jemjabella

Thank F... for Co-Sleeping

Confession time: we co-sleep. Shock! Horror! Apparently this is going to cause me to roll onto and murder my child, yadda yadda yadda.

It's all accidental of course. I didn't plan to co-sleep, and we didn't start this way. Still, when you're feeding a newborn who's waking every few hours for a feed there's nothing worse than having to drag your weary arse out of bed, fetch baby — who by this point is wide awake and hungry, and letting you know about it — feed said baby and then get them back to their cot/crib/whatever without waking them up again.

So, I quickly learned that it's much easier to just stick baby on their side, attach to boob, and go back to sleep. Baby feeds, baby sleeps, no movement or arsing about involved.

Isabel was having a rare disturbed night last night. Waking more frequently than normal and having difficulty settling (she was busy singing and gurgling to herself instead) and I realised that, were we not co-sleeping, I'd have had to get up and down about 8-9 times last night.

It's no wonder parents of young babies are expected to be exhausted, quivering wrecks. Personally? Couldn't be better, cheers for asking. ;)

Optimising Windows 7 for the AA1

I finally reached the end of my tether with Linpus on my netbook last week. Although it has the potential to be a nifty, quick operating system, it's so restrictive that it makes the iPhone look good ;) Despite there being guides detailing how to unlock certain parts, remove unnecessary bloat etc, any power user soon gets itchy fingers trying to have things their way.

So, I considered my options... and decided to go with Windows 7. Ubuntu do a nice netbook remix but I've seen Win7 on Karl's netbook and have been fairly impressed. Not wishing to just fangirl over another Windows OS without even trying it I got him to flatten Linpus and put it on a few days ago. Colour me impressed. Bearing in mind that the default spec of the AA1 is a single core 1.6GHz Intel Atom with 512MB RAM, it fairly nips along with the whole Aero kit and kaboodle turned on — transparency, special effects and everything.

With that said, a few small optimisations later and this thing is flying. I'd even say (without benchmarking, you must understand) that it's faster than Linpus. So, what have I tweaked and what should you do?

• Turn off Aero — it looks good but with only 512MB RAM you do notice the difference between having it on and off. No need to go back to Windows 95 effects though, the Win7 Basic theme is fast and still looks shiny. You can take this further by telling windows to Adjust for Best Performance in the control panel, but I like to customise each option.
• Install Chrome — Chrome is a much faster browser than the rest on offer. It's not my first choice normally but I ran Firefox under Linpus and it crippled the netbook.
• Turn off the browser cache — as I have a relatively speedy connection, it's faster to fetch images/etc from the server each time than wait for them to be written to the SSD. HOWEVER, this is not ideal for long term browsing because it kicks the arse out of web servers, and bandwidth limits. Karl has an alternate solution that makes use of portable Firefox and relocating your cache folder, I'll get him to write it up.
• Disable services — don't do this if you don't know what you're doing (insert proper disclaimer here). I personally disable the Firewall (our router has one built in), Windows Search, Windows Updates, etc. You'll find help with which services do what job elsewhere on the 'net.
• Use ReadyBoost — I've an 8GB SD card which I was using for extra space on Linpus, although I didn't necessarily need it (I only use it for IRC and coding when Izz is asleep on my lap or on the boob anyway) so I have dedicated 2GB of it to ReadyBoost. I can't tell yet if this has made any positive difference, but it can't hurt, right?

With all that said, Windows 7 is definitely netbook friendly. Considering the trend of OSes and programs getting more bloated with each version, it's odd to be running something so new and actually noticing a positive speed difference. I'm considering buying the cheapo XP upgrade version and popping it on the Dell, too.

More Books for Sale

All books in excellent condition unless otherwise specified. Postage varies by weight of book but should be no more than £2.50 p/book. Will ship to UK and Europe. I'll undercut the market 'new'/'like new' price on Amazon for each book by £2, or if damaged matching price like for like in terms of condition. Contact me via jem@jemjabella.co.uk for a more specific quote.

Coding/design/software books:

• PHP 5 Advanced by Larry Ullman - ISBN: 0-321-37601-3
• PERL in easy steps by Mike McGrath - ISBN: 1-84078-260-9
• Hackish PHP Pranks & Tips by Michael Flenov - ISBN: 1-931769-52-4
• Advanced PHP Programming by George Schlossnagle - ISBN: 0-672-32561-6 (dirty cover)
• Defensive Design for the Web by 37signals - ISBN: 0-7357-1410-X
• The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag - ISBN: 0-321-30347-4
• How to Break Web Software by Mike Andrews and James A. Whittaker - ISBN: 0-321-36944-0
• Graphic Design School by Thames & Hudson - ISBN: 0-500-28526-8 (back cover curled slightly)
• Layout Workbook by Kristin Cullen - ISBN: 1-59253-352-3
• 250 HTML and Web Design Secrets by Molly E. Holzschlag - ISBN: 0-7645-6845-0
• Graphic Design Cookcook by Koren/Meckler - ISBN: 0-8118-3180-9
• Mac OS X Tiger Pocket Guide by Chuck Toporek - ISBN: 0-596-00914-3 (free - just cover shipping)
• Color for Websites by Molly E. Holzschlag - ISBN: 2-88046-741-1
• CSS Pocket Reference by Eric Meyer - ISBN: 0-596-00777-9
• Teach Yourself JavaScript by Mac Bride - ISBN: 0-340-81129-3

Other:

• 500 Digital SLR Hints, Tips and Techniques by Chris Weston - ISBN: 2-940378-06-1
• Cracking the Da Vinci Code by Simon Cox - ISBN: 1-84317-103-1
• Baby's First Year with Hollie Smith - ISBN: 978-0-7533-1801-8 (too mainstream for my tastes)
• Delia's Kitchen Garden by Gay Search - ISBN: 978-0-563-49373-0
• The Da Vinci Code (Special Illustrated Collector's Edition) - ISBN: 0-593-05425-3
• The Best Friends' Guide to... Pregnancy by Vicky Iovine - ISBN: 978-0-7475-3325-2
• The Digital Photography Handbook by Doug Harman - ISBN: 1-905204-14-0

I may add/remove books from this list at my discretion; struck-out are already sold.

Furry Friday: Stuff on my Cat

What's this, a post that's not about babies or breastfeeding? Who'd have thought it.

Insert Bee Related Pun Here

One of the million things I've been trying to fit around Isabel's naps, hospital, dentist appointments, vaccinations and heaven knows what else I'm forgetting lately is the quilting bee. Again.

The winning layout from a contest we held last year has finally been coded up:

...and so we're having a "House Swarming Party" to celebrate (get it.. house swarming, house warming? never mind..) as well as the famed easter egg hunt of years gone by. Also known as the activity in which Jem has to arrange the locations for around 300 pixelled eggs, on over a hundred members' sites, so that everyone can then go and find them. Yes, not the easiest one to organise, but definitely one of the best to participate in.

Anyway, the reason why I'm blogging about the q*bee is — aside from the new layout — because we recently had some rule changes which may or may not effect those of you who've expressed an interest in joining previously. For example, we have abolished the rule about having your own layout; the q*bee is after all about friendship. We've also reduced the required trade amount down to 1 a month to make it easier for bees busy with school/work/family etc.

I've been running the q*bee for 4 years this year. Crazy, eh? Now, it's just a shame I'm no better at pixelling after all this time...