PHP and SQLite
So I whipped up a quick chat script today, nothing fancy but a little more stable than facebook chat so that's something. It was a bit of a wrestle getting SQLite to work, but only because Ubuntu decided to ship PHP with SQLite 2 but the gui admin tool is SQLite 3 only (not backwards compatible with SQLite 2). Ok, so there's an SQLite 3 library - but I'm not going to recompile PHP for a gui tool which I'm rarely ever going to use. No, I instead opted to learn SQLite2 (which differs remarkably from MySQL, I can tell you!) and use the command line tool "sqlite". Problem solved. The chat script is slightly prettier (in my humble opinion) than my old chat script, not much more functional (yet) but a lot more expandable and scalable.
Anyway, techie garbage that most readers of this blog care even less than me about (and I don't care that much for it) out of the way, let's move on shall we?
So I applied for a job at the DWP about 3 weeks ago, and it was left that they'd get me CRB checked (which takes 3-4 weeks) and I'd be good to start work 3-4 weeks after then. I'll post back when I hear anything about that job.
What else have I done... oh yeah, I got a new mail client called Claws, which has more dials and switches than the USS Enterprise. Just how I like my software, then! I'm very pleased with it so far, and will later be recommending it to certain members of my family who are still using OS X's "Mail" program, which to be quite frank is apallingly ill suited to the simple task of sending and receiving email. Surprising, because Apple are usually pretty good at bundled software. Still, at least they don't have the user locked in to using their application (like they who shall not be named do) so it won't be hard to replace Mail with Claws.
Anyway, I also set up a family email address which I plan to persuade the whole family to regularly check (hopefully you won't see any mail coming -from- that address though). Use it to send funny stories or notices which the whole family need to read (like the twitter page you just set up for your cat - and no, I don't know Jason Scott, I just googled "twitter cat").
Oh, one last thing - feel free to stop by my brother's blog; he has fulfilled his pledge and produced his first weekly song! I personally think it sounds very professional, and shows off his recording skills well.
Networking!
So I spent a few minutes today fixing some minor mail problems which involved a DNS entry not existing locally and therefore the remote entry (specifically, the one from the SOA - ns13.zoneedit.com and/or ns17.zoneedit.com) was being used instead - which for my particular application wasn't favourable. Well, it's all sorted now. But the solution was a bit hacky and reminded me again to (at some point) build and install my own router/server/gateway instead of relying on (frankly) substandard "home networking devices".
[several rants were removed here; suffice to say I am frustrated by the way electronics manufacturers (and computer hardware/software manufacturers) patronise their userbase]
I also started thinking about considering beginning to work on a first draft of an initial revision of a rough screenplay. I had a few ideas, the one which stood out was Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Low Budget Edition. I figure if I make it -purposely- low budget, it could turn out quite comical. Watch this space for abandonment-of-project notice.
In other news, my micronation has stalled somewhat. If anybody could help me think of a name, I would very much appreciate it.
Only when it rains can you see a rainbow.
I've had a hard day. Seriously! I won't go into detail about certain parts of it because it's unfair to those involved, but suffice to say it was emotionally draining. To the point I walked across the ham in shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of an icy rain shower. That was uncomfortable. But on the way, I stopped for some reason and looked back, then looked forward and realised that by pure 'coincidence' I had stopped EXACTLY where the rain stopped. I thought it was weird, but the rainbow was pretty. I kept walking and sat down for a few minutes at the far side - nothing but blue sky in front of me, huge rainclouds behind me. It was only on the walk -back- that I realised what it meant. Only when I looked through the rain, when I looked directly -at- what had previously caused me such discomfort could I see something of such magnificent beauty - the rainbow. Only when it rains can you see a rainbow.
Apart from all that though, let's go through a bit of my day because it was very interesting for the most part.
I got up at about 6 o'clock having had more or less two hours of sleep and whacked a few golf balls at a men's breakfast organised by church. We had breakfast after hitting the golf balls and it was very delicious. We then heard a powerful testimony from a guy who had been a cocaine addict and quit -cold turkey- from a £500 per week habit thanks to christianity. I am still quite sceptical about christianity personally, but unlike some sceptics I know when NOT to take something that powerful away from somebody. To take someone's faith is to take their life, and that is something I am not prepared ever to do. Today's testimony reinforced that viewpoint for me, so even if I choose not to follow Christ I know I'll never stop anybody else doing so.
I also watched Star Wars episodes III, IV, V and half of VI. Rekindled an old love of the films, it did. Grateful for that, I am. Speaking in OSV, I enjoy. Stop, I will. Ok seriously, I will now. 
Anyway that about wraps it up, feel free to leave comments (if it's working yet - I've been fiddling...) or email me.
Artsy Fartsyness, web design and all things Linux!
My first blog post, and I actually have something interesting to talk about!
You may notice the pemcjd.me.uk address and (unless you know me well and have figured it out or have already been told) may be wondering what it means. Quite simply, it is the first letter from each member of our family in age order.
So the last few days I've been playing with this new domain, pemcjd.me.uk as a bit of a proof of concept that a modern family can all be online with blogs and email without paying through the nose for some web hosting package on a host with a T2 connection when they really only need a standard residential broadband connection and a linux host. I'll later prove the concept further by pre-packaging the whole thing and writing scripts for the tech-noob so I may even be able to sell the entire bundle to joe bloggs as a way to get with the times and get online easily, quickly and fairly professionally.
Today, Mike and I designed header images for our blogs - a part I'm dreading making foolproof - so do let me know what you think of mine (and if you pop over to his blog, let him know what you think of his) - the default blue headers are on the rest of our family (who are rather less enthusiastic about the idea, apart from daniel who is just a little preoccupied at the moment).
So here I am sipping wine and blogging for the first time in what seems like an age (and the first time using this quite frankly wonderous software which I am kicking myself for boycotting in the past - why did I boycott it? well, I thought it was just another fly-by-night CMS/blog and it really isn't, it's in the same league as PhpBB3 and Roundcube).
Apart from the blogs, I started writing a generic family website (which I will probably use as a bit of a template for when I'm prepackaging this bundle) and popped some forums up on there - so feel free to drop by and say hello on those.
License
This work by Christopher Browne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Make loggings in happening!
Formspring me ;)
Stack Overflow
Real Estate Tycoon
Posted by Chris
I swear, I'm addicted. My brother introduced me to the application and after I'd earnt him a cool 6 million I decided I should stop working for him and branch out on my own so I added it to my account and have since amassed a fortune of roughly 11 point five million dollars. Fun stuff.
In other news, I walked the dog today. Wow, don't you just hate it when people blog their day to day activities alongside the mildly interesting stuff? Oh well. I also procrastinated a lot from the various undertakings I should be... undertaking; and drank copious amounts of tea (as per usual).
I have been informed that people may be unable to post comments on my blog entries. If you are one of the people experiencing difficulty in this area then please bear with me as I get to the root of the problem and tug at it until the whole blog suddenly gives and I end up flying backwards across my room, problem in hand and large blog-shaped hole in computer... but let's hope that doesn't happen, and that I instead simply find and enable the obviously obscure "freedom of speech" option.
In the mean time, you can still send me feedback!