BobBigMac

10 reasons I am not using Pinterest

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:39:00 +0000

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TMFI ;)

My Microstock Portfolio Browser

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:48:41 +0000

"Investing in good developers is such a good bet at the moment, that if you have money and you happen..."

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:38:09 +0000

“Investing in good developers is such a good bet at the moment, that if you have money and you happen to find a talented developer who seems to like you and wants to work with you, you should give him/her your money to build something, anything”

- Forbes - The Rise of Developeronomics

Winning the Lottery! Recently I’ve been trying to come up...

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:03:07 +0100

Winning the Lottery!

Recently I’ve been trying to come up with a simple algorithm for testing the relational quality between “keywords in a set” and other “potential keywords in the set”… Unfortunately my database of keywords is about 45,000 entries (and about 350 million relationships), so wasn’t really quick enough to test my various ideas.

Enter the lottery (UK)… Only 49 numbers, and ~1650 drawings of data to compare, each in sets of 6 (ignoring bonus ball), but it lets me test the principles I’ve been playing with, so I’m happy :)

Want to win the lottery? I wouldn’t mind, though I don’t play, I just found it interesting to chart. Was also interesting to see the balls above halfway tend to occur with eachother more frequently than the ones below… who knows, maybe they are slightly heavier, or their position as last into the tumbler has some influence on their likelyhood of exiting first… who knows ;)

‘IF’ previous results were any indication of future results, I’d play the row/column numbers matching the dark green numbered entries in the body of the grid, but they’re not, so don’t get your hopes up ;)

Video billboard besides Karl Marx’ statue in Revolution...

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:42:50 +0100

Video billboard besides Karl Marx’ statue in Revolution Square :/ Not sure he’d approve ;)

Your, Yore and You`re

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:35:10 +0100

Just a short followup to my previous post There, Their and They’re:

“Your” is posessive like ‘Their’… “Your grammar is terrible!”, “Hahhaa… Jack and Jill ate all your pies”

“Yore” means ‘a time long ago’ or ‘days long past’… “Jamie Hyneman was born in the days of yore”.

“You’re” is simply short for ‘you are’… “You’re going to look like an idiot if you use the wrong Your, Yore, Their, There, You’re or They’re in there”

I don’t say this to be smug (though that’s a nice bonus), but because I’m blocking too many lazy (or stupid) people on twitter/facebook and missing out on too many interesting links and cute pictures of kittens :)

I Wish...

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:31:06 +0100

I wish I was half-an-inch taller, so I was 6 foot tall.

I wish I could wear a wide-brimmed-hat, without looking like a freak.

I wish I had straight white teeth. Not scary-white, just big-smile white.

I wish I could sing. I ‘can’ sing, but not well.

I wish I could be ‘free’ and NOT poor.

I wish the world was different,

Not much different, just a-little-bit-better different.

There, Their and They`re

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 04:11:12 +0100

Another pet peeve of mine, unsurprisingly, is when people use the wrong ‘there’ in a sentence. You can see it ALL THE FREAKING TIME on facebook and twitter (not so much on Google+, mainly I think because early adopters are not complete idiots).

And yes, I KNOW it makes me a pedantic, pretentious dick to really care about it, but when someone I know uses the wrong ‘there’, it makes me feel like I don’t want to know them anymore because they are an idiot.

Of course I make exceptions for non-native english speakers, but if you speak primarily english and use the wrong ‘there’ in a sentence. You are an idiot.

In pursuit of the goal to have less idiots in the world, in plain english, here’s my small contribution:

“There” generally indicates a position, location or declaration… “I put the book over there”, “Jack and Jill went there on holiday”, “There is only one syllable in the name ‘Bob’”.

“Their” is posessive… “I read their new book”, “Jack and Jill took their holiday in Spain”, “Their names are Jack and Jill”.

“They’re” is simply short for ‘they are’… “They’re writing another book at the moment”, “They’re going on holiday to Spain”, “Oh Jack and Jill? They’re great!”

