I have picked 25 pictures of the 200 odd that I took as I probably missed a lot of the stuff as it was hidden around other exhibits around the museum. Here are some of my highlights….

Allow the shit photos.. think my camera is on the blink too much blur going on for my liking!

I’m not a massive art fan but I’m really into the stuff he produces….Latest was his exhibition in Bristol that has been running for a few weeks here are some of the exhibits from there good huh? Who is Banksy?

Ride reviews and stuff after the jump.

Colossus

For me probably the scariest ride believe it or not probably because of the feeling that it really isn’t safe and it so noisy it could be mistaken for a jet plane, all kinds of funny stomach feelings and the cork screws at the end fucked me up. Cued for front row seats (first ride of the day) which probably added to the experience.

Rating: 4/5

Saw – The Ride

Out of all the ride this was my highlight worth the wait in the cue which was quite long but to be expected as the ride is new this year. I won’t give too much away but theres more to than the promo video on the site best ride I have been on to date. As well as the standard photo when you get off, you are also filmed by a camera in the seat infront of you. So you can take away a dvd of your trip around Saw… all kinds of screw faces and shouting to be seen… very funny.

I’d recommend a fast-track for this even if you don’t get one for the other rides.

Rating: 5/5

Nemesis Inferno

If you’ve been on the one at Alton Towers, you have been on this fairly sure they are identical rides. Didn’t enjoy this as much as I should as it was ridden post lunch (always worried that my lunch would depart me). But yer I love nemesis so no doubt this was good it was just the post lunch timing that went against it.

Rating: 3/5

Stealth

0-80 in less than 2 seconds and something like a 100ft drop says it all really. Whatever you do don’t close your eyes to try and get a better experience… the ride only lasts 8 seconds so by the time you open them you are half way up the climb..oops! But this ride is so rapid that you don’t really have time to think about it .. quality ride though!

Rating: 4/5

Tidal Wave

If you don’t like getting wet or if its cold&windy do not go on this unless you want hyperthermia never been more wet from a ride in my life and don’t think you can stratigically place your self from getting wet there is no escape. Head to foot dampness (trainers were still wet saturday morning)! What sums the ride up is a sign which states “This ride will get you extremely wet” – too true!

Rating: 3/5

X:\No way out

Quite simply do not get in the cue unless you are under the age of 14 ish…. what a waste of a hour – awful, knee basher of a ride!

Rating: 0/5

These were the big attractions obviously there are lots of thing to do and see think entry for an adult is £35 but there also seems to a lot of buy one get one free offers around at the moment. Also if you do want to get fast track get it early on like first thing when there isn’t a cue as a few hours in the cue for fast track can get quite long.

Pick from a selection of different types of graphics enough to suit every site. Pick a background colour using the colour pick or supply hex code or go for transparent. The same applies for a foreground colour. Lets go for white background colour and the blue of my site for foreground as an example. Hit generate and it pops up in the box below hit download and there you have it a custom loading graphic…

Ajaxload – Ajax loading gif generator

Just put it out there if any one is in need of any web work – site updates, site creation, funky JavaScript effects, bit of php here and there anything at all really get in touch.

From my initial introduction into the backend of the system it seemed a little daunting but once you get used to where everything is, it all becomes a lot simpler – it also helps if you get yourself a copy of manual to flick through great little reference throughout the project, also if you have someone who has used the system before (cheers Pete) will help.

Most things you could possibly want to customize are included such as custom fields, extra fields for products/sections etc also you can turn desired functionality on and off with a flick of a switch in the backend – shipping type, tax etc. This makes for minimal need for hacks to both the core code and database which makes the implementation of JShop simple and easy.

Saying that if you do require to add code this is straightforward as long as you know your stuff (php/javascript), the code is clearly laid out so when I did need to make a simple tweak there wasn’t too much pain involved. Although I would advise not hacking too much as one it isn’t supported by Jshop – two it could hinder any future updates – which are free once you have purchased the license. I guess with custom code its knowing when you have added too much… always comment what’s been added you can always remove for an update and add back in.

Once you have mastered the backend functionality the only thing left is the templating system which is one of the best things I have worked with easy enough for a non developer to understand. Making loops/if else simple and adding anything returned from the database as easy as {customer.name} which allows you to create any look and feel you could possibly want. This is fairly laborious task but taking each page one at a time and adding your own styles the site soon comes together it would take a considerable amount of time to knock up each template from scratch.

I’m yet to decide if to start fresh css as wise as it doesn’t make the best use of it, a lot of time was spent adjusting font sizes, colours, sizes but for speed adjusting the two css files works just fine – the css is never going to be 100% but it works just fine…

If you do purchase and need any support the forums are fairly handy but the email support is even better I emailed with a fairly complex problem and the guys on there support team knocked up a template in order for me to allow me to achieve what I needed to… worth every penny!!

To sum up I would highly recommend this for any kind of shop you could want, a lot of thought has gone into what a shop might what to do and this is all made available – out of the box. This then allows you to spend your time adjusting templates to your own look and feel. The checkout process is smooth and clear it gives the customer complete control over there orders… Within the system I don’t think there is anything else you could possibly want to add unless you had really specialist processes involved in your order process if you want a shop online this gives you exactly that I don’t think you could want more – unless you are picky with minor details. The likes of play/amazon aren’t going to offer much more functionality wise (related products/reviews etc) to that what Jshop is going to offer, even if the processes might be slightly different.

To create something similar would take at least 5+ months development time perhaps…. With JShop out of the box to live site 15/20 days dev time the next one would be quicker.

You do the maths….

Check JShop out

As you can see from the title of this site I class myself as a developer but why? Put simply to make a website function you DO NOT need design it just makes it easier on the eye, prime example is cssnakedday (take away all design/colours/images and the site should still be workable). To get a website on the internet you do not need any design skill – a websites main role is the functionality and linking of pages – a lot of the time it would be better to strip the so called design.

The “designer” just makes the site clearer and gives it that warmth and ease of use for the visitor. From my few years experience a lot of websites are designed by people from a print background that have adapted with the change where designing for web is a completely different kettle of fish – some grasp it better than others.

I admit to not being the worlds best designer however I don’t think as a developer you can ignore what is looking good on your page and what is looking bad. When developing a site you see the same pages over and over again so I think this hinders your capabilities of a designer. If you are looking at the same thing over and over again repeatedly you are going to miss little things plus I’m concentrating on functionality of how to get things to function than the smaller design led changes.

For example if you had two days to develop a site I’m going to concentrate on functionality/coding and split my time according and make that my priority say 80% that gives me 20% to apply styles. That 20% isn’t going to be enough to apply all styles and design to a page

So I guess it comes to down to priorities if you are building a data driven website which requires functionality you need to spend more time to get it to work than applying the design as without the functionality you have no website at all – hence why I see myself as a web developer – that design means nothing if you have no structure it just helps a hell of a lot in getting traffic to your site.

Although design is an important factor without the development knowledge – you have no website. I spend a lot of my time creating layouts and styling using css – is this design? Yes but I’m yet to met a designer that can produce semantic HTML/CSS no doubt they are out there though. I could go on and on but I’ll leave it there…for today

Things I am not are “A techie”