Ed Townend

Christmas Cards for Graphic Designers

Edward Townend — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:58:59 +0000

At Townend we’ve got an Xmas Card tailored for the graphic designers in your life. We’ve not got many so be quick!

It’s not quite Helvetidoodle…

Edward Townend — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:10:11 +0000

But it’s not far off! Spotted on the homepage of American Apparel.

Dutton Set Up

Edward Townend — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:40:37 +0000

Took the Legerra to Mick Gardner Racing today for a suspension set-up, what a really nice chap. Basically all we did was drop the car off with the instructions that we wanted to use it for fast road, we thought it was too firm and felt it lacked confidence on the road. He seemed really impressed by the weight balance of the car, and said it takes a lot of work to get a Porche GT3 as well balanced. As shown on the setup sheet, there’s almost exactly 50/50 (not sure why the percentages add up to more than 100%) front/rear weight balance and only 5kg difference left/right at the front, and 14 at the back.The 851kg total is with full LPG tank and two thirds full petrol, which I guess isn’t bad. Apparently the set up was quite bad before as there was 1mm toe out at the front left and 4mm toe in on the front right!

Took the car out for a short spin straight after, and though I didn’t get a chance to really push it, it was immediately apparent how much better the car handles. Comfort is massively improved and turn in feels much more confident.

For Sale: Apple PowerMac G5 Dual 2.3GHz/4GB

Edward Townend — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:11:05 +0000

Now I’ve bought a new 27″ iMac I’ve decided it’s time to sell my dual processor PowerMac G5. It’s still a really capable machine, especially since I’ve upgraded from the original 512MB of RAM to the maximum possible, 4GB.

It is the early 2005 model, here are the specs:

Processor: Dual 2.3 GHz PowerPC
Memory: 4GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM
Graphics: ATI Radeon 9650, 256MB
Storage: 250GB 7200RPM
Optical Drive: 16x SuperDrive (Reads and burns CDs and DVDs)
Optional Bluetooth module installed
Operating System: OS X Leopard (10.5.8)

The machine is in excellent condition, I’ve looked very hard for scratches and can’t find anything worth noting amd there’s certainly no dents. The marks in the photos are actually smeared fingerprints that have been highlighted by the flash. Of course they’ll wipe off.

Included in the sale is the orignal Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse, and the power lead. It’s had a fresh install of OS X Lepoard, so all you’ll need to do is connect your monitor and you’re away!

Because it weighs a whopping 21 kg (that aluminium case is blooming heavy), collection from Barnsley S70 is preferred or I can deliver within 15 miles at an agreed rate. To post it will be £35.

Here’s the link to the item on eBay.

The new Edmobile – Dutton Legerra Kit Car

Edward Townend — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 00:08:27 +0000

Just after we got it back

On Thursday we drove down to Coventry to collect my new toy, Q60 VMF – a Dutton Legerra kit car. Registered in 1989, and featuring parts from a Mk2 Ford Escort with the engine from a 2.0 EFI Sierra. It’s going to be an ongoing project to teach myself mechanics, and it’s also going to be my daily driver.

Here’s all I know about it so far, some of it copied from the ad on the Dutton Owners’ Club website:

Engine

2.0 litre Pinto EFI from a Ford Sierra
5 speed type 9 gearbox again from the Sierra
Piper Fast Road Cam
Adjustable pulley(?)
‘Mild’ head work (I assume porting)
Golf GTi radiator with twin electric fans
Custom fabricated engine mounts to move the engine further back and lower than originally intended
Multipoint injection LPG conversion – big tank behind the roll cage
Did have a Cherrybomb exhaust but was swapped by the previous owner because it was too loud – not sure what’s on now

Chassis

Strengthened to reduce yaw
Threaded GAZ coilovers from Dampertech with adjustable damping all round
English axle/diff
Polysport bushes throughout
Rally Design adjustable track control arms
Triple anti-roll bar mount
Cross braced roll bar
Front disk conversion with EBC Greenstuff pads
Hard and soft vinyl tops – currently the hard top is held on with wood screws and tie wraps – scary!
15″ Wolfrace Street Octane wheels

Interior

Intatrim Ranger seats
Three point harness seatbelts
Huge ducting pipe in passenger’s footwell which delivers a steady flow of shoe meltingly hot air into the cabin

The car managed the 100+ miles home with a rock solid temperature which was pleasing, unfortunately after parking up we soon discovered a small oil leak which needs looking into. The first jobs of all are fixing the speedometer, creating proper fittings for the roof, rerouting the LPG lines which have been trailing on the engine and have very nearly melted through – huge fireball averted – and fixing the oil leak. After that I’ve made a list of more leisurely jobs such as replacing the window runners, filling a few unnecessary holes in the body and fixing the sagging driver’s door.

Helvetidoodle on diy.com Homepage

Edward Townend — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 23:35:42 +0000

Helvetidoodle on diy.com homepage

Right now B&Q the DIY giant are using Helvetidoodle as the most prominent element on their homepage. Fancy that!

Reposting font files is not OK

Edward Townend — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:18:17 +0000

I have only ever uploaded Helvetidoodle on dafont.com and 1001fonts.com. Since then dozens and dozens of other font download sites have downloaded the .zip archive which contains the font and a readme file with a bio and the license terms, taken the TTF font file and posted it on their own font collection sites without my info. They do this to get advertising dollars, but it means people never know who spent hours creating the font, and it also means they never get to see my polite request for donations. The most audacious site has put a donate link right next to the download link… direct to their PayPal account!

If you really enjoy Helvetidoodle, please consider sending a PayPal donation to eddie@teamtownend.com. It helps.

Fix Server Execution Failed message in Windows Media Player

Edward Townend — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 01:09:33 +0000

Every now and then, when you try to open a media file, Windows Media Player does nothing for about 30 seconds and then comes up with this cryptic dialog box:

Luckily it’s easy to fix:

Open Command Prompt as Administrator (Click Start, Type cmd, right Click Command Prompt, select Run as Administrator)
Type regsvr32 jscript.dll and press enter.
A dialog will pop up. Click OK
Now type regsvr32 vbscript.dll and press enter again.
Click OK again
Close Command Prompt and try opening the file again!

Web Design tip #1

Edward Townend — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:54:36 +0000

Never agree to use a client’s server. You’ll spend hours debugging it when something that works fine on your server doesn’t on theirs, and then you won’t have the permissions to fix it.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Edward Townend — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 09:17:04 +0000

Have a good one, see you all next year.