Tim Bennett's Blog

Online Short Stories

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 10.12.2007

I've been writing some short stories recently and decided to make a site to publish them online; it's just for fun, not a money-making venture. I'm still editing the site but I've published it now so the search engines can start indexing it. the site includes a blog, a newsletter and some writing tools.

Read online short stories at www.ficticity.com.

. . .

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Cross-Browser Image Opacity Changing Function

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 11.07.2007

This bit of code will let you change the opacity of an image using JavaScript; unlike most scripts it works on Safari and Opera as well as IE and Firefox. Simple send the id of the image and a value between 0 and 100 to change the opacity (0 being invisible and 100 fully visible).

function changeopacity( imageobject, opacity ) {


var object = imageobject.style;
    object.opacity = ( opacity / 100 );
    object.MozOpacity = ( opacity / 100 );
   &nbs . . .

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Web Design Inspiration: A Site A Day

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 08.06.2007

I've launched a new site through my web design company called A Site A Day; the site does exactly that! It gives web designers a nice-looking website every single day of the year. It should help cure the dreaded designer's block.

Web Design Inspiration - asiteaday.org

Stay up-to-date by subscribing to the RSS feed.

Enjoy!
. . .

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Free RSS Reader for OS X

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 08.06.2007

Most RSS readers for Mac will cost you; there's a free RSS reader in Thunderbird but I use Apple's Mail so I'd rather run an application that's just for RSS.

I managed to find (it was suprisingly hard) a free RSS reader for OS X. It's called Vienna and you can download it from here:

Download Vienna

It's a great little application. It has a simple interface, Atom support and folder groups and smart folders make it easy to manage all your feeds.
. . .

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Free Text Editor For Linux

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 04.06.2007

I always think the best web page development environment is one that strikes a medium between being a basic text editor and a fully functional IDE. A text editor is too basic for me whereas a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver is just overpriced and irritating. What I want is a text editor with syntax highlighting, the ability to edit files via FTP and some good search functionailty.

Enter Bluefish.

Bluefish is a free text editor for Linux that does just that. You can download it from here: http://www.ic . . .

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Spam Prevention Techniques

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 30.05.2007

On my various websites I get hundreds of Spam messages every day; it gets very annoying! I've tried several methods and in this post I will outline three. Soemtimes they works, sometimes they don't. Some are more effective than others.

1. Captchas. Captchas are a random strings of text and numbers that a user must enter to be classed as non-spam. The letters and numbers are displayed as an image and usually over a pattern and are distorted to prevent bots from easily reading them.

Pros: Skewed text against noisy background . . .

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Fixing the 3 Pixel Padding Bug in IE

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 29.05.2007

There are lots of fixes and hacks out there to stop the famous IE three pixel padding bug; what happens is when you have a floated div IE adds extra padding to the div next to it. It's very annoying when you're trying to get a layout spot on.

I've tried many fixes ranging from setting the float div to display: inline; (which didn't work) and trying to browser sniff to serving a different style sheet to IE browser (which I resent doing).

I found this trick that worked perfectly however. If you use a [Read More]

Free Mind Mapping Software For Mac

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 20.05.2007

If you want to brain storm ideas on your Mac then mind-maps are a great idea.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map. I use them to put ideas for stories together; like with many things nowadays it's better to do it on a computer. I found this free piece of software that let's you create mind maps on your Mac.

Download FreeMind for free here
. . .

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Installing Ubuntu Over Kubuntu

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 19.05.2007

If you're running Kubuntu and decide you want to change to Ubuntu (i.e. use the Gnome desktop rather than KDE (which is better in my opinion)) all you need to do is to go to the shell and enter:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

You will now have to wait some time for all the Gnome apps to download and them some time for Kubuntu to get everything set up. Once that's done though all you need to do is log out and then log in and choose Gnome as the session type.

You'll now have Gnome and KDE installed which means you'll have two lots of applicatio . . .

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Novel Writing Software for Mac

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 18.05.2007

If you want to write novels and short stories on your Mac I suggest you purchase a copy of CopyWrite for OS X.

I'd always been frustrated at how poorly designed these writing tools typically are; CopyWrite is different though.

CopyWrite doesn't bother offering you loads of useless formatting tools. Rather, it gives you what you need to manage a writing project properly. It's so easy-to-use and well designed that after a new minutes you feel like you know the software inside out. All sav . . .

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Get Smoother Anti-Aliasing on Ubuntu

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 17.05.2007

Even if you tweak the font settings in Ubuntu some text still looks a little jaggy compared to OS X. You can make your fonts smoother though like this:

Go to your home directory and open up the file .fonts.conf (it's a hidden file; if you can't see it choose View < Show Hidden Files in Nautilus). Replace the current contents with:

. . .

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Install Windows Fonts on Ubuntu

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 16.05.2007

Have you ever wanted to run Verdana, Trebuchet MS, etc on Linux - you can and it's very easy to do. Simple enter the following into a shell window:

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

Log out and back in again or restart and the fonts will be installed.

