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Just passed the 9000 posts milestone and thought I'd make a passing mention.
My time here at CP has been very reduced since I gave up working for myself. I still read a lot but don't post much anymore.
We'll have to see if I can hit 10,000 messages before the end of 2007.
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I saw on your WDevs blog that you're not feeling well. I wish you a speedy recovery.
Also, I hope you're receiving emails from your CP address because WDevs' front page has been hacked.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Hope you get well soon,
Jon
Jon Sagara
This is the stuff we'll drink on special occasions. To paraphrase my father-in-law, this is the kind of wine that results in kids.
-- A friend
Blog | Site | Articles
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I doubt that many here will have heard of him. An author and Doctor Who fan, Craig Hinton[^] died this week.
I enjoyed reading his work and it was great to be able to interact with him via various online fora.
He also coined the term Fanwank[^].
He will be missed.
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I've spent the last three days filling in my performance management review form. Not sure I'll ever get the hang of all the corporate jargon.
I wrote 1507 words in total, which is probably a little overkill but self-analysis is what I'm good at it. It is kind of ironic that I gave myself a low rating on communication but spent 429 words explaining why I thought that I'd done badly communicating ideas this year.
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My life feels really disorganised at the moment,
So much going on means I'm having to juggle several things at once and it is a difficult job to keep all the balls in the air,
I have my end of year accounts to sort
One final piece of software to install for a client before I close my company
My full-time job to do (which adds several extra balls of its own to the juggling act)
The WDevs server to sort as bits keep falling over
Get up-to-date with all the latest web-tech for my full-time job
Get to grips with VS2005
Hopefully by the end of Easter, I'll have myself back on an even keel and get myself back on-course and start moving forward again
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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I have very little talent when it comes to web-design. And it is one of those talents that I wish I had. A lot more of my work is more and more ASP.NET based, and yet I struggle with
a) getting a good functional UI
b) Getting a decent css that suits the UI
I'm currently trying to get some new skins for the WDevs blogs. In particular, I want a 3 column design but even my attempts at hacking the default Marvin3 skin have turned out very poor.
I guess I'm just going to have to keep practising. As most "professional" designers want an arm and a leg for building even (IMO) the simplest of CSS files that can be reused.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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Have you tried Open Source Web Design[^]?
I've found it very useful for learning CSS tricks etc.
Also another good place is Eric Meyer's Website[^], I've read both his books on CSS and they're very informative.
Hope those help a little.
I have no idea what I just said. But my intentions were sincere.
Poore Design
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I've made the decision to give up working for myself. I started thinking about it about a year ago, but thought I'd give it one more year.
My reasons,
Well the main one being it is getting harder for a single developer company to compete with bigger developers and that old bug-bear of Indian outsourcing has cost me work too. (Not that I mind the competition, but even I can't get my costs down enough to compete)
Secondly, I never enjoyed the sales and marketing side. I'm just too much of a geek to really do well at that.
Thirdly, I want a change of focus. I want to be more involved in managing multi-peerson projects, architecting larger solutions. I want to find somewhere I can get experience of the above. To see if my own experiences and skills will scale well in a more enterprise environment.
Finally, I've really enjoyed the past few months, working along side other IT people daily. I've said before how much I missed being part of a team. Having the shared experience of working together to develop solutions.
It'll probably take me a while to find just the right position to suit my new career path but I'm looking forward to the new challenges.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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Why are decent headsets so thin on the ground.
I don't use speakers on my PC, I prefer headphones as they are better for voice communications. I
currently have a headset with a microphone attached[^]
The biggest problem is that it is attached by a wire, so if I want to walk around whilst having a voice conversation or take a break away from the computer but still hear my music.
But trying to find a wireless headset and microphone combo that works with a standard PC soundcard has proved to be very difficult.
You'd have thought there would be a big market for this kind of thing in the new Skype/VOIP world but so-far I've not found anything suitable.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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Since my graphics card died in my main desktop PC, I've been toying with the idea of buying myself a brand new PC.
