Been a while

Wow, it’s been a while. Since the twelth of October, no less, with apparently little for me to write much. This is true, more or less; I haven’t had too much to say about anything, but I haven’t had enough time to really make myself sit down and organise some writing, and to do what […]

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Wow, it’s been a while. Since the twelth of October, no less, with apparently little for me to write much. This is true, more or less; I haven’t had too much to say about anything, but I haven’t had enough time to really make myself sit down and organise some writing, and to do what I need to do to get photos up on the site with my posts. Here’s the problem; I need to find a better way to organise my images, which works better than the way I’m doing it at the moment.
A view into the city, from the quays. The tall building is the soon-to-be-demolished Trade Union building; it may be ugly, but's a landmark. Taken a couple of weeks ago.A view into the city, from the quays. The tall building is the soon-to-be-demolished Trade Union building; it may be ugly, but’s a landmark. Taken a couple of weeks ago. Click image to view larger version
In order to put up photos on this site, as part of my posts, I took an existing WordPress plug-in (WordPress being the piece of software that I use to run this site, which uses additional bits of code – plug-ins – to add extra functionality) and rewrote big chunks of it, as well as adding some image-enhancement routines pilfered from elsewhere. It’s crude but it works (just about). It’s also in use on www.ideasforcheapstuff.com, where Tee and the girls eventually got the hang of it’s arcane ways and started regularly putting up photos while writing about their adventures. Part of the problem (or problems, for there are many) with this plug-in is that the code is, quite simply, very, very bad. I fixed what I could, but… No, it’s not worth resuscitating. I actually set out (possibly on paper, I know I have it somewhere) the design for a newer, better image manager but that’ll take some doing. A lot of doing, in fact. And also, it solves one problem very well, which is the interface for how I select and manage images for putting into my posts, but doesn’t really deal with the bigger problem of how to deal with images generally. Should I manage the images myself, or should they be on a photo site somewhere?

So here are my options, and I’m curious to get some feedback (if anyone is actually still reading this site, fantastic!) on what people think I should do. It’s the number one issue holding me back on posting about my Romania story and other stuff besides, so let’s hear it!

  • Go ahead and keep using the same, inefficient crap software.
    Not a great option, to be honest. This is using a lot of disk space, takes too much time and is going to cause me a lot of pain in the future. It’s just too much work, in so many ways, for dealing with photos.
  • Write new software.
    Better. But, this will take time and again this is a problem. Also, it’s just a much better designed way of dealing with what is essentially the same problem as with the current problem; the photos are just getting dumped into my posts with no real life of their own. They’re not connected to anything. Just files.
  • Use an image-management service
    Something like Flickr, or Zooomr. These are the hot new services/toys on the web for this kind of thing, the photos get shared with everyone, and if you pay money then you can put huge amounts of stuff up there. There are as many pros as cons to using a service like these, and if you are someone who uses these, then please tell me your opinion on those.
  • Something else
    Is there another option? There must be, right? Or maybe you can think of one.

Anyway, share your opinions with me, I’m not sure what is the best way to deal with the avalanche of photos I see coming this way.

Boats at Howth Harbour. Real, actual fishing boats, which will no doubt be seeing a lot less action now that they can't go and decimate the salmon population with drift-nets. Taken on 29th October 2006.Boats at Howth Harbour. Real, actual fishing boats, which will no doubt be seeing a lot less action now that they can’t go and decimate the salmon population with drift-nets. Oh yes, I was there as part of getting out for a drive. With Tee. Taken on 29th October 2006. Click image to view larger version

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Sleep

I am tired. I need sleep. In a few minutes, after entertaining some pretty dubious ideas and getting stressed about any number of things, I’m going to do just that thing. Yes, I’ve been busy, and that’s why I haven’t put anything up here recently, although as always I’ve been eagerly taking notes about all […]

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I am tired. I need sleep. In a few minutes, after entertaining some pretty dubious ideas and getting stressed about any number of things, I’m going to do just that thing.

Yes, I’ve been busy, and that’s why I haven’t put anything up here recently, although as always I’ve been eagerly taking notes about all sorts of interesting events and ideas from my life recently, where I’m at, where I’m going, and how exactly it feels to waste three weeks wrestling with something called a ‘mysql.sock’ file while finding new ways to explain to people why this prevents me from making their website as quickly as I had originally planned. Yes, the life of the freelance web developer isn’t quite the rose-tinted week-long party I’d conned myself into believing it was, but the contract work is going well, even if everything else feels like it’s coming apart at the seams…

Since you’ve all been asking, the new trading name is ‘andAgile’, and one of these days I’ll have a full site up, and I’ll discuss the products and services of this entity in more detail. The reason for calling it andAgile? It follows the ‘andSomething’ theme, and in many ways agility is going to be the name of the game. I hadn’t really made that clear, about the general idea; I’ve gone freelance, and now I’m contracting, I’m free to be a success or a disaster or anywhere inbetween all by myself. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do and now I have it.

