TITLE: Whatever you do, don't buy a Kia. AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 01/01/2009 11:38:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal CATEGORY: Chatter ----- BODY: 15 months ago we purchased a brand spanking new "Kia Sedona":http://www.kia.co.uk/sedonahome.asp from our local dealership in Reading. Right from the day we took delivery of the car things have just not been right. Initially it was ill fitted and scratched dashboard panels but after a week we also noticed that there was an intermittent problem with the electric sliding doors. The electric doors simply failed to close correctly on regular occasions. This fault would manifest itself in a number of ways:
  1. On attempting to close the door from either the fob, handle or internal controls it would slide to a closed position and then open up fully immediately of it's own accord. Sometimes it would take up to 18 attempts to get the door to close. So much for the convenience of an electric sliding door (one of the features that attracted us to the car in the first place).
  2. On attempting to close the door (as above) it would close fully but then open by about 1 inch of it's own accord some 5 or 6 seconds later. Giving you just enough time to get in the car and drive off with the children in the seats. The door then 'flinging' fully open once in motion.
We reported the problems to the "Evans Halshaw Kia":http://www.evanshalshaw.com/kia-cars.html dealership and arranged for the vehicle to go back in for repair. The fit of the dashboard panels was rectified but the dealership claimed that they could not reproduce the problem with the doors yet for us it persisted. The car was booked in again, again returned without a solution and booked back in again and again and again... we even provided the dealership with video footage of the fault since we felt they simply did not beleive us. On one particular occasion we drove to the dealership to drop the car off and collect a courtesy vehicle with all 3 kids in tow only to discover that the courtesy car had no petrol and a faulty petrol cap, making it impossible for us to fill the vehicle. Again and again we were fobbed off by the "Evans Halshaw Kia":http://www.evanshalshaw.com/kia-cars.html dealership in Reading. We then discovered upon trying to book the car in one day that they had lost their franchise and that they would no longer be able to deal with the issues we had with the vehicle (Great!). It took us some time to find a new local dealership that could provide a courtesy car. "West London Motor Group Kia":http://www.kia.co.uk/westlondonkia/ in High Wycombe in this case. We booked the car in with them to see if perhaps they could resolve the issues with the electric sliding doors. Initially we encountered the same problems, they were unable to reproduce the problem with the doors but did replace a number of parts. Another visit later and still no joy. By now as you can well imagine the situation was no longer in any way amusing. We were having to ferry our children about in a car which we simply no longer felt safe in and were well and truly fed up with the frequent visits to and from the dealership. We decided to contact Kia customer services in the vein hope that they might be able to sort things out for us and let us enjoy the car which we had paid good money for. After applying a fair degree of pressure we eventually convinced Kia customer services to provide us with a like for like replacement vehicle for a period of a week while they had our vehicle in to resolve the issues with the doors. Alas nothing with Kia is simple (or enjoyable)... On dropping our car of at the dealership we realised that the replacement vehicle that they had provided would not accommodate 3 children in car seats. We called Kia and informed them, they claimed that the rental company had contacted us to ask if the car was ok and I had confirmed that it would be fine (a complete lie). I requested that they provide us with a new rental car that would accommodate the children such that we could actually go out as a family in one car (not an unreasonable request when we have purchased a £20k family car from them). They claimed that they could not provide a suitable vehicle (not what I had been told when they promised a like for like replacement in the first place) so I suggested that I could find a suitable rental vehicle myself and they could reimburse us the cost of said vehicle. Whilst this seems like a reasonable suggestion and a logical solution which would leave them with a happy customer they initially refused to cover the costs. A couple of heated phone conversations later they *finally* did the right thing and agreed to pay for the rental vehicle that we had located. The rental firm that provided us with the unsuitable vehicle (via Kia) tried to sting us for damage to the rental car totaling £150 but that's another story. By now I've spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to resolve the issues with the car and have had to take time off work on numerous occasions to deliver the car to the dealership and collect it again. By perhaps what can only be described as a stroke of luck, after having the car for a full week, the dealership managed to fix the problems with the door. Ironically this was the result of following instructions from a technical bulletin that had been issued by Kia regarding the lot from which our car was born... something which we suggested that both dealerships investigate a number of times. You might think that this is the end of the story, alas it is not. Since collecting the car we have discovered that during icy weather the rear sliding doors now often refuse to open at all (again an intermittent issue) and the air conditioning has stopped working completely so we have the car booked in with the garage for 'another' visit on the 2nd of January. Today (1st of January) whilst out with the whole family in the car I realised that the engine was not responding as it should, the car was loosing power on hills and struggling to maintain motorway speed. We managed to get off the motorway (not a great place to stop with 3 small children) and pulled up. With a burning smell and smoke emanating from the engine bay we decided not to proceed any further. Thank god we were following friends so they helped us to ferry the children back home and the very nice man from the AA came out to tow the car to the Kia dealership. So the question now is what next... can we really 'endure' this car any more. We seem to have a lemon... a car built on a Friday perhaps? In any case the stress associated with this car has us considering our options... even if that means selling the car at a huge loss just to get into something reliable and safe for our family. Kia are unwilling to even consider replacing the vehicle or making any kind of good will payment to alleviate the trouble we have had... apparently all we can expect from them is a free service and I simply don't think that's good enough. Whilst dropping the car off at the dealership today with the nice man from the AA I happened across a chap eying some of the cars on the forecourt, he was looking to buy a new "Kia Sorento":http://www.kia.co.uk/sorentohome.asp. I advised him strongly against purchasing a Kia and relayed the story of how reliable and well built our Sedona is, he seemed convinced... so that's about £20,000 I've just lost Kia. I'll continue to relay my story to every person I know and meet until I've lost Kia at least £1,000,000 in sales. With 5,000 unique visitors to this blog every month and an extensive social networking contacts list I'm pretty confident in my quest. *Update:* Join the '"I promise to never buy a Kia":http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43198716087' Facebook group to show your support! *Update:* I've taken it upon myself to write some frank and honest reviews on a number of motoring websites to help warn others off buying Kia. * "Parkers Kia Sedona Review":http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/owners-reviews/review.aspx?review=5018 ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 01/01/2009 11:38:00 PM Note to self: Don’t buy a Kia – they are shitty cars. I will join the Facebook Group at once!

    One question though Nathan, why did you buy Kia in the first place? Just wondering.

    I’m really sorry to read how much trouble you’ve had with it and Kia themselves. Better luck with the next motor. If you want good Customer Service – then maybe a look through the JD Power Survey might help support any future choices, well, maybe. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 01/01/2009 11:38:00 PM Thanks for your support Matt! In answer to your question ‘Why did we buy a Kia in the first place’?

    I was slightly nervous about buying from a brand I had no experience of but having heard of no horror stories and taking the warranty into account I felt assured. We purchased the car primarily because it was perfect for our needs at the time and when compared to comparative models from other manufacturers it was seen to hold value better over 3 to 4 years.

    Unfortunately none of the above is of any relevance at all when the car simply does not work as it should! :/ ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Baj EMAIL: barrie@brightanswers.co.uk URL: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=151347#post151347 DATE: 01/01/2009 11:38:00 PM Amusingly, you’re now ranked #3 in google uk for “dont buy a kia”, this thread should help too…
    Dont buy a kia ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: frederick gerard james delahunty EMAIL: del@hoff1.freeserve.co.uk URL: DATE: 01/01/2009 11:38:00 PM dear nathan,

    My firend glen richardson has told me of your plight and I must agree something must be seen to be done, especially to address the safety factor lacking in the dodgy Kia you unfortunately own.

    It is obvious that in the terms and conditions of service you signed to accept the vehicle in the condition it is in at present, but they must have a duty of responsibility to correct this, after all it is in their own interests to address all quality assurance complaints.

    As a businessman myself I would find out the name and address of the Head of Kia Motors and put your complaint on his desk, ignoring the dealerships who have ignored you so far. After all it is in his interests to deal with such a serious complaint, especially the health and safety aspect of the problems.

    Secondly, it is very important you copy this letter to the current Transort Secretary and your local Member of Parliament with copies of correspondence so far, that would show the Head of Kia Motors you mean business. This letter must include the support you have recieved so far from your friends on Facebook etc, this is proof that you are taking your complaint very seriously and will not take no for an answer.

    If you receive any support from the Transport Secretary and your MP and you will, Kia will have solicitors who will try to block any complaint if the Head of Kia motors refuses to help you with this problem. If this happens you must analyse the Terms and Conditions of the Sale and fight your case. It is also very important you create a written history with the Head of Kia Motors to prove their lack of duty to you.

    I could go on and on because I rarely lose any legal wrangle if I am in the right.

    Yours sincerely,

    Fred Delahunty (Del to my friends) . ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: frederick gerard james delahunty EMAIL: del@hoff1.freeserve.co.uk URL: DATE: 01/01/2009 11:38:00 PM hi again,

    Your personal letter of complaint must be addressed to Mr Paul Philpott Managing Director of Kia Motors UK.