I fancy the Dell XPS 600[^] as I want a state-of-the-art machine.
I originally intended to wait until Vista was released, then I could have been sure that the machine was able to cope with the new OS. It's been 4 years since I last bought a new desktop PC and it is awfully tempting to buy one now.
I think I'll sleep on it though... for a couple of nights. I want to avoid buying a new PC just for the coolness factor.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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Catching up with my blog reading after being busy with work and spending time fixing my dying desktop, I came across the list of new features on MSN Spaces[^]
Some pretty nice stuff there, the books list with Amazon integration is very cool. My own MSN space has laid dormant for a while now. It was originally created to keep people in my MSN contact list up-to-date with cool bits of news and technology or my own personal thoughts on subjects. Most of the contacts (not being blog people) never read it, so I lost interest.
The feature list and general coolness of MSN Spaces has certainly given me food for thought about the direction of WDevs.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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sinks into the mire again, I take my leave from this place for a while.
See you on the other side,
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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I am sorry to hear that, Michael. I am sure he was well loved.
regards,
Paul Watson
Ireland
Colib and ilikecameras.
K(arl) wrote:
oh, and BTW, CHRISTIAN ISN'T A PARADOX, HE IS A TASMANIAN!
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Paul Watson wrote: I am sorry to hear that, Michael.
Thanks mate.
Paul Watson wrote: I am sure he was well loved.
He was. He's been with me through thick and thin. Truely, man's best friend.
This year seems to have started off badly, but things can only get better.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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dnh wrote: My dog died too not so long ago
My sympathies.
dnh wrote: Well, did you get a new one?
Not yet. I'm working too much to give a puppy the attention it requires.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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* Finish the WDevs open-source hosting code and get it tested
* Refresh the WDevs look and feel
* Find a web-designer who can build CSS for use with ASP.NET applications at a reasonable cost
* Rebuild the littlecatdevelopment.com site to match the new focus of the company
* Work on the Lx Framework
* Learn about Analysis Services and Cubes
* Look at replacing the current WDevs blogging engine
* Open source the Littlecat TAPI libraries
* Build the SQL / Web / Desktop app documenter tool
That should keep me busy this year in the few non-working moments.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
-- modified at 13:47 Monday 2nd January, 2006
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Okay. I usually don't give a flying fig about how my posts are rated.
But can somebody please tell me what I said wrong in this[^] post. I seem to be echoing the same sentiments as the rest of the thread, so maybe I've just picked myself up a stalker.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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I don't know how many people are still reading this blog but a very Merry Christmas to all of you. Hope Santa brings you something nice.
And for those of you in the UK, don't forget to watch 'Doctor Who' Christmas special[^] 7pm BBC1 Christmas Day
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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My littlecatdevelopment domain has been down for the last 36 hours... but it is back now and the email has started flowing in.
206 of the messages were spam to the email address I used in the Industry contacts here at CP. I've known for a while this address had be farmed from the CP page, but just let the spam get filtered into the junk-mail folder of Outlook.
Most of the emails are complete garbage, unreadable rubbish. 206 in 36 hours is a little excessive though, so I guess it is time to expire the email address. I didn't use it for a lot anyway, I just need to change my website's backend to use a different address in the email script.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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All the presents are bought and wrapped. The tree is up... even if it only has the lights on at the moment. I wasn't in the mood for adding the other decorations.
I've got a busy week ahead. Lots of work to be done before I take a Christmas break. My contract has been extended till the end of Jan now. (Or at least that was what I was told in a drunken conversation last Thursday night)
I'm looking forward to having a break from going out to work. I've got some ideas I want to add to my LxFramework (workflow/state machine driven input forms). Plus I've got a lot of WDevs coding to catch up on.
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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Home from Christmas party at 1:30am
Up at 6am
In work at 8am.
Still, a good time was had by all... even if my dancing wasn't up to scratch.
Is it time to go home yet?
Michael
CP Blog [^] Development Blog [^]
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