Gav's World

2009-12-03 : Website Template Updated : v2.11.0

Enhancements

1. Added a simple photo album viewer which scans a specified directory and displays all photos. Each "album" requires a PHP file to point to it and define photo titles / comments. See example in template.
2. Added a simple search which searches all pages / news feeds (not hidden pages though - there must be a reason that they are hidden!). Note that this is purely a text match. New variable must be added to <setup.php> to enable this feature.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

$my_enable_search
$my_extra_style_sheet[] (now used by default, not commented out)

Bug Fixes

1. Discovered that PHP v4 doesn't like strrpos with a "needle" being more than one character. So, "Latest Updates" and "Website Stats" didn't show any files ending in html (this was code introduced to look for link files).

See the downloads page.

2009-11-22 : Deep Diver

After several aborted weekends due to weather, I've finally completed all three of my deep dives (to greater than 30m) to gain my Deep Diver PADI certification.

Here are the dive logs:

• Deep Dive 1 (32m)
• Deep Dive 2 (35.1m)
• Deep Dive 3 (36.3m)

2009-11-21 : Hello, my new Toyota Avensis

After selling my Honda Integra Type-R I bought a Toyota Avensis T3-S D-4D, 2.0 litre diesel, 5 door hatchback the following day.

Well today I picked it up and I'm actually reasonably impressed. Obviously the performance just isn't the same, but I guess the level of comfort is compensation for taking almost twice as long as the Integra to get from 0-60mph!

2009-11-15 : Goodbye, my Honda Integra Type-R

It was [almost] with a tear in my eye that I waved goodbye to my Honda Integra Type-R on Sunday the 15th of November 2009.

She had served me well over the nine years of owning her (well, apart from the gearbox rebuild, the new engine and the 3 times she was smashed into by other cars).

No longer will I have a cheesy grin on my face as I drive down Dean Road on the outskirts of Longniddry, knowing fine well that I'd be just about to hit the gloriously undulating and twisty coast road, ready for revving her up to 9000rpm before throwing her into the first corner.

Mind you, to be fair ... that was the reason for me needing a new set of front tyres every 6000 miles!!!

Hopefully her new owner will let her play some more on fun roads :-)

2009-11-04 : Website Template Updated : v2.10.2

Oh no! A second bug release in a week. Mind you ... I knew about this last week, but forgot to fix it - D'Oh!

Enhancements

None.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

1. Didn't check the top of the page when I tested the code to hide the copyright information: the name was being displayed at the top of the actual page since the header got slightly corrupted due to having a missing meta open tag.

See the downloads page.

2009-11-01 : Website Template Updated : v2.10.1

Enhancements

None.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed a couple of bugs on "Latest Updates" and "Website Stats" pages that crept in after the link files were added in version 2.10.0. Basically they are non-existant pages, so should not be shown.

See the downloads page.

2009-10-22 : Website Template Updated : v2.10.0

Enhancements

1. Added a new page called "Website Stats" which shows latest update times and page counter hits, with a grand total at the bottom. Displays pages images and news.
2. Added the facility to have external website links appear as category headings or under category headings and not just in the website lists. These will open in the same window as it's anticipated that they will be for sites on the same server but outwith this software's control.
3. Allows copyright information to not be displayed by commenting the variable $my_copyright_start in <setup.php>

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

1. Only displays the year once if $my_copyright_start = the current year

See the downloads page.

2009-05-26 : Website Template Updated : v2.9.0

Any users upgrading will have to update their style sheets as a new printer style sheet has been added (see enhancement 2).

Enhancements

1. Improved the RSS and Atom page rendering: Atom now displays entire news items in XHTML. Both now present correct MIME type via header() call.
2. Added CSS sheets for printing - totally forgot about that one!
3. Added "Latest Updates" page to show list of latest page updates together with their modification time.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

None.

See the downloads page.

2019-05-26 : Desktop PC Upgrade - Monitor

Latest upgrade for my Decktop PC:

• DELL 2209WA ( 22inch wide-screen, eIPS panel)

2009-05-19 : Advanced Open Water & Enriched Air

I've been busy with diving stuff lately: on the weekend of the 16th and 17th of May I was at Loch Long (at the twin piers) doing 5 adventure dives to gain my PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification!

