This is the blog of web developer and designer Andy Walpole.

Create and do what is new, through and through.


Drupal Association membership badge

A Blog in Suburban Glory: Web Design Ideas and Inspiration

Launch of the Scruffy Desk free Drupal theme
Sun 10th Jan 2010

This is my seventh and most accomplished theme to be given away free under a GPL license. Again, it's based on a grid this time 970px wide with 12 columns and 10px margins.

As the title suggests, it is visually supposed to resemble an untidy desk.

It is possible to have ...

Choosing the right web hosting provider for your business
Thu 7th Jan 2010

Choosing the right web hosting company is an important decision. Often, it also the most neglected aspect of the digital economy as companies and individuals are eager to publish their website but not so keen to read the small print of a hosting contract.

But it is an aspect that companies ...

10 fantastic examples of Drupal used on major web sites
Wed 30th Dec 2009

In the autumn of 2009 the open source community was stunned when it was announced that the White House was to relaunch on a Drupal platform.

...

Tips to speed up your website performance
Mon 21st Dec 2009

Optimisation for quicker web page speed will be the talking point in the web design community in 2010. In November Google declared it a central issue for webmasters after spokesman Matt Cutts announced at an SEO conference that Google will change its algorithm ...

Phantom Menace film review on YouTube
Sat 19th Dec 2009

I never ever thought I'd write this but I recommend you watch a 70 minute review of the Phantom Menace on YouTube. Yes, 70 minutes! Yes, the Phantom Menace!

The Phantom Menace was the Star Wars story brought back to life by George Lucas in 1999.

It had a lukewarm recepti...

Protecting your customers' privacy
Sat 19th Dec 2009

Protecting users' details is a hot legal issue across Europe. As of November 2009 the European Union opened the way for the ePrivacy Directive to come into force (Source:

Classic 90s garage mix
Wed 9th Dec 2009

I was always a drum'n'bass rather than garage man but there were some classic tracks from the 90s garage period.

I found the mix linked to below on a Russian site. It's worth a download and listen.

1. Dj Luck & Mc Neat – A Little Bit Of Luck ...

How to temporarily redirect your entire website
Mon 7th Dec 2009

I needed to temporarily redirect a number of websites to a holding page informing visitors that maintenance work was under way. It took me a little while to work out the right code to put in the .htaccess file. I was writing code that was redirecting a page at a time but I couldn't work out how to redirect all...

Have you seen the elePHPants?
Fri 4th Dec 2009

Lets loose from the Code Zoo elePHPants have been spotted all over world, roaming and looking for an Apache pasture to graze on.

They were seen in November in Munich, Barcelona in October, in Rio de Janeiro in July and is supposedly due to be seen at the Business Design Centre in London on ...

Creating a Drupal theme for the drupal.org repository
Fri 4th Dec 2009

It has been stated by some that creating good generic Drupal themes for download at the dot org site is impossible because an accomplished theme is dependent on the use of modules. I disagree. It is possible to create a visually pleasing theme that has a eclectic user base without worrying about the need to re...

+ + + + + +