General (Diagmato's Blog)

Peapple Ltd had its first full team meeting today in Cardiff. Reeves and Dave popped westward along the long stretch of the M4 to Swansea ready for the meeting in Cardiff.

The meet up was a restaurant in Riverside called the "Riverside Cantonese". It was the first Chinese restaurant meal i've ever had, and certainly won't be the last. We ordered different plates of food which go in the centre of the table, for everyone to take their pick. It was essentially our own personalised buffet, and had some spicy vegetarian plates, as well as duck in blackbean sauce, and a nice seafood dish with stuff I couldn't put a name to.

After filing up, we hopped to TGI Fridays for a drink whilst discussing the development of the project. There were mock-ups I hadn't yet seen, which answered questions about other parts of the site skeleton I hadn't yet got on to. It was nice seeing the site on an iPhone too, thankfully rendered correctly.

Back to Li's, and it was time to dig the cameras out. We recorded an introductory video just to show how things are going, and what we hope to provide from the project. We took a few team photos which came out fantastic. 

Team-wise, we got on extremely well. I can't say a bad thing about the whole day. Here's to the start of something amazing!

Recently, the new Costco Wholesale store opened in Cardiff. I went to the opening day twice, and have been there again recently. I have never been so impressed by a store.

Dotted around the food sections are taste counters - everything from Japanese rice snacks, chocolate cake (my goodness that was LUSH cake), fish (squid, octopus etc), Beef, Lamb, Tomatoes, wine, beer, cheese, wild forest mushroom, and crisps made not only by potato, but by parsnips, carrots, beetroot etc. Suprisingly, they tasted usually like crisps, but with a nice variety of flavour. Either way, you could go there, and try things you never knew you would like - not only that, but, after entering the store hungry - after visiting all the taste stands, my stomach was no longer complaining.

Its very hard to find something bad to say about this place, other than seriously restrictive membership. Their rules are tight, but if you are legible for membership, it is well worth its yearly fee.

Again with the food - fancy a bar of, say, Dairy Milk? Well imagine walking out with a display box full, for £5. Replace Dairy Milk with your favourite chocolate bar, and it should still be the same situation. You see, they also sell to independent retailers.

As for drinks - I walked out with 24 cans of Relentless (that Red Bull competitor), for roughly £15. I cant remember the exact price, but each can was around 80p, compared to the usual price of around £1.50.

Amongst the usual brands available to the UK were ones from America - Hersheys chocolate is available, including their chocolate syrup (for ice creams, chocolate milkshakes etc). Not in the usual tiny bottles that will perhaps do 10 bowls worth, but in proper restaurant buffet sized containers, in packs of two.


The bit that grabs my attention the most is in the bakery section - a giant chocolate fudge cake, restaurant quality. For all those brits reading this - ever popped to a restaurant, and had a chocolate fudge cake for dessert? Theyre rather rich tasting, usually served warm. These days theyre around £3.25 for one slice. Imagine paying £6.00 for the ENTIRE cake. Great for parties.


Off the topic of food though (well, the actual products themselves ;)) - in the bakery section, you can see the staff making the cakes there and then, for that day. This isnt the usual Morrisons or Sainsburys stuff where they go out back, or hide behind stacks of bread loafs - theyre plainly visible, and very professional. The same happens with the butchers.

They also do laptops, Apple Mac's, Office equipment and furniture, garden stuff, appliances - some really good stuff.

And finally, on the way out is a nice little food area - a HUGE slice of pizza for £1.50, and a large drink with free refills (Coca-Cola brand).

Last night was quite an event. Very good event, but partly unexpected. The expected part went as far as a BBQ on the go - it wasnt the weather for it, but ah well. It didnt rain (which was VERY lucky considering the cloud cover, and the way its absolutely pouring down today) so no problem really. I went there expecting a spot of food and a social, and ended up having to stay the night after getting a bit carried away with a drinking game.

Whilst working our way through the food, Hannah decided to absolutely puzzle the majority of us with a not-really-commonly-heard-of trick called "Schnapps is the name of the game", where, someone watching (and not part of the trick) gives a word to one of the two people doing the trick, without telling the other person. The latter person then has to repeat what the word was after a series of clicks. Its clever, but simple how its done. I now know how the trick is done (a google search for it wont really give an accurate description of it). I'm not sure whether to reveal it - that spoils the trick!

Anyhow, the drinking game - probably a common one, but it was good - going around the circle of people - you say a celebrity name, and the person after has to say another celebrity name which, the first letter of his/her first name is the first letter of the previous celebrity's last name. E.g, person 1 says "Viggo Mortensen", then person 2 could say "Michael Jackson". The hard part - in the panic of the 4 second time limit, and the game starting after I had downed a number of triple shots - I could think of first names, but not last names, so 8/10 times, I ended up downing a triple shot.

Lets just say, night time was a war. I was determined not to have a hangover the next day - on came one heck of a nasty headache - one which cannot be relieved from massaging the head, and an awful amount of nausea. I had been told a while ago that the headache is caused by the brain being starved of fluids, so I drank glass after glass after glass of water. That triggered off the stomach, so I went through the process of 'praying to the great white god' (bending over the toilet, purging my stomach with the occasional bad language in between). With that over and done with, and my stomach finally not complaining about its contents, I drank another number of glasses of water. Then came round two. Then more water, then round three, then no water. The headache actually eased off, but the stomach? Nope.

The night was a rather long, un-sleepable, painful one. If I moved, it was an effort not to have to revisit the bathroom. Somehow, with some luck, I did get to sleep, waking up in the same predicament. Everyone else who stayed the night were downstairs chatting about the night before - as much as I wanted to go downstairs, I couldnt move. If I did get downstairs, I doubt id have been well enough to do anything more than just sit there, so I tried to catch up on sleep. Somehow, I did, and by midday, the symtoms were nothing more than the occasional small re-occurance of nausea.

It was all good though - annoying aftermath, but it followed an excellent social.

And so it ends!

Deja vu, blog-post wise. It wasnt long ago I blogged about starting the job - just two posts later, and the position is over.

I didnt get the sack, there's no case of mis-conduct. I resigned, and not on bad terms. The work placements tutor came in to have a meeting with me and my supervisor - turns out the placement just was not technical enough. The job was essentially that which an admin assistant could do ('admin', NOT as in running servers and keeping them up to date, but as in office admin) - essentially it was copying and pasting content into the new version of the site.

