Website Waffle

Some (long overdue) website updates

Darryl — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:55:11 +0000

After a much longer break than had been intended I am (finally) about to try and find some free time to get work resumed by updating the BritishMac.com website. Initially this is going to consist of little more than checking all links are still correct and sorting out updated contact details.
My current work schedules (for paid work) are still looking pretty much full to bursting for at least the next month or so. While this may be a good thing in terms of my bank balance it isn’t quite so great in terms of trying to have a social life or getting work done on unpaid projects (like BritishMac.com).

The revamp isn’t dead (honest)

Darryl — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:05:36 +0000

Despite any lack of noticable progress (yet again) the revamp of BritishMac.com isn’t dead. However, I’ve been working a lot of hours recently and have barely had enough time to eat and sleep during the last few months so quite a few projects have had to take a temporary back seat.

St British Mac domain registration

Darryl — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:19:27 +0000

The domain name StBritishMac.com has now been registered and some initial content (just a holding page to begin with) will be appearing on them soonish.

Sam Green RIP

Darryl — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:11:53 +0000

Will’s faithfull K9 companion Sam has died recently and along with many others who have either met Will or listened to his podasts I offer my condolences. But why is this sad event relevent to a blog about revamping the BritishMac.com website you may ask. The relevence is that part of the restructuring which has been carried out ‘behind the scenes’ has involved creating a landing page and another separate main page.
Most of the time, the landing page (where you are taken if you type http://www.britishmac.com or http://www.britishmac.com/index.html for that matter) looks identical to the main page or home page (depending on which term would make more sense to you) linked to from within the website. However at times it was anticipated that it would be relevent for the landing page to contain information for only a short period of time (ie anouncements about upoming podcasts, listener meet-ups, etc). The reason for creating a structure with two separate pages in this manner was to make it easy for Will to alter the landing page without it impacting upon the overall structure of the website. This is something he has done recently to create a page which pays tribute to Sam (whose soft howls featured in a fair few podcats).

Been quiet, but been quite busy

Darryl — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:30:55 +0000

Despite how it may look to anyone who actually reads my random waffling on these pages I haven’t disapeared off the face of the earth (or abandonned work on the BritishMac.com revamp project).

My train has just got into Waterloo railway station and I’m just about to walk across the Thames to meet up with Will and anyone else who has made it to this year’s British Mac gathering (so I should have some witnesses to confirm that I still exist).

As for work on the BritishMac.com website revamp - I can confirm that I’ve been very short on free time ove the past few months and this has had to take a back seat. However the revamp project is far from forgotten and I am planning to resume work on it’s completion very soon.
I won’t set any timescales at the moment, but will confirm that the revamp project will get finished, and it hasn’t been forgotten, but that it will be finished when it’s finished.

new home page image

Darryl — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:18:40 +0000

Having got delayed for quite a while I’ve finally set aside a few hours to GIMP together several images into a provisional new front page image for BritishMac.com
In the new image, the Sherlock Holmes Museum has been moved next door to the Sherlock Holmes Pub (complete with road works to act as a link to the revamp subsection of the website).

In all honesty, the ‘final’ image is still quite a way from being perfect, but should be good enough to do the job for a few months until everything is finally finished off (and a better image is created without any road works).

Missing deadlines and slipping schedules

Darryl — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:26:36 +0000

As may be expected, especially if you’ve noticed the lack of posts recently on this blog (and lack of changes or additions to the BritishMac.com website), the focus of this post is to explain that I won’t be getting work completed within the schedule that I was hoping to manage.

A few boring real world things have had to take priority at the moment. Some of these will take as long as a bit of string to sort out. Therefore it may be that within a couple of weeks I’ve got enough free time to resume where I’m putting things on hold, or it might be a few months. Either way I’m only putting work on the revam on hold and will continue again once time allows.

The Matron

Darryl — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:28:52 +0000

Following on the heels of the Pizza Guide, The Matron has now had all of it’s links sorted and been uploaded to it’s new home within the World of Will.

The pages which collectively make up The Matron were originally created by Will around 2002 and formed a sub-section of the website for Carry On Cabling (a network cable installation business Will ran at the time).
Each webpage has been left as unaltered as possible (if you need proof of this view the page sources where Will’s comments remain), but all phone numbers, email addresses and web links to Carry On Cabling have been removed.

Pussy Cat Club

Darryl — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:33:52 +0000

My attentions are now being turned to the Pussy Cat Club (or British Mac forum if you prefer a more descriptive name).
Incase anyone hasn’t visited the forum recently, then I’d suggest heading over to http://britishmac.proboards.com and having a look around (and while you’re there why not register as a user).

Anyone who is familar with the Pussy Cat Club / forum will already be aware of the work put in by Mr Forum Cat (and a few others) administering the forum. I have no plans to overthrow those administering the forum - or mess around with the forum in any way.

Instead my plans focus on content which will go on the BritishMac.com website and relate to using the forum. This content is likely to include a series webpages with each offering step by step instructions about a particular aspect of participating in the forum. Some potential topics include things like personalising user profiles, inserting links, quotes and images into posts, and formatting text within a post.

So, in summary, the Pussy Cat Club section of the website will include prominent links directly to the forum. In addition several webpages are being planned which will hopefully enhance people’s enjoyment of using the forum.

Pizza Guide

Darryl — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:07:47 +0000

After taking far longer for me to get it done than should have been the case, Will’s historic Pizza Guide has had it’s links cleaned up a, few bits of code tidied (but left as original as possible) and now lives in it’s new home within the World of Will.

Please keep in mind the Pizza Guide is is a historic document (last updated in 2005 or 2006) so some of the prices and other information may be a bit dated.
At present, the Pizza Guide has been made available again so Will’s listening public can see for themselves something which he has mentioned several times in past podcasts. There are no (current) plans to update or revamp the Pizza Guide, but if the public demand is sufficient a revised Pizza Guide might emerge one day.