The dives were (first three dives on the Saturday and the last two on the Sunday):

1. Peek Performance Buoyancy
2. Multi-level & Computer
3. Digital Photography
4. Deep (compulsory for AOW)
5. Navigation (compulsory for AOW)

Then on the evening of the 19th of May I did the Enriched Air speciality course which was just run as a dry course, since you don't actually have to dive with enriched air to pass the course - just know its advantages, its dangers and how to analyse & plan dives with it.

What does this mean? Well I can now dive down to a depth of 30m and play with the fishies for a long time with a reduced risk of the bends :-)

Now it's time to spend lots of money on a dry suit, BCD, regulators and a cylinder :-)

2009-05-15 : Wedding Gift List Goes Live

Well it's 6 weeks until the big day, so that means that our wedding gift list is now live at John Lewis and will remain active until 2 weeks after the ceremony.

2009-04-12 : Open Water Diver Qualification

Well it's official : after a weekend in a nice warm swimming pool (at 32°C) and a weekend next to BP Finnart on Loch Long (a bit colder at about 8°C), I'm now qualified as a PADI Open Water Diver!

What does this mean? Well I can dive down to a depth of 18m and play with the fishies :-)

Now it's time to put my training into practice : get out there and do some proper diving :-)

2009-04-06 : Website Template Updated : v2.8.0

Any users upgrading will have to update their style sheets as a new <div> has been added (see enhancement 4).

Enhancements

1. Changed the "you're a SPAMBOT" section of <Contact.php> as it appears that some people can't figure out to just go back and answer the question correctly!
2. Added <Survey.php> which allows you to construct simple forms that generate e-mails.
3. Added facility for a custom "Page Not Found" error page which lives in ./hidden_pages
4. Put the "(* updated in last 14 days)" text into its own div in the page list div. This allows the font to be changed from the style sheet.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

1. A couple of formatting errors in <Contact.php> fixed.

See the downloads page.

2009-03-05 : Website Template Updated : v2.7.0

Enhancements

1. Added the facility to support "favicon.ico" which must live inside the ./images directory.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

1. Discovered that some systems were reading the file change time wrong. All related time function calls changed from filectime to filemtime (file modification time).

See the downloads page.

2009-02-20 : Website Template Updated : v2.6.0

Any users upgrading will have to update their style sheets as all validation icons required a new <div> to fit them (see enhancement 1). Page stats moved into same <div>.

Also, the ./images directory has been tidied up - validation icons and style sheet images have been put into sub-directories.

Enhancements

1. Added a news feed in RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 formats with new validation icons to go with them. Icons moved out of page lists into new division defined in style sheet.
2. News page name can now be changed to any name, "Blog" for example. New variable in <setup.php>.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

1. $my_news_page

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed array lookups if arrays are empty on the very rare occasion that the software installed and no pages are present *at all*
2. Stopped page / image calls outside of their designated directories, i.e. if someone specified a page / image with "../../another_file"

See the downloads page.

2009-02-10 : Website Template Updated : v2.5.0

Enhancements

1. Changed how the software adds "IE Fixes" code into the generated XHTML. This involves looking for specific file names, e.g. <lt_7-pencils.css> which will contain fixes for IE less than version 7. See the website template for a full description. Any user upgrading to this version will have to re-name their IE_Fixes files.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

None.

See the downloads page.

2009-02-02 : Website Template Updated : v2.4.0

Enhancements

1. Added the ability to have IE_fixes style sheets for any "extra" style sheets. These must live in ./style_sheets/extra/IE_fixes
2. Allowed the default page to be something other than "Home" - see new variable $my_default_home_page in <setup.php>.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

1. $my_default_home_page
2. $my_disable_w3c_validation

Bug Fixes

None.

See the downloads page.

2009-02-01 : Website Template Updated : v2.3.1

Enhancements

None.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

1. Discovered that if a page or sub-page is purely a number, the function to display the category was just displaying a blank line (missing check when checking for leading numbers for numerical sorting).

See the downloads page.