I have to admit ive had mixed feelings about this. Ok, so, the job was incredibly monotonous, but the staff there were just incredibly friendly. It is so far the only place, as far as I can remember, where I have been able to just say something and not think whether it is going to annoy someone, or not get a response. It was great there - my supervisor was just excellent - very easy to talk to, and very relaxed.

Saying goodbye sucked. One final tour of the office, but this time to say my goodbyes, before heading to the ICT entrance to hand over my keycard. Then one last goodbye to my supervisor before a very strange walk to the car, with the saddening thought that this is the last time I ever walk down this driveway.

...Well for me anyway!

I was driving to work - M4, westbound. Just passed junction 33, and ended up behind a small van which was travelling at a decent speed, but not the full limit. I let go of the accelerator and let the car distance itself from the van, whilst thinking to myself "What if his tyre bursts?" I cant say what made me think this to myself - I naturally keep a 2 second distance from the vehicle in front anyhow. Either way, what happens next couldnt have been made up.

The van starts 'leaning' to the side - it goes into the middle lane to overtake someone, and as he speeds up, boom! His tyre rips off leaving a dark, muddy-coloured cloud, and bits of rubber flying outwards. He luckily manages to get to the hard shoulder without losing control of the vehicle, leaving people in the leftmost lane to have to carefully move around the remains of the tyre, as it carried on with its momentum. For the rest of the journey to work, I was gobsmacked. The one time ive ever pictured the vehicle in front's tyres bursting (ive never seen it happen before), and next thing, it actually happens.

Before you look at me weird - no, I dont think im phychic! Just, the word 'coincidence', for me, has been completely defined.

And so it starts! Day 1, working as a web developer for South Wales Fire & Rescue Headquarters.

I didnt really have any first day nerves - well, not as such. In my mind I was fully confident - I was only phased by the initial complexity of the old building (Lanelay hall itself). Had to pop there a couple times to get a few forms sorted, but nothing bad.

I rest my case about the staff being friendly - very friendly actually. My manager's great! Extremely helpful and understanding, and great to 'general chat' to (as we get on with work of course :)). There are three of us tucked in a room which used to be the ICT department's kitchen - in all honesty though, I did not notice that until it was pointed out. Its a quiet little room - easy to concentrate in, but at the expense of no air conditioning! Can't have it all I s'pose. There are windows, and there is a fan nicely behind my chair, so if summer does decide to show itself, there are some ways of making the temperature bearable. There's just the three of us in that room (in respect of other staff's privacy, I'm not mentioning names) - the team itself is, as expected, very friendly.

After having a guided tour of the place, it was time to get on with work. First day, first week, so a suitable time to get used to the software they use (Sharepoint 2007). It seems to be a content management system, but the pages themselves are just pages - we create a new page, wallop some content in, set it to a template, and voila. Not really the way i'm used to, which is to pull the data for each page from a database. Then again, its using aspx, and I come from a PHP background - my aspx skills are generally beginner at the moment, but im a fast learner :). Keeping a positive note, its interesting to see Microsoft's side of the web development fence.

Getting to sleep last night seemed to be an absolute strike of luck. I honestly cant see how I managed to eventually get to sleep, but I started the day with 4 hours sleep. I didnt stay up all night, I just need to seriously adjust to a proper sleeping pattern.

First full time job - seems daunting in one sense. Spending 5 days a week on the same computer doing the same job for 8 hours - brings back my old "is this really how were meant to spend a life?" question. That has popped up a few times, and I have had (what I expected) a few second thoughts when I start to give in and pay attention to the negatives, but generally i'm bouncing back and looking at the positives. The money to me is NOT a positive - its a bonus. I cant look at a job and think "woohoo! money!". The job has to have some meaning to it. It's early days, and a culture shock, but here's hoping a good regular schedule will keep things on track.

Free gym, too!

Despite such an eventful month, i'm even suprised I havent updated my blog in a good while. I'm not on about the usual "uni finally over!!!", "exams over!!!" etc (but those included ;)). Well, lets see here:

6th May - car crash. Yeeps - the Fiat Punto ive kept in close to immaculate condition ends up with extreme rear-end damage. The sods law of it is that if the rear quarter panel wasnt as damaged, the car would not have been a write-off - the dent is deep, but because it's a welded on part, its heck expensive to replace. The rear hatch door (tailgate) and bumper are extremely damaged, and are being replaced - spent Sunday up the scrap yard (K & L Dismantlers). We found the shell of a black Punto, same age, same model, so we grabbed the parts we needed. The bumper was the hard one to take, as the remains of the car had no wheels, so the bumper was inches off the ground. What made it worse was the awful weather - I was wearing a new pair of jeans, and on their first day, they got rather wet. Oddly, its a grey Punto, but now with a black rear bumper, and an Orange hatch, but obviously, theyre being re-sprayed. As long as the quarter panel is pulled back into shape, were laughing. The car wont be worth much if trying to sell it, but ah well. Thing is, itl still look immaculate, its engine is in excellent condition, its done 53,000 miles, the damage was simply cosmetic, its been checked over - just that darn quarter panel would have caused the car to be on the next truck to the crusher. I intend to drive that car until it cannot be driven anymore - its never let me down before, and so what if it has to be labelled as a write-off? I really cannot see me selling it on. Every engineer who has had a look at it (found someone who was willing to fix it for £450, as long as we got the replacement parts), said how the car is in excellent condition for its age. Virtually no rust at all (were talking less than 1% of the entire bodywork has any signs of rust), clean engine, no leaks, nothing damaged, nothing stopped working - it seems to be the one Punto in the batch that refuses to fail.

Its coming up to the start of the sandwich year - I had a job interview for South Wales Fire & Rescue - I cant actually thing of a bad thing to say about that day, other than bashing my head on the top of the rather low doorframe when leaving the room I was interviewed in. No harm done, and a lot gained.

The interview took place between me, the manager I would be working with, and the recruitment manager. Now, bare in mind in previous interviews, I have not handled it too well - my mind has a habit of going blank, and this was the case with the Sun Microsystems interview, but here, I could confidently answer the questions, and as it is a subject I am enthusiastic about, this carried through as well. So here's hoping for a year of real productivity, and a fantastic experience in an organisation so friendly, people say hello to you even just sat in reception as a visitor!

