Now, most (if not all of you) will be aware that the Linux Site is getting out of date and we were about to do an overhaul to bring it kicking and screaming into 2006. However, as things were about to begin a debate opened up as to keeping it “for posterity.”

Overall, I am not a nostalgic person, however some of the comments made did make sense and now there is a bit of a rething going on.

Plan A (the original favourite) is that we use the current site, bin all the old data and revise everything in line with 2006 software, hardware and prices.

Plan B (which is growing in support) is that we retain the “old” site and create a whole new section for 2006 – new style, new prices etc.

Please, feel free to let me know what you think (email/posts/news/blogs etc) and in a couple of weeks the outcome of “public opinion” should be visible on the site 🙂

It is with great pain and suffering I have to make this rant today. I am a big fan of Linux and love it. It is running now. I am using it to play music, download USENET artciles, render and image and burn a cd all at the same time – right now!

However, I have to confess to one pretty significant annoyance.

Webdesign.

Now, given *nix’s functionality on the internet, you would think that it would be the ideal platform for web development. Largely it is. Native FTP / SSH is wonderful. It is an easy task to SSH into the webhost and make changes directly. I can set up cron jobs to automatically update / refresh / back up my files etc.

However, there is big failing – there is nothing to compare with Dreamweaver. Nothing. Nvu is good – very good – but at anything other than static HTML pages it becomes a terrible chore to use it. I have been trying to use it for site development for quite some time now – and overall, I have had to resort to going back to the Wintelbox and using Dreamweaver.

Now, on price issues NVU wins hands down. If I was purchasing this for my own use I would never have even contemplated DW. There is always the chance that years of practice fighting DW may mean I am biased but I would be interested to see anyone who has tried both, and finds NVU is better for PHP/ASP driven sites.

For info and interest (well it is interesting to technical nerds), I am going to look at trialing Hamachi by setting up a secure VPN. Over the next couple of weeks I will look at how it functions and see if it lives up to its promises. Any thing I find / work out (etc) will be posted here.

http://www.bunchball.com/

http://www.krugle.com/

 

Short one for now – has anyone found linkedin.com actually helps them build their “real world” networds and improves their contacts?

Just curious and would love to know.

Just when you thought I would never be happy with Ajax, I see there is an article about using ColdFusion with Ajax to produce websites. It seems finding Ajaxian.com was a major step forwards for me. Now, this CFML idea has (at last) fired a few brain cells and provided some inspiration. The article (thanks to Ajaxian.com where I found the link) has the following extract:

This is for ColdFusion aficionados who want to use Ajax. Ajax is implemented in such a way that ColdFusion method calls on the server gets executed using JavaScript a la Ajax. This tutorial shows you where to get the code and how to implement it on your local server.

As you would expect, I will also describe an (extremely simple) to show how the code works. After this the reader may experiment with other samples provided by the CFAjax site. Some of the examples may not work immediately unless the virtual directory for testing is set up in a certain way.

(from http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/ColdFusion/CFAjax-What-it-is-and-How-to-Use-it/)

Now, things are looking up a bit on the Ajax front and hopefully I will be able to dedicate some time to learning / exploring all these new ideas. Shame I have an environmental science essay to hand in soon 🙁

Well, following on from the (very) recent entry about Ajax tutorials I found some one else has gone a long way towards doing all the groundwork for me. The blog at Ajaxian.com (aptly named :-)) has a round up of Ajax Tutorials (from Max Kiesler) which I am going to spend the weekend looking over.

I know it is early on, but initial impressions are good. While it seems that this site is, pretty much, a reshash of the list at Max Kiesler’s site (http://www.maxkiesler.com/index.php/ weblog/comments/round_ up_of_30_ajax_tutorials/) the Ajaxian one is “easier” on the eyes. I dont mean to be rude about he Max Kiesler site but it is a lot harder to use, so unless the Ajaxian one lets me down, that will be my main source.

I intend to keep this blog updated with my progress (if any). If you have any questions or tips, please let me know 🙂

Well, my on going quest to find the holy grail of AJAX tutorials has not improved much in the last week. I have tried working my way through Pragmatic Ajax and I have tried an array of online examples. All to no avail. I would be great if I was looking to re-invent Google Earth or if I was running a stock control package but (at least, at the moment ) I am not so they are all pretty much pointless leads.