The following fonts are installed:

Andale Mono

Arial Black

Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)

Comic Sans MS (Bold)

Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)

Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)

Impact

Time . . .

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How To Setup Synergy For OS X And Ubuntu

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 10.05.2007

Synergy is a program that lets you share your mouse and keyboard over a network. So, if you have two or more monitors and more than one computer you only need one mouse and keyboard. Here's how I got Synergy running with Ubuntu and OS X.

Note: Synergy is also available for Windows - this how to does not cover Windows although Synergy works pretty much the same (in fact, it's easier on Windows as there is a GUI to it)

Firstly, download Synergy for Linux - you can do this with the command sudo apt-get install synergy in the shell. For Mac download

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How To Edit Your Hosts File On OS X

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 17.04.2007

Add a new host record on OS X is not quote a straight forward as it is on Windows and Linux (though it is still very easy). You need to do this:

Open up Finder

Click on Applications

Go to Utilities

Open the Netinfo Manager application

Choose Machines

Click localhost (or any other host record)

Click the padlock and enter your admin password

Click duplicate and click the Duplicate button

Double click the IP address in the right column and enter your new host IP

Double click the . . .

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Photoshop Save To Web Images Too Light?

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 17.04.2007

Have you ever used the Save for Web option in Photoshop and found your image looks much lighter on the export than on the canvas? It happened to me when I switched from CS on XP to CS 2 on OS X.

The problem is that your canvas is using one colour profile (sRGB is best for web by the way) and exporting using another. If you're working on web here's how you fix it:

Choose File > Save for Web and then click the arrow located to the top right of the canvas. Choose Use Document Color Profile - this will ensure the canvas and the exported ima . . .

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Beware of Google and Apache URL Rewriting

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 12.04.2007

I recently launched a site that had a crazy amount of URL rewriting. It involved a huge database and a huge amount of filter options. I was in my hoster's control panel (which hosts around ten sites) and I noticed by bandwidth had gone through the roof! So much so that at its current rate I was due to run out very soon. I checked my Analytics stats and there was nothing untoward. I then checked Webalizer and the in question was using gig upon gig a day (Since Analytics requires JavaScript it would suggest the bandwidth hogger was a bot or a user with JS disabled)! I did a site: query . . .

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V2 is Launched

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 01.04.2007

v2 of Dr Quincy is lauched with a must plainer, cleaner, simple pure CSS tableless deisgn. A lot of the features have been removed to drive more attention to the useful features of the site.
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Free Computing Directory

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 21.02.2007

Under my company Texelate I've lauched a free computing directory for all sites computer-related. Using a site type, category and tagging system the directory is very easy to use and is free. Add your site now!

Computing Directory

. . .

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Free FTP Browser for Mac

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 05.12.2006

If you need a free (S)FTP browser for Mac look no further than Cyberduck.

Cyberduck is free and hails from China and offers "easy to use interface, integration with external editors and support for many Mac OS X system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, the Keychain and AppleScript".

Cyberduck is well-designed and very easy to use. You can bookmark all your often-used FTP accounts for quick connection and providing you're in the right directory uploading is a simple drag and drop procedure (there's a dashboard widget too!)

It's also available in a . . .

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Can You Force a Refresh on Safari?

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 05.12.2006

I love Safari - I think it's the best browser to use if you have a Mac . . . unless you're a web developer. It's light, clean and performs well but there is a BIG problem with it if you're trying to use it to test a website.

Whether you're using a proxy server or not Safari has a nasty habit of caching web pages (unless you use the appropriate headers which is not always what you want to do). All browsers do this but with browsers such as IE and Firefox you can do a force-refresh - a refresh that tells the browsers and the proxy server to reload the page. As silly as it sound . . .

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Borat Film Review

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 04.11.2006

My friend and I went to see the Borat film last night and it is hilarious! There are too many hilarious moments to mention but suffice to say I was not disappointed and it was well worth seeing.

The cinema was full and the audience were laughing from start to finish. There is no shortage of cringowrthy moments either; where does Cohan get the gaul to do what he does?

The jibes at Kazakstan being backward are very over-the-top; you'd have to be a moron to believe them - I don't know what all the fuss was about.

With Hollywood still churning out the usual Jack Black . . .

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Add Your Company Recipe to Pink Toffee

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 03.11.2006

The new site Pink Toffee offers free listings for multimedia companies; this onehas a difference though - it uses a quirky cooking theme so you add your company, or recipe, to their database so potential clients can search you out. The details you provide are ingredients; it's a nice original approch to an otherwise unoriginal concept. Let's hope this unique angle proves successful for the Pink Toffee team.

I've added Texelate - [Read More]

Photoshop Makes the Real Magainze Models

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 03.11.2006

I found this link that details the steps a Photoshop artist would typically go through to retouch a model photo so it looks good enough to go on a magazine cover. The difference is staggering and it's all the more impressive so if you're a Photoshop artist.

