Stuff that can't be said in 140 characters...

The Crown Old Basing, Basingstoke - Now Open

2011-03-14T09:23:00.001-07:00

I've just completed the website for what has potential to be one of the best restaurants in Basingstoke - and it's good to have had the opportunity to be involved with the grand reopening of The Crown Pub in Old Basing.

Their aspiration is for The Crown to become a destination restaurant, i.e. one that people will travel to specifically for the food. And if yesterday's opening day is anything to go by, there'll be no shortage of customers!

The Crown at Old Basing

2011-02-18T04:12:00.000-08:00

I'm working on the new website for The Crown in Old Basing, which is going to be one of the best restaurants in Basingstoke . It’s been a long time coming, but they expect to complete the building work at the end of February and - after stocking up and training - to open on 13th March 2011.

iPhone Safari Form Fields - rounded corners, inner shadow

2010-09-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's a little frustrating when developing cross-platform web apps or pages that form fields and buttons in a web page render with Apple styling - rounded corners and dropshadows etc - in Safari, which is used on the iPhone / iPod / iPad of course.

Yes I know that Webkit based browsers are fast, technically superior blah blah. This is not about that, it's about making a webpage that looks the same in every browser you view it in.

The answer is simple, you can use the CSS style -webkit-appearance: none on all input fields to remove the styling that Apple have handily added for you. i.e.

input { -webkit-appearance: none; }

I hate Ryanair. The great online check-in ripoff.

2009-08-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

I hate Ryanair!

We recently flew to Alicante with Ryanair and were forced to pay a fiver each way for online check in (an extra £40 on our cheap flights), telling me that all we had to do at the airport was drop our bags off.

So, why the hell did we have to stand in a queue for almost an hour at Gatwick with hundreds more happy Ryanair customers, for the same check-in desk that we would have had to stand in the same queue for if airport check-in was still an option?

And why, when we were two people from the front of the queue, did some dozy Ryanair bint make everyone going to Alicante move queues to a different check-in desk? Then when she was asked why we couldn't check in at the desk we had been queuing for, she replied "well if you think it would have been quicker, you could have." So we were then 10 people back in a queue watching the people who'd been standing behind us in the other queue checking in.

Thanks, Ryanair, for making my holiday start on such a good note.

Then we got to the desk, to show them the same booking form and same passports that we would have done before online check-in took over.

They then proceeded to weigh the same cases, and gave us the same luggage-tracking stickers as we would have got before too.

So, as far as I can see, we've paid £40 for them NOT to ask us whether we'd packed the bags ourselves?

Bargain. Thanks again Ryanair, what great value for money you represent.

Oh yeah, and just to cap it all, we spent our time in the queue looking at banners saying "Ryanair - the On Time airline" - of course, the flight was delayed.

And when I received my credit card statement they'd charged the flights in Sterling that I thought I'd paid for in Euros. At Ryanair exchange rates, around 6% higher than my credit card exchange rates. Without telling me (and, Ryanair, don't say it says it on your website, because your little popup doesn't work!).

And another thing. The whole flight was taken up with them trying to sell me more stuff - if it wasn't overpriced food and drink it was duty-free and if it wasn't duty-free it was bloody scratchcards. Scratchcards!

I repeat. I hate Ryanair!

Anyone fancy a curry ?

2009-07-18T00:55:00.001-07:00

This is from a genuine menu that we had through the door - for the Raj of Black Dam in Basingstoke. It's still like this on their website too... http://www.rajofblackdam.com/ and go to Specialities of the House section. Yummy!

I think the description for the Chicken or Lamb Makhani may be more suited to the Chicken Khakry...

YUI DataTable - textboxChangeEvent solution for an inline text box, not popup editor.

2009-07-10T14:46:00.001-07:00

Having spent a long day trying to get a text box inside a datatable, rather than have a popup editor, and then get it to fire an event the same way the dropdown formatter works, i've come up with the following solution, based on the dropdown code in datatable.js, which seems to work just fine - call the init function first then use a formatter of myTextBox.

myYUI = {

init: function {
YAHOO.widget.DataTable.Formatter.myTextBox = myYUI.textbox;
},

textbox: function(el, oRecord, oColumn, oData) {
var value = (YAHOO.lang.isValue(oRecord.getData(oColumn.field))) ? oRecord.getData(oColumn.field) : "";
var textEl;
var collection = el.getElementsByTagName("input");

// Create the form element only once, so we can attach the onChange listener
if(collection.length === 0) {
textEl = document.createElement("input");
textEl.type = "text";
textEl = el.appendChild(textEl);
YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(textEl,"change",myYUI._onTextboxChange,this);
}

textEl = collection[0];

if(textEl) {
textEl.value = value;
}
else {
el.innerHTML = YAHOO.lang.isValue(oData) ? oData : "";
}
},

_onTextboxChange: function(e, oSelf) {
var elTarget = YAHOO.util.Event.getTarget(e);
oSelf.fireEvent("textboxChangeEvent", {event:e, target:elTarget});
}

}

Installing Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 on an existing Vista MCE machine (X86 and X64)

2009-07-10T13:19:00.001-07:00

Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 was released as an OEM only installation and won't be released as an update for people who are already using a PC with Media Center (Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate) installed, and won't be on Windows Update either. This is for technical reasons, and basically I guess because MS can't guarantee that it'll work every time for people who've built their machines themselves, so they're covering their backsides.

That doesn't mean, of course, that it can't be installed on a non-OEM machine, so let's have a look at what the changes are and why you need to upgrade.

Feature list

I'm looking at this from a UK perspective so worldwide users may get a different experience or feature list.

