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Sometimes daily ramblings & articles from a 30 something developer from North West England. Passionate about not just web standards, but all things life. Long time user of Debian/GNU Linux for Web Servers & my Desktops. >>>

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04/07/2008, 21:22:01
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I can see by the way you've been acting of late that you need to be repatriated to the motherland. In fact I think that's a fine fine idea...*
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03/04/2008, 10:18:24
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Yes, I suppose you could say I am back again. After having a Twitter conversation with Neil the other night I swapped back to the old system and template (I'd found a copy of it on USB). I really hated the look, it felt so old (looking at the datestamps in the source, it was!) - So I quickly slapped this together and I quite like it. One of the main points of going to this type of design is mobile devices. I don't know about you but I find most sites are still appalling when it comes to viewing them on a mobile device. My aim is to ensure it's not with this design.
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31/03/2008, 00:54:38
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17/09/2007, 10:53:15
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01/08/2007, 09:17:54
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"You have a website full of information, and you want to make it easier for people to reuse it - but what format should you publish it in?
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20/07/2007, 10:13:29
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They lied to us
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20/06/2007, 11:12:28
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Almost forgot I had a blog then. I've been so busy settling in to my new job that life is just flying at the moment. Training, new office, new job title, new systems and no time for anything other than working and sleeping!
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20/05/2007, 20:59:05
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Well I've spent most of the last week away down in Wokingham on some training for our shiny new CMS at work. The training wasn't the best but it's enough to get me started off of configuring the system for our end-users. The trip down there took nearly 5 hours which wasn't bad considering how bad the weather was. The hotel was nice, well I say nice, the only really good thing was the shower. It was powerful enough to make you think that you were getting a beating. Just what you need after a full English in the morning. The room were nice but no free Wi-Fi even in the public areas which was a bummer as the hotel was out near the motorway so not much going on.
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20/05/2007, 20:29:27
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You tell me I can't slow down
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08/05/2007, 22:37:48
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Had to, no seriously... As much as it pained me (and trust me it did) to buy something that runs Windows mobile, in all reality I had to make a choice. Basically my trusty Palm, after four years of daily battering, decided to give up the ghost. Now I loved my Palm, it did everything I needed it to do but it also lacked in a few areas. My fault that it did, I bought it just at the wrong time, just as new PDA's suddenly burst on to the scene packed with features; I bought too early. Sadly it was soon overtaken by newer models but I stuck with it because it with a few tweaks and writing my own apps for it I managed to get it to do pretty much everything I had wanted it to do. The only thing I could never get it to do with was sync with my email and calendar at work and only because they refuse to support it (due to the email client we use).
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30/04/2007, 09:54:08
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Things have been somewhat, well, crazy at work in the last few weeks. Where I work has been starting the process of buying and implementing a content management system (CMS). Now in my current role I have been a part of that process by feeding in through various groups to get the job done. This has meant lots of meetings but it also meant two days away during the product selection process. Well we got through all that and selected a product. I can't talk about it and I won't because the first rule about tek's blog is you don't talk about work, you don't mention names, locations - you know how it works. Anyway suffice to say I'm happy with the selection and I think it'll do the job we need it to.
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04/04/2007, 10:49:48
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Picture of wine glass and cocktail glass
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26/03/2007, 13:30:55
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You know I'm getting sick of referrer spam in my logs. It makes trying to garner some basic web stats almost impossible. The latest trick is not just one URL being injected in to the referrer header but about a ga-billion (new numbers yay!). Of course the frequency is annoying. Take just now, I'm eating my dinner at work looking through my stats and I click the top referrer in my logs to see WTF it is because it has a sort of interesting to the everyday person type name and I'm AT WORK. Needless to say it isn't SFW! @$#! Stupid STUPID spammers.
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20/03/2007, 15:39:45
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05/03/2007, 15:18:14
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First five people to comment here with a good reason why I should give them free* blog and web hosting for a limited period of time can have it. If you like the service you can then pay a small fee.
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23/02/2007, 11:14:24
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Long time no bloggy, I've been ill and trying to catch up on my workload. Nightmare.
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08/02/2007, 10:51:11
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Quick update on a few things. Hosting server will be up next week, with Ruby on Rails too. Probably with a new domain all to itself! There might be some downtime here while I move across to it. Woo!
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29/01/2007, 11:28:59
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[i]Back in the frontier days of the web - when flaming skulls, scrolling marquees, and rainbow divider lines dominated the landscape - "Webmaster" was a vaunted, almost mythical, title. The Webmaster was a techno-shaman versed the black arts needed to make words and images appear on this new-fangled Information Superhighway. With the rise of the Webmaster coinciding with the explosive growth of the web, everyone predicted the birth of a new, well paying, and in-demand profession. Yet in 2007, this person has somehow vanished; even the term is scarcely mentioned. What happened? A decade later I'm left wondering "Who killed the Webmaster?"[/i]
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25/01/2007, 16:51:41
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WRATH
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25/01/2007, 11:51:54
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Everyday I thank myself for always running Linux, be that on my Laptop or my Home network. Today for example I forgot to dump some stuff on to my pen-drive to take to work. If I'd have been running only Windows then I'd be really stuck right now and feeling rather embarrassed. Fact is because I [b]do[/b] run Linux I was simply able to log-in to my home network from work securely via SSH and access the files I needed. Of course you can do the same with Windows but the fact remains that I've yet to see a Windows box stay up for more than week without needing a reboot for one reason or another (usually a BSOD) - you can disagree all you want if you're a Windows Fan-boy but I know from 18yrs of IT experience that I am correct.
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22/01/2007, 11:27:51
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We have been moving the whole office around and it's been no small feat considering we have 50+ staff in our office. All I can say is that for me it was easy, I have no paperwork (well at least as I can possibly have because I am a hippy like that - paperless office in the digital world is possible you Muppets!) so my move was like this:
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03/01/2007, 15:01:04
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It's only the third but already I've been tagged with a meme damn it! Neil has talked about five things he's not really ever talked about, I think it's secretly the voyeurism of Siobhan to get people to tell secrets, but hey, why not eh?
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16/11/2006, 11:23:15
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My Mum is curently in hospital, I hate the places but I'll be off this evening to go visit her. It's at times like this you realise that here in the UK, despite some sides of the NHS, we actually do have pretty good free medical care. Even if they have messed her about with beds and so on.
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15/11/2006, 09:57:14
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Yes BEAST. That's the new hostname for a new box on my home network. Cutting a long story short the main box on the network blew its power supply and subsequently a few other things along the way. So I decided to put a cheap but beastie PC together. I'm now in the world of 64-bit CPU, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a combined storage space of near a Terabyte just for this box, temperature controlled environment (temp taken from CPU, HDD, Sys and controlled by three separate speed adjustable fans to keep within optimum temp).
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15/11/2006, 09:57:14
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Yes BEAST. That's the new hostname for a new box on my home network. Cutting a long story short the main box on the network blew its power supply and subsequently a few other things along the way. So I decided to put a cheap but beastie PC together. I'm now in the world of 64-bit CPU, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a combined storage space of near a Terabyte just for this box, temperature controlled environment (temp taken from CPU, HDD, Sys and controlled by three separate speed adjustable fans to keep within optimum temp).
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24/09/2006, 21:38:30
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I wasn't really, I've just been incredibly busy doing one thing and another; mostly working and turning 30! Life with a full time job and a freelance business can be, at time, very err time consuming indeed. Working a 9am to 5pm and then 7pm to 1am can get pretty tiring when you've been doing it for years. I do occasionally get some sleep in between cups of coffee!...


