Photo Gallery: Jessica versus Her Sleeping Position in the Cot (2011-01-29) | Jessica certainly likes to wriggle around in her cot during sleepy time! (My Life | Photo Gallery)

Covered: Batman #500 (Joe Quesada | Kelley Jones) | Issue 500 is a big milestone no matter the comic franchise and it was a biggie in 1993 when Batman volume 1 hit its 500th edition. We were slap bang in the middle of the epic Knightfall crossover story that had seen Bane break Batman's ... (Comic Book Art | Comic Books)

Photo Gallery: Jessica's First Family Pram Stroll (2011-01-29) | We couldn't hide Jessica from the outside world forever I suppose, prompting our first family outing in the form of a pram stroll! :) (My Life | Photo Gallery)

Joke: Deaf Drunk | After following an erratically driving man for some time, the cop eventually manages to pull him over. "So," says the cop to the driver, where have ya been?" "Why, I've been to the pub of course," slurs the drunk. "Well," says the cop, "it looks like you've had ... (Jokes & other Funny Stuff)

PHP: Generate a Thumbnail from a JPG, PNG or GIF Image File | With PHP's built in access to the decent GD graphics library, generating a thumbnail image from a larger photo turns out to be pretty simple to achieve. Below is a function you can use to create a thumbnail image from either a JPG, PNG or ... (Programming)

JavaScript to Confirm a File Download | A confirmation dialogue is handy when you want to make sure that the selected action is actually meant to take place and isn't just the result of an accidental click. Of course, achieving this is super easy thanks to JavaScript's built in dialog box functions, ... (CodeUnit)

jQuery: Remove Drag and Drop Action from Content Pane of Sortable Portlet Widgets | jQueryUI's awesome sortable functionality makes it a breeze to create sortable widget dashboards, allowing you to place little widget panes across a number of columns to your heart's desire. However, the default is that the entire widget or portlet pane forms part of the sortable ... (CodeUnit)

First Impressions: Zombie-Loan | The black ring. When it appears around a person's neck, it is the sign that they will soon die. Invisible to most, only those with the special ability of the Shinigami Eye can see it and thus predict the future. One such possessor is Michiru Kita, ... (Anime | My Reviews)

Purchase Electricity and Pay Fines Online | I like doing my administrative things online. Who doesn't? No more queues, frustrating tellers, being shunted from one desk to the other. And of the online services which I use the most here at home, buying electricity from the awesome payCity definitely ranks as right ... (CodeUnit)

Photo Gallery: Chantelle and Family Swellendam Week (2011-01-24) | Jessica, Chantelle and my mom joined Monty and Cheryl for a relaxing week long holiday at Swellendam. Unfortunately for me, I was stuck at home working. Sigh, not fair I tell you, not fair! :P (My Life | Photo Gallery)

Ryan's Call to Arms | I'll admit the following call to arms e-mail sent out by Ryan to Karl, Terrance and myself in recruiting for Tuesday evening's upcoming XBOX FIFA get together had Chantelle and I both chuckling out aloud. (Though she had been laughing far louder earlier on in the ... (My Life)

Managing the files on Your iPod: CopyTrans Manager - An Alternative to iTunes! | I am not a particularly big media consumer, especially when it comes to my iPod, but I do enjoy taking it along to my gym sessions to keep my mind nice and distracted while I work up a sweat. Now while iTunes is the default ... (CodeUnit)

How to Set MP4 Video Tags for Your iPod | Now that I enjoy watching animated television shows while I work out at gym, the process of converting my DVDs to iPod MP4 video files has begun in earnest! One of the last problems I encountered dealt with the lack of info tags on my ... (CodeUnit)

Covered: Zatanna 8 (Zatanna) | Don't puppets scare you? They scare me. Those lifeless eyes in those soulless, disproportional bodies. It is therefore no wonder to find that DC's not so premier magician in fishnet stockings, Zatanna, is also pretty scared of these guys. And as for proof, I present to ... (Comic Book Art | Comic Books)

