If you can’t be bothered to click here are some pictures;

Since Southanuk is a relatively old WordPress installation [Around 2006] it was using an old character set, namely latin_1. Converted it to UTF8 and all is now good and properly displaying. Have a few celebratory ‘ , – s.

For others having the same problem with WordPress not encoding pages properly, I recommend the bbWP2UTF8 plugin. Its very simple to use and is a lot easier than this method, although saying that, it may work if the plugin doesn’t.

[edit]

Well something went wrong very shortly after I had posted this, post numbers weren’t auto-incrementing. Should be all fixed. Also discovered a very nice MySQL command to help convert those troublesome characters to UTF8:

update DBNAME

set ROWNAME = replace(ROWNAME,'’','\'');

update DBNAME

set ROWNAME= replace(ROWNAME,'…','...');

update DBNAME

set ROWNAME= replace(ROWNAME,'–','-');

update DBNAME

set ROWNAME= replace(ROWNAME,'“','"');

update DBNAME

set ROWNAME= replace(ROWNAME,'”','"');

update DBNAME

set ROWNAME= replace(ROWNAME,'‘','\'');

update DBNAME

set ROWNAME= replace(ROWNAME,'•','-');

update DBNAME

set ROWNAME= replace(ROWNAME,'‡','c');

[Source]

GEF follows shortly and possibly something on Monday if I can get it to work.

From today, or whenever your DNS updates, Southanuk is now hosted with Kualo.

Got a very nice deal with them and lets see how the next year goes!

I’ll be catching up with Google Earth Friday shortly and keep an eye out for some developments that will be happening to Southanuk very shortly.

Its 11pm now and I want to get to bed, as I was kept up till 3am this morning by some noisy people.

Ta-ra.

To achieve this I used the fantastic WPTouch made by BraveNewCode. A very simple and easy to use plugin that requires hardly any configuration. Its very easy to add new user agents of websites I wanted to target and looks great too! You can also integrate your Twitter account into it using their other plugin WordTwit [Unfortunately I don't use that on this blog, but I'm sure its up to the standard of WPTouch.]

To try it out on your mobile device, point your camera to this QR code and give it a scan, or just enter m.southanuk.co.uk to view it also.

Facebook’s new “Like” button

As announced by Facebook at the recent F8 conference in the USA, the new like button can be easily added to web pages and adds instant integration with the ever popular social networking site.

I found it very easy to integrate indeed as per so:

• Add an instance of Facebook’s Javascript SDK to your website’s source code. Ensure you have an application ID from Facebook also or the button will not work.
• Generate your like button here and click “Get Code” and select the XFBML version and copy the code.
• Then simply add the button code where you want in your site’s source code and you’re done!
  • [Wordpress blogs] instead of putting in a URL, add the following into your loop:

As you can see, very easy indeed.

Disqus Comment Plugin

Finally, the latest addition to the site is the very versatile, Disqus commenting system.

I felt that my old plugin I used was too bulky and was rather unessacary for just simple commenting. People don’t want to have an account for every site they visit, so allowing them to use their current Facebook, Twitter or OpenID accounts means less time registering. You don’t even need one of those accounts as posts can still be done via Guest with no account whatsoever.  Try it out next time you fancy having a little comment.

Stay tuned for more updates via following me on Twitter @fatjoe151

Been some time since I made a ~Featured~ post.

Read more to find out what’s new to Southanuk in 2010.

Click to read more

So what’s new to Southanuk in its 10th year?

Well for one we have the return of Google Earth Friday. A long forgotten feature of Southanuk that was quite prominent on SOK flash site that I wrote myself. This can be found here

Next up we have logging in with Facebook. It’s so simple to login to Southanuk now, just click on the bar above and select “Connect With Facebook” and Southanuk will create an account for you here using your Facebook data. Don’t worry, you can select what you share with Southanuk and what data Southanuk will send to Facebook [you will be asked at every stage if you wish to post something to your wall.]

Also new, Ok so not all that new, is an updated theme. A lot of the errors that were on the older revisions of the theme have been eradicated and re-written. Still one or two issues to work on but I’m nearly there! Also, keep your eyes peeled for a new look top section of the site that will hopefully consolidate some of what I have on the site to make it easier to read.

Finally, something I rolled out quietly, is a new search system. This system will search everything on the site, and I mean everything; files, comments, posts, pages and maybe other things… who knows :O.

So I hope you enjoy the new features for Southanuk and keep checking the site for new posts and whatnot!

Sorry for the lack of posting, decided to have a nice quiet Christmas and New Year.

So what has happened?
Got a nice shiney new 40 inch Samsung TV, chilled over Christmas and basicaly did nothing.

Hope you all have had a good Christmas and New Year!

Joe out!

Just click “Read More” to… read more!

The History of Southanuk

24^th July 1999 – Southan UK is created

On this day in the summer of 1999, Joseph Southan created his very first website called Southan UK. At first it was a primitive site with not a lot on it. The majority of the pages contained less than 7 lines of text and many references to Pokémon. However, there was very little other content on the site. Since the site was created on free web space provided by Freeserve and ZY.com there was little I could do to the site and eventually I craved a greater challenge.

Click here to have a gander

2001 – SouthanUK moves to Blueyonder web space

In late 2001, after getting broadband internet, I moved the website to my Blueyonder web space. This allowed me to branch out and explore more web technologies that I wanted to try. It was around this time that I found flash and subsequently started animating small things in flash.

In an attempt to make my website seem fresh and inspiring, I created a section to the website totally out of flash and named it SOK. The SOK flash system went through 4 very different iterations but in the long run could not satisfy my need for flexibility.

Archive.org is awesome – Click to see some history

24^th June 2004 – Southanuk moves to privately hosted web space

Again my thirst to try out new web languages meant I had to vacate my Blueyonder web space and switch to a private web host. However, this also meant I had my very own domain name; www.southanuk.co.uk . The expansion in web space and capabilities allowed me to further develop Southanuk [the name lost its capitalisation and space to become Southanuk.] In the initial months following the transition from Blueyonder, I stuck with the old and failing SOK system. In a delightful change of effort the site became part flash and part dynamic PHP site. PHP was fairly new to me at the time so all I could do was create a basic site with a basic admin back end system. However, this too became too arduous for me to maintain and so in a big change of direction I switched to the blog system, WordPress. This was the most flexible and easy to maintain situation for me. Through many, many changes in theme, Southanuk has come to be the site it is today.

Older Southanuks? Click here!

Today:

Southanuk is a fully featured blog with Facebook Connect and OpenID integration. Delivering podcasts and posting videos, Southanuk has come a long way from the days where the only content was Pokémon facts.

I do hope you continue to enjoy the content that is being posted on the site and continue to follow the site’s progress. Here’s to 10 more years of Southanuk!

As you can probably see, or not if you are blind, I have rejigged a couple of things and got rid of that terrible grey background on the whole site. The comment form now works perfectly and a redesigned login bar is there for your use. Other bits here and there have been messed with and should look a bit nicer.

Enjoy