Summer Daze News

Pheebi

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:37:00 +0000

Lately I have pouring a lot of time into a new project of mine. It's a PHP framework called pheebi. Yes, yes I know, yet another PHP framework as if we don't already have enough! Well, I did search the Internet first I looked for a lightweight frame work, something with really clean code that you could easily understand. Take Code Igniter for example, it's wonderful but... it's big. I think it's marketed as lightweight but clearly I have a very different understand of what lightweight is. If you dare to look at how the thing works, that's when the real problems start.

If you're just happy to use it in complete ignorance of what's going on behind the scenes that's great. I guess I like to really know the code I'm working with and every framework I have downloaded and reviewed, even those with names like "Simple PHP Framework" have been anything but. I'm not saying it's impossible to understand their code and how the framework all fits together but should it really require so much work? Do you really need that many files (libraries and helpers aside) just for a framework?

I don't think so, and so I created pheebi. It's in very early stages at the moment but I'm sure there's enough there to have a tinker with incase you're curious

Learning Japanese

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:09:00 +0000

Well, here's a quick post to prove I'm still alive and to share with you what I have been investing a lot of time into lately. I have been busy readying my CMS Odeebo (after yet another structural redesign) for my latest project. A resource for learning Japanese I have named Tasty Miso. It's essentially a blog but will provide lessons, reviews and so on. I'm in the process of adding some nice features to the site such as image commenting so I have plenty to keep me busy.

I did consider posting more Japanese related posts here on this blog but I didn't really want to overrun the blog with Japanese related stuff but have finally realised a separate blog just for that works out well.

A Hat Upon My Head

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:31:00 +0000

I wear a hat upon my head,
a thinking hat it is,
it causes me to ponder,
the why's of that and this.

This hat it sits upon my head,
but why I do not know,
would I not be better off,
if my hat were to go?

Without this hat upon my head,
I might find myself,
feeling more carefree,
enjoying being someone else.

Confound this hat it wont come off!
as if stuck to my head,
and now forever I must think,
... at least till time for bed.

Mafia Scene Downtime

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:04:00 +0000

MafiaScene.com is currently seeing some downtime due to high server loads that were causing our VPS to fall over. Because of this the site has been temporarily disabled whilst the cause is investigated.

I'm currently talking to the muppets that host the site and trying to prod them into helping me. This normally takes quite a few correspondences to get anything useful from them. If the prodding doesn't work I'll send the MS boys round.

So, the good news it that it's coming back The bad news is that I'm far too busy to fix it just yet Some rogue code needs chasing down and optimising which can be a very big task so I ask for your patience please.

I'll keep any updates posted here, so check back from time to time if you're desperate to know how things are progressing!

Update: All updates will now be posted to the MafiaScene Twitter Feed.

Keep to the left, or right?

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:25:00 +0000

Although much research into Japan had taught me a great deal, for some reason, nobody ever bothered to mention escalators. I travelled through France, a man rushed up the escalators exclaiming "excusez moi!" and I obediently moved aside to let him pass as did others on the moving stairs.

I'm in Japan, I encounter my first escalator. "Don't stand next to me" my girlfriend said. Dazed and confused after sleep depravation I replied "Huh?". What had I done wrong? "Stand in front of me" she said. "Hm", I thought, there is no one behind me or in a rush, does she not want me to stand next to her? I had to ask "Why am I standing in front of you?". "We do this in Japan". Sure enough there was much truth in her reply. Generally without fail and irregardless of if there are but three people on an escalator and no danger of anyone rushing past. Most Japanese people kindly stand to one side of the escalator to let passers by, well, pass by.

Google Street View Your Holiday Destination

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:27:00 +0000

One of most surreal experiences I had when visiting Japan was the strong feeling of déjà vu when looking at an area I had never been to before.

It happened an hour or so after a train journey from the airport. My girlfriend was taking me somewhere, I didn't ask where. I was left feeling too zombie like after the flight to be able to think properly. After arriving at the destination, taking some steps and walking out onto a street. I had a feeling of déjà vu and exclaimed "Hey, I recognise this place, isn't your house in that direction?". A good many months ago I had spent a few hours every now and then looking at the area my girlfriend lives in. I found it rather interesting being able to do a virtual tour of Japan in this way.

Back from Japan

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:25:00 +0000

Well after my two weeks and two days in Japan I'm back in England and arrived on the 25th August at around 8AM. The jet lag is mostly gone but I'm still not used to the climate. I remember when I first arrived in Japan I thought the airport was incredibly stuffy. It was a clingy type of heat that you could almost swallow. It felt quite uncomfortable to breath. I decided to go outside the airport to get some fresh air. That's when a wall of heat much warmer and much more stuffy than the one inside the airport hit me. That was probably my first surprise. It was almost similar to being in a sauna. I wanted to go somewhere cooler but it wasn't an option. You just have to endure it. After the first week of continually repeating "Wow, I can't believe how hot it is!" I began to get used to it.

Off to Japan

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:53:00 +0000

At last, my chance to visit Japan (and my girlfriend) is here! Just about to set off to catch a plane at Birmingham International airport for 9:20AM. Off to Paris then on to Narita. I've never flown before so nothing like jumping in at the deep end with a 6,333 mile journey on my own.

Farewell!

Summer Daze v3

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:09:00 +0000

Version 3 of Summer Daze has arrived without warning. I had been secretly running it in beta and decided it was stable enough to put live. The site is now up and running on the latest version of Odeebo and has been christened with a new theme which I built but did not design. The theme is based very very heavily on the Titan Wordpress Theme.

I'm afraid the news comments have disappeared along with the option to register and log-in. The comments will return as if by magic one day when I get around to it, along with site registration for all of my million divided by ten thousand followers! There will be a few more additions coming over time, perhaps a few big ones. Domain name change? Additional blogger? Porn gallery? Who knows?

University is Over

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:01:00 +0000

Passed my Computer Science degree. Got a 2.1 with honours!
Twitter

Yes it's true, the four long years have finally come to end and quite a good end I might add. Things turned out well despite the troublesome grades I got last semester. I have my graduation coming up on September 3rd, I have my funny looking cap and gown ordered too. I can only take a maximum of three people with me which means my two parents and one sister (I'm not entirely sure my other sister would have wanted to come anyway?). Would have been nice to have my grandparents come as well as my girlfriend.

Anyway, I'm back at work full time again working and like before, working as web developer. Also like before earning money again which is nice as I now have a handsome debt to pay off. Life feel a little unusual right now, a little lost as if I have finished something but don't really have any other goals. I'm certainly glad to be back at work rather than siting at home looking for work. I think that would add to the feeling of being lost otherwise.

A Journey into Facebook 2

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:35:00 +0000

Following on from A Journey into Facebook I have now come to a conclusion about the vastly popular social networking platform after over half a years evaluation.

The bottom line is thus, 97.34% of it is crap. That's not just a random 97.34%, that's an exact calculation formed using highly scientific research results picked fresh from my mind!

Beer in Japan

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:49:00 +0000

When you see yourself visiting a foreign country sometime in the not so distant future you begin to ask yourself questions. Maybe questions related to small issues such as health insurance or finding your way around especially if the country in question speaks a language you are not too familiar with. After considering the many minor troubles that might arise it suddenly dawns on you that you may have overlooked something very important indeed, something big, huge in fact, something that might make or break your decision to depart from the sunny, hot shores of England.

"Where can I get a pint?"

Resize Safari Applescript

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:18:00 +0000

Ah, I remember the days of Firefox and the web developer plug-in where resizing one's browser window to common screen resolutions was something taken for granted. Ever since moving to Safari I have greatly missed this feature when developing websites. Instead I have had to rely on the old "that looks about 1024 pixels wide" method.

Well, all that changed when I decided to code an AppleScript to get around this issue. A swift press of ctrl+alt+cmd+r (or your choice of shortcut) and I can resize Safari accurately.

Skype for iPhone Review

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:46:00 +0000

Well it's finally out and it came so quickly. After months of thinking it would never happen I found news that Skype would be available only yesterday. Yesterdays news said it would be available today and yesterdays news was right! So this morning I checked my iPhone and saw Skype was available from the App Store. I couldn't wait to test it.

Update: The crashing has been fixed and only affected jailbroken iPhones. The problem was not Skype and was remedied by upgrading the Mobile Substrate packed via Cydia.

Apple In-Ear vs Sennheiser CX500

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:02:00 +0000

Today I went to church in Birmingham; the Apple store. Whilst there I worshipped the cult of Apple by purchasing the new Apple In-Ear Headphones. I have had my eye on these every since they came to my attention a couple of months ago. Dual driver headphones for £54 and what's more, mic and controls for iPhone. Sounds too good to be true right?

Living with Eclipse on OS X

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:54:00 +0000

What's the problem?

Ever since I moved from Linux to OS X Eclipse I have become a little too fussy with the presentation of desktop applications. Eclipse is certainly the ugliest OS X app I own. What a shame this is as its one I spend much time looking at. In fact I jumped ship to Coda for a while for its lovely interface, however, Coda is not Eclipse and Eclipse is the best PHP editor I have used. I just had to go back to it.

Can it be fixed?

Hm... sort of. I have spent a few hours customising it so it's somewhat presentable now. Given it a new syntax highlighting theme that's based on tango colours, hidden the toolbar, got rid of the blue styled tabs, given it a minimalist interface and removed the default ridiculously small interface font.

Is there any hope?

I'm running an Eclipse 3.5 built that runs on the Cocoa SWT port which put simply it's built with the same stuff that nice looking OS X apps are built with. So why doesn't it look nice yet? Well I'm guessing, hoping that part will come later? Certainly porting SWT to Cocoa is a step in the right direction.

BBC Japan Season

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:54:00 +0000

I don't watch a lot of TV, maybe 1 to 2 hours a week of pre-recorded TV. Well, a reason to watch TV (at least for me) has recently arrived! It's the BBC's Japan Season. I believe it started on the 14th of March but there are still some good things left to watch. Unfortunately I have a feeling this wont appear on BBC iPlayer so I'll have to record it.

National Student Survey

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:43:00 +0000

Recently, I have seen lots of advertisements around my university for the national student survey which I have no intention of taking. I can't quite understand why in my last year but a few months left I would want to complain about my university, I have plenty to say but its too late in the day to say it to be of any benefit for me.

Anyhow, I was just phoned by the student survey by a chirpy sounding girl who asked if I wanted to take the survey. I told her I was too busy, she wanted to phone back at a more convenient time. I told her I didn't want to answer any survey questions. She said if you want us to stop calling you you will have to answer some questions. Huh?! Blackmail now with the threat of forever being pestered by a telesurvey person. Scary but I wasn't budging. I replied with a firm "no" and bid her farewell.

On the National Student Survey Website there is a link on the bottom right allowing you to opt out from various forms of pestering as I believe is required by law. Hopefully I wont be disturbed again.

If like me you are a student who couldn't care less about fuelling some company who is making money from statistics collected by wasting your time I recommend you opt-out too.

Copy Syntax Highlighted Code from Coda

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:11:00 +0000

Okay so recently I posted a news post on how to Copy Syntax Higlighted Code from TextMate. What it you use coda however? What hoops do you have to jump through to add such wonderful functionality? Plug-ins, Applescript? Actually, nothing of the sort it's already there!

Simply:
- Highlight your Code
- Right-Click
- Select Copy with Styles

Even though it's obvious now, it didn't stop me from playing with AppleScript and Google for two hours before stumbling upon this little gem for myself so I'm writing this blog post to help lost souls from searching Google for the same thing

Unfair iPhone Word Completion

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:17:00 +0000

Perhaps those of us who own them will have noticed a few odd quirks in the iPhones text prediction system. I know my friend Tim complains often enough about such quirks he finds to Twitter

What I find rather interesting is the ability for the predictive text system to learn new words and corrections of spellings. The system has learned of my girlfriends name "Risa". That's great, it even capitalises it for me when I type it in lower case which is indeed a handy function. However, my name, an English name instead of a Japanese one which I'm guessing was already in it's dictionary never gets offered the privilege of being correctly capitalised. Only recently has it seemed to have been able to actually learn my name too. For a long time typing my name would produce errors.