So EVEN if it’s just facebook please, for my sake and yours; try to use the right their, there or they’re on there or they’re going to think you’re an idiot :)

Winter is coming :)

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 23:05:33 +0100

Winter is coming :)

The Power of "Thank You"

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:09:13 +0100

I’ve always been a big fan of the ‘Thank you’… all too often people go to extraordinary efforts to do something, or create something for the ‘greater good’, or to save others time or money.

Often these efforts go unrewarded for a whole host of reasons.

It happened to me today with a local recruiter, who simply sent me a message saying a local short contract that I’d enquired about was cancelled. So often these people in particular don’t do the little things like that which make forming an ongoing relationship a positive thing.

What did I do… I said “Thank you” as I do with everyone who contributes to building a positive relationship.

Next time someone does something for you, if it’s something big or even if it’s just a small thing, a tiny thing.

Pass them a “Thank you”, it will brighten their day, and yours too :)

Sittin' Pretty (or... I Suck at Design)

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 23:13:08 +0100

For the most part, I’ve always been an ‘if it works’ kinda guy; I never really paid that much attention to how pretty anything I ever made looked.

When I was a kid, my family taught me all the crafty basics… how to knit (and french-knit), to sew, papercraft & papier-maché, to carve wood, to do a whole bunch of that type of thing.

My LEGO and Meccano builds were more making, from crazy train stations, car ports, models, and other random builds all the way to ‘functioning’ helicopters (they didn’t fly, but everything else worked).

Then later in school I carried that on, At A-level I studied design & technology, and electronics (didn’t score that great, but I enjoyed it). My main hobby then was CB-Radio and I made various bits of gear for that, rig-holders, antenna stands/fixings and did my own repairs (I’m pretty handy with a soldering iron for an amateur).

And of course I’ve programmed since a very young age, from ‘peeking’ and ‘poking’ my way to a BASIC USS Enterprise flying around my C64 blue-screen to puzzles, adventure games, dictionaries and the like. Right through to my university dissertation project (a 3D file management UI) which worked really well, but looked rubbish.

The Revelation

It never really occurred to me that any of these things needed to actually ‘look nice’; if they worked, I was happy. If that meant my CB lived in a grey-metal box or my pencil-case had 2 zips because I sewed the first one to itself, than that was fine :)

Now I’m playing a different game of it. I’ve been building picWorkflow for almost a year now (and picNiche for just over 3) and I have been getting the same comment, more-or-less, for much of that time: “It works fine, but it looks so [bland/plain/boring/crap/etc]”. Well, I’m trying something new and spending some time making it look great.

I’ve already improved on my initial picNiche design by trading my professional coding skills with a professional designer for a nice logo and basic site layout which has me going in the right direction, and there’s a whole bunch of new design elements coming soon (planned by the end of august) in the site to start bringing it upto the expectations people have of the modern web.

The weird thing is, that after weeks or even months of focussing more on the ‘looks’ I’m finally starting to understand… Things that ‘look better’ may not actually ‘work better’, but it’s much easier to get others to try out the working parts if it really looks like it will work when they try it.

It’s really not enough to say “It works well… trust me” :)

50px (pixel) wide TweetButton image

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:46:02 +0100

I recently added a group of share buttons to a few of my sites (please go drop me a Like, +1, or tweet on picWorkflow.com if you have a second) and found that whilst most sites use 50 pixel wide images, Twitter’s share button is 55px wide.

I’m a bit of a neat-freak so this was unacceptable, but I do think their button looks pretty cool, so here’s their image, modified slightly to fit nicely in 50 pixels wide button. To use it (or to include it securely on your https page), you’ll need to roll your own TweetButton since both their javascript and iframe versions don’t let you customise the button image, but that’s not difficult.

World's Number One!

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:30:06 +0100

If you say you’re the world’s number one/biggest/most popular/cheapest/oldest/newest/most original/only/most exclusive/fastest/hottest/coldest/massivest anything in the world/on the internet… it had better be hard-fact tack-sharp 100% true.

