I’ve created a new page that collates all the custom header images I’ve created for various posts and pages here on halfblog.net, for your viewing pleasure.
Blog Archives
WordPress pro tip: Use LESS or Sass directly in the CSS editor
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Tonight I have been tweaking my custom CSS and I noticed a rather cool setting. It turns out that you can write LESS or Sass directly into the CSS stylesheet editor that is available to WP.com users with a paid upgrade or to WP.org users via Automattic’s excellent Jetpack plugin.
Halfblog: Now AdFree
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I’ve finally decided to remove the ugly WordAds from this site, and upgraded to AdFree. I asked WordPress.com support about the possibility of spending the $30 I had accrued with WordAds on AdFree, knowing that they insist on paying out only when a user has accrued $100 of funds but reasoning that since I was spending money with them they might be able to make an exception. Nope:
Our finance department isn’t able to do it. One challenge is that our ad partners like Google Adsense don’t pay until a site has earned over $100. So if our finance department paid out accounts less than $100 we’d always be losing money on those.
I did appreciate the honest and frank answer though. Continue reading
Magazine in a Day – Cycling
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Update: 
As I mentioned previously on this blog, I’ve signed up a photographer for a fun project called Content: A Magazine in a Day, which is going to be taking place at the School of Journalism this Saturday as a part of the Cardiff Design Festival.
Since then a loose theme has been announced: Cycling – a theme that is running through many of the Design Festival events.
I’ve no idea who I’ll be working with or what direction the magazine will take, and I assume that’s the idea. Personally, I just hope the rain takes a break as I’ll be making use of my bike.
A fun WordPress trick: Customise your ‘Read more…’ text
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Here’s a fun trick I learned last night while creating a WordPress theme, and also works for WordPress.com blogs like this one.
Learn how to customise your own ‘Read more…’ text after the jump! →
Please stop
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This is one of my pet hates.
It’s sad that marketers have figured out how to get their brand into my timeline, even when I have chosen not to follow them. And even sadder that it works.
An alternative Windows 8 logo
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It’s hardly inspired, but I think it says ‘Metro’ far more than the real Windows 8 logo. Continue reading
Transformers 3 VFX breakdowns
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So much technology, talent and time in service of something so mediocre.
Intermission
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Stop SOPA/PIPA!
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WordPress.com are making it easy to black out your own website in protest of SOPA/PIPA. I realise that these are US bills, but the ramifications of such harmful legislation will be felt all over the world. If you are a US citizen, please take a stand!
Making a unique map of Cardiff
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Above: My walk home, tracked with OSMTrack for iOS and converted into a SVG with GPS Visualiser.
I have an idea for a crowdsourced map of Cardiff: People send me their data (favourite places, sneaky shortcuts, hidden wonders or even GPX files of routes) and I’ll use it to build a unique map of the city.
Just a thought.
Short resolution for 2012
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I don’t typically make new year’s resolutions, but for 2012 I do have one ambition:
*One deliberate caveat: The film will be very short, with just one or two characters, a simple premise and no real budget. I have no ideas yet, but I want to keep it simple and get it done!
A video shot on the iPhone 4S
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Got an iPhone 4S yesterday and got up this morning to go for a surf. No surf, so thought I’d shoot some stuff to see what the new camera is like on the 4S. Got home, looked at the footage, and couldn’t believe it came out of a phone. Was so excited so thought I’d quickly cut a vid to share the goodness.
It’s actually amazing. The automatic stabilisation seems to work wonders, and gets rid of most the jello. Depth of field is flipping awesome. Colours are really good straight out the camera, but I did give this footage a slight grade.
Site traffic: Posterous vs. WordPress.com
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Curiously, I seem to be getting much more traffic now I’m hosting this blog on WordPress.com. I used to get 100-200 visits per day on Posterous, but now I’m seeing 200-300.
It could be a simple reporting difference, but I know from personal experience that Posterous could be slow to the point where the page never finished loading. I wonder if it regularly prevented the Google Analytics script at the end of the page from getting loaded?
Are there any good fractal generators for the Mac?
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I’ve found Oxidizer so far, but it looks a little limited (although I haven’t actually tried it yet).
There are some great options for Windows users, including Chaoscope and Apophysis. I’ve also just found Mandelbulber for Windows and Linux.
Is there a hidden gem for Mac users somewhere?
EDIT 12.01.2011: Actually, Oxidizer is brilliant. More recent post.
Watch YouTube in ASCII mode, save bandwidth
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The first April Fool I have seen this year.
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