Author: John

Logitech Harmony 555 (550) Universal Control Review

Most of us have a good selection of electronic gadgets gracing our home. TVs, DVD players, TIVOs, home theatre systems, the list goes on. Almost all of these will have an individual remote control requiring not only a home (just where did you put that remote?), but batteries and in many situations the ability to navigate a particular action (such as watching a DVD) across multiple controls.

It’s with this in mind that I looked at my own situation and decided I’d had enough. Watching a DVD required three remote controls. The first to power on the TV and switch the video input. The second to power on the amplifier and switch to DVD input, and the fourth to actually control the DVD (which, being in Chinese I find incredibly difficult to use). Want to watch some TV? Then you’ll need to dig out the amplifier control to switch to the TV input and use the TV control to switch back to the TV. Want to explain that to a guest? Forget it.

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Ba Guan

China is an old country with a lot of history and, to an outsider looking in, with a lot of strange and alien customs.

Recently I was invited along for a foot massage at a local spa. This industry is well established in China, and they’ve been practicing these treatments for thousand of years. While having my feet massaged (which for just under one pound was a bargain), one of my friends suggested I try Ba Guan treatment. They described it as something where glass jars are attached to the back, removing moisture from the flesh. There are many reasons why someone would have this done, one being that it helps people with a, for want of better word, dodgy stomach. Aha! Sounds great, I thought, I have that.

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HeadSpace2 3.0.8: RSS options & update notification

Version 3.0.8 of HeadSpace2 brings with it:

  • RSS options – Change the RSS title and description for your site and category pages
  • Update notification – The HeadSpace2 plugin page will now show any updates to the plugin when they are released
  • Hack to allow HeadSpace2 to work with ImageManager plugin
  • Bug fix to remove error message when saving options

Post-concert Musings

I wrote recently about catching the Muse concert in Hong Kong, and here I am on the other side of that, somewhat tired, but pleased nonetheless.

Hong Kong rocked far harder than I could have imagined, and it was good to see that alternative music is alive and well there. The Asiaworld Exposition Hall is a monstrous building just past Hong Kong Airport, and the industrial grey concrete seemed befitting.

After waiting far too long for the staff to get wired up (surely they could have sorted this out before the start), Muse descended onto the stage and immediately launched into the first half of their set. Chatty they are not, saying but a few words in Cantonese for the whole of the show. However, they worked incredibly hard and the music was perfectly crafted, with Matt Bellamy’s falsetto voice always reaching the tricky notes and his fingers never missing a key on the classical piano sections.

Alas I took no photos, but courtesy of the great internet I can refer you to a couple of wobbly YouTube recording:

Filled In & HeadSpace – WordPress Plugins

An update on two of my WordPress plugins: HeadSpace is now standing at version 3, and Filled In at version 1.6. Both have had extensive changes. HeadSpace now allows you to define meta data across all WordPress pages, as well as supporting Ecto. Filled In is a very powerful form management system that has had a major revamp and is now much more capable and even has the ability to add CAPTCHA images to forms.