post – Blog of Roganty

Just stuff!!

It’s November now! The time of year that I start changing stuff around on my website and blog, but I’m not going to this year! I think I’ve found a design I like. But I still need to tweak the homepage though!

I’m not updating my website this year, but that’s not stopped me from changing one of my websites! I’m currently working on an update to Linux-Links.co.uk.
I’m working on adding screen shots of the websites. I think I’ve got it working, I just need to do more testing on it.

To keep page loads and image display fast I’ve split up the retrieving and display of the screen shots

First off all the screen shots on the page do is a couple of checks. If there is no screen shot, or the screen shot is older than seven days, then the url is added to the queue, it then either displays a place holder image or the screen shot.

The second part does most of the heavy work, and it is a little icon at the bottom of every page. All it does is grab a url from the queue and fetches the screen shot. If everything is good the icon displays Tux’s head, otherwise it’s the Windows logo!!

Halloween has been and gone, but not the pumpkin pie yet! I’ve made the last pie out of the goo from this years jack-o-lantern, but it’s still to be eaten!

Fireworks night has also passed us by! Even though we’ve not had the weather for fireworks we did manage to get to a firework display before the rain fell!
It was a very nice night, the field was packed, and the setting off of the fireworks was delayed because there was still people queueing up to get in! But the fireworks themselves were good. And it was mine and my girlfriends first firework display together!

And that neatly brings me on to the next subject! It is our three year anniversary tomorrow, or today by the time this is posted! So yes, me and my girlfriend have been together for three years!

Here’s to the next three!

Lack of Updates!?

Alright, so the sudden flurry of posts at the start of the month soon died out! Lol!

But why the sudden activity, and then nothing?

I was going to try and start posting more often, not long posts, just short ones, little snippets of information and short stories about nothing in particular.

Well, I had two in mind, but as always, I just never got around to it! Lol!

Not much has happened, the only two things that I can think of is that my girlfriends oldest brother became a dad, they called him Liam and he was born on the 6th of August.

The other is that I have started working on a new site style, and seeing as I have a week off I haven’t touched it! Lol!

It’s in the same style as the current style, but I’m going to rearrange where the sub menu’s appear, and the layout of posts and comments. This will mainly affect the blog side of my site, but I might bring some of the changes into other areas of my site.

Three Week Update!

Its been three weeks since I last blogged!!?? Whats going on!!!??? Lol!

For a start I’ve been back from holiday for just over a week now, I was going to post before leaving, but to be honest on the day it was too hectic that I just didn’t have any time to post!

My Flickr photos are up for viewing on Flickr and from the photo section!

The holiday, like last years was a week in Jersey. The ferry left Weymouth at 10am on Sunday 29th June, and arrived back in Weymouth at 23:45 on Sunday 6th July, seven hours late!

This year we drove down the night before and slept (read: closed eyes and pretended to sleep!) in a lay-by outside Weymouth and drove down to the harbour in the morning.

The holiday went fast! This year, instead of going around visiting loads of attractions we spent most of our time on a beach! But we did visit the Lavender Farm again!

Friday evening and during the later part of Saturday the wind picked up! On Sunday, after we had packed up the car and ready to leave, we were told that the ferry had been delayed for six hours and would not be due in until 18:20.

We spent the rest of the day driving around the north coast of Jersey stopping at some the beaches and looking at the rough seas! I also took that opportunity to fill the car’s tank up.

We found a garage that was selling petrol for 89.99 pence a litre. I picked up the pump and it read 99.99 pence a litre. When I went in to pay there was 10% off the price of petrol!
I only managed to put 25.53 litres in, but it only cost me £22.95!

We got to the ferry terminal for six, and the ferry did not turn up until seven.

I think we didn’t set off for Guernsey until about half past seven. And boy was it rough! We was going slow because of the sea, and nothing was open! At times all you could see out of the windows was the sea on one side, and the sky on the other!

During that leg of the journey the duty free shop was only open for five minutes before we got to Guernsey for people departing at Guernsey.
We stayed in Guernsey harbour for an hour to let the seas die down a bit. We left at half past nine.

We brought our stuff from the duty free shop as soon as it was open. We didn’t really have any time to look around as we were all holding onto the shelving just to stay upright!

