One of the ways in which my PHP coding style has evolved is the way in which long statements can be split over several lines. This takes advantage of the free-form nature of PHP, and saves the need to create intermediate variables that are only used once; it also encourages staying within reasonable character margins, […]

I’ve used a small web hosting firm called Sonnet Hosting for about five years, primarily as an email provider. Whilst something like Hotmail might be more reliable, I prefer to pay a small monthly sum to get some control over how my email works. Firstly, I prefer to use email on my own domain names, […]

Some months ago, I purchased the MagicShine MJ-808 front headlight for my bike, and in general I’ve been very pleased with it. The light output is amazing, reportedly 900 lumens worth; I now flood the road with a very usable light, as well as being very visible to oncoming traffic. I did have some problems […]

I should start a new Googlebomb: useless. But first, I should explain. I purchased a £26 rail ticket from London Midland from Birmingham to London back in December, and found that I wasn’t able to go after all. So, I applied for a refund online, prior to the travel date, and received an email that […]

I am currently working on a project proposal that will allow the user to design and build their own Propel database, and to connect it to a database instance. I’d originally intended to use the propel-gen script plus a re-written build.properties file on every call, but I decided that this wasn’t very elegant, and that […]

I’m quite a fan of Propel, having used it with Symfony since the 1.2.x days. That version was relatively slow, as it used its own data access layer; it wasn’t until 1.3 that it switched to the much faster PDO approach. Nevertheless, the ability to create objects and persist them, to look up items without […]

I only use Pastie for work, and so rarely have reason to share snippets publicly. During a design discussion, it’s easy to forget to tick the ‘private’ feature – hence this GM script, which does it completely automatically. I forget my head sometimes… Updated 15 Mar 2011: added second URL without ‘www’ alias.

I am currently working on a PHP class to manipulate SVG documents, using PHP’s SimpleXML to handle the XML structure. I found myself needing to reset the namespaced attribute “xlink:href” in the following XML block: Finding the necessary info proved somewhat difficult, so I’m recording it here for posterity. Firstly, note that obtaining namespaced attributes […]

I’ve reviewed my new electric bike, a Juicy Sport, for the benefit of anyone interested in sustainable transport. The pics are in this post, and the review is here.

I’ve been meaning for some time to review my new electric bicycle, to aid anyone in the UK market. I purchased a Juicy Bike from Eco Republic in Buxton, with the intention of transitioning away from car ownership. I thought I’d bought an Original Sport, but mine has a rear rack and light; however, it […]

This week I started a new job, which came with a nice shiny new MacBook Pro – running OS X. I’m brand new to this platform, and whilst I prefer the openness of Linux, the Mac appears to just work. It’s flawless with wifi, mobile internet, secondary monitors – everything I’ve thrown at it. Meanwhile […]

Following my musings on the quality of PHP roles in the Midlands, I thought I’d record some of the problems of looking for IT work, and offer some notes on how I’m tackling the search. If you’re a techie with itchy feet, and would be interested in a fresh set of ideas, read on! To […]