18 January, 2010
Is WordPress Slowing My Site Down?
I noticed on my pingdom stats recently that this site has been slowing down recently. But why? Is it WordPress? Some plugins? Time for research!
7 January, 2010
2 January, 2010
Southport, New Year’s Day 2010
First outing with the polarising filter given to me for Xmas by my friend and colleague James and decided to wander up to Southport for the afternoon. We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset that the filter really helped add punch to the skies. Downsides of the day? I think I’ve lost the use of […]
18 December, 2009
Liverpool Skyline
This is the view from our new office in Liverpool, right now. Well, a few minutes ago. I consider myself very lucky to have this just behind my desk and it has to rate as the best view of any office I’ve worked in. You’d think the office would be very expensive, but it’s not, […]
Iceland In Winter
I expected more ice, it has to be said. I also packed my thermals and it turned out to be warmer than home. But, I also know how bitterly cold it can get in countries like this in Winter even if the thermometer doesn’t show it as looking so bad – driving rain, strong winds […]
5 December, 2009
Sean’s 40th Birthday Party
Sean’s 40. But he’ll always be two months younger than me. Dammit. Well, here’s some photos from his party. Enjoy…
18 October, 2009
Oulton Park Trackday With GTDC
After two years of going nowhere near a race circuit while I concentrated on building up the business, I finally got the Elise nicely fettled by Phoenix Motorsport in Accrington and got out with the Gold Track Driving Club.
31 August, 2009
Argh! Spiders!
To my great shame, I’ve allowed the cobwebs to build up somewhat during renovation work. That’s going to have to stop, because today I just saw something scary. An entire spider family, with big mummy spider sitting in the middle. O_0
14 August, 2009
Old Reel to Reel Tapes
Found these in the garage and have popped them on eBay. Love the old style designs – so simple by today’s standards. Easy to reproduce too. Also realised just how many bands from this era were called “The” something or other. How things change…
29 July, 2009
Photoblog is No More!
Sometimes… you just have to tidy up, and finally I got around to dumping the old photoblog section of the site and integrating it in here.
20 July, 2009
What it’s Like to Present and Attend at WordCamp UK
Over the weekend just gone I made two planned presentations at WordCamp UK 2009 down in Cardiff. I also threw in a quick 45 minutes of show and tell on the Caribou Theme that runs this site and is available for download from Spectacula.
13 July, 2009
Saab 9-5 Aero (HOT) Estate For Sale – SOLD!
Given that I’m selling my motorbike at the moment as well, you may well wonder if I’ve had some kind of financial crisis of my own. But thankfully, no. I just don’t need such a large and fast car any more. When I was doing a lot of sprinting I needed something capable of towing […]
10 July, 2009
1999 ZZR600 (ZX600-E7) For Sale
Sadly, after ten years, I’ve decided that I’ve really failed to make good use of the ZZR600 I treated myself to back in 1999. It’s the only new motorbike I’ve ever bought… and I’ll hate getting rid of it. But practically speaking, I don’t have much use for it, most of my friends stopped riding […]
7 July, 2009
Krakow – June 2009
I was in Krakow recently – ostensibly for a weekend jolly, but it turned out there was a surprise birthday party organised for me! Here’s some pictures from around the city…
8 June, 2009
Five Things Bing Does Better than Google
MS have, at last, come up with what appears to be a competent rival to Google. Here’s five ways in which it beats Google.
7 June, 2009
Crazy European Sports To Try This Summer
Europeans are considered to be the best educated, most sophisticated people on the planet. They also like diving into bogs, throwing tomatoes at one another, and chasing cheese.
25 May, 2009
mySQL Database Search & Replace With Serialized PHP [Updated]
Ever needed to migrate a database to a new server or website (especially with WordPress and other PHP applications) and been stuck because when you do a search and replace some of the data seems to get corrupted?
20 May, 2009
Pure. Comedy. Gold. Jozin z Bazin
This is a glorious song about the Swamp Man Jozin… Ropey English subtitles below. It’s well worth watching throughout. Well, to me it is…
12 May, 2009
Boo to MPs! Boo to Presenters!
MPs are getting it in the neck as a result of some of their more wild expenses claims. Lord Foulkes got very uppity.
10 May, 2009
Nice
Nice is one of the playgrounds of the French Riviera – but it can look cold in Winter. Still a damn sight warmer than Liverpool, however…
Vegetarians Are Plain Filthy
It never even occurred to me what Tofu really meant. Now I do! Storm in a teacup, but amused me nonetheless: Popped into the Campaign for Thinking, for obvious reasons. Thanks to Alison Classe who listed this on Cix.
5 May, 2009
Slow Posting Performance in WordPress 2.7
An interesting problem today – WordPress posting on this site was sloooooow. Some other back-end tasks were also incredibly slow. Adding a post or page would take about 30 to 60 seconds. Unacceptable. I did the usual job of deactivating plugins, and even resorted to a different theme for a few minutes but no, it […]