Entire Archives

07/01/08 - Happy New Year!
A great start to the new year with a host of technological items to drool over. The new iPod nano I received for Christmas from the lovely wife is a joy to use and astonishingly clear with the video playback. My friend Matthew got an EEEPC which kicks monkey butt with Xubuntu on it, the unit looks tasty in black though I'd be torn choosing white or black if I were getting one. I've just put an order in for a new battery for my old iBook as the original one is getting a little flaky recently (about an hour of charge from the unit on minimum backlight). Thankfully I've got a higher capacity unit for a fraction of the cost through a seller in Hong-Kong, hurrah! I'm still not convinced by Vista on my work machine, but I'm thoroughly smitten with linux on my home machine now that it's all running the way that I want it to be. I think I'm going to put Ubuntu on my old iBook so I can continue some development when not connected to my home machine - I still can't get my home router to function in the way it was designed to (silly home-market router hubs) so I'll have to sync data manually when I'm at home to check in and out of my code repositories. I'm testing out a new biometric security key for Citrix at work which is extremely funky - secure data storage and client launching from anywhere you can plug your USB key into. All ten of my fat digits are programmed in to the system which allows authentication through to the Citrix boxes in the building.
Cycling to work is not too bad, rather windy this morning and a little chilly, but the time has come for me to lose some weight and get myself back into the healthy heart thing. Dragging all of my technical gear with me has caused some head scratching as I don't want it to be damaged when I get rained on - a lot of backpack manufacturers supply 'resistant' materials, not 'proof' - looks like I'll have to invest in a plastic cover like those used by arctic explorers.

24/12/07 - I'm deaming of a Techy Christmas
It's Christmas eve and I'm in work providing I.T. support for clients. I'm sitting down for lunch with my super-noodles and I'm contemplating what marvellous items of the technical variety I might get this Christmas. I've not really asked for anything so it'll all be a surprise when I open the presents. I'm looking forward to the January sales, not so much to buy anything but to see what technology trend will be carved in 2008. We've had a great year in 2007, with many cool and useful devices being brought to the market. I've just managed to upgrade my phone and contract to a Vario III (HTC foldout keyboard model) which is proving to be invaluable at organising my life and keeping me in touch with the world. I'm still working on my New1973 (after I bricked the interface drivers.. oops!) and hope to have some cool connection bits happening in the new year. I'm loving the new EEEPC from Asus, if only the drive were a bit bigger it would be more appealing - however the price tag is rather appealing at present. A laptop you don't mind throwing into your rucksack and heading off on your bike with. I finally made the move to trying Vista at work on a laptop (so I can test our in-house applications under the new OS) and I'm running mostly Linux on all of my home machines now (apart from my Mac). It's been an exciting and a tiring year, I'll be glad for all the holiday I've managed to book. Some time to write software and tinker around will be more than refreshing. I've started rebuilding the VLE I designed for my degree project. Everything from scratch, everything designed to be easier to tinker and interface with, everything open-soure. I did get rather a shock when I realised my VLE had been downloaded over 85,000 times since I put it on SourceForge. Scary. So here's to 2008, may it be an excellent year - I raise a glass to you all and wish you a Merry Christmas and a phenomenal New Year! Ho Ho Ho

29/11/07 - Creating 3D worlds from code
I've started playing around with XAML to develop some interfaces for the developers at work. Using Zam3D, a brilliant package in beta at present, I've been able to very quickly put together 3D models that are animated. The Zam3D environment allows you to develop models as you would in a CAD package, and then animate them as if you were using flash. Once you're complete you can export it as a XAML canvas for use in our MS development environments. Very neat. The results are pretty impressive, I've managed to knock up some graphics for one of our products and start proving concept with generating 3D imagery of engineering elements. XAML is very much like VRML in it's sizing and transforms etc. so I'm able to pick through the code and figure out what's going on. Pretty damn cool, makes me want to put some Elite3D-esque imagery together... hmmmmm!

19/11/07 - A Different Class Structure?
After having read through a variety of articles on current trends in the whole 'Web 2.0' way forward I'm starting to become even more aware that we seem to be creating a deeper divide between those that can construct the technology and those that can use it as well as those who cannot. In some ways this seems to parallel the class structure seen evident in England (upper, middle and lower). I am concerned that as we push some of the newer social networking technologies and integrate our devices heavily in to the Internet we somehow mimic H.G Well's "The shape of things to come" with only the intellectually elite able to command the skills to keep the technology required by the overpowering general population going. We're already seeing that our children have a much greater ability to use technology, but from my experience teaching and training children they seem to have no urge to understand the inner workings as our forefathers did. Perhaps this is a downcurve to the Dan-Dare esque baby boom era of engineers or perhaps we have just become so complacent about our base level of technology. So much of the planet still operates with very little technology and yet we are already facing the crisis that is faced in 'The day of the Triffids' - ('Do you know how that jumper is made? Could you make another one from scratch? Would you know where to get the wool, how to spin it, how to weave it?') - Technology has become sufficiently advanced to mean that we can no longer simply 'Heath-Robinson' things together and expect it to work but instead must resort to many integrated circuits that are developed in highly specialised environments. Do I consider myself part of the elite? I am too aware of my lack of understanding in so many areas to consider myself so. Are our children then being brought up as Eloi in a world of Morlocks? Incapable of grasping the reality of the work that goes into bringing the tranquility of their socially networked world together. Would their world come crashing down around them if it were suddenly blown apart by a catastophic collapse of the Internet infrastructure? What books should we think about offering them to rebuild their world?