To see the before and after follow this link and then click on the image (which launches a Flash movie).

It's a fairly high-level description but it's interesting all the same.
. . .

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Free Loading Data GIFs

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 03.11.2006

I found this website via Google that let's you create GIFs that are useful to display while loading data through AJAX. It's a great free service that let's you specify the colour you want and the animation type you want and then let's you download the image - there are plenty of indicators to choose from ranging from Wheels to Flowers.

The site is call Ajaxload and can be found here.

Thanks to the webmasters at Ajaxload!
. . .

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Police Squad Out On DVD This Monday

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 03.11.2006

Police Squad is out on DVD on Monday 6 November 2006; this cult classic has been a long time coming to DVD but it's going to be worth the wait. No comedy crams in more gags than Police Sqaud - the comedy that features Leslie Nielsen and Alan North playing a detective and his captain battling criminals in a fictional city. By the makers of and akin to Airplane! and Top Secret this DVD is well worth the asking price. The DVD features all six episodes:

1. A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise)
2 . . .

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Convert Anything To PDF For Free

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 27.10.2006

There are still some people that don't know about this fantastic free tool that will convert any printable document to PDF. The program, PrimoPDF, works as a printer driver and uses the data sent to the printer to create a PDF. This means the PDF generation is application-independent.

Download PrimoPDF for free here.
. . .

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The Podfather: Three More Ricky Gervais Podcasts

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 27.10.2006

I can't believe I've missed this and I don't know how long ago it was annouced but Ricky Gervais and company are releasing three more special podcasts entitled Parts I, II and III of the Podfather. The shows will be available on the following dates from The Guardian website: 31 October, 23 November, 25 December. Theses details were announced on Ricky's offical website. He doesn't give much away save for the fact they will be availble for free from The Guardian . . .

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How PC Users Can Test Websites on Safari

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 25.10.2006

If you don't have access to a Mac but want to know what your web page looks like on the Apple Safari browser look no further than this fantastic free online tool, BrowsrCamp.

Simply specify a webpage URL and page width and Browsr Camp will generate an image that shows you how your page would render in Safari. It's as simple as that.

Browsr Camp also offer a paid service entitled Mac OS X Livetest that "gives you the possibility to test your websites by taking full control of a Mac OS X system. You only need t . . .

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My New Portfolio Site is Launched

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 25.10.2006

Well, it's been a long time coming but my portfolio site is finally launched.

The Leeds Web / Multimedia Design Studio is called Texelate (the name is based on the computer graphics term, texel) and features details of the services I offer and a selection of my recent work. I decided that it was too confusing to incorporate the commissions work on the Dr Quincy site so I've taken most of the . . .

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One-Off Episode of The Royle Family

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 23.10.2006

Sunday 29 October sees a one-off return of the classic BBC sitcom, The Royle Family. The sitcom, which features working-class Manchester family the Royles, was well-known for its method acting and realism rather the standard sitcom format.

The episode, entitled Queen of Sheba, is an hour long, starts at 9.00PM and sees Jim Royle toying with the idea of purchasing a Plasma HDTV.
. . .

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Help With Your Portfolio

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 17.10.2006

I decided it was a good idea to create a portfolio site that is seperate from the main Dr Quincy site. The portfolio (should be live by tomorrow night) was fun to make and I learnt a few things along the way. On reflection there are a few tips I thought I could share with anyone in the same boat.

You can read the article, Online Portfolio Tips, here.

The article suggests six ways in which you can make your online portfolio better.
. . .

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Flash Movie Text Not Appearing in Opera

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 17.10.2006

Have you ever exported a Flash movie only to find the text doesn't appear in Opera (although it works fine in Firefox and IE). Although I'm not sure what the cause is I do know of a fix: export your Flash movie to an earlier version of Flash.

Go to File > Publish Settings and choose an earlier version from the Version dropdown.
. . .

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Creating Infinite Sound Loops in Flash

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 12.10.2006

Can sounds in Flash loop forever?

No.

It's as simple as that; you just have to enter the highest loop quantity the Loop input box from the Sound panel will take, which is 65535.

It may not satisfy the purists out there but it's unlikely anyone will sit through 65535 loops of your music!
. . .

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Jumpy Flash Music Loops

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 12.10.2006

Here's a quick tip if you're doing some music loops in Flash and you find that there is a slight delay before the sound clip restarts. The problem is this for some reason MP3s don't loop very well in Flash whereas WAVs do. You may not want to use a WAV file due to the file size but the good news is you can have your cake and eat it.

Import a WAV version of the sound loop into your library and right-click it and choose Properties and change the compression to MP3. Then alter the Bitrate and Quality settings according to your quality / compression ratio preferences. Your sound . . .

