It looks like we are going to be using WebGUI after all. I have several misgivings about it but thankfully it is all written in Perl so if something bugs me that much I can probably do something about it.
I am not looking forward to migrating four sites onto it but hopefully after the first one has been migrated it will be a fairly straight forward process getting the other sites moved.
We also have several hundred CGI’s dotted all over the place that we are not really too keen on re-writing but its the glue. As part of the whole cleanup operation it would probably be prudent to visit them all and give them a good working over but this would be a very time consuming task. The old saying “let sleeping dogs lie” keeps running around my head every time I think about touching those scripts.
TMA 02 Finished
Its a lovely feeling finishing coursework. I have just finished my second TMA (Tutor Marked Assesment ) of M203 and I can relax for a few days. This is the second part of the introductory material and I was expecting it to be much harder than it was considering I have done very little group theory. I am really looking forward to the Linear Algebra block which is coming next then its onto Analysis. I think it will be this course that either makes or breaks my ambition to have a degree in Mathematics.
FCUK T Shirts
Their clothes are truly shit. Do not under any circumstances buy their T-Shirts, after a few washes you’ll be lucky if they fit the gnomes in the garden.
Course Work
What is it with Course work. They tell you that if you don’t hand in tidy work then you’re screwed. I only wish this worked both ways.
So far I have had dealings with a lot of coursework in my time and trying to read the notes left by the tutors is like trying to decipher a doctors prescription. I know they may have a lot to mark but if they want us to hand in tidy work they could at least have the courtesy to do the same.
Odeon Website
This would be funny if it wans’t so bloody common. For those of you not using the latest and greatest IE browser point yourself at the following link,
http://www.odeon.co.uk/
I refuse to provide a clickable link to this site on grounds of gross incompetence on their part. This has got to be one of the worst large commercial sites I have seen.
Someone took so much offence to the site they have taken the time to provide their own version and it is very good. Alternative Odeon Website
I have absolutely no doubt that the techs that built the Odeon site are more than capable and could build a browsable website.
This then begs the questions:
Who! made the decision to prevent non IE browsers access to it?
and
Are they still working there and if so why?
Investigating WebGUI
I am currently investigating the WebGUI Content Management System at the moment. We want to cut down on the amount of editing that we need to do because we seem to have a lot of applications in the queue to develop and the editing is taking up too much time. There are various other reasons but I won’t go into those.
The website says that it is hard to install but this is nonsense it was fairly straight forward once I decided to use MySQL. I have only scratched the surface of it at the moment but it looks quite capable, I tried to get it into Postgres but had no success, there were various errors all reported as log files having the wrong permissions but a quick look in the logs showed me it was dodgy SQL.
Being a Postgres advocate/diehard I would have preferred to use it but considering its not a supported platform and we are not trying to run Amazon then MySQL will do the job.
If it turn out to be easy to use I might just use it on my own websites.
The Bear Necessities
Europeans are a strange bunch. This picture was taken at FOSDEM by a friend of mine.
Here me ROAR.
Started my HR-XML Resume
I managed to get FOP, XALAN, Java and everything else I need to start creating my resume in pdf. Thank god for apt.
I did a little bit of it tonight in HR-XML or at least in a miniature subset of it. The results can be found on my resume page near the top there should be some links to the HR-XML file and the XSLT I was using to generate the pdf. Do not take this stuff seriously it took me an hour of blurry eyed fiddling to do it so it is by no means looking good.
I do intend do the resume builder for the recruitment ratings website so watch this space. I should have this and everything else done in the next few years.
Resume Builder
Since I am spending a lot of time using FOP and XSLT at work at the moment I am going to resurect an old project that I started for my agency ratings site. I basically want to provide a tool that generates a CV in pdf format from an XML file. I know of the project on sourceforge and I tried to contact them but got no reply, they are not using HR-XML which is what I want to use because some other clever bugger will be doing all the hard work of looking after the standard. They are using their own XML Resume Library Standard. If you are interested in this sort of thing visit them, their project is mature and they are doing a good job.
I have several reasons for doing my own:
1. It is more practice for work.
2. It is a hook for my website.
3. I have put it off long enough.
Ideally I would like to build a nice Java Applet and I had actually started one but that all went pear shaped. Java GUI’s are a bit too involved for the amount of time I am able to devote to the project this time so it will be all Perl.
My intentions are to provide a basic page where you fill in your details and then generate the pdf in the style of your choice (there will only be one style to start with ;-). Due to lack of time it will be fairly basic and based on my own CV. Like all my other projects if I ever get the time I will finish it, Hah.
Another One
Not quite as funny as Dr Chopp but it made me smile.
Randy Bender