I just witnessed one of the most interesting events I have ever seen on a London Bus. This was a ride on a double decker bus on a Saturday afternoon. On this particular trip there was a crowd of youths on the top deck, making a lot of noise as groups of teenagers typically do. [...]
Announcing two new websites, CrystalFlower and Avilian Its a few years now since I set my mother up with her first blog site. As a practicing homeopath I felt she needed to have an on-line web presence – more and more people rely on on-line search, so it seems an absolute necessity. Since then her [...]
I seem to know a whole host of people, and veritable league in fact, of people who are finishing their PhD as I type this. This causes me no end of joy, daily tormenting them, asking how many words they wrote today (so far numbers like 200 look pretty good). However I remember when I [...]
Time for an open puzzle, answers on a postcard, or preferably in the comments box below Imagine you are implementing a typical web 2.0 application. It has cool things, like video clips, and maps. Lets keep it simple for now, and say it only has status messages and video clips. The two are unrelated, sharing [...]
In short: This book is good, go buy it. In “Design Patterns in Ruby” Russ Olsen sets out to cover two distinct goals. First he introduces the idea of design patterns, and secondly he explores how the dynamic nature of Ruby allows patterns to be used with less effort than languages such as Java and [...]
Introduction A quick look about on the web will bring you up-to speed on pretty much all you need to know about git. There are some great introduction’s to what it is, detailed manuals, and best of all an explanation of how it works aimed at people who understand computer science (and if you can’t [...]
I have been using a lot of polymorphic associations in rails recently. If you don’t know what they are, bear with me and I will explain in a moment. To really use a polymorphic association properly it’s vital to understand interfaces, which should be part of your daily bread and butter toolkit, but in a [...]
Have you ever wanted to share something personal with just a few, or even just one close friend. Its really not easy. I’m not talking about an idea, something you can just ring up and tell them. I’m thinking of videos (though the idea extends to photos, or music, or any thing like that). Because [...]
Its been some time since I last wrote anything. However I refuse to sit here and write down that its simply because I have been too busy. The real truth is I have been too mythered. Not enough taking control of my life. Just the other day I sat down and did some paperwork, and [...]
My website – with its new design, is now online. I’ve been meaning to do something about the design of my website for ages. Finally I have. I was being held back by the way I run several different things I had on the site: My blog, my research history, my photos and a few [...]
