New look

As promised before my new baby was born - I’m working on a new look for Up Your Ego that will hopefully see me be able to dedicate more time and energy to the site.

I’ve now closed all my other sites and am going to concentrate on this one only - I’m going to write about new media, television and other geek related ideas.

Read more

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Kailen-James Morrison

Well the baby I seem to have been never endingly (please excuse my use of non-words but I’m bloody tired) talking about lately has finally arrived.

Kailen-James Morrison was born on 18 January 2008 at 07:05 AM and weighed 8lb 15oz.

Mummy and Baby are both doing fine and are both back home with sister Oceana-Skye, brother Jaden-Taylor and Daddy.

This is so much cheaper than an advert in the paper and will actually reach the people I know and might have a passing interest.

(that last line means I can keep the post within the feel of the blogs output).

See more photos on Flickr >

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Time for change

The baby has yet to arrive so I’ve had a little bit of free time to work on the new look for Up Your Ego - this blog. I’ve designed to create my own custom theme from scratch - it’s the only way I’m going to get exactly what I’m looking for.

That and it will give me a chance to brush up on some long since rusty design and developing skills - things I used to do on a daily basis before making the leap from design to journalism.

So I’ve create the look - I’ve been playing with Photoshop and I’ve create a couple of PSD files that show what I want the homepage of the blog and an article page to look like.

Here is the main homepage of the blog - the first page you’ll come to when you type upyourego.com into a browser or follow a link from someone elses sidebar.

As I explained in the last post - big orange box at the top will be a promo space - somewhere I can show off other things I’m doing or posts I want to make sticky.

Underneath you have the most recent post in a promo space on the left and on the right hand side the most popular post (based on the popularity plugin for wordpress).

Underneath that you have the bulk of the page - two or three stories (or at least the first few paras of the story) on the left hand side and on the right - at the top links to the next five stories (just headline and date) and underneath that the usual sidebar stuff like tags and links.

I haven’t included space for ads yet on this page but Google ads are making me so little at the moment that it wasn’t worth the stress trying to fit them in - they’re not exactly asthetically pleasing.

Now the actual story page. This is what you go to when you click on one of the homepage headlines, get to a story directly from Digg, Google or the like - or even through some link love in somebody elses blog feature.

One thing I’ve always looked for in a blog template is that the story page is different to the homepage - not so fundamentally different the whole look and feel is changed but enough that you know you’re somewhere else on the site.

I also like to have the right hand menus of story pages used to show content related to that story - this template does that at the moment but I think it could be improved on.

So I’ve kept the green menu bar, logo and search box as standard navigation features but I’ve removed the big orange promo space, the second green bar and the two promo spaces underneath that.

I’ve kept the basic layout structure as well - you have the full blog post on the left hand side, the Story Tags and share this links next to the story and then on the right you have links and information related to this particular blog post.

The example shows related links, related articles etc… but it could also include Flickr images, video clips or even snippets of information from Wikipedia.

The Comment box is a darker colour with the form on the right and the comments on the left (similar to the one used for the template I’m currently using).

I’m either going to have the comments shown as standard - just a list of all comments or use Ajax to show one comment at a time and a small circle bound arrow to scroll through them.

CLICK THE IMAGES ABOVE FOR FULL SIZE VERSIONS

Development

Now I’m VERY excited about all this and I’ve done the bit I enjoy - the easy bit - the design bit. Now I have to get on with the side of development that normally causes me to give up - the actual development bit.

I’ve built dozens of websites over the years - for everything from bands to government departments, I’ve even customised Wordpress templates and built Blogger templates from scratch - but any hardcore development has always fallen to a dev team.

So now I’m faced with a steep learning curve. The way I see it I need to:

1) Brush up on my CSS to create the gradients and layout
Until now I’ve only really ever used CSS for create basic styles for text and table headers. I’ve never used it for layout or creating gradient based header bars - I normally use images for that.

2) Brush up on my Javascript
I know a little Javascript, I can code simple things like form validation - but I need to learn a lot more (or at the very least learn how to integrate libraries) before I can do some of the things I want for the blog. Fortunately it will work without the AJAX stuff.

3) Get to grips with Wordpress
As I’ve decided not to customise an existing template but create my own - and some of the things I want to do (like having posts shown in four different ways in four different areas on the homepage) aren’t things that comes as standard. So I need to get reading wordpress.org and work out how to put it all together.

