Internal Server Error
what the voices in my head tell me to write
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Zero configuration wireless networking the easy way
For some reason since the staffroom was re-decorated the wireless signal in the study has become too faint for the little wireless dongle to pick up. So.... I bought an extender relay sort of thing. It was a nightmare to set up. Basically if you read the box you plug it in and press the auto-configure button on the side and that's it. Rubbish. Don't bother with the set up disk either as that is even worse. It crashes regularly and doesn't work at all. Get on the net and find the real instructions.
Then if you put it in the living room where it can get a good signal the main pc in the study still wont get a good enough signal. So... put the wireless extender in the study. Now it cuts in an out with its link to the main access point.
So now I got a more powerful wireless dongle with a proper aerial for the main pc. That let me move the extender back to the living room for a better signal. Even better I put it on the far side of the living room so I can now get a wireless signal in bed. Working from bed.... maybe ;)
Permanent link and Comments posted by Rob Cornelius @ Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Some things look easy on paper
I have spent the best part of a week working on a drag and drop interaction for the site I am working on. It was one of those things that look relatively easy but turned out to be a nightmare.
The set up was in theory simple. Two <ul>'s containing <li>'s you can drag and drop around both within the lists and from one list to another. Not that hard you might think. The added spice was that the UX guys wanted a swapping sort of thing as you drag the <li> around. As you move over another <li> you see a sort of swapping animation. Not just on drop on dragging over every element.
That complicates matters somewhat. Especially when you drag from one list to another and drop. Does that mean you are adding to the second list or swapping the two around? Well it works that if you drag and drop on top of an element in the second list you swap, if you drop it between elements or at the bottom of the list you add to it.
Then what happens when you completely empty a list? That means invisible placeholders being created and destroyed as you need them. All kinds of complicated stuff.
Lots of work in the end to add about 30 lines of code to Evans original code (which didnt have to worry about empty lists and stuff). The thing about once a year in my ten year career as a web developer I get asked to do drag and drop interactions (thank you macromedia/adobe for saying its easy to do with Dreamweaver and Flash) and none of them work that well.
Drag and drop for web based applications always seems to me to be one of those bells and whistles that managers/ux people like but actually baffles many users. Its also a bitch to get working properly for the developer so I never think its worth the effort.
Permanent link and Comments posted by Rob Cornelius @ Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
the wierdest IE7 bug I have ever seen
Sadly I dont have a demo of this available right now... will see what I can do.
I had a simple task in work today a whole bunch of checkboxes and their labels on the screen. Clicking on some of the checkboxes causes others to be disabled thanks to some nifty javascript. Nice and simple.
However I was asked to find a way to make the disabled elements look "more disabled" as it can be hard to spot the greyed checkbox on the dark background of the site.
As the checkbox was immediately followed by its label I quickly came up with:
input[disabled=disabled] + label { color: grey }
To quickly change the labels of disabled boxes only using CSS. Works great in Firefox. Clicked on a checkbox in IE7 (dont have to worry about IE6 - Hurray) and nothing happens... Then I move the mouse and magically the labels change colour!
I spent quite some time playing with it and that is definitely what is happening.You can see the checkboxes become disabled but the labels don't change colour until you move the mouse. I have googled for ages and can't find anything on it at all. Might try a static test page rather than the rather complex html js and css that there is there now.
I guess that I could fake a mouse event to fire off after the checkboxes get disabled but its easier to change the labels style at the same time as the disabling in the first place.
Why for the love of all things nice and fluffy why?
Permanent link and Comments posted by Rob Cornelius @ Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
its gardening time again
If you take a look at our flickr photostream you can see we are back into the swing of gardening again.
Last year was a bit hectic with moving house, bad weather, cricket and lots of visitors so we did really get as much out of the garden as we could have done. This year, weather permitting, we should be able to enjoy it and enjoy the fruits of our labours.
So far in the veggie patch there are:
- Salad leaves of various sorts
- Rocket
- Chard
- Perpetual Spinach
- Spring Onions
- Sweetcorn
- Spuds
- Squash
- Carrots
- Radish
- Peas
- Garlic
- Beans
- Courgettes
The soft fruit list isnt bad:
- Strawberries
- Raspberries
- Blueberries
- Blackcurrants
In the greenhouses there are:
- Tomatoes
- Sweet Peppers
- Chilli Peppers
- Cucumbers
- Ginger
- Lemon Grass
Then for herbs we have:
- Thyme, 3 or 4 sorts
- Coriander
- Basil
- Mint
- Oregano
- Marjoram
- Chives
- Sage
So all in all not a bad crop if it all works out.
The flower garden is coming on great guns too. We have planted about 1800 bulbs or so over the last 2 years and a good percentage of them seem to be ok. The tulips are looking great and the aliums will be out soon too. Hopefully this year some of the perennials we grew from seed will be doing better. Hollyhocks and stuff like that. Also this year we have decided to have a real go at the "patio" area with hanging baskets and containers all over the place. Watch this space and flickr for more.
The best thing about the gardening is its totally relaxing. Even when I am working hard digging or something like that I feel totally relaxed. Its also having a sense of that its ours. Living in the school takes that away from us to some extent. We know the flat isn't really ours no matter what we do to it but no one wanted our garden before we started and no one thought it was possible to do anything with it. We have turned it from a patch of head high weeds to a "little oasis" as Sarah was saying the other day. There is no finer pleasure than looking at something beautiful and saying "I made that" apart perhaps from eating a great meal that you have cooked yourself made with ingredients you have grown yourself.
Permanent link and Comments posted by Rob Cornelius @ Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
things have moved on since I was a lad
I just downloaded some pretty fractal generator for my nice big quad core maxed out box. Its blindingly quick. Even full screen at maximum resolution it takes about 1/4 of a second to draw the entire screen.
When me and my brother had an amiga back in the late 80s we used to wait hours for it to render an 800x600 mandlebrot set or even leave it running overnight.
Of course thats nothing. I have worked with several people who started on paper tape or punched cards. And to top it all one guy who used to come in and help out with the computers when I was a field ecologist for the Somerset Wildlife Trust used to actually work at Bletchly Park.
Permanent link and Comments posted by Rob Cornelius @ Saturday, April 25, 2009
