TRON

This is the story of two worlds and the beings who inhabit them. One of these is our world, the one we can see and feel. The world of the 'Users'. It lies on our side of the video screen. The other, an electronic micro-civilization, lives and breathes just beyond our grasp. This is the world of the 'Programs'. Because we, the Users, have created this new world, part of us lives there, too... ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SCREEN I'm off to find this film this weekend!

Questions, Questions...

I see I have 2 questions in the comments of my previous post from fellow Blogger users regarding template design. So, rather than respond in the comments, here are the answers: Question from GVM:

You seem to be a blogger expert, even a very friendly one, would it be a problem to ask you the following ? - how do you adjust the size of the letters in the side bar, esp. the text in the About Me profile ? - where can one find the "search this site" button ?

To change this, you need to find the following line in your CSS code at the top of your template: #profile-container { } And change it to the following to make the font the same size as the main post body text: #profile-container {font-size:90%;} Make sure you do a full blog republish and if you don't see the changes immediately, press CTRL+F5 to force a full refresh of your page. The "search this site" button is actually built into the Blogger NavBar you see at the top of the blog. It just called "Search this blog" instead. The only problem with this is that it does not always pick up searches for new posts immediately. I had some posts that were over 3 weeks old that did'nt appear when I searched, but eventually they were indexed and it worked ok. You can always try Google Sitesearch too. Question from Tarun:

Different background for different posts intersting.tell me how to do it.

Well. That sounded more of a curt instruction really Tarun! But here's the answer. To do this, you will need to use some Javascript code which sequentially adds 1 to a variable or takes it away for each post and then assigns a CSS property to the post depending on the value. First, you need to add the following lines to the CSS style area of your template. This is usually at the top of the template code, and will be enclosed between the </style> and </style> tags. div.post-even { background-color : #F5F5F5; padding: 5px 15px; } div.post-odd { padding: 5px 15px; } Then, on the line just before the <Blogger> tag, I inserted some Javascript to zero the variable we would use. <script type="text/javascript">var evenodd = 0</script> And on the line just after the <Blogger> tag, I inserted some more Javascript that determines if the variable "evenodd" is 0 or 1 and applies the relevant CSS DIV to the post. <script type="text/javascript">if(evenodd == 0) {document.write('<div class="post-even">');var evenodd = 1;} else if(evenodd == 1) {document.write('<div class="post-odd">');var evenodd = 0;}</script> And that's it! I actually made mine a little more complex by adding a gradient image to the bottom of the post in the CSS bit: div.post-even {background-color : #F5F5F5; padding: 5px 15px; background: #F5F5F5 url(http://static.flickr.com/39/81719143_e19cdc7865_o.jpg) bottom left no-repeat;} Hope this has been some help to you both. I am in the first stages of a new "project" that will encompass many similar requests - so watch this space.

Airwalk: RIP

Yesterday, I finally laid to rest my pair of Airwalk trainers. We have been together for over 10 years! During that time, my Airwalk and I have been through many changes, challenges and events:

• Worn on many skateboarding days.
• Learned to drive in them.
• Cycled to work in them.
• Ran three miles in them, three times a week.
• Worn on my Honeymoon.
• Worn at the birth of both of my children.
• Worn when I taught my Newphews to Skateboard.
• Worn on holiday in St Lucia, Dublin, France, USA.
• Worn to the top of the Empire State Building.
• Worn into the deepest, darkest caves in Cheddar Gorge.

I will miss them as all I have to wear now are my bright white NIKE running shoes. Farewell my friends... we were good together.