19/11/07 - Fresh Apples.
I finally managed to get to an Apple store and have a look at the new models of iMac, the new iPhone and the new version of OS-X. On all three accounts I was rather pleased with the quality and general spangly Apple factor.
The new iMac keyboard is so much better than many keyboards I've used over the years (still like my clunky old IBM style one though). I considered buying one while I was at the store but resisted for now.
The iPhone is nice and, yes, there are some very nice features in there. I honestly can't justify the cost of the unit though along with the minimum thirty five pound O2 contract that is required.
The new OS is noticeably different from previous versions. There are a lot of new features I do like (spaces should really have been there since they moved to a BSD-based OS) and I think would enhance my experience somewhat over the version I'm running on my work macbook. There's no way I can shoe-horn it onto my old G3-500 iBook though lamentably!

06/11/07 - Annoyances this week.
Top of the list, running three operating systems on one machine and finding that it interprets the backspace differently. The mac doesn't have a singular delete key, but allows a key combination to access the delete key rather than backspace, the XP machine in my VMWare Fusion instance understands the backspace but not delete. The linux machines that I connect to for coding chunks of live systems and testing do not understand backspace as backspace but as delete. The amount of times I've deleted a line of characters by accident is getting annoying!
Just upgraded my ubuntu modules on my dual celeron 500 box at work, the gutsy gibbon release doesn't seem to like my machine (or maybe the other way around) and it keeps locking completely - no error code, no oops, no kernel stack trace. Nothing. Just dead.

18/10/07 - PHP interfacing
The time has come the walrus said (I am the eggman and all that..?) to talk to many things... PHP communicating via sockets and API and suchlike. Yes it's the time in my life I should try and remember methods and ways in which to communicate system to system in an interactive and interesting manner. Re-reading back through all my PHP developer's cookbook I'm trying to work out on paper what I need to code before I start attacking my keyboard. Now that I've managed to get my office space sorted out a bit more I can probably start coding up everything that's in my skull.

05/10/07 - Sleep, please brain let me sleep.
I finally figured out it was the Sneaker Pimps who covered the song, that's one thing off my mind. I've got a million other thoughts running around in my head though and nothing seems to cull the activity. I've been hacking around with my Neo1973 a little more and I love the new interface they've put together - it's much more usable. Only issue I have at present is that I think my kernel and root image are out of sync as my touchpad appears not to be working. A little bit of hacking required I think.

03/10/07 - Another year older - another language to learn.
After turning another year older I've decided it's time to start getting serious with the languages and systems I'm working with and so for today's purposes I'm looking at learning how to develop software on my mac using cocoa and objective-c. E-gads man!
I've had a song in my head for a couple weeks now and I can't get it out of there as I know it was covered by another artist (possibly Massive Attack) and it's now driving me nuts. I know it's from the Wicker Man, but I can't place who did the cover of it a few years ago. Damn my insomnia and it's unceasing thinking brain.

22/09/07 - FantasticusMacus.
I've been working with my macbook for around a week and a half now with a VMWare for XP Pro. I can honestly say it's fantastic. Battery life is excellent, the screen yes is smaller than the previous machine I had but I've honestly preferred working direct on the laptop (strange geek that I am). I can run all of the applications I need and the terminal services connection to all the main servers so I can manage all of them as normal. I really need to get my head back into writing in C so I can develop some applications for the system, and get my Neo1973 up and running too as soon as I can!

11/09/07 - Continuing saga of hardware
It's been six weeks now without a work laptop due to a certain Irish company's inability to give the truth to our company. When you say 'in production' you would assume that it means you're building the thing. Apparantly that is not the case - you just lie to the customer and keep them waiting and waiting and waiting in the vain hope that something might turn up. So today I lost my rag and told the agency to stuff the order and to ship me something else instead from a Californina company. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. So I'm still without a machine I can use properly and my documents and software are floating around on removable drives and memory sticks in a variety of locations. You never realise how reliant you are on technology until it fails on you or is kept from your use.

30/08/07 - Developing and confusion
It's been a long month of not getting much chance to do any real coding. I've managed to play around with my Neo1973 a little bit, but not enough to start building or porting applications. I became increasingly frustrated with SuSe 10 Enterprise this week after trying to install some audio software that's a simple apt-get install on Debian. I've switched my main development machine at home to Ubuntu in the hope development will be a little easier. I've been logging my escapades in working with the Neo1973 - I submitted the article concept to Linux Format but I've not heard anything back at present so I may post it here as a huge blog entry. Heading up to Edinburgh to see my good mate Olly next week for a couple of days. Expect geekyness and eating to ensue.

