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As a web developer for a SME I try to use automation as much as possible to reduce the staff workload. This is generally the run of the mill stuff:

• Sending out an automated email when someone registers
• Creating a PDF receipt when a payment is made
• Checking the database for irregularities and fixing where possible

The one problem with the last one is that the functions I create are never going to be as good at fixing problems as a real live human would because the computer is incapible of making complex decisions: they don’t like too much variation, cannot improvise and are bound by the rules of the system. So what is the cut-off point for using automation?

I think that it is a good idea to try and use automation as long as it is thoroughly planned out. This was brought to my attention yesterday when I had to kill some time in the new shopping center (mall for those of you over the pond) near work and went to use the loo. They’re brand new and quite good: everything is automated. The hand dryers and taps are all motion activated.

The problem is that so are the flushes on the toilets. This is all very good and hygenic and will save the world, etc, etc but the problem is that they put the sensor right next to the toilet roll so when you lean over, you brush the sensor with your arm and get a freezing cold, wet arse. Brilliant. Nice one whoever planned that one.

I’ve been a fan of the Need for Speed series since the first game came out and it’s always been my favourite racing game – until now. I’ve just been playing the new Need for Speed: ProStreet and it’s pretty much the worst racing game in world, ever! The original ones were great, pure racing games with good (for the time) graphics and great gameplay. The more recent ones (since they started being jointly developed for the consoles) have been even better with more options, gameplay and things to work for and the graphics are even better. This latest one though is absolutely shit!

Before I really start having a go, here’s a few brief points for anyone at EA who might come across this:

• Not everyone likes hip-hop and R&B – enough of the DJ, rapper shit!
• The new ones should have better graphics than the last one if nothing else

As for the game, the concept is similar to the other recent NFS outings where you start out at a low level and build up your collection of cars by winning races. This is a tried and tested formula that although being un-original, works very well. The only problem is that this time they seem to have taken a step back in the development of the idea. This also goes for the actual racing.

This is supposed to be a racing game. It’s not supposed to have nice green arrows on the track showing the racing line that turn red if you’re going too fast. Why, why, why? There might be a way to turn these off but I’ll never know because I got so pissed off with this game after playing it for 30 minutes that I uninstalled it and stuck it on Amazon.

I think it might be time for you people over there to put away the Mims album, bin the Fast and the Furious series and head over here to Europe where we have corners and then have another crack at making a decent racing game!

I’m going to find my Carbon disc and have another go until they sort their acts out.

I got into work after yet another week off (September has been great – only in the office for about a week) and after the usual messing about of rebooting everything that had been turned off or crashed and not booted up again because they thought that not doing any work was a better option than telling me it was broke maybe?

Anyway, after that, checking emails and making coffee, I needed number 1. Our building is being renovated and before I was off they were just finishing the corridor leading to the toilets and the toilets themselves. I walked out into the corridor and all the lights turned on straight away. “Spooky cooincidence someone getting in the other end at the same time as me” I thought and wandered into the toilets where the lights turned on by themselves…

Turns out they’ve fitted motion detectors to the lights. They’re just a little sensor that looks like a smoke detector. Think I’m gonna have a look on eBay and see if I can get some for home. Let the laziness begin.

Note: Probably not advisable if you’ve got a cat….

Well, that would be Pandora.com! (it’s free too)

This site basically asks you what your favourite song or artist is and then plays you random songs that are similar. The selections are based on other peoples recommendations in true “Web 2.0″ fashion (I’m beginning to hate that phrase!) and it’s pretty good for finding out about artists you haven’t heard of.

Apparently they play adverts every now and again, but I’ve been listening for a couple of hours and haven’t heard one yet so who knows what they are about…

From a web developers point of view, it’s also a sweet site: very AJAXy and with graphics that would make an Apple designer jealous.

Check it out

I haven’t mentioned it here before but I’m a MASSIVE Stagte fan. I love it and walways have, ever since the first film. SG-1 did go down a notch after O’Neill became a general and it was a sad, sad day when RDA left altogether. But once I’d got used to the change, I have to admit that Mitchell is a brilliant replacement. But cancelling SG-1 altogether? Why, why why?!?

Luckily the last episode of series 10 was brilliant, a much better way of finishing off the last ever series than going out with a big finale (like, for example, Buffy or Angel), and with the two films coming up at the end of the year (one starring RDA as well) it makes the loss easier to bear.

You also have to remember that there’s still Atlantis coming back for at least another season, and with Carter moving over there as well.

I was reading GateWorld the other day and found out that there’s also going to be a third Stargate series made. At the moment there isn’t much in the way of information flying around about it except that it’s not a spin-off the way Altalntis was, but a completely new concept.

Looking forward to it!

I was a late comer to the computer, geek, technology world as I only got my first PC in 2001 and before that the most technical thing I knew was how to load Doom from Dos on my mate’s 386 laptop. That said, within a few months of getting my first box, I was stripping it down to see how it worked and a month or so after that I was upgrading and experimenting with various expansion cards. I had the whole range of peripherals, TV cards, various drive configurations etc, but the best extra I tried was adding a second graphics card and going dual monitor.

