graeme.blog

Category: toreview

  • Dean’s Source Code syntax highlighting plugin for WordPress V1.1

    I’ve been asked to find a WordPress plugin for source-code highlighting in posts. My first research leads me to the belief that the area to look at are plugins which use the Generic Syntax Highlighter or GeSHi. This can handle over 200 different languages, so should be flexible enough for our needs.

    So the first plugin I am looking at is Dean’s Source Code syntax highlighting plugin. What I intend to do is to install a few different plugins, activate them one at a time, input code in a few languages, and compare the results.

    Code Formated by Deans Source Code Syntax Plugin

    These are just a few examples to show how well it formats. What I didn’t count on was that if I de-activate the plugin, the formatting goes immediately. So the above is an image of the generated code.

    Having a second go here at multiline code:

    Another go at multiline

    Still not happy. My basic issue here isn’t with writing code from scratch, that works fine. It is cutting and pasting a section of code in Firefox so that it will keep the formatting and parse properly through the highlighter. Just can’t get it to work. Putting it on hold for now.

  • Phantasy Star Offline

    So I’m now about 4.5 hours into Phantasy Star Universe. Having received my pre-order copy a couple of days early, I’ve been playing the offline mode, as the servers haven’t been turned on yet. The offline Story mode is a fully fledged RPG, in the mode of a Final Fantasy, right down to having far too many cutscenes in the first hour of play.

    I have been enjoying it immensely. At first the world is slightly bewildering, but once you take control of your character, it plays and feels like Phantasy Star Online of old, but with much better graphics, and a more organic feel that makes it feel less like you are playing in mainly square rooms. The fighting, whilst still based on the same system, does feel more fluid, and the trademark targeting mechanism of PSO has gone, replaced by, well, pointing at the creature you want to hit, and fighting them. Works fine.

    I think my main gripe so far has been the on-screen display. Even though the game isn’t optimised for HD, the menus are tiny. Whereas in PSO you had beautiful clear graphics that told you exactly what you had and were using, these you really have to squint at. I appreciate it may partly be my old age, but they are very small. I reckon they could have done with offering a large-print option for the older gamer. Reminds me, I probably should look into getting my eyes tested soon.

    Once the servers have gone live, I’ll be wanting to play there instead, but I will carry on with the offline as well, as it is where all the game achievements are apparently. Will probably report back on the online version soon.

    In other news, we’ve got tickets for Bond tomorrow, and hopefully mrsfb will be over her cold for that. Do a few chores and a bit of shopping this weekend, then Sunday afternoon I’m off to London for a couple of days for XP day (now two days).

  • Hurtling towards the weekend

    A quiet one coming up, probably a good thing as mrsfb isn’t too well today. Our options at the moment include going to see Casino Royale, or a long walk in the countryside. Given how cold it is, Bond is looking mighty appealling, but the long walk is the moral healthy choice. We could do both, but that would be insane, surely.

    In other news, my copy of Phantasy Star Universe is in the post to me as we speak, rushing towards me under the power of second class postage. If I knew they were going to dispatch it so early, I would have shelled out for first class. Can’t wait. It isn’t going to be a stunning 10/10 game, but it is the story, the world that I have played in so much retold in a different manner. There will be a lot to learn from the looks of it, I may have to read up a bit tonight. After I’ve done a couple more chapters of Head First Java that is, got to carry on racing through that as well.

    Pressing on with self-learning of Java, as I could do with knowing it all yesterday. Lot to get my head around, but had a breakthrough yesterday in that I almost added a new method to some code I am working with. It made sense, but didn’t quite work, however the fact that I understood about 90% of what I needed to do was a good start. Will figure out that remaining 10% in the next few days I hope. Will try and get through a big chunk of the aforementioned book this weekend I reckon. Once I’ve done that, I’m going to read up on using Eclipse in more depth, really get to grips with it, as it really is the way forwards on a lot of fronts. I’m perhaps a bit unusual in that I work in several different languages & technologies at once, as I look after several different projects. And the fact that Eclipse can handle the lot of them in one place and structure is a lifesaver for me. As I add in a new language like Java, most of the interface works in the same way I am used to. Oh, and I need to learn about Ant and builds as well I suspect. More reading then.

  • Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress

    I’ve been meaning for a while to submit the sitemaps for my domains to Google’s Webmaster Central site. Having a sitemap for the googlebot to read improves how your site is crawled, and means only the pages you want are submitted. It has recently also become a format recognised by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, which has resulted in the sitemaps.org site.

    Anyway, I looked into how to generate a sitemap, and to be honest it is a bit of a pain for WordPress users. It seemed like the best way to do it would be to just submit an RSS feed. However, the standard location for your feed isn’t liked by Google, and I didn’t want to move mine. The other methods seemed like too much work as well. So I looked for a WordPress-based solution, and found Arne Brachold’s Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress plugin.

    Very easy to setup and run, all the instructions are there, and only took a few minutes to set up, run, and submit to Google. Perfect tool for the job. It will even ping Google about any changes to your site structure. I’m now getting to read through what Google makes of my site, and for starters get on with fixing a few broken links I didn’t know about.