    Yours,

    Del ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 01/01/2009 11:38:00 PM Hi Del, thanks ever so much for you advice! I’ll be sure to send all future correspondence to the MD and copy it to customer services! I’m planning to send another letter during the next few days. :) -----
-------- TITLE: Wired In To Recovery AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 11/28/2008 09:36:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal CATEGORY: ----- BODY: It was probably the end of May last year when I first met "David Clark":http://wiredin.org.uk/member/profile/13/ from the 'Wired Initiative'. We ("Nine Four":http://ninefour.co.uk) had been put in touch with David by our good friends at "Voyage Design":http://voyagedesign.co.uk who were at the time working with David on a consultancy basis. During our first meeting David talked with great enthusiasm about the vision which he had to create an online recovery community for those affected by substance misuse. Although I don't have a great deal of direct experience in the subject matter, the stories which David told me of instantly grabbed my attention and my interest. Since then we've been working with David and his amazing team (Kevin & Lucie) to design and develop the first phase of the 'Wired In' online recovery community and late last week the site finally went live. I've been lucky enough to be involved with a number of content and community focused sites before, but the sheer volume and quality of content which the Wired In team have been pumping into the site over the past month or so has blown me away! Kudos to David because he has funded this _entirely_ out of his own pocket, using his retirement money to build a community that will empower people to tackle their drug and alcohol use problems. Please take some time to visit "Wired In":http://wiredin.org.uk and pass the URL on to friends and family. :) ----- ----- -------- TITLE: ExpressionEngine Plug-in: UK Counties Select AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 10/24/2008 10:47:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: ----- BODY: Another day, another little "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman Plug-in. I needed to return a list of UK counties in a standalone entry form. I could have simply flicked on PHP for the template and spewed forth a foreach from an array but I thought I'd wrap it all up in a plug-in instead, so here it is. The 'UK Counties Select' plug-in simply renders a drop down select form element with an alphabetical list of UK counties. Usage of the plug-in is as follows: {exp:np_uk_counties_select name="counties"} I could add options to specify a class, id etc but for now this does the job just fine for me. bq. *Download:* "pi.np_uk_counties_select.php.zip":/file_download/16 Obviously let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts on how this can be improved. Enjoy! ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Migrating from TXP to EE - Step 5 AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 10/16/2008 12:38:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: Textpattern ----- BODY: "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman does not provide a 'native' facility for recording links but the immense flexibility of ExpressionEngine Weblogs allows you to create your own links facility by just creating a new Weblog with the relevant custom fields (Title, URL & Description) and then setting up a related category group. Just as we exported our article data from Textpattern we 'could' also export our Link data and then use the same import process to pull it into ExpressionEngine. However this is not the route I'm going to take. Personally I would much rather maintain my 'noteworthy' links using a tool like '"Delicious":http://delicious.com/' so I'm going to show you how we can migrate our Textpattern links to Delicious and then have them displayed inline within an ExpressionEngine template. Luckily for us there's a fantastic Textpattern Extension called '"ajw_bookmarks":http://compooter.org/2007/01/textpattern-plugin-ajw-bookmarks/' that provides us with a quick and easy way to export our Links to a 'Bookmarks' file which most bookmark services and browsers can import. Download and install the Extension within Textpattern and then navigate to the Bookmarks tab within Extensions and select the first option 'Export bookmarks'. Now that we have our locally saved Bookmarks file navigate to the '"Import Bookmarks":https://secure.delicious.com/settings/bookmarks/import' tool on the Delicious website (obviously you will need to log-in first) and then choose the 'Custom import' option. Now we want our bookmarks to be visible to the public so check 'make all my imported bookmarks public'. If you wish to use Delicious to record bookmarks for personal use and also for display on your website you may want to tag all the bookmarks you are going to import with a keyword such as 'noteworthy' or similar. This is the approach I took. By adding this tag I can identify which bookmarks should be pulled out of Delicious for display on my website. Now click 'Import Now'. Delicious should have a bit of a think, depending on the size of your links collection and then display your imported bookmarks. We're going to use the ExpressionEngine 'Magpie' plug-in to pull our Delicious links into our template and display them inline. The plug-in will also cache the data so if Delicious should go down our site won't fall apart. The Magpie plug-in is a part of the default ExpressionEngine install so just open up a template file and drop in the following code: {exp:magpie url="http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/nathanpitman?count=10&tag=noteworthy" limit="10" refresh="60"} {/exp:magpie} Obviously you'll have to replace 'nathanpitman' in the feed URL with your own Delicious username and if you want to pull back bookmarks with a particular tag then include the '&tag=' parameter and variable in the querystring as I have above. You should now have a nice unordered list displaying your 10 most recent Delicious bookmarks or my 10 most recent Delicious bookmarks if you forgot to change the username in the URL. :) If you need to you can also tweak the number of minutes that the plug-in waits before it refreshes the feed display, I'd opt for 60 minutes. The Magpie plug-in defaults to 3 hours if you don't specify a refresh value. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: The great Staples 'OrderCare' scam AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 10/06/2008 10:32:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Chatter CATEGORY: ----- BODY: As a business ("Nine Four":http://www.ninefour.co.uk) we have used "Staples":http://www.staples.co.uk to purchase office supplies on a regular basis for the past couple of years. The last time I used the Staples website to place an order I noticed that the total for my goods was a little higher than I expected, I reviewed the basket again and noticed that a line had been added with the label 'OrderCare' and a small additional sum, between 2 and 3 pounds if I remember rightly. What is 'OrderCare' you may wonder... here's what Staples say on their website: bq. Staples OrderCare is a premium service which allows you to return unwanted items to us anytime within 12 months of purchase, for whatever reason. and a little later on the same page: bq. ** If you are returning unwanted items between 3 and 12 months since your order, that are not in a resaleable condition, we reserve the right to charge a *minimum* restocking fee of £15 or 20% of the item’s selling price. So basically Staples are (without first asking) charging all online customers (not sure if this also applies to phone and mail orders) a small additional sum for a service which they have not opted in to and that will in 99% of cases be of zero use above and beyond what is already offered in the "basic returns service":http://www.staples.co.uk/ENG/static/wrapper.asp?param=help_policie_sale.htm. Now consider that I'm a scrooge and that as the business owner I look for every opportunity possible to reduce costs where suitable. In the vast majority of cases the individual ordering stationary will be an employee who does not really care if they are charged an additional small nominal sum (how do they calculate it!). Add to all of the above that there is no way to have 'OrderCare' default to off on your account, you have to turn it off every time you make an order and this involves navigating to a pop-up window and checking a box to opt out rather than just giving the user the check box on the basket screen itself. Imagine how much cash Staples are making every day out of businesses that are totally unaware of the fact that they are paying an additional charge for something they did not ask for. I've taken our business elsewhere, perhaps you should do the same. "Viking Direct":http://www.viking-direct.co.uk also offer a similar 'extended warranty' service but as you would expect, it defaults to off and can be set at an account level. *Good job*. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Migrating from TXP to EE - Step 4 AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 10/03/2008 11:22:07 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: Textpattern ----- BODY: Right so, a quick re-cap... we've exported our data from Textpattern, imported it into "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman and done a quick find and replace to fix up our embedded images. Next job on our list is to fix up any links to file assets which we have in our entries. Textpattern uses a file download manager which records total file downloads and obfuscates the actual file path in the URL which you place in your entry. ExpressionEngine, whilst being a fantastic CMS, does not provide support for file download counts or obfuscation (here's hoping for EE2!) which is a shame but hey ho... let's soldier on. We're going to have to repair any links to files in our entries because the two systems link to file assets in different ways. So within the ExpressionEngine control panel navigate to the 'Edit' tab and use the search tool at the top of the screen to search for the string '/file_download/' in 'titles and entries'. This should give you a list of all the entries that you will need to fix up. Unfortunately we're going to have to do this manually (unless you can think of a better way!) so download all your file assets from your Textpattern install and then upload them to your file upload destination in ExpressionEngine (Prob best done via FTP). Now we just need to amend the file paths in our entries so work through the list of entries that contain the '/file_download/' string and replace the old Textpattern file path references with the new ExpressionEngine file path references. Now, you can either use the 'copy and paste info' that the 'File Manager Module' provides you with (a standard href link) or hand craft a Textile based equivalent. The choice is yours. Ok so I ran out of time a little today and didn't have a chance to explain how we can migrate out Textpattern Links but I promise I'll cover that in my next post! :) ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Migrating from TXP to EE - Step 3 AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 09/27/2008 08:41:24 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: Textpattern ----- BODY: Now comes the exciting part. We're going to import our old Textpattern artcicles into "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman! First off we will need to upload the text file that we generated in our export from Textpattern in Step 2. I just dropped my file into the web root of my server so I could get at it easily from ExpressionEngine. Once your file has uploaded log-in to your ExpressionEngine control panel and navigate to the 'Admin' tab and then 'Utilities' and 'Import Utilities'. We're going to use the 'Movable Type Import Utility'. Complete all the fields on the import screen, your file path should be something like '../txpexport.txt'. Everything here should be pretty obvious, I just made sure I un-ticked the 'Create members from commenters?' option but obviously you might want to do things differently. I'd suggest you do a few dry runs first of all with a small export from your Textpattern install to verify that everything is working as expected. I did an export of 10 entries from Textpattern initially just to test and then deleted all the entries and categories before performing my final import. Ok so we have all our articles imported now but we're not quite done yet. We need to set up a 'File Upload' location for our Textpattern Images. I decided to just use the default 'Main Upload Directory' which is already configured in ExpressionEngine. I downloaded all my image assets from my Textpattern image upload folder and uploaded them all to my ExpressionEngine image upload folder. Now in my case the file paths are different (though you could always mimic the folder location which Textpattern uses in ExpressionEngine. If like me you didn't you can quickly and easily do a find and replace on all your article image file paths. Navigate to 'Admin' and then 'Utilities' and select 'Find and Replace'. In my case I entered '/images/' in the 'Search for this text' field and '/images/uploads/' in the 'replace with this text' field. Select the entry field that you want to affect and the click submit. All of your article entries should now include any inline images or media. Next we'll be looking at how to deal with Textpattern 'links' and 'file assets'. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Migrating from TXP to EE - Step 2 AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 09/26/2008 10:16:18 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: Textpattern ----- BODY: So now we have our "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman install pretty much ready we need to export our data from Textpattern. At this point it may be wise to upgrade your Textpattern install to the "latest release":http://www.textpattern.com/download. During a bit of a "forum tennis match":http://expressionengine.com/forums/viewthread/52585/ almost 3 years back(!) Jon Hicks and I managed to refine an export method which had been used for Textpattern previously to incorporate clean Textile and entry comments. I've summarised the steps you will need to take and the code you will need to use in your Textpattern templates below. Before you start you will need to install a couple of Textpattern plug-ins to ensure that we can get our data out in just the right format. First is a Textpattern plug-in called "msv_show_article_field":http://www.svihla.net/textpattern_plugins/ which is written by Martin Švihla. This plug-in allows us to return the Textile formatted content for the articles instead of the HTML equivalent. This means that our articles will maintain their nice clean Textile formatting once imported into ExpressionEngine. Bonus! Next is a plug-in called "glx_thiscomment":http://textpattern.org/plugins/213/glx_thiscomment which is written by Johan Nilsson. This plug-in allows us to pull out the plain text name value for comments rather than the name wrapped in a 'href' linking to the comment authors website URL or email (the default behavior for the built in Textpattern comment tag). This is essential if we want to maintain article comments. Now create 2 new Textpattern forms, one called 'export' and one called 'exportcomments'. Add the following code to your 'export' form: TITLE: AUTHOR: DATE: 01/07/2009 12:51:07 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: CATEGORY: ----- BODY: ----- ----- -------- ...and the following code to your 'exportcomments' form: COMMENT: AUTHOR: Unknown key. EMAIL: URL: DATE: 01/07/2009 12:51:07 AM ----- Finally we need to call our 'export' form from a page template. Create a new page template called export and add the following code: Obviously you will need to tweak the parameters in your page template to suit the number of blog entries you have and the section from which you wish to export entries. With all of the above done we should now be able to visit the public URL for this page template in our web browser (http://yourdomainname.com/export/) and see the output. I had over 400 entries to export so the page took a while to load. Once fully loaded view source and save a copy to a plain text file on your local machine (txpexport.txt for example). I know I promised to cover how we import this data into ExpressionEngine but I've been rambling on for a while now so I'll leave that until my next post. :) ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Migrating from TXP to EE - Step 1 AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 09/22/2008 09:07:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: Textpattern ----- BODY: Ok so a lot of this will be obvious but hey, here we go... I've decided to tackle the migration by setting up an "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman Core Install on a sub domain ("http://ee.nathanpitman.com":http://ee.nathanpitman.com) where I will be able to get everything up and running before I switch from the old Textpattern install for good. First step quite obviously is to install ExpressionEngine Core (The free version of the CMS). I won't explain how to do this, it's dead easy and there are a ton of useful resources out there for you to look at if you've never used EE before. First thing to do after you've completed the install is to modify the default custom field group for the default weblog to match the fields which you have in Textpattern. Textpattern has a 'Body' and 'Excerpt' field so you could simply rename the default 'extended' field if you want to feel at home. As we're migrating from Textpattern all our posts that we will be importing will be formatted with Textile or XHTML so we're going to need to mimic that environment in ExpressionEngine. To do so we'll need to install a handy little 3rd party plug-in called 'Textile'! You can download the '"Textile Plug-in":http://expressionengine.com/downloads/details/textile/' from the ExpressionEngine website. Once installed you will need to log-in to your ExpressionEngine control panel again and change the default formatting for the custom fields (body and excerpt) to use 'Textile' rather than XHTML. Don't worry if some of your Textpattern blog posts have XHTML in them, Textile will still render these just right. Finally, before we move on to exporting our blog entries from Textpattern we need to install a module that will allow us to more easily upload and manage files as we are used to doing so with the Textpattern 'Files' tab. The nearest equivalent that I have found over the years is the '"Low File Manager Module":http://loweblog.com/freelance/article/ee-file-manager-module/'. It doesn't provide download counts but it does pretty much everything else you could want and ties in beautifully with the ExpressionEngine File Upload preference settings. Next we'll be looking at how to export all our blog entries from Textpattern and pull them into ExpressionEngine. :) ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Blogging the migration from Textpattern to ExpressionEngine AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 09/22/2008 09:40:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: Textpattern ----- BODY: I have made a cast iron decision. I am migrating (this) my personal blog from Textpattern to "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman. I thought others might find it useful if I blogged my progress along the way. So, this is the first of a number of posts which will explain the how, why when and what in as much detail as I can muster. If you're looking to do the same then perhaps you'd like to follow me... "http://ee.nathanpitman.com":http://ee.nathanpitman.com :) Update: "Step 1":http://nathanpitman.com/journal/553/migrating-from-txp-to-ee-step-1, "Step 2":http://nathanpitman.com/journal/554/migrating-from-txp-to-ee-step-2, "Step 3":http://nathanpitman.com/journal/555/migrating-from-txp-to-ee-step-3, "Step 4":http://nathanpitman.com/journal/556/migrating-from-txp-to-ee-step-4, "Step 5":http://nathanpitman.com/journal/558/migrating-from-txp-to-ee-step-5 ----- ----- -------- TITLE: ExpressionEngine Extension: NoScript Messages AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 09/18/2008 10:38:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: ----- BODY: While working on a project recently I noted that "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman uses a 'JavaScript:history.go(-1)' within the 'User Message' templates to allow you to return to the page from whence you came if you submit a form without completing all the required fields, perform a search and return no results etc. I wanted to 'do the right thing' and 'hacked' an alternative as documented in "this thread":http://expressionengine.com/forums/viewthread/85472/ on the ExpressionEngine Forums. This hack picked up the referring page URL and passed that to the User Message template instead. I kept a note of my hack and when I had to upgrade this particular install to the latest point release I set about re-implementing it. At this point "Derek Jones":http://derekderekderek.com helpfully pointed out that I could create an ExpressionEngine Extension to do the same job, negating the need to 're-implement' the hack again and again. Thanks for the prod in the right direction Derek! Here's my first ExpressionEngine Extension - 'NoScript Messages'. bq. *Download:* "ext.noscript_messages.php.zip":http://nathanpitman.com/file_download/15 Obviously let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts on how this can be improved. Enjoy! ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Building websites with ExpressionEngine 1.6 AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 08/17/2008 12:53:40 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: ----- BODY: This week I had a rather nice email from a lady called Alice at Packt Publishing here in the UK. Packt are a publishing company specialising in IT focused books and have just published a new book last month called '"Building websites with ExpressionEngine 1.6":http://www.packtpub.com/building-websites-with-expressionengine-1.6/book'. The book, written by "Leonard Murphy":http://www.leonardmurphy.co.uk/ is aimed at "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman beginners. Alice has been kind enough to send me a copy for review so once I've had a chance to read it I'll report back and let you know my thoughts. In the mean time why not take a look at a "sample chapter":http://nathanpitman.com/file_download/14. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Catching an expiring domain name AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 08/16/2008 11:36:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Branding CATEGORY: ----- BODY: From the moment that I decided to go it alone and start my own business with my wife 3 years back I was keen to ensure that I bagged a .com as our primary domain. However it very soon became obvious that the chances of settling on a name that we were happy with and it being available as a .com were pretty much nil. After what seemed like an age we settled on a name (Nine Four) and purchased the only available domains, the .co.uk and .net. The .com was already registered but not in use so we held out some small hope that we might manage to get hold of it one day. h3. How much? In October 2006, just over a year after we started the business I decided to approach the current domain name owner, hoping that a reasonable offer might be well received. However he was clearly not in the mood to be reasonable and wanted no less than $25,000. Obviously I declined. h3. Thanks for the reminder Almost another 2 years passed and to be honest I had for the most part forgotten about the .com. Resigning myself to the fact that I would never be able to get hold of it and that perhaps it wasn't so important after all. On the 6th of August I received an email from a company called Tripod UK Ltd alerting me to the fact that ninefour.com had not been renewed by it's previous owner and that it was soon to be released. They claimed an 80% success rate in catching dropping domains but you know what... I fancied giving it a shot myself. So I read up on Mike Davidson's Blog about his experience snatching 'newsvine.com' and formulated a plan of attack. h3. Drop what? After a certain period (usually 75 days) a domain name 'drops' and becomes available for re-registration. The trick is to know exactly when the drop will occur. Unfortunately there's no way of being privy to the exact time or date so as Mike suggests, your best bet is to enlist the services of a company that will continually monitor the status of the domain name for you and automatically attempt to register it as soon as it becomes available. Mike suggests using "SnapNames.com":http://snapnames.com, "Enom.com":http://www.enom.com and "Pool.com":http://www.pool.com. Enom.com didn't seem to have an obvious option for back-ordering a domain name so in the end I went with "NameJet.com":http://www.namejet.com. *SnapNames* seemed like it was going to be my best bet as they have a clear and open auction process and if there was no competition for the domain when it dropped they would automatically register it for me for just $60. *NameJet* seemed to offer a similar service to SnapNames but *Pool* was a lot less enticing. Although I didn't get to experience their auction process in the end, from what I read on Mikes blog it isn't great for the buyer, only great for Pool. h3. The auction I was one of the lucky ones I guess because SnapNames bagged ninefour.com. I soon discovered though that I was not the only bidder, there were two of us... I guess it could have been much worse. My counterpart had opened the bidding at $60. I had set a maximum bid amount of $300 prior to the auction so SnapNames had automatically bid on my behalf to $70. The auction process lasts between one and fourteen days, in this case the auction was 7 days so I made a note in the diary and got back to work. A week later I was regularly refreshing the SnapNames auction page to check the status of the order as the hours counted down. With no come back bid from my counterpart I was feeling confident. I did a little research online based on his/her SnapNames username and found that s/he had a history of opening the bidding on a number of names but didn't seem to bid any further. This was all good. :) h3. The last minutes With less than 10 minutes to go I'm outbid. I was gutted, all of a sudden from nowhere the other bidder had upped the ante. After a few minutes Jo and I decided to up our maximum bid. SnapNames extends the auction end time by 5 minutes every time a new winning bid is placed so we knew we had to be bold. We entered a maximum bid of $800 and sat tight. 10 minutes or so later we were the proud new owners of ninefour.com, the final bid being $579. It was more than we had hoped to spend but I think it was worth it. As a business your brand is probably one of your most valuable assets (in addition to your employees!) so in that context $579 seems like a small price to pay. Certainly beats $25,000! ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Craig Grannell EMAIL: cngrannell@yahoo.com URL: reverttosaved.com DATE: 08/16/2008 11:36:00 PM Good to hear you snagged the .com. Oddly enough, reverttosaved.com went through roughly the same process, although I actually managed to lose the domain when my host ‘forgot’ to reregister it. Cue: two years of reverttosaved.com being used as a crappy ‘search engine’. In the end, I just used GoDaddy’s preorder service and forgot about it.

