Konnichiwa !


02.03.12
I've just submitted my CM30229 assignment: Wall-F: a Wall-Following LEGO Robot programmed using Le JOS NXJ (Java). Here is the YouTube Video of Wall-F in action, and here is the really simple Java code that controls Wall-F. I'm not going to lie, this assignment was rushed - research comes before coursework - but at least I had time to make the video.

25.02.12
A quick note on how to reindex MySQL tables on the fly. The idea is to generate a new auto increment index column for the particular query and obtain rows that match a specified index in this new column, for example:

SELECT @idx:=0;

SELECT TEXT, @idx:=@idx+1 AS idx FROM TBL WHERE TEXT LIKE '%TERM%' HAVING idx = 10;

This creates a new auto increment column idx with a value starting from 1 using the specified query, and returns the index that matches 10. It is particularly useful when you have to subquery the same incrementable index when iterating over several queries.

10.09.11
There seem to be a lot of websites that are getting hacked at the moment using simple SQL injection techniques, which has reminded me to upload some basic notes on the subject in case any developers out there needed reminding of simple standard procedures!

30.08.11
It has been a great pleasure to work at Techlightenment for the past 6 months as an Implementation Exec, creating, testing and ultimately hacking together their Social Research Platform. If you're looking for top-notch social analytics and brand data mining on a variety of social platforms, look no further! A fantastic lot of cool social intellectuals who I will miss working with. A big thanks to all at TL!

09.10.09
Away with rubbish Vista, I am now running Windows 7 Professional on my desktop. Pretty good if you ask me, I'm rather impressed, although it's really what Vista should have been when it came out. The brand new taskbar design is brilliant, although I'm not sure whether there are enough tweaks and mods to make it feel like you've actually got a new operating system. Having said that though, my box is running about a gazillion times faster than while it was a slave to Vista, so very pleased on that note.

22.09.09
After a long 3 months I have completed and documented a complete IT audit at Horstman Defence Systems Limited, providing them with increased efficiency and legislation compliance. I'd like to say a big thanks to everyone at Horstman, who have all been a great support throughout the project.

02.07.09
LanguagePartner4U has won the Prince's Trust business award! A huge well done to the team, the hard work has paid off! Read the University of Bath press release.

23.03.09
A note on foreign keys in MySQL.

Defining a foreign key does nothing unless the tables are of InnoDB type, and not the default MyISAM type. Also if you have a table containing only foreign key(s) (i.e. no primary key), you must define the INDEX to be one of the foreign keys, for example:

            CREATE TABLE `Staff` (
               `UserID` int(11) NOT NULL,
               FOREIGN KEY (`UserID`) REFERENCES Users(`UserID`),
               INDEX (`UserID`)
            ) ENGINE INNODB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf-8;

You may also receive the really annoying error

ERROR 1005: Can't create table 'example.frm' (errno: 150).

If you do, make sure all associated tables are of type InnoDB, and that you are not using foreign keys that are referenced to subsequent SQL code, for example, the above code will return this error if placed above the code that creates the table "Users". In other words, the table must exist!

Also, you can add ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE RESTRICT at the end of your foreign key statement to ensure parent entries can't be deleted if children exist.

15.03.09
NET09.co.uk is online, and was built in a few hours. Conforming to XHTML standards, it is the official website for the National Engineering and Technology Conference 2009. A CSS template was used for speed of implementation, thanks to freecsstemplates.org.

23.02.09
LanguagePartner4U beta is finally complete! After months of (sometimes gruelling) work, the site is ready to go - visit it at www.languagepartner4u.com. It's only £3.65 to sign up and all profit goes to The Prince's Trust. Since it is in beta stage, more and more features will be constantly added...

14.06.08
I'm still not finding sufficient time to update my site... although not much has happened since Easter. Saying that though,I did secure my first job working in Bath's most popular nightclub, so if you're ever in town, pop into Second Bridge and say hi! I'm starting summer work sometime next week, so hopefully it'll be boring enough for me to knuckle down and add everything (my DnB sets, java programs, and proper site links to name a few). It's like Brian Griffin and his "novel"...

24.01.08
I am aware of the error message after you send a message through the from on the right - any tips to get rid of it will be greatly appreciated (and yes, there are no empty lines). I also don't like fact that the nice border rollover effects on the links don't work in IE >8-(

23.01.08
I have finally made the switch from tables to divs. I'm now implementing sites in XHTML strict complete with CSS - much awaited by many clients I'm sure. This site is under construction, and you can only obtain full functionality if you have JavaScript enabled. That will be changed very soon... Or not. I happen to like AJAX...