Start of a New Year

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Okay, so since my last post I have been extremely busy and over-worked.  It has been a nightmare.

Either way, I am here to set a New Year’s Resolution (don’t we all), despite it being rather late.
What I plan to do is to get my life in shape.  This is everything from health, to wealth, to love and to life (okay, I enjoyed the slight poetry moment there).

Projects

Basically, I will be working on XNA Development, ergo, making some games for the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone.  I’ve had a license since mid last year, so it’s about time I used it.  I’ll be working through some tutorials to begin with, hopefully progressing about 3-5 chapters a day (and publishing what I’ve accomplished along the way).

I also plan on work on my Web Development.  I’ve had a surprising amount of interest come my way in terms of Web Development, so I think it is time to sharpen those tools again.
I’ll be making a portfolio section on here (once I get round to it).

Finally, Uni Work.  Always a drag when I’m not enjoying it, but hopefully it should be easier considering this semester we are in groups.
For those who do not know about my other blog (http://studypedia.wordpress.com), I plan on closing it down and starting a new blog/site which is dedicated to more Games Development rather than on my studies.  I don’t need it any more, and to be honest, I only really used to it to showcase my work.
Perhaps I’ll use this site for Uni Work; afterall, it is my domain.

As For Everything Else

Well let’s just put it this way, we all want to better ourselves.
Perhaps I’ll continue being so motivated and have a very productive year.

Maybe I’ll blog about it, maybe not.

Apple & Windows

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Okay, it’s rather over-done but here is my spin on things recently, considering that I use both frequently and these are the issues that I promised to moan about on my facebook page.

So, both machines do their job, simple as

For those who are technically minded, both are easy to use no matter what.  If you call yourself a geek, all you need to remember is which OS you are using and that is all.
‘Normal’ people get slightly frustrated that things are slightly different, but then get over it.

I’ve been told that computer illiterates cannot easily switch from one to the other, and that Macs are easier to use.  This is because Macs offer a very simple User Interface compared to Windows… and fewer ‘buttons’ (their short-cuts are a whole lot more complicated).

However, for people who actually want to get into all the computer wizardry, then I recommend Windows.  It’s easy to break and easy to fix.  It’s a good way to learn without much hassle in fixing it.  Macs aren’t so nice when you mess with their systems.

Linking

Okay, so the main point of this post is about the machines at work.
They are all macs… except one PC (XP).  We also have a new Dell Printer which we are having issues with (I assume it is down to the paper quality).

So everything is Mac.  You think this would be a good thing.  Well, it’s not.
There are connection issues with the Server (also Mac) and to the previous printers (seriously).  Though it could be down to the machines just slowly giving up over the years we’ve had them (knocking on 3-4 years now, and I think they’re older than that).
Also connection issues over the Network and Wireless to the internet.

What the bad thing is about this is that I cannot figure most of the stuff out.  If it was Windows, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad (literally, I probably wouldn’t have any bother with the new printer if it was connected to my laptop).
Also, every single person has their account fine tuned differently (such as user controls), which makes it hard to use other machines (especially since I’m an Admin and have to get the machines working again when they stop).  Not that I’m complaining about those things, but why make it harder?  For this, I blame Apple.  They made it too tempting for people to leave those features alone.

Just remembered as well… Dual-booted Macs… not good.
We use them at Uni, and they keep crashing (also, using a Mac yet being on Windows messes with you – the keyboard is Mac, yet the short-cuts are Windows; crazy).

Software

Now that is annoying.  On Windows, I know exactly how things work… with Macs, things are different.  It may be down to being ‘brought up’ with Windows, but even Microsoft Office changes!  It does completely different things depending on whichever machine.
The same goes for Adobe Creative Suite.
Drivers are always an issue…

The Job Lot

Okay, now this is where it gets interesting.
You have to buy a Mac, iPhone and iPad… or you do if you were me.  There isn’t two ways about it.
Unless you buy Windows 7 PC, Phone and Tablet (okay, I’ll get the Win8 Tablet whenever that comes out).

It just doesn’t work if you don’t get the whole set, and I’m not a fan of mixing the two up (as you may have guessed).

In all honesty, I’m a Windows Boy.  I don’t like supporting them since I think they’re just a faceless corporation who don’t really care about anyone (at least with Apple you get some customer satisfaction… maybe), but why deal with the company if you know how to do it all yourself?

Your Point Is?

Just don’t be pressured into thinking that one piece of technology is better than another, or let loyalties stand in your way.  You really cannot afford to.
The beauty of my current set up is that I’m linked to my laptop, phone, Xbox and my tablet (once I get it), which helps me a whole lot in the field that I’m in.

I think that’s all…

Z (pr. ‘zed’) Brush & WinTab

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Hi guys, this post is unrelated to any of my web stuff, but it is related to my Uni course and Games Design.

So for Uni this year, we are using Z Brush.
So I got the program, installed it and then tried to run it.  However, I kept getting the error: “WinTab Services Not Available”
I will point out that this is not a problem with Z Brush, but actually Windows (as the solution was for another program; still works though)

Now, I looked and looked around for ages (basically spending my entire morning on this) trying to find a solution.  There were loads of different hints and tips, but the one which worked was to update my drivers for my Graphics Tablet (lucky me, I have one).

I found the solution here, and it is:

If you have found after installation of CrazyTalk Animator that you get an error message stating WinTab Services Not Available, please follow the instructions below to resolve this problem.

  1. Go to Control Panel.
  2. Under Hardware and Sound, access to the Wacom Tablet Properties.
  3. Click on the Remove Preferences option.
  4. In the Tablet Preference File Utility dialog, click on the Remove button to remove all user preferences of Wacom.
  5. After doing that, click Download Driver Update under Wacom Tablet Properties to re-install the driver again.

