Keep stiring and keep on medium heat until simmering
Put a covering of crisps on a plate and add the first layer of salsa
Add a layer of grated cheese
Keep layering in this order until ingredients have run out - crisps, salsa, cheese
Place in microwave a d put on high heat for 45 seconds or until cheese has melted
ENJOY YOUR NACHOS!!
Facebook Graph API - Project
I have managed to crack the OAuth thing that Facebook has taken up to authenticate web apps calling their new Graph API. I found it quite simple actually.
Before you can make restricted requests, you need to be first issued with an auth_token. To get one you need to send a request to:
LIST_OF_OBJECTS is where you comma delimit the list of things you will want to access (ie events,photos,email etc). The call returns a code which you then use along with your secret to retrieve the auth_token
The auth_token is then returned along with an expiry countdown in seconds. This can then be added to any API calls for which you need permission.
I have used just one PHP script to do everything. It just checks if its receiving instructions by the user to make a call as a GET variable else goes along through the authentication procedure until an auth_token is set
http://corz.org/serv/tricks/htaccess2.php has a great walkthrough of loads of different tips and tricks of using the .htaccess files to make a better web application
CSS'ified
Visitors to DylanJones.info will have noticed colour! A long awaited feature to the site. Specifically #3399CC and yellow. As I only allow visits from compatible browsers (ie not IE), I have also added rounded borders to the two main sections of the page. This has been implemented by adding:
A nav element has also been added into the top header, currently linking to the 3 main places on the site. I am debating whether to add a more specific A-Z or Sitemap for machines to read alongside humans.
An A-Z may be best suited to go down in the global footer of the site now, along with a search bar of some kind.
The new BBC Homepage has been released today aswell.
With my tastes changing frequently, I change the look and layout of my site quite often. I am going to look into a way of archiving the image of the homepage so I have a record of all the different variants.
URY are delighted to announce STORNOWAY as the headline act for our summer term music event.
2009 saw Stornoway win the 'Best Artist' award at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, play alongside the likes of Dave Grohl and Jay Z on 'Later with Jool's Holland' and receive the honour of playing Glastonbury's famous Pyramid Stage. Towards the end of 2009, Stornoway were announced as entrants onto the long list of the BBC's Sound of 2010 competition having been selected by a panel of some 165 UK-based 'tastemakers'. So not a bad year by any means.
I'm stewarding.
Bus: York to Leeds
I have taken this journey twice each working day for this last academic year (2009/10). I wondered how many miles and hours I have spent on the big blue buses.
Distances
Distance per Journey
34 miles
Distance per Day
68 miles
Total Distance
68 miles x 5 days x 30 weeks = 10,200 miles
This total distance covered is equivalent to just under the distance between London, UK and Sydney, Australia
Cost
Cost per Bus Pass
£80
Total Cost
£80 x 7 = £560
Petrol Costs
10200mi x 35mpg x 105p = £1391.10
Taking the bus has cost 40% of what it would have cost for fuel alone if I had a car
Time
Time per Journey
70 minutes
Total Time
70 mins x 2 x 30 x 5 = 14.58 days
Final percentage for you: the time I have spent on the bus is equivalent to 4% of my whole year!
HTML 5 - Drag and Drop
I am not sure who invented drag-and-drop but it has been with us I guess since the creation of the mouse. It was something that has never really made it to the world wide web, even though it is done day to day on the desktop.
HTML 5 now adds the draggable attribute allowing a simple method of getting the browser to do something when content is moved around the page. For an example, a list of things that you could move and order in preference.
I have add a little application to the front page of dylanjones.info where you can drag items from my interest bubble into a box which then displays some extra information relating to that item. This particluar example is not the best method to display added content as a click would be just as efficient but I wanted to give it a go.
