Meta: Change log archives: 2006
This is a record of (major) changes I've made to the site over the years, starting at the time I switched from HTML to XHTML. It's usually more or less up-to-date.
…text added 2nd May, 2007
Added random book selection from LibraryThing to the reading page.
3rd December, 2006
Added LaunchScrobbler information to the music page.
5th December, 2006
Reorganised academia section, putting table of CILR talks onto its own page.
29th November, 2006
Fixed bug caused by WordPress's cache plug-in, which caused a blank page to be shown instead of blog pages; these had to be refreshed in order to see the blog page. This was only apparent after the move from PHP 4 to 5. The fix was to change, in the file \wp-content\plugins\wp-cache\wp-cache-phase2.php, a function call from ob_end_clean to ob_end_flush. I include it in the hope that it may help someone else with this problem. My lovely bloke found the solution for me in the WordPress support system.
Had added an announcement to the header telling readers about the blog problem, which looked naff. Have now set up a system whereby only one file still needs to be changed, but the announcement is not part of the header or even the main text. Also gave it its own style.
Have changed the first part of inside the <body> tag to be inside a function, which resides in a file of common functions.
1st November, 2006
Changed site to use PHP 5 rather than 4. Set the default timezone to London/Europe.
Moved links into their own file, with their own menu item. The file containing the links themselves is still in its original directory; there is a new top-level file which requires the original. Added more invisible bookmarks for Lynx (and its ilk) users's benefit. May extend this to whole site at some point.
27th October, 2006
Added security, pest-blocking and other features (via the .htaccess file with help from the rather useful JavaScript Kit). Don't even think about trying to access the file though, because it's protected!
25th October, 2006
Added XHTML code to allow text-based browsers to skip menu and links, as it's annoying to have them all there because you have to keep scrolling past them all the time. Found out how to do it on W3C's site - I noticed whilst looking at their site in Lynx that they did it, so I peeked at their source code and at their CSS file. You just add to the CSS a hidden class: .hideme { display: none; }, then add a paragraph or list item or whatever of class hideme which links to somewhere after the bit you want to miss out: <p class="hideme"><a href="#endoflinks" title="Skip links">Skip links</a></p>…. Easy-peasy!
Updated conferences and meetings attended. Rearranged links a little. Added more content to the Writing page.
Removed the new and updated flags, as they're just irritating.
18th October, 2006
Created a few subdirectories to group related files because the top level directory was getting overcrowded, and changed a filename or two accordingly. Added a colophon to the About pages.
Uploaded missing pictures (linked to from Pandammonia) and marked menu items as new or updated, as appropriate. Must remember to keep this up-to-date!
17th October, 2006
Added more interests (music, writing).
The 404 error page now has information about what happened to the page they were looking for. This is based on incoming links I know have changed, along with Google's webmaster tools that I just discovered.
15th October, 2006
Added 404 error handling and forbidden directory listing handling. The code for this was taken from a web site whose location I forgot to note down, and I can't remember what I searched in Google for. I tweaked it to fit my own site, and as if by magic, there they are.
Added biography to the home page; this was taken directly from what was written on the 123-reg site, and edited slightly at the end, where relevant.
14th October, 2006
Remember the Essex page I mentioned? Well, it's back again. It's a copy of the Academia page on this site. Annoyingly, the Essex server does not support PHP, so I don't want to put much other content there, as if I change anything in one of the common parts (e.g. the links), I will have to change it in a million places, which is what I'm trying to avoid by using PHP in the first place. Yes, I know I could use JavaScript, but I just don't like it!
11th October, 2006
Have faffed about getting WordPress up and running, although I'm not 100 % happy with it. It seems that there can only be one blog per installation, which means I have had to install two instances of it. This isn't good for reasons of code-reuse and style reuse; that sort of thing. It's also bad because WordPress seems to want to make you have your whole site using their tools, so you can have separate pages (and subpages) linked to from your blog, so the whole thing is nice and consistent in style and the sidebar and everything. This isn't what I want, though. I want my blogs to be something I link to from and using the same style(sheet) as the rest of my site. Until I work out how to do themes in WordPress, this is not possible.
Have also spent time learning PHP, and now the whole site is PHP, with not a single (X)HTML file in sight. I like this because it enables me to have a sidebar, header and footer included using PHP, rather than JavaScript, as it was before. PHP is better, because it is server-side, not browser-side, so you get (X)HTML when you view the source, which is better for when you check its validity against the W3C Validator. What is confusing about doing it this way is that the line numbers are pretty meaningless! A small price to pay, I think.
Also have managed to create two columns successfully, based some instructions I found by searching on Google.
The content is somewhat different to what it was on 123-reg, the previous server. The biggest differences are that my blogs are now contained within my own domain and that there is a contact form, which readers may use to email me. I used a combination of DreamHost's form mail configuration and the formmail.php file I downloaded from boaddrink.com and tweaked to fit my layout.
September/October, 2006
Hosting provider change
My hosting is due to run out at 123-reg quite soon. I want to host my WordPress blog on my own server so that it appears under my domain, rather than host it on their server, as it is at present. To do this, my server needs to support PHP, which 123-reg's servers don't (that I know of). Hence, I am in the process of dithering over changing to DreamHost, who do, and who also have a magic install-WordPress button to facilitate all these shenanigans.
Later…
Transferred hosting and domain registration to DreamHost as subscription to 123-Reg expired. The latter hosting comapny do not provide PHP support, and as I wanted to host my WordPress blogs on my own server, I needed to change. DreamHost provide not only PHP already installed on the server for your use, but also a one-click install for WordPress, which makes the whole process much easier.
6th September, 2006
Moved the BlogLog box to the side-bar, but it refused to be positioned correctly in IE, so I put it back in the footer. If only I could work out how to include the source without having to reply on the HTML script tag.
28th April, 2006
Resolved the columns problem discussed in February, 2005. It seems the solution is very simple: add an entry to the body style in the .css file, for example:
body {
⋮
min-width: 760px;
⋮
}
Easy-peasy. I also added an entry to the side-bar to force it not to become too small to fit long text (i.e. the text of the BadgerBadgerBadger link).
I tested this with FireFox, Opera, Internet Explorer (IE) and the BT Yahoo! Browser. The first two work fine, but the second two are still weird. The .css file is valid, however, according to the W3C validator, so I'm assuming this is a browser issue.
Also added a link to BlogLogs showing yesterday's top five external links. This is displayed correctly in FireFox and Opera, but not in IE and Yahoo!.
Next task is to create a more thorough style sheet that encompasses everything possible! To do that, I will probably go through all the tags and properties and whatnot for style sheets at W3Schools. There'll no doubt be a lot of palavering about with that one.
27th April, 2006
Added link to Last.fm to tell you what I'm listening to.
15th April, 2006
I have been growing increasingly frustrated with Blogger, the tool I use to create my blog; I have had problems with it connecting, resulting in lost posts or repeated posts, it is slow, its features are not kept up-to-date. I have therefore changed to WordPress, which is also free. It is currently hosted on their own servers, which is ok for now, but I'd like to have it hosted with the rest of my site. I need to see if PHP is supported.
I have also cancelled my squarespace account. It will terminate on the 19th March, 2006, and will be removed some time after that.
20th February, 2006