Is it honestly too much to ask for a sensible tutorial which will explain in human readable terms what is actually so good about this all singing, all dancing web 2.0 we keep hearing about? Apparently so. Using the wonders of the internet, I did a technorati search on “AJAX Tutorial” (http://technorati.com/search/AJAX%20tutorial) and the results were enlightening.

Sadly, they were not all that good for producing inspiring, educational, tutorials.

One of the “better” ones there was http://www.symfony-project.com/content/book/page/sortable.html – which, like most Ajax tutorials presents a reall world example of what you can do with the technology. Now, this is a good tutorial. It is well written and as interesting & engaging as any of the others out there.

Sadly, where it all falls down for me is the time:benefit scenario. As you can see, this tutorial shows you how to use Ajax to create a cool list that you can re-order as you see fit. Wow. Visit the site, it is good, and check out the amount of code required to achieve this goal.

Now it is wonderful that you can do this sort of thing with Ajax. It looks cool. It is “high tech” and will impress people in meetings. However, what is its actual purpose? Does it have a reason? Why on Earth would you justify the amount of coding time to get this into a webpage when, all it does is reorder a list. I am amazed. Flash has done this in half the time for an eternity.

Am I missing something or is “Web 2.0” genuinely smoke and mirrors without even having mirrors? Is there any reason to spend the time and effort getting to grips with the techniques involved? Why do job advertisments and contracts already specify understanding and skill of “Web 2.0” as a requirement?

Has the world gone mad?

Mini rant for today. I have a new all singing, all dancing combo printer/scanner (photocopier/fax) machine which to be honest worked a dream and installed in microseconds on Windows XP and Server 2003.

Now, remembering that I am die hard linux fan, there is no chance this machine was going to escape the attentions of the SuSE or Ubuntu machines. Howeve Lexmark, in their infinite wisdom have decided against using CUPS (standard install on most linux boxes) to drive their printers.

Nightmare. Needless to say getting it working in Ubuntu was easier said than done, and so far I havent managed to get it running in SuSE as that requires removing CUPS entirely – it is needed for other hardware.

Argh.

At last Digg.com has found our site 🙂 This was submitted yesterday after the (ahem) discussion about the bad science that is brain gym.

A review of a badscience peice on Brain Gym crap. Interesting deconstruction of the comments people have made and how this is just increasing the badscience content.

Thanks to anyone who visits from Digg.com.

read more | digg story

Well, I have never claimed to be a genius (actually I claim it all the time) but today I must admit to having been given a lesson about something I should now very well. 🙁 Trackbacks!

As someone who spends a fair amount of time desiging web pages, creating web applications etc, you would think I had remained at least passably up to speed with the assorted technologies.

Obviously not.

Not only do I humiliate myself on the AJAX front (when I have to finally admit to being in the dark about what it can be used for other than maps), I realised today that the “trackback” bit of a blog meant nothing to me. I have seen it millions of times yet had no idea how to utilise it. The shame will haunt me forever.

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to find a useful website with advice on what I was missing. Sadly I am still not sure of the best way to trackback to them, so they know they are being talked about but I suspect one of these links will do the trick: http://www.walsallschools.org/2006/02/10#a366 or http://www.walsallschools.org/newsItems/trackback/ping$366 or http://www.walsallschools.org/2006/02/10/HowTo-Trackback

If anyone knows the answer – please tell me….

Well, to correct a mistake in my last entry – you can buy Pragmatic AJAX – I was speaking from very dated experience.

So far I have found this book useful – if you want to check it out, Amazon sell copies of Pragmatic AJAX for £16.99. Money well spent.

Shock – Horror! I think I have found a solution to my AJAX problems. (Previously discussed but in a nutshell, I have been casting about for a combination of tutorial and inspiration).

After much (well, OK, maybe two days) research online I decided that the Pragmatic Programmers books may hold the potential. As if by magic, a quick trip to the website hit gold. They have a “beta book” called Pragmatic Ajax. What more could I ask for?

Now, this is a beta book so it isn’t available to buy yet but for US$37.45 you can get a PDF version and they will ship you the paper book when it is finished.

I have only skimmed over this so far, but from first impressions it looks very good.

Over the next few weeks I will post updates as to how it goes.

Well, I thought it would be worthwhile keeping people updated on my progress with AJAX………

Sadly, so far, my progress has been non-existant.

Hopefully more insight and inspiration will follow. It may just be time to branch into new areas….

Got it to work with KNode (took around 60 seconds to be honest). Now I have a nice  X-Face on usenet which looks a bit like .

Now I am all happy.