    After a hunch of unsuccessful attempts, I was rather surprised one day to see a confirmed registration for reverttosaved.com in my inbox. Clearly, this time I now have a recurring payment myself and I’m not relying on anyone else to do this! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Elliot EMAIL: Elliot@NoTwoTheSame.com URL: www.NoTwoTheSame.com DATE: 08/16/2008 11:36:00 PM Well done mate. Just my opinion but .com just seems to make your company more ‘serious’? It’s always the first domain I type.

    Probably not something you wanted to pursue but isn’t it illegal to domain squat? What would this other person’s reason have been to purchase; other than to hold you to ransom? Either way I’d say the price out-ways the hassle.

    With my domain I spent ages trying to find something I liked, and was also available across the important top level domains. I’ve noticed you’ve got a set :) Maybe a small talking point for CA? See if anyone bothers getting anything other than .com, .co.uk? I’ve got .net as well but completely ignored .com.uk ect -----
-------- TITLE: Free 'thinking' Breakfast, Reading, UK... Tmrw! AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/28/2008 03:11:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Chatter CATEGORY: ----- BODY: My good friend Glen from "Sub Lime":http://www.sub-lime.co.uk is looking for people to come along to a free 'thinking' Breakfast at Green Park in Reading tmrw AM... *Find out about the Current Economic Climate and how it is affecting small businesses.* The headline speaker is Entrepreneur 'Jamie Martin' who was on the BBC show 'Did they pay their mortgage off in 2 years". You can see highlights on his "YouTube channel":http://www.youtube.com/user/jamiebusinessguru. The event is tomorrow (29th) and will start at 8:00 - 8:30 and finish at 10:00am - 10:30am. *Here is the agenda:*
  1. Welcome reception (Tea and coffee)
  2. Introduction of Jamie Martin, Regus and Barclays
  3. Results of questionnaire survey
  4. Jamie Martin talks about success and failure in business.
  5. Interviews Mike Garth, former engineer for Toyota F1
  6. Barclays will provide expert knowledge about protecting your business during the economic downturn
  7. Regus imparts their extensive knowledge of business overheads
  8. Summary / Q&A
  9. Networking - Free breakfast (bacon rolls), tea, coffee and fruit juice.
  10. Live Prize Draw; Barclays Credit Management Tool for a year, Regus Business World Card and21 days free UK accommodation
*Signup here:* "http://www.sub-lime.co.uk/regus":http://www.sub-lime.co.uk/regus ----- ----- -------- TITLE: ExpressionEngine Plug-in: Encode/Decode AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/22/2008 12:41:07 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: ----- BODY: Every time I come up against something which I once would have resorted to PHP to solve, I end up writing a little plug-in these days instead. It just feels less dirty that way... Anyhow, this one was developed to help me out when I needed to pass a string of data from one page to another in the URL. The string in question would occasionally include a forward slash and as such the string would become split as "Expression Engine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman interpreted it as two separate URL segments. The 'Encode/Decode' plug-in takes any string of text and encodes or decodes it. Typical usage of the plug-in is as follows: {exp:np_encodedecode style="base64" direction="encode"}{title}{/exp:np_encodedecode} The plug-in offers 'base64' and 'url' encoding and decoding but it would be easy to add more options. For me base64 seems to work best. bq. *Download:* "pi.np_encodedecode.php.zip":http://nathanpitman.com/file_download/13 Obviously let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts on how this can be improved. Enjoy! ----- ----- -------- TITLE: ExpressionEngine Mug! AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/17/2008 10:45:35 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: Branding ----- BODY: A white box arrived today containing an '"ExpressionEngine Mug":http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanpitman/2678386600/' from the good folks at EllisLab as a thanks for my video short on '"Why I Choose ExpressionEngine":http://nathanpitman.com/journal/539/why-choose-expressionengine'. !/images/172.jpg! It's most awesome, primarily for its capacious capacity and then also for the 'cut in' ExpressionEngine ident. Now all I need is a "matching T-Shirt":http://www.flickr.com/photos/low/2213718841/ and my life will be complete. Thanks to all at "EllisLab":http://ellislab.com/! :) ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew Pennell EMAIL: matt@thewatchmakerproject.com URL: www.thewatchmakerproject.com/ DATE: 07/17/2008 10:45:35 PM WANT. I have an EE t-shirt (and a CI one) but a mug would be awesome too… -----
-------- TITLE: Automating an availability statement in PHP AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/16/2008 09:52:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Web development CATEGORY: ----- BODY: We have a small statement on the "Nine Four":http://www.ninefour.co.uk website which advises new clients as to our current availability. In general we need between 3 and 4 weeks notice to fit any significant new work in, so rather than continually update the availability statement or explain that we need 3 or 4 weeks lead time, I just used the PHP date function.

We're available to work on new projects from the 27th of January 2009.

