Jim Holden Blog

LivePlasma.com

I like this (maybe not the flash so much): [[http://www.liveplasma.com||Live Plasma]]

Add comment December 19th, 2005

Google to buy5% AOL stage at $1billion

Anyone need any more evidence that [[http://www.google.com||Google]] is not the “good” we have all been PR’d into thinking. They are about to make a massive investment into [[http://www.aol.com||AOL]] (Part of Time Warner). [[http://www.aol.com||AOL]] are horrible in so many ways it’s difficult to list. [[http://www.google.com||Google]] getting into bed with them is just confirmation for me that they are getting to big, know too much and we will all eventually regret giving them our “base”.

Single dominance of one company in technology is bad for business. It’s prooved time and again with Intel (pre AMD) and Microsoft [too many things to mention] (pre suits) being the big two. Allowing a single entity to steer and direct the way forward is not good and can only end in said company getting caught up in it’s own hype to the point when it all blows up and the user base suffers. Google is either going to *be* the internet or kill it.

Add comment December 19th, 2005

MS Vista December CTP

[[http://www.microsoft.com||Microsoft]] are shortly to push out a new CTP (Community Technical Preview) in December of Vista. Apparently there will be an internal “full feature” version floating around Redmond (how long until it leaks?). January 2006 will see a new CTP release and some “new ” features pesented at the CES. Vista CTP builds should be a reaccuring monthly event with emphasis on beta testers to find bugs etc and not be involved so much in feature decisions.

Sounds like a good decision and will give folks a chance to play around with the O/S in a more “full” form and no doubt cause a massive amount of bugs. It’s always the way that individual programs quite often work but mix them up and things can change.

[[http://www.winsupersite.com||Paul Thurrot]] has an excellent article (as usual) on the latest developments of Vista. He’s a lucky guy.

Technorati Tags: [[[Paul Thurrot|||Paul Thurrot]]] [[[WinSuperSite|||WinSuperSite]]] [[[Vista|||Vista]]] [[[Microsoft|||Microsoft]]] [[[Longhorn|||Longhorn]]] [[[December CTP|||December CTP]]]

Add comment December 19th, 2005

LondonTown Ajax Search Beta

i’ve been banging on about this for some time and now I can finally show you the Ajax based search system (currently in a sort of beta phase). I’ve really gone to town with the Ajax based side and it’s really prooved to be a great way for searching data when the amount of data is limited (in the sense that Google has so much data they could rarely return back without results)

You can test out the search live [[http://www.londontown.com/||by going here]] or you can see more in my description [[http://www.webcoding.co.uk/?page=lts||here]]

Technorati Tags: [[[London|||London]]] [[[LondonTown.com|||LondonTown.com]]] [[[Ajax|||Ajax]]] [[[Search|||Search]]]

Add comment December 13th, 2005

Ajax Search

Ill be writing more about my new search system for work shortly but you can see a [[/?page=ajax||small article]] on one of the problems i was facing with automated searching using ajax.

I was also looking into the idea of using [[http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory||MEMORY]] based tables in [[http://www.mysql.com||MySQL]] but the bloody thing doesnt support blob/texts so thats put and end to that idea. The system is working fine but dumping a considerable amount of geo (streets, county etc) data clogs it to the point that searches, while fast, don’t come back at the speed I need to do predictive search.. will have to go away and have a think about how to handle this one.

Technorati Tags: [[[MYSQL|||MYSQL]]] [[[AJAX|||AJAX]]] [[[SEARCH|||SEARCH]]]

Add comment December 9th, 2005

Pandora

Check out [[http://www.pandora.com||Pandora]], a great way to listen to music in that you suggest genres and artists you enjoy and the site will attempt to create a customised station (playlist) for you based on your likes. I tried [[http://www.radiohead.com||Radiohead]] and was pleased with the selection it gave me.

I’ve discovered quite scarily that I like “Oh Jim” by [[http://musicmoz.org/Bands_and_Artists/G/Gay_Dad/||Gay Dad]] and “Made Up Dreams” by [[http://www.builttospill.com/||Built to spill]].

