Journal

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out

2009-10-30T12:11:34+00:00

Today is a day I will forever remember for today we are finally rid of our badly built, unreliable, fault ridden Kia Sedona. We had to endure 2 years of appalling customer service and laughable offers of recompense but this morning we took great pleasure in bidding that lump of junk a not so fond farewell. Good bye RX57 BLN, you will not be missed but I pity your next owner.

Kia Reliability

2009-10-23T12:16:15+00:00

Just a short post really to rant publicly about the shocking reliability of our now 2 year old Kia Sedona. It’s 5 days since our car was delivered to West London Motor Group Kia in High Wycombe on the back of an AA truck. Our 2nd breakdown in 2 years of ownership (I won’t go into detail about the crazy number of times its been back and forth to the dealership in that period for non fatal reliability and build quality issues). Now, you’d think that a car being towed pretty much guarantees an upset disgruntled customer and that presented with this situation a dealership (and the manufacturer) should be doing everything possible to expedite the process of getting the owner back on the road, in their own car. However as you’re sure to find out, if you’re unlucky enough to own a Kia, this simply isn’t the case. First off the importance of your situation will be directly affected by the recovery service that is used to deliver the car to the garage! Yes, it’s true, direct from the mouth of Kia Customer Services. If the RAC bring your car in you’re in luck, if it was the AA, it’s to the back of the line for you. Not all customers are equal. I imagined (perhaps incorrectly) that it would make sense to prioritise the totally borked vehicles that have rolled in over the weekend – call the customers who have routine services booked and re-schedule them, safe in the knowledge that they have a vehicle which works (for now) and this will probably only be a minor inconvenience to them. Now you’ve got an empty workshop you can sort those broken Kia’s up and ship them back out! No chance… the reality is that your car is already at the back of the line and it’s gonna have to fit in around anything else that’s booked in this week. So today, 5 days down the line our car still isn’t fixed and I have very little faith in them resolving whatever outstanding issues there are with that hunk of junk this side of the weekend. In fact I even kinda doubt it will be fixed on Monday. Obviously they’ve been all to happy to offer us a courtesy car (Remember there’s a £10 administration fee though) to ‘get us mobile’, but a car which you cannot physically fit 3 children and 2 adults in really isn’t going to get us mobile at all is it. Of course I’ve been on the phone to Kia Customer Services but they seem about as useful as a chocolate teapot. In fact they even lied blatantly about asking a manager about the situation and then made numerous excuses as to why we then couldn’t talk to that person ourselves. This car and the customer service we’ve received from Kia has been a total and utter disaster, from the day we took delivery of it right up until now. In 12 months the warranty expires and quite frankly that scares the shit out of me. If you take anything from this blog post, let it be this – Whatever you do, don’t buy a Kia.

dConstruct 2009

2009-09-05T06:00:38+00:00

dConstruct is a 1 day conference run by Clearleft in Brighton. I’ve never had the chance to go before and hadn’t intended to this year. I’ve never really been convinced of the value of attending the numerous industry conferences and events but when my good friend Drew offered me a free ticket it seemed like a bit of a no brainer. I had always (perhaps incorrectly) figured that dConstruct was mainly focused on web design/development (echoed by the attendee demographic; guys in their 30’s, wearing geek t-shirts, carrying iPhones and/or MacBooks) but the breadth of topics covered by the speakers was much wider. On reflection I think this was a good thing as it encourages us to think a little more outside the box, looking at the world and the technology that inhabits it from a slightly different perspective can lead to some interesting ideas. Highlights for me were the ‘Learning from SciFi Interfaces’ by Nathan Shedroff and Chris Noessel and the excellent presentation delivered by Russell Davies on ‘Dematerialising a Web of Data’. The presentation slide that I will remember forever is his message to the newspaper industry – “We have broken your business, now we want your machines” (haha!). Aside from the talks dConstruct was clearly a great opportunity to actually meet the people I converse with online, finally put faces to names and make some new contacts. If you’ve never been and have the opportunity to do so next year I’d thoroughly recommend it.

