Web Dev Ireland

Just finished reading this book last night. It’s kind of a Grisham type novel which i’m not usually a very big fan of, however it does have a good pace to it, some good characters and the plot is interesting if a little predictable.
The descriptions are sometimes a little repetitive.

The basic story starts off with a struggling writer trying to get published in New York. He is then asked to write a fictiticious novel based on an old diary with deadly consequences (I always wanted to write that). :p

A good book for a commute, will keep you turning the pages but won’t require a huge amount of brain power.

Worth a read I would give it 3 out of 5.

Speaking of books, does anyone know a good second hand bookshop near St Stephens Green? I’m running low on books.

Well I discussed the situation with the other half last night, she seemed more excited about it then I do. I sometimes feel like a bit of a homebird, prefering to sit in the house, watch my favourite TV shows and mess about on the internet. But I know that it would be a good experience to get out and do this, even if I do have to leave my cushy house.

Laziness more then anything is keeping me from wanting to do it.
I guess it’s time to get up off my lazy ass and give it a try.

I came into work this morning expecting to have nothing to do for the day as usual! But my manager called me aside and asked me “How would you like to go to Holland for 9-12 months on a project?” Now i’m only working here in this place about a month, I have basically done nothing yet! Then to come up and ask me to do this.
I’m conflicted about this I have to admit, I just bought a house 4 months ago. My girlfriend has just got a new job and seems quite settled now. But I will talk to her about it this evening.
Also I will be paid practically twice my current salary while I am over there, free flight home every weekend, Apartment paid for and all bills paid.
But the downside is obviously being away from home for so long.

Newcastle United (The team I support) are after signing Luque from Deportivo La Coruna for a reported £10 million. The player is a left sided forward, not quite a striker more an attacking left winger. A good signing in my opinion, I just hope he doesn’t turn out like Laurent Robert!

But the real problem that Newcastle have is that we cannot attract the top, top players. Alan Shearer(35) is a legend on Tyneside as I’m sure you know, but he was the source of most of Newcastles goals for the last few years and he hasn’t been replaced yet. Last year we tried to replace him with Wayne Rooney, then Manchester United got involved and there was no chance he was coming our way.

This year we have tried to get Micheal Owen but he has stated he would only come on loan for a year. His reasons for this are he doesn’t want to risk being involved with Newcastle in-case things go pear-shaped and he is stuck with a mid-table team.

So we find Newcastle stuck in a catch-22 situation.
1) We will never be a top 4 club again without a 20+ a year goal scorer
2)No 20+ a year striker wants to play for a non top 4 club!

So how do we solve this problem?

Short-term:
1)Pay way over the odds for a good striker (Chelsea tried this and they got no-one)
2)Take a chance on someone less proven (Kuyt for example)

Long-term:
1)Produce home-grown players through the clubs academy
2)Scout the promising talent better and earlier then the bigger clubs

The problem with this is that it’s very hard to get any of the above right, hence the large gulf in class between the big clubs and the not-so-big clubs.

Only time will tell if they can get this right, short or long term.

Having seen recently that A List Apart has had a makeover, I came across a reference to the technology that the new version is built on at Zeldmans site. He was saying that the new version of A List Apart(which he is a key creator/contributor to) is now built with the open source web framework Ruby On Rails, having sparked my interest I decided to have a look at their website. I watched This Intro Movie (50mb /qt), it is a demonstration of a blog being built with Ruby on Rails. The guy builds the blog in 15 minutes! I can see this being an excellent way to create web applications very fast.
A list of realworld companies using Ruby on Rails can be found here, the list includes NASA, Motorola, HP, etc…

I was reading an article on the emerging web technology AJAX
AJAX is a muddle of XML and DHTML that could be used to feed new information to ticker-type elements of a webpage. However I can see it being abused instantly with the likes of rotating adverts, bandwidth sucked up without your knowledge! I’m not a big fan of it, not a big fan of JavaScript at all to be honest. Just as I was about to discount the technology and move on, in the comments I came across this very funny, yet true qoute

web technologies are the porn stars of our time. they look pretty and we ogle at their behaviour, but underneath they’re a mess and eventually succumb to viruses and droopy tits.

I have recently started a new job(3 weeks ago) and I have spent two and a half of those weeks sitting around doing nothing! I’m actually starting to get bored of the internet (que noises of shock). The new place has a “restrictive” internet policy with forums, game sites, etc.. all blocked! I’m still waiting to be assigned to a project.
So I have taken to writing in my blog and reading lots of other blogs!

Photoblogs are something I am quite fond of and I’m thinking of starting my own soon. Dublin City is a beautiful place to work and there are a lot of interesting things to photograph.

Here are a couple of photoblogs I like to view everyday
Chromasia : is a photoblog of Blackpool, England.
Daily dose of imagery : a canadian photographer with a great eye

I have spent a few hours this weekend reading a book a work collegue has been generous enough to loan me. The book is called Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The book is basically(non-fiction) about Levitt, an economist, using the tools of economics to measure other “more interesting” subjects. The most infamous paper he has written is “legalised abortion reduces crime” this theory according to this Article is a bit of hyped up rubbish. But according to the author of the same article the rest of the book is pretty accurate Review.
The rest of the book is pretty good showing how teachers in the US were cheating by filling in anwsers on kids national tests after they had left the class in order to get a $25,000 bonus! How Sumo wrestlers cheat and how a Real Estate agent really doesn’t try to get top dollar for your house. It’s an interesting look at socioeconomic problems from a different angle. Definately worth a read if you have a few hours to spare.

I was watching the Arsenal Vs Newcastle match at the weekend and have to admit that the referee had a huge bearing on the outcome of that match.
The Tackle

As you can see from this photo the referee is blocked from seeing the tackle by two players. How can He possibly make the decision to send him off from there? That sending off changed the game. Newcastle battled very hard with ten men for 80 minutes and looked like pulling off a well deserved draw.

The referee on the other hand had other ideas, N’Zogbia barely touched off Ljungberg and he went over in the box. Penalty! After that Newcastle had no chance, Henry slotted the ball into the bottom right corner and Van Persie added another just minutes after coming on to replace Bergkamp to seal the victory.

If the referee had seen the incident he would not have given Jenas a red card, but as it turns out he only seen Gilberto’s reaction to the tackle and acted on that. Newcastle were more then a match for Arsenal up until that point and had successfully restricted Arsenals chances.

Will that decision by the referee have a bearing on how these teams finish at the end of the season? Only time will tell.

Update

Referee admits mistake

Some Justice seems to have been done as the referee has requested the red card be reduced to a yellow. This obviously will not be of much comfort to Newcastle boss Souness as he will lament what could have been with eleven players on the pitch.