Hazel McKendrick » blog

101 Dalmations Blog Posts!

Hazel — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:39:19 +0000

This is my 101st post on KillerCodingNinjaBunny so I thought I’d use it to give a bit of an update about recent changes to the site.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I’m currently trying to settle on a topic for my honours project. Updates to my (at least weekly, as it’s a requirement of the module) blog on that subject will be found here.
http://killercodingninjabunny.com now redirects to http://hazelmckendrick.com rather than the other way around. Hopefully all previous links should still work, but please let me know if there’s a problem.
There are now 350 approved comments on the site – thanks to everyone who has left feedback or advice! It is greatly appreciated.
Finally, videos of YinYangYou are available on my youtube channel. Here’s a sample:

So, thanks again to everyone who has contributed or helped me along the way. This is by far the longest I’ve managed to keep a blog for and I feel I’m really improving in terms of writing posts which benefit me as a programmer.

Image thanks to Dave Morris.

More Changes.

Hazel — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:21:17 +0000

So, any of you who’ve been hanging around longer than a couple of days (ok, so noone. You’ll just have to take my word for what follows) will have noticed that there have been a few changes around the site lately.

As you can see, for the first time I’m using a theme which I did not create myself. I have plans for how I’d like the site to look in future, but given my lack of time for web programming and my hatred of PHP, I suspect KCNB’s appearance may not change for some time. I do intend to keep updating the site, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for regular posts. I’ll write when I have something to say.

We Need Some Time Apart

Hazel — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:30:31 +0000

Suffice to say from my lack of updates (again), blogging isn’t really working out for me. I’m kind of sick of this updating for a couple of months, having uni, and giving up again thing. So I won’t be posting to KCNB in its current form any further.

However, I have found something which was working well for me: Tumblr. I guess most of those posts wont mean a lot to anyone but myself, but I found it a great way to keep my thoughts organised during a project and stay on top of links and sources I’ve used.

This in itself is not really enough: I’d like to have a space to maintain my portfolio of projects and games. So my intention is to cut things back here, have space for my work and use it more as a personal homepage, and incorportate a micro-blog into the site. This means I can easily share what’s going on in a way that is useful to both myself and hopefully to others facing similar problems, with a system I might actually use, and also have the space to make longer, more thought out posts if the need arrises.

Plugins and Stuff

Hazel — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:32:24 +0000

Since Ashok just got a new WordPress blog and was asking about plugins for it, I thought it was about time to update my own.

Behind the scenes now I’m using wp-super-cache (not that I get enough traffic to actually need it), the All in One SEO plugin that everyone recommends, and an XML sitemap plugin. I’ve also set up automatic backups.

I’d really like to have a go at writing a WordPress plugin, but I can’t think of anything that I want which doesn’t already exist. Anything in particular you would like to see?

Otherwise, are there any other great plugins which you think might help my blog?

Gravatars

Hazel — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:19:50 +0000

You many have noticed that the comments on KCNB have a little avatar next to them. Since most of these are showing up as the default image, my little blue space invader (who by the way is called Marcel), I thought I’d share with you how to get your own image showing up.

This site, like many other blogs and websites, has been equipped to use Gravatars. The idea is that you sign up for an account, and an image is tied to your email address. When you enter that email address on a Gravatar enabled blog or website, your avatar will automatically be displayed. This makes it easy for you to have a perpetual identity between a range of different sites – essential for bloggers hoping to promote themselves.

Hope to see some more pretty images soon – feel free to comment on this post to test your Gravatar. It does take a few minutes to appear after you’ve created an account.

New Theme Issues

Hazel — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:36:45 +0000

As you will hopefully have noticed, KCNB has recently undergone a change of themes.

Whilst I consider this one mostly complete (although I’m always open to suggestions and changes) there is still one particular issue I don’t know how to sort. It occurs on the index pages with lists of posts, and as far as I can tell only in Firefox. Each post extract is contained within a

element, which is in turn contained within a link to the correct page. For the most part the CSS functions correctly – when you move your mouse anywhere over the box, the background colour changes.

