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Found 11 entries.
I received an email from Genesis Energy today. I never asked for it and (in all honesty) I can't remember the last one they sent.
" Andrew, put your hands up before time's up!
We emailed you recently about the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act, which comes into force in September 2007. That means if you want to receive occasional Genesis Energy news, offers and information the environmentally friendly way, you need to give us your consent.
We havenât received it yet, so hereâs a reminder to give your consent before Friday 31 August 2007 if you want your chance in the draw to win one of six prizes of $1,000*!
Interesting. Getting you to consent to getting spam by spamming people. I haven't given my consent yet and not likely too either.
This reminds me of when the AA sent me a letter saying I should get Life Insurance with them. They sent me a second and a third letter. The third time I phoned their 0800 number and the conversation went something like this:
"Hi, I'm just phoning about the letter you sent me regarding Life Insurance." I said.
"Oh yeah, how may I help?" she said in a chirpy voice, hoping to get a sale.
"Erm, can you stop sending me them please."
"Oh okay."
Or how about when Vodafone phoned me up to 'ask me some questions'. Towards the end they pretty much stated that I didn't use the phone much.
"No, not much," I said.
"Would you consider upgrading your plan?"
WTF? I just said I didn't use the phone much.
"Er, no thanks."
"Okay. Would you recommend Vodafone to your friends and family?" she asked politely.
"No."
"Oh really" she sounded surprised (YA RLY I thought). "Is there anything we can do that would change your mind?"
"Yep," I replied "it's quite simple. Give us more, for less."
"Oh, okay. I'll er, put that in."
"KTHXBAI"
Nothing has changed yet. It's still a rip-off. I can but hope. Funny though :-)
Labels: genesis-energy, spam, the-aa, vodafone
Inserted: 2007-08-29 21:27 (2 years, 11 months ago)
...but is it really PHP or just this developer?
Ignoring the title and the first half of this article, the second half makes me laugh. In the article Points of Attack: PHP and Ajax, Matthew McCool says:
Second, you should consider using standard functions for processing user input. You probably donât want HTML tags in your database, so itâs a good idea to use PHPs built in functions. It makes sense to use strip_tags() for removing unnecessary tags and then running mysql_real_escape_string() prior to database insertion.
Firstly, I don't care if there are HTML tags in my database. If the user put them there, then fine, they go in the database. On the way out of the database and into whatever format the display media is, I might process that data somehow, be that HTML escaping it or whatever, but essentially I choose on the way out rather than the way in.
Secondly, mysql_real_escape_string() - are you serious (or should that be real)? Apparently you don't use mysql_escape_string() anymore, you use the - hmm. Seems to cause more problems than it solves when you end up seeing quotes in the database anyway, obviously escaped multiple times. I'm not surprised it's confusing with that real oneadd_slashes(), strip_slashes() and the numerous other things that mess around with quotes and backslashes. The more you have to process something, the more you're likely to get it wrong. I'm assuming that PDO finally lays that that old trauma to rest.
So yeah, I feel sorry for PHP. Or is that it's programmers I should feel sorry for.
Inserted: 2007-08-29 13:16 (2 years, 11 months ago)
I seem to read a lot about Linux. But I also read a lot about free software and freedoms in general. It seems today has lots of interesting news about the latter.
I've given up reading http://www.linuxtoday.com/ because of all the adverts and the fact that you have to click firstly to get a brief of the story, then the story itself. Instead, I just read http://lxer.com/ since they all pretty much list the same things anyway.
So, here are the articles I found interesting today:
I find these stories interesting for various reasons. I've spoken to friends about Skype and I'm still resisting using it, though the pull is string.
The second article because I just think it's funny - "Why is all this high quality software free?" they say. You say "Because it's priceless!" :-)
I'm still in two minds about what Microsoft is doing flirting with free software but until they do the right thing in every area (not just one or two), then I won't trust them until that point.