 Simple really but I just thought I'd share. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Hiding the Solspace Tag Tab for certain Weblogs in ExpressionEngine AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/15/2008 04:37:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: ----- BODY: The Solspace "Tag Module":http://www.solspace.com/software/detail/tag/ is a fantastic addition to "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman but it lacks the option to 'disable' tags for certain weblogs (sections). Not to fear, your friend the PHP if statement is here. In 'ext.tag.php' at around about line 262 there is a code block called 'Add tag tab to tab array'. Just modify those two lines as per the example below: $weblogs = array(3,4,9,10,11); if (!in_array($weblog_id, $weblogs)) { $LANG->fetch_language_file('tag'); $publish_tabs['tag'] = $LANG->line('tags'); } Obviously the 'weblogs' array is an array of weblog id's that you do not want the 'tag tab' to be displayed for. You could do this round the other way, writing an array of weblogs that should include the tag tab but I felt this was the better option in my scenario. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Web Developer - London, UK AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/11/2008 11:22:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: JPCreative - a successful and busy London based design & communications agency with a 10 year track record in delivering award winning creative solutions are seeking to add to our team with the introduction of a Middleweight Web Developer with great communication skills. Working on a superb variety of clients and projects you will play an instrumental role in the ongoing development of our digital business and will be given every opportunity to grow and develop within the team. For the ambitious candidate, with strong communication skills, there is the chance to grow into a lead Technical role with primary responsibility for the planning and delivery of all technical projects. Working with the in-house design team, you will be actively encouraged to advise on best practice with regard to the online systems being created. Focused on developing backend (PHP/MySQL) and front-end (XHTML/CSS/Javascript) systems to be as extensible and reusable as possible, you will act as a leading technical innovator for the agency helping us to keep abreast of emerging technologies and ensuring we remain both innovative and accessible in all future projects! h3. Experience/Key skills: Salary: Neg. Based on experience *Please send your covering letter, current cv and salary expectations to:* "Claire@jpcreative.co.uk":mailto:Claire@jpcreative.co.uk?subject=Application%20for%20web%20develop%20%20from%20nathanpitman.com. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: ExpressionEngine Plug-in: Link Target AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/09/2008 11:26:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: ----- BODY: Not sure how useful this "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman Plug-in will be to others out there but we're using it here at "Nine Four":http://www.ninefour.co.uk on the "Wired In":http://www.wiredin.org.uk website to link from an IFrame back to the parent window. This is something you would usually achieve with: My Link Text ...but that's not valid XHTML so instead we need to do: My Link Text The 'Link Target' plug-in just helps to keep your template code clean by writing all the JavaScript for you. Typical usage of the plug-in is as follows: {exp:np_linktarget url="http://www.nathanpitman.com" target='top'}My Link Text{/exp:np_linktarget} By default you have to specify a 'url' and 'target' parameter and the plug-in also optionally accepts a link 'title' and 'class'. Possible 'type' values are 'top' and 'blank'. Each mimic the link target attributes '_top' and '_blank' respectively. bq. *Download:* "pi.np_linktarget.php.zip":http://nathanpitman.com/file_download/12 Obviously let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts on how this can be improved. Enjoy! ----- ----- -------- TITLE: ExpressionEngine Plug-in: Member Online? AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/08/2008 11:35:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: ----- BODY: Whilst working on the "Wired In":http://www.wiredin.org.uk website I came up against a little problem. I wanted to be ale to show if a specific user was online or offline, much like you would on a social networking site. However although there are tags to return a list of online users within "ExpressionEngine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman, you cannot pass this a specific username with a view to returning a true/false response. So, after poking around a few plug-ins which queried the DB for values (specifically the '"Member Info":http://expressionengine.com/downloads/details/member_info/' plug-in) I decided to launch in and write my first plug-in to do the job for me. The plug-in is called '*Member Online?*' and it accepts a 'username' for which it will then simply return a true or false value. Using the optional 'return' parameter you can specify the values you would like returned in place of true or false. So, typical usage would be as follows: {exp:np_memberonline username="{username}" return="Online,Offline"} You could either use this to simply write a string out into the page, as I am, or use it to change the class of a page element to highlight online users perhaps. bq. *Download:* "pi.np_memberonline.php.zip":http://nathanpitman.com/file_download/11 At the moment I'm using this alongside the Solspace '"User Module":http://www.solspace.com/software/detail/user/' to build the community aspects of the Wired In website so I've only developed it so far as required to meet those requirements. If you have any further ideas as to how the plug-in could be developed do let me know. :) ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew EMAIL: comments@allinthehead.com URL: allinthehead.com DATE: 07/08/2008 11:35:00 AM Hooray for plugins! Just taking a quick look at the source (admittedly I’ve not written any EE plugins myself, so I may be failing to appreciate some subtleties) it looks like you could tighten up those two database queries a bit.

    Could you not perform the test in one hit by joining across the two tables, something like:

    SELECT count(exp_online_users.*) FROM exp_online_users, exp_members WHERE exp_online_users.member_id=exp_members.member_id AND exp_members.username = ‘someusername’;

    You’d either get a result of 1 or 0. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 07/08/2008 11:35:00 AM @Drew: Didn’t quite work out of the box like that but after a bit of fiddling I got it working with one query pretty much as you suggested. Thanks for the suggestion! That’s now included in the current release. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ingmar EMAIL: ingmar.greil@ellislab.com URL: DATE: 07/08/2008 11:35:00 AM My I suggest:

    bq. SELECT COUNT (*) FROM exp_online_users
    RIGHT JOIN exp_members USING (member_id)
    WHERE screen_name = “My Screenname” ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 07/08/2008 11:35:00 AM @Ingmar: Thanks for the suggestion but in the scenario I have I need to return the online status of any user from a username, not the screen name. Or did I miss something? :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew EMAIL: comments@allinthehead.com URL: allinthehead.com DATE: 07/08/2008 11:35:00 AM Oh dear – have I started a ‘suggest some SQL’ war?

    I’m afraid I rather obsess over the performance and robustness of every line of code. It’s something of an affliction and isn’t always healthy or necessary. It does put me on edge though when you see in the sidebar of someone’s blog that the page was built using 30+ queries. Databases are much harder to scale up than web servers, so it pays to treat them as sacred. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 07/08/2008 11:35:00 AM I totally agree and I think it’s an area where I would like to ‘gen’ up a lot, but at the end of the day I have to accept that I’m not a ‘full on’ developer and I’m not sure I ever will be, more of an in between hybrid, slowing down the web, one extraneous query at a time. ;P

    In all seriousness though, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your affliction, I have the same problem when it comes to design, every minute detail has to be perfect. -----
-------- TITLE: Google Mail Labels. Maxlength=40. AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/07/2008 09:17:18 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Web applications CATEGORY: ----- BODY: Well after hearing from "Darren":http://www.darrenm.net that he was switching in full to using Google for business email I decided to investigate myself. Google have a fantastic offer for small businesses; up to 25 mail accounts with a 6Gb limit 'each' which runs through your own domain. It's all pretty easy to set up though if you have a lot of existing email to import (how about 3Gb) then it can be quite painful! I start shifting email across a few days back, starting with folders containing email to prospects then working my way slowly through my client folders, which are organised by client and job number. This is where I hit a _big_ snag. *Google Mail does not support folders (or labels as they call them) which have names that are longer than 40 characters*. So as much as I would love to use Google for Mail because I might have a folder called 'Clients' with a sub folder called 'John Smith Tractors' and a folder inside that called 'J123 - Website Development' I am well and truly stuck. Nothing I can do about it unless I want to spend hours renaming all my folders, shortening the names or manually re-labeling all the email to use multiple labels once inside Google Mail. If only there was a script that turned 'folders with sub folders' into 'multiple labels' then I would be saved. ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Keit EMAIL: keit@keit.com URL: DATE: 07/07/2008 09:17:18 PM Google Lable is really a mess. Goolge should come up with the folder concept like yahoo or other mails. I wish Google will work on this to give us folders in mail. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 07/07/2008 09:17:18 PM Well, labels are actually far more clever than folders as you can ‘label’ an email as belonging to a particular client then also relating to a particular subject. Think about how much more flexible tagging is than categorising. Labels are just tags by another name.

    If you connect to Google Mail via IMAP your labels are represented as folders so you can actually create sub folders that are visible via an IMAP client by labeling something as “label1/label2”.

    Finally, I think the problem is actually with the fact that mail clients do not provide in built support for tags. It really is a much more powerful way to organise data. That being said, the 40 char limit is daft and they should lift it to at least 256 chars. -----
-------- TITLE: Why choose ExpressionEngine? AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/03/2008 08:09:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine CATEGORY: Web development ----- BODY: The guys over at EllisLab are asking "why choose ExpressionEngine":http://expressionengine.com/blog/entry/show_us_your_mug/? Right off the top of my head, here's my response... ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 07/03/2008 08:09:00 PM The ‘Public-Speaking Nathan’ (hehe), got the point across…yep, looking forward to EE 2.0 as well mate :) -----
-------- TITLE: Should I blog this? AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 06/25/2008 08:35:46 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Blogging CATEGORY: Personal ----- BODY: I think it's fair to say that once you've got to know a number of well respected individuals within the web design and development 'blogosphere' it's easy to feel that everything you write on your blog must be absolutely right or failing that, a total revelation for your readers which will bring you fame, glory and tits, sorry I meant 'hits'. Sometimes I have to step back and remind myself that actually this is 'my blog' and I can write whatever I want on it, hell I can even be wrong if I want, there's nothing wrong with being totally and absolutely off target once in a while. Sorry, just wanted to make a note of that. As you were! ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 06/25/2008 08:35:46 PM Go ahead mate….make that blog! :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jerry Loggins EMAIL: jerry.loggins@yahoo.com URL: http://jerryloggins.com/ DATE: 06/25/2008 08:35:46 PM Yes, it IS your blog, and I think that blogs are supposed to be for whatever purpose you want them to be. It would be nice, So write on! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Raymond Whiteside EMAIL: raymond.whiteside@yahoo.com URL: DATE: 06/25/2008 08:35:46 PM As the old saying goes, “To each, his own”, so just keep on doing what you are doing and keep up the good work, thank you for so many useful tips that the newbie is absorbing as quick as I can.
    Respectfully,
    Raymond Whiteside -----
-------- TITLE: Developing for tomorrows web AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 06/25/2008 11:44:32 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Web development CATEGORY: ----- BODY: More often than not I find myself building websites with the outlook of developing for 'the here and now', taking into account the browsers that we are using _today_ and also those which we were using yesterday (Please stand up IE6)! *So my question is this;* Should we be actively developing for tomorrow, not today, using new technology wherever possible and providing only those with bleeding edge browsers (Safari 3 & Firefox 3) with the perfect experience? Is it now acceptable to present users of yesterdays, and even today's web browsers with a degraded experience? Consider that most websites might have a shelf life of 2 - 3 years, and you soon realise that the website you are developing might only be viewed using today's web browsers for 6 months of it's life, with the majority then migrating to Internet Explorer 7 and 8 (or whatever it may be) and dilapidated browsers like Internet Explorer 6 fading into the dark and distant background. ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul Cripps EMAIL: paulcripps@hotmail.com URL: www.paulcripps.com DATE: 06/25/2008 11:44:32 AM It’s a really good point; I feel we should be building for tomorrows browser’s as it helps push things forward. That is the very nature of technology.

    If we always step into the past, making sure it works on every browser we’ll end up limiting ourselves and producing cheaper websites. If we take our designer thoughts off for a second I bet most of the time the “degraded experience” wouldn’t be noticed by your average user. As long as the site is legible and works as intended…

    I love “bleeding edge browsers” BTW! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew EMAIL: comments@allinthehead.com URL: allinthehead.com/ DATE: 06/25/2008 11:44:32 AM I think the reality is that a website is only ever viewed with today’s browsers, but that the definition of what today’s browsers are is constantly shifting. IE6 is one of today’s browsers, because that’s what a bunch of users still browse with today.

    The real question is what does it mean to develop for only the newest browsers? Does that just mean not going the extra mile to cater to the bugs of recent less capable browsers like IE6? On the web the lowest common denominator is always text-only, so where does that fit in?

    I think Yahoo’s approach of Graded Browser Support is still a winner. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Robin EMAIL: robin@parkerdigital.co.uk URL: http://www.remembertoblink.co.uk DATE: 06/25/2008 11:44:32 AM I was recently doing some updates for an in-house site and was adding some background images to the CSS. I wanted to just use PNGs, with lovely alpha transparency, but at the back of my mind I knew I would have to either add a workaround for IE6, or add styles to the IE6 stylesheet providing GIF alternatives. Checking out the Google Analytics for the site I saw that 70%-odd of all the site’s users were using IE, and of those, 40%-odd were still using IE6. So my point is, as much as developing for crummy browsers like IE6 is a pain in the backside, unless we want to alienate a fair amount of users, it’s still a necessity for a lot of sites ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan Oliver EMAIL: danieljoliver@gmail.com URL: www.danieloliver.co.uk DATE: 06/25/2008 11:44:32 AM It’s something I’ve certainly been thinking more about recently and I’ve seen quite a few times in recent months where designers have produced websites where the user experience varies from browser to browser.

    With this is mind, I’ve certainly placed much less importance on Internet Explorer 6 in comparison to 6 months or so ago. A classic example is something as simple as transparency on PNGs. As your well aware IE6 just doesn’t want to know when it comes to transparent PNGs. Months ago this would have really bothered me, but a couple times now we have all sat down at work and decided IE6 users can be presented with a GIF of lesser quality. It sacrifices the user experience slightly, but it’s not significant enough to lose sleep over. As long as the really important things are more or less covered and the site looks something like we intended then we’re happy.

