At work i have been running a mass collaboration site for field hockey goalkeepers. I use Wordpress as a CMS as it easily allows multiple users to submit content to share.

Within my theme i wanted to display the “Site Admin” (the link to get to the Dashboard) but i didn’t want to call it the “Site Admin” as its not to obvious what this is. Here is how to change the “Site Admin” text name in my case i have change it to “My Dashboard”. See the image below;

It pritty simple to change it…when you know how and it took me a little while to find out so i thought i would share how to do it here;

1. Navigate to the folder wp-includes
2. Open up general-template.php
3. Search for (’Site Admin’)
4. Change this name to anything you want- make sure you keep the text inside the apostrophes – (’My Dashboard’)
5. Save the php file and upload it to your server.

Job Done!

I think BMW won…

Its always good to see a fellow Middlesex Product Designer getting their ideas out there and doing well.

In this years Core 77 Greener Gadgets competition the “Guilty Wallet” concept from Ruhel Mohammed who graduated from Middlesex University in 2007.  The concept of the Guilty Wallet attempts to reduce the impulsive consumer society and poses the question ‘do I really need this’?

More info is available on Ruhel’s blogger website.

There is 10 days of voting left for the competition, so give him a consideration for your vote; concept link. You can also look at all the entrys on the Core 77 gallery.

As part of my Engineering Product Design dissertation i included a time line of how the tennis racket has evolved since 1884.Source Wimbledon Tennis Museum.

Click here to download and read the dissertation “An Overview of tennis racket technology and the affect it has had on the game.” To view the time line please click the links below;

1884 – 1950

1960 – 1978

1982 – 1993

2005 – 2007

Many thanks to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum and Audrey Snell from the Kenneth Richie Library for all the help.

Check out top selling tennis rackets of 2007.

I submitted my Engineering Product Design dissertation in 2007. The dissertation was titled “An Overview of tennis racket technology and the affect it has had on the game.” Click here to download and read the dissertation.

Within my dissertation I discovered the top selling tennis rackets of 2007 season plus an analysis into the key selling points:

Top Rackets 2007

1. Babolat Pure Drive +

   Average selling price; £105

   Weight; 335 grams strung

   Composition; Graphite / Kevlar
   

   Key Selling features:

   Cortex system – Designed to filter out vibrations for a “purer feel of the ball”.

   Woofer – Interacting system between the frame and string to damp vibrations and eliminate string “lock up” allowing the strings to move.
   

   

   Babolat's top selling racket

   Babolat Website

2. Prince O3 White

   Average selling price; £110

   Weight; 320 grams strung

   Composition; Graphite Extreme, Titanium, Tungsten, Carbon

   Key selling features;

   Sweet spot – Gives the user a 59% larger sweet spot – through the “speedport” frame structure and “Tripple threat tungsten” providing as table racket.

   Swing speed – 24% faster through the air through less air resistance with the “speedport” frame technology.

   

   Prince #2 selling racket in 2007

   Prince Website

3. Wilson (K) Factor One 95

   Average selling price; £135

   Weight; 366 grams strung

   Composition; Karophite Black (Carbon Black, SI02 Molecules and graphite fibers)

   Key selling features;

   Increased feel – An external wing (k)onector increases the “dwell time” giving more control and a larger sweetspot “compact centre”.

   Stronger Stability – The “(K)ontour Yoke” and the “(K)arophite black” frame structure enhances stiffness at “(k)ey” stress points of the racket resulting in a 31% stronger racket.

   According to Wilson these features give a racket with 64% more control.

Wilson #3 best seller in 2007

Wilson Website

Source: Tennis Industry Association (2007) link who use TIA/Sports Marketing Surveys.

Another interesting are that may interest you is a Tennis Racket Timeline from 1884 – 2007.

Always useful; the size and dimensions of the pitch we love

Field Hockey Pitch Size: 100 × 60 yard (91.4 m × 55 m)

Field Hockey Goal Size: 7 feet (2.14 m) high and 12 feet (3.66 m) wide,

The D/ Circle Size: 16 yards (14.63 m) from the goal known as the shooting circle (or D or arc), with a dotted line 5 yards (5 m) from the semi-circle.

