A Web Designer's View – Port Elizabeth, St Francis Bay, South Africa

My site has been long overdue for an update. So not too long ago I started working on it in-between projects. You can view it here, Web Designer in Port Elizabeth.
On the new site I also added a feed to this blog for SEO (search engine optimisation) purposes. I also wanted the site to be more clear about what it is I do, now directly from the frontpage you can click right through to where it is you want to go.
I also adjusted the urls to be more search engine fiendly. One thing about being a web designer, your own site is always lacking and you can never quite be happy with it. It’s like the age old saying, ‘a mechanics car is always broken’.
So just in case you missed that link, Port Elizabeth (PE) Web Designer. Check it out!

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All over the world residents, companies and governments are turning out their lights to highlight the threat of climate change.
For 1 hour on Saturday, 28 March 2009, starting at 8:30pm, the world will turn out the lights.

Watch the planet go dark one time zone at a time as satellite pictures
capture the beauty of darkness and energy conservation across the
globe. (more…)

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Recently Liquid, a pub in St Francis Bay, was re-opened by one of the locals. It is a great place to hang out and offers a wide variety of entertainment, including a pool table, live acts and cocktails.

Unfortunately even a place like St Francis Bay has its bad elements. Liquid also has (had) one of those coin operated touch screens that offers a variety of games. Recently someone thought it would be funny to steal this machine.

There is a reward on offer for the return of this machine. NO questions asked. If anyone has any information, please contact me via the contact page on this site.

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We went down to Oudtshoorn the weekend. Phew is it hot down there! Anyway, on Saturday night after making good with the family and a huge braai and everyone ended up in the pool we decided to head out. The first thing on everyone’s lips was, Lemon ‘n Lime.

We weren’t sure what to expect. No offence to the beautiful people from Oudtshoorn, but the town does have the reputation for being “boer country”.

We were pleasantly surpised though. The pub has been done up quite nicely. Outside is a very big garden area, which is just as well as the weather in Oudtshoorn does not allow one to break it down on the dance floor for any extended period of time.
There is also a pub outside, but this was not manned the night we were there. (more…)

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So a friend of mine told me of the Ox Braai at Bathurst near Port Alfred. I’ve heard of it before but have never been there. So we decided to take the trip and go find out what it is all about.We got there a bit late. There were people everywhere and finding parking was no easy task. People just park their cars in any gap they can find. The big worry is, will I be able to get out in the morning.
After negotiating with some really drunk people that it will be possible for me to manoeuvre my car in if they moved theirs slightly we managed to get a fairly good spot. (more…)

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Last Saturday we went to see DJ Fletcher from African Dope Records at Gondwana Cafe. Fletcher has the ability to put a crowd on the dance floor.. and to keep them there!I don’t remember leaving the dance floor once, except for getting refills on our drinks. From Drum & Bass, through to dub and funk, Fletcher does it all.

Being not only a DJ but also a producer sets Fletcher apart from the rest and he definitely sets the milestone when it comes to his genre of music.
I had a brief chat with him that evening and he said we can look out for his new album at the end of January 2009.

You can also join the group on Facebook here, African Dope Records on Facebook.

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For a long time now I have been trying to get concrete evidence on the whole dynamic vs. static URL issue. Some webmasters say, you absolutely have to have static URL’s for good ranking in Google, while others say, it is a thing of the past. Well at last I have found that concrete evidence on Google’s own Webmaster blog.

We have never really had much to go on. The problem in the past was that as soon as there are multiple queries in a URL, the search engines do not follow the links. The reason for this being out of fear that the ‘spider’ might get trapped in an infinite amount of queries as might be the case with a calendar for instance that dates into the future.

It seems that this issue has been resolved though and is no longer the case. Hoo ha! Good news for us struggling with Apache’s mod_rewrite.
You can read more on the official Google Webmaster Central Blog, here.

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So I lost my hard drive the other day. Yes the one with all my backups on! That one, that very one.
So after going through all the motions and trying all kinds of things, I found this article on Google about freezing your hard drive.
The story goes, the chips on the circuit board and the motor in the hard drive creates heat and most materials expand when heated. Freezing it causes these parts to shrink back to their normal orientation and it might just give you enough time to get that data off there. (more…)

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I was contacted by a lady to please post this on my blog. Due to the amount of hits I get for the search term, “husky”, I thought it might be a good idea. Who knows, I might even start a pet lost and found section!
Below is a photo of Julie. She went missing in the Corlett Gardens area in Gauteng on Sunday 6 July, 2008. She is black and white and both eyes are pure blue. She has been chipped with a Virbac chip and is of medium build with long straight hair. (more…)

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Cape St Francis has one of the most magnificent beaches I know of. Recently, while taking the dogs for a walk, I discovered a part of the beach I never even knew was there. It has a very alien landscape and I was just amazed at this undisturbed piece of nature right under our noses.
I posted some pics in my gallery, check them out here.

Read more about St Francis Bay and Cape St Francis at MyStFrancis – St Francis Bay community.

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