4) Brush up on my PHP
I know a little PHP but by a little I mean a very little - I can code a fair bit in VBScript but who the hell wants that? So I need to get myself a PHP book and start reading as I need to work out a way of getting the ‘RELATED’ content shown on the side of the Story template generated or at least inputted at the same time as creating a story in Wordpress - I’m guessing this is going to require a plugin of some kind.

So if anybody knows of any existing plugins that will do what I need or can recommend a good PHP or Wordpress information source then please do.

I’m also thinking about releasing the finished product as a Creative Commons theme for other people to use and adapt as they like. If I do - should I work out a way of changing the colour scheme and image through a Wordpress Admin page?

Anyone want to help with development of the theme?

Anyway - whatever way I decide to go about it I’m going to post updates on here as and when I do them or get time. If I write a piece of code I think might be useful - I’ll publish it.

You should be able to watch the evolution of a theme.

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An iPhone in Six Months

I wrote yesterday about why I don’t intend to get an iPhone - several reasons but most to do with the nonsense cost difference between the UK and US versions.

But having spoken to an Apple expert this morning I’m thinking of changing my mind - in six months time.

Let me explain. The iPhone goes on sale in France on 29 November 2007 through Orange. Under French law mobile operators have to make a phone available unlocked, or provide a way to unlock the phone within six months of it going on sale.

So in France the iPhone can only stay locked for six months - this doesn’t mean Orange won’t still be the sole, official, retailer in six months time, they’ll still have exclusivity to sell the phone - but you will be legally allowed to put another operators sim card in your iPhone.

So in six months, on 29 May 2008 I should be able to go to France, buy an iPhone without a contract, bring it home and put my Sure Telecom sim card in it.

Alternatively - O2 in England will notice an increase in underground iPhone sales through eBay etc and decide to make the iPhone available unlocked as well - but also make a heavily subsidised version available with a contract.

So if that happens I could go to England in six months and sign up for a contract with O2 (£35 per month) and get an iPhone for something like £80 - that would bring it in line with most of the rest of mobiles sold in the UK.

Either way - good things come to those who wait.

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Not to adblock?

Every time I read the comments under a story, Digg post or forum thread that has even a small mention of adverts on web pages there is always at least one, but often MANY MORE, posts from people saying “I never see adverts” or “I use AdBlock so it doesn’t bother me” or annoyingly “what ads?”.

I can sympaphise with people that block ads, some websites go well over the top with the flashy, noisy, introcive banners and other sites aren’t using particularly trustworthy ad servers - so you could end up with all sorts of crap loaded on to your computer if you’re not careful.

But there is another side to this as well. I don’t normally contribute to threads about adverts on websites because my point of view seems to be the polar opposite of many others.

If you read some of these threads you get the feeling that they think everything should be free, there should be no adverts and they shouldn’t have to do anything to get what they want.

Content isn’t free though - ok it might appear to come online for nothing - this blog for instance doesn’t cost you a sausage and I can’t imagine anyone wanting to pay to read my ramblings - but it still costs me to host it, the domain name costs money and although I do it for passion - it still costs time to produce.

The same applies to other sites, especially newspapers and magazines where the content is written by professional writers who need to be paid, has heavy bandwidth that costs a small fortune and often includes images that have rights costs associated with them.

With this in mind I posted this simple comment to a thread on a message board about adverts on a popular magazine website recently “I don’t mean to sound harsh or anything but don’t you feel guilty about using adblock?”

My argument FOR leaving AdBlock off is a simple one - its the ads that cover the costs of running the website - it’s been made fairly clear that people aren’t prepared to pay for content online so the advertising model has been flourishing as a way of covering the costs of paying journalists, bandwidth bills etc.

At the moment not enough people use adblock for it to matter but if it does spread and nobody is seeing ads - do you think content on sites like topgear.com or guardian.co.uk will stay free for long?

I personally make a point of looking at ads on a site and if it interests me - clicking on the ad - after all - if I’ve enjoyed the content provided by that site - for free - then I think I owe them a little of my time in return.

If a website doesn’t get enough money to cover costs it will be forced to drop staff or cut services - nobody wants to see that from a site they enjoy.

