The Weekend...

Well I've just about got over a superb weekend I had.
Got home friday night for work, on automatic so to speak and really didn't do much, didn't stay up late as well erm it's a bit cold over here right now and my computer being in the attic not that far removed from the outside world with minimal heating and stuff well you can imagine.
Got up saturday with a plan to go do some birthday card shopping as well it's nephews b/day soon and my dads and a friends soon after so though do that, go have a look see what dvd's / music cd's I can get.. got myself "Wallace & Gromit : Curse of the warerabbit" just cos well it's a british film and it's good. I also got "The Pacifier" which Im currently watching and laughing sometimes at the antics of Uber Hardman Vin Desiel Trying to act like a mom after being a SEAL it's not easy but someone's gotta do it, got a few other films as well, got a few computer games for my PC well they were on offer so I got 'em. I then go for a Big Mac as well I was hungry and it was on the way home, just finish that, driving up a set of lights out the local retail park, phone goes could I pop along, I go sure. Now the journey from where Im at to my sisters should take like 5-10 minutes, I of course take longer as I've still a few things to get and some flowers for mom just cos Im like that. So I get to my sisters and she goes "Could you take Connor" to the game. I go "sure I'll take him" now this is like 2:20 the game starts at 3 and well we still gotta get there and into the ground. We make it on time :D, my nephew amazed me and my sister by staying the full 90 minutes of the game, which ended in a 1-1 draw (worked out about 1h50 as 20 minute break in middle or so) and then he gets bored waiting to get out the carpark lol, well he is only 7 and it was his and my first time at a football match.
We go back and we play "Fifa 2006" and replay the game so to speak except this time "our" team wins 2-0 ;) each time we played it :D - so you could say I've got him support the local team for those who wanna know is "Dunfermline Athletic FC" aka "The Pars" :D. Well by the time i get some food and was able to leave ;) he's a sweetheart and don't let me hear anyone say diffrant, I got home like 9pm, I left at like 11:30am - get me.
I jump online to check mail, play Some WoW and like catch up on what's been happening and I hear on my Guild's TeamSpeak a very drunken member of the Guild who I know is visiting her sister who's going out with a good mate of mine was funny.
Sunday I get up late as well I some how ended up staying online till like 2:30am. I jump straight back into WoW once I had woken up etc. and i get invited out for dinner with mate, his g/f and her sister so I get directions and well erm get to "dundee" no problem but erm after that well it's a little tricky trying to figure out what direction the map means and driving and well they it's a little crazy. I managed to navigate my way to meet up with my friend and take him to do a little food shopping to let the girls get "ready!" now all I will say on this is "7pm came and went". We got the place we were eating at at like 8:40 well almost lol.. I got to meet clare and well it's fun, exactly like i thought of her, she says she shy, lol well if she is she could have fooled me. I'd have posted this yesterday but well work was interesting yesterday lol. Im gonna sign off now and warm up as erm I need to warm my feet up now..
Toodles

The Template and the Stylesheet.....

Hmm well this is an interesting one, ever since the conception of the Web browser way back in the early 90's with the Mosaic browser (think before pre-Netscape) then came Internet Explorer and the more popular (at the time) Netscape which is based on the Mozilla engine which it still uses today, now these browser "fought" for people, MS bundled IE with Windows so you didn't need to go and find one, then you have Opera a great browser that if you were to look hard enough into IE you'd see operaesque behaviour. We should also mention Firefox the new kid on the block, Safari and Omni for the Mac and Knoqueror for those nice people who like linix. The only thing is well we have a set of rules that state that if you use tag A it will has to do this type of behaviour and for Tag B that behaviour. That isn't the case just like with Stylesheets certain browsers Interprut your wonderously created Style list slightly wrong.
Known bugs are the "padding and border" bug in IE 5.x (know as the Box Model Bug) and there are many more, I hunted around and found a very comprehensive list of them at Centricle: css filters (css hacks) this lists all the know "bugs" with all the browsers listed and well how to get your lovely page to display exactly the same in IE, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, Safari and Knoqueror. After all IE5 has that bug i listed so you look up how to do it and well there are actually several ways to do it ;) Heather,Moogie & Sharon you may wanna have a look and point this out to others ;) hey it's a good resource point if you want to "fix" a few glitches in your template with a specific browser ;) and score brownie point for getting it looks the same all over - no doubt my page breaks in IE5.
Enjoy right I'm off to do something interesting, what I don't know..

