Lynx Viewer

This is a very useful web site if you build your own web pages. It allows you to see your pages the way search bots see it. All you do is type your url into the search field and it displays your page as it would be seen by the robots. Anything that is not visible to you is not seen by them. Load up your home page and then see how easy it is to navigate round your site. If you can't easily get from one page to the next and back again because your links are hidden in images then neither can the search bots. This system easily shows up problems that might otherwise get overlooked. You do have to prove you own the site before it will work but that is simply a matter of creating a blank page with a given heading and uploading it. It's totally free and recommended by Google. Just click on the logo or this blog title.

Monochrome Photography

In these days of quick digital photography it is easy to forget about what happens after you press the shutter release. For many, the images are simply stored and viewed occasionally. Some people go to the trouble of straightening their images and removing red eye but that frequently tends to be the end of it. For me, the click of the shutter is just the beginning. Playing around with my images once I get them on my PC is where the fun kicks in.

You might think it strange in a world where colour is taken very much for granted that anyone would want to remove it but monochrome photography still has a very significant place among any photographers skills. Have you ever had one of those photographs that are well composed and sharply focused but for some reason simply don't work? Chances are it's the colour in the image that is distracting. Try removing it and see how it works then. Colour doesn't always add interest to an image, sometimes it can simply clutter it up.
The image I have shown here was created with a timed exposure and a moving torch to produce the light trails. I then played around with it in Photoshop removing the colour and adding a gradient map which partly inverted the brightest values in the image. It was a bit of fun. If you would like to see more of my images just click on this image to go to my monochrome gallery.

It's official - Dogs are good for you

According to a report on the BBC Dogs are good for our health. Pet ownership in general is apparently beneficial to our health as they help reduce stress, heart rate and blood pressure, but dogs are particularly good probably because owning them involves taking them for walks. Perhaps now dogs will become available on the NHS :-)
Owning any kind of pet is also good for children according to a related report on the BBC. Children who have been exposed to pets at a young age are less likely to develop allergies and Asthma. I firmly believe in pet ownership for children, it teaches them not just about animals and how to care for them but gives them a sense of compassion and responsibility. OK, so most parents end up with the lion share of the looking after but I still think it's worth the effort.

No Hope For Rusty

Despite being convicted of failing to care for their Labrador 'Rusty' by allowing him to get so overweight he could hardly walk, the Benton brothers were still allowed to keep him. In an interview after the court case they were claiming that they had not done anything wrong. Anyone with half a brain could clearly see they had been neglectful to allow the dog to reach this state. If they cannot see why they have been found guilty how can they learn from this sufficiently to be able to give Rusty the care he needs? Clearly they won't and the dog will continue to gain weight until he dies. They admitted he had hip dysplasia leading to arthritis and used this as an excuse for him not being able to walk. Surely this makes controlling Rusty's weight even more crucial? The brothers were also reported as saying in the Times that they could not get rusty to stick to a diet! Well that really says it all. After all, who is supposed to be in charge? I'm sure Rusty doesn't prepare his own meals and certainly does not look agile enough to raid the fridge!
There are no excuses here and I personally believe that as these two men cannot accept they have done anything wrong they should be banned from keeping any more animals, ever.

For further info go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/6256349.stm and watch the inverview!

Crazy Clothes Sizes

Over the last few years something very odd and very annoying has been happening to clothes sizes. My weight and shape has not changed in 20 years but 20 years ago my 25" waist required a size 10 skirt (UK size). I even still have a some size 10 skirts bought all those years ago that still fit me perfectly, one of which was from Marks & Spencer. Size 10 skirts were easy to get hold of and so buying clothes was never a problem and generally an enjoyable experience. Times have changed and now it appears that I have to buy a size 6 to get a skirt that is the same size as an old size 10. Size 6 skirts are as rare as hens teeth and usually only part of a petite collection for women under 5'3". I am nearly 5'5". Shopping for clothes is now a thoroughly depressing experience as I can never get the clothes I like in the size I require.
Marks & Spencer do a size 6 in their short (petite) range but I searched the whole of the Bluewater store and only found one skirt of that size in the shop. This is one of their main branches. Marks & Spencer on-line say that a 25" waist is a size 8 but they obviously haven't measured them.
Next do a size 6 in their petite range and had quite a few skirts of this size in their Bluewater branch however, their size 6 skirts were still too big! Come on guy's, I'm not a freak! I am the correct weight for my height according to medical guidelines. I feel like I am being penalised for NOT being overweight.
The worst offenders so far are Rohan. Their size 8 skirts have a 30" waist although they are supposed to be 24" according to their size chart. Their comment to this when I complained was to say they like their clothes to have a 'comfortable fit'. I don't know about you, but I find clothes decidedly uncomfortable if you have to have loads of waist band gathered up under a belt. Rohan do not cater for any smaller sizes.

