Ian Tearle | Blog

Lost Generation

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:32:29 -0800

People who know me well, know I am not often lost for words. This video came up on my Facebook feed and it really made me think. I hope it does the same for you, and encourage you to think about change. This video was release a while back, so you may have already seen it. Apologies. The text is transcribed below: Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed I am part of a lost generation and I refuse to believe that I can change the world I realize this may be a shock but "Happiness comes from within." is a lie, and "Money will make me happy." So in 30 years I will tell my children they are not the most important thing in my life My employer will know that I have my priorities straight because work is more important than family I tell you this Once upon a time Families stayed together but this will not be true in my era This is a quick fix society Experts tell me 30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce I do not concede that I will live in a country of my own making In the future Environmental destruction will be the norm No longer can it be said that My peers and I care about this earth It will be evident that My generation is apathetic and lethargic It is foolish to presume that There is hope. And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it. If you had not guessed, try reading the above backwards.

Media Temple Subversion Tutorial

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:04:16 -0800

I always forget this, and end up either not having SVN on my design folders, causing me much wasted time rewriting code when I accidently dont download changes on my machines, or trawling through my notes to remember how to correctly set up SVN on (MT) Media Temple servers. Hopefully you find this useful. Enable SSH Access By default, SSH remoting is disabled on MediaTemple accounts, requiring you to explicitly enable it in the Server Administrator control panel section for your primary domain: Once there, set SSH on “Enabled”, and save your changes. MediaTemple’s easy-to-use configuration tool couldn’t make this step any simpler. Creating a Repository Im working on a mac, so this tutorial is written for Apple users; open up terminal and connect to Media Temple as serveradmin@yourdomain.com. For example, if your site were example.com, you would connect as follows: ssh serveradmin@example.com@example.com The domain "example.com" is in there twice, first because it’s part of your full username, and second to point SSH at the right server. (If your SSH client complains about not being able to connect, you can try replacing the first @ sign with its encoded version, “%25″.) Type "yes" to confirm adding example.com to your known_hosts, if asked, then enter your administrator password to finish logging in. Enter the following commands to switch to your "data" directory (provided by MediaTemple), and create a basic repository for your code/information: Change directory (cd) to your data directory: cd ../../data/ Create a “repos” directory to hold one or more repositories: mkdir repos Change directory to the folder you made in the previous step: cd repos Create a repository (replace "folder" with your desired repository name, using underscores for spaces). Letter case is important, so if you capitalize any part of the name now, you'll have to capitalize it later when using it. The bit about "fsfs" is to use a specific Subversion database type recommended by MediaTemple — it’s the default type for newer versions of Subversion, but it’s best to put it just to be safe. svnadmin create folder — fs-type fsfs You can repeat this to create as many repositories as you wish inside the "repos" folder. Log out of MediaTemple: logout Checking Out Your Repository On your local computer (not on MediaTemple), decide where you want to keep your repositories. I recommend someplace easy to get to like /workingcopies/, but a repo can go anywhere you prefer. Check out a copy of the repo you just made: svn checkout svn+ssh://serveradmin@example.com@example.com/home/1234/data/repos/folder /workingcopies/folder Be sure to replace "1234" with your four-digit MediaTemple server ID number that can be found in your Service Activation email. To verify everything drop a simple file into your new repository folder at /workingcopies/folder, such as test.txt, and do: svn add test.txt svn commit -m "Adding test file."

The Time Travellers Wife

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:26:06 -0800

Recently I have been reading the acclaimed best selling novel; The Time Travellers Wife, not the normal genre of books I am used to reading, but after seeing a preview of the film in June I just had to hunt down the book and get reading before the film screened in August. It took me a while, but I managed to successfully complete the book shortly after the film was released, and enjoyed it greatly. I really emphasised with the characters, and was taken away on the journey portrayed in the book of Henry and Clare's lives together, a thoroughly intriguing story, and an emotional outcome, I am not afraid of telling you I shed a tear or two. It was my time to watch the film with the novel read, and dutifully handed to my wife, so last night I went to my local cinema to see my much anticipated movie. The Time Traveller's Wife is a science fiction film without the science fiction, though unlike the book there were no other character developments apart from the main two; Henry and Clare, and the changes to vital aspects of the original book were somewhat distracting, like the book it doesn't get bogged down in the whys and wherefores of time travel, but it has fun with the inherent paradoxes and ironies, while the common-room philosophising isn't given any more prominence than the issue of how to find clothes when you appear naked in the street in the middle of the night. However, I am glad I saw the film, and whilst I was always one step ahead of the film having read the book, enjoyed it very much. Well worth seeing, but I do suggest reading the book, whether it be before or after the film.

jQuery Random Image Selector

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:41:07 -0800

Just a very short, and perhaps simple demonstration of how to randomly display a background image from a CSS sprite using only jQuery and CSS background positions. Great if you have a changing banner on your website. Firstly I will make this into a plugin with only one variable you will need to change depending on the amount of images in your sprite, this is in the var $imageNumber. $.fn.randomImage = function (){ var $imageNumber = 8, // Set the amount of images in the Sprite $height = $('> div', this).innerHeight(), $random_num = Math.random() * $imageNumber - 1, $multiple = Math.round($random_num), $random = $height * $multiple jQuery('.image').css( {'background-position' : '0px -' + $random + 'px', 'display' : 'block' } )}; The only necessities you will need in your html is a div with a class of image inside your selectable div, which you select with the following: jQuery('#image-container').randomImage(); Your CSS will have to define the height of the div.image which in turn should equal the height of the individual image in your sprite.