The HTML for the draggable items is simply:
<span id='drag-2' descr='HTML5: I am learning about HTML5 as it comes out - it is great fun and provides lots of opportunities' draggable='true' ondrag='pickup(this)'>HTML5</span>
<span id='drag-5' descr='Baking: I am very found of Bakery goods, mainly cake, cookies and sweet things' draggable='true' ondrag='pickup(this)'>Baking</span>
<span id='drag-6' descr='Welsh: I lived in Wales for a long time' draggable='true' ondrag='pickup(this)'>Welsh</span>
<span id='drag-8' descr='Student: I am a student' draggable='true' ondrag='pickup(this)'>Student</span>
The "dropbox" is defined as:
<div id="dropbox" ondrop="drop(this)" ondragenter="return false" ondragover="return false">
<p>drag and drop stuff from the cloud above here</p>
</div>
Then javascript and jQuery does the rest:
<script type='text/javascript'>
var text = 'Error: Oh Balls';
function pickup(target) {
text = $(target).attr('descr');
}
function drop() {
$('#dropbox').html('<p>' + text + '</p>');
}
</script>
Very simple indeed!
To summarise: you add draggable=true to elements you wish to drag, on drag you trigger an event, make a dropbox or use an image or something that then triggers an event ondrop - easy peasy.
Foebook
foebook.co.uk has been updated today to give people a chance to voice there opinions on whether or not Facebook is a good or bad thing
The site asks the basic question: Friend or Foe?
Users can then add any comments they wish to make which in turn, gets displayed on the site for other users to see.
Why? - I bought the domain name a while ago and put together an app that you log into, make friends, award each other points on friendly actions, take points away for un-friendly actions etc. It wasn't very good.
This small and simple device gives an open place for constructive critisism or just silly comments on what may be the biggest online threat we have ever seen.
Notice the location parameter, now a default result in the user information call.
Where are you? Geo Location in HTML 5
My latest little web application (doesn't actually really do anything yet) now finds out, as close as possible, where you are!
The Location Page will get your browser to ask for your permission to tell it where abouts you are. The spec can be found here. The piece of code I use is quite simply:
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
var latlong;
function error(msg) {
alert(msg);
}
function success(position) {
latlong = position.coords.latitude +","+ position.coords.longitude;
$("#location").html(<img src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/staticmap?center="+latlong+"&zoom=15&size=600x600&maptype=roadmap&sensor=false&markers=color:blue|label:A|"+latlong+"" title="You are here" alt="Map">");
}
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(success, error);
});
</script>
This piece of javascript not only requests the location from the browser but then, on success, updates the page with a static map from Google with a marker of your returned latitude and longitude.
Examples of use for this API would be local data, weather, news etc that could all take precedence on a page
Mobile Version
Introducing the mobile site
A browser check (by a php function found here) is done when landing on the homepage - if you do not have a GET variable called nomobile set and you are listed as a mobile browser then you are forwarded to m.dylanjones.info where you are presented with a simple overview of most things on the main site.
Currently [31/05/2010], in beta - the page does not link anywhere except back to the full version. However, cool things will happen soon
Hire Me
Did you know you can hire me?
I can make your next web application whether it be a complex database driven system, or a simple static Web Site.
I have experience in most common web languages: HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript. I have worked with a number of CMS' including Wordpress and Blogger.
From setting up web hosting, your personal web address, DNS management, Email through to database set-up, backup, storage - delivering your complete web application - I will find a solution.
I have worked with past companies and organisations to design, develop and deliver web solutions including:
The Big 5 Restaurant
Signpost Youth Project
University Radio York
So if you need fast, friendly, valid and functioning service - get in touch.
This Weekend: Rugby + Stereophonics
The Journey of the Bike
GeoTagging Application: LocalTags
Inspired by the fitfinder site, I wanted to make use of HTML 5's Geo Location API to allow a fast way for posting a comment at your location.
I looked into how to find out the name of a place after been given GPS co-ordinates by the browser. Google has a good API called reverse geocoding which you can submit co-ordinates to and get returned a nicely formatted address.
You also may want to search for a different place or may not have a HTML 5 compatible browser (IE) so need to enter your location manually - to do this the geocoding API was used. The user starts typing a place name and a search is done, returning a place name along with it's co-ordinates.