03/09/2006, 21:53:52
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The series of articles that I am going to release about building your very own blogging scripts are being written pretty much as we speak, with a firestorm of coffee, Drum, Tarka Dhal, Dirty Pretty Things, and furious editing they will be released pretty soon (as in the first part this week). They all need to make sense so I am having to write them all in the one go. "Why don't you just release one big one then?". Well the simply answer to that is that it would be daunting to someone with little knowledge of PHP using objects. This way each article can deal with a specific subject matter and go in to enough depth that hopefully even a novice (*cough* script kiddie) would understand it.
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18/08/2006, 10:16:23
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So really I need to start to get this series of articles together on how to make the simple basics of a CMS. However first I need to add a little something to the tengine system. By the way already I have had comments and emails regarding what it means. Well I'll be honest, if it means in essence taking the piss out of myself; up 'ere in t'North we speak little (read: a LOT) different to our counterparts in the South of England. So there you have it, it should really be t'engine and it's phonetically funny.
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14/08/2006, 10:20:39
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Well this is my first day back to work. I've been on leave for the last two weeks and I can tell you getting up this morning was no fun at all. I've been used to getting up at the more reasonable time of around 10am so a rude awakening by an alarm clock at the demonic hour of 7am was not very nice.
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13/08/2006, 18:36:02
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Well I say sorta because the new system and site isn't quite what I'd like to call finished. However I want to get it back up and so here it is. Some of you might have seen some referrer traffic in the last few days from my domain and that'd be me testing some stuff out.
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27/02/2006, 10:22:40
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For once I've woken up this morning and not felt like someone has just let off a bomb inside my head. Yes world, I'm actually awake and with it. Usually I am half asleep as I can never sleep on Sundays but last night I managed to get off before 1am and I was back out of bed at 7am. Woo yay! Although I'm sure some of you out there will be laughing at me thinking "yeah that's a walk in the park dickhead", I can assure you that I get about that much sleep EVERY night and come Sunday I am just over-tired and can never actually get to sleep even though I am exhausted. So bite me.
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24/02/2006, 11:25:17
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Even I am surprised that a month has passed so quickly. I've been thinking a lot about the system that runs this site and I think once again it is time to re-tweak it. I'm partial to banging my head off walls aye? No really I think it has come a long way from the simple Perl script that used to be but there are plenty of things I wish to add to it. For instance I'd love to add a simple dictionary function that adds the abbreviation stuff without me having to type it in the entry, I can do that now with the BBCode filter but the problem is the filter isn't clever enough and a word could be part of a link and in fact be part of the URL and then we have broken links. Easy to create and would make life pretty good, it would add extra queries on the database but then Wordpress uses on average near 16 just to load the main blog where I use... ONE! I've never understood why Wordpress doesn't use real relational queries properly.
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16/01/2006, 11:20:34
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Always fun to catch them out. Problem is trying to stop them can cripple not only your own server but also anyone who you want to share your content with who you're more than happy to let hotlink it. In a perfect world you'd have everyone take a copy of your image or whatever but it just isn't practical, especially when that media might change. I recently suffered this problem, and still do. I still do because I'm still deciding on what to do. I can see by my log that someone has hotlinked the "pod" image from the music list of the right side. The request comes from a forum which is locked off and requires you to actually fax to the owners a copy of this to be authorised to log in (which is pretty heavy really). As you may or may not know it's written in Turkish, shame I have a friend who lived there for years, no problems in knowing what it says. Aside that we have some clever bod on myspace who has a "friend" who decided to hotlink the "the rising dragon" music image. You'd think people would get a life, get some eyesight and realise that the copyright logo at the bottom means in lamer terms: "Don't steal my stuff thanks", alas no.
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12/11/2005, 15:48:36
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On Friday morning we lost another member of our family. After a long illness and some serious clinging on she finally let go, she was the last of that generation and we now number very little with another generation gone and no new generation to speak of it got me wondering if my family name will actually go on past me. I have a sister but neither of us are in to the idea of having children at the moment. With my Father gone this leaves only three of us as immediate family which really isn't a lot at all.
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08/11/2005, 09:46:08
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I've seen a few reports on a worm called Lupper which is exploiting the XML-RPC for PHP vulnerability recently found. XML-RPC for PHP is used in a large number of popular CMS systems including PostNuke, Drupal, b2evolution, Xoops, WordPress, PHPGroupWare and TikiWiki to "ping" various listings and so on. When exploited, this can compromise a vulnerable system if certain configurations have been made to the install. Most of these packages [i]should[/i] have XML-RPC for PHP vulnerability fixed in the latest version. If you are still running an old version, I suggest you get it updated [b]immediately[/b]. Very very important!
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06/11/2005, 16:32:53
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I have, over the last week, been working on the Just Me site. Not got as much done as I would have hoped but with being off I have been doing other things and work on it is slow. I am re-writing the whole of the dsbs system to run it, basically I would say it is at least a 90% re-write meaning I will probably give it a new name and it will soley run that site where as the dsbs will continue to run this site. I've already said that to just bung up the dsbs to Just Me would be a lot of hassle as once I decided I didn't ever wish to release it (again) that I took it in the custom direction of what I needed and not what I thought I should write in to a blog system based on other peoples.
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01/11/2005, 11:20:21
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Yep that is right I have some time off which is great because I really could do with it. Got quite a lot of things to sort out at the moment and the community site is one of them so I will probably be doing that over this coming week. Right now I'm concentrating on the real world (as you might have guessed at the lack of posts) as that is more important. Stuff is going on that I'm not gonna post about here but I'm sure it'll all pan out in the end.
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19/10/2005, 08:56:13
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"Microsoft UK National Technology Officer Jerry Fishenden has warned that the UK ID card scheme could trigger "massive identity fraud on a scale beyond anything we have seen before." Writing in today's Scotsman, Fishenden says that the security implications of storing biometrics centrally are enormous. "Unlike other forms of information such as credit card details," he says, "if core biometric details such as your fingerprints are compromised, it is not going to be possible to provide you with new ones."
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16/10/2005, 18:12:49
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Okie so I have, this weekend, started work on the www.iamjust.me.uk domain. I mean it has been sat there for some time now with nothing doing. Basically it is being a waste of cash coming out my pocket. So it will be up hopefully within the next few weeks. I have designed a template for it and I am currently in the process of writing a brand new CMS especially for it. The dsbs would fit but has now become way to tailored to what I personally need from it on this domain. Whilst most of it would fit the fact remains that the admin side of things is meant for a single user and not multiple and thus being the case it means that I might as well re-write the lot.
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11/10/2005, 08:59:41
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Well I was off work yesterday as I had a carpet fitted in my house. It's quite amazing how quickly these guys can throw a carpet down. The guy was funny too, he was full of internet related scams which I found amusing. Apparently he had made a fortune recently simply by buying a large amount of fireworks and re-selling them on E-bay for 5 times the price! He invested five grand, he got back around twenty five! Which was a split between him and his brother; not bad! His next scam was sofa's, yep sofa's. He was buying them over in China for around 70 quid. Shipping them back and then selling them on here for a grand. Now that's some serious mark-up and the only reason he stopped was because the factory burnt down in China! Of course he could well be full of shit but hey it's nice to think someone is beating the system.
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26/09/2005, 09:29:59
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Terrorists or Freedom fighters? Which are they? Could you say that acts committed here in the UK are terrorism? Would you have said the same if the Shia in Iraq started to bomb innocent civilians when Saddam was still in power as they tried to rise up against his tyranny? No, I think you'd be calling them freedom fighters. Does the nature of the Israeli land grabbing mean that Hamas and others are freedom fighters rising up against a repressive country that breaks international law on a daily basis and gets away with it based solely on the fact that America backs them? Were the French resistance terrorists or freedom fighters? Did they not blow up innocent civilians in the name of riding France of Hitler and the Nazi's? Were the IRA terrorists or were they too trying to rid the north of Ireland of the colonial rule of British forces which no longer needed to be there, did America not back the IRA? Freedom fighters? Or terrorists? Are the Sunni insurgents terrorists or freedom fighters, are the Shia rising up in Basra and now Baghdad freedom fighters or Terrorists? Did anybody really need to invade Iraq? Is all of it worth it?
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22/09/2005, 09:05:10
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Indeed I am, it was my birthday last Friday. I guess it feels somewhat strange to now be 29. It will be the last twelve months of my twenties before I hit the big 30. All my friends tell me that is when life slots in to place but I have to say judging by the look of them I disagree. What is more likely is that the older you get the less you give a shit and so you think life is slotting in to place when it actual fact it is you that's giving less of a shit about actually slotting in to place. We'll have to see but until then I will enjoy as much as I can of these last twelve months.
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14/09/2005, 10:30:36
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I'm currently off work with a really bad throat infection. So much so that I have spent the last 24hrs with the shakes and a throat that feels like someone has poured molten glass down it. Towards the end of last year I had tonsilitus which I can only describe as agony. This is different but just as horrible in the sense of dehydration headaches (even though I have consumed huge amounts of liquids) and a fever. I could also most handle the throat if it weren't for the headaches. My brain feels like a brillo-pad at the moment. I can't sit at the computer because the screen feels like it is burning my retinas.
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07/09/2005, 08:57:36
