Moving House

Well, that could have gone a lot better.

My plan was to move my blog over from Squarespace 5 to Squarespace 6. I liked the new styles, I’d found a new layout I liked and all seemed OK. I’d checked that my content would move with the blog. I’ve even built the new site. You can see it here if you are interested. So I flipped the switch on my name server to point to the new blog.

And the fun started. Bits of the layout weren’t right. My content didn’t seem to be where it should be. And I started to miss the features in Squarespace 5.

So I’ve flipped the switch back again, and here we are. Back where we started. I’m going to have another go later, once I’ve done some proper testing. In the meantime, sorry about any interruptions to the service. I’m going to make very sure that everything is in the right place before I flick that switch again.

Tiny Camera

In preparation for the Imagine Cup World Finals in Russia I've got myself a tiny camera that I can carry round at all times. It seems to do a good job of the Union Building.

Despicable Me 2–Just Go and See It

It is not often these days that I find myself in a completely packed movie theatre. But we did today. I'm sure that some if it was to do with the "Orange Wednesday Two for One Deal" on tickets, but the rest had to be to do with the film.

I really enjoyed Despicable Me when it came out, and so I was well up for seeing the sequel. And Despicable Me 2  definitely delivers.  Good action sequences, nicely constructed story (not that it needed that much to be honest). And loads of minions.  Great fun. Go see.

Fun with Windows 8.1

I was expecting tough times when I started on the Windows 8.1 upgrade trail. Turns out to have been quite easy though (albeit a bit time consuming). The Surface RT upgraded itself from Windows Store, and I was pleased to discover that it had remembered all its previous settings and applications. The Surface Pro was a little bit trickier. For that I burned a DVD and did the upgrade from an external drive. But having said that,  the upgrade offered to keep all my programs and data, and was true to its word.

The only thing that us Brits need to know about the upgrade process is that it won't work if you don't have the US English language installed on the device. If you have a UK version of the devices you'll need to change that over before the upgrade will play ball.

The machines seem no slower, although I've yet to give them a proper workout. The Start Button is back, but what really interests me is changes to the display zooming over different displays.  With my Surface Pro I need to zoom the display because the pixels are too teeny tiny. But when the Surface Pro drives a monitor it zooms that display too, which is just what I don't want to happen. In Windows 8.1 they have apparently changed the way that displays are zoomed, so that the tablet display and the desktop display can be different, which is much better.

Another year as an MVP

I’ve been a Microsoft MVP for over ten years now. And now I’m going to be an MVP for another year. Which is lovely.