March 26th, 2010 by J

A fun meme that i got from somewhere.

10. If I were a vegetable, a carrot i would be.

carrots

9. If I were an appliance, a microwave i would be.

8. If I were a vehicle, a Veyron i would be.

7. If I were made of cotton, a T-shirt i would be.

6. If I were a shop, A DVD shop i would be.

5. If I were a mystical creature, a Phoenix i would be.

4. If I were an alcoholic beverage, a single malt I would be.

3. If I were a decade, the 90s I would be.

1. You just cant resist finishing this… “Iiiiiiin west philadelphia born and raised…”
2. You remember when Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix died.
3. You know that “WOAH” comes from Joey from “Blossom”.
4. You remember when it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
5. You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record “Your FAVORITE song of ALL time”….with a tape recorder held up to the radio loL!!
6. Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? was both a game and a TV game show.
7. Captain Planet.
8. You remember when super nintendo’s became popular.

2. If I were a Comic Strip Character, Judge dredd i would be.

1. If I could do it differently would i?

March 17th, 2010 by J

A useful peice of info discoverd on Spiral Scripts.

Thanks

Occasionally there are problems: these are nearly always due to mistakes in the image path and file name, which mean that the module cannot read the image file in order to resize it.

The things to check are:

• You are using relative rather than absolute urls, eg images/stories/image001.jpg,NOT http://www.mysite.com/images/stories/image001.jpg.The module can often handle absolute URLS, but relative URLS are much less likely to lead to problems.

• Remember that file names are usually case sensitive, so check whether you are using image001.jpg or image001.JPG for example. These are not the same, and using the wrong one will mean that the image will not display.

• Don’t have spaces in an image file name.  If there are spaces it is not a valid URL, it can cause problems reading the image file, and you will need to replace the spaces with another character such as ‘-’. This is what Google recommend, they interpret this as a space. The confusion comes about because the Joomla editor will upload images with spaces in the name, and link to them by replacing the space character with ‘%20′. This is not good from a search optimization point of view though, because it is not a valid URL.

• Make sure that you have not put any leading or trailing spaces by accident in your image tags, for example if you use the html code <img src=”/images/stories/image001.jpg ” /> that will cause problems because there is a trailing space.

These are all good practice anyway, so it helps to get used to doing things this way. The confusion arises because image URLS are a lot more forgiving of mistakes than file names, which have to be exact, so an image may display correctly in an html page even if there are mistakes. However these mistakes will make it impossible for the image file to be read by the module.

Other reasons why there might be problems:

• You have an article read-more link before the image. In that case the image will not display because it needs to be in the intro part of the article in order to be detected, so you need to make sure it is in the intro part of the article.

• Your server does not support the GD graphics module. In that case you will not be able to use GD for image resizing, so you need to disable that parameter in the module admin.

• The file permissions are incorrect on the script which resizes the image thumbnails. This script is called resize.php and is in the module assets folder. Usually this script will run with permissions set to 644. Occasionally, depending on your PHP configuration, this may need to be set to 755.

March 13th, 2010 by J

Synopsis:

Eli (Denzel Washington) has been on a journey for 30 years, walking west across America after a cataclysmic war that turned the earth into a total wasteland. The world has become a lawless civilization where people must kill or be killed. The barren roads belong to gangs of cutthroats who rob and kill for water, a pair of shoes, a lighter, or just for fun. Eli is a peaceful man who only acts in self defense, and becomes a warrior with unbelievable killing skills when he is challenged. After the war and the “Big Flash”, Eli was guided by a higher power to a hidden book and given the task of protecting the book and taking it to its final destination. Eli guards the book with his life, because he knows that the book is the only hope that humanity has for its future.

There seems to be lots of mixed reviews on this film with comparisons to “The Road” (which i will review shortly) I personally feel that this is a Little bit of a Illusionist/Prestige issue. Both good films there was definitely a lean towards the one without all the hype being the better film.

I liked “The book of Eli”, Denzel washington is very good as Eli and plays the role well leaving the ending somewhat of a shock. The visual landscape is quite stunning if not a little gray. This role is very different from others that Denzel has played, There are no police chases and he doesn’t spend a lot of time talking the smooth talk. He does cut of rather a lot of heads however.

It is great to see Gary Oldman as the Villian and lends well to the feel of this film and Mila Kunis is deninatly a welcome sight in amongst all the grubbyness.

There is the General round of Limbs, blood, road gangs and cannibals you would expect to see in any usual Apocalyptic movie but they have tried to keep it to a minimum. The actual end of the film is a very pleasant surprise however a little unbelievable.

In general the film did well and kept my attention, It does have some movement issues in places and seems to falter a bit on some of the action but the Soundtrack definitely won the day for me.

Probably one i will add to the collection when it has been out a little while.

March 11th, 2010 by J

This is a very useful post i discoverd on the Joomla forum while on the hunt.

Thanks to all the guys at the Joomla Forum.

This document will lead you through the process of using the Joomla! 1.5 Random Image module to display a different random image, from a specific directory on each page load.
The following is a step by step guide that will lead you through the process:

1. Install Joomla! 1.5, install the sample data and set up your administrator account details as you will need these later.

2. The Random Image module is installed with the default Joomla! template. So it is not necessary to install the module separately.

3. Browse to the index of your new Joomla! Installation and log in to the administrator area of your Joomla! installation using the administrator link on the menu to the left hand side of the page. Use the details you set up you used earlier to set up your administrator account.

4. Select “Module Manager” from the “Extensions” drop down box on the menu towards the top of the page.

5. Click on the “Random Image” module from the list of modules. You may have to browse to the second page of modules to see this depending how many modules you have Joomla! set to list per page.

