LessFussDesign blog

Archive for October, 2009

25 Oct 2009

National Novel Writing Month

Seeing as I can barely muster more than two or three blog posts a month, it seems bonkers that I’ve signed up to ’30 days and nights of literary abandon’ with National Novel Writing Month [external link], in which the improbable target is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words during November. Continue reading »

3 comments
23 Oct 2009

My workstation setup

This morning I followed a Twitter link to a new website called Workstation Setups [external link] – a place where web/techie folks can show off their kick-ass office cribs. Because I already had a photo of my workspace to prove to a friend that I really did work on an ironing board, I sent mine in. Here’s the photo:

My home office

I know what you’re thinking. ‘How can he turn out the sites he does working on that?’. That, or you’re thinking ‘Now this explains a lot…’

The truth is the iBook is starting to crumble a bit. Everything on iPlayer is like a Ray Harryhausen stop motion film, Photoshop takes 10 minutes to start up, and when it’s running I can’t have more than two palettes open at once without completely covering up what I’m working on.

But the ironing board… well I quite like it. It’s adjustable. The whole thing’s ready made mouse mat. And right now, with most of the downstairs being renovated & redecorated – and simply no space in the house for the luxury of a desk – it’s the best I can do.

As for workstationsetups.com, I very much doubt they’ll add this to their showcase. But you never know. Maybe they’ll take pity on me. Maybe there’s a West Coast Office Furniture out there where they’ll send my ironing board to be pimped. Or maybe not.

Still, the fireplaces is coming on though, right?

—-

Update, 23 October: They published it straightaway [external link], and I got this from the site owner:

Of course that I will include it ! In fact, I already posted it before I replied to your email :) . WorkstationSetups.com is not just about the sickest workstations. It’s about ALL workstation setups.
Richard, workstationsetups.com

So I’m happy to be proved wrong. Though I think he might have meant slickest workstations…

1 comment
21 Oct 2009

PHP mail() & Fasthosts

After three days, 14 WordPress contact form plugins and a lengthy support email dialogue, here’s a post on what you can do – other than repeatedly punching a wall  – if you want to use WordPress with a simple contact form on a Fasthosts server (or any other provider with strict mail server settings). Continue reading »

13 comments
08 Oct 2009

HTML housework: get proper closure

This might seem obvious to anyone who regularly writes HTML, but it’s really helpful if you comment your source code to explain which elements you’re closing. If you’re debugging someone else’s source code (or your own code you wrote some time ago), there’s nothing worse than coming across this:

<p>What follows will really make you scratch your head:</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

By commenting which element you’re closing as you write it, it’ll be far easier to work out later on exactly what’s being closed off – and therefore easier to work out which is the offending element for any problem you’ve got. By closing and commenting everything as you write it, there’s also less chance you’ll miss closing something off, and the world of pain that brings with it.

So, commented, the above would look like this:

<p>What follows may make you scratch your head less:</p>
</div> <!-- end: div.article -->
</div> <!-- end: div#content -->
</div> <!-- end: div#main -->
</div> <!-- end: div#wrapper2 -->
</div> <!-- end: div#wrapper1 -->
</body>
</html>

There you have it. Next time you’re in the zone and dropping divs in like there’s no tomorrow, spare a second to comment them as you close them off. Quick and simple, and you could save some poor dude a lot of hassle when he/she comes to look at your code in a few years.

Of course, the tag soup above is to illustrate a point. I’d never write such bloated HTML. *Cough*.

3 comments