How to Run SCP when Copying From a Machine not using the Default SSH Port 21 | Although port 21 is the default port used for SSH connections and thus SCP, most of the time you will find that in order to increase protection, the actual assigned port is far removed from the default 21. So how do you specify this when ... (CodeUnit)

Ubuntu: How to Delete a MySQL Database via the Terminal | To delete a database from a MySQL server instance, we need to make a DROP DATABASE call against the server. First, fire up MySQL in your terminal and login as an administrator account with: mysql -u root -p You will be prompted for your root password before ... (CodeUnit)

Joke: Death by Drinking | Brenda O'Malley is home making dinner, as per usual, when Tim Finnegan arrives at her door. "Brenda, may I come in?" he asks. "I've somethin' to tell ya". "Of course you can come in, you're always welcome, Tim. But where's my husband?" "That's what I'm here to be ... (Jokes & other Funny Stuff)

Ubuntu: How to Checkout from a SVN Repository via the Terminal | To create an initial SVN checkout from a SVN repository on your Ubuntu machine via the terminal is a pretty simple affair thanks to the pretty standard svn checkout call. To checkout, enter: svn checkout https://svn.server:port/svn/project/trunk /home/projectdir (Obviously you would swap out all the relevant details to match ... (CodeUnit)

Black: The Birth of Evil | While fleeing a hit man through the deserted alleys of Denver, a bullet clips Thomas Hunter's head. He escapes with this life, but later passes out from his wounds... and his world is swallowed by black. From the dark comes an amazing reality of another world ... (Comic Books | My Reviews)

Photo Gallery: Jessica in Yellow (2011-01-19) | Little Jessie Lotter sporting a yellow look this time around! :) (My Life | Photo Gallery)

Ubuntu: How to Delete a MySQL User Account via the Terminal | To delete a user account from a MySQL server instance, we need to make use of a DROP USER call to the mysql.user table. First, fire up MySQL in your terminal and login as an administrator account with: mysql -u root -p You will be prompted for ... (CodeUnit)

Under the Watchful Pink Hippo | Try as she may, there is just no escape for little floppy Jessica Lotter from the watchful gaze of the mysterious Pink Hippo. No one knows where the enigmatic hippo hails from, nor can anyone hazard a guess to its abilities or even its intent, but ... (Jessica)

Baby Jessica and Her Baby Elephant Feet | As you can see from the photo above, with Mommy Chantelle holding foot and card together while Daddy Craig furiously snaps away in the hopes of capturing a half decent photo before Jessie is squirming around again, our little dark red head girl is growing ... (Jessica)

Toggle a Div's Visibility with jQuery | To toggle an element in terms of visibility, like a DIV for example, is pretty easy with jQuery and its ultra nifty toggle() function. First, simply declare the div you wish to hide and show, give it an ID and if you want, set the initial ... (CodeUnit)

Safe with Daddy | As you can see, there is no way my little floppy Martian dribble monster can't be feeling safe and secure when she is in Daddy's arms, shielded by his broad shoulders and hidden from a Mommy who might just want to catch her and change ... (Jessica)

In the Arms of Grandpa Montgomery | Passed out in the arms of a very proud Grandpa Montgomery. Obviously scaling his tummy is pretty hard work for my little floppy dribble monster! :) (Note, just about all family members capable of holding Jessica have now held her. Honestly, she must be starting to ... (Jessica)

Ubuntu: How to Create a MySQL User Account via the Terminal | To create a user account from a MySQL server instance, we need to make use of a CREATE USER call to the mysql.user table. First, fire up MySQL in your terminal and login as an administrator account with: mysql -u root -p You will be prompted for ... (CodeUnit)

Photo Gallery: Jessica's Growing Feet (2011-01-16) | Jessica's feet are getting so much bigger! (My Life | Photo Gallery)

Photo Gallery: Retha's First Visit with Jessica (2011-01-16) | Although Retha couldn't be here for Jessie's early arrival into this world, the first chance she got when finally back in South Africa, she came to spend a weekend here with us in Gordon's Bay - going even so far as to give Chantelle a ... (My Life | Photo Gallery)