B&Q 15% Off

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:11:54 -0800

I don't normally do this, but for 5 days I am giving you 15% off everything instore with this voucher. Simply print it off and take it with you between the 20th and 25th August 2009. Simply visit this link enter your name and email address and print your voucher. You can also let your friends know by sending out this url http://cmsurl.com/N. Click here to download your voucher Happy shopping at B and Q.

Inquisitor and Safari Latest Release

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:01:01 -0800

Recently Safari released an update to their fastest web browser yet, with Safari 4.0.3, bringing stability and security fixes, a good thing, unfortunately this update breaks Inquisitor, a far more advanced search interface for Safari and other browsers, fortunately I have a temporary fix. Inquisitor which is available for Safari, Firefox, IE7 and even iPhone was designed and built by David Watanabe, and was recently purchased by Yahoo!, it provides search suggestion, coupled with intelligent features such as telling the user when the key word was last searched, and whether you had already visited the page previously. Unfortunately when Apple released the latest version of their browser, they enabled the Google autosuggest by default with no way of disabling the in my opinion inferior search engine, (its a personal thing)! In any case what you get is the search results for Google covering Inquisitors results, (Inquisitor can use Google as a search engine too, as well as Yahoo!). With some searching around for a solution whilst I am sure David and Yahoo! work to build a fix, I came across Glims, which offer a very similar tool, in fact some of the styling is very much similar. What Glims also offer however is some more tools to tweak Safari 4, (their latest release will be available after this coming weekend 15th August, you can get a working version now from MacHangout). Install Glims, but if your like me and prefer the user interface of Inquisitor you will want to turn off some features. Head to Safari Preference pane and select Glims. General Leave "Enable Search Suggestion plugin" checked, uncheck everything else. Search Suggestions Uncheck everything And that should be all you need to do to get Inquisitor back working. The only issue now is that it still says Google in the search bar instead of inquisitor. But never mind. Lets hope David and Yahoo! can find a resolution soon. Any issues, please use the comments.

iSkip Expanse Template Tutorial

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:07:39 -0800

With iSkip, another jQuery plugin from Ian Tearle, being released for FREE today, here is a nice little tutorial on how to get it to work within your Expanse templates. Obviously the first thing to do is to add jQuery and the iskip.js files to your javascript folder, and reference it within your header.tpl.html file. Once done you will probably need to head to your gallery.tpl.html file, unless of course you are adding the iSkip to another page. Start by adding a small piece of script within the content loop of your page. $(function() {# { #} var arr = [ {loop:image_set} '{thumbnail}'{set:_not_last},{/set} {/loop}]; $("#mousemove").iskip({#{images:arr, method:'mousemove', 'cycle':3}#}); {# } #}); For the example, and for my purposes I am using the image set (additional images) of the page to display the images. Note the use of using special characters within the template. Next you will need to add the Key image for the set in your image_set loop, this will give the initial image that loads, allowing the javascript to load the other images in the set hidden in the background. {loop:image_set} <div id="image_set"> {set:_first}<img src="{thumbnail}" id="mousemove" />{/set} </div> {/loop} Now iSkip will work seamlessly inside your templates. There will be an additional tutorial once the jQuery iSkip project allows links on indiviual images.

Geeks Briefs

Thu, 07 May 2009 08:57:39 -0800

I thought I would blog on a new series of Podcasts I have subscribed to recently, called GeekBrief.tv. Whilst it is not a new show, its new to me, so bare with me. Presented by Cali Lewis, who recently has been taking part in the best job in the world competition, which is a marketing PR stunt to raise awareness for Queensland tourism. Cali unfortunately was not successful in the competition, however the good news being is that she will be back producing the GeekBreif.tv. Whilst Cali could be taken as a little too excited and over the top to some British viewers, the news and reviews she brings to the internet world is surprisingly good if you are into knowing what's hot off the shelf in the techno world. It is truly for 'Geeks', and I am not ashamed of admitting that I watch it. So if you want to know what the next big gadget is going to be, head on over to GeekBrief.tv.