    If it was something that I felt seriously hindered the user’s experience I wouldn’t consider it, but nine times out of ten it isn’t. The chances are if someone is still using IE6 or an equally poor browser then they won’t be the kind of person that would pay so much attention to these smaller details or take the time to really appreciate attention to detail (there may be the odd exception, but in general…).

    As far as developing for the future goes, I’m using CSS3 more and more for small details just to enhance the design slightly for the capable browsers. In places I’ve also specified a none standard font, just in case someone out there might have it installed on their system. And if they do, they are going to get a jolly nice looking webpage. These smaller details are just nice to haves really. It’s frustrating we can’t have it across all browsers, but we can’t.

    So I could cut all this rambling short and just say I can live with offering older browsers a degraded experience providing it’s not significantly degraded. If the design is near enough how it should look, I can live with it it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 06/25/2008 11:44:32 AM @Drew: Thanks for drawing my attention to the Yahoo! ‘Graded Browser Support’ initiative. Obviously it’s difficult for a small web agency to cost effectively test against all those scenarios, even with tools like Litmus but it certainly makes me think that as a company we should have our own ‘Graded Browser Support’ table.

    @Dan: Yes I think this is exactly what I was trying to get at, though you perhaps summed it up better. Interesting too to hear that your current experience is also very similar, opting to live with a reduced experience for IE6 users with regards to PNGs in particular. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Raanan Avidor EMAIL: ravidor@gmail.com URL: DATE: 06/25/2008 11:44:32 AM It is not an or question. It is not building for today or tomorrow. We must build for today and tomorrow. Building for IE6 and FireFox 3. We also have to explain this to our clients. The job is hard and this is why we get the big money :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 06/25/2008 11:44:32 AM My current view seems to be a mix of (the same sort of view that Drew expressed, above) and that man Andy Clarke – embracing future browsers willingly and being less accommodating for those older browsers (IE6 – I’m looking at you!) to some extent.

    Actually, my support for older browser versions was more generous, but recently – with new versions (IE7 and soon IE8, and FF3) rolling-out at a quicker rate than before, I think it is reasonable to expect that most users are upgrading more often than they did in the past.

    Also, and this might just be wishful thinking on my part (haha!) – the range of differences between versions seems to be getting less pronounced with each new one, so making a new site to work with IE7 and IE8…mmm, bad example….how about, err, FF2 and FF3 – should be relatively minimal compared to trying to make a design work exactly the same with IE6 (and it’s poor handling of PNGs). Web design support for IE6 will soon get as thin as it did for IE5 – maybe even by the end of the year! In December, we’ll be saying “Who the hell still uses IE6?!” – at the moment, I think there are still enough people using though, sadly. -----
-------- TITLE: Red Ring of Death! AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Consoles CATEGORY: Personal ----- BODY: Just over 2 years after I first got my Xbox 360 and I have been graced with the 3 flashing red lights or "Red Ring of Death' as it is affectionatley known. !/images/171.jpg! I'm particuarly narked as I just bought GTA IV a few weeks back and hadn't had a good chance to play it until tonight! So, I called Xbox support here in the UK (though I think I was re-routed to India along the way) and my fears were confirmed. My Xbox is dead. They are sending me a returns lable via email and have asked that I wrap the Xbox in bubble wrap and place it in a plain cardboard box. When I asked if I could return it in the original box they stated that under no circumstances should I return it in a box with any Microsoft or Xbox insignia. How strange... perhaps they are trying to hide the number or returns from UPS staff here in the UK. I gave the nice lady a bit of grief about the fact that I had to provide my own coffin for faulty hardware that they had produced but to their credit they confirmed that the returned Xbox would be subject to a further 3 year warranty and that they would provide me with a months free Xbox Live Gold membership. Not bad. Apparently it should take 3 weeks for my Xbox to be returned minus the three red rings. I'll keep you updated... *Update:* My Xbox 360 arrived back home today, just 1 week to the day after it left, it's been to Germany, had the mortherboard replaced and a new faceplate (Thanks Microsoft!), the old faceplate had been vandalised by my son. I also got a months free Xbox Live Gold Membership. Add to this the fact that it's significantly quiter when idle than it was before, I'm well impressed. Good job. :) ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM Sorry to hear about this Nathan – what a nuisance! Hopefully, the replacement will get to you soon :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: rob mckeown EMAIL: rob@mcgraphix.com URL: agileui.blogspot.com DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM I had the exact same thing happen about a month ago. Microsoft sent me an empty box to send mine back in though. In just about two weeks I got mine back working fine. I am usually one to complain about microsoft, but the process for me was painless And, since mine was well out of warranty, I was pretty happy with them fixing it for free. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew McLellan EMAIL: comments@allinthehead.com URL: allinthehead.com/ DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM Perhaps the blank-box policy is to reduce the chance of it getting pilfered in transit. You know how people just love to steal broken xboxen! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM I did actually state to the lady on the support line that I didnt want to be held responsible for the state of the Xbox upon return if I’m providing the packaging myself, she said not to worry as it will just be ‘disposed’ of upon arrival! Oh dear! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: akeem EMAIL: akeemphilbert@gmail.com URL: http://ak33m.com DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM This happened to me very recently. I sent out my xbox 360 to them friday and got a new one the following monday because they shipped everything overnight (there was a delay in sending me the empty box so I am not sure if expedited my stuff to make up for it) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kayel091 EMAIL: liam_kaye@hotmail.co.uk URL: DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM You, shouldn’t av got a new one… its a desighn fault were when the xbox gets too hot the chip board gets warped… if u get another one its jus gonna happen to that one too… you can get clamps installed too hold the board in place an solve the problem… it’s probably gonna happen to u again within the year… sorry! : ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM @kayel091: So far as I’m aware refurbished units have a different heatsink configuration and in some cases users are receiving new units with the Falcon motherboard using the 65nm CPU. In any case both scenarios drastically reduce the chances of RROD but yes, it ‘could’ happen again! I will just have to wait and see. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Joe Blackwell EMAIL: jpblackwell@googlemail.com URL: DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM I too have had my 360 replaced recently, and must say I was pretty impressed with the service offered. It was away for a week in total, and appears to have had some kind of hardware overhaul. When it arrived back, although the case and serial number were the same, it was sporting the ‘as-new’ protective stickers on the disc tray and IR port. It also sounds a lot quiter than before, so I presume it now has a new Falcon motherboard.

    I’m not sure how the returns policy works, but some of my friends have had ‘coffins’ posted out to them wheras I had to fork out for a box and bubble wrap and post it myself. Anyone have any ideas as to why this is?!

    Hope your repair is as swift as mine… ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM I got an email from Microsoft yesterday to tell me that my console is on it’s way back already! Sounds promising! :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: GAZ THE GAMER EMAIL: ezzerthemanor@hotmail.co.uk URL: DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM HELP I HAVE THE THREE RINGS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
    HELP HELP HELP
    HELP ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hugh McCulloch EMAIL: hughmcculloch@hughmcculloch.plus.com URL: DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM Hi Nathan
    I read your ‘Ring of Death’ story with great interest – as that is EXACTLY what happened to me on Sunday. My 360 is over 2 years old – but has been used sparingly over that time. Can you give me the Microsoft UK contact details which got you a result? Do you think I can achieve the same?
    Many Thanks

    Hugh ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Link EMAIL: scooteryerian@yahoo.com URL: DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM I just sent my xbox out for the second time!!!! I had my first xbox for about six months got the ring of death, sent it out….... Got a refurbished unit back… It lasted about six months….. We’ll see how long this unit I get back lasts…. I can’t complain I guess… I got a free game out of them this time, even though it was Viva Pinata….. I asked for a brand new unit, we’ll see what they send me… ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM @Hugh: I just looked up the number on Xbox.com… it was a Longdon number but the call center is based in India. The lady I spoke to was very helpful, albeit very obviously reading from a script. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: William EMAIL: glassman_708@hotmail.com URL: DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM If you played more than once every3 weeks, you’d be one of the millions of others who have had 4-5 consoles replaced and I bet you wouldn’t be so impressed. I’m not impressed because I am on #3 and I am watching the garbage red ring on me right now, that’s 4 consoles in under 2 years. The only person I know who hasn’t had his garbage 360 crap out plays once every 2 months or so. TRUTH!!!!! RECALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ERROL EMAIL: ERROLK69@YAHOO.COM URL: DATE: 05/23/2008 08:03:00 PM Mine crapped out 2 weeks ago to this day. Does anyone know if they are just sending refurbs or truly repairing the problem now that it has been identified? -----
-------- TITLE: The obligatory Happy Birthday to me post AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 05/12/2008 04:47:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal CATEGORY: ----- BODY: Happy Birthday to me. 31 today. :) That's it. Ta ta. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: OS X desktop as a music video AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 05/10/2008 06:50:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Mac CATEGORY: Marketing/Advertising ----- BODY: A digital filmmaker named "Dennis Liu":http://www.dennisaliu.com/ has made an amazing video for "The Bird And The Bee's":http://www.thebirdandthebee.com/ lovely song "Again & Again". The set? His Mac desktop. You sort of have to see it for yourself to understand; luckily, Dennis has dropped it on YouTube so that the world can see it in -low-res- "hi-res":http://www.insideonlinevideo.com/2008/03/04/youtube-tests-hd/ glory: This is just awesome. Kudos to Dennis Liu for such a creative approach. (via "TUAW":http://feeds.tuaw.com/~r/weblogsinc/tuaw/~3/287512577/ and "MacRumours Forum":http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=481998). ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Creative Assembly May 08 AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 05/07/2008 08:56:30 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Chatter CATEGORY: Employment ----- BODY: Another great turn out last night for our 2nd "Creative Assembly":http://www.creativeassembly.net meeting. Thanks again to everyone who made it and for those that didn't, not to worry because you can "come and join us":http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/598736/ on Tuesday the 3rd of June! :) ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 05/07/2008 08:56:30 PM On a School night!!! :D -----
-------- TITLE: It's not you, it's me... AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 04/20/2008 10:39:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal CATEGORY: Blogging ----- BODY: I'm just not in love with 'regular' blogging like I was before. The spark has gone and it's not coming back. Add to that the fact that I simply don't have the time or the inclination to blog like I used to... it's not you, it's me. So it's time to think about how to adapt this site to better reflect the time I can commit to it on an ongoing basis, perhaps integrating feeds from other areas of the web where I am more active; "Facebook":http://www.facebook.com/p/Nathan_Pitman/665583273, "Flickr":http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanpitman/, "Delicious":http://del.icio.us/nathanpitman and "Last.fm":http://www.last.fm/user/nathanpitman/. Nowadays "Twitter":http://twitter.com/nathanpitman seems more and more appealing, providing a outlet for short and sweet comment on life. For a long time I've been hoping to migrate this site from "Textpattern":http://www.textpattern.com/ to "Expression Engine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman so this seems like the ideal opportunity to do so. I've had an "initial tinker":http://expressionengine.com/forums/viewthread/52585/ and it looks like I should be able to migrate all the content fairly easily. From there I'm going to have a play with the fantastically clever "Expression Engine 'FeedGrab' plug-in":http://www.brandnewbox.co.uk/logbook/article/feedgrab_expression_engine_plugin/ by Andrew Weaver which should allow me to pull together the various strands of data associated with me from across the internet and present them in one location. So if things get a little funky here, you know why. :) ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 04/20/2008 10:39:00 PM >>“For a long time I’ve been hoping to migrate this site from Textpattern to Expression Engine so this seems like the ideal opportunity to do so.”

    Hey Nathan, I’m on the edge of doing the same thing! But I’m going to hold off until EE 2.0 is launched in the Summer (you’ve seen the preview right?)...and maybe by then I’ll also justify the cost of the Commercial Version – which is what I’ll need in order to do the things I want to do with my site. Until then, TXP stays. I upgraded it to 4.0.6. seamlessly last night…piece of cake! :)

    Best of luck with whatever you decide to do with the site. I understand what you mean about the blogging too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 04/20/2008 10:39:00 PM @Matt: Yes I saw the preview. It certainly looks interesting but there’s no solid release date so don’t hold your breath! :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Craig Grannell EMAIL: cngrannell@yahoo.com URL: http://reverttosaved.com DATE: 04/20/2008 10:39:00 PM Being typically contrary and having found myself with a couple of ‘spare’ days this week, I’ve just done the exact opposite and relaunched Revert to Saved. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 04/20/2008 10:39:00 PM @Craig: Great to see Revert to Saved resurrected! :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew Pennell EMAIL: matt@thewatchmakerproject.com URL: www.thewatchmakerproject.com DATE: 04/20/2008 10:39:00 PM I’m about to do the same, as soon as I’ve figured out how to pipe in my Tumblr content (and finished the new design).