08/08/07 - Shiny new toy
Spot the item...! There's something shiny and new on my desktop... and it runs linux! Hoorah my phone is here! Had to do a root filesystem update on it as it came with a broken phone image on it. I've upgraded the kernel also - still a couple of bugs I need to iron out and need to work out getting new applications on it, but it's very shiny and I'm impressed with the package and all that comes with it! Thank you OpenMoko, I shall begin application generation ASAP!

07/08/07 - Phone?
It seems my order has gone through ok with OpenMoko, I'm now awaiting the arrival of the unit (it's a feelin akin to shellshock whenever the office door opens). I'm looking forward to playing around with the operating system and developing some applications for it. I do hope it arrives this week - I'd like to get a chance to play around with the GPS system in it to get it working ahead of a roadtrip to Edinburgh!

31/07/07 - Distro Ahoy!
If ever there was a time for me to start getting my geek head on and getting stuck in to more books, I guess it would be now. I've been playing around with custom distribution construction for Linux and thoroughly tangled my head in knots trying to work out all of the kernel options I need to include. I've generated a simple 'oops I just fragged my development system and need a reinstall disk with all the main packages' distribution of Debian (Located at my TeesCode.co.uk site). Started hacking around with kernel modifications while I was at it - and confused myself in the process. More reading required!
Still nothing on the phone-front. OpenMoko must be completely swamped with orders. I would have liked more communication from them though.

19/07/07 - Publishing again
After sorting through my dying home computer systems and pulling information to one central network attached storage device I managed to rescue two concept albums I'd produced a while ago. I knocked together some cover art for the CD's and published them through my lulu.com online store. Get yourself over there and purchase a copy now!
Still awaiting my openmoko phone - there are too many idiots in the world who think 'development release' means 'production release' and block legitimate developers from purchasing products to enhance the production release. Arrrrgh! Meh.

09/07/07 - Phones and Bugs
I've fallen in love with a new phone - and it's completely open source! Congratulations and salutations to the lads at openmoko.com for producing what is surely to be a phenomenal mobile phone epidemic. Imagine the endless possibilities of being able to hack away with your own mobile phone - writing new applications to solve the problems you've faced for years but haven't been able to solve. I've already downloaded the development emulator to play around and start looking to write applications for the phone - hopefully I'll be able to purchase a unit in the next month or two!
In other news, I've installed a fresh copy of Mantis bug tracking software for my software development company. Hopefully I'll be able to track development and bugs much more easily this way - I got to the point where it was silly writing the code behind my site (so much to do, so little time!) so I whapped Mantis on there instead. Hurrah for the open source community. Hip-Hip-Hoorah!

25/06/07 - Another rain filled Glastonbury
Another year of damp and mud for the patrons at Glastonbury but the new drainage seems to have helped somewhat. I felt a little let down by the bands this year, I'm not sure if the new crowd are just playing it as 'another gig' and not giving it the respect and enthusiasm it deserves. There were exceptions, and I enjoyed cranking up the stereo to: The Magic Numbers, Kasabian (though they have been better), Mumm Ra, Amy Winehouse, Maximo Park, Biffy Clyro, The Kooks, Editors, Paul Weller, The Killers, The Who.

22/06/07 - Weekend of Noise
It's Glastonbury again and a weekend of watching the TV with the stereo turned up loud. Looks like it might be a little damp for those down at the festival, but I hope it doesn't dampen the mood. This time last year Jacob was thumping around inside his mummy's tummy when I watched the coverage. This year he'll be sat next to me on the sofa gurgling away when the bands come on stage.
It's been a busy few weeks with work preparing for security audits and new software deployment - starting to just about slow down to a normal pace again. Looking forward to having a little rest and relaxaton over the next couple of weeks. It's my annual insomnia time again and I really need some sleep!

11/06/07 - Chuffing Nonsense!
I read an article today citing the reasons why people will not move to Linux from Microsoft Windows. The author of the article cited:
"Linux is still too geeky Over the last few years there’s been a huge push to make some Linux distros easier to use, and when you look at a distro like Ubuntu, you realize that they’ve done a pretty good job. Problem is, there are some areas of the OS that are still overwhelmingly geeky (for example, updates). "
Firstly, updates are a breeze with the automated system - I've never had a problem with SuSE or Debian. Secondly - what is inferred is that things should be "so simple as to allow anyone with an ability to prod a power button with their fat sweaty fingers to understand how to use a computer"
The thing that annoys me is the complete disinterest in using your intelligence nowadays. I saw it far too often when teaching, and I'm increasingly seeing it filter through into the I.T. industry. People want to do high-level tasks, but they don't want to know anything at all about the inner-workings or what is going on underneath their shiny facade. It's like a person getting a formula 1 car and going "Oh no, I don't check the oil... i just want to drive the thing as fast as possible without touching a thing!".
In dumbing-down everything for the user and operator that cannot be bothered to understand the inner-workings of their computer, we're creating a chasm in skills - only last week I read another article showing the decline in C programming and computer-studies related courses. Ten years ago you had to have at least some level of understanding to the operation and inner-workings of a computer system which put you in a much more logical frame of mind when developing spreadsheets, applications and databases. It seems with the recent "let's make it easy for people to do complicated stuff" movement we've lost the ability to think things through properly and understand what is actually going on with the hardware when we invoke these high-level commands.
If you can't understand the operating system - read a book. A proper book, not a noddy guide. If you still can't understand it, hit the online forums. If you STILL can't understand it, retire to the south of Africa and open a yak farm and save us all the prospect of a nuclear winter when you press the wrong button!