Since then I’ve had dozens of bozes and laptops and most of them have been single displays but I’ve always made sure that my main machine has always been a dual display setup. It’s usually my work box as I spend most of my time (when I’m trying to be productive ) working on that one, plus going dual screen usually tends to involve scrapping decent game play so that rules out my home desktop, but there’s always one.

Recently I’ve been considering moving over to a Mac since I spend my time at work using only three applications – Outlook, FireFox & Dreamweaver and they’re all available on Mac OS. Plus there’s all the extra benefits of having a Mac. And all the extra benefits of NOT having Windows. Only problem is that getting a brand new Mac Pro with dual screen and a few extras to get it up to a pretty good spec is a bit on the… pricy side. But, there might be a solution!

First job on Monday is to come up with a list for the accounts department of how me having a Mac Pro would make me so productive that to compensate I would need a Windows box with one these. Think it’ll work?

I know cars might be a bit off-topic for this blog, but apart from beer and technology, they are the things I love the most. Plus I ended up Googling for new Audis after finishing (again) Need for Speed Carbon and was wondering if the Audi that Darius drives was actually a real car.

It turns out that the Audi Le Mans Quattro he drives was a concent car that Audi did a few years ago but the new Audi R8 seeems to be the production model based on that concept. I was hoping that it might be a step up from the TT and with a year of saving and a few bonuses, I might actually be able to get one. No such luck, it’s Audi’s £76,000 super car!

The R8 is a mid-engined, 4.2 litre V8 with all of their latest technology and even some parts from the Lamborghini Gallardo (Audi now own Lamborghini) thrown in. It’s also one of the best looking cars out at the moment, possibly in my top 3 along with the Lambirghini Mercielago and Aston Martin DB9.

It’s definately on my wish list now and is also replacing the BMW M3 in my dream garage.

Ok, time for a rant. Recently there’s been a few things in the news that have been bothering me. All of them related to the damn assed morons that run this place, the government. The first is the new Road Pricing policy they are talking about. The idea is that duty on petrol will be reduced, tax discs will be abolished and we will be charged tax on a per mile basis.

The reason they’ve come up with this idea is partly to reduce congestion and partly to help the environment. I’m all for reducing congestion, but the environmentals just need a good kicking. It’s march and we’re scrapping frost off our cars so this global warming thing can’t be that bad. If you want to reduce carbon in the atmosphere why not plant more trees in city areas? Enough about this anyway, it just pisses me off.

Congestion. The thing the morons government don’t seem to realise is that the reason we’re all on the road at the same time is because we’re going to work, not just driving around to annoy people. This won’t ever change and trying to price us off the road won’t help. It might be time for a different idea pillocks.

And before you start, saying we should all use public transport is not the solution in it’s current form. I used to get the bus to work and a fifeteen mile journey through the country and then straight through the city center takes thirty minutes by car. By bus this takes an hour and a half each way and costs £8. As much as I love working fourteen hour days to spend half my wages on a big, slow box that stinks of piss, I think I’ll stick with the car thanks.

Anyway, enough on the roads. The other thing that’s been bothering me is taxes. Beer and fags have just gone up again, inflation has gone up 2.5% but prices tend to go up by a lot more and we have to pay £120 a month to have our bins emptied (except the council won’t let me have a bin outside my flat…. good one) and what have we got for all this extra cash we’re dishing over? Well… they probably used some of it to fuck up the NHS… oh, and I think there’s a big ferris wheel in London. Great.

I hate this country and as soon as the Isle of Man let me in, I’m off!

Just a few things before you leave a comment:

• I don’t give a shit about the environment, so don’t bother.
• Don’t say “You don’t know what you’re on about…”. I know. But I don’t think I’m capable of running the country.

Right, back to work!

Yeah right. We had one in the office that we were using for milk and lunch stuff but it was mine and I needed it at home so it disappeared. While up at Asda getting our morning MacDonalds we decided to get another but we had walked up so we had to carry it back. It´s only three quaters of a mile but it was bloody hard. Anyway, back to the point.

While we were up there we had the usual morning meeting and today´s raised a few interesting things for me to do next year. The meeting was about how we were going to grow the business next year and therefore had a strong marketing and sales focus. Since it was me (IT and Web), the MD (Marketing focused) and our new Market Researcher, there wasn´t too much for me to input from a marketing point of view. When this happens I tend to switch off slightly but keep one ear open in case there´s anything that crops up that might be a technological problem or something where I can provide some technology to make the job easier. Today´s meeting raised two interesting challenges for next year.

The first was that as a company we should always present ourselves in a professional, capable way, not purely focused on "gettin the sale". As such we decided to improve our support for the websites. This will involve replacing the "Contact us" page on most of the larger sites with a "help and support" section. This will be basically be a set of FAQs with contact forms that will be routed to the relavent person if the answer isn´t there. Also I plan on implementing an AJAX "chat" system similar to an instant messaging program so they can ask us for help as and when we are online.

The other challenge will be to shift onto a dedicated server for one of our main projects. It´s currently not launched but still receives a fair bit of traffic. The only problem is that it´s already pushing the database on our shared hosting package. Looks like a lot of messing about with root access and then a few sleepless nights with DNS getting all the domains shifted across with the minimal of downtime.

Interesting couple of months after the holidays then.

Hmmmm…. If you press F6 then it highlights the search box on the Google toolbar.