"I've never seen garbage eat garbage before."

~ Clark Kent ~

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2010-03-10

b2evolution Base Tag Issue

b2evolution uses a base tag to help with its template system. This is fine in modern browsers but depending on how the base tag is written IE6 may refuse to show the site at all, even going to the point of giving the user a popup warning dialogue. The fix is quite simple and I've implemented it in the past for both Joomla and CMS Made Simple. Now it's time for the b2evolution version.

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2010-02-08

My HTC HD2

I really liked my Nokia E65, I've had it for ages now and it's treated me very well but the time came to move on. I opted for a HTC HD2. Yes, I know a Windows Mobile device. Shock horror. Well pardon my French but screw you guys! I've never actually owned a WinMo device and I prefer to make my own judgements. There is a new HTC phone I've got my eye on, the Supersonic which runs Android but it's not coming out for months and I wanted to try at least one WinMo device before jumping on the droid fanboi wagon.

I'm not going to review my new phone as there are already a zillion reviews out there which are probably better than anything I can write. This is a post about how I got my phone, was screwed by the original owner and have had to jump through the sim unlock and custom rom hoops to get to the final stage of my phone truely being mine.

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2010-01-27

Photoshop CS4 Batch Resize Images

So today I found myself with a few hundred photos of varying dimensions. Ideally I wanted them all to be quite small but maintain their aspect ratio. This is well easy to do in CS4.

  • Open Photoshop CS4 and do File->Scripts->Image Processor
  • We start in the first stage. Select the radio option next to the "Select Folder" button and then click the actual button.
  • Navigate to the directory with images inside and then tap OK to close the browse dialog.
  • In the second stage we can choose a new directory for the images. If you choose "Save in Same Location" which is the default then it will create a new directory inside the one we chose during the first stage. The new directory/directories are based on the image type(s) you pick in the 3rd stage. The directory names are JPEG, PSD and TIFF. It only creates the relevant directory for the type(s) you chose to output.
  • In the third stage we pick the file type we want to output. I wanted JPEGs so I ticked that option.
  • I set quality to 8 as I don't really see a difference between 7 and 10 except for the file size.
  • Tick the "Resize to Fit" option. Inside the W and H boxes enter your maximum desired width and height. I used W:400 and H:600. This does not mean all the images will be resized to those dimensions. What it means it that it will scale the images down until both axis fit within those limits. The gist of that is that it maintains the aspect ratio which is exactly what I want.
  • I unticked everything in the fourth stage as I didn't want any of that.
  • Note: Make sure everything is now set as you want it since once you start the processing there appears to be no way to stop it besides forcing Photoshop to close!
  • That's it, Now when I tap "Run" in the top right it will start processing each of the images.

2010-01-16

Sky HD Hidden Service Menu

The other day my satelite dish went on the fritz and I had to call Sky to sort it out. Turns out the simple fix in the end was to unplug the box from the mains and then plug it back in. The operator told me that sometimes when switching channels the LNB on the dish can get locked in the transition. Sounds a bit flimsy to me but whatever, it worked.

During the call though the first thing he did was guide me to the hidden service menu. This is for the Sky Amstrad HD box, it's a different code then with the non-HD box. To get to the hidden menu press Services on the remote, then press 0 0 1 Select. You should now see all the new menu options. I haven't really looked at any of them as I was being guided on the phone at the time. I just thought someone else may like to have a look around sometime. I will the next time I'm watching TV and it hits the adverts.

2010-01-13

Convert An Image To Color Swatches In Photoshop CS4

So I was sat here manually picking the colors from an image and it was taking ages. Turns out there is a really easy way to do this in Photoshop CS4. It exists in earlier versions but the process is a bit different and I couldn't actually find anywhere detailing how to do it with CS4. So here's my version for posterities sake.

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