The Maps API then displays the location along with comments posted near there, +/-0.02 of its co-ordinates. You can then submit your own comment and move the marker to exactly where you are talking about.
All that is then stored in a database is the exact co-ordinates of the comment, the text and the time.
UK phone network O2 has scrapped unlimited data downloads for smartphone customers. All new and upgrading customers will have their usage capped at between 500 Megabytes (MB) and one gigabyte (GB) depending on their monthly tariff. Analysts said the move was 'inevitable' as more and more consumers switch to data-intensive smartphones that can surf the web and show video.
Oh no! - or that's what I first thought but when I headed over to my iPhone to see what my 'Cellular Network Data' usage was like, I was quite shocked! The figures shown here are my total use over the whole life of my phone, which currently stands at 8 months.
So it looks like I am not within the 3% that will need to be worrying about the data caps.
Thinking about when I am downloading 'big things', mainly podcasts and music, I am on Wi-Fi. When travelling to Leeds, I did use the 3G connection quite heavily but it seems that what I was doing, was not that data intensive - good to know for the future.
These caps make sure that everyone gets a fair chance to use the network without the data hoggers ruining it for everyone.
Lego
Mouse Tracking
This image shows 1 hour of my mouse movement - the large black circles indicate where the mouse was stationary for periods of time.
Dylan James Vernon Jones
Yes I know! Googling your name may be a bit vain but also perhaps a good idea!
Perspective employers etc are likely to do a quick search for your name and you want your best to come up top rather than some rubbish. My site appears 4th on Bing and 11th on Google when queried with Dylan Jones. However, searching Dylan James Vernon Jones my Facebook page is top of Bing and nothing of me can be seen on Google. This may be due to the fact I do not have my full name in an easy to read format. It is embedded, however in a hCard on the home page.
Never mind, maybe this post will help!
Number of Google Searches
5209 - is the number of signed-in searches I have done on Google since 22nd June 2009 up to just now - late on 5th July 2010
You can check to see your statistics, if you have a Google account, over at Google History. You can also check out trends including most searched for terms, top clicked sites and search activity over time (mine shown here).
MockFlow: Web Design Tool
I found a great web design tool from a Mashable article called MockFlow. The flash based app allows you to design and test web layouts from scratch or from existing templates. The drag and drop interface is very easy to use and there are all kinds of different content types available to add to your design. For example: buttons, text, bullet lists, charts and lines etc.
I am trying out a few box ideas for an updated design to my homepage. You can share your designs with others, collaborate and export it to a variety of different formats including powerpoint and PDF.
With the ability to upload your own images, link to other pages with seperate designs and use already made common components, it is really quick and easy to put together a mockup of a site.
Web Analystics + Design
Oh yes, it is that time of year again for a quick up haul of the CSS again! Updates include:
Horizantal Navigation
More Images
Bigger Images
Full use of width, whatever screen resolution
Page Tools
Better Browser Support (mainly IE)
What are you opinions?
The big job over the refurbishment was stepping back from HTML 5 tags section and article - the reason behind this was rendering in Internet Explorer.
I use Google Analytics on my site and recently read a post on forrst about browser versions and got interested in what my statistics say on visitors' browsers.
As the stats show, around 9% of my visitors are having a go with IE but up to now, would have seen a mess. So I would like to apologise and welcome you to this design. The word on the street is that Microsoft will be taking up some html 5 tags in the next version of it's famous browser. I am looking forward to seeing that.
iPhone Ringtones
I have just found a great tutorial on getting any song as a ringtone on your iPhone
Facebook privacy has popped up again in the news, yawn.
The personal details of more than 100 million Facebook users have been published on the internet.
Yes and why is this news? Those 100 million Facebook users gave their 'personal details' (happens to be name, gender, profile picture and locality) to Facebook on the internet. So, I am pretty sure that they were expecting to see their names on the internet.
Story Background: A security consultant put the list of users together using the Facebook Graph API. The dataset has now been uploaded to torrent sites allowing people easy access to the names and URLs of Facebook users.
So what is all the fuss about?
