While logging into a Namesco account one had to acknowledge a lack of changes before being allowed to proceed. Better safe than sorry:
Interweb
Apple Downloads Adobe bargains email scam
Interesting email from Apple offering huge discounts on Adobe software…
..but wait. That is not my usual email address. The web site looks like an Apple site apart from the poor [wikipop]typeface[/wikipop] choice.
The About Us page masterfully utilises the English language to convince anyone that might be thinking that this was not a real Apple page.
Splendid. Next.
Broken Blogger
This post is primarily for Martine because:
a: She observed that my postings were somewhat infrequent; and
b: She will come home and want to know why her blog is not working; so…
On Monday it was announced that Blogger would be put into maintenance mode for an update to the system on Wednesday. The process was due, according to the Blogger Status page, to last about an hour…

It is now Friday 13th and Blogger is still not working…

Presumably even the Blogger people cannot update their own pages so the status page remains frozen from last Monday. There has been some information on Google’s support page where they claim to have reverted to a previous version but this does not seem to have helped much…

It is a little unfortunate that this hiccup coincides with the announcement of Google’s web based Chromebooks. To [wikipop search=”Cloud computing”]the cloud![/wikipop] Oh! Wait a mo…
Update: And they’re back.
Then It Bash Me…. HTML Porn Arched In Their Heads.
Not sure which was the more surprising; that someone should charge for an app to Learn HTML (presumably for people who are unable to type HTML Tutorial into Google) or that it should only be available to adults because of its…
Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity, Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor, Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence, Frequent/Intense Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
But never mind all that nonsense we have the spam comment of the day to entice us:
There be obliged be a through for my kids to practice at familiar with what they learn in class. Then it bash me – songs!! Come down with a refrain common hoop-shaped and arched in their heads and they’ll not in a million years forget detract a ado for each of my English games, using (Insert link to your product here) merely the idiolect used in distinction! This is the first it! How are you?
WordPress 3.1 and the broken blogs
Progress! In the unrelenting march to some ideal, feature rich, future we have to occasionally update the WordPress software which normally amounts to clicking on the Automatic Update link and waiting a moment for the updater to do its thing. Alas the 3.1 update did not do its thing and the blog was broken; left bereft with only the message:
Unable to even log in to see what the problem was I turned to my trusty FTP software to get into the blog. The usual suspects are the plugins which add myriad enhancements but will often cause as many problems. Renaming the plugins folder, so WordPress will not recognise it, allowed me to get to the login screen; and once in I was greated with the message
Clicking the link to run the updater again successfully updated WordPress. Moving all the plugins back into the newly created plugins folder showed that it was not the plugins at fault this time but the errors seemed to be from my own child theme. So we are now back with a hacked about a bit Twenty Ten theme which will break when the next update comes along. Ho hum.
Seems there have been a few problems with the update.
Planet Panogaea
More bizarre one star reviews on the app store. This time for Panogaea. It is claimed that it does nothing and is a scam.
Admittedly having a web site which is still under construction does did not inspire confidence (The site is now up and running) but it all seems to work as described…

You can just click and drag directly in the image (using the Command and Control modifier keys) to make the changes. Full documentation and examples are available from the Help menu.
An Introduction to Panogaea from Kevin Gross from the official Panogaea support site.
UnMac Apps from the Mac App Store
Mac users have come to expect a certain standard and consistency from their software. OK we can tolerate the non-standard interface once in a while but some things are just assumed. Until today’s launch of the Mac App store. What we have are a lot of ports from the iPad/iPhone school of app development with no consideration for, or perhaps even an understanding of, how such apps will be used and be expected to work on a Mac. Sadly these are supposed to have been vetted by Apple before being allowed into the store. With no demo/trial versions available from the store you do not know what you are getting until you already have it. So please can we have apps that…
…ask if you want to save your unsaved work when you Quit them?
…have an Edit menu and an Undo?
…comply with click and drag norms instead of leaping back several decades with a click, move and click again interface? These probably worked fine with a couple of fingers on a touch screen but not so good on a Mac – even with a Magic Track Pad.
…accept images dragged into them rather than having to Open them from the File menu?
…give us a clue what we are supposed to do? There is a Help menu on the Mac. I posted instructions for PinBall HD this afternoon… A couple of hours later it had been well used…
It also seems a bit hit and miss which apps are marked as installed. Those you acquire through the App Store are but those from other sources are not; yet some of my Apple apps are marked as installed Aperture, Garageband etc. although not from the App Store while others are not iWorks etc. If we are going for seamless updating surely all installed applications should be noted and updated as and when.
Update:
It seems software purchased directly from Apple through an Apple account is recognised as installed by the App Store; if purchased elsewhere it is not recognised.
The Mac App Store arrives
With this afternoon’s arrival of Mac OS X 10.6.6 comes the addition of the Mac’s very own app store icon in the Dock…
…which leads you to the app store’s store front…
Apparently there is some other stuff going on.
The all new snail mail online modern world
Excuse me while I bang my head against the wall…. Ah that’s better. So you move to a new address. So you need to tell the [wikipop]DVLA[/wikipop] your new address. You can fill in the new address on the back of the old driving licence and send it to them via snail mail or you can do it online. Being an online type of chap I opt for the latter. After some time filling and clicking my way through the online form I am informed that…

They even have the nerve to use Online in the form’s title…

Does [wikipop]Martha Lane Fox[/wikipop] know about this? She does not mention it. Excuse me while I print out my form and pop it and my old driving licence into an envelope, find a stamp, trudge out into the snow and post it…. roll on the [wikipop]Digital revolution[/wikipop]/[wikipop search=”Gershon Review”]Joined up government[/wikipop]/[wikipop]Brave New World[/wikipop] (Delete as appropriate).
Cimy Header Image Rotator and a Twenty Ten Child Theme
The previous post about rotating the header images in the Twenty Ten theme has been quite popular
but it was bad advice because as soon as you update your WordPress and/or theme files your changes are overwritten and lost. The solution is to move the changes into a child theme where they will overwrite the files in the original theme even when updating.
To make a child theme we simply create a folder in the WordPress themes folder (in the wp-content folder) and give it a name: mychildtheme (or whatever you want to call it).
We then save a plain text file called style.css into the mychildtheme folder. The style.css file reads:
/*
Theme Name: mychildtheme
Template: twentyten
*/@import url(“../twentyten/style.css”);
#cimy_div_id {
clear: both;
border-top: 4px solid #000;
border-bottom: 1px solid #000;
width: 940px;
height: 198px;
}
Where the Theme name and Template are required to indicate the parent and the child. The import URL grabs the original style.css file to be altered by our style.css file. We then include the #cimy_div_id section that we had originally used in the header.php file.
Create a new plain text file and copy the contents of the header.php file into it. Replace the
<img src="<?php header_image(); ?>" width="<?php echo HEADER_IMAGE_WIDTH; ?>" height="<?php echo HEADER_IMAGE_HEIGHT; ?>" alt="" />
code with the
<div id="cimy_div_id">
<noscript>
<img id="cimy_img_id" src="http://yourDomain.com/somePicture.jpg" alt="" />
</noscript>
</div>
as before (we no longer need the styling here as it is in the style.css file), and then save this as header.php into the mychildtheme folder.
We can now preview and activate our mychildtheme as you would any other theme within WordPress. Our modified header.php will be used instead of the default header.php and our style.css will be used to make changes to the default styling. You can add further changes to the styling by adding to the style.css file in the child theme. The Firebug extension for the Firefox browser is a quick way to experiment with making changes before adding the code to your style sheet.