If..Else Log

At the end of Owen's article about what's not going to work in Wordpress 2.0 ¹, there's a link to an image on Matt's site of a proposed redesign of the main Wordpress site.

It currently looks like an evolution of the current wordpress.com site. Whilst the information architecture overhaul looks to be a positive one, from a design perspective and it does look quite nice, it feels, perhaps, a bit bland when compared with the current site.

1. Which, incidentally, should be out anytime now; keep an eye out over the next few days [back]

Tom Creighton gives voice to the his annoyance with the awful, awful interface that the Star Trek crew have to deal with. Very well written stuff; I agree with each and everyone of his points.

I'd read this on the Metro ¹ but forgot to post it: A guy in Massachusettsopens his car to find a box with a £10000 diamond white gold ring with a note around it reading:

"Merry Christmas. Thank you for leaving your car door unlocked. Instead of stealing your car I gave you a present.
Hopefully this will land in the hands of someone you love, for my love is gone now. Merry Christmas to you."

1. The Metro is a free newspaper, distributed on the UK's underground networks, which has been designed for easy reading for commuters. An interesting aside for Londoners: it's also distributed in other major UK cities such as Newcastle and Leeds [back]

AjaxTrans, which demonstrates on the fly language translations¹, is one of the more impressive uses of AJAX that I've seen for a while.

1. Try typing a real sentence, such as "how many people does it take to change a light bulb", and watch the restructuring. It's more than just a simple word lookup. [back]

It's official, If..Else is cool. Even Einstein agrees [via].

I thought I'd mentioned this already but it seems not… Tim Groves of BSN has released a TT font containing some of his regularly used symbols. Very handy for web-developers.

Beau Hartshorne uses AJAX, everyone's favourite kitchen cleaner, to make a pretty usable web application for searching for available domain names.

Looks like it's all over. IE Mac will finally be no more.

In June 2003, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced that Internet Explorer for Mac would undergo no further development, and support would cease in 2005. In accordance with published support lifecycle policies, Microsoft will end support for Internet Explorer for Mac on December 31st, 2005, and will provide no further security or performance updates.

Additionally, as of January 31st, 2006, Internet Explorer for the Mac will no longer be available for download from Mactopia. It is recommended that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari.

Mathematics is littered with tragic stories and the story of Evariste Galois, a precocious talent, is a poignant one. Whilst still in his teens, Galois was able to develop Group theory, laying fundamental foundations for a branch of mathematics known as Galois theory, and fashion a framework for solving the riddle of Quintics. However, it is his death at the tender age of 20 for which he is probably most famous for outside of Mathematics.

Whilst (now recognised as) an undisputed genius, he found himself rejected and falling into dangerous situations, partly as a result of bad luck and partly due to his own character and choices. He eventually found himself involved in a duel with one of the finest shots in France over a woman.

The night before the fateful duel, aware of the impending doom, he spent the whole night penning his thoughts and discoveries to paper. Desperate and fearful that this knowledge may be lost forever, he frantically dashed out his mathematical research so that he could send them on.

What I find particularly memorable however, besides the wealth and treasure trove of knowledge contained within the manuscripts, are his frantic scribblings, sheer exclamations of dispair, which feature alongside his work. In particular, there is the gut-wrenching line "Je n'ai pas le temps".

"I have not enough time".

I have not enough time

It is recent events at work which have been responsible for bringing this story to mind¹. In the last week, I finally left a project which I'd been working on, in various roles, for the last 2 years. Whilst I'd had more time to work with than Galois (and obviously, the work is nothing near the level of his work), there is still a sense that you can always do a little bit more. You feel that there should be something more that you need to handover, some more code to check in, and some more notes to jot down.

The problem is, of course, you're not really sure of what is necessary until the need crops up. So the best you can do is try to plan for what you expect may crop up and what you foresee may be needed.

Cobwebs on cobwebs

The other side-effect of being busy (both at work and on other little side-diversions) is that updates to this site have been sporadic. But that's how it's always been. It's not because of a lack of things to write about. I've got a whole directory full of text files with half-finished drafts and rarely does a day goes by when I don't feel that I can (or want to) post. Even my shorts section, which show a bit more activity, could see more frequent posts but it all comes down to that same line again. "Je n'ai pas le temps".

In the short term, things will probably be hectic with the end of the year, new project work and general catching up. Hopefully though, there'll be a bit more movement on this site. I work on this site because I enjoy doing so; I don't pump out posts because of obligation, financial gain or for the (frankly ridiculous) need to post for the sheer sake of doing so. But as with many things, that's a double edged sword.

And an apology

I'm not going to apologise for the lack of updates as I've explained this sites raison d'etre. But I will apologise for the few people who have emailed me recently. Though I may not respond immediately, I always check my mails. I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can but feel free to email me again just in case:)²

1. Don't worry. I generally don't talk about the day job and I'm not really going to break that habit today:) [back]
2. Immediately after I posted this, I got a "marketing email". So in the interest of clarity, I'll just say that you're free to email me as long as it's not to send me spam:) [back]

Le Papillon is an absolutely beautiful animated short film by Antoine Antin and Jenny Rakotomamonjy. Watercolors, sumi brushwork and animation you could die for are attired to a gentle, subtle story. Wonderful.