British Inside : Cars, Telligenti, Personal

round peg, meet square hole

James — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:48:00 GMT

Take a look at www.theroadkings.com - notice especially the URL’s as you click around the site.

The whole thing is ajax-driven, with no way of linking to a specific page (at least without downloading the ajaxEngine.js and reading the file). It’s a superb example of using latest kick-ass technologies completely inappropriately.

Why would you do this instead of using, oh I don't know, HYPERLINKS?

*shakes head*

Finally got Jasmine back

James — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:50:00 GMT

Jasmine has returned after 5 weeks in the shop. An old woman ran a stop sign and did a number on the front end of the car and although her insurance company picked up the tab, it still took forever to get fixed. No-one makes parts for this car, so everything had to be found and bought from individuals or junk yards.

Took her out at lunch time to run to the bank, nice.

5 things about me

James — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:28:00 GMT

I almost got away with it; this morning I figured that if I hadn't got tagged by this meme by now I missed it - but it wasn't to be. ScottW got me.

I don't think it's a rule that the five things have to be embarrassing things, but it strangely seemed easier to play it that way..

I once rode 10 miles from my village to the nearest town on my bicycle ("the death cycle" painted down the side, chopper handlebars and seat - the ultimate bike) with the front wheel not bolted on. It was only when I made my dramatic entrance at the school playing field shouting and waving at my friends that a bump in the field let the wheel fall out of the forks and put me over the handlebars.
A friend and I used to wear a DA or v-roll, drape coat, drainpipes and winklepickers around town. It was 1978 and we were 14 - and Grease had just resurrected Rock and Roll. Even more embarassing, this phase lasted all through community college and only stopped when I went to East London university. On my first day I wore white winkle picker shoes, black drainpipes and white cardigan and suddenly realized that I would never get laid looking like this.
I don't have any computer-related qualifications, or a degree. I studied an OND in Land Surveying at Community College for 2 years, then an HND in Land, Sea, Engineering Surveying and Mapping at (then) North East London Polytechnic. Although I spent the whole time working on the Prime mini in Fortran 77 my friends all got a higher computer coursemark than me. They knew nothing about computer programming but I did my coursework first, then theirs and each time I improved the programs. *sigh*
I sold my first computer program to an oil company in Esbjerg, Denmark one month after leaving college for $1500. It found the most likely position for the oil pipeline on the dots output by a high resolution Ulvertech scanning sonar. I still love that program.
I have a balanced driving record. The first time I wrote off a car was a few weeks after passing my test - and was deemed 50/50 (both at fault). The second write-off was totally my fault when I failed to make a corner in the rain and ended up putting my boss through the windshield. Luckily, the third car I wrote off was entirely their fault when they overtook on the brow of a hill and I hit them head on. He was jailed, no doubt in no small part to the fact the the baby being held in the backseat of their car went through their windshield and bounced (uninjured) down the road for quite a way. Apparently I was concussed (due to my roof now being level with the top of the seat below the headrest) and kept asking every few seconds for my watch. I'm sure that got quite annoying after a while. 15 years later I still get neckaches from that crash.

I could keep going, but luckily for you it only asks for 5, not 50 things. I was beginning to feel that I ought to write my memoirs. :)

So, passing it on to: Dave Burke, Rick Segal, Robert Bruce, Scott Cate and Terri Morton who will surely get off her ass and start blogging if I keep bloody going on about it!

Keeping Schtum

James — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:23:00 GMT

Schtum: adj, slang. Keep quiet, maintain confidentiality

Working on a secret project at Telligent has made it tough to blog on technical subjects this year. I'm a big fan of open process and loved to talk openly about the development of Dozing Dogs CMS but that's not been possible with the new product in this higher stakes world unfortunately.

It's hard, especially when I develop something really cool and want to start beating the drums. I'm used to being naive and telling everyone what I'm doing.

One day soon though, one day soon. The last step is to throw it at a technical writer, right? Should only take a few weeks.

A side-effect of all this was that I received an email from MSFT last night telling me that I was no longer an MVP.

Quite right too, it should have happened last year IMO! I don't remember the last time I answered questions on ASPAdvice or posted tips to CoverYourASP.com. I'm not beta-testing anything right now and only attended the MVP summit to meet the Telligenti. I even had to skip the ASP insiders event that took place last week.

It's certainly not 2001 any more - we were chatting on a list the other day how things have changed for many of us since the heady days of pre-beta versions of ASP.NET 1.0. Back when the focus was on making web programming real programming with a real C language and a compiler. Before the declarative website-in-a-box movement and the bloat.

Before ".NET 3.0" finally made it clear that the lunatics had taken over the asylum.

C'est la vie - things change. I'm still very thankful to have a healthy happy family and to be working on a great, fun product with a great bunch of people. Having a big-block convertible and a '55 Chevy to wrench on doesn't hurt either (but notice I put the cars last sweetie!)

Now, I'd better quickly get on MSDN and download something while I still can...

Sending smaller photos when I blog from phone..

James — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 12:05:07 GMT

I *think* I just fixed my phone so that it sends smaller photos to my blog. We'll see...

Published with BlogMailr

My new office

James — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:27:00 GMT

I've been working in my new 600sqft office all this week, and I love it! Tara and I joke that I may never go home again, especially as the commute has definately got worse - now almost 100ft from the kitchen.

When we had the garage built the upstairs was for storage, but that only lasted a few weeks before we insulated and sheetrocked. Here are the before and after:

and the living room I have at the other end of my office - strictly for watching loud car chase movies:

Even the downstairs workshop got sheetrocked and painted. This area is the real reason I may only go home for meals now...