Marky Moo

Web Design in Surrey

2004-10-21T01:34:00.000+01:00

Found this great company that do Web Design in Surrey. Well worth a visit ;-)

Anything else I need to plug? Ah yes, there is also Surrey web design!

Fantasy Football Passwords

2004-10-21T01:27:00.000+01:00

Looking for the Daily Telegraph Fantasy Football Passwords?

British Blogs

2004-10-21T00:32:00.000+01:00

Don't forget, if you are looking for British Blogs, then there is only one place to go ;-)

I've moved to WordPress

2004-08-17T11:07:00.000+01:00

OK, I gave in with the wait for a PostgreSQL WordPress port, and am testing the MySQL-based version.

My blog can now be found at: http://www.sweeting.org/mark/blog/

There will (probably) be no more activity on this site. Please let me know any comments you have on this new blog :-)

The ramblings of someone taking psychedelic chemicals*

2004-08-16T08:55:00.000+01:00

Had a good time in Cambridge. I was staying with some friends who have just bought a house in a pleasant little village just outside of the town. Within two hours of me arriving we all found ourselves locked out of the house, which could have been slightly awkward. However, like true piss-heads, we managed to make the most of it. We’d already had some G&Ts, so we went to the pub and had a swift half of local ale, while making use of the amenities. After a quick stop in the local shop to stock up on wine (with screw tops), it was off to the train station for us as we set out in pursuit of the spare front door key.

The journey to King’s Lynn was swift, and we managed to ration the wine well. Luckily P’s parents live half an hour’s drive from here, and her father kindly met us there with the spare front door key. 40 minutes later we were back in Cambridge (with empty bottles of wine), and we managed to make it to the engagement party as intended (albeit slightly later).

Had to get up at 6:30 this morning to finish some work off for a client (and have it ready for him at 9.00 AM). Urgh, I think I may go back to bed now!

*By the way, I don't really take psychedelic chemicals.

The power of beer

2004-08-14T01:14:00.000+01:00

It's amazing what you can do after a few drinks.

I've just re-written the directory summaries (popular locations, popular categories, popular interests) on BritBlog so that they all use cached data (held in arrays in files) instead of hitting the database with a query each time. I've not done any tests, but it must be loads quicker. The queries used to have two JOINs (i.e. three tables) and WHERE clauses, so they weren't exactly light-weight. The database is on a physically separate server too, so that won't help things either. The cache arrays are updated every four hours via a cron job, so they should never be too out of sync with the real values. All I have to do now is apply a few sorts to them to get the data in the different orders that I need.

I went through and replaced several other database queries in this manner too :-)

I've also added an index of all the interests people have. Again, this is built from a cached snap-shot of the database, so it's pretty swift.

And what did I learn with this exercise? Well, I learned how to use the usort function for sorting multi-dimensional arrays. That's pretty nifty!

Well, this post is boring the tits off me. I'm new to this blogging thing, and when I started one of my planned uses for this blog was to talk about the work I do on BritBlog. So there you have it: work I did on BritBlog.

Got to go to Cambridge tomorrow night (um, actually tonight now). Yet another friend has got engaged (- the world has gone mad!) Still, it should be a good crack. It's always good to meet up with my friends from up there :-)

2004-08-13T13:44:00.000+01:00

Chortle chortle.

Canon PowerShot Pro1

2004-08-13T11:32:00.000+01:00

// Virtual Canon PowerShot Pro1 //

I'm thinking of getting a new camera. I've been using film for years (with my trust Canon EOS 5), but have been hankering after a digital camera for some time.

I'd really like to get the new Canon EOS 1D Mark II, but at £3500 it's quite a lot. The other problem is that it weighs a ton, and I think this is one of the reasons I don't take as may photos as I used to - my EOS 5 is just so heavy to lug around all the time (and not very practical in social situations).

So even if I go for a Canon 10D (£1070) to save money, I have a feeling that I wouldn't lug it around so much. Or would I? Maybe I'd feel like I have to. At the same time, the 10D has been around for a while, and it could be ready for a replacement.... So should I hold on?

