After a great deal of thought, I have decided the time is right to retire from international football.

Toxic Web.

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Since posting about Marco Kuiper’s Advanced jQuery Background Slideshow, and the modifications I made to it it’s garnered a bit of interest and a few requests for various additions as you can see in the comments.

Well I’ve changed a couple of things since that first version, to make things a bit easier to use.

First up there’s the latest version of jQuery, 1.8.1, so it works with that – I’ve only checked it with Chrome, so other browsers may require some finessing, or dropping down a version of jQuery.

All the options have been moved from the plugin.js file to the .html file, as it really should be, with some new additions.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/plugin.js"></script>	
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {	
$('headerimgs').bgimgSlideshow({
slideshowSpeed: 6000,
method : "fade", /* slide or fade, default is fade */
fadeSpeed : 2000, /* how quickly one image fades/slides into the next */
contDiv : "#header", /* id or class of div you want the images to appear in. */
imgDir : "images/",
markup1 : '<div id="headerimgs">\
	   <div id="headerimg1" class="headerimg"></div>\
	   <div id="headerimg2" class="headerimg"></div>\
	   </div>',
markup2 :'<div id="headernav-outer">\
	  <div id="headernav">\
	  <div id="back" class="btn"></div>\
	  <div id="control" class="btn"></div>\
	  <div id="next" class="btn"></div>\
	  </div>\
	  </div>\
	  <div id="headertxt">\
	  <p class="caption">\
	  <span id="firstline"></span>\
	  <a href="#" id="secondline"></a>\
          </p>\
	  <p class="pictured">\
	  Pictured:\
	  <a href="#" id="pictureduri"></a>\
	  </p>\
	 </div>',
photos : [{
	"title" : "Stairs",
	"image" : "vacation.jpg",
	"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1271909",
	"firstline" : "Going on",
	"secondline" : "vacation?"
	}, {
	"title" : "Office Appartments",
	"image" : "work.jpg",
	"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1265695",
	"firstline" : "Or still busy at",
	"secondline" : "work?"
	}, {
	"title" : "Mountainbiking",
	"image" : "biking.jpg",
	"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1221065",
	"firstline" : "Get out and be",
	"secondline" : "active"
	}, {
	"title" : "Mountains Landscape",
	"image" : "nature.jpg",
	"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1271915",
	"firstline" : "Take a fresh breath of",
	"secondline" : "nature"
	}, {
	"title" : "Italian pizza",
	"image" : "food.jpg",
	"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1042413",
	"firstline" : "Enjoy some delicious",
	"secondline" : "food"
	}]});
	});
	</script>

The images are now just the name of the image file and doesn’t include the folder path to the file, that’s part of the options imgDir. The value of this needs changed to reflect where the images are in relation to the .html file.

The plugin.js file has also been altered to reflect the image directory path option.

Download version 1.2 – version 1.0.1 is still available, so you can view the changes – there’s also a version 1.2 with thumbnails that was requested v1.2 thumbs.

The latest version is v1.3.1. It has added options for randomising, as asked about below in the comments, along with the thumbnails, which have been made better. And the whole thing has been cleaned up to come up error free when checked with JSHint and checked with the latest version of jQuery (1.9.1)

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I was searching around teh interweb for a piece of jQueried javascript that would rotate background images for the header of a site I’m thinking of redoing.

There’s a number out there but mainly just standard carousel type things for image viewing rather than background changing. The one I kept coming back to was Marco Kuiper’s Advanced jQuery Background Slideshow (demo).

Marco’s work put all the info for stuff like the blocks of text within the .js file, while I required a plugin style where I could have info generated in the html file passed to the script. Luckily Sylvain Papet from Com-Ocean had converted Marco’s script into such a plugin. Unfortunately it still didn’t quite meet my requirements. Couldn’t find a way for it to handle the markup spat out by a WordPress widget.

Anyway the main problem to begin with was getting the plugin to work, lot of people commentating on Marco’s original post seemed to be struggling as well. So after a bit of searching round and some actual work on my part, I think I may have cracked it.

I’ve changed a few things and added a couple. You can check out and download my version from here – this is version 1.0.1 there’s a new version (see below). There are three new options.

options = jQuery.extend({
slideshowSpeed: 6000,
method : "fade", /* slide or fade, default is fade */
fadeSpeed :2000, /* how quickly one image fades/slides into the next */
contDiv : "#header", /* id or class of div you want the images to appear in. */

Method: this is how the images change from one to the next. Default is fade as in the original or you can change it to slide so the images slide out to the left, revealing the next one.

fadeSpeed: This is the speed at which the fade or slide occurs.

contDiv: This is the id or class of the containing div you want the background images, control buttons and text boxes to be in. #header in the original can be changed to what ever you want, just remember the . for class or # for id. As I’ve kept the same css as Marco’s original a different way had to be found for the plugin to add the markup.

The images and text box options have been moved from the script to the html file. So your version of the following should be added below the plugin which is below the call for jQuery.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/plugin.js"></script>
		
	<script type="text/javascript">
	$(function() {	
	    $('headerimgs').bgimgSlideshow({photos : [{
		"title" : "Stairs",
		"image" : "images/vacation.jpg",
		"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1271909",
		"firstline" : "Going on",
		"secondline" : "vacation?"
	}, {
		"title" : "Office Appartments",
		"image" : "images/work.jpg",
		"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1265695",
		"firstline" : "Or still busy at",
		"secondline" : "work?"
	}, {
		"title" : "Mountainbiking",
		"image" : "images/biking.jpg",
		"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1221065",
		"firstline" : "Get out and be",
		"secondline" : "active"
	}, {
		"title" : "Mountains Landscape",
		"image" : "images/nature.jpg",
		"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1271915",
		"firstline" : "Take a fresh breath of",
		"secondline" : "nature"
	}, {
		"title" : "Italian pizza",
		"image" : "images/food.jpg",
		"url" : "http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1042413",
		"firstline" : "Enjoy some delicious",
		"secondline" : "food"
	}]});
	});
	</script>

The images need the path to the folder they’re in from the html file.

