End of year roundup…

Sun Dec 31

This is a traditional new years eve for me, involving a couple of bottles of beer, Jools Holland and watching hundreds of fireworks explode across the valley. Living at the top of a hill with such a good view is great by day and by night.

This last year has been pretty noteworthy on a number of fronts. For one thing our son Reuben was born, we got officially hitched, and we made a new home for ourselves here at The Mill. I also did some major things at work, the biggest of which was handing my notice in - I start my new job in a few days time. All in all 2006 will remain in my memory for being the year I felt I’d finally come out of the tunnel into the light, started a new path properly and left the past behind. It feels good, and I have high hopes for 2007.

There’s be a lot of changes around here over the next few weeks, but I’ll let you know about all those as they happen. I’ll just finish 2006 by thanking you for reading and wish you all the very best for the coming year.

In memory of Alan…

Fri Dec 22

I found out tonight a friend of mine died today. His name was Alan, he and his wife Mary have been friends of my wife for many years, and I have got to know then quite well over the last couple of years. Alan was diabetic, and although his health has not been good for a long time this has been an upsetting piece of news.

I have to say I didn’t know him as well as I would have liked to. I knew he had a love of music, in fact he taught several children I know to play the piano, and last Christmas he invited me to play in a brass band with him, which was fun. But it was only during a conversation last week I discovered he had a particular love for jazz, especially jazz piano. I’d just popped round to drop off their card and presents and we got chatting about Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck and a few others. He wanted to find a recording of Art Tatum playing “Tiger Rag” which I’m sure either my dad or I have got somewhere. We were going to arrange a session listening to jazz music, and probably drinking whisky. That will never happen now.

I’m glad I knew Alan even for a short time, and can only pray that he is finally at peace. However I’d appreciate your prayers for Mary who is going to have to learn to cope with life alone after more than half a century with Alan by her side.

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I’m going to be off-line for at least a week, so I hope you all have an enjoyable, relaxing and fulfilling Christmas and New Year.

The right way to market…

Thu Dec 21

One of my favourite blogs, and I’m sure many people will agree with me, is Scott Adams’ blog. He’s the guy that draws the Dilbert cartoons, but I find his textual ramblings just as incisive, inane and funny as anything he draws. Long may it continue.

In general Scott stays away from his “day job” as a topic of conversation, and when he does mention it it’s with a refreshing undercurrent of ‘I can’t quite believe they pay me to have so much fun’. But still he has a roof over his head to pay for, so he can be forgiven for occasionally mentioning the thing that pays for that roof.

And, let’s face it, when he does it in such a nice way, how can anyone turn him down?

Give yourselves a pat on the back…

Wed Dec 20

It’s official - you lot are immensely influential. So says Time magazine, who have been producing an award for ‘Person of the Year’ since 1929, and this year it’s … you.

Yes, you. You’re ranked alongside Queen Elizabeth, Gerald Ford, Albert Einstein many other great names. You, or rather we are rightly to be praised for changing the world. Whether you did it through writing about your cat, posting pictures of your feet or videos of falling off skateboards, you’ve changed the world.

I found out about this on the BBC, right alongside the article that says blogging will peak next year, but eventually wane in popularity. Of course part of me (the stupid part) says that can’t be true, but the great thing about this current socio-internet revolution is it’s always changing. Of course blogs will get less popular - as the next thing takes hold.

But what we can’t say is that the new-found ability for people to speak with the rest of the world will get less popular. No, instead we’ll see more and more that the People of the Years to come will be ordinary Joes. Not politicians or famous scientists but normal, every day people. This is the age of the global neighbourhood.

Thought processes…

Sun Dec 17

I’ve been really busy lately, hence the lack of posts. I won’t apologise as by now you’re probably really bored of me writing “sorry I haven’t written anything in a while” posts. Instead, I’ll give you this brain-squelcher of a problem I’m currently solving. It might seem simple, and it’s something that a lot of web developers have to do a lot, but the complexities when you get into the nitty-gritty are pretty … complex.

So what is this? Well, you know when you’re placing an order online and you get to a page where you have to type in your address details? My page does a little bit more than that; you can log into your account from there, and supply a password if you want to create an account as well as placing your order. Let’s think about some of the possibilities for processing this page.

1) If the user is logging in, is their username and password correct?
2) Is the users supplied email address valid?
3) If the user is just placing an order, have they filled in the required fields (address, email address etc)?
4) If the user is just placing an order and their email address belongs to a registered account, do you display a message to say this order has been placed on behalf of their account and also send them a password reminder email?
5) If the user wants to create an account, have they filled in the required fields?
6) If the user wants to create an account, have they supplied a valid password (and password confirmation)?
7) If the user wants to create an account and their email address already belongs to a registered account, do you display a message to say this order has been placed on behalf of their account and also send them a password reminder email?

And then of course there’s all the usual filling of the form with the users details if needed, checking the form has actually been submitted (is the request POST), protecting the database from rogue input and all the rest of it.

Something I think the job of a developer is as much about thought processes as it is about technology.