The Weekend

Well lets see what I've done this weekend.....
Not a lot :D
Well that's a lie, i posted a letter yesterday before spending the most of the rest of the day watching my nephew play football, or playing Fifa '06 on the PS2 with nephew (he won all the time). Finally got a break when I help him get a bit further on in one his Harry Potter Games on his Gameboy Advance. I managed to eventually "escape" at around 6 for some food and then chilled out watching the magic roundabout and eating pizza before playing some World of Warcraft
Today so far I've spent an hour freezing trying to get a 2nd hand part out of a old car to put in my oldest sisters car to no avail it's the alternator and it's hard to get out as no tyres on the thing so no way to get a lift on it.

Template Changes are now complete

Well that's the template changes done for now. :) Tagboard added as you may have noticed, clock backgrounds done and clocks moved around :). 5 Color schemes to choose from (ATM the font changes are disabled in Firefox due to some weird non-replicatable bug with blogger). If your using some other browser and notice something weird let me know it's probably something I can write a quick fix for ;) Like there should be a space where the blog title is (no idea why it does this in Firefox but the "bug" is ok with me ;) )
Opera users let me know - totally untested as erm I my copy appears to be screwed up and I've not re-downloaded it yet. IE users let me know also if anything wierd is happening I'll post a "what it looks like picture" at some point soon.
Oh yeah Have a goood weekend. Im gonna try and have one :P

New Template

Well I've switched the template to this blog so all can see it. I still have 1 or 2 minor adjustments to make but they are small, it's just a surround for the clocks to be done.

Blogger: The next Step... (pt 2)

Okay I have a small problem with the new template I can get the background colors to change but when I try to get the text to change color which I'd want as well green on green don't. I have a working piece of code it works fine from the code I have updated online but it stops working when I place it in the template - works fine on here from local copy of code and from online version - freaking Annoying spits out a vicious error that it can't get to what I need to get to or that what Im looking at has no data :| Anyone got any ideas...
I know I need to get away from blogger get a domain and be done.. but hmm it's the hassle.

Blogger: The next Step...

I've been playing and well instead of just changing it I thought I'd let people preview it so you can see how it will look.
New Template Test
leave a comment on here as I won't actually look at the comments on there as well it's a test blog.
**** Update ****
Well I've been playing some more and well go see what I've done - i just now need additional color sets :P

Ack I feel crap!

Hmm darn it woke up yesterday with a little bit of a sore throat nursed it with strepsils all day, same today, feels like Im swallowing something sharp, back of throat feels rough and is probably glowing red so to speak, sipping liquid to keep it lubricated to try and salve the rawness :( I'll get over it just - means silence in the office as I don't speak as often.

Melonie Made Me Do It

4 jobs I've had in my life:
Technical Support / Call Centre / ARC Staff
not had any other jobs - that's my 1st and only

4 movies I could watch over and over:
Lord of The Rings : all of them
The Last Samuri
51st State
Bulletproof Monk - very hard to choose I have a very large DVD selection

TV shows I love(d) to watch:
Startrek : Any of them
Stargate
Doctor Who
Hmm anything that isn't "Reality" TV that I find SO SO SO Boring

4 places where I have lived:
Not Lived anywhere but where I live just now sorry to disapoint,
See I am boring.

4 places I've been to on vacation:
London (a few times)
Relatives for summers many years ago.

4 places I would rather be:
West Virginia,
Indiana,
Hawaii,
Somewhere I could relax, actually relax and feel like doing something rather than just sitting staring at a pc screen.

4 of my favourite foods:
Hmm tricky but it would have to be something like:
a nice fillet of fresh trout,
brocolli,
roast potatoes,
melon (or somthing like that)

4 websites I visit daily:
Melonie
Sharon
Moogie
Laura

4 people worth tagging:
I can't think of anyone who's not already been tagged, Im like that person you send those e-mails that say I must get this back and you never get them back from me. I'm a safe bet never to pass on anything I don't is worthy of passing on.

