Creating Drop-Down Menus For a Website

A drop-down menu is essentially a table, which is animated and contains links.

      Drop-down menus (also known as nested menus) in websites are slightly complicated to create if you're only used to HTML pages where everything is made in the one HTML file.

      It's just conceptually a little different, and once you understand the theory of it, it's easy to make

Making a drown-down menu requires 3 elements

• The actual drop-down code in the website's HTML page, which looks like this (click to enlarge):  

• A CSS stylesheet
, which is placed in the home folder of the website (which basically gives all the details of how the menu is shaped and looks) You change certain values in this file to change how the table looks (namely size & colour)

• A javascript file, which is placed in the home folder of the website )which gives all the code for the animation of the website)

Putting It All Together

You assemble the table & put in the links in the main HTML document of your website.

The CSS stylesheet then puts additional graphics onto how the drown-down menu looks

Finally the javascript provides this table with animation

More information about making drop down menus (as well as a CSS stylesheet and Javascript file) can be downloaded at: 

http://www.scriptiny.com/2008/04/sliding-javascript-dropdown-menu/

How to put an Equaliser on your PC - Stops the Crappy Speakers Sounding Tinny

Laptop speakers are on the whole pretty crappy; they sound tinny and give a nasty quality of sound

To fix this, and have an EQ on all your sound (not just in say iTunes), it's pretty easy to get a graphic equalizer on a PC laptop.

Firstly you need to download realtek software for your speakers (it may well already be used as the standard driver). You can download Realtek codecs for your laptop >>here<<.

Once installed, you have the ability to put a custom graphic equaliser setting on your speakers (as well as some presets if prefered)


(this is done in Windows 7 - but it'll also work for XP & Vista, the control panel layout etc. is just a little different)

Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound

Now double click the speaker logo, or right-click and choose properties

From here, select the enhancements tab, and on the check-box menu, check the 'equalizer' box

Below that, you can either choose one of the presets, or you can select the custom by taking click on the "..." button o the right of the drop-down menu

An eq then appears, and set it to how you like (basses boosted, trebles dulled)

Apply this setting, and from here on, all your sound will be EQ'd ending that pesky, crap quality sound on your laptop

How to Mount an ISO image on your PC

If you want to use a CD file on your PC without having to burn it to disc, then you need to mount the .ISO file in your computer. (this is for instance if you've downloaded a game, or other piece of software).

You're effectively making a virtual CD Drive (emulator)

On a Mac this is part of the built in operating system, but for a PC you'll need a bit of software to do that for you.

A great little piece of software for doing this for free is Daemon Tools - you can download the Lite Version of their software and use it free (for personal, non commercical use) >>here<<

Not only can you use this software to mount an image (.iso file) (emulate a disc drive), but you can also make them too

As you install, make sure you select all options to enable the emulator (you'll have to reboot)

Once that's done, just open the .iso file in Daemon Tools & you're off. Have fun!

Apple Mac Hard Disk Defragging

Defragging any computer's hard disk is a very handy way to help increase your computer's speed.

Essentially imagine a computer's hard disk is like a massive library. Over time you just keep lobbing more and more books in without properly organising them, so when you have to go and find one, it takes for damned ever.

Defragging (defragmentation) of your hard disk is essentially reorganising all the 'books' (blocks) and putting them into a nice, logical order, so your computer can quickly find them - thus speeding up your computer!

To do this on a PC you can just use the operating system's built-in defragging tool - pretty straightforward (access it by right-clicking on your hard disk > properties > tools)

On a mac - you sadly need to shell out a small amount of cash - but don't worry it's not much!

I recommend iDefrag (yes they sent me a copy for evaluation.)

www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php

They've won the Macworld Award (the biggest mac magazine currently in print) and are cheaper than their competitors, but provide a great, intutitve, easy-to-use interface

The cost is about £24 ($30ish) - which is frankly a bargain for what it offers

Once it's opened, it'll scan the hard disk (you may have to input your password to give the software access) and visually show you how it looks. Once that's done, all you need to do is click the big 'Go' button and you're off! 

My Hard Disk Pre-format (those colours at the bottom should be grouped)

Couldn't be simpler. Now just leave your mac to sit about for a while to get to work and you're done =)

N.B. You can do more advanced things such as choosing the Algorithm it uses to make the hard disk more efficient - basically Compact is fastest, but does the fewest fundamental improvements.

Apple Mac OS X Won't Boot From CD / DVD

This one's a right doozy and is quite serious, awkward to do to your mac and oh yeah - I did it twice...

Checkout this article, but if you don't have all these symptoms. You probably require repairs if you've got to this stage.

So if you're trying to boot your Mac from the Mac OS X install disc to either format your hard drive, reinstall part of the operating system or to use a utility - you may find it won't work (you cannot for some reason boot the mac from the install disc as you always could).

You get the boot up screen, but the spinning gear just keeps spinning (you can hear the CD drive responding)

Spinning Gear Going On Forever

When you restart your computer with the disc in the drive and hold down the 'C' key and it tries to boot but isn't working - you'll be able to tell if it is:

• Loaded the apple logo
• The spinning gear is going
• The spinning gear won't go into a load sequence

You know your computer's:

• Install disc is clean
• Optical drive is working
• Hard drive works
• Firmware (data on the computer's chips) works as it can get to this stage  / load from the hard disk

Basically - you got a hardware error. Something has gone wrong with your computer's chips. (most likely at any rate - you can try a network boot; I didn't get this to work Apple claimed they just did this; I'm almost 100% certain they did something different)

Firstly - update Mac OS X to all the latest firmware etc. just to check it's working and try again - also make sure you're using the original install discs that come with the computer; they just tend to be more inclined to work

After this - it's time to call apple and get that bad-boy repaired. I hope you're in warranty!

If you're trying to install the operating system again, one root you can go try is network installation - for how to do that, checkout this article here. You need 2 computers and a network to do a remote install, but they can be 2-macs or a mac and a PC. This said I never managed to get this to work... it wouldn't load network boot in the way it was supposed to do so...

N.B. - Further Indicators You have This Problem

If for instance Disk Utility stops working and/or your mac hangs on a blue screen on shutdown, you'll wanna load from a time machine backup or reinstall from the Mac OS X disc. Problem is you may well not be able to do it because you won't be able to boot from or a CD (the time machine root may or may not work, it does also breaks for some people whilst for others its fine)

UPDATE 1: Apple have informed me that the installation discs for 10.6.3 create this problem and that you need 10.6.4 - however 10.6.4 discs don't exist and another branch of the company said 10.6.3 should work without issue... useful eh?