06/06/07 - Multi-OS Tomfoolery
In my quest to move away from any specific platform to find the one that suits me best I'm having a few issues. I use Windows for a few reasons, mainly web application testing and specific application use (photoshop and fireworks mostly). I use Linux for server-side testing and development and utilise some of the latest generation OSS office applications on Linux. I use my iBook for on-the-move documentation and, increasingly, web application development. I'm having a few teething problems with the iBook due to the fact it's operating on 10.1.5 which runs almost nothing nowadays (and without being able to install developer packs I can't build the applications I need either as it doesn't come with a C++ compiler as standard). So it's been a little strange to work with three operating systems simultaneously at work and at home, I'm getting to the point where I really like parts of every operating system but hate aspects of each at the same time. I really like SuSE enterprise, and I really hate some of the bugs in it. I really like Debian and I hate the quirks it has when upgrading on old computers. I really like Windows and I hate its stupidity and general clutter. I really like MacOS and I hate it for not being completely Linux. Am I too demanding? Am I doomed to operate multiple OSs for the rest of my days?

25/05/07 - Running out of addressing
For the latest scare in PC life, the latest report of IPv4 running out of addressing anywhere between the middle of this year and 2010 is a little worrying. With so many hosting companies still not operating with IPv6 and gobbling up more and more of the old address scheme we're heading very soon to a place where we simply won't be able to continue expanding online services. I think it's time we started to sweep the cobwebs off our WWII nuclear bunker.

14/05/07 - Barcodes are cool, man!
QR Codes are a new 2D barcode system allowing the storage of up to 4KB of data. Just been playing around with them in the office to see how useful these things are. Basic overview: you encode in two dimensions using some clever maths to store text that (utilising some special software) allows you to quickly and simply use a camera phone to access data. It's a big buzz in the far east at present, allowing you to create images that can be snapped by businessmen to store contact details (snap the one on this site to find my business details!) of people at a meeting or social meet-and-greet. Thinking through the possibilities, T-shirts with your own details on when going to conventions would be cool. Storing software in the image would also be l33t. Considering the down-side: Could we be about to see the development of viruses spread by barcodes? Stay tuned!

10/05/07 - Faults, Code, Caffeine and hacking
Had an interesting fault at work on the main storage server - files with no permissions. No access rights for administrators (local or domain) and no way of opening/moving/deleting. Almost like the disk journal is mashed, but it seems reluctant to rebuild itself no matter what we try to do. Most likely we'll have to do a reboot into live linux rescue disks to try and repair the poorly Win2K3 box.
I'm still working on building web applications in my spare time - it just seems like I'm not getting any spare time at present with one thing and another. I almost had a fight-club-esque moment where I returned to do some coding only to find I'd build the entire module I planned to generate. I couldn't remember building the thing until around an hour of looking at the code. Reminder to self: get more caffeine into your bloodstream.
Started hacking around with a display from Maplin, nice little unit which sits on my desk at work at present scrolling a single line ot characters - I had planned to have my linux box giving it's var/log/syslog messages through the display however at present operates far, far to quickly to read! Velleman kits are pretty easy to build, even when you do have a brain fart and solder in the wrong component (second reminder to self: don't try and read email and instructions while soldering whilst holding down technical discussion with office guys).
Also had the Teesside BCS AGM last night which went well, lots happening over the coming year - hopefully some good contacts too.

27/04/07 - Loot Whore!
So I went along to Infosec07 and grabbed a bunch of disks, pens, books, lanyards and brochures. I was a veritable loot whore, packing my bag full of whatever the security vendors wanted to offer me. I was amazed at the number of vendors who were employing ruthless grab you and shove you on the stand tactics, then to go through their crappy presentation to trail off right at the end (obviously when their brain realised no one was listening anymore) - naming and shaming no one, but a certain AntiVirus vender beginning with M springs immediately to mind.
On the plus side, Matthew and I picked up a load of cool software and info from some of the geekier security vendors who were handing freebies to techies and not the executive sales managers that plagued the venue on Thursday. NOD32 Antivirus even gave MP3's of all their cheesy songs free on the AV CD's - a veritable chuckle ensued this morning listening back to all the tunes the guy on the stand was noodling to.
Lost my hacker hat on the train on the way back though due to overcrowding and me putting it down in the overhead rack - bum clouds! I think I'll pop online to the register and grab a new set of them.

