xset

PS I’m back

// October 25th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal

And having started with a rant I suppose I should let you all know a little bit about what’s been going on…

And I will, just as soon as I get it all ordered in my mind.

I don’t have a f*%&#ng credit card

// October 25th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal

Ok, software developers of the world listen up…

You spend a load of time and effort building wonderful applications that do exactly what I want them to do. I have needs, you address them. I switch platforms, there is always an alternative out there. I can get a vast quantity of what I want for next to nothing but am more than happy to put my hand in my pocket for something I really need!

Answer me this, oh mighty developers, why do you insist on placing barriers along the road that is my desire to purchase your product? I have the need, the disposable income and have found your tool to be the best one for the job. I’ve used the trial version and it’s just expired … but you won’t let me buy your software. You won’t let me give you money.

Because I don’t have a credit card.

Not everyone does you know. That’s why there are payment systems available that accept all sorts of cards. Most UK bank accounts come with a Debit card (Maestro or similar) and by demanding Visa, Mastercard or even (gasp) American Express, you are closing yourself off from a potentially lucrative market.

So please, petition your payment providers or just switch altogether but stop requiring that I open a line of credit to buy on-line … it’s really starting to piss me off.

It’s never too soon to think about

// October 10th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal

Christmas Decorations!

And this year we’re ctaering for those on a budget!

You can make decorations from any number of household objects …

Some techy news

// October 9th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal

Just a couple of things you’re no doubt aware of that have hit my radar over recent weeks:

Google Reader – Following on from Gmail Google have released a web based RSS feed reader in much the same vain as Bloglines. The difference being of course that Google Reader is powered by the same technology that makes GMail so easy to use and is backed by Google’s massive hardware resource hopefully meaning the feeds are updated faster than Bloglines! If you don’t yet have a feed reader and would like the flexibility of having all your feeds on-line then go give it a whirl.

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Macromedia have released the next major version of their industry standard website design and management software. This release adds a load of additional support for standards based development including XHTML and CSS. The interface has also been improved with support for collapsing tags and commenting blocks from a new toolbar on the left of the code view window. Finally the renderer has been updated to handle CSS based layouts in WYSIWYG mode – hopefully Contribute will follow suit sharpish.

Another weekend at work

// October 9th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal

I haven’t had a weekend off for over 2 months. Fortunately the madness is very nearly at an end. I have but one more week at MegaComp and am to spend most of that handing over various projects and getting ready for a blow out leaving do!

Paymaster stuff is going pretty well with the follow up phone calls to the brochure run starting tomorrow. The guys are crib sheeted up and hopefully we’ll start to reap some of the business as a result of the worlds least efficient (but easily the cheapest) marketing campaign.

There is also a big opportunity to launch the company in Guernsey (the other big Channel Island) but I don’t have time to focus on that just yet.

Oh and Skype is about to become Paymaster’s new best friend serving as an additional outgoing line and a voice mail service. Never let it be said that we aren’t ahead of the curve technologywise.

Next week also sees the arrival of my new motorcycle which I’m pretty stoked about. All I have to do is not kill myself on the damn thing.

To those of you who still check by once in a while I thank you for your patience and assure you that normal service will be resumed in just over a week!

Is it possible

// October 6th, 2005 // No Comments » // Personal

That I haven’t posted for a whole week?

Yup.

I’m still alive though (just) and am sprinting towards my last day of madness in 8 days time. It’s unlikely you’ll hear more from me before then so consider this a hiatus for a week and look out for me in a comment box near you!