Jul/071
Macs. OK, they’re good
This post isn't going to mean much if you're not a developer - just a quick warning before I start.
So this past week I've been struggling to get my PC to serve up a website properly. It's a pretty complex site, with a 50MB MySQL database,PHP & Apache and the bloody PC just wouldn't do it. I've only ever done this kind of thing on Windows, and I'm not that good at it to begin with.
The only option seemed to be a newly build PC server, and I don't have any computers lying around that I could do that on. So I decided as a last resort I'd see if I could set up the proper environment on my mac. I knew it was possible, but..... it's a mac. And I don't exactly have fingertipcontrol of the inner workings of the thing.
Step 1 - So first things first; Apache. Yep, OSX has it built in and I've seen it working, but I needed to change the httpd.config thingy & the only way to do that was Terminal. Command line editing - a brave new world. I can do that now. Open, edit and save theApache config file and restart the server, debugging a broken server if I've cocked it up. So that was step 1 out of the way & PHP 4 was enabled.
Step 2 - MySQL. I found a package and that went without a hitch. I now have a database server running and all seemed to be going pretty well. Could PHP connect to it? Hell no - that would be too easy. It uses some kind of wierd socket thing & it required a bit more Termial editing of the PHP ini file. Then it worked. Wahey.
Step 3 - PHP 5. PHP 4's not good enough it seems, but hey - there was a useful package for the mac here and ping.... we have an Apache server running PHP 5, connecting to a MySQL database. Not bad
Step 4 - SVN. Checking the code out of the SVN repository in Seattle was easy enough & another tweak to the Apache config meant I had everything pointing in the right direction.
Step 5 - Database replication. The DB I need to create locally is 50MB. Way too large for PHP admin or any of the other ways I could think of. BigDump. That's the badger. . A few little tweaks here and there and bosh... a proper local copy of the development DB.
At this point I've got to the same stage as I did with the PC. So I still might have the same problem. But no! It actually worked. We now have a stable local development environment environment running on the macBook, which can be viewed and interacted with from all the computers on my local wireless network. Fuckin' A!
Step 6 - Now I want other people on my wireless network to be able to work on the files in that install on their PC's so that Martin and I can develop as a team. No problem. Turn on Windows Sharing. No joy. The files which make up the website are not in the group of files it's possible to share. Not until you create a sym-link-thingy on the desktop, which CAN be seen by our windows boxes.
So it works. And macs are good. Who knew?
Jul/070
A party in the woods
A big Saturday night out turned out to be just what I needed this weekend. It started late afternoon when 4 of us met up at the Gaillands climbing crag with a disposable BBQ and our climbing gear. A late lunch and some fun, easy climbing took us through to about 7pm, when it seemed about the right time for a couple of beers at LeVert. A couple of Scottish climbers who happened to be climbing at the same spot joined us and after a few more, we made our way over to Le Delice back in the Hooches for a few cocktails.
It was getting late and drunken, but it was Saturday night after all and no one seemed in a rush to call it a night. So that's when the part in the woods idea came up. Some geezer calledJimbo was having a bash out in the woods near Les Praz . A km from the nearest house, with a petrol powered generator powering the decks, UV lights and sound system, a fire and 20-30 people hanging out, it was oldskool . A party the like I haven't seen for a long while. Maybe the last time might have been in Goa, 10 years ago. 3,4, 5am went by but at last the lads & I made it back to Les Houches just before daybreak.
Sunday was a bit slow of course, but that's how Sunday's should be.
Jul/070
Cracking it
I've started doing some different kind of work recently. As well as a being a flash developer I'm now offering 'pro drupal services'. Drupal is an open source content management system that allows people to quickly create sophisticated community based websites (very popular concept at the moment, with facebook, myspace and the like), without having to reinvent the wheel every time. I already have a couple of new clients (both in the US as it goes) by whom I'm being paid to work with this new technology.
Trouble is... It's a pretty steep learning curve. There are few problems that arise when I'm working with flash that I haven't seen before and can't fix quickly. That's not the case with drupal. It's technical, complex and at times difficult. When it goes wrong I don't have the experience to spot the solutions.
I'm working on my first professional, paid drupal job this week but it was starting to worry me. I know what I need to do, and I know that I can do it, but I was stuck getting to the point where I could actually start working. Setting up a development environment that worked was starting to look like it was going to beat me. It seemed I wasn't going to be able to actually do the job, which would have been catastrophic to be honest. The pallaver with those dickheads at NWYH has really knocked my confidence. I'm bouncing back from it now, but to screw up another job- especially the first in what I hope to be a new career direction- might have broken my confidence completely.
So it's not that I was panicking, but I was certainly getting nervous. Then all of a sudden, after several days of Marting and I working hard, bashing my head against a brick wall and making zero progress, I cracked it last night.
Now I can get on and finish what I've been hired to do and bring this project to a successful conclusion, get paid, relax, have a holiday in the knowledge that there's plenty more of this kind of work lined up.
