Learning how to blog - geek stuff to start with, then...?

carry the bou

2011-08-06T09:37:00.001Z

heavy work made light with a gleeful passenger!

2011-07-09

DoYaRemember

2010-08-12T09:37:00.000Z

Baby Isaac

2010-07-24T00:44:00.000Z

He's too cute for school! Won't send him to school for a good few years yet, then, in that case.

Remembering Sheila, now a magical grandmother

2010-07-19T07:34:00.006Z

With the arrival of our son, whose name is getting close to being known, I'm thinking about my mum, who died just over a year ago, and want to have a few things to show him (in due course) to remember him - and just in case the obituary disappears from the newspaper website!

Sheila Tippett | Other lives | Guardian obituary

Obituary
Sheila Tippett (1944 - 12th May 2009)

Liz Turner
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 September 2009 18.36 BST

It was typical of my friend Sheila Tippett, who has died of cancer aged 65, that, having had plenty of time to think about her epitaph, she should suggest: "She did little harm." While this is quite true, it belies the enormous influence she exerted on her family and friends and underestimates her strength of character. Never once in over 40 years did I hear her waver in what she believed was right; her commitment to equality and fairness was never in doubt.

Her professional career was short. After graduating from Nottingham University in Chemistry, she married Bill and, while he did a PhD in the same lab as my husband, she taught first at the Bluecoat school, Nottingham, then Harrogate grammar. By all accounts she was a good teacher, but her real ambition was to be a really good wife and mother – and she was. After Joanne was born, she gratefully gave up teaching, never to return. Matthew followed Jo a few years later and from then on Sheila devoted her life to them and to Bill – providing a stable, intelligent and structured environment which allowed her husband and children to reach their full potential, and, in so doing, fulfilling her own.

The family were exiled to South Carolina for seven and a half long years in the 1970s when Bill's job moved there. It was a traumatic and difficult upheaval, but Sheila kept it all together. However, she and Bill wanted to return to the UK, to her friends and family – and a country which shared her values. She was a keen and informed reader and theatregoer, but at heart she was an outdoor girl and was never happier than when she was on the allotment, playing tennis, skiing or out walking in the hills, particularly if there was a decent pint at the end of it.

Her bravery and stoicism in the face of two bouts of cancer, over 10 long years, left all her friends speechless. How often can you say that visiting someone whom you know to be terminally ill and near death was a genuine delight? But with Sheila, it was. We had a terrific time with her and Bill only about a month before she died. We "did lunch" at a really good pub and then played bridge – just as we have been doing since about 1968. Shortly before she died she told me that, despite everything, the last few months had been the happiest and most contented of her life.

Her dying words were about her beloved family – "So, so proud and love them so, so much" – which just about sums up how we all feel about her. She is survived by her husband and children.

Celebrating Sheila's life

2009-05-19T10:15:00.001Z

View Celebrating Sheila's Life in a larger map

India Trip

2008-06-27T00:44:00.002Z

great design and tag relationships in action

2007-02-06T08:59:00.000Z

Flickr Related Tag Browser
This is clever - and fun - an easy and intuitive way to browse through the big virtual photo library in the sky that is Flickr.

Flickr's Zeitgeist - they do the javascript for you!

2007-02-06T08:54:00.000Z

see the random scrolling of eMTee (and contacts') images in pane to the right - it's Flickr's Zeitgeist

Note that java script is not allowed be default in the posts element of blogger blogs, but it is in the page elements (like the right-hand column)

The best way to post websites to del.icio.us?

2007-02-06T08:45:00.000Z

I think I've now stumbled across what I've been looking for ...
from Ryan Tomayko blog (can't find script there anymore)
Visit it to create a post bookmarklet with your own del.icio.us username.
it can create a javascript bookmarklet that when you want to post to del.icio.us
gives you this form (a screen shot):

Fwd: fog is ethereal

2007-02-04T03:28:00.001Z

and so is wireless internet!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: m_tippett@bigfoot.com
Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2007 02:52:25 +0000
Subject: fog is ethereal
To: matthew-tippett.post@blogger.com

it seems that tonight it has been the moon that has burnt through the
fog & mist!

--
Matthew Tippett
m_tippett@bigfoot.com
+44 7800 916 740

test post to blog by email

2007-01-27T17:38:00.001Z

Technology is catching up with me
Just chatting to Sid by gmail chat - he's eating breakfast and I'm getting ready for dinner!

Better posting to del.icio.us and also bookmarking non-URL file locations

2007-01-27T14:12:00.000Z

Better posting to del.icio.us and also bookmarking non-URL file locations
From: Matthew Tippett
Date: 27-Jan-2007 13:41
Subject: Fwd: tweak to delish bookmarklet
To: ? @ yahoo-inc.com, ? @ yahoo-inc.com
Cc: ? @ ukoln.ac.uk, ? @ ukoln.ac.uk

Dear B_,

I'm interesting in ways that the post function of del.icio.us could be improved even further.
We have bundled our tags ( de.icio.us/upstreambookmarks) - and would like to enable users to draw from pre-defined tags - as well as making up their own.
But when we use the post button (in the FireFox extension) the only kind of tag offered is: ' your network'
For that reason some of us are using a bookmarklet with this javascript:

javascript:q=location.href;p=document.title;e=window.getSelection();void(open(' http://del.icio.us/new/m_tippett?jump=close&url='+escape(q)+'&title='+escape(p)+'&extended='+escape(e),'delicious','toolbar=no,width=700,height=800'));

this presents more types of tags, including: 'your tags' and sometimes 'recommended tags'

Unfortunately I do not know how to write javascript - but what would be really really useful: to be able to modify the behaviour of what is offered in the post page having clicked on the post to del.icio.us button - in particular so that 'your tags' are presented in the tag bundles that you have created.