Virus Alert!

Okay this one has been around for a while but the latest current varient is a bit of biatch, it deletes / overwrites 11 types of files, for more info read here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4661582.stm
No need to panic - all you need to do is make sure your Anti-virus software is up-to-date and has been ran recently (you do have anti-virus software don't you I do believe I recommend it a while back - don't say you wasn't warned!) and keep an eye out for "dobious" e-mails, get mailwasher / mailwasher pro (the pro is worth the cash as you can report it to spam cop :D and speaking of which I got my 1st reply back from a ISP about an IP / site - shut down in 24hrs or less :D Party On.
Oh I don't get to relax this week either - oh well.

What a week

Where do I begin!
I'll begin with last friday, no not 2 days ago, 9 days ago.
I was busy most of the day finishing off testing and packing camera equipment and other pieces of equipment that was going to installed on the monday / tuesday / wednesday.
All packed up and tested by 4pm :) ready to be packed.
Early starts all week which helped (kinda!)

Monday - customer #1 - 2 fixed dome style camera to look after the way in and out of the site, customer changed the spec on us, we can't see the barrier they've since installed as where we were putting the camera can't see it if a truck is being weighed on the weighbridge.
Loaded up the 4 cameras, digital video recorder (DVR), keypad, cat5e cable, power cable, co-ax cable, connectors for the cat5 & co-ax, tools, etc into the hire car so my boss and his son & camera tech, could drive 450 miles to customer #2 to do all the work needed.

Tuesday - they arrive at customer #2, meanwhile I'm let out the office (they do this now and then) to go to help my colleague finish most if not all the wiring to an alarm system that I'll need to help program at a later date for customer #3, as I was seriously the only one small enough to get into the attic spaces as well hmm the hatches to get to them are shall we say "small" I could just get in them.
I hear you asking why, 2 cables needed run from sensors back to the main panel as it would be easier to do that than run them to where we were running the other cables for that section of the building. It's a garden centre with a restruant attached and all the walls are erm 18" thick. We got there about 10:30am , we didn't leave until 6:20pm, the place closes at 6pm. Got back home late. During the day I was getting phone calls on this and that from the boss, like why no video here I said to check the cabling and then this or that.

Wednesday - Im back in the office, discovered after I had asked the question yesterday to my boss - are all the cameras and the cat5e to co-ax convertor hub (which needs power!) on the same phase, reassured by 1 guy onsite yes but we are on the limits for our supply! then discover they aren't, Great!
We had them re-wire them all to same phase of the supply, now I don't know if you've ever had to work with cat-5e and tried to put connectors on the end but it's not the easiest (cat-5e is that cable that has what looks like a big phone connector on it 8pins, sometimes called an RJ-45 connector on the end and is used to connected pc's to other pc's and switches, routers, cable modems etc) Those are Fiddly to up on if you don't have small fingers / cable fanned out in the right order and cut square as well cables don't always connect! We got it all resolved by 5pm (i finish at 4).

Thursday - Return to normallity, everyone is back in HQ, now all we need to do is get pictures back from customer #2 to base.. Easy - NO!!! Need to get into router to configure it so that it points at the dvr so our software can connect to it, Simple, you've guessed it dear reader - NO it wasn't!
Called the ISP who provides the adsl line to customer #2, 1st call was very helpful that let us get into the router with the username and password they provided us with - yeah they password protected the router (stops people changing stuff on it) now the thing is what do you when it says "Speedtouch 510" on the outside but when you get the page up for it, it says "Speedtouch Alactel" (didn't get around to till late on thursday as it was catch up day). We weren't (I wasn't!) getting anywhere and it was like 4pm so I went home and we stopped for day)
Friday - 3 calls to ISP (Demon Internet - named and shamed - 1 from the guy down there like we were told to do) couldn't resolve what we wanted to do which was where do we go to get to "Port Forwarding / NAT / Port Mapping" as said yesterday it was a Alactel (looking at isp's webpage says the supply a speedtouch 510 nothing about speedtouch alcatel!) - they all said can you call us back when your in front of a pc by the router which we had the guy down there do with us listening in via the guys mobile - I said I was offsite and it was a distance away - I gave up, called the maker of the router and in 2 minutes resolved the problem what it had taken 3 calls and 30 minutes of wasted time by all to get the ISP tech support to tell us. Got into the router got the guy to set up what we needed for each of the "ports" there were 3 needed to be done, set the ip address of the router to somewhere that wouldn't be used as well needed to fix that as well if the power went out and there was no pc attached it would get a different IP (possibly - didn't want that) so we were done with the router had the guy go the DVR and set that up to the ip address we'd given it, had him save the all the changes and exit, and then tried to connect. Success 1st time connect :) Thank ****ing god! this was done at 3:30pm Friday only taken 2 days - I'd have been down or the boss would have done it if he had, had time wednesday but took so long on simple things like connections, power etc not his fault..
Saturday - Installed broadband for my dear sister :D - now Aol broadband says it needs 98se and won't work below that my 98se cd wouldn't play ball with the cd-rom in her machine so when I ran the CD it went and told me it couldn't find bits to finish the install, had to re-do the install of 98. Once I got back into windows I then just had to install broadband usb drivers - AoL CD said it couldn't do that, I knew otherwise :D - i ran the driver installer manually and it worked sister has broadband and she happy with it..

