Although we’re still a while away from launching, most of the stuff that I’m able to do on the site for South Worcestershire College, has been done. Because of this, I thought I’d post a quick preview image of what the site’s homepage looks like. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a reply to the message posted by my friend Cos.

While I agree with some of what you say, and admit that Dawkins can be a bit extreme at times – I think it’s only fair that the atheists get someone that is willing to put themselves on the front line by standing up to be counted. Maybe he is going about it in the wrong way, but I, for one, respect him for what he is trying to do (no, he is not my god).

I’m an atheist. And I have to say that I hate religion. But don’t get me wrong, that’s not the say that I hate religious people. People can believe in whatever they want, if it keeps them happy, don’t make any difference to me – it’s the organised forces that prey upon such people that I dislike.

You talk about 9/11 – yes it sucks that Muslims the world over got a bad rep as a result of it, but if it wasn’t for Islam (or any religion), and the idea that you have to do what this imaginary authority figure tell you to, then there would not be people (religious leaders of all forms) taking advantage of their followers.

From what you’re saying, it sounds like you’re all for the idea of the pope being arrested, you just don’t want Dawkins to do it?

Hey everyone, just a quick message to let you know that the Community for Unknown Tales is now online. The rest of the site should follow shortly, but for the moment, if you want to get settled into the Community and make a few posts, it’ll feel like home before you know it.

Back when I was building Unknown Tales as part of my Independent Study I had a problem trying to get data to save to three separate models at the same time. I was creating a form based around the Story model, and trying to get it to save data to that, as well as the Chapter and Path models at the same time.

Well, I’m happy to say that the latest edition of Unknown Tales, which is starting to come together very nicely, has fixed this problem, and it is such a simple fix that I’m kicking myself for not thinking about it before. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve spent every minute of the past three weeks working on Unknown Tales.

Well, that is, I would have if things like sleeping, travelling to and from work, work itself, eating, cleaning (both myself and the flat), gaming, going into town, and chilling out – hadn’t of got in the way.

I have, however, spent a good portion of the past three Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays working on the site, and I’m really starting to get the feeling that it will not be long before I can start doing some end-user testing on it. Read the rest of this entry »

Although I said yesterday that you would have to wait before you get to see the JavaScript bits and bobs I’ve added to the site, I didn’t say how long you would have to wait. Well – the wait is over Read the rest of this entry »

Out with the old, in with the new. That’s my philosophy regarding Unknown Tales.

Unknown Tales, the interactive story site that I built for my Independent Study, has been taken down. Well, that’s not strictly true as it still exists in archive format, but for all purposes intent, that edition of the site is gone. Read the rest of this entry »

I just wanted to take a very quick moment to give a plug for a game built by a couple friends of mine – Egyptian Labyrinth.

In Egyptian Labyrinth you collect idols while avoiding sandpits in treasure mode, strive for perfection in timed mode, and conquer the warped maze in pyramid mode. There are 50 levels per mode.

They’re also hosting a competition via their Twitter account where once they get 100 followers, they’ll give away a free copy to one of their followers.

So make sure you check it out.

I got a very nice email from the University today asking me to log into the SOLE page (the place where students can see information about their course and grades, etc).

Within this site there is a link titled Award Details, I clicked this link, and this is what I saw:

Click to enlarge

I can’t believe that I’ve got a First – I’ve known that I’ll be getting a First for the past nine months or so, but now it’s official, and I still can’t quite believe it.

When I first started university, I figured that I would be getting a 2:2, maybe a 2:1 at most if I worked hard (I always classed myself as a B student), but to come away with a First is… well… indescribable.

I think some celebration is in order

One of the most attractive things about Windows 7 is its ability to load a virtual copy of Windows XP, with full Windows 7 Start button integration, allowing you to run XP software on a Windows 7 machine.

I say attractive – not so much for me – but for all the stone age IT departments in the world who are still using XP as their operating system of choice. This means that they can start using Windows 7 on their machines, and should they have some software that only works with XP, all they need to do is install it within the virtual machine, and it’s seamlessly available via the Windows 7 Start button.

This is all well and good, and was indeed something I was looking forward to using in Windows 7, until I found out the only way you can get this working is if your CPU supports Hardware Virtualization. I have no idea exactly what this is, all I do know is that my CPU doesn’t support it.

Drat! Read the rest of this entry »