    I’m wondering whether to even bother importing the old content, though, or whether it might be better to keep the old version of the site and start again with a blank slate… -----
-------- TITLE: Creative Assembly April 08 AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 04/02/2008 10:14:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Chatter CATEGORY: Employment ----- BODY: Well we had our inaugural "Creative Assembly":http://www.creativeassembly.net meeting last night in the Atrium Bar at the South Hill Park Arts Centre. I was expecting a turnout of 6 or 7 people but I was blown away when 18 people turned up. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come along! :) ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Hello Mr Cripps AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 01/23/2008 08:50:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Employment CATEGORY: Personal ----- BODY: !/images/169.gif! A couple of days late but please join me in congratulating *Paul Cripps* on his position as Senior New Media Designer/Developer/Monkey at "Nine Four":http://www.ninefour.co.uk. And thanks Chris for the kind words of advice. :) ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 01/23/2008 08:50:00 PM Congratulations Paul!

    Nathan: Well done for getting a new colleague too!
    I don’t know who Chris is, but it seems like good advice. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul Cripps EMAIL: paulcripps@hotmail.com URL: www.paulcripps.com DATE: 01/23/2008 08:50:00 PM Less of the monkey jokes & bananas, I’m still chomping on school bars we got hooked on at Mirashade!
    It is a pleasure to be on board, I think its going to be a top "banana" year!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andrew Strachan EMAIL: info@apricot-studios.com URL: www.apricot-studios.com DATE: 01/23/2008 08:50:00 PM Congrats Nathan and Paul (I make it sound like you’re getting married!) – I’m sure 2008 will be a bumper year. Not a banana gag in sight too. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 01/23/2008 08:50:00 PM Paul: Re: http://www.paulcripps.com/index.php?id=76

    ....Can totally see the likeness between these photos by the way – made me laugh! :D ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ryan EMAIL: ryansfields@gmail.com URL: http://ryanfields.com DATE: 01/23/2008 08:50:00 PM He is no doubt in great company at his new gig!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Danny EMAIL: dannyjlim@yahoo.com URL: dannywrites.com DATE: 01/23/2008 08:50:00 PM I love the graphic you have there, I am going to have to add a picture to go with the bananas quote! There’s a ton of good jokes to go with that! -----
-------- TITLE: Jobs @ Erskine Design AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 01/11/2008 05:16:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: Just in case you know of anyone who fancies joining "Erskine Design":http://www.erskinedesign.com, they're hiring again. "The jobs":http://www.erskinedesign.com/jobs/ (PHP/MySQL Developer & Creative Developer) are at either the Nottingham OR Leeds office right here in the UK. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: 2 x Web Developers - Berkshire, UK. AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 12/14/2007 03:03:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: Glen Richardson from IQ Development is making an appeal for web developers. At the moment they have an immediate requirement for 2 developers and will also be hiring on a regular basis throughout next year. h3. Important Stats * *Send e-mail to:* "jobs@iq-development.com":mailto:jobs@iq-development.com?subject=Application%20from%20nathanpitman.com * *Closing date:* Ongoing * *Start date:* ASAP * *Salary:* Negotiable, please submit your expectations h3. Job Spec IQ Development are the UK's only company that supplies web development services exclusively to other agencies. Our client base are design agencies and our workload is made up of work they have outsourced. This means our workload is high, varied, deadlines are tight and our clients are very clued-up as to what we do and how we do it. We must always be at the top of our game. We work on Mac OS X and with (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, PHP and MySQL. Our development workflow is Object Oriented and it is essential you have an excellent understanding and experience of this area. You will report directly to the technical director. h3. Minimum Requirements: * 1 years commercial PHP experience * Object Oriented PHP Development * MySQL * Pure semantic (X)HTML with CSS * Able to be part of a team * Strong head for problem solving and "self-help" debugging h3. Additional experience for senior roles: * 5 years commercial PHP experience * Advanced SQL (with MySQL) * JavaScript * XML * Excellent client manner * Collaborative development experience h3. Nice to have: * Actionscript * Smarty template library * Various PEAR packages * Professional Mac OS usage * AJAX and DOM scripting Please send us an "e-mail":mailto:jobs@iq-development.com?subject=Application%20from%20nathanpitman.com to let us know why you're the person for the job, together with a list of websites you have worked on, your involvement with them, and what you like to get up to in your spare time. Good Luck! IQ Development. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Web Developer - Berkshire, UK. AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 11/15/2007 09:49:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: *Update:* This position has now been filled. At "Nine Four":http://www.ninefour.co.uk we're looking for a *web developer* to work with us on a part or full time basis here in our itty bitty Studio in "Bracknell":http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Bracknell,+UK, Berkshire (UK). The ideal candidate will have an eye for detail, understand the value of design and be able to work happily with: * PHP & MySQL * XHTML & CSS (you must truly 'get' semantic markup) * Application Frameworks like 'Code Igniter' or 'CakePHP' * Content Management Systems such as 'ExpressionEngine, TextPattern or WordPress' JavaScript and/or ActionScript skills would be advantageous. This is an excellent opportunity to become part of a growing business and play a key role in it's development. If you want the job then "get in touch":http://www.ninefour.co.uk and perhaps we can hook up for a chat. Salary will be commensurate with experience. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: The faulty door on our Kia Sedona AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 10/29/2007 04:31:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal CATEGORY: ----- BODY: The electric sliding door on our brand new Kia Sedona leaves something to be desired. It fails to close properly most days, either beeping to alert us that it isn't fully closed, re-opening fully of it's own accord immediately after it has closed, or on one occasion re-opening whilst the car was in transit with all 3 children on board. Suffice to say we are not impressed. The car is now on it's 3rd visit to the dealership to try and resolve the problem (which they cannot reproduce). I think my next step is a call to BBC Watchdog and demand a full refund on the vehicle. *Update:* 15 months on and we're still having "problems with our Kia Sedona":/journal/563/kia-sedona-reliability. ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: LaMont EMAIL: tnomal@comcast.net URL: DATE: 10/29/2007 04:31:00 PM I have the same problem. Just called Kia and was on the phone for about 15 minutes. I mentioned this video also. Great documentation! It appears this is now a know issue. They were very receptive and said they would take care of the problem immediately. I’ll wait to see what happens. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: kia@womble.org URL: DATE: 10/29/2007 04:31:00 PM My new Sedona is doing something similar—the sliding door sometimes pops slightly open just after it closes—- its not enough for the door to automatically reopen, but an open door is an open door.

    Just called the dealer and he says that its a known problem which has been esculated to KIA UK for a fix. The dealer sys that they have tried replacing all the parts of a faulty door and that did not fix the problem which is why they have escualted it.

    He says I will get a call back in a day or two—- more news as I have it ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anonymous EMAIL: URL: DATE: 10/29/2007 04:31:00 PM well, I have a sedona too and planning to sell it due to the same problem that you have. it really sucks! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: James EMAIL: kia@womble.org URL: DATE: 10/29/2007 04:31:00 PM My KIA dealer says that they have successful fixed the problem on their demo model and have now applied these fixes to my KIA on the faulty door.

    I am a bit puzzled that they only tweak the faulty back door rather than apply the fixes to both back doors as a matter of course (the risk of having a sliding door opening whilst the car is moving is very serious)

    Any progress on yours? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anonymous EMAIL: . URL: DATE: 10/29/2007 04:31:00 PM My Kia Sedona is now in for repair with the electrical doors for the 6th time. All the fixes have not worked!!!! I am now in the process of getting my money back. My doors open whilst driving exposing my 3 young children!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: John Silk EMAIL: johnsilk@blueyonder.co.uk URL: DATE: 10/29/2007 04:31:00 PM Hi,

    I’ve been having the same problem with my LS, new as of june ‘07, i’ve been told that mine is the only one that their ‘fixes’ hasn’t worked for!!!
    i’ve asked for a replacement and been told that there is nothing wrong with mine now!
    I’m just about to get legal so can you drop me a line and let me know what’s the latetest as i too have written to BBC ‘Watchdog’.