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So today on my way to work I was in a new cafe getting my morning caffeine dose. This isn't the normal one I go to, that has unexpectedly closed (until further notice) which is gutting as that made just the best coffee and it was reasonably priced. The one I now have to go to is more expensive and a bit of a rip off; not to mention it has crap coffee. So anyway I am asked if I would like a large or a small coffee. I decide for the 20p extra I'll have the large (trust me I'm already paying over the odds, fine super size me I might just get my cash worth). Except this is still made with the amount of coffee in the machine that they would use in the smaller version. So hold on, I'm paying 20p extra for what, more water? Resulting in a more watery coffee. "How many sugars would you like with that Sir?", "Three please". At which point she produced 3 sachets of sugar. sachets... not teaspoons (which might I say are a real dose of sugar) and so I now have a under sugared', watery cup of coffee. So I ask for some more sachets and that could they actually put some milk in it. She looked at me like I just took a shit on her counter. She finally asks for the 1.40 for coffee (which is expensive in my book) and I hand over 1.50 she chucks it in the till and I have to ask for my 10p change. This isn't America, we don't tip. I did consider saying "keep the change" when I was handing it over but considering the crap service and watery drink I was getting thought, fuck that. I left whilst she muttered something, so as I crossed over I gave her the finger and left her staring out her cafe window with her mouth open.
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29/08/2005, 19:55:53
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This site now has a WAP address which features the blog entries (one at a time), the moblog and a contact page. Although the content has been given the name WAP it actually isn't being served as WML it is actually served as HTML 4. This is because it is just easier to make layouts using tables as most phone browsers don't cope with CSS too well and really WML is kind of crappy. I'm in the process of also making a PDA version for the site that will be exactly the same as the WAP version but just wider because of the bigger screens. Also when folks use services like Avant Go! they can handle more high spec mark-up than a phone browser can. At present I don't plan to add functionality like comments and so as the time spent trying to type a comment in to a mobile phone far outweighs it's importance really. People who tend to use mobiles on the web also have means to access a PC and so can come and comment all they like. I have however added a contact page with my email address on so if you must comment from a mobile just send me an email instead!
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25/08/2005, 11:52:21
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The site is now valid XHTML 1.1. I decided to expand the functionality of the Javascript of the site. This means that links either open in a new windows (ones that are external or comments) or will, if your browser doesn't support Javascript, open in the same window. This has enabled me to move to XHTML 1.1 cleanly as you can't use the target attribute in the link tags within that DTD. Anyway, I can't say the comment system is valid (yet) but the main page is.
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22/08/2005, 14:05:48
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Okie so in the next few days the site may have a few eppies as I adjust some stuff and update some things on the site. At present I am doing another re-write of the library functions so the way in which things operate may or may not change depending on what is happening. So, if things don't work don't email with error reports or whatever as it will just be me messing things up.
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18/08/2005, 10:47:09
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As from the end of today I will be off work till the 30th August, woo yay! This will give me some time to up the xhtml version of this site to something better as I have been busy writing scripts that can cope with certain things you can't use in a stricter DTD (for those that aren't XML savvy this simply means more strict coding than it is at present). Currently the site is XHTML 1.0 but at the very least I want to move it to 1.1 and if I can version 2.0 (which now has a working draft). Strictly speaking this version is not a stable release but hey I like to be at the cutting edge and with the new version it will hopefully bring about some changes to new versions of browsers so we can FINALLY say that content and presentation are two separate entities and basically you have no choice. I know people that still code in HTML 4 (yes it is true) and I've been telling them that the day is going to come that they have a real legacy problem when the apps they use suddenly stop being developed any further and all that code they look after is going to need to be updated to an XHTML standard. Playing catch up is never good!
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11/08/2005, 22:12:41
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So what is the blogosphere? Well according to many it is the collective term encompassing all weblogs or blogs as a community or social network. Well that is cool, perhaps it is because it is a social network that it felt it needed to be defined? Well I don't think it should feel the need to be defined. Many of us kept blogs a long time before the likes of blogger and so on and it fills me with a little bitterness that once again the masses rape the underground of what it was to make the more commercial world what it has become. I kept an online journal of sorts before the turn of the millennium, how many people from the "blogosphere" can actually say that? I recently wrote and sent a crawler out looking at blogs sites using some of the more popular blog directories and portals to just have a look at peoples archive years. Out of over three and half million blogs (that my crawler looked at) only a four percent of those actually had archives that pre-dated 2001.
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08/08/2005, 09:07:42
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Yeah well I decided to start posting again. I stopped because well I had a few weeks where I just couldn't write anything. I'd sit down and start to write something just to scrap it after reading it. In reality nothing much has been happening in my life to warrant an entry. I've started my new job and been in it a month but what else can I tell you about it? I'm enjoying it, that's all. I guess it's blog block or something but also it is summer and with starting a new job the last thing I've wanted to do in the last few weeks is to come home and switch a computer on.
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17/07/2005, 19:42:21
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Yeah almost forgot I have a blog then. Things have been crazy whilst I've been settling in to my new job. So much so that when I have been getting home I've not really been wanting to sit in front of a pc all night doing bits of this and that. Besides the sun has been out and since I live in the North West of England I thought I better get some of it to my milk white skin. Me and Bumble have been having and going to a few barbies and last night was no exception. After countless beers, absynthe, apple sours and some horrid mix of Southern Comfort, Raki and coke the bbq food just went down a treat!
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02/07/2005, 14:33:48
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Yeah where have I been? Basically just away from my PC in the hopes of just having a break from it for a while. In fact near a week and I have needed it to be honest. I have been on, checked my email and so on but I have not really done any work as it were. I'll be honest I have actually enjoyed not being stuck to this thing for a few days. I have however been playing my Xbox (hey what did you expect? heh) and I finished my latest game Conflict Vietnam. Pretty good game, very amusing in places with all the chatter between your unit. The ending was a total let down though, ah well. On to European Assault next :)
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24/06/2005, 09:57:25
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It is my last day in this job today and next week I am off work and I plan to do as little as possible. Largely speaking I am not in the least bit sad to be finishing today. Why? Well although I have enjoyed my development role in this section it has been the most isolating twelve months of my geek life. Nobody in this office has the slightest clue as to what I do. The usual sentence is "I've no idea ask tek, he'll sort it"; which I find pretty poor considering this is a medium being used to penetrate, annex and consolidate international markets. Whilst it is true that people drive cars and have no idea how the engine works or indeed how to fix it that is simply out of IGNORANCE. I've never been an ignorant person, I always try to be as informed about both my job and things that interest me as I possibly can. That way I hope not to make mistakes. The rest of my team does not work this way and in consequence I have spent twelve long months keeping my mouth shut and just getting on with it sat at my desk wondering. Yep wondering! Wondering if this has been a waste of twelve months of my life in terms of achievements. Today I will hand everything over to someone that has not even a tenth of my ability and knowledge knowing all too well that when I start my new job I will be getting phone calls from them asking me to help them advance the site, systems and infrastructure that I have worked hard to put in place. And in all honesty the idea incenses me. You see I was on a fixed term contract for this job (12 months) and the state of play at the moment is that in reality it would have been prudent to keep me on for at least another six if not twelve months to continue to work on this system. That was not the case because there was some thinking from upstairs that "someone else can do this and we won't have to pay them because they already work somewhere else". Technically speaking I think you could say that I was effectively sacked from this position (which is the technical way of looking at it).
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15/06/2005, 23:11:44
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Well I am meant to be working but for some reason I am hitting a mental block. I think perhaps it is overload to be honest as I am flat out in the day as the realisation that I am leaving is dawning on people all of a sudden there is this large surge in people wanting things done, you know the stuff they should have been getting sorted with me in the last twelve months. Soon I'll be handing everything over to someone else who has been nominated to "look after it" when I go. It is a sad kind of feeling really as it has been my baby for twelve months and it will cease to grow. When the next, if there is even a next, developer comes along they're going to have a real tough time extending the system; why? Well I wrote it and it makes sense to me but I'm not so sure it will make sense to someone else heh.
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08/06/2005, 15:23:17
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Well Monday was a heavy day. Presentations in the morning, I thought mine went well considering I had pooter problems over the weekend and was all a panic that I wasn't going to be able to complete my power-point for the morning. Finally got it all sorted and on to a disk. I walked in to the room and nobody from the panel was there yet. I had mentally prepared myself to walk in, slap my disk in and get right on with it. I'm not to bothered about speaking in front of people, I have no problem in doing it; I just don't like doing it. It wasn't just the interview panel I was doing it in front of either, an entire section had been given an invitation to the presentation. Wow. Daunting yes as these are people I have contact with in my present role and so I was to make a real mess of this then I would need to face these people again and again and again.
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02/06/2005, 10:10:56
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Ok so next Monday I have a job interview. This time it is at the same place I work now but for a different section. It is the usual hardcore process of a full day; introductions in first thing, presentations and then a formal interview with a panel of four people in the afternoon. Of course I am now getting used to this extreme process having gone for a few jobs here. None the less it is harsh as an interview process and I guess I am lucky to have had the experience a few times now; for an outside candidate it will probably be overwhelming but hey tough luck. I've yet to complete my presentation and I've took tomorrow off work to finish it.
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24/05/2005, 23:28:12
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I'll be honest; when I first got the phone I really wasn't sure about it. For a start it is wider than you actually imagine. It isn't that much bigger in height and width than my Samsung. The major difference that sets them apart is that the Samsung has rounded corners which makes it appear smaller. Aside that you can quite easily see why it is called the Razor when it is in your hand. It is SO thin, as in thinner that you expect a phone could ever be. It has to be said it is the most stylish phone I have seen, the whole thing is made of a metal alloy and not just plastic which makes it feel designed when it sits in your hand. It is comfortable to hold and use for me but then I have large fingers, I could imagine it would be awkward for dainty hands. The keypad is unlike any other, it's flat with only the slightest of raised bumps to remind you where the button is but it actually feels and works a lot better than the usual raised buttons.