Display Embedded Photo EXIF data with PHP | Most digital cameras add EXIF (Exchangeable image file format) data to photos captured nowadays, embedding information like camera type, settings, timestamps, etc. into the captured file itself, and in the process creating a host of quite important (to enthusiasts anyway) bits of meta information in ... (Programming)

Ubuntu: How to Show MySQL User Accounts via the Terminal | To get a list of user accounts on a MySQL server instance, we need to make a SELECT call to the mysql.user table. First, fire up MySQL in your terminal and login as an administrator account with: mysql -u root -p You will be prompted for your ... (CodeUnit)

Covered: Danger Girl and The Army of Darkness 1 (Abbey Chase) | Seeing as the now-in-Dynamite's-hands Army of Darkness comics licence has crossed over with a number of interesting and well... questionable (in terms of storyline) other comic book franchises over the years, e.g. from Marvel Zombies all the way through to Xena: Warrior Princess, it would ... (Comic Book Art | Comic Books)

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011 | So we are now well into 2011, and looking back at 2010 I can't help but wonder how on Earth any forthcoming year will ever be able to compete with what was an absolutely monumental year in my life. Outside of it being the year in ... (My Life)

SQL: Toggle 1 and 0 Value in an Update SQL Statement | I tend to use a lot of tinyint columns as controllers for my database-held objects, usually sticking to the convention of 1 means on and 0 means off. In other words, the perfect target for a SQL toggle statement! In order to toggle update a value ... (CodeUnit)

How to Cut a Prem or Newborn Baby's Nails | Hey what do you know, at last Jessica is out of the minus X days old state, having finally passed her expected due date even though according to the calendar she has been with us for two whole months already! :) Anyway, the point is that ... (Jessica)

Internet Explorer (IE) and the Cached .js File | Internet Explorer and pretty much all other modern web browsers make use of silent caching in order to streamline user experience. Of course, caching is a marvellous tool when needed, but also a frustrating one when you don't want it turned on. Enter the humble ... (CodeUnit)

Not Quite Out and About Just Yet | (Wow, it is proving to be quite difficult to get in any sort of blogging now that Jessica is back home with us. Apologies, but this one was meant to be pushed out on Monday already!) So another gorgeous summer's weekend here in Gordon's Bay has ... (My Life)

Photo Gallery: Jessica and the Montgomery Clan (2011-01-12) | Some photos grabbed during a visit to the Montgomery Stronghold. Cheryl's sister Gail was down, and so naturally we had to go show our little Jessie off! :) (My Life | Photo Gallery)

How to Split a MP4 Video File for Your iPod | At the moment I quite enjoying watching television shows on my iPod while working out at gym. Of course to get these television show episodes on my little iPod, I first need to rip them off my DVDs and convert them into MP4 - which ... (CodeUnit)

Ubuntu: How to Search for a Folder via the Terminal | Often you know that there exists a specific directory on your system, but you just can't seem to locate it anywhere. Enter the useful find statement, a generic workhorse that you will most certainly find on almost all *nix distributions! To locate a specific directory by ... (CodeUnit)

Ubuntu: Get Yesterday's Date for a Bash Script | Date work often plays an important part in automated bash scripts, and as such, it is pretty useful to be able to calculate yesterday's date for your variable work. Now we know in order to get the current date we could use this: NOW="$(date +"%Y/%m/%d")" Using this info, ... (CodeUnit)

Photo Gallery: Grannies First Visit with Jessica (2011-01-09) | The first meeting between my two Grans and young Jessica. (My Life | Photo Gallery)

Ubuntu: Import a SQL Dump into MySQL | The quickest way to import a properly generated SQL dump containing structure and table definitions plus data into a MySQL database is to simply pipe the file directly to the powerful mysql command function via a terminal window. The command would look something like this: mysql ... (CodeUnit)

Covered: 2000AD 1384 (Shaun of the Dead) | Shaun of the Dead is the rightful cult king in terms of British zombie films, finding that perfect balance between horror, zombie, romance, black humour and all out laughs. As a tie in with the movie, director Edgar Wright and main honcho Simon Pegg joined forces ... (Comic Book Art | Comic Books)

