HTC Touch HD – apps I've installed

Posted on 11 March 2009 | 2 Comments

I’ve been playing with my phone, installing various apps. I figure that any moment soon I’m probably going to crash it, so here’s a reminder just for me of what went in, in no particular order…

  • Touch InCall Screen Tweak (makes the screen light up during a call if you take it away from vertical – i.e. away from your ear)
  • BsB G-Config (adds G-sensor options to apps that don’t support it natively. not sure this works – or at least it doesn’t help google maps).
  • CeTwit – small twitter client. Ok, but could do with better finger-scrolling
  • QuakkSetup – just about to try this
  • .NET compact framework 3.5 (needed for some of these apps)
  • Diamond Saber (yes, a lightsaber application)
  • GoogleMaps itself (did I install this? did it not come with the phone? I seem to have the .cab file lying around)
  • SkypeForPocketPC (this actually works, but doesn’t do video yet AFAICT)

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Posted in gadgets

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CMS kit = Ikea flat pack

Posted on 5 March 2009 | 2 Comments

I liked a post on Robert O’Toole’s blog: The Ikea effect – why we should build a flat–pack V[R]LE

He’s talking about a V[R]LE which I’m assuming is much like a VLE. But I thought the aspects on how people like to build their own things, especially when it’s made easy, related well to our CMS project. 

Our CMS strategy is in two phases. First we are building some backend elements – we’re calling these Content Factories, and these will manage certain types of content to enable easy re-use. These Content Factories will provide content to a variety of web properties regardless of whether they are CMS-driven. So we could use them to inject content into Sharepoint, a Portal, and even a flat HTML page (because we run PHP over most of them).

Secondly we’ll be building a “CMS Kit” to hand out to our departments. This will provide them with a standard CMS web interface to edit basic flat content, but will also be pre-prepared to use the Content Factory feeds. 

So this “CMS kit” we’re planning is an IKEA flat pack.

I also liked the note of warning about people getting over-invested in the things they build. Our web authors are currently using some very nice Dreamweaver tools and snippets that we’ve developed over the last two years. Getting them off those and into the CMS might be hard. The solution is to make the CMS so much easier that they’d be silly not to use it.

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Posted in develop

My new camera has a macro facility

Posted on 10 January 2009 | Leave a comment
Frosty leaf

Frosty leaf

I’m liking my Christmas present. It’s not big but it’s quite clever… 

More on my Flickr (via the Slideshow in the main menu). EXIF-aware peeps can figure out what I got from Santa too…

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Posted in Personal

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Sun's MySQL Enterprise Database Helps University Ensure Reliability of Mission-Critical Systems

Posted on 8 January 2009 | Leave a comment

It’s 29/4/09, but I’m pre-dating this post so that it appears when the article I’m referencing was published…

I was interviewed by Sun/MySQL for some info on how we use MySQL. I (nearly) said: “Sun’s MySQL database is the de facto standard of databases. Our staff knows it, and developers with MySQL skills are very easy to find. As developers, we’re very happy with the environment. I’d have to have a very good reason not to use it.”

http://www.sun.com/customers/software/kent.xml

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Posted in develop, manage

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JISC's a bit animated about IPR

Posted on 7 January 2009 | Leave a comment

Another animation from JISC. Not embeddable I think – probably due to some sort of IPR issue ;-) . Anyhow, here’s a screenshot that I’ve not asked permission to show yet…

jisc-ipr

Have you got permission to wear a hat like that?

They’re promoting a site called Web 2 Rights which has various toolkits which may be of some  interest.

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Posted in content

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simple pleasures – homemade play dough

Posted on 4 January 2009 | 1 Comment

Thanks to jennabanana’s comment on this Instructable we made a quick, no cooking required, batch of homemade play dough. Stan requested it first, but they all jumped in for some fun. 

home made play dough

playing with homemade play dough

Here’s her recipe:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/3 cup salt
  • 2tbsp oil (veg)
  • 1 cup water
  • 7 drops food colouring.
  1. Mix dry ingredients with oil.
  2. add food colouring to water and mix together.
  3. add water to flour/salt/oil mixture slowly ~ about 1/4 cup at a time and mix together with a spoon.
  4. once you’ve added all the water, knead the dough with your hands.

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Posted in not web

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Purple sprouting broccoli, pasta, and a hot mustard anchovy dressing

Posted on 9 December 2008 | 1 Comment

Purple Sprouting Broccoli from: http://flickr.com/photos/ndrwfgg/133472799/

The recipe I should have cooked tonight:

KALE WITH ANCHOVY AND CHILLI DRESSING

This pungent, piquant sauce, somewhere between a dip and a dressing, is quite delicious with earthy kale – or broccoli, or almost any other robust green vegetable. If you like, you can turn it into a more substantial supper dish by cutting the kale into thick ribbons and tossing them, along with the sauce, into hot buttered pasta. The leftover dressing will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Serves four, as a starter.

500g curly kale, or purple sprouting broccoli, washed and trimmed

2 knobs of butter

For the dressing

50g anchovy fillets, drained

150ml olive oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled

Leaves from a sprig of thyme

A few basil leaves

½ small red chilli, or a pinch of dried chilli flakes

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp red-wine vinegar

A few twists of black pepper

Blend all the ingredients for the dressing in a liquidiser until completely smooth.

Steam the kale or PSB for just 3-4 minutes, so it still has a bit of crunch. Toss with a knob of butter. Warm the sauce over a low heat, whisking in a knob of soft butter as it heats up. This should help to emulsify it but don’t worry if it separates a bit; it’ll still taste fine. Arrange the kale/PSB on warmed plates and drizzle over a generous amount of the warmed dressing. Serve at once, with soft brown bread to mop up the sauce.

This is of course completely copied from the Hugh and the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/mar/10/foodanddrink.features

Emma cooks this all the time and it’s fab. My feeble attempt tonight was more complex and not as good. (Although I suspect that my olive oil-drizzled baked beadcrumbs as a garnish may well make a repeat appearance!)

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Posted in not web

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