Assorted Scribbles - A fine selection of scribblings

The OMM Jirishanca 35RL MSC: Review and Test

A test and review of the OMM Jirishanca 35RL MSC, including photos

After a little research into light weight packs, I settled on the Jirishanca 35RL MSC, produced by OMM. I'm happy with the choice: check out the review below. Or, skip the babble and get to the good and bad at the bottom

Hip Strap

T...

Written by Tom Bates on the 19/08/08. The topic is: General

Dawkins unfashionable already

On the irritation of some UK newspapers, and my irritation with them.

A couple of years since The God Delusion was published, and people already seem tired of the message. Quite obviously its an issue of importance to the man, and indeed it should be - if he weren't to make it an underlying theme in his newest Channel 4 series 'The Genius of Charles Darwin', it would ...

Written by Tom Bates on the 07/08/08. The topic is: General

Shortcut for tabbing between windows in Open Office in OS X

The keyboard shortcut to cycle through open documents in Open Office on OSX

A really quick one... this had me stumped for a few days before I sighed and actually had a look for the answer:

Q: How to I cycle between windows in Open Office on a mac?

The answer for spreadsheets is "shift"+"cmd"+"~". This a bit of a peculiar one, though it seems to ...

Written by Tom Bates on the 04/08/08. The topic is: Tech

Making a DIV fill the viewport vertically with CSS

How to get a DIV to stretch to fill the window using CSS?

This is a question that gets pondered by every CSS coder at some point. There are plenty of lengthly and convoluted threads on this issue, and the amount of misinformation far outweighs the few straightforward (correct) answers, to the problem. So, in the spirit of spreading the word, here it is, qu...

Written by Tom Bates on the 11/04/08. The topic is: Web

Password required for localhost in firefox

When hitting your http://localhost with firefox, it'll ask for a password. Here's the fix...

This is a short one for windows developers - thanks to Pete Orologas for his instructions, briefly spelled out here:

Problem:

After installing IIS, Firefox wants a password when you ...

Written by Tom Bates on the 02/04/08. The topic is: Web

A review of Love and Death on Long Island - Gilbert Adair

A review and essay for this exceptional novella

Please note, this review contains plot spoilers!

This little novella stunned me with its fresh style and eloquence. It is a true masterpiece of wit, charm and style. I have never come across writing quite like this, though others liken it to Nabokov, who I am now enthused to sample....

Written by Triona Dobson on the 03/03/08. The topic is: General

Dolphins and Drive Hunting In Japan

Learn the harrowing reality of Drive Hunting Dolphins in Japan and elsewhere

Westerners are generally enthralled by dolphins; the prospect of swimming with dolphins is high up on the wish-list of a great many people. However, in some countries in the world, most notably Japan, these animals are hunted and slaughtered. The method is named drive hunting, whereby whole po...

Written by Tom Bates on the 21/02/08. The topic is: Environment

Dolphins saving people: dolphins and altruism

Are dolphins moral agents? Exploring altruism, and reports of dolphins saving humans

I recently watched a BBC Natural World documentary about a group of dolphins that purportedly saved some humans from a Great White shark attack, and it got me excited about altruism all over again.

A little about bottlenose dolphins – they vary in length between 2 and 4 meters, and weig...

Written by Tom Bates on the 18/02/08. The topic is: Popular Science

Stopping nosebleeds: how to stop a nosebleed - mild, moderate and severe.

A concise and practical guide to nosebleeds, brought together from ambulance crews and hospital doctors!

There's plenty of information out there, but I've found none of it to be concise, and plenty of it to be wrong! I suffered from severe nosebleeds well into my late teens, and have heard every piece of advice there is.

Where does a nose bleed from?

90% of the time nose bleeds originate ...

Written by Tom Bates on the 13/01/08. The topic is: General

Using OR rather than AND with GetList in POG

The POG (Php Object Generator) GetList method supports the setting of multiple conditions out of the box. Heres how to use OR for your conditions, instead of AND.

This is going to be a quick one – something I ran into whilst making this website. There’s mention of it in the POG google group, though not a lot, and only brief explanations for those new to PHP to work with! So here it is.

The following code gets all ...

Written by Tom Bates on the 10/01/08. The topic is: Web

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