Category Archives: General Life

Thames Turbo Race 2

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Monday 4th May: So the time came to beat my rather slow time of 1:14 for my first Thames Turbo Triathlon race in April. I was confident I was stronger in the water and on the bike, and it turns out I was, 2 minutes knocked off the bike and almost 1 minute off the swim. Very good. Problems occurred when I dismounted from the bike and found that my knee didn’t work very well. Hardly at all in fact.

The stumbling back into transition and subsequent struggle to get into my shoes prompted attention from the marshalls around me, and after careful consideration and advice I decided to not even try and start the run. A quick check to the paramedics to check I wouldn’t lose my leg or anything and I was sent on my way. Disappointing end to my race, but caught up with a few people I hadn’t seen for a while and made some progress in the parts I could do. Continue reading →

Proud! Yet disappointed…

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Hello magazine. That is the reason I have just felt a moment of pride for where I work and what I do. Yes I enjoy doing my work, love where I work and when the two combine and a website where I did all the front end and had some influence in the functionality and design (Griff, as normal, was awesome) is a great feeling. Although it would have been nice if it hadn’t taken me getting all the way back to Durham to mention possibly being in Hello magazine, only to find out my mother has a copy with a Gyro ad in it, and I didn’t even know for sure we were in! It was Hello for God’s sake. I have had emails saying we are on fecking petrol pump, so tell us properly when my work shall be in one of the best sellers!! Apart from that rant I am quite proud that a website I built the front end for has been featured in Hello magazine (even without sign off, eh Barnaby!!). I also asked for 4 weeks, not the 2 and a bit I got (with luck) so well done me on getting the job done anyway, God knows I don’t have time to go back and improve it! Unfortunately.

Other news includes that CodeIgnitor is awesome, still. TotSocks are gonna be big, hopefully.

Stephen Fry and Boris Johnson are my heroes and I wish I could be either of them!!

I have also found that Hot Shots: Part Deux has ruined any possible chance of me enjoying either Rambo 2 or 3 without giggling at the slightest hint of a Charlie Sheen joke. Or any other joke in that film, to be fair!!

And finally, in the top of Division 3 (Hackney and Leyton league) clash, Hospital Tavern (my current team) overcame the favourites for the league Highstone FC in a 3-2 victory. What a great result, and it must mean that we can go on to challenge for both the league and the last remaining cup. Although if being picked up on one error in that game means I get dropped for the quarter final cup game, I will be so disappointed, I’m not sure I could handle it!! Here’s to the slim chance of us winning the league!!

PHP Frameworks, the research

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So for part of my development at work, I have been looking at the various PHP frameworks there are around and trying to find something that I can not only use at work, but also use at home for my own sites.

Now I do a little PHP and it is my aim to one day be the front end “that is better than most back enders at back end stuff” coder, but that day is many moons away. In the meantime I have tried and looked at the hype about a few MVC style PHP frameworks.

Symfony

Symfony logo.

This was recommended by Manda Poo, my former colleague. Her new company Blu Halo use this and apparently to superb extent according to their web site, which utilised the framework (Blu Halo). They also use jQuery superbly, but that’s one for another blog. Blu Halo do have a quite excellent web site there. Pretty much a perfect example of what I want to do at Gyro (I’ll be lucky, Virgin Atlantic is a little heavy on my time right now…).

I found Symfony to look a powerful and all round excellent framework. Some massive sites have used the framework, as well as Blu Halo mentioned above, for example Heriot-Watt University, ASDA (press release source) and Shoot magazine (brilliant). I did have a few issues with local development, using the command line PHP interface and getting it to work with WAMP. Incidentally I just found a load of solutions, a little too late unfortunately. I must try harder to work through things next time!

CakePHP

CakePHP logo.

Next was Cake PHP and I found pretty much the same as above, but without a personal recommendation I kept going back to see what I could see about Symfony, hence only spending a little while with Cake PHP. This is quite possible the most useless review of anything ever.

I’ll try Cake again, but not quite yet!

Code Ignitor

CodeIgniter PHP Framework logo.

This has proved to win the competition to be come my current obsession. From seeing the ease of install (upload – that is it!) to the simple database set up and querying I have quite literally got stuck right in. Hopefully over the next few weeks I won’t find any problems with it because it would be heartbreaking.

The best bits I have found in very limited experience of CodeIgniter are that the organisation of the framework is excellent, the way the MVC works and the code helpers are clear, without any experience of them, is brilliant.

I also briefly looked at KohanaPHP, which is based on CodeIgniter and I think it probably is the way forward, if it is as flexible as claimed (which it appears to be). The choice cam down to the fact CodeIgniter had better tutorials and support to unfortunately.

Obviously not being a back end specialist and an especially insecure programmer, I need more input on what might work as a development tool at Gyro. There is always the chance we don’t need one at all, but if we want to be considered a serious digital agency, then we better get in line and use the powerful frameworks. Not that there is anything “wrong” as such with the current set up, but surely better is, erm, better.