Because if you say it is, and ‘I’ KNOW it isn’t, I already think you’re an idiot and a liar… you’re unlikely to get any business from me.

Damn Maths

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:55:00 +0100

IM Conversation…

[Me]: too much wow
[Not me]: no wow is too much wow
[Me]: wouldn’t that essentially mean that an infinity of wow is not too much wow?
[Not me]: no it wouldnt
[Not me]: it would mean its infinity times too much wow
[Me]: not necessarily
[Me]: depend’s if you are using base>2 or boolean algebra ;)
[Not me]: god, im not having this geeky conversation :P
[Me]: I always use boolean algebra cos it’s much easier to win arguments with ;)

Moral of the story: You can win an argument, even when you’re wrong and lose one even when you’re right… Anyone with a wife or girlfriend is probably already aware of that ;)

Yet another x-men movie

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 23:45:43 +0100

I’ve never been much of a fan of this latest round of comic-book based movies. They usually can’t decide whether they want to be a special-effects masterpiece, or a meaningful canon-friendly artwork (like most of the comic series’).

Sadly this means they become neither, and end being a mildly entertaining but ultimately conventional bland mishmash of vaguely consistent tosh.

They’re all the same, whether its the man of steel, the boring four, the spandex clad web spinner or the giant with anger management issues.

Gimme American Splendor, The Walking Dead, or even a couple of the Batman movies and I’ll shutup, but marvel really need to stop letting hacks butcher some of their better works.

X-men retro whatever is more of the same, not the worst way to spend 2 hours, but not remotely a must-see.

We Don't Believe Your Lies

Tue, 31 May 2011 01:41:40 +0100

We’ve all seen your lies… and we don’t believe them:

Retiring to spend more time with the family … means … Someone blackmailed you into resignation.
“I did NOT have sexual relations with ‘that’ woman” … means … “I DID have sexual relations with ‘that’ woman”.
“I am NOT a crook” … means … “I am most definitely a crook”.
I’ll call you … means … Don’t call me.
Leave it with me … means … Go away so I can forget about it.
We’ll sort something out … means … Hopefully, we’ll never speak again.
I acted only within the law … means … I knew it was morally wrong, but it was technically legal, so screw you.
I thought building my second home was a legitimate expense … means … It was at the time, but the media shows me now that it isn’t.
The cheque is in the mail … means … We’re trying to get the money together, but you’re pretty low on the list.
Our community-enrichment programme is setting new standards of corporate responsibility … means … twice a year we force all our underlings to pay some of their wages to charity / maintain an allotment / volunteer in an ‘urban’ area.
Our green operations policy puts us ahead of all our competition … means … We pollute just as much as our competitors, but we lease some rainforest in paraguay to ‘offset’ our emissions.
I regret the situation and will institute appropriate processes to ensure such issues don’t occur in future … means … I’m sorry I got caught, and will make sure I am not caught again.
We believe in a healthy work-life balance … means … “90% Work + 10% Sleep” and we’re working on the sleep part now.
We need to tweak our unsustainable business model … means … Our overlords demand we squeeze our supply line for more money so they can buy more $10,000,000 New York apartments.

Next time you begin to lie… remember that people have heard ALL the lies before. Give it up and tell the truth, and you’ll be appreciated all the more for it.

Gossip is a Virus

Sat, 28 May 2011 15:31:06 +0100

A few simple rules of life:

Politicians lie.
Footballers sleep around.
Musicians take drugs.

People seem to be surprised enough however when any of these things happen, that they rush out and buy more newspapers (or watch the news, etc etc). This gives the ‘media’ a legitimate reason to focus on such bullshit subjects… money!

These people then of course discuss the matter with others, and a buzz develops; further promoting the spread of the story. If you don’t know what’s going on, you’re just not interesting enough, so more and more people follow the story.

