mike street's blog

Research shows that websites that are rubbish and are slow at loading increase stress. Nice clean, simple fast websites are the way forward!

http://bit.ly/aKq1v1

It was finally time to update the forum on the SusSAR website. The forum is used for communication within the team and is completely sealed off to the public as it contains confidential information. This is and was my main priority when setting up the forum and i am constantly checking for security loopholes in the system. The forum is  made by phpBB and the upgrade was from v2.0.8 to v3.0.7

Upgrading, as i found out, was not as easy as i first thought. The web host SusSAR use charges for databases. We have one for the forum and thats all we generally use. However, for the upgrade, ideally i would install the new forum in parallel, meaning i would need a second database. An example of this  would be if someone new comes into your work to replace you. You would work with that person for a short while, ensuring everything is ok before you leave. This is how website updates are generally done.

The upgrade would only take a few hours, but the web host wanted to charge SusSAR for using two databases, the minimum time being a year. So i had to do the upgrade ‘blind’. This is similar to being the dealer in a game of new market. The first hand you pick up is ok, but the other one is potentially better. But if you go for the other hand, its too late to go back. I had to upgrade the forum by deleting the old one and installing the new one. There was no going back!

With the ability to have 2 databases, phpBB 3 can convert the forum for you, making the process nice and simple. Instead i used MAMP to set up a couple of local databases and do the conversions offline.

Luckily there were only minor hiccups which i overcame eventually. The update, which should have taken 2 hours max, ended up taking 5 hours.

But everyone likes the new forum – and it works which is the main thing!

Mike Street Media is now a .com! I purchased some new hosting and got a free domain, so please excuse me if the website goes funny sometimes.

Enjoy being part of a .com revelation.

Dave, from college, is after a website to showcase his Dubstep/Hip-Hop tunes. He uses a MPC2000xl sampler to create his music and so he wanted a website based around this. He sent me photos of the screen and i have recreated this in photoshop. The colours were taken from a picture he sent me. The navigation is incorporated into the ’screen’ as it ruined the effect and style if they were located anywhere else.

Temporarily it is located at mikestreetmedia/dave/ but will soon be moved to separate domain and hosting.

Martin’s website went live today! He has been working on it for a few months now, adding and editing the content for the big unveiling.

Using wordpress i was able to set him up with an “under Construction’ Page. This allowed him to log in, and then view and edit the website as normal, but with everyone else only seeing an under construction front page.

Martin finally opened his website up to the world and, form what I’ve heard, has had some positive feedback! I’m pleased with it and i think he is too!

Have a look for yourself:

www.martin-smith.biz

Happy New Year everyone!

So recently I’ve been a bit of a busy boy. I’m starting on a few new websites for ‘Fresh Brew’, ‘Lazy Technician’ and someone called (i think) ‘Fish bowl productions’ or along those lines (I’m not a bad person, i just haven’t met up with them yet).

I’ve also been making new tunes for The Red Attack and my production module at Uni, so that’s coming along nicely! Also looking into using a Wiimote for a controller for my keyboard for when i’m playing live.

So that’s why you haven’t heard much from me these days! I’ll be back soon enough…

11 posts about my website? sheesh…

The grid system thing is finally fixed! that means i can get on with the contact page and other things now! yay! you’ll notice the sidebar to this blog has reappeared (it was on the left on the old site, now its on the right looking rather bland) i will be working on that (making it prettier and such) and making it a useful tool for visitors! All good in the hood.

I also designed a little business card today, feel free to save it for later [i have 5 different versions. The green bar changes to all 5 colours of the website navigation bar]

The website is coming along nicely. I’m having a bit of trouble at the moment with the grid layout I’m using to construct the design, but I’ll figure it out in the end! Each page is slowly coming to shape which is a bit of a winner. Wish I could have more time to sit and just do it, but, as Queen said, the show must go on!

The new website is coming along nicely. All the pages are in place although most of them still need some work doing. The blog looks out of place and i’m going to look into integrating into the website. So it fits nicer.

The header is the bit i’m most proud of. If you look at the site between 7am and 5pm the header is a day scene, look at it between 5pm and 7am and you get a night scene with an astronaut! Love it. Dawn and dusk images will be coming soon….

The colours also work a lot better with the new site as the different colour schemes are more obvious with the nav bar also changing.