    Cheers,

    John ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: john allen EMAIL: johnallen709@yahoo.com URL: DATE: 10/29/2007 04:31:00 PM HI we too are having problems with our sedona but for over a year now.
    the dealership where we bought it keep fobbing us off with lame excuses and admitted to us that they had forgotton about it (and us).
    so we are now taking it to a solicitor to see if we can get our money back! not holding out much hope. as it seems that all Kia want is your money!!!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Pebbles EMAIL: smalltownpackrat@yahoo.com URL: DATE: 10/29/2007 04:31:00 PM I’m really sorry to hear about these problems y’all have been having with your Kia! My hubby & I had been thinking about buying a new car, and Kia was on the short list! I think maybe now it won’t be on the list at all! -----
-------- TITLE: ColdFusion Developer - Windsor, UK AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 10/16/2007 09:53:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: *Company:* "Rawnet":http://www.rawnet.com *Job Title:* ColdFusion Developer *Description:* We need one or more enthusiastic, high-quality ColdFusion developers that are passionate about the web and can fit straight into our development team of five. *Essentials:* ColdFusion, CFCs, XHTML/CSS for layout, Javascript, SQL. *Desirable:* Linux/Unix, Apache, Flash (ActionScript), Prototype, Scriptaculous, Subversion, MySQL, SQL Server, Fusebox. You will maintain existing client websites alongside working on several new, exciting projects. You must be an "all-rounder" and confidently juggle several tasks at once. We're also using Ruby on Rails and investigating other technologies so you must be able and positive about learning new languages and techniques. We're a young, sociable, 20-person company based near Windsor Castle and you can easily get here from either London (Waterloo/Paddington) or Reading. If you think you're a Rawnet person then please email "DeveloperCV@rawnet.com":mailto:DeveloperCV@rawnet.com?subject=Application%20for%20Coldfusion%20dev%20from%20nathanpitman.com and attach your CV and a covering letter. If you have a website/blog then please include the URL. We expect to be able to Google you! ----- ----- -------- TITLE: I want to Buy a Puss3 AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 10/05/2007 11:27:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Humour CATEGORY: ----- BODY: Brilliant! ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Wendy EMAIL: wendycarlyles@yahoo.com URL: http://www.wendycarlyle.com DATE: 10/05/2007 11:27:00 PM That is some funny shit right there. Arabs sound just like when they say Play Station. -----
-------- TITLE: Hacking Expression Engine to add radio buttons and checkboxes to custom member profile fields AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 09/20/2007 04:07:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Code CATEGORY: ExpressionEngine ----- BODY: Don't get me wrong, I love "Expression Engine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman but sometimes you just come up against a brick wall and the only solution is to either pay someone to write a very clever extension or hack the system files about yourself (not for the faint hearted!). During a recent project I needed to implement some basic member functionality and add some custom profile fields for the member accounts. No problem, Expression Engine has this covered. But (You knew there was going to be a but) it only provides support for text input, text area and select field types. Boo! I 'needed' to be able to present users with a greater variety of input types such as checkboxes and radio buttons. So, with a little help from the fanatical "EllisLab":http://ellislab.com/ staff I set about 'hacking' that very feature into the product. I've "documented the steps that I took":http://expressionengine.com/wiki/Enable_radio_buttons_and_checkboxes_for_custom_member_profile_fields/ in a Wiki article on the Expression Engine website. :) For further discussion on this topic please also see "the related Expression Engine discussion forum thread":http://expressionengine.com/forums/viewthread/60304/. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Junior Creative Developer - London, UK AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 09/13/2007 04:41:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: JPCreative, a successful and busy London based design & communications agency with a 9 year track record in delivering award winning creative solutions are seeking to add to our team with the introduction of a Junior Creative Developer. Working on a superb variety of clients and projects you will offer a rare mix of skills combining an excellent eye for web/interactive design and also demonstrating the ability to bring designs to life through your proven development skills. The successful candidate will play an instrumental role in the ongoing development of our digital business and will be given every opportunity to grow and develop within the team. h3. The Candidate People call you a hybrid as you are a rare breed who mixes an excellent eye for design with outstanding technical delivery. Passionate about the internet, you use it everyday for almost everything! Hungry to learn, you keep on top of emerging trends through the portals, forums and newsletters you subscribe to. Ideas driven and a lateral thinker, you demonstrate a keen acumen, understanding and enthusiasm for interactive design and development. You have the ability to work well with both technical and non-technical people and can act as an excellent liaison between the client, design and development teams. You have a can-do attitude, thrive under pressure and enjoy being part of a positive, highly motivated and friendly team. h3. The Role Working within a small team to initially aid in the design and production of websites you will soon be working independently on your own projects and clients. Daily work will be diverse and refreshingly challenging. A typical day could include any of the following: Interface design; technical implementation; server set up and management of client hosting; meeting with colleagues to discuss and educate how the web can be used, animation for an exhibition projection and much more besides! h3. The Rewards A rare opportunity to flex both your creative and technical muscle, you will be empowered to manage your own work and can make your own choices and decisions whilst being offered all the support, training and development you need to truly thrive! Work in a happy, friendly, positive studio in the bustling centre of Brixton. Be part of a fast growing agency with a superb mix of local and international clients. h3. The Skills *GRAPHICS//* ability to produce designs and then prep them for the web using the usual suspects in this industry (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash). *HTML & CSS//* as a keen adopter of Web 2.0 and with a good understanding of web accessibility you will pride yourself on producing top class HTML & CSS that will pass all standards testing. *FLASH//* the obvious animation skills, and some action script to build on. The ability to tween with code an advantage as is the ability to keep code in one place with the use of functions, though these are things that can be mentored. *EXPERIENCE//* Passion and positive enthusiasm are most important, but a minimum of 1-2 years agency experience would be a distinct advantage. An interest or experience in video editing, PHP and hosting solutions would also be advantageous, but by no means essential, as would a keen interest in emerging technologies. Ultimately, an impossible to disguise raw passion for interactive design and development coupled with some solid, but junior level skills, will be enough to see you start a rapid ascent at a great agency! *Please send your covering letter, current cv and salary expectations to:* "Claire@jpcreative.co.uk":mailto:Claire@jpcreative.co.uk?subject=Application%20for%20junior%20creative%20dev%20from%20nathanpitman.com. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Digital Designer - Reading, Berks, UK AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 08/28/2007 02:05:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: "Distribution Technology":http://www.distribution-technology.com are a leading-edge financial services software company looking for a creative, energetic and highly intelligent digital designer. The position would suit a hard working graduate or someone in the earlier stages of their digital design career, whatever your age. The role: * Assist Product Managers and Sales with: Preparing product literature and presentation material Preparing standard wireframe sets for proposition Re-branding generic wireframe sets Preparing specific sales graphics and conceptuals Preparing asset model flash demonstration * Provide project based services on: Product implementations Working with clients to produce product screen designs * Provide screen designs for internal product development * Work with Photoshop and Illustrator to produce eye catching designs * The opportunity to develop into Flex development, video development, software usability design, information architecture and to lead creative user experience design sessions with clients The ideal candidate will have: * A strong understanding of user experience design, interactivity and accessibility issues * A knack of visually communicating difficult or abstract concepts * The ability to communicate and explain ideas in design workshops * A thorough knowledge of HTML and CSS * JavaScript is desirable but not essential * The ability to produce arresting visuals in a variety of styles * The ability to think through user experience * Numeracy * Attention to detail and a commitment to perfection Our offer: * Up to £35,000 per annum dependant on experience * 10% performance related bonus per annum * Access to Pension scheme * 22 days holiday To find out more and apply for this position visit the "Distribution Technology employment website":http://www.workatdt.com/contact_us/position/Digital%20Designer. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: My car, for sale: Toyota MR2 Roadster AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 08/13/2007 07:45:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal CATEGORY: ----- BODY: The time has come to part company with my beloved car. Working from home has meant that it rarely gets driven these days and so I'm 'downsizing', most likely buying a 2nd hand Toyota Aygo or something similar. The MR2 Roadster combines some fantastic ingredients; a 1.8 litre VVTI engine, low kerb weight, mid mounted engine, rear wheel drive, two seats, open top driving and great looks (in my opinion). !/images/168.jpg (Toyota MR2 Roadster)! I love the MR2 so much that I've owned two in recent years, it's reliable enough to be used as an every day car whilst still retaining that elusive ingredient which makes it hard to get out and walk away without a huge grin on your face! *The car is as follows;* W Reg (2000) Manual, Convertible, 41,000 miles, Black with Leather Upholstery, Alloy wheels, ABS, Alarm, Airbags, Electric windows & mirrors, Sony CD/Tape Stereo. Full Toyota SH, 2 owners from new, MOT until June 08, Tax until Feb 08. Ins Grp 13. £6,995. If you're seriously interested then drop me an email 'nathan at nine four dot co dot uk' or call me on 01344 860156. Please leave a message if there's no answer. *Update:* The car is now sold. ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Drew McLellan EMAIL: comments@allinthehead.com URL: allinthehead.com DATE: 08/13/2007 07:45:00 AM We’ve been here before. How long did it take you after selling the previous MR2 before you couldn’t take it any longer and had to get another? ;)

    The Aygo is a nice little car. My mother drives one. :P ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: nathan@ninefour.co.uk URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 08/13/2007 07:45:00 AM Hmm, I think it was about 6 months. ;)

    However, given that I drive the MR2 perhaps once or twice every two weeks I think I’ll survive this time! Plus I’ve kinda fallen for the cheeky little Aygo and it has a ‘line in’ so it will be a great excuse to get an iPod. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Robin EMAIL: mattrobin05@gmail.com URL: www.mattrobin.com DATE: 08/13/2007 07:45:00 AM That’s a lovely car Nathan (I’m a fan of this version of the MR2 as well)....I might be interested. The Group 13 Insurance might hurt me too much though…I’ll have to check and then get back to you.

    Matt ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: nathan@ninefour.co.uk URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 08/13/2007 07:45:00 AM Matt, as for what you’d expect to pay it all depends obviously though for reference I check every year on Confused.com. This year esure worked out best for me at £320 fully comp with no claims protected and the wifey as a named driver. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: almanca tercüman EMAIL: cevirihizmetleri1@hotmail.com URL: DATE: 08/13/2007 07:45:00 AM How long did it take you after selling the previous MR2 before you couldn’t take it any longer and had to get another.. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 08/13/2007 07:45:00 AM @almanca: I think it was about 6 months. This time I think things will be different though. The Aygo which I now have is just as much fun to drive as the MR2 so long as you’re not concerned with top speed or acceleration. :) -----
-------- TITLE: Junior Front-end developer - Wokingham, Berks, UK AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 08/08/2007 12:20:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: h3. Volume is a marketing technology specialist providing creative and sophisticated solutions for well-known corporate clients. Our digital media team works on a variety of projects including DVD interactive presentations, 3D and animation to large-scale websites and bespoke software applications. Due to new business wins and extended long-term projects, we are looking for a talented and enthusiastic designer/content producer to join our expanding technology team, working from blank screen through to finished output. h4. Junior Front-end developer Excellence in (x)HTML and CSS for styling, as well as layout are key requisites. Experience with ASP/ASP.Net and Visual Studio would be a distinct advantage with the desire to work in a dynamic team and contribute in all areas. The ability to see a project through to completion is a must and successful candidates will need a high level of design skill and technical ability. Extensive experience in full scale web sites, web applications and interactive media builds, as well as more tactical outputs such as email templates. Key requirements: * Advanced knowledge of CSS * Advanced knowledge of (x)HTML * Understanding of semantics and web accessibility issues - with application of WCAG and W3C guidelines * Application of web standards * Knowledge of cross-browser / multiple device development and quirks * Working knowledge of Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks Additional benefits: * Knowledge of XML * JavaScript * Presentation layer development with ASP.NET or C#.NET within Visual Studio Salary and benefits: * Dependant on experience * PMI * Pension contributions If you would like to work for us please get in touch with us at volume@volume.co.uk with your CV. For more company information visit www.volume.co.uk. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: SiteVista to become Litmus AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 08/01/2007 04:04:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Web development CATEGORY: ----- BODY: I'm rather excited about the news that the "SiteVista":http://www.sitevista.com/blog/archives/2007/07/introducing-litmus.html team have been hard at work on a big shiny update to their website and email testing tools which will be relaunched as 'Litmus'. !/images/167.gif! I use SiteVista on a regular basis, in the most part as a tool to help me refine and bug fix HTML email templates. With Outlook 2007 well and truly out there it's great to have a platform to hand that you can quickly and easily test on, even if in most cases you end up weeping at the result of Microsoft's dabbling with the Outlook rendering engine. The news of a revised interface and lightning-fast testing makes me feel all wobbly at the knees! Don't keep us waiting too long guys! :) ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul Farnell EMAIL: paul@salted.com URL: www.sitevista.com/ DATE: 08/01/2007 04:04:00 PM Thanks for the link, Nathan. We’re glad you’re excited. We’ll be launching in about 10 days time, so you’ve not got too long to wait. -----
-------- TITLE: Looking for an SEO partner AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/27/2007 04:16:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: At "nine four":http://www.ninefour.co.uk we're looking to establish a relationship with an *individual or small business* that can provide honest (no black magic please) SEO consultancy. Typically this will involve providing a written report on the current state of a website, making suggestions as to how the website could be improved and then getting your hands dirty and making the changes to the site itself. If you think you might be the right person for the job then trot over to "our website":http://www.ninefour.co.uk and drop us an email. I look forward to hearing from you. :) ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Jobs going at Voyage - Reading, Berks, UK AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 07/05/2007 07:28:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: h3. Fantastic freelance creatives Are you an experienced creative happily freelancing and would rather not take a full time job? then we may have something which may interest you. We’re looking to build a database of ‘guest designers’ you’ll be working on high end creative projects assisting the team and used to being up against tight deadlines. You will have an excellent portfolio of brands, campaigns, web, exhibition graphics, retail environments...You like the look of us and our work and you would like to be a part of it. If this sounds like your cup of tea, drop us an email. guestdesigners@voyagedesign.co.uk h3. Amazing artworker You’re an experienced artworker. You understand process, are organised & methodical. You love working as part of a team and playing your part in delivering great design work. Plus you’ll be a Creative Suite genius. If this sounds like you, then get in touch. flourish@voyagedesign.co.uk h3. Experienced creative You are an experienced creative and you’ll have a portfolio that demonstrates your ability to create great brands with campaignability. You’ll love presenting your ideas & keeping your projects ship shape. You’ve got passion & skills to motivate, you’re a team player & believe you can build on the fantastic work we’ve produced so far. If this position sounds right up your street then get in touch. flourish@voyagedesign.co.uk ----- ----- -------- TITLE: When Spotlight Attacks AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 06/28/2007 04:12:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Mac CATEGORY: ----- BODY: With my MacBook only being a couple of weeks old there are still a few kinks to iron out in the "Nine Four":http://www.ninefour.co.uk IT infrastructure, one of those being printing to a shared printer on a Windows machine which I affectionately call 'Oto'. After having tried a number of drivers that are pre-installed with OS X and had no luck I decided to Google my problem and discovered a Tech note on the apple website which suggested that the drivers I needed could be installed from the OS X install disc. I followed the instructions and ran the installer, at this point OS X hangs completely, no access to the finder, no spinning ball of death, nothing. A few minutes pass with no further activity and I decide to force a hard reboot. On restarting everything seems fine, I get the log-in prompt, enter my password and up pops my wallpaper, and then after a long wait, the spotlight and then after an even longer wait... nothing. I restart again, I get the same thing. This is where the power of Google comes in handy, as does having a Windows machine called 'Oto' sitting around. I Google '_spotlight appears doesn't start up os x_' and bam the first hit is a blog post by a guy called Philip McClure which "talks about the exact same problem":http://grimthing.com/archives/2006/01/07/Mac_OSX_Tiger_hangs_on_boot/. After a lengthy and very interesting read I take the advice of one of his commenters and download a little shareware app called "Onyx":http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html. I drop it onto a USB drive, copy it across to the MacBook (To start in safe mode hold down the shift key on boot), install it and then use it to safely delete the Spotlight index, as this apparently is what is causing my problem. I restart my MacBook, log-in, the wallpaper pops up then after an excruciating wait (which I can only assume is spotlight rebuilding it's index) everything is back to normal. Panic over! *Update:* Argh! It happened again on Wednesday night (11/07/07) but was easy to sure thanks to Onyx. *Update:* The Spotlight index got corrupted 'again' today (31/07/07) but was again easy to fix with Onyx. Twice in one month is a bit much though. :/ ----- ----- -------- TITLE: The Snip AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal CATEGORY: ----- BODY: I'm sat here writing this from my bed, laid up with testicles that feel like they're the size of Melons. And the Melons, they're throbbing. This morning I went and had a "Vasectomy":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasectomy. A simple and mostly painless operation which takes no more than 15 minutes and requires only a local anaesthetic. Why am I telling you this you may ask, well because I feel inclined to communicate 'something' given the general response I had prior to the operation from other men. The general consensus seems to be that in having a Vasectomy you somehow permanently give up some of your manlihood, that the operation will be painful and that you will be shaved prior to the op by a very attractive nurse, leading to a somewhat embarrassing situation. None of this is true. I'll admit that although I was very 'gun ho' in the week leading up to my op, this morning as my wife drove me to the surgical centre I felt somewhat nervous. More than anything I was nervous about stripping off in front of a couple of complete strangers, I guess because it's not something us blokes really do with great frequency. Women on the other hand are pretty much at ease with anyone taking a look at their bits having gone through child birth a few times and the regular 'smear tests' that we have here in the UK. On arriving at the centre I had a short consultation with the nurse, she asked the usual medical questions and gave me some information on recovery. 3 months after the op you have to provide 2 samples to confirm that there are no longer any traces of sperm in your semen. If the results are negative then you're given the OK and you're good to go, if not then you may have to return for a 2nd operation. If I remember correctly there's a 1 in 750 chance that the op might be unsuccessful. Pretty good odds I think. Soon I was called in to see the Doctor, *this was it, the moment I had been dreading*. The Doctor seemed a nice chap and was very conversational, I was asked to strip from the waist down and lie on the operating table. After a quick inspection to verify that I did indeed have 2 testicles the Doctor injects the first anaesthetic into my right testicle, this was much less painful that I was expecting. After a minute or so has passed the incision is made, I really couldn't feel a thing at this stage though the doctor talked me through what he was doing, making the incision a couple of inches below the base of the penis and then snipping the tube that runs from the right testicle. At this stage I'm starting to feel like less of a pansy and I manage to relax a little more. With the right testicle done the Doctor injects the 2nd anaesthetic. For some obscure reason this one really smarts, but I grit my teeth and it's done before I know it. The Doctor snips my left testicle tube and sets about closing the incision. A few minutes pass and we're done. So much less painful than I was expecting. I have to wear snug fitting underwear for a few days and try to rest up as much as possible but that's it. I'm told that it will feel a little like I've been kicked in the balls for a couple of days and there will be some visible bruising. So, if you've been putting 'the snip' off, there's really nothing to worry about, regardless of what you might have heard. :) ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paul Cripps EMAIL: paulcripps@hotmail.com URL: paulcripps.com DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM Nath, it sounds like the journey into the unknown (as it always tends to be) was a little daunting.