MY Router - Continued!

Sorry If I made some people go eh!? or make their brain hurt a little trying to understand it, sorry it's my technogeekie side showing.
The basics of it are it a bit of kit I plug my adsl line into, plug my computers into , power up and it connects them all to the net flawlessly. I have something similar set up on one machine it uses software to do the same thing using a seperate modem instead of having one built in. That explain it better, well I got a e-mail reply today from the makers of it - I put in a support request on it and got the reply back today, I've to check / Change something (I won't go techie on ya) and double check my e-mail server settings with my ISP and hopefully all will be well. Im gonna do that at the weekend. I've had a fun few days and I will post about them soon, when I can find energy to do another post..

My Router - The Final Chapter....?

Okay well I got another router a really nice D-Link 504T which does all that i want it to do finally got it hooked up, and it all looked like it was working swimmingly until I noticed I wasn't getting any replies back from spamcop for all the spam I report and Mailwasher had been hanging kinda and i had to force it close.. I then let it finish 2 related errors it couldn't connect to my isp smtp service to send mail out..
Theory checked with a quick test mail which FAILED..
So as of now I'm back on the old system that has worked so faithfully
ADSL Modem Uptime 8hrs..

No I've not died

I am still alive, I have been leaving descreet notes of this around the blogsphere, a comment here and there to let some pople know Im still here.
What a week or so it's been at work. We've got a few contracts that are just now starting to kick off in a big way, need the equipment all checked and working so that's what I've been doing, that and talking nicely to our dome camera suppliers about the next fault I've found with one of their cameras - not been many just the order I think was a little rushed as well our customer was going hmmmmmmmm a lot on deciding what to go for etc.. Built the 1st lot up to discover hmm dodgy on/off switch in that it wouldn't switch at all, unfinished welding on a dome didn't look good and could have leaked and a camera failure which of course meant I was delayed in getting the 2nd customers cameras checked over which I've just done or at least enough to be going on with, as well what I've checked goes live as of monday, customer #1 is getting it all done over the tuesday / wednesday and on one of those days I will be out the office at an other customers helping my colleague finish off the cabling of their new alarm system which i've then gotta adjust the programming on, name the zones, types of zones, users and user codes, redo the engineer code.
So what time I've had has been taken up either sleeping or chilling out I've not forgotten any of you guys out there honest.
I will try and get out this weekend and takes some pictures I need the exercise I think..

Hugs to all

Blogger World Trailer Park - Buttons

Okay folks post yer ideas, comments, comments to the ideas, comments to the comments and replies to the above below...
Constructive Ideas about overall size, shape, possible colors and wording that will be in all the buttons (or color sets so say BWTP - in 16 different colors with different background colors etc) allowing space for Individualisation of the button - Might be able to even do 2 seperate buttons and combine them with a bit of code I could probably make up.

Gopher's Random
Blog World
Trailer Park
Ramblings

Like That but the background image and the BWTP text would be as one, then all you need to do is a create the overlay - don't worry about getting it to work - that's what others are here for ;) and management :D

m***********g bl***y routers!

