Molasses tax: they ruined another good thing
23 August 2009 23:59 Categories: law
I just got an email from Shisha Pipe UK, where I buy tobacco for my water pipe (shisha / nargile / hookah):
“Due to the English Customs and excise we no longer sell Tobacco Molasses.
Apparently molasses shisha tobacco purchased in the UK from shops in London do not have any import duty paid and is illegal in the UK.
Customs & Excise state that the tobacco import duty is £71.76 per kilogram which would make a 250 gram pack cost in duty alone £17.94”
Is this another case of political correctness gone mad? No it isn’t. It seems it’s the law. But it is irksome. Who knew it was illegal? The tax/duty seems a lot, and this on top of the UK smoking ban which has put a lot of hookah lounges at risk, or even out of business.
I smoke it infrequently, but I would miss it. It’s pleasurable. And ancient. And yes, it is a misconception that a water pipe is used for anything other than perfectly legal tobacco. Isn’t it? More on Wikipedia.
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There, I fixed it
A small apology to web developer Josh Lockhart, who was kind enough to comment on a recent post. I’ve tweaked the order of my new blog pages a little and in the process, seem to have broken the path to the off-site commenting system.
It doesn’t look like I can easily restore the comment so for sake of completeness I’m quoting it here:
“I have posted several tutorials that demonstrate how to integrate PrettyPhoto on a Styled Text or HTML page in RapidWeaver. I also posted a tutorial showing how to convert a RapidWeaver Photo Album into a PrettyPhoto lightbox gallery.
Links are:
http://www.joshlockhart.com/index.php/tutorials/article/convert-a-rapidweaver-photo-album-into-a-prettyphoto-lightbox-gallery/
http://www.joshlockhart.com/index.php/tutorials/article/flex-how-to-use-the-built-in-prettyphoto-lightbox-styed-text-page/
http://www.joshlockhart.com/index.php/tutorials/article/flex-how-to-use-the-built-in-prettyphoto-lightbox-html-page/
Best, Josh”
To which my reply was:
Josh, many thanks for this. I've watched your tutorials and found them really helpful in getting Mediabox running, and actually, it was from these tutorials that I learned about PrettyPhoto. Trouble is, I'm such a novice that I still haven't figured out how to get it working - I'm sorry to say that I'm not sure where to put the code, except partly by trial and error. Your theme Flex, with the built-in jQuery javascript library is a great solution I think. Hmm, maybe I should try it... Oh, by the way, I really like your Silk theme too. Are you planning to add any of the extra 'flexibility' of Flex to it? That would be great. BW Miki
Look. I know nobody cares, but I feel better, okay?
It doesn’t look like I can easily restore the comment so for sake of completeness I’m quoting it here:
“I have posted several tutorials that demonstrate how to integrate PrettyPhoto on a Styled Text or HTML page in RapidWeaver. I also posted a tutorial showing how to convert a RapidWeaver Photo Album into a PrettyPhoto lightbox gallery.
Links are:
http://www.joshlockhart.com/index.php/tutorials/article/convert-a-rapidweaver-photo-album-into-a-prettyphoto-lightbox-gallery/
http://www.joshlockhart.com/index.php/tutorials/article/flex-how-to-use-the-built-in-prettyphoto-lightbox-styed-text-page/
http://www.joshlockhart.com/index.php/tutorials/article/flex-how-to-use-the-built-in-prettyphoto-lightbox-html-page/
Best, Josh”
To which my reply was:
Josh, many thanks for this. I've watched your tutorials and found them really helpful in getting Mediabox running, and actually, it was from these tutorials that I learned about PrettyPhoto. Trouble is, I'm such a novice that I still haven't figured out how to get it working - I'm sorry to say that I'm not sure where to put the code, except partly by trial and error. Your theme Flex, with the built-in jQuery javascript library is a great solution I think. Hmm, maybe I should try it... Oh, by the way, I really like your Silk theme too. Are you planning to add any of the extra 'flexibility' of Flex to it? That would be great. BW Miki
Look. I know nobody cares, but I feel better, okay?
Internet Explorer 8 still fails?
I want to put my stuff online in an easily navigable and attractive way for as many people to see as would like to. So this site is built with Rapidweaver and its excellent range of 3rd party plugins. It’s standards compliant and I like the ease of use so I can throw something together quickly. I’ve just added Mediabox, as I recently blogged. Although I haven’t done comprehensive testing it seems to work fine on both PC’s and Macs and in all browsers.
