Event details

When: 7:00 PM Friday, July 25, 2008

Where: University of Salford, University House, University of Salford,
Salford, England M5 4WT

Cost: Around £15 (includes 3 course meal, coffee and drinks)

What: For those who haven’t been before, it’s dinner, wine, talks from inspirational women, networking and discussions afterwards.

Currently two talks planned, if you want to get involved and speak about women in engineering, science and technology, please do get in touch.

Who can attend: Girl Geeks! A lady who has an interest, or is involved in the Science, Engineering and Technology industries. Blokes can come too, but you need an invite from a Geek Girl!

The all important links: Manchester Girl Geek Dinner Event Website, Upcoming.org Event Page and there’s a facebook Event Page

What is PHPNW?

PHPNW is a community of web developers, web designers and anyone else interested in PHP, from the North West.

First Meeting

The first PHPNW meeting is on this Thursday 17th July in Manchester, for full details visit the event page at Upcoming.

PHPNW links

• PHPNW Website
• PHPNW Google Group
• PHPNW on twitter
• PHPNW on Upcoming
• PHPNW on LinkedIn
• PHPNW on Facebook
• IRC: #phpnw (irc.freenode.net)

Full details on the GeekUp Lunch Manchester event page.

This will be my second awards event after last years FRESH:digital Awards 2007 which I really enjoyed and not just because I won Freshest Digital Young Professional, but because it’s good to see some of the fantastic work that’s produced and see the people involved rewarded for their hard work.

A big hug goes out to the MDDA for invite. I’m looking forward to meeting some new faces and putting faces to people I’ve spoken to via mailing lists like GeekUp but have yet to meet. If your attending and we’ve not met do say hello.

Roller Disco Manchester takes place every Wednesday from 10PM at PURE nightclub in The Printworks, Withy Grove, Manchester. Full details can be found on the event website.

For those not in the know; “GeekUp is a community of web designers, web developers, and other tech-minded folk from the North West. Our socials take place once a month in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Sheffield they are always a lively place to share ideas and spread a little knowledge.”

I’m so excited have been for weeks and John’s kindly asked Rachael to DJ so no doubt the music will be fly.

Today England goes Smokefree. It’s now a criminal office to smoke in enclosed public places and workplaces from 0600 July 1st 2007. Places include bars, cafes, lunch rooms, membership clubs nightclubs, pubs and shopping centres is against the law.

Individuals lighting up illegally will face a fine of £50 (£30 if paid within 15 days or upto £200 if the case goes to court ). Business owners are liable for two separate offences (’failing to prevent smoking in a smokefree place’ and ‘failing to display no-smoking signs’) and could face fines of up to £2,500.

It’s the responsability of Local councils to enforce the law but you can help by alerting the businiess owners. You can also report it to your local council or phone the Smokefree Compliance Line on 0800 587 166 7.

The law has been introduced to protect people from second-hand smoke which causes and estimate 600 deaths a year. Hopefully the ban will also encourage smokers to give it up. I really hope the ban gets through to people as I’m pretty sick of people lighting up on the train station platfoms. Now that the bussiness owners are accountable we should see an active policing.

Event Details

When

6:00 PM Thursday June 28th, 2007

Where

3345 Parr Street, Liverpool, L1 4JN

Description

This Month’s Talk - Unobtrusive JavaScript with Dave Verwer

With every site you visit piling on more and more JavaScript and Ajax, what happens when a user comes along using a screen reader or mobile device that would choke on even a simple alert()? How can we take advantage of the power of these technologies without providing any barriers to users, this session will cover techniques to ensure that you can still serve up rich content without excluding users, all from one code base.

Upcoming

Let us know if your attending on the upcoming.org event page.

I’m really happy to announce that GeekUp has arrived in yet another city, this time Leeds. I’m grateful that Deb Basset has agreed to organise the Leeds events. Debs and her partner Rob have been attending the Manchester events non-stop since I met them at reboot last year. They drive a 3 hour round trip to Manchester how much more dedicated could a GeekUper be?

