Archived entry | Matt Wilcox .net

The road goes ever on and on...

”…down from the door where it began.” Putting hobbit quotes aside, the reason for my lack of posting in the last month has been a one-two combo of discovering that my website re-design is more work than originally thought (hence overdue, hence the hobbit quote), and the fact that I’m being a little lazy and just enjoying living on my own for a bit. You may be pleased to know, or you may not, that the website has got its database transplant script done and working, and that I’m well on the way to having a completely working homepage on a completely new database with all the old content still in place. After that page is complete other pages ought to fly up, and then it’s merely the matter of deciding whether to stick with my current web host for this site, or shift to my brand spanking new Dreamhost … err … host. Regardless, it shouldn’t be any more than a couple of weeks now. *fingers crossed*

In the mean time, I’ve been up to quite a bit, but not much that warrants publishing on the web. For those that want to read on anyway:
At work we have taken up playing Poker (Texas Hold em) at dinner breaks. Most games cost a nugget to join (that’s £1), and I have yet to win a game. I came mighty close the other day, but Sam dodged my bullet (I was dealt two Aces - ‘the bullet’) and when it came down to only Jay and myself playing we ran out of dinner hour and just went all-in on a blind deal. He won the hand, and thus the game and the pot. I strive to add, I do not play every dinner-time. I’m far to stingy with my pounds, but you know what they say ‘look after the pounds and the tenners look after themselves’.

Sunday before last I joined Ben and Sammy at the Llandudno Ski Centre, where there were a load of freshers of varying abilities sliding down a hill on a pair of polished sticks, or sometimes, on their ass. It looked like fun, so next time I’ll be joining in - on Sunday however I was being ‘official photographer’ and stole Ben’s camera for the task. I’ll do my best to get some of those shots up on the web, I’m hoping at least a couple came out well.

This weekend my parents and grand-parents came over for a visit, which was great! It was just a shame the weather wasn’t so good, but, it is getting rather autmny so I suppose that ought to be expected. It was really nice to see them, especially over here

Last Monday I was over in Bangor immediately after work, with a few colleagues, and a couple of Russians, and about 30 people I’ve never seen before, listening to Phil giving an informative talk about Content Syndication, the podcast of which is well worth listening to if you know what Content Syndication is. If you don’t, you will likely hear nothing more than a confusing array of seemingly unrelated techy words and acronyms. But at least it’s in an Irish lilt, so it’s nice on the ear for you, if nothing else.

In other work-related events Andy has discovered that uniting the two seemingly unrelated worlds of CSS and StarWars results in an explosion of hits and comments. CSS: Specificity Wars illustrates the rules of CSS specificity in a geek-friendly format for all to enjoy.

Carrying on with the geeky thread, and as a direct result of Phils’ talk, I recently discovered Odeo, which I didn’t understand at first, but now that I do I think the thing is awesome. It’s just podcasting (which, as a non-mac user, I was late to the party with). Because I have my hand on the pulse of my audience, It’s likely you don’t know what podcasting is (unless my audience suddenly consists of more than old friends and family, in which case I apologise), so here’s a better description, well, analogy actually: Podcasting is like a radio show archive. It lists all the radio stations, and then all the shows that are in that station. Only you don’t listen to it live, you decide which show you want to listen to, and then download it (to play on your iPod, or PC, or whatever else you have that can play an MP3. Phone. PDA. Fridge freezer. You get the idea…). The best bit is that if you like the radio station you’re listening to, you can ’subscribe’ to it, which means whenever a new show is published on that station, it automatically gets downloaded onto your machine, ready for you to hear. Now to clarify the analogy: these are not actually radio stations, they are recordings that Joe Public have made themselves, and never were on the radio. Also, in order to subscribe you need to download the Odeo Aggregator (or maybe iTunes) - which is quick and painless, so no worries there. It being Joe Public, that means you get a very wide selection of opinion to listen to. From hardcore geek stuff to someone’s personal favourite records, to talk shows, to … well, anything you can think of. Actually, there’s a few BBC shows on there too, like the Politics show, and documentaries, Dispatches from the Field…etc.

OK, now that I’ve caught up with you a little it’s time for me to go do the dishes, and then settle down with either a Horlicks or a sup of some Glenfidich whilst reclining in my comfy chair and listening to some Winter Chill by the glow of my new fire (thank you Mum and Dad!)…
What, you didn’t think I was going to code some more did you?!

Entry Information

Posted:

Mon, 10th Oct 2005 at 21:10 UTC

Filed under:

• Journal

Tags:

• andy clarke
• css
• phil roche
• re-design