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Fear on Four Downloads

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 12.10.2006

There was a fantastic Radio 4 series called Fear on Four that ran in the late 80s / early 90s; despite the fact all the shows were spooky thrillers they all had completely different settings ranging from the Napoleonic War to futuristic sci-fi. Although I didn't listen to the show when it was originally aired I became a fan when they were rerun on BBC7 on Sundays. I was so impressed with it I contacted the BBC to ask if there were any plans to release the show on CD - they replied saying no.

Yesterday I found a site that has all 48 episodes available for free download; such radi . . .

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How Bloggers Can Learn From Novelists

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 03.10.2006

As an aspiring novelist I've read a lot of books regarding novel-writing and memoirs on the craft of writing. It struck me the other day that bloggers could learn a lot from novelists despite being greatly different types of writing (in general). I've composed a list of five questions that a blogger should ask his or her self prior to publishing a blog entry. These points are all based on the advice many successful writers have recommended to me as a novel writer (through thier books).

1. Have you chosen the right title? There are no laws in place to stop two no . . .

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The Best Way to Learn Combustion 4

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 03.10.2006

If you've downloaded the Combustion 4 Trial from Autodesk you may be struggling to learn the application properly. The user guide that comes with the download acts more as a reference and the tutorials on the Autodesk site are short videos. So, there are no structured step-by-step tutorials that come with accompanying footage are there?

Actually, there are.

Autodesk have relase . . .

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Old Habits Die Hard

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 03.10.2006

It was like giving up a ten year long addiction - I finally set my default browser to Firefox. Since the first time I ran it I've never doubted Firefox was superior to Internet Explorer. It's just that since 1996 when I first got the Internet I started using IE out of lack of choice. It's shameful for any web developer to use IE but I just couldn't get out of the IE habit. Today, however, I finally did it!

If you're still using IE get Firefox now!
. . .

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September 2006 PageRank Update - who cares?

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 02.10.2006

If you haven't noticed already the PageRank readings in the Google toolbar are updating. Who cares? I know from the updates that are happening to the Dr Quincy site that it really doesn't make a blind bit of difference. Here's why:

Despite all the backlinking I've done over the past few months my home page is staying at PR3 (the most important page of the site according to Google) yet other pages that have next-to-no backlinks (like my terms and privacy pages) are showing PR4. Furthermore, a couple of pages that have NO backlinks are now showing a PR5!

If you want to . . .

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How to Get Your Tutorials to the Top of Google

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 28.09.2006

I thought I'd share this bit of information as it could to useful to tutorial writers. Obviously, you want as many organic hits to your tutorials as possible. With Google being the most popular search engine that's a good place to start.

Just through a bit of tutorial writing experience it's really easy to write a tutorial that gets to the top of Google in just a few days. Here's what you do:

Firstly, you need to make sure the tutorial you write is original. If you Google search some tutorials and there are hundreds of similar ones you need to rethink the subject mat . . .

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11GB of Free Textures

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 27.09.2006

dougie0047, a member at CGTalk has very kindly put together a huge, free library of textures for CG artists to use in their projects, commercial or otherwise. The library contains over 1000 images at a resolution of 3200 * 2400 and is available as a torrent. As for the type of textures dougie0047 says he "spent a few days walking around Berlin shooting here and there".

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Pixel2Life, Tutorialized and Good-Tutorials: the Difference

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 26.09.2006

I've submitted a lot of tutorials over the last three months - they're the primary way I get traffic to my website. I thought I'd share my views on the differences between what I regard as the three biggest players: Pixel2Life, Tutorialized, Good Tutorials.

Pixel2Life - Of the three sites Pixel2Life has the most comprehensive categories; as well as listing tutorials of the more popular programs and languages such as PHP and Photoshop it lists some lesser-known categories such as Fruity Loops and Autodesk Combustion. The more you submit to Pixel2Life the more yo . . .

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Converting VOB Files to AVI

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 25.09.2006

I'm currently trying to hone my Combustion / Premiere skills and needed some footage to work with. I thought I'd try my hand at editing / restoring some home movies that had been recently burnt to DVD. Despite the fact that DVDs are basically MPEG-2, the DVD makers have made it as hard as possible for us to edit them.

If you look at the files on a DVD you will notice one (or more) VOB files; these are the files that contain the audio and video but the bad news is most applications won't let you open them.

After much Googling I found a free application that does the job . . .

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Sites to Prevent Designer's Block

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 22.09.2006

Every web or graphic designer has at some point (most likely at too many points) stared at the screen waiting for the ideas and inspiration that will get their next project moving.

One of the easiest ways to cure or treat designer's block is to look at other people's work for inspiration. I've been in this situation recently and there were five sites in particualar that helped me back into the creative frame of mind. They are all collections of nice-looking websites; browse through them and quash your designer's block!

http: . . .

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How to Make a Rubbish Website

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 18.09.2006

Okay, so no one wants to make a rubbish website. Sometimes, though, lessons are best learnt on what not to do rather than on what to do - so please take it in the tonuge-in-cheek manner it was intended. The funniest thing about this is, I'm guilty of some of them myself.

