1. Twelve brilliant days of Virgin Media

    I have to say – I love Virgin. They are right up there with Apple and the BBC in my books. Though saying that – the BBC are getting more and more biased towards Microsoft lately and generally stupid with their articles. For example: the full page of Vista news, articles saying Apple is plagued with security bugs (referencing the month of apple bugs) and even running a piece on illegal torrent downloading in the UK saying that users are probably not aware of ways to watch online (referencing to US-only locked down services such as ABC Online)…

    Anyhow, twelve days ago NTL:Telewest rebranded as Virgin Media and in those twelve days a lot has happened:

    • The immediate availabilty of their new V+ box, which betters Sky’s current Sky+ digital box in several ways (including the ability to record two shows, and then watch a third at the same time)
    • Uma Thurman everywhere (Hello?)
    • Virgin on Demand content deal with Disney
    • Virgin on Demand content deal with Buena Vista
    • Virgin on Demand content deal with HBO
    • Launched a VIP pack which, for many people is giving them more for less.
    • Changes to a lot of the billing structure with phone bills and television packages – in most cases for the best (including a Sky Sports pack which undercuts Sky)
    • Launched of Virgin Central, a television channel specifically for telelvision on demand (all of which is free, so far)
    • Announced investment of £5 million on customer services (something NTL cut down to a bare minimum…)
    • They have Sky so shook up over a renewal of their deal for certain channels including sky one – they are actually launching ads telling Virgin customers to ring up their customer service rep to help them persuade Virgin to renew
    • Advertising absolutely everywhere, even reportedly in non-cable areas where they can’t even get Virgin Media
    • They’ve started sending out text messages to let customers know when technicians are due out at their houses and when they are coming. A nice additional touch.

    Do I need more of a reason to love Virgin? I have to say, it’s the complete opposite of my feelings for NTL, but now Virgin are at the helms.. it’s clearly a different company.

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  3. Hey Microsoft – can I install optional updates please?

    So I’m installing updates on an old PC of mine before handing it over to it’s new owner and I’m near the end of the 80 or so security updates since SP2 and I remember about the ‘optional’ updates Microsoft offers.

    10 optional software upgrades and 1 hardware upgrade available to download. So I click the links and guess what happens:

    stupid ms cropped Hey Microsoft can I install optional updates please?
    (Click here to see the full sized image)

    What happened is that the link opened up inside the frame usually reserved for content, but opened up the entire website all over again. It happens in both IE6 and IE7 and since Microsoft only allows access to the site via Microsoft browsers – it’s now impossible for me to get at these updates.

    Automatic updates only allow high priority updates to be downloaded.. so the new PC owner is now without Windows Media Player 11, .net framework 2.0 and whatever hardware update which happened to be on that hidden page.

    8 Comments »

  4. Funholio funny picture generator AJAX’d

    I’ve just finished uploading the next logical step for Funholio – the AJAX’ing of the refresh function to get a new image. This means you’ll get new images much faster and you’ll get them without refreshing and re-downloading the layout everytime you generate a new image.

    I’ve also fixed a bug that was stopping the ‘never see the same picture twice’ code from working which was bogging down the quality of the project, and I’ve implemented a system where by if you post an image on your website it will count every impression as a generation.

    I am also aware that there are a small amount of pictures that aren’t even close to funny – and will be implementing a system in order for me to wade through each of the pictures to solve this. If you send me an e-mail at pics@funholio.com about a non-funny picture I’ll be sure to look into it :)

    Update: Image removed due to the site shutting down.

    3 Comments »

  5. Digg makes a tired story a great one – every single time

    So I’m reading ‘Someone From Work Left Today And His Goodbye E-Mail Was Hilarious…‘ on Digg – which was an ‘ok’ story. But I’m not one of the people who read Digg for it’s ‘up to date news sources’, but one that reads Digg for it’s absolutely brilliant comments left by users.

    It was Movieman that inspired me to write this post. Check this comment he posted to add to the story that was dugg:

    the funny part was cut from the original email. It goes like this:

    …But to those few souls with whom I’ve actually interacted, here are my personalized notes of farewell:

    To Caulfield: I will always remember sharing lunch with you, despite having clearly labeled it with my name.

    To Mairead: I will miss detecting your flatulence as much as you will clearly miss walking past my cubicle to deliver it.

    To Linda: Best wishes on your ongoing campaign to popularize these “email forwards.” I sincerely hope you receive that weekend full of good luck, that hug from an old friend, and that baby for your dusty womb.

    And finally, to Kat: you were right – I tested positive. We’ll talk later.

    …

    If you ever needed a reason why I only read Digg for the comments… this is just one of the hundred’s of perfect examples.

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  6. Xing needs to concentrate on features rather than press releases

    I don’t rant often, but this one annoys the heck out of me.

    *Start rant*
    Xing (formally openBC – a much better name) is really starting to annoy me.

    And it’s not down to their annoying use of the word ‘articles’ instead of ‘threads’ or ‘posts’ on their discussion groups. Or the ridiculous amount of non-English content that gets into my view of the site even though I’ve chosen not to view anything other than English content.

    No ladies and gentlemen I have a far bigger beef with ‘Xing’ – they have no RSS feeds. Don’t get me wrong.. they have RSS feeds for their blog, their press releases and their podcast. But if you want something that’s actually on the site – it’s all up to the group owner.

