October 2008
Coding
Fri, 24/10/2008 - 3:16am — jethroToday (yesterday now) I wrote a real nice application for a client. It did exactly what they asked it do, though not what they wanted!. Its funny – no matter how much you coach the client through the specifications, and get them to agree to it in writing they always manage to come out afterwards and say “what I really wanted was…”
I found this cool cartoon that summarises how we don’t actually work, but how it feels sometimes.
You lot start coding...
...I'll go and see what they want.
Courtesy of http://www.abberley.co.uk/asap/index.htm
Lightning strikes last night
Wed, 22/10/2008 - 7:10am — jethroWe had a thunderstorm last night. I was driving home watching it advance from the west and wishing I had my camera as there were awesome lightning strikes going off every 2-3 seconds. I got home just as it came overhead of our place and rushed out the back to sit under the patio with the camera on a tripod. I got a few good shots but as we were in the middle of it it wasn't as good a looking picture.
Here is one shot. the rest are up on flickr. Some of them have blurry spots where there was water on the lens of the camera.
I am getting better at taking them and hope to get some really good ones some day.
Excel Function of the Week - IF
Mon, 20/10/2008 - 7:24pm — jethroI have decided to write a short post once a week looking at a single Excel function. This week we are going to look at the IF function.
Definition from Excel Help
The IF function returns one value if a condition you specify evaluates to TRUE, and another value if that condition evaluates to FALSE. For example, the formula =IF(A1>10,"Over 10","10 or less") returns "Over 10" if A1 is greater than 10, and "10 or less" if A1 is less than or equal to 10.
Syntax
IF(logical_test, value_if_true, [value_if_false])
My explanation
The IF function is best thought of as a solution to “either - or” scenarios. Here are some good examples with the syntax to use for each one.
DrupalCamp Australia - in Sydney
Mon, 20/10/2008 - 12:38pm — jethroFollowing the debacle with Qantas cancelling my plane, I eventually got to Sydney an hour later than planned. I got straight into a taxi and off to the university where I was straight into the room in the bowels of the pharmacy faculty where the DrupalCamp event was being hosted. As it happened I only missed the initial chats and greetings etc as they were running a bit behind.
The first session I attended then was Justin Randell talking about the upcoming Drupal 7 new features. Most impressive for me to see is the new WYSIWYG capability features. Drupal are not going to pick a specific editor, rather let you choose, but the support and handling of WYSIWYG on different text fields looks great. Perhaps more importantly is the delay to release. From my perspective this is a good thing. We need to see Drupal 6 settled down better and more module conversion completed before having to worry about a new version.
Cheese
Mon, 20/10/2008 - 11:39am — jethroWe love cheese.
The girls are learning to try different cheeses and see what they do and don’t like.
On Friday we sampled a selection for dessert after dinner. We ate them on different flavoured rice crackers and added spicy kabana, stuffed olives and pickled onions.
I have photographed each cheese and added a small description of its flavour and characteristics for your enjoyment.
Bon Appetit!
DrupalCamp Australia
Sat, 18/10/2008 - 5:56am — jethroI am supposed to be on a plane right now, but it was cancelled. SO I am waiting to see if I can get on the next one in half an hour. It was full so I am booked on the one after that, but the 
staff are trying to get me on the full one.
Why? I am going to DrupalCamp Australia in Sydney.
When I finally get there I am hoping to get stuck into Theming with CSS Frameworks, Panels 2 and then I might present something if there's no one else wanting to on managing module and site upgrades for multiple websites. Amanda and I have now got this process down pat and are able to quickly manage upgrades for the 20+ Drupal sites we look after.
The sun is now over the horizon and in my eyes as I look out at my plane going nowhere. Oh Qantas why today?
I will report back later in the day with more pics and stories from the event.
Oh and the pic to the right of the cool Drupal logo comes courtesy of Greenash and I am wearing my new Acquia t-shirt.
Developing in Excel 2007
Wed, 15/10/2008 - 12:00pm — jethroI much prefer working in Excel 2007 to Excel 2003. Despite the issues with backward compatibility, there are a lot of advantages and benefits to using the new version.
Some little things that have been changed are
The previous limit on nested brackets in formulas from 7 has been increased to 64. I used this today
The number of columns and rows has increased. I used this today.
I had to develop a file for a client that involved a complex work roster arrangement to calculate days off in repeating 2, 3 or 4 week cycles for the next 20 years.
Here is the nested formula that got me the logic for a roster.
=IF($X5>=AJ$4,$X$4,IF($Y5>=AJ$4,$Y$4,IF($Z5>=AJ$4,$Z$4,IF($AA5>=AJ$4,$AA$4,IF($AB5>=AJ$4,$AB$4, IF($AC5>=AJ$4,$AC$4,IF($AD5>=AJ$4,$AD$4,IF($AE5>=AJ$4,$AE$4,IF($AF5>=AJ$4,$AF$4,$AG$4)))))))))
I then used one formula to generate over 600,000 cells and create a map that looks like this.
Green Spider
Mon, 13/10/2008 - 8:59pm — jethroCheck out this cute little spider that hit my desktop this morning when Jude brought it round to me. I got a couple of good photos of it but it wouldn’t sit still until i got it out onto a tree.
Anybody know what sort of spidy it is?
Round up of web content
Sun, 12/10/2008 - 2:46am — jethroTime to clear the tabs in Google Chrome.
SBS2008 news is buzzing with the wrap up of the conferences stateside. Here is some important stuff.
- Susan the SBS Diva screenshots a Hyperv install of SBS2008 and follows up with some Nic settings for HyperV
- Robbie from MSFT Australia has some good technical content on SBS2008 and EBS2008.
- Australians can get their hands on training for SBS2008 and EBS2008 at discounted prices.
Robin Good’s Sharewood guide has a list of the Top 25 screen sharing tools.
Sonia Coleman has 208 free Microsoft PowerPoint templates.
I am now using Tweetdeck to manage my twitter conversations – its great!
TwitterAgency is a Virtual Advertising Agency on how to use / not use Twitter.
Brisbane mountain bike riders, check out Bushranger. They also run adventure tours in New Zealand. And if you are into horse riding the Mountain Lake Adventures crew look as if they provide a pretty decent trail riding experience just west of Brisbane.
US Stupidity Election
Wed, 08/10/2008 - 12:46pm — jethroI am so over it – and it hasn't even happened yet. Not that I care.
I'm going to predict some things.
- Obama will become president – he talks better and doesn’t want to kill everybody - (or so he says)
- He will not withdraw the troops from Iraq. Simple point in fact - he cannot.
- There will not be a decisive military victory ever in Iraq (unless they kill everybody in Iraq (McCain’s plan)
- The us economy is totally screwed – has been for 20 years – been hanging on by the eyeballs to an ever expanding inflationary money supply. I did predict this before the most recent “correction”.
- US gas prices will get to over $5 a gallon – live with it – that is still about half what we are paying.
- Racism is alive and well in the USA as is stupidity. A new president will not fix the totally screwed legal system, health system, financial system, public education system, and a whole lot of other systems that are biased against the poor, the black, the disadvantaged etc.
- Most US citizens still wont realise that there is anything outside the 48 continental states or if they are vaguely aware of that fact still won’t be able to locate anything on a map. (I learnt to draw a rough map of the world freehand when i was a teenager and fill in most of the major countries.)
My apologies to the intelligent readers of SpyJournal – but then if you had the brains to come here most of the things above don’t apply to you.
Hurry up and vote in the screwed political system that does not equal one man one vote and let life get back to normal please.
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