How To: Remove the Blogger Top Nav Bar

Remove the NavBar in Blogger Widget Template

Sign in to Blogger

On the Blogger Dashboard, click on the Layout link of the blog that you want to disable its NavBar. You can also click Customize on NavBar while visiting your blog

Under the Layout tab, then click on Edit HTML tab to view the template’s HTML code.

Search for the following line of code:

]]>

Before the line, add in the following line of code:


#navbar { display: none; }


or


#navbar-iframe { display: none !important; }


Click on SAVE TEMPLATE to make the change effective.


Remove the NavBar in Blogger Classic Template

Sign in to Blogger

On the Blogger Dashboard, click on the Template link of the blog that you want to disable its NavBar. You can also click Customize on the NavBar while visiting your blog.

The Edit HTML page under Template tab should be loaded. If not, go to the tab.
Search for the following line of code:

/style>

Then, add the following line of code before that line:

#navbar-iframe { display: none; }

The Blogger Classic Template uses iframe to load the NavBar, and styles it with ID named navbar-iframe. The name actually also works for new Blogger Widget Template too.

After hiding the Nav Bar in Blogger using Classic Template, there tends to be a gap that replaces the navigation bar. The gap may depends on your background color. To remove the gap, find the following code (normally near the top of the HTML):

body {

Add in the following line of code after the body tag:

position: relative;

top: -32px;

The, click on SAVE TEMPLATE CHANGES button when done.

Tip: To display and show NavBar again, just remove and delete the additional codes that have been added.

BLIP FM

Hey all,

Some of you may (or indeed may not!) have heard of BLIP.FM recently. I've become a really big fan, as most of my Twitter followers will tell you! :)

You can follow my blips by clicking here

So, what is Blip.FM?

In a nutshell, you can play (known as 'Blipping') a tune of your choice, to all of your followers, regardless if you're on Twitter or not. You can simply create an account and blip tunes, then send your Blip link to your friends via e-mail, or any social networking site. They can then join your music station and enjoy listening to your chosen tunes!

How do you become a member then?? Simple... click the button below:

So, what are you waiting for? Become a Blip.FM member now!

(Follow Blip.FM on Twitter by following http://twitter.com/blipfm for new updates on the website)

Michael Jackson

Many news agencies around the globe have reported this evening (At around 9pm GMT) that pop star Michael Jackson was found unconscious at his LA home. He was taken to the UCLA Hospital by the LA Dept Fire and Paramedic service which is only two minutes from his Bel Air home, being given life saving CPR en-route.

It was then reported at around 11pm (GMT) via the showbiz website TMZ that Michael Jackson had in fact died following a massive heart attack, however this remains UNCONFIRMED from UCLA Hospital, although many news agenices have also confirmed this, including the LA Times, MSNBC, CNN and Sky News & BBC News.

Update - At 11.40pm, BBC News (being told via the Associated News Agency) confirmed that Michael Jackson had died at the UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles. More news agencies across the world are also reporting this now.

Michael Jackson was only 50 years old - 1958 - 2009

Michael Jackson - what a total legend you are. You're a star and always will be. Your music will live on for many years to come....

R.I.P.

News Sources:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

• http://www.latimes.com/

• http://www.tmz.com/

• http://www.foxnews.com/
  
  

Update: 26th June 2009

Sony Comments on the Passing of Michael Jackson NEW YORK, NY – Michael Jackson, one of the most widely beloved entertainers and profoundly influential artists of all-time, leaves an indelible imprint on popular music and culture.

Commenting on his passing, Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, CEO and President, Sony Corporation, said: "Michael Jackson was a brilliant troubadour for his generation, a genius whose music reflected the passion and creativity of an era. His artistry and magnetism changed the music landscape forever. We have been profoundly affected by his originality, creativity and amazing body of work. The entire Sony family extends our deepest condolences to his family and to the millions of fans around the world who loved him."

Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, CEO, Sony Music Entertainment, said: "Michael Jackson's unsurpassed artistry and beloved music brought joy to every corner of the world. We join today with his millions of fans in expressing our profound sadness and we offer our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. It was a true privilege for all of us in the Sony Music family to work with one of the most talented superstars in the history of music. We will miss him greatly."

