New script: Dynamic Directory To HTML

I have posted a new script on my website, this is a PHP-based script which reads the directory and creates a HTML listing at runtime.

More information can be found at http://www.matthewhipkin.co.uk/codelib/dynamic-directory-to-html-script.html

Colour To HTML under Windows 7

Things are looking promising with Colour To HTML's colour picker and Aero under Windows 7. Under Windows Vista, there were issues with WS_EX_TRANSPARENT failing whilst Aero was active. I've been playing with the Windows 7 release candidate for a few days and it seems this problem is fixed.

There does seem to be a new problem where the preview panel doesn't always change colour even though the controls do!

[REPOST] Possible fix for Colour To HTML under Vista

I have had more reports of a black screen when attempting to use the eye dropper tool. I do not have Vista myself to test this on, however after some research I believe that this issue could be resolved by disabling Windows Aero.

For help on doing this, visit http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-aero-on-windows-vista/

If this fixes the problem, please let me know.

Named and [cross] compiled!

The Linux Twitter client I mentioned in my previous post has now been named Chitter - thanks @wyrmfyre for that!

As I am using Free Pascal & Lazarus I figured it should cross compile in Windows and the good news is: it does! In theory, it should compile in OSX too, but without access to that operating system I am unable to test the theory.

Incidently, I am currently in the process of setting up a site for Chitter, which will live at http://chitter.matthewhipkin.co.uk

Twitterings

I have finally jumped on the bandwagon and joined Twitter. Whilst taking a look around I found there wasn't really any decent Linux clients so in my usual fashion I have taken to creating my own!

What you see on the right is basically what I knocked together last night - not bad for a night's work if you ask me! Written in FreePascal/Lazarus there are still things to be done though: replies, link parsing and some kind of tray icon support. I wont be skinning it like many of these Twitter clients as I prefer to use the theme I have selected within GNOME.

For the most part though, my new Linux Twitter client does the job!

Incidently if you wish to join me on Twitter you'll find me at http://twitter.com/hippy2094

Lithuania

This month I had the pleasure of 2 weeks in Lithuania, leaving Stansted at 6:55 meant I had to pull an all-nighter, it's quite liberating having a pint of John Smith's at 4:15 in the morning! I landed in an icy Kaunas at about 11:30 local time. I don't remember much about the drive to Klaipeda as I slept most of it! The weather was possibly more unpredictable than here in the UK! One day it was snowing, the next I was walking around in a T-shirt and then it was back to snow again.

After sampling several different pizza places and various different beers, my favourites became Čili Pizza and a micro brewery called Memelis - the pizzas and beer were pretty good but the waitress and barmaid were even better - although trust me to take a shine to two women who don't speak much english! Memelis had this incredible attraction (other than the barmaid), which was beer taps at the table! And at a quid a pint, it's damn good!

Ciggies were £1.50 which caused my attempts at giving up to fail quite miserably. Although I stupidly misread the label, I thought I was smoking fags with 4mg of nicotine, I discovered at the end of the week it was actually 0.4mg - suffice to say I felt a bit daft about that!

Day times I spent working, and most evenings I was in Memelis; the first sunday I was there I was taken to a stretch of beach near Klaipeda, it was nice and interesting to see patches of snow on the beach - something I've never witnessed. And of course the weather put on a show for me and snowed quite nicely. If you enlarge the picture to the left you will see the blur of falling snow - and I would like to point out that we are not holding hands!

The saturday before I left we visited Palanga which was closed! On sunday we made our way to the capital Vilnius where I would spend the rest of my journey - I must admit I found it hard saying goodbye to Memelis, and I didn't take a liking to anywhere in Vilnius as much as I did to there. Vilnius was however not short on impressive sights; we spent most of monday walking around including a nice and healthy walk up to Vilnius' Upper Castle.

And finally on tuesday it was back in the car to Kaunas where I would fly back to Blighty. I've only visited foreign countries on two other occasions before this trip and niether particularly kept me from missing home - with this trip I didn't miss the UK until the time came to come back.

For a few more pictures of my time in Lithuania, take a look at http://www.matthewhipkin.co.uk/viewgal.php?gal=6

Salad week!

I weighed myself on friday and was 14 stone 1lb!! That's only a loss of 1lb since last month, not good at all.

So I am calling for drastic measures... Salad for my evening meal every night this week! I am also intending to get the daily walk back on the go, luckily I do have a busy week this week as I am flying out to Lithuania on the 10th March I need to get some new stuff, all my T-shirts either have holes in the armpits or have shrunk to become crop tops - not a good look on a fat bloke! I need to get my big leather jacket fixed, apparently this time of year in Lithuania is colder than mid winter thanks to the mix of rain, sleet and wind. I also need some better walking shoes, my heavy steel toe capped boots really do not make for good walking shoes at all.

With all this salad, my shit is gonna stink!