Oh, and here comes the obligatory uni is over, and so are the exams! For a year this time, not just a summer. I would also like to point out that, if I went to uni with no web development experience, I would have sat there clueless in the job interview. It goes to show that uni is not as it's cracked up to be, at least with Glamorgan, who define "software development" as drawing diagrams in UML, and not actually touching code AT ALL.

A quick trip to town to get a new pair of smart trousers was quickly followed by a trip to a couple bookstores to see what computer-related books they had in stock. I was particularly looking for books on Actionscript - the RIAD assignment has got me rather curious about Flash, and Flex. what I saw was a huge array of books on different websites, such as:

-Facebook (must have been 4 different books on this, x10 copies of each)
-Creating a business on Ebay
-Becoming rich from Ebay
-Most popular websites

Along with masses of books for:

-Ubuntu Linux
-Fedora 6
-Suse 10 Enterprise
-Linux
-Linux for dummies
-* for dummies (as in, everything possible)
-Computers for Seniors
-freeBSD
-Windows XP
-Windows Vista (suprisingly only one book, one copy)
-The forgotten manual for Linux
-The forgotten manual for Photoshop

These are just a handful, but what made me 'pfft' was the extremes these books go to advertising themselves. "The forgotten manual for *" for example - it would take a serious dumbass to think that this was some book someone happened to find in the depths of Adobe, or a back office of Novell. "Photoshop cheats" was another - how exactly is it cheating to actually use Photoshop? What form of unknown method does this book teach that some industry expert, or someone with learning patience cant learn from just reading another book, or browsing online?

I'm not here to bash them though - well I am to some degree as I just did, but awell. Thing is, I like these types of books - just, ones which arent trying too hard to grab my attention on the bookshelf. I have a book called the "OpenGL Superbible" - straight to the point. It sounds more professional - rather than being called "The amazing secrets of OpenGL no one else knows!!!" or "The hidden manual for OpenGL" or "OpenGL Cheats". Its "bible" is somewhat fitting (not in a religious sense). It has so much information, its a good reference in the rear 1/3 of the book, and the tutorial sections are fairly good (damn good in places) and a nice read whilst answering a call of nature, or just a read before nodding off to sleep. Doing either of those with a laptop and a pdf is a bit...awkward.

The university decided to be incredibly generous this last week. They had a table with a sign saying "Help yourself!" Ontop was a pile of unwanted books - Cobol, Visual Basic, JSP, Networking, Structured programming, Pascal, and more. These books are heavily out of date mind - I cant see how the lecturers, in their job would need these anymore, but they have been a damn good read. Some of them I doubt ill read again, but some of the programming ones have HUGE details on creating your own binary trees, linked lists, etc. To me thats golddust, and heavily recommended if using C++. Its things like being able to implement such concepts that make a programmer stand out from the rest - the knowledge advantage they give you is at least likely to help provide a solution to a rather complex problem.


Regarding Flash - I cant say ive been dissapointed using it - I just wish there was a lot more time. Ive only just got round to implementing CellRenderers for DataGrids (I'm using ActionScript 2.0). Its not been too bad in all - Interacting with PHP isnt too bad - just, it took me days to work out why the heck it was rushing ahead before PHP had a chance to build the variables to send back to Flash. For days I ended up with a DataGrid that had sod all, except for selectable, blank rows. The solution was to setup the datagrid AFTER the dataProvider was fully loaded with the variables from PHP. ActionScript seems to be a bit 'moody' compared to other languages, but tame it, and you will NOT be dissapointed with the results. As a web developer primarily, i'm looking forward to having a sit down with this and really walloping out some great stuff (Actionscript 3 next time). It still feels strange to be adding classes as movie clips, etc. Flex though, seems a good, fit-for-purpose version. Flash is capable, but too much of it hints that its meant for managing movie playback, etc.


Assignment-wise, 2 days before this RIAD has to be in. This is proving to be a hectic last minute couple of days rush, thanks to spending DAYS working out why the heck the data from PHP just wont load into the DataGrid in time. Other than that, a java project using design patterns - Ive done alot of this assignment thankfully, and that has to be in friday. Really wishing I started the Flash much sooner though.

Oh, the joys of University life. I guess having the free time to get on with assignments is a good thing, but 5 of them? Nothing's new of course - this happened in college, and last year in uni, but wow:

-Write a bank account management system using ADO.NET in VB.NET
-Write a vending machine simulator in Java, then write it AGAIN using Factory Patterns
-Create a 10 minute video
-Find a website and convert it into a Rich Internet Application (Using Flash, PHP/MySQL)
-Create the Use-Case diagrams, and Class diagrams for a system (cant remember the details)

So, yeah, a busy couple of months ahead. It's not too bad though, just, I wish I could spend the time finishing this website. There's an endless list of ideas, but development has been rather non-existent for a while - not from a lack of interest, but I really would like to pass this year and get a degree. Essentially it's a case of managing priorities.


Regarding other projects - A friend and I are planning to make a Doom RTS - one already exists, but is unfinished and abandoned - its a shame - its a pretty nice little game even in it's current state. We wont be using his source code as he wrote it in GameMaker 5 - we will use C++. It will use an Isometric view similar to Red Alert 2, will feature multiplayer, and keep the characteristics of the actual Doom characters - remember, its DOOM RTS, and not Doom with Shadows of the Empire, or whatever, from Star Wars. Its DOOM RTS, not Doom with Duke 3D making an appearance, and it certainly is not Doom 3 converted to RTS - we're focussing on Doom 1 & 2.

So yeah, a busy outlook for the forseeable future.

Yesterday I took my cousin to Swansea Univerisity's open day. I was also curious to see what another university offered.

They seem to paint a brighter picture of the place than when you are actually there - pictures of the place look so clean and bright, but it was rather dull, out-dated, and generally VERY un-welcoming. It was a miserable wet day, but it seems, even the sun can't do this place any favours.

What I liked about Swansea University was that their Computer Science degree covers some MUCH more interesting and useful modules than Glamorgan, which seems as if the lecturers have diluted the modules in a hope that students will understand, say, programming in Java, more successfully than if we were doing C++. Thing is, Java doesnt seem near as useful in the industry compared to C++ which, personally, I havent found to be the utter nightmare the lecturers seem to make it out to be.