Martin Bandier, Chairman & CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, said: "Michael was the kind of amazing talent that comes along once in a lifetime. He was an incredible recording artist, an insightful businessman, an unmatched performer, and a true icon. To all of us at Sony/ATV Music Publishing, he was also a trusted and passionate partner, who was very proud of our accomplishments. He will be dearly missed. We wish his children and entire family our deepest condolences."

Five of Jackson's solo albums – "Off the Wall," "Thriller," "Bad," "Dangerous" and "HIStory," all with Epic Records, a Sony Music label – are among the top-sellers of all time. During his extraordinary career, he sold an estimated 750 million records worldwide, released 13 No.1 singles and became one of a handful of artists to be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Guinness Book of World Records recognized Jackson as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time and "Thriller" as the Biggest Selling Album of All Time. Jackson won 13 Grammy Awards and received the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award. Michael Jackson started in the music business at the age of 11 with his brothers as a member of the Jackson 5.

In the early 1980s, he defined the art form of music video with such ground-breaking videos as "Billie Jean," "Beat It" and the epic "Thriller." Jackson's sound, style and dance moves inspired subsequent generations of pop, soul, R&B and hip-hop artists.

Green Twitter Pics!

Hi all,

Well, most of us have heard about the extraordinary goings on in Iran at the moment.

Iran has been shaken by several days of protests as opposition supporters cry foul over presidential election results in the biggest popular upheaval since the 1979 revolution.

Twitter however, is one of the social networking tools being used by people inside the country to coordinate protests disputing the election result. Twitter even changed the time of planned maintenance, so people could contiune with their communications!

In order to show support for Iran, many Twitter users have changed their avatars GREEN and have been using hashtags such as #iranelection, #gr88 and #Tehran

Support is immense from the Twitter community and you can show your support by turning your avatar GREEN too!

If you are not sure how to do this, I will do it for you! Simply send your avatar picture to me at jb79uk@gmail.com and I will send you your picture back and you can upload it to Twitter... simple!!

Lets turn Twitter green and show our support!!!

@jaybranch

Sunday morning....

Hey all,

I've not posted anything to my blog over the last few days.... it's not down to laziness, I promise. I've been on holiday (from work anyway) spending the time at home with the wife and kids, so I've only been on the PC to use Twitter and to check e-mail, so thought I'd drop onto my blog and do a quick update!

It's been nice having the time off from work. It doesn't happen very often, so I've taken full advantage! Can't say I'm very pleased about going back to work though, although I guess most people feel this way when they've had a few days off from the grind!! Unfortunately, I didn't win the lottery on Saturday (Although, if I had I doubt I would be sitting on the couch updating my blog!!) so I'm still poor, at least for another week.... I'm sure my numbers are going to come up on one of these days, although I have been saying this for about 10 years (probably more...) now and I've only ever won £10.... but I can live in hope!

Well, I've got a few things to do today: Go for a run, do the rest of the washing, spend time with the kids in the sun and so on.... so I'd better go.

However, I will be back in a couple of days with a better update that might just make your life better........ or maybe not. :)

Bye for now.

JB

Air France - Flight 447

I got into work this morning, just before 8am & I did my usual.... checked e-mail, made a tea and checked the news.


The first story I read on BBC News was about this 'missing' Air France jet, flight '447' that disappeared from radar just off the coast of Brazil at around 1am this morning (GMT)

Since I was young, I have been fascinated with aviation. So much so, that I took up flying lessons and wanted to become a pilot, however knowing how expensive it was to do, I decided on learning how to become an Air Traffic Controller instead. The aviation industry has changed so much over the last few years and has some of the best systems have been developed for use on the ground aswell as in the air, so to hear about another air accident was rather sad.


AIr France flight 447, an Airbus A330-200 series aircraft took off from Rio at 10pm (GMT) on May 31st and was due to arrive at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport this morning, June the 1st at 9am (GMT) but for some reason (A lot of people/experts are saying that an electrical fault is to blame for the disappearance) it never arrived at it's destination.


Reports from Reuters, Sky and BBC then suggested that the aircraft flew into a number of tropical storms off the coast of Brazil, which is nothing major for a huge airliner as long as the pilots using their on-board radar systems and navigate around the major storms, or 'cells' as they are called. The message received by the Air France Oerations centre at 2.15am via the 'ACARS' system advised that they had hit severe turbulence, but then nothing else was sent from the cockpit and by 6am (GMT) all contact was lost.




