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Thursday, May 31, 2007
Brighton Bloggers aggregated RSS
I've just added a new section to Brighton Bloggers to take the last 30 or so blogs from the aggregated RSS feed and display them on the site. Hopefully, for those who don't want to read all the posts via RSS they can still get a flavour of what is on offer from participants.
It is written in PHP and is a customised version of the PHP RSS Reader originally written by Richard James Kendall. The script was really easy to customise and I'm really pleased with how it looks. I could do with a better word than Aggregated though, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
It is written in PHP and is a customised version of the PHP RSS Reader originally written by Richard James Kendall. The script was really easy to customise and I'm really pleased with how it looks. I could do with a better word than Aggregated though, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
Labels: Aggregation, Brighton Bloggers, php, RSS, sussexdigital
// posted by Jane @ 8:17 PM 
Comments:
So 2 weeks in...
So 2 weeks in at my new job and so far so good.
My first week was mainly an induction week. My first couple of days I met with quite a lot of the Director's and Heads Of to get to know the history of Madgex, as well as an overview of what each department does. I followed my induction plan of tasks to try out, and so spent time familiarising myself with the toolkit and the standard content management system. My first week was also highly social, with a company night out on Thursday at Yellowwave for beach volleyball and a bbq, a Friday lunchtime pre-wedding drinks for the system analyst and then the evening at the company pub before heading off to move the twitter crowd at The Eagle.
This week started with a client meeting for the project I'm going to be working on for the next 3 or 4 months. It is going to be a job board based on the Origin Job Board but with some quite specific customisations and is going to be quite challenging in places. It is going to be an ASP.NET and SQL Server 2005 project and will result in an admin site, several front-end web sites and a web service to upload jobs. I'm sure I'll post more about it as I make progress.
Next week there is another new developer starting, so I won't be the newbie anymore :-)
My first week was mainly an induction week. My first couple of days I met with quite a lot of the Director's and Heads Of to get to know the history of Madgex, as well as an overview of what each department does. I followed my induction plan of tasks to try out, and so spent time familiarising myself with the toolkit and the standard content management system. My first week was also highly social, with a company night out on Thursday at Yellowwave for beach volleyball and a bbq, a Friday lunchtime pre-wedding drinks for the system analyst and then the evening at the company pub before heading off to move the twitter crowd at The Eagle.
This week started with a client meeting for the project I'm going to be working on for the next 3 or 4 months. It is going to be a job board based on the Origin Job Board but with some quite specific customisations and is going to be quite challenging in places. It is going to be an ASP.NET and SQL Server 2005 project and will result in an admin site, several front-end web sites and a web service to upload jobs. I'm sure I'll post more about it as I make progress.
Next week there is another new developer starting, so I won't be the newbie anymore :-)
Labels: job
// posted by Jane @ 6:46 PM
Comments:
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Brighton Girl Geek Dinner - Fishbowl
A change in format for this month's Girl Geek Dinner - a fishbowl format discussion on what is a girl geek.
I was a little aprehensive about this event, and wasn't sure what to expect but I have to say it was immensely enjoyable and worked really well. I'm not sure we got an answer to the question but we went on some interesting journeys touching on whether we even like the phrase "girl geek", what is a geek (someone who bites the head of chickens), why more women aren't going into IT, what stops women going to conferences etc
I also won a prize, a copy of Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS, and DOM Scripting with an introduction by Brighton's own Andy Budd. It looks like a good collection of topics by some knowledgable people.
All in all another great Girl Geek Dinner.
I was a little aprehensive about this event, and wasn't sure what to expect but I have to say it was immensely enjoyable and worked really well. I'm not sure we got an answer to the question but we went on some interesting journeys touching on whether we even like the phrase "girl geek", what is a geek (someone who bites the head of chickens), why more women aren't going into IT, what stops women going to conferences etc
I also won a prize, a copy of Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS, and DOM Scripting with an introduction by Brighton's own Andy Budd. It looks like a good collection of topics by some knowledgable people.
All in all another great Girl Geek Dinner.