The inaugural GeekUp Leeds

When

6:00 PM Wednesday June 20th, 2007

Where

The Cross Keys 107 Water Lane, Leeds LS11 5WD

Description

The inaugural Leeds event!

Upcoming

Let us know if your attending on the upcoming.org event page.

The 400 metre ice rink lets you skate around the giant Christmas Tree in the Town Hall gardens and opens at 11am till 8pm, sessions last one our and cost from £4.00 for children and from £5.00 for Adults its slightly cheaper than Manchester’s ice rink but that’s because its Southport.

Me and Rachael have previously travelled down to London for the Roller Disco in Kings Cross and the London skates from Hyde Park, its great to see the North getting more attention. I hope this is the start of much greater things to come in the Northern Skate Scene.

If you find any other deals and discounts that you think should be here then leave a comment and I’ll add them to the list.

Happy Shopping!

Asos

Discount

15% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

N/A

Details

Use the code HSBC182116

Cath Kidson

Discount

10% Off and Free P&P

Discount Type

Online

Period

Expires 30th November 2006

Details

Use the code CKLR06

Dorothy Perkins

Discount

15% Off and Free Delivery

Discount Type

Online

Period

N/A

Details

Use the code DPMN29

Faith

Discount

15% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

Expires Saturday 2nd December 2006

Details

Use the code 150906

Hannah Zakari

Discount

10% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

N/A

Details

Use the code hzhb10

HQ Hair

Discount

10% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

N/A

Details

Use the code BEAUTYBIBLE

Lasenza

Discount

15% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

Expires 30th November 2006

Details

Use the code AUTUMN06

Miss Selfridge

Discount

15% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

N/A

Details

Use the code MSGL15

Oasis

Discount

20% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

N/A

Details

Use the code GLAMOUR06

Powder Rooms

Discount

20% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

N/A

Details

Use the code 4E5KT

Ravel

Discount

20% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

Expires 30th November 2006

Details

Use the code NEWW20

Selfridges

Discount

20% Off

Discount Type

At the Till

Period

Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd December 2006

Details

Print this voucher and take into store

Warehouse

Discount

20% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

Expires 30th December 2006

Details

Use the code MCY291006

Urban Outfitters

Discount

£10 Off if you spend £50

Discount Type

Online

Period

N/A

Details

Use the code URBAN1

USC

Discount

20% Off

Discount Type

Online

Period

Expires Sunday 3rd December 2006

Details

Use the code SDM20

Not only do we have a new home but we’ve got a new brand identity to go with it. Including a new logo which sports a specially created font and we have commissioned a series of illustrations from Andrew Rae, which can be seen on the various pages at our new web site address www.codecomputerlove.com.

At £7.50 for one hours skating I thought that was a little pricey but after looking at Hampton Court Ice Rink and Tower of London Ice Rink we get off lightly. Full details including opening times and prices can be found on the On Ice At Piccadilly event page.

I’m going to try and get a bunch of people from the office together and see if they fancy an outing one evening, and it sounds like it could be a fun night out for the folks from GeekUp we’ve been looking for things to do for the Christmas meet, which will most likely involve a meal and then followed by lots of alcohol and maybe a skate?

The event took place in Screen 18 at Odeon Cinema in The Print Works, which had a very impressive turn out of about 350 attendees. The speakers in order of appearance, Tim Parsons, Nick Bell, Brendan Dawes, Jai Redman, Nick Johnson, David Fisher, Liz Birkbeck, Emma Booty, Jo and Christoph Shaw, Klaas Diersmann and Sakurako Haino. I’m not going to review each speaker but I was disappointed with the talks by Liz Birkbeck’s which was just a plug for her company Bubble, and the talk by Klaas Diersmann and Sakurako Haino who had not prepared and stood for 6 minutes just giggling to themselves and saying “um yeah”. On a positive note I was impressed with the work by Urban Splash and the talk by Jo Shaw, Christoph Shaw and Kevin Boniface which had me and the rest of the audience in hysterics from both the content and the fact that Kevin wasn’t able to speak properly because of a cough.