Starting from the beginning of the day - we arrived at Swansea's gates, only for a guard at the front gate to direct us 200 yards away to some muddy car park. We the walked back to the university in the rain - again, not their fault, and understandable that there is no way they can fit lecturers cars, and guests all into the on-campus parking. But they could have invested in sign posts at least.

Again with the signs - they seperated their toilets to having "toilets for guests". The gents was easy to find, but the ladies was not. So many people ended up using the disabled toilet as there were no signs to even hint where the female's toilets were. This signage problem was throughout - we did have a visitors guide telling us which rooms to go to - which almost ALL had been switched to other rooms. So really, the visitors guide was un-accurate and pretty much worthless.

After the first course intro, we decided to grab lunch - we found a couple signs saying where all the food places were and which ones were open to guests or closed to public. Okay, very welcoming - lets bung all the visitors into one cafe which only sells pasta and cheese. In the end we bought a few sandwiches from a tiny corner shop which you had to queue up for just to get into the bloody thing!

Most the university felt like a building site, with large yellow cranes, scaffolding, and whatnot. Other than that, there were a few nice, modern looking buildings, but others were considerably worn looking, and the inside was decorated like a hospital.

The lecturers sounded dull as dishwater as they gave their intro to each course - one suprisngly said he was "enthusiastic" despite sounding as if he pre-recorded the speech whilst up at 4am after a long day. Another lecturer went on for what felt like an hour, ending with "so, that was the course in a nutshell". This was such a long boring, dull speech that a number of people actually got up and left the room. This speech included reading what was on an overhead projector sheet which, you know, being in university, we can read...

I didnt see much of the university as a whole, but from what I did see (wherever we were directed to), left a lot to be desired. In comparison, Glamorgan feels like a far more happy place which is important for a work environment.

We have just been given a task from our Academic Tutor at the University, which is to create and manage a blog. Umm. Hmmz...

I suppose its not all bad, or bad at all. I do have a habit of documenting everything that goes on, and having one more blog targeted to another audience wouldnt be bad.

I probably rattled on too much, but its at the following link if you are interested in an extra read at all.

Uni Blog

University has finally arrived! After being there again, and actually getting a timetable, now i'm finally excited to be there.

I'm doing Software Engineering - a specialist Computer Science degree, which, obviously specialises in software development and maintenence. It's a good looking subject, and very on-topic compared to what I put up with in College.

Speaking of College, it looks terribly TERRIBLY run down compared to University. The University is surrounded by lush views of the hill-sides, which makes a change from heavy city traffic and concrete jungles. The friendly atmosphere of all the existing students, particularly those working on the enrolment day to get new students settled in, was amazing. They raised a smile, they were polite, they were helpful, and in no ways rude. They were, almost entirely, female though, which isn't a bad thing.

Because of the time we were given the introduction, Gareth and I managed to beat the enrolment queues. This was lucky, because the others we went with were itnroduced half hour later, and ended up with at least a 4-hour wait for enrolment. There were two queues to go through - some initial check, followed by having your photo taken on the system, and printed onto an ID card.

Student life doesn't seem to be as bad as people make out - at least for University. The timetable is surprisingly minimal - most lessons are only half-hour long! I only have one lesson longer than half hour. We do get alot of long breaks though, which would be better spent doing the actual assignments.

All in all, I can easily see myself liking University, loads.

First off, it has been a while since I last posted an entry here, but im sure no one came here to read the obvious. I havent had as much interest in online activities since visiting Virginia, and as such, this site has gathered a little dust around the edges.

Well anyway, I didnt start writing this to talk about dust, I came here to reflect on things - particularly humans in general.

It is nature for animals, including humans, to conflict with one another. We see it all the time with animals, and despite everyone's attempts to hide it, this happens with each other aswell.

Is someone strangling another human a sign of this? Obviously, but this is not where it starts. The only difference in this case between humans and animals is that humans, in most cases, wont lash out their anger on the person they have a problem with. This is how most of us have been brought up to do, and because sitting in a brick room with a less than pleasant room-mate for a great deal of days just to have random strangers define what happens to you in front of a severely over-paid wig-bearing hammer-weilding judge isnt exactly anyone's cup of tea. Yet, this control does not control people - we still can do battle with someone in a different way.

Thinking about it, no one can be responsible for their feelings - if you dont agree with that, then last time you were angry, could you just switch that off? When someone did something bad to you which you did not deserve, did you forgive them and (continue to) trust them right away? Did you worry in anyway that things would spark up again, or the situation would repeat? If yes, then you are a better man/woman than most of the planet, but if no, then dont think there is something wrong with you, as the same applies to pretty much the entire human race.

I have decided to take an observers seat in life, in which I look at why people react how they do, and not base an opinion on them for it - there is always a reason behind why Joe Schmoe is so angry that he hit his friend. People's first reaction would be to blame him for his actions, but think about this - if he hadnt of felt anger, would he have lashed out like that?

Both sides of the gender are in a constant battle with their 'team mates' - girls speak about 'girl power', but in reality, go to a party, and girls are in a big effort to be better looking than their friends, or others in the room. This can get pretty nasty in alot of circumstances - maybe not including violence - this can be limited only to one of the girls there, going home thinking that she isnt worth anything, or that her attempts at being attractive were all for nothing.

You can tell a girl time and time that looks arent everything, and if you havent been punched by her, who took it as 'youre ugly, but other than that you do have qualities', then most the time they will not bare this in mind, even from the most genuine of guys. The moment her 'enemy' comes in 'looking good', then shes off believing that she needs to look better to get anywhere.

I am not blaming girls for anything, and I am aware that there are girls who couldnt care less about how they look, and as a result, they are now happily in a relationship with one of the most caring, genuine guys you could meet. Other than that, as maturity kicks in, sense starts to show, and it is no longer a despirate battle for the most exciting guy from the party, but a time to focus on getting youre life sorted.

Guys are just as bad, or in alot of cases even worse, but in a different way. Rather than trying to look better than the idiot next to him, it is instead a battle to get the best looking girl as a status symbol, to prove to his mates that he is more sought after by the best looking girls which somehow translates to 'the best girls'. Alot of guys in this position, however, dont believe what they are doing - that they arent going to be serious with the one they happen to meet at the party.


