Monthly Archive for October, 2008

New WordPress Plus Extra Goodies

Published on 24 October, 2008 in Technology and Website. 0 Comments

Firstly that’s the blog updated with the latest version of WordPress. After this I had noticed that the pages were taking a little while to load mostly due to the large amount of PHP scripts running in the background, I think began looking at a way to solve these problems, it turns out most of these outputs were not changing from hour to hour hence the PHP scripts did not have to be run every hour.

I began looking at caching pages, this seemed OK but didn’t want to cache the pages for too long as they would not show up comments and new posts until the cache had been re-built, however after searching I found the handy little plugin WP-Cache, this is now installed and setup, the main blog and all the PHP stuff is cached for an hour then renewed whenever someone visits again, I may increase this time as the blog ain’t that busy. However we will see how it goes with an hour and how many times it expires without visits and make changes over the next few days, if you notice anything weird going on even if you think it’s not related, leave a comment or use the contact me form and hopefully I will be able to get it fixed. :P

In a bid to make the blog more search engine friendly I have also installed the All In One SEO pack, I have used this before but never managed to get it working the way I wanted, however this time everything seems well and it has made some subtle changes to the blog, hopefully this works and I make my way up Google! :)

New MacBook!

Published on 19 October, 2008 in Life and Technology. 3 Comments

Well resisting the temptation went well, I have placed my order for a new MacBook! Read on to find out more! :D

I choose the flagship MacBook and added choose the 4GB RAM option, that should make it snappy. Was up at the Apple shop ordering it and it looked really nice, if you are thinking the thing was ugly (like I was) believe me it’s just the pictures, in real life it’s much smaller and thinner than you expect and the backlight keyboard is really nice, also comparing my old MacBook the screen is 100000x better, gone are the weird gradient issues and uneven backlighting, the screen on the new one is very, very bright and good quality.

While I was up at the Apple store I also bought an AirPort Express, this is to create a Wireless N network for my Mac devices and also to share the printer with Windows clients, what a pain to, it fried my first printer (no, really) and I had to acquire an E setup pson R300 which works well but Jamie & I tracked the problem down to Vista, all went well until we tried to print from Vista and then the printer suddenly powered down and when we powered it back on it had fried the chips on two ink cartridges meaning the printer didn’t even think they were inserted. We tried the new R300 with Vista and although it didn’t fry the printer it caused it to display the “Paper Jam” error even although it hadn’t even took the paper in yet! :(

So now we have removed Vista from the equation and shared the already shared printer (confusing eh?!) from my sister’s PC that is running XP, so when the Vista laptop prints it goes to sister’s PC which then sends it to the AirPort then to the printer, this is working fine even although it is a tad complicated.

Unfortunately since I bought the MacBook at University to receive the HE discount which you cannot get in-store I will not receive my MacBook until the 5th of November so better start the waiting game, will promise some unboxing pictures and a mini review once received. :)

Woo! MacBooks!

Published on 16 October, 2008 in Life and Technology. 4 Comments

Well yesterday the new MacBooks were announced, they didn’t look too hot in the grainy pictures coming from live blogs and I was quite worried that they wouldn’t look nice in real life, I shouldn’t have doubted Apple as once the website was back up and there was some high quality images up it looked quite good, took a bit getting used to like the aluminium iMac did but I think I have got used to it already and find it really sexy!

Due to the weak dollar, the countries that have a good currency (ie the UK) have suffered in the pricing with it being hiked right up, this is disgusting and Apple need to have another look at international pricing and stop basing everything on USA. The top end MacBook costs $1,599 over in the USA, a direct currency conversion makes it £928, but Apple actually charge us £1,149. A £221 difference simply for living in another country! :(

I also find it really stupid that they are keeping what is now old generations still on sale, they have done this with MacBook (with the white plastic model still being on sale), the MacBook Pro (the 17″ old style case still one sale) and the new Cinema Display (with the 20″,23″ & 30″ with old casings and display technologies still one sale), why do this, it has baffled most people and I personally don’t see the point in it.

