DLMac.com :: Darren McKee :: Web Developer

Business is booming

Darren McKee — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:07:19 +0000

Since leaving my job in the middle of the year to start my own business, things have been non-stop. I’ve finally had the chance to get a site happening for myself, to show off a few of the developments that I’ve been involved in over the last 4-5 months.

The site can be viewed at http://darrenmckee.com and please contact me through that site if you would like some advice, a quote or any help in getting your website off-the-ground or working exactly the way you want it to.

Champagne Comedy

Darren McKee — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 07:45:01 +0000

With the rain falling and YouTube-a-humming, there is nothing like reliving some memories.

This is the first episode of Bargearse, starring Tony Martin, Rob Sitch, Jane Kennedy and Mick Molloy. Mick Molloy incidentally is reportedly filiming a pilot for a new Channel 9 show.

These guys are great, and the majority of them are still part of or appear in Working Dog Productions that have produced such shows as The Panel, and Thank God You’re Here, the latter of which has had a U.S. version just begin airing in the States. Jason Alexander (George from Seinfeld) can be seen on it below in the first episode.

technorati tags:Comedy, Tony Martin, Mick Molloy, bargearse

Australian One Item a Day Sites

Darren McKee — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:21:00 +0000

I have previously briefly reported on Zazz here previously, but I thought I would check back in after all this time to see how the competition is going in their efforts to catch up. I find these sites as addictive as sugar-coated nicotine chocolate, and by the activity that is evident on these sites I would say that many other people have the same impulse-buying craving.
Two contenders have surfaced in the last year or so. The first CatchOfTheDay is backed by the DailyDeals site, and have done quite a lot of work to get interesting products onto the site. They have had Catch-A-Thons where they feature a number of products on their sister site, and their day to day products have been quite good. I actually like the way they haven’t stuck to the formula as stringently as Zazz, and they have a few extra products or “Small Fish” that appear along the side of the page.

The second “Contender” is SnapItUp but they have yet to really shine, woing to stiff competition and the fact that they have had atleast 2 protracted outtages.

The Alexa traffic for all three is shown below:

Comparing these however, to the king of One-Item-A-Day sites Woot! tells a story of how far they all have to go…

technorati tags:Zazz, CatchOfTheDay, Woot, SnapItUp, One-Item-A-Day, Alexa

How Good is Akismet

Darren McKee — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:47:47 +0000

After neglecting this blog for a while (read 6 months), it became quite a haven for SPAM. A decent pagerank + SPAM filter = Spammer Hard-on territory…. atleast that’s what their messages were telling me. Will she really want me more if I get an extra 3 inches? Probably. But If someone were to buy v14gra or c1al1s or b1g diCk Pi11s from someone, would they really do it from these guys? They must work but who the hell buys them? I guess guys that need an extra 3 inches or a rush of blood on the cheap. Anyway, it’s neither here nor there.

The real reason I have you all here, Imaginary Friends (™) is to discuss the wonders of Akismet. Since rediscovering this long-lost web site, I have installed Akismet using my trusty Wordpress Key, and it has already caught 30-40 of the dodgy pill vendors. It is a great piece of technology and an example of something that just works the way that it should and the way you want it to. Too often there are extra steps required that muddy an app and make it more complicated than necessary. In this case I am very impressed, and would like to send out a big dollop of Kudos to the Akismet team…wherever you are.

Now, if Akismet tried to sell me pills…..

technorati tags:Akismet, Wordpress, Spam, Spammers

Google Maps Internet Explorer Error

Darren McKee — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:57:31 +0000

After finally getting around to investigating this error:

Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet Site bla

When running Google Maps in IE6/7. I had a quick search, and a very helpful site popped up. Pretty simple fix, and I am sure that eventually this would have worked out, but this guy - Ryan Grant - has already done all the work. I post it here for people who are interested and to remind myself. Thanks Ryan and top work.

Impulse Buying….at its’ best.

Darren McKee — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 11:26:49 +0000

This site has gained a lot of popularity over the last month, but I am hoping it will do even more so. Zazz is a site that sells one product per day. If it sells out, you have to wait until midnight for the next day’s product to arrive. There has been some junk on there, but also some great (mostly tech-related) products on there as well, with the crappier stuff being in the minority.

They have sold PC’s, monitors, MP3 players, Coffee machines and many other cool things.
I now check it every day, and have even bought a couple of things. Check it out if you get a chance.

Every Video Game!

Darren McKee — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 14:10:45 +0000

Great site I found the other night, that uses the Potato Emulation software to convert many old console games into java applets. There are some great titles on here, and the software to convert games into applets is free.

Check out Every Video Game, but no lawsuits please when you lose your job and your wife leaves you…

So Simple….So Smart

Darren McKee — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 13:57:11 +0000

I saw this a few months ago but completely forgot about it. It was linked to from a site that I was recommended by a monk who used to dance with my dog.

I can’t remember how I originally found this site, but I am sure glad I did. I just found myself with a bit of an urge to hack something out on paper. Some designs that have been stuck in my head for a couple of days (poor buggers) and that would disappear into vapour if I didn’t get them into a hard copy.

I can barely write legibly let alone draw, so I usually like to have a grid of some sort or some lines available to guide my doodling. That’s when I remembered Pocket Mod. Having seen that there was a sudoku game as one of pocket mods pages (more in a second), I googled “paper print and fold sudoku” and Pocket Mod was found.

This site is one of my favourite pieces of creativity. Simple yet very effective. It allows you to create an 8 sectioned piece of paper, with each section containing a different kind of page. It can be a simple grid like I required, a shopping list, a calendar , a game of tic-tac-toe or a list of mathematic formulas. Then all there is to do is print and use it. So mind-numbingly simple.

Sure this could be hacked up with a bit of time in a word processor, but the simplicity with which it is achieved along with the neat Flash Interface and overall fuzzy feeling I get from using it, make Pocket Mod a breath of fresh air.

Digg Ad Revenue.

Darren McKee — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 04:38:20 +0000

Short article with a guesstimation on how much revenue Digg could make through advertising per month. These are some pretty impressive figures. I got to thinking that this wouldn’t be much if they hired an extensive staff, but considering the nature of the site, I doubt there is too much that needs to be done by employees. The only cost considerations would be servers and bandwidth, which although very substantial for the figures quoted, would not come near the amount they make through advertising.

read more | digg story

Addictive Flash Game

Darren McKee — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 07:07:52 +0000

I am a big fan of addictive games, and this one is no exception. Try to link up the paths so that there is a non-broken path between each colour “node”. First few levels are trivial, but get towards the double-figure levels, and the brain starts cranking into action.

Though the game is simple the interface is pretty nifty and smooth, and the game should keep you busy during those lunch breaks…

Link