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19/05/2005, 14:05:48
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Big thanks to Neil for passing the Baton on to me. I only realised you'd posted this meme type thing today. I wasn't so sure about what to put as my taste in music is wide and very varied. I also have a LOT of it. Strictly speaking I love techno when I am out and about but when at home I prefer more eclectic stuff, stuff that people actually write and perform. On my way to work it I have my little MP3 player that serves up the finest Drum & Bass and Techno, it helps me wake up and forces me to walk at speed so I am not late. It really works!
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18/05/2005, 11:07:02
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Once again that lovely Googlebot has come and literally hammered my site (from 10 different IP's no less) and chewed a healthy 100meg out of my bandwidth. I'm not concerned as it is its first visit to this domain but man; it spares no bytes. The company Google bother me though, like a lot of "good" things on the web it is in the throws of potentially turning bad. The one thing I have noticed about Google is that they are very good as low level PR, rumours seem to turn in to fact whenever people talk about Google. People are obsessed with it and that is not a good thing. It is a decent search engine, even if it starting to be affected by all the same problems that other engines have. However that is what it is, a search engine and rumours of a Google Browser is not a good thing, we have enough browsers. The new web accelerator is not good either, just like Microsoft soon Google will have the ability to utterly track whatever who uses the service is viewing and let's not talk about the problems that struck the new service and had Google withdraw it.
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17/05/2005, 11:56:25
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As from tomorrow the Motorla V3 Razor (in black) will be mine along with one of those Bluetooth head sets. Not bad for free aye? I have a pretty expensive contract with them so I guess that is why they're more than happy to let me have this stuff for free, they don't know it yet but once I am in possession of the phone itself I shall be changing my contract to a much lower one heh, never blag the blagger himself. I've been happy to pay the current contract for the last 12 months as it has boosted my credit with them, allowed me to get a new (top of the range ish) phone for free and has paid for the Samsung e700 that I currently have.
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16/05/2005, 09:47:31
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After a really nice weekend of weather it would seem that the North of England has once again returned to its full raining glory. Rain is for Sundays not Mondays damn it! Wet trousers and having to sit in work do not mix very well. I have submitted my job application for another position at work and so I wait to hear now to see if I get an interview (I'm pretty hopeful though) and hopefully the job.
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13/05/2005, 15:24:29
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I recently upgraded my broadband line to a 2mb line. I have to say that it really makes a difference when browsing sites. It's more like the speed I am used to at work where we have a 100mb line in to our section (yeah sites don't load they "open" and mp3's just "play") but it got me thinking. This new site is actually broadband level, I've not tried to view it on a dial up but I can imagine it's not pretty. Also given the size of the graphic at the top and width of the container of the site it also is not very mobile/PDA friendly which is why there is now a basic mobile/PDA friendly page here. It doesn't have comments or anything else (yet) and neither is the right column present but it will at least let you know, if you browse on a mobile device, if I have updated the weblog or not. I have no serious plans to add the complete functionality of the site in to the mobile page because I don't believe that you'd be downloaded the apps to your phone or PDA (unless you have an iPaq or something) and the ability to comment relies on you logging in which just adds awkwardness for mobile phone users not to mention the fact it relies on cookies too.
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10/05/2005, 09:58:35
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The next question is which phone I should get on my next upgrade (due on the 18th of this month). I have my eye on two phones; the Samsung D500 and the Motorola V3 Razor. The first question is I suppose what do I need my phone to do? Well I want MMS for my moblog, I need WAP for accessing parts of my site and other stuff. I want Bluetooth so I can talk to my PDA (and I wouldn't mind one of those Star Trek type ear pieces). I don't need an organiser as I have a PDA for that. A camera, a decent one on it for the moblog, of course. Oh and lets not forget that I need a phone so I can make calls. I want something that will fit in my pocket but not feel like I'm going to break it in my hand, which the E700 I have at the moment does. A nice clear screen, big but not too big that I feel like I have a PDA in my hand or then I'd start to feel like I've wasted money on that.
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09/05/2005, 13:32:01
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Ok so here is the new "tek" site. This version 5.0 of the dsbs designation "battleship class" meaning it is/was the first production version of the site. It has site mail, forums, galleries (tho nothing has been posted yet), links, user areas, profiles, internal searching, moblogs, archives and yet is still compliant. Rss feeds come in four flavours, a developer area where I will release literally 100's of scripts in the coming weeks, bug tracking system, developer feedback, quick contact and so on. This is the heavyweight of the dsbs versions. I can post while on the move from my mobile both to the moblog and to the site itself. I am trying desperately to add back the feature that when someone comments it sends me a text message but finding a free SMS site that will allow it is hard to find.
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04/05/2005, 09:40:23
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Well I didn't get the job that I went for the other week. They decided to employ someone that wanted a smaller wage. In fact 2k less than me (and I dropped a considerable way too in order to try and get the job). I have to say that I wasn't super bothered as I had my doubts at the companies' stability. They seemed to be opening offices down south but if you can't come up a couple of grand for a developer that has been around since the conception of what we know as the web then, well; you pay peanuts and you get monkeys. Simple as. Effectively I am now there competition and indeed I indeed to become more than just that. I'm also going for another job at the place I work (which has sprung up from nowhere) funny how things work isn't it? I would never have even got to see this advert had they have employed me. More on that when it happens but I feel more than confident about getting it.
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03/05/2005, 09:40:56
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It is, indeed life is full of good and bad tastes. You have to pick wisely, to much can lead you to feel sick, too little can leave you craving. However what does it take to get the balance? Can life just be simple? Are we really in control? Is it not true to say that we spend more time working to get freedom than actually enjoying the freedom we work so hard for? Do we have time to spend on paths in life that have no valid end, should we chase dreams that will probably never be? Can we afford to waste time by waiting for others to catch up; who indeed leads and who is right? Has anyone stopped to question en-masse the fact that we have simply been "born" INTO main_systems we had no part in creating, should we be bound by those rules? Is it fear or comfort that stops us from breaking out of the systems we find comfort in or endure? One persons shit is another persons gold so are we to just accept the middle ground hanging in a constant state of both sickness and craving?
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18/04/2005, 11:04:21
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Sure does and this one is no different than any other. After a weekend of mashdom with bumble and what not I feel slightly tired (understatement) and washed out. I'm sore in places which I shouldn't be but hey, it comes with the mashdom territory! I'm kinda rushed off my feet at the moment, nothing new there at all but it's a funny kind of mix. More when it's ok to say more, it isn't at present.
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13/04/2005, 09:34:12
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Well I'm at work and feeling kinda tired and it's only 9:20 and that sucks. I'm waiting to hear from a job I went for today so I guess I feel slightly tense. This is basically the same job I have now but for a company. Currently I work in the education sector and whilst I have enjoyed working in it, it is time to move in to a different sector. I have gained a great deal of personal satisfaction from my work here as it's not quite working for "the man" in some senses. Although the last 12 months have been more in line with a "product portfolio" than anything else, after all the education sector sells courses to people; it's become a service industry more than anything else.
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04/04/2005, 10:44:04
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Once in a while I get the urge to rampage. Today is one of those days. For some reason it isn't taking very much to make me feel pretty pissed off here at work. People keep coming in and bitching about other people (rightly so though as I agree with them) and it makes me angry. It does so because they are so right about what they are saying. Choices are being made here by the few that affect the many, as always; and those choices will more than likely have consequences far past what these idiots making them can even conceive.
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30/03/2005, 11:01:01
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Yeah life's getting crazy once again which is both good and bad. My place of work has decided not to extend my contract, why I have no idea. Apart from the fact that it is more than frustrating for both me and the rest of the team in which I work it also feels like the last year has been a waste of time for me. Yes it's true that this was a 12 month contract and that it didn't come with any possible extension (or that is the way it was sold to me) it turns out that in reality this has been much more of a success than even I first thought possible. I've taken nothing and turned it in to a 2500/2750 hits a day website with 30% of that traffic turning in to an enquiry. Even on that basis alone it has been a roaring success. Most businesses would love that hit to enquiry conversion. It's massive.
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16/03/2005, 13:49:06
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I've been working to finish the newer version of the dsbs that will run bumbles and my new site (when I finally get around to sorting the new domain stuff out). I've also written a small bot for Kev's IRC chat channel. I've not written a bot in some time and to be honest, even though it's just a quick bot it's been fun to write it. The last time I wrote one it was in Perl and was tough going. I still have the bot (it's actually GateKeeper) which used to protect several channels and if someone tried to do a takeover GateKeeper would do it's best to protect the channel. Several attempts were made in channels I used to chat in long ago and not once did it falter. These days it probably wouldn't stand a chance against a full on botnet attack but back in the day when most folks were on dial up, the bot had more bandwidth and could handle clone attacks, ping floods and so on. It actually was quite intelligent and scanned for words in much the same way that the one I wrote in the last few days does. The difference being that the one in Kev's channel is a nice fluffy peaceful bot logging links; where as GateKeeper hunted for signals that a takeover was imminent (specifically Netsplits and Bans not given by him). It used to ban muppets that flooded the main chat with crap and was quite partial to the odd script kiddie that tried to "hax0r" it. Yum Yum.
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07/03/2005, 18:15:16