The actual aircraft, shown in the photo here in Texas back in 2006, is an Airbus A330 (registered as F-GZCP). The A330, developed by Airbus has had an impeccable saftey record, with only one loss in 1994 due to pilot error (Auto-Pilot failure) during a demonstration and a failure in 2001 when fuel line failure was to blame for both engines cutting out due to lack of fuel on board, however the aircraft managed to 'glide' for around 20 minutes to the nearest airfield and although landing was hard and 12 tyres were blown, there were no fatalities.

Hopefully, the explanation into the disappearance of flight 447 will be established soon, so we can understand exactly what happened.


The aircraft would have ran out of fuel late in the morning, so whatever happened, my prayers are with the adults and children who were on board the flight and also their grieving families.


RIP



Jay

Update - 2nd June 2009.

Today, at around 1pm GMT it was reported by the Brazlian Air Force that wreckage had been found in the location where the aircraft was last in contact with ATC and then disappeared. I hope rescue workers manage to salvage what is left of the aircraft and recover the black boxes, so an investigation can begin to establish what exactly happened.

RIP to all 228 people on board.

The John Black Band

My brother in law, John (left pic) is the lead guitarist and singer for The John Black Band.... they cover artists such as:

Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford, The Animals, Fleetwood Mac, Jon Mayer, Thin Lizzy and many more.

Downloads of just a few of their awesome tracks are available from the music section on the website, or click: http://www.johnblackband.co.uk/music.html

Enjoy!

Jay

Green Tea!

I've been drinking Green Tea now for a few weeks and can honestly say, I feel much better for it! No, really I do!

A few weeks ago, I would've consumed somewhere in the region of around 6-7 coffee's a day... probably for the need for caffeine to stay awake at work more than anything, but nonetheless I did actually enjoy getting in the morning coffee at work to drink while checking e-mails and whatever other boring task I do at stupid o clock in the morning! :)

However, as I'm in the process of attemping to train for my second Great North Run in September, I heard drinking Green Tea was good for your heart, circulation, prevention of some cancers and all round healthiness! This is what the box says anyway, so it must be true, right???

Well, whatever the truth about Green Tea and all those antioxidants that are in it, I really like it! I bought some from Marks and Spencers (I was feeling flush that day!) and it wasn't bad compared to the stuff that I get at work (Kenco crap!) but the missus bought me some Twinings, on offer at Asda for £1 for 20 bags (I know, not bad at all!) and its rather addictive!

So, if you've ever wanted to try it but you've put it off, maybe from what other people have told you about the taste, then try it again and see what you think!

Just remember, dont leave the bag in the cup/pot for more than 2 minutes, or the taste will be VERY bitter and you'll be put off for life!

Below are some handy links for you to check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea

http://www.greentearesource.com/

http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa011400a.htm

Enjoy!

Jay

Alan Davies

Hi all,

Well, got a lovely surprise this morning when I logged into Twitter. I did my usual 'tweet' by sending all my lovely followers a link to my Just Giving fundraising page for Tiny Lives (which you can see at the top of my blog!) and in response, Alan Davies (Better know to many people as the infamous Jonathan Creek from the BBC TV series of the same name) donated £367 to get me to my target of £500!!

How generous can you get!!!! I was uttlerly speechless to say the least! What a guy! :)

I'd like to send the guy a thank you letter personally, but I have no idea about how to get it to him, so I sent him a few kind messages via Twitter instead!

Anyway, if you would like to donate to help seriously ill & premature babies, you can do so by clicking the Just Giving widget at the top of the blog, or click here

That's all for now!

Jay

Free Twitter Backgrounds - Twitter Themes

I've recently been updating my Twitter profile home page and used a background created from http://www.twitbacks.com/. The interface is really easy to use, you can use pre-supplied backgrounds, or you can upload your own. It takes a couple of minutes to create and upload to your profile page and that't not all.....it's FREE!!!

Check out Free Twitter Backgrounds - Twitter Themes

Jay

Spotify - A World Of Music!

Hey all,

Well, last week I found a new music application, called SPOTIFY. I've used Blip.FM in the past and to be honest, I thought it was going to be 'just another music app', but it's actually one of the best music apps around!

Nearly every track I was after I found within seconds and as soon as I clicked play, it was streaming the music, no gaps, no stops.... nothing! :)


Spotify is a proprietary peer-to-peer, streaming music program that allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums with almost no buffering delay. Music can be browsed by artists, albums or created playlists as well as by direct searches. Although it is not possible to save the streamed music for use outside the application, a link is provided to allow the listener to directly purchase the material via partner retailers.