Labels: Brighton, event, Geek Dinner, sussexdigital
// posted by Jane @ 9:56 PM
Comments:
Friday, May 18, 2007
London Women in Engineering Tech Talk Night
Last night, Rosie and I headed off to Google to attend the London Women in Engineering Tech Talk. I've never been to the Google offices before, although Richard has, and I must admit that this was part of the appeal. Additionally, I'm on holiday at the moment and so knew that the 6pm start wasn't going to be a problem.
The talk was "The benefits of putting objects into boxes, using pencil and paper" by Dr Sophia Drossopoulou and was quite technical in places, needing me to pull out some long discarded set theory from the recesses of my mind. All very interesting though.
Both during the drinks reception, and the meal it became apparent to both Rosie and I that a different crowd of people attended this event than attend either the Brighton Girl Geek Dinners or the Sussex Geek Dinners. Firstly, being in Brighton, it is very easy to forget about the world of computing outside of the web, we are so web focussed down here. Secondly, a lot of the people I spoke to were academics, either studying for a PhD or having recently completed one. This made for some interesting conversations, finding out about research into various different (non-web) areas.
I visited the toilets and was amused by the "Testing in the toilets" newsletter that was on the door. Rosie pointed out that the content had been made into a public blog with a link to the pdfs to allow you to download and display the latest post. Seems like a novel idea to me.
On leaving we were given a bag of girlie goodies, and sitting on the train Rosie and I pooled our goodies with huge smiles on our faces.
Note: I asked about taking photographs, and was told that I could only take photos in the presentation room, so that is why my flickr set doesn't have any photos of food, the canteen or any of the artwork. The Automation Testing Conference in September didn't have the same restrictions, so the flickr group for that has some google office pictures.
The talk was "The benefits of putting objects into boxes, using pencil and paper" by Dr Sophia Drossopoulou and was quite technical in places, needing me to pull out some long discarded set theory from the recesses of my mind. All very interesting though.
Both during the drinks reception, and the meal it became apparent to both Rosie and I that a different crowd of people attended this event than attend either the Brighton Girl Geek Dinners or the Sussex Geek Dinners. Firstly, being in Brighton, it is very easy to forget about the world of computing outside of the web, we are so web focussed down here. Secondly, a lot of the people I spoke to were academics, either studying for a PhD or having recently completed one. This made for some interesting conversations, finding out about research into various different (non-web) areas.
I visited the toilets and was amused by the "Testing in the toilets" newsletter that was on the door. Rosie pointed out that the content had been made into a public blog with a link to the pdfs to allow you to download and display the latest post. Seems like a novel idea to me.
On leaving we were given a bag of girlie goodies, and sitting on the train Rosie and I pooled our goodies with huge smiles on our faces.
Note: I asked about taking photographs, and was told that I could only take photos in the presentation room, so that is why my flickr set doesn't have any photos of food, the canteen or any of the artwork. The Automation Testing Conference in September didn't have the same restrictions, so the flickr group for that has some google office pictures.
// posted by Jane @ 1:53 PM
Comments:
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Farewell Glass's
It's over. Tuesday was my last day in the office, tomorrow is my last day officially working for Glass's (I've taken my last 3 days of holiday so that I have some time "between jobs").
It has been a bit of a roller coaster since the announcement was made in January that we were "in consultation", and then in February that the decision had been made to close the Crowborough office.
The positives are that everyone has found new jobs, and ones that sound good as well, everything has been handed over successfully to the new development teams, be they in Kent, Hungary or Bulgaria, and at least my experience is that the outsourced partners have been very sympathetic to our position and been very understanding.
The negatives are of course saying Goodbye to friends and colleagues. We had a great leaving meal last Thursday, but it was tinged with sadness, at least for me. Every time anyone had left prior to that there was always "See you at the meal in May", but on Thursday evening it was a far more final "Goodbye".
So, all of that said, It is now time to move on, and I'm looking forward to starting at Madgex on Tuesday.
It has been a bit of a roller coaster since the announcement was made in January that we were "in consultation", and then in February that the decision had been made to close the Crowborough office.
The positives are that everyone has found new jobs, and ones that sound good as well, everything has been handed over successfully to the new development teams, be they in Kent, Hungary or Bulgaria, and at least my experience is that the outsourced partners have been very sympathetic to our position and been very understanding.
