scrumpyjack

I'm hugely excited by certain trends that are appearing lately. Ultimately it all comes down to how successful the goal of moving everything onto "the cloud" is becoming. It all started a few years ago when the big software companies realised the potential of the web to take over the desktop. They put into place strategies which are now starting to see some fulfilment. I've hidden the rest of this post away for a change. Go find it

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)

I officially hate Google Ads. Like me, you probably ignore them so easily. They're the bane of a web designer's life... and don't even start talking about the UX! The simple fact is they're hated all round. But quite clearly they work otherwise Google wouldn't be stinking rich (enough to offer a free GPS satellite navigation product). So who the heck is clicking on these stupid ads? Well, I don't care to be honest, because it's getting to the point where I could do with a bit of the money that Google get. So unfortunately I'm bringing ads back to this blog :( I know, it's a sad day. Rather than asking for donations (I'm certainly not doing anything worthy of donations), if you feel the urge to click on an ad, don't quash it with your educated supremism – support a poor blogger and give in to the click. Thanks :)

It's not often I have to worry too much about the minutia of database administration... well, I try not to. But this question on StackOverflow got me intrigued, so I put on my trilby. labratmatt was having a bit of a problem with inserting data into a MySQL table with field defined as DECIMAL(3,2). Can you guess what his problem was? That's right.... 9.99! How did you guess? This has got to be one of the most popular MySQL-related Google searches. The initial problem is easy to solve... correct the presumptuous field definition. However, the underlying problem is really why his data was being truncated, even inserted incorrectly. You may notice the same if you run MySQL (v5.0+) from a default setup on other field types: VARCHAR for example, where you set a maximum field length. When you INSERT data that is too long it simply gets truncated. Not hugely worrying you may think, especially in development and testing phases. True. But this wasn't enough for me, so I went on a ...

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...

Well it turns out we want the same thing. And chances are neither of us is going to get it. So stop fretting about Google Wave and get on with some work. Or if you really must procrastinate, watch my video from yesterday's post