As I’ve recently changed the theme I use in WordPress I’ve lost all the basic SEO tweaks I’d made. Rather than make the tweaks again to this theme I’ve decided to convert them into a simple WordPress plugin, should allow me to get my hands dirty with the inner workings of WordPress and plugins as well as save a bit of time in the long run. I’m also planning on documenting the development of the plugin here.
While Java is my preferred language of choice I’m sure it won’t hurt to stay involved in PHP.
While sorting through some of my many backups of old machines I came across a whole load of IIS log files for an old site of mine so I thought I’d process them and generate some statistics. I’ve used Webalizer quite a few times before for generating stats on Apache log files and as v2.01 is available via Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu I thought I’d use this.
Unfortunately v2.01 doesn’t support support the W3C format that IIS uses, looks like it does now in v2.20 though. However IIS includes a utility called ‘convlog‘ for converting it’s logs files to the NCSA common log file format that Webalizer does support. So I fired up my old Windows XP box, installed IIS and used the following command to convert the log files:
convlog -ie ex*.log
Once that had processed all the log files (by default it creates a copy of each log file) I copied them back to my Ubuntu laptop and used ‘cat‘ to combine all the files into one big log file:
cat ex*.nsca > master.log
All that was left to do was create a config file to tell Webalizer what it should do, so I copied the default config file and customised the options to my needs. Then ran ‘webalizer‘ using the customised config file:
./webalizer -c master.conf
Once it’s performed it’s magic you should have a bunch of detailed reports in the location you specified in the config file!
I’m going to start posting more technical content on this blog from now on. Ranging from details on any personal development projects I happen to be working on, links to various technologies and frameworks I find interesting to guides on setting up or configuring various systems etc.
I’m hoping this change of tack will help me blog more often here.
Well 2009 came and went quickly, the majority of it was spent buying and then moving into our first home (more on that another time). I then proceeded to spend the last 6 months thinking about what I want to use this site for and very little time doing anything about it. Yesterday I started to make a few changes, I configured WordPress as the CMS behind the whole site rather than just being used for a blog. It’s not my ideal solution but it’s a start in the right direction at the very least. I’m looking for a bliki type solution really along the same lines as Yaki that powers Tao of Mac. But until I find a Java based version that I like it’ll do for now, should allow me to focus on the content rather than the mechanism for getting the content online anyway. I’ve also dropped the “www.” from the URL for the site, it was long enough anyway!
I think I’ve got WordPress configured correctly just need to go through all the posts and fix any broken links and images due to the mod_rewrite/redirect rules I’ve put in place. Next thing on the list is to scrap the current theme and go with “Twenty Ten” until I either find a minimalistic theme I like or make my own.
Hopefully this post should still show up on the old feed link? In future the link to the Atom feed for this site will be: http://jonathanbullock.com/feed/atom/
I came across this list of shortcuts for the Nokia E71 recently. It has some useful notes especially pressing ‘T’ to focus the camera, even though Nokia list “autofocus” as a feature of the camera. This improves the quality of the camera somewhat but the images are still nowhere near good enough.
I read Getting Things Done by David Allen last summer after owning the book for nearly 3 years and I’ve been trying to adopt the principles outlined in the book since then, not very well I might add!
As part of my New Year’s resolutions I’d like to improve my adoption of the GTD methodology and will no doubt re-read the book (as it suggests) or even grab an audio version of it. I’ve also become a member of the GTD group on Facebook and started following a couple of GTD focused blogs in the hope these will improve my understanding of the basic principles and provide a few helpful tips along the way.
I came across this video clip the other day (via DIGTD) that helped me visualise some of the items outlined in the GTD book.
Humble Pie was a fascinating read for someone who enjoys watching pretty much all of the TV programmes Gordon Ramsay is involved with. Although I’m quite a fan of autobiographies in general anyway. I’m about half way through this book already and just like the first I’m finding it hard to put down!
I needed a Google Talk client on my mobile a while ago and discovered Fring, they provide a Symbian client (as well as other platforms) that allows you to connect to most of the IM networks (Google Talk, MSN, AIM, ICQ, Y! & Skype) as well as providing free VoIP calls to other Fring users at least.
I’ve been using it on my Nokia E71 quite a bit, it’s a pretty good mobile IM client although your friends seem to get ads with every message you send. The VoIP side works pretty well too, even spoke to someone while they were down in South America!
Bit late with this post seeing as we’ve just entered 2009 and the regular NFL season is now over but I thought I’d post it anyway! Here are my photos from the NFL International Series 2008 game between the San Diego Chargers & New Orleans Saints at Wembley, my first ever life NFL game.
I was very happy with the result of the game (in case you didn’t watch it the Saints won!) it was a great game to watch overall, plenty of high powered offense on show although it was a shame Reggie Bush couldn’t make the game due to injury. The atmosphere at the game was excellent, I was bit worried about this but I was proved wrong in the end. The view from our seats was better than I expected too, I wasn’t too sure whether we’d be able to follow the game but we could make everything out very well. It’s a completely different experience as you get to see how every part of the play develops rather than just following what the TV cameras choose. Having said that I still watched the game again when I got home in case I missed anything!
Apart from it being my first ever live NFL game It was also my first time to Wembley, although it took bloody ages to build it is a fantastic venue! Roll on 2009 and the Patriots v Buccaneers!