Dangerous Dogs?

The sad news about the 5 yr old girl that was killed by a pit bull terrier a few days ago was really tragic. I can't begin to imagin the grief that family must be going through. Tragedy aside though, I get really annoyed at all the media hype about amending the Dangerous Dogs Act. The act was a shambles in the first place particularly as there is no such recognised breed as Pit Bull Terrier. It is a mongrel breed and so difficult to legislate against. In any case, the 'Pit Bull' is not the one to blame here. I have known many well mannered so called 'Pit Bulls' owned by sensible dog minded, owners. All dogs have the potential to inflict harm on humans and the larger and stronger the dog the more serious that harm might be. What stops them is the way they are handled and trained. OK so some breeds may have a more aggressive tendency but that just means they need to be owned by the right people. Unfortunately the kind of people that own 'Pit Bull' often are the kind that shouldn't own a dog at all. Anyone who trains a dog for fighting or badger baiting, as some pit bull owners do, should be banned for life from ever owning another animal of any description. The owner of the dog in question had already been warned about his animals behaviour but clearly failed to deal with it. He apparently has been arrested now, lets hope he is prosecuted. In my opinion if having trained a dog to fight and it then goes on to kill someone you should be prosecuted for man slaughter.

So that was 2006?

It seems to have gone in the blink of an eye but I guess we all say that as we get older. What matters is what we manage to achieve. Strangely enough I ended up achieving things I hadn't thought of but those I planned fell by the way-side. I intended to do more gliding this year but all I did apart from a few local flights was one cross country where I landed out in a sheep field.
Brac and I won a hole bunch of rosettes in Obedience but only one first place when I was aiming for 3. Still, not bad but we're going to have to work on that next year. I did however compete at Crufts, something I shall certainly remember.
I started a new career as a Pet Portraitist, not something I had given any consideration to in advance, but something that really seems to be taking off.
I also discovered and got in touch with some relatives I didn't know I had thanks to my genealogy research.
I don't go in for making resolutions at New Year but I do think it is good to set goals. My goals for next year will certainly include building up my Pet Portrait business and qualifying out of Beginners at Obedience but if I am going to be able to sit here this time next year and look back on my achievements with satisfaction I need not just to set the goals but to define a strategy and that is often my weak point.

Taking Better Pet Photographs

Taking pictures of our pets is almost as popular as photographing family members. For many of us, our pets are a part of our family so maybe that's not so surprising. Chances are you have loads of photos of you pets but how many of them are good enough to frame? Do any of them really show your pet at his or her best? Most photographs of animals fail for a few simple reasons. If you would like to be able to take better pet photographs then visit my web site where I am publishing a series of free fact sheets. I will be explaining how you can take really good pet photographs without any specialised equipment (save a camera) and have something you can put in a frame. The first two fact sheets are available now and further fact sheets will be added over the next few weeks so keep checking back. If there is anything you would particularly like covered or need explained in more detail leave me a note here or send me an e-mail from my web site.

Last Minute Presents

I've been a bit quiet on the blog side recently but that is because I have been kept busy with a last minute rush for Pet Portraits as Christmas presents. Not that I'm complaining, it's great to be able to do this. It gives me a real buzz creating something that other people will cherish and hang on their wall. I get to meet like minded people - animal lovers - and some really great pets like this little Cairn Terrier. She was a real character who was not too impressed with being photographed and I don't blame her as it was a dismal day and blowing a gale. Despite this she came up trumps when she stared right into the lens as if to size me up just before legging it!

Customised Pet Greetings Cards

When ever I create a pet portrait I always create a greetings card to go with it. A sample card is given free with the portrait and further card can be ordered at any time. Most of these cards are also available for general sale. These cards can be printed with any message inside or simply left blank. Each card looks like a watercolour painting. They make great congratulations cards for anyone involved in either dog or horse competitions. View a gallery of the cards available by clicking here. Or click on the title of this blog for more information.