After the event myself and Dave grabbed a coffee in a nearby bar and chatted about various things including the projects we’ve both got on the go along with new ventures. One new projects is to contact and convince Kevin Boniface to create a podcast because his work was really great, I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out but you can listen to some of his work over on his myspace page.

I’ve uploaded some photos to my flickr account should you want to have a look, I warn the quality is pretty shocking.

If you are looking for a job in the North West specifically in the web industry then the GeekUp - Job Board should be one of the first stops. If you are looking to recruit then its completely free to post a job.

I’m really excited! It’s been a crazy few weeks during the run up trying to get everything organised so I’m hoping it all runs smoothly otherwise we’ll have 40 upset punters.

GeekUp - Ruby and Rails is a FREE, one-day mini conference aimed at people who want to start developing using Ruby and Ruby on Rails. The event introduces attendees to the Ruby language and the Ruby on Rails framework.

The event has limited places so register early to avoid disappointment.

The Site Design

Stuart Frisby and I worked on the site and in what short time we had I’m really please with the result.

Related

Code appointed by Waterstone’s

Open Terminal (/applications/utilities/terminal.app)

Enter the following and hit return

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

Restart Safari or fire it up if it’s not open, you should now see a new menu titled Debug after the Help.

Yes I’m aware this is old news, but worth a post for the non-aware people. Happy Debugging!

PC Users will be happy to know that Google Earth for PC is no longer in beta version.

System Requirements

Google Earth is a resource eating monster and Google sum up the requirements as follows:

• Desktop computers older than 4 years old may not be able to run it.
• Notebook computers older than 2 years old may not be able to run it.

Go find yourself.

What’s in the box?

• Adobe Reader 7
• Ad-Aware SE Personal
• GalleryPlayer HD Images
• Google Desktop
• Google Earth
• Google Pack Screensaver
• Google Talk
• Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
• Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition
• Picasa
• RealPlayer
• Trillian

Intelligent Software

Google have also included an application titled Google Updater, the tool will intelligently download, install and maintain all of the software in the Google Pack. Google Updater also alerts users when updates and new programs become available and ensures each program is always up-to-date. Google Updater can also be used to monitor the status of installation, run software that’s been installed, or easily uninstall software.

It’s beta so be warned!

Google Pack is currently in beta so be open for crashes and bugs and as of this writing is only available in English and for Windows XP. Go get it at pack.google.com

Additional Links

Google Unwraps the Google Pack

Summary

@media 2006, Europe’s foremost web design conference, brings together some of the world’s most highly respected web experts to talk about the latest major happenings, best-practice thinking, and cutting-edge techniques in the world of web design.

Date

15th & 16th June 2006

Venue

The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London

Cost

£395 + VAT per delegate

Speakers

Andy Budd

Andy Clarke

Cameron Moll

Dan Cederholm

Dave Shea

Eric Meyer

Gez Lemon

Ian Lloyd

Jeremy Keith

Jon Hicks

Molly E. Holzschlag

Patrick Griffiths

Patrick H. Lauke

Peter-Paul Koch

Robin Christopherson

Roger Johansson

Simon Wilddson

Stuart Langridge

Tantek Çeddk

Veerle Pieters

Topics

Keynote Presentation

Beyond a Code Audit

Bug Hunting

Bulletproof Web Design

CSS3: Fact or Fiction?

DOM Scripting: The Next Level

The Fine Art of Web Design

Good Design vs. Great Design

Internationalisation: Awakening the Sleeping Giant

Microformats: Evolving The Web

Mobile Web Design

The New Accessibility Guidelines: WCAG 2.0

Pixels, My Ass

Strategic CSS Project Management

Using DOM Scripting to Plug the Holes in CSS

I think it’s time I compile a list of things I’d like to do / accomplish before I’m 40, hopefully I’ll have these nailed before reach 30 or even 21. The current list are just a few things that spring to mind I’ll be having a think over the holidays and fill it up with a few more.

Things to do before I’m 40

• Retire
• Run a marathon
• Buy a home
• Learn to Fly a Plane
• Appear in a Film or TV program

The part I find most fascinating is after just five minutes training the wasps can work for as long as 48 hours.

