Why I don't watch broadcast TV
A somewhat extended whinge about why TV in Australia is so awful and I why I don't bother watching it anymore.
About a week ago I noticed an advert on one of the major channels here for the new version of the lizard-tastic V. It looked fairly interesting, but my overriding thought was: "Yeah, it looks good but there's no way I'm watching it on your channel!".
Even though I've been downloading most of my TV for a good few years now, it was my reaction to the V trailer to that made me realise how my viewing habits had irrevocably changed. I know for a fact that I'm not alone. I also know for a fact that if people don't watch broadcast TV then investment is ultimately going to suffer, quality is going to take a nosedive and decent content on TV will probably enter the halls of legend. So, why don't I watch broadcast TV?
Feb 2nd 2010 12:48 // Miscilliness // No comments
Piracy: The Good, The Bad and The Indifferent
Here's a piece I wrote a couple of months ago and then more or less discarded due to the rapid pace at which issues surrounding copyright theft seem to develop. However, given Bono's recent attempts to alienate whatever proportion of his fanbase might still hold some dwindling respect for him, I've decided to finally post it. It's a bit out of date, and there will inevitably be points I've missed, useful links I haven't included, arguments I've skipped - so, if you've got anything to add, correct or even counter then please leave a comment and let the debate commence...
I
f you own any item of home entertainment hardware you’re almost certain to have been affected by piracy in one way or another. You might be an active consumer (i.e. you’ve downloaded or purchased pirated content), a passive viewer (e.g. you’ve watched, listened to or played pirated media provided by a friend or colleague), or you might have discovered that you can’t copy that recently purchased CD to your MP3 player. Either way, the ramifications of piracy are laced throughout our entertainment culture. Not surprisingly, there’s a whole bunch of misinformation and downright falsehoods being traded under its banner.
So let’s see if we can’t confuse the issue even further.
Before we start, this article isn’t intended to be a definitive guide either to, for, or against piracy. My own views on the matter will become abundantly clear as you read on. However, my aim is to highlight a few of the lesser discussed issues – issues which I’ve grouped under the banners: the good, the bad and the indifferent.
Jan 11th 2010 09:43 // Miscilliness // No comments
Converting integers to monthnames in PHP
It's a new year and a whole twelve months of brand new dates, so what better than a quick and easy tutorial all about converting months from integers to proper month names?
On several occasions I've had to look up methods for converting integers into monthnames in PHP. Most involve some form of calculation. Below you'll find an example of that method along with possibly the easiest alternative you'll ever find.
Jan 4th 2010 08:51 // Web Design // No comments
Debugging CSS in multiple browsers
After several torturous years trying to debug websites in different browsers using hacks, virtual machines and all manner of inconvenience I’ve finally arrived at a setup whereby launching multiple versions of IE and Firefox is about as easy as it could possibly be. What follows is a simple tutorial on how to set up your PC to do the same. I’ll also mention a few crucial tools that no web developer should be without.
This article will start with Internet Explorer, since that's the browser that often requires the most amount of debugging, but follows with details on how to run multiple versions of Firefox. Developer techniques have reached a sufficient stage now where there should be no need for old-fashioned css or html hacks to be used.
IE has supported Conditional Comments for a long time now. Conditional comments enable you to write additional css styles to cater for different versions of IE and should definitely be your only method for dealing with IE inconsistencies. For other browsers or platforms (e.g. iphone) you can use browser sniffing techniques to identify how a visitor is viewing your site, using the $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] string for instance, and, if absolutely necessary, write alternative code accordingly.
For those who wish to get right down to it I've attached readme style text files for IE and Firefox at the end of this article. These will provide straightforward step by step instructions without all the chaff.
Aug 26th 2009 13:01 // Web Design // No comments
Having just rewritten the platform behind this blog (Wicked Words), and given that the average visitor won't notice any change whatsoever, I felt like highlighting some of the new improved features – that most of you won't notice...
