I've spent a bit of time on my holidays this week doing a redesign for my sister's business.

I did the design that she wanted, so that's why it's not up to my usual visual standard ;). The site is 100% valid XHTML and CSS, and like this site all text is sized with ems. I also did the layout and everything from scratch (without starting with someone else's base template), so i'm quite happy that I managed to do that.

Head on over and have a look: http://stephaniasnails.com/.

There's not much else happening at the moment, i've spent … Read more →

I've taken some holiday time today to do something i've been wanting to do for a while on this site: change the method that text size is set from the old-fashioned way of using pixel-set font sizes to the much better practice of using ems.

The biggest change will be for Internet Explorer users on higher resolution screens: the text size should now scale to your browser setting, and hopefully make this site much more easy to read.

Other than that, most other people shouldn't too much of a difference. Please let me know if you have any problems … Read more →

One thing that has been missing from our digital lifestyle here at home is an easy way of getting the digital stuff that we have taken and downloaded on the computers and get it displayed/played on the TV.

I had previously considered getting a Windows Media Centre Extender device, but the price as well as being locked into a Microsoft program for this purpose had pretty much turned me off that idea.

So this past weekend, in treating myself to an early birthday present, i bought a cheaper 'media player' device, the Mediagate MG-450HD (pictured) as well as a … Read more →

As of this evening, I am officially on 2 weeks of holidays. Returning to work after the Christmas break hit me quite hard, and i really felt quite drained. It was the first time that i've actually felt the effect of not having a proper holiday since going on our honeymoon almost two years ago.

Other than the mandatory Christmas breaks (which never feels like a proper holiday anyway), the only other break i've taken since the wedding was for one week back in August, and that was mainly to catch up with the out of work responsibilities and duties … Read more →

We went and saw Cloverfield on Monday night, after Michael came to work spouting that is was one of the best movies that he had ever seen. After hearing that and reading up on and the mysterious mysteriousness (?!) of the movie, i decided I had to see it for myself before my inherent curiosity and the internet would ruin any of the intended effect of the movie before i would have a chance to properly experience it.

It's a weird movie shot in a Blair Witch style, that documents an ... 'incident' ... in New York. That's pretty much … Read more →

It takes a very big issue to get me to use caps in a blog entry title, and by gosh, for geeks and all internet users THIS IS A BIG ISSUE! Okay, too much caps. *Insert mandatory rant warning*

As many would have heard on the news in the past few weeks, the new Federal Government in Australia is planning on introducing legislation that would make it mandatory for Australian ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to 'filter' the internet that gets accessed by their customers in order to block out any "unsuitable sites" or "inappropriate material". The aim is to make … Read more →

In the same form as US Presidential elections, before the final count has ended, I am finally ready to announce my opinion of who winner is of the next-gen disc format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD:

The Winner is: Blu-ray.

I've always backed Blu-ray from the beginning, as i've always believed it's a bigger 'step forward' in terms of advancing from the regular DVD formats of the present: a 15GB single-layered disc on HD-DVD compared to a 25GB one on Blu-ray? That's 66% more data per layer on the Blu-ray disc.

Plus, I think i've been sucked in by the … Read more →

I've spent a fair few nights over the past weeks playing a lot of Unreal Tournament 3 online (i.e. with other people over the internet), and it's been awesome, pelvic thrusting awesome.

For the unaware, in UT3 there are these pre-set 'taunts' that you can give the opposition. One of these taunts is the ever-popular 'pelvic thrust'.

If you win a round in the deathmatch mode, the reward for victory is that every player in the game sees the winning player on their screens for about 15 seconds. Most winners choose to use this 15 seconds of gaming fame by … Read more →

Man I am loving this weather.

The weather in Brisbane really since the start of the Christmas break has been raining and cool. This is awesome for three reasons: one, it's totally awesome; two, it's raining and putting some water in our almost-empty (or a very little-full depending on your point of view) dams; and three, this has got to be the coolest Christmas-time conditions that I can remember.

It's quite strange, because as Brisbane has been quite cool these past few weeks, the southern states have been sweltering in 40+ degree weather. It's quite the reversal of the normal … Read more →

It's hard to believe that i'm doing this entry, this year has flown by like no other. I'm trying to think of reasons on why this has happened, but this year has really just flowed on from one thing to another that we've barely had time to catch our breath.

Anywho, onto the highlights.

January

- 3 Years On: The Unreleased Material: Maybe I should make a downloadable DVD of 'extras'... nah.
- Writing: Some thoughtful observations of 21st century literacy.
- Youth Conference Wrap-Up: Greek Orthodox National Youth Conference held in Brisbane, including photos

February

- … Read more →