tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33341278450992927592011-07-29T02:30:19.461+01:00Web design and hosting company owner blathers on about operating systems, computers and web design.Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.comBlogger371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-21508418505656358022011-07-07T09:33:00.000+01:002011-07-07T09:33:41.448+01:00

If you want to take five minutes to open a spreadsheet then download this Windows Update.  If you want to open spreadsheets instantly, don't.

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-15978004886040219602011-04-05T07:30:00.000+01:002011-04-05T07:30:19.552+01:00

After two days running the new beta version of Ubuntu I am still completely confused. The default desktop interface has gone from the easy to use Gnome to the extremely confusing Unity.  Meanwhile the beta seems to have screwed up many of the features of Gnome if you choose to go back to what they now call Classic Ubuntu. The main feature is a strip of icons running down the left hand side of

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-51781217477604415162011-03-28T11:28:00.002+01:002011-03-28T11:29:10.143+01:00

I have added UK2 to my list of least favoured companies which includes Easyspace and all it subsidiaries, any company offering SEO services and Talk Talk (just for being crap). I recently transferred a domain away from UK2 into my 123-reg account and paid them the whopping transfer fee of £15.59 to change the IPS tag. They then used my card to renew the domain which now has nothing to do with

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-4638320311807293562010-10-05T08:13:00.002+01:002010-10-05T08:19:07.494+01:00

I have been developing some on-line sailing race results software over the past year or so.  There are plenty of free programs out there which will work out sailing results but I believe this to be the most useful and easiest to use because it works in "the Cloud" and publishes the results to the Internet immediately.  Also, because it is web based, it will work with any operating system and

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-88898579139977923752010-05-29T19:00:00.003+01:002010-05-29T19:04:05.256+01:00

Thunderbird 3 has a nasty habit of trying to get its users to set up IMAP instead of POP3 accounts. It also has an addiction to trying to guess mail settings based on the email address - and getting it badly wrong. It is not a problem if you upgrade from Thunderbird 2 because it just transfers the accounts across, but fresh installs can be really tricky. Here's the way round it. You need to

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-28870133660845233952010-03-10T09:53:00.001Z2011-06-21T09:39:12.453+01:00

Ever since the dawning of the search engine at the back end of the last century there have been people trying to optimise web sites to appear at the top of rankings. Good web designers will try to make their sites search engine friendly at birth, others may fall short. Either way SEO [search engine optimisation] companies do not give a damn whether your site is the most search engine friendly

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-3910773293701817372010-02-22T17:48:00.004Z2010-02-22T18:15:01.573Z

Back in the day when Alta Vista was the king of search engines, meta tags were said to be vital to a web site's search engine position. Since everybody knew this, it was easy to skew results your way and so search engines started worrying about more important things like title, content, link text, URLs and back links to rank web sites.So are meta tags finished? Well clearly description tags are

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-69475394520024846012009-10-01T08:23:00.002+01:002009-10-01T08:41:25.384+01:00

You will all be familiar with the three buttons at the top of windows which allow you to minimise, maximise, restore and close the application. You may also know about double clicking the title bar to restore and maximise the window. Windows 7 has a few more things you can do with the window you are working on.If you hold down the Windows Button on your keyboard and press the arrow keys, some

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-48086656371140937472009-03-31T19:57:00.004+01:002009-03-31T20:06:56.508+01:00

I have updated the template for all of my dedicated servers to reflect the look of my company's web site: the Isle of Wight Web Hosting Company.So if you have a hosting package with me please log in and take a look.The template will work with any dedicated server account through Donhost or Webfusion and if anybody would like a copy please let me know.The width of the main section is designed for

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-7253157088804651102009-03-12T08:52:00.002Z2009-03-12T09:23:31.314Z

Vista needs kicking into touch. It is slow, it demands permission at every step like an insecure child and it still has the truly ridiculous inability to sort files by modified date without unnecessary persuasion.Its sleep function is temperamental and programs freeze for minutes on end if the wind is from the wrong direction.But most of all it has been replaced. Windows 7 is everything that

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-30665679683652142142009-02-22T12:49:00.004Z2009-02-22T13:14:28.378Z

I have just done a highly unscientific experiment as to which operating system is the fastest to boot up from scratch, get a network and display my home page.If it was a properly valid exercise then all machines would be identical in power, but they aren't.First up is my main computer. It runs Windows Vista Home Premium on a dual 3.2 GHz processor with 4GB of RAM. It has the 2008 version of

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-34896666239428711742009-02-13T10:19:00.003Z2009-02-13T10:28:39.891Z

We now have a Google Rank on this site: 0/10. It's been unranked for two years.The only problem is, I don't know whether it is down to the new domain name: www.islandwebservices.com or down to the fact that I submitted the site's RSS feed to Google Webmaster Tools.However I can see that Google started crawling this site more intensely and regularly towards the end of January (09) which is when I

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-48965450496882555442009-02-13T09:57:00.004Z2009-02-13T10:15:01.938Z