  • Lazy way to install Perl modules in Ubuntu 6.10

    I’m starting to find my way around my new install of Ubuntu. This morning I found I had loads of errors in my Perl scripts stored in Eclipse. A quick check revealed that it was due to not having certain Perl modules installed on my machine. So I would have to install them for suitable error checking. A few minutes on Google got me started, but having worked through a few permutations of setup, I happened upon the following. Note, this may well not be suitable for all, and certainly is the lazy way of doing things.

    From a command line:

    sudo cpan

    You will then be asked if you want to manually config cpan. Say no, take the risk and see if it will figure it all out for you. Did for me. Then to install a module, I did a quick search on cpan’s website to find the correct name of each module (they are case-sensitive). Along the way I installed the cpan search extension for Firefox, which makes it even easier. To install Date::Manip, all you need to type at the command line in cpan is:

    install Date::Manip

    If your configuration is correct, it will nip off and install it all for you. Very nice.

  • GTD – Keeping your inbox cleared

    Great article over at downloadsquad.com on keeping your inbox cleared and up to date. I’m trying to do this on both my work and personal mail, and at the moment it is mainly working. I had already employed most of the tactics myself, thanks to reading Getting Things Done (GTD), but it is a great refresher, and particularly if like me you are using gmail.

    I think the only thing I would add, is that in the past I have been a sucker for mailing lists, and find I still get several I just file or delete. I would suggest turning off the rules for these for a week or so, look at each one that comes in quickly, and if you don’t need it any more, take the opportunity to unsubscribe. It helps with the cleaning up your act process.

    Five simple rules for keeping an empty inbox

  • High above Oxford

    For some time I have been meaning to go up Carfax Tower in Oxford to take some photographs. It is an old clock tower right in the middle of Oxford, and is one of the key tourist attractions I have never got around to doing. So I thought I would take advantage of the visit of my brother-in-law Andy to do it. Now, I’m not great with heights, but I was under the impression it would be a little walk up some stairs, have a huge platform to stand on, take a few snaps, job done. Wrong.

    First of all you have to climb up three very narrow spiral staircases. A long way. That was pretty daunting to begin with. Then you actually go out there, and it is a small square with a tin roof in the middle, and a narrow walkway less than the width of a person around it. And it was windy. And very high up.

    I didn’t manage to take a single picture without letting go of the handrail. It was incredibly dizzying, and totally not my thing. I shall do it once more in my life when I get a new camera, and then never do it again. Even if it does have the following cheese-related message up there:

  • So what do I like about the 360?

    I was just considering that I’d had a moan about the 360, but hadn’t really talked about what I do like so far. A lot, basically.

    Wireless controllers are probably the biggest improvement. They are comfy, and you just are not restricted to where you sit anymore. Love that. Also with the headset attached (which is far more sturdy that the old one) I can even talk whilst wandering into the kitchen to make an inbetween round cup of tea.

    The interface is great, moving between live, the arcade, and playing full games is all pretty seamless and quick to navigate. And the games, well. I’ve only really been playing Project Gotham 3 and Arcade thus far. PGR3 is a wonderful update, hasn’t lost a single thing from the previous version that I miss. Looks better, plays just the same, more features, even a track editor hidden away. Lot of gameplay left there. Have Perfect Dark Zero to try soon as well, plus a visit to some game store on Monday.

  • First moan about 360 – No wireless drivers for the PC

    Only a little moan though, generally still happy with it. However, one of the things that appealled to me about the 360 was that you can use the controller with the PC as well. Well it turns out that is only if it is a wired controller. No worries I thought, I’ve bought the play and charge kit, which has an ordinary USB cable on it. If I plug it into the PC like that, it is a wired controller, surely? No dice. So if I want to do that, I have to buy the inferior controller instead. Great.

  • Google results a bad influence?

    I’ve got a little project on the go at the moment to list all the software I’ve got on all of my machines. I’m using del.icio.us to store the homepages of each item of software, and tagging them with a label for each machine the software is on, and the version number installed. The logic behind this is that if I need to reinstall a machine, I have a checklist prepared for what needs to be installed, and the links to get the downloadable software all in one place. It is a bit of work, but I’m doing it over a few nights, and am getting there.

    As I do this, I am searching a lot on Google, and what I notice there disturbs me a little. When I look up VNC or VLC for instance, the first results are paid-for links to sites other than the homepage, but which are offering the software I am after. The first unpaid link is the proper homepage. Now, I know this is how Google works, and being aware of this, I know not to use the paid-for links. How many people don’t? For a relatively low cost, you can hijack the link to a popular piece of software, and if you are somewhat more unscrupulous, have the opportunity to sell "free" software, or even to provide spyware and all sorts of things. These links just shouldn’t be the first results, as they could cause all sorts of issues for Google’s users. Google probably doesn’t mind much as it gets the clickthrough revenue, but it just isn’t very helpful.