Matthew Wilcoxson – Page 7 – Keep Calm and Carry on Coding

August 11, 2009August 1, 2010

WordPress – my new home

As you can see – assuming you are reading this on my blog – I’ve just moved over from blogger.com to my own space, notice the new web address: “http://blog.akademy.co.uk-tips” .

After having a quick look around I decided to go with WordPress, WordPress.org that is. WordPress.org is where you can download the very popular blogging PHP system and install it to your own website (WordPress.com is the website that hosts blogs for you for free).

I made the decision to switch becuase I wanted a bit more control over my blog and files than blogger could provide, and I wanted to be able to play with the back end too. I decided not to go down the line of creating one myself; usually I’d have put something together just to see how to do it – teaching myself as I went – but in this particular case, I’d have never had the time to make something I would have deemed stable enough for long term use. So WordPress.

All you need to install WordPress on your own website is PHP 4.3 or higher and MySql 4.0 or higher. Run through the installation guide you’ll get when you download all the files – it’s really quick and simple. I had my Blog installed in just about 10 minutes and most of that was uploading time.

Even better, I already had a couple of blogs on blogger.com but wanted to move them over. I thought this was going to be a bit of a nightmare but I was very wrong. I just gave WordPress the address and it downloaded everything automatically. Log in an Administrator and select Tools->Import->Blogger. Magic.

There’s also loads of themes and extensions for WordPress, which gives you a great deal of control over what you show and how you’d like it to be presented. You can really personalise it any way you’d like.

All in all I’ve been very impressed by WordPress. It’s simple to install, easy to extend, and a joy to use, and it’s used by millions everyday.

A few things to take into account if you are thinking of switching to your own host:

You’ll have to perform backups yourself: database and website.
You’ll have to upgrade the system yourself (although this is pretty striaght forward if you haven’t made any of your own changes.
Hosting your own webpages will usually cost a fee.

If you are looking to host your won blog then WordPress is throughly recommended.

May 28, 2009

Nokia hunt

Am enjoying the current Nokia Hunt game here:
http://blogs.nokia.com/nseries/index.php/search-for-n

The idea is you can win yourself a Nokia N97 (which I love!) for free! If you can find the answers then find the hidden phone that is…

My Nokia Blog is a good place to start too. http://mynokiablog.com/

Got two out of five so far, just three to go…

April 29, 2009

Blackbird javascript debugging with PHP

If you’re still using the javascript “alert()” function to output all of your debug information then take not: You need Blackbird!

Blackbird creates a little window to output all your javascript debugging information. When you need it, you can pop it up with a quick key press and all the output from your javascript programs is there.

You can put different types of information out to the window then filter the display to just show what you need. You have a choice of Information, Debug, Warning, Error or Profile. The first four just output text, but the last takes a label to start a timer, the next call with the same label outputs the time difference.

It’s really simple to install. Just include a little javascript and CSS file like this:

<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="/PATH/TO/blackbird.css" media="screen">
<script type="text/javascript" src="/PATH/TO/blackbird.js"></script>

Make sure the script tag is above any other javascript you might want to debug.

Now all you have to do is call one of the functions:

// Output text marked as debug:
log.debug( "I'm trying to debug this thing" );
// Output text marked as information:
log.info("Hello World!" );
// Start a timer with label testFunc1
log.profile("testFunc1");
// Stop the timer and output time (You'd usually do something between the two profile calls)
log.profile("testFunc1");

That’s all great and really useful. Most of the time however, you’ll not want to include the Blackbird code, so with a little bit of PHP magic you can choose, on the fly, when to include it. Place this code in your PHP file in the HEAD section of the resulting page:

if( isset( $_GET["debugging"] ) )
{
echo <<<END
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="/PATH/TO/blackbird.css" media="screen">
<script type="text/javascript" src="/PATH/TO/blackbird.js"></script>
END;
}
else
{
echo <<<END
<script type="text/javascript"><!-- <![CDATA[
var log={toggle:function(){},move:function(){},resize:function(){},clear:function(){},debug:function(){},info:function(){},warn:function(){},error:function(){},profile:function(){}};// ]]>-->
</script>
END;
}

So the simple idea here is that if you include “debugging” in your URL call then Blackbird code will be included, at all other times the log functions are set to empty so no code will be output. This allows you to leave the actual debug calls in your code, without them causing errors or being display.