I have added the facility for Youtube videos on isleofwightaccommodation.com. The videos are embedded in the page and just require the Flash plug-in to work.There is now the possibility to have a nine page mini-site on the accommodation directory:main page with descriptive text and up to five picturesavailability calendartariffspecial offersrate the accommodationvirtual tourenquiry formlocation

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-66073693472195341342009-02-05T15:16:00.002Z2009-02-05T15:24:35.149Z

I have purchased an Apple Mac. I now have five computers running five different operating systems.I have a baby laptop - not a net book because the name wasn't invented when it came out five years ago. This runs Windows 7 (Beta version) at the moment,My main laptop runs Ubuntu and XP on different partitions and runs sweet as a nut on either.There is a desktop computer upstairs running XP. My

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-61920448602211059332009-02-02T12:28:00.003Z2009-02-02T12:33:18.072Z

I have just added a rate-it facility to all the accommodation providers on isleofwightaccommodation.com so that people can leave comments about each business and give a rating out of five stars.It uses Google Friend Connect and is added through some simple HTML / JavaScript code. You can log in using AOL and Yahoo as well as Google accounts.Seems to work well. Just need some people to use it.

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-84222953728990546892009-01-29T08:57:00.003Z2009-01-29T09:08:05.043Z

I have had my eye on the domain islandwebservices.com for about eight years, ever since I set up Island Webservices. The domain had been owned by a Bermudan web design and hosting company and I always suspected I was losing a small proportion of my trade to them; although probably gaining the same amount back.Three months ago the domain became available and I was approached by a number of

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-60224730573756432952008-11-19T10:25:00.007Z2008-11-19T10:41:56.188Z

I have just updated my accommodation directory for the Isle of Wight so that there are now at least three pages for every accommodation provider:A description of the property together with up to four picturesA Google location map pinpointing the locationA contact formOther available pages include availability calendars, virtual tours, tariff and special offer pages.If you want to get your bed and

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-78090624202907668392008-11-06T14:43:00.003Z2008-11-06T15:04:04.780Z

I have been experimenting with Ubuntu for a couple of years now with mixed results. I have installed it on a few machines which work extremely well. Other installations have caused pain and anguish and no joy.Ubuntu is a variant of the Linux family of operating systems and its big claim is it is designed for human beings. As opposed to cattle or gerbils who prefer Mandriver Linux instead?

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-18198392629932120372008-11-05T15:04:00.004Z2008-11-05T15:11:30.412Z

I have finally pulled my finger out of my bottom and updated one of my first web sites.The Isle of Wight Web Hosting Company web site now has a full domain look-up facility plugging into a shopping cart.Hosting accounts start at £30 including VAT per annum.

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-64745168835140210402007-09-24T10:02:00.000+01:002007-09-24T10:28:33.910+01:00

The One Laptop Per Child charity is allowing "the first 25,000" applicants to buy one of their rugged computers on a "buy two get one" basis - you buy one for yourself and one for a child in a less developed country.They sound a very useful device and I suspect they are going to be highly sort after because of the design features that make them outdoor-friendly - something other laptops are

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-43850539677682766002007-09-06T16:55:00.000+01:002007-09-06T17:01:39.841+01:00

Sort by modified. Where did that go then?You can sort most sets of files in Vista in the usual way, size, name, modified but not photographs. You can sort photographs in many, many ways: how about "35mm focal length" or "Assistant's phone"? But you can't arrange by modified. I find this unsatisfactory. There may be times when I wish to sort by Lens maker but I really would like to be able to

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-43879654401746827242007-08-23T22:48:00.001+01:002009-11-10T07:42:38.851Z

My company is developing a new business networking site called Sell to a Million. As well as all the usual social networking facilities such as private messaging and allowing users to gather friends in their profile, this facility also has an Internet directory and blogs. All of this is under the same umbrella with a single log in.Both the directory and the blogs (if required) appear on the

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-47742039113089786982007-08-17T11:24:00.000+01:002007-08-23T22:46:50.187+01:00

Well the new laptop arrived. I tried Ubuntu but it really wasn't having it. I suspect the new hardware is a little bit ahead of the makers of the Unix operating system and I may have another try when a new Ubuntu version comes out.So having failed with three versions of Ubuntu I installed XP. No problems at all; I told it 18 times that I am not American, did 42 updates, added the drivers which

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-48570845928599552007-08-15T11:28:00.000+01:002007-08-15T11:50:07.446+01:00

Vista has steadily been getting less bad.The "sleep" mechanism works nicely now, especially if you turn all programs off first. Networking also works better than earlier with other Windows machines; less so with Ubuntu but I doubt if Mr Gates is too bothered about that.HOWEVER...This morning Windows decided to update my machine. I lost a monitor. I had four screens yeaterday and after the

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-90244381999507580842007-08-05T09:38:00.000+01:002007-08-05T10:25:47.228+01:00

I have just bought a new laptop, which I am hoping is going to be a stonker. The question is which operating system to put on it. It is due to arrive on Tuesday so I have two days to ponder.Vista is not an option. Apart from being seductively beautiful it is suffering from acute hypochondria, is incompatible with every item of hardware in my house and is rubbish at networking and file

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-18353544507336939212007-07-09T12:49:00.000+01:002007-07-09T12:53:18.554+01:00

It appears I have made an unfair comment about Safari. It does actually import bookmarks/favourites from other browsers. It places them in separate folders so with a bit of customisation you can get rid of the Apple religious links and replace them with your secular ones.All the text still looks rubbish with the font-smoothing shenanigans.

