Technobabble - Twighlightzone computer/IT/web ramblings

Long time no blog!!

It's been a busy busy time for me just lately, updating Exmoor Park with a few more listings and a funky new exmoor accommodation search map.

There are also stand alone maps for exmoor self catering cottages and exmoor bed and breakfast

Just finished working on the new D K Precision website for Wire and Spark Erosion as well. Really nice people to work with on their simple html site.
Very basic with 4 pages but includes a flash image cycler, lightbox image effects and a nice little google map!

Loads more to say, but no so much time. Will get another posting in later this week with some further updates.

Getting Amazon's widget code to pass XHTML validation!

I had an interesting little problem the other day whilst messing around with Amazon's little widgets! They are fun little boxes you can stick in your blog or on any web page really.

I had a page that validated as XHTML 1.0 Transitional and wanted to maintain my code compliance as per the W3 validator whilst including a widget.

Amazon gave me the following nasty bit of code:

http://ws.amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&
MarketPlace=GB&ID=V20070822%2FGB%2Ftwighlightzon-21%2F8003%2F094fec33
-3c6e-40fb-989a-051d05a8d062&Operation=GetDisplayTemplate" id="Player_094fec33-3c6e-40fb-989a-051d05a8d062" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" name="Player_094fec33-3c6e-40fb-989a-051d05a8d062" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" align="middle" height="324px" width="430px"/>

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

Which in it's own right threw up 60 errors!

Breaking this down to it's core components we have:

1: The widget flash file - "http://ws.amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&
MarketPlace=GB&ID=V20070822%2FGB%2Ftwighlightzon-21%2F8003%2F094fec33
-3c6e-40fb-989a-051d05a8d062&Operation=GetDisplayTemplate"

2: The flash movie name - Player_094fec33-3c6e-40fb-989a-051d05a8d062

3: The width - 430

4: The height - 324

5: The background colour - #FFFFFF ( white )

6: The noscript link - "http://ws.amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&
MarketPlace=GB&ID=V20070822%2FGB%2Ftwighlightzon-21%2F8003%2F094fec33
-3c6e-40fb-989a-051d05a8d062&Operation=NoScript"

I've bolded them in the code above and below to help.

Now, we put that together as follows using Geoff Stearns SWFObject script:

If you don't see the slideshow, click here..

Plus making sure we have the all important flashdetect.js file uploaded and the following tag inserted into the head of our file:

Voila! . . . . . now we have a validating Amazon widget

A working version can be seen here Amazon Widget Validation, just click the button.

I'm sure someone else has posted the solution for Amazon widget validation, but I just couldn't find it myself and thought it might help posting the solution that I used.

It passes XHTML 1.0 Strict as well by the looks of it.

HP Savings Promotion - cashback rebate scam update

I finally after emailing the HP Savings Promotion offer ( run by Outbound on HP's behalf apparently ) was given an HP phone number to complain. After being passed from pillar to post and given 6 different numbers . . . . . an individual at HP finally gave me the number to contact Outbound on the phone . . . . hooray!

For anyone wanting to complain or chase up their payment, try ringing the folloing number to complain direct to Outbound: 0845 634 4070

I was told by a lady today that my first rebate cheque was sent on the 17/01/08 and should have been with me by now!!

Still waiting HP and Outbound . . . . still waiting for the all elusive cashback cheque!

My other cashback cheque hasn't even gone for processing yet!! They're 2 - 3 weeks behind apparently.

Will the HP cashback cheques ever turn up?

Ring them and complain; they shouldn't be aloud to get away with the obsolute appalling service in dealing with people's 28 day claims!

HP PC Savings Promotion - Scam or not?

It's been a while since I posted a new entry, but I've been very busy over the last three months and really haven't had a moment for the blog!

I did however buy myself a couple of new laptops from HP in November which were subject to the HP PC Savings Promotion. Despite my better judgement, I bought the laptops hoping to receive some cheques back from HP before Christmas. Oooooohhhhhhhh how wrong I was!

Having repeatedly emailed HP over the last week, I finally received a standard response today:-

" Dear Claimant,

Many thanks for your email, I acknowledge receipt. We are currently experiencing a very high volume of emails regarding the More from HP - PC Savings Promotion and will answer your email as soon as we possibly can.

If your query is regarding a payment that is delayed, please be aware that due to the overwhelming response to the promotion and the Christmas period we are running behind with sending out payments. Our accounts team are working hard to rectify this and all outstanding claims will be settled within the next 3 weeks. We are very sorry for this delay and any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience as we work to resolve the problems we have experienced.

If your query is regarding a claim that you have submitted recently, we are working through a backlog of claims received over the Christmas period and hope to be up to date within the next 7-10 days. Please do wait a further 10 days to receive your email acknowledgement from us. If you have not heard from us within 10 days, please do contact us again and we can double check receipt of your claim and ask you to resend if appropriate. Please do not be concerned if this means that the 30 days stated from date of purchase will have elapsed; we will be honouring claims that are received late.

If your query is not regarding one of the above issues, we will be sending you a reply within the next 48 hours.

May we take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and apologise for the delays.

Kind regards
****** ( name removed )
HP Promotion Administration "

Pretty impressive considering I should have had my rebate before Christmas!

Having googled "rebate+scam" and "rebate+fraud" it would appear that HP are experts at this type of scam in the USA and now they've brought it over here!!!

Just a few of the many sites for disappointed and scammed HP customers:

USA HP rebate scam

Another HP rebate scam

Another HP rebate scam as well

The above links are a scratch on the surface of people who feel scammed and abused by HP's rebate offers and promotions . . . . just add me to the list please HP!