And finally, about the complete mess with DRM. People recorded LP's and tapes off each other. They copied 'protected' games off each other with the C64, Spectrum, Atari ST, Amiga (the list goes one). They copy CDs, now MP3s, they've hacked the DVD CSS and they will any DRM format you put in front of them. I think companies are learning that people power is important and always wins. Therefore, go with the flow, chill-out and turn it to your advantage. Give the people what they want (not what you want to give them) and just watch, you'll make a killing.
So yeah, today's news was quite interesting for free software and freedoms in general.
Labels: free-software, drm, planet-catalyst, freedom
Inserted: 2007-08-26 20:28 (2 years, 11 months ago)
This week has, again, been fairly busy. Not just in social but other stuff too.
I really should be doing my The End is Nigh this month, but instead I keep finding geek things to do.
Firstly, earlier on in the month I implemented a new gallery content type in Zaapt. Then I rebranded and ported this site to Zaapt too.
Suddenly, I'm in at the start of a whole new adventure regarding Open Standards which is also related to Social Networks. No, I'm not talking about the Social Graph everyone is talking about, but just another little corner of the web which should be a little more open for everyone concerned. I alluded to this new project in a post last week but it's starting to get some momentum already.
No details to be posted as yet but rest assured, they'll be coming fairly soon.
I have found recently that I really enjoy the content management side of things, not only because of Zaapt but because of the fact that all the data generated for the site is by human beings.
On three previous work projects I've been on, most of the data was generated by computers or instruments attached to them, so it's good to realise what actually makes me tick. Added to this my recent interest in OpenID there are a number of things all pointing in one general direction for me at the moment, so that's good.
Labels: zaapt, kiwi-writers
Inserted: 2007-08-23 21:23 (2 years, 11 months ago)
A number of things which are near and dear to me at the moment, and chromatic talks about them all.
In his post Constraints and Software Development, chromatic talks about writing, software and volunteer projects.
Hmm, has he been reading my blog - it pretty much touches on everything I seem to be doing at the moment :-)
And yes, kapiti.geek.nz has a new design, courtesy of Free CSS Templates. Thanks muchly. But better than that, it is now using Zaapt :-)
Labels: zaapt, web-design, planet-catalyst, writing
Inserted: 2007-08-20 00:16 (2 years, 11 months ago)
You'd think that randomness, or pseudo-randomness, is something an electrical or software engineer is interested in. As it turns out, it's the life-blood for lots of people.
My brother, for example, would sometimes start stories with "It was a bit of a random night..." or "We met some random where..." etc etc
Well, today has been very random. Firstly, I woke up all happy and busy that I'd completed a fair chunk of work getting the new kapiti.geek.nz up and going (wait for tomorrow for the official launch).
Then I felt a bit weird that I was taking on too much and that I needed a break. At that stage, I felt a bit down about a few things.
Then tonight, I've been out drinking, which is the first time in ages. Not my usual style and pretty random for me I can tell you. We (the Wellington Perlmongers met up with Dave Cross (founder of the London PM and his wife who are visiting New Zealand and happen to be coming by Wellington. They are both really nice and easy going and it was a pleasure to meet them both - I just hope they enjoyed their brief stay in Welly as much as we enjoyed their company.
It also seems that both Andrew and Brenda have been checking out Zaapt and I hope that they found something of interest :-) While I know there are some weird things about it, if more people use Zaapt, those weird things will start to decrease. And also, the functionality will start to increase too (Lord knows, the documentation needs a lick or two).
Finally, as another random thing to add, I've had a couple of comments on this blog from Nate and I've added a few to his blog recently too. It's funny, I've never met him, but he seems like the kind of person I'd like to sit down with and chat to. Not sure about the whole Bill Gates comment though, but I guess everyone has their own type of weirdness along the way.
Oh, and Andrew, we all knew you were an extrovert from the start even if you didn't :-)
Inserted: 2007-08-19 01:16 (2 years, 11 months ago)
I'm holding my hands out, one upwards, one across the top. It's time for a Time Out.
This whole year has been busy. It's been fairly mad. Basically, it's been crazy since 1st January it seems. So I'm going to take a time out.