Here it is from start to finish, How to Make a Rubbish Website in ten easy steps.

1. Choose a free hoster. Your route to a bad website begins with the hoster. Free hosters are a good way to start as they will offer you limited features and flood your site with . . .

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UHDV: Looking Beyond HD

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 13.09.2006

Japan have already demonstrated the next generation of HDTV with the advent of UHDV, or Ultra High Definition video. UHDV boasts 16 times more detail than 1080p HDTV with a screen size of 7680 x 4320. This resolution is so high it makes a mockery of the 2k and 4k resolutions commonly rendered to in cinema. UHDV doesn't just boats a good picture - it also sports a whopping 22.2 sound channels!

Don't get too excited though, it's going to be years before this even makes it past being a prototype. If it ever did make it to our homes the line between TV and reality would be a who . . .

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Columbo Season 4 on Region 2 DVD

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 08.09.2006

The cigar and dirty raincoat are trademarks of one of the world's most well-known fictional detectives, Lt. Columbo. The Columbo programme is renouned for its unique approach to crime. The identity of the murderer is disclosed to the viewer who then watches how Columbo, played by Peter Falk, goes about solving the crime. It's more about howheworksoutheydunnit rather than whodunnit.

Season 4 of this awarding-winning programme comes to Region 2 DVD this month; the DVD is due for release on Monday 18 September 2006 and features the episodes:

1. An Exercise In Fatalit . . .

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Extras Series 2 Starts Next Week

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 08.09.2006

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant return to BBC2 on Thursday 14 September at 9.00PM with a second series of their hit sitcom, Extras. Extras see Gervais play the character of Andy Millman, an actor who works an a TV and film extra in the hope it will be pave his way to a successful career in acting. Despite the fact he works closely with (real-life) stars he never seems to land the parts he really wants. Maybe it's the down to his incompetent agent (played by Merchant) or maybe it wouldn't be a comedy if he did.

Although not as ground-breaking as The Office, Extras is an o . . .

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Too Many Applications

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 06.09.2006

It occured to me recently that I'd developed an application addiction. Throughout the day I was checking emails, RSS feeds, Google AdSense, Google Analytics . . . the list goes on. There must be lots of users out there with a similar addiction; I figured the best way to stop the cravings is to switch these applications off during the working day.

It worked!

If you pin point what's contributing to your time wasting you can get more done in a day. I've documented my findings in a new aricle.
. . .

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Alexa Traffic Rank is Meaningless

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 05.09.2006

About three months ago I started using the Alexa toolbar as I found it interesting to see how various websites ranked in terms of traffic. I knew how it worked: Alexa tracks traffic via anyone that has the toolbar installed and then produces stats on them. While I knew the statistics would be tainted due to the demographic that would use the Alexa toolbar (mostly webmasters) I thought it would be a reasonable way to track the popularity of my site.

One month, after writing lots of new content and getting lots of new backlinks I went up 2 million places! I was delighted wit . . .

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Ricky Gervais Podcast Series 3: Halfway Through

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 05.09.2006

I've just listened to the third episode of Season Three of The Ricky Gervais Show and here are my thoughts . . .

The setup is pretty much the same: Ricky, Steve and Karl chatting for half an hour. So far, there's been no input from the listeners: no emails have been read out and there has been no sign of Monkey News or Rockbusters. The only feature that is still there is Karl's Diary, exceprts of which are read from by Steve. In addition to that, Series 3 brings something akin to Karl's diary, his poetry. Yes, Karl has started to write poetry.

So far the series is ce . . .

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Is Your Website Really That Flash?

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 24.08.2006

Flash websites are everywhere. I'll admit it now - I hate Flash-only websites. I reckon I close down over 90% of Flash-only website before the preloader has finished.

Paradoxically, I love Flash - I think it's a great way to bring extra life and interaction to a web page. So, what am I saying? Do I love Flash or hate it?

As with all great things Flash has a use and an abuse. I (and millions of others) believe Flash-only websites are an abuse. I've written an article, Should you make your webs . . .

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Over 50 Photoshop Tutorial Sites to Submit to

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 23.08.2006

I've added some more sites to my Where to Submit your Photoshop tutorials article. There are now over fifty websites to keep you busy.

If you need help writing your tutorials read my article entitled Tutorial Writing Guide: writing the right tutorials.

Remember what a superb way Photoshop tutorials are to get traffic to your web . . .

[Read More]

Ricky Gervais Show: Season 3 Podcast

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 22.08.2006

It's what us fans have been waiting months for - Seasons 3 of the Ricky Gervais podcast. I'm downloading the episode from Audible as we speak. There is going to be a new episode every Tuesday until 26 September (so six episodes in the series).

I'm so excited about this - will there be more Monkey News?

