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Archive for the ‘General’ Category


Twitter - Ask Me Your Programing Questions

Feb 25, 2009 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General

Hi Everyone!

Its been aaaaaggggggeeeeeessssss since i posted anything up here, i’ve been up to my eyes with work and other things!

I noticed that alot of you are asking questions that could be answered and shared to the Entire Twitter Community! So i setup a Twitter Feed - feel free to ask me your programming questions http://twitter.com/nodstrum

Mona Lisa in 80ms

Aug 29, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General

iPhone Dalek

Aug 19, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: Apple, General, Humor

iPhone Telescope or Cleverly Disguised Dalek

Found on Engadget

You can buy one here http://mobile.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=03534

Pink box testing

Aug 13, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General

From: http://neilbowers.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/pink-box-testing/

Pink box testing

Some years ago I was in a job where I needed to bring in a lot of software contractors in a short space of time. As a result I ended up dealing with a good number of IT contracting agencies. To help the process I wrote very specific job / task descriptions, and sent these to all agencies.

Generally I would receive agency-specific CVs, where they had reformatted the candidate’s CV, and in places tweaked the content. Over time it became clear that some agencies certainly did a lot more than reformatting, adding things they thought I wanted to see. This was really annoying, as the fabrication would reveal itself at some point in the process, sometimes after wasting time on a candidate.

We needed a software tester, and while writing the task description I decided to see how far the agencies would go. The descriptions all had a section listing required skills and experience, and another listing desirables. In the required section I listed “Pink box testing experience”. There’s no such thing as Pink box testing - I made it up to see if I received any CVs with pink box testing listed.

Sure enough, a week or so after putting out the description, I received a CV for a software tester. He clearly had a lot of relevant experience, but the agency had added pink box testing as one of his strengths. It was fun ringing up the agent and explaining that he’d been caught in my trap, and listening to him trying to weasel his way out.

Retro [PIC]

Aug 1, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General

When was the last time you saw one of these?!

read more | digg story

This will mess with your head!

Jul 21, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General

Ever had a good look at the FedEx Logo?? I guarantee you won’t see it the same again after mousing over the logo below.

Put your mouse over the logo below.

FedEx Logo

See the Arrow?? Now enjoy haveing your eyes always trying to focus on it in the future.

Sorry :)

Jamie.

Shorthand PHP IF/ELSE Statements = much shorter code!

Feb 14, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: Code, General, PHP

You may or may not have heard of shorthand if/else statements, but they do exist, and trust me they make things SO much more ordered in your code when used in the right way.

This is the Shorthand version - below this, if you cannot work it out for yourself is a nice description.

    // Will print out ‘i am male’ if $myGender is ‘male’ and vice-versa.
    echo ($myGender == ‘male’ ? ‘i am male’ : ‘I am female’);

Description of how this actually works
We all (i would hope) know the normal way of writing if/else statements (here is a recap just incase)

$myVar = true;
if($myVar) {
    echo ‘My Var is TRUE!’;
} else {
    echo ‘My Var is FALSE’;
}

That sort of statement is great for in the body of your code, but when want a dynamic selector within your HTML code, it gets very messy.

EG:

if($myGender == ‘male’) {
    // Gender is MALE.
    $maleOpt = ’selected’;
    $femaleOpt = ;
} else {
    // Gender is FEMALE.
    $maleOpt = ;
    $femaleOpt = ’selected’;
}
<select name="gender"><
option value="female" <?= $femaleOpt; ?>>Female</option>
<option value="male" <?= $maleOpt; ?>>Male</option>
</select>
 

Now - that is alot to write and will make your HTML form look a total mess, this is where the shorthand comes in. It allows us to write the same thing inline

Look:

<select name="gender">
<option value="female" <?= ($myGender == ‘female’ ? ’selected’ : ”); ?>>Female</option>
<option value="male" <?= ($myGender == ‘male’ ? ’selected’ : ”); ?>>Male</option>
</select>
 

As you can see - there is a huge difference in the amount of code - and if Wordpress formatted it nicely - it would look loads better!

And the all important Explanation!

// This will echo selected to the screen if $myGender is male.
echo ($myGender = ‘male’ ? ‘ selected’ : );
 

So - $myGender is the variable we are checking, in this case we are checking to see if $myGender == ‘male’

The questionmark (?) seperates the ‘answers’.

The first ‘answer’ is what is set/displayed when the query is true, the second is if the query is false.

This is the equilivent to :

if($myGender == ‘male’) {
    echo ’selected’;
} else {
    echo ;
}

Hope that helps some of you out!

Halo 2 - High ALtitude Object

Jan 28, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General

The Halo 2 (High ALtitude Object) Project is an amazing read: http://www.natrium42.com/halo/flight2/

My project launched a payload with GPS, camera, sensors and communications to an altitude of 30km. I obtained most parts ready years ago, but only recently had time to finish it.
High altitude ballooning is an emerging hobby, since price of GPS and communications equipment has gotten quite low. It is an excellent hobby for people fascinated by space flight and telerobotics and has many learning aspects — from systems design to electronics design to software engineering. There is also an exciting risk factor, namely, that you could lose your precious electronics if something malfunctions. In this project, many of my interest and knowledge areas came together. Also, I have verified that the Earth is indeed round and that space is black.
 

2Big2Send - Nearing Full Beta - Need Users Now :)

Jan 22, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: 2Big2Send, General

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for coming along to Nodstrum, I am taking this opportunity to invite you all to signup to my new Web App 2Big2Send.

Our service allows you to send large files to anybody with an email address without clogging up their inbox or risking waiting for the file to send then have it bounce back, never a nice thing!

The system allows you to see the upload progress and will notify you when you file has been collected.

During this Beta period we are offering you the following:

  • 100MB 250Mb Storage
  • 10 Downloads per file
  • Unlimited sends per month
  • File expire after 5 days
  • File delivery/collection notification
  • Desktop Client (Coming very soon)
  • Preview most uploaded images

We will most likely up the storage so you are able to send and store much larger files during this period, this depends on the number of users who signup - the more users, the more space you will get.

So! if you are interested, head over to http://2Big2Send.com and signup!

Thanks!

University = Finished, Done & Dusted!

Jan 21, 2008 Author: Jamie | Filed under: General, University

Today i finally finished University at Oxford Brookes!

Somehow i came out with a 2:1 (Upper Second Class Honours) in Computer Science! I cannot convey how much of a cloud it is off my head!!

It also proves that you can do a dissertation in 2 months get a B+ in it and come out on top :)

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