nickromney.com » Internet

Mid-rank Nerd

nickromney — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 02:56:24 +0000

Followed the link on Heal Your Church Website to take the Nerd Quiz. And here’s the result:

Romney is a fraud

nickromney — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 04:26:04 +0000

When updating this website caused me to re-install, I checked to see the Google rank of “Nick Romney”. I’m pleased to say that this site came up first. So, with my ego suitably stroked, I decided to do a little more ego-surfing to see where I ranked. I was vaguely aware of the Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, having seen a news report on him years ago, and the name stuck. However, in this election year, it seems as if every man and his dog has a blog, even one by the name of Romney is a fraud. I haven’t read it extensively, but would like to confirm that I am 100% pure Nick Romney!

Bloggar posting tool

nickromney — Sat, 06 Mar 2004 14:31:38 +0000

Am just now testing out all the other features of blogging through WordPress and am trialling w.bloggar, which seems to work quite nicely for offline content generation, although doesn’t auto-generate the “Post Slug” for WordPress’s Permalinks, so I won’t be using it exclusively. However, I can conceive of using it quite intensively if away on holiday / away from an internet connection for an extended period.

Colour-blindness and the web designer

nickromney — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 11:26:04 +0000

As I’ve been looking up more and more on accessibility (section 508 guidelines etc.) for some site redesigns, I’ve become increasingly aware of some of the other issues around it, and finally read up on some dedicated sites about the different types of colour-blindness.

I think I’m deuteranomalous – i.e. the rods in my eye don’t perceive green as they should. The intensity of light is still the same, but the waves are off-centre. It’s not that I can’t see green light (am not dichromatic), just that I perceive it differently.

A test: Webexhibits – hover over “Protan” and “Deutan” (to the right of the dot pattern) and see what happens. For me there’s no change (only a slight change on the bud of the flower, but none in the dots).

Web designer’s palette: Visibone palette and colour choice

Great explanation of colourblindness, and opinion on design: Firelily

Ishihara-type dot tests (I failed!):

Update 10 March: The man in blue now offers the Technicolor web designer

How to write unmaintainable code

nickromney — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 00:15:36 +0000

How to write unmaintainable code

Amusing, and very in-depth. There’s a great deal about good coding practices written here, just in the inverse.

Goodle Good News

nickromney — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 22:32:54 +0000

Goodle Good News

Entertaining spoof of Google. Cheered me up when I read it!

Googlewhack

nickromney — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 09:26:13 +0000

British author Dave Gorman, fresh from his winning a bet to find 36 other people called Dave Gorman, sat down to write a novel, and instead, found that his website contained a Googlewhack.

The site and the book (“Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure”) describe what a Googlewhack is in quite some detail. Essentially, it’s inputting two search terms (not in quotes) to Google, which yield exactly one result.
Two other points to note:

The words must be underlined (which confirms that they are words recognised in dictionary.com).
The results page must not be a dictionary or wordlist itself.

Some current whacks featuring on the Whack stack are:
isopropanol warthog; subcutaneously telephonist; bathysphere transmogrification

So, armed with only a degree in linguistics, a passion for language, a quiet night at work, and access to Google, I thought I’d see what I could come up with.

Avuncular cubism – 18
Kleptomaniac hippopotamus – 69
Sesquipedalian daedalus – 5
Hippopotamus pantechnicon – 28
Egregious oligarchy – 1070
Toothsome weathervane – 5
Logarithmic baboon – 264
Overarching pantechnicon – 19
Brusque weathervane – 16
Tickling pantechnicon – 5
Trapezoid nepotism – 17
Toothsome epistemology – 8
Garrulous weathervane – 11
Pendulous sesquipedalia – 2
Toothsome epicentre – 5
Eschatological baboon – 32 !!!
Baboon renewal – 920 ???
Eschatological drainpipe – 3
Eschatological rhythm – 6
Eschatological weathervane- 4
Eschatological haematology – 1. Check Eschatological haematology in Google, or go to the Oxford University Gazette page which contains it.

Buoyed by my success, it was but a hop, skip and a jump to find two more within twenty minutes:

Kleptomaniac triskaidekaphobia Check Kleptomaniac triskaidekaphobia in Google, or go to theSyd the Kyd page which contains it.

Trapezoid lychgate: Check Trapezoid lychgate in Google or go to the Herefordshire.gov page which contains it.

Ah well, it filled a whole hour, and satiated my need to search for any more whacks. However, the book was extremely well-written, and very funny to boot. Highly recommended.