I've had people stay with me - which is nice, but each and every time this happens, I realise why I live by myself (and as Danny Bhoy said the other week - don't get loneliness and being alone mixed up). Of course, if I was with someone, that would be different, but at the moment, I'm not. Therefore, I like my own space.
Also, I've been hard at work with Zaapt and KiwiWriters. I've also tried to help set up 3 different people with a website of their very own. I realise that it's hard for me when someone says that they want a site, I end up saying "I can help". In the end, it's much more hassle than it's worth especially if I'm not going to get anything from it either. At first, I wanted people to use Zaapt, but now I'm not as bothered since I feel Zaapt will eventually get a life of it's own anyway. Also, when it gets to the point where the person I'm doing the site for wants changes, it just becomes like work but mainly if they are not sensitive to the amount of time I'm putting in or have put in in the past. As soon as something becomes like work, then I'm outta there.
Also, there is a difference between a site where someone wants to make money and a site which is aimed at improving either people themselves or the world as a whole. Of course, you guys know that the latter is much more dear to my heart than the former and that's why those other commitments have got to go.
These past three weeks have been interesting in that I've only been at home in the evening for about 4 in 21. There's been lots going on and all the while, all the things I should have be doing have been mounting up. All those things I don't have to do, but I feel I ought to because I'd promised someone something. I'm at the stage now where I'm cutting things out because, and let's be honest here, I'm not getting anything back!
There are, however, exceptions to this. There are many, many things I love doing and won't ever stop doing them unless I get hit by a bus. So basically, I need to concentrate on those things I enjoy and the things I truly believe in. Both of the things I mentioned above, Zaapt and KiwiWriters are intertwined into something I truly believe in but all the rest, I've decided, I'm going to have to cut out.
From now on, I'm going to bite my lip whenever I'm about to say the words "I can help" and instead, consider whether I feel that it's for a cause I want to support.
Currently, there are two new things going round in my head for websites that I want to develop and you can be rest assured that one is related to open standards and the other is related to charitable organisations. Both of which, I'll do myself, neither of which will have time pressures and each will be pleasantly enjoyable.
Labels: zaapt, kiwi-writers, time-out
Inserted: 2007-08-18 15:43 (2 years, 11 months ago)
Over the past couple of nights I have redesigned my site and currently have a staging version of it all set up and ready to go.
The main reason for re-doing the site was so that I could convert it into a Zaapt site. As stated before, currently this is running using some software called Slym which was a precursor to Zaapt. Also, the old modules are no longer maintained and were starting to get on my nerves - anyone notice my blog's archive dates don't keep up? :-(
All in all, the redesign hasn't taken very long at all. In fact, getting a site up and going with Zaapt is just getting quicker and quicker. Recently, I checked in some code into the Zaapt Demo project which creates a basic (and Debianised) site upon which you can add things. To get that up and going takes about 3 minutes from start to finish - customisations after that take longer of course.
So the conversion from this site to the new one took something under six hours! That includes about 3 hrs of setting the site up, templating the HTML and some quick testing and about 3 hrs for the data migration script for everything in the old database. Currently, I'm copying and converting three lots of content sections, one blog and lots of comments and labels.
So all in all, I think getting the site going in less than 6 hours (including a data migration) is quite impressive. Also, when I got the Zaapt and the Zaapt Simple websites going way back in March it only really took me three days to get those going - and they've hardly been changed since.
Also this week, Don has stated that he may also switch to Zaapt so that makes me very happy. Finally, Zaapt will be used by someone else. It's not that I'm pressuring him :-) but that would be oarsum when it happens.
It does mean however, that the Zaapt sourcecode will now be under scrutiny from my peers. This is a really good thing (I'll know if I'm on the right track) but may also be embarassing (for those times when I've been slack or silly), but hey, that's what free and open source software is about :-) Just having someone else use it will be great...
...and nothing makes me happier.
P.S. the new design will be launched on Sunday just so I can add some spit and polish tomorrow
Labels: zaapt, planet-geek, planet-catalyst, kapiti-geek-nz
Inserted: 2007-08-18 02:49 (2 years, 11 months ago)
Just a quick catch up on what I've been doing.