Here’s how my page works with this:
With debug (don’t forget to press F2)
http://www.akademy.co.uk/index.php?debugging
And without:
http://www.akademy.co.uk/index.php

The javascript “alert()” function doesn’t even come close!

Check out Blackbird here: http://www.gscottolson.com/blackbirdjs/

March 31, 2009

HP miniNote review (vs the Asus minibook)

General

The HP miniNote is a fine piece of kit, but I question whether it’s much of a Netbook. In fact I’d place it in a position somewhere between a Netbook and a full laptop…

The specs are pretty impressive though – the one I’m using has a 10 Inch screen, 2Gb of RAM, 1.6 Ghz process and an impressive 150 Gb of Hard drive space. The battery length is also pretty impressive, I’ve easily had five hours out of it, with estimates of up to 8 hours claimed. The size is bigger than other netbooks but still much small than most laptops. You can get a feel for it’s size from the following images:

It’s keyboard feels like a full size one – your fingers fit the keys and make typing a breeze – but is still slightly smaller than standard. You can happily type away on it for a good deal of time, it would be ideal to take with you down the coffee house for a quick drink, although prolonged typing did make my fingers feel a little cramped after a time.

Comparison
Here’s the the HP mini next to the Asus miniNote:

The HP is clearly a lot wider which could make it a little harder to carry around. Another problem for its netbook credentials is its start up time. A good test of a netbook is the time it takes from when it’s switched on until the time you can get a web page up, say a weather forecast. I believe this would be a typical use for a net book. Time comparison:

HP MiniNote Switch on to desktop : 72 seconds Switch on to Website: 235 seconds
Asus MiniBook Switch on to desktop : 25 seconds Switch on to Website: 85 seconds

I believe this is mostly due to the different operating systems they run (Linux on Asus, XP on HP). The Asus operating system was specifically created for speed, add even on a much slower machine the speed is impressive. The linux operating system could in theory be installed to the HP making a really impressive peice of kit.

Cost is somewhat prohibative too. The original Asus at the moment costs about £195 while the HP can cost around £450, this is well within the full laptop cost area.

Conclusion
The HP is a really great sub notebook, ideal for when you need to do a little work away from you office or home. Think of it as a really small laptop, placed somewhere between a netbook and a laptop, great for typing, not so great for a quick internet update.

February 17, 2009

Galaxy Zoo Two

It’s back, and better than ever before. Now you can help classify galaxies in even more detail, but still with the excitement of exploring the cosmos and helping expend human knowledge further.

Take part here.

But to see some great evidence of why it’s helpful to take part see this page. It shows galaxies never before seen and certainly not categorised neatly divided up into lots of categories. The “anything odd” section has some really interesting objects in. More info from the Galaxy zoo blog here.

See also: Human computing power. (2008-10-20), Intergalatic Explorer. (2007-07-13)

February 3, 2009

Mars goes Google.

The beautiful Google Earth program has gone Martian. The planet Mars is now explorable in full 3D (not just an overlay).

See Olympus Mons rise above the distant horizon or fly down Valles Marines in a full 3D projection. You can even follow the landers progresses, and view some of the panaromic high resolution shots just as the rovers Spirit or Opportunity saw them.

This video from the official “unoffical” Google Earth blog clearly shows of some of the best features:

Just download Google Earth, click on the planet button in the toolbar and select Mars. Some informative pictures here too:
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2009/02/google_earth_5_the_new_google_mars.html

January 31, 2009August 1, 2010

Teaching programming to the masses.

Most people believe it’s easiest to learn new things when you are young, however, I believe if you are still able to think then you are still able to learn, but there is one good reason for learning earlier and that’s the time to practice and gain experience.

Starting to learn programming early certainly has it’s benefits, the best ones are almost always the ones who started when they were young, and this leads us to the main part of this blog: Teaching Programmers.

I grew up programming the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, not an experience I’d want anyone else to try, (though it was pretty clever for its time). This was always a rather loney pursuit, and in many cases, still is. However, programming has come a long way since then, object orientated programming was a massive improvement and Garbage Collectors have improved far enough to be pretty fast and reliable.

But has the way we program really changed that much? Well, no not really. All programming comes down to opening up a file and writing symbols in certain orders that only a select few can understand. How does the majority learn what’s going on? Isn’t it a little strange that the world over uses software but a tiny minority actually know how to create it?

Well, I think so, but the good news is that programming is slowly going mainstream, and there’s several really useful and fun pieces of software available to teach it, here’s my top picks.

