple.Dock contents-immutable -bool yes killall Dock
Whilst I am a .NET programmer, I am also a big fan of *nix based operating systems like Mac OS X and Linux.
My heart was set on improving my .NET skills by learning ASP.NET. I hoped that I could move my website to a Windows Server based host and have no trouble, but oh no!
Not only have I been having real troubles sleeping at night, but I've been really having worries about how smooth the transition will be.
So, I though that this post would interest those of you who like Linux (especially you Ben). I have decided not to change to a Windows Server, I feel it is too risky and may be considered to be a step backwards.
To finish this post, I am staying with my current host until May, but changing to a better Linux host and nothing more.
Whilst it occasionally hurts me to say that I am considering a change from Linux to Windows, on this occasion I feel I have to. My ears (from all the stuff I have heard) have been in pain with this decision and I've been loosing sleep thinking about what is good about this idea.
In the next few months or weeks, or maybe even days, this website will undergo a massive change. I will no longer be hosting on a Linux server but on a Windows server. This change comes at a time when my site is at it's best and I don't want to lose it.
After a presentation today, and my inner .NET development skills crying out to me, I have decided to change to a host that provides PHP so my site stays the same and MySQL so my database can be transferred directly, that also provides ASP.NET and MSSQL.
Whilst I have nothing massive to hold against Windows (I do after all develop my software for Windows), I have been very happy with Linux. However, this change is necessary if I want to improve ASP.NET and I can promise that there will be more interesting things to come from it also. I also cannot stand the disorganised mess that my single database provided by my current host provides is.
As I say, this will likely come sometime soon, so if I can I'd like to keep this domain and keep on going with it. I hope in the next few weeks I will have made the change successfully.
What a year 2013 has been! It will be sad to say goodbye to it, as with every year. One of the best things of the year, in my opinion, was Andy Murray winning Wimbledon, being the first man to win it for Britain for 77 years and the first to win for Britain since 1977. You can find my 2012 list here. Anyway, here is my list of the last things I did in 2013. This was compiled on the 30/12/2013 and 31/12/2013.
Last meal I ate: Margarita pizza
Last thing I had to drink with a meal: Water
Last place I went out to eat: Goblin Ha'
Last film I watched: The Game
Last game I played: Super Mario 3D World/Pokemon Y
Last song I listened to: Oasis - Cigarettes and Alcohol
Last person I have sent a text to: John Smith
Last friend I have spoken to in person: Calum Cormack
Last TV programme I have watched: Scotland's Hogmanay Live
Last major purchase for myself1 :Nintendo 3DS XL Zelda Edition
1 - £100 or more constitutes as a major purchase. So that's the end of 2013 almost, and it has been one heck of a good year.
Now all we have to do really is say goodbye to it and say hello to 2014. That'll be in a good few hours, and the list may have changed then!
Simply read. This made me laugh.
Thanks to Murray Szymanski for showing me this.
