I have never liked Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, the company I work for develop web applications with IE being the target browser. So when IE screws up, I can’t do my job properly.
And guess what! IE screwed up. If I opened IE and entered a URL, it would either completely freeze, or close its own window, depending on how strong the wind was blowing. After significant faffing however, I found the solution. For the record, I’m running Windows 7 Professional x64.
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Here’s an interesting one… I’m working with SWF powered WebParts. I wanted to replace one of the SWFs (using the same filename), so updated the feature and deployed it. The WebPart was still referencing the old SWF. I checked the 12 hive, and the new file was indeed there, but clearly SharePoint wasn’t picking it up. So I tried recycling the app-pool, nothing. IISReset, nothing. Server reboot, nothing.
So I figured SharePoint must be caching it somehow. Eventually I resorted to cracking open SharePoint Designer, opened the site and saw that the feature files appear in there. Deleted the old file, redeployed, and voila – the feature file was replaced.
And that was it! Any files that SharePoint caches for features can be found in SharePoint Designer. Knowing is half the battle, and all that.
Oct 162011
No, I didn’t die. I’m alive and very well, which is more than I can say for the state of this site the past several months. Something happened and it stopped working and I never got round to fixing it. Turned out to be a plugin had gone fusty and broke my WordPress site.
So why did it take this long to fix? Well I’ve been a busy man and haven’t had a holiday in a long time. But here I am now, sat in a room in Abuja‘s finest hotel. For work, of course. No way I could afford to pay to stay here (£20 for a continental breakfast where I only take a couple of croissants and a cup o’ tea? Eh, yr alright).
With all this free time to myself and no need to clean my flat/iron my clothes/hang out with friends, I thought I should re-take up my hobby of makin’ websites. Since I’ve been doing a lot of SharePoint work lately (and still tearing hair out on account of its unpredictable nature), I reckon there’ll be a couple of howto posts soon, including one on fully implementing custom action pages into the Site Settings screen. Lord knows I had enough trouble correlating different sources of information to get it done. That, and I intend to spend s’more time in the evenings working on my own site, which is looking rather dapper right now.
I mean, all this in between working on my tan and hitting the pool bar. Y’know. A guy’s gotta take it easy, too.
May 132010
Another redesign! I know. This one takes a different approach, it’s supposed to look like a futuristic computer panel. Click here to have a gander. This design also includes my first foray into Javascript – although I have used it in the past, I’ve never really developed with it. This is me creating my own code now, learning it all for myself. So far so good, I’d say. Notice the ‘more’ and ‘less’ buttons in the most recent update (all the text is shown if the user does not have Javascript on), and the mouse-following popup panel when you hover over the button on the right of the frame (unfortunately, no non-Javascript workaround here, but it’s just aesthetic).
All in all, I’m really pleased with the style. it looks best on a browser that supports CSS3 (Firefox or Chrome for example), but should still look dapper on other browsers. You just won’t get rounded corners and glows 
But yeah, I’m not gonna say how “this is the style”, because… well, I’ve said that about them all. Maybe I’ll just get building the website itself now…
Incidentally, that page is part of a test area I’ve set up for mucking about with styles and Javascript. Frames are bad, I know. It’s a quick and dirty showcase setup, nothing fancy. Just a nice place to collect all my efforts!
Mar 032010
Hurray! Now everyone can join in on the fun! The Final Fantasy XI Character Profile plugin has been released. You can check it out here. Leave comments on the project page. Enjoy!
Feb 162010
Well, I’ve done it now. I bought FFXI, so I’ll be heading back to Selbina soon.
I’ll try and get the character widget plugin for WordPress published soon. I’m pretty happy with it!
If you’re on Phoenix, keep an eye out for Nuraiel!
The Star Trek Online beta has left me grossly underwhelmed. The game is far from ready, the amount of issues and lack of interesting things to do just don’t justify a purchase. It looks nice for the most part, but character animations look very clumsy and lifeless, every location is instanced (even social locations like the spacedock outside Earth), it just doesn’t feel cohesive at all.
I’ve been contemplating returning to FFXI, but that said I do have a fair amount of other games to get through. I think I’ll leave MMOs in the meantime. Final Fantasy XIV will be out soon anyway!
Jan 122010
I recently found out that the release of Star Trek Online, the Star Trek MMO, is right around the corner. After a brief bit of reading up about it, I decided to cancel the order for FFXI (it was taking too long anyway), and pre-ordered STO through Amazon. Preordering with Amazon gives the player a ‘liberated borg’ crew member. How could I not preorder that?
It’s a wee while to go before the full game kicks off, but I got a key for the open beta from Ten Ton Hammer (free signup required). [No more keys! Oh noes!]
I must admit, I’m reet excited about giving it a blast! Engage.
Jan 032010
This is a very early prototype of a game I’m working on. You move the mouse and the block thing follows it. The white dots are pseudo-stars, and serve as an indication of the block’s vector. The block will eventually be a ship, but for now, it’s just a block.
And the hardest part? Getting that damn ‘Full Screen’ button to work.
Dec 182009
Several years ago, I played Final Fantasy XI. I stopped playing because I didn’t really have the time for it. Well when I found out there was a 2-week free trial, I thought “what the hey, I’ll give it a go”.
The mithra Nuraiel
There have been a lot of improvements since I last played, including some good quests to get beginners learning quicker and more effectively, while boosting experience gained. Field manuals (floating books) outside of cities also offer mini-quests in the form of “kill X amount of Y”, with the rewards being a large chunk of experience. Experience from enemies is also higher than it used to be, and one of the first items you can obtain is a ring that boosts experience by 75% (although it does have very limited usage).
I’m just about to hit sunny Valkurm Dunes to level up with people I don’t know. So far I’ve been soloing, and it’s been good, but an MMORPG is really all about playing with or against other people. Now that I’ve got my Thief and Warrior (for subbing) at level 13, I’ll be making the treacherous trek over to Mhaura soon, and then get the boat to Valkurm from there. Good times.
When my trial ended, I was pretty disgruntled to find that to continue playing, I’d have to purchase the game again. Now, I could just reactivate my old account, but I’m quite enjoying the fresh start. In the end, I decided to purchase the game again – it was a tenner on Play. It includes 30 days game time, and I get two new expansions to go with it.
Returning to the game inspired me to make a plugin for WordPress. You’ll see it on the left, there. The plugin page is here, and should be released soon. It’s a widget that shows your character’s information. Unfortunately, all the information has to be edited manually, but an options page is provided in the administration section that makes it very straight-forward to update. I may add features to this over time, depending on feedback and what improvements I think it could do with.
Now I just need the box to arrive so I can start playing again!
