I gave a presentation at Drupal North East this month that put two of the most popular content management systems head-to-head. The talk examined the similarities and differences between the two behemoths, and the scenarios to consider using them.
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Protect Your Deleted Data
Having been given a bunch of PCs from a dentist, to be passed on to needy second owners, the first thing that came to mind was data security. Each PC had a copy of the dentist’s client database, and that had to be removed. More to the point, it had to be permanently removed.
OpenData – UK Postcodes
The UK government has been publishing UK postcode data for nearly a year now. It is available for free here from the Ordnance Survey and is branded as Code-Point® Open. Essentially the data provides 1.7 million UK postcodes, with their British National Grid Reference, local authority and ward listed for each. The most interesting data is the grid reference, supplied as a full Northing and Easting value. These can be used to calculate distances between postcodes, as well as being …
Consilience Mulled Wine 2010
It’s that time again – the lead up to Christmas and time to cook up a batch of mulled wine. Drinking it is half the joy, the other half being the spicy aroma that lingers around the office for days.
My Broadband IP Blacklisted as a SPAM Generator
This is an unusual one. I didn’t think it would be, but based on the lack of Google results for this having happened to other people, I thought it would be an idea to document it. I’m sure it happens a lot more then people realise. The basic gist of the story is that my broadband IP address got black-listed as a SPAM generator, and that meant I could no longer send out email through the broadband mail server. It …
Safe delivery
Congratulations to Helen and Stuart on the birth of their baby daughter, Holly Mae, at 11.46 am Monday 29 November 2010. She weighed in at a bouncing 8lb 11oz and ‘mother and baby’ are doing well – if not getting much sleep. Well done Helen!
Hallowe’en Background Ambience
Since this was a last minute job for my daughter this Hallowe’en, there was no time to post this up then, so just consider it an early post for next year. I’m thinking of late 2011 already, and it’s not even Christmas yet.
Google tooltips
As one of Google’s randomly selected usablity testers, I get to see a lot of upcoming developments before they’re released. Google’s latest feature is a preview tooltip of each website. Looks like their screengrab tool doesn’t render HTML canvas properly, as shown by the missing text on Siteroom. It also highlights where Google gets its snippet text from:
Shortlisted for an award!
We’re proud to announce that a cookbook we designed, copy-edited and printed on behalf of the Mouth Cancer Foundation has been shortlisted in the prestigious Pfizer 2010 Excellence in Oncology awards.
Always have a contingency plan
You know how it is – things don’t always go to plan. Promised articles or images fall through at the last minute; the advert that was booked and confirmed fails to arrive; the Government announces a new policy making a news piece out of date… and basically you’ve got some space to fill (and no time to do so). Deadlines Deadlines are there to be broken right? Wrong! Deadlines are there for a reason, especially when a printer is waiting …