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I was recently re-introduced to model railways, and decided I’d spent enough time (20 years?) procrastinating about building a layout. The trains run much better on a firm base, and look much nicer with some scenery around them. Inspired by friends and some good websites, I’ve spent the last few weeks building a little shunting layout. In order to blog about it in gory detail, I’ve created a new blog. You’re welcome to follow along there!
A second small victory (They just keep coming!) today. This blog now supports OpenID for comments and other login chores. This is mostly a benefit to me (one less password to remember), but will form the basis for more features here on mcaleely.com over time.
As a bonus for commenters, all OpenID vouched comments are automatically approved. I will revoke this (and moderate them once again), when spammers add OpenID to their arsenal.
If you’re not sure if you have an OpenID, you probably do (or can get one) if you use AOL, Livejournal, Yahoo or Flickr…
Note that an OpenID is optional for comments.
Today I managed a trick I’ve long wanted. I’ve abolished www from all mcaleely.com URLs, without breaking the ‘pretty’ URLs I use for wordpress blogs. The trick was to have multiple .htaccess files, and actually spend some time understanding what mod_rewrite can do for me. There should be no public impact (other than you don’t need to type www. anymore on this site) – all the old www based URLs will redirect to their new homes. Any breakage, let me know!
It’s taken a while, but yesterday I made it round the local loop I’m using twice in a row. Progress! Greetings if you’re reading from Symbian. Perhaps I’ll see you tonight?
My photo album for 2007 is now live. As usual, I’ve removed images of people who don’t appear on the web elsewhere. The rise of flickr and the like means there are more people here!
I bought some Swedish cheeses as a christmas present for my Dad. Can anyone translate the labels, so that he can explain them to folk who want to try them out? There are three: 
With thanks to my Mum for a lovely Advent Calendar!
A couple of weeks ago, we went up to the Lake district to join the LYPWG for their Christmas weekend. Richard knew most of the people there, but it was my first time to meet them all. It was also my first time in the Lake District.
As the photos show, the conditions when we walked (the photos are from a walk we weren’t on, but I bet our photos would look similar) were not much fun. However, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I now look back on a fun weekend. The fancy dress party certainly helped!
I’ve uploaded a photo album.
I’ve had a lazy couple of years on my bikes. They’ve spent more time in the cycle shop being maintained than with me riding them! A couple of times this year I’ve tried to get back into the habit of cycling regularly, and I use a little loop near my home.
It’s seven miles, and I can easily tell if I’m very unfit – I fail to get all the way up Wimbledon Hill without stopping. Today may have taken 40 minutes, but I did make it all the way without a stop. Hopefully I can get back in to the habit of regular cycling this time. I should be able to get that time down a bit…
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