Thoughts of Chairman Mo

Joomla or Mambo Jambo

2006-02-26T12:01:00.000Z

This is just a brief diary, thoughts and tips from setting up my first website using Joomla, the Open Source content management system.
What to do first - try to find an environment in which to try things out. I opted for a free 30 day trial hosting with .... where the Joomla, apache, php and mysql were all set up. No problems with them so far.
How to get started understanding what to do. I read the recommended Ben's tutorial at churchmissions as my starting point. That led to me downloading PSPad.
etc.
Couldn't find how to make my own template. Realised that by copying the contents of templates/madeyourweb (a default provided by the hosting company but also on the joomla site) to a new directory templates/maurice and using the template chooser, then I could use maurice as my template. Bit confusing in the site templates manager, where the name remained the same. Until I discovered that I could change those details at the top of the templatedetails.xml file (author, name, url etc.).
Also changed one of the image files to see the effect. No obvious change in appearance of site, until I changed index.php at lines 26 and 27 to modify the location of the template and css files from /templates/madeyourweb to /templates/maurice. The learning curve continues.

Web Development for the over-50's

2005-05-04T16:34:00.000+01:00

The Web is only for the bright young things in their designer anoraks.
Or so you might think from reading job ads.
Can it really be that if you're over 40 (or, heaven forbid, really stretching it on the downslope from 50) then somehow the technical challenges of using a simple language like php and a few bits of SQL are beyond you. You who used to master the toe-curling delights of Fortran and COBOL? Or Assembler? Who used to test systems to destruction before daring to release them.

What is it that they're afraid of?
Might it just be that 30 years experience might reveal their lack of basic computing knowledge and common sense?
Well, I can't answer for them, but I can answer for me.
You don't frighten me in the least with your years of experience; I've got plenty of my own and as Big Al Sugar (or do I have to call him Big Sir Al - no, not Big Sur Al, he's a completely different kettle of water) says in the Apprentice - I can't stand bullshitters.
So if you're over 50 and not a bs'er, then feel free to email me with your details.
I can't guarantee instant (or any!) work for you, but I am picking up contracts for web development and can't always find the right type of people to work with. Perhaps if I had a guaranteed team of people that I could rely on willing to work on a freelance web development basis, then I'd push a bit harder for more work.

The old geezer's just left the building but his website's still surviving
at www.mca-ssociates.co.uk

detecting proxy settings

2005-04-05T22:33:00.000+01:00

Have you been driven to despair by the "detecting proxy settings" message appearing in the status bar of internet explorer when using windows XP and hanging around for about 30 seconds while you fume? I have. And I'm delighted to share the secret of getting rid of it with anyone who has tried and failed to cure it.
Start up IE and from the Tools Internet Options menu option, choose the connections tab. Click on the "Lan settings" button at the bottom of the window and make sure none of the boxes are ticked. I'm not claiming to know exactly why this works, but it did for me - so hopefully it will for you.
Just in case you're wondering what "proxy settings" are in the first place - it refers to when the browser tries to save time by retrieving previously retrieved files from an intermediate location , the proxy server, rather than from the original host website. Unless you know differently.

And on a completely different tack. Does anyone know any major supermarkets in the UK that do any wholemeal cakes or scones that they would recommend?

Voice dictation - Viavoice Excel - any help appreciated

2005-01-12T14:59:00.000Z

I'm using ViaVoice for Windows Pro USB vn 9 with Windows XP and it's Ok most of the time if I'm dictating from written notes. Now that I've got a whole stream of assignment scores to input for some of my students, I've tried dictating them directly into Excel but it's pretty damn frustrating. Seems to stick on certain cells and refuses to input the values that it's clearly recognised. Then in the middle of string of identical numbers (4's actually) it decides one of them's going to be text.
So after taking twice the time it would have taken me to enter them by keyboard, I do a bit of googling to see if there's help anywhere at hand. Various bits of advice later, I'm dictating to Speakpad with dictated commas between numbers - e.g. 4 comma 4 comma 3 comma ...
This seems a bit crazy to me. I import the comma delimited file into Excel and it does what it says on the tin - but what a waste of time. Viavoice clearly recognises the numbers (despite my Irish accent!) that I'm saying. Why on earth can it not process then correctly into adjacent cells in Excel.
If you've already cracked this one, get in touch. I've still got quite a few more marks to input!