Since I don't know how to do this I've resorted to prefixing tags with symbols to group them together - but this then means that otherwise sensible tags get distorted.

Having been inspired by the ideas in this article:

Folksonomies: Tidying up Tags? ( http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january06/guy/01guy.html)

I thought that by being able to present tags grouped under their bundles from the post pop-up that this might go a long way to answering some of the issues raised in that article (and help me mix the benefits of top-down and bottom-up categorisation / tagging with friends and colleagues).

I would be very grateful if del.icio.us could consider this, and I wold be even more grateful a solution could be offered. Many thanks.

Kind regards,
Matthew

P.S. another winning solution that is on my del.icio.us wishlist is:

If it were possible to bookmark Uniform Naming Convention UNC as well as URLs, then it is likely that groups of people that share the same server networks and drive letters would also be able to tag and share their key files as well as good websites - in effect a bottom-up knowledge management system.

This would be of tremendous interest - and would unify the tags that people (and small companies) use to organise and find information.

At the moment, trying to post non-URLs comes up with this message:

"only http, https, news, and ftp schema URLs are allowed right now. if you have a really good reason i should allow another one, please email support@del.icio.us"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Matthew Tippett
Date: 21-May-2006 17:26
Subject: Re: tweak to delish bookmarklet
To: Christopher Millward
Cc:

Thanks Chris - that is helpful.

I think I've now stumbled across what I've been looking for from:
http://naeblis.cx/rtomayko/2005/01/12/experimental-delicious-thing-generator

it can create:
javascript:q=location.href;p=document.title;e=window.getSelection();void(open(' http://del.icio.us/new/m_tippett?jump=close&url='+escape(q)+'&title='+escape(p)+'&extended='+escape(e),'delicious','toolbar=no,width=700,height=800'));

which inludes the very helpful click-list of your own exisitng tags, as well as popular and recommended tags (as well as the for: tags of your 'network)

very helpful indeed - especially your own tags - as we trying to use a mixture of pre-defined tags as well as letting people follow the wind!

cheers,
Matthew

On 21/05/06, Christopher Millward wrote:

Matthew,

I'm glad to hear that you found some of that stuff useful. I forget its up there sometimes, but here's what you were asking about. It's essentially the current del.icio.us bookmarklet with the "selection" bit added in.

I will post it on my page too. (The server's down right now, but it will probably be back up soon).

javascript:(function(){e ='' + (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection() : document.getSelection ? document.getSelection () : document.selection.createRange().text);open(' http://del.icio.us/post?v=4;noui=yes;jump=close;url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+';title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+';notes='+encodeURIComponent(e),'delicious','toolbar=no,width=700,height=400')})( )

Have a nice day,
Chris

On 5/20/06, Matthew Tippett wrote:

Chris,

Britta Gustafson at del.icio.us pointed out the
"bookmarklets that I've found to extend del.icio.us functionality" from ( http://www.cs.ucf.edu/~cmillward/delish.php) to me.

I really like the fact that copied text is added to the extended description, but found that having saved the post that the tab then tries to return to my del.icio.us homepage (http://del.icio.us/m_tippett) but that it is blank/empty.

Unfortunatly I don't know any javascript, but wondered if you would find it useful to mix the functionality of different bookmarklets suggested on the official del.icio.us page with those you have created?

This is what comes from (http://del.icio.us/help/buttons):

javascript:(function(){open(' http://del.icio.us/post?v=4;noui=yes;jump=close;url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+';title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title),'delicious','toolbar=no,width=700,height=400')})()

its advantages are that it comes in a pop-up window and disappears once it the post is saved and it also lists your own previously used tags - oddly - unlike the tag button in the del.icio.us extension for firefox (http://del.icio.us/help/firefox/extension).

and the two suggested from your site:

javascript:h=location.href;t=document.title;e = "" + (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection() : document.getSelection ? document.getSelection() : document.selection.createRange().text); if (!e) e = prompt("You didn't select any text. Enter a description:", ""); if (e!=null) location="http://del.icio.us/m_tippett?jump=close&url=" + escape(h) + "&title=" + escape(t) + "&extended=" + escape(e).replace(/ /g, "+"); void 0

javascript:h=location.href;t=document.title;e = "" + (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection() : document.getSelection ? document.getSelection() : document.selection.createRange().text); location="http://del.icio.us/m_tippett?jump=close&url=" + escape(h) + "&title=" + escape(t) + "&extended=" + escape(e).replace(/ /g, "+"); void 0

have the key advantage of taking selected text from the browser and pre-filling the extended description.

How could the javascript for pre-filling the extended description be combined with the pop-up function of the current default bookmarklet from del.icio.us/help ?

Any thoughts / sample javascript would be very much appreciated!

A really cool solution that it would be great for del.icio.us to consider would be a 'build your own bookmarklet' thing - a bit like:
http://ejohn.org/apps/sheep/
and (though for linkrolls and tagrolls) http://del.icio.us/help/linkrolls and http://del.icio.us/help/tagrolls

regards and thanks,

Matthew Tippett

Marooned prior blog

2007-01-27T14:00:00.000Z

Original attempt to have a blog (May 2006) - but not sure how to transfer it!
http://www.matthewtippett.blogspot.com/
Have ended up doing so 'manually' see more recent posts!