...Rather than rattling on for hours about something which doesnt take a genius, or even me to work out, time to get somewhere with this. Humans are animals, and we are not unlike them at all. The difference is, we sit and suffer through bad feelings, or rant them off to others in at least an attempt to get them on side with you, rather than get things sorted with that person who's doing something out of order. In a natures way of things, emotions were meant to cause us to act on something to stop the situation.

Basically, think about the other person and why they are doing what they are, as in most cases, its because of a feeling that they didnt have a choice about feeling.

College has not yet finished (give it two more weeks) but I have released V5 of the site.

This is a big weight off my shoulders, enough to completely tackle the final two weeks of college, without much other worries. I've been looking at PHP for such a long time now, i'm surprised i'm not speaking it instead of english.

Now I can officially relax! After the college work, then packing for summer, then setting myself up on another pc for the next three months. Then it's back to coding, amongst making the most of summer. Cycling will be cool.

The title of this entry does not refer to some Michael Jackson phrase, but more like the sound of a tiny drill poking a nerve in my teeth.

Today, I went to the dentist for a filling. Ive never had something like this done before, but I was by no means nervous. If there is pain, I tense my fists, think of the strain going into my fists, and ignore the other pain. Seems to work each time.

I arrived, lay down on the dentist chair, and they started some initial check. "all's well" I heard. It makes a change when a dentist doesn't criticise your ability to clean your own teeth. So, next they informed me about the injection. Previously, I have heard people say how painful this is. What a load of tosh. It just felt a little awkward for a few seconds, until the entire half of my mouth was knocked out.

Whilst waiting for the anasthetic to completely kick in, they began drilling on the back of my two lower front teeth. Nothing major needed doing - just, I had missed a bit whilst brushing. This is where the title of this entry comes in. The drill was used right down the bottom of the tooth, just above the gum. After roughly half a minute of digging for gold, YOUCH! Suddenly, the nerves in my face decided to make themselves known. This was such a strong amount of pain that my jaw automatically closed, causing the drill to go into the weak flesh underneath my tounge. Ow, again. Although that pain was tiny compared to what just happened. After an apology from the dentist, I was told the gum would somehow cover that area of the tooth. It must have done. Drinking a cold glass of milk doesnt seem to cause any trouble.

Well, the filling went ok. I didn't have the car in which to drive home, as dad was using it. So, I power-walked home. This is just short of two miles, and I did not have breakfast. I expected to become weak and tired by the time I reached the top of Heol Hir (Its a street name in Llanishen) - translated, its "Long Road", Heol meaning road). However, I managed to get all the way home, a tiny bit breathless, but not bad for a programmer ;).

VBA

Last Thursday (its Saturday now) I learnt more about VBA than I ever did with any language, in the time given. In the afternoon, I was sat there thinking "where do I start?". By night time, I had pretty much finished the second Applications Software Development assignment, which asks for a bunch of userforms for adding faults, adding staff and technicians, searching for faults, etc. I have to hand it to Microsoft, that is one seriously easy to learn language. Seeing more result than error at such an early stage of using the language was quite impressive. It has encouraged me to get to grips with RealBasic, which is similar to Visual Basic, but cross-platform.

Suse 10.1 XGL

Yesterday, I went through the time consuming process of:

-Backing the /home directory and documents directory to the external drive
-Telling Suse 10.1's installer to format the second disc with ext3, rather than FAT32 (I have Windows able to read and write to this now)
-Copying the backed up files back to the system, but carefully (individually, rather than one big cp -r command)

Now, there was no real need to do this, as /home was on a seperate partition. I could have told Suse 10.1 to only mount the existing /home partition, rather than format it. But im overly cautious. Suse 10.0 was beginning to keel over, so I didn't want to take any chance what-so-ever.

The end result was the most impressive and usable desktop ive ever seen. Windows just cannot compare with Mac or Linux (KDE/Gnome with XGL)'s desktop. The fun features and intuitive usability make it so rewarding to use. In particular, the cascading windows:

Im here again, after quite an eventful week. Been offered a job i'll fully enjoy, and it feels like i've come back from a small holiday, and i've also worked out that this computer is the source of all my problems. Well, a category of them.

Since as far back as I can remember, i've non-stop worked - either it is college assignments, or coding new bits for the site, or adventuring into other programming languages. It has just gotten far too monotonos. There was a time where I associated computers with entertainment, but recently (as in, the pre-seeable past) i've looked upon it as work-related.

College is the biggest downer of all. Honestly, if you ever hear anyone mention "National Diploma IT", I urge you to use whatever means necassary to change their mind, unless you absolutely hate them. College somehow translates "programming" into making a powerful database system out of Excel, recording macro's to copy and paste data from the "form" (just a grid bordered up on "worksheet 1"), followed by listening to the tutor kiss Microsoft's ass, repeatedly, every lesson. I feel sorry for the caretaker, having to mop up my vomit everytime the tutor does a round of that...

College also feels like a complete, utter, waste of time. Take Web Management for example. Now were onto looking at LAMP (Linux, Apache, Mysql, PHP/Perl) servers. Now, I use Linux everyday. I use Apache, Mysql, and PHP every day. Ive set up LAMP servers from scratch, on many a distro. To have to sit there in silence, for 1 1/2 hours, as the tutor explains the most basic, and sometimes stupid information about the topic, is just un-bearable. I know there are people in the class who still havent yet realised there's another operating system than Windows, but the tutors insist that I absolutely must be there every lesson, or I will miss out on some important information. Its no different than teaching a football player to kick, an athelete to run, or a swimmer to brave completely going under water.

Its because of college that i've been completely put off from computers. My interests lay in programming with proper languages, and not recording macro's in a proprietary, locked down application.

I just have to mention how terrible Nortons Anti-virus is. We updated it and did a full system scan on my aunt's PC. It reported everything as fine. I installed AntiVir, and it found 12 viruses - 6 of them being "dialer.exe's", and others being trojan horses. Dont you just HATE it when you try to convince something to someone, with full proof, just to have them pull an "I know better, read their site, they say theyre awesome so it must be true" attitude. No, that was not my aunt that did that - Nortons is now removed and binned. Its just worrying that someone else is parting with £50 every year for an application that just DOES NOT WORK, then accusing me everytime he gets a virus.

This entry is going to make me sound dependant on drugs - just to be warned. Just bare in mind I only take medication if I absolutely need it.