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-77893959281600221142007-07-09T12:28:00.000+01:002007-07-09T12:49:02.519+01:00

I have always preferred the software inherent in Windows XP to third party drivers and have used these wherever possible. I ignore requests to insert printer or camera CDs and carry on regardless. It almost always works.Similarly I prefer the drag and drop burning of CDs which is possible using XP. This facility continues with Vista. I'm not sure they have got it right though.I wanted to choose

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-29753634305879971262007-06-25T14:07:00.000+01:002007-06-25T14:21:39.238+01:00

I installed Safari on my Vista computer this morning. Unlike on my XP computer, it installed with no hitches. Quicktime logos were sprawled all over the place and all was well.I opened up the new browser from the uber-cool Apple Inc and waited for the browser to detect my settings from Internet Explorer such as favourites and default home page. Of course it didn't do this because Safari knows I

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-92203312763560467362007-06-12T19:37:00.000+01:002007-06-12T20:07:29.952+01:00

Apple have pleased me today. They have brought out a version of their "Safari" browser for Windows. I have wanted them to do this for a long time so that I could see what my web sites look like on a Mac without spending 1500 pounds on a shiny new computer I don't need.I went to the Apple site at http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ and downloaded the Beta 3 version of Safari together with

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-20399766222691654302007-06-11T19:08:00.000+01:002007-06-11T19:20:11.088+01:00

My company, Island Webservices, has developed a web product for schools of all sizes and age groups. Yet to be unveiled to the public, this facility allows one super-user to update events, news, term dates and to set up users for both the blog and the educational departments pages.The blogs, which could be utilised by the whole school, teachers and parents included, have all the usual facilities

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-1460570535520576102007-06-09T19:56:00.000+01:002007-06-09T20:10:28.518+01:00

The Developer Toolbar for Internet Explorer now appears to work on Windows Vista. It appears at the base of the page rather than as an extension of the main tool bar (which is hidden by default on Internet Explorer 7 anyway).It likes to come with a load of rubbish such as a tree of mark-up tags and a list of attributes and styles, which I doubt I will ever use but you can drag this to the base of

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-14967142387883663022007-05-10T14:31:00.000+01:002007-05-11T09:53:06.352+01:00

If you read my previous blog you will see that Vista, Paint Shop Pro and Liam are having a little bit of a falling out.Ringing support, I was answered by somebody who appeared utterly bored with her job and was desperate to get down the pub and talk about all the freaks with Vista that ring up for help with Paint Shop Pro XI. Perhaps all you lucky people with old versions of Paint Shop Pro (

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-18582876187742741132007-05-09T18:49:00.000+01:002007-05-09T19:05:47.043+01:00

As I mentioned in my first lesson, Paint Shop Pro 8 doesn't work properly with Vista. It installs OK but crashes when you try and crop things. So I have installed Paint Shop Pro XI instead. And the patch to make it work with Vista.So that should work well then. You'd have thunk.Paint Shop Pro likes to build up a database of pictures on computers, presumably so it can report kiddy-porn to the

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-46876874754152891732007-04-24T14:18:00.000+01:002007-04-24T15:01:36.703+01:00

Internet Explorer 7 was my browser of choice. I have always preferred Internet Explorer to other browsers because it reads HTML correctly. The others don't. The code required to get something working on Firefox and Internet Explorer is about twice as verbose as the code required to get the same page showing correctly on IE. Even then Firefox will probably show it how it feels best. As a web

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-27661299076760051262007-04-23T09:40:00.000+01:002007-04-23T10:19:56.023+01:00

I may have cracked it. File sharing that is. Printer sharing, as I have mentioned previously, is a far off dream because the drivers for my printer don't exist for Vista.I had a brainwave. I turned off the Windows Firewall. On XP the Windows Firewall is an inoffensive little beast. In four years of XP bliss I never noticed it working away in the background. On Vista it was turned off by

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-21325098066222222582007-04-22T10:38:00.000+01:002007-04-22T11:02:57.305+01:00

Do you remember the promotional video for XP. It was two American men just starting at university with their laptops. One goes out for a few minutes and the other sets up printer sharing on their computers. All so easy. And it is. Windows XP loves sharing files and printers - only if you allow it of course - but it does it so well.Vista is the new version of XP. It is therefore better. It

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334127845099292759.post-989720829316779582007-04-22T09:58:00.000+01:002007-04-22T10:31:29.946+01:00

I am the world's largest fan of Windows XP. It is reliable, it works with a ridiculous amount of software, it is attractive and easy to use for even the most novice users.But this week I am even more of a fan of Windows XP. I now have Vista installed on my machine. Vista is a thing of beauty. I am intoxicated by its beauty so much that I have resisted the urge to do the sensible thing and put

Liam Thomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05613207450843440744noreply@blogger.com0