The abusive and esoteric comments are great, guys; I’m going to put up profiles of the regulars very soon, so we all know who we’re dealing with ;-) Look forward to more soon about mysql.sock, Robin Askwith and how to not buy coke from your local Tesco. It’s all good!

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Linkage!

Right, oodles to post about, but I’ll start of the fun and games with some more linkage (as Ciaran might say; I haven’t full managed Lyner-speak yet, it is an arcane language.) to various things that have recently amused me.

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Right, oodles to post about, but I’ll start of the fun and games with some more linkage (as Ciaran might say; I haven’t full managed Lyner-speak yet, it is an arcane language.) to various things that have recently amused me.

Firefox
The all-new, gleaming, spanking, Firefox 1.5 web browser!
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

If you’re not running Firefox as your web browser, then you should be. Firefox is a great browser, remarkably fast, safe from attack, sticks (by and large) to the web standards and is by far the best browser out there for PC, Mac or Linux, it really is. If you’re still using Internet Explorer on Windows then I hope you have a good reason for it. If you’re using Mac OS 9 for some reason then use Netscape 7, which you can get from this site (go to the bottom of the page and follow the links – it’s a bit fiddly but well worth it). Don’t use IE for Mac, there is NO GOOD REASON.

I’ve been using Firefox for some time now, having been tempted by finding it on my PC at work after coming back from my travels last year; Tony had been using the PC before and although I was suspicious at first (Tony’s fingerprints were over most of the projects and everyone kept telling my how wonderful he was, always a bad sign) I decided to give it a go and lo and behold! It was good. This latest release is even better than the last and so, go and at the very least try it. You’ll experience the Internet again.

Climate Change
It seems that, once again, we’re doomed!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4485840.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,1654803,00.html

The recent thinking has been that in Europe we’re going to see a sharp climate drop before we see any warming, which will be as destructive over the short term, though nothing Europe hasn’t had before over the last few hundred years (something I read a couple of years ago referred to the fact that in the middle ages, it was cold enough for Denmark to walk over to Sweden (across the frozen sea) and set about them.). Personally, I really do think that it’s a game of brinkmanship that the US is playing with the rest of the world that’s going to decide the fate of the world at large, and moreover all of us will ultimately lose out, because this is probably the biggest challenge we (collectively) have ever faced. If you’re not as cynical as me (quite likely) then you might want to get over to www.combatclimatechange.ie and do something about it. I’m wearing the t-shirt as I type this!

Oh no! Java is doomed
Again, Java is finished! A new dawn awaits for programmers!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/30/beyond_java/

That is rubbish. People are still programming in C and C++, and they’ll be programming in Java for years to come so I reckon it’s just hype and hysteria to sell a book about nothing at all. More on this in a later post.

$100 Laptop
A wireless portable for people who need food, clean water and sanitation!
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051128-5639.html

It’s great idea, and I hope it flies, but I still question the usefulness of handing out a laptop like this to people who need various other things much more than they need a cheap laptop. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great piece of technology being used in the right way, but maybe the money could be spent more wisely?

They’ll be on sale to the rest of us too, and I’m sure the money will go to funding more projects like this.

Terrorist website competition
The winning entry gets to mastermind an attack on a US Military base!
http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/12/01/story232992.html
Really, that is exactly what this is about. Frightening and yet bizarrely funny, in a Monty Python kind of way. It won’t be so funny when people start getting killed though.

More Daleks
More zany Dalek humour!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/01/dalek_thespian/
Sort of funny in a way, but a bit over-cooked. It won’t be for everyone.

XBox 360
All your console are belong to Microsoft!
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/xbox360.ars
I really haven’t been getting up to much recently, have I? There was a possibility of my heading out to the XBox 360 launch party last night, though I never heard any more about it so that was fine, I got to read about the new console from Microsoft instead. It’s a detailed review of the first of the next-generation game console/multimedia/network devices, the others being Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s… thing. They all, interestingly have very similar hardware inside, and all are aimed at the Internet and connectivity. A little something for the stocking filler, maybe?

I’d better get on and get some real posting done, with big colour photos and perhaps some innocent pornography before I get accused of time-wasting…

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