You can get season 3 for £3.75 and series one to three for £6.99. Believe me - this is some of the funniest comedy EVER!

I'll blog my review later on. Right now I've got half an hour of comedy ge . . .

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Inn at Ardgour Review

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 19.08.2006

At one side of the Corran Ferry crossing by Loch Linnhe resides a white Inn by the name of Inn at Ardgour. Places to eat in the Scottish Highlands are few and far between. So, when you stumble across a place that looks reasonable from the outside you really hope the food and drink is going to be nice on the inside. On my recent holiday this particular Inn was one of the few places within an acceptable driving distance from our cabin. And given its close proximity to the ferry (which we used several times) it was definitely one of the most convenient places to eat.

We . . .

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Is it a Blog or is it an Article?

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 16.08.2006

To blog or to article write? That is the question.

My site contains a blog and an articles section. What's the difference? Should you write blogs or articles? Are they the same thing?

To a certain extent it's a matter of opinion and there is certainly some crossover between the term blog and the term article. Both generic terms themselves, blogs can be articles and articles can be blogs.

In my opinion, for the ethos of my website and for the scope of this blog entry I class blogs as personal and opinionated whereas articles are closer towards ne . . .

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One Photoshop Tutorial, Many Backlinks

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 16.08.2006

Looking over my web stats I get over 80% of my traffic from Photoshop tutorials. I thought I would take the oppurtunity to plug my Where to Submit your Photoshop Tutorials article.

At the time of writing there are over 40 sites to submit to (and it gets updated all the time)! So, if you want a lot of extra traffic and some quality, relevant backlinks start writing your tutorials now and get submitting! My hot picks for some seriously high traffic are Pixel2Life, Good-Tutorials . . .

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Get More Done in a Day: Do Little Things, Achieve Big Things

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 15.08.2006

No one can ever spend their time perfectly - that's a fact! Each day you're given 24 hours and it's up to you to use them the best you can. Time is fixed - when we say we "save time" that's not at all true; in fact, that's impossible. Time will pass at the same rate come rain, wind or shine thus all we can do is make better use of it. We all fool ourselves that productivity equates to the amount of hours spent in the workplace. We reason: the more time spent in our place of work the higher the productivity. To get more done we need to get out of this mindset and rather than st . . .

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The Doner Kebab Meat Mystery

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 14.08.2006

I was on my way home the other day after enjoying a couple of beers and instinctively went into my local takeaway to get a doner kebab. I eat them fairly regularly and they are my all-time favourite takeaway. Someone had told me earlier in the week that if I knew what was in them I wouldn't eat them. Considering some of the things I've eaten in the past, I thought, that wouldn't bother me.

It did however get me curious as to what exactly goes into doner meat. The next day I Googled for about h . . .

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One Happy Man

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 13.08.2006

I rarely watch TV (I mostly watch DVDs) but I happened to view quite a bit of it last night. The 1957 classic 12 Angry Men starring Henry Fonda was on early evening so I decided to watch it. I've been told by people of various generations that this is a classic film; I can't believed I've not watched it before since it stars the Quincy legend Jack Klugman (I think this film launched his acting career so without it there would be no Quincy ME!).

The entire film takes place in a jury room - the jurors discuss what seems to be an open-and-shut case of First Degree Murder. However, . . .

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How to Prevent Divs From Wrapping

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 12.08.2006

The div tags on my site always wrapped when the browser was too thin (around less than 800 pixels wide). It was not too much of a problem as according to my web stats there are hardly any users that would view the site at such a resolution. The problem came, however, when software such as that used by snap.com and Alexa would take an image snapshot of the site; it would break up most of the top menu.

I searched Google for a solution but didn't find anything. However, I found out how to fix it and it's very easy.

Simply create another div around the wrapping div (make su . . .

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Wikipedia and SEO

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 11.08.2006

I recently came across a forum post where the original poster was recommending that webmasters add as many external links to Wikipedia as possible to get quality backlinks and better search engine rankings. I've also seen posts of webmasters who have seen a sudden dip in page ranking for particular pages only to find it's down to the fact that a link to their site has been removed from Wikipedia.

Clearly there is some erroneous information out there and some confusion as to whether or not you should use Wikipedia for backlinking. The answer is yes and . . .

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The Geekiest Thing Ever?

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 09.08.2006

I recently came across this . . .

Open up the shell in your operating system (Start > Run > cmd for Windows users) and enter this into the command line and press return:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

If everything works okay (if it doesn't it probably means your firewall is blocking the port 23) you will seen Star Wars the movie in ASCII (text) delivered through Telnet (a remote shell access protocol).

Being a very busy person and not much of a Star Wars fan I only watched a minutes ot two so I don't know how long it goes on for. It's hard to decid . . .

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4UHosting: Value on a Budget

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 02.08.2006

DISCLAIMER: This is my review of the company 4UHosting. It is based purely on my own experience with the company over the last four months. This is an independent review: I am in no way affiliated with 4UHosting nor was I asked / paid / told to write this review.