You can view/download my version of things here – this is version 1.0.1 there’s a new version (see below) – and check them against the original files found at Marco’s site (link above).

I’ve checked it in the latest Chrome & Firefox and IE9 and it all seems to work but chances are there’ll be bugs somewhere and would be better to move some of the options out of the plugin file.

Edit: there’s a new version of the plugin available see this post.

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So things are back being reddish and orangey around here instead of deafultish and bland I believe was the word Flash used. Hey it’s only taken how long???

Well we’ll see how long the server stands up to version 4.5 of Toxic Web – all new and improved now with added html5 and css3. OK so the look is still very roughly the same.

A load of plugins have been given the heave-ho, lot of functionality switched to javascript, so you’re browser does the work not my server, therefore you’ll need jscript switched on if it isn’t there’s a nice warning telling you over on the right hand side. Speaking of browsers if anyone’s using an old one then tough, certain things ain’t gonna be looking right. Forget Microisoft’s campaign to rid us of Internet Explorer 6, I’ve gone one better as I really couldn’t be arsed figuring out what was wrong with IE 7.

Update now or better change *cough*Chrome*cough* or be left behind.

So it’s been tested on the the last couple of versions of Chrome (10 to 12), Safari (4 & 5), Opera (10 & 11), Firefox (3.6 & 4.0) and on IE8 and is working to my satisfaction but there may be a couple of glitches here and there but there’ll get ironed out.

First thing I have to check is how well the caching setup works with new posts and that’ll be done by this post

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Anyone stumping up here over the last couple of days – anyone? anyone? no-one? – will have been met with a nice 403 error page, for the second time this year.

I never touched it, honest guv.

Second time and again it’s due to the same thing, something within the site is taking up far too much of the server’s resources and so taking down the whole thing. So the hosts had really no option than to block access to the index page and inform me, with a few suggestions.

First time round I reckoned it was due to a backup plugin, which emailed me a gzipped backup of the database every week. Database had got so big that the file wasn’t being zipped and email but just put in a folder on the server. So back then the plugin was deactivated and deleted. A couple of other plugins went the same way, moving from php to jscript, mainly the external link icon and the last.fm latest track list.

Another of the suggestions was to use a caching plugin, namely W3 Total Cache, which I did, hosts tested it and things seemed to be fine by them. Wasn’t too sure about the caching, seemed to slow things down a lot and things weren’t right with other sections of the site, especially admin such as deleting spam comments.

So at the time I decided on an upgrade of the theme, switching more things from php to javascript, finding ways of shifting things from plugins and widgets, generally cutting down queries to the database, less use of php and everything that puts strain on the server.

Then the other night another email, same thing. Of course I was away at the time and knew nowt about it and so yesterday the site was down for quite a bit. This time round it seemed the main culprit was a mixture of the Twitter Tools plugin and W3 Total Cache both of them leading to a massive error_log file.

Now the process of upgrading everything had been put on the back-burner due to other commitments. So when faced with this again it seemed the easy option and best to get the site up and running again was a switch to the default WordPress theme and get rid of all the plugins possible. That is most of those not involved in stopping spam and securing the site, a few were kept which are necessary to the running of the place and the caching plugin was replaced with another suggested one, which so far seems to have far a far less negative impact on the site.

So that’s why we find ourselves here in default land. Everything was done in a bit of a hurry, so things might not be working perfectly but I’m on the case…

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The various sections of the site, outlined below, can be reached with the navigation menu above, sub-sections from menus that will be in the right hand column.

The site has been coded with the latest browsers in mind.

You seem to be using IE8 the latest version of Internet Explorer so everything should be fine. Though your enjoyment might be enhanced by a better browser such as Chrome – Links Software section.You seem to be using an older version of IE. We’d suggest you should upgrade to version 8, if you can’t Chrome is a great substitute. You can find links to both in the Links Software section.You seem to be using a non IE browser, FireFoxChromeSafariOpera, hopefully the latest version – at least version 2215511.1 – to get the best out of the site.

Info about the latest updates on the site can be found in the Sites section of the Blog.

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@neko_case Or jonrauhouse.com #

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@rutty_uk I had to really cut down and install a cache plugin, was taking down the whole server #

@RedAntiques I hate him so much that I hate games in which he's involved, I can't even joke about it #

@RedAntiques All I'll say is last season he didn't feature by far as much as previous and we didn't fail to get into top 4 as previously #

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@osc_pro @thefunkhouse and sign all those players that make up the crap squad, oh and take Torres off when you were one down oh and… #

@osc_pro @thefunkhouse Won the CL with Houlilier's players and sold 'em on for Lucas & Bable & Ngog #

@osc_pro @thefunkhouse More fluky bugger who was found out after getting away with it because focus on Yanks #

Yngwie J Papsmear's new signature Marshall has some nice additions, every amp should have an attenuator, I want a 0.05 watt Marshall #

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@yawnerddn there'd only be Judas out of your lot that wouldn't leave him for dead. #

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