Spotify History

Spotify has been developed since 2006 by a team at Spotify AB, Stockholm, Sweden. The company Spotify was founded by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of TradeDoubler, in Stockholm. The headquarters are located in London and research and development is located in Stockholm. Spotify currently has more than one million users.

Spotify was launched for public access on 7 October 2008. While free accounts still remained available by invitation only in order to manage the growth rate of the service, the launch meant that paid subscriptions were opened to everyone. At the same time, Spotify also announced licencing deals with many major music labels.

The first step towards opening free accounts for public without invitation was taken on 10 February 2009 when Spotify opened for free registration in the UK

You can find out more about Spotify by visting http://www.spotify.com/en

There is a 'Free' sign up option, or users can pay £9.99 a month for ad free use.

Twitter versus Facebook: Should you Choose One?

Twitter versus Facebook: Should you Choose One?

A night at the flicks!

Hi all,

Well, yesterday I eventually managed to convince the parents to watch the kids whilst me and the wife went out to the cinema! She works there a few nights a week, so we breezed past the HUGE queue that was trailing out of the door and reserved a couple of (FREE!) seats, then went to Pizza Hut for some food. Ended up getting a free pizza as they put a small piece of meat on our veggie pizza, so they took it off the bill for us. £10 for a medium pizza, salad bowl, garlic bread & cheese and unlimited cokes.... not bad eh!!

OK, now time for the film!

Walked back over to the flicks for a Ben & Jerry's Cherry ice cream milshake, popcorn and some Revels (gotta be done I'm afraid!) and we headed off to the screen to watch the film.

I had decided on us watching a British, BBC/Pathe made film called 'Tormented'. I saw the trailer on the TV a few days before, it looked excellent! The trailer in question can be seen here:


http://www.screenwm.co.uk/swm_channel/watch/49/tormented__film_trailer










What's the film about then?

Directed by Jon Wright and written by Stephen Prentice, Tormented stars newcomer Tuppence Middleton as head girl Justine, who receives a long-awaited invitation to join the school 'in crowd' when school hearthrob Alexis (Dimitri Leonidas) asks her out. However, no sooner has Justine joined their inner circle - including alpha male Bradley (Alex Pettyfer) and Queen Bitches Tasha and Kally (April Pearson and Larissa Wilson) - than they start receiving mysterious death threats and it isn't long before someone or something starts killing them off in amusingly violent and gory ways. Alexis and Justine soon discover that the death threats are coming from the phone of Darren Mullet (Calvin Dean), an asthmatic, overweight student who had recently committed suicide due to relentless bullying by the in crowd. But will anyone believe that the zombie-ghost of Darren Mullet is seeking bloody revenge?

The Good points...


Wright has assembled a talented, fresh-faced cast that includes teen heartthrobs, ex-Grange Hill actors, Skins alumni, gorgeous up-and-coming actresses and attractive newcomers alike. Calvin Dean who plays the recently deceased Darren Mullet bears an amusing resemblance to a zombified James Corden!


The script is excellent, very sharp and witty, with believable teen dialogue, strong characters and several good gags (Almost making me laugh out loud at one point!). The film also features some awesome special effects features, balancing effectively gruesome gore with a decent strain of dark tongue-in-cheek humour.

The Bad points....

The film clearly wants to be like it's U.S. cousin we all know as 'Scream' though it isn't quite scary enough, despite some effectively staged death scenes. It's a slight problem, for example, that the scariest moment in the film turns out to be a cruel prank. (The part with a chainsaw and clown mask - you'll see it and wonder why it never actually involved any blood at all!!)

Worth seeing??

The film is a little slow to start does and lack the 'horror' that a typical horror film is usually supposed to offer. In places it was eye rollingingly bland & totally predictable. The film had two halves, the first being a chance to get introduced the characters and understand exactly what the story was about and the second being a bloodbath of each of their deaths, one of which involved a character being lashed by a wet towel by his 'dead nemisis' in the boys shower block, when in rather comical style you see his eyeball hanging out of it's socket and him attempting to push it back in again, which actually made me laugh a little bit..... strange!