Still no real competition for Fireworks

2009-08-26T22:14:02+00:00

With the recent announcement that Adobe will not be providing support for Creative Suite 3 (CS3) in Snow Leopard and my waning belief in Adobe’s ability to resurrect Fireworks my interest in alternatives has again be piqued. Back when I wrote my open letter to developers asking for someone to step forward and provide us web designers with a current and solid alternative to Fireworks I looked at Pixelmator, Acorn and Gimp (DrawIt is also worth checking out). Unfortunately right now none of these packages offer the blend of bitmap and vector tools which Fireworks has always excelled at but a little extra time spent with Pixelmator in particular has me confident that someone, somewhere is not far from providing us with a usable alternative. With the addition of some basic vector tools and the ability to draw and export web slices we’d be pretty much there. The most recent blog post on the Pixelmator website relating to the upcoming 1.5 release inspires further confidence, the ‘Spider’ codename can only be a reference to web features right? However Saulius from Pixelmator is quick to point out that 1.5 will not include vector tools… …please don’t expect vector tools in Spider… Here’s hoping the Pixelmator team keep up the excellent work, if they maintain the development pace they’ve set thus far (4 full point releases in two years) then we might see a release with Vector tools before Fireworks CS5 rears it’s head.

Web Developer - South East, UK

2009-05-27T19:22:57+00:00

Things at Nine Four have been going well, so much so in fact that myself, Paul and Jo have decided that we need of an additional pair of hands to join our remote team on a permanent basis. If you don’t already know we’re a small but busy digital media design and development agency made up of 3 permanent staff members and a network of trusted and respected freelancers. We’ve been profitable since our inception back in 2005 and work hard for our clients to provide business led creative and technical solutions to every day business needs. The ideal candidate will be motivated, have some good basic project management skills and match for the most part one of the two possible outlines that we’ve identified below: 1. A web developer with an understanding of the value of design, a good knowledge of PHP/MySQL based development and MVC based application frameworks. You might also tinker with jQuery and have some knowledge of web services, XML etc. 2. A web developer with a bit of creative flair, good knowledge of Flash (ActionScript), XHTML/CSS and a willingness to work with (or learn how to use) content management systems like ExpressionEngine. Despite the home based nature of the position there is a definite requirement to be able to commute to our office here in Bracknell (Berkshire, UK) on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for studio meetings. You will also need to be able to attend meetings with clients based in the South East of the UK every now and then. Salary will be commensurate with your experience and you’ll also benefit from company pension contributions, a decent holiday allowance and ‘very’ flexible hours. Interested? Drop me an email (nathan@ninefour.co.uk) with some relevant work examples and an explanation of what you think you can bring to our team. Not interested but on Twitter? Tweet this and help us find the right person for the job! Update: This position is no longer available.

OS X pet peeves

2009-05-22T20:28:24+00:00

Having lived day to day with a Mac now for a good few years I thought it was about time I documented some of my pet peeves as a one time Windows user. So here they are in the form of a brief wish list for OS X Snow Leopard. This is in the vein hope that Steve Jobs is a regular reader of my blog (pft – yea right!) and that he will do something about these very minor issues. :) Fix the ‘Zoom’ button Seriously what is up with that thing. As a Windows user the expected behavior of a button with a + on it is that it should maximize/zoom the application you are currently running with a single click. With OS X there is no consistency. Clicking + on a finder window reduces it in size (WTF?) and then proceeds to do nothing. Clicking + in iTunes switches between the full and minimal interface. Clicking + suggests to the user that the window will increase in size surely? Make it easier to email files to contacts Perhaps I’m missing something obvious, but there is simply no way to just option/right click a file and select to send it to a email recipient? On windows this is an item in the contextual menu, right click, send to email recipient, default mail client opens a new message and attaches said file. Easy. Ok so I know I can write an automator script carry out said task but that then requires a ridiculous number of clicks to execute (Right click > More > Automator > Email Files…). Show Hidden Files Please give us OS X users a way to have hidden files within specific folders revealed. I need to see hidden files by default on network shares and elsewhere – but not on my desktop. A simple option under Finder Preferences would be a step in the right direction.

Migrating from TXP to EE - Conclusion

2009-03-29T19:55:58+00:00

Ok, so steps 1 through 5 pretty much got us to a conclusion but there was one little fact that really had me bugged about the migration. I wanted to persist the article IDs from Textpattern during the migration to ExpressionEngine because they are used in my permalink URLs. Basically I don’t want to break the internet (or my small part of it) by altering the URL structure in the switch. How did I do it? Open ‘cp.mt_import.php’ form within ‘/system/cp/’ then at line 954 add: $ids = array(); then at about line 1028 add: // IDs Hackif (strpos($parts['0'],'ID') !== false){$ids[$id] = trim(str_replace('ID:','',$first_section[$i]));} At about line number 1765 amend the entry id value to: 'entry_id' => $ids[$id], Now save and upload your amended import script. Back in Textpattern you’ll also need to add one new line to the top of your export script. ID: <txp:article_id /> So your Textpattern export will now include the original article ID and the import process will maintain this (so long as you have deleted all other weblog entries prior to import). So, that’s it. I’m all done… I migrated… now I just have to find the time to finish off the new design and implement it! Happy Migrating!!!

