Getting your blog (and blog posts) out there into the Big Wide Internet can be difficult at the best of times, but trying to get people that do visit your website to help you out shouldn’t be.

Social Networking websites like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and Facebook all have methods to allow their users to submit links to web pages that they find interesting, funny or just worth sharing. Allowing these users to quickly and easily add your blog post to their favorite website is a must for any blogger.

Below I have started making available the images I made for use on darwinshome (both the current size of 20px X 20px and the previous incarnation of 45px X 45px). Listed with the images are the links used to submit your website page to that Social Networking website.

This is not currently the full list of all the social networking websites available, as the weeks progress I will add more to the list until complete.
After a few weeks I will also design a wordpress plugin, to join the ranks of many like it out there, using the images and links listed.

[YOUR LINK URL] means the full URL of your blog post on yout website (eg: http://example.com/post/ )
[YOUR LINK TITLE] means the full title of the submitted page (eg: My Blog Post)

In alphabetical order:

Bloglines

http://www.bloglines.com/sub/[YOUR LINK URL]

De.licio.us

http://del.icio.us/post?url=[YOUR LINK URL]&title=[YOUR LINK TITLE]

[More images and links after cut]
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UPDATE 26 January 2009: Fixed the XML file load Bug that was affecting Chrome and Safari

Making use of my XML based Country and State/Province file I have put together a small script to populate two drop down lists with the complete Country and the selected countries Province or State list.

The code is ALL client-side based, so it will suffer from browsers without JavaScript enabled, but it is a very fast and light weight script to use if you want to quickly add a Country and State selection box to your registration forms. This script does not require any database to function.

Demo page
Download Country/State Code (534)

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[UPDATE] Comments are closed on this topic - Should you spot any mistakes or if I have missed a province/state - please email me at michael [at] darwinshome [dot] za [dot] net

I have been looking all over the Internet for an AJAX or similar dynamic drop down tool for Country and Province/State selection (You select a country from a drop down list and the country/state drop down selection automatically populates with that countries list of provinces or states)

The good news is I found various versions, from ASP.NET controls, to simple JavaScript files, but the catch was that although I had the tool, the tool didn’t have all the counties of the world, never mind their respective states or provinces.

So after much trawling, and searching, I have a complete world country list (including Antarctica) with their respective states and I have placed them all together into an XML file for ease of development use:

- Country State/Province XML lis (1503) - [29.3 KB ZIP file]

Please leave a comment should any errors exist in the file, from broken XML, to incorrect spelling, to having a province not listed, I will fix it if it checks out.

Hope it helps.

[EDIT1 11/03/2008] - Removed Yugoslavia. Changed “Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic of” to “Macedonia”. Added Serbia and Montenagro, with states. Thank you omBRE for pointing out my error on the NoBox Media blog.

[EDIT2 24/04/2008] - Corrected spelling of Antarctica (Thanks Ryan) and updated the “Regions” in New Zealand (Thanks David for pointing that out over on the NoBox Media blog).

[EDIT2 08/05/2008] - Corrected spelling of Czech Republic, Thanks Tim.

License and Copyright:
The country and province names in the file are public domain.
XML file in its current format is licensed to Michael John Grove under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 South Africa License.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
 There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson

- A Return to Love using Wordle

For those of you that either view my Flickr page you would have already seen the state of my poor car. For those of you that haven’t here are the details of the incident (as requested by friends), as well as a link to the images. (Incidentally - the car is now fixed)

Four week-ends past myself and my fianceé were on our way out of the local Shopping Mall - This particular shopping mall only has pay parking available; This incident occurred on a busy Saturday while we were waiting, in my car, in the queue to exit through one of the exit booms.

A blue Opel joins the queue behind me.
A white bakkie (pickup truck for my American friends) - with the shopping malls private security company tags on the side - screeches to a stop behind the blue Opel.
One of the security guards jumps out of the Bakkie and with a rubber mallet starts breaking the rear windows of the Blue Opel - This scares the hell out of most of the shoppers in the area as it appears to be a vehicle hijacking.
The blue Opel - in an attempt to escape the security - pulls forward (towards my rear bumper) I in-turn move forward and to the right to avoid the blue Opel from rear-ending my car.
The Security guard (still on foot) continues to chase the blue Opel.
The Driver of the Blue Opel (in apparent panic) accelerates and impacts my car on the front passenger door.
The blue Opel continues past my car, and escapes the Mall security by ramming the exit boom and an additional security Gate.

Turns out the people in the blue Opel had stolen merchandise from various stores within the mall, and the mall security had been chasing them for 5 minutes within the complex parking lot before the guys finally escaped out the gate - the Metro Police Department apprehended the thieves 10min later down one of the freeways.

The results of the impact to my door are available for view here.

I was thinking of making the title of this post “The quest for the perfect burger” just because I know the quest for the perfect burger is easier than the near on impossible quest for the perfect piece of code; but burgers (as tasty as they are) just don’t fit with this post.

In my work, I have recently been shipped into the cold storage unit called the server room - this being the only place where there are NO disturbances from other staff - and from this new cold location I am to develop/change/optimize/fix an existing system for our company.

This isn’t such a bad thing, I can deal with the cold, I like being on my own (sometimes) and the system is workable - so optimizing it is ok. The drawback is that the system is HUGE, and the company also wants new features designed, developed and implemented in this system - and the time frame given to me for this massive 6 to 8 month project - 2 weeks.

So here lies my quest - for that one piece of code that will make my life easier… slowly but surely I will either find it (Google is my friend), or in a “Eureka” type moment realize what it is I actually need.

Excuse me while I stress a little during the interim.

I recently downloaded a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Professional.

During the download, Microsoft emailed the trial licence key to my Hotmail email account.

Turns out Microsoft’s Hotmail service does not like its Try Microsoft Office service. “Attachments, pictures, and links in this message have been blocked for your safety” “This message may be dangerous”

Really? Maybe Microsoft Licence keys are dangerous.

I am now officially a painter, plumber, electrician, tiler (or whatever you call the person that installs ceramic tiles) and a cabinet maker.

So far these two weeks I have painted all the walls in my new place, painted the ceiling, re-tiled the shower floor, installed a new kitchen sink and counter top, fixed various plug points and light fittings, installed a new shower door, and moved in most of my boxes.

Now all that is left is to install curtain rails, paint the newly sealed bathroom ceiling, get the new carpets installed and unpack boxes and move furniture out of the corner it’s stacked in.

I will take more pictures tonight, but I have added a couple more on my flickr account.

Got the keys to my new home on Monday night and went to take a look (first time to view the place for me - I trusted my Fianceés judgement) - And I am very very happy with the place.

With a new coat of paint, general cleaning, new carpets, a couple of new fittings and our personal touch - this new house will feel like it is our new home and I am happy.

Will be taking pictures of the painting and fixing process, and the garden, when I get a chance.

Click on the above image to view more.

New office policy - Breakfast and lunch will be served daily.

Nice