The negatives are of course saying Goodbye to friends and colleagues. We had a great leaving meal last Thursday, but it was tinged with sadness, at least for me. Every time anyone had left prior to that there was always "See you at the meal in May", but on Thursday evening it was a far more final "Goodbye".
So, all of that said, It is now time to move on, and I'm looking forward to starting at Madgex on Tuesday.
Labels: job
// posted by Jane @ 10:14 AM
Comments:
Good luck at your new job Jane! Madgex sound like a great company and I'm sure you'll do really well there.
I miss the people and the office views, but I think that Eurotax really lost their way recently and I wouldn't be suprised to see a much smaller Uk presence in the future.
The one lasting memory I will have is of the CEO (Big Kev) sitting on his marble desk and it crumbling beneath him. Genius!
I miss the people and the office views, but I think that Eurotax really lost their way recently and I wouldn't be suprised to see a much smaller Uk presence in the future.
The one lasting memory I will have is of the CEO (Big Kev) sitting on his marble desk and it crumbling beneath him. Genius!
Friday, May 11, 2007
2nd £5 App meeting
I attended another interesting £5 App Meet on Tuesday. This time concentrating on social start-ups.
As with last time there was free beer...
and this time there was cake too...
First up was Alan Newman speaking about effeffelle an fantasy football management game. It gave an interesting history into how this came about, where it is now, and what the plans are for its future.
Next up was Raj Anand talking about kwiqq, a social network builder. Lots more talk about networking (both in person and by frequent posts to BNM).
The jobs board was also launched and filled up with things people can do to help, or requests for help.
I acted as photographer again, this time using my new camera and it behaved well producing a decent record of the evening.
As with last time there was free beer...
and this time there was cake too...
First up was Alan Newman speaking about effeffelle an fantasy football management game. It gave an interesting history into how this came about, where it is now, and what the plans are for its future.
Next up was Raj Anand talking about kwiqq, a social network builder. Lots more talk about networking (both in person and by frequent posts to BNM).
The jobs board was also launched and filled up with things people can do to help, or requests for help.
I acted as photographer again, this time using my new camera and it behaved well producing a decent record of the evening.
Labels: Brighton, event, sussexdigital, £5 app
// posted by Jane @ 4:15 PM
Comments:
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
1st use of AppleCare
I've just had my first experience with AppleCare. My 1 year old MacBook lost all track of its battery - the little battery icon in the status bar showing X, when I plugged the power cable in the led just showed green at all times, and when I turned the laptop upside down and pressed the monitor button on the battery I got no little green lights - others have had the same problem.
I called up AppleCare and tried a few things, installed an upgrade, turned off and on again whilst holding down a combination of keys, etc. They suggested I take it to one of the service providers in my area to let them determine if it was a battery or a connection problem. Instead I trotted off down to Solutions Inc and the guys in there kindly let me try one of their batteries and pleasingly it all worked without a problem. So, on Monday morning I called AppleCare back and told them what I'd tried. End result, a shiny new battery which arrived today and I now have a laptop which is no longer tethered to the mains :-)
I called up AppleCare and tried a few things, installed an upgrade, turned off and on again whilst holding down a combination of keys, etc. They suggested I take it to one of the service providers in my area to let them determine if it was a battery or a connection problem. Instead I trotted off down to Solutions Inc and the guys in there kindly let me try one of their batteries and pleasingly it all worked without a problem. So, on Monday morning I called AppleCare back and told them what I'd tried. End result, a shiny new battery which arrived today and I now have a laptop which is no longer tethered to the mains :-)
// posted by Jane @ 2:04 PM
Comments:
Hey Jane - I think Apple just rock.
My one yr old decided she would take it upon herself to use my 80gb iPod as a bathtime playtoy (not as buoyant as a yellow duck i might add!)
Clearly buggered I called Apple to explain the problem - the sent a courier to pick up the dead iPod and within 5 working days I had a shiny new one (even with the engraving on the back!)
Now THAT'S customer service......
My one yr old decided she would take it upon herself to use my 80gb iPod as a bathtime playtoy (not as buoyant as a yellow duck i might add!)
Clearly buggered I called Apple to explain the problem - the sent a courier to pick up the dead iPod and within 5 working days I had a shiny new one (even with the engraving on the back!)
Now THAT'S customer service......
