Out of the Rough

Rohan February 8th, 2008

Paul Kelly, arguably Australia’s most pre-eminent singer/songwriter, is currently making available for free download from his website, one hundred songs from his extensive musical anthology. It all started a couple of years back during a tour in which Kelly sang a selection of 100 songs, in alphabetical order, over a four-night period. Such was the success of this series of shows, Kelly selected the best versions of each song and has now made them available for download, also alphabetically, one letter per month over a period of two years, starting with the ‘A’ songs in January 2008 (yes, if you’re just reading this now, you’ve already missed them, as too have I) and being replaced by the ‘B’ songs in February 2008, and so on.

And the reason for this post, and the ones I will publish in the months to come - apart from the fact that I am a fan of Paul Kelly’s immense musical talent - is to maintain a list of the songs being made available for anyone who may be interested, seeing as though previous month’s songs do not appear to be listed on the Paul Kelly website anywhere (I’m sure the full list will eventually be published, probably once all the songs have been released, but that’s nearly two years from the date I’m typing this post).

‘A’ Songs - January 2008

• Adelaide
• After The Show
• Anastasia Changes Her Mind

If anyone happens to have downloaded these first three songs, and is willing to share, I would love to hear from you, as I was a bit slow off the mark and missed them.
Update: Thanks to all who volunteered to share - got them now!

‘B’ Songs - February 2008

• Be Careful What You Pray For
• Beautiful Promise
• Before The Old Man Died
• Before Too Long
• Beggar On The Street Of Love
• Behind The Bowler’s Arm
• Blue Stranger
• Blues For Skip
• Bradman
• Brand New Ways

Get the current month’s songs from Paul Kelly A-Z and enjoy listening to this master craftsman at work.

• Music
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Rohan December 6th, 2007

Recently needed to get RSS Feeds working on a Joomla! installation, but the default functionality within Joomla! only allows for feeds of items published to the front page. This was too limited for my requirements, as I needed to be able to produce feeds for specific categories of information within the website (nine categories in all).

Enter Run Digital’s RSS Feed Manager (RD_RSS), a 3rd-party Joomla! component, which caters for just this functionality. According to my research, there’s plenty of happy users who claim to have got it working, and it seems to have gained general acceptance as the Joomla! RSS Feed Manager of choice. All good so far.

Only problem is that what little documentation there is, is in German. And the people who wrote the component don’t seem to offer much (any) support for the product: a “here it is, use it as you will” type of thing. Strangely, there also does not seem to be anyone who has documented how they got the component working. So, after a bit of mucking around, I have managed to find a solution that satisfies my needs: a list of feed links located in the left sidebar under the main navigation - see it in action here.

Below are the steps I implemented to achieve my result - I’m sure there are probably other, more efficient and “better”, methods for implementing RD-RSS, but this is what worked for me.

1. Download and Install RD_RSS from the Run Digital website.

2. Once installed, you need to add feed categories to the component; click Components > RD RSS.

3. Click New to add a new feed and fill in the details as required.
(By default there is one feed already present, FRONTPAGE. This feed cannot be removed, but it really doesn’t matter; if you won’t be offering a feed for front-page items, then you can just ignore it.)

4. Repeat Step 3 for each category (or group of categories) for which you wish to create a feed.

5. You will finish up with a list of one or more feeds - take note of the URLs, as you will need them in Step 7, below.

6. In my specific situation, I needed a list of links that users could click on as a means of subscribing to that feed. In order to achieve this, I created a custom module in which I simply pasted links to the URLs noted in Step 5. above. To create a custom module, click Modules > Site Modules to see a list of existing modules.

7. Click New to add a new module (I called my module RSS Feeds), and fill in the following:

• Fill in the Details section (in addition to other things, this determines location and order on the page where the feed links will appear - sidebar, header, footer, etc.);
• Leave the Parameters section (not required for this method);
• In the Custom Output section, add links (from Step 5, above), one for each feed;
• In the Pages/Items section, you can choose which pages will display the list of links. If you want all pages, select All as I have done.

8. Be sure the module is Published, and click Save.

That’s all there is to it. FYI, these instructions are based on my configuration, which consists of Joomla! v1.0.12 and RD_RSS v1.x (the file name, rd_rss_v1_1.zip, implies that the component is at v1.1, but under Installers > Components it lists RD_RSS as being v1.0.0, dated December 2005, and authored by Robert Deutz).

• The Web , Design & Development , Work
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Rohan November 29th, 2007

In case anyone receives a similar letter relating to their own domain name(s), I thought I’d pass on the information I have discovered about a strange letter from foreign shores that I received in the mail yesterday.
A quick investigation reveals that I’m not the only one to receive this same correspondence (it’s even been reported by someone on home soil).
As per the actions taken by those I’ve linked to here, I urge anyone reading this who has also received a similar letter to do likewise and disregard it as either misguided marketing or some sort of internet scam.