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OK so it's been some time since I last did an entry. The main reason for that is that currently I am rushed off my feet. Work, freelance and life are filling up my time in a large way. I am still working on the community site but it's when I can not when I'd like at the moment so you'll have to bare with me. I might as well tell you now that my own blog will be moving again but this time to a permanent url that won't change so long as I can keep the domain. I will at the same time be consolidating the development stuff on risingdragon to there also. It will be my site, as in everything to do with me in one place. I will still keep risingdragon till the dust settles and then I will make a very tough choice. Sell the risingdragon domains or keep them. Yes you read that correctly.
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24/02/2005, 18:12:39
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22/02/2005, 10:29:48
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Beyond a shadow of a doubt I actually can say that I HATE Windows XP. The entire of yesterdays work was pointless as XP in all it's greatness simply didn't save it. Our network at work runs on XP and we all have our own areas mapped to storage servers so we can have roaming profiles. It's a nice feature that our network monkeys decided on so staff could log on anywhere. Yeah wonderful except most of us simply do not log anywhere because *news flash* we have jobs that require us to sit at a desk, therefore it's usually the same desk...
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21/02/2005, 09:27:47
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Now I've seen it all. No truly. Microsoft have put online a "A parent's primer to computer slang".
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18/02/2005, 09:30:41
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"Long rumored and now official, the popular SHA-1 hashing algorithm has been attacked successfully by researchers in China and the US. A collision has been discovered in the full version in 269 hash operations, making it just possible to mount a successful brute-force attack with the most powerful machines available today.
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17/02/2005, 13:17:49
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09/02/2005, 09:00:49
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07/02/2005, 08:45:50
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The community site is on hold (again) as I have that much work to do that I simply don't have the time to work and finish it. Annoying as this is, believe me, it's going to be the case until the end of February at the least. I'm simply to busy. Me posting here will be few and far between also so don't expect anything great (is there ever?), time just won't allow me.
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31/01/2005, 16:42:43
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In my attempt to create the most highest of standards in my output *halo* I have decided to take all the images that are part of the layout of the Information Management System (IMS) I'm designing for an extranet to be used by the nice people at work and add them into the layout via CSS. This makes it much easier for me to use the XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD and simplifies the mark-up considerably, basically no open ended tags like img, br, hr and so on are used. Everything is contained within opening and closing tags. As it should be but I digress...
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31/01/2005, 09:33:07
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Over the weekend the site was down due to a hard drive failure. As you can see things are now fixed and nothing really was lost during the problem. I'd like to thank my hosting: Simply Be Hosted for there customer service in keeping us up to speed with what was happening and listening to my moaning. They worked hard to get everything back up and actually reinstated backups which is something a good deal of other hosts I've been with in the past have not done. If you're looking for a great web host then Simply Be Hosted are the ones to go with.
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18/01/2005, 13:17:59
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Version 5.0 of the dsbs will come online within the next few weeks. I'm adding the finishing touches to it in my spare time. I've taken the decision to throw open iamjust.me.uk as a community based blog, I'll continue posting entries here but you'll be able to sign up and do just the same. You'll have to become a member to do anything but read the site. I'm locking out the comments to anyone that isn't a member, hopefully this will firstly protect against any spam bots but also encourage people to become, and, take part in the community.
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12/01/2005, 10:30:41
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As some of you may or may not of noticed any sites relating to me and Bumble were offline yesterday due to what can only be said as horrid day. Bumble's cat of almost 10yrs Buzz had to be put to sleep; this came as a great shock to us both, especially Bumble. Basically he'd had problems with his throat for the last six weeks and after going through all the various treatments the vet had decided to do a biopsy to get some tissue to test. The vet couldn't even do that due to complications and it was discovered Buzz had cancer throughout his throat, nasal passages and back of his mouth. It had gotten a blood supply and so was active and more than likely spreading. He'd had throat problems before and so this outcome wasn't expected at all, it was presumed it was more of the same thing as before and just a worse dose of it. Sadly this wasn't the case and the decision was made not to bring him round; the single most painful choice a pet owner has to make. We all know when we choose to have pets that this choice may come one day, it doesn't make it any easier especially when it's only a middle-aged cat.
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11/01/2005, 10:31:06
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"Computer giant IBM says 500 of its software patents will be released into the open development community. The move means developers will be able to use the technologies without paying for a licence from the company." You can read the full article here. I really hope this sets a standard which other companies will follow. It's a threat to all developers unless they do. Very worrying times indeed!
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10/01/2005, 11:04:55
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After spending years with yellow sticky notes stuck all around my monitor I finally decided last year to design a mini app that allowed me to actually keep them on my computer. This application has come in extremely handy for many things such as messages, code snippets and todo's. This is the initial release and has some improvements that will be made in the second version. That version will be out by weekend but you can get an idea for the application using this beta pre-release.
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07/01/2005, 09:55:46
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"San Francisco, CA -- January 6, 2005 -- Six Apart, makers of the highly acclaimed Movable Type publishing platform and TypePad personal weblogging service, today announced that it has acquired Danga Interactive, Inc., the operators of the popular service LiveJournal, for an undisclosed amount of stock and cash. With the acquisition, Six Apart solidifies its position as the industry's recognized leader in weblogging software across all markets, and LiveJournal can continue its rapid growth trajectory under Six Apart's umbrella. As of today, the combined user base of both companies exceeds 6.5 million users, with thousands more added daily."
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06/01/2005, 15:57:35
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"Players of Electronic Arts' enormously popular simulated life game are complaining that their artfully-crafted homes and mansions are beginning to resemble the Twilight Zone, thanks to an artifact of the game's design that causes hacks to spread like viruses from user to unwitting user.
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06/01/2005, 11:46:28
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First off the bat for the application releases is a small tool I made some time ago for calculating Unix Timestamps on any Win32 Platform. I made the application so I could enter information in a MySql database manually that had a row that was the timestamp. I didn't wish to have it entered as a "hard-coded" date (06/01/2005) as this made for messy string splitting/replacing if I decided that the date format wasn't to my liking or actually valid in any RSS feeds I broadcasted. So I always use the Unix timestamp and convert it using the date() function depending on what sort of format I require. Although PHP can give me this using the time() function sometimes I needed to work out dates that were either in the future or the past so I wrote this tool to do just that. It's probably not of any use to anyone that doesn't work with either Mysql (and yes I know it has it's own date function but I find it lame) or anything that uses the $foo seconds since the 1970 epoch.
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05/01/2005, 11:37:53
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I've left it a few days before posting. Mostly because I have been recovering and also getting back to work has left me quite shattered. 2005 promises to be a good year and it will be because tek is changing his life for the better on quite a few levels. First thing that will be changing for me at the end of January is I'll be giving up smoking. I've been a smoker now for over 15 years and I think it's high time I gave up. Financially it's no hit for me but health wise I'd be silly to ignore the facts about my family's history when it comes to the heart and lung related troubles we've experienced. Up until around August last year I had experienced no real effects from smoking but since around that time I have a cough I just can't shift, obviously it's a smokers cough and I've noticed other little things which are pissing me off. Mostly I've come to the realisation that I don't actually enjoy most of the cigs I smoke. It really is just a habit, one I think I can do without. I enjoy the first one in the morning and one after a large meal and that's about it. Like I say the rest is just routine and habit which I no longer can justify to myself. Goodbye Smoking.
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31/12/2004, 14:56:59
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Yeah I'm talking about the fact that 2004 is almost over. It's been a strange year for me and to be honest I'm just itching to get on with 2005. Oh and if I see anymore "round ups of 2004" programs on TV I think I'll poke my own eye out with a rusty spoon. TV bosses might as well just all sit in a room spanking off about how great there TV was in 2004 was, I just don't get it. Perhaps that is because I don't actually watch all that much TV, I find life more interesting. Anyway who cares, it's new years eve!
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22/12/2004, 14:49:06
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Coming in the start of next year Digitally Evolved will be an extension to this domain. It will be an online community where bloggers can create there own blog or inject there own feeds in to the community from there own weblogs. The idea is to try and re-produce the rising tide community that I closed sometime this year; but since I am on a much more flexible web host than when I had that site up I can do much more in the way of functionality and I have more bandwidth to play with. I've secretly spent the last three and a half months building version 5.0 of the dsbs, which is, the final version I'm going to do of it (it won't ever be released but hey you can still enjoy the benefits by being a part of the community).
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22/12/2004, 08:50:40
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It wasn't that long ago that I posted about possible exploits, one of which was for the popular php forum software PhpBB. The exploit is now being targeted by a worm, welcome to the world of auto-defacing. Thousands of sites have already possibly been hit by this worm and users are now urged to upgrade to the next version (version 2.0.11) in order to protect themselves.
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21/12/2004, 09:36:47
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"On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains." written by Cicero in 45 BC
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20/12/2004, 09:56:06
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Well all I can say about Time magazine is, well, nothing. How can Bush be the Person of the Year 2004? I'm shocked that a publication I once considered to be pretty on the ball has, I suppose, fell off the ball so to speak. Person of the year, what for exactly? Managing to get away with breaking International law, killing hundreds of thousands of people (his own included), holding people without trial, spending America's money in order to further line his and his friends pockets, jacking Europe in the arse over Steel, supporting genocide by Israel's hand? I mean which is it; all of them are magnificant, all of them got away with in front of the worlds eyes.
