Looks like a very basic introduction and tutorial on using PHP and related technologies. Worth reading for the newbies!
Author Archives: Donncha
iPod, uPod, we allPod
While Mark is rubbing his hands in glee playing with his new computer, Apple released the new iPod. At $600 the price’s a little steep and makes the iRiver H320’s $299 price tag look a lot more attractive. I can squirt photos on to both, and I doubt I’d be away from a PC long enough to fill the 20GB capacity of that device with images.
Metafilter discussion here, along with some insightful comments and links.
I mentioned the H320 before: 1 2
Bah. That U2 iPod is ugly. I am going to buy some sort of mp3 player soon to take jogging and with me to work, I haven’t decided what to get. I do not think I want to buy an iPod, I do not like the looks of them, I have no interest in iTunes and the damn aac files.
Later… Hehe, User Friendly is funny.
Justifications for shooting RAW
I don’t have any choice, my camera only shoots jpeg, but if you can, shooting raw is a good way to go to improve your photos! This article
by Tommy covers some of the issues, although I find myself thinking things are “good enough” most of the time with jpeg.
Templates and the "is" Functions
Ryan’s explanation of the is_* functions in WordPress 1.3 is an excellent summary of some of the new functions in this version of WP.
In WPMU, it should be possible(I haven’t tried yet!) to do the following from your Smarty template:
{if is_search()}
<b>The Results of Your Search:</b>
{/if}
It’ll display the message “The Results of Your Search:” when a search is performed on your site.
Photographing a Lunar Eclipse
It’s very difficult to photograph the moon, not least of which because it’s so far away! Your eyes deceive you when you look at it – sure, it might look as big as the street light but wih distance there’s a lot less light getting to you. This article on photographing the moon is very good and explains the phenomenon well.
Here’s a picture I took on Monday evening in Monkstown. The moon was rising, and after it re-appeared from behind some black clouds I snapped this photo. Originally, the photo had a lot of noise, but by blurring, and “burning” two layers in the GIMP I think I got a nice background and noise free image! Of course, reducing it in size helps a lot to hide that sort of thing!
Enjoy the picture, it’s all we’ll see in Ireland with the storm building outside!
- APOD has a diagram showing where and when the eclipse will be visible.
- Here’s another article on moon photography. Nice, if fake looking photos.
- Mr Eclipse “The Ultimate Resource For Eclipse Photography”
WordPress User discovers Enclosures
Matt reports that another user has discovered that WordPress supports enclosures! That’s great, but others have legimate concerns about it.
Major Storm Heading Our Way!
Scary notice up on the MET EIREANN website! *gulp* I’m now glad that Blarney is inland!
Severe Weather Warning
A MAJOR STORM WILL AFFECT ALL PARTS OF IRELAND DURING WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE AND FLOODING CAN BE EXPECTED. Winds, initially mainly between Northeast and Southeast in direction, will reach mean speeds of 45 to 55 miles per hour, with gusts of 70 to 80 miles per hour. Winds will may veer southerly on the South coast later. Structural damage such as fallen trees, etc. can be expected. Rainfall totals in excess of 50mm over a wide area will lead to some severe flooding, due to the already saturated ground. Some parts of Munster and south Leinster could see totals of up to 80 mm of rain. High Seas and high tides, will lead to coastal flooding, particularly in the South and East of the country.
Here’s a global wave height map of the Atlantic. Looks like Wexford’s going to be pounded! (Warning – trying to access that image crashed my copy of Moz FF, but wget worked fine.)
Inline WordPress Comments
I’m experimenting with inline WordPress comments. If you leave a comment on this or other posts the comment will display on the blog, under the post. I need to make it optional however and smarten up it a bit!
You’ll probably notice a few changes here over the next few hours as I play with it. It wasn’t too hard to do, but I decided to create a new template and not overload the original comments template file.
The Luck of the Irish : Economist Ireland Survey
The Economist survey of Ireland came out last week and it’s a great read for anyone curious about this little country of ours! Unfortunately, only the introduction is free to view on their site but if you have a subscription go read it!