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A Promise

There were some very inspiring keynotes and talks at php uk 2015 which lead me to catch up with many of the speakers. I’ve been a member of the php community since 2008 although my involvement has been very on and off. I’ve a few years worth of experience since then and it’s certainly time I gave something back; so I have made a promise, to Jenny (@miss_jwo), to the php uk community and to you – in the next year I will give at least one public talk.

I have too many ideas to know what the topic will be but:

  • it will be tech related,
  • it will most likely involve php,
  • it will possibly be rubbish but
  • it will be given.

More news to follow…

It’s been a while…

I’ve moved domains, changed jobs, closed my business and visited at least two new countries since last posting on any public blog!

Porting the blog across from the old domain has involved fixing it, reading it and potentially pruning it heavily (still ongoing).

I’ve learned that while my career has moved on and I’ve taken on more then less responsibility and expanded my (coding) languages count from few to many some fundamental things don’t change and I’ve found myself returning to some core lessons – again for the first time. Posts to follow!

Three things I wish I’d known before …

… starting the Sun Java tutorial

It’s been over a month since the last blog entry and it’s been a busy month:
finishing off projects
planning a holiday biking round the south of france on a GSXF
and
getting a new job.

The new job was the impetus to take on the java tutorial, trying to get my head around strict typing, odd syntax, compiling code and a whole new API. That’s all hard enough but most of the brickwalls I’ve been banging my head against aren’t down to understanding the language… they are down to how Java is set up and the environment it expects. I feel like I learnt the lessons all in the wrong order.

So for my memory and others out there who’s javac won’t run and whose java class cannot be found, here were my Three Things I Wish I’d Learnt First…

[edit jan 2015]
those three things got lost… so the real lesson is when porting an old blog from one site to another:

  • always make sure your blog software was kept up to date
  • check the source of your posts for substituted rubbish
  • prune old posts vigorously!

Welcoming in 2009

One of the resolutions this year was to post more on my blog and as it’s already 18th of January before the first post of 2009 I may be behind schedule…

One of the delays has been just not feeling comfortable with the look of my blog and the ever present Damocles sword of updating the blog software. I use wordpress and seem to be updating the software more often than updating the blog. Hopefully since I have taken the hour this morning to carefully backup the old site, check my config file changes and install a stable version of 2.7 this will no longer be an issue – at least until 2.8 comes out.

I’ve also treated myself to a new theme, I’m not sure about the blue but the basic style layout is ideal. As I hope to write on a number of varied subjects that interest me, I’m not going to be happy with an overtly geeky or typewriter or photography style – especially if I’m advocating the best use of chilli in parsnip soup at the time.

So the plan is – and I’m telling all of you so I don’t back out – to write more on my journey into php, my latest love hate relationship with html5, my favourite organic veg inspired recipe of the moment, the tai chi move I can’t get my head around and maybe my latest photography walk with highlights.

It’s a tall order perhaps and I may not succeed with everything all of the time but if I learnt only one thing in 2008 it was that if you don’t aim for the stars, you sure as hell ain’t gonna get there.

Hello world!

I just love that title, it reminds me of the first program you ever write in any programming language, first attempted in Basic on a ZX Spectrum by yours truly at the tender age of 11…

Anyway, more importantly, before I ramble on: Welcome to my journal site!

Read more about me on the ‘About Tess Barnes’ page link.

This blog covers more than one area of interest so if you’re here for more than just [code] you might also want to try one of the other blog sections in the sidebar.