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20/12/2004, 09:30:09
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XP's built-in firewall - turned on by default by XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) - can leave files open across the whole net if users choose to enable file and printer sharing, it transpires. Such access should be restricted across a local network but Microsoft has implemented the feature in such a way that, for users of some dial-up ISPs, a local sub-net becomes the whole internet. Microsoft first informed users of this back in September but it has taken five months for it to release a fix.
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14/12/2004, 10:27:07
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Old tekkie boy has been suffering from Tonsillitis for since around Saturday. I had it as a kid a few times but I can definitely beyond a shadow of a doubt relay the fact that it seems to hurt a hell of a lot more when you're an adult. Weather that's because your tonsils are bigger I have no idea but not been able to swallow (yes enter your rent boy jokes here if you must) is a real nightmare. I'm on liquid penicillin and some mad spray thing to try and take away the pain. Half of the surprise for me is the fever that comes over you. Now I've had the flu and that hurts but this fever is like every bone and especially inside my ears just hurt hurt hurt, not the mention the sheer amount of sweaty goodness that's just rolling off me while I sleep.
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08/12/2004, 10:59:53
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I've noticed more and more these days how people have no sense of community anymore. Nobody stops to help people like they did when I was a kid. This I believe isn't some rose tinted specs thing from my childhood. As a child if someone was having trouble starting there car on a cold winter's morning people would offer to help bump it to get it started. On my way to work this morning some poor woman not really built to push the car she was driving had this very problem. All the car needed was a push down the hill but she alone was not capable. In front of me were two men walking and they just looked at her and walked past. I found this pretty crap considering that it was obvious that she needed help, so of course I helped and two minutes later she was on her way and actually offered to give me a lift, which I declined as I need to walk to work in order to wake up. It did make me think though and to be honest it isn't the first time recently that I've thought about this sorta thing. Everyone just seems locked in there little tidy worlds, interaction is rare apart from the necessities and that is your lot.
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06/12/2004, 11:38:02
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Sometimes I really hate SQL statements. At the moment I am currently designing a support ticket system for work. Nothing fancy just something simple but it's full of the usual SQL that makes your head hurt. SQL is fine until you come to do JOINS and UNIONS and so on. From that point onwards it's when the word "relational" truly makes you want to run away.
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01/12/2004, 11:16:47
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"ORLANDO, Florida -- Hunting for guerillas, handling roadside bombs, crawling across the caves and crumbling towns of Afghanistan and Iraq -- all of that was just a start. Now, the Army is prepping its squad of robotic vehicles for a new set of assignments. And this time, they'll be carrying guns. As early as March or April, 18 units of the Talon -- a model armed with automatic weapons -- are scheduled to report for duty in Iraq. Around the same time, the first prototypes of a new, unmanned ambulance should be ready for the Army to start testing. In a warren of hangar-sized hotel ballrooms in Orlando, military engineers this week showed off their next generation of robots, as they got the machines ready for the war zone."
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01/12/2004, 09:42:05
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Having just read an article about the re-launch of Netscrap Netscape I'm left with a sense of bewilderment. It talks about a hybrid engine, as in the Gecko engine and the IE engine being mixed. AOL bought Netscape some time ago just before the Mozilla project was opened up as a free foundation and since has put money into Netscape whilst still using the IE engine as part of it's win on the Anti Trust dispute with Microsoft. AOL's motivation in resuscitating the Netscape browser comes down to the same reason it acquired Netscape in the first place: the portal. My bewilderment comes from the idea that just as Mozilla is gaining a market share it could possibly now be threatened by it's brother which seeks to blend both engines, presumably to try and consolidate it's position or possibly avert another browser war. After all IE has had no new innovations for some time, mainly because it has not had the need to because of it's sheer domination of the market.
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29/11/2004, 17:11:36
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24/11/2004, 15:51:58
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If anyone that reads this uses both PHPNuke or PHPBB then you must READ ON. At present a rather nasty exploit can be found in PHPBB concerning the search highlighting function. It is imperative that you ACT NOW and change the code below. You will need to open the php file (viewtopic.php) in a text editor, Notepad will do and make the adjustments you see below, save and upload the new edited version:
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23/11/2004, 08:44:20
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A group of swimmers has told how a pod of dolphins protected them from a great white shark off New Zealand's coast. The lifeguards were training at a beach near Whangarei on the North Island when they were menaced by a 3-metre shark, before the dolphins raced in to help. The swimmers were surrounded by the dolphins for 40 minutes before they were able to make it safely back to the beach. Marine biologists say such altruistic behaviour is not uncommon in dolphins.
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22/11/2004, 10:40:34
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Over the w/e I had the pleasure of watching about five minutes of a program on which our nice Home Sectary David Blunkett (who is a Methodist and one of the most socially conservative Labour MPs) was explaining why he wants to bring in more and more draconian measures against his own peers that voted Labour in - yes that would be the British Public. Over a decade ago now I watched as the most idiotic government of our time (Of course it's the Tories, do you really need to question it?) brought in the Criminal Justice Act. This was under the guise of various things but you see the threat then was greater from Terrorists that it is now. We had the IRA bombing England and Wales quite regularly, my home town included. However I'll come back to that later. The reality of the bill was actually to allow the Police to stop the protesting and free party movement with draconian powers which had seemed to gather large amounts of momentum since around 1989. The public (well ok, the younger generation heh) was "taking back" the right to do what it wanted to some degree and rightly so too, after all we didn't do anybody any harm; apart from ourselves probably! The Police were given huge rises in the power to stop and search anyone they felt like, not just someone acting suspiciously or actually committing a crime. Power goes to people's heads and it did with disastrous consequences for the public. It ended in riots across England.
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17/11/2004, 08:52:38
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tek is a happy man today. A vote in the commons has led to the almost 100% possibility of a ban on hunting with hounds. I have been protesting against this for most of my adult life. I've been knee deep in shit and mud, fought private security, police, toffs and sabotaged hunts all over England, Wales and Scotland. I've been arrested, hit with batons, bitten by dogs and almost trampled by horses. The Commons voted with a huge majority to ban it, it will now go to the House of Lords where I'm sure they will try to block the ban. However even if they do this will not stop (I hope) the ban because the House of Commons will use the Parliament Act to bash it through.
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16/11/2004, 11:51:48
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"Smoking could be banned in every cafe, restaurant and most pubs in England within a few years under plans being unveiled by the government on Tuesday. The White Paper on Public Health will plan to make most enclosed public areas, including offices and factories, smoke-free. Only private clubs, where members voted to allow smoking, and pubs which do not serve prepared food would be exempt. The plans mean that up to 90% of bars could be smoke-free within a few years." Acording to an article on the BBC website.
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15/11/2004, 11:13:53
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I always find it interesting how America's current administration acts rather like a dictatorship and removes potential opponents of itself. Especially with it comes to the security agencies. Does it not remind you of a dictator that removes all opposition to the regime they have in idea?
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09/11/2004, 09:35:19
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Yeah soon google ads will be present on this site. I've thought long and hard about this and I've always stated that my sites will stay advert free. However things change and why not, they're only text ads. I would never ever have full on banners here or on risingdragon but text ads are acceptable to me. To be honest this has mostly come about because of the rising bandwidth costs of having two sites (lots of stuff is hot linked on risingdragon from other sites) using a fair amount of bandwidth. Also I am about to start to release quite a few pieces of software for free and since I do not wish to charge people for this I feel my hard work should be giving me something other than a sense of satisfaction back. Having spent a long time releasing software I know all to well that trying make money from the actual software itself is a waste of time. For every one person that buys it ten crack it and why not? After all that's the market and I've been partial to a few patches in my time too *cough*
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02/11/2004, 20:24:11
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For those who have not yet noticed the link to risingdragon above... It is a mini app that I wrote sometime ago but has since been updated and had its version upgraded to version 2.0! The application converts your standard win32 bitmap to a jpeg using the usual compression. The upgrade has come in the way of a drag and drop area that allows you to convert multiple bitmaps at any one time. The old version was constrained to simply converting one.
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01/11/2004, 09:13:24
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I hate it when the clocks go back over here. Takes me about a week to adjust to the new "daylight saving time" also it means we supposedly get an extra hours sleep. I always find this is not the case. No I just end going to bed at 11 because it feels like 12 and waking up at 6 because it feels like 7. Simple as; so you can imagine my amusment when I awoke this morning at 6am bright and bushy tailed? I sat up in bed without looking at the clock, sparked up a cig then realised that the alarm was not what had woken me up. Nooo..... Yeeeesssssss..... The time was indeed 6am and I tried my best to get back to sleep but failed and gave up around 6:30am and got up, man morning TV is so bad.
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29/10/2004, 09:04:59
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A new website offer subscribers a simple Web interface to a caller I.D. spoofing system that lets them appear to be calling from any number they choose. Called "Camophone," the service functions much like the Star38.com site that struggled with an abortive launch last month: a user types in their phone number, the number they wish to call, and the number they'd like to wear as a disguise. The system instantly dials back and patches the call through with the properly-forged caller I.D.
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27/10/2004, 20:59:24
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Do I need to say anything else?!?.... Not really I just think you need to look at the track record when it comes to anything to do with Bush. I find it amusing that people try and defend him. Bush is nothing more than what he is and that's a business man using the worlds most (potentially) powerful economy to bleed into the pockets of everyone and anyone that has every bank-rolled him at any point through his so called political career.