The 25 Yard Line: 25 yards (22.9 m) from each goal-line and in the centre of the field.

The Penalty Spot: Placed 7 yards (6.4 m) from the center of each goal.
Source: International Hockey Federation (FIH) in the “Rules of Hockey 2007/8″link

You may also be interested in downloading some field hockey pitch templates.

So i was mincing about on Facebook and i came across a mates status “Alex Ricketts says download our podcast! http://soundslikeradio.net/?p=14“

So i thought i would give it a go as he is normally a fairly funny and educated chap to talk to.

The Review:

First and foremost i’m quite interested in being Jons stalker – although it could prove quite difficult from the other side of the world. I would like to see a few more pictures on the website…especially of you Jon!

The podcast i thought gave a great mix of discussion and banter along with reviews of interesting topics ranging from music, politics and sport. I was big fan of the darts and snooker comparison and also the wine review was gem. Cheers for the mention gents … In all a “everything else i need from life!”

A few constructive comments;

• I think you could do with a few pics up on the site – was a good opportunity in #2 to get a beard snap up of Jon.

• Loving the new “un-commercial overplayed music” however i would like it to be the same volume as the rest of the podcast – its easier to listen to while doing work as i found myself having to change the volume throughout the podcast.

• Name- i quite like the Travistock name; but interested in what it actually means? A quick google search showed up with:
  Travistock Cup – Orlando
  Travistock Institute
  Its also a market town in West Devon.

  So could be nice to have some sort of meaning behind the name…my sugestion is a pirate/ jam/ names influenced  JAA. (Pronounce Jar)
  “The Jar Podcast”?!?

Check out the Sounds Like Radio website.

Direct link to:
Podcast#1
Podcast#2

I have just give knight times a facelift. The old site design is displayed below, please let me know your thoughts on the new vs old design.

Apologies for and inconvenience; the knighttimes homepage should be working soon…

I recently wanted to change my permalinks to the name of the post – so in my search reports i could identify each page. So a few clicks later my links had changed the fixed permalinks from the default to date and post name.

However to my horror his brought up;

“Forbidden, perhaps you need to change the file permissions for this document or upload an index page” on every page of my blog – including the wp log in.

After some searching i found the solution. Within your .htaccess file (located within your blog folder) add in the followg code and then upload this to your server to fix the problem.

Options -Indexes
Options +FollowSymLinks

Located in the Agroventures, Roterua, New Zealand Shweeb is the worlds first human powered monorail racetrack. The Shweeb was opened in November 2007 and attracted 10,000 visitors in its first year.

The track has pedal powered capsules that are suspended on a 200m long track that intertwines during the race. Riders sit in a reclined cycle position to race against each other on the precision timed track. Between one and 5 capsules can be loaded onto the track at one time, meaning teams or individuals can race. Speeds are reported to be reported to have reached 60kph on the track with the the tilt angle reaching over sixty degrees around corners.

Each race lasts three laps of the track; an average time to complete is about 3mins 20 seconds so to get up on the county leader board your looking for a time of sub 3mins(ish).

Shweeb Specs:

• Gears: 7
• Swing: 65 degrees left/ right
• Weight: 80kg
• Rider: 1.4 – 2m tall
• Max rider weight: 1200kg
• Drag Coef: 0.295
• Brakes: none

Future Potential;

Rumour has it that Centre Parks UK are looking to include a Shweeb like system…watch this space! Looking at the Shweeb website they are looking for business opportunities so better get in quick! Link

The Shweeb; sustainable travel?

One of the interesting things i came across on the Sweeb was the sustainable travel concept…

Here is a good stat from their website
“The average speed of a motor vehicle in central London in 1908 was 8 mph.  In 2008 it was still 8 mph.”

Indeed this does make you think….

I am unsure if the Shweeb will the next big thing that the LDA (London Development Agency) will splash out on for all commuters to Shweebing to work.  However i do think its an pretty interesting concept; this image resembles us getting that one step closer to the futuristic city’s portrayed in films I guess.

For more info check out: Schweeb.com