11/04/07 - Head in books
Anyway, I started looking through the new specifications for CSS3 and I'm excited by some of the features - I was even more thrilled when I found Firefox currently supports some of the features - cool! I think some of the features should make web applications look much more like they should be, I guess I'll have to build some of the features into my future projects.
Just picked up a stack of books from one of the lads on the North East Linux User Group Forum on a variety of topics. It's been useful to have a new stack of books to look through and reference - currently in deep thought about my next technical book so these are really handy.
In other news, my mate Olly has got himself a new job finally - my son Jacob's growing up far too quickly (I think he takes after me for eating lots) , it's about time I sorted our back garden out , I'm still looking for a decent FTP application for OS 10.1.5 ho hum!

02/04/07 - I love my iBook
So after a lot of humming and thinking and looking through eBay I finally bagged a bargain in the form of a G3 iBook. Though it is a little on the old side it's still managing around 3-4 hours of battery life and it's capable of running all the applications I need to write software. I've been after a cheap iBook for quite a while now in an aid to moving me away from the M$ environment, this laptop is helping me along the way. I think a bit of saving up is in order to think about getting a newer version of it next year - this one will last me quite a while helping me write the software I need to ship out over the next couple of months. Nothing better than coding software in the middle of Starbucks with a nice quad-shot mocca!

20/03/07 - Slack blogging, plenty happening
Wow it's been a busy few weeks - not much time for tapping blog entries. Just finished my CCNA training - exam to take in the next few weeks, oh joy! It does mean that I can do a few scary things with Cisco routers and switches now though.
The lad is getting bigger, growing into a proper little boy (not that he was ever really baby sized!) and we've had great fun going places with his buggy and playing with teddy bears and rattling toys.
The weather's been a little weird, started snowing again last night and it's a few centimeters thick now and still falling - Last week it was positively warm and spring-like, I'd even started trying to sort the garden out cutting the grass and planting new things. Oh well!
On the computing front - I've been evaluating SuSE Enterprise linux (from Novell) for about three weeks now and I'm extremely impressed. So much so that I've considered switching over to it as my main operating system. Aside from the fact you get a fantastic spinning 3D cube for multiple desktop switching, and a myrriad of other excellent effects, it just works! I really like Macs and I'd consider getting one in the future, but on the x86 platform I would definately suggest everyone ditch Vista right now and go to SuSE Enterprise linux. It blows me away whenever I plug in a USB device... *click* *bing! - I have found a device... it is now working* no pause, no coughing, no "unsecure drivers being downloaded - accept/deny?" it just works. It's been a long time since I was impressed by an operating system - Vista fell very short of the mark for me - and I was just drooling when I bought this OS for around £30. You can even download the open source version for free and compile in other effects into the interface. My grading - 9/10. Nice work guys!

07/02/07 - Good Idea, Bad Idea
So, I'm working away in the office when my mate next to me points out this really cool site that tracks where planes are and what their flight path is, Live!
The only thing is, I can't help but feel that this is a little on the dangerous side with the current state of terror alerts. All you need is a laptop and a rocket launcher and... booomph!
I'm so glad I'm not flying anywhere at the moment. Thankfully it seems to be only the American-borne flights that are on the system, the UK is not in it's scope unless they're inbound/outbound to America. Another example of Good Idea / Bad Idea.

01/02/07 - More letters, more code
After a long and in-depth discussion with myself I decided it was time to bite the bullet at join the British Computer Society. It's something I've been meaning to do for a long time but have never actually sat down and filled in the forms. Now I've got another set of letters after my name and access to a host of extra information that'll be vital over the next few years. Hoorah!
Still working on the business thought process - Discussions with the nice tax people shortly I feel are in order. Work continues on the code and hopefully I'll get things up and running as soon as possible. It would be nice to look at getting new toys near the end of the year, like a macBook or suchlike. All my home machines are getting very clunky now, so much for building PC's from scrap parts back in 2000! One of these days Rodders... one of these days.

25/01/07 - Caffeine, Code and Custom Kernels
In the end I figured I'd not set up a company but an off-shoot development website and take the consultancy hit on my tax returns. Much less of a legal problem all round really. For now.
So after I'd spent hours pouring over dictionaries at bedtime and plugging away at the government's online business name checker I finally decided on TeesCode as the name I'll tag the software through - mainly so I can get the support emails popping themselves back to me and my reporting software (in development). After I'd had problems with my main hosting provider I've decided to go with another firm which, for a little more cash, are offering me a heck of a lot of facilities. All of this has led me to start planning out a secure linux kernel that will take my software onto the "ready-built" server market. Hopefully I'll have some of these versions to download on the new server. Hurrah!
Just need to get some time to fudge around with code now. Ho hum!

24/01/07 - Thinking cap on.
So I've got my thinking cap on and I've been tinkering around with code and talking to friends with businesses that are doing extremely well at the moment selling code and support to customers. Started to think that it would be a good idea for me to rewrite some applications for them to flog (to help their clients and to help me fund house modifications over the next few months). The thing is, it would probably be in my best interest to set up sole trader status and keep accounts very separate to help Mr. Taxman, especially if I start flogging many thousands of pounds worth of bespoke software. My only main issue now is - what the heck do I call the business? All of the good names have been taken by hundreds of people before me. A quick browse on the companies house website yields a plethora of IT names and it seems many of the ones I thought would not be taken are.
Sidenote : Random name generators are poop.

