Adrian's Blog

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  • More fonts

    Not sure why I haven’t come across this before, but a great source of free fonts;

    dafont.com

  • Skype Supernode Registry Hack

    If you are running Skype v3 or later, there is a registry change (provided by Skype for Universities etc.) that reportedly prevents your PC becoming a supernode. I say reportedly, because whilst I have been a guinea pig for the last week I haven’t noticed being a supernode, but of course Skype may not have tried. If you aren’t running the latest version of Skype yet you should probably upgrade (Help, Check for updates), because later versions allow you to edit previous messages, and voice quality is improved.
    If you think that being a supernode may cause you problems, try editing the registry as shown in the code below. (WordPress security doesn’t allow this file to be uploaded). You will need to reboot your PC for it to take effect.
    This is the edit:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Skype]
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Skype\Phone]
    "DisableSupernode"=dword:00000001

  • Chinese Fonts

    A couple of sources of Chinese fonts:

    sj00.com

    University of Heidelberg, Institute of Chinese Studies

  • Umami and MSG

    I have come across an old article in the Observer (2005) titled “If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in Asia have a headache?” which discusses the fifth flavour – umami – and glutamate, commonly referred to as Mono Sodium Glutamate or MSG.
    As the presence of MSG is often a criticism of Chinese take-away food – we don’t bother stocking it for sales to home chefs – the most fascinating part of this article is the list of foods containing glutamate (and therefore giving that umami taste) including:

      parmesan and other cheeses (seems obvious)
      tomatoes
      soy sauce
      mushrooms

    I’d have to agree with the conclusion of the article though – if you want to enhance flavour, add one of these “natural” sources of glutamate, rather than reaching for the MSG.

  • Parsnip Stuffing

    Ingredients

    10 oz Onion, peeled and finely sliced
    1 lb Parsnips, peeled, cored and finely sliced
    2 oz Butter, melted
    14 oz Sausagemeat
    1 Clove garlic, crushed
    1 tsp Sesame seeds
    1 Apple, peeled cored & cubed
    2 tsp Lemon thyme leaves, chopped
    1 tbsp Parsley, chopped
    3 oz Fresh breadcrumbs
    2 Eggs

    Method

    Saute onion & parsnips in butter over a low heat for 15 minutes until soft. Remove.
    Fry together sausagemeat, garlic and sesame seeds for 5 minutes. Stir all of the time.
    Drain any fat and add the sausagemeat mixture to the parsnip & onions in a large mixing bowl. Crush together well with a potato masher. Beat to blend well. Alternatively, use a food processor for this step, but don’t over-process.
    Add the apple, eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley and thyme.
    Bake in a hot oven for approximately 1 hour.

    1. More building contacts

      Resin flooring – NIFL.

      Shopfront – Aluminium shop fronts.

      Also:
      Adams Glass & Windows
      St George Street
      Leicester
      Leicestershire
      LE1 1QG
      Tel: 0116 2511715

      Fire risk information. A search of Yell turned up:

      Fire Safety Management, 45, Montague Drive, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3SB. Tel: 01509 237218

      Bollards – Barriers Direct

    2. WordPress 2.3 – Canonical URLs and “/page/1”

      Well, the motiveAuto website is up and is based on WordPress – and because WordPress 2.3 is now on GA I thought it would be a good idea to upgrade before the launch. Big mistake; yes, it is a good idea to be on the current release, but not without  some serious integration testing.

      The biggest problem arises from the tidying up of URLs used to access posts, Canonical URLs. The author of these changes Mark Jaquith blogs the background to these changes and makes a good case for them. The first problem is that www.motiveauto.com/page/1 is no longer a valid URL; this is unfortunate because this is a commonly used method of accessing the posts from a static home page (see using WordPress as a CMS). The correct (i.e. valid) URL is now www.motiveauto.com/?page=1

      OK, lesson learnt, but it is a pity that it took four hours to find the cause of the problem – WordPress documentation is – shall we say – “loose”.

      The next problem relates to the “share this” plugin; this encourages linking to he social bookmarking sites and also emailing a page to a friend. The CSS form doesn’t seem to work (possibly because of a new version of prototype.js) but should degrade gracefully to a web page. Unfortunately this doesn’t work if the source is a WordPress static page rather than a post. URL rewriting again? Looks like it, but I can’t quite put my finger on the cause.

    3. Use Classes

      A full list of the use classes as defined in the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 can be found on the planning portal.

    4. 0870 Number research

      I’m looking into 0870 numbers (or more generally non-geographical numbers) at the moment. Here is the short list:

      Yac (£10-£20 per month depending on if we want to programme time specific forwards.)

      BT themsleves  (£10/month, same price for revenue sharing on 0871)

      UK2Numbers (One-off registration depending on number chosen)