Author: sven

Going Solo, Leeds, UK

Good news. Going Solo – the “one-day educational conference for freelancers and small business owners” is open for registration. First 25 registrations get the special early-bird discount and pay just £150 (which by all accounts is going fast…).

I’ve been freelancing for about a year now, and running a small business for over six months. It’s moving fast, and I’m enjoying learning a great deal from first-hand experience and others’ stories. Going Solo looks like a great opportunity to get first-hand feedback from like-minded people. I’m hoping to get a lot from this event.

Yet Another Random Tip

Here’s another random tip from the dark recesses of my warped explorations:

You know how pretty much every DVD out there has some annoying “copying is bad mkay” video where the teenage girl is downloading some film stupidly fast? Criminals always have the best Internet connections… anyway, a lot of them have a list of countries at the start. Looking for United Kingdom? Well, it’s on page four of four, at the end.

The point of my rant is that if you choose some weird random country (Belgium seems to work), quite often it’ll skip the copying warning, thus saving you those precious thirty seconds of your life you’d otherwise not be able to fast-forward through.

Clearly Belgians don’t copy stuff then.

BTW, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a very funny movie 🙂

Language

Apart from anything else, this is the first time I’ve seen the BBC News site quote an expletive directly. In previous circumstances (usually articles about swearing on live broadcasts) they’ve always seemed to dodge the exact wording of expletives.

More Tips

In a recent reader survey* the most popular articles on this blog are the ones which help with day-to-day technical problems. Here’s a rundown of a few more handy tips while they sit on the ol’ noggin:

  • Many programs in Windows (Microsoft very much included) share consistent keyboard shortcut. A recent personal disovery is that Ctrl+Backspace can often be used to delete an entire word.
  • Google Translate is ace. It’s really come far and I now rate it above Babelfish. With more languages than ever before, and with dictionary, text and website translations it really is a must-have for people who have reason to search foreign sites. For instance, it is with Google Translate that I found that the Dutch for cattle grid is wildrooster. And the world is a better place now I know that.
  • Renaming a file? Click it and press F2.
  • Deleting a file and want to bypass the Recycle Bin? Hold down Shift and press Delete.
  • Browsing a website? To open a link in a new window hold down Shift when you click it. To open in a new tab, hold down Ctrl.
  • To rapidly lock a computer, press Windows key +L.
  • Onions release a chemical that reacts and turns to a mild sulphuric acid in the eyes (hence the stinging). To counter this, peel the onion underwater or keep your onions in the fridge.
  • While Alt+TAB lets you go forwards through your list of open programs, Alt+SHIFT+Tab lets you go backwards. It’s all a bit cack-handed, but if like me you have loads of programs open it can be very useful at times.
  • Alt+D in most web browsers selects the address bar so you can start typing a new web address.
  • Lots of programs let you drag and drop things. For instance, in most web browsers you can select text then drag it to another window; to a textbox or to something like the address bar. You can also drag images (e.g. to the desktop or a local folder) and website links (to your Favourites folder; the address bar or the Home icon to set a new home page). Try it and see.
  • In a web browser, the backspace button can normally be used to go Back a page (unless you’re in a textbox at the time). If that fails, try Alt + Left Arrow.

Okay, that’ll do for now.

* ie. Somebody left a comment.

Imploding Wikipedia

The Isle of Wight article on Wikipedia is currently citing the BBC quiz show QI as the source for its ongoing “Is the IoW larger than Rutland at low tide?” debate, leading one contributor to note the following:

I also believe that QI has on occasions relied on facts taken from Wikipedia, which would mean that if we were to accept these as authoritative, then it would lead to a cyclical series of refences which would eventually cause the city of New York to explode in a ball of flame. [citation needed] —Neil (talk) 11:17, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

If nothing else, I love the citation needed comment at the end… lovely touch 🙂

Citation Needed

Image: XKCD

For what it’s worth, I’ve also been told Bristol is technically a county in its own right, and is smaller than both Rutland and the Isle of Wight. Who do we believe nowadays?

Going Solo Leeds

After a successful Going Solo conference in Lausanne, Switzerland this month, organiser Stephanie Booth is preparing to hold a second event in Leeds, UK later this year.