Anyone but Bush!

If Bush gets back in then the world will be a loser. I can only prey that he doesn't get back in. Even if Kerry gets in the UK won't benefit but that's not the issue, we did just fine on our own before Bush, in fact we did better when a Democrat was in...
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20/10/2004, 09:22:46
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I hate it how the network at work has windows update switched to auto. I was just about to open my email client after writing some code when the system decides to tell me that I need to restart. Note the the need to restart it didn't actually give me a choice. Neither could I actually close any of the applications I had open. Now imagine if that would have been at 16:30 today after a good hour and a bit coding away with no save (yeah yeah I know but that's the way I work, so used to Unix with no crashes or any of this stuff)? I would have lost all my work, what if mid email send with an attachment of about 10 Megs. The possibilities are endless, why oh why is M$ so dumb when it comes to this stuff I wouldn't mind but SP2 has already been deployed, what? More bugs? More exploits... More patches... ALREADY!?
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19/10/2004, 21:01:58
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Just recently I have had the real urge to give up smoking. One thing and another have kind of really made me want to quit. Cigs are the last vice I suppose I have (*cough* legit) left in the world... I guess part of it is health coming from a family with heart and lung problems, even for the non-smokers, has made me think do I need the extra possibility? The answer is no, from bitter experience definitely not!
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18/10/2004, 21:03:10
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All this news about British troops being moved north to "fill a gap" for the American Army is insane. Firstly why would the greatest super power on this planet need 650 men and women from British Armed Forces? Are you seriously telling me that America can not deploy a further 650 troops out of there SUPER POWERFUL MILITARY? What a joke. It is so obvious that this is an attempt by Bush to win some points in America for the re-election. "Look see Tony still supports us, we did good, honest we did!". I fail to comprehend the bollocks coming out of my own countries government; firstly it was "not yet decided", then its "Britain will have failed in its duty as an ally" and finally, we know it's coming: "We will send 650 troops from the Blackwatch Batallion". It's already a forgone conclusion as far as I am concerned. What is frightening is the possible we're left holding the baby routine. Hey, if American troops aren't in fire fights in just one less place (ie. it will be us British) then that's good press for Bush. Doesn't seem to matter to our PM that British lives will be lost, no... After all; you really are just his puppet. But it will be your hands not his full of blood.

