Good Links Vol 1.

Some cool links on my internet travels at night.


1. Here is an interesting read build-a-hackintosh
2. British women converting to islam
4. This made me laugh!! finally a spoof of inception 








There will be more to come to this section - so stayed tuned... :O)

php mysql tired

I've been away for quite some time now, not really had the time to update this blog. Although I feel I should start using my own webhosting for bloggin. Whats new with me, well PHP, MYSQL and vtiger CRM version 4.2.3.

Its fascinating on one hand as you have to decided whether to upgrade the existing system or update the existing one. Benefits of updating is that there is very little user training involved, however a 5 year old php web based application seems incredibly outdated when you look at the exciting stuff that is currently out there. Upgrading has its benefits but could be time consuming....and its difficult for me to predict how long it will take to do such a thing. Whats more interesting is that everything has changed on the user experience you have ZOHO, Sugar, Vtiger 5, and lots more - however the big thing is when real businesses use it and the customisations they ask for - ( bare in mind most of these web apps have very common features) - thats when things start to get a little tricky. Take for example reporting, reporting can be such a huge thing and yet there most of these although do provide reporting features its not full-set - in that you cant report on every single module within the application. You can only report on what has been decided is worth reporting on. Secondly the biggest issue is custom fields say you want custom field on a section that doesn't exist or you want to create sub-section ( I know Sugar provides this, and its great ) but what about if you have 500 hundred custom fields? Are you supposed to sit there and type every single one in? Why not just have a CSV file telling what a field name is, its type and length - simple, and then import that into the system?

I've had to learn PHP, MYSQL all over again and by MYSQL what I mean is SQL programming, and the biggest problem is not learning a language but learning how to edit an existing program written already. Its like trying to find the ingredients for a particular cuisine by taste, cutting the food up, seeing what works what doesn't.....its a tough mountain to climb but not an impossible one.

• You hit a block but can't move on until you figured out how to fix another block you've already hit. 
• Certain short-cuts you made years ago come back to haunt you!
• Programming is hard, and its difficult learning somebody else's system
• Comprise, but how much you want to please your end users and give them what they want, yet it goes without saying that some of the smallest tasks in the users mind can be the most difficult to achieve.
• Documentation is hard to do, and when the only person is you - who do you turn to for advice.

I am tired, but at the same time its 2am (GMT) here in London and I'm fascinated by SQL. Its got me hook line and sinker! The data manipulation possibilities are endless and you can do so much, its keeping me awake just thinking about it - hence why I'm still here. I love the fact that its been around for so long its got history and its still here, refined, reproduced and perfected.

I'll leave you with this amazing tune by the incredible Ronald Jenkees.

if only I could start again a million miles away....

and you could have it all, my empire of dirt.
I won't let you down, I won't make you hurt.



Once again a few (yes they are few) people/developers flock against Apple regarding how apps are developed for the iphone. I don't think its a big deal. In my opinion its a small detail if you want develop for the iphone - you simply have to develop with tools that Apple say you can - so whats wrong with that? Nothing, its their creation and so let it be.

I agree with them on this one - as an individual developer I agree with Apple. Sometimes I feel that by placing limits on artist/developers you usually get better - more creative results. Throughout history man has done with little, then what he has done with a lot. I mean there are a lot of rich people now, and there tonnes of developer tools for the Windows platform, but there are only a few memorable apps for Windows. BeOS had some interesting apps, but then again it was way ahead of everything at the time...so the whole OS felt radical. Whereas the iphone has alot of apps that I want to show off to my mates who don't own one....I mean its like using butter, its so well crafted, and engineered beautifully that one just wants to show how marvellous it is to use.


So I have to admit around last year or before I was a bit disappointed with the whole Flash not being on my iphone, but now im over it, and it feels like an old argument. As a flash developer - I can see where Apple are coming from and regardless whether they say its buggy for the iphone, or if there is some ulterior motive to keep Adobe away, its Apple's choice and their decision and as a creative mind - I always like a challenge - thus I've been reading/learning more about CSS/HTML and just working on the idea of making more mobile friendly websites - I love touch screen.

What is interesting is how fans still argue about Hurt a song by Nine inch Nails (Trent Razor), which was covered by Johnny Cash in 2002, a lot of people still don't know it was written by Trent in 1994 and Cash covered it - what they automatically assume (like me) is that since Cash is such a legend he must have wrote it and every other artist covered it. Its funny reading the angry comments on youtube...personally I initially liked the Cash version, after hearing Sevendust live acoustic cover - I'm blown away by it - its my favourite version.



I have to be honest I don't look forward to Adobe CS suites, its not a joy for me to use. I remember everything about using photoshop/paintshop pro/ back in the day on a performa 5320 in school, photoshop was the dogs biscuit. I wonder what Apple have up their sleeve, they've nailed the video market with FCP, it'll be interesting to see what they do next.

Out of all of this - the biggest loser must be intel. I mean they don't make processors for mobiles and eventually mobile usage will surpass PC/Laptop. Now that we shall soon have Nvidia chips on mobiles dedicated to HD quality, low power consumption devices + ARM Chips - is there really any need for the Intel/AMD giants - in the long term? I wonder.