Technorati tags: [[[Music|||Music]]] [[[Pandora|||Pandora]]] [[[Playlists|||Playlists]]] [[[Online Radio|||Online Radio]]]

Add comment December 8th, 2005

Experts Exchange

It’s one of those things that developers put up with isn’t it?

For years now it seems I’ve searched google for specific help I wanted with some coding problem. More of than not EE comes up with a matching result. I have stopped clicking, in fact I stopped after about 2 attempts 300 years ago but they don’t seem to learn.. Firstly, I’m not going to visit a site which is so hugely annoying in polluting google with results. Secondly, im not going to go through the laborious process of signing up to get the answer for a one liner. Im happy to share what I know, but I’ll do that as I see fit and not be forced into some stupid points/registration agreement to see the one line answer I need added by some other guy on the net. Experts Exchange can kiss my arse. Im a developer and I will never use it… ever.

It just wants to make me scream, i’m really mad about it. Ive just been to the site and even the advertising, colour scheme and generally everything about it makes me want to yell and punch.

1 comment December 6th, 2005

TeleAtlas & Ajax Search

I’ve just received the development package for the Tele Atlas product. This is going to be an interesting development and there will be numerous changes (both UI and backend) from previous GIS systems i’ve implemented.

One of the bonuses of the Tele Atlas product is the coverage area and the standard long/lat coordinate use which hasn’t been present in the previous UK/NI mapping systems i’ve been involved in. I’ve heard rumours that the Tele Atlas product also contains details of addresses/house numbers which map to specific vector coordiantes and ill be interested in looking into this. GPS (lat/long) type stuff is great but for use of the web the general idea is to locate specific places so lat/long is not the best idea since they are point specific and not address speecific which can make a difference.

I’ll report back when i’ve started working on this. Im currently producing a pretty substantial ajax based searching system for work which should change the way our users find content and potentially navigate the website.

It’s going to be really interesting to see the useage and whether it does have a good effect. The ideas we’ve implemented (ajax search, predictivie entries, folksonamy) all provide excellent nav. tools and the design is top notch. Cant wait to see this go live and ill post a link here when it goes gold.

As a side note, my interest outside of work in this area has really been a catalyst for this search and im really pleased to see it come to life. There are some great new technologies (or new ideas) coming forward at the moment and im really looking forward to seeing these exist in a well used web site to see if they improve the expierence.

Add comment December 5th, 2005

Flight plan, Finding Neverland, The Odeon and The Shield

A bit away from my usual chatter but I thought I would mention how terrible “Flight Plan” is. By far the worst movie of the year due to the obvious potential and the utter destruction of this film. On the flip side, Finding Neverland, for me, was charming and really quite lovely. I should of watched this a long time ago but I only just watched it and what a film. A really good piece of work.

Finally, the odeon website, what a total pile of crap. Non functioning menuing system in IE to not working at all in FireFox. Strangely the front page doesnt appear when you first try to access the site, instead you’re presented with the terrible menuing system. On trying the odeon front page again I get the options to do text only etc but quite frankly I couldnt even be bothered. The site is boring, dark and just not even worth my time to investigate. There are better resources for film information on the net and I will not be using the odeons website for any of it, not that they will give a shit mind you.

Finally, I thought we could talk a bit about “The Shield”. This is something which I foolishly missed when it started to appear and its only now that i’ve started to watch it. It’s really rather good. For those of you (like me) who like the American way of producing evening entertainment shows then this will appeal (e.g. House, CSI, 24 etc). Why is it that the Americans do this so well? Whilst the UK pushes out such things as Heartbeat, Last of the summer wine and Coronation Street the Americans get continual seasons of good TV. In fact, they produce so much that there is bound to be something which interests you and they seem to do it really well. Im amazed with the colour quality too. It may be a small point but the quality of the colour in American TV is amazing, it seems so much more vibrant and alive in comparison to anything created in the UK.. Maybe it’s me and i’m seeing things but I like it.

Add comment December 4th, 2005

10MEG 10MEG

Finally, after months of waiting my 10MEG service is here. It’s so nice…. and fast.

Add comment December 1st, 2005