I have been having side effects from my medication, which causes very strong Insomnia. Most nights ive been laying there, until mostly 6AM trying to get to sleep. Then, I end up with 3 hours sleep before needing to drive off to college. Very stupid idea, unless I wanted to cause a car crash. so, I end up automatically stopping the awful sound of the alarm clock, and falling back to sleep faster than a computer geek whilst in an opera house. Next thing I know, its mid-day.

The IVA is finally over, so I decided to make extra effort to get to lessons. I haven't been to Computer Hardware for over a month now, due to its unfortunate timetable position of 10:30AM. I know it could be worse (9AM for example) but Im just not going to get behind the wheel of a car, with 3 hours sleep behind me.

The herbal sleeping tablets aren't working. Well, they probably are, but the Insomnia is so strong that they're just inferior. So, in an emergency situation of actually trying to have the ability to get up in the morning, I tried stronger, Knock-out tablets. Oh they worked! Rather too well. It was impossible to get up until 1PM, and even then I was almost collapsing my way downstairs.

A coffee or five later, here I am typing this blog entry, downloading CentOS 4.3, and about to write development documentation for other developers of this site (namely Shaun). Would make a big difference having two developers tackling the 64ft TODO list, which seems to grow faster than Jacks beanstalk.

College wise, I was looking forward to at least a week of rest from assignments, seeing as the IVA is done and dusted. Instead we were handed two assignments at once from one subject, there's another being handed out today (which I hope will get emailed, as I missed the lesson) from End-User support, there's still one to be finished for Applications Software Development, there's one yet to be handed out to me for Computer Hardware, there's still two previous ones to be handed back in for Computer Hardware (albeit completed), I was handed back the Web Management assignment to correct a rather daft error, and ive pretty much given up completely on Application of Number. It's not a needed subject to pass with (which makes a change) and its not normal circumstances - there is just no way I can fit in such a large maths-based project in with another 15 or so assignments. Its just not going to work.

Easter Holiday to the college means "Easter stress-filled homework fortnight". I'd love to see the day where "holiday" actually means "holiday". Student life is a pain - always pennyless, cars cost more than they EVER will to maintain, and free time - what's that? Either time is taken up doing college work, or a part time job (which I don't even have) or it's time actually in college.

Recently, ive generally been very unmotivated to do anything, especially college related. Sods law, end of next week, the IVA has to be handed in. Ouch.

This has pretty much been fixed now though. All I needed was a good nights sleep. To get that, all I needed was a few herbal sleeping tablets. To get that, all I needed was £5. To get that, all I needed was to reach into my wallet.

The tablets didn't actually make me feel tired - im not sure what they did - judging by the ingredients, I cant see how they would help. Just dont make the mistake of crunching these tablets - my mouth was under attack by the most disgraceful taste ive ever known. Imagine eating the rotting wood from a tree, after its just been raining in Autumn. Then imagine feeling like your stomach has been lined with tree bark. Did I mention how bad the taste was?! Yeah, it was bad. Just dont get curious and try it for yourself, like people seem to do when you tell them not to do something.

In case curiosity does get the better of you, the tablets are called "Nytol herbal". Seriously, you will hate your taste buds, and your sense of smell if your teeth happen to force their way towards each other, whilst the tablet happens to be in the way.

Im still in the middle of porting the new version of the site - the theme will really be something worth looking at, whilst remaining somewhat simple. Unfortunately, the IVA has to come first though, and its quite a job replacing the code for every page with that of the new code. It feels so much better to use than this rather dated approach.

Finally, gap years! These last two years of college have been packed with assignment after assignment - I need a big break - one to completely recover, meet new people, make up my mind about life, finish this site, go cycling more, line my pockets with cash, and enjoy myself. Then ill be refreshed ready for university (albiet, a year later than first expected, but no problem!).

This may be different for other colleges, but for where I am, this course just doesn't make sense.

Its the second year. In this year, we get a choice of three paths - business, networking, or programming. I chose programming.

For programming, the subjects we have to take really dont fit in. Two of them especially:

End-user Support

Here we learn about supporting end users. Okay, its not too bad I guess - a programmer needs to be able to support end-users of his/her software, but were not exactly doing anything like that - instead were looking at how businesses such as NTL support users.

Systems Justification

This aims at finding a solution to a problem. No, not a software replacement or so, but finding a computer package and various bits of software which the end-user needs. Things which a programmer really doesn't need to study for.

Perhaps if those were the only choices the college could have picked from the specialist units, then fair enough. But other options were Operating Systems, and E-commerce. Wouldnt you have thought those would suit a programmer more?

Next issue is about the way things are marked. not so much the normal assignments, but the key skills work. The key skills assignments have to be just perfect, all the way down to grammar, spelling, and so on. Then, it needs a tracking sheet, which needs to be filled in perfect. This all takes absolute masses of time. Then theres the worst part. Only a few of the students key skills work gets marked, and everyone in the class passes or fails that key skills module based on the work of one or two students. So, there's some of us putting in every effort for the marks, then the key skills examiners pick people in the class who could'nt really care less about key skills, and suddenly, those who put the effort in are treated like idiots.

People should be graded on their ability, and not their luck. Were marked as if everyone in the class is the same, when its absolutely NOT the case. Humans are all different from each other - were not like a pc where, once installed, it runs in the same way as each other.

Here comes another moment where im stuck deciding whether to stick with Linux, or go with Windows.

This hasnt been sparked by something not working in Linux - everything is working perfect. Instead, whenever I look at Windows, I get a feeling that life is more simple there. In reality, it isnt. I guess its to do with having been on Windows more than ive been on Linux, in total. That and, the main people I know, use Windows.

This also follows from yesterday, at the university. Seeing Windows on the big screen, and seeing what we will be doing.

I guess I can always dual boot, but then im left feeling torn between both operating systems. Windows does look more proffessional, I give it that, but im in no mood to even start transferring email clients back to Windows.

Having Windows on one PC and Linux on the other would be a good bet, but then id still use one PC far more than the other. Darn!

Maybe a laptop will solve all this - having one just for gaming or so. I dont frequently update hardware, and desktop machines take up alot of desk space, compared to a flat little laptop. however, knowing me, id end up putting Linux on the laptop aswell, as a dual boot "just incase". Then, im right back where I started.

Not being able to play games is a slight downer. Rebooting the pc just to play a game for half hour really wastes time - especially when theres things here and there running.