I wouldn't normally plug a hosting company like this but . . . I switched over to 4UHosting earlier in the year after a bad experience with another company. I had found 4UHosting through Google or a web ad (I can't remember which). The price . . .

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My Quest to Syndicate Tutorials

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 19.07.2006

I made a suggestion in my tutorial-writing guide that keeping a submissions diary (a list of directories that you have submitted to) is essential when submitting tutorials to directories. Since I've mainly been working on Photoshop tutorials recently I've gathered a number of useful sites that accept Photoshop tutorials.

You can view the list here in my tutorial (if you can call it that), Where to Submit you . . .

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Attention All Novice Webmasters

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 06.07.2006

I've had a bit of experience in writing tutorials of late and noticed while searching around there are very few good guides to help those that are new to tutorial writing. I've prepared an article that details ten way to write more popular online tutorials. Some of the points are obvious, some aren't. Still, it's amazing how many people miss the obvious ones.

You can read the article here. I recommend that if you still have your ears wet in the world of tutorial writing, no matter what k . . .

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Beware the Internet Scroungers

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 05.07.2006

I was looking through my log files last night and I found a few hits from a site I had never seen before. Out of curiosity I looked at the site and found out some charleton had copied my Curved Metal Tutorial for Photoshop word-for-word onto a forum! He even had the audacity to link to the images on my site!

I was furious so I contacted the moderators who removed the thread. It made me realise though that I had not set Apache to prevent this (stealing images in this way is known as hotlinking) from happening.

. . .

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Fat Francos: the Steaks Meat the Challenge

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 03.07.2006

I love my steaks and last night I had one of the best steaks I've ever had.

The place was Fat Francos on New Road Side in Horsforth, Leeds. It's just a stone's throw from where I live and serves great Italian food: pasta, pizza, steaks and a great range of seafood specials.

The steak was a fantastic cut of chargrilled Sirloin coated in garlic butter and served with mushroom and tomatoes. I like my steaks rare and for the first time I ordered it blue rare. When it came it was more lik . . .

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The Funny Man of XFM

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 01.07.2006

If I like something be it on radio, CD, online or DVD I like to listen to / watch it a lot. Time after time a truly good whodunnit or a cleverly scripted comedy will continue to keep me entertained.

At the begining of the year I found a link to the Guardian Unlimited website that had some podcasts available for free download under the name of "The Ricky Gervais Show". I swiftly downloaded the latest episodes as I was a huge fan of The Office (penned by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant) and I also had loved what I'd seen of the show's producer Karl Pilkington from . . .

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Stop Worrying About PageRank

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 29.06.2006

I've spent a lot of time in search engine optimisation forums of late trying to get better page rankings for my own site and that of some of my clients. A lot of novice webmasters have been led to believe that Google PageRank (a way by which Google determines the importance of a web page) is the be all and end all of search engine visibility.

Google updates the PageRank we see for pages periodically (usually 3 months) and the inexperienced often chant the mantra, 'when is the next PageRank update'?

This is a question that need not be worried about too much and to prove it . . .

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Using Mac Peripherals on a PC

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 27.06.2006

I was recently after a sleek keyboard to replace my ugly Microsoft one. I searched high and low for something affordable yet aesthetically pleasing but couldn't find anything that really took my fancy. I was surprised to find out from some forum crawling that to a certain extent most Mac peripherals will work on PC. I'm fairly neutral on the *NIX / Windows / PC ground so it didn't bother me if I used Mac hardware or not. A common admission of even the most hardcore anti-Mac users is "I don't like them but their stuff looks good" and I'd certainly agree with this. Howeve . . .

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Is it going to be too expensive to record HD-DVD?

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 23.06.2006

Toshiba have announced that the first ever recordable HD-DVD player will be released on in Japan on 14 July 2006.

The player, named RD-A1, is the first of its kind and comes with a mouth-watering 1 Terrabyte hard disc; in terms of HD content this equates to 130 hours of digital high-definition video. The player accepts HD-DVD single and dual-layer discs that can store 115 minutes and 230 minutes of HD video respectively.

There are currently no plans to release the player outside of Japan but even if there were who could afford one? In terms of English Sterling the player . . .

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Opera Browser Reaches Version 9

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 20.06.2006

Opera Software today made version 9 of their web browser available for free download.

The Opera web browser has become a popular alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer and the free open-source web browser Firefox. Opera shares many of the useful features found in Firefox and is well-known for its fast rendering of web pages and sleek interface.

The new version of Opera has many new features including BitTorrent support, a content blocker (for hiding ads) and a host of fun desktop widgets. These new . . .

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Steve Coogan AKA Saxondale Comes To BBC 2

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 19.06.2006

Tonight BBC 2 aires a new comedy series of seven episodes from the pen of Steve Coogan (most famous for his Alan Partidge character) and the lesser-known Neil MacLennan (I only know him as a writer of Monkey Trousers).