Jul/070
The wonderful, amazing Björk
The Paléo Festival was a great day out, the perfect counterpoint to the very techie work that is making my brain ache at the moment. Sarah and I arrived just in time for the gates to open and left at the end of Björk's incredible headlining set at the end of the evening.
Her show was as crazy as you'd expect - a 15 piece all female Icelandic brass ensemble dressed in fluorescent boiler suits with flags sticking out of their heads and the little mentallist herself dancing like a 12 year old who has just gone to her first club night and been given some ecstasy. Mesmerising minutes of that trademark sound suddenly breaking into the most mental drum-n-base-dance-laser craziness sending the 10,000 crowd wild. I think I love her.
Jul/070
End of intermission
I'm back. I'm not quite sure why I wanted to take a break from blogging. I was asked by a few people and didn't really have an answer. I suddenly didn't feel much like sharing my life with the world I suppose. But bollix, I'm back now, so intermission is over.
What have I been doing for a week? Working mostly. In fact that's been the general focus recently. My very long run of good luck seemed to run out at the start of the summer and everything that could go wrong (mainly to do with money), did. It's all getting back on track now, Listings Lab has got several new clients and plenty of work. But it hasn't all been work. Sarah is in town for a while on a break from working in the UK. We've been doing some cycling and walking and stuff. Even went down to a music festival in Sallanches on Sunday night.
But today it's the summer, the sun is finally shining and today Sarah and I are heading off to the Paleo festival in Switzerland. It's been sold out for months, but every day of the festival they release 1000 tickets on the internet for that day only & we managed to get hold of a couple this morning. Headlining today is..... drumroll..... Bjork. Wicked - I love that crazy bint, me.
Jul/070
Intermission
I'm going to take a short break from writing this blog. Just a week or so probably and I'll be back very soon.
Jul/070
Today I are mostly been….
Reading the excellent Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis and listening to the entire Red Hot Chilli Peppers Discography in chronological order:
| 1984 | The Red Hot Chili Peppers | ||
| 1985 | Freaky Styley | ||
| 1987 | The Uplift Mofo Party Plan | ||
| 1989 | Mother's Milk | ||
| 1991 | Blood Sugar Sex Magik | ||
| 1995 | One Hot Minute | ||
| 1999 | Californication | ||
| 2002 | By the Way | ||
| 2006 | Stadium Arcadium |
Jul/073
Coupe Du Monde D’Escalade (Climbing World Cup)
I was blown away watching the climbing world championships here in Chamonix last night (Coupe du monde d'escalade). I've never seen competitive climbing before and it's a seriously watchable sport. Last night was the speed climbing finals. Basically two climbers go head to head on a massive, specially built artificial wall. Both climbers start with one foot on a timer pad and race up the wall to hit the timer button at the top. Then they swap sides and climb again. The best aggregate score goes through.
When I arrived the women were just finishing their quarter final stage. They were incredible. The wall was huge, overhanging. I think maybe if I practiced on it for a week or so, I might be able to get up the climb they were on using a top rope. It would probably take me about 10 minutes. These girls are the best in the world and they were up and back down in under 30 seconds.
Then the men came on and I saw something truly extraordinary. The purest display of athleticism I've ever seen. Manuel Escobar from Venezuela finished the climb in about 12 seconds. Words don't do it justice, not even pictures.
Here's my usual flickr slideshow of photos, but to really get an idea of the athleticism involved you need to watch the videos below. There's a big difference between men and women in this sport, so once you've watched the incredible ManuelEscobar, click the 'Woman' button to see the woman on the same climb.
Video of Coupe du Monde d'escalade (Climbing Word Cup)
Speed Climbing Finals July 11th 2007, Chamonix
Jul/070
The Carbon Jack-boot
I listen to a lot of Radio 4 while I work, and I've been working a lot. Lately I've noticed the phrase 'carbon footprint' much more. Everything I listen to has some arsehole banging on about the evils of cheap flights, food packaging, energy waste, blah blah blah.
Now it's not that I'm against changing the way we live & addressing global warming or anything like that. Quite the opposite - my personal impact on the environment is considered and as small as I can be bothered to make it right now. It will become more so as I get older.
What bothers me is the way that the media jack-boot is starting to stamp down on the face of our collective attitude and change it with such ease. In no time at all only chavs will talk openly about flying on easyjet, drink bottled water in public or buy vegetables grown in Africa because they're cheaper and look better. The rest of us will add these things to our growing list of dirty little secrets.
Of course it's a good thing, that's why it takes hold so quickly. It's just so depressingly predictable. People are such sheep. Not because they follow the herd around blindly. But because they bleat on and on. And on.
So I designed a T-shirt. Perhaps I can get expedia to sponsor a competition here on the blog. The first person to send me a picture of them wearing this t-shirt whilst sitting in a Hummer could win an all expenses paid trip to the arctic for a relaxing week of watching ice melt.