Well, life is starting to look up again, or at least it feels like it. Should be able to finally jump back onto the wagon called "life", and ride it all the way.

Job wise, who knows. A friend in college is sounding hopeful about a part time job in a cinema, which would be good. Apaprently its severly boring most the time, but its money. Something I need right now.

The Punto is going great! Very fast little car. Comparing it to another R reg car in the family - the other car is like a mature cat - lazing around, cant be bothered doing much. The Punto is like a kitten - full of energy, and raring to go. Its as if its been sitting bored on the driveway, and just wants to run as fast as possible - so much "stored up" energy.

dont take the title so literally - im not talking about a group discussing lightning. Think lightning fast presentations in front of an audience, all sitting waiting to give their talk.

Each talk cannot last longer than 5 minutes. Its a bit of a shame though - not much can be said in 5 minutes, and time really seems to fly by. It does raise an eyebrow of curiosity though - probably whilst ive typed this, a few of the audience have googled for various topics.

So, who turned up? Quite a crowd. Alan Cox - a master kernel hacker, who has been interviewed by Linux Format magazine. Briefly said hello, which soon turned into a question about the kernel. Probably an overly common question, too.

Ever heard of imdb.com? Go look at it - you probably have been on the site sometime in the past. It is the Internet Movie Database. One of the guys responsible for it was at the lightning talks, giving a talk about the site over the years. 15 million unique hits a month - wow. Just, wow.

Tesla gave a talk on editing wikipedia. She does alot of this - learnt a few things about wikipedia, and was rather interesting to watch. However, im unlikely to edit wikipedia, so it hardly applied to me :(.

Neil did a talk on optimisation for google. There\'s alot more that could have been said if there was more time, but 5 minutes is really short for such a topic. Would have liked to have seen more of that one.


Well, now ive been asked to do a talk on setting up a media centre on Linux. How am I going to cram all that into 5 minutes? Theres compiling the correct kernel modules, installing the player, setting up recording schedules - thats just for getting the TV section to work. Maybe they shouldnt be lighting talks - more like snail talks. Although then comes the problem of whether 15 or more people will give a talk - would take all day!

After the talk we all walked down to Earnest Willows Bar. Spent it talking about setting up a network, burning CD's etc, to Brent. Im really getting the urge to make a setup program for a complicated task - perhaps an all-out configuration of apache, mysql, and php, when compiled from scratch? Maybe.

Ever had a day where you just cant be bothered doing anything? Today it happened to me.

I usually have a screenful of Java or php scripts. More like, a virtual desktop full of them. It really makes organising the screen far easier.

Today was a different story - the screen was instead full of msn conversation windows, and forums. In a rather down mood, its nice to see how things are going in other peoples lives. Its nice to hear peoples opinions on various topics, even if im not going to participate in the discussion.

Usually the success of creating something "new" is enough to cheer me up, but I just couldnt work up the mood to program something. There are numerous tasks I need to do, but there was the decision of which task to get on with. If I did one task, then im not working on another task, and that seemed to stop me doing anything productive.

Well, as I type this, and rant out the problem, its slowly easing me into getting things done.

I did not go to college today, but I didnt really miss anything. There's an assignment to be handed in tomorrow, and ive only done one of the tasks. There's no way ill get it done in time, and no way ill even be able to attempt it in this mood. My personal tutor understands that - just hoping the class tutor does.

Ive been rather ill again today, but thats pretty much cleared up again.

Tomorrow, SWLUG is holding lightening talks. Will be my first visit to one, and im looking forward to it! Then its on to the local bar for a social meet up again.

The third blog entry in a row - really got to calm down with this.

Today, we decided to wash the cars. The two Escorts, so they can be taken away in some form of decency (neither of them work, they just sit on the drive making us look like a bankrupt car showroom). Also my car, and the Citroen. Big mistake.

Well, cleaning them was no mistake - the Citroen really needed a clean. The Punto didnt. The mistake was doing it in the absolute freezing cold. Steam was coming off the spounges due to the warmth of the water. However the water seemed to cool down overly fast - especially on the surface of the vehicle. Wiping down a car with freezing water, in freezing weather for HOURS - my fingers went blue. Then came the really worst bit...

I decided to try warming my hands back by keeping them in a basin full of rather hot water. At first it was very soothing - until my fingernails complained. The pain was enormous! It felt like someone set my nails on fire, but the rest of my hand was a normal temperature. It lasted for 10 minutes at least. Not even stepping out into the cold would seem to stop the intense pain. Touching something would only make it worse, so I sat there in wraithing pain unable to actually do anything.

We finished washing the already clean Punto in time to drive to town and pick up a friend. In return, he burnt me a new cd for the car. Finally, more variety!

Today I was completely independant - no worrying over bus times, or walking into the next district to catch a bus. The car lets me get up an hour later than usual, rather than walk into college like a zombie, being unable to concerntrate.

So, its Tuesday.The busiest day in college, with no real breaks - just straight through lessons. Adding to that, I have been away from college since christmas (a month now). I was expecting to come home after first lesson or so, but I had no trouble!

Actually I lie - I did have trouble. I woke up far earlier than needed, and really couldnt wait to drive the car. Hours seemed to take forever, but when I jumped in the car - yay! I love driving, and it put me in a good enough mood to take on the day.

Makes a change from sitting in bed ill all day, with chaotic thoughts keeping me down.

Less than a week ago I was excited about getting a Seat Ibiza. The Punto seemed like a "second choice", but im really glad to have it. Ive adjusted to it perfectly, and its a seriously fun drive!

Well, blogging seems to be somewhat addictive at the moment. It gives me something to read over on a rainy day, and see how things came to be. Im not writing in the hope that someone else will read, because who wants to read about my life? ;)

Decided to give college a go - driving in rather than fussing with busses was a big enough step to get me going. Avoided first lesson, as I didn't want to be half asleep throughout the day.

So, we got in the car, stopped at my aunts to drop off a birthday card, but lost track of time. We had 5 minutes to speed towards college in time. Surprisingly, we made it.

Was a while since I previously went in to college, but it felt as if I hadn't been there for years.

The second lesson of the day started, which was Web Management. I wish I hadn't turned up. We did nothing but have a look at a paragraph of "why you should make your site accessible". The lesson after wasn't needed either - you could use that time to get on with work, or just go home. I stayed, to try and get to speed with assignments. We have a comms tech assignment which is just seven questions. Distinctions rest on it too, but it is nicer than having one large assignment slapped at you with just a couple weeks to get it done (amongst 4 others).