In case dear reader you hadn't guess I'm well to put it mildly ROYALLY PISSED OFF!!!!!!!!! Now I got a router on saturday, lets just say it wasn't upto the spec I wanted returned it and got it changed for one that claimed it would do the job with Port Forwarding and the like, look at manual - impressive should do the job. Did it, did it HELL as like. I set it up and after logging in with the default admin & password supplied guess what I got..... A Page very, very similar but with fancy graphics to the 1st router i.e all I could do was set up my username and password to connect to my ISP, no menu system, no **** all.. Me ROYALLY PEEVED! only set it up today as well was busy yesterday, so tomorrow is gonna be a very good day, unless your anywhere near the either end of the phone when I call the shop...........
Do Not By Origo ADSL Routers - what they say on the box isn't what ya get inside!!
Yours

ROYALLY PEEVED & PISSED OFF!

In Reply to "A Quiz of Questions"

Okay thank you for the response I'll try and be as open and honest as I can and if I can't I'll say I can't.
What a varied and mixed bag of questions well I did ask for that.
Here goes.

DB - Hmm here are yours.

1. Where's the nearest Pub... and why aren't you there partyin more often?
   
   Hmm nearest Public House (if you can even call it that more of a Dive) is called the Cleickim Inn simply because one of the roads near it is called Cleickimin Cresent, it's well lets see down the bottom of my street, near my Favourite Pizza place, about 25 yrds away. Why aren't I partying there more often it's not the place to party, got a few places to party but hmm they are far enough away to be good places to go but full of people, Im not really a party person, Im the quiet type didn't ya know.



2. When are you planning to visit Hawai`i?
   
   Hmm tricky one as well I don't actually own a passport, only once been outside mainland UK, well not really now as there is a road joining the Isle of Skye to the mainland but been to the Isle of Skye & Thruso to the North of Me and London for my friends wedding and a few other times - furthest south I've been. So erm not for a while.



3. How long have you been in IT?
   
   Strictly speaking Im not in IT, although my job does entail the use of computers and doing technical support for the companies 2 engineers + all our customers who have problems with their alarm systems. I'm also the guy that gets the new kit to figure out how it all goes together. If your taking involvement with PC's / computers then since i was about 10, on ye olde BBC B Microcomputer at school, typing in programs to see what they did. Got my first computer (so to speak) when i was 12, ZX Spectrum 48K elite computer, I've just picked up stuff from there like how to build, install new parts and resolve hardware / software conflicts - although somethings still puzzle me. Hope that answers your questions.


Junebugg

4. How the hell did you get the name Gopher?
   
   Hmm well that's an interesting story actually. I did go to university right after I finished school (bad idea probably!). I did get to meet a lot of people, I made some good friends most of which I keep in touch with today. Univeristy was a high point and a very low point as well, all i can say is I've stared into the Abyss but didn't leap (Don't ask for any more info!). I have a love of computers and well I was good at finding things plus there was around that time a puppet on kids TV over here called "Gordon The Gopher" now my first name is Gordon so you can see how it came about, don't know who started it, it just happened and I didn't get mad at them. It would be Gordon go find this on the net, evetually it became Gopher Go find this as well I was good at it, Still am at ferreting out Information, glitches in blog templates etc. Yup Answered that :D


Jackie

5. Can you describe your best childhood memory?
   
   Hmm this is a tricky one Jackie, I have a few. The one I gonna go is a christmas one, I was 12, mother had put ribbon all over the living room for me to follow, I found bits and pieces, a TV, my computer and such it was fun, set it up and well played it till it died (which was quick - it had to a fault :( ) never mind got fixed.
   Another is summer time I'd always be out till like 9pm at a local Country Park, I knew most of the staff by name, I have this infectious humour and ability to make friends temporarly so was never bored. Reminds me need to go find a few of the people I know from back then.
6. 
   
   Moogie
   
7. If you could pick one thing in your life to do over or change, what would it be?
   
   Hmm I honestly can't think of anything I'd chance as well if I change something in they myriad of possiblities I may not have gotten to know you all if my choices had been different. It's actually a miricle Im here at all, let's just say there is a the gap between my age and my parents is greater than my age. Maybe the one thing I'd have changed is getting my spine fixed when I could have gotten it fixed easier or rather trying not to have it needing to be done in first place.