ExpressionEngine Field Frame Field Type: UK Counties Select

2009-03-23T13:02:49+00:00

Having had a play with the wonderful ExpressionEngine Field Frame extension which Brandon Kelly has authored I felt inclined to port my UK Counties Select Plug-in. Once I can get my head round the reasons for GitHub not working as expected I’ll post it there, in the mean time: Download: np.uk_counties_select.ff_fieldtype.zip You might also want to check out the numerous other field frame field types that Brandon is assembling.

Ruby on Rails Developers - Windsor, UK

2009-03-18T11:30:46+00:00

Global Personals Limited / WhiteLabelDating.com are looking for Ruby on Rails Developers to work from their Windsor office here in the UK. If you think you might fit the bill drop Ross Williams a line (rwilliams@globalpersonals.co.uk) and be sure to mention that I sent you. Job details follow: Job Description Global Personals, the company behind WhiteLabelDating.com, has a fantastic opportunity for talented, experienced Rails developers to join our development team. You’ll join 11 developers, designers and project managers focused on creating the best online dating platform in the industry. We’re just beginning a series of new projects in Rails – you’ll be joining right at the start to help influence decisions based on your expert Rails skills and experience. You’ll be based on the top floor of our lovely headquarters at 1 High Street in the middle of Windsor. It’s easily commutable from London (West via Paddington or South-West direct from Waterloo), Reading, Bracknell, Staines or Slough. We give our people the best tools. You’ll get a brand new 24in iMac and a 23in Cinema Display to work on (or a top-end PC if you insist) and you’ll sit at a big desk on a swanky Hermann Miller Aeron chair. We have a free posh coffee machine in our own kitchen, XBox 360, Wii, LCD TVs, Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, football table and other toys. Salary will be based on experience, but will likely be in the range of £35k-£60k (negotiable). We pay a £1000 bonus after your three month probation if you’ve come direct to us. Following your successful probation we’ll pay up to 5% of your salary into your company pension, contribute to gym membership, plus other benefits. You’ll need the following skills/attributes: Ruby on Rails – essential to demonstrate your Rails experience MySQL (or equivalent RDBMS) Strong communicator, teamworker and best practice stickler Excellent knowledge of Javascript using Prototype/Scriptaculous Ability to write clean, semantic, well-formed HTML and CSS Proficiency with Linux or Unix Subversion The following are desirables: TDD and/or BDD Experience of Agile working environment Open source projects or blogs you’ve written on Previous dating or social networking projects ColdFusion and PHP Company Description The largest private online dating company in the UK with offices in Windsor, Miami, New York and Sydney.

An open letter to software developers RE Adobe Fireworks

2009-02-16T12:23:11+00:00

Dear software developer. This is an open letter which I am writing as a one time advocate of Adobe Fireworks. Fireworks is still, some 10 years after it’s conception, the only package out there which provides web designers with the tools they need to design for the web. At it’s core, a balanced blend of vector and bitmap tools, live effects and slicing with optimized export. However over the years Adobe have lost their way with this product and it’s become bloated by marketing driven features. Designers carry on using Fireworks only because there is no decent alternative. The latest release – Fireworks CS4 includes a poorly implemented version of the Adobe Type Engine which has brought with it a bug that quite literally effects all users. The bug is as of today (some 5 months after initial release) still not fixed yet it manifests itself in just about every layout a designer works on. Personally I have lost faith in Adobe to deliver on the promise that Fireworks has as a product. They have been distracted by ‘rapid prototyping’ and integration with development tools like ‘Flex’ – nice to have features that have drawn focus away from the now neglected core function of the software. We don’t want another new UI, XHTML and CSS export, a JavaScript pop-up menu generator or a new type engine. We just want a product that is 100% focused on allowing us to put down on the canvas what we are imagining in our heads and then slice up and export that for use in a hand coded layout. That’s it. Right now there seems to be a huge void in the marketplace which developers are not filling. It’s my belief that if someone takes up the gauntlet and comes out with a product that fulfills the basic requirements of a web designer, they will steal a huge slice of business from Adobe. If not then I’m resigned to hoping that Adobe wakes up and takes notice, puts the effort where it’s needed and waits until the software is really finished before unleashing it on it’s customers. Kind regards Nathan Pitman Update: It seems Adobe are working on an updater for Fireworks CS4 to rectify the text shifting bug. Update: Adobe have released an updater, however there’s still a glaring hole in the market for some competition in this space. Come on app devs, someone step up and take on the challenge – I and many others want to give you our hard earned cash.