• Annoyances , Technology , The Web
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Rohan November 14th, 2007

Hmm, it wouldn’t happen to nearly be Christmas time would it? Something tells me the 28 separate advertising items in my letterbox this morning means that it’s not far away…

• Weird & Wacky , Humour , Annoyances , Life
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Rohan October 15th, 2007

15th October, 2007 marks the first ever Blog Action Day, which encourages bloggers the world over to unite for a common cause by posting a blog entry about a common theme. The inaugural theme for Blog Action Day is the environment.

And whilst I don’t particularly go out of my way to care for the environment - I’m not a greenie - there are certainly a number of small things I do (and I encourage others to do) that I hope makes a difference. Things like:

• I recycle the paper I print on (excluding invoices or client-sensitive information of course) by using the reverse side of the paper as notepaper;
• I turn off my PC’s monitor &/or CPU when not being used for an extended period of time;
• I send and receive virtual faxes, rather than paper ones;
• I send as much correspondence as I can via email, rather than through the postal service;
• I have energy efficient lighting in my office.

I think I’ll also look at another bin in the office, to separate the recyclable rubbish (which is most of the stuff that ends up in the office bin) from the normal waste.

I guess it’s a start.

• News & Events , Life , Inspirations , The Web
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Rohan September 2nd, 2007

It’s been a good day, with pressies from my girls (book, CD, cap, keyring, citronella candles and cards), brunch with the extended family and a visit to see mum in the afternoon.

I guess the best gift of all, especially for my dad, is that mum’s recovery continues to progress well after her recent open-heart surgery.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there - hope it’s been as good for you as it has for me.

• Life
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Rohan August 15th, 2007

In my most recent post, I mentioned my relief at discovering that what I feared was the complete disintegration of the inside half of a tooth was nothing more severe than a bad chip, which was duly filled to a nice smooth finish.

Well, less than a week later, the relief is gone and the fear has returned. Not because of the work done last week, which remains solid, but because now a large chunk of the outside of the same tooth has chipped away. And from my view on this side of the mirror, it’s not a pretty sight.

I guess I should be grateful that there’s no pain or discomfort (so far), just a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that the tooth will probably need to come out after all. C’est la vie.

• Life
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Rohan August 9th, 2007

Well, it was off to the dentist for me today. Some weeks ago, I managed to ‘destroy’ a tooth while munching on a biscuit, and despite having suffered no pain or discomfort (other than a rough feeling where the shape of the tooth has changed) I thought I should have it seen to.

Expecting the worst, I was fully prepared to farewell my first permanent tooth (other than the four wisdom teeth that I had taken out some years ago) via the dentist’s pliers.

I respect dentists and the job they do, but for one reason or another (the dozen or so fillings I had as a kid most probably has a lot to do with it) dentistry and I don’t seem to get along. So I was pleasantly relieved to hear that my current dental woes were nothing more severe than a chipped tooth, which, after a quick jab in the mouth with some anaesthetic, 15 minutes or so of prodding and drilling and $90 from the hip pocket, enabled me to walk out a free man.

Well, until next month when I have to go back and have the cavity filled that the dentist found on the other side of my mouth…

• Life
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Rohan July 16th, 2007

I’ve been enjoying SBS’s coverage of the Tour de France for the last few evenings – so much so that the telly is often still on well after 1am (well after bed time for this little black duck).

But to be honest, I have no idea why I am so compelled to watch, night after night, right to the end of each day’s riding. After all, I’m not normally a cycling fan at all. I don’t ride. I don’t know too much about the sport and its many nuances. I certainly don’t know many of the riders. I haven’t even owned my own bike since I got my driver’s licence 20 years ago!

So I got to thinking, just what is it that makes Le Tour such an interesting event…

• The skill and daring of the riders?
• Their physical and mental strength and endurance?
• Could it be the spectacular, but inevitable, crashes that occur from time to time? (As much as you don’t want to see anyone getting injured, it does make for interesting viewing.)
• Perhaps it’s the commentary team’s seemingly boundless knowledge of the race, the riders and the surroundings?
• The picture postcard scenery at every turn?

I’ve a feeling it’s a combination of all these things, which, when packaged into a single all-encompassing spectacle, presents viewers with a thoroughly engrossing and intriguing experience.

Highly recommended.

• Television , News & Events , Sport , Life , Inspirations
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Rohan July 13th, 2007

While the majority of Seaspray proper was spared the disaster of the recent Gippsland floods, it seems not all was well in the sleepy little town, with much of the sand dunes along this stretch of the Ninety Mile Beach washed and blown away by a mixture of king tides and gale force easterly winds.

The major victim was the Seaspray Surf Life Saving Club, which sits atop the sand dunes overlooking the beach. The images below were taken last week and they clearly show the large volume of sand that has been eroded. Such is the threat of the building now collapsing that on Tuesday Bracksy took a detour from his inspection of flood damaged areas of Gippsland to visit Seaspray and announce a $700,000 pledge to assist with relocation of the building – not such a hard decision considering that relocation is already in the pipeworks.

• Seaspray , News & Events , Life
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