Wahwer

8. Seaside vacation or mountain getaway?
   
   Hmm now that depends on who's going with me. I don't dislike large crowds but sorry I can't take the heat so it would have to be some where cool, somewhere I could actually relax, if i can even remember what that is. Most likely it would be mountain getaway as the Seaside places tend to be crowded with idiots thinking they are cool..
   


Roxi

9. Who are you?
   
   Tricky, and yet not tricky. Many meanings to this question. Who am I..
   Well my name is Gordon, I'm 31, from a village in Western part of the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland. I don't have a girlfriend at the momement, my previous girlfriend was my 1st girlfriend, lets just being dump hurt. Im F.I.N.E (go watch the Italian Job - the remake for what that means or google it). I'd say FINE sums me up actually quiet well. I like a multitude of musical styles and stuff from Queen to Athlete, Ash to The Chemical Brothers and many more I can say I listen to. Im the youngest of 4 children (although I will only acknowledge having 2 sisters - I've hinted why in previous posts) I read many books from Harry Potter to the Kinsey Milhone series so I have wide musical and reading tastes. I can cook, have written poetry - see my website for that - link on sidebar. Think that does that.


Vicky Waters

10. I've never been to Scotland, so if I go what food unique to Scotland should I try?
    
    Hmm well there is the thing Scotland is famous for Haggis, my some fresh caught local brown or rainbow trout is nice if you like fish. We are the crossroads for such a diverse range of people that you can get any style of food depending on where you are. I'd say Haggis or maybe black pudding (bit dry for my liking), or find a fish and chip shop and have fish n chips - we do it real nice up here :) - Hope that helps

Wow long post took me a while to write hope that answers all your question.
Addition:

Melonie:

11. What is your favorite "guilty pleasure" on television? Is it some reality show? A soap opera? A sitcom?
    
    Hmm i don't really have 1 as such, it's certainly not "reality" TV sorry I hate that whole senario. Probably be something like Dr. Who or something like that..



12. What is your favorite literature (I use this term loosely) genre? Mystery? Sci Fi? Fiction?
    
    Hmm Well I like a bit of Sci-Fi, I've read all of Douglas Adams books, Some of the Discworld Series by Terry Pratchet. I also Read Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series so mystery, crime, sci-fi oh and I've been known to pick up the occational book by Jill Mansell



13. Do you fish?
    
    In a word, NO i like fresh caught fish but I don't have the patience to sit and wait for a bite, the few times I've tried I've gotten nothing.



14. What was your favorite cartoon as a child?
    
    I had several like Hong Kong Fooey, Captain Caveman and the like well early 80's toons, ya dig

Come On, Come On

Hmm 5 Questions posted so far.. Come on people I know there are few of you out there that haven't commented but well I know want to ask me something.. I will think on those 5 that have all ready been posted, after all what's the point of doing this if you I don't answer them correctly or do a polotian on ya and give half an answer. Post more Questions in Post Below. Thank you.

A Quiz of Questions

Okay I know I may regret saying this but well I think Moogie has done this kinda thing and I think a few others too, so here goes. Pose me a question, I'll answer anything within reason. Junebugg the question that you asked my in my last post will be answered. Now Post your Questions in Comments Thank You.
Sanity Restored (Well Maybe - We're debating it right now all of us.)

Why do I even bother?

I sometimes wonder why I even bother to have a blog you know. Why I bother to leave comments on other peoples blog, that I read on a semiently daily / weekly / biweekly basis at random points. I often even wonder why I get up at all sometimes, why I put up with all the shit I put up with, taking flak from all around and stuff. I often can't be bother posting even I have something to say, often can't be bother posting comments on other blogs. I even think of deleting the whole thing and disappering offline forever sometimes. Unstable is how best to describe me right now, can be happy doing something completly boring or really intrigacate and be bored with it the next sec or if it's World of Warcraft get pissed off when Im clearly doing something and the enemy comes along (1,2,3 or more) and kills me when Im busy doing something then laugh like it some motherfucking joke to them.. Times like that I just think why do I even bother.
Post could go on and on but you get the point.. Comments are On (For now!)