19/01/07 - Old code, old memories.
After trying to tidy up a little in my library at home I found several folders of documentation from projects long since passed - including source code for some very scary products I produced a few years ago. Some are still in use today it seems, live on the web living behind firewalls.
CEARS (Customer Enquiry And Reporting System) was one such product - developed for a plastics firm handling all of their customer enquiries and quotation generation as well as e-marketing. It was sad to see how I'd poured everything into the project only to have it used once. Such is the life of a coder it seems.
Perhaps code all goes to a dark and sinister graveyard on the net - maybe I should start a website dedicated to code long since passed? Perhaps it is good that things move on.

16/01/2007 - Webcode, Datafeeds and CSS - Oh My!
Started trying to get the RSS feeds working on the site as well as tidy up a couple of items ahead of me trying to populate more information back on the site. My brain feels like sillyputty at the moment with junior waking me up through the night. I've not had chance to really read through all the documentation before trying the code out which is kind of confusing. Nevermind - I'm sure it'll work in the end?!

15/01/2007 - New Year, New Everything
Well it's been a busy start to 2007. New job, new baby, new church. It's all go in my household!
Started working on creating some new PHP applications to keep the brain on edge - and I think it's time I got my body down to some slimmer figure after all the Christmas festivities.
Having a bit of a nightmare with the car at the moment, having to do a lot of repairs - started off with the lower suspension arms on the front going, then the nearside spring went, then the offside brake hose burst, need two new front tyres and I'm suddenly thinking I need to hit ebay to get myself a dub wagon or something! Oh well!

28/12/2006
Slack, Slack, Slack moi for not getting the blog updated!
It's been a busy few weeks with the lad getting us into a routine of bottles and changing and sleeping etc. It's certainly been a very different way of doing things recently - although at the same time it's like he's always been here.
Christmas was great - spending time with four generations of people starts to put a real cheer in the air. Looking forward to the new year and my new job - it's going to be great getting back to computers and technology and being a technogeek.
I was amazed to find that there was practically nothing on this Christmas on T.V. - Aside from a brilliant version of Hogfather (a book I loved when I first read it) there was little to motivate me to turn the T.V. on. Watched my Genesis of the Daleks Doctor Who DVD which Rach got me for Christmas and remembered how different this storyline was to others - I can see why it had so much stick being on at 6pm. Also been listening to my new Wolfmother CD which is superb! - if you haven't bought a copy yet get yourself to the stores and grab one. A really good, phat rock album which I've been after for a while now and am so pleased to have finally listened to at high volume.
So... this is Christmas... have a happy new year everyone...

14/12/2006
Wow! That was a hectic week. Baby Jacob Owen Trotter was born finally on the 11th December in the early hours. Rach and Jacob are doing fine and I've had lots of opportunities to take photographs. Need some more black and white film now for my SLR's.
Just trying to get the house in order now and get all of the baby's things ready for when he needs them (bottles, baby clothes etc.) All very hectic but the happiest time of our lives.
What a wonderful Christmas present he is... Merry Christmas everyone!

05/12/2006
Still no baby, good grief he's holding in there tightly!
Countdown to Christmas starts now - two weeks of paternity leave and then only two and a half days of teaching to do....ever...again..
Looking forward to the arrival of the baby, he's running quite a bit late now and no amount of promising him microcomputers and bikes is coaxing him out. Ho hum.

27/11/2006
Still waiting for the arrival of the baby - thought it was going to be last week however he seems to have different plans.
Finding it difficult to create a guitar tone I like at the moment, though not from the lack of trying. I've been smashing around with my POD and multiple guitar effects pedals to try and come up with a set of tones I like and would use all the time. Everytime I get a tone I like and lay a track down it just doesn't seem to work on the next track I try and put down. Back to the drawing board I guess.
On that note - my new Wesley telecaster is super-sweet. Bought via eBay (for a silly almost guitar-cable price) brand new it packs quite a twang. I've used it with my POD, Ashdown mini stack and multiple pedals and it performs very well. A very good product for a silly price. It's nice to know you can still manage to get some silly bargains on eBay every now and then.

21/11/2006
Ah the tiredness sets in already - and the baby hasn't even been born yet! Far too many things to sort through at work to make sure the kids don't have problems with me going off on paternity leave and then finishing at Christmas (starting my new l33t job in January).
Started doing all the Christmas shopping online - not heading back into any towns at the weekend - took around an hour and a half to park in Middlesbrough the other day which (whilst nice to give the battery on the car a charge) was a triffle annoying to then find I couldn't replace Rach's handset in the Orange store even though their phone support told me to do so. The store were a little less than happy with phone support - it appears I'm not the first to have the same issue.
Baby is due any time and I feel like a nervous wreck. Not sleeping well ass I'm waiting for the "Rick, I need to go to hospital NOW!". Going through the day at work much the same and wishing I wasn't doing the job I'm doing, but I keep doing it to the best of my ability (seem to be the only one in the department really doing any kind of display work on the walls too which is weird).