2009-01-29 : Website Template Updated : v2.3.0

Enhancements

1. Cosmetic change to the "page updated" flags: now if a sub-page has been modified, but the parent page has not, the * is shown as (*).
2. Passed the definition for the initial page view counter value into the user's control - $my_page_count_start now in <setup.php>

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

1. $my_page_count_start

Bug Fixes

None.

See the downloads page.

2009-01-26 : Website Template Updated : v2.2.0

Enhancements

1. Enabled page stats for <News.php> - "last update" based upon the top news article and a count based on any time the page is called, i.e. irrelevant of news_year and news_month.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed the "page updated" feature - when making the new <Home.php> it was looking for <Home.php> time stamp instead of <Home.php> / latest News item.

See the downloads page.

2009-01-23 : Website Template Updated : v2.1.0

Enhancements

1. Added Home.php which displays Home.html and then displays the latest News item.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

None.

Bug Fixes

None.

See the downloads page.

2009-01-15 : Website Template Updated : v2.0.0

Enhancements

1. Optional page stats can be displayed at the bottom of the page body with date modification time and a hit counter. New variables in <setup.php> to control this. A wee cheat on creating the initial stats files though - a random number between 10 and 30 is chosen ... but you'd never know ;-) The stats are recorded regardless if they are displayed, so you have the option at a later date (with the actual numbers), if they are not displayed initially.
2. Added the ability to include extra style sheets which can be defined in <setup.php>. They must live in the <./style_sheets/extra> directory.
3. Added the ability to do a complete change of style sheet, not just wide or narrow. The order of precidence ("i" is highest level) for final style sheet selected is as follows:
   1. $my_force_css_width
   2. $my_force_css
   3. Cookie style sheet (if allowable)
   4. $my_default_page_style
4. Tidied up the <title> and <meta description> by removing leading numbers in the case of numerically sorted pages.
5. Added a Text Viewer page for displaying text files in the standard layout. There is an option to display as code which adds line numbers.
6. Managed to get the pages displaying better in IE 6 and below (CSS changes).
7. Constructed a more informative demo website to explain the workings of the software.
8. Contact form now accepts pre-defined subjects (if defined in <setup.php>) and also has the ability to re-direct e-mails for a particular subject to a different e-mail address (again defined in <setup.php>).
9. Changing the name of the "Contact" page now updates any links in the pages, assuming you change the variable in <setup.php>

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

1. $my_contact_page
2. $my_contact_subject[]
3. $my_contact_redirect
4. $my_stats_active
5. $my_stats_date_format
6. $my_extra_style_sheet[]
7. $my_force_css[]

Bug Fixes

1. HTML pages displayed will no longer display empty lines from the file.
2. The "acknowledgement" screens for the <Contact> page were hard coded to display "Gavin" on the page. A couple of string replacements that I missed when making the software generic. It will use $my_company_name if it is defined in <setup.php> like the rest of the page does.
   (Thanks to Bruce Levick for spotting this one too.)

See the downloads page.

2009-01-05 : Website Template Updated : v1.4

Users are highly recommended to upgrade or warning messages may (depending on your hosting server's setup) be displayed at the head of the page once your pages start to become "old."

Enhancements

1. Version numbers added to *all* <*.php> files (in the package) with a sanity check of them performed at the end of <index.php>. This should ensure compatibility in case anyone upgrades software and forgets a file or two. Obviously this will only work from this version onwards and if they use the new <index.php>. Warnings added as XHTML comment text.

New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)

1. $file_version["setup.php"]

Bug Fixes

1. <Image.php> didn't have a couple of \n so the XHTML looked messy.
2. Added an extra parameter to mail() in <Contact Me.php> as some servers have been set up to require the "envelope sender address" when using sendmail.
   (Thanks to Bruce Levick for spotting that one.)
3. Removed unnecessary XHTML comments from <News.php>.
4. Searching a NULL "haystack" in <find_all_pages.php> when looking for hierarchical updates if the first page found had not been updated. So, set the starting gambit from "" to " "

See the downloads page.

---

[ News feed last updated Sat 9th Nov 2024 | viewed 153007 times ]