Craig Sansam's Blog

Have you ever wanted to do something with IIS and not known how to do it? Well, my good friend Andy has set up IIS Underground. A website dedicated to simple, easy to follow tutorials for IIS. It’s only been online for a few days, so there are only a few tutorials, but if you want to suggest anything you want adding, post a comment on here and I’ll forward it over.

http://www.iisunderground.com/

One of the add-ons I have written for PyroCMS is a Restaurant Menu. I am planning to put it on the PyroCMS store, but wanted some feedback before I did.

The add-on basically allows you to display a menu on your or your clients website easily, without having to have crazy CSS. It currently has the capability to have different sections (Starters, Mains etc) and uses the default currency from the settings.

If you want to test it out, drop me a tweet (@_Craigy) or leave a comment here and I’ll email you a link.

Plugin Syntax

{{ restaurant_menu:display }}
  {{ name }}
  {{ description }}

    {{ items }}
      {{ name }}
      {{ price }}
      {{ description }}
    {{ /items }}

{{ /restaurant_menu:display }}

The way I have written the plugin, it allows you wrap the entire menu, individual sections, all  the items in each section or  each item in the sections individually.

Screenshots

Being a web developer I like to have a local server to develop on. My current server has an Intel Pentium Dual-Core and only 4GB of RAM, this should be enough for a local development server, but sadly, that’s not all it does. It’s also used as a file server, print server, media server (including transcoding), and hosts 2 virtual machines. Now there are problems.

I have been debating building a new server, or buying one pre-built (Like a Proliant ML115). However the issues I faced with this is the lack of space for HDD’s, most servers are limited to 6, and I already have this amount in my current server, price was also an issue. After a long decision process, I decided to build my own. The new server has an Intel i3 2100, with 16GB of ram and the motherboard has 8 SATA ports (4 x 3Gb/s Intel, 2 x Intel 6Gb/s and 2 x Marvel(?) 6 Gb/s), and its in a nice rack case. The cost of this build is currently at £402. With the most expensive item being the motherboard weighing in at £145.

Once I get everything else moved over (HDD’s etc) I will post another update.

It was only a matter of time before Microsoft released an Official iPhone (and iPad) app for XBox Live.

I’ve only had a quick flick through, but it does look quite good. I will put a review on later once I have had a play.

You can download it from http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/my-xbox-live/id480914036?mt=8

I have been working on a massive project at work, and today was the day I decided to start tackling the relatively small pile of compatibility issues (all with Internet Explorer). I did the usual thing, opened my Virtual Machine with all the flavours of Internet Explorer and set to work, first with the most recent, working backwards.

Version 9 was nice and easy, few float issues, but nothing major. Version 8 freaked out a little, but a conditional stylesheet brought it into line pretty sharpish. 7 needed a little bit more work, navigation bar hovers were appearing behind other elements and it was the whole

position: relative;
z-index:1;

issue, so that didn’t require too much work. Then I opened 6, the dreaded version and it was a complete mess.

After an hours worth of work, I decided to check the site analytics, IE 6 had 2.7% of the usage, so I came to a conclusion.

“We’re not going to support browsers with less than 3.5% and that are 5 years or older.”

What do you think? Is that crazy? I want to be driving the web forward, and not having to fight with older browsers to give an “okay” user experience.

It’s just a few days away, and I am getting excited already. I am going to be part of a team, with Sam Jordan, Andy Garbett, Ben Major and Jonathan Begin. Last night I decided I would start preparing my stuff for the event, went online and booked my train ticket… 3 hours early… So I gave up for the night and retreated to MW3, which ended up just as badly.

We have an idea, which does need more work to make it viable, but the concept is amazing (even if I do say so myself).

Hopefully I will find time throughout the event to post.

I know what you’re thinking… “What the duce is this?” Well, its a blog post, about 3 of the things in the title. The first one was just, something to grab your attention.

Spooks! What a freaking awesome last episode? I don’t know about you, but I had a tear in my eye when Ruth got stabbed, I also feel so sorry for Harry. I can’t help but feel that they have left so many loose ends. Could this mean that it might be coming back? This is pure speculation though. Also, if you have never seen Spooks, go out, buy the box set and watch it. Granted, I haven’t watched some of the earlier series, but what I have seen is amazing.

Fish Fingers… mmmmm

Parking Tickets, yes, they are annoying. Especially when you rush back to your car, are 2 minutes late, and BOOM you have one -.- £25 I didn’t have.

Anyway, other things are going awesomely. The massive website I am working on at work is gaining momentum, and is really starting to take shape. Won’t be too long and I can show y’all what I have been beavering away at :p