Also - with advertising revenue and sales dropping through the floor in the traditional newspaper business - online revenue is going to become ever more important - that means showing adverts.

Good quality content doesn’t come cheap. Top writers charge a lot of money for their words, great photographers go to great legnths to get the photo and expect to be rewarded - musicians deserve some reward for their craft, talent and art - and so do film makers.

If everybody had the same attitude as some on forums, comments etc then nothing would get made. I do think we pay too much for some content - £15 for a DVD when it first comes out is rediculous - especially as the creatives behind the film see very little of the profit made in the end - Music is even more of a telling tale with most of the money going to the labels.

But we’re starting to break free from that now - musicians are releasing their own music and getting more of the final profit - indie films are becomming more popular and finding wider markets and soon we’ll see authors doing much the same.

Back to websites - A question I was wondering was “would you pay a monthly subscription for your favourite website in order to have the adverts turned off?”

For example - its very likely that people outside the UK are going to start seeing adverts across bbc.co.uk soon - the idea being that with half of the sites users coming from outside the UK, or people that don’t pay the licence fee that covers the sites costs - those people should contribute something.

Would you pay a monthly subscription of, say $5 to be able to view everything on bbc.co.uk without adverts?

Another question I was thinking about was “If a way was found for sites to be able to block access to anyone with AdBlock enabled - would you disable adblock to view the site or stop using it completely?”

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Spam Spam Spam Spam

Spam for lunch, spam for dinner, spam for tea and spam for pudding.
Spam in my inbox, spam in my outbox, spam in my deleted files and spam on my head.
Spam, spam, spam, spam and more sodding arsing bollocking piece of hairy arse spam!

I’m sick of sodding spam - not only do I get it by e-mail but I also get so much of it through my blog that I’m on the verge of calling it a day - or at the very least disabling comments - which for a blogger is much the same thing.

I already get several hundred spam messages a day on up your ego but Aksimet picks most of them up and I never need see them - but for the last two weeks or so around 100 a day have been seeping through to the normal moderation queue.

This is a pain in the arse - especialy as, until last week, I used to have the e-mail me when a comment is posted box checked. That’s off now so the e-mails have died down but the spam is still there.

It’s got to the point where checking it is a pointless excersize as it all just piles back on again.

I’d just like to apologise to anybody who was trying to post a comment for the first time (if you’ve been approved once your comment will get through fine) as it’s unlikely your comment will ever get posted.

I’m going to have one last go at getting rid of whats there (labelling it as spam) and if it still keeps coming then I’m going to disable comments for a while.

If they still come when I put comments back then I’m going to delete this blog and start again!

I do have a few ideas for blog posts but can’t be bothered as I know it will just trigger more bastard spam.

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Don’t blog enough

When I first started this blogging thing about three years ago (not in this form) I would blog several times a day with the frequency of posts never getting below one-a-day.

However, for the past few months I’ve been so busy that blogging has been an afterthought and so blog posts will either come in the form of four in one day and nothing for a week or, possibly worse, one every three or four days.

I’ve always felt that the ’successful’ blogs are the ones that have at least a daily post on a very regular basis - not a daily post for a week or two, nothing for a week or two and then back to daily for a bit.

If Up Your Ego is going to get any ‘bigger’, not that I do it to become blogfamous (a form of fame that exists in this tiny little world of bloggers and people looking at blogs) then I need to up the frequency.

But I’m not sure I have the time or dedication to up the frequency of my blogging - I still enjoy writing the odd post every now and then but the commitment required to make a daily post or more is something I struggle to find.

In fact it has almost got the point of becoming a chore - I don’t want to say goodbye to blogging completely as I often have this burning issue bugging me - something I have no other platform to vent with than this blog.

But finding something to write about every day to keep any minor level of readership is difficult.

So what should I do?

• Just give up blogging and post my vents to howtobeageek.net/jaiku and pownce as they bug me?
• Keep things as they are and just write on upyourego.com as it comes to me?
• Give up blogging completely and keep my pointless thoughts to myself?
• Work through this busy patch and ‘try’ to post every day?
• Turn Up Your Ego into a video blog and post my thoughts through vision?

I don’t know. What I do know is that, much like DoctorVee, blogging has helped me improve existing skills and develop whole new ones.

When I blog on a regular basis my writing skills improve a considerable amount, my web promotion abilities increase and so do my coding and design talents as and when I enhance the interface.

