If..Else Log

WP2.01 is out, exactly one month after the last major release. If you're using WP2, it'll be a good idea to upgrade as this comprises a few handy bug fixes and tweaks.

There are some stunning photos in Feng Jiang's Beautiful China collection. Saturated but sensational.

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong hei fat choi!

Incidentally, the character depicted is the chinese word for fortune/prosperity. It's actually shown here rotated 180 degrees as the word for upside down is a homonym of the word "arrival"; hence, the idea is that, by rotating the character sign, fortune will arrive.

A woman having an affair was busted when her boyfriend's pet parrot started squaking "I love you Gary".

Mr Taylor apparently became suspicious after Ziggy croaked "Hiya Gary" when Ms Collins answered her mobile phone. The parrot also made smooching sounds whenever the name Gary was said on TV."

A woman having an affair was busted when her boyfriend's pet parrot started squaking "I love you Gary".

These Super Mario and Goomba mice probably aren't very ergonomic but they're pretty cool in a novelty sort of way.

How big is your ego?

Mine's clearly not big enough…

Jennifer Slegg has a nice entry on Google's beta rollout of rich media ads [via].

Google AdSense is moving beyond the traditional text and graphical advertising to rich media, including interstitials, expanding ads and floating ads.

If AdSense offered rich media to all publishers, it could really hurt competitor companies offering similar rich media ad formats because of the vast number of publishers that AdSense has.

And if AdSense did offer rich media to all publishers, they could easily add a new clause that would mean companies such as Fastclick and PointRoll would suddenly be competitive ads and not be permitted on the same pages as AdSense.

I'm not going to comment too much on this right now but I'll just say that you won't be seeing such ads on this site. Interstitials, expanding ads and floating ads are precisely the type of ads that I avoided; there's no way I'm going to be inflicting them on anyone reading this site.

I've been tagged by Tauquil, Matt and Podz so I guess it's about time to provide my list of 4 things¹.

Four jobs that I've had

• Web Developer
• Java Developer
• Oracle Developer
• Takeaway guy

Four movies I can watch over and over

• Chungking Express
• Reservoir Dogs
• Road to Perdition
• Snatch

Four places I have lived

• London
• Leeds
• Newcastle
• Reading

Four TV shows I like to watch

• House
• Lost
• Match of the Day
• Top Gear

Four foods that I like

• Steak
• Apple crumble and custurd
• Crispy roast pork
• Shrimp Dumpling

Four websites I visit daily

• Daring Fireball
• Kottke
• Raymond Chen
• 9rules

Four things I want to do before I die

• Walk the earth
• Learn to play the piano
• Buy a house for my parents and grandparents
• Settle down

Four people I'm tagging

• Ben Gillbanks
• Brendan Borlase
• Jennifer Ledbetter
• Mike

Chinese whispers

One interesting thing that I've noticed is that the questions being passed around in this meme have changed (for example, compare Tauquil's questions with Podz'. Some of the changes are minor (e.g. from "movies I can watch over and over" to "movies I watch over and over"); others are major such as questions dropping out such as "websites that I watch daily" and new questions ("things I want to do before I die").

1. I've been a bit busy so haven't had much time to blog [back]

Podz is right; Evrsoft are stupid.

Evrsoft Pty Ltd, will grant to you a personal, nonexclusive, nontransferable license to hyperlink ("Link") your Internet Web site to Evrsoft's Internet Web site…

Erm, thanks for "granting us permission" to place a hyperlink("link") on our own website to you…

…You must accept all terms and conditions in this Agreement. To indicate your acceptance, you will be required to send us an email issuing your acceptance to this Agreement.

… but I need to send an email request first?!? Accepting all terms first?!? Oh well, I can't do that so it looks like I'll just have to link to you without your permission. If you disagree, feel free to send me an email request

You may not alter the appearance of the Link Logo. The Link Logo must stand by itself and must include a minimum amount of 25 pixels of empty space around it so as to avoid unintended associations with any other objects including, but not limited to, type, photography, borders, and edges.

25 pixels? I'm sure you arrived at that figure after a lot of careful research which showed that a lot of people kept unintentionally identifying your logo with other objects when only 24 pixels were used. However, I suspect that the research may have been flawed somewhat when you decided to use your own license guys as test subjects; somehow, I don't think that their intelligence may have been representative of the general population.

Evrsoft reserves the right to review your use of the name "Evrsoft", the Link, and/or the Link Logo, and you agree to provide Evrsoft unrestricted access to your site to review your use of the name "Evrsoft", the Link, and/or the Link Logo. Evrsoft may at any time, and in its sole business judgment and/or discretion, require you to discontinue your use of the name "Evrsoft", the Link, and/or the Link Logo.

Ha ha ha ha ha… so, do you want shell access or will FTP be fine?

You may not use the name "Evrsoft", the Link, and/or the Link Logo to disparage Evrsoft, its software, data, and/or services in any way that in Evrsoft's sole business judgment and discretion may diminish or damage the goodwill in Evrsoft's name or Link Logo

Shouldn't you heed your own advice? I think that you've done a pretty good job of disparaging yourself…

Evrsoft may at any time, and in its sole business judgment and/or discretion, require you to discontinue your use of the name "Evrsoft", the Link, and/or the Link Logo.

Dammit.

Stuart Langridge and Christian Hammond provide a set of advice for developers/support guys and users:

If a user hasn't read all of your website, all the mailing list archives, the wiki, the old wiki, all the blogs of all the developers, and the text files in CVS, refuse to answer their question. They should study harder before they’re entitled to ask questions.
18 ways to be a good developer

Remember, you use this software. You have rights. The developer’s personal life, work life, or stress level is completely irrelevant. If they don’t provide the level of help you expect, remember that this is not your fault, but theirs. They owe you support, and be sure to complain loudly in as many forums as possible.
20 Ways to be a Good User