I think I will go with CodeIgniter for the back end of my next web site incarnation, but when I get a little more experienced with OOP I reckon I’ll go back to Symfony. Only time will tell.

ASP.NET will never be mentioned in a blog here, expect then, because it smells.

Warning – Philosophical comment below…

Yesterday I thought about what I might have made of myself if I had either staying in the call centres or really pushed to be a teacher. I thought call centre manager would be about right, at LEAST whereby teaching would have been a struggle to get up the ladder. Then I realised what I have already accomplished with only 4 years of web programming experience. Building Xerox, T-Mobile, SportsAid and Tate and Lyle web sites. Even coding Virgin emails most days is a feather in the cap – especially as I seem to be the only email author that can make emails almost perfect in every client, even Lotus Notes 5. The best bit is I will only get better, so I’m not thinking about what I could have done any more, but thinking about what I will do for the Internet and myself in the next 10 years.

The latest from the world of Bee

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So quite a bit has been going on lately, I just haven’t been any good at updating this blog. Must do better.

Contents:

  1. Fallen windows
  2. Christmas parties
  3. Sunday league
  4. Chas n Dave

Fallen windows

Probably the most exciting, most inconvenient and most boring thing to happen lately was when our bedroom window fell off its hinges, smashing through Warren and Kathy (our downstairs neighbours) garden furniture on the way! Not only was it in the middle of the night, but it was also bloody cold and windy! So a nice cold night with my bike cover trying to keep out the elements was endured before a visit from a glazer – who couldn’t do anything, despite me suggesting to the landlord that a glazer wouldn’t fix the split frame. So next we had the carpenter round (not Karen) who very kindly gave us a warm plywood window. It has not improved the view unfortunately – but if only we had one in Leytonstone – it might have made that house quieter!

We are still waiting for a new frame, we do have our fingers crossed for a few double glazed windows, but I doubt that is on the cards.

Christmas parties

A couple of Christmas parties have already come and gone, both events organised through work. There was first the Virgin Atlantic client/Gyro party including (but not limited to) rubbish dancing (me), good dancing (everyone else), gin, cocktails, Pete Doherty’s hat, tiaras, Iron Maiden, Mercedes, loss of memory and a hangover. Excellent.

The Gyro staff party was even better than that. Starting with a meet in Balham where I looked a little strange as an English country gent at 2pm, half the digital team slowly arrived. Griff saving my embarrassment by being superbly worse (or better?) dressed as a Morris dancer, alone until the rest joined him at the main party. Next we had the Gryo digital meeting where a few things in the pipeline were revealed, which sound both promising and daunting. Only time will tell on that one.

Chap Bee

I have to admit that from then on, memory lapses were all too common, although I remember Pangaea champagne, double decker bus ride, excellent meat, deserved awards (I’ll get one one day!), another bus ride, gin and tonic, karaoke (Snooker Loopy as standard), not liking George better, hotel room gathering, mini bar gin, tube home (7am), grab footy kit and straight to Sunday league with a small amount of alcohol in my system. By small amount, I mean I was completely hammered. The cold weather sorted me out though, and I got through the game, not even playing badly (we won 4-2, by the way).

Sunday League

We lost to Hightstone, bastards. Beat Wenlock though (as mentioned above!). This essentially still leaves it in our hands, since Highstone lost to Hoxton a few weeks ago. We know it’ll be hard and we will probably have to play like never before to win every remaining game and guarantee the title, but hopefully one or two results will go our way and we can keep the momentum going and finish the league in a promotion spot. Second will do, but Champions sounds so much better.

Chas n Dave

13-01-2008
100 Club
Oxford St, London

Chas n Dave live in concert.

Chas n Dave

Ticket bought, friends attending, braces yet to be purchased. But they will be.

Chas n Dave. I can’t bloody wait! I’m honestly more excited about this gig than I was for the Foo Fighters, or Cut Chemist n DJ Shadow (not quite got the same ring to it as Chas n Dave) in March. Rockney here I come.

Looks like I’m lucky not to be American

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Sicko poster.

After watching SiCKO by Michael Moore I feel very lucky to be British and have the NHS. Should I have been American, 4 major operations wouldn’t have been cheap and after this who even knows if I would be accepted for insurance followowing my pneumothorax in 2005. Obviously I don’t know all the facts, but based on what I saw and read lately this is what I think.

People often complain about the NHS and , and I know people have, even those I know criticise the treatment I received after getting an infection at a chest drain site, but I think it’s excellent from first hand knowledge. I found a cockroach in hospital after my leg break – so maybe that’s worth criticising – but at least I didn’t have to pay for the priviledge!

Now I know there will be elements of bias and fights for both sides of the story, as Moorewatch.com points out – but I think that I have grasped the fundamentals.

Both systems may need work – but I think that I am better off for being ill in England. You shouldn’t have to pay for healthcare in my opinion, nor insurance in case of illness, nor should the decision of allowing treatment be based on money or decided by anyone that isn’t the doctor treating you.