Please add any HP stories you might have . . . . hopefully someone at HP might take notice?

BT Home Hub external aerial connection

I'm sure like many people, you want to be able to use your BT Home Hub with the free VOIP calls and still get a good wireless signal around the house. This can be a problem if you live in an old house with thick walls, a house with a lot of walls, or just a very big house!

I was recently given a free Home Hub by BT as compensation for problems I had with one of their VOIP routers. Anyway . . . . to cut a long story short, I wanted to be able to get a decent signal over a 200m area for 3 houses. With the conventional aerial ( 2db I believe ), this was going to prove impossible . . . . so, I decided the only way was to take apart the Home Hub and see if I could add an external aerial in some way.

After taking apart the hub, I quickly discovered that it would be relatively easy for me convert the unit to a single external aerial, which was exactly what I wanted

So, I ordered the bits from the States ( which only took a week to get here via normal snail mail ), carried out the conversion and did some testing.

BINGO : We now have a wide(ish) area wireless network via a BT Home Hub with a 12dbi external aerial attached.

All in all, a reasonably easy conversion to carry out and very effective.

I have also tried the unit with an indoor 5dbi, 7dbi and 9dbi aerial attached, and made great gains on signal quality and distance.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT UNLESS YOU BUY YOUR BT HOME HUB, YOU DO NOT OWN IT AND THEREFORE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO DISMANTLE/MODIFY OR UPGRADE IT IN ANY WAY. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR CONTRACT WITH BT.

Pictures and more details to follow later.

Image naming for SEO and making things easy for your web designer!!

One of the things that I try to do when I get images from clients, is to make sure they are named correctly. By that I mean that instead of sending your web designer images straight from your digital camera named " DSC145.jpg " or anything similar; name them specific to the item/product.
If you've got a large silver necklace, call it "large_silver_necklace.jpg " or "large-silver-necklace.jpg". Don't leave gaps between the name as some web server operating systems do not like that
Use either hyphens or underscores to fill the gaps in any name.

This is very good practice for both your website/designer and for your images being picked up on image searches by Google and other search engines.

Using a sensible naming convention for all your images will increase the chance of inclusion when someone carries out a Google image search.

If designing your own site, you will want to include relevant alt and title text for your images.
The alt attribute is designed to be an alternative text description for images. The alt text is often displayed before the image is fully loaded in your web browser and is used instead of the image in text-based browsers. The alt attribute is a required element for images only and is a needed to meet with current HTML and XHTML web standards when validating as per W3C.

Alternatively, the title attribute can be used for any page element, but is not actually a requirement . You can use it to describe links, images, and other page elements.

Don't forget to include the title attribute in your image element.

e.g.

Blog

Backup ........Backup again ..................Backup online?!

Yes I know I know . . . . . I never covered the online backup option when talking about backups

Well for those people that want to be able to access their info on the move from multiple computers, or share their pics, files, videos or music, then you could always use an online backup service such as BT Vault. The key down side of the BT service is the fact that they don't offer a configurable auto backup option on their free 1gb service; which can be a pain if you want to sync and automatically backup certain folders/files.

However . . . . . . you could use another service that is even better!

BeInSync do offer an auto backup service with their free 1gb service and you can use this on several machines.

It's also a good option for people who want the auto backup to just keep a bit a critical data secure with the free 1gb service or for a �75 one off fee, you can have 5gb of data for life ( or until the world crashes into the sun or we get sucked into a black hole or wiped out by a passing comet/asteroid .

It's a very good deal and I'm sure there's many small office/home office users on fast broadband connections that could make excellent use of an online auto backup service like BeInSync's.

Backup of Outlook Express data

Well I had an email from someone yesterday asking about Outlook Express and how to back it up. Rather than me go through the list and detail how to do it, I'm just going to post the " official " link from the Micro$oft site which not only covers how to backup your emails, but also your address book and mail accounts as well.

Outlook Express backup and restore

This really does cover it in pretty simple English, and is very easy to follow.

Backup Backup . . . . . . and more Backup!

Over the last couple of weeks, I've had someone who's laptop was stolen with lots of their work on it and another person who had a hard drive failure and lost everything .

You never realise how important your work and personal data is until it's gone!

I guess the key to happiness, piece of mind and no sleepless nights really is BACKING UP YOUR DATA. Despite saying it often . . . . . people still don't seem to be taking it on board.

Well I thought I'd help out with a few tips and pointers in the right direction.

Try and keep all your important data in one folder as backups will be easier to perform. ( My documents folder is a good place to start! )

Most people's laptops and desktops nowadays have a cd burner ( cd writer ) or DVD burner. Often you will get cd/dvd creating software with your computers and you can very easily create weekly backups of the " My Documents " folder and any other folders you need.

Pen drives and very large external drives are dirt cheap now and you can pick up a 320gb external hard drive for about �50 from PC World or on the web. With such a huge drive, you could organise weekly backups through Windows XP. Click here for backup instructions

If you only have a small amount of critical data, then you could use a pen drive/flash drive to keep copies of your data, as these can be picked up from about �12 for a 1gb drive.

Anyway the moral of this posting is BACKUP, BACKUP and BACKUP some more if your data is important to you and you want to keep it.

Elgg install and setup not going quite so smoothly!!

Well . . . . I have been looking for a decent social networking script for a while, and eventually came across Elgg.

I downloaded it after reading some good stuff about it, but alas, the post install setup has not quite gone to plan! I am having a collection of interesting problems, some of which I've solved, some of which may be a bit more awkward! Anyway, I'm hoping to get this up and running within the next month, as a trial for a new pet site project which is happening later this year.

PS.
If anyone knows of a decent open source social networking script, then please let me know