20/11/2006
Tsky.net offline while I try and get the site interface up and running properly. Finally time for me to get rid of all the kludge on the site and get it back down to basics. No time for all this consultancy nonsense - just get stuck into my job and playing some mean guitar!

08/11/2006
Hectic times at the moment, baby due any day now and a million things to sort out. Bonfire night was interesting - neighbours all clubbed together to build a monster bonfire (nearly causing destruction of overhead BT phone cables) which was around twenty feet high with another fifteen to twenty feet of flames. Thankfully the wind was blowing the hot burning ash away from my house.
Work on my machines at home continues - interesting issue with Debian box trying to reset itself to DHCP from static network settings even though I've removed all traces of the DHCP client from my machine. Methinks something has hidden itself away from the package management software. Ho hum - more investigating needed.
On the same note, my ancient laptops are starting to die. Screens are going on them (so much for ten year old technology huh!?) and they're running about as well as a one legged Yakk in porridge. Oh roll on my new job with decent equipment. Maybe I should sell my junk and buy something new and spangly.
Desperately trying to find time to sort out web programming chunks to rework things here and elsewhere on CMS projects. Also growing a big beard which is fun. Pictures will no doubt follow of child, beard and suchlike.

28/10/2006
Wow, few days since I've done the old blog. Busy Busy Busy!
So.. yeah.. it feels good to have quit the old teaching game. I've had my head in servers and books and code since handing my notice in. Looking forward to playing with big shiny servers. I've got around 5 weeks of actual teaching left due to my two weeks paternity leave. Awaiting the arrival of Version 2.0 geek, which shouldn't be too much longer now. Think I'll raid the thinkgeek store when I get some of the cash through that I'm owed.
Just looking at CISCO courses at the moment - that's the next qualification I'll be grabbing in the new year. All good fun this, perhaps this next job will last me out quite a few years - I do hope so! (I can't face trying to get new jobs and looking after V2.0 Geek!)

22/10/2006
Finally got a lot of my computers sorted at home (still some tweaking to do) so I can start doing some major coding again. Managed to get the old laptop running again with Windoze 95. Man I'd forgotten how long it took to get all the damned devices talking to each other. Kids nowadays have it easy!
Got the PCMCIA card services working finally and the network card operating. Going to try a few application deployments on to it I think - see what I can get working.
Had my introduction to M$ Sharepoint yesterday. Interesting - er, yeah. Interface is a little sloppy and chugs when you decide to have it reindex things, but on the whole not too bad I suppose. Sure there's a better way (reading code books and fiddling already!).

17/10/2006
Pretty average day, got home to kitchen salesman dude. Had him measure the kitchen and produce design - showing me all his sample products etc. and giving me quotes for things. Talk about dragging deals out to make you purchase. He had all the orders worked out and prices and everything ready to go until I went "Woah! hang on. I don't want to buy it. Give me time to think, three months to think!". So after two and a quarter hours I threw him out of the house which was fun. Now I've got some neat designs for the kitchen I'll build for a fraction of the cost. Arf Arf! - Don't you just love salesmen!
Think he was a little bit gutted, nevermind - strange how they can knock 3 grand off the price in three minutes for "first time buyers" of their product. Idiots - he even tried to say "well if you get on this finance deal, it's only one point summink percent a month" ... Yeah that's like 16 percent odd a year interest.
Ah it's nice to con the conman.

16/10/2006
So, yeah... I quit my job in teaching today. Put my notice in and am heading out to industry again. Fed up with all the red tape and systems - not enjoying it anymore so I've thrown the towel in. Think that shocked a lot of people - they didn't really believe me when I said I'd quit before I got depressed and bitter about the whole teaching game. Nevermind... back to being a Techy in January - Hoorah!

12/10/2006
Righto, so the lab is about up and running now - no teacher station yet though *sigh*. Could be another month for that I reckon the speed education runs at. View
Looks the part at least - booting is interesting. I'm just waiting for the first batch of teachers and pupils complaining that "They boot into Mac instead of Windows as default". Oh, and the room is now officially "The Orchard" after my poster campaign took effect today: View
At least the noticeboard's looking less empty now. Don't think they're taking the hint with the "Jobs" section I have going. The kids are all acting like their Christmas, Birthday, Easter, Summer Vaccation and pocket money has come all at once. Teaching is a bleedin' nightmare as they're all just going "ooooh, look at the screen size... WOW! check out the Mouse.. It does right click and left click but it doesn't have buttons!". It's official - kids ARE getting dumber and I'm not sure I like it.

11/10/2006
Day three of installation - finally got the Win2K3 domain talking properly to the Macs and the software all installed and configured. It's been a long time since I've actually taught in an ICT suite. Funny that, I'm starting to think that it's an alien concept.
MacBook still hasn't arrived - apparantly the order is on hold until the new core-duo ones come out next week. So that's me without a teacher's station for the next month then I guess. Bumclouds.
So anyhow, the lab is looking quite nice with the new projector and whiteboard in and all these nice shiny iMacs. They're starting to call the room "The Orchard" - looks like the name's going to stick. Think I'll get ahead of the game and design my own logo to be put up on my display boards. I may even write a custom screen-saver to run on the iMacs with the logo on it arf arf!

