Pembi's Random Ramblings » Ken

Pembi is for hire!

Ken — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:43:43 +0000

If you know of anyone who needs a hot-shot IT guru on the team, give them a copy of my CV (or refer them here).If they have no sense of humour, you may prefer to give them the plain, boring version, or refer them to my LinkedIn profile. But either way, any help in finding me a new challenge would be much appreciated.

Normal service will resume…

Ken — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:26:46 +0000

…as soon I figure out what is normal.

Sorry for the lack of updates, my work situation got extremely demanding, right up to the point where I suddenly found myself unemployed.

If you know of anyone looking for a hot technical manager, please grab a copy of my CV and throw it at them. If they have no sense of humour, or prefer just the facts, then there’s a dry, business-like one here.

PswGen Progress Report

Ken — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:37:10 +0000

Actually, it’s more of a lack-of-progress report, I’m afraid.

But more coming soon, so watch this space! I now have a Mac, and a few days off work. Once I get my head around the very odd way Apple wants you to write software, I’ll have an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch version released in short order.

Mr. Fry, please explain?

Ken — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:02:10 +0000

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Stephen Fry. The man’s a genius. I’m also a fan of eBooks (a full review of my marvellous magical Kindle will follow shortly). But this just upsets me. You’re charging me MORE for the electronic copy than the hardcover tree-killing version?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fry-Chronicles/dp/B0042JTA56

Oh, come on! This just smacks of blatant profiteering. There is NO reason for this, other than greed. Once the paper versions have been published, the cost of producing, selling and distributing electronic equivalents is almost nothing at all.

I had a similar argument with Waterstone’s recently, and it seems I’m just farting against thunder.

It would be nice if the esteemed Mr. Fry did manage to respond, but to tell the truth I doubt he’ll actually even read this. More a rant to get it out of my system than anything else. [/sulk]

Simply the best curry in town…

Ken — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:37:21 +0000

I’ve raved about this place before, and I’ll probably do it again: Aziz Khan restaurant in the Compton Acres shopping precinct.
Service is fast and attentive. Food arrives quickly. Quality is absolutely top-notch. And it’s good value too. What more could you ask for?

Unfortunately it seems as if AzizKhan is a bit of a secret. Now I don’t mind having my favourite restaurant all to myself, but that can’t be good for business. So spread the word, folks! If you enjoy a good curry, give them a try. Then tell your friends how great it was.

PswGen is lagging a little…

Ken — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:18:30 +0000

With apologies to those of you who’ve complained that PswGen hasn’t kept up with Firefox updates.
I will get to it, I promise! Things are just really busy at the moment. I plan to include some improvements in the next release, specifically a “slim” version where the only visible presence is a button on the main toolbar. Or perhaps just an entry on the context menu? What do you think?

And by popular demand, there is also a Google Chrome version in the works.

Hang in there, folks! In the meantime, the standalone windows executable, sidebar/desktop widget and original Python application are all still available on the password generator project page, and of course the web service is at http://pwd.pembi.net as always.

First Rails, now Cake!

Ken — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 12:15:27 +0000

After my brief flirt with Ruby on Rails (see previous post), I decided to have a play with CakePHP too. A similar concept, implemented slightly differently, with (obviously) PHP doing the heavy lifting rather than Ruby.

So what’s the skinny?
According to book.cakephp.org, CakePHP is

a free, open-source, rapid development framework for PHP. It’s a foundational structure for programmers to create web applications.

CakePHP takes the monotony out of web development. We provide you with all the tools you need to get started coding what you really need to get done: the logic specific to your application.

MVC architecture.

Fast and flexible templating.

(I just picked a couple of the highlights from that page)
Cake vs Rails?
RoR nearly fell at the first hurdle. Getting the damn thing to work at all was the biggest problem, and I nearly gave up a couple of times. Cake was *much* simper.

More to follow shortly, I’m still playing! Will update this post as I go.

Riding the Rails

Ken — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:13:20 +0000

I had a little work project to do recently, a simple online database-updater. Nothing fancy, two small related tables, fairly standard master/detail stuff. So just for a giggle (and ‘coz I’m a geek) I thought I’d take RoR for a test-drive. Woohoo what a ride! Within about 15 minutes, following an online tutorial, I’d installed everything I needed, and had a fully-functional web application to insert, update and delete data on one of the tables.
Obviously, a single simple little app like this is nothing to roar about (pun intended), but the fact is that RoR had built a comprehensive application framework for me. I haven’t written a line of Ruby code yet, and I’m able to maintain a table. I wonder how far into this I can get without coding? Watch this space…

Yes, please!

Ken — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:18:09 +0000

Healthier Smoking!

Ken — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:57:52 +0000

Not ready to completely give up, but sick of the smell and expense of cigarettes? And of course the fact that you’re not allowed to smoke anywhere you might want to? Then try these: Electronic cigarettes that deliver your nicotine hit just the way you like it. Without actually producing any smoke. So there’s no worries about secondary smoke, smelly clothes or stained fingers, teeth and walls.