    I hope the recovery is good, (you deserve time off working as hard as you do anyway!).

    All the best, Paulo. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM You think I can afford to take time off with 3 kids to keep clothed and fed? I’m working bed for the next couple of days to try and reduce the swelling! :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Clint EMAIL: grumpee@gmail.com URL: DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM I had this done a few years ago and it wasn’t bad. I loved just having to sit around for a few days :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matthew Pennell EMAIL: matt@thewatchmakerproject.com URL: www.thewatchmakerproject.com/ DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM Welcome to the club, Nathan – you decided you’d had enough of babies popping up everywhere as well, then? ;)

    I felt back to normal after a day or so, and was ahem back in action after about a week. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jim Priest EMAIL: priest@thecrumb.com URL: http://www.thecrumb.com DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM My old co-worker used to say: “Now I’m shootin blanks!” :)

    A bag (or two) of frozen corn will be handy probably in a few hours once the real pain kicks in :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: matt EMAIL: gramlichmatt@hotmail.com URL: DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM Oh good god. Tminus 72 hours and I about pass out every time just a hint of how you are numbed oooooooooohohhohohhohohoho. ow ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Smith EMAIL: nathan@sonspring.com URL: http://sonspring.com/ DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM Yowch! Here’s to hoping for a speedy recovery. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Craig EMAIL: qrayg@qrayg.com URL: solardreamstudios.com DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM I had this done about a year ago too. It wasn’t all that bad. For me the best part was the 3 weeks after. You need to bring in 2 “samples” a few weeks apart but before that you need to “clean the pipes” at least 50 times. My wife did very well in that department. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: nathan@ninefour.co.uk URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM Here in the UK it’s a 3 month wait! But yes, I too was instructed that I would need to “clean the pipes”. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Richard EMAIL: x.ray@ntlworld.com URL: DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM I had mine done the same day as you did! I too found the actual operation not particularly painful (needle insertion aside, which was rather uncomfortable), though I did become pretty nauseous and had to have a blast on the oxygen to make it subside. The pain really kicked in over the next few days though, constantly feeling like I’d been punched in the balls 10 minutes earlier, and took a good 5-6 days to fade. Still, all feeling much better now. Oh, and it’s 15 times, not 50! Wonder if I can con my missus with that one… :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: nathan@ninefour.co.uk URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 06/13/2007 02:14:00 PM @Richard: The exact number quoted seems to vary quite a bit, I was told at least 20 times. My crown jewels are pretty much fully recovered now, thank goodness! :) -----
-------- TITLE: XHTML/CSS Contract - Southampton, UK AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 06/12/2007 04:42:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: "Premier .it":http://www.premiergroupuk.com have an urgent requirement for an XHTML/CSS Guru to work for a fantastic company based in Southampton, UK. *Skills Required:* * Standards compliant (X)HTML * Good solid CSS * High-end DOM scripting (JavaScript) This is initially a *2-3 week contract* but there is definitely *scope to extend* - you will be helping out with one of the in-house programmers who is highly skilled in CSS. You must be able to hit the ground running and be able to start in the next couple of weeks. *To apply* drop "Russel Livesey":mailto:RLivesey@premierituk.com?subject=Job%20Application%20from%20nathanpitman.com&body=RE:%20http://nathanpitman.com/journal/510/ an email with your current CV and rates. ----- ----- -------- TITLE: Creative Director Reqd - Reading, Berks, UK AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 05/31/2007 10:22:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Jobs CATEGORY: ----- BODY: !/images/166.gif! *About You* You’ve done a bit of research & checked us out on the website ["voyage":http://bebrave.biz], and you are not intimidated by what you see. You can see where we have got to so far… and you instinctively think you might be the right person to take us forward from here. You love beautiful things and acknowledge them with grace & excitement - even competitor work. Always strive to better yourself & constantly feed your insatiable curiosity. This constant quest for design enrichment means you personally possess an enviable collection of well-thumbed & revered tombs of design, art & print books, samples of work you love, CD covers that delight you, paper company samples, & any other work that fires you. You have no fixed style of design. Delight in diversity. Hate ‘OK’ work. You understand the art of listening, are business savvy & understand the commercial importance of content and presentation. You naturally can’t help redesigning most things you see. You know how to distill key messages to target audiences. Understand simplicity is key. Never over-egg. Fabulous grasp of a brief. Believe that research is fundamental to what we do. Love group brainstorming. Never, ever run out of ideas. Love buzz and creating it. Know how to charge others up. Obsessed with typography. Clever with words, and wordology. You are very hands on & have extensive knowledge banks to call on when your team needs your help. Have been known to sketch. Have extensive notebooks in which you write everything down & draw on for reference. Probably remember the days you did it all by hand. Saw the first Mac Classic in & have got your eye on the iPhone. You are probably fed up with traveling in and out of London or you have hit that glass ceiling & feel frustrated. And Reading, well Reading seems like a cool place to be… maybe, just maybe its time for a change. Phone Jules and persuade me you could be our new Creative Director… 07989 565 074 *Note:* Remember to let Jules know where you saw this ad! ;) ----- ----- -------- TITLE: God is in the details AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 05/16/2007 04:51:00 PM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Design CATEGORY: Web development ----- BODY: Over the past few months I’ve been working with the team at "Voyage":http://www.bebrave.biz to develop and deliver their shiny new website. On the high of having the website complete they foolishly invited me to christen it with it’s inaugural "headline":http://www.bebrave.biz/headlines and tell you a little bit about the journey we’ve taken from concept to reality. Unlike a large number of agencies out there Voyage know what they do best. They have a team with *supreme creativity* and they leverage those skills to provide clients with *creative solutions that deliver results* across a wide variety of mediums. This is what makes working with Voyage as a partner so exciting. You know that the creative solution they propose is more than likely going to challenge the norm and push you to deliver something that breaks the mould. Working to develop a web driven solution that the Voyage team have proposed is always an enjoyable task, the more enjoyable the task is, the more involved you become in it and for that you get a much better end result. In short, everyone wins. !/images/165.jpg! Right from the start Voyage were very clear about the creative approach they wanted to take with their own website; incorporating a large horizontal canvas rather than the typical ‘vertical scroll’ that we’re all used to. It was also very clear that *simplicity was going to be a key factor* with '*God*' very much being '*in the details*' (_Ludwig Mies van der Rohe_). We faced a number of technical challenges in marrying a horizontal layout with the dynamic ‘content managed’ nature of the website. Voyage wanted to be able to add, edit and remove pretty much any piece of content on the website through a web based administration system ("Expression Engine":http://www.expressionengine.com/index.php?affiliate=nathanpitman) and it was this ‘dynamism’ which created problems for us. Never knowing how many columns a headline might require, or how many work examples might appear on the home page at any given time certainly gave us some headaches but we knew that we couldn’t compromise on the creative approach and so we didn’t, instead we persisted and found solutions to the problems. I’d like to think that the end result does a great deal to communicate what Voyage is about and that it will provide the company with the platform they hoped for to showcase their creative work. It has been a pleasure to work with the Voyage team on this project, they have high standards and know ‘exactly’ what they’re after. Good to know if you’re a prospective or current client of theirs. :) ----- -----
    COMMENT: AUTHOR: Josh EMAIL: jheyer@gmail.com URL: DATE: 05/16/2007 04:51:00 PM Beautiful website! And yet another testament to the flexibility of ExpressionEngine. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman EMAIL: hello@nathanpitman.com URL: www.nathanpitman.com DATE: 05/16/2007 04:51:00 PM @Josh: Indeed. Expression Engine is just ‘so’ flexible, you can quite literally mould it to meet any requirement.

    I should also mention that the Voyage website features a ‘semi secure client area’ powered by a bespoke module which Andrew Weaver developed for us.

    :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dan EMAIL: danieljoliver@gmail.com URL: www.danieloliver.co.uk DATE: 05/16/2007 04:51:00 PM Very neat work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alice EMAIL: alice@alicepretchet.com URL: http://www.alicepretchet.com DATE: 05/16/2007 04:51:00 PM Love the new look of the website. Looks like it would be a lot of fun to surf via the Microsoft Surface. -----
-------- TITLE: Joost Invites AUTHOR: Nathan Pitman DATE: 05/11/2007 07:15:00 AM PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: ----- BODY: !/images/164.gif! Yes, that's right. I've got "Joost":http://www.joost.com invites. Want me to hook you up? Leave a suitably amusing comment and your wish will be granted. :) *Update:* I've been inundated with requests for invites so bear with me. It may take a day or two for me to process your request. *Update: