Recently I've been wondering just what kind of lightweight javascript stuff can be added to the blog in order to make it "look kinda cool".
I think I've decided to do it because we spend all day here building systems that users actually want rather than just following our own flights of fancy and doing what we think might be cool.
Anyway, from now on you're likely to see little new additions to the site that I like. Let me know if you like it, or don't like it, or don't care.
I'll try to make sure things fail gracefully when they do... but I'm almost certainly going to mess up someone's web experience. If I do, then let me know and I'll fix it. It's the only way I'll learn, and the only way it'll get fixed.
Anyway, for now... have folding sidebar panels.
Woooohoooo
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
On Cloud Nine...
I'm a Boro fan, I don't know how many times I've been asked what it is about football that gets me and so many people excited.
If you'd have been a Boro fan watching the Boro v Basel match tonight you'd completely understand why.
Every now and again you get to watch YOUR team play like they're playing for their lives. The whole of their existence being entirely for that one night. When they're playing like nothing will ever matter as much as this does in this moment. Every single one of them is on the same wavelength as every other player and they're plaing as if though they're a single being.
And you know that they're doing it all just for you.
Absolutely phenominal
If you'd have been a Boro fan watching the Boro v Basel match tonight you'd completely understand why.
Every now and again you get to watch YOUR team play like they're playing for their lives. The whole of their existence being entirely for that one night. When they're playing like nothing will ever matter as much as this does in this moment. Every single one of them is on the same wavelength as every other player and they're plaing as if though they're a single being.
And you know that they're doing it all just for you.
Absolutely phenominal
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Dixons in "good service" shocker
I hate Dixons.
Every time I go in there I have to wait an absolute age for anyone to help me. They have the same staffing level problems that Debenhams and Maplins suffer from. They simply don't have any people on the shop floor.
However, when I went snowboarding last month I decided that I wanted to take a cheap video camera with me, one that I wouldn't mind breaking. And Dixons had exactly what I was looking for, an end of line Sony Handycam for 200 quid. Nice one.
As it was end of line I decided to haggle and managed to get 3 years of their Mastercare thrown into the deal. It covers accidental damage.
When we were out boarding I managed to stack it big time and break the flip out screen on the camera. Really annoying, because as soon as you flip out the screen the viewfinder switches off, and the menu buttons are under the screen. AAAaaargh.
Anyway, we soldiered on through the holiday with the broken camera (still recorded fine) and when we got back I phoned up their Mastercare phone line expecting a nice big argument about whether or not it's covered.
They just asked what the problem was, not once did they ask how it happened. They sent out a courier bag that I got about 2 days later. I put the camera in and called DHL to pick it up; they came the next day. That was Thursday. On Monday this week I got a DHL package back; I assumed that they'd messed up and just sent my camera to me instead of Mastercare. It WAS the camera, but it was fixed!
I couldn't believe it. I reckon it must have taken no more than a week from start to finish to get the camera fixed, the best bit being the TWO WORKING DAYS it took for them to get delivery of the camera, fix it and send it back.
Quite simply... WOW!
At 65 quid, the Mastercare service is a bit pricy, no matter how good it is... but it's well worth trying to get it thrown in for free!
Every time I go in there I have to wait an absolute age for anyone to help me. They have the same staffing level problems that Debenhams and Maplins suffer from. They simply don't have any people on the shop floor.
However, when I went snowboarding last month I decided that I wanted to take a cheap video camera with me, one that I wouldn't mind breaking. And Dixons had exactly what I was looking for, an end of line Sony Handycam for 200 quid. Nice one.
As it was end of line I decided to haggle and managed to get 3 years of their Mastercare thrown into the deal. It covers accidental damage.
When we were out boarding I managed to stack it big time and break the flip out screen on the camera. Really annoying, because as soon as you flip out the screen the viewfinder switches off, and the menu buttons are under the screen. AAAaaargh.
Anyway, we soldiered on through the holiday with the broken camera (still recorded fine) and when we got back I phoned up their Mastercare phone line expecting a nice big argument about whether or not it's covered.
They just asked what the problem was, not once did they ask how it happened. They sent out a courier bag that I got about 2 days later. I put the camera in and called DHL to pick it up; they came the next day. That was Thursday. On Monday this week I got a DHL package back; I assumed that they'd messed up and just sent my camera to me instead of Mastercare. It WAS the camera, but it was fixed!
I couldn't believe it. I reckon it must have taken no more than a week from start to finish to get the camera fixed, the best bit being the TWO WORKING DAYS it took for them to get delivery of the camera, fix it and send it back.
Quite simply... WOW!
At 65 quid, the Mastercare service is a bit pricy, no matter how good it is... but it's well worth trying to get it thrown in for free!
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Net Send from an Oracle DB
Now I'm no DBA, but this (XUTL_NET) looks useful...
It's a small footprint product that adds windows style NET SEND capability to Oracle 8i and above, running on any operating system... just as long as you've got NETBIOS over TCP/IP on your network and Windows clients to receive the message.
It just seems like a neat little way of sending youself notification messages when those long running jobs finish, so you don't have to sit there with a window to your server open.
Chris also supplies an API for UDP (XUTL_UDP of course)... it seems he needed one to write XUTL_NET, and if you've written it, why not make it available?
UDP is available for free, as is a trial version of NET. I admit that I've not used either... but they both sound worth checking out if you need that kind of thing!
It's a small footprint product that adds windows style NET SEND capability to Oracle 8i and above, running on any operating system... just as long as you've got NETBIOS over TCP/IP on your network and Windows clients to receive the message.
It just seems like a neat little way of sending youself notification messages when those long running jobs finish, so you don't have to sit there with a window to your server open.
Chris also supplies an API for UDP (XUTL_UDP of course)... it seems he needed one to write XUTL_NET, and if you've written it, why not make it available?
UDP is available for free, as is a trial version of NET. I admit that I've not used either... but they both sound worth checking out if you need that kind of thing!
Saturday, March 25, 2006
UK OUG Feedback and letting it slide
I got back some feedback on my presentation from the UK OUG. I thought it was a nice touch. You get to hear what people thought of your presentation in terms of content / topic / presentation skills / quality of slides and the overal presentation.
All in all I was pretty pleased with the response, I was obviously a little disappointed as I can't handle being told that I'm anything other than exemplary at anything I do ;-)
Still, I couldn't be that disheartened as everyone seemed to agree that the presentation overall was well done, and of value. Wooo hoo. I'd agree that my presentation skills need a little bit of work... I was a little 'rabbit in headlights', and I'm likely to be like that for the next couple of presentations I do (assuming there are more to come).
However, I was very disappointed at the response on my slides. Apparently nearly 70% of people thought my slides were poor. Damn it!
I think this probably comes from a difference of opinion on the usefulness of slides as much as anything else.
I wasn't presenting anything technical, there were no difficult concepts to comprehend and there was no structures that needed describing visually. I was talking on what was a very human subject. A natural one. One I could happily discuss in the pub, without the need to resort to drawing on napkins.
I wasn't presenting as a representative of the company I work for. I develop in-house systems and we don't do consultancy. There was no need to advertise my firm to the audience.
With those two points in mind I figured that there was no great need for a lot of slides, or to make the ones I did use flashy.
I personally don't like a lot of slides with bullet point representations of the detailed discussion. I sometimes can't help but read the slide and then ignore the presenter. I also don't go for graphics, points sliding in from the side, fading in, fading out. They don't add anything to the discussion.
Anyway... I ended up with 5 slides, every one was black text on a grey background. They weren't sexy by any measure!
Each slide contained a single sentence that was a salient point of that part of the discussion. I wanted to convey the fact that when you walked away from the presentation I wanted you to walk away with these 5 points in your mind. Those 5 points were the main ingredients of the talk, the rest was just spice to fill out the flavour.
I didn't think I needed to sugar coat them, or spoon feed them, or shove them down your throat. I thought the words had enough impact on their own.
If that's what poor slides are... then I'm more than happy to get that feedback!
All in all I was pretty pleased with the response, I was obviously a little disappointed as I can't handle being told that I'm anything other than exemplary at anything I do ;-)
Still, I couldn't be that disheartened as everyone seemed to agree that the presentation overall was well done, and of value. Wooo hoo. I'd agree that my presentation skills need a little bit of work... I was a little 'rabbit in headlights', and I'm likely to be like that for the next couple of presentations I do (assuming there are more to come).
However, I was very disappointed at the response on my slides. Apparently nearly 70% of people thought my slides were poor. Damn it!
I think this probably comes from a difference of opinion on the usefulness of slides as much as anything else.
I wasn't presenting anything technical, there were no difficult concepts to comprehend and there was no structures that needed describing visually. I was talking on what was a very human subject. A natural one. One I could happily discuss in the pub, without the need to resort to drawing on napkins.
I wasn't presenting as a representative of the company I work for. I develop in-house systems and we don't do consultancy. There was no need to advertise my firm to the audience.
With those two points in mind I figured that there was no great need for a lot of slides, or to make the ones I did use flashy.
I personally don't like a lot of slides with bullet point representations of the detailed discussion. I sometimes can't help but read the slide and then ignore the presenter. I also don't go for graphics, points sliding in from the side, fading in, fading out. They don't add anything to the discussion.
Anyway... I ended up with 5 slides, every one was black text on a grey background. They weren't sexy by any measure!
Each slide contained a single sentence that was a salient point of that part of the discussion. I wanted to convey the fact that when you walked away from the presentation I wanted you to walk away with these 5 points in your mind. Those 5 points were the main ingredients of the talk, the rest was just spice to fill out the flavour.
I didn't think I needed to sugar coat them, or spoon feed them, or shove them down your throat. I thought the words had enough impact on their own.
If that's what poor slides are... then I'm more than happy to get that feedback!
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