SuperFineShag

brechfa

superfineshag — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:00:59 +0000

some tasty snaps of my weekend in brechfa
Here’s how not to fall off the log (i thought the ground was only a few feet away, but the mud was super deep - over the handle bars i went straight onto an unforgiving log)

Here’s how to bail stylishly

did it eventually…

and heres a couple of jumps:

Debugging your CSS

superfineshag — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:28:14 +0000

How to debug your css quickly in all browsers…
First of all, buy lots of computers and load every browser in the sun on them. Or if like me you find this a little unpractical then buy an intel mac.

First of all i’d advise to get everything looking good on Firefox - it is more standard compliant than the rest and is a great starting point to getting your css sorted.

Download Firebug: http://www.getfirebug.com/
This is a great way to look at your CSS, and a lot more besides. It also allows you to edit your CSS (and html) right in the browser, allowing you to quickly try stuff out.
Install Parallels and a version of Windows. With Parallels you can have multiple installs of Windows, allowing you to install every version of IE (each one will need a new windows install i believe)
For IE download the IE Developer Toolbar. This gives you much of the Firebug functionality within IE

I always try and aim to solve any cross browser problems by finding a happy medium, rather than hacking about too much - this is often a bit of a nightmare when you want to change something later on, as you’ll have more CSS to change, and it increases the download size of your CSS. But here’s some hacks you can use to target IE (there are loads more, just google):

#css-id-tag {
padding: 7px 0 0 10px; /* for all other browsers */
}
* html #css-id-tag {
\padding: 7px 0 0 10px; /* for IE5 and IE6 in quirks mode */
p\adding: 9px 0 0 10px; /* for IE6 in standards mode */
}

Here’s a method of targetting the other way round which can also be useful, this particular example is for forms:

#edit-submit {
height: 55px; /* For all browsers */
cursor: pointer; /* hand-shaped cursor */
cursor: hand; /* for IE 5.x */
}
form>#edit-submit { /* For non-IE browsers */
height: 0px;
}

setting up a testing server on your mac (updated)

superfineshag — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:40:47 +0000

Well its been a long time since the last posts - but Ive been a busy boy. I’m currently building a few Drupal sites and have got myself a new MacBook to help with the process. Here’s a tip for building a nice testing environment on your machine.

Download and install MAMP, you can get it all working with the built in server if you like - but using MAMP makes lots of things much easier. You can switch between php 4 and 5 and upgrading your system will be simple as everything is contained in one directory. In addition everything starts up and shuts down by clicking a button (apache and MySQL).
I switched the default Apache root to my sites folder in my user directory - but this is really your preference, and i’m sure there are pros and cons here.
I changed the Apache port to 80 as this means I can view my files at localhost without the “:8888″ suffix, this does of course mean you can’t use the built in apache as this will use the same port, and it also means you need to type in your password whenever starting MAMP.
Give your testing server a nice domain name like sitename.dev that is mapped to a specific site, rather than the whole Sites folder (or wherever you’ve chosen to put it). For leopard follow this tutorial: Setting up a Web Server on Leopard (OS X 10.5) Using MAMP - A Step by Step Guide. For pre-leopard follow this excellent tutorial Webdev: How to Set Up a Sandbox Server in OS X.
If you want to then test your server on a windows environment and you have Parallels installed then go to this post here on Virtual Hosts with Parallels and OS X.

Once all this is done you can startup your Apache server MySQL database and php all by clicking a button, you’ll be able to view your site on your local machine at sitename.

running to avoid the tube in london

superfineshag — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:22:46 +0000

My journey to work goes like this:
overland train, Forest Hill to London Bridge - about 15 minutes
tube, London Bridge to Old Street - about 6 minutes

except that getting from the train to the tube take about 3-4 minutes walk, plus a wait for the tube - about 2-5 minutes, plus a 5 minute walk to Leonard Street. I’ve never done the whole thing faster than 35 minutes and it’s often much longer as the tube is crap and hot.