I spent about an hour up on deck facing the way we had just come trying to settle my stomach and not be sick. It was quite interesting watching the horizon, it would raise up and the sink down, and at the same time it would be moving diagonally first sloping off to the right, and then the left.

After five minutes of me going back inside I filled up one and a half sick bags!

We docked in Weymouth at about 23:45. We found the lay-by we slept in the week before and attempted to sleep!
We set off in the morning at about six and got home about half past eight!

My Flickr photos are up for viewing on Flickr and from the photo section!

A Day of Updating

Ok, this post is going back to Saturday, but I didn’t have anytime left to post anything!

All day I made two updates to Linux-Links.co.uk, the first update is the Linux-Links.co.uk feed!

It took me most of the day to set up and get working properly, I then set up a FeedBurner account for people to subscribe to the feed from.

The second update is a proper external links format. Instead of linking directly to the website, there is a (hopefully) unique code that corresponds to the site, and when clicked leads straight to the website requested!

If you’re unsure about what I’m trying to explain, head over to Linux-Links.co.uk, and have a browse around!

The code creation is interesting, it is three separate functions.

The first function accepts a string, creates an hd5 hash of that string and then passes that string to the second function which splits that string into four pieces and passes it back to the first function.

The first function then does some wizardry, and passes four numbers to the third function which then does some more wizardry and returns four alphanumeric characters back to the first function.

The first function then returns those four alphanumeric characters back as a single string

Maybe I should setup a URL shortening site!? Lol!

If you are interested in seeing the code that is used, then you can either leave a comment or email me, the email address is at the bottom of the page.

That all for this post
Till next time,
Happy browsing!

Finally Updated!

I must start this post with an apology to anyone who is subscribed to my feed!

Earlier today I finally upgraded my blog to WordPress 2.5. At the same time I took the opportunity to clean out my database, quite literally I reformatted my blog!

This involved me exporting all my posts, and blogroll, deleting all WordPress files, apart from my theme and wp-config.php, and then deleting all the WordPress tables from the database!
Then I installed the new version of WordPress and ran through the install. I then deleted the test post, and updated some of the options. I then imported all of my old posts into the fresh install.

That was only this morning, now what have I been doing for the past two weeks since my last post?
The answer, nothing much!

The only notable exception is that I have finally got my new computer up and running!

I installed both Fedora 7 and Windows XP onto the first hard drive, Linux on 100Gb, and Windows on 60Gb.
I am using the 500Gb hard drive for all of my files, on Linux this is mounted as /home

The new computer is working brilliantly, and its so much quieter than my previous computers!
I’ve just got to get a set of speakers, and possibly a new heat sink/fan for the processor, and that will be it sorted!

It’s getting quite late now, so thats it for this post
Till next week!

Slowdown!

For some strange reason the past month has been a bit of a slowdown time for me, I don’t know what it is, but I just cant seem to be able to get into anything, or do anything!

Take this blog as an example, the last time I posted was the 4th of February, two weeks since the post before.

In those three weeks I have done practically nothing, even though I have added a couple to plugins to my blog, but that’s just about it.

Linux Links is at a stand still.

The only things I do do regularly is feel tired, and work!

And its valentines this week, and I haven’t got my girlfriend anything

I’ve got this week off work, so its a good time to recharge my batteries, and build my computer!

Hopefully I’ll be back to my ways next week

Till next time, if I don’t fall asleep!

Aimlessly Wandering the Information Superhighway!

The title just about sums up what I have been doing for the last three weeks since my last post, but more precisely describes what I did on Sunday!
I have a history list as long as your arm, and I have no clue about what I was doing!

But I have signed up for Gravatar, and have finally reported that bug with WordPress.

During the past month I have managed to do more work on the next version of Linux Links, I have most of the update working, and I’m just working on the Tag page. The next section I’ll be working on will be Search.

I am also working on the problem of how to make short unique URL’s similar to tinyurl.com
I’m thinking maybe put the md5 hash in a matrix table and add up every row and column, and then use that to make up some letters.
Yes, as you’ve probably guessed, I have no idea on how to go about it, and I don’t want to just use the id of the URL in the database

Other than that, nothing much has been happening, work is still the same, we’re starting to get in a lot of Easter eggs, which seem to magically disappear, must be due to the price! And there was me thinking that people would be boycotting Cadbury chocolate and not buying it!