    The group owner gets to decide (and they have to, it’s off by default) whether the users of the group can subscribe to their RSS feed in order to keep up to date with new posts. The group owner – the majority of which aren’t as active as you’d think, get to decide how usable their group is. To show you how bad it is, of my sixteen groups I am subscribed to – three have RSS feeds.

    Now – why RSS feeds you ask? Because with my subscription to sixteen of the most active groups on the site (and all them get at least 50-100 posts a day), what does Xing offer to keep up with this? A hard limit of 10 pages of latest posts to browse through… most of which aren’t even in English. Something that basically gets out dated every three to four hours.

    Another thing that annoys me is they show nothing towards developing or enhancing the site – but can post once a week (on the dot, it’s very obviously time tabled) on their blog about something that is never really news, but more of a ‘this is an entry from our help section’ update.

    Could it be that they hired someone to build the site as a ‘one off’ job? – of course it is.

    *End rant*

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  7. 50 feed subcribers reached with a lot of updates coming

    50 feed subcribers 50 feed subcribers reached with a lot of updates coming

    Today I’ve reached my 50 RSS subcribers goal and look to be climbing at a very steady rate towards my next goal of 100 :) I’d like to say a big thank you to all my RSS feed subscribers for making this happen.

    I’m also at an article count of eight, with ten being the first of article related goals set. If you have anything you’d like me to write about feel free to post a comment or use my contact form.

    In the news coming up in the next week or two:
    - Funholio advancements
    - MyUniverseComic changes
    - Changes to the JHuskisson.com layout and a portfolio update
    - The first of my article blocks which will focus on a specific topic
    - My ‘return’ to tutorial indexing

    7 Comments »

  8. Ten things you hope the client never says

    Working from home as a full-time freelance web developer I’ve encountered some absolutely stunning lines from clients and so have friends of mine. This is a small collection of those lines to watch out for if you choose to go into the field yourself.

    1. If you do this one for free…

    This has to be one of the most popular. People always want something for as little as possible, the notion of ‘you get what you pay for’ normally doesn’t register until at least eighteen years old, but the notion can be ignored at ages high above this.

    2. This will be great exposure…

    This usually comes before number 1, ‘If you do this one for free you’ll get great exposure’. The problem is great exposure isn’t a link in the footer and it isn’t a mention in the launch post. Great exposure is guaranteed jobs afterwards, and lots of traffic for your own personal site – that and possibly free advertising in a prominent placement.

    3. Deposit?

    Some clients want you to effectively work for free. No deposit and lots of free work = one starving freelancer. To be free to accept work that doesn’t involve deposits be sure to have some money stored away to eat away at until the client pays in the end. Make sure they are trustable and will pay in the end. Be sure to do your research.

    4. Can I put this on my GeoCities?

    It takes the breath out of you, working on something for a long time and then a client asking you if they can put it on an incompatible hosting platform that won’t support it. It makes for some difficult explaining but makes one great entry on a ‘ten things you hope the client never says’ article.

    5. I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want it anymore

    This is always an annoyance, and is sometimes a requirement in order to progress onto other projects. But it’s always something that will affect you on a personal level.

    6. Ok can you just add this, and this

    “You want money for the additions? You said you’d do everything for a set price!’. This one starts a lot of arguments and can affect your relationship with the client dramatically depending on how you react. To prevent this one blowing up on you always outline a clear feature set before starting work and outline exactly what you’ll deliver. Also outline what additional costs will be monetarily to the client. Will they be by the hour? Or a fixed fee? Discussed on arrangement? Whatever it is – it’s always best to plan these things out beforehand.

    7. I just need you to look the other way whilst we break this law..

    Whether it be tax law (it usually is) or some kind of pass the parcel – breaking the law is bad, um kay? Be sure to brush up on your tax laws that apply to you – make sure that if your hired to do a job for a company as an employee that they are handling your taxes, and if you are a contractor that you sort out your own. It always helps to know a small amount of law, and to consult an accountant when you aren’t sure of something.

    8. My mum says that she won’t let me use her credit card so I can’t pay you

    Funny, but a huge cringe worthy moment. It happens to all of us once in a blue moon, and it makes a fun entry.

    9. Yahoo! will buy us

    This is normally followed by number 1 and/or 2. People get bought all the time – but it’s simply not the case that millions are involved with every purchase of another site. Yahoo! may buy anywhere between one and tens of sites a year, but that’s between one and tens of several million websites out there.

    10. Nothing at all

    The client disappears, drops off the face of the earth. It’s your worst nightmare, they get you started on a project and leave, they give you a brief about a project tell you the deposit is coming and then you never hear from them. To avoid this make sure you always have a backup plan and if you can get a secondary contact for your client – that’s even better.

    I’d like to thank Ronalfy for giving me the idea for this article. If you have any other things you’d like to see me write feel free to leave a comment or use my contact form to send it directly.

    25 Comments »

  10. Naruto Central launches RSS Feed, changes layout slightly

    Just finished up on minor additions to Naruto Central.

    The new look features a brilliant new header image, side header images being changed and the font size becoming bigger – which I think you’ll agree is a great improvement on what it used to be.

    They also now have an RSS Feed for all their latest news which you can subscribe too.

    Note: There’s an IE7 bug or two still to be fixed

    5 Comments »