How to Remote Desktop into a Windows Server from Ubuntu | How to Remote Desktop into a Windows Server from Ubuntu. There are a number of ways to do this actually, but the one below is pretty simple. And it is all thanks to the ultra useful rdesktop command. To connect to a Windows box, simply open ... (CodeUnit)

Joke: Breast Fight | Into a Belfast pub comes Paddy Murphy, looking like he'd just been run over by a train. His arm is in a sling, his nose is broken, his face is cut and bruised and he's walking with a limp. "What happened to you?" asks Sean, ... (Jokes & other Funny Stuff)

Ubuntu: How to Enable or Disable an Apache2 Site / Virtual Host | Sites or virtual hosts are extremely useful when you are hosting more than one website on a box. I've already shown you how to set up virtual hosts under Apache 2, but I thought I would quickly just give a little more insight into ... (CodeUnit)

How to Install Subversion (SVN) in Ubuntu | To install subversion (or SVN if you like keeping things short) is pretty simple to achieve in Ubuntu (as with just about everything else). First, open up a terminal window and enter: sudo apt-get install subversion After entering in your password, the system will automatically grab the necessary ... (CodeUnit)

Photo Gallery: Jessica at Home (and in the bath) (2011-01-05) | Little Jessica is quickly getting used to the routine here at home. (My Life | Photo Gallery)

Funakoshi Purple Belt Status Achieved | Purple. Not the most manly colour I have to admit. Nevertheless, it feels good now find it snugly wrapped around my waist. In all the excitement that made up the last couple of months of my life, it completely slipped my mind to mention that back ... (Martial Arts | My Life)

Ubuntu: How to Restart the Cron Service | After making changes to your crontab file, be it the sudo or standard version of the file, you will need to restart the appropriate cron service. The command line sequence to achieve this is as follows: sudo /etc/init.d/cron restart The system should indicate that the cron has ... (CodeUnit)

Danger Damen | Well apart from the hordes of players that couldn't make it in the end, last night (and because I'm taking a while to crank out these posts nowadays, this means Tuesday 28 December) ended up being quite enjoyable - thanks to the discovery of some ... (My Life)

Ubuntu: How to Force a Silent Cron | By default, cron actions that produce output generates emails that get sent to the system administrator. If we don't particularly want this behaviour, we need to terminate our function calls with a specific character sequence, which looks as follows: 5 * * * * /usr/mine/script > ... (CodeUnit)

Ubuntu: The Basics of Bash Scripting | A bash script is simply put a file containing a list of commands to be executed by the bash shell (remember, there are a number of different shells available in the Unix world). The very simplest scripts contain a set of commands that you ... (CodeUnit)

Royal Black Guard | Seeing as our little Jessica had finally joined us after her nearly two month long stay at the hospital neonatal intensive care unit, New Year's Eve 2011 promised nothing more than a night in with Chantelle and my baby girl, meaning of course as the ... (Sketches, Paint & Photoshop)

jQuery: Livequery and the Hover Event | Before jQuery's native live() and delegate() functions came into being, the default for handling binding on late generated DOM elements was to make use of the excellent Brandon Aaron plugin LiveQuery (otherwise known as Live Query). Today we look at how one handles the hover ... (CodeUnit)

Photo Gallery: Jessica Bath Time (2011-01-01) | A very small baby requires a very small bath! (And of course a loving Mommy to do all of the hard work!) (My Life | Photo Gallery)

Screenshot Saturday: Mezzo DSA (Episode 1) | Mikura, Kurokawa, and Harada are the 3 members of the Danger Service Agency (DSA). Mikura is the brawn of the group, Harada is the brains, and Kurokawa is just a bitter ex-cop who likes to think he's in charge. They'll take on any job as ... (Anime)

GUI Management of your Ubuntu Server with Webmin | There is nothing more daunting than being given an Ubuntu Server to manage if you have never ever delved into the world of command line (or should that be terminal line) Linux. Thankfully though, someone saw it fit to lend a helping hand to these ... (CodeUnit)