WHAT WAS NEWS IN 2005

Dec 2005 - Site Update

I thought I would add the facility to allow comments to be added to my "What's New" posts, and to other areas of the site where appropriate. There were a few reasons for this:

• The existing guest book was fine for general messages, but it occurred to me that visitors would find it nice to be able to add a quick comment on the page they were already on, instead of having to browse to the Guest Book page.
• Everything on my site is "hand-rolled", i.e. it's all written from scratch by yours truly. There's no configuration file with a "switch on user comments = true" section :o) I thought it would be fun to write a general comment control, and have it re-usable across the whole site (yes, I have a very sad idea of fun).
• I love getting feedback from visitors to the site, and users of my software. I'm hoping the comment facility might encourage more people to leave messages.

Dec 2005 - Site Update

I broke my guest book ages ago when I moved the site from PHP to ASP.NET. Finally got around to fixing it today so that it stores/displays the date again...

Dec 2005 - Site Update

PovRay is just so much fun. I came to it quite late in the day, but if I can cause even one more person to stumble upon its ray-tracey goodness, the world will be a better place :o)

Read on...

Nov 2005 - Site Update

Updated the about me content.

Nov 2005 - Site Update

I've always had something of a chip on my shoulder when it comes to advertising on websites. I appreciate that lots of sites offering free content have to rely on advertising to survive, but when a website is run purely as a hobby it seems tacky to me to see great swathes of the page daubed and obscured with vulgar banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, and those horrible multimedia adds that "slide out" and obscure half the page. In the same way that a http://geocities.yahoo.com/personal/~mysite/ domain looks tacky compared to www.mysite.com.

However, websites don't come for free. Well, actually, if you don't mind a tacky URL like the one above, and restrictions on storage and bandwidth that'll have your site offline more than on, then yes, sometimes they do. If you want a more respectable web presence though you'll need to fork out for a domain, and annual hosting. To run the MrCeri site costs me around £45 a year. I've been paying that for 3 years now, and this year I thought to myself, "I don't mind giving the world all of this wonderful content for free, but surely I shouldn't have to pay for the privilege?"

No MrCeri, you should not.

I tried offering a sponsorship scheme, but received not one inquiry :o(
So I swallowed my pride, and this month started displaying advertising on the site. I have gone for the Google AdSense scheme, since it's so straight forward to set up, and seems to serve up genuinely well targeted content-driven adverts. I'm not expecting to become a millionaire, I just hope to earn enough to cover my hosting fees.

Who knows, if this makes me enough money maybe I'll get back on my high-horse and take the adverts off again ;o)

Nov 2005 - Site Update

Well it's finally here! The new look MrCeri.co.uk, all shiny and nice :o)

The site has been in major need of a look n' feel overhaul for ages now, in fact since it was created way back in 2002. What, you still don't like it? You should have seen it before!

The new upgrade is also part of a new adventure in CSS and web standards, which were woefully lacking in the old incarnation of the site. Not that such standards are strictly adhered to in the new design, but it's a lot closer than it was.

Now that I'm happy(ish) with the way it looks, I can go back to doing what I do best, producing content!

Oct 2005 - Ramblings

I realise MrCeri's been a bit quiet lately. This is due partly to a very busy summer at work, and partly because I am working on a brand new design for the site, a total revamp that will drag MrCeri kicking and screaming into the 21st Century! Stay tuned...

Jul 2005 - Site Update

Updated my links page.

Jun 2005 - Software Update

Released a minor update to the Salary Timer, containing nothing but a bug fix for hourly rate input, which I'd inadvertently introduced in version 3.5, while fixing a bug from version 3.4. Doh!

Jun 2005 - New Software

Playing Hangman is a great way to while away the time, so check out my new Movie Name Hangman game.

Apr 2005 - Software Update

Updated the Salary Timer for the new tax year.

Apr 2005 - Software Update

Updated the Tax Calculator for the new tax year.

Apr 2005 - Software Update

Updated the Raise Calculator for the new tax year.

Feb 2005 - Site Update

Updated my links page.

Jan 2005 - Site Update

From now on I'll be offering you, the great internet masses, the opportunity to sponsor MrCeri. You'll get exclusive advertising rights for the entire MrCeri.co.uk website, and exclusive sponsorship of all my downloadable programs. I'm not doing this to make a big bag of money, I just thought it'd be nice to recoup some of the money I've spent on hosting, bandwidth, etc., since I started the site 3 years ago. If you'd like to find out more, please contact me.

Jan 2005 - New Software

Added a new page, the "MrCeri Name Generator". This little tool let's you generate random words, which at times can be most useful indeed.

Jan 2005 - Site Update

Updated my links page.