The Wicked Words project is something that I've been working on for a couple of years. It started off with me making a comment to a friend along the lines of "I could probably code you a simple blog.." and sort of steamrollered on from there. It's been under a stop-start process of development since then, has been used for my blog and a select handful of others. Over that time it's occasionally been a bit ambitious (luckily my coding skills eventually caught up) and has often been quite messy (ditto).
Apr 18th 2009 14:29 // Web Design // No comments
Aiming to get away from the bloat of Dreamweaver and the clunk of Zend Studio I’ve been exploring some alternative environments for my day-to-day PHP coding including NVu, Aptana IDE and PHP Designer.
After many years of using Dreamweaver MX as my primary frontend for web development I’ve learned that there are a few things I consistently require from a DE (Development Environment):
- Code highlighting;
- Easy ftp integration for uploading files;
- Ability to manage separate projects.
And that’s about it. It’s true that between Windows Explorer, Filezilla and Notepad++ I can easily perform all these tasks (and I make frequent use of all when making quick updates, or if I’m editing a single file) but the real key is to have everything bundled together so I rarely need to stray beyond the DE. Following is a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the DEs I’ve tried.
Mar 24th 2009 15:43 // Web Design // No comments
A short rundown of why the site design has changed, and what to expect in the coming months from my, hopefully re-energised, blog
So, welcome back Ed Price Is Hungry. It's true that there's been not one update since 2009 dawned, and some of the blame for that has to lie at the feet of my previously uninspiring design. It had some pretty colours, but it didn't honestly represent the kind of image I wanted to get across.
This new look - which shall sensibly be named 'Ed Price' (though not after sporting journalist Ed Price) - comes a lot closer to, well, making me feel at home in my own blog. At first glance it *does* look a bit Twilight-y, and for that I apologise, but then again I don't claim to be striving for originality in my designs - just something that makes me feel good when I look at my own web page.
Mar 22nd 2009 20:57 // Diary // No comments
Whatever happened to Will Write For Beer?
Were you one of the two avid readers of Will Write For Beer? Did you come here by mistake? Are you the real Ed Price? For answers to all these questions and less carry on reading...
For the past year my Will Write For Beer blog has been read by nearly dozens of readers – well, almost a dozen readers… perhaps. In that time I’ve strenuously avoided updating whenever possible, tweaked the design until it looks almost exactly the same as it did a year ago and diligently scanned my Google Analytics account to double check how many times I’ve been visiting my own site.
Dec 17th 2008 12:55 // Miscilliness // No comments
Posting a multidimensional array
A brief tutorial (my first in fact) covering a simple method for posting a multidimensional array using an html form.
Posting arrays is a fact of life - by default every time you post anything from an html form it's posted as an array. It's your job to break it all down again when you process the form. After a while this becomes second nature and you forget that you're even dealing with an array in the first place.
Oct 13th 2008 13:14 // Web Design // 1 Comment
A Doctor without celery is.. worth a thousand words?
In most people's lives there are things that matter, such as keeping healthy and paying the rent, and there are things that really matter. For a while now a small but, as is always the case, a vocal portion of the Doctor Who fanbase has been in uproar over what has come to be known as the *Celerygate* affair.
Aug 2nd 2008 12:43 // Miscilliness // No comments
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- @uxintro thanks (I think, lol) My blog post is entitled 'Words as weapons' so it seems appropriate to weaponize some of my own words, right?
February 09 at 13:10 - @sebsharp ...you should so get a t-shirt with that on: "I'm homolicious!"
February 09 at 13:09 - @sebsharp 'homolicious' - what an intriguing word!
February 09 at 13:01 - This impromptu blog post is turning out well - I've just described Tony Abbott as a "morally withered homunculus"
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The content on this blog is protected by a Creative Commons license. This is purely to stop people from doing nasty things with my words - in the unlikely event that you do want to reproduce any content here just ask
Ed Price Is Hungry by Justin Cawthorne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.edpriceishungry.com