Not only that, but even those people who are not interested in the gossip itself still find some sense of self-satisfaction in belittling and condemning the people who are interested in such garbage. This leads to them also discussing the story/subject, and further promoting the ‘distractionary’ matter, all under the guise of ‘not discussing it’.

For the most part, it’s my own view that the media is there to promote itself above all else. The magazine/newspaper/editorial/news-programme which get’s the juiciest gossip, get’s the larger circulation and subsequently more money.

Soooo… apart from this blog post, which obviously flys in the face of my next statement, I will not participate in such discussions, and I suggest (if you want to see the gossip epidemic come to an end) that you don’t discuss the gossip, or the media’s proliferation of said gossip at all, with anyone, ever.

Please… Let this bullshit die, after the short and vapuous existence it actually deserves. Eventually, it will vanish and maybe we can finally get down to matters… that matter.

Training Day

Fri, 27 May 2011 17:33:53 +0100

I’ve never been one to really benefit from ‘guided learning’. It’s just not really the kind of teaching that can keep me engaged and inspired.

In school I wasn’t focussed, so managed fair-to-middling results… the same in university; I always had more fun (and so learned more) with projects I could run with on my own, make my own mistakes, and not get stuck in a laborious step-by-step progression.

I’d guess that a lot of the people I know are just the same, they are smart (very much so in some cases). Sadly, oftentimes the people in society who are seen to have succeeded in the common-everyday are conventional thinkers, are happy to comply and conform, to besheep themselves and do only what everyone else is doing.

I always found that those people who have truly the most interesting lives are those who excel in qualities such as resourcefulness, quick-thinking, creative-processing and lateral thought; those people make the world a much more interesting place to be than all the lawyers, bankers and doctors in the universe :)

Often I’m likely to say of people who possess qualities I do not, that I envy them. In this case however I do not… I’m delighted to be an outside-the-box thinker, and despite the occasional challenges of conforming with conventional society, it’s by far a more interesting life to lead :)

Stop Nagging Me!

Wed, 25 May 2011 19:15:00 +0100

I don’t want the ad-sponsored local free-paper shoved through my door 3 times a week.

I’m content with my mobile phone provider.

I don’t want to ‘upgrade to gold’… ever.

I’m happy with my current faith. (Agnostic if you must know)

I don’t want ‘rock-hard’ abs… a wee bit flabby is fine by me.

You can’t have my spare change (I usually don’t have any anyway, stop taking crack and get a job or start a business).

I don’t give to charity-muggers, even if they’re hot (though I did once (she was REALLY hot and it cost me over £800).

I’m fine with my choice of electricity/gas company.

I won’t vote for you. Partly because you interrupted my day, partly because politicans are all lying bastards.

I don’t want to install the latest updates.

I won’t buy your ebook if I can’t read your site because of these popups.

No thanks, don’t need viagra (yet).

My home insurance is good enough.

I am happy with my bank and I don’t need a loan (yet).

Extended warranties are for suckers.

I am the ONLY person ever to use my computer and it’s inside my locked house, I don’t want to enter my password 3000 times a day.

Hi hotgirlbot_362436_1984, nice to meet you… no I will NOT add you on Skype/Msn. Go [blo]ck yourself!

I don’t care if a script is taking long to run than expected, you are my web browser, deal with it yourself.

If I wanted fries with that… I’d have asked for fries. Wouldn’t I?!?

No… I come in here every other day for 7 years and I NEVER want cake/pastry with my coffee. Stop asking. (Mainly because £2.90 for a croissant is robbery).

I will not follow you on twitter/facebook/tumblr if you ASK me to. Especially if you DM me (instablock) and don’t know me.

I do NOT want to restart my computer. Preferably ever. Especially NOW!

Come summer, I impatiently wait for the rains. Come winter, I...

Tue, 24 May 2011 09:54:45 +0100

Come summer, I impatiently wait for the rains.

Come winter, I patiently fear the coming sun.

Spring and Autumn I content…

as wind buffets the window panes.

and it rains, it rains.

It rains…