LostCarPark's Journal

This won't be of interest to most of you, but for any web developers...

I have been using a lot of Microsoft ASP.NET at work, and I've been quite impressed by it, especially around the database abstraction and AJAX development areas. So much so that I was considering moving some of my personal web projects to this platform.

However, there were some things troubling me, particularly around the area of ViewState, which can really cause web pages to bloat if not used carefully. The problem is that sometimes coding around ViewState to keep page bloat down can bring pack a lot of the work ASP.NET is supposed to save you from.

So, I've been looking at how some of the same things are done in the latest implementation of PHP, in conjunction with the PEAR library, and I have to say I'm very impressed by what I'm finding. Some of the PHP5 language developments turn it into a really lovely object oriented language. Meanwhile the PEAR library is turning into a wonderfully rich class library that has the potential to be a strong rival for the .NET framework. I've been getting to grips with the MDB2 database abstraction class, which really strikes me as elegant giving a lot of rich features with a high level of performance, while avoiding tying your code to a particular database engine. .NET, by comparison, seems to encourage you to use classes tied to one particular database over the more generic OLEDB classes, which always seemed a retrograde step to me.

And there are some nice-looking AJAX extensions in PEAR, which look very attractive without requiring huge amounts of code.

I'm still keeping my options open, but it looks like PHP/PEAR is in front for my personal sites for the moment.

There was a time when those words would strike fear into the heart of every computer user: lost files, hours of work down the drain, when did I last back up?

But not today. Today PC World have announced that they are going to stop stocking floppies when current supplies run out (which may take quite some time). They probably didn't need to bother, as most PC users haven't bought a disk in years, and there probably quite a few who wonder what that rather odd slot in the front of their PC is for.

But still, I will miss the contrary old buggers. Even now, there are plenty of times when they get you out of a hole. It can still be quite useful to boot up DOS from floppy to run some low-level diagnostics.

But I guess we must move with the times.

If I ever did, I take it all back!

Some guys in Germany have built a production line for building Lego cars - entirely out of Lego bricks. It uses lots of Lego Mindstorms RCX robotic controllers to make it all work. You can pick the colours and it will select the parts and assemble the car. Very very impressive.

This link shows a 6 minute video of it manufacturing a car.

I am in London for a short weekend break.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Brickish Christmas Party, where I will spend some time with other Lego geeks. This takes place in LegoLand in Windsor. Although the theme park will be closed, we'll have exclusive access to the Lego shops there, and one or two special offers. It should also be a good chance to meet up some other like minded people. I'm quite looking forward to it. It should be fun, though I will have to resist the temptation to come home with huge amounts of Lego!

I'm not sure about Sunday yet. Anyone want to meet up for a drink somewhere in the London area?

Life has been a bit complicated of late, and I haven't posted very much. This is partly because I'm not comfortable talking about everything that's been going on in a big anonymous forum like LiveJournal. The problem then is that when I meet up with people in person, it gets hard to remember who knows what.

Hopefully I'll get to post a few updates over the next week or two.

The short version is that I've taking a long hard look at my life over the last few months, and at the end of it I'm pretty excited about the future.

Hope to meet up with some of you guys soon!

Well, my new web server is up and running. It gives more space, bandwidth and (if it makes any difference) processing power than the old one, for a fair bit less money (at least once I've moved my sites and don't have to pay the old webhost any more). More importantly, it's running a virtual server that means my space is totally segregated. This means that I no longer have to run scripts in a reduced functionality mode to make sure that users can't hack each others' spaces. And it also means I have the privilege to install whatever software I want to.

Because I get a whole virtual server to myself, there was a bit more setting up, so while the server is up and running, I haven't got as far as putting any content on it. I now have to move all of my websites onto the new server so I can stop paying for the old hosting. The simpler ones should be easy enough, but quite a few have databases that will require a little more planning to move over.

Hopefully soon I'll be showing off some new stuff that will make you all go "ooh" and "aah".

Unfortunately, this has had some impact on my novel writing, and I haven't got as much as I'd have hoped. I'll just have to write faster. Still, I quite like some of what I've written. I think a couple of my characters do bear slightly too close a resemblance to some real people. Might have to disguise that in the next draft.



A bit of a nightmare day at work. One of our overnight processes sent some wrong values to our Polish subsidiary, which they were up in arms about. I spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out why, and by the time we'd figured out we couldn't do any more without getting the DB guys (who'd gone home) to retrieve a different set of data for us to work from, it was after 7pm. I realised I had less than ten minutes to get to the only train in the next hour, so I ran all the way to the station, only to discover it was running five minutes late.

As I had a few minutes to spare, I decided I fancied some chocolate from a vending machine on the platform. It didn't even acknowledge my €2 as it swallowed it giving me nothing in return, despite a sticker on the front saying "guaranteed delivery or your money back", and more detailed instructions saying that the machine would always deliver product or return your money. Well, that's a lie, and they clearly have little confidence in their claim as they don't provide a contact number. My disagreement with the vending machine turned somewhat violent, but my efforts to gain any satisfaction from it yielded nothing but a cut finger.

Mark my words, that machine hasn't heard the last of me. It may have won this round, but the war has only begun. In the words of Arthur Dent, we'll see who rusts first.

In other news, it looks like AVG are stopping the free version of their excellent antivirus software. This is bad news, and it looks like there will be a lot of people running unprotected computers. I would have thought with Microsoft bundling Windows Defender and Malicious Software Removal Tool, which offers some level of protection out of the box, it would be a bad time to discontinue the free version.

A while ago I posted asking for ideas, I promised to somehow incorporate every idea, no matter how outragous, somewhere into the novel. Unfortunately I didn't get many responses. So I'm going to try again, but this time be a little more specific...

If you are reading this, and can spare just a couple of minutes, please reply with the following:

1. The first fictional character name that pops into your head. Preferably something that's not copyright.

2. That character's most heartfelt desire. It could be something they want to have, something they want to do, or something they want to be. If you can think of it, a few words on why that's important to them would be great too.

3. Something that happens to them. It could be something to do with 2, or it could be simething completly unrelated, but from their point of view it's a pretty big deal. If you have any thoughts on what this means to them or how it affects them, I'd love to hear those thoughts too.

I promise to use everything that people post in the novel. Some of them may turn into major characters while others may stay in the background. This is no reflection of the individuals, and is purely based on how they fit into the plot outline I've been working on for the last few weeks.

Oh, and for anyone unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo...

It's early yet, but I'm quietly impressed by the first two episodes of Torchwood.

( Possible minor spoilers behind... )

In a few weeks it will be November, which means novel writing time again.

I think I have a good idea for the main story, but there's going to be a lot of odd stuff going on in the background.

Give me an idea and I promise I'll squeeze it in somewhere. It doesn't matter how bizarre it is, in fact the wierder the better. Just post something that you think I should include in the novel.

Challenge me.

No really, I don't.

But sometimes I can't resist.

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The first five people to respond to this post will get some form of wearable art/art/food, made by me, about them. I make no guarantees about quality or type, but I promise that I will put considerable effort in and that the wearable art/art/food will be individual to you. So if you get a mixed CD or some sort of painting, doodle, jar or baked item, yours is the only one like it.

The only catch, of course: as with most memes, if you sign up it is desirable that you put this in your own journal as well.

Also, I make no promises about response time. I'll try to do them in a timely fashion, but I can't guarantee inspiration will strike immediately ;)
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I think it fairly unlikely I will be making anyone food.

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