All that is except for Internet Explorer 8, which seems to break on the video pages that contain the Mediabox code. Why is that? I’m not going waste my time trying to figure it out just now, as it works on everything else. So I urge all you IE users out there to do yourselves a favour and switch to Firefox. Not for my sake you understand. It’s just better. More stuff works on it. It’s as simple as that.
UPDATE 4 September 2008: Working now in IE8 and IE7 hopefully
All that is except for Internet Explorer 8, which seems to break on the video pages that contain the Mediabox code. Why is that? I’m not going waste my time trying to figure it out just now, as it works on everything else. So I urge all you IE users out there to do yourselves a favour and switch to Firefox. Not for my sake you understand. It’s just better. More stuff works on it. It’s as simple as that.
UPDATE 4 September 2008: Working now in IE8 and IE7 hopefully
This week in blipfoto
21 August 2009 18:34 Categories: blipfoto | photographs
Mediabox for RapidWeaver made easy
Mediabox is a neat bit of javascript that enables lightbox functionality within web pages. I was scratching my head trying to figure out how to make this work in my RapidWeaver site as I am still at the bell-end of the coding learning curve. I wasn’t getting very far without clear instructions for RapidWeaver.
But thanks to Christoph Richardet of Rapid Ideas, implementing Mediabox in a RapidWeaver theme just got very easy, as he has recently posted a link to a set of file sources, a snippet and a manual in the RapidWeaver forums. Download this and you can have images, streaming video or even other web pages overlay over your web page when you click a link. Perfect for noobs like me.
There are several ways to achieve the overlay function (not all of them capable of more than displaying images), such as Lightbox, Greybox and Slimbox, to name just three. As I get a bit more proficient, I’d like to try PrettyPhoto, which suits my current theme better and generally looks, well, pretty, but I’m running up against the same problem of not-quite novice-proof enough guidance on how to make this work with Rapidweaver. Hopefully, someone will provide a downloadable set of files to make this as easy as Christopher has done with Mediabox. Any takers?
But thanks to Christoph Richardet of Rapid Ideas, implementing Mediabox in a RapidWeaver theme just got very easy, as he has recently posted a link to a set of file sources, a snippet and a manual in the RapidWeaver forums. Download this and you can have images, streaming video or even other web pages overlay over your web page when you click a link. Perfect for noobs like me.
There are several ways to achieve the overlay function (not all of them capable of more than displaying images), such as Lightbox, Greybox and Slimbox, to name just three. As I get a bit more proficient, I’d like to try PrettyPhoto, which suits my current theme better and generally looks, well, pretty, but I’m running up against the same problem of not-quite novice-proof enough guidance on how to make this work with Rapidweaver. Hopefully, someone will provide a downloadable set of files to make this as easy as Christopher has done with Mediabox. Any takers?
Video uploaded: Windblown plastic
I’ve uploaded two new videos. One is a 53 second clip shot with an iPhone of some old plastic caught on top of a wall. I slowed the playback speed to about 30%, double-tracked the sound and added a bit of echo and reverb. The result is quite eerie.
The other is a much shorter iPhone clip of an outdoor ashtray smoking and looking like it’s about to catch fire.
Both are filed in a playlist called Vignettes. These are short video notes, mostly with a static camera and minimal or no editing - like a long photo.
The other is a much shorter iPhone clip of an outdoor ashtray smoking and looking like it’s about to catch fire.
Both are filed in a playlist called Vignettes. These are short video notes, mostly with a static camera and minimal or no editing - like a long photo.
Today's post to blipfoto
14 August 2009 19:23 Categories: blipfoto | photographs
Today's post to blipfoto:
Blipfoto is a photo journal which lets you publish one - and only one - image each day. Uploaded photographs are taken on the date they are uploaded against. That means if you upload an image and date it 1st January, the picture must have been taken on 1st January.
Blipfoto is a photo journal which lets you publish one - and only one - image each day. Uploaded photographs are taken on the date they are uploaded against. That means if you upload an image and date it 1st January, the picture must have been taken on 1st January.
My 'ATM' photo illustrates a 'Cult of Mac' article
This iPhone image is illustrating an article on Cult of Mac about a tumblr photography blog called, um, iPhone Photography.
There are some great photos on the site, which may be a surprise to some because the iPhone (3GS) allegedly has a 'crappy' camera. Actually, for what it is - a 3 megapixel cameraphone chip, it's perfectly adequate - and takes reasonable video as well. I don't use it much as I normally have a camera in my bag, but to take a shot when nothing else is to hand, despite my initial reservations, I think it's fine. It's a significant improvement on the original iPhone's truly crappy effort, though 5 megapixels would have been nicer.