As you will probably notice I have changed the design again! I am now using TwentyTen which will hopefully be one of the new default themes to be included with Wordpress 3.0 when it is released.

I’m really updating to say I have just launched a news and information website for people using broadband the Isle of Purbeck. For some time now there has been fluctuating speeds and several Major Service Outages (MSO’s) which BT have been reluctant to acknowledge until after they had fixed them (not very professional!).

So, if you do live in the Isle of Purbeck and have experienced some weirdness with your broadband connection, please visit Purbeck Broadband and share your frustration with us.

An interesting and possibly thought provoking short film about why the internet will probably be censored… one day… maybe?

Source: SpaceCollective.org

Prizes include:

1. A custom 125×125 design and 1 month free advertising on 125Cards.com
2. 1000 Entrecard points to spend however you like
3. Another 1 month advert spot on 125Cards.com

To qualify, all you have to do is subscribe to 125Cards (via Email or RSS), then leave a comment on the post Win a Custom 125×125 Design, 1000 Entrecard Points and more… it’s that simple.

Last year I spent two months travelling around Europe in my VW Camper, I had actually planned to be away for four months, but while visiting Pisa in Italy my camper van was broken into and everything was stolen – cloths, food, books, dirty washing and my trusty PowerBook G4, all gone to some thieving ….

Anger eventual turned to frustration as all the things stolen where mealy materialistic and could be replaced, but one thing that frustrated me the most was that my laptop had all my holiday photos on, and although I could revisit the places and take more pictures, the mood and atmosphere would never be recaptured.

So I set about asking for it back, not necessarily my laptop, but the pictures that were on it. I tried a kind of laws of attraction thing, but without all the fuss of the secret (I personally don’t like that film/book). I imagined myself looking at the pictures and even showing them to my family and friends. Then…

…about a month after I returned to the UK, I received an email from a guy in Italy who claimed to have bought my laptop. I attempted to do the right thing and informed the Police, but that resulted in five months messing around and eventually a big fat nothing. So six months after receiving the original email I opened up a dialogue with the guy, and after a lot of talking he eventually agreed to sell it back to me – a kind of reward if you like!

Then on 23rd January, after almost seven months in limbo, my laptop was back on my desk. Amazingly it had found its way home, but even more amazing, after 24 hours of running some data recovery software, I managed to restore about 90% of my my holiday photos as well.

I still can’t actually believe it – I look at my laptop on my desk and just smile. I really thought I had lost it for good, but it just goes to show, weird and wonderful things can and do happen if you only put your mind to it – even if it does seem a bit mumbo jumbo!

Not 100% sure exactly what I have won, but I’ll let you know in full as soon as I have the details. If you wondering what this is all about and why you didn’t enter – head over to the rather excellent Bloggin-Ads to fine out.

Making money needs a special kind of dedication and commitment which keeps you going, even when things look bad. There is also a fine line between knowing when to keep going or when to quit a bad idea. I think I failed all of the above and as a result I have wasted a lot of my time running around after foolhardy ideas, and not dedicating myself to the things that were working.

I am now going to wipe the slate clean and give it another go. The knowledge I have learned over the last four months will be used to hopefully help me get things right. I have learned the hard way as they say, and I think it has taught me to respect the knowledge of others and that you do not necessarily need to come up with a new winning formula. In fact, the last four months have blatantly made it clear to me that there is plenty of room out there to actually copy somebody else’s really good idea and make it work for yourself. All you need to do is put your own spin on it.

So that is what I am planning to do. It’s not lazy, not stealing (especially if you pay for somebody else’s knowledge) and it is definitely not cheating. It is however, hard work and requires that special commitment — qualities I think I now have and understand!

In the middle of moving house, I received an email from my hosting company saying my account was in violation of their Terms and Conditions.

It took ten days to get connected to the net at my new house, and by then my host had suspended my account and nothing was working.

Fortunately a good friend of mine allowed me to lug my iMac up to his house and use his internet for a day so I could sort out the mess – in short… I was using old versions of Wordpress that had vulnerabilities. A very bad idea as these vulnerabilities were being abused by someone or something which caused my T&C violation.

I had plained to return davinian to its previous state ASAP, but what with all the DIY and sorting out my new house I just haven’t had the time.

Anyway, I’m back and I think everything is sorted. I have sucessfuly moved house, and I’m now living in Dorset, not far from the coast and to be honest, enjoying having my own place again.

Well, I’m back! Miss me? Don’t answer that… It was fantastic weather in Wales (see above). And the break from the computer gave me some much needed time to think about some projects I have had in the back of my mind since I went travelling in Europe earlier this year. I also finished one book and started another that I had been carrying around for several weeks – so a good rest and catch up.

Right, notes, research and more notes… and strong coffee!!!

But before I go, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has shown interest in my first free Wordpress theme called Tumbled. It was downloaded over 40 times in the first day, and as many again after I released the update yesterday evening. Amazing!

Right, the camper van is loaded up, so it is time to hit the road… now where is that nice sunny weather we were supposed to be having today?

Anyway, just tweaked a few things here on Davinian:

1. Removed the over-sized RSS logo from the top of the sidebar – I have no idea why I made it so big, but it was taking up too much room – so its gone and in its place I’ve added the Feedburner feed stats.
2. After playing around with an additional ad on single posts, I’ve decided to move them from the top-right to the bottom of the post just above the comments area. I’ll continue to monitor its performance and see if it is really worth having a 3rd ad box at all.
3. You may have noticed that there is now Related Posts at the bottom of ever post. I meant to implement this from the start, but completely forgot to add in he necessary code when I re-designed everything on the 14th August (I’m wondering what else I forgot?).

OK, not a bad few hours this morning – especially as I’m a little hung-over!