So I've been thinking about getting a compact camera to keep me going until either (a) I'm rich, or (b) canon introduce a new affordable dSLR that is better than the 10D. I've looked at a few, and they all seem to have bad lenses at the wide angle end of things. This seems stupid, as most people that use digicams want to take pictures of mates (in the pub) where the light may not be great and they haven't got much room to move back.

Anyway, I just have to have at least a 28mm (equiv.) lens, so I'm looking at the Canon PowerShot Pro 1 (£630). While this doesn't have the speed of an SLR, it has a decent lens (28mm equiv.), it has a hotshoe for flash gear, and all the manual overrides you could want. Has anyone ever used one of these? If so, what are your thoughts? Have you had any problems with it?

BritBlog RSS Feed

2004-08-12T20:36:00.000+01:00

I've finally RSS-ified the news at BritBlog. I've been meaning to do this for ages, and thankfully another site needs something similar so I've managed to do a bit of a copy and paste job on it ;-)

For those that are interested, I used the PEAR XML_Tree package. It's quite useful you know, so if you've not played around with PEAR you should go and do so now!

Just ran the spell checker. It makes me laugh that the Blogger dictionary doesn't include 'RSS'. And it wants to replace 'BritBlog' with 'veritable', which isn't very nice :-(

WordPress

2004-08-12T08:01:00.000+01:00

I can see if I wait for a WordPress port to PostgreSQL I'll be waiting a long time, so I've given in and am going to try it on MySQL (thanks to the nice guys at my web host for setting me up a database :-)

So, when I get a chance I'll install it and see what it's all about. Won't be for a while though as I'm bogged down with work :-(

Proposed Dutch law would ban unsolicited toe-licking

2004-08-11T20:47:00.000+01:00

Heh, came across this at forgetfoo. Very odd.

Spider in my Garden

2004-08-11T14:25:00.000+01:00

Here is a spider I just snapped in my back garden. It was sitting on its web, just under our classy garden table.

The second photo (below) shows the setup: a Canon 300D, Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens, on an EF25 extension tube. The lens was set at 105mm, and the exposure was 1/60th second at f/16. I used a mirror to provide some fill in light, and this had the effect of making the background seem darker. The camera was on aperture-priority, and I under exposed by 1 stop. This is the full image: it has not been cropped, tweaked or fiddled with ;-)

Setup for the spider photo. You can just about make out the spider to the left of the tripod head, below the table top.

Blinkx

2004-08-10T09:29:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine is working on the Blinkx project, and he asked me to try it out and provide feedback.

So I've downloaded it and have tried it. They have this very cool thing called a broadband query where it draws a cunning interactive map of the results. I like that, though it doesn't seem like much use and you don't need to have the software to try it.

As far as actual searching goes, I guess it does what you'd expect. It searches various channels, including local files, news, blogs, images, and the internet, so it's quite comprehensive. I'm told that as it uses the Autonomy software it's really good.

I think my main problem with it is that the application works in a new window. I think it should be better integrated with your web browser. Anyway, I'll continue to have a play with it and see how I get on with it. It's only on version 0.3.110 BETA, do I guess I shouldn't expect too much!

If you want to try Blinkx then you can get it from here.

Arrgghh!

2004-08-09T19:06:00.000+01:00

I've just spent about 20 mins looking for an error in some code. After all that I ealised I'd missed a curley brace:

function cancel(mode)
{
if(mode == "new")
window.location.href = 'action.php?mode=cancel-new';
} else {
// mode == "existing"
window.location.href = 'action.php?mode=cancel-existing';
}
}

instead of

function cancel(mode)
{
if(mode == "new")
{
window.location.href = 'action.php?mode=cancel-new';
} else {
// mode == "existing"
window.location.href = 'action.php?mode=cancel-existing';
}
}

I think my mind must be distracted. But then I've been working since about 10 AM ish, so it's been quiet a long day ;-)

British Bloggers Update

2004-08-09T12:17:00.000+01:00

It's been a good weekend. Went to a good social gathering on Saturday in Southwark and met up with some friends I've not seen in ages. Due to the proximity of Waterloo Station, my journey home was quick and uneventful (for a change), and I somehow managed to get about 4 hours of work done when I got home....

