The A List Apart 2008 Survey
It’s that time again – when every web professional should be ticking boxes for the 2008 A List Apart survey
Blogging due to peer pressure
Not me, I have no problems plucking thoughts and observations of my daily life out of my head and hammering the keys until words appear on the screen. No, it’s my spikey-haired friend Matt (not to be confused with Mattysmash who I introduced at the start of the year) that I’ve bullied into opening a blog.
Neither of us are really sure what he’s going to be writing about as by his own admission, his life is pretty boring. If you can be bothered, you’ll see he’s been to the cinema and has bought a woolly hat (and you thought my blog was lacking in content!).
Anyway, have a look at Mattywoo
How to get Cubecart 4 friendly URLs on a Windows server
Cubecart 4 includes the option to rewrite the standard URL structure into “search engine friendly” URLs.
This means that instead of a product in your shop having the pretty awful address of
http://www.domain.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=1
you can have it rewritten into something like
http://www.domain.co.uk/test-category/test-product2/prod_1.html
Much easier for humans I’m sure you’ll agree and hopefully search engines will love your keyword-packed URLs too.
MySQL search and replace
It’s something that can have you pulling your hair out in frustration but the solution is so simple.
Finding (and replacing) text in your MySQL database tables has almost become a past time of mine recently, converting a foreign database into reading something a bit closer to the English language.
If you use a frontend to your MySQL database (like phpMyAdmin or SQLyog, Navicat, etc) then go to create a new query and enter the following (replacing the table and field names as required of course!):
UPDATE tablename SET tablefield = replace(tablefield, "findstring", "replacestring");
It’s Brian Zimmer I have to thank for that, so please view the example on his website for including more search options. Also worth a mention is MybesInformatik who’s site I stumbled on when I couldn’t remember the URL for Brian’s site!
GTA IV Review
After what seems like forever, quite possibly the multi-format game of the year is here!
The hugely anticipated, new instalment in the ground-breaking Grand Theft Auto series has landed and is going to be the game to tear gamers away from Call of Duty 4.
Bank Holidays
Historially, public holidays in Britain are called “Bank Holidays” as they are days when banks are officially closed and therefore (traditionally) other businesses would close as they could not operate.
Bank and Public Holidays in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
The expected dates of bank and public holidays in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are as follows:
2008 Bank Holidays
| New Year’s Day (Bank Holiday) | 1st January |
|---|---|
| Good Friday (Public Holiday) | 21st March |
| Easter Monday (Bank Holiday) | 24th March |
| Early May (Bank Holiday, First Monday in May) | 5th May |
| Spring Bank Holiday (Last Monday in May) | 26th May |
| Summer Bank Holiday (Last Monday in August) | 25th August |
| Christmas Day (Public Holiday) | 25th December |
| Boxing Day (Bank Holiday) | 26th December |
| New Year’s Day (Bank Holiday) | 1st January |
|---|---|
| January 2nd | 2nd January |
| Good Friday (Public Holiday) | 21st March |
| Easter Monday (Bank Holiday) | 24th March |
| Easter Monday is not an official holiday, but many companies still close. | |
| Early May (Bank Holiday, First Monday in May) | 5th May |
| Spring (Bank Holiday, Last Monday in May) | 26th May |
| Summer Bank Holiday (Last Monday in August) | 25th August |
| Summer Bank Holiday is not an official holiday but many banks still close. | |
| St Andrew’s Day (30th November or if on a weekend, the following Monday) | 1st December |
| Christmas Day Public Holiday | 25th December |
| Boxing Day Bank Holiday | 26th December |
| New Year’s Day Bank Holiday | 1st January |
|---|---|
| St Patrick’s Day | 17th March |
| Good Friday (Public Holiday) | 21st March |
| Easter Monday (Bank Holiday) | 24th March |
| Early May (Bank Holiday, First Monday in May) | 5th May |
| Spring (Bank Holiday, Last Monday in May) | 26th May |
| Battle of the Boyne (Orangemen’s Day) | 14th July |
| Summer Bank Holiday (Last Monday in August) | 25th August |
| Christmas Day (Public Holiday) | 25th December |
| Boxing Day (Bank Holiday) | 26th December |
History of Bank Holidays
Since 1871, British Public Holidays where banks were shut have been known as Bank Holidays.
Good Friday and Christmas Day are not specified as Bank Holidays in England, Wales and Ireland because they were already recognised as common law holidays.
Venezuelan Black Chocolate Recipes
Since my earlier post on Willie Harcourt-Cooze’s chocolate exploits proved so popular I thought it would be appropriate to post up some of the recipes mentioned in the Channel 4 TV show including the much sought-after, Venezuelan Black Chocolate truffles!
All of these Venezuelan Black recipes are currently available on the Channel 4 website, however I’ve taken the liberty to post them here too should the link to the recipes page change.
Wondering where to buy Venezuelan Black Chocolate? Well Selfridges are the “official” stockist and they offer a mail order service but they’re out of stock as the time of writing this so some enterprising souls have listed bars of the lovely 100% cacao on eBay too.
…whichever you choose, the food you make is going to be chocolate heaven!
Venezuelan Black Chocolate
Any TV addict out there will probably be suffering from an intense chocolate craving right about now thanks to one Wonky Willie and his slightly crazy mission to bring the ultimate cacao to the UK.
I’m not convinced that chocolate as an ingredient is right for most meals although anyone that’s watched an episode of the Channel 4 series Willies Wonky Chocolate Factory will testify, most of the show revolves around Willie Harcourt-Cooze adding helpings of his Venezuelan Black chocolate stuff into just about every meal of the day.
But is he just adding chocolate for the sake of adding chocolate? With a strap line of “From bean to bar”, the series shows the Harcourt-Coozes travelling from the UK to Venezuela, to their Hacienda farm.
Update!! Chocolate Factory cookbook now available!
Since originally writing this article, I’ve discovered Willie’s released his own cookery book titled Willie’s Chocolate Factory Cookbook
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