Alice (http://www.alice.org/) (Personal Favourite!)
With this you first create a 3D world with characters and props through a simple drag and drop interface. You then control what happens through coding. The tutorial is excellent and gets you going immediatey. It won’t be long before you are creating your own little world (See mine here)

Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/)
Two-dimensional images can be controlled to make all kinds of interesting games and tools. There’s a large list of examples created by people across the world.

Kudo (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/)
This one is especially for creating games and just looks really nice. The programming is just drag and drop.

Karel (http://mormegil.wz.cz/prog/karel/prog_doc.htm)
This isn’t actually a program but a fully fledge programming language. But it’s designed especially for people new to programming.

December 4, 2008

The Collectors tales of beedle the bard.

Wowzers…

It’s in my hand… and … it has got to be the nicest looking book I have ever seen!

Don’t read on if you want to keep what’s in the collectors edition a surprise

The outer box looks like an old book is embossed with the drawing JK made for the front of the original. Open it up and there’s a wallet on the back of the front cover containing “Collector’s Edition Prints” In the main box is a recess contained a velvet looking pouch with JK’s signature stitched in gold.

In side the pouch is the 180 page book. Three dimensional metal engravings appear on the front, with a skull in the centre with emerald eyes. There’s a lock on the side that appears to magically unlock just when it needs to.

The text and images inside look like they have been penned in by hand, and some of the text has definitely been done this way (although is probably been magically reproduced).

I’m sure it will raise lots of money for the Children’s High Level Group. Thanks to JK Rowling and Amazon.

November 29, 2008February 5, 2011

Star trek XI

The new trailer for the Star trek 11 is now out. And it looks really great.

It doesn’t start out as your typical star trek, in fact there’s no sign it is star trek until a fair way in.

I don’t want to spoil it if you haven’t already seen it so watch it before reading on:
http://www.startrekmovie.com/

My favourite visual must be the building of the enterprise, that looks great. The new crew even looks like the new crew (except Uhura’s been replaced by a model and Scotty looks like he’s been on a crash diet…).

Some favourite shots below:

From Star Trek 11

November 16, 2008

Phishing for phishers: An idea

Phishing

I just had another phishing email today and had an idea how to fight against it. (Phishing is an email which looks like it is from one company but was actually from someone else, they are designed to steal your login details – Hence, they were “fishing” for my details)

I was curious to know how close the dummy login page looked to the real one (I should point out at this point you should never normally even click on a link on email like this, it can be really unsafe!). So that you don’t have to try this I show two images below for you to have a look at:

As you can see, they are pretty identical (the first one is the fake one).

Taking care
Don’t worry, it isn’t hard to avoid these phishing scams. Here’s a few tips to help you catch these.

Is it likely?
Firstly, it’s actually quite unlikely that your bank would suddenly need to contact you for any reason. If somethings important, they’ll almost certainly send a letter.

Avoid links
If you do recieve an email and you think it is genuine, don’t use any links embedded in the email, instean open your Internet browser and type the name in manually, or use one of your own bookmarks if you have one.

Fake URL’s
If you do use a link inside an email (or even on the internet) it’s a good idea to check what the URL is. This appears in the box, usually at the top of your browser (For instance, this website’s URL is: “http://akademy-tips.blogspot.com/” you should see this in the box).

Phisihers usually attempt to trick you by including the real one with their own. For instance, this is a fake url: “http://akademy-tips.blogspot.com.fakingit.com/” – notice the additional text at the end “fakingit.com” – this is actually the real address of the website.

Always check the right most text of the top URL part. This is the part between the “http://” (or “https://”) and the first “/”, e.g. (in bold):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/merlin/episodes/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://akademy-tips.blogspot.com.fakingit.com/
http://akademy-tips.blogspot.com/

Many modern browsers actually highlight this part for you now.

An idea
Once you’ve realised what’s going on, any information can be added into these websites. In fact simply entering dummy account information will start to put of the phishers, however a much more ingenious thing to do would be for the real companies affected by these emails to set up dummy accounts, and then enter these details into the phishing websites.

Now, as soon as these dummy details are entered on the real website a company can take immediate actions to stop them, perhaps logging and banning their IP address, so that no real accounts can be used from that position. Alternatively, with the help of the police, perhaps money transfers could be tracked as they are made.

Of course, it’s highly likely that this is already taking place. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before these people are caught.

Let me know what you think.