This past two weeks, it seems I've been out more than I've been in. Take this last week, you know I went for Rock'n'Roll on Monday and Indoor Soccer on Wednesday.
Well, I also went to see Danny Bhoy on Thursday (who is the funniest comedian I've ever seen, no doubt about it) and went to see the Wellington Phoenix on Friday. I'll get a season ticket for that very soon.
But, the best thing is, even though it's been busy, I have managed to add a new Gallery type to Zaapt. It's mostly finished with a few tweaks to make but it is site usable already. I shall be using it on a site very soon - which will be posted here - so watch out for that.
Labels: zaapt, planet-geek, planet-catalyst
Inserted: 2007-08-13 00:05 (2 years, 11 months ago)
So at the ripe old age of 31 and a half, I have won my first ever sports award.
Yes, the lads pulled through in the final tonight and we won our league. See the results below.
# Team P W L D FF FA For Agst % BP TP - ---------------------- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---- ---- ------- --- --- 1 Sift 9 7 1 1 0 0 70 36 194.44 10 32 2 Jones Lang La Salle 9 7 2 0 0 0 104 42 247.62 10 31 3 Old Ladies From Picton 9 7 2 0 0 0 88 55 160.00 10 31 4 Walk On 9 3 4 2 0 0 69 75 92.00 10 21 5 Terminators Mens 9 2 5 1 1 0 45 60 75.00 10 20 6 Jan Molby 9 2 7 0 0 0 45 84 53.57 10 16 7 Serie A 9 5 4 0 0 0 71 69 102.90 0 15 8 M I L F 9 0 8 0 0 1 32 103 31.07 0 0 P = Played W = Won L = Lost D = Draw FF = Forfeit For FA = Forfeit Against GF = Goals For GA = Goals Against % = Percentage goals (For/Agst*100) BP = Bonus Points TP = Total Points
So yeah, the figure that stands out for me is that we scored a lot of goals. I think I contributed about 10 :-) And for each game we did:
Rnd Opponent Date Rslt Score Pts --- ------------------- ---------- ---- -------- --- 4 Jan Molby 30 May 07 Won 11 - 5 3 5 M I L F 6 Jun 07 Won 9 - 3 3 6 Terminators Mens 13 Jun 07 Won 8 - 7 3 7 Serie A 20 Jun 07 Lst 4 - 6 0 8 Sift 27 Jun 07 Won 8 - 3 3 9 Jones Lang La Salle 4 Jul 07 Lst 7 - 13 0 10 Walk On 11 Jul 07 Won 10 - 8 3 11 Jan Molby 18 Jul 07 Won 15 - 7 3 12 M I L F 25 Jul 07 Won 16 - 3 3 SF Jones Lang La Salle 8 Aug 07 Won 13 - 6 F Sift 8 Aug 07 Won 7 - 3
Not sure how we lost to Serie A in the league (I was away that week) but after we saw it was Sift in the final and we'd beaten them before, we thought we had a chance. Funny thing being that we also lost to Jones Lang La Salle in the league but we did well against them.
Overall, I figured my performance tonight was my best in the season so far. I think I was just a little rusty at the start (and not as fit) but it's coming together.
So anyway, we all got an award which says:
Wellington Indoor Sports
Queens Wharf Indoor Soccer
Autumn League 2007 Major Final Winners
Who'd a thunk it?
But at the same time, it's crap that they're planning on pulling Shed 1 down and putting some stupid crappy hotel piece of rubbish on there instead.
Labels: indoor-soccer
Inserted: 2007-08-08 22:58 (2 years, 11 months ago)
Haven't written here for a while, so a quick update from last week.
Things have been good:
As always, it's been a busy week. Bumped into nem on Sunday and we were just saying how we both like Wellington. It seems to be popular at the moment, with Penny Pants saying similar things, as I have done here and here recently.
The one thing I'm not doing is starting to finish off those things I've promised for The End is Nigh challenge at Kiwi Writers.
Anyways, all in all, a good week but busy.
Labels: zaapt, kiwi-writers, wellington
Inserted: 2007-08-07 00:07 (2 years, 11 months ago)
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