Untill the next time
Enjoy your Easter Egg!

Edit: I have just been told that the price of Easter eggs in ASDA have gone back up to their original price.
I have also just installed the WordPress pluginWP_MonsterID, and have edited the blog theme, so if you are signed up to Gravator your avatar will show up, otherwise you get a random monster!

I’ve Finally Done It!

Way back in September I posted details about my new computer wish list, well I’ve gone and ordered the main parts of it, thats the CPU, Motherboard, Case, Memory, and PSU!

Processor: AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core BE-2350 2.10GHz (Retail AM2) £46.95
Product Details: http://amdqrg.getspringbox.com/gb-en/desktop/details.aspx?qsearch=true&opn=ADH2350IAA5DD

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H AMD 690G Socket AM2 Motherboard £34.95
Product Details: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2579

Memory: Corsair 2GB PC2-6400 C4 XMS2 (2x1GB) £49.95
Product Details: http://www.corsair.com/products/xms2.aspx

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 RX W0146 450W Modular PSU £29.95

Case: Nexus Caterpillar – Silenced ATX case £41.95
Product Details: http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-nexuscaterpillarsilentsystem.htm

Thats a total of £203.75 exc VAT
Delivery was an extra £11.86
The VAT came to £37.73
Which brings the grand total to £253.34

It should all be delivered tomorrow (Tuesday), I hope it does, it was an extra £4 for next day delivery!
When I receive the parts I’ll take some photos and upload them to my Flickr account.

Till then,
Happy computing!

Euromillones Loteria International

On the 28th of December my girlfriend received a letter from the Euromillones Loteria International
Below is a copy of the letter sent

How do I know this is a scam?

Firstly the letter is not directly addressed to my girlfriend, and she has never entered any lottery.
Secondly all of the logos on the letter have been scanned into the computer.
Thirdly the letter heading, is that word art with a drop shadow? On an official letter?
Fourthly, why would the winning participant have to give 10% of their winnings to Global Fortune Security S.A.?
Fifthly, don’t even get me started on the “claim form”!

I’m not sure what to do with this now, do I send the “claim form” back with fake details, or just tick the box asking to be paid by a certified cheque?

The letter asks for the “award” to be kept away from public notice until the claim has been processed and the money “remitted to your nominated account”

So what better place to announce that my girlfriend has won €615,810 (six hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and ten euros only) shared among seventeen (17) international winners with 10% taken off, than my blog!

That’s €32,601.71 (thirty two thousand six hundred and one euros and seventy one cents) or £23,940.91 (twenty three thousand nine hundred and forty pounds and ninety one pence)

WooHoo! We’re in the money! Lol!

Until the next scam,
Stay safe!

Update! One of the commenter’s, Nick, has set up a Facebook group, if you would like to join its called I’ve received a letter from Euromillones Loteria International.

Its December Already!

Its been two weeks since my last post, so whats been happening?

For a start I managed to get search working on Linux Links, so thats all well and good

I have also added a couple of other features to the site.

The first feature is being able to browse by hostname, unless two or more pages in the database come from the same host then there is no way to access it, and that’s deliberate!

The second feature is a status checker, which basically checks if the page can be accessed every day, and the results of that are displayed on the url page.

Its Sunday now, I started this post on Saturday but had to go out before finishing this post!

Now that it is December I’m working more hours at work. I am now working six days a week and have Mondays off.
That means that I’ve got Christmas eve and New Years eve off, so that’s a good thing!

It’s December which means that obviously I haven’t even started Christmas shopping yet!
And like usual I don’t have the foggiest what to get anyone!

Staying with the Christmas theme, one good point to working out in the warehouse is that I don’t get to listen to the endless Christmas songs repeated countless number of times throughout the day!
Also, I’ve got 2 Christmas meals to go to this year, the first on the eighth is the Grocery Christmas meal, and then on the ninth is the Warehouse and GM meal, at the same place!

Thats it for this week!
See you next time!