Neiw Yoirk Repoirt - Part 2

"Hey! I'm walkin' here!" As promised in my earlier New York report, here is the details of where we went, what we saw and what we thought. Empire State Building This was totally excellent! If you walked left out of our Hotel to the corner of the block, you could see the Empire off to your right. It was really close! Right next to a Starbucks too! We went first thing in the morning on Tuesday after a bacon/egg/cheese/bagel/coffee combo deli breakfast. As it was so early, we pretty much went straight in and straight to the top for a clear view as far as the eye can see! I have some great pictures and will post them to my Flickr when I get a chance to re-install Photoshop to my PC and "tart them up". It's an amazing building too - art deco to the max! Grand Central Terminal This was also a cool place to "hang out" and "people watch". It was only about 15 minutes walk from out Hotel too. The main terminal was totally breathtaking and almost like a cathedral. We took photos of "the clock" for our kids after they saw Melman the Giraffe smash his head into it on the cartoon, Madagascar. We had lunch in the food court downstairs on the same day and went back for breakfast there too the next day for another sesame seed bagel/cheese/bacon coffee combo thing. Totally delicious! Nice to see people going about their normal day to day business too. Saw some snooty business men getting their shoes shined as they totally ignored the person doing the work! Financial District/Wall Street We took the Metro from Grand Central to Wall Street to check out the Stock Exchange which we thought we might be able to get into to see the action from the public viewing gallery. Of course, it was closed after 911 - but our guide book we had borrowed was over 6 years old!! We got to see some "financial types" getting filmed outside the stock exchange and then photographed by the press, guarded by some butch SWAT types with automatic machine guns! One of the them was a kid called "Zack", or so his gold plated name badge told me. He was obviously with his parents and had a look of "made for life" all over his smug little weasel face. We asked a security guard who they were, but he just gave us indifference. "Jus' some more rich people". Liberty Island From Wall Street we walked through Battery Park to the ferry to take us to Liberty Island to see the Statue Of Liberty. The security to get onto the ferry was more invasive that it was for us to get onto the aircraft and into the country in the first place! I had to remove my belt and shoes to get through the scanners and x-ray machines. The statue is pretty cool close up and it was a real nice day too. From then on, the week got hotter. We had got tickets to go inside the statue, but after queuing for ages behind another 30 people, we then found that the people a few feet in front of us were told that they would be waiting an hour to get in. As my legs and lower back were killing me from walking so far, we decided to head for the "Tat shop" and head back to the mainland. We got some nice photos there of the brown smog hanging over the city too. Ground Zero We walked from Battery Park up to Ground Zero to see "the hole". It was quite odd really. To think that there were 2 massively tall buildings in such a small area is amazing. And to think that they had been destroyed without causing much (or any) damage to nearby buildings was also amazing (read "conspiracy"). The whole area seemed very quiet too. There were lots of billboards up showing designs for what was to replace the buildings. Not sure which one is going up though. At the moment, the hole is just full of what appears to be air conditioning ducts! Soho/Greenwich Village We walked uptown from Ground Zero to Soho and Greenwich Village, bits of which reminded us of Camden Market and Covent Garden. We took a much needed respite in a coffee shop with a giant slab of carrot cake and a seat in the window so we could see what was going on. The wife shopped, I yawned and ached and we made our way back up towards our Hotel. We rested for an hour and watch crap US TV and then headed out to a buzzing steakhouse where the smallest steak was 6 inches diameter and 8 inches deep! I had a massive burger and fries which was my first real big American portion. Great food and a great atmosphere! Macys/Saks/Bloomingdales The first day (night in UK time) we got there, we dumped our suitcases, looked for something to complain to the hotel staff about in the room (found nothing though!) and headed out for a walk and some food. We stumbled upon Macys a few blocks away and the wife settled into what would become the main theme of the week. Shopping. Macys was ok, but not quite what I expected. I was lead to believe that it would be like Harrods (to which I have never been) but it only sold clothes! Bloomingdales was the same, but Saks (of 5th Ave) was a real classy joint! The decor in there was really nice and on one floor, we turned the corner to see Roberta Flack doing a PA for the store. So we got to see her tho! And she was very good. Tiffanys Breakfast not included! We went to Tiffanys twice. Once to look. Once to buy. I was under the impression that it was going to be very posh and when I saw the security guard on the door, I expected to be turned away as I had holes in my shoes (more on that in my next posting). The shop was cool and the staff were pleasant too. Obviously used to tourists cruising in to take a look at their wares. We went back on Thursday and I bought my wife a bracelet for her birthday we had been looking at for a while (at the cheap fakes on eBay). Central Park We walked from our hotel, all the way down Broadway, looking for a toyshop that was mentioned in the guide book we had, which don't forget, was 6 years out of date. Needless to say, by the time we hit 97th street, we decided it was not there any more. We got to see a hotel we nearly booked into and were glad we did not! We cut through east across into Central Park and rested a while. Well... I rested a while with my sore legs and back. We then proceeded to circumnavigate the Jackie Kennedy Onasis resovoir, against the wishes of the signposts and sour looks from the joggers who were nearly bumping into us. We tried to get into the Guggenheim but it was closed on Thursdays. Damn guide book again! We carried on down and ate pasta for lunch in the basement of the Metropolitan Museum. We tried to blag our way into the main exhibits for free, but got caught. We then stopped at the Woolman Ice Rink and Central Park Zoo, for more Madagascar related photos, on the way back "downtown". New York Central Library This place was cool. Very very nice inside and full of people with their Apple Notebooks studying. I wanted to be one of them! The main reading room was amazing and was very nice. We went back again on Friday for a free piss and a sit down to kill time before our flight (as we had run out of cash too!). We got to watch some breakdancing street performers outside. I'd give anything to be able to windmill.... Times Square Flashy. Very flashy. Avoid if you have photo-sensitive epilepsy! My mate Ghone, said before I went that Piccadilly Circus was much better. What a twit! It was very impressive. We also got to wave at the kids back in the UK via the Times Square Earthcam Webcam! Toys-R-Us was disappointing as were most of the shops there. We ate in the Hard Rock Cafe there as we couldn't be bothered to walk anywhere. We were seated in the Madonna and Velvet Revolver area, close to James Brown's suit and some of Elton John's too. Well... there's my quick recap. I have missed so much, but you probably never read it all anyway! It makes me want to go back there again! Buy me an Apple Powerbook, a large Mocha, sit me in a New York Deli and I will be a happy man!