So would turning Up Your Ego into a video blog help improve my video skills? I’ve just got back, in fact as I write this I’m at the airport, from a Video Journalism course - where I’ve learnt the basics of shooting and editing.

Should I apply those skills to my blog so I can use them more than I would in my day job? Should I just turn this into a photo blog and improve my picture editing and image selection skills?

Should I turn it into a place to host the show notes for a new podcast? Or should I introduce all of those things as a way of getting ‘more’ out of my time?

Would having a combination of photos, videos, audio and text in alternate posts be confusing or interesting?

I don’t know. What I do know is that I don’t blog nearly enough!

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Spam gone mad

OK so I’m currently sitting in Southampton Airport waiting for a connecting flight to Newcastle that doesn’t leave until 6.30 - it’s only about 4.30 now.

This wouldn’t be such a big deal if it wasn’t for the fact that I started my journey at 2pm and don’t land in Newcastle until 8pm - then I have a 30 minute taxi ride to my hotel.

I’ve only travelled about 200 miles but it’s going to have taken the best part of SIX hours.

That’s not what this blog post is about though. I’m sitting here at a internet terminal with what has to be the slowest network connection in the known world - looking out over the nastiest grey sky - watching some tiny little shaky planes go past - checking my e-mail.

Anyway - I open my webmail and it’s FULL, completely sodding FULL of notices from wordpress telling me of dozens of comments on my two blogs.

So I decided to head over to the Up Your Ego backend and check it out - THEY ARE ALL BLODDY SPAM COMMENTS!

I think I’m going to re-name today THE DAY OF THE BASTARD SPAM!

I mean it’s flaming stupid - I’ve got everything from the You Tube spams to the russian spams and the horrible porn spams - one was even for SPAM - a spam spam (I made that up but it would be cool!).

Why - what’s happened thats caused the spammers to go bannanas (see what I did there?)

All I can say is thank got for Aksimet and there brilliant spam catching technology - they get the bulk of my thousand or so spam comments a day - I just pick up the odd few a week but today nearly 100 got through!

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iStock Exchange

I’m a massive fan of iStockphoto, the site has got me out of some design dilemas over the last few years and still continues to help and inspire today - I’ve even had a couple of my own photos approved.

Recently they’ve started to offer their credits - the site works on a micropayment system where you buy credits that are used against photos, vectors or videos - in pound sterling to their British users.

This is great and is calcuated are, more or less, the same exchange rate Paypal uses when working out what to charge British users when buying something from an American site.

The problem is, that’s where things start to fall down.

If I went into my bank and changed up £1 into dollars they’d probably tell me to get lost - but after a bit of an argument I’d walk out with $2.02 - the current exchange rate.

The problem is - at the moment paypal and iStockphoto are calculating their conversion at $1.97 - so my same £1 is worth 5c less on iStock than it is in a shop in the USA.

This doesn’t sound like a lot and to be honest it really isn’t unless you’re spending large sums of money - which is what some people will be doing with iStockPhoto.

If I was American this is what the credits would cost me - depending on how many I brought.

10 $12.00
26 $30.00
55 $60.00
115 $120.00
300 $300.00
625 $600.00

As I’m British this is what they actually cost me from iStockPhoto.

10 £6.50
26 £16.26
55 £32.51
115 £65.02
300 £162.56
625 £325.12

However, if iStockPhoto used the actual* exchange rate this is what I WOULD be paying.

10 £5.93
26 £14.84
55 £29.69
115 £59.38
300 £148.45
625 £296.90

At the lower levels - when buying 10 credits this isn’t a lot of money but if I wanted to purchase 300 credits then I’d be losing £17 because of the exchange rate difference and at 625 credits the loss would be around £28.

You can scoff but £17 would be enough to buy another 26 credits (this could be enough to buy the photos and vectors needed for two web builds) and £28 is just about enough to get £55 credits!

Alright so I’m not really that bothered by this - I rarely ever get more than 10 credits at a time and a few pence doesn’t make a massive difference BUT there is a principle at stake.

Then again - at least iStockphoto aren’t trying to charge us £12 for 10 credits and £30 for 26 like some major manufacturers try to do - mentioning no names…

*Exchange rate was £1 = $2.02 at time of writing this blog post.

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