Lastly after that rant I am actually going to buy a MacBook, top of the range for the extra processor power, bigger HDD and of course the backlight keyboard which is useful. However because the RAM is DDR3 the prices from Apple and other memory sellers such as Crucial is actually about the same for once, the extra 2GB RAM will cost me £84 (due to student discount), would love to hear from readers if they think I should or not as I am really undecided? :)

Also get free iPod Nano (£54 extra for 16GB), 3 Years Free AppleCare, £60 towards a printer. To go well with the MacBook I am going to purchase the AirPort express to create a Mac friendly wireless network as the current Netgear doesn’t actually work with AirPorts and the whole experiment with Linkys devices has went disastrously wrong with both devices now been returned to the sellers, thanks to William though who did help even after I had bugged and bugged him. :) The AirPort express will also allow wireless printing, does anyone know if this works with Windows as I would love to use it with the two Windows machines in my house? :P

New laptops tomorrow!

Published on 13 October, 2008 in Life and Technology. 2 Comments

After long, long waits plus a bucket load of rumours the new Apple laptops will finally be revealed tomorrow, hopefully Apple do something real good with them as I am looking to purchase one and want a good bit of computer for my money.

My wish-list is as followed:
+ Option of BluRay drive.
+ Do away with the Combo drive (come on it’s nearly 2009).
+ Decent graphics chip, away from the Intel integrated rubbish.
+ Fingerprint scanner (having a laugh with this one).
+ Multi touch touchpad (keeping in line with the previous pro releases.
+ More RAM as standard (2GB?) and decent amount of HDD space.
+ Lastly, a decent LED display.

Also since my Netgear doesn’t work with AirPorts of any kind (tested with MacBook, iMac & Mac Mini) I have been on the lookout for a new Wireless Router, after trying out some new Wireless N Belkin & Netgear routers which were rubbish since they didn’t allow some advanced configuration to be done, I then seen William’s post about running a Linksys WRT54GL with the Tomato or other (DD-WRT etc) firmware on it and that looks amazing, I have since purchased said router which is coming tomorrow in time for the Apple announcement so will have to play about with that and get it all setup and hope the AirPort likes it.

So plan for this week is as followed:

Tomorrow, press F5 until the button has been wore away watching live blogs of the Apple event, meanwhile configuring my new Linksys WRT54GL router.
Then if I like what Apple have done go and purchase the laptop on Friday. :)

Ibiza & Stuff

Published on 11 October, 2008 in Life, Technology and Website. 1 Comment

The title kind of says it all, I am all booked up to go to Ibiza next July with Jamie, this was a secret arrangement as Jamie’s ticket to go was for his eighteenth birthday but unfortunately due to all the flying regulations now he has to sign all the paperwork himself meaning I had to tell him a month before his birthday but I am certain he is still happy! :)

Managed to get a good deal at the travel agents, one week all inclusive to San Antonio Bay, Ibiza, the all inclusive will be good as it allows us to save all the money for going out at night to the notorious night clubs as we will be spending no money at the hotel during the day. :P The woman at Thomas Cook also chucked in free travel insurance for both of us as it was a birthday! :)

Hopefully have a great time, and while were on the subject might as well say Happy Early 18th Birthday Jamie! :)

Now onto other less exciting things, I have updated the theme slightly and removed some harsh whiteness away which should be easier on the eyes, contact form seems to be working again but please don’t be angry if you don’t get a reply as it’s still temperamental, simply send an email to pr(at)declan(dot)biz as it goes to the same address anyway. :P

Also bought myself a new iPod Nano 4G, I choose the Blue 8GB version, to say it’s thin is an understatement, almost too thin and feels quite fragile but the Apple’s build quality is still great, got some new earphones to go with it, the V-Moda Vibe in Chrome (pictured above), these are not as good as the ER-6i’s I have but make good on the go earphones and cut out all the in-ear fuss the ER-6i causes.

One more thing, (Steve’s favourite sentence), the date has finally been announced for the new Apple laptops. :) Thank god, have been waiting for the new MacBook since forever, Aluminium enclosures sure look sexy, I have the money waiting and will order as soon as they become available, as my mum is at University doing a degree in Nursing I will be able to take advantage of the Back To School offer, firstly as it’s HE I will get 14% off the purchase price of the laptop, plus a £95 rebate towards any iPod (looking to upgrade to a 16GB) and a £60 rebate towards a printer, not to mention the free 3 year Apple Care warranty. :)