Apol-ogies

Just a quick post to appologise for not posting recently. There have been some great things to blog about recently but I have not felt up to it - at all! I guess I am just slogging through a period of "Blogger Apathy" or "Blog-d-pression". Other stuff has been happening at home too such as ill children keeping me up half the night and the wife's 40th birthday (say happy birthday to her everyone!). I have also found the love of Hexic on the 360. Puzzling fun! Mainly I have been hanging out at the Blogger Help Group and have posted over 1000 messages in the last month, assisting people with chaging their Blogger template and other general help. The people who frequent there usually need help doing basic HTML stuff like adding images to their header or sidebar etc - so I have something planned (in my head) to help them. The Blogger staff do not go there as far as we know - so maybe i'll get a "Blogger MVP" soon or something.... Anyway... I will do New York "Part 2" soon. I promise...

Neiw Yoirk Repoit Part 1

Well... i have to say that our time in New York was excellent! The hotel was in a great location (East 30th Street) for walking to most of the stuff we wanted to see. My legs and lower back were killing me by the end of the week as we had walked so far! I am only usually used to walking from my house to the car and from the car to the office desk. Not really - but not far off the truth! New York is a really amazing place! Although the residents are a total ethnic/social mix, the roads are filled with cheeky honking yellow taxi's and the density of the buildings, businesses and shops is so intense, it all just "works"! It's quite funny to see people skateboarding to work or rollerblading down the street backwards during the rush hour. Not funny as in "har har, look at that twat" but funny as in that it's just accepted and seems normal! Even to me, who had only been there a few days. I read before I went that New York has a "can do" attitude and you realise what that means when you see the people just going about their business, but in their own unique way, with no hassle or prejudice from anyone! New York is definitely the iPod capital of the world. I counted more "white phones" per block than anywhere I have been before. People also seem ok about getting out their "technology" in public, be it iPods, CellPhones, Laptops or PDAs. I always feel quite reserved and nervous about using my laptop on a train for example but I lost count of the number of people using their Apple Powerbooks in coffee shops whist listening to their iPods or sitting outside in public parks using the free Google wifi to MSN video chat. I even saw what I thought was a tramp who was checking the bins for rubbish only then to pull out his Hipster phone/pda and sit down to do some typing! Weird! The whole atmosphere was great and we felt safe and welcomed where ever we went. I was going to do a big write up here on each day we were there, but it would take too long. In the next part of my report I will highlight the highlights and dish the dirt on the tourist attractions.

How do we reboot this thing?

I'm off to New York early in the morning! Hopefully not to get this bird's eye view! Then again... anything for some more brownie points at work! If I get a chance to post whilst wolfing down a giant pretzel, skinny mocha latte and eggs over easy, I will. See ya in a week!

iPod Hi-fi

Well.. It was'nt quite as I predicted the Apple iPod "Boombox" would be like. But it's not too bad. Quite minimalistic and low tech, but for £249, I would want it to make my cups of tea for me too! "iPod Hi-Fi Teasmade" anyone? EDIT: Someone's already got their hands on one and has posted shots of it being "un-boxed" on their Flickr page. It looks really big! Technorati Tags: ipod, apple, hi-fi, boombox, steve jobs