09/10/2006
Right, that was the day from hell. 8am - patch my room with MY OWN switch as the one we ordered hasn't arrived yet. 8:55, do register, then start first lesson, get phone-call from reception saying guy from IT support company here(not the mac company yet though). Moved him with coffee to the lab while I started teaching second lesson. Dropped in half way through to check all is well, mac guy turned up (turns out I know him - he helped me sort out the first mac network I ever build... 4 years and several different companies ago). Set up info for them, taught third lesson - half way through had them run in saying the server room air con was throwing out water, had to deal with that and my class. Got to lunch, my choccy biccy had a compromised wrapper and was minging - air con still dead (very warm and damp). Taught 4th lesson and had a lesson obs - class were doing the "we want to be on the iMacs" line every five minutes. Yeah, like I'm going to EVER let you on to the iMacs now you little brats. Note to self: organise room swap. Wanted to leave work early to check on the missis who's having a bad pregnancy day - left at ten to 5 after mac and IT support guys gave up trying to figure out why the DC's and the iMacs aren't talking nicely (Kerberos password issues methinks - keep quiet tsky, you may know more - but keep it shtum, we're PAYING for them to sort it!).
Ran the missis to the chippy for her tea, took car to garage to check on "banging noise", dropped presents off for my mate Luke and then tried to sort out work for kiddies tomorrow.
Could I possibly fit anything else into today? - Can I ground-hog day today please so I can just stay in bed and tell the world to get stuffed?

08/10/2006
Right, so my mate Luke got back from America (where he's been doing some filming) and brought me a belated birthday present. Nicely done I thought - been after a new hat for a while, so he got me a Fez w00t! I've been after one for a while so was over the moon when he gave me the bag containing said item.
It's his birthday on Tuesday so I thought I'd return the favour and get him something geeky and cool. Time to hit Toys 'R' Us methinks! Sorry you have to head back to America for more filming mate, especially in economy class :(

06/10/2006
Last of the patch cables in, awaiting the arrival of network switch and guys with beards (or most likely because they're Mac guys, desert boots and NHS glasses) to install it all next week. Getting edgy now. Interactive whiteboard is going in too.. no sign of the illusive iBooks yet though to run the whiteboard. Ho hum!
Anyhow - there's seven weeks to go before my son arrives on the planet and starts turning oxygen into CO₂. Looking forward to the arrival and excited we're heading towards Christmas. The fruit is soaking in brandy - cake will be baked tomorrow huzzaah! Plenty of time left to feed the cake.
Still getting the "All the computers are there why aren't we using them!?" moans from the kids. Glad I've shaved my head down again otherwise I'd have clumps of hair missing from tearing it out with the stock "THEY'RE NOT ON THE NETWORK YET!". "How long does it take to put them on the network it's ridiculous!" was one of the cries today. My vivid explanation of Cat-5 network design, managed switch stack configuration, drive partitioning, software updates and sleep patterns didn't seem to appease the children. Bring back the cane ;) *sigh*

04/10/2006
View
So the last of the iMacs were unpacked today by myself and the network manager. A great hoorah was exhaled once we'd set up the last one to boot into OS-X mode. Now I've just got to wait until they're configured next week by the Mac shop geeks - oh, and wait for the network to be installed. Oh and the whiteboard. Maybe I should try and purchase brains for all the kids too? What part of "It's not on the network you can't log on" do people not understand? Maybe I just expect to much out of (l)users?

So I bought myself a new book and had a coffee and cookie to relax after shouting at darling little children all day. Thought I'd stick my head back into coding with the latest generation Visual Basic chunks as well as PHP5 (well - I might as well get the gray cells working like they used to!) Starting to try and get all my machines working at home and thinking I need to get myself a MacBook Pro that will dual boot. Ho hum. Another day, another..er.. dollar?

03/10/2006
Ok, so I'm sitting at work and I've just received a bunch of new 20 Inch iMacs for my ICT suite. We're getting them to dual boot with OS-X (10.4.6) and M$ XP Pro using BootCamp. Thought it would be a little bit of a nightmare getting the two to run properly but it turns out those clever geeks over at Apple development have made the task a breeze!
View
Installed the software, rebooted after partitioning, slapped the XP (with SP2) CD in and it whizzed through the install. Oh baby!
So I got to thinking, now all I need is the server (also pictured) acting as primary domain controller (seeing as it appears to handle requests much better than the main DC ever could) for my iMac network and I'll be laughing harder than La Vache qui rit !
Now, if only these iMacs in my lab were connected to a network - that would be good.

30/09/2006
So I bit the bullet and got myself a book on PHP5 to start learning about the new OOP upgrades. Turns out there's lots in here that could be very useful. Just need to get my lazy and bored brain into doing the coding again after taking such a long break in coding.
Hopefully I'll get around to finishing the projects I started - always thought I'd rewrite my VLE in an OOP-esque language.

29/09/2006
Another year over, another ahead of me. Well it's been a busy year this year and the birthday snuck up on me yet again. Maybe I'll be ready for it next year?