However, from time to time instead of this each piece of text becomes a link, as you can see in the image here.

The strangest thing is that this doesn’t even occur every time the page is loaded, reloading the page can cause the post to be displayed correctly. It also occurs more on certain posts than others, although I can’t find anything which makes them different.

I’m left wondering whether this might be more a problem with Firefox’s rendering the page, but I’d still like to fix it.

If you have any thoughts on how I could achieve this effect in a different way, I’d be happy to hear it. Also, if you’ve noticed other problems with this theme in modern browsers, please let me know here.

I’m Doing Science And I’m Still Alive

Hazel — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:14:08 +0000

I’m back again. I know it’s been a while.

It’s easy to say the blog is back for good now, but keeping to that is going to be tougher. First of all, I want to thank the people that emailed or messaged me prompting me to write again. I’m going to try my utmost to write regularly, and if I don’t, I encourage everyone to yell at me until I do. I have no idea how people with blogs that have lasted years manage to keep this up, suffice to say I’m impressed.

There will however be a few changes around here. I’m going to aim to write shorter posts several times a week, just to make sure I am writing something. When deadline time approaches I wont have much time to write articles but if I am used to giving shorter reflections then I should be able to keep up.

You may also notice the new theme. There are still a few kinks to work out but I think it’s far more professional and also much simpler than the previous theme. And of course, less pink. If you have any thoughts or suggestions about it, I’d love to here from you – just drop me a comment below.

Last time I blogged, I wrote about the ‘insane project’ I had planned. This was referring to my ideas for a piece of PS2 Coursework which actually turned out to be very successful. I wont say it went without a hitch, but I did get it completed by the deadline without preventing me finishing my other coursework too, so overall I’m very pleased with the result. I’m not really sure how to attempt to capture a video of it but as soon as I work it out, I’ll stick it up here.

You might also notice I’ve made some separate space for my projects on this website. I guess you’ll be glad to know that I have written more than four programs during my time at university, but I’m trying to offer a selection of my more complete work there. I’ll continue to add to it as I embark on more exciting projects in the future.

Thanks for sticking around – don’t forget to let me know what you think of the new look.

Thank You!

Hazel — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:27:20 +0000

KCNB has now been around for a month. Not a huge milestone, I know, but I just want to stop and take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me out so far.

Thanks!

Nistur, Ashok, Mike, Kiera Peney, everyone at Girls Don’t Game, Mum (of course ) have all helped me out in some way or another. I hope I haven’t missed anyone… But thanks to everyone, every link and comment is appreciated and has made a lot of difference.

Thanks also to everyone who has submitted my posts to Stumbleupon – it’s resulted in far more traffic than I had hoped for in the first month.

I’d also like to mention…

Games Kernel

For anyone who hasn’t already found it, I recently launched a second blog focusing on Linux Gaming at http://gameskernel.com. If you’re already a Linux user or are interested in trying out an alternative OS, you might want to check it out.

Think Pink

Hazel — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:16:37 +0000

So, opinions on the theme?
I built it from the design my website was meant to have and the default WordPress theme, which was far easier than I expected.

Pink isn’t normally my colour so this is a bit of a change, but at least it stands out.

Anyway…
Any bugs or glitches in your browser?
Parts you like?
Parts you don’t like?
Things you think I should tear out entirely?

At The Beginning Again

Hazel — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:41:12 +0000

So after spending most of the Christmas holidays trying to build my website, I’ve eventually settled for using a WordPress blog instead. The site was going well, but with term starting again I wouldn’t have time to complete it, so this seemed a far more sensible option. And it still looks pretty much the same.

I’d like to try and migrate some of my more interesting older content over to here, but since I’d have to do it manually I’m not sure how realistic a goal that is. I may repost a couple of articles which were particularly popular (well, popular for a blog read by only 3 people including my mum).

As you can see (unless you’re sensibly using an adblocker of some sort) the site is now supported by adsense. I’m not running this blog for money, but it would be nice for my hosting fees to pay for themself.

Anyway, the site will be updated as often as I feel fit, most likely a few times a week, so sign up to the RSS feed and wish me luck.