6. The Random Image module allows you to show a different random image, from a directory of images, on each page load. You can choose which pages on the site you wish the random image module to appear on using “Menu Assignment” options. For the purpose of this guide we want the random images to appear on each page. So, find the “Menus” set of radio buttons and click the one labeled “All”.

7. You can configure the parameters of the module in the “Module Parameters” section. Make sure “Image Type” is set to “jpg”. For example, set “Image Folder” to “images/stories/food” and set “Link” to “http://www.joomla.org”. Finally, set “Width (px)” and “Height (px)” to “100”. This will ensure all the images are displayed at the same size, 100 pixels in both height and width. The link can be internal or external to the site.

8. Select “Save” from the top right menu to save your changes to the module.

9. Now click the “Preview” link on the top right of the screen and you will return to the index page of your Joomla! installation. At the right of the page you will see the random image area. In this area you will see pictures of food from the joomla sample images provided, scaled to 100px in both dimensions. If you click on the image you will be taken to the Joomla! homepage. Finally, refresh the page and you will see that the image changes.

Congratulations. You have now successfully learned how to use the Random Image module of your Joomla! 1.5 installation.

March 10th, 2010 by J

synopsis:

Set in the present day, director Terry Gilliam’s fantastical morality tale follows the traveling show of the mysterious Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) — a man who once won a bet with the Devil himself, and possesses the unique ability to guide the imagination of others. Many centuries ago, Dr. Parnassus won immortality in a bet that found the malevolent Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) coming up short. While few would be foolish enough to try their luck against the powers of darkness a second time, Dr. Parnassus did precisely that — this time trading his mortality for youth on the understanding that his firstborn would become the property of Mr. Nick when the child reaches his or her 16th birthday. 

 While the sudden death of prominent IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS player Heath Ledger in January of 2008 left Gilliam and company scrambling to find a means of salvaging the film — which was already well into principal photography at the time — the cavalry soon arrived in the form of Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell, who each serve as alternate-dimension versions of the character originally set to be played by Ledger when the character crosses through a paranormal mirror.

I would like to say in advance the i am a great fan of Terry Gilliams work and do like Heath Ledger in most things i have seen so Apologies in advance for what I am about to divulge. I am going to be completely honest with my review and how I perceived this movie.

I wanted this movie to be epic! Terry Gilliam, A complete wacky, bonkers, mind bending bonker of cgi-scape to play with, a bonkers story, a great cast. What could go wrong.

Apparently everything……..
I was bored, embarrassed and found it all rather painful and extremely hard work.  There is only one film in all that i have watched that i have ever walked out of (you know who you are battlefield earth) but i came pretty close with this one.

The plot is a fairly simple Pact with devil for first born affair with the twist that the good DR can put people into there imaginations, Enter wild nonsense…. Not really it all felt a little flat and just not what i was expecting. There were a couple of moments that were nice touches but on the whole i was left scratching my head and thinking “is that it?” or “come on get to the point”

The slight saving grace with the film was the excellent actors that replaced Heath after his death and some of the CGI. This however did not save the film.

The cast themselves don’t really do anything wrong and there are some good performances it is just that the story sort of lumbers along and peeters out.

This will not be one i am adding to my collection even at the £9.99 price that Amazon are selling it for.

March 5th, 2010 by J

For some reason I have had the theme from Trapdoor going round and round in my head all day, It is getting rather irritating now.

March 5th, 2010 by J

This was pulled out of the Developer Manual after i spent a little while swearing.

When you want to modify a part of your Shop (that can’t be changed in its layout using the Joomla template’s CSS), you must know, which file you have to modify, to create the layout you want.

To quickly find the file, which produces the HTML output you’re seeing, you can enable the DEBUG mode

• “Admin” / “Configuration” / “Path & URL” / check “DEBUG?” and save.

After having done that, you will see blue info icons all over the Shop, which show the file name of the included file on mouseover.

The most changed files are

March 3rd, 2010 by J

Synopsis:

Dominic Sena’s adaptation of the graphic novel series by Greg Rucka.

U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) has been stationed at Antarctica’s South Pole research base for two years, and now after turning in her resignation she’s looking forward to finally going home. The last plane out leaves in just three days, and just after that Antarctica will not see the sun again for another 24 weeks. Then, just 72 hours before she is set to escape the coming darkness, a body is discovered in the ice — prompting the first murder investigation ever to take place on the desolate Antarctic Circle continent. Little does Carrie realize that she’s suddenly been thrust into a mystery over 60 years in the making, and that the killer is ready to strike again in order to protect a grim secret.

‘Whiteout’ is a sort of “US Marshall’s”/horror/Murder mystery on ice. It was panned by the critics and was a box-office flop, Which gave me all the reason i needed to see it

The movie is based in Antarctica and follows a U.S. Marshal played by Kate Beckinsale who after discovering a murder, attempts to hunt down the killer in a pretty basic plot. There is however a nice little twist in the tail that i must admit i wasn’t expecting.

The film has a good cast and the director, Dominic Sena, previously made ‘Gone in Sixty Seconds’, which I enjoyed.
There is the usual action beginning which sets the mood and Then it continues to unfold in a formulaic manner. This did surprisingly keep my attention with just enough of the “weeel we shall see where this goes” factor to keep me interested for the duration. 

Set to the backdrop of Antarctica the scenery is stunning and very well shot. The climax, when it came did surprise me and the movie as a whole sort of worked. It kept me interested and gave me what I had expected, an unpredictable ending.

Don’t get me wrong there are flaws and the movie offers nothing new when it comes to plot and the acting is not the best.

‘Whiteout’ is one of those movies that you should not expect much from and in return will be rewarded, I would put it on my “one to watch on a rainy Sunday eve” list but don’t think i shall be adding it to the DVD collection.