Brac - Jumping for Joy

Well it's been over a month since I talked about my baby so I felt it was time to give him another mention. Not that he's achieved anything of note recently. Here he is doing one of the things he loves most...jumping. Be it a park bench or a fallen tree, he wants me to send him over it. Yes, that's right, he won't just help himself. He actually wants to be sent. Part of the pleasure appears to be working to orders. It's a border collie/working sheep dog thing. They have been bred to serve their owners and if they can do that whilst also having fun then life for them is complete. There are exceptions to this however. Get him anywhere near an agility ring and he will help himself. Take your eye off him for 2 seconds and he will be on the sea saw or running through a tunnel. He'll make up a course all by himself and wonder why the hell I'm not keeping up!

He's just as keen when it comes to obedience training although, slightly more controlled. I'm sure I could do heel work with him all day and he would still be looking for more. The one thing he can't stand is sitting on the sidelines waiting his turn. He a 'doing' dog and patience really isn't his strong point. It is this zeal for life and enthusiasm in all things that makes him so lovable.

File Back-up & Syncronization

Anyone who has had a hard drive failure, or had a lap top or other data gathering peripheral stolen, will know the value of keeping up-to-date back-ups of all important data and images. The trouble is backing up data manually can be a real pain so many of us tend to get sloppy about it and do it on a kind of peace meal arrangement. It becomes particularly difficult when you spend a long time working on files or keep going back to them to make changes because then you have to make sure the file that is backed up is the most recent. It's time consuming and boring to say the least. What is needed is a efficient piece of software that not just backs up files but synchronises them automatically. GoodSync is a fee piece of software that does just that. It's easy and reasonably straight forward to use. You can back up everything or just individual files. They can be backed up to virtually any location and can be made to run automatically or manually as you wish. I wish I had installed this a long time ago but now I've got it set up my back-up worries are solved.
Click on image for a better view of the screen shot.

e-mail Address Encoder

If you have your e-mail address published as a live link on your web site (assuming you have one) chances are you are being swamped by spam e-mails. I know I have been! Well, thanks to West Bay Web Internet Publishing that may be fixable. I say maybe because I have only just found out about them and it may take a while before I realise the effectiveness of this. What they offer is a free service whereby you type in you address and it provides you with an encoded version as a source code. Copy this code and use it to replace the e-mail address in your web site html code. It will look the same but it is apparently unusable by spamming programs.

Click on the title of this blog post to go direct to the web page in question.

Planet Earth clips

If your a fan of naturaly history programs as I am then no doubt you will have been watching the Planet Earth series on BBC1. If not, or if you would simply like to see some of the footage again, the BBC has collected a large selection of the footage into individual clips that you can watch on-line. Clicking on the title of this blog post will take you to the web page. You will need a broadband connection and the latest version of Flash player (v8) installed to view them properly but it's well worth it.

Bookmark Icons

Ever wondered how you can get your web site to show those neat little icons in front of the url in the browser search bar or with the page title when the page is bookmarked? The 'blogger' logo on this site for instance that is sitting in your browser search field. Well if you are prepared to fiddle a little you can have your own one on your web site too.

First you will need a small program that creates icons. I use a piece of free software called PixelToolbox that quickly creates icons from any jpeg image on your hard drive. Save the icon to your local web site file as "favicon.ico".

Now open up your web editing software and display your index page. You will need to go into html mode to edit the code.

Copy this piece of code -

link rel="shortcut icon" href="/Images/pet-portraits/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" /

This code will need to be placed into the head section on your web page. I.e. after the opening head tag and before the closing head tag. This section of code must be enclosed with <>. (I could not include the opening and closing brackets with the code because Blogger would not allow it.)

If your icon file is not in your images file then you will need to go to your properties dialogue box to locate the file or type the path direct into the code.

Save your page and up-lode it together with your icon and hey presto, your icon should appear in the search bar when displaying your site.

Genealogy

Researching family history is becoming more and more popular and with the internet, increasingly easy to do. I have been researching mine and mu husbands for about 18 months now and it has certainly proved interesting. OK so I not discovered any rich relations or famous ancestors but it has still been facinating to see how family traits have been passed down through the generations.