British Troops

I just can't help but think that this is more of the latter than anything else. As already stated how could the largest (Americas military might equals that of the second and third largest powers combined) military super power not have the manpower to commit 650 extra troops? It's insane to think that they can't. Holding the baby is a real worry tho, it's almost like pass the hornets nest. British military tactics are far different than America's, we don't obliterate than go in hoping for the best, we don't have heavy armour and huge amounts of mechanised back up, we don't fire in all directions when we don't know where the fire is coming from but to name a few things... We actually know how to conduct an urban situation and history, including recent history, proves it. About 0.1% of me feels proud of that fact, it means a lot less lives are lost. Don't get me wrong I am opposed to the whole thing in Iraq, thats not in question. However I don't live in a dream world, Iraq is going on and the sooner its over the better as far as I am concerned. Over the course of the day the question in my head has been; if British troops are moved and we can control the situation better than the Americans, does that mean that this whole mess might be over that bit quicker? Or does it mean that we are about to be dragged right in the shit by and British lives will be lost just so Bush can get better ratings?

Falluja residents inspect the rubble left by a US air strike

On the flip side I can't forget the reason that's being used politically and that's because more American troops are needed for an all out assault against Fallujah. Again more civilians will be killed because we all know what an all out assault from America is.
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15/10/2004, 08:44:07
Tagged Under: .

A "retro" virus which spreads by floppy disks and CD-ROMs is spreading (modestly) across Scandinavia.
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13/10/2004, 09:02:15
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Ok so I've been slack of late in getting this and that sorted out. Most notably the risingdragon stuff. The site is still sat there on a type of holding page, which just won't do. I sat last night for the first time in a few days and did some work on the dsbs. This cold has left me marooned on my sofa for a good few days recently; as my eyes are so sore from sitting at work in front of a monitor that I've not really wanted sit in front of another one the second I come home from work.
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12/10/2004, 13:32:36
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My are they a pain in the arse or what? I have to design a custom forum board at work for an intranet and our network uses a rotating proxy. Basically each time you request something across the network it will assign a new IP dynamically to that user to collect it. This means if you're using sessions in PHP that relay on the IP for authentication then you are well... a bit in the shit! X-Forwarded-For is no good as the network is natted anyways. My what a pain the rear end this is turning out to be.
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11/10/2004, 08:31:07
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While reading through my news this morning I came across this article. Seems the arm of the USA can now reach servers in the UK in a rather bizarre way. Personally I would have thought that they have not jurisdiction over here in the UK but hey it would appear not. More big brother syndrome I fear...
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07/10/2004, 09:44:48
Tagged Under: .

I'm at work and I feel like I am starting to go in to "male whinge mode" yeah I feel like I'm getting the flu. This isn't good. It's always the same, this time of year see's all the people at the place I work go down like a sack of poo with something. With the influx of thousands of new people in the city (students) and each of them bringing along not only there belongings but every damn germ from around the country and even the world we always get something. It's a matter of course when you deal with hundreds of different people everyday. Somehow at the moment the knowledge of that is not at all comforting, not one bit. Everything hurts my eyes. I'm almost sat in complete darkness because anything bright makes me feel like something is crushing my fecking eyes.
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03/10/2004, 14:18:25
Tagged Under: .

If you develop, run or own a site/weblog with an RSS feed of any type then you can add a tag to the top of your weblog that will interact with the latest version of Mozilla/Firefox. Those of you that run MoveableType won't have to add it as it comes in your default templates. The tag (which is below) allows people to click on the new RSS button that will show up if this tag is in a document. It allows you to add the feed to your Mozilla/Firefox favourites and will then be the same as a feed reader. When you goto the folder in your favourites the latest feed titles will show up. It's rather like a feed subscription in that sense. I have not read about it I just noticed it while using Firefox. If anyone else has some info on this please post it in the comments but for now here is the tag:
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28/09/2004, 22:15:30
Tagged Under: .

While sat eating my tea (yeah I'm Northern, dinner is at 12 folks) I watched the news and more to the point the key points of our PM's speech. I have to say I've never heard so much crap in all my life. Oh Tony where have you been? First off was a lone protester who was removed rather quickly; the right to peaceful assemble gone? Tony's response to it: "That's fine sir you can make your protest - just thank God we live in a democracy."... I beg to differ, if that was the case then why was he removed from the crowd? Democracy my ass. Next up were the Pro-(c)Hunt people with a small tirade about that matter. Tony mumbled something about "if there are anymore get going... " or something to that effect. I mean how dismissive of him. I'm Anti (c)Hunt but I'm of the assumption that it is a serious matter for all sides. I'm not so small minded as to brush it off in the way he did, how arrogant.

Wag the finger somewhere else...

Some later said he tackled the Iraq issue head on. My fat ass. He merely brushed it off with yet another media sound bite that will reverberate around the media for the next few days. Sorry for the WMD but I ain't sorry for the shit ass mess it is today. Funny, I kinda thought the reason was about WMD/Terrorism not regime change but hey me and quite a FEW (million) others kinda thought it was a bit odd. It's kinda like a false sorry, you know the ones. He might as well have had his fingers crossed behind his back when he said it. Words, just words and people ought to bare that in mind when they put a tick next to the New Tory, so Labour box in the vote. It's bombs, bullets and death that really count.
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28/09/2004, 09:14:41
Tagged Under: .

Everyday I get a nice email from the nice people over at the register. So when I got to work this morning with my coffee, sat down and logged on (after 3 mins of waiting, this is an XP network after all) and opened my nice mail. Below is the second funniest thing I've seen this month. NO really it is.
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26/09/2004, 22:00:16
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OK so I've not posted in a while, spank me. I had a great birthday and to boot bumble bought me an acre of the moon!! I do not shit; tek is now the proud owner of some of the biggest mass of cheese in the vicinity of earth. So listen up NASA; stay off my land! I have no chance of ever visiting but imagine; my great great great grandchildren might just? Hey you never know. Awesome.
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16/09/2004, 14:19:20
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OK so I am 28 today. I am now closer to 30 than 25, bah! The last year has literally flown by as it only feels like it is not so long ago that I was having my last birthday! Crazy crazy... I've took today and tomorrow off work so that I can just relax (and get hammered) without having to worry. I don't usually get the time off. However I have a different job so I could actually take it off this year yay!
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09/09/2004, 12:58:11
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Ok I've been somewhat ill in the last few days, we'll say stomach bug; It's much better than the details (trust me). In this time I have not really been on my PC and so no real updates to speak of. I was, before the devil touched me in the guts, working on a bug tracking system for the developers area of risingdragon. So I guess I should divulge some information on what is going to be happening when I finally get it all finished?
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01/09/2004, 09:35:45
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31/08/2004, 15:06:16
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Ok so this is the new look to the site. I've worked hard on the backend of the site for too long now. I thought it was about time that I started to work on the front. This is the new template and it will be staying. I've made a few changes and I've also forgotten just one thing heh. A link to get back to the main page... Doh! Hey can't be perfect all the time? I do have to point out this skin has took some doing. Extremely annoying trying to get all the drop shadows to work properly in CSS, none of the images here have drop shadow added graphically. It's all done with images and CSS. The site works perfectly in Mozilla but I've had to do a few CSS hacks to get it to work properly in IE (whats new?). It's about time they fixed it! I have no idea how it looks in other browsers so feel free to rip me to bits and let me know in the comments section.
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26/08/2004, 12:17:40
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25/08/2004, 09:43:29
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Yeah well as from tomorrow I'll be off work until next Wednesday. What the occasion? Nothing special I just have to use my leave up by the end of August and since it's almost the end of August I thought I'd get them used up. This will give me the chance to sort the forum out for here and also get risingdragon back up in some way! It's been a while since I moved the blog to here.
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24/08/2004, 10:58:37
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It really is getting to be boring now. I mean I want the summer back, you know with at least the hint of sun? It doesn't have to be all awesome and all, just not raining... It's so depressing, so de-motivating when you get up and open your curtains to see more rain each and every day.
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22/08/2004, 19:21:13
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I'm trying really hard this year but I'm not as tough as everyone makes out, not inside anyway. I'm still so angry at the world for the fact you went way before your time. I try not to be, but I am, angry at myself as well I think for wasting time. I'm writing this with tears running down my face remembering the last time I saw you, the last things you said to me, the last thing you gave me that day. Like a Dad it was gift, something of use to me, something that you went out your way to come and give me. My head bends thinking that perhaps you knew, perhaps that's why you went out that night, away from everyone, perhaps to spare us all from pain of watching it happen. I know I shouldn't be thinking along these lines and anyone around me that knew would tell me just that, but you know me, I was always different. I was always just like you. I can't begin to say how much I miss you. All the things I've done that you'd be so proud to see now. All the things I've changed.
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19/08/2004, 09:24:20
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I'm seriously getting fecked off with all the rain; it's the middle of summer for gawds sake!! Worse still I'm led to believe that more is on the way this weekend in the form of a large storm heading across the Atlantic, great! Here at my works yesterday the canteens roof started collapsing in with the amount of weight (in water form) sitting on top of it, everyone was told to get out and an army of cleaners and buckets were sent in to quash the aquatic uprising (See Moblog)... So it's still raining now, rain, rain, rain and more fecking [b]RAIN[/b] where is my summer? I should know better coming from the North West of England that summer is but the two weeks of sun in July we get.
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