If you have read this far, then sorry I cant make this more interesting to read. Feeling rather down at the moment, with almost nothing on my mind. Tomorrow is a hectic day - three lessons, one and a half hours long, with no breaks. These are the "strange" lessons aswell, which are once per week, so missing them is a big deal. Could hardly get on with one lesson today, and that was with alot of resting. Tomorrow will be...complicated.

Yesterday, I went out to test drive new cars. I tried a Ford Fiesta 1.4 zetec (the newest model), a Renault Clio Campus 1.2, and a Seat Ibiza (Award model, I assume) 1.2.

Fiesta

The Fiesta was seriously comfortable - the driver and passanger seat were height adjustable, and so was the steering wheel. This allowed me to get the perfect driving position, which really couldn't be flawed.

The clutch was easy to get used to - did not stall the car once. No over-revving with the accelerator either. Brakes were not the sharpest, which made it easy to get used to.

The suspension was tough, so bumps in the road were easily felt, however its 1.2 finesse version has softer suspension.

Steering was harder than perhaps all over cars despite being power steering. could be better, but still easy to control.

As far as it looks, its like a slightly smaller Ford Focus, which is more of a fmaily car. This shouldn't be the case - the supermini's should remain supermini's!


Clio

The Clio is a more classy looking car. Seems alot more suited to young drivers than a Fiesta.

The clutch was a little strange to get used to, but was accomplish-able. It seemed to change how strong it pushes back against your foot, but ive driven worse, in the car I used to pass my driving test (which was also a Clio).

The seating position was not good. My head was less than an inch away from the roof, and if I lean forward, I would touch the fold down with my forehead. Seats were not height adjustable. Also seemed to slope to the left, even on flat roads. Would have given me a terrible back ache after a short while.

Seemed alot more willing to go than the Fiesta, despite being a 1.2.

Steering was excellent. Can't fault it. Nice size steering wheel, if points can be scored on that? No? awell.

Main gripe I had was with the clutch - pushing it all the way down, my foot would get caught on something above the pedal surface. Avoidable, if I use the very top of my foot, however.


Ibiza

As far as looks go, this car wins already. You see many MANY Corsa's, Fiesta's, Clio's, Micra's and Punto's. However, Ibiza's are in rather short supply. They are not mass-produced - only 6,000 are made per year.

They look very unique - an angry look to the front of the car. For a supermini, its rather large and spacious. Looks good in most colours. Black really makes it look classy.

The seating was perfect. I cannot remember if it was height adjustable, but the comfort was better than any car I had previously sat in. The driving position seemed perfect. If not, the steering wheel is height and distance adjustable.

I tested this car during the dark hours. turning the key, and switching the lights on - the inside of the car was incredable! A red glow from all controls and digital displays. Really made the car feel alot more expensive than it is, and was a fantastic surprise.

Steering is definately something to boast. It is sharper during slow speeds, and less powerful during high speeds. This is automatically adjusted by the car. I did not know about this until afterwards, but the steering really was comfortable.

Very good head room and leg space. The car really felt large. Unsure about space in the back, but no complaints from the rear passenger.

The only gripe, AT ALL, which I had with this car was the overly busy roundabout coming off the link road near the showroom. But that is hardly the fault of the car.



Overall, the Ibiza really stands out. Compared to all other supermini's, it looks very unique, is very spacious, and has a surprisingly low insurance group (group 2). It has a volswagen engine, which could hardly be more reliable. Look at reviews on parkers guide, and whatcar. almost everyone said they would buy the car again. Almost everyone rated the car very highly. Almost everyone did not complain about break downs.

Really looking forward to being the proud owner of a Seat Ibiza!

Before when we looked for cars, we did it online. But today, we actually went out to look for cars.

They were a bit more expensive than we hoped, but found one that stands out in every way. Power steering, electric windows, central locking, 1.25 zetec and a CD player. good little car - made in 2001. Ford Fiesta 2 door, silver.

finally ill be able to actually get to places without walking 1 1/2 miles to the bus stop. The freedom would be amazing! Then its onto tackling the second problem - a job. But having transport would open up far more options than just looking around town.

We will see how things go tomorrow in a test drive. Yet again off college due to ill health - sometimes I wonder whether ill ever get better.

I seriously want that car!

Its been a hectic week - been off ill almost all the time but things are finally getting better. Should be in college full time again, starting Monday.

Im really looking forward to the summer. Not sure how much I can say yet, but 2 weeks of Florida are ALSO in the planning. Cant wait to ride Montu in Busch Gardens again - that was one quality roller coaster!

Just got 5 months left of college. Ive been accepted in all my choices for university. Will be needing a car to get back and forth - should not be a problem though.

Looking forward to seeing the back of Winter - dark nights really gets depressing.

Finally, the new external hard drive caddy arrived - its a sata connection, which makes it vastly fast compared to the old USB case. Its just like writing to an internal hard drive - almost no difference to the speed.

The case connects to the motherboard through a small hole on one of the expansion slot covers. Its just a wire, plugged into the motherboard, like a normal internal sata drive. Unsure whether I can just turn on the external case half way through using the pc though.

Anyway, I decided to put Windows and Linux on. I have one hard drive for both operating system files, and a second hard drive entirely for documents. This drive is shared between both os'es.

Windows is being a real pain with the LAN card. Its always saying "A network cable is unplugged", despite the wire sitting nicely in the socket. The drivers are installed as normal. Yet it just wont work. However, Linux works perfectly with the card. The LAN card is a Marvell Yukon Gigabit LAN card built into the motherboard (Asus A8V Deluxe AI Series).

Well, i'll get it working eventually. The worst case scenario would be squeezing a network card into a pci slot, which there's now a short supply of.

At long last! This section is released. Took alot of work but it was worth it. Didnt get the final three features done though, due to ill health mainly. Never mind, this is one big weight off my shoulders.

As I type this, im about to announce to the black0ps members about this section. ThorRunes seen it before its release, due to help needed on a problem that seems unsolvable. Mod_rewrite doesnt seem to like urls at the moment, but it should be sorted before long.

At least now if my hard drive fails, i wont lose serious weeks worth of work!