Monthly ArchiveApril 2006
life 27 Apr 2006 12:57 pm
Dad Redux – Stunned Joy !
6 Weeks 5 days – He/She waved “Hello Mum & Dad” at us. Tres Cool !!
Projects &the net 27 Apr 2006 12:30 pm
Can’t wait for this :IMDb Web API
Now that I’m playing with Web Services like Amazon ECS etc. I can’t wait for IMDb, another Amazon owned company to start offering web services. Then I’ll start a video collections project.
NewsAgent &the net 26 Apr 2006 04:23 pm
NewsAgent – I Killed the Spambots
It was getting ridiculous,
apologies to those writers who were getting spammed. The bots are Dead Dead Dead and need to get clever before they can spam us again. I’ve added a captcha function now so it isn’t so easy anymore.
Resources used:
gudlyf’s AuthImage code implemented by:
Whoo Captcha for b2evolution, explained
Projects &the net 21 Apr 2006 01:48 am
My Booklists project is coming along nicely
The booklists project took a bit of a boost last night and some of it is up (See the sidebar). When I look at the data I’m struck by a number of things.
1) I’m paying too much for books locally. Amazon US has them at nearly 40%Â cheaper.
2) I have as many books as I originally estimated. Must be close to 2000.
3) You can tell a lot about a person by looking at their booklists (kind of scary) – perhaps I’ll add a function to allow some book titles not be public.
4) I am certainly not as intelligent as I should be ! My Booklist suggests otherwise. I wish. Perhaps I buy these books to convince myself I am !!
Â
I hope to have it up and running in public pretty soon at a my new domain http://www.mybooklists.com/
work 13 Apr 2006 04:12 am
Does seeing the letters “RSS” or “XML” make you feel dumb?
I read somewhere yesterday (i’ll post the link when I find it) that one reason intranets fail is that when users see RSS or XML, it makes them feel dumb. I can understand that. I’ve had RSS newsfeeds on our intranet for about 2years now and very few actually use them. Do you think I’ve been insulting my users? I should probably be doing something to build up knowledge about what RSS feeds are and what great benefits they provide. On the Task List.
the net 13 Apr 2006 04:08 am
Google Calendar Lives !!
One more time, Google does better what MS couldn’t – Just think how great it is to simply type “Lunch with John tomorrow at 10am” and G-Cal recognises your text simply makes an entry for Lunch tomorrow. Neat ! RSS too Brilliant.
Projects 10 Apr 2006 01:16 pm
Work different, take it to the web
Too much email. – This one’s for you George !
A client recently went over the 2Gb outlook .pst limit and got toasted. No real alternative but to take a chainsaw to it and delete about 60Mb of mail using a .pst recovery toolkit. Sans 60Mb isn’t really a recovery now is it. Ouch !!
Outlook is easy to use but it is not good as an info silo though. It’s easy when there are few items (less than 2000). Some say getting info out of it once it becomes unweildy is just a matter of having great search. I disagree. You cannot run effectively with Outlook alone.
 I’m currently designing and managing development of a web portal where his org will be able to effectively manage the data and his customers will be able to do some self service tasks, freeing up his time so he can concentrate on running the business.
work 03 Apr 2006 04:50 pm
5 Server Failures in 2 weeks – Jeez !!
These are Getting old !! We need newer kit. Hopefully soon. I’ve never had such a spate of failures in such short a time. tomorrow is going to be another long day.