Summary

O.K. so Tormented certainly isn't as cut-throat and perfect as most horrors, but it's still a lot of fun (Strange for a horror I know...) but this is all thanks to an awesome Britsh cast, a very decent and sharply written script and some suitably gory death scenes all wrapped up nicely within a 90 minute time frame.


2.5 out of 5 stars!

Thanks to Cineworld Cinemas for the tickets!

Great North Run 2009

Last year, I did the 13.1 mile half marathon from Newcastle to South Shields, better known as the Great North Run.

It was a fantastic experience, the atmosphere was electric and the crowds were all simply amazing and although my feet were very sore the next day, I enjoyed every single moment of it!

Thanks to a lot of good friends, I managed to raise £400 for the Marie Curie Cancer Care Trust.

This year, the race is in September and I'm raising as much as I possibly can for a charity called Tiny Lives (http://www.tinylives.org.uk) who help seriously ill & premature babies. I'm hoping to raise £500 (or more!) this year.

I know times are hard at the moment, but if you are able to donate to Tiny Lives, you can do so by either clicking the Just Giving widget that you can see in the right hand side bar, or you can visit www.justgiving.com/jaybranch. It's quick, easy and secure!

The run itself is on Sunday September the 20th and is broadcast on BBC One from 9am till 1.30pm. It's gonna be a great day!

I'll give you all a wave !! :)

Now, back to training!!! I'll blog more later!

Jay

Microsofts 'Magic Wand'

Newly released patent applications from Microsoft have sparked speculation that it is to unveil a Wii remote rival at the E3 expo in Los Angeles. An application was filed in 2007 for a motion controller, dubbed Magic Wand, that interacts with "a collection of sensors".

Microsoft says it will not "comment on speculation" about a possible launch. Gavin Ogden, from gaming site http://www.c&vg.com/ told the BBC that Microsoft needed to "jump on the motion sensor bandwagon". "We thought they were going to show something off at the E3 Expo in 2007 - some sort of waggle stick - but nothing materialised," he said. "I have no doubt they are going to try and do something, although it remains to be seen how they do it."

Biometrics

The patent application also describes "biometric sensors" that would examine "fingerprint, hand geometry, hand vein pattern, palm pattern, and grip configuration" along with "facial thermogram, a facial feature, a retinal feature, or an iris feature".

"There was talk, a long time ago, about mapping people's faces on to characters," said Mr Ogden. "However, there were concerns that people would stick real faces on it - such as Gordon Brown - and then spend all day shooting them. The world wasn't ready for that."

At the beginning of May, Microsoft's boss, Steve Ballmer, gave a speech to the Dallas Regional Chamber and was quoted as saying: "Pay attention to the stuff we're announcing in the next month on Xbox."

So the industry will be waiting to see if Microsoft comes up with any surprises at the Los Angeles expo in June.

Palm announce 'Pre' launch date

The Palm Pre will go on sale on 6 June in the US and will only be available on the Sprint network.
The much-anticipated handset will cost $199.99 (£129), after a rebate, and buyers must take out a two-year contract when signing up.
Palm said it expected the phone to be available nationwide at launch and has signed up four stores to put the gadget on their shelves.

No date has been given for when the handset will launch in the UK.

Data share

First announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2009, the Pre has generated a huge amount of interest largely thanks to Palm's long history in personal data devices.

The Pre impressed many with its operating system, which is geared towards working with the websites, such as social networks and e-mail services, people use when out and about.

The phone automatically recognises when owners connect to social or e-mail services and builds up a global list of contacts and login details as it is used. Unlike many other phones, the handset also allows owners to have several different applications running at the same time. The phone also has an innovative interface based around its touch screen and a "gesture area" below the display.

The phone will use Sprint's 3G network and buyers are recommended to take out an unlimited data plan as the phone swaps a lot of information back and forth as it is being used. The phone is widely seen as a rival to other smartphones such as Apple's iPhone, Android handsets and RIM's Blackberry.

Also on sale at launch will be the wireless charging system. This will not be included in the basic bundle for the phone but will cost an additional $69.99 (£45) for the Touchstone dock and cover for the Pre.

For more info, click http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/

The Gadgeteer

Well,

Last month, I received an e-mail from Julie Strietelmeir, owner of The Gadgeteer (http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/) and after a few e-mails, made me a member of her gadget review team!

I'm VERY pleased to be part of Julie's review team and hope to start and do some hands on product reviews very soon.

Check out http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/ for reviews on the latest gadgets around!!

Jay