Society Today

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:49:41 -0800

Consider this if you will, the following scenario's are a reflection of what would have happened in 1959 and in today's society and social culture (2009). Scenario 1 Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack. 1958 Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack. 2009 School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers. Scenario 2 Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school. 1958 Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies. 2009 Police called they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged them with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it. Scenario 3 Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students. 1958 Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again. 2009 Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADHD. The school gets extra money from the state because Jeffrey has a disability. Scenario 4 Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt. 1958 Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman. 2009 Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist. Scenario 5 Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school. 1958 Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock. 2009 The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons. Scenario 6 Abhirami fails high school English. 1958 Abhirami goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college. 2009 Abhirami's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Abhirami's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Abhirami is given his diploma anyway but ends up flipping burgers for a living because he cannot speak English. Scenario 7 Johnny takes apart leftover fireworks from the Guy Fawkes night, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed. 1958 Ants die. 2009 Police, Homeland Security and the MI5 are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The Police investigates his parents and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again. Scenario 8 Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him. 1958 In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing. 2009 Mary is accused of being a sexual pedophile and loses her job. She faces 3 years in Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy. What a sad state of affairs we live in today. Is it any wonder why our society is falling apart, why we have so much hatred for the parliament, why our children are so detached from family life, and possibly why there are so many broken families today. I hope that our voice can be heard to turn around this messed up society, and I pray for all the victims falsely accused and misunderstood in their actions. I would appreciate your own comments, and please Digg.

How Time Flies By

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:09:13 -0800

I have just got back from a week in the Devon countryside, a short trip from Suffolk navigating through traffic, which probably added about two hours to the journey time of four or five hours. I spent a week away for my first anniversary to my lovely wife Rachael. The weather was actually delightful, a vast contrast from our wedding day, it was actually a pleasant warm day this year, unlike the although pleasant, very cold day we had for our wedding. We navigated hills and fields walking as much as we could, visiting castles and stately homes in the area, photos of which I shall share soon. Rachael was treated to flowers delivered to our holiday cottage, and we had an awesome time away from the busyness of home. But my main reason for writing to my blog today was to share a link to another website, whilst driving the 200 odd miles to Devon, my mind drifted and I thought back to how I got into web design in the first place, and recalled a web site I have not visited in some time. This website was my first inspiration when I first took a look at the art of designing websites, a lot has changed since I last took a look, but its delightful seeing how similar the styles of both my own and Gordon's sites are similar. I have to admit that my own site has taken on many forms in the last year before settling to where it is today, but it's nice to see that tastes dont change, they improve, and progress. I dont think it was a mistake that my career has ended in web design, from the days of drawing inspiration from Gordon MacKay and Cameron Moll and their blogs. How true it is for relationships, I knew from the first time I met Rachael that we were meant to be together, and a year on into our marriage I am all the more in love with her, our tastes have grown and progressed, but essentially we are the same people we fell in love with. However much time flies by you, try to keep your passion, improve on the things you fall short on, and progress into the next stages of development whenever you can.

Reinvigorate comes to MT

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:19:20 -0800

I have been biting my lip for six months now and just cannot keep quiet any longer with such exciting news for me, my clients, Media Temple users and anyone who wants great statistical analytics for their website. Reinvigorate measures your influence on the web in real-time. Gain up-to-the-minute insight into your audience, then adapt to meet their needs and watch your site grow. I have been using the Beta version for the last year, although I signed up for the service a long time ago. Sean over at Reinvigorate this week changed his home page introducing the nearing next stages of Reinvigorate and its emergence on Media Temple, at least at this time of writing I hope MT will be including the technology directly from the AccountCentre. The reason I have had to keep quiet? Media Temple asked me to. Following a couple of emails to MT, I got a hint that it was coming to the AccountCenter from the VP of Business Development, back in August 2008. No ETA yet but its coming to the AccountCenter. Reinvigorate has been aqcuired via the MT Ventures division, a rather secrative stealth arm to the powerful overly successful host that is Media Temple. Its definitely a great decision for MT. MT Ventures have also acquired Virb and I will be newtorking socially their for a while in the future. Virb is a super social network from the big boys at Neubix. Needless to say I will continue to be offering Reinvigorate statistics to all my customers, even easier for me with management through my own control panel.

Redesign Vs Realign

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:18:01 -0800

I always thought with my own website that I would practice what I preached, using the knowledge that I gain from my inspirational piers and fellow designers. But that is simply not the case as I found out at the weekend. After a brief discussion how we both knew our mutual friend, the conversation was started as to what my carreer was, when I announced that I was a web designer the conversation heated up as the friend of a friend was currently looking for such a person or company. Quickly I put on my work hat and got to the basics of why she needed such help with her own business web site. "We have companies call up telling us our site could be better", upon asking why do you think that is the response was somewhat surprising. Her customers actually like the site, and use it very well, and she didnt really see the need to redesign the whole site if that was the case, regardless of how she thought it looked. 'Redesign versus realign' I said confidently, recalling in my mind an excellent piece by Cameron Moll over at ALA. My thoughts on the article were if something works, dont fix it by overhauling it, realign the parts that dont work. I preached my case for some time, but it was not until tonight that my thoughts changed. That was until I opened up Safari and typed in the discussed web site URL. Upon loading the one thought that went through my mind was OSCommerce, I scrolled to the bottom of the page, and sure enough, there was the link. In order to realign something, the design has to be right in the first place. Whilst I dont think anyone can get the design 100% perfect first time, redesign has to come at some point. Just maybe not so often as my own site, which seems to be every couple of months.