Teletext and interactive services
Subtitles (hurrah! something that should have been in from the start - especially if, like me, you have deaf members of your family)
Display on DVB-T radio channels rather than a blank screen
DVB-S support (FreeSat)
Improved control over TV tuners, now supporting up to 4 of each type in Ultimate, 2 of each type in Premium (ie 4 DVBT + 4 DVBS at the same time)
Replacement of DVR-MS with WTV as storage format
Ability to customise channel numbers
Cosmetic changes to the guide

How to install Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008

So here's how I did it on my machine, which has been running Vista Media Center quite happily for the past couple of years. The installation was a complete success on mine, but I don't take any resposibility for anything that might go wrong if you try it. Disclaimer ends.

Before you start, you must be running Vista and the SP1 update. If you're not running SP1, check Windows Update!

Firstly, I entered the settings menu and started the Media Center setup wizard, quitting it immediately and saying "Yes" to run on next startup.
While you're in settings you'll want to temporarily stop Media Center starting with computer startup if you have it set.
Do not re-launch Media Center or re-start the setup wizard.
Download and install Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 - you'll probably need to reboot after installing so it's important to ensure that Media Center isn't set to automatically start with Windows

x86 version or x64 version - get the x86 if you're unsure !
Download and install the PlayReady PC runtime package, this is NOT optional

x86 version or x64 version - get the x86 if you're unsure !

For more information about PlayReady visit http://www.microsoft.com/PlayReady/
Download and install KB951685 - The video playback application stops responding when you watch video or Live TV on a Windows Vista-based computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951685
Download and install KB950754 - FIX: Noticeable problems occur in the video when you use the DirectSound renderer on Windows Vista

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950754
Then reboot again to be on the safe side.
Now check Windows Update for any updates that have since been launched.
And finally, restart Windows Media Center and complete the setup wizard.

Remembering Terry

2008-12-29T04:45:00.000-08:00

It's six years today since my little brother died from cancer at the age of 29. I still miss him loads. Here's to you, bro.

Can I use my PC as a Blu-ray movie player?

2008-12-29T04:13:00.000-08:00

Yes you can, provided it's up to the job. And that job is a pretty mighty one so if you've not bought your PC in the past year or so, get your wallet out.

Hardware requirements

Processor :- You'll need at least a dual-core processor - Intel's Core Duo or Quad , Pentium-D at a push, or AMD's Athlon XP 64 or Turion with speed of 4Ghz plus should be fine. Check with the advisor below though.

Graphics card :- You'll need one that's up to the job - 256Mb at least, and with a DVI or HDMI connector to hook it up to your big screen TV. One of the following cards will be fine - again, check with the advisor tool.

NVIDIA: GeForce 7600 GT, 7800 GTX 512, 7900 GX2, 7900 GTX, 7950 GX2, 8400 series, 8500 series, 8600 series, 8800 series and beyond

ATI Radeon X1600, X1800, X1900 or HD 2400, 2600, 2900, 3400, 3600, 3800 series

At the time of writing, you can pick up an ATI HD 2400 for around 30 quid from Novatech

Blu-Ray Drive (BD-ROM) :- The cheapest i've found is a Sony BD-ROM from play.com for £59.99 delivered. Didn't link directly to it as it may not be there when you click and I'll look like a chump. And if you've managed to find this article you can obviously use a search box!

RAM - You're gonna need 1GB at least. The more the merrier.

Software requirements

Operating system - XP service pack 2 if you're all retro like that, or Vista of course will be fine.

Software - PowerDVD or WinDVD both have versions that support Blu-ray. Yes, you do need extra software and your old WinDVD 5 just won't hack it. Seriously though, look for the Blu-ray Disc logo on the main screen of PowerDVD. If you don't see this logo, it is likely your version of PowerDVD doesn't support Blu-ray Discs

The BD Advisor tool
Download the free Cyberlink BD Advisor tool to check if your machine is mighty enough for Blu-ray.

Mac OSX Leopard printing to a Windows Vista shared printer

2008-10-28T06:22:00.001-07:00

Well, after many hours spent banging my head against an Apple flavoured brick wall I finally figured how to print to my printers that were already installed on my Windows Vista machine, so in the interests of a few less bruised foreheads in the world, here's how you do it.

I'm assuming you know how to share your printer from Vista. If you don't, there's a good article at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx which will tell you everything you need to know.

Before you start

You'll need to know the IP address of the Vista machine that the printer is installed on. To find this out, click Start, type CMD and press Enter. Then type ipconfig and press enter. It will probably be something like 192.168.0.101.
You'll also need to know the share name of the printer - click on the sharing tab under printer properties to find it. While you're there, make sure it's less than 13 characters and has no spaces.
You might need to download and install the latest Mac driver for your printer

How to connect to your Vista printer from OSX Leopard

Click on System Preferences from your dock, or from the Apple menu
Choose Print & Fax
Click on the [+] button to add a new printer
If you don't see Advanced in your toolbar, right-click (ctrl-click for those of you with mice which haven't evolved properly) on a blank area of the toolbar and select Customize Toolbar..., then drag the Advanced icon into your toolbar and click Done
Click on Advanced. Don't give up, it may look like it's not working and take a few seconds for the fields to become available.
In the Type dropdown, select Windows
Leave the Device dropdown as Another Device
Change the URL to smb://vista_ip_address/sharename - for example smb://192.168.0.101/stylus_r200
Change the Name to whatever you like, this is what it'll be known as on your Mac. By default, it's the IP address of your Vista machine and that's not exactly friendly!
Change the Location to whatever you like - it's not a required field
Click on the Print Using select box and select your printer from the avaliable drivers list
Click on Add and you're done