The data that has been collected is freely available via a search on Facebook or by a search engine. If people do not want their names 'published' on the internet, then they either need to:
use a fake name as their online identity
stay offline
Music Projects
On recently registering for the London Music Hack Day, I have been thinking of ideas for using web services such as Twitter, Facebook, LastFM and others, which come with beautifully wrapped APIs, to put together some fun music applications.
Introducing the Facebook Friend Artist Wall
This application gets your Facebook friends musical likes and displays a wall of artist images. Clicking on an artist fetches a related song from the Echo Nest API to play you.
It can also display a word cloud of popular artists amongst your friends.
I have a couple of other ideas that I am going to mess around with over the next few days including some geo-location stuff. Keep an eye out!
August Summary
A few notable things to mention for this, the least sunniest summer I have seen in a long time.
I have spent most waking hours at my workplace - Hotel Commodore.
I have passed first year Electronics (finally!)
I have grasped json handling using jQuery (just about)
The Victorian Festival is dead. There is less and less stuff each year now.
I have invested in an arduino board.
and I am looking forward to moving to Leeds in September
Music Hackday London - 2010
Hello friends!
Last weekend I attend the Music Hackday at the Guardian offices, London. It was super. I travelled the Saturday morning from Hereford so was lacking in sleep even before starting the 24-hour hack session.
In the morning, there were presentations and workshops put on by the companies and organisations attending. Some interesting ideas were put forward, I especially was interested in O2 Litmus' hashblue service that I actually signed up to a couple of weeks ago. It allows you to access your text messages, almost in real-time.
On a mobile theme, I decided for my hack, I would take up my Cleversounds idea.
You are walking around between shops, pubs, clubs and your house - they usually have some music playing in the background. Wouldn't it be nice if they played your favourite music?
In a nutshell: you register you bluetooth MAC address, tell the site what music you like by linking your Last.fm/Facebook accounts (or by just typing in artists). When your device is detected by a Cleversounds Jukebox, you are played your favourite artists and recommendations. Back on the site, you get a feed of what tracks have been played for you, along with where and when.
The application is live at cleversounds.info where you can sign up and use a demo Jukebox that simulates Bluetooth devices detected. I do plan to package up all the software and local scripts into something that you can download and run on your machine allowing you to have your very own Jukebox, so long as you have a bluetooth dongle (or similar).
There were some fantastic hacks demoed on the Sunday, a full list is available on the wiki. Lots of photos of the event are available here and videos here.
Well done to all the organisers and everyone attending that made it so much fun. As a final note, the food/drink provided was amazing. Photo accreditation to Thomas Bonte.
University: Year 2
I have never got this far in my university career before!
Day three of my second year at the University of Leeds, very exciting. I moved up a couple of weeks ago and have been enjoying getting to know my new flatmates. The work however, has begun.
My modules are: Mobile Applications Project, Energy Systems and Control, Communications Theory, Transistors & Optoelectronics, High Frequency Circuits & Systems and Embedded Systems Project
For the Mobile Applications Project, we are learning the basics of Objective-C and making an iOS application (for iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad). YEY!
We have 10 weeks to familiarise with the syntax of object orientated programming and the APIs and structure of iOS applications before finally demonstrating our application in the last week before Christmas.
We'll be working in the school's Apple Mac suite as the SDK can only run on Mac OS X.
As part of our assessment, we have to keep a blog-book (pun on log-book) and publish a tutorial on how to make our final application. I will add it here, on my blog (as well as the VLE), using the Mobile Application Project tag.
Interestingly, the 4th most read article on BBC News yesterday was: University gives students text books on iPhones
More than 500 medical students at the University of Leeds are being issued with iPhones which can access online text books.
The IT person behind this project will be coming in to speak to us about specific medical applications that they would like developing. I may be interested to take up one of their ideas or perhaps do something music based. I am undecided as yet but look forward to playing around with the different APIs the iOS has to offer.
My First Entry, Again
Hello!
I sadly lost all my previous blog entries when my host closed my account. There are some backed up however I am pondering whether to retrieve them or not