So here’s my solution and its much more fun - run from London Bridge to Leonard street, its 1.55 miles and i can do it with a heavy backpack in about 13 minutes (i hope to improve on that - and normally not carry a heavy backpack). My new Nike + Ipod helps me improve - have a look at the images (by the way the Nike + Ipod doesn’t plot a map for you, i did that myself using their Google Maps API on their site).

It did gauge my running distance to within 0.02 miles, which is small enough to be accounted for by inaccuracies in the mapping or just running round junctions, cars etc.

So now my total time is about 30 minutes including waiting about for the Forest Hill train which i didn’t include above, and I save at least £2-3 (offpeak/peak) per day by not buying a travelcard

nike + ipod with any shoe

superfineshag — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:49:17 +0000

Heres how to use the Nike + Ipod kit with any shoe. Cut a small hole in the tongue of your shoe and slip the sensor in - works fine and costs nothing. Tongues are usually two pieces of material sewn together, by cutting a few stitches along the join you can make a hole big enough to fit in the sensor. Make sure you then stitch either side of this hole to prevent the tongue stitches from unraveling further. You can make this hole quite tight to ensure the sensor doesn’t fall out - or just push the sensor down a bit toward the toe so the laces hold it in.

Now go and run.

bottled water - what the ….

superfineshag — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:38:46 +0000

I’ve always been against the idea of drinking bottled water, though if you look at my artwork you’ll see i’m fascinated by the stuff (nothing wrong with a little duality here and there). But someone mentioned to me the carbon footprint the stuff produces compared to its usefulness and it provokes an important point.

Obviously there is an idea where we completely avoid producing excess CO2, but its still just an ideal, so its worth considering the value of any activity that produces CO2 as well as the amount that activity produces. For instance a single person in a car driving to a gym is a fairly daft use energy (run/cycle to the gym and save energy and money while doubling the workout). But a single person in a car driving a donor organ to a hospital is clearly forgivable use of energy.

So lets look at drinks/foodstuffs and their relative value. Transporting water thousands of miles by road from the French alps to London, which contains almost identical, perfectly clean water is not only pointless, but an extremely frivolous waste of energy. You waste energy transferring the water, which is by volume a heavy substance and so therefore take a large amount of energy to transport it. You waste more energy by putting small units of water in individual containers. Most of these containers will be thrown away and not recycled.

We think twice about plastic bags in supermarkets, but if you drink bottled water you’re using much more plastic and way more energy. Have a look at these articles:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0629-01.htm
http://lighterfootstep.com/5-reasons-not-to-drink-bottled-water-2.html

Actionscript 3.0

superfineshag — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:10:44 +0000

I’m gradually trying to convert some flash files to actionscript 3.0, which is a slightly tortuous process, but it will be well worth it. Some Julian Opie animations i’m making at the moment are really heavy on the computers and i need to eek out every ounce of extra efficiency that i can.

Its a slightly uphill battle at the moment, but theres some great tutorials on the Adobe site, have a look here:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/

If you love the Apple style reflections that they use all over the place then look no further than here (it will save you so much time):
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/reflect_class_as3.html

simplicity is king (today)

superfineshag — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:53:10 +0000

in the spirit of simplicity this blog is now simple

mmm - well that’s not an astounding announcement, but i’ve simplified things and added stuff too. I’ll be twittering from now on for all little things and adding the bombshells in the main blog -> look right for the latest twitters.

At some point in the near future the work page will be going the same way - its currently at alistairm.co.uk, but things are set to change.

native surfboards

superfineshag — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:26:33 +0000

have a look at the Native Surfboards site here for a lots of surf info, i’ve seen this article about aluminium boards, and i want one now. If you lose it you can find it by radar, and now i’ve an excuse to buy radar too, sweet.

Virals from Glue

superfineshag — Wed, 16 May 2007 09:07:31 +0000

http://www.impossiblestory.com
http://www.getthemessage.net

Have a look at these 2 viral campaigns, worked on by my mate Des at Glue. For the Royal Navy one I advise you to put in the most flippant message you can think of, makes it so much more amusing.

To see an example of a truly important message that the Royal Navy might use helicopters for click here, feel free to reply with the most imaginative thing you can think of.