I was supposed to be going to the Great British Beer Festival on Sunday, but I had an argument with my hangover and lost. That was a shame, so instead I designed and released my first line of highly-fashionable clothing. It's great value and looks good, so you should go and buy something ;-)

Last night I deployed the work I had been doing on BritBlog, and it seems to be working. Phew.

Time for more tea.

Drunk in the morning

2004-08-08T08:59:00.000+01:00

How can I feel more drunk now (8:57 AM) than I did last night when I went to bed (at 5.00 AM)?

Good beer

2004-08-06T23:13:00.000+01:00

Well I'm getting ready for the beerfest tomorrow.... I've had Badger's Tanglefoot, Greene King's Old Speckled Hen, and am now on Theakston's Old Peculier. They probably all taste better than what I can expect tomorrow, but that's not the point. So what is the point? Dammed if I know.

River Scams the Scammer

2004-08-06T18:26:00.000+01:00

Hehhe, this is good for a laugh! Fit chick too ;-)

10 Random MP3s

2004-08-06T17:30:00.000+01:00

Hmm, ok, so I saw this on someone else's blog so I thought I would give you all a laugh. For those that don't know what I'm doing, I put my MP3 player on random and write down the first 10 tunes it plays (giving it access to my full archive...)

Knowing When To Leave - Burt Bacharach
Would You Believe - Claire Martin
You're My Everything - Various Artists (sounds like Miles Davis to me...)
I Love Paris - Bing Crosby (ahem, this is getting embarrassing now. ..)
Mais Feliz (Monoaural remix) - Bebel Gilberto
Keep It Real - Courtney Pine
Everybody Loves The Sunshine - Roy Ayers (phew, getting better!)
Night and Day - Ella Fitzgerald
It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing - Dianne Schurr
Sad Fool - Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Half Step Down, Please - Dizzy Gillespie
Me and Mrs. Jones - Tony Monaco
My Way - Frank Sinatra
Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive - Bing Crosby (more from Bing? I've only got two albums!)
Heartbeat - Buddy Holly
Big Spender - Shirley Bassey
Lovely Michelle - Special Efx
Rush - Tony Coe/Tony Hymas
You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin' - The Righteous Brothers
Manteca - Dizzy Gillespie

OK, so I tried to redeem myself by doing 20 tunes instead of 10, but I can see I've failed dismally. I'd just like to remind you that I've got 3369 tracks in my music library, and shed loads of albums I've not ripped. I don't think this list is representative of my excellent taste in music. I'll do it again one day when my computer isn't so hot. Maybe it's suffering from heat-stroke...

Take a look at this mp3 database ;-)

WordPress PostgreSQL Port

2004-08-06T16:37:00.000+01:00

While this blogger blogging thing seems OK, I think I would prefer to use WordPress on my own site. The only problem is that I use PostgreSQL instead of MySQL, and this could be a problem...

(And I can't do the FTP publishing via blogger as my webhost doesn't allow FTP.)

Now do I try and port WordPress to PostgreSQL myself, or do I try and get MySQL installed?

Ah ha! It seems there has been some motion by others in this direction... Now my ISP is playing up and I can't read page 2, so I'll come back to this later.

Tweaked the template

2004-08-06T00:39:00.000+01:00

Well I've tweaked my template, so I can sleep easy tonight. I think the bottle of OSH may help too.... Night night :-)

My first post!

2004-08-06T00:06:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Marky Moo's Blog. I'm not sure what I'll blog about, but seeing as my aged borther is blogging, I feel like should jump on the band waggon too.

Oh yes, and what's the point of creating a wonderful bloggers directory if I'm not even a memeber of it?