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Technical - Adding facebook badges to Joomla 1.x

Written by Richard Smith
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Adding a Facebook badge to Joomla allows visitors of you Joomla site to see your facebook status. Some might find this pointless, especially those that update their sites regually. If your like me and update your Facebook status more than you update your site then this is for you. This is seriously easy though doing a Google search on the subject brings up ways I personally wouldn't use. (Click Read More to find out how) Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Be first to comment this article \| Add as favourites (73) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 562
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 26 May 2009 )
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Odd Bits - Airport Security

Written by Richard Smith
Sunday, 24 May 2009
I'm typing this whilst I'm in the airport. (Though you guys won't see this till later). I have jusy been through security and they wanted me to seperate my laptop from my hand luggage but not my digital camera. (A Nikon D700 DSLR). Surely a digital camera of that size is surely as dangerios? Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Be first to comment this article \| Add as favourites (58) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 217

Photography - International Commie Camera Day (Yesterday)

Written by Richard Smith
Saturday, 02 May 2009
Timing off again. International Commie Camera Day was eeerrrmmmm yesterday. This is a day where you go and take your old or new camera built in ye olde Soviet Union and take some photos. More details here http://www.holgablog.com/2009/04/30/win-a-zenit-e-slr-or-belomo-vilia-auto-camera/ and http://www.flickr.com/groups/1060189@N22/discuss/72157617504915316/ I was hoping to post an article on a digital back solution for an old Zenit SLR with comparisons of the Film vs Digital back but the Zenit's film roll isn't yet complete let alone developed and scanned. So that article will hopefully be appearing in the future. Zenit EM SLR with Helios 44-2 (Originally shipped with a Helios 44M but the 44-2 proved sharper, probably a duff 44M). Camera was using film back when I took a photo of it. Photo taken using a Nikon D700 with a Sigma 12-24 lens @ F/16. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Be first to comment this article \| Add as favourites (71) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 309
Last Updated ( Saturday, 02 May 2009 )

Technical - IPv4 address availability counter

Written by Richard Smith
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
A simple counter that shows the IPv4 public address space being exhausted. What is IPv4? Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipv4 Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Be first to comment this article \| Add as favourites (59) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 290
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 29 April 2009 )

Photography (Sort of) - Dog walk at Sutton Park

Written by Richard Smith
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Sort of? No I'm not admitting my photography is nothing like real photography....though yes these are snap shots. I wouldn't even say these were pictures of Sutton Park. I didn't get chance to take photos of any of the lovely features like the lakes and the steam train because....well I didn't get to see them. Anyway some photos of some dogs playing. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Be first to comment this article \| Add as favourites (53) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 225

Photography - DSLR vs Cameraphone

Written by Richard Smith
Sunday, 26 April 2009
No updates for a month then 3 at once lol. Felt this was worth posting. I as some of you know use Facebook as one of my social networking sites. (The other in Linkedin but I still need to finish my profile on that). I have a lot of people on my "Friends" list who use facebook to share photos of.....well anything from the olde days to latest pub crawl. Lots of these images are made on cameraphones. Now cameraphones can....sometimes produce a half decent quality photo, the conditions have to be ideal, perfect light for example. When in a pub at night the photo produced is blurly and well you can't see what the hell was going on other than the person taking the photo was obviously pissed when they took it (and maybe even when they posted it ) Cameraphones have there place, usually just to sit on the back of your phone to make it look modern . Anyway if you disagree or agree with the above then please use the comments system. Now the real reason for posting, here is a link to a comparison between the Sony Ericsson K850 Camera phone. (One of the best at the time the article was written, trust me, camera phones haven't got better in the mean time). And the Nikon D40 (The cheapest DSLR camera you can buy new). http://blog.se-nse.net/reviews/camera-shoot-out-nikon-d40-vs-sony-ericsson-k850/ Typical image of a Nikon D40 taken by a Sony Ericsson K810i camera phone. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Be first to comment this article \| Add as favourites (40) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 228
Last Updated ( Sunday, 26 April 2009 )

Photography - FIlm vs Digital (again)

Written by Richard Smith
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Quite weird that twice in the same week I was asked my opinion on Film vs Digital. Weird as I'm not a professional photographer, it's just a hobby. The first person saw me with my Nikon D700 and D40, we got talking and he was talking about his Film gear, was it worth moving to digital. Honestly, unless your planning to spend quite a bit of money probably not, especially if you don't have a computer. Second person whilst we were chit chatting dropped into the conversation "Apparently film is coming back in fasion for cameras. I said "yes" and then we started to talk about the differences. Digital results are often cleaner as higher ISO, you can delete the images you don't like and you can see them straight away. With film you probably get better results in situations where there is lots of light and can use lower ISO film. It's cheaper then buying an expensive DSLR camera (compact cameras and camera phones are usually a waste of time) and you can get digital files when you get the filmed developed anyway. (At extra cost of course). So both formats have strengths and weaknesses. Feel free to use my comments system if you wish to add your opinion Typical image of a camera. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Be first to comment this article \| Add as favourites (56) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 227
Last Updated ( Sunday, 26 April 2009 )

Technical - Windows and Linux on Netbooks

Written by Richard Smith
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Firstly I suppose I should apologise for the lack of new content. I'm working down a very large backlog at the moment but will hopefully start posting again soon. My mate the opensourcegeek who will remain nameless as he likes being a man of mystery and who's blog can be found at http://opensourcegeek.org His latest post is quite interesting. Titled Linux Epic Fail it states that Netbooks with Windows installed are currently vastly outselling Netbooks with Linux installed. He is asking peoples opinions on what could have been done to avoid this disaster. Can be found at http://opensourcegeek.org/2009/04/09/linux-epic-fail/#comments Typical size comparsion between a Netbook and a normal sized Notebook. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Comments (1) \| Add as favourites (41) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 238

Technical - Creating a Personal Website

Written by Richard Smith
Friday, 27 March 2009
Right, finally................ Creating a personal website....... Inspiration..now No eeerrrmm Inspiration....now OK, creating and running a personal website can be hard work. You need to come up with fresh content to keep your viewing public. If you want a personal site that lets you keep your friends informed about your personal life then social networking sites like Facebook will probably do this better. As I stated here: Odd Bits - Are Personal Websites Dead? The Orange Place of Rich - Monday, 23 March 2009 © The Orange Place of Rich But if you want to share a specialism with the world, start your own community website or something else that social networking or it's terms and conditions might not cater for then click read more.... Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Be first to comment this article \| Add as favourites (58) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 323
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Odd Bits - Petra on Google Street Maps

Written by Richard Smith
Monday, 23 March 2009
Google streetmaps comes to the UK finally. I remembered passing by a Google car last summer and I have found myself. On the M11 Picture 1 Picture 2 Outside the old apartment. Picture 3 Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites Be first to comment this article \| Add as favourites (51) \| Quote this article on your site \| Views: 241
Last Updated ( Monday, 23 March 2009 )