University of Georgia: Wasphounds Research | USA Today: Wasps could replace bomb, drug dogs

Today is World AIDS Day, visit the The Official World AIDS Day Web Site if you want to support this worth cause.

Extract from Code Computer Love news:

Code Computer Love Gets The Bounty

Bounty, the UK’s leading provider of young family marketing channels, has appointed Code Computer Love to design and produce a new client-facing website. www.bountybusiness.com is Bounty’s corporate site, which targets stakeholders, existing and potential clients. The new site is set to provide a clearer understanding of the unique support that Bounty can provide to brand owners looking to target young families.

http://www.computerlove.co.uk/news/

Google are testing a new service that connects you directly to advertisers simply by entering your phone number.

It’s a free service, Google will foot the bill and claim your number won’t be shared with the advertiser directly.

Google Click-to-Call FAQ page

full report…

A collection of sixteen short stories, including one brand new.

The Stories

• Without Jonathan
• The Weekender
• For Services Rendered
• Beautiful
• The Fall Guy
• Eye To Eye
• Triangle
• All The World’s A Stage
• Gone Fishing
• Nocturne
• Lesser-Included Offense
• The Blank Card
• Together
• The Widow of Pine Creek
• The Kneeling Soldier
• The Christmas Present

It’s rather funky and I’ll be putting it through it’s paces over the next couple of days to see how plays.

The current version is limited feature wise and comes with a warning ??It probably won’t explode, but it may not work perfectly 100% of the time. Please bear with us?? I predict this application will be part of many developers toolkits when more features are added.

“Grab”:http://www.sitevista.com/cssvista/ yourself a copy.

Yesterday evening I had the privilege of being part of history and boy was it fantastic!

Gorillaz Demon Days Live, 1st - 5th November 2005, Opera House, Manchester.

In a world first, Gorillaz’ smash hit second album Demon Days will be performed in its entirety across five consecutive nights at the Opera House, Manchester as part of a series of trailblazing events ahead of the inaugural Manchester International Festival.

The album’s guest musicians will descend on Manchester to take on the task of recreating the 3 million selling Demon Days live onstage. The two-dimensional band members will take a back seat as their musical collaborators are brought together to play multi-million selling album Demon Days in its entirety for the first and only time time ever, in five remarkable and unrepeatable performances.

Code Computer Love where appointed as the digital agency for the Manchester International Festival 2007 the world’s first international festival of original, specially commissioned work. I was lucky enough to be involved in the project and was rewarded with a VIP ticket to the sold-out concert. I was mixing among all the celebrity’s… okay so just the “odd one”:/explained/people/johnny-vegas/. It was at the was absolutely fantastic, enough said. If they perform live again I’ll be first the in queue for tickets.

Special guests on the evening included Bootie Brown, De La Soul, Ike Turner, Martina Topley Bird, Neneh Cherry, Shaun Ryder and Roots Manuva. There was also a tribute to Ibrahim Ferrer who appears on the track ‘Latin Simone’, sadly he died in early August 2005.

Further Content

• BBC Events
• Manchester International Festival Web Site
• More event photos in this flickr set by Brad Barrish

To Do

• Improve CSS support - View the BrowserCam screengrabs to see how I’m doing so far.
• Sort out some kind of Content Management System so I can keep this place tidy. I love to hand code everything but it could get a little messy and I’d defiantly get lost sooner or later. I plan on implementing a custom built solution but for now TextPattern will do.
• Improve the design slightly to offer a bit more eye candy, and add some images to make this place a bit more welcoming who likes to stare at text all day?
• Add some material to the portfolio.
• Content to in the following places; Travel Log, Bookshelf, Jukebox, About.

Why Bother?

I’ve been working with the web since 2000 and have until now been able to motivate myself to keep a personal web page up to date. This is my attempt to blog and record my goings on.

What’s Changed?

• I now work for Code Computer Love who cares about the world wide web. Why that maters I have no idea…
• As my portfolio grows I’m going to need somewhere to showcase my achievements.