This should resolve the issue for you now while a permanent fix is made.

All I’ve done is copied and formatted the text to my liking.  All the credit goes to the original poster (the link is above).

Either way, don’t be discouraged if you cannot find the exact words as listed; mine were labelled differently as well, but I just found the Tablet Properties and the commands were there.

Curse You WordPress!

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Okay, so once again I find some annoying little bug that doesn’t affect me, but does others.

This time, it is down to styling

So I had written in my pages (using HTML view) something like:

<div id="product-layer1"></div>

… and that worked fine for me.  Also switching to Visual didn’t afffect it.

However, whenever the page was edited by another Admin, the code became:

<div></div>

Annoying, right?

Once again, I head over the WP Support

… and got nothing…

Then, after much hassle (and a little help from my friends), I realised that you cannot use id in the pages; it must be class.
Also, you cannot use numbers in class names.

It’s sorted, not for me, but for the Admin; edits without HTML stripping.

Next Up!

I’ve just got to figure out how to get something to float-right without it going out of the text area/section.

Happy days!

An End of An Era-che!

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… I’m so punny!

Anyway, just a quick update as I Skype with my designer friend as we tackle the latest project into the wee hours of the morning (nah, but sounds dramatic… and I’m not Scottish) Open-mouthed smile

((Oh, and don’t be fooled by the little dot in the Skype window; I’ve just been trying to rub it off the screen))

It’s going good, I will be so relieved once this is over and done with, and then I can start doing the next project lined up, as well as (potentially) taking on two more clients.  I’ve also a few weeks until my first Uni deadline, which requires a fair amount of work too Surprised smile

I’ll continue to work on this current project even though I’ve done with it.   I have to say that I’ve learnt a lot from doing this project, some of which includes WordPress’s Custom Fields.  They are quite handy!  I’ve also been doing a fair amount of PHP Programming too…

I think that’s all; time to get back to work Open-mouthed smile

((You’ve always got to put on some motivational music in the background; mine is The Black Mages))

WordPress MultiSite: Widgets!

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Time for my second post on general web site design bugs and issues.

What happened

So I was working on the same site as before, when I noticed that my custom Widget areas were not working.

This, as you could guess, annoyed me.  I spent ages trying to figure it out (coupled with the previous problem), and in the end gave up.

Until this morning when I noticed the error.

The Solution…

Basically it came down to case sensitivity.  Where I had

<?php get_sidebar('Home'); ?>

… I should have had:

<?php get_sidebar('home'); ?>

… as the custom widget file was called sidebar-home.php.

So I corrected all these issues, and now the Widgets work fine :-)

WordPress MultiSite: ‘/[page] Index of’ Issues

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Now, this is my first post on an actual website design issue (yay me!).

So I’ve been playing around with WordPress MultiSite (or MultiUser, whichever) and also using my own localhost for testing purposes.  Now, it worked fine on localhost, however once it went on to the World Wide Web, things decided to not work.

So I went to the forums to see what could possibly be wrong and what the solution would be; however no one replied :-(

After about three days of not caring any more, I decided to have a crack at it again and the solutions came straight at me.

Problem: ‘Index of /blog’

So I decided to set this site up with WPMU (it sounds better than WPMS) and use subdomains (localhost doesn’t do subdomains).  So the first order of business was to get that configured correctly.

Luckily, the staff at Centation are brilliant and sorted the stuff out that I couldn’t, and the rest was a piece of cake (I just followed what the guide said… really easy).

Once Wildcard sub-domains was configured correctly, I was able to make new sites on sub-domains, however, I then noticed that whenever I went on to the blog page for the test site, it displayed the Index of /blog.  This wasn’t nice to see.

The Solution

I went back on to Google and did a quick search: “wordpress MU /blog index of” (notice MU, not MS), and the answer was there, waiting for me.

Wildcard Sub-domains

I had in my FileManager (I’m using cPanel) and folder called ‘blog’… so WPMU considered it as a new site (as WPMU sites are in folders in the install directory) and that is why it did not work.

The end result, make sure you don’t have folders with the same name as pages.

Florida Update

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Well, it’s been a while since I’ve actually done any work at all, since I’ve been on holiday for the past week.

I’ll be returning to merry old England next Monday, landing in Manchester Airport in the morning, then just an hour train journey home (is it weird I’m thinking about the 268 Arriva Bus?)
Once I get home, and celebrate my sister’s birthday (need to buy a card), I’ll crack on with more of my work; if I want to come back next year I might as well start working towards getting the money now Smile

So, just to summarise what I plan to be doing in the next month before the start of Uni…

To Do:

  • Website Layouts using Photoshop;
  • Client project testing/debugging;
  • Game Development;
  • Tutorials for my Uni blog;
  • Online Computer Program courses (i.e. Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office); and,
  • Learning Guitar Open-mouthed smile

That’s all…
Later!

Goldmine Career Coach

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So, I think I’ve finally finished my latest project; a website called Goldmine Career Coach.

What I did for this project is design the website to my client’s specification, including the layout and the CMS.
A lot of the work done is very much server-side, so isn’t much else to say.  Saying that, there is the SEO, which in all honesty is not too bad to sort out (so long as you start the SEO at the start of a website).

Check it out why don’t you?

Welcome to ‘slash’ projects!

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Welcome to ‘slash’ projects.

You’ll have to bear with me as I play around with the site.  It turns out that WordPress is harder to configure than I first thought, and there has yet to be a tutorial or guide that can do all that I want; so instead, I’ve cannibalised everything I could get my hands on and so the site will continue to develop over the next few days.

Anyway, with all that aside, I hope to post some content soon; I haven’t the foggiest what I’d post, but please do check out my links to the side.