scrumpyjack

Ok, so it's not a big announcement because the app hasn't actually launched yet. But I've launched the holding site. So what's reactor ? Well it's a really exciting idea for a web app that I've had for ages. Now I'm moving forward with it. If you want more information, sign up to the mailing list . If you really want a lot more information, email me or something. I'll send you out an NDA and whatnot (yes it's that official!). w00t! My first proper big web app! :D Hope you'll join me (*cough* developers)

Now I know you disagree... all you have to do is become exposed to gamma radiation and get real angry, right? Wrong. You are not Bruce Banner, and you'll never turn into the Incredible Hulk. Plus you don't play with gamma radiation do you? Be honest now... That's not the kind of green I'm talking about. It seems for the past couple of years a lot of people have gone crazy about being eco-friendly, saving the planet, greenhouse gases and whatnot. Here in the UK, the government has set up and continues to fund the Carbon Trust and various green initiatives (which we should have been doing years ago). For most consumers this means changing lightbulbs from incandescent to fluorescent, with obvious benefits all round. But there's an even better solution to CFLs: LEDs. That's right, those little plastic light bulbs you messed about with at school! A lot of research and development has been put into manufacturing LED lamps that match the usefulness of fluorescent bulbs...

Does it make any sense to you? It didn't make any sense to me either a few years ago. But this little snippet from Wikipedia makes it all very clear: LTE provides up to 326.4 Mbit/s for downlink and 86.4 Mbit/s for uplink. LTE-Advanced, in development as a minor update to LTE networks, supports maximum download rates of over 1 Gbit/s. Basically, I want LTE-Advanced now. Interesting that it's only a "minor update" to existing LTE networks. Apparently there's only one of these planned and in production at the moment... in Oslo. I'm moving to Norway, b'bye!

Since the beginning of February I have been working long hours and putting in extra time to configure two servers (one virtual, one real) to function as the testing and live environments for FlipStorm's client projects. This has involved setting up a VPN, opening all manner of ports on the firewall, learning how to do cron jobs, writing linux shell scripts, going back to command line interfaces, editing conf files, generating RSA keys... the list really does go on. However, my crowning achievement is the 4-hour marathon that it's been for me to get a backup cron job to run from the live server (a VPS). My goal was to create a single tarball that held that day's changes to databases and files in the www root (aka Everything). Then to FTP that to the testing server automatically. Well, to cut a long story short, I managed it. All sorts of exciting things had to happen, but it was worth it. And more importantly I didn't screw anything up in the process! Bonus! Safari 4 In ...

Well well well... it is a funny old life. I got made redundant last month. Yes that's right, it's taken me a month to write about it! Basically I couldn't be bothered: big news everyone, another hard-working Joe gets punted. Shame. Also (and slightly more importantly) I have been extremely busy. Finding a new job? No! Starting up my own business. You see, my previous employment taught me many things, and the parting words of my old boss gave me the needed incentive. I can do this. The point of this post though is completely different to that. I just wanted to throw it in there as I think it needs to be said. These are interesting times, hewing out new opportunities. Hopefully I will have a lot to say for myself when I'm done. So without further babbling, I wanted to point out that I am now available for all sorts of web work, software development and would welcome a challenge. If you think you can make use of my humble services, check out my new venture: FlipStorm We...

I've been doing a lot of reading up on HTML5 and XHTML2. I know neither of these technologies are anywhere near well-supported enough to start using in production. However, we should all be starting to get our heads around the changes - if not only to be ready for the shift, but also the benefits it will bring. There has been a lot of hype in design and developer circles for a good few years surrounding all of this, especially for proponents of the so-called semantic web - the supposed natural evolution of the web. However, Tim Berners-Lee (seen by many as the father of the web as we know it today) has already suggested that this semantic web will only make up part of what we will come to call Web 3.0. How much of it will be the semantic web is yet to be seen (if much at all given it's progress!)... more to the point, how much of an impact these impending technologies will have on the semantic web is a little hard to judge. It strikes me that whenever we reach this next phase ...

Dear Judy, Since the Jobs-note last Monday (9th), a lot of media attention has been focussed on the App Store and the coming features of iPhone 2.0. Sadly, orders of magnitude more media attention has been focussed on the 3G iPhone - the highly anticipated, but hugely underwhelming revelation that it is. The iPhone's new little (big) brother does address some of the more than glaring ommissions that the original was left wanting. And in my view it does finally justify the hefty price tag. But even this has been reduced! To the shock of all! I shall definitely be getting a 3G iPhone as soon as my existing contract expires (especially as my handset is slowly falling apart). There are still some issues that I have with the iPhone. These are more correctable with firmware updates than hardware changes, and save for any major improvements in carrier networks' hardware I don't see that there's much need for adding to the tech specs of the 3G iPhone anytime soon. In my opinion...

Dear Sharon, It is the last 48 hours before WWDC and it seems as if the tech world is afire with speculation and anticipation over exactly what Steve and Co will be revealing to Mac lovers near and far. I wish I could attend this conference. Being just a young developer, such a show would provide a great experience. I would be "at home" to some extent... I would sigh with glee as I chortle at the techie jokes, which would bring a certain sense of satisfaction. I'm not a reporter-type and I wouldn't be looking to glam up the overemphasised product releases and developments. Not being a big Mac user (at the moment!) I'm perhaps not as enthusiastic. Which brings me back to why this woulld be a good experience. Having none-to-little knowledge of Macs as a development platform I'm eager to breach into something new and it seems as if I've picked the time for it. Rumours are flying that, as Apple is starting to consolidate it's products into a unitary platfo...

Dear Tanya, Google Friend Connect was officially announced last week. It has since come to light that this is no ordinary social network. In fact in the truest sense of the term, it isn't a social network at all! Friend Connect is a social tool. It seems the lovely people at the big G have been working their socks off finding a way to help us all connect a lot more easily. This fantastic tool is still only in preview, but from the fairly sketchy detail proffered by Google, it seems that even now it has a very wide appeal. In order to place a perspective on what Friend Connect allows you to do, imagine: you are the only software developer on the planet. You, and you alone, have developed each and every web site in the world and you had to build each site from scratch. So that means no code sharing. No data sharing. This means for every user who visits a web site that requires authentication they will have to register and verify their details. Then they will have to maintain them....