Going Solo is a one-day event for “the little people” – freelancers and small business owners, and features a series of talks from experienced speakers on a whole variety of topics: finance, organisation, tax, etc. – all very relevant stuff for those of us who’ve decided to run a business.

Unfortunately I couldn’t justify the costs of travelling to Switzerland for a one-day conference, so wasn’t able to go despite there being a great line-up. However, with the announcement of a follow-up in Leeds on September 12, 2008 I’m already making arrangements. It should be an interesting and inspiring day.

With the Leeds event having the same speakers and agendas, I’m guessing that Stephanie is responding to people like myself who’ve found the cost too high, or the dates inconvenient. Maybe there should be a tour bus? 😉

HTTP Good Practise

Here’s one for the web perfectionists out there. The usual line with HTTP and web browsing is that requests are achieved through the GET verb, and data modifications are through POST.

All well and good, but how do you handle text links that trigger a data modification? For instance, a page might have a list of items in a table, with “Edit – Delete” as associated actions. Edit is simple, it might go to edit?id=…, but Delete is more tricky. Assuming that no interstital “Are you sure” page is necessary, how can you trigger a POST from that Delete link?

My current way of tackling this is to include a form at the base of the page, and use some Javascript to submit that form. For instance

<a href="javascript:deleteItem(123)">Delete</a>
<form action="" method="post" name="jsPost">
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="item" value="">
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
function deleteItem(id) {
document.forms['jsPost'].action.value="delete";
document.forms['jsPost'].item.value=id;
document.forms['jsPost'].submit();
}
</script>

This works fine and while the HTTP behaviour is roughly correct (okay, so in a perfect world I’d use the DELETE verb….) the code does not work for people not using Javascript.

Any ideas for a better, but clean solution?

Vodafone’s Mobile Internet

Just got a text from Big Red:

“Good news! Your monthly data allowance is now unlimited so u can use mobile internet & email every day. Fair use applies. More at vodafone.co.uk/mobileinternet”

…and at vodafone.co.uk/mobileinternet you’ll see that’s Vodafone’s idea of unlimited is “subject to a fair use limit of 500mb per month”

500Mb is not the same as unlimited.

Reminds me of the reputed Henry Ford quote: “You can have any color as long as it’s black”.

I’m also amused by “internet & email”. Email is via the internet, so it’s a bit of a pointless confirmation. Unfortunately a lot of people equate internet to web browsing. I do hope Vodafone don’t restrict this 500Mb package to web browsing + email only. Can anybody confirm?

The Price of a Postcode

Called Wightlink today to investigate books of tickets. I’d heard that for Island residents, 5 return car ferry tickets could be had for around £200.

WIghtlink are one of two ferry companies who operate car ferries from the Isle of Wight to the rest of civilization, so if you want a car on or off The Island, it’s these guys or Red Funnel.

Me: How much is a book of 5 return tickets? I live on the Island.

Operator: That’s £213.50.

Me: Cool. How do I get them?

Operator: You’ll need to go to a terminal and show them your driving license with an Island address on it.

My driving license has a mainland address (we rent on short-term leases, so I’ve always left the address as my parents’ house since they’re not going far).

Me: I have lots of utility bills.

Operator: That’s no good. They only accept driving licenses.

Now at this point, imagine me with a bit of disappointment. I can vaguely understand why they insist on an Island registered license, since the company has a long-standing habit of charging Islanders less to go to the mainland than vice versa – debate amongst yourselves the pros and cons of this – so I ask the inevitable:

Me: Okay, how much will it be to get the same set of tickets if I have a mainland driving license?

Operator: £390

Me: *Stunned*

The price of the tickets, fuel surcharges, the oddly strict driving license address rule, everything else pales into insignificance when you realise just how vastly different Wightlink treat Islanders and mainlanders.

Taskbar disappears?

If you ever have a crash that takes out the taskbar on Windows (normally, any time explorer crashes or you have to kill the process), in theory it should reload automatically.

If this doesn’t happen get the Task Manager up (in XP it’s normally Ctrl+Alt+Del and click Task Manager). Click the File menu, then New Task (Run). Type explorer and hit OK.

In a few seconds your taskbar will be restored.