Author Archives: Brian M McGarvie

Rocking in Hyde Park with Jon Bon Jovi at Hard Rock Calling – 25th June 2011

Posted on by
Reply

Having booked tickets a lifetime ago (or felt like it), the day finally came.

We were in the queue around 10/10:30PM and so we were about the first people in… so picnic rug in hand set up fort middle center just 2 or 3 rows from the front of the pleb partition. while  the queues for entrance stretch through Hyde Park on a glorious day unlike the damp start to the weekend. But we did visit the Park while The Killers were on, crowd was nowhere near as big as Saturday but nonetheless sounded like a good show from what I heard under my tree from the rain. And ‘wet’ our appetite for Jon Bon Jovi on the Saturday…

Continue reading →

Hints to help optimise the performance of a PHP website (LAMP)

Posted on by
1

Over time, the websites I have been involved in have became more and more complex (and indeed carry more and more traffic).

And so the ever increasing need to optimise and increase the performance of your website (or web-application) becomes more crucial.

As you will appreciate this is a HUGE subject, so I aim to simply put you on the path to devising a better architecture and design. But I will attempt to introduce some ideas to assist…

Continue reading →

Why does php not show errors? – How to display PHP errors when display_errors is disabled

Posted on by
Reply

OK, a simple thing I know. But one that always occurs.

When using shared hosting (or even your own dedicated servers), those managing those servers do their utmost to make them secure. Among many things this usually includes turning off ‘display_errors’ in the php.ini file.

However, when you’re trying to develop things it is usefull to display errors and warnings, but if ‘display_errors’ is off, you will be scratching your head wondering what’s going on and whats going wrong!
Continue reading →

Watch your battery!

Posted on by
Reply

Having had the HTC for over a week now, I am beginning to get to grips with how to get he most out of it… especially when it comes to battery life.

  • DO NOT let it run too dry! Seems to have trouble charging (from USB) if you’d managed to let it get too low!
  • Be carefull what apps you install… soem apps seem to drain power wven if not in use!

Continue reading →

Beginning your journey in Object-Oriented Programming using PHP

Posted on by

Object-Orientated programming is not a new idea! It’s been around and available for a long time in many languages.

With each new version of PHP, new features appear, while existing features are improved. PHP’s object support has been hugley improved since it’s introduction in PHP3 (yes it has had it all this time!). And so with PHP’s object support maturing, the reasons developers might not take an object orientated approach are getting smaller. More recently PHP5′s take on objects is much more powerfull and usable than it ever has been for PHP users – but still not without it’s faults.

A common problem that experienced (and new) PHP developers have when embarking on their object-orientated (OOP) journey is thet they don’t know WHEN to use it properly! As with all things there is a time and place for everything.

For those who do not know about OOP I am not even going to attempt to explain what it is! But fact you have found this article means you probably do, but incase not Wikipedia has good general background info on OOP.

Continue reading →

Album Review: Delphic – Acolyte

Posted on by
Reply
матрацимаси и столовеDelphic - Acolyte

Delphic Acolyte

On first listen to “Acolyte” it was an amazing journey of indie and dance. A dense but sharply-focussed amalgamation of sparkling synths, dance-friendly rhythms and intelligently constructed vocal melodies and harmonies.

Before I dive in and look at the tracks I will start with an overall view of this fine piece of very well executed music. Delphic have developed a distinct and original sound  that genuinely is a blend of indie and dance. It’s a sound that’s almost ruthlessly efficient and faceless, and almost risks being difficult for some to connect with. There are many real moments of promise here, not least when they let go of their inhibitions with the incredibly layered album closer “Remain”. But for me it is their vocalist that gives the songs urgency and life that lift “Acolyte” to being very good; for every wave of synth, there’s a lyric loaded with warmth and spirit.

Making your website work with Internet Explorer 8 (IE8)

Posted on by
Reply

OK probly well known by now. But if you’re site is ‘broken’ in IE8, you could try the following which tells IE8 to work liek IE7.

<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=7″ />

It belongs in the document’s HEAD. More importantly it needs to be preferably at the top of the HEAD section before any css, linked files etc.

The rule of thumb is, that the IE 8 meta tag needs to be placed above any linked files.

Review: Michael McIntyre on his 2009 Tour @ Nottingham’s Trent FM Arena on the 26/09/2009.

Posted on by
Reply
Michael Mcintyre

Michael Mcintyre

Well, we went and seen Michael McIntyre on his 2009 Tour @ Nottingham’s Trent FM Arena on the 26/09/2009.

It was part of my wifes birthday present as she has always quite liked him I thought it would be a good surprise. I bought the tickets and booked hotel 2 weeks before it, and managed to not tell her untill the night before – I said ‘pack a bag’, still not telling her what for though – infact she never knew right up untill we walked into the Trent FM arena!

Continue reading →

Cuba! – 27th August 2009 to 11th September 2009

Posted on by
Reply

When: 27th Aug 2009 to 11th Sept 2009

Where: Cuba

Resort: Cayo Coco & Havana

Hotel: NH Krystal Laguna & NH Parque Central

Where We Went…

This was our second visit to Cuba; we previously had a holiday here at the same time in 2007.

In 2007 our holiday was purely to Cayo Coco and the NH Krystal Laguna, one of the excursions we took was an overnight trip to see the Tropicana Nightclub – which is still one of the most memorable night I can recall. It included a very rushed but great introduction to Havana and from that we decided that if we ever went back we would spend more time in Havana.

And so we come to 2009! And we found ourselves searching for a good value holiday and all avenues lead to Cuba! – Again! After that was decided – prices coming up for Sharm el Sheikh and so on were about £1000 more than Cuba – we quickly decided we would like to do a 2-center so we could spend time in Havana (there is so much that could be written about Havana but shall try to keep it limited to what we done!).

Continue reading →

Irish Vasectomy

Posted on by
Reply

After having their 11th child, an Irish couple decided that enough was enough, as they couldn’t afford a larger house. So the husband went to his doctor and told him that he and his wife didn’t want to have any more children.

The doctor told him there was a procedure called a vasectomy that would fix the problem but it was expensive. A less costly alternative was to go home, get a large firecracker, light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to his ear and count to 10.

The husband  said to the doctor, “B’Jayzus, I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but I don’t see how putting a firework in a beer can next to  my ear is going to help me with my problem.”

“Trust me, it  will do the job”, said the doctor.

So the man  went home, lit a firecracker and put it in a beer can. He held the can up to his ear and began to count:

“1, 2, 3, 4,  5,” at which point he paused, and placed the beer can between his legs so he could continue counting on his other hand.