According to the BBC website Saxondale is "an ex-roadie with anger management issues and a pest control business". Alison Graham of the Radio Times has reviewed tonight's episode; she comments, "it's a testament to writer/creator Steve Coogan's abilities that you stick with Saxondale - both the man and the comedy - to the end of this opening ep . . .

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Eerie, Indiana Out on DVD

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 17.06.2006

If you're familiar with a place that is "is the center of weirdness for the universe" then you're probably familiar with an American TV program from the early 90s called Eerie, Indiana.

Over 10 years ago Channel 4 aired both series of this cult show that saw protagonist Marshall move to a town called Eerie with his family. In each episode Marshall and his friend Simon would encounter another strange facet of the town.

This DVD is an essential for all fans of the programme. The Region Two is due for release on 20 July 2006 and both series (all 19 episodes) are

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Google Earth Beta 4 Released

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 12.06.2006

Google today released Beta 4 of Google Earth, a free 3D interface to the planet.

The new version boasts a larger map index, a new and more simplified user interface, textured 3D buildings and a feature that allows users to share geographical information with others. Perhaps the most importantly new feature is that there is now a Linux version out too!

For those not familiar with it, Google Earth is a free desktop application that allows you to views places, terrain, buildings, data, roads and lots of other us . . .

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Windows Vista Public Beta Isn't Available (But should be)

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 09.06.2006

Features of the new Windows Vista are dropping like flies. This is pretty appalling considering how long Microsoft have been developing their new operating system.

It looked like things might be picking up recently when Microsoft offically released the Public Beta version of Windows Vista (which means anyone can test it out not just MSDN members).

And what happens when you try to download it?

" Thank you for your interest in Windows Vista Beta 2.

We ar . . .

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Adventure Island Fling Game

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 08.06.2006

I came across this Flash game on a forum today and thought I would post the link. It's called Adventure Island Fling. This is a well-polished Flash game with addictive and entertaining gameplay.

The object of the game is to hurl a turtle as far as you can across the sea, scoring as many points as you possibly can. There are obstacles along that way that can help or hinder your throw.

Happy flinging!
. . .

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On The Ropes Returns

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 06.06.2006

John Humphrys returns to Radio 4 this morning with a new Series of On The Ropes. In each episode of this programme Humphrys chats candidly to a high-profile figure who has, at some point, hit rock bottom or fallen completely from grace.

Even if you're not familiar with the interviewee, Humphrys' entertaining and outspoken manner makes this first-rate listening.

The series kicks off at 9:00 this morning and features "fat" chef Clarissa Dickson-Wright. Humphrys chats with Dickson-Wright about her . . .

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Play.com: Comedy DVD Boxsets At Low Prices

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 05.06.2006

Play are having a sale on the following comedy DVD boxsets: The Simpsons (series 4 - 6 are easily the best), Family Guy (never seen it), Futurama (consistantly superb) and King of the Hill (not very good in my opinion). The Simpsons and Futurama are timeless classics and with at least 50% of each box set featured in the promotion now has never been a better time to start collecting.

Details of the promotion can be found here.
. . .

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Kunbuntu Dapper Drake Stable Version Released

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 01.06.2006

The wait is over! The stable version of the new Ubuntu / Kubuntu Linux distribution is out as of today. You can get the .iso file or order a free CD from the Kubuntu website. I'm downloading it as I type (it must be popular as I'm only get ~40 KB/Sec). In fact, Canonical, the sponsors of the Ubuntu projec,t have reported over 50,000 pre-orders for CDs for this version.

If you're an inveterate Windows user and have never considered tryning Linux before I emplor you to try Kubuntu. It's like all the best bits of Windows and Linux r . . .

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Gaps Between DIVs: Fixing a Strict XHTML Quirk

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 01.06.2006

In upgrading the website to from XHTML Transitional to XHTML I came across an irritating aberration in my GUI: In Opera, Firefox and Netscape Navigator, the DIVs were leaving a distance of a few pixels between each other. Naturally, Internet Explorer either doesn't even register there is a problem or it completely ingnores it. This gap wasn't then when it was (valid) XHTML Transitional. After much Googling I found many people with the same problem but no answer.

After a brief tinker I found the solution and I'm pleased to say it's very simple. Just set the line-height for the tro . . .

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ISIHAC New Series: these old men DO have a clue!

Tim Bennett | Dr Quincy. — 20.05.2006

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, (ISIHAC) the self-styled antidote to panel games, returns to Radio 4 this coming Monday. The series will run for the usual six episodes feature regular panelists Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Barry Cryer and will be hosted by legendary Chairman Humphrey Lyttelton. As usual, Colin Sell is at the piano. Although the line-up of guest comics isn't on the website it will no doubt feature the likes of Jeremy Hardy, Stephen Fry and Jack Dee.

If you've never heard this show before . . .

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