Going back as far as 1837 is easy as that is the date that all birth, marriages and deaths were registered and held centrally. Once you know the persons name and have a rough idea of the date on any of these events you can look through the indexes to get the reference number of the certificate you require. Then it's just a matter of sending off for it and waiting for it to arrive in the post. The result is that most family historians end up with quite a pile of BMD certificates often with a few mistake ones as well. It is likely that different historians will be after the same record if their trees overlap. For this reason I have decided to create a blog site to list the details of all the certificates I currently hold. This way, anyone can visit the blog and search on a surname to see if a relevant certificate is listed there. The site will also allow other historians to add details of any certificates they hold so that eventually it could hold details of hundreds of certificates.

I hope this site proves useful but if you have any suggestions as to how to make it better please do say.

Brugge

We've been off on our flying travels again this weekend, this time to Brugge, Belgium. Our aircraft is currently having it's engine rebuilt so we were not able to fly ourselves. Instead with hitched with some friends of ours who had spare seats going. Paul, my husband, took the right hand seat in a Robin while I deserted him for a Squirrel helicopter. Well, a girl likes to travel in style!

We landed at Ostend and got the train into Brugge, all very quick and efficient. A short taxi to the hotel and we were ready to explore. I would thoroughly recommend Brugge as a destination for a weekend. The cobbled streets are flanked by 16 & 17 C building and threaded through with a canal system that gives it the feel of Amsterdam. The people are extreemly friendly and helpful and the place generally has a happy & relaxed atmosphere. Restaurants are plentyful although bars are not so obvious, and when you do find them, they are generally very packed.

This is a mecca for chocoholics. You will be spoilt for choice here. Cheese, salami, lace & tapestry are also sold abundantly here. Shops are open on Sundays so plenty of time for buying. Other passtimes include, museums, galleries, cannal trips, carriage rides and if you are energetic, a climb up the town hall bell tower pictured here.

Working Sheepdog?

Brac (pictured) achieved his first step on the road to fame and fortune today by taking part in a photo shoot for an advertisement. Advertising worming pills! If the images are accepted his picture will be in veterinary practices all over Europe. I have to say (even though I am biased) he took to it like a duck to water and I was very proud of him. He is, of course, used to posing for me (as here) but never before under studio conditions.

Search Engine Optimization

I've been doing a lot of research into search engine optimization (SEO) recently to try to boost my web site ranking. You can of course spend a fortune hiring the services of a professional to do it for you but I much prefer doing these things myself. This can sometimes be a mistake but I'm going to go there anyway. I have, however, just been given a big helping hand in the form of a free 56 page e-book called Search Engine Secrets. If you click on the title above it will take you to a web site offereing SEO services. You are presented with a pop-up window where you can register to be e-mailed the e-book. It will prompt you to also register for a free 25 minute councelling service but you don't need to complete this to get the book.
A friend of mine recommended it to me and sure enough the book is full of useful tips. It is easy to read and the steps that are recommended in the book are generally quite straight forward to implement. It doesn't guarantee over night success but it will certainly point you in the right direction.

SpeedFan

I have recently installed an extreemly useful piece of free ware called SpeedFan on my system. This programme not only displays the S.M.A.R.T. data from your hard drives as well as the temperatures throughout your system but it also gives you controll over the spped of your fans in many instances.
My PC tower is enclosed (as many are) in a specially built cupboard in my PC desk. Specially built to hide but not cool my system and I was becomming increasingly concerned that my hard drives were cooking. Especially as my previous hard drive had died probably due to this problem. I was advised about this piece of free ware but, being rahter security concious, I was a little reluctant to download it. I eventually did and it was really easy to install. I instantly had acess to the temperature data for my CPU, Motherboard, both hard drives and the ambient case temperature. The S.M.A.R.T. infor for both hard drives was also very reassuring as by checking it regularly you can tell in advance if there is any likelyhood of a hard disk failure.
The only downside was that I now knew my hard drives were cooking running at 64 degrees C when they should have been at 36. At least I was able to do something about it by adding another fan and rearranging them so thay had more space. They are still about 5 degrees too hot but much cooler than before.
If I hadn't installed SpeedFan I would have been non the wiser until one of the drives burnt out.
If I